Hey there fellow Steemians, today I would like to put out for your consideration my TOP 3 reasons to become a vegetarian. I consider myself fortunate to have been brought up as a vegetarian, although at the rebellious age of sixteen I did begin eating meat and carried on for four years up to the age of twenty, when I came full circle and made the decision myself to live as a vegetarian. So here we go with my three most powerful reasons to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle.
REASON #1 - Health
Most people intrinsically know that meat eating, especially modern meat produced by modern methods, is unhealthy for the living organism. But do the facts back it up? What about protein?
Turns out beans have just as much protein as beef gram for gram, and they come with a lot of fibre as well as essential nutrients. Believe it or not, broccoli also matches protein levels in beef calorie for calorie.
So, if you want to loose weight, or just have way more energy, a vegetarian diet can assist in the quest for peak health.
I strongly advise you to do your own research, but a few more health related points are:
The World Health Organisation report in November 2015 ranked processed meat as a group 1 carcinogen (the same category as cigarettes, alcohol and asbestos). Eating just 50g per day (two rashers of bacon) increases the risk of colo-rectal cancer by 18%. It also classified red meat as a group 2A carcinogen.
High blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke, is less common among vegetarians. (Source - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12372158)
Body mass index and cholesterol levels are lower among vegetarians, which means vegetarianism may be the answer to the world obesity problem. (Source - https://www.nature.com/articles/ejcn2013248)
Those who eat seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables per day have a 33% reduced risk of premature death compared with people who eat less than one portion. (Source - https://jech.bmj.com/content/68/9/856)
Heck even the worlds strongest man is vegan! (Source - https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/692366/World-strongest-man-Patrick-Baboumian-PETA-vegan).
Patrik Baboumian: The worlds strongest man
REASON #2 - Spirituality
The strongest reason to choose a vegetarian lifestyle for me is the spiritual aspect. I have spent a large part of my life in the pursuit of spiritual knowledge, reading many sacred texts, practicing meditation and generally trying to raise my consciousness and awareness. Without a doubt the highest transcendental teachings are in agreement, and they advise the aspiring spiritual practitioner to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle in the mode of goodness (sattva guna).
According to the ancient philosophical schools, eating dead animals dulls the consciousness and puts one into the mode of ignorance (tama guna), where it becomes very difficult if not impossible to perceive genuine spiritual truths. Really it is like step one on the ladder of transcendental knowledge. The mode of goodness leads one to peacefulness and happiness, while the mode of ignorance leads to violence, aggression, illusion and suffering.
Another important point is that the world we live in is governed by the law of karma (action and reaction), also known as "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". This means that there are negative karmic effects from killing animals. When we eat kill and eat an animal it's not only the flesh that is taken in but also the energy and emotions of that animal. When an animal is killed it is cast into a most fearful state experiencing a rush of adrenaline into the bloodstream at the time of death. So this fear is literally released into the animals body at the time of death and becomes absorbed into the body and energy field of the consumer.
The Buddha was quoted as saying: "There may be some time in the future when people… being under the influence of the taste of meat, will string together in various ways many sophisticated arguments to defend meat-eating… But meat-eating in any form, in any manner, and in any place is unconditionally, and once and for all, prohibited.”
REASON #3 - Compassion.
Animals are living, breathing entities, just the same as us in innumerable ways. They try to escape pain and suffering and share affection between each other and often times with humans as well. Just as I wouldn't want to cause hurt to a friend, a stranger or my pet dog, I also don't want to hurt an animal. Now, I know that many folk may say, "Well what about the poor plants?", and rightly so! But my answer here is that the plants don't cry out in pain and try to run away when being plucked or harvested.
Actually many vegetarian foodstuffs can be acquired without any harm to the plant or animal whatsoever. Fruit for example comes from the tree as a natural by-product, and so picking a fruit is not akin to actually killing the tree. Another example of cruelty-free food is naturally sourced milk and milk products. I need to make it very clear here I am NOT referring to the cruel dairy industry, but rather to the ideal of keeping and caring for your own cow or cows with love and affection and living in a mutually beneficial way just as the ancient Aryans of the Vedic era did. Every day, after giving abundant milk to her calf, a cow generally has a LOT of surplus milk that needs to be drained for her to feel comfortable. By using this naturally produced milk to make butter, cream, yogurt, cheese and ghee to eat, no harm is done to the animal whatsoever. It is a purely loving exchange.
Cows and humans have been living in a symbiotic relationship for thousands of years, and it is not just the milk that mother cow gives (after all, if you're drinking the milk of a cow you have in a way accepted her motherly affection) that is beneficial to human society. The stool and urine of the cow have now been scientifically shown to be extremely beneficial for so many uses. Dried the dung is a wonderful fuel for cooking, has inherent disinfectant properties, is an excellent and versatile building material, composted or used with worms it creates a rich, nutrient dense soil, makes excellent shampoo, soap and other cleaning products. These are just a few of the endless uses when one takes the Vedic worldview into consideration.
Building with cow poop.
Would you ever consider cutting out meat, fish and eggs from your diet? I would love to hear back from you guys in the comment section, what do you think?