Ashley.peterson



The debates of going vegetarianI have been researching why it is a better option for humans to go vegetarian and there are many opinions on both sides of the spectrum. In my personal opinion this issue is crucial because it would benefit not only humans in multiple ways, but it would benefit the animals that are affected by us eating them as well. The major issue that the opposing side has is that many think that we simply cannot get enough protein and nutrients without meat so therefor it’s not good for our health. That may have been the standard way of thinking before now, but what the opposing side refuses to see is that there are plenty of food sources packed with protein that have nothing to do with meat. With some simple research into this topic on both sides, I have found that we can definitely get our protein in other sources and that going vegetarian is still the best choice overall. Although it would be a big step to take, I believe that with the right information on this topic it could change the views of millions or even billions. I have found many credible sources supporting reasons why it is important to go vegetarian and for me the following reasons are the most important: Going vegetarian would lower the risk of many diseases, end animal cruelty, it would feed our world, and help bring down the obesity population. One of the major issues in this day and age throughout our world are all of the diseases that are affecting our everyday lives. There is a 100% chance that you or someone you know has had a disease that affects their life in one way or another- whether it’s cancer, diabetes, hypothyroidism or anything in-between and a very high chance that someone you know and love has passed away from a disease also. Many studies have come out showing how eating meat can contribute to these diseases. Jack Norris published her study on diseases related to death in vegans and non-vegans and in her study she found that vegans death rate was 15% less than those who ate meat. She also found that “after an 11.6 year study vegetarians had a 31% lower risk of heart disease than meat eaters did.” (Norris 2012) With results like these from one study alone I don’t understand how others question if going vegetarian/vegan is a better option or not. Linda Vorvick also did a study and according to her “Eating a well-planned vegetarian diet can give you good nutrition. A vegetarian diet often helps you have better health. Eating a vegetarian diet can help you: Reduce your chance of obesity, reduce your risk of heart disease, lower your blood pressure, lower your risk of type 2 diabetes… Compared to non-vegetarians, vegetarians usually eat: Fewer calories from fat (especially saturated fat), fewer overall calories, and more fiber, potassium, and vitamin C” (Vorvick, 2013.) With diseases taking the lives of our loved ones each and every day and also running the lives of those who have to live with them I believe whole heartedly that it is important to get behind the root of these issues and find out why they are skyrocketing and how to stop it from continuing. With these studies alone I fully believe that going vegetarian would help cut back the problem not completely, but in a very major way. One of the largest issues with vegans/vegetarians is that eating meat is cruel to the animal. Depending on who you ask some think it is necessary and others see the suffering that the animals go through just to be raised for us to eat. I do agree that if factory farming came to and end it would end the biggest contributor to animal cruelty, but I also believe that raising animals on a farm and not letting them live out their entire lives naturally isn’t that much better. “Factory farms pack animals into spaces so tight that most can barely move. Many have no access to the outdoors, spending their lives on open warehouse floors, or housed in cages or pens. Without the room to engage in natural behaviors, confined animals experience severe physical and mental distress” ( 2016) With reading information like that, did you know that 99% of animals in the united states are raised in a factory farm? We are taking animals that nature intended to be raised outside with grass to graze and sun to bathe in and confining them in dark buildings where they see no sunshine and cram them in a space that even a human couldn’t stay sane in. To take an animals life for your own use is one thing but to raise them in an unhealthy and miserable environment is a complete other. If you look at it in the way of transferring energy, would you want to put the energy of an animal that was depressed and miserable for its entire life into your body? I wouldn’t. There is the opposing side to this where if you buy from a local farm where the animal was raised in a proper environment that it is better all around, and I agree with that completely. But I still hold strong to that if the animal doesn’t have a voice to speak for itself it should not be taken just for our selfishness. If you choose to continue to eat meat I hope you choose to help end factory farming by buying from local farms instead, but personally I hope that we all can look at the realities and facts and open our eyes to see that going totally vegetarian is the better choice for us and for the animals on this planet. Many people think that the main reason people want to be vegetarian is to end animal cruelty, and like I stated I am a huge supporter of this reason, but did you know another major reason is because it would put an end to world hunger? Vegetarian cows are the number one preditor to our oceans and the number one consumer of our crops. If we were to take the crops and water that we feed to bulk up our livesetock and put that towards our starving populations we could end world hunger. “It takes 50,000 liters of water to produce one kilo of beef… 1 billion people today are hungry. 20 million people will die from malnutrition. Cutting meat by only 10% will feed 100 million people. Eliminating meat will end starvation forever.” (Philip Wollen 2012.) Animals were born to graze on the land that’s available to them- whether that’s crops they eat or other animals themselves- yet we grow our own crops that could feed us and feed it to animals to make them more “meaty” instead so that we can get more meat. Anywhere you turn you hear about kids that are starving and people that are dying because of starvation and with facts like these how can we not support feeding our fellow humans our food instead of animals we will just turn around and eat as food? There are 18,000 people that die each and every day from starvation and like Wollen stated we could solve this problem all together if we simply made the decision to stop feeding our food to animals and start feeding the hungry with it instead. “The earth can produce enough for everyone’s need. But not enough for everyone’s greed.” (Philip Wollen 2012.)One of society’s biggest issues today is how obese our population is becoming. People constantly shame others for being overweight, and shame themselves for the same reasons yet aren’t willing to take the time to try and help solve the problem. If you compare the nutritional facts from a beef hamburger to a black bean burger you’ll find that a beef burger contains 259 calories, 25% fat – 5.7 grams of saturated fat, 30% cholesterol, and 26 grams of protein while a black bean burger contains 120 calories, 4% fat- no saturated fat, 0% cholesterol, and 11 grams of protein. Aside from the added protein to beef, I do not see the benefit to eating beef over beans. On that same note, depending on the bean of your choice, beans are one of the best sources of healthy proteins and you can make up for the lost protein from meat with beans and veggies with no problem. So why not take out the fatty, cholesterol filled meat sources and replace them with food from the ground that contains only healthy nutrients? People constantly search for ways to lose weight without changing their diet but if you look at the facts a vegetarian diet helps all around. "Vegetarian diets have been suggested as one of many dietary approaches to promote weight loss because of high amounts of plant-based foods.” (Frank Hu July 2015) With obesity being one of our major killers and causes of diseases I personally don’t see why people who have that concern wouldn’t make an effort to stop eating the foods that create these problems like animal products that are full of fats and cholesterol. In conclusion I believe that the answer is clear that going vegetarian is the better option for our health and also for our planet. One of my favorite speeches that supports this that I discussed was that of Philip Wollen when he gave his speech to Australia in 2012. If we can’t take a step back to see that we are being cruel to animals, I would hope that we can take a step back and see how it’s also being cruel to other humans around our planet. No matter what beliefs one has I believe that one thing we can all agree on is that with all the resources we have world hunger should no longer be an issue- and that is one of the biggest things stop eating meat would solve. I believe Wollens words to be correct because all of the research I did on this topic supports it- as well as the other people I chose to mention. As I was researching reasons to go vegetarian I found many reasons that give positive factual support, and zero statistics that say it is worse for your health. While I researched about nutrition I also found that the nutritional facts in animal meat are far worse for you than alternatives to meat like products from plants. While researaching this part of the topic I found it most interesting that the death rates decline in vegetarians and people whom change their lifestyle to this one. A 15% decrease in death is by far a larger number than I expected and that alone helps me feel better about my decision to go vegetarian 3 months ago. If we fail resolve this issue in time by getting everyone to go vegetarian my main fear is that world hunger will not end as well as animal cruelty. If we take the steps to cut meat out of our diets it could literally change the world. Although taking meat off of the menu would not be easy, we could take the steps to slowly lower our intake of meat and fill it with other sources of proteins instead until we are used to living without it. There are plenty of food sources that can fill the place of meat and once we all realize that our world could truly turn into a better place for all of us that are alive today, and for our future generations. Works Cited PageJack Norris. “Disease Rates of Vegetarians and Vegans” RD 2013 J. Vorvick, MD. “Vegetarian Diet” 2013 “Factory Farms” 2016 Wollen. “Animals should be off the menu.” 2012. Butt. “To Shed Pounds, Going Vegetarian Or Vegan May Help” 2015 ................
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