If you have eaten meat and animal products your whole life, you might be thinking, why switch to a plant-based diet? You have lived your whole life eating eggs, hamburgers, hot dogs, poultry, and more, so why switch now? What good can it do? People will still eat these things even if I don’t.
Right?
If you have stopped to read this article, plant-based eating has crossed your mind more than once. However, you shouldn’t base your decision on changing your diet based on what other people will or won’t do. You should base the decision on how you feel.
Now, let’s get back to you. Just because you have done something for many years in a certain way, does not make it the right thing for you to do. Look at social issues like slavery, women’s rights to work, drive, and vote.
For many centuries there were terrible things happening that needed to change. Thank goodness they did. Thanks to the bravery of a few, nations are changed, so imagine! We can be change-makers, trailblazers. We can and do affect change.
So be the change you wish to see in the world. You do not have to wait for others to do it first or wait till everyone is already there. Follow your heart.
The farming industry is slowly starting to transform. We are seeing more farms that are making pledges to use humane practices that support the welfare and well-being of animals. Small farms are quickly regaining popularity over industrial farms that treat animals as if they are disposable.
Outside of animal rights, there are many other reasons that people consider changing to a plant-based diet.
There can be many reasons to switch. Let’s start with yourself, start by looking in the mirror. Are you at a healthy weight? Do you look and feel good most of the time? Do you wake up energized? Or do you wake up tired and sluggish?
How is your general health? Is your blood pressure within a healthy range? Are your cholesterol and blood sugar ranges normal? If they’re not, consider what you are eating on a daily basis.
How do you feel after eating? Do you feel energized, as if you’ve fed your body what it needs? Or are you tired and dragging? Do you often need a nap after eating? Is that what food is supposed to do for us, make us tired and sleepy?
Not really. Food should nourish and feed the body and leave us awakened and refreshed. The human body is a machine and needs fuel that keeps it running in peak condition.
When we are overweight, with high blood pressure, have Type II diabetes, high cholesterol, and other unhealthy conditions it’s like a car engine that hasn’t been tuned up or isn’t running on the optimal type of gasoline it needs to run efficiently.
Your body is the same way. It needs the right kind of fuel to run at peak efficiency, and when you’re eating unhealthy meat, meat that has been fed antibiotics and hormones throughout its life, you are essentially feeding yourself the same quality of diet.
Try eating vegetarian for a week, or a month. See if you don’t feel different, more mentally acute, and more physically fit and energized. Reverse the portion sizes you’ve been eating, and make meat more of a side dish, if you can’t stop eating meat altogether straight away.
Even that change can make a big difference in your overall health and well-being. If you are going to continue to eat meat, make smart choices in the meat that you purchase. Look for pasture-fed or grass-fed cows and their by-products. Buy pasture-raised poultry and eggs. Animals on these farms are free to roam and the farmers that raise them do so with integrity. Not only do they treat their animals with care, but they also take care to sell meat and animal products that will not harm society.
Lastly, there is the impact meat production has on the planet, we all know the planet is suffering from the sheer number of livestock and gases that are created. There is an enormous amount of food that is grown to feed animals which would be great if that food was part of their natural diet.
A diet of corn and soy is hardly nutritious for a human being, so why is this the vast choice of feed for animals? Land and water availability are an issue as the world’s population grows.
More than three-quarters of all agricultural land in the United States is used to feed farm animals or as grazing areas that are not adequate to the needs of the animals resulting in disruption of the natural ecosystem.
When animals graze naturally in a balanced ecological environment, they actually help plant life to thrive. From manure to the decomposing bodies of animals these are things that make our soil rich and organic without the use of chemicals and unnatural fertilizers.
When you disrupt the echo system this balance is thrown off.
Not to mention how animals suffer, bred only to be killed, and kept in filthy living conditions. Many animals are considered a waste of the industry like male calves and male chicks discarded at birth or hours old. It’s a very cruel industry.
The female animals who are left behind to face awful lives as battery hens squashed in cages fighting for air and space. Driven mad by diseases and terrible conditions, or dairy cows bereaved by the loss of their babies and repeated pregnancy, overmilked, and so much more. The stories are sad.
I remember my first experience of seeing a farmer separating a male calf from his mother. It was heartbreaking to watch. All of the cows were upset and trying to block the ranchers as they tried to maneuver in to take the calf. In the end, they realized it was a losing battle and allowed the mom to move into separation with the male calf.
Eventually, they were able to trick the mom and take the calf away, both of them screamed for each other. I asked the rancher why they were doing this.
They said they are training the calf to become a bull. The calf sat alone all day long in a cage away from all the other animals while its mom was only feet away in another cage. The bulls that you see in the arenas are not naturally “mean” animals, they are made that way by way of cruelty from the time they are young calves.
Whether your reason for exploring a vegetarian or vegan diet is because you want to become healthier, you love the planet, and you adore animals, your decision can create a better life for yourself, the planet, and animals that are mistreated day in and day out in order to entertain the public or feed the public.
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