“Why be a vegetarian?”: this is one question that new vegetarians are asked over and over again. In as much as people are not familiar with the wealth of delicious food available to vegetarians, they are simply at a loss about the reason for taking meat out of your diet.
When asked “why be a vegetarian?” many take this question as an attack on vegetarianism and try to defend their position, whereas many people ask this question merely out of curiosity to know the motivations behind becoming a vegetarian.
Why Stick To Vegetables Only When It Is So Expensive? Meat Is Tasty And Cheap
One of the arguments made against vegetarianism is that it takes a lot of work and thought. At first glance, it may seem that vegetarians put a lot more work into their diet than meat eaters, but the truth is that they are usually just more careful with their diet and do everything they can to ensure that they are getting balanced nutrition.
It is a common misconception that vegetarian food is more expensive than meats. Bulk amount of vegetarian food can be bought quite inexpensively, whereas the pre-made packaged meat substitutes are typically quite costly. The common vegetarian staples such as rice, oats, beans, and pasta are very affordable.
The cost does go up a bit when you take fresh fruits and vegetables into account, but it is generally accepted as fact that we all need to eat more fruits and vegetables. Vegetarians don’t eat much more fruits and vegetables than the servings that are recommended for the general meat-eating public.
If the amount of resources needed to produce crops and meat are taken into account, it will be seen that it is less expensive to produce plant foods. The artificially low priced meat available in the supermarket and in restaurants are the products of the subsidies provided by the government to the farmers in the form of payments to encourage meat production.
Why Become a Vegetarian When Humans Were Designed to Eat Meat?
While many meat eaters make the argument that humans weren’t made to live without meat in their diets, there is actually plenty of biological evidence to the contrary. Our bodies more closely resemble the physiology of herbivores than carnivores: our digestive system shows that our optimal food is plant matter, not meat.
While the human body is capable of digesting meat, eating meat long-term is known to cause many health problems. High cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis are all directly linked to eating meat. Although eating meat infrequently does not seem to significantly raise our risk for these maladies, the typical American diet contains so much meat that it effectively poisons our bodies. Were we designed to be meat eaters? The evidence suggests that we were not.
Why become a Vegetarian? Why Can’t You Be One?
There are even more reasons to be vegetarian, but the most compelling reason is the one that resonates with you personally. Being a vegetarian means that you are removing your support from an industry that produces more waste than all other American industries combined. You are standing up in favor of a healthy life and healthy planet, and you are doing a good turn for animal rights. Being a vegetarian comes with many, many benefits for your physical, emotional, and financial well-being – and no detrimental effects to any of these.
