Reasons Why We're Vegetarian:

1. We're heart smart and cancer-unfriendly. Vegetarian women are less than one-fourth as likely as meat-eaters to get breast cancer, while vegetarian men have a 46 percent lower chance of suffering a heart attack. In addition, a vegetarian diet helps prevent strokes, osteoporosis, kidney stones, many cancers, diabetes, hypoglycemia, kidney disease, peptic ulcers, hernias, obesity, gallstones, hypertension, asthma, and many other diseases.

"Vegetarians have the best diet. They have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country…. they have a fraction of our heart attack rate, and have only 40 percent of our cancer rate. On the average, they outlive other people by about six years now." William Castelli, M.D. , Director, Farmingham Heart Study, the longest-running clinical study in medical history.

2. We've never met a cow we didn't like.

3. We're keeping our sex lives sizzling. Vegetarian foods keep our bodies slim, our skin clear, and our libido s… well, let's just say they're, uh, presidential. If you wouldn't eat veggies for your mother, maybe now you'll do it for your lover!

4. Vegetarians live longer, healthier lives. One 21-year-long study that compared meat-eaters and vegetarians showed that the greater the meat consumption, the greater the death rate from all causes combined.

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." Albert Einstein.

"Well-planned vegan ….diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, and lactation…satisfy(ing) nutrient needs of infants, children and adolescents and promot(ing) normal growth." The American Dietetic Association's position paper on vegetarianism.

5. Vegetarianism is an automatic cholesterol-cutter. The only foods that contain cholesterol are animal products, like meat and dairy. And since a three-decade-long study found that not a single subject with a cholesterol level below 150 has ever developed heart disease, that's hard to ignore!

6. Each vegetarian saves an acre of trees each year. In North America, Britain, and throughout the world, forests are being destroyed to create pastures for livestock. Between 1960 and 1985 alone, nearly 40 percent of all Central American rain forests were destroyed to create cheap grazing land for cows later served on North American and European plates. On average, 1 acre of trees disappears every 8 seconds!

7. We want to help conserve scarce resources. Producing just one hamburger uses enough fossil fuel to drive a small car 20 miles and enough water for 17 showers. In fact, more than half of all water used in the U.S. is used to raise and kill animals for the table.

Raising animals for food causes serious water pollution. Animals raised for food produce 130 x the excrement of the entire human population - 87 000 pounds (395 502 litres) per second - much of this waste contaminates water resources.

The world's cattle alone consumes a quantity of food equal to the calorie needs of 8.7 billion people.

8. Vegetarians set a terrific example for friends and family. When people find out we're veg, it's a great opportunity to educate them about how THEY can help animals, the Earth, and themselves through a vegetarian diet.

9. Vegetarians are in good company. When we choose soy over sausage, and chickpeas over chicken, we're echoing the choices made by Albert Schweitzer, Leo Tolstoy, Pythagoras, Albert Einstein, Gandhi, and dozens of other great thinkers throughout history.

10. Veggie food tastes great! Seven-bean chilli, raspberry sorbet, spinach lasagna, gingery baked beans, coconut-pineapple curry, wild mushroom risotto, eggplant crostini, potato croquettes, strawberry crêpes, grilled portobello mushrooms, Szechuan noodles, spicy tomato ziti - need we say more?

Vegetarianism is a personal choice. Don't try to force it on everyone else.

Source: www.vegsoc.org, www.lettuceladies.com