Why Vegetarian?

JUST SOME OF THE MANY REASONS

A vegetarian diet has been shown to lower the risk for many chronic diseases, such as obesity, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes, as well as cancer of the colon, breast, prostate, stomach, lung and esophagus. A plant-based diet eases symptoms of menopause and provides relief from several digestive ailments.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDq 76 million people are affected by food-borne illness each year. Although it's possible for any food to be contaminated, the most frequent and severe cases of food-borne illness come from meat and other animal products.
Studies at Yale University and elsewhere have shown that anywhere from 5% to 30% of people diagnosed with Alzheimer's actually had Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), the human form of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease). While no smoking gun has yet been found to link Alzheimer's to mad cow disease, there is ample evidence that Alzheimer's, CJD and BSE are similar in their origins and in progression. Furthermore, according to Dr. Lawrence Broxmeyer of Med-America research, the risk of developing Alzheimer's is three times greater for meat eaters than for vegetarians.

Raising animals for meat consumes massive quantities of water and other valuable resources. According to the article "How Our Food Choices can Help Save the Environment," by Steve Boyan, PhD (www.earthsave.org), eliminating just one pound of beef from one's diet can save as much water as one would save by avoiding showers entirely for six months!
Runoff from factory farms containing chemicals and animal waste-one of the greatest threats to water quality today-:-has polluted more than 173,000 miles of rivers and streams in the US (Environmental Protection Agency).

Meat production is an expensive and inefficient use of food resources. According to John Robbins in Diet for a New America, the grain required to feed livestock in America for one day is enough to provide very person on earth with two loaves of bread.

Switching to a vegetarian diet is good for the soul as well as the body. In making the change, we forego our selfish consumption of scarce resources in an effort to feed the world, and we condemn the cruel and inhumane practice of raising animals in abhorrent conditions to feed our taste for meat.

Nothing could be simpler than fresh fruits and vegetables from the earth's bounty. And as we become more aware of the negative impacts of a meat-based diet on the environment, personal health, and world hunger, vegetarian alternatives are becoming more visible and widely available in the marketplace. Even some fast-food restaurants now offer vegetarian menu items.