Food: The arguments that made me become a vegetarian

I've been a vegetarian for more than 5 years now and never regretted it. I went cold turkey after reading a brochure with several very strong arguments to become a vegetarian. This is the link to that brochure. It's the first one on the top (it's in Dutch, though).

These are the arguments found in the brochure, shortly explained, that made me switch to vegetarianism:

For your health

Advantages:

• More fruit and vegetables on your plate and in your mouth.
• Less total fat intake and the quality of the fats taken in increases, which means protection against heart and cardiovascular diseases and obesity.
• More fibres. Fibres remove toxic substances quicker. Protects us against certain forms of cancer and heart diseases.
• Greater amount of natural killer cells which are part of the immune system and help destroy tumorcells and virusses.  
• More antioxidants. Antioxidants have an important role in the reduction of risk for chronical diseases and protect our brain and other body tissue against oxidation.
• More minerals. More minerals are good for the prevention of osteoporosis, heart and cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
• Less risk when it comes to gallstones and constipation, osteoporosis, diverticulosis, kidney stones, appendicitis, Alzheimer, caries, dental erosion, asthma.

Too much meat means:

• Too much saturated fats and cholesterol.
• Higher chance to become overweight or obese.
• Higher chance for getting diabetes, heart and cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis and some cancers.
• Possible residues of antibiotics, hormones, chemical substances and heavy metals in meat. 

For the environment

• The consumption of meat is globally responsible for approximately 1/5 of the total greenhouse emmisions.
• 1/3 of all solid ground is being used to grow fodder crops, with massive deforestation as a result. 70 % of the deforestation in the Amazon forest happens because of fodder crops.
• For a steak of 170 gr you need 0.6 liter in fossil fuels. 90 gr of broccoli, 80 gr of eggplant, 110 gr of cauliflower and 225 gr of rice only need 0.04 liter of fossil fuels.
• The manure produced by the cattle is one of the main causes of water pollution because of the nitrates that end up in the groundwater. It threatens the quality of the drinking water and the fish population.
• For the production of 1 kilo of animal protein you need about 100 times more water than the production of 1 kilo vegetable protein. The production of 1 kilo of beef needs 15,000 liters of water! 1 kilo of potatoes only needs 500 liter, wheat needs 900 liters.
• It is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity.

For other human beings

• Almost one billion people are underfed. Daily 25,000 people die of hunger. In the mean time 20 billion farm animals live on 76% of all the farmland on our planet.
• 40% of all cereals in the world is used as fodder. 
• For 1 kilo of beef you need approximately 7 kilo of grains.
• With the amount of grain used for a cow that feeds 2 people, 24 people could have been fed with the grain alone. 

For the animals

• In this tiny country (Belgium) alone we kill 285 million animals every year for food. Imagine what that number would be for bigger countries.
• The average Belgian eats in his whole life 1/3 of a horse, 5 bovines and calves, 7 goats and cheep, 24 rabbits and game, 42 pigs, 43 turkeys and other poultry, 789 fish, 891 chickens and 83,214 shellfish.
•  Most cows, pigs and chickens live in too small spaces and are transported and killed in gruesome ways. Most of them don't even see the daylight.
• Beaks are being chopped off, pigs their tail are cut off and fangs broken, bulls and piglets are being castrated. All of this without sedation. Calves are consciously kept in a state of anemia because the meat stays white this way.
• All animals are killed while in the prime of their lives. A chicken for example can live for 8 years. On our plate she only lived 6 weeks.  

Famous vegetarian/vegan people

To finish this post here are some of the most famous vegetarians and vegans with some of there quotes. These people are known all across the world for their intelligence and wisdom. Why not follow in their footsteps?

"Truely man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds theirs. We live by the death of others: we are burial places! I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look on the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men." - Leonardo da Vinci

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


"For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love." - Pythagoras


"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being."
- Abraham Lincoln

"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields." - Leo Tolstoy

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." - Mahatma Gandhi

"I am not interested to know whether vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't...The pain which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further." - Mark Twain

"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages." - Thomas Edison