Student Opinion
Be a Veg Being a meat-eater or a vegetarian is an individual choice.
There are multitudinous reasons based on science, health, religion and culture that can shape and even change our thinking. I have written this article to help us think over the matter more seriously.
People in this world become vegetarian due to different motives; some want to have a healthier life, others love nature and want to reduce pollution and animal suffering. Now, I am not saying that eating meat should be prohibited, but there are more benefits to being a vegetarian, both for us as individuals and for the environment. I will begin with scientific reasons. If you start eating a vegetarian diet, you will reduce the amount of diseases within your organism. According to National Center of Health Statistics, a vegetarian diet is healthier because it does not consume animal fat and has less cholesterol. Instead, it has more fiber and it is antioxidant-rich. So if you want to be healthier, stay away from doctors and start a vegetarian diet. A vegetarian diet can also cause weight reduction because it includes less saturated fats and emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains and plant-based proteins, all lower calorie foods. People believe that we get protein from meat. The average human body needs 40 grams of protein a day. A typical breakfast containing a glass of milk, slice of bacon and piece of toast totals 40 grams. If we include lunch and dinner we will see that a normal meat eating diet contains more than 40 grams a day! It is excess which is most unhealthy for us. A vegetarian diet, including protein rich nuts, beans, soy and some greens, has all the protein we need. Now, lets get to the religious or ethical point of view. The most obvious justification for vegetarianism is the golden rule of “do unto others”….just imagine someone killing you, cooking you, and eating you! How would you feel?
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Now you might think, how can I compare animals and humans, but actually we have evolved from animals. They are sentient beings, like us, and I don’t know how the conscience remains unaffected by eating a dead being. Animal intelligence should not be questioned. Our union is at a much deeper layer. For example, if you see a man hitting a dog with his cricket bat, your instincts would be to stop him. You would take action because you know this animal has its own rights to be free of harm. Every animal on this planet, whether it is a mammal, amphibian, fish, reptile, insect, we are all earthlings. And all earthlings have two things in common: the desire to live and to be free of pain and suffering. Though we tend to diminish them, all animals have feelings, just like us. If we put our hand to a flame, our natural reaction is to jerk it back. If we do the same with an animal, it will have the same reaction. But if we put a vegetable to a flame, it will just burn. It does not have feelings, it does not have a nervous system. This is a proof for what we can eat naturally. And I haven’t even spoken about reincarnation yet! But I won’t put you through it….let’s move on to the environmental and cultural reasons. A vegetarian diet cleans the environment because raising animals for food in large scale industrial complexes causes air and water pollution. From here originate diseases. The top two diseases, heart disease and cancer, are produced from non-vegetarian food. On the cultural side, attitudes vary. In the U.S., eating a pig is
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