Why be Vegetarian?

Spiritual Science & Research Foundation Mumbai, India.

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Be Humane! Be Vegetarian!

Presentation on Why Be Vegetarian?

Remember you are a Human Being and not just another Cruel Animal living in the jungle!

Do we, as humans, having an ability to reason and to communicate abstract ideas verbally and in writing, and to form ethical and moral judgments using the accumulated knowledge of the ages, have the right to take the lives of other sentient organisms, particularly when we are not forced to do so by hunger or dietary need, but rather do so for the somewhat frivolous reason that “we like the taste of meat�?

- Peter Cheeke, PhD Contemporary Issues in Animal Agriculture, 2004 textbook

Blood... pain... screams... sadness...

Cold hearted murder. Is this humane?

Blood bath…Who cares how animals die?

The killing of animals for food is merciless and inhumane.

Corporate-owned factories where cows are warehoused in huge sheds and treated like milk machines have replaced most small family farms. With genetic manipulation and intensive production technologies, it is common for modern dairy cows to produce 100 pounds of milk a day— 10 times more than they would produce in nature. To keep milk production as high as possible, farmers artificially inseminate cows every year. Growth hormones and unnatural milking schedules cause dairy cows' udders to become painful and so heavy that they sometimes drag on the ground, resulting in frequent infections and overuse of antibiotics.

Why become Vegan?

A cow produces milk only after she has had a calf. Every year we make her pregnant and kill her calf so that we can take her milk. After four calves we kill and eat the cow when she is about seven years old, even though she should live for twenty, because she is now less productive. 70% of beef comes from milk cows. Beef, milk and veal are all one business, all the same bloody, animal slave industry. It is just the same for chickens and eggs.

Male calves, the "byproducts" of the dairy industry, endure 14 to17 weeks of torment in veal crates so small that they can't even turn around. Female calves often replace their old, worn-out mothers, or are slaughtered soon after birth for the rennet in their stomachs (an ingredient of most commercial cheeses). They are often kept in tiny crates or tethered in stalls for the first few months of their lives, only to grow up to become "milk machines" like their mothers.

Reasons

for being

Vegetarian

Every minute of every working day, thousands of animals are killed in slaughter-houses. Every year, more than 27 billion animals (including fish) are killed for food in the United States alone. Animals who die for your dinner table die alone, in terror, in sadness and in pain.

Every ‘commercial use’ of animals, and also those in dairy, egg and leather industry, stands for ‘exploitation’ - since competition, economic thinking and aiming at profit automatically lead to the exploitation of animals.

In addition to this dairy, egg and leather industry are so firmly multi-sided and undetectably connected to meat-industry, that every consumption, or every usage of dairy products, eggs and leather stimulates meatindustry at the same time.

How would you like to spend your last hours locked in a truck, packed into a cage with hundreds of other terrified animal and then cruelly pushed into a blood soaked death chamber.

Anyone who eats meat condones and supports the way animals are treated.

Animals suffer from pain and fear just as much as you do. Because when animals feel pain, they scream, too. If you burn them, they feel it. If you give them electric shocks, they feel it. Other animals feel pain in the same way and to the same degree that we humans do.

Every day, tens of millions of one-day old male chicks are killed Because they will not be able to lay eggs. There are no rules about how this mass slaughter takes place. Some are crushed or suffocated to death. Many are used for fertiliser or fed to other animals.

Animals which are a year old are often far more rational - and capable of logical thought - than six week old babies. Pigs and sheep are far more intelligent than small children. Eating dead animals is barbaric.

You are what you eat!

In a lifetime, the average meat eater will consume 36 pigs, 36 sheep and 750 chickens and turkeys. Do you want that much carnage on your conscience?

Your thoughts are directly related to the food you eat.

Three qualities of Unmanifested universal energy Universal Energy

Satva

Stands for light, stability, purity.

Rajas

Stands for change, passion, movement

Tamas

Stands for darkness, inertia

Food affects your thoughts and behavior!

Fresh fruit Vegetables

Cereals

Legumes

Nuts & seeds

Honey Milk, butter & herb teas & cheese

Sattvic

Food Rajasic

Tamasic Salt

Strong herbs Hot substances

Chocolate

Stimulants (coffee/teas) Fish

Eggs

Alchohol

Meat

Fermented foods (vinegar)

Stale overripe substances Tobacco

Garlic

Onions

HUMAN BEEF MUTTON CHICKEN FISH EGGS VEGETABLES FRUITS WATER

CONSCIOUSNESS

FOOD HIERARCHY

As a civilized human being, you should respect conscious life by eating as low on the food hierarchy as possible.

Eating Non窶天eg food is injurious to health!

Drugs / Hormones

What does meat contain?

There are over 20,000 different drugs, including sterols, antibiotics, growth hormones and other veterinary drugs that are given to livestock animals. These drugs are consumed when animal foods are consumed. The dangers herein, in secondary consumption of antibiotics, are well documented.

Tranquillisers / Antibiotics There are over 20,000 different drugs, including sterols, antibiotics, growth hormones and other veterinary drugs that are given to livestock animals. These drugs are consumed when animal foods are consumed. The dangers herein, in secondary consumption of antibiotics, are well documented.

Agricultural Chemicals.

Being higher on the food chain, animal foods contain far higher concentrations of agricultural chemicals than plant foods, including pesticides, herbicides, etc.

High fat plus cholesterol.

Animal foods are higher in fat than most plant foods, particularly saturated fats. Plants do not contain cholesterol. Modern farm animals are deliberately fattened up to increase profits. Eating fatty meat increases your chances of having a heart attack or developing cancer.

Pathogenic Microorganisms.

There are a host of bacteria and viruses, some quite dangerous, that are common to animals. When you eat meat, you eat the organisms in the meat. Micro-organisms are present in plant foods too, but their number and danger to human health is by no means comparable to that of those in meat.

Body wastes.

Food from animals contain their waste, including adrenaline, uric and lactic acid, etc., Before adding ketchup, the biggest contributors to the "flavor profile" of a hamburger are the leftover blood and urine.

Excess protein.

This causes excess nitrogen in the blood that creates a host of long-term health problems.

Meat is not good for your health Vitamin deficient.

Except for the b-complex, meat is largely deficient in vitamins.

Carbohydrate Deficient.

Meat is deficient in carbohydrates, particularly the starches which are so essential to proper health.

Fiber deficient.

Fiber absorbs unwanted, excess fats; cleans the intestines; provides bulk and aids in peristalsis. Plant food is high in fiber content; meat, poultry and dairy products have none.

Intestinal Toxemia.

The condition of the intestinal flora is critical to overall health. Animal products rot the colon.

Food poisoning There are millions of cases of food poisoning recorded every year. The vast majority are caused by eating meat.

Shelf life differential.

Plant foods last longer than animal foods. Try this experiment: Leave out a head of lettuce and a pound of hamburger for 1 day, which will make you sick?

Transit time.

Wholesome food travels quickly through the "G.I" tract, leaving little time to spoil and incite disease within the body.

Organoleptic Indications of Pathenogens.

Plant foods give tell-tale signs of "going bad". Ever hear of someone getting sick from "bad broccoli"?

Common Diseases Among Meat Eaters Heart Disease Obesity

High blood pressure Breast cancer

Appendicitis

Diabetes Indigestion

Mad Cow Disease

Piles

Arthritis

Gout

Anaemia

Cancer of the prostrate Strokes

Constipation

Health Benefits of Being Vegetarian According to the American Dietetic Association’s position paper, vegetarians on average have lower body weight, cho-lesterol, and blood pressure, and lower rates of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, prostate cancer, and colon cancer.

It is the position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada that appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.

High fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with a reduced risk for cardiovascular disease, several common cancers, and other chronic diseases (such as macular degeneration and cataracts).

Whole-grain consumption is associated with a reduced risk for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and stomach and colon cancers. Regular consumption of nuts is linked with a lower risk for heart disease and lower mortality rates.

Electrical activity in the brain as shown by EEGs has shown that the vegetarian diet induces alpha waves, which indicate a state of neuromuscular relaxation not just of the brain but of the whole body. Leadbeater maintains that this scientific research proves the beneficial action of vegetarianism on behaviour, in that it promotes a sense of wellbeing "analogous to the state of meditation on the most profound truths".

Health Benefits of Being Vegetarian •

Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. They contain vitamin C, which is essential for building collagen, the underlying bonematrix. For a variety of reasons, animal protein causes severe bone deterioration.

Milk, in particular, is poor insurance against bone breaks the healthiest calcium sources are green leafy vegetables and legumes.

•

Recent research has demonstrated the importance of protective antioxidant nutrients in the diet found in fresh fruit and vegetables. These antioxidant nutrients include the betacarotene form of vitamin A, vitamin C and E. Many researchers now believe that these nutrients play a major role in reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. A high consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables is a benefit of vegetarian diets.

•

Vegetarians are fitter than meat eaters. many of the world's most successful athletes are vegetarian.

•

Longevity. To increase ones risk of getting degenerative disease means decreasing ones chance to live a naturally long healthy life. Huzas and other peoples with large centenarian populations maintain lifestyles that are relatively meat free.

If we eat the plants we grow instead of feeding them to animals, the world's food shortage will disappear virtually overnight. Remember that 100 acres of land will produce enough beef for 20 people but enough wheat to feed 240 people.

African countries - where millions are starving to death - export grain to the developed world so that animals can be fattened for your dining tables.

Half the rainforests in the world have been destroyed to clear ground to graze cattle to make beefburgers. The burning of the forests contributes 20% of all greenhouse gases. Roughly 1,000 species a year become extinct because of the destruction of the rainforests. Approximately 60 million people a year die of starvation.

All those lives could be saved because those people could eat grain used to fatten cattle and other farm animals - if non-vegetarians ate 10% less meat.

Water Conservation. It takes 3 to 15 times as much water to produce animal protein as it does plant protein.The world's fresh water shortage is being made worse by animal farming. And meat producers are the biggest polluters of water. It takes 2500 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat.

Conservation of Fossil fuel. It takes 78 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of beef protein; 35 calories for 1 calorie of pork; 22 calories for 1 of poultry; but just 1 calorie of fossil fuel for 1 calorie of soybeans. By eating plant foods instead of animal foods, I help conserve our non-renewable sources of energy.

Efficient use of grains. It takes up to 16 pounds of soybeans and grains to produce 1 lb. of beef and 3 to 6 lbs. to produce 1 lb of turkey & egg. By eating grain foods directly, I make the food supply more efficient & that contributes to the environment.

Soil conservation. When grains & legumes are used more efficiently, our precious topsoil is automatically made more efficient in its use.

We use less agricultural resources to provide for the same number of people.

Saving our forests. Tropical forests in Brazil and other tropic regions are destroyed daily, in part, to create more acreage to raise livestock. By not supporting the meat industry, you directly reduce the demand to pillage these irreplaceable treasures of nature. Since the forest land "filters" our air supply and contains botanical sources for new medicines, this destruction is irreversible.

Personal Finances Health care costs. Being healthier on a vegetarian diet means spending less on health care.

Food costs. Vegetarian foods tend to cost less than meat based items.

More Reasons to be Vegetarian Stance against Factory Farming.. You cannot make a statement against factory farming if you yourself eat animals.

Love for animals. If you love your pets, extend that love to all other animals. Will you eat your dog or cat?

World Peace. There can never be peace among men while men are declaring war on other highly developed life forms.

The law of Karma. If you partake in the slaughter of

animals, you will have to repay your contribution to that act.

The law of karma is nature’s universal law and does not spare anyone.

Easy substitutes. There are vegetable based substitutes

for every meat product Imaginable.

Your Economic Vote. You support the meat industry and the way they operate when you purchase and use their products.

Vegetarianism helps us replace brutal violence with the persuasive force of fraternal love. This love reaches out without imposing, in a spirit of helping and sharing..

When we humans understand that we do not need to kill to eat, we will find healthy, energy-giving food in nature. Then only peace will prevail

Some facts

Kilos of potatoes that can be grown on 1 hectare of land: 22,417 Kilos of meat that can be produced 1 hectare of land: 185 Percentage of protein wasted by cycling grain through livestock: 90 Number of people worldwide who will die as a result of malnutrition this year: 20 to 40 million Litres of water necessary to produce 1 kilo of wheat: 209 Litres of water necessary to produce 1 kilo of meat: 20,861 The diet of the most powerful animals on the planet, including gorillas, elephants and bulls: pure vegetarian The life expectancy of vegetarians compared to nonvegetarians: Vegetarians live, on average, six extra years.

The largest meat-eater that ever lived: Tyrannosaurus Rex. Diet of six-time Ironman Triathlon winner Dave Scott, nine-time Wimbledon winner Martina Navratilova, World Recordholder for bench press Stanton price and India's international cricket star Anil Kumble, President of India Mr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam: Vegetarian

VEGETARIANISM IN PERSPECTIVE A vegetarian is a person who does not eat meat, fish, or fowl or products containing these foods.The eating patterns of vegetarians may vary considerably:

Vegan: follows a strict diet excluding eggs, dairy, and all other animal products; Lacto-ovo-vegetarian: Eats a diet of mainly grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, seeds, nuts, dairy products, and eggs, and excludes meat, fish, and poultry; Lacto-vegetarian: Excludes animal flesh and eggs; Ovo-vegetarian: Excludes animal flesh and dairy products;

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