Why Vegetarianism?

Although meat is certainly a source of concentrated protein it is a very poor source of other food elements like minerals, vitamins and carbohydrates. In addition, eating flesh from the cow or any other animal is detrimental to the health of human beings for many reasons. For example, if a human, who has a much longer colon than the carnivorous animals, eats flesh, the following problems will ensue:

1. Intestinal bacteria in the long bowel will change from fermentative to putrefactive, thus causing poisons to be absorbed into the bloodstream. These poisons need to be eliminated, so energy is diverted from other essential bodily functions, including thinking.
2. The natural synthesis of vitamin B12 will be inhibited, possibly leading to anemia.
3. Animal toxins will tend to disrupt the proper metabolism of carbohydrates. This can cause diabetes.
4. Nonnutritive substances resulting from the digestion of animal flesh tend to be carcinogenic (cancer-inducing) irritants.

The minimum daily requirement of protein, which nutritional experts calculate to be between seventy and ninety grams, is easily achieved with dairy products and foods from the vegetable kingdom. Protein is found in ample quantity in milk, cheese, yogurt, whole wheat, corn, many varieties of nuts and beans, and some vegetables. Thus vegetables, fruits, grains and dairy products provide a perfectly balanced diet. Consuming animal flesh, on the other hand, results in excess protein, which produces liver ailments, high blood pressure, and hardening of the arteries.

In addition, dead animal flesh contains many toxic elements, such as:

1. Wastes from the dead animal’s bloodstream, germs, and drugs injected to offset animal disease.
2. Fear poisons released into the bloodstream at the time of slaughter.
3. Bacteria from putrefactive decomposition, which commences as soon as the animal dies. Because flesh is an excellent insulator, not all of these bacteria are killed by cooking.

Due to forced feeding, penning, and other unnatural practices, animals raised for slaughter suffer from dozens of diseases, such as foot-and-mouth disease, fevers, catarrhal conditions, cancer, tuberculosis, and mastitis. In addition, poultry are often impregnated with estrogens, which can cause cancer. Many studies in cancer research reveal that areas in which meat-eating is highest tend to have the highest cancer rate, while vegetarian areas generally have a far lower rate.
Immediately after an animal is slaughtered, rigor mortis sets in, and then the process of decay takes over. Thus meat-eating always involves consumption of decayed flesh together with its incumbent dangers to health.

Demystify the myths related to protein requirements

Meat-eaters may wonder, “But meat is a perfect, complete protein, while I’d have to spend hours purchasing, cooking, and combining the right vegetables to get enough protein every day.”

First of all, meat is not “pure” or “perfect” protein, but at best 25-30% protein. Its net protein utilization (NPU, the amount actually digested and absorbed by the body) is 67%, compared to 82% for milk, 70% for cheese, 67% for mung beans, and 60% for whole wheat. By weight the above foodstuffs may have less protein than meat, but because their NPU is high, simply by eating more of them or combining them one can easily meet one’s protein RDA (minimum recommended daily allowance). For example, milk is only 4 to 5% protein, but two cups give about 40% of the average usable protein RDA of 43.1 grams. A two-inch cube of cheese yields about 30%. And the objection that vegetarianism is too time-consuming is ridiculous. Complementarity, the right combination of foods, is as common-sense and natural as bread and butter, and it easily avoids dietary deficiencies. Furthermore, complementarity increases the food value of the combined foods. For example, the NPU of rice alone (60%) and beans alone (40%) increases by 43% when they are eaten together, and pairing milk with whole-wheat bread increases their combined NPU by 13%.

Besides, protein isn’t everything. Essential nutrients like iron, potassium, magnesium, and calcium, as well as essential vitamins like C, A, riboflavin, niacin, and the B complex, are almost entirely absent in flesh foods. Vegetarian foods are absolutely necessary to maintain good health.

Economics of a vegetarian diet

1. Flesh foods are more than fifty percent water and therefore extremely costly to buy as a source of protein.
2. Land that will produce one ton of beef, if planted with vegetables instead can produce ten to twenty tons of highly nutritive vegetable food.
3. For every hundred pounds of dry substances eaten by cattle, only four to sixteen pounds comes back as flesh foods.