Research Paper on The Benefits of The Vegetarian Lifestyle

Vegetarianism used to be an unusual lifestyle choice. Today, it is becoming more common and widely accepted by mainstream society. Healthy lifestyles have become more prevalent in the minds of many people in contemporary society, and has brought to life many exciting trends in all aspects of social functioning. As food is directly related to our health, it’s no wonder that people have started to pay increased attention to the food they consume. In particular, this interest has sparked renewal of vegetarianism, which is an easy way to attain a healthy lifestyle through abandoning animal foods. While there are a multitude of reasons for choosing a vegetarian diet, the most important are health reasons, environmental and economic reasons, and ethical reasons.

Vegetarianism has many important philosophical grounds related to murdering animals and the fact that all life on earth should be respected and protected. Unlike some extreme ideas about animal rights that go as far as forbidding people to ride mules for their benefit, advocates of vegetarianism come from one simple principle; that killing is wrong and animals have the same right to live that humans do. In theory, this position would mean that a person is working to live in harmony with the outer world, a feature that can promote a healthier lifestyle. However, there are plenty of arguments in favor of vegetarianism, and many of these arguments hinge on the health benefits of a vegetarian diet. Health reasons alone are sufficient grounds for becoming a vegetarian. The risk of contracting a disease is less likely when being a vegetarian. For example, many vegetarians have a lower rate of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and colon disease. Not only does a vegetarian diet have a greater chance of preventing these diseases, but becoming a vegetarian can sometimes even cure these diseases. “Vegetarian dietary patterns reduce CVD mortality and the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) by 40%. Plant-based diets are the only dietary pattern to have shown reversal of CHD”.

Many cancer researchers report that vegetarianism reduces the risk of cancer and that a person can reduce the risk of cancer greatly by decreasing intake of meat and related products. Colorectal cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States. Dietary factors influence risk, and the evidence that meat consumption, especially processed meat, is linked to increased risk. The study showed that “vegetarian diets are associated with an overall lower incidence of colorectal cancers. Pesco-vegetarians in particular have a much lower risk compared with non-vegetarians”. The data suggests that even partial reduction in the amount of meat consumed can lead to decreased risk of cancer, a good argument in favor of making one rethink their stance towards vegetarianism. Besides cancer and disease, obesity is another large issue in the United States. A lot of Americans will tend to stick to their traditional diets that contain large amounts of calories and fat, especially saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol. Meat is high in saturated fats which are known to cause clogged arteries. The drawbacks of American food habits can be decreased if people decided to reduce their intake of meat, or give up eating meat altogether. “Vegetarians have a lower prevalence of overweight and obesity and a lower risk of IHD compared with non-vegetarians from a similar background, whereas the data are equivocal for stroke”.

By comparing body mass index (BMI) in four diet groups (meat-eaters, pescetarians, vegetarians and vegans), researchers at Oxford decided to investigate these groups’ lifestyle and dietary routine with any observable differences. BMI has gained considerable attention as a risk factor for mortality and a number of other conditions including diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. During the study, it was found that “fish-eaters, vegetarians and especially vegans had lower BMI than meat-eaters”. Thus, vegetarianism can be a viable solution to the problem of obesity that has important repercussions for medical problems and health care budgets. This does not mean that vegetarianism is only beneficial to those who may have weight problems. Even those who are satisfied with their body mass index can find a lot of benefits in consuming vegetarian products and abandoning meat. Some people may stress the traditional concern that meat contains protein and other substances that are absolutely indispensable for their health and help them grow. Men, in particular, can be concerned that if they give up meat altogether, this could leave them emaciated and undernourished. Data indicates, however, that vegetarians usually receive adequate protein. A vegetarian diet allows for “the consumption of a variety of high-protein plant foods such as grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes each day to obtain enough of each essential amino acid”.

Protein, the main aim of many meat eaters, is widely available from grains, soybeans and many varieties of nuts, and so vegetarians consuming these products supply their bodies with all necessary nutrients. Therefore, there should be no fear that a vegetarian diet will deprive a human body of necessary nutrients. Talking of meat that is produced in the US, one can find many additional arguments in support of vegetarianism. There is a plethora of harmful toxins in meat that most would deem unfit to consume. Farm animals are fed antibiotics so they can tolerate the conditions they are put in. In fact, “more than 80 percent of the total amount of antibiotics consumed in the U.S., are consumed by farm animals, and this is leading to a huge increase in the amount of antibiotic resistant pathogens in animals and humans alike”. This is a serious reason to think about the quality of the products humans put in their bodies on a daily basis. The potential dangers of animals developing infections resistant to antibiotics has encouraged the European Union to prohibit their use, yet it is still allowed in the US. Meat producers use noxious drugs that build muscle and add weight to the animals before they are slaughtered. Ractopamine, which is banned in many countries around the world, is a drug given to cattle and pigs that increases weight. Roughly up to 20 percent of the administered Ractopamine remains in the meat after slaughter, which is alarming since the FDA has warned that the drug is harmful to humans. Despite being notorious for causing illness, injury, and death to cattle, Zilmax is an FDA approved drug that is administered to herds of cows.

Although it's thought to be safe for humans to consume, the drug drastically increases the cattle mortality rate and inflicts much damage to the cows themselves. Thus, vegetarianism can help one to protect one's health and is an inalienable feature of a healthy lifestyle. Vegetarians will not suffer from inadequate controls over meat production. These are strong arguments in favor of a vegetarian diet that can help many people improve the quality of their lifestyle. Another strong reason why people turn to a vegetarian diet is their concern about animals and animal welfare. Some decide to follow it on moral grounds, as they feel that it is wrong and unnecessary to kill animals for food. Some vegetarians will argue that “causing animals pain while raising them for food when there are readily available alternatives is wrong”. Thus, being vegetarian helps to express their philosophy of non-violence or no-injury to animals. The meat industry today is like something out of a horror film. A large percentage of animals are reared in cruel and abhorrent conditions, usually in factory farms. Feedlots and cages are crowded, filthy, stinking places, and animals are given so little space that they can’t even turn around or lie down comfortably. The animals would not survive at all if it wasn't for the huge amounts of antibiotics they are fed. It is basically impossible to raise animals for food without forcing some form of temporary pain on the animals. Said animals almost always “need to be castrated, dehorned, branded, and have other kinds of minor surgeries… All of this must be done knowing that anesthetics would have lessened the pain but are too expensive”. Almost like products of an assembly line, chickens that are used for meat are stacked in boxes and sent to fattening farms, where they live for about 40 something days, then sent to the slaughterhouse. Transport conditions, where animals are crammed into large trucks, traveling long distances without food or water, are inhumane. All farm animals end up in the same place: the slaughterhouse. Non-meat eaters would strongly argue that animals should not be raised to be tortured in a factory farm until they are murdered. Meat production in these factory farms demands considerable amounts of energy. “The production and consumption of food requires a vast amount of resources, including land, water, minerals, and energy, which result in substantial emissions of greenhouse gases” (Joyce).

The impact of animal agriculture on greenhouse gas emissions stretches a lot further than cows producing methane gas. Not only do crops have to be grown to feed the animals, but fossil fuels are also burned in the raising, slaughtering and transportation of animals. In fact, “burning fossil fuels to produce fertilizers for feed crops may emit 41 million metric tons of CO2 per year. Vast amounts of artificial nitrogenous fertilizers are used to grow farm animal feed… Most of this fertilizer is produced in factories dependent on fossil-fuel energy”. Greenhouse gas reductions through a vegetarian diet are limitless. In principle, even 100% reduction could be achieved with little negative impact. A change in diet can lower greenhouse gas emissions much more quickly than a change from the fossil fuel burning technologies that emit carbon dioxide. Agriculture, together with deforestation, accounts for about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. Livestock rearing contributes to climate change through the methane gas that the animals produce, but also through deforestation. Producing meat requires large amounts of land to raise animals on. Grazing, the largest human-related use of land, “occupies an incredible 26 percent of the ice- and water-free surface of the planet Earth. The area devoted to growing crops to feed those animals amounts to 33 percent of arable land. Meat production is a major factor in deforestation as well, and grazing now occupies 70 percent of previously forested land in the Amazon region”. Overall, it’s estimated that eating meat requires approximately three times more land than is needed for a vegan diet. Deforestation is “not just destroying the forests in virtue of existing and taking up space for living, we’re destroying them due to specific, non-necessary habits found in the normalized Western diet and lifestyle”. Poorly managed animal waste products from the meat industry are polluting the environment, aiding in species extinction, and destroying habitats. Pollution of our waterways is caused by animal waste, antibiotics and hormones entering the water cycle alongside chemicals from fertilizers and pesticides used to spray feed crops. Also, many pollutant waste products get washed into water systems, and the nitrogen and phosphorus found in this waste can cause algae to grow on the water and starve fish of oxygen. This process leads to the creation of “dead zones”, or places where a handful of species can survive.

As of 2011, 530 marine areas were identified as dead zones. Manure, or waste-water that contains manure, severely damages river and stream ecosystems. Farmed animals produce roughly about 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population of the United States. Since factory farms don't have sewage treatment systems like cities and towns do, this concentrated matter ends up polluting water, ruining topsoil, and contaminating the air. Once factory farm pollutants (including nitrogen, phosphorus, and pesticides) reach the waterways, they can cause a great deal of damage to marine and human life. Algal blooms are a particular problem, blocking waterways, using up oxygen as they decompose, and killing the natural populations of fish. Overfishing, or catching too many fish at a faster rate than what fish can reproduce naturally, is not only killing off various species of marine life but also contributing to climate change as well. Overfishing also leads to a lot of bycatch, which causes the needless loss of billions of fish, along with other species like sea turtles, whales, dolphins, sea birds, and other species.

Another issue is water scarcity, a rather large issue, with millions of people living without sufficient access to clean water. The world’s freshwater is in short supply, partly due to an inflating global population that uses enormous amounts of water everyday to produce things from oil and vegetables to meat and dairy. Around the world, water shortages impact more than 40 percent of the global population, according to the United Nations. The scarcity of water in lakes, streams, groundwater and soil moisture, all endanger food security. Food choices can have a prominent impact on water demand. Unlike the majority of plant-based foods, raising animals calls for vast amounts of water. This is because the animals need water to drink, wash, clean their living spaces and cool themselves during hot periods. “It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat but only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat” (PETA). In fact, a study comparing the water footprint of different foods found that while a soy burger has a water footprint of 158 litres, a beef burger has a water footprint of 2,350 litres, which is over 14 times as much. The question arises: if so many people are living in areas without access to clean, fresh water, why do we waste so much of it producing animal products when it's more beneficial to get all the nutrients we need from a plant-based diet? Acquiring said nutrients is easy and can be done by purchasing plant-based foods. Another reason to adopt vegetarianism has economical connotations. Vegetarian food, like vegetables, fruits, nuts, and legumes, is usually cheaper.

Therefore, it can be understood that poorer households may abstain from certain meats because of their costs. Meat is highly subsidized in the U.S. due to the fact that it can be stored for long periods of time, making it easier to distribute, and its lack of quality that people seem to be fine with. At three or four or more dollars per pound, meat is one of the more expensive items found in the grocery store. Replacing it pound-for-pound with beans, for example, would result in significant savings, as even cooked organic beans in a can cost only a dollar or so per pound. Substituting the meat with tempeh or tofu would be slightly more expensive than with beans, but that still wouldn’t result in a higher grocery bill than if you were to purchase meat. According to a recent study published in the Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, researchers looked at two seven-day meal plans, one with meat and one without, and it was concluded that vegetarians save roughly $750 a year. This doesn’t mean that vegetarians are eating less food either, the vegetarian diet had about 25 more servings of vegetables, 14 more servings of whole grains, and eight more servings of fruit per week than the other diet including meat. A vegetarian diet is not only good for one’s personal finances; it’s also good for the nation’s economy. Five common diet-related chronic diseases, heart disease, stroke, obesity, cancer, and diabetes, cost the U.S. economy an approximate $1 trillion each year. “The US stands to save more than any other nation by switching to a plant-based economy because of its high per-capita healthcare costs. If Americans simply followed recommended guidelines for healthy eating, according to the PNAS study, the US could save $180 billion in healthcare costs, and $250 billion if it switched to a plant-based economy”.

Diet-related diseases are costly yet preventable, so the message is clear. Not only can a vegetarian diet bring you a cost-effective, nutritious lifestyle, it can also bring you compassion for all earthlings, animals and human beings alike, as well as a feeling of lightness in oneself. Empathy for animals can typically be enough of a reason to adopt a plant-based diet. Animals are not made to be used for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation, or any other reason. By switching to a plant-based diet, humans will be able to alleviate the needless suffering and deaths of a variety of animals, and the irreparable damage done to the earth. It all comes down to philosophical terms: If you accept that animals have rights, it is morally wrong to raise and kill animals for food. An animal raised for food is being taken advantage of by others rather than being respected for itself. It is being treated as a means to human ends and not as an end in itself, and this is a clear violation of the animal's rights. No matter how humanely an animal is treated in the process, raising and killing it for food remains morally wrong. There can also be many spiritual connotations tied to wanting to be a vegetarian. If one is trying to lead a life of nonviolence and compassion, then one will naturally want to follow a diet that helps achieve that goal. There are those who may think animals, birds, and fish are not conscious. However, think of those who own a pet, like a dog or cat. They treat the animal as if it were a human member of the family.

The lower forms of life may not have the ability to know themselves as humans do, but they definitely qualify scientifically under the rubric of living beings; they grow, breathe, eat, and reproduce. They also feel pain. If one is nonviolent, one can’t bear to see any being in pain, and would want to ensure that they are not the inflictors of that pain. Adopting a vegetarian diet can benefit many aspects of humans’ life. Reducing meat consumption results in a decreased risk of developing diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Avoiding meat can provide one with a richer diet, and can help with weight loss. There is also plenty of economical gain to consider with a plant-based lifestyle. Being a vegetarian harms no animals, and in turn doesn’t dramatically harm the environment like eating meat does. Lastly, the personal, mental and spiritual benefits from not eating animals are wholesome and can bring much happiness to one's soul.