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Michelle Perez Professor Jackie English 101 3 November 2015 Vegan Is Better Although most of the population believes that meat is necessary to human health and survival, it is not. Since childhood, we are raised eating large quantities of animal flesh and animal products, focusing less on healthier foods like grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. It is burned into our minds that we need meat for nutrients, we need milk to grow and maintain strong bones, and that plant-based foods just are not enough to keep us alive and healthy. All we know is what we are taught by society, and since society supports an omnivorous diet, we are afraid of deviating from the norm. For years, research has shown that the standard American diet, focusing on large quantities of meat as well as meat products and less on plant-based foods has negative effects on our health and other things. A better option than the standard American diet is the vegan diet. Opting for a vegan diet is not only better for human health, but is also better for the environment and sustainability, as well as being more ethical. Let’s start with health. The article “Vegetarian Foods: Powerful for Health” lists and describes the many different health benefits of following a

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vegan or at least vegetarian diet. Following a vegetarian diet reduces the chances of getting many types of cancer. When women eat meat, they are putting more saturated fat into their bodies, which makes them more likely to develop breast cancer. Ovarian cancer can be caused by eating a lot of dairy products because our bodies have a hard time digesting them. Chances of getting colon cancer are tripled when eating meat and dairy. By becoming vegan or vegetarian, people can prevent or at least lower their chances of developing cancer because the diet avoids cancer-causing saturated fat and includes more fiber and vitamins which fight cancer. There are many more health benefits of being vegan. Whereas animal products contain high levels of saturated fat and cholesterol, vegetables have less fat if any and do not contain any cholesterol. Vegetables also have fiber in them and that fights cholesterol. Fruits and vegetables have a lot of potassium in them. For these reasons, following a plant based diet over a meat dependent diet prevents heart disease and lowers blood pressure. Adult-onset diabetes, the kind that is caused by unhealthy diet and lack of exercise, can be controlled and sometimes even reversed by becoming vegetarian because of the low amounts of fat and the high fiber levels. Meat eaters generally have more protein in their diets, this makes their bodies produce excess chemicals that form stones in the kidney. The high cholesterol and fat in meat doubles chances of getting gallstones. Bone mass is lost due to the consumption of meat because it removes calcium from the body. Asthma medication doses can be lowered as well as asthma attacks when being a vegetarian. With all

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of these benefits that vegetarianism offers, humans can live longer and healthier lives. If humans are leading healthier and longer lives, then there will be more of us populating the planet at once. We currently have about seven billion people living on earth and the human population is supposed to be over nine billion by the year 2050. In the article “Vegetarianism and Sustainability” Alexis Clarke discusses the ways in which changing our diets can help us to better sustain the environment. With so many of us living, we are producing more food than ever, yet there are still notable amounts of malnourished and starving people around the world. We are producing a lot of food, but we are producing and using it in the wrong way. Meat is at the top of the production list. As time goes by, humans keep adding more and more meat to their diets. This started more in the west and in already developed places, but now that development is spreading more around the world, other places are becoming wealthier. These places are using their new money to buy more meat and on ways to produce more meat. All of this increase in meat and dairy production is taking a toll on the environment. Clarke states that we are currently using eighty percent of our total agricultural land for producing meat and animal products; raising animals for food uses a lot of agriculture because they feed the large quantity of animals with our grains and crops. Even though we could use all of the grain in the world to feed every single human twice, seventy percent of our grain supply goes to feeing animals used for food. With the demand for meat products

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continuing to grow, we are going to need ever more land for animal production. This is a problem because the more land we use for growing crops, the more land we are going to need. Using land for agriculture makes the soil lose quality and it stops being useful eventually, so if we keep needing more and more land, we are going to run out of it. So much agriculture uses seventy percent of our total water supply. The expected nine billion humans that will be living on earth will not have enough water to grow food to feed every single person. Clarke notes that, “the FAO has suggested that adopting a vegetarian diet is one option to increase the amount of water available to grow more food in an increasingly climate-erratic world.” Since it takes five to ten times more water to make anima foods than it does to make a plant-based diet, going vegan is definitely better for the environment than eating meat is. Instead of using all of our resources to feed and produce animals for the purpose of eating them, we should use those resources to feed ourselves a plant-based diet, which will be cause less harm to the environment as well as causing less harm to the animals themselves. One of the most important reasons to adopt a vegan diet, is to stop causing unnecessary harm to animals. In “The Politics of Veganism” Emma McGrath discusses the many different ways that people have argued as to why we should not eat animals or animal products. While some argue that an animal’s life has a purpose and meaning of its own, other than being here for humans to kill and eat them, while others argue we simply should not cause harm to animals because they can feel pain and they can suffer. Although

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these are two different viewpoints, animals should not be killed for both of these reasons. McGrath talks about how as humans we hold an attitude where we only hold the best interest of our own species in our minds, not considering the interest or rights of other species or animals. She compares this to the way that we saw other races or the female gender as having or deserving of less rights in the past. This also relates to how we believe that killing and eating dogs, cats, and other pet animals is wrong, but we don’t care or feel bad about eating a chicken or a cow. We choose to set rights for only certain groups and not for others whenever we see fitting, when it should be all living, feeling, thinking creatures should get equal respect. Meat producers and eaters support killing newborn male cows, old ones, or disabled ones who won’t be useful for anything other than food. Some argue that that is wrong because in human society, it is not acceptable to kill off people with mental or physical disabilities, old people, or newborn babies who can’t do anything yet. This also relates to how animals cannot speak up for themselves, neither can some disabled people or babies, but they are still deserving of rights. Even though animals can’t speak up about the wrong that is caused to them and fight for their rights, we as humans need to look at them as living creatures who are capable of thinking and feeling and realize that we don’t have the right to take away their lives just for our benefit. Out of selfishness and desire to eat something that tastes good we have stopped looking at animals as living things and instead see them as food and food-making things. We have to go back to thinking about our

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actions and why they are wrong. There are those who can agree that the way we treat animals is wrong, but they continue to eat the animals because they think that one person cutting meat out won’t make a difference. These people need to realize that they do matter and that they can make a difference and that “veganism is an effective political boycott and is a practical expression of discontent at the current practices of the animal industry” (McGrath59). There are many different reasons as to why more people should become vegan or at least try to cut more meat out of their diets. Abstaining from eating meat can reduce as well as prevent a variety of diseases and promote better health. Fully excluding or cutting down animal products from one’s diet can reduce environment impact and help sustain a livable planet for future generations. Being vegan is better for the animals because if we stop buying and eating meat, the demand for meat can go down and we can reduce the amount of animal lives being taken for the unnecessary benefit of humans.

Work Cited “Vegetarian Foods: Powerful For Health.” PCRM.org. Web. 22 October 2015.

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Clarke, Alexis. “Vegetarianism and Sustainability.” Journal or the Australian Traditional-Medicine Society 21.2 (2015): 106-110. Web. 3 Nov. 2015. McGrath, Emma. “The Politics of Veganism.” Social Alternatives 19.4 (2000): 50-59. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.