Nicole R.
A vegetarian is a person who doesnít eat any meat or animal products. They eat fruit and vegetables. There are different kinds of vegetarians. A Lacto-ovo vegetarian eats eggs and dairy but, no other animal flesh or products. A Vegan eats no animal products whatsoever.
There are many different reasons
people become vegetarians. There could be economic, religious or nutritional
reasons for it. Some people are looking at it by the environmental way.
It takes 5,200 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. You could
get the same amount of protein from a regular sized steak as a handful
of sunflower seeds. The vegetables, opposed to meat, are much less expensive.
Being a vegetarian can help the
earth and your health. It takes less water and less land and less grain
to be a vegetarian. Approximately 40 percent of the world's grain is used
to feed livestock. 70 percent of the United States grain is fed to livestock.
Seven pounds of grain is needed to produce one pound of pork. The rainforests
are being destroyed by McDonalds. They need the space to let the animals
feed and be raised. So, the rainforest is being ruined for a hamburger.
It is important to try to save it because there are cures for cancer and
heart disease and other things that havenít been discovered yet.
There are studies that show the vegetarian diet is healthier than the carnivorous diet. 25,000 people were studied and the ones who ate meat everyday have a 3 times better chance of dying from a heart attack than veggies. Meat has a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol, which clogs the arteries. Veggies donít.
Another reason people chose not to eat meat is the treatment of the animals. Hens are private while laying their eggs. But, they are forced into cages with 6 or 7 other hens to conserve space. Some of them have to have their beaks cut off with a hot tool. This prevents them from pecking each other to death. When the eggs are laid and hatched, the baby chicks better hope they are female. The male chicks are put into a plastic bag all together and are suffocated. The cows are milked by machines a few times a day that make their udders swollen and sometimes infected. These animals are mistreated and then killed for people to eat. Think about this before you decide to stop at a hamburger place. A bite to eat, or the health of your Earth? You decide.
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