Being Vegan: A Positive Habitual Change
Who does not want to live a healthy life in a beautiful environment, being kind and nice to everyone? Well, everybody does. We all know that, the food we consume plays a key role to have that quality life. Specially in today’s scenario, many people are being aware of that they eat and their consequences to them and the environment. We can see that many people are making the transition from animal-based diet to plant-based diet. So, today in this essay the discussion is all about the possible reasons behind that transition.
Most of the people are shifting from animal-based diet to plant-based diet for their health benefits. Plant based diet is rich in fibre, vitamins, and all essential nutrients required
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Normally, whenever we see an open field, that land is probably used for raising cattle. The world now harvests more crops to feed animals than to feed humans. Talking about the usage of water to raise animals, it takes an excessive amount of water just to grow crops to feed animals, cleaning farms and also the drinking water for animals. “Animal agriculture water consumption ranges from 34-76 trillion gallons annually” (Pimentel). Huge amount of water is required just to produce 1 pound beef. Then, you can imagine how much water we can save by going vegan. Whenever we talk about global warming, climate change, we always think transportation like car, airplanes and all other forms. But in reality, “Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation” (Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations). From here, we can see that animal agriculture is much more responsible for the degradation of the environment. The level of deforestation is reaching its peak as the number of animals is proportional to its feed. “Animal agriculture is the leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution, and habitat destruction” (Wilcove). The chemical fertilizers used to grow feed crops mix into the fresh air and as a result, pollution increases. Due to excessive deforestation, species are also losing their habitat. The more we demand meat, the more environment
Imagine living a life without eating anything with an animal product in it. No meat, fish, milk, eggs, honey, not even gelatin. Vegans are people who adapt a lifestyle where they live without any animal based goods; some do this for the health benefits that come with eliminating meats and dairy. Many become vegan as a way to protest and eliminate animal cruelty which is extremely apparent in the meat industry. A vegan diet is based largely on fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and soy. Many people would say this is unhealthy, that a person cannot live like this. Much of this skepticism comes from being misinformed, and under informed about veganism. It is safe to live a vegan lifestyle. On a vegan diet a person can get all the vitamins
The next time you go to sit down and enjoy a nice juicy steak, take a moment to think about how that piece of meat came from a cow and became your rib eye steak. Many people in our nation have no idea where their food comes from, what exactly is in the food they consume, and the effects it has on their health and the health of our environment. This is largely due to the industrialized, factory farming way of producing our meat and poultry. It has left our bodies sickened and our earth battered but with an elimination of animal products and an addition of a more plant based diet we can begin to restore …..
The earth throughout many years has dramatically change in negative way when it comes to the planet’s environment. A simple choice of choosing vegetarian diet can have positive outcome to our wildfire, the atmosphere ,and even human health. From cutting down rainforests for cow pastures to adding methane to the atmosphere, a normal meat-based diet can majorly damage many parts of world.
The term vegan, devised in 1944 via Donald Watson, is referred to as an individual that follows veganism, which is the exclusion of all animal products to be consumed, predominantly in their diet (Kahn, 2011). Veganism is primarily supported due to preventing animal cruelty, as well as its health benefits and environmental consequences (Craig, 2009). Adolescence is referred to as the transition from childhood to adulthood, due to biological changes that occur via the onset of puberty (Ellis, 2004). Essential nutrients that are vital to be consumed during adolescence are proteins, which are in the category of macronutrients as they are required in large amounts, as well as calcium and iron, which are categorised as micronutrients, thus being required in smaller amounts (Bialostosky, Wright, Kennedy-Stephenson, McDowell & Johnson, 2002). Protein, calcium and iron are claimed to be essential nutrients in an adolescent female following a vegan diet as they are at higher risk to be lacked via plant-based sources if the consumption of these nutrients are inadequate, which may implicate negative effects on the growth and development during the pubertal growth spurt (Craig, 2009; Ilich-Ernst et al., 1998). This essay will be regarding to a 14 year old female named Jenny Brown, whom is currently following a vegan diet and is not consuming any supplementation in order to obtain adequate nutrition. As Jenny Brown is at the age of adolescence, this essay will discuss the biological changes that occur during puberty, followed on by a discussion on each of the vital nutrients including the macronutrient protein, as well as the micronutrients calcium and iron that are essential to be adequately consumed in order to attain nutritional competence ...
There's little doubt that the Earth is in a crisis. The human population is hungrily burning through its resources while simultaneously destroying its ecological balance. While catastrophe seems imminent, there is one small change each person could make in life that would lessen the devestating impact and minimalize our ecological footprint: Veganism.
There is much to be said about how exactly meat is being produced. In the present day, there are hardly any farms out there that still practice the traditional and environmental - friendly way. Animal agriculture is widely used all over the world and greatly contributes to climate change. Meat production leads to global warming because of the combination of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The process of raising animal is the major source to these harmful gases. It is vital to save the world from the worst impacts of climate change by reducing meat consumption. However stopping this meat eating system is extremely difficult, given that we had been consuming meat ever since our ancestors domesticated animals for that purpose. Over the decade Animal agriculture has been getting worse and worse. In 1973 when the Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz announced ‘’ what we want out of agriculture is plenty of food’’, overproduction was encouraged and lowering the price of meat was carried out; this originally started when there was a massive increase in corn (Wolfson). In order to keep up this mass production of meat, multiple pounds of grains are fed to livestock. Livestock industries depended on corn and soy based food and used over half of the artificial fertilizer used in the United States (McWilliams).
2003) and already more than half of the land suitable for pastures is subject to overgrazing and erosion, posing a risk for food production in the near future. The erosion level of pastures and rangeland exceeds the erosion rate of cropland by roughly six times, meaning, that the land becomes unusable for agricultural use at higher rates when used for meat production rather than vegetarian foods. Moreover, croplands are not exclusively used for human consumption but animal feed accounts for 40 percent of the harvest. Thus, livestock requires land to graze while also depending on land to produce feed. The FAO (FAO, 2012) estimates, that due to the high land-use of conventional agriculture and an increasing demand for omnivorous products such as beef and milk, more than 10 billion hectares of forest are lost to expand pastures and grasslands to feed
In fact, the amount of resources that go into production of animals for consumption is somewhat startling. When factoring in transportation, grains for feeding, etc. and directly comparing them to the output of protein for consumption, a vegetarian diet seems much more appealing. David Pimentel, a Cornell ecologist specializing in Agriculture and Life Science, stated beef production “requires a [fossil-fuel] energy output to protein output ratio of 54:1” and that 100,000 liters of water goes into just one kilogram of beef. Also, cows are notorious for producing large amounts of methane, totaling 500 liters per cow per day (Goffman 3). Methane traps heat in the environment, heating the surface of the earth causing problematic situations to occur all over the earth, including the ice caps melting and eliminating species. And when cattle, which are...
Plants for Life There are very few things that effect your health more than the food you chose to eat. For this reason, many people choose to abstain from consuming animal products. This lifestyle is known as veganism. People choose veganism for a variety of reasons. Some, embrace veganism to express their love of animals and their belief in animal rights.
Many people have always wondered why people who had always ate meat their entire lives, decide to become vegetarians. People would presume that they wanted to lose weight, become healthier, or even just to try it out. Several would say non-vegetarianism is healthier and could help your body; however, vegetarians can be healthy too by what they eat and how much they eat of that particular food. Although I eat meat and I’m not a vegetarian, being a vegetarian can help your body in more ways than one and have many advantages in helping your body. Many become vegetarians to remove non-healthy things from their body, are animal lovers, or even religious or cultural reasons.
A United Nations report states that land used for animal agriculture, both for grazing and production of crops fed to livestock, takes up an astounding 30% of land on Earth. ("Meat Production Wastes Natural Resources") To meet the industry’s demands, over 260 million acres of forest in the U.S. have been cleared to grow grain fed to farm animals. ("Meat Production Wastes Natural Resources") With that in mind, the meat industry also dumps disease-causing pathogens through animal waste that pollutes water and forces the need for waste lagoons to be constructed, which are susceptible to leaking and flooding. ("Facts about Pollution from Livestock Farms”) Scientists say that about 14% of the world’s greenhouse gases are released by said agriculture industries, which is a growing concern for climate change and global warming. (Silverman) The meat industry uses one-third of all the fossil fuels consumed in the United States. (Moore) There is no question that farming animals has a negative effect on the environment and steps should be taken to mitigate air and water pollution risks and future deforestation. If animal agriculture was phased out, land used for animal grazing could be returned to forest land and some of it converted into fields for cultivating crops for humans. A global shift toward veganism, resulting in the elimination of the meat and animal agriculture industries, would protect the environment from various detrimental effects.
Today people are concerned with what they eat in order to lose or maintain their weight. What people do not know is how their food is obtained, how veganism is beneficial to their health and what the food industry thinks of vegans. Veganism is the avoidance of any animal products particularly food. Veganism confronts the issues of animal welfare as well as dietary concerns for humans. It is an effective method to live a healthy and humane lifestyle.
Vegetarians tend to be healthier than those who consume meat. This is due to the prevalent unnatural chemicals used in the processing of meats, and eating these are unsuitable for the body. Meats already contain harmful amounts of cholesterol, and over-consumption of red meat can lead to early heart disease. Animals that are raised on farms for their meat are not treated well, and this mistreatment can lead to harm in the meat they are producing. Although one life choice cannot change one’s environmental
When these agricultural resources are given to the animals involved in meat production, these resources are lost. Besides the loss of land, the process of animal production is contributing to pollution and other greenhouse gases that are doing irreplaceable damage to the environment and contribute to untold negative health
Having a healthy dietary method can reduce the chances of receiving many health diseases. These health diseases include obesity, heart disease, and cancer. By consuming certain foods and nutrients in one’s diet the risk factors for these health diseases can be reduced. A healthy dietary method that is beneficial to reducing and/or improving these health diseases is the vegetarian diet. The vegetarian diet follows a dietary pattern that is characterized by the consumption of plant-like foods and the avoidance of flesh foods (meat, poultry, and fish). The foods in this diet provide the body with many essential nutrients. This is why many health benefits have been associated with the vegetarian diet. This dietary method has been linked to reducing the causes of obesity, heart disease, and cancer.