There are many health benefits of vegetarian diets. Doctors believe that vegetarianism supports overall health and wellness. Here are a few ways how:
1. Protection from Heart Conditions and Diseases
Vegetarian diets are associated with low risks for heart conditions and help prevent and manage many chronic diseases; including, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and cancers.
One of the reasons for this is that vegetarian diets are low in saturated fats compared to non-vegetarian diets. Saturated fats may lead to the excessive creation of cholesterol in the human body and also to heart conditions and high blood pressure. The human body typically produces a sufficient amount of cholesterol without any need for the stimulation of such production, which is why vegetarian diets are so healthy.
2. Filling, yet Slimming
Vegetarians typically eat more fruits and vegetables compared to non-vegetarians. These foods often include a lot of fiber. Fiber makes foods bulky and filling, but the body does not digest fiber.
For this reason, many vegetarian dishes and meals feel very filling, yet contain relatively few calories and promote weight control. If you’re like me and the majority of Americans, you probably have a few extra pounds you’d like to lose. And doctors say that even losing a couple of pounds can help your body back down the road to health.
3. They Help Take Better Care of the Earth
Choosing a vegetarian diet benefits not only the body but also the planet. Vegetarian foods make much more efficient use of land, water, and fuel resources compared to meats, eggs, and dairy. Animal agriculture is a very heavy burden for the land because raising livestock may lead to soil erosion and drying out of the land.
While it may be hard to imagine that the planet will have a shortage of water anytime soon, most of the water on earth is saltwater and the reserves of freshwater on the planet are diminishing very rapidly. Animal agriculture pollutes both saltwater and freshwater, while responsible vegetarian gardening and farming can be very earth-friendly.
Vegetarian diets are also said to save fossil fuels. The production of meats, eggs, and dairy requires an enormous amount of fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and natural gas, for everything from running farm machinery to transporting animal feed. Vegetarian diets require far less on average.
4. Vegetarian Diets are Ethical
This is one of the reasons why so many great thinkers and philosophers have advocated a vegetarian lifestyle. It’s no secret that factories don’t treat their livestock very well. The animals suffer their entire lives until they are killed for food or live out their usefulness for food production in cases like egg laying and milking. It is a heavy burden for animal lovers to carry.
Vegetarianism also contributes to the fight against world hunger because eating foods that come from the soil is much more effective and can feed many more people when compared to animal agriculture.
5. You’ll be in a good company
If you are considering trying a vegetarian diet, you may be interested to discover that many famous people throughout history have been vegetarians, including Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, David Bowie, Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs, Isaac Newton, Alicia Silverstone and many more. Kinda cool, right?
What were your reasons for switching to a vegetarian lifestyle? Were you able to stick to it? Share with us in the comments below!
