One of the things I am passionate about, is being a vegetarian. Its always frustrating when people find out I am a vegetarian and they ask me why, expecting a simple answer. However, my reasons are countless and complex, so I am going to cover this in a three part series of sorts: health, environment, and ethics. They are all so closely tied together though.
First, we will start for health. At my heaviest, I weighed about 230 lbs. I was constantly starting fad diets, then failing them because they were impossible, then feeling more like a failure, and gaining more weight. What a wonderful cycle we are creating for young girls in America to follow! I remember trying the Adkins Diet and it worked for a while. I lost 30 pounds eating a pound of bacon for breakfast every morning! That's when I began viewing meat a little differently. The whole cooking process always grossed me out: blood, bones, skin, and the random feather in my chicken wing...ugh! Now granted, I was the kid that put a dozen eggs in the oven trying to incubate them. I've always had a heart for animals. The yo-yo dieting continued for many years. Then while in college, I finally wanted to be healthier instead of skinnier. I began looking into the foods we eat and how our bodies process them, and I realized that it is called junk food for a reason! The foods that many Americans eat are completely void of any nutritional value, therefore, we are obese yet still malnourished. How sad is that?!
God created us. He made these bodies just for us. A complex system of bones, muscles, neurons, cells all working perfectly together. Now say someone bought you a brand new Mercedes (I'd personally trade it in for a van that runs on veggie oil, but that's another topic) and you took it to the gas station and filled the tank up with water? The tank is full, but how well do you think that Mercedes is going to run? Just like the human body and junk food! We are destroying ourselves! So that got me thinking about how did God create us to eat? Well, Adam and Eve were vegetarians until they were kicked out of the garden. So I started doing some research about our bodies and meat. There is tons of research that proves the fact that humans are not designed to be carnivores. Just look at our teeth, our nails, even the acidity in our stomachs and the length of our intestines (GoVeg.com has a great article about this). Also, our bodies are designed to break down fruits and vegetables and use every bit of them as fuel, and yet those are the very staples that are completely missing from some Americans diets. Once again, our bodies just weren't designed to break down all of those saturated fats. Medical studies prove that a vegetarian diet greatly reduces the risk for cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney stones, gallstones, and even osteoporosis. A meat free diet has also been shown to reverse diabetes and asthma. Read this article for details about each one of these. There is also the issue of growth hormones and other chemical agents involved with eating meet, but I'll go into detail about that when I discuss how it effects our environment.
Once I began eating vegetarian, I was hooked! I feel so much better. It's hard to explain, but my insides really feel cleaner! It's so much easier than most people may think. There are a ton of yummy and interesting recipes out there! One of my personal favorites, Ultimate Veggie Lasagna, I shared on naturallychicmama. Check it out here!
My girlies are not exactly vegetarian. Our house is vegetarian. When we are out or when they are at their dad's I let them choose what they want to eat. It is one of my goals to have them on a completely vegetarian diet by the end of the year. And yes, it is perfectly safe for them. This is a great article explaining why.
There are so many interesting reasons to become a vegetarian, I'll discuss environment and ethics later. But remember, one of my main goals is to love everyone no matter what! I am not trying to convince anyone that they have to stop eating meat. I am not offended by the rack of ribs you are eating. I just want to open up to some what they might not know much about...and maybe help the planet, your health, and those baby chickens along the way! :)
