Here are a couple more arguments for going VEG…given by John Robbins. I LOVE reading these…I just had to share 🙂 Hope you enjoy.
The Cholesterol Argument
- Number of U.S. medical schools: 125
- Number requiring a course in nutrition: 30
- Nutrition training received by average U.S. physician during four years in medical school: 2.5 hours
- Most common cause of death in the U.S.: heart attack
- How frequently a heart attack kills in the U.S.: every 45 seconds
- Average U.S. man’s risk of death from heart attack: 50 percent
- Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat: 15 percent
- Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat, dairy or eggs: 4 percent
- Amount you reduce risk of heart attack if you reduce consumption of meat, dairy and eggs by 10 percent: 9 percent
- Amount you reduce risk of heart attack if you reduce consumption by 50 percent: 45 percent
- Amount you reduce risk if you eliminate meat, dairy and eggs from your diet: 90 percent
- Average cholesterol level of people eating meat-centered-diet: 210 mg/dl
- Chance of dying from heart disease if you are male and your blood cholesterol level is 210 mg/dl: greater than 50 percent
The Natural Resources Argument
- User of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the U.S.: livestock production
- Amount of water used in production of the average cow: sufficient to float a destroyer
- Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of wheat: 25
- Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of California beef: 5,000
- Years the world’s known oil reserves would last if every human ate a meat-centered diet: 13
- Years they would last if human beings no longer ate meat: 260
- Calories of fossil fuel expended to get 1 calorie of protein from beef: 78
- To get 1 calorie of protein from soybeans: 2
- Percentage of all raw materials (base products of farming, forestry and mining, including fossil fuels) consumed by U.S. that is devoted to the production of livestock: 33
- Percentage of all raw materials consumed by the U.S. needed to produce a complete vegetarian diet: 2
The Antibiotic Argument
- Percentage of U.S. antibiotics fed to livestock: 55
- Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1960: 13
- Percentage resistant in 1988: 91
- Response of European Economic Community to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: ban
- Response of U.S. meat and pharmaceutical industries to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: full and complete support
Source: WFM 1-10