Most of us don’t think much about the foods we put into our bodies or how they affect our us and the environment. Not only that, we also rarely think about where our food comes from and how it got to be in that nice white shrink wrapped tray we see sitting on the grocery shelf.

Meat is an interesting one, it has a dramatic affect on your health, and the environment. Check out these 26 reasons not to eat meat…

1. Higher Body Weight – Meat eaters tend to consume more fat which often results in increased body fat levels.
2. Higher Cholesterol – Meat eaters usually consume more bad fats which results in higher cholesterol levels.
3. Higher Blood Pressure – The fats in meat tend to clog up your arteries which results in higher blood pressure.
4. Higher Risk of Diabetes – Meat eaters tend to eat less legumes, whole grains, fruits and vegetables which all help to prevent and control diabetes.
5. Higher Risk of Cancer – Meat eaters tend to eat less legumes, whole grains, fruits and vegetables which all have powerful antioxidants that help to prevent cancer.
6. Higher Toxicity Levels – Meats are usually treated with preservatives and other chemicals to help them look better stay fresher. These chemicals are toxic to the body and can lead to disease over time. The EPA also estimates that about 95 percent of pesticides in our diet come from eating meat, fish and dairy. Fish contain carcinogens (PCBs, DDT) and heavy metals (mercury, arsenic; lead, cadmium) that cannot be eliminated by cooking them. Meat and dairy products are also full of steroids and hormones.
7. Digestion Problems – Meats are difficult to digest and eliminate. Over time this creates a toxic environment in the digestive tract which can eventually cause cancer.
8. Shortened Life Span – According to many University and government studies, vegetarians tend to live about 7 years longer than meat eaters and vegans tend to live about 15 years longer than meat eaters.
9. Higher Chance of Terminal Diseases – A British study that tracked 6,000 vegetarians and 5,000 meat eaters for 12 years found that meat eaters were 40 percent more likely to die from cancer and 20 percent more likely to die from other diseases.
10. Higher Food Costs – Replacing the meats in your grocery cart with vegetables and fruits will save you thousands of dollars a year.
11. Meat is Murder – Every day about 22 millions animals are slaughtered just to supply Americans with meat for food consumption. Give up meat and save the life of a conscious being.
12. Meat Eaters Use More Fossil Fuels – It takes twenty times more fossil fuel to grow and supply 1 pound of meat compared to 1 pound of vegetables. Eliminating meat consumption will help reduce fossil fuel usage and could help lower gas prices and help our precious oil supply to last longer.
13. Meat Eaters Use More Water – It takes 441 gallons of water to grow and supply 1 pound of beef compared to only 14 gallons of water for 1 pound of wheat.
14. Meat Production Wastes Food – It takes 7 pounds of grain to grow 1 pound of meat. If everyone gave up eating meat, we could feed 7 times the population that we currently do without needing any additional farm land.
15. Meat Production Causes Animal Extinction – In the United States, grazing has contributed to the demise of 26% of the federal threatened and endangered species list. It’s also estimated that for each hamburger made from rain forest beef, approximately 20 to 30 different plant species, 100 different insect species, and dozens of bird, mammals, and reptile species are destroyed.
16. Meat Eaters Tend To Have a Lower Spiritual Energy – According to many religious traditions, the eating of meat brings heavy, stagnant energy into the body which hampers our ability to live at a high vibration. Avoiding meat consumption may help you to move toward enlightenment.
17. Meat Production is Destroying The World’s Largest Supplier of Oxygen – The rain forests in South America are being destroyed to make room for livestock.
18. Meat Production is the Biggest Cause of Global Warming – A 2006 United Nations report found that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined.
19. Meat Production Pollutes The Environment – Animal farming creates massive amounts of manure and urine run-off which pollutes water supplies and local land.
20. Factory Farmed Meat and Animal Products Are Extremely Cruel To Animals – Many of these animals never see the light of day, they’re confined to pens that do not allow them to move or turn around. They live in their own waste, forced to constantly breathe in ammonia and other waste products. They are pumped full of antibiotics because of their polluted living conditions. They are fed foods that they are not designed to digest because “it’s cheaper and more efficient”. They’re pumped full of chemicals to make them grow bigger and produce more. They are often mutilated without the use of painkillers. And finally they are often slaughtered while they are fully conscious. In short, they live a life of living hell.
21. Meat Eaters Lose More Bone Mass as They Age – At the age of 65, the average bone loss of a meat eating woman is double that of their vegetarian counterparts. Experts attribute this to excess protein consumption from eating meats which can interfere with the absorption and retention of calcium.
22. Meat Eaters Are Heavily Exposed To Food Born Illnesses – Eating meat can make you very sick. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, 25 percent of all chicken sold in the United States carries salmonella bacteria and the CDC estimates that 70 to 90 percent of chickens contain the bacteria campy-lobacter (some strains of which are antibiotic-resistant). Approximately 5 percent of cows carry the lethal strain of E. coli O157:H7 (which causes virulent diseases and death), and 30 percent of pigs slaughtered each year for food are infected with toxoplasmosis (caused by parasites).
23. Meat Eaters Risk More Back Problems – Meat eaters tend to consume more bad fats that often leads to arterial blockages which, according to Neil Barnard, M.D, can cause back problems. “Back pain appears to begin, not in the back, but in the arteries.” “The degeneration of disks, for instance, which leads to nerves being pinched, starts with the arteries leading to the back.” Neil Barnard, M.D., president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and author of Foods That Fight Pain (Harmony Books, 1998).
24. Meat Eating Women Have More Menopause Problems – Plant food sources contain a compound called phytoestrogens that helps to balance your hormones. Thanks to a meat-free diet, vegetarian women have much fewer problems related to menopause. They sleep better, have less hot flashes, have more energy, less weight gain, fewer mood swings, and maintain a higher sex drive.
25. Meat Eaters Stress The Financial and Health Care System – Diets that are heavy in animal products cost the country over $60 billion dollars a year in health care costs related to heart disease, cancer, food poisoning, and obesity.
26. Fish Eaters are Destroying The Ocean’s Fish Population – Fish are being over-harvested and according to the Food & Agriculture Organization, 11 of the 15 world’s major fishing grounds are almost depleted.

Personally, I’ve been a vegetarian for well over 5 years now. I feel good about my dietary choice. I lost weight when I stopped eating meat, I rarely get sick anymore (I used to get at least 5 colds a year), I have more energy, and I feel good about having a much smaller environmental impact on the world I live in.

What about you? Was this an eye opener for you? Do you agree or disagree that eating meat can have a significant negative impact on the human body and the world?

Technorati Tags: vegetarian, food, environment, health, diet

Did you know that your thoughts and feelings can impact the food you eat? Taking a moment to love and appreciate your food can improve how it reacts with, and affects your body.

Before I talk about how our thoughts and feelings affect our food, I want to introduce you to Dr. Masaru Emoto. I believe his research into water also applies to the food we eat.

Dr. Emota has spent his life studying (and proving) how words, thoughts, and emotions affect the energetic structure of water. He would even take pictures of the results. I invite you to check out some of the pictures he has taken or some of his books to learn more.

Basically, what Dr. Emoto discovered is that when we send negative thoughts and emotions toward water, the energetic structure of the water changes into something that looks very negative. Conversely, when we send positive thoughts and emotions toward water, the energetic structure changes into something very beautiful.

Dr. Emoto even used this approach to clean up several polluted bodies of water simply by getting large groups of people to send loving and grateful thoughts to the water.

Considering that our bodies are made up of about 70% water. You might want to monitor what messages you are sending with your thoughts, words, and feelings. When you love and appreciate yourself and the water you consume, it will have a direct positive impact on the energy of the water in your body.

(to learn more about Dr. Masaru Emoto, check out this great Q&A session with him.)

Love Your Food

I believe Dr. Emoto’s research into how our thoughts affect water also applies to the food we eat. Everything in this Universe is made up of energy. So the same principles that apply to water, also apply to the food we eat.

What do you think and feel while you eat?

• Do you worry about your food making you fat?
• Do you feel guilty about sneaking that extra cookie?
• Do you worry that you’re going to get heartburn?
• Do you fear that that slice of cheese is going to clog up your arteries and give you a heart-attack?

All of these types of thoughts affect the energy of your food in a negative way. In fact, those very thoughts could end up becoming self-fulfilling as the negative energy of the food starts interacting with the energy of your body.

You can change how your food affects your body by changing the energy of the food you eat into something more positive. Take a moment before you chow down your next meal or snack to send a little love to it and thank it for giving of itself to nourish you. This one little act will help your food to nourish your body and energy in a much more positive way.

I’m not saying that this approach is a free ticket to go eat whatever you want without consequence. I don’t think there has been enough research on the subject yet for me to be able to say that with absolute confidence. But I am sure that if you focus on positive thoughts and emotions about what you’re eating, it will cause less problems for you and benefit you a lot more.

Maybe there really is something to the idea of “saying grace” before your meal.

I encourage you to give it a try for the next week or two and see how you feel.