There are so many reasons to be vegan  and even if you can’t seem to find your way to a complete plant-based lifestyle right away, at least start by cutting  down on your consumption of meat, dairy and eggs and you will soon see how easy it is and how much better you will feel, both physically and mentally.

Here are the reasons why:

1. THE ANIMALS – The U.S. alone kills over 7 billion land animals each year for food.  Every vegan saves approximately 100 animal lives per year.   While being vegetarian is a step in the right direction, the dairy and egg industries are the cruelest of all, and that is why the animals need us to go vegan.  All male baby chicks are ground up alive or left to suffocate in plastic bags as they are of no use to the egg industry.  The dairy industry has to repeatedly rape the cows, and steal their babies away within 24 hours, in order to take the milk meant for those babies.  Factory farm workers have reported that the sounds the mother’s make when the babies are taken are among the saddest sounds they have ever heard.  On top of the cruelty that is stealing a baby from his/her mother, the male calves are sent off to be veal.  This is why you may have heard people say the dairy industry is the veal industry.  Dairy truly is murder.

2. YOUR HEALTH – it’s straightforward and simple – according to the American Dietetic Association, vegans are less likely to develop heart disease, cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure than meat-eaters are.  Please research Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, whose patients have reversed their heart disease on a plant-based diet, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, whose book the China Study illustrates the connection between animal proteins and cancer, The Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine and Dr. Michael Greger.  

3. THE ENVIRONMENT – consuming meat is one of the most damaging things you can do to the earth. It causes enormous amounts of pollution and the meat industry releases more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation industry.  A recent United Nations report concluded that a global shift toward a vegan diet is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change.  Furthermore, it takes 10 times the amount of land to grow crops to feed livestock than it does to grow crops for human consumption.  How sad is it that 70% of the former Amazon rainforest is now used for livestock?

4. WORLD HUNGER – people sometimes ask me why I care so much about animals when there are people suffering.  I tell them that I do care for people and am showing it by being vegan.  Here’s how – it takes about 16 pounds of grain to produce merely 1 pound of meat. According to the USDA and the United Nations,  one acre of land can either produce 20 pounds of usable protein from slaughtered animals, or 356 pounds of protein if soybeans were grown instead.  See how easy solving world hunger can be?

Any way you look at it, a vegan lifestyle is beneficial for every living creature on the planet – and that’s a fact.