Why should meat not be eaten?

what are the reasons on why meats should not be eaten? what are the dangers of eating meat? are human teeth really designed for eating plants only?

Why should meat not be eaten?
The reasons are numerous.





-Hunger





Number of people worldwide who will die as a result of malnutrition this year: 20 million.


Number of people who could be adequately fed using land freed if Americans reduced


their intake of meat by 10%: 100 million.


Percentage of corn grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 80.


Percentage of oats grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 95.


How frequently a child dies as a result of malnutrition: every 2.3 seconds.


Pounds of potatoes that can be grown on an acre: 40,000.


Pounds of beef produced on an acre: 250.


Percentage of U.S. farmland devoted to beef production: 56.


Pounds of grain and soybeans needed to produce a pound of beef: 16.





-Environmental





Primary cause of greenhouse effect: carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels Fossil fuels needed to produce meat-centered diet vs. a meat-free diet: 3 times more . Percentage of U.S. topsoil lost to date: 75. Percentage of U.S. topsoil loss directly related to livestock raising: 85.


Number of acres of U.S. forest cleared for cropland to produce meat-centered diet: 260 million. Area of tropical rainforest consumed in every quarter-pound of rainforest beef: 55 sq. feet. Current rate of species extinction due to destruction of tropical rainforests for meat grazing and other uses: 1,000 per year.





-Cancer





Increased risk of breast cancer for women who eat meat daily compared to less than


once a week: 3.8 times. For women who eat eggs daily compared to once a week: 2.8 times. Increased risk of fatal ovarian cancer for women who eat eggs 3 or more times a week vs. less than once a week: 3 times. Increased risk of fatal prostate cancer for men who consume meat, cheese, eggs and milk daily vs. sparingly or not at all: 3.6 times.





-Cholesterol





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, dairy or eggs: 4 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.





-Natural Resources





User of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the U.S.: livestock production.


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 calory of protein from beef: 78.


To get 1 calory of protein from soybeans: 2.





-Antibiotic





Ingredients: Any one of our instant noodles, fresh vegetables (if you don't have fresh


veggies handy, then our Just Corn and Just Veggies are just as good), Roasted Seaweed (optional), Wei-I Best Grade Laver Ro Su (bacon bits) (optional) and any of our frozen gourmet.





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.





-Pesticide





Fewer than 1 out of every 250,000 slaughtered animals is tested for toxic chemical


residues.


Percentage of U.S. mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 99.


Percentage of U.S. vegetarian mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 8.


Contamination of breast milk, due to chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides in animal


products, found in meat-eating mothers vs. non-meat eating mothers: 35 times higher.





-Ethics





Number of animals killed for meat per hour in the U.S.: 660,000.


Occupation with the highest turnover rate in U.S.: slaughterhouse worker.


Occupation with the highest rate of on-the-job-injury in U.S.: slaughterhouse worker.





-Spiritual Consciousness





Food is the source of the body's hemistry, and what we ingest affects our consciousness, emotions and experiential pattern. If we want to live in higher consciousness, in peace and happiness and love for all creatures, then we should


consider not eating meat, fish, shellfish, fowl or eggs.





-Karmic Consequences





Major religions around the world such as Buddhism or Hinduism teach that all of our actions including our choice of food have karmic consequences. By involving oneself in the cycle of inflicting injury, pain and death, even indirectly by eating other creatures, one must in the future experience in equal measure the suffering caused.





-Here's some links for you.


www.pcrm.org


www.vegsource.com


www.peta2.com %26lt;- simply for the videos


www.earthsave.org
Reply:Well its sick if you think about it, but its as american as apple pie.
Reply:well indians don't eat cows cause they are killing a god they pray the god. i eat meat but no pork and beef................... meat is nice but to some its a god...............
Reply:If God didn't intend for us to eat animals...


...he wouldn't have made them out of MEAT.
Reply:I don't eat meat because I don't believe in the unnecessary killing of animals.
Reply:I don't know where the thing for eating plants only came from. Teeth are made for chewing whatever you're eating, but I personally am a carnivore. I don't think I could go without eating meat. I don't believe there are any real dangers. If you go by that then it's dangerous to eat anything and everything.
Reply:human teeth are designed for us to be omnivores, meat and plants. Thats why you have your sharp ones, the canines, for tearing flesh in the front, and your flat ones in the back for grinding veggies.
Reply:Because it is tamastic! It withdraws your prana.
Reply:To paraphrase Sue Donym's answer.


If God didn't intend on us eating animals, he wouldn't have made them so delicious.
Reply:As a general rule, people should definitely not eat meat. If they don't eat meat, the demand for meat is low, so meat prices are low. As a result, I get to eat more of it. I am therefore thankful to all the vegetarians and vegans out there.
Reply:People should not eat meat everyday.White meat is better than red meat. example of red meat- beef,pork,lamb etc.Instead.White meat can be consumed for example sea food,chicken,duck etc.Besides beef %26amp;pork contain lots of fat's.
Reply:I don't think meat should not be eaten, I just don't personally like they way the animals are being manufactured, abused and tortured in certain facilities.





If you want eat meat, and you know how to hunt properly and within all reasonable limitations, (for example, hunt wild boar because there are too many of them, or hunt an animal in the wild who is fully-grown and not nursing young) I say go for it. I couldn't do it, but I think that is the only way we as humans should be eating any meat.
Reply:None, none and no respectively.





Human teeth are designed for eating plants, they are also able to eat meat. That we do not have the teeth of a carnivore, which are solely used for meat, ignores that we are omnivores. Secondly, carnivores usually have teeth as a weapon as well as for eating, we have no need of huge teeth for fighting of enemies as we have our hands and can use tools.





Reasons cited why meat should not be eaten are usually ethical, environmental or health related. I will not comment on ethics, but it does not negatively affect health or the environment, in fact meat is very good for health if not taken to extremes. In my below rebuttal of all the point of Mat H many of the other points are explained.





I will give you some explanatory links though.





http://www.becomehealthynow.com/article/...


http://www.mercola.com/2002/feb/2/vegeta...


http://www.vanguardonline.f9.co.uk/00509...








@ Mat H, world hunger could not be stopped by going vegetarian. For a start, there is already more than enough food in the world, the is so much going to waste. The problem is the starving people can't afford to import food from other countries should they not grow enough. Not eating meat wouldn't change that, it'd just mean more food went to waste.


No, we couldn't give it to them either, as it's bankrupt said countries even more. For a start most make their living from food in such places. If you gave them free food no one would buy food from these farmers and many people would go bankrupt and be even poorer, storing up problems for later when food aid is withdrawn.





Neither are environmental concerns as bad as they seem. For one thing, the rainforest beef is of inferior quality due to poor grazing and isn't exported to the worlds developed countries, like the USA. Thus what you do in no way affects the rainforest. On the other hand, huge amounts of rainforest are cut down to grow soy, etc, which is exported to places like the USA.


While it takes more land to grow a pound of beef than a pound of wheat, etc, meat farming is hugely less intensive. In a field there might be, say, a dozen cows, said cows don't take up that much room, they just need the extra space as they need to move about. Crops take over an entire field. Animal farming is better for the environment in that other animals can live in the field alongside the cows, and is thus better for the local wildlife, not so for pastoral farming. Pastoral farming is terrible for wildlife, animals are killed by combine harvesters, animals cannot live in crop fields, and the pest/herb/fungicides used poison the animals. This poison goes right up the food chain and kills larger carnivores like hawks. Also, pesticides et al get into the rivers and can kill the fish, and eventually get into our water supplies. I'm not saying crop farming is bad, I'm just saying you shouldn't say how bad meat is with this in mind.


I'd also like to mention that, while many animals are fed on grain, that completely ignores grass fed animals. What's more arable fields, as a rule, are usually places where no, or only poor quality, crops could be grown, due to relief, soil and climate.





It does not cause cancer. The studies you're citing fail to take into account that meat eaters are much, much more likely to smoke/lead otherwise unhealthy lifestyles. When these things are taken into account there is almost no difference. Besides, there are many plants which are proven to cause cancer, like soy.





http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/





The same goes for cholesterol, when other variables are taken into account there is no discernible difference. Even when they're not the difference between a vegetarian and meat eater is only about 2/3%. Your body on average creates four to five times more cholesterol than the average person consumes, and compensates by creating more when less is consumed. Cholesterol isn't a poison, it is essential, and your body needs it. Heart disease isn't caused so much by how much you eat, but how your body handles it. A person who eats loads of dietary cholesterol and leads an unhealthy lifestyle can still have low cholesterol, and vice versa, because most peoples bodies regulate the amount of cholesterol in the blood. Most people's bodies are able to take a large amount of cholesterol without getting atherosclerosis. For this reason that eating meat gives you heart disease is very misleading, and for the most part untrue. Of course, if you do have a problem eating loads isn't a good idea, but for most people there is nothing at all to worry about.


Besides, the link between cholesterol and heart disease isn't clear cut at all. Low cholesterol people can get heart disease and vice versa. There are other factors to be taken into account.





http://www.becomehealthynow.com/article/...





I find your stance on oil and meat hard to believe. Cows more or less walk about under their own steam. The only place I can think of substantial power being used is slaughter and processing. In plants there is mechanical watering and pest/fung/herbicide spraying. They use combine harvesters to collect the yield. Tractors are needed to plow the land, etc.


As for water, it takes several times more water to produce a pound of rice than pound of beef. Therefore I think everyone should stop eating rice. Sound reasonable? No, I thought not.





Yea, I live in the UK, and we fall under EU regulation (this is not a good thing generally), so the stuff you're saying about hormones and antibiotics isn't stuff I've researched or need to know about as using these things/selling meat when these things were used on them is illegal. I will say that this is one thing I do think is bad about US meat farming. Still, pesticides/herbicides/fungicides are probably just as bad, and cause more harm to the environment.





You mention pesticides, but again I find this hard to believe. If it were I'd point out that vegans are oh so much more likely to buy organic produce. Either way, most pesticides get into the body through plants and water (it gets into the rivers and thus the human drinking supplies). It is true that they also get into the bodies of animals which are then consumed, but I really doubt there would be such a huge difference based on this alone, and buying organic meat would prevent most of this risk anyway.


This is more an argument against pesticides than meat anyway.





I won't comment on ethics, as everyone has different morals, but I think you can guess my stance.





As for karma, I don't believe in it. Even if I did I would regard killing for food as justifiable and it wouldn't stop me eating meat. It may interest you that there are sects of Buddhism who do eat meat as they live in places where crops can just not be grown. In my opinion meat is justified.
Reply:If you ask me, I think plants shouldn't be eaten either. Read this article on plants have feelings.





http://www.pureinsight.org/pi/index.php?...





How do you think those poor plants feel on harvest day!? What a slaughter! We as humans must stop eating animals and plants. That'll make the next trip to the grocery store really inexpensive.





Oh and I enjoyed the reading Andy.



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