62-Non-Violent Diet

Do you still eat animals? Do you eat the flesh of cows, pigs, or chickens every day? Please consider the following and perhaps change your diet!
There are numerous health,environmental,ethical, and spiritual reasons for switching to a plant-centered rather than an animal-centered diet. Also, consider that 'politics' is not just about going into a voting booth every two years but how you live your life and spend your money every day. What you put in your grocery cart in the supermarket and what you eat is a big part of your 'politics'.
The human body is designed to be an herbivore. Adam and Eve in the Garden eating fruit. Unlike flesh-eating animals such as lions who have sharp teeth and a short digestive system, human's have flat molars and a large digestive tract like other plant-eating animals. Modern man has over 200 inches(18 feet!) of intestines which unfortunately is 'clogged' in most people with processed food and dead 'meat'.
Eating the flesh of animals('meat')greatly increases one's chances of getting cancer or having a heart attack.
-average U.S. man's risk of death from heart attack: 50 percent
-average risk of man who eats no meat: 15 percent
-average risk of man who eats no meat,dairy, or eggs: 4 percent
Do you have any idea what that cow or pig was fed before you consumed it's flesh? It was probably pumped full of anti-biotics and other toxic chemicals before it was sent to the slaughterhouse and ended up in your stomach.(a steer grows from 80 to 1,100 pounds in 16 months!) Unless you personally know your farmer you have no clue what you are really digesting when you eat that 'hamburger' or 'bacon' or other dead animal corpse.
In consideration of the Environment livestock production is a huge cause of Global Warming. Tropical and temperate rainforests are cleared to produce land for cows to graze and crops to feed the animals. In 2008 out of a total of 2.1 billion ton world grain harvest over 760 million tons (40 percent)was used to feed farm animals. Also, huge amounts of precious water resources are used to produce an animal-centered diet.
Ethically, if you had to kill the animal you recently ate would you? How often do you kill for your food? In our urbanized, industrialized society people have no awareness of how that 'fast food' 'Big Mac'/Cow or 'pork' loin/Pig lived or was killed. The fact is that the cow, pig, or chicken or other animal you are eating probably was killed in a slaughterhouse with horrific suffering. (If you eat tuna or other ocean fish it was probably trapped and suffocated in a huge driftnet that most likely killed dolphins and sea turtles too.)
In order to keep up with growing human population's craving for animal flesh 'factory farms' for animals are how most farm animals are raised now. Most animals are taken from their mothers at birth or shortly after and live brutal, short lives. Chickens are raised in cages without ever having felt the sunlight, pigs never touch the earth and are unable to turn around in their concrete pens, and cows are constantly attached to their 'milking' machines or raised in dusty 'feed lots' until they are killed.
A modern slaughterhouse for cows averages 'processing' four hundred cattle an hour. This involves putting cows on a conveyor belt and shooting them in the head with a steel bolt. Then, they are hooked up with one leg and hung upside down and go to the 'bleed' area where their throat is slit. Watching a PETA video of a slaughterhouse is eye-opening as you can see that some cows survive the bolt and have their throats slit alive while hanging upside down. (McDonald's allows a 5 percent 'error' rate)
A spiritual perspective considers all the health,environmental,ethical, and moral reasons in considering a vegan or vegetarian diet. All beings want to live. Cows and Pigs are intelligent animals who unfortunately are being slaughtered by the millions every day by modern Man/Homo Sapiens.
Some spiritual teachings say that from the violent deaths of most factory-farmed animals humans consume a lower 'fear' vibration from the dead animal's flesh. Ultimately, most all spiritual teachings preach of love and non-violence and vegetarianism is 'walking the talk' of peace,love, and non-violence. A growing number of people are stopping eating animals. Join the revolution!