The debate around being a vegetarian usually revolves around the morality of killing animals and often degenerates to a point where one exclaims- ‘ How do you know carrots don’t have feelings’ ?. This misses an important fact : that a vegetarian diet offers many health advantages. Large scale studies have shown that incidence of heart disease was lower and mortality was 30% lower in vegetarian men and 20% lower in vegetarian women.
The incidence of certain cancers is also lower, particularly those of the colon. Vegetarians also have a lower body mass index, lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels , less chance of getting diabetes and less obesity. Vegetarians need to have a balanced diet to get all the nutrients needed. One of the problems people face is not knowing what to cook or eat , even if they wanted to increase the amount of vegetarian food in their diet.
The varied culinary influences in Britain make it easy to become vegetarian- Besides a renaissance in British Vegetarian cooking, food from India, South East-Asia and Italy offers many tasty and nutritious vegetarian choices.
Its also well established that in becoming vegetarian , we consume less of the earths resources- and its good for the planet. The German Federal Environmental Agency recommended that Germans reduce their meat consumption to once a week, to reduce global warming . In 2006, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that meat production accounts for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. In comparison, it estimated that the world’s planes, cars, trains, and boats accounted for 13 percent of emissions.
Having read the evidence I have become vegetarian myself- but please do your own research and make up your own mind.