I am a proud vegetarian! If you are a vegetarian, are interested in becoming one, or are just curious, read on!

Veggie-Facts

• An animal based diet is invariably high in saturated fat, animal protein and cholesterol, which will raise the level of cholesterol in the blood-the warning signal for heart disease and stroke. Due to the meat-centered diet of most Americans, these diseases account for nearly 50%of all deaths in the U.S.
• If tomorrow people in the U.S. made a radical change away from their meat-centered diets, 200 million acres could be returned to forest.
• Calorie for calorie, spinach has 14 times the iron of sirloin steak. Iron requires vitamin C for absorption, of which animal products are totally deficent.
• The common cold, as well as allergies to dust, cats and pollen, are more likely to go away when milk is taken out of the diet. No other mammal in nature drinks milk after weaning, nor drinks the milk of other species, as do humans.
• Fiftenn million pounds of antibiotics are used in animal production every year. In 1988, animal drug sales came to $2.5 billion.
• Humans have no sharp pointed front teeth to tear flesh as do carnivores; humans have flat back teeth to grind (plant) food unlike carnivores.
• The positive health benefits a person may think they get from eating fish, can be better achieved through a vegetarian diet. And then, fish lacks carbohydrates, fiber and vitamin C. Fish is high in animal protein, which is hard on the kidneys, and high in fat, which increases the risk for cancer and gall blader disease.
• According to William Castelli, M.D., Director of the Framingham Heart Study, vegetarians outlive other people by about six years.
• The treatment of human disease with antibiotics is showing signs of being hampered by the flagrant overuse of antibiotics injected into the animals people eat. People are becoming immune to medicinal drugs just by eating hamburgers and chicken. It is predicted that we are about to embark on a pre-antibiotic era.
• 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
• How frepuently a child dies as a result of malnutrition:every 2.3 seconds
• Incresed risk of breast cancer for women who eat meat daily compared to less then once a week:3.8 times
• For women who eat eggs daily compared to once a week:2.8 times
• For women who eat butter and cheese 2-4 times a week:3.25 times
• Increased risk of fatal ovarian cancer for women who eat eggs 3 of 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 of not at all:3.6 times
• How frequently a heart attack kills in the U.S.:evey 45 seconds
• Average U.S. man's risk of death from a heart attack:50 percent
• Risk of average man who eats no meat:15 percent
• Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat, dairy of eggs:4percent
• Amount of water used in production of the average cow:sufficient to float a destroyer
• Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of wheat:25
• Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of Califirnia beef:5,000
• 95-99 percent of toxic chemicals residue in the American diet come from animal sources.
• About 30% of all pork products are contaminated with toxoplasmosis, a disease which is caused by parasites. It can be passed on to the consumers.
• Diet now followed by the original actor who played Ronald McDonald in Ronald McDonald's child-oriented commercials:Vegetarian

Animal Facts

• Animals feel pain, just like us.
• About 7 billion farm animals die each year for the production of their flesh.
• There are just about no laws against cruelty to animals raised for food in the U.S. The Animal Welfare Act, which governs the humane treatment of animals, excludes animals intended for food consumptin.
• Many factory-farmed animals never see a blade of grass in their whole lifetime.
• In the egg industry everyday about half a million male chicks are considerd useless so are often suffocated, crushed or thrown into the grinding machine alive.
• Reason for veal's light color and texture: Veal calves are force-fed an iron deficient, anemia-producing diet devoid of solid foods.
• The worlds cattle alone consume a quanity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people- nearly double the entire human population.
• So called "redskins" are those chickens which, on the conveyer belt to their deaths, missed not only the brine-filled electrified stunning trough, but the knife that was to cut their throats. Their deaths occurred in the scald tank where feathers are loosened before plucking. Piles of them are thrown aside every day.
• To crank up pork production, piglets may be taken from their mother soon after birth. They are provided with a mechanical teat, without which they would die from the emotional loss. The forced weaning allows the sow to end her lactating period, so she can become pregnant again.
• Today's pig may be fed on it's own excrement. Feedlot cattle are feed sawdust, newspapers, puoltry litter and industrial sewage. According to the USDA, cement dust may become additive in the future because it produces a 30% faster weight gain than regular feed.
• Hens are starved for 30 hours before their slaughter. any food given during this time could not be converted into flesh.
• To produce foie gras, a duck or goose is force-fed huge quanities of grain three times a day with a feeder tube. The painful process goes on for 28 days before slaughter, causing stomachs sometimes to burst. Livers, diseased and swelled to several times the normal size by this process, are a delicacy which sells for about $12 an ounce. About 8,000 tons are produced worldwide per year.
• The typical egg factory may hold 80,000 hens per wharehouse. It is not unusual in the factory farm for 4 or 5 layer hens to be squeezed into a 12" x 18" cage. It is standerd procedure for poultry procedures to de-beak their chicks with hot-knife machines. De-beaking prevents most of the harm from the crazed pecking the birds will inflict upon one another,
• USDA meat inspection today is virtually non-existent in several of the giant meat packing plants. A new inspection process approved of during the "deregulation 1980's" nearly eliminated the role of the federal meat inspector. Sometimes as few as 3 out of 1,000 carcasses are checked. Fedreal inspectors are not allowed to stop an assembly line if a problem is sighted. They may only complain.
• Nearly half of the fish tested in a 6 month investigation by the Consumer Union were found to be contaminated by bacteria from human of animal feces, suspected to be the result of poor sanitation practices in one or more points along the fish handling process.
• In the barnyard of yesteryear, a sow gave birth to 6 piglets a year. Today's sow gives birth to 20 with the industry working on 45.
• What happens to the male calf born of a dairy cow? He is taken immediately after birth to a veal factory and locked up by his head in a stall to prevent him from turning around his entire life. He is feed a special diet without iron or roughage. He is injected with antibiotics to keep him alive and hormones to make him grow. He is kept in the darkness except for feeding time. The result? A nearly full-grown animalwith flesh as tender and milky white as a newborn's. The beauty of the system from the standpoint of the veal industry is that today's veal still featches the premium price it always did when such precious flesh came only from a baby cow.
• Pig's in todays factories will take to "tail biting." Insane, bored and frustrated, these naturally playful creatures may be driven to gnawing neurotically on one another's pig tails and hind ends. If not prevented, a mauled pig may die from an attack and then be eaten by his attackers. Mauled pigs can not be sold, so they become a problem to the producer. The answer? Pig tails are routinely amputated, and pigs are kept in total darkness except for feeding time.