Not too long ago, a famous pop star caused a minor stir when he suggested that one step everyone could take towards helping the environment would be to abstain from meat for one day a week. That’s all he asked – that we adopt a vegetarian diet for a single day out of the week. A few papers took him seriously, but most of them just laughed.

None of the media that covered the story did it in any depth. If they had taken him a little more seriously and considered the facts, they would have understood just how much sense he made. If you look at the issue square in the eye from a vegetarian’s standpoint, you will see why they so passionately believe in it.

Americans consume far more beef per capita than any other nation and our environment suffers as a result. We could utilize our precious arable land far better by raising protein rich plant crops than we do by raising cattle. This is an established fact. There is plenty of proof for this that is buried rather than confronted.

If you have a very strong stomach, pay a visit to a meat processing plant. These are all located far away from large populations for a reason. They smell so bad, they literally make people sick. Those who are unfortunate enough to have to work in the plants or live nearby them have a higher than average incidence of a number of health complaints.

If you do manage to get inside and see what beef processing involves, you literally may end up having nightmares. There is nothing remotely humane about the mass slaughter of these animals. OK, technically this is not an environmental concern, but it is certainly an ethical one. Those pretty packages of beef you see on the supermarket shelf won’t look the same to you after you have seen how they were made to get that way. You won’t be laughing about a vegetarian diet any more, that’s for sure!

Bear in mind that the cattle industry wants you to buy their product and will tell you anything to get you to buy it. They will tell you that you need the protein. Yes, you do need a certain amount of protein in your diet, but not that much protein and not that kind of protein. While a strong argument can be made for an occasional serving of meat, so many consume far too much and it is a proven contributor to innumerable diseases.

Those who have given up meat and taken up a vegetarian diet rarely feel the need to go back to eating meat. While some do go back to occasional servings of meat, they almost never go back to consuming it in large quantities. Why should they? They feel healthier and happier than they did before.

Something that a lot of people overlook is the fact that all of the major religions advocate abstaining from meat, at least periodically. This includes the Catholic Church, Judaism and the Muslim faith. While these religions do not advocate total abstinence, both Hinduism and Buddhism do advocate a strictly vegetarian diet. The only “religion” that advocates meat eating is the cattle industry!

A low fat vegetarian diet is no laughing matter. Do you think that the superstar who recently advocated abstinence from meat didn’t know he was going to be laughed at? Give him a little credit for trying to open people’s eyes to the high protein vegetarian diet. Check out the facts, for your sake as well as everyone else’s!