«Animals do not ”give” their life to us, as the sugar-coated lie would have it. No, they struggle and fight to the last breath, just as we would do if we were in their place.» -John Robbins, a bestselling author, social activist and humanitarian.

Have you ever thought of becoming vegetarian or even vegan? Vegetarianism has become more and more popular for the last 10  years and is adopted for different reasons. Some people choose not to eat meat out of respect for sentient life, for ethical, environmental, economic, and also health reasons.

But not everyone knows that there’s many different types of vegetarianism, so you can choose the one that is best for you. Being fruitarian includes eating only fruits, nuts, seeds and plants. An ovo-vegetarian eats eggs but not dairy products, the opposite is a lacto-vegetarian. Eating eggs and dairy products is a ovo-lacto vegetarian. A semi-vegetarian is someone who eats fish, poultry and some meat (the white ones). Eating fish but no other meat is being a pescetarian.

The Vegetarian Society has been founded in 1847. It is a non-governmental organization and has many notable members such as Mahatma Gandhi, Paul, Linda, Stella McCartney, and Isaac Pitman. In Canada, the Toronto Vegetarian Association is there to ”inspire people to choose a healthier, greener, more peaceful lifestyle”. Also, Historical characters like Leonardo da Vinci, Henri Ford and Albert Einstein were known to be vegetarians.

Here’s vegetarianism in numbers:
By now, there’s 375 million vegetarians in the world, and among them celebrities such as: Pink, Shania Twain, Paul McCartney, and even Brad Pitt.
The number of animals killed for meat every hour (in the U.S only) is 500 000.
Plants produce 10 times more proteins by acre than cattle.
It takes 2,500 gallons of water to make one pound of meat, and 25 to grow one pound of wheat.
The grains that are used to feed animals for meat production could feed 1.3 billion people.
If every American takes away one meat of chicken by week, the environmental effect would be like taking 500 000 cars off the road.
6 million farm animals die every hour in the world to produce meat.
You would save more water by not eating 1 pound of meat then by not taking a shower for 6 months.

If you’re not interested in a vegetarian or vegan diet, know that eating a meatless meal at least once a week would make a difference.

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/
http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/
https://www.vegsoc.org/
http://www.health24.com/