Wondering why you should become vegetarian? Here’s why…

You may adopt a vegetarian diet simply because you want to live a longer, healthier life. It’s also a great way to preserve natural resources in the earth or protect animals for the love you have for them, including ethical reasons not to eat them.

Scientific evidence shows that a plant-based diet has both environmental and health benefits. As a result, even the federal government recommends consumption of calories from vegetables, grain products and fruits.

Studies link 70% of all diseases, including a third of cancers, to diet.

A vegetarian diet lowers the risk of developing chronic degenerative diseases such as:

• Coronary artery disease
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Certain cancers, including breast, colon, stomach, prostate, esophageal and lung cancer.

A vegetarian diet:

Prevents disease

Unlike the ordinary American diet, vegetarian diets are healthier, especially in preventing, reversing or treating heart disease and lowering the risk of cancer.

You can stop a coronary artery disease from progressing or prevent it in entirety through a low-fat vegetarian diet.

One million Americans die annually from cardiovascular diseases, the major cause of deaths in the U.S.

But…

Cardiovascular disease mortality rate is lower in vegans than non-vegans. A vegetarian diet is healthier because vegans consume less cholesterol and animal fat or none at all.

Instead, vegetarians eat more produce rich in antioxidant and fiber, explaining the reason to eat more veggies.

Facilitates weight loss

A typical American diet is rich in processed foods and saturated fats but low in complex carbs and plant-based foods. The unhealthy fat kills slowly.

Based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a CDC division, the National Health statistics Center, 15% of children between ages 6 and 9 and 64% of adults are obese (overweight). They’re at a higher risk of developing diseases related to weight such as stroke, heart and diabetes.

MD Dean Ornish, the director and president of Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, conducted a study between 1986 and 1992.

According to the study, you can lose up to 24 pounds in the first year and keep it lower in the next half a decade if you’re obese and on a low-fat vegetarian diet.

Study respondents lost weight without counting carbs or calories, feeling hungry or measuring portions.

You’ll live longer

According to the author of The RealAge Diet: Make Yourself Younger with What You Eat, MD Michael F. Roizen, you can live almost 13 years longer if you switch to a vegan diet from a standard American diet.

The author states that consuming saturated fat from animals results in a shorter life and more disability than adopting a vegetarian diet. Animal-based foods can lower your energy, clog arteries and impair your immune system.

Consuming meat also results in accelerated sexual and cognitive dysfunction at an earlier age. Eat a diet rich in fruits, soy and veggies, including low-calorie unprocessed complex carbs.

Other reasons we encourage you to adopt a vegan lifestyle include:

• Building stronger bones
• Easing menopause symptoms
• Lowering the risk of food-borne diseases
• Reducing pollution
• Developing more energy