Vegetarian Diet
There are Numerous Benefits!

A Vegetarian Diet has numerous benefits including losing weight and feeling great. Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop has said that 70 percent of all Americans are dying from diseases that are directly tied to their eating habits. Stacks of studies confirm that a diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables, grains and soy is your best bet for living a longer, healthier and more enjoyable life. Below are a number of reasons why you should consider a vegetarian diet.

1. You'll live to a ripe old age. Research has proven that individuals on a vegetarian diet live on average 7 year more. Those that are vegans extend their lives by 15 years. In addition, a British study that followed 6,000 vegetarians and 5,000 meat eaters for 12 years found that vegetarians were 40 percent less likely to die from cancer during that time and 20 percent less likely to die from other diseases.
   
   
2. A vegetarian diet is a blessing to your heart. Cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer in the United States. This is directly related to the typical American diet that is laden with saturated fat and cholesterol from meat and dairy. The average American male eating a meat-based diet has a 50 percent chance of dying from heart disease. His risk drops to 15 percent if he cuts out meat; it goes to 4 percent if he cuts out meat, dairy and eggs. This is based on the assumption that the consumption of meat is replaced with fruits and vegetables. They full of antioxidant nutrients that protect the heart and its arteries. Plus, produce contains no saturated fat or cholesterol. On average cholesterol levels for vegetarians are 14 percent lower than meat eaters.
   
   
3. This is one of my favorite benefits of a vegetarian diet. On average vegetarians save approximately $4,000 not purchasing costly meat products. Now what could you do with that much money per year?
   Vegetarian diets are proven to reduce the risk of cancer. Women who consume at least one serving of vegetables a day reduce their risk of breast cancer by 20 percent to 30 percent, according to the Harvard Nurses Health Study.
   
   

4. With a vegetarian diet you'll slim down and keep off the extra weight. On average, vegetarians are slimmer than meat eaters, and when they diet they tend to keep the weight off up to seven years longer. That's because diets that are higher in vegetable proteins are much lower in fat and calories.

Vegetarian diets save the environment. Well at least they help. Check these scary statistics:

Circle 4 Farms in Milford, Utah, which raises 2.5 million pigs every year, creates more waste than the entire city of Los Angeles. And this is just one farm. Each year, the nation's factory farms, collectively produce 2 billion tons of manure, a substance that's rated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as one of the country's top 10 pollutants.

And that's not even counting the methane gas released by cows, pigs and poultry (which contributes to the greenhouse effect); the ammonia gases from urine; poison gases that emanate from manure lagoons; toxic chemicals from pesticides; and exhaust from farm equipment used to raise feed for animals.

There are numerous reasons to start a vegetarian diet, here are a few more benefits:

1. Your bones will last longer. The average bone loss for a vegetarian woman at age 65 is 18 percent
2. You'll help reduce famine. Right now, 72 percent of all grain produced in the United States is fed to animals raised for slaughter.
3. You'll protect yourself from food-borne illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that among Americans, there were approximately 80 million incidences of food-borne illness a year--resulting in 9,000 deaths. Many of these are meat related.
4. A vegetarian diet will make you more of a regular guy. Eating a diet rich in vegetables necessarily means consuming fiber, which pushes waste out of the body. Meat contains no fiber and contributes to constipation, hemorrhoids and spastic colon. Yuck.
5. Did you now that a vegetarian diet can reduce the national debt? In the United States we spend between $60 billion to $120 billion annually to treat the heart disease, cancer, obesity, and food poisoning, that are byproducts of a diet heavy on animal products.

If a vegetarian diet makes sense to you then check eDiets. They will assist you in all aspects of getting the vegetarian diet that is perfect for you. Whether you want to still eat fish and poultry or become a devote vegan, they can consul you on getting the perfect balance diet.