IS IT REAONABLE TO BE A
VEGETARIAN? 2
A vegetarian is a person who does not eat meat and its products and mainly eats plant
products. Yes, it is reasonable to be a vegetarian. Many reasons make people be a vegetarian.
Some of these reasons include religious convictions, health concerns, concerns about animal
welfare, or to prevent or reduce environmental pollution. The growing cultural influence with
largely plant-based diets, more vegetarian dining options, as well as the year-round fresh
produce availability, has made it easy for people to become vegetarians. In this paper, I will
give some of the reasons to as why it is reasonable to be a vegetarian.
Firstly, adopting a vegetarian diet is vital health wise. The vegetarian diet reduces the
risk of the heart diseases which are the number one killer (Pilis W., 2014). This has been
made possible because this diet has low saturated fats and cholesterol. The vegetarian food
also has a higher intake of plant nutrients compared to most of the meat-based diets. Research
shows that the vegetarian diet lowers the risk of dying of heart diseases by 24%. A vegetarian
diet has also been strongly associated with reducing the risk of some cancers (Wells, 2015).
Consumption of processed and red meat has been associated with increased colorectal cancer
risks.
Secondly, being a vegetarian is reasonable. It is reasonable because it is
economical. It saves the world economies a considerable amount of financial resources that
can be channeled for other uses. The production of vegetables is far much cheaper than the
unit cost of producing a unit of meat. For one to produce like one kilogram of meat, ten
kilograms of vegetable proteins are needed. This is very costly for a countries economy as
meat production is straining a lot of resources (HACKETT, 2017). An acre of land or two can
comfortably produce vegetables that can feed like fifty people in a country while the same
piece of land can only produce meat that can just feed two meat eaters. This a very high cost
of production among some poorest groups of humanity.