what are the benefits to being a vegetarian?

Question

are they healthier than those of us that eat meat? God bless you all.

Answer 1

Not necessarily healthier--it depends on what any individual eats. Most people (vegan, vegetarian, and omnivore) know very little about nutrition so that's a fairly difficult question. The person with the best vegan diet would be healthier than the person with the best omnivorous diet, however. Keep in mind that's only on paper--realistically, people of all types of eating habits are setting themselves up for disaster. But what about some other benefits?

(This applies only to a vegan diet and largely the United States)

(1) Ethical peace of mind. You won't be supporting factory farming nor the myriad of problems associated with it. The only question that you have to ask yourself about any potential food source is: "does it have a subjective experience of pain?" If the answer is yes, then there is no moral reason to consume it given that there are other food sources. If you intentionally inflict pain or death upon a being that can experience that pain, then you are saying that there is no reason as to why someone else should not do the same to you. Rights are given to others so that we may also have them--such is the basis of society.

(2) Smaller ecological footprint. You'll be eating on a lower trophic level (food chain) and as such you'll be making more efficient use of the energy in the world. Instead of removing non-human animals from their natural habitat--where they would have free access to sustainable grass--and then using more land on grain for them than is used to feed humans--even though they can't properly digest grains--you'll be consuming the plants directly. Some people might make an argument similar to: "well, wouldn't the animals be eating food anyway?" Yes, they would, but (a) it wouldn't be anywher near the grain based diet that it is now, (b) they wouldn't eat nearly as much because humans would not be attempting to make them so fat as possible, and (c) the only reason so many non-human animals exist is because humans have forced them to overbreed.

Eating organic foods whenever you're able to would also contribute to a better system of farming, although this is obviously not an exclusively vegan option.

I've simplified a lot of the explanations here, so you'll have to forgive me. If requested, I could expand upon my thoughts, but for tonite I'm done.

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Edit:
AndyB is attempting to give you false information. He claims that more animals are killed in harvesting crops than for human food purposes and this is flagrantly false:
"Steven Davis, professor of animal science at Oregon State University, claims that the number of wild animals killed in crop production is greater than those killed in ruminant-pasture production. [...] According to Davis, if all of the cropland in the U.S. were used to produce crops for a vegan diet, an estimated 1.8 billion animals would be killed annually. Gaverick Matheny wrote a rebuttal called Least Harm: A Defense of Vegetarianism from Steven Davis’s Omnivorous Proposal. Matheny claims several major flaws with Davis' reasoning, including the notion that vegans generally eat at a lower trophic level. Because of this, according to Matheny, a vegan diet actually results in fewer deaths due to farming. Another error, according to Matheny, is the equation of death with harm, claiming that death by thresher is less harmful than captivity and slaughter. Matheny also claims that Davis' findings suffer from numerical error; currently nearly 10 billion animals are killed each year in the U.S. for food, more than five times greater than Davis' estimated 1.8 billion for crop harvesting. Matheny concludes that "After correcting for these errors, Davis’s argument makes a strong case for, rather than against, adopting a vegetarian diet.""

He also says that "many farmers would go bankrupt," but this ignores four distinct aspects of the problem: (a) the fact that farmers are already going bankrupt as more and more of the industry becomes centralized in massive factory farms, (b) some farmers would switch over to a plant based farm, (c) profitting off of a system that promotes unnecessary killing is not a system worth saving, and (d) thousands upon thousands of businesses and people file for bankruptcy in all industries every year, simply as a matter of operating in a capitalistic society. Only businesses that produce products that people want to buy make money, and implying that the businesses in the food industry should somehow be immune to this ignores the economy that the United States chooses to have.

Answer 2

A vegetarian diet typically incorporates a wide range of fruit and vegetables, which is healthy, but meat does not need to be omitted from ones diet to achieve those benefits. Also, a purely vegetarian diet, and a vegan diet even more so, needs to be very carefully planned to ensue you has all the nutrients, minerals and proteins that you need, that are normally found in meat. If a vegan or vegetarian diet isn't very carefully planned it can be very unhealthy, and be especially bad for children who need protein for their growth and development. All in all it's easier to have an omnivorous diet, and healthier to eat meat AND the wide range of vegetables that meat eaters normally ignore.
Most arguments against meat eating rely on that meat is unhealthy or unnatural for the human body; these are almost all untrue, meat is natural and healthy for the human body, although it is true that eating too much can cause you to become overweight if you don't do enough exercise.
Aside from health issues, by not eating meat you aren't helping the animals which are being farmed, and to suggest that meat eaters cause cruelty in these places is guilt by association. Besides, if everyone stopped eating meat all those animals would have to be slaughtered, as who would field the cost required to keep them when you wouldn't be able to sell them, considering that releasing them into the wild is not a feasible option? Also many farmers would go bankrupt.
It is also ironic that more animals die each year at the hands of a combine harvester than are killed for the meat industry.

Answer 3

The most important thing is to have a balanced diet. True vegetarians do take vitamin supplements too to make sure they get all their iron and B-12. You can definitely feel an improvement if you just cut back, because it takes your body a lot longer to process meat.

Answer 4

Mentally they are satisfied that they are not the cause for cruelty on living creatures. How will you feel if some body make pcs. of any of your kins... The same feeling with other creatures as well. Secondly, you will have no risk like chicken fever or so on.Vegetarians are equally healthy as non vegetarians. Vegetarian is a cultured food while non veg. is a cruel food.

Answer 5

Iron Deficiency Anemia

Answer 6

There are NO benefits to being a vegetarian. It sucks. Meat is good. I don't care what they say.

Answer 7

For good details on this I suggest "A Diet for a New America" by John Robbins.

Answer 8

no