If you’ve eaten meat and animal products your whole life, you
might think, why switch to a vegetarian diet? You’ve lived your
whole life eating eggs, hamburgers, hot dogs, poultry, so why
switch now?
There could be many reasons to switch. Start by looking in the
mirror. Are you at a healthy weight? Do you look and feel good
most of the time? Do you wake up energized? Or do you wake up
tired and sluggish?
How is your general health? Is your blood pressure within a
healthy range? Are your cholesterol and blood sugar ranges
normal? If they’re not, consider what you’re eating on a daily
basis.
How do you feel after eating? Do you feel energized, as if
you’ve fed your body what it needs? Or are you tired and
dragged out? Do you often need a nap after eating? Is that what
food is supposed to do for us, make us tired and sleepy?
Not really. Food should nourish and feed the body and leave us
energized and refreshed. The human body is a machine and needs
fuel that keeps it running in peak condition. When we’re fat,
with high blood pressure, Type II diabetes, high cholesterol
and other unhealthy conditions, it’s like a car engine that
hasn’t been tuned or isn’t running on the optimal type of
gasoline it needs to run efficiently. Your body is the same
way. It needs the right kind of fuel to run at peak efficiency,
and when you’re eating high-fat meat, or meat that’s been fed
antibiotics throughout its life, that’s simply not the kind of
fuel the human body evolved to run on.
Try eating vegetarian for a week or a month. See if you don’t
feel different, more mentally acute and more physically fit and
energized. At least reverse the portion sizes you’ve been
eating, and make meat more of a side dish, if you can’t stop
eating meat altogether. Even that change can make a big
difference in your overall health and
well-being.
