| hershel_layton said: [...]If being a vegetarian improves my life, I'll probably do over a course of one month. Won't be young forever, so it's smart for me to plan for the future. |
I just realized that I had replied to a lot of people, but not to the OP. So here's a reply, OP! :)
I won't re-iterate all the info you've already been given, but one thing that hasn't been touched on yet is antibiotics. Over 80% (87% is the specific estimate I most recently heard) of all the antibiotics produced are now going to food animals. That creates a huge problem: antibiotic resistance. You know how they say that you should use up all the antibiotics you have, and not stop immediately after symptoms disappear? Well, by eating factory farmed meat you're doing much the same thing. Humanity has chosen to keep gigantic amounts of the same type of animals in close quarters, which spreads disease. In the wild animals are spread out which avoids this problem. To keep the disease in check, they give factory farmed animals (which is over 90% of all meat in general, and 99.6% of all chicken) tonnes of antibiotics. Trace quantities of the antibiotics remain in the meat, and then humans eat them. Flora in humans can develop resistance to these antiobiotics from humans eating meat, so if you later get sick that antibiotic may be less effective at making you well. Being a vegetarian won't save you from this as trace amounts of antibiotics (and trace amounts are the worst kinds) can make their way into dairy. There are multiple reasons why antibiotics are becoming less effective, but people eating animal products is the most widespread contributing factor.
