You may be wondering if your decision to give up meat is the right one. It is surprising how many people are willing to do this but cannot grasp just how important even one person who changes is in the overall picture. Individually it probably won’t as it is only a small scale thing but if many people feel the same way, it does have an effect on the lives of many animals. People who eat large quantities of meat as part of their regular diet are more likely to suffer form heart disease; this is especially true for Americans.

Circulatory, heart problems, high cholesterol and heart attacks are primarily caused by the regular consumption of dairy products, eggs and meat; a reduction in this consumption would lower these health problems. The organization Earth Save says that a meat eating individual is four times more likely to have a heart attack as a vegetarian. As for people who are pure vegans, it gets even lower: they have less than 1/10 the chance of having a heart. But these are not the only health benefits of choosing to be a vegetarian.

For instance, you won’t be exposed to nearly as many preservatives, which are common in meat and are linked to cancer. Hormones used in animal feed are obviously not present either in vegetarian meals, which have proved to create hormone problems in people. It is also much easier to avoid the consumption of lactose which many people have intolerance to, causing digestive conditions. Vegetarian diets are also the best way for detoxing your body. Ok so there are obvious health benefits to becoming a vegetarian but it will also mean that many animals will not be harmed either.

The organization Vegan Out-Reach claims that the number of animals killed to feed the average American citizen during their life is in excess of two thousand seven hundred. If you quit eating meat now, you could literally prevent the suffering and death of hundreds of animals over the course of a couple decades. In addition to this, if you stop eating eggs and drinking milk, you will also reduce your share in the suffering and death of battery hens and their offspring, as well as dairy cows. So the answer is yes, it does matter whether or not you become a vegetarian. It is hard to ignore the facts and the number of animal lives that would be saved is huge, not to mention the reduction in your chances of contracting a heart condition or cancer.