Veganism for Environmental Reasons

Human beings depend on their environment for survival. In fact, this planet is the only one known to support life in the entire universe because it has conditions that are just right when it comes to sustaining life. For example, earth has an atmosphere, water, fertile land, organic compounds that support life, and the right temperature. Other planets like Mars lack one or more of these critical elements. Unfortunately, humans do not appreciate how wonderful the earth is. Today, the world is experiencing an environmental crisis. The world is warming because of an increasing volume of greenhouse gases. Water, land, and air pollution is getting out of hand. Moreover, the high rate of deforestation around the world is alarming as is the rate at which animal species are becoming extinct. Veganism is one way to fight this worrying trend. Adopt veganism for environmental reasons today.

Going vegan would reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Some of the most common and potent greenhouses gases are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Studies show that if a single person stops eating a diet that includes mean, he will reduce emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by 1.5 tons annually. Imagine what would happen if everyone became a vegan. Carbon emissions worldwide would drop drastically. Additionally, if people in the US sacrificed one chicken meal each week, then the reduced amount of carbon dioxide emitted would be equivalent to removing as much as half a million cars off American roads.

It is important to note that the greatest producers of methane in the United States are chickens, pigs, cows, and turkeys. If people stopped eating then, then the US would reduce its methane emissions by a great deal. Remember, methane is 20 times more powerful when it comes to trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide is. The statistics are even more startling when it comes to nitrous oxide. This gas is 300 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. More than 65% if nitrous gas emissions worldwide result from the egg, dairy, and meat industries. It means that if everyone goes vegan, then nitrous oxide emissions would go down by 65%.

Water is life and the animal industry is threatening this resource.

Clean water is a scarce commodity in many countries around the world. Currently, 783 million people living in various regions across the world lack access to clean drinking water. Ironically, the US uses half of all its water on raising animals for use as food products. For example, the US uses almost 10,000 liters of water to produce half a kilogram of meat. It means that not eating this 0.5kg meat would save as much water as you forfeiting a shower for six months. To put it in perspective, it would take 1000 liters of water to produce a typical vegan diet on any given day while taking about 15,000 liters to produce a typical meat diet on any given day. Animals also produce an enormous volume of excrement, which is about 40,000 kilograms each second. All of this waste ends up in rivers untreated leading to unnecessary environmental pollution.


Major thanks to NW Window Tinting for helping to sponsor this post. We sincerely appreciate the support!


Be sure to watch the video below for more info on the environmental reasons for a plant based diet!

Solid Health Reasons for Going Vegan

The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) reports that about 15 million of the U.S. population is either vegetarian or vegan. Indeed movements such as those started by PETA have gained traction over the last few years, and celebrity endorsements have made it somewhat “cool” to be labeled vegan; but what are some of the health benefits (the main reasons) for going vegan?

A vegan diet has been credited with minimizing cholesterol levels in obese people with heart problems – in fact the president of the American College of Cardiology became a vegan in 2003 after having observed one of his patients go from being a high risk for heart disease to relatively normal just months after switching to a vegan diet.

From a biological perspective, plant-based food can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease; one of the biggest killers in the developed world. Here’s why people adopt veganism for health reasons:

· Plants contain little saturated fat

Saturated fats (fats saturated with hydrogen) are found in meat and animal products such as butter, cheese, beef, lamb, and high-fat dairy products. They can also be found in cocoa butter, coconut oil, and palm oil.

These fats are solid at room temperature and according to the American Heart Association, they increase the amount of cholesterol in your blood, raising the risk of strokes and heart disease.

· Plants can help lower bad cholesterol

Our bodies require a decent amount of cholesterol in order to function properly but the majority of us make enough cholesterol on our own without having to supplement with fatty meats. So why is too much cholesterol such a bad thing? Bad cholesterol (LDL) is one of the products that make up atherosclerotic plaque inside the arteries, the other elements being waste products, calcium, and other forms of fat.

This impairs the flow of blood in the major blood vessels, endangering long-term health. However, by switching to monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats (typically found in nuts, olive oil, avocados, etc.) you can reverse high blood presser and its symptoms significantly.

· Plants add fiber to your diet

A colorful, plant-based diet should add a good amount of fiber to your diet. According to the American Dietetic Association, fruits and large, green leafy plants are a great source of fiber and a solution to bad cholesterol.

Fiber cleans out the fatty plaque from your digestive track, enhancing food absorption. Good sources are fruits, vegetables, lentils, beans, and nuts.

· A plant-based diet lowers diabetes and obesity risks

Meat consumption or regular consumption of saturated fats is associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes. In turn, acquiring diabetes is thought to make you twice as likely to experience heart disease and stroke.

Individuals who turn from eating meat to following a (mainly) plant based diet; even just small amounts of healthy protein sources, typically experience weight loss and a significant drop in unhealthy calories.

Part of this weight loss can be attributed to the reduction in saturated fat but in addition, fruits and vegetables contain large volumes of water, making you fill up before you fill out.

While debates rage on about whether more people should be avoid eating animals, multiple studies show that our bodies function better with more greens, nuts, and vegetables. Variety is good; eat the rainbow.


This post brought to you by our friends at Best Salt Lake City Windows. They specialize in replacement windows, energy efficient windows, custom windows and more. Check them out if you need the finest windows in Utah!


Check out this video for more information on a vegan diet. See you next time.

Fasting for health and other reasons
















The psychology of overeating

Changing a deeply ingrained emotional response is both long and difficult. Real change happens in small steps. It’s a long term project. Allow yourself to change naturally, a step at a time. This way there is less risk of crashing back to old habits. The key to successful change is practice. In time, healthy eating becomes a habit. Most of us have spent a lifetime building up bad habits. We can’t expect to eradicate all of these overnight. A gradual shift to healthy eating is more realistic.

To begin the transition to a healthier lifestyle, let’s begin with awareness. The first step in any change process is assessing current behavior. This is especially important with overeating behavior. Since most of us eat so frequently, the whole sequence of selecting, eating, and stopping is often very automatic. Also, to fully understand eating behavior, one must look beyond the food itself to the psychology of overeating. Food is more than just nourishment. Using food as a pacifier is one of the main causes of overeating. It can symbolize love, safety, sociability, or just serve as a distraction. Food can be a hobby and entertainment.

Overeating is a symptom, not the cause! Just like an alcoholic may drink to drown his sorrows, people tend to overeat for some reasons. It can be the subconscious mind’s way of dealing with bottled-up emotions which have not been dealt with properly, or it could be a way of dealing with stress, boredom or some discomfort in life. I have found that people overeat for a multitude of reasons.

Getting to the cause and resolving it makes having normal, healthy eating habits in the long-term without feeling a sense of deprivation possible. It makes it possible to break the cycle of dieting that only treated the symptom and not the cause.

Overeating often has little to do with real hunger. Stress, boredom, and anger or the mere presence of an appealing food trigger an automatic reach response. We can be eating before our awareness of eating begins. One way of increasing awareness is a food diary. Record keeping can be a real eye opener. Most people find that they eat more than they thought and that they often eat for reasons other than hunger.

Learning to distinguish between true hunger and psychological hunger is a start in understanding emotional eating. Stomach hunger is true physical hunger. Mouth hunger is the urge to eat to satisfy some other need. Explore your feelings. Learn about what you use food for. Compulsive eaters automatically reach for food when they are uncomfortable. Examine whether you are reaching for food out of mouth hunger or stomach hunger. As long as you learn the difference, you can begin to explore your problems directly, without using food as a smokescreen for your real problems.

One way to do this is by using the W.A.I.T. method. Ask yourself some W questions: What am I thinking, what do I want? A stands for angry or anxious; try to determine if you feel either way. Do the same for the letter I, which represents irritation or need for intimacy. T often means you are just tired or thirsty. This makes you eat when you shouldn’t try relaxing or having a glass of water instead.

Knowing how to deal with stress is just as important. Once you learn the coping mechanisms, you’ll no longer feel the need to turn to food.

Big props to this painting company in PA for making our site possible. Thanks for your sponsorship, guys!

Charging energy and love into the food you prepare

One of the most obvious yet least acknowledged facts is that food prepared with love is better, is healthier, and is more delicious. As some sages say, love is the secret ingredient to make food wonderful and pleasing. There is increasing evidence that the intention with which food is cooked is as important as what the food is made of and where it comes from.

But how is that so?

According to Gregg Braden, who is now a New York Times bestselling author, and who is internationally acclaimed as the first person to bridge science and spirituality, all people possess an electromagnetic field around the heart. That means whatever a person feels, and whatever their state of mind or emotions, those feelings diffuse to the surrounding. Therefore, the energy the food’s cook has will add a subtle energy to the food by the consciousness that the cook gives to the food during preparation.

The cook’s electromagnetic energy field has a tremendous influence on the food’s ‘prana’. (Prana is a subtle energy that runs through every living thing.) The energy field, or aura, is thought to extend to about 9 feet in every direction. This means that the food that the cook is handling is in his auric field. Therefore, the cook can make the food better by ‘adding love to the food’. He or she can add love to the food by thinking loving thoughts during the preparation of the dish.

What this shows is that a person’s emotions have a direct impact on the food they are preparing with their hands. For example, if a person is cooking pie from scratch, and has soothing music playing, and he is happy about the cooking because he knows he is going to share the pie with people he cares about, then that person is imparting positive energy into the food and into the cooking.

On the other hand, if a person is preparing a meal and is in a foul mood, and all he is thinking about is things that make him unhappy, then that is what he is imparting into the meal. That is precisely the reason why even if people will follow the same recipe when preparing a certain meal, the particular meals will taste different from each other: because the cooks were in different emotional places when they were preparing the meals.

There are people who report noting that restaurant meals taste different from home-prepared meals. The difference is in the awareness and love that the restaurant workers bring to their jobs. Many people who work in restaurants are underappreciated and underpaid. That will of course have a direct impact on the food they prepare.

Therefore, it is important for anyone to practice mindfulness while cooking. If a person enjoys the cooking process, it is likely that they will add love to the food without realizing it sometimes. This is not rocket science- just the intention to add love is enough. You’d rather eat something prepared with average ingredients but with love and devotion, than food prepared using exceptional ingredients but made in the midst of anger and indifference.

Big thanks to ZionRecoveryCenter.Com for their support of this site! They do amazing things for people!

Your Brain on Food

In this site we will deal with food. Food combinations, food psychology, different food theories, and so much more. We’ll start with the basics this week, in this short video about how the food we eat affects our brains. For example, did you know that while the brain itself makes up a mere 2% of our body weight, it uses up around 20% of the calories we consume. What kind of food is “brain food” and why? Why do certain carbs make us crash? Watch this and learn the answers to these and other questions.