Are the Health Risks of Eating Red Meat Worth It?

People have the choice to eat meat or not, but every choice has its consequences. People worry that vegetarians have a deficiency of needed vitamins and minerals although with the right diet they can get what they need. Meat is not nearly as natural as it used to be, now days it’s full of hormones and chemicals. People who eat meat are at higher risks for many deadly diseases.  A huge percentage of vegetarians reasons for becoming vegetarians are the appalling ways animals are treated and slaughtered. When animals are raised solely for meat, the way they are brought up has its affects on us and our health. From these facts I will prove that eating meat is immoral, ineffective, and hazardous.

Meat has its many affects on meat eaters. It puts them at higher risks for many life threatening diseases. For example heart disease, arthritis, and food poisoning. Heart disease is an extreme problem with meat eaters. 500,000 men and women from the ages of 50 to 71 were studied on their specific meat diets for ten years. After the ten year period they found that men that consumed the most amount of red meat in the study period had a 31% higher chance of dying then those who ate very little. The women had a 50% risk of dying due to heart disease (Doheny online). Therefore; 11% of men’s deaths and 21% of women’s deaths due to heart disease could have been reduced if they consumed no red meat (online). Though the reason red meat and processed meat is connected with heart disease is still not certain, some factors may be that the iron in red meat possibly raises oxidative cell damage which leads to health problems. The saturated fat in meat has been incorporated with breast and colorectal cancer (online). There is such thing as too much meat. Eating meat almost every day has many negative effects. Researchers from University of Manchester, UK found that eating meat every day doubles your chances of developing rheumatoid arthritis (Medical News Today online). Researchers that studied dietary habits of 25,000 people proposed that the collagen in meat triggers the immune response of arthritis (online).  We all know that meat includes dangerous organisms like E. coli, salmonella, and campylobacter etc. However, consuming the pieces of meat isn’t the only way food poisoning occurs. Food Standards Agency showed that a shocking 89% of people do not store their meat properly. Therefore, residues drop on to other foods and contaminate them. Also, 65% of people do not wash their hands after working with raw meat which then leads to bacteria being transferred throughout surfaces (Food Standards Agency Food Poisoning online).

Even animals should be treated fairly and have a purpose in life other than being consumed by the world population. Animals deserve respect as people do! Raising animals entirely for meat is immoral. First off, cows are now corn fed. Cows were grass fed until World War II, when farmers realized feeding them corn was cheaper and more efficient because it fattened them up much faster. It usually took cattle two to three years to be ready for the slaughter house but corn fed cows take as little as fifteen months (King Corn online). Health experts from the Union of Concerned Scientists and University of California show that corn fed beef is higher in harmful saturated fats than grass fed cattle. In addition, corn fed beef is full of hormones to expedite growth and cause weight gain (online). First of all, growth hormones are not healthy for the animals and they are suspected to cause early maturity in children. Second, they carry mad cow disease (Food Service Warehouse online). Moreover, farmers must inject their cattle with antibiotics to prevent disease from their unnatural corn fed diet. This of course is a health concern for many people (King Corn online).
Most cows are kept in such close quarters that they can barely walk around; they do this to them so farmers and ranchers can keep costs down on land. United States farm animals have an outcome of 100,000 metric tons of manure every minute (online)! With all the animals in astonishing close quarters the manure piles up in feedlots. Without correct disposal these pollute nearby watersheds. Even worse, millions of gallons of manure can leak in to adjacent rivers and lakes (online)! With all the hormones and antibiotics the cow manure is toxic. This has already happened in multiple U.S. states. When cows are allowed to roam free and live the life they are supposed to, their manure is more spread out. It also absorbs and fertilizes the land creating more grass for them to eat. With all the injections that cattle receive and the toxic way they are brought up, beef is exceptionally unhealthy for human beings!

People’s largest and most powerful argument against vegetarians is that they have a deficiency of the needed vitamins and minerals. Well that argument is weak. Yes, it is harder for vegetarians to receive their vitamins without the easy way of eating meat, but there are many other ways for them to get them. Vitamin B12 is mainly in meat products but vegetarians can get vitamin B12 from other options like eggs, cheese and other dairy products as well as supplements. The beans that vegetarians consume give the protein that meat gives people.  Since it is harder for vegetarians to get their needed minerals and vitamins they have to pay closer attention to their diet. Therefore, they have a more balanced diet. They are more aware of what they are eating. Meat eaters may feel that they had their McDonald’s burger and they got their vitamins and minerals that they needed, but that is not the case. People have deficiencies no matter their diet, vegetarians aren’t the only concern.

As multiple studies and researchers have proven, becoming vegetarian has its copious amount of benefits! Every type of diet done badly is going to become damaging to one’s health but with a little exercise a vegetarian diet is the best way to go. All the hormones and antibiotics in animals are not good for the animals themselves and us who consume them daily. These issues give us multiple diseases and health problems. Not eating meat also saves the suffering of the animals. We become sick and the animals suffer for no apparent reason. All these points give us many reasons to stop eating meat.