
"You think I should go vegan?" " I would wither away and die if I became a vegan." " I would turn to dust!" " Are you a vegan? That would explain why you are so skinny!" This seems to be the common response from most people I talk to about veganism. To answer that first question, no, I am not currently a vegan; I have just always been skinny. Making the change to abstain from eating meat all together can be quite the challenge for those who attempt it, including myself because meat is delicious. The fact that meat simply tastes good does not mean that going vegan should be a lifestyle choice that everyone refuses to try. More people should follow a vegan diet; not only is it morally sound, but it is also the optimal dietary choice because, when compared to other diets, it yields the most health, environmental, and ethical benefits.

Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States today. It kills roughly 611,105 Americans each year. It costs our country $108.9 billion dollars each year in health care expenditures (Nichols). One is more likely to die from heart disease than all other causes of death, meaning that out of all the fears one might have on a daily basis of getting shot, being stabbed, or getting hit by a car, heart disease should be their biggest. This does not seem to be a common response from people when they are asked what they fear most. Heart disease does not get the attention it deserves because as a population, Americans enjoy eating fast food and meat far too much to care; however, people fail to realize the damage that fast food and meat are causing to their health. 

Atherosclerosis is defined as "a disease of the arteries characterized by the deposition of plaques of fatty material on their inner walls" in other words, atherosclerosis is synonymous with heart disease.The majority of the studies available on atherosclerosis consist of experiments that are conducted on only herbivores, and after researching the reason for this further, I discovered that it is because true carnivores cannot develop atherosclerosis unless they have their thyroid gland removed. Considering the fact that humans can develop the disease, this not only provides some good evidence that are humans truly herbivores not carnivores, but also gives a good reason that one should be following a vegan diet (Suede). The editor and chief of the American College of Cardiology, Dr. William C Roberts, agrees with this fact and also believes that cholesterol is the number one cause of heart disease. What raises your cholesterol levels? Dietary saturated fat and cholesterol; both of which are primarily found in animal products such as meat and dairy (Roberts). Those who follow the vegan diet have the lowest saturated fat and cholesterol levels out of any other diet choice because they consume the least amount of meat. One study showed vegetarians who were converted to an omnivorous diet had their serum cholesterol levels raise by 19%, but after being back on their vegetarian diets for two weeks, their cholesterol levels returned back to normal (Sacks). The research backing veganism does not stop there. Despite heart disease being such a massive killer in our country, it can be reversed quite easily. Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a vegan himself, has successfully reversed heart disease in his patients who were chronically ill. His method for curing his ill patients was to have them consume a low fat, whole food, plant based diet (Esselstyn). It is very clear that cholesterol and saturated fat are the two main causes of heart disease and with it being the number one killer in the United States, it is simple that a vegan diet is the healthiest diet option a person can follow.

The benefits of a vegan diet do not stop at health. One of the largest growing problems for our planet is the threat of global warming. Whether or not global warming is truthfully occurring is widely argued by scientists and environmentalists. The causes of global warming are also being argued. When asked what the major cause of global warming is, the first thought that comes to mind is greenhouse gas emissions. The major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions are transportation, industry, electricity, commercial and residential energy usage, and finally agriculture (EPA). Out of that list of contributors, agriculture seems as though it would be the least significant, however, the opposite is true. One source contained a multitude of alarming facts concerning global warming. The animal agriculture industry is responsible for more of the greenhouse gas emissions than the combined exhaust from all transportation, nearly "18% of all greenhouse gas emissions." "Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million ("Livestock Longshadow"). The animal agriculture industry a major contributor to environmental catastrophes that we are facing as a society. Also, the types of greenhouse gas being emitted are chemically more toxic than carbon dioxide. "Methane is 25-100 times more destructive than CO2 on a 20 year time frame and has a global warming potential 86 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame." "Livestock is responsible for 65% of all human-related emissions of nitrous oxide  --  a greenhouse gas with 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and which stays in the atmosphere for 150 years" ("Livestock Longshadow"). The facts on how truly devastating animal agriculture is to our planet is clear. When it comes to the discussion on how to stop global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, much more costly solutions are offered before the ceasing of animal agriculture is. The option of converting to wind and solar energy is popular, but in order for that to occur, it will take more than twenty years and will cost almost 43 trillion dollars ("Cost of Renewable Energy"). The increasing dangers of energy emissions are far less in relation to agriculture emissions. "Energy related emissions are expected to increase by 20% by 2040, and agriculture related emissions are expected to increase by 50% by 2050" ("Livestock Longshadow"). The importance of stopping the animal agriculture industry is clear and it gives another reason for people to convert to veganism.

The ethical benefits behind veganism are another reason why people should choose to convert. Milk is an incredibly popular drink; however, information on how it is made is generally unknown by the public. First, a cow is born. If the cow is a male, it is either kept around for breeding purposes, or sent off to be slaughtered and used in the meat industry. If the cow is a female, it is immediately ripped away from its mother and put in a cage. It is raised until about the age of one, when it is artificially inseminated. A farm worker will insert his one arm about shoulder deep into the cows anus to make the insemination easier, while a metal rod containing semen at the end is then inserted into the cow in order to impregnate it. What is not often realized is that dairy cows are forced to remain pregnant for their entire lives because they are biologically unable to produce milk unless they are nursing. Once the cow is impregnated, it is utilized for milk. The calves that are born from the dairy cows are ripped away just like their mother before them, in order for the process to continue. Often times what occurs is that a cow will develop an infection on its udder, causing blood to mix into the milk that is being extracted. Most of the blood is filtered out when the milk is homogenized and the amount of blood contained in the milk is regulated by the FDA. However, a certain amount of blood is allowed to remain in the milk; not all of it must be filtered (America is the country that allows the largest amount to remain). The cycle of insemination and milking continues until the cow either dies from natural causes or exhaustion, or collapses from exhaustion. When this occurs, the cow is physically unable to stand up or in some cases, move at all. The cow is then dragged out of the dairy farm and sent off to be slaughtered and then used in the meat industry ("Cows Milk"). This cycle continues for each new cow that is born and it ultimately ends in their unnatural, untimely death. Documentaries such as Cowspiracy show the abusive side of the animal agriculture industry, as if it was not all ready by-nature, inhumane enough. All types of animals, including cows, pigs, chickens, coyotes, foxes, and turkeys are abused in their respective industries without failure (Cowspiracy). The necessity for meat is non-existent, yet the abuse of these animals is growing more prevalent, which is yet another reason for why people should convert to veganism.

Despite having plenty of research to back up the claim that saturated fat and cholesterol are the main contributors to heart disease, there are still many people who will deny these facts all together. These people often cite research such as one study conducted by the Oakland Research Institute and Children's Hospital which found there to be no correlation between saturated fat and heart disease (Oakland Research Institute). However, the problem with this study and most of the studies cited regarding this argument, is that they are a meta-analysis of observational studies. This means that a study is simply conducted by observing random people who developed heat disease or atherosclerosis. The issue is that everyone's base line cholesterol levels are different, rendering studies like these useless when it comes to heart disease. The types of studies that are relevant to heart disease are intervention studies and metabolic ward experiments because they monitor the change in cholesterol throughout the study. This allows for the risks that cause heart disease to be accurately determined and monitored. When studies like these and the ones cited in the above paragraph are conducted, the proof that saturated fat and cholesterol are truly the main causes of heart disease is undeniable.

After doing research on a wide range of topics including the health effects of a vegan diet, the environmental effects of a vegan diet, and the ethical reasons for following a vegan diet, I have undoubtedly come to the conclusion that the vegan diet is logically and morally the best diet a human can follow. The ignorance of people, especially Americans, has led to the nationwide shunning of the vegan diet. Even worse, this ignorance has led to heart disease killing more people every year than any other cause known to man, the irreversible destruction of our planet's environment due to the emission of greenhouse gases, and the abuse of animals who had no intentions of causing humans harm in the first place. The animal agriculture industry is destroying our planet by causing global warming, promoting the death and suffering of innocent and defenseless animals, and producing products that cause harmful health effects in its consumers. The effects of consuming animal products is undeniably catastrophic, which is why we must take action. It is crucial that as a population, we must convert to veganism in order to stop these catastrophes from occurring.

