Trick-Or-Treat

Sign the petition against Mars, Inc.
They still do testing on animals for their candy.

"Mars has funded cruel experiments in which mice were fed a candy ingredient and forced to swim in a pool of paint and water. The mice had to find a platform to try to avoid drowning, only to be killed and dissected later. In another experiment supported by Mars, rats were fed cocoa and anesthetized with carbon dioxide so that their blood could be collected by cardiac puncture, a procedure that can lead to internal bleeding and other deadly complications. Mars also supported an experiment that involved cramming baby mice into small Plexiglas chambers and then submerging the chambers for nearly five hours in a chilled water bath to determine whether or not a chocolate ingredient affected the mice's breathing rates. In the second phase of this test, experimenters shoved tubes down mice's throats to force-feed them an ingredient in chocolate, deprived them of all other food, and finally killed them and cut them up for analysis.
Mars' top competitor, Hershey's, has pledged to PETA that it will not fund or conduct experiments on animals."

Please urge Mars to follow Hershey's lead and immediately end all support for animal tests!

J-E-L-L-O... It's Alive!

Remember those Jell-O commercials from Halloween, maybe they're even still around...? Well I had no idea that Jell-O actually did used to be alive. Am I the last to know where gelatin comes from? For a quarter per box, I wouldn't have guessed animals. I guess it comes from cows' and pigs' skin. Their tissues and bones are boiled to form the powder. What a weird concept.. I wonder who thought to do that and then flavor it with fruity flavors for a dessert. I'm sure they are millionaires though.

I am a beginner and learning and I'd like my site to be helpful to other beginners.

Does anyone else know of other items that are surprisingly from animals? I don't feel like everyone has to be petty and avoid any and every thing possibly from animals, it just has peaked my curiosity.

Why become Vegetarian?

Vegetarianism is becoming more and more common. A rough estimate is that approximately 7% of Americans are vegetarians or vegans. There are many reasons people decide to adopt a vegetarian diet.

Some do it to lose weight, as there are many health benefits. Some do it to help the environment. Others, such as myself, do it to prevent animal cruelty and protect animal rights. Some religious people do so out of their interpretation of the Bible.

I will expand on these individually in later posts, but here is a summary:

Health Benefits of a Meatless Diet:

You can meet your protein and calcium requirements but avoid the cholesterol and fat that comes along with meet. The foods are high in fiber and low in fat. You are encouraged to eat more fruits and vegetables, which have a protective quality and prevent free radicals which cause cancer. Many studies show vegetarians have a reduced rate of coronary artery disease, obesity, and hypertension. Of course you must keep your diet balanced. Eating all twinkies and cheesecake is not a healthy diet.

See the next post for the vegetarian food pyramid.

Benefits to the Environment:

It takes a lot of water and grain feed to produce beef, which is very inefficient. One hamburger takes up more water than approximately 40 showers. People are also destroying forests and rainforests in Central and South America to raise beef. It is a weird fact but I read a statistic a couple of times that said livestock flatulence is responsible for 25% of global warming emissions. Meat production also causes an extreme amount of soil erosion.

Animal Rights:

Ever seen a video of modern-day farms and slaughterhouses? I have. The animals are treated very inhumanely and even abused. Most of them don't get to roam large pastures like they used to. They're crammed into spaces so small they can barely move in order to produce bigger quantities at cheaper rates. You can find these on many websites if you think you can handle watching one. Why should animals be bred to suffer through life and killed in painful ways so we can eat greasy, cholesterol-filled meat?

Religious Reasons:

This was a topic I came across on accident. I had no idea this was a reason for vegetarianism. Apparently in the Bible, it says in Genesis 1:29 "…God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be for meat." It never mentions animals for food.

Isaiah: "He that slayeth an ox is as he that killeth a human."

Hindus are commonly vegetarian. They believe what they do to animals will end up happening to them. Buddhism also reflects that belief, of karma, and doesn't think any life should have to endure suffering. Many Islam followers are vegetarians because they can not eat meat that is improperly slaughtered, which is hard to come by.

Buddha: "To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana."

Why did you become a vegetarian or vegan?