The easiest way to give up meat is to see what happens in a slaughterhouse. I watched "Meet your Meat" (and other videos) and it brought me to tears and gave me nightmares for three sleepless nights. I'm not overly sensitive but I just couldn't handle seeing that much pain and suffering. There was no way I was going to contribute to that much savagery and suffering. The morning after the horrible night I saw those films I became a vegetarian. No meat, no seafood, and nothing that ever had a pulse. I rarely eat eggs or use dairy but, if I do I make sure I only buy organic.

We are brainwashed to believe we need to eat meat to be healthy. We are actually far healthier if we don’t eat meat. Think about, how does eating something dead contribute to the health of something alive? And no, we don’t need meat for protein. We get more than enough protein eating beans, rice, nuts, and any of the other billion non-animal foods available. Every day we hear about the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables; garlic lowers cholesterol, cranberries help your prostate, tomatoes prevent cancer, but not once has anyone said eating meat is good for you.

Fortunately there is an abundance of nutritious and tasty non-meat alternatives available. Schneider’s Meats (yep, meats) now makes a complete line of vegetarian products called Au Naturel that are extremely tasty. My wife and I think they taste better than the meat products they were made to replace. Another versatile and healthy product is Textured Vegetable Protein. Super cheap, extremely high in complete protein, and quick to make.

At some point in the future eating meat will be like smoking. People will know it’s unhealthy and the producers will admit they knew it was killing people. We’ll read our history books and shake heads in disbelief that man was once savage enough to need the flesh of another to survive.