Reasons to Laugh, To Be Vegetarian and to Stay Alive

7/31/2019 Reasons to Laugh, To Be Vegetarian and to Stay Alive

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Reasons to LAUGH, to be VEGETARIANand to STAY ALIVE

Six Reasons You Should Laugh Every Day

There are so many whopping benefits to laughing every day that there is even an emerging field of

human psychology called "humor therapy," which helps people heal quickly and continue living an

enjoyable life. I've compiled a list of six reasons why you need to laugh every day. After all, I like to

say that I've never met anyone who does not like to laugh. Laughter just makes you feel good!

Anyway, here's why you should laugh daily:

1. Laughter is a workout in and of itself: It may not burn as many calories as running a mile every

day, but hey-it's a workout! I don't know about you, but I'd rather let out a belly laugh than do sprints.

From experience, I think laughter is way more enjoyable than sprints.

2. Laughter is contagious: So is the flu. However, it's wayyy more optimal to have laughter going

around the office than it is a virus. Ick. Plus, there's always one person in your office who has the

funniest-sounding laugh. Whenever they laugh, you have to laugh by default because they sound so

ridiculous.

3. It's socially acceptable to cry (sometimes): Ok, this one may be directed more towards dudes,

but it's much less embarrassing to be seen crying laughing than to be seen just plain crying. Also, did

you know that tears from laughter are chemically different than tears of sadness?

4. You look cool if you make a funny joke: Ever have a one-liner that had everyone in your group

in stitches? Me neither, but I'm working on it;) I bet it's a great feeling to make someone laugh.

5. Laughter brings people together: There's nothing quite like sharing a laugh with somebody. It

creates lasting memories and is enjoyable in the present.

6. Because Stone, Cold, Said so!: Ok, this isn't a real reason, but does anyone remember Stone

Cold Steve Austin? Oh, the days of wrestling...

So it isn't important why I chose six reasons to laugh every day, but it is important that you should

laugh as much as you can. Choose your own reasons to laugh. As the saying goes, "Life is too

important to be taken seriously." Being serious all the time sucks. You have to enjoy life. If you're not

laughing, then you're not living!


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ONE HUNDRED & ONE REASONS

TO GO VEGETARIAN

PEOPLE

1. Every year in the UK we feed our livestock enough food to feed

250,000,000 people while in the world 30,000,000 people die of starvation

2. 20 vegetarians can live off the land required by one meat eater

3. Every 3 seconds a child dies of starvation somewhere in the world

4. If Americans reduced their meat consumption by 10% it would free

12,000,000 tons of grain - enough to feed 60,000,000 people (the

population of Great Britain)

5. If all Americans became vegetarian, it would free enough grain to feed

600,000,000 people (the population of India)

6. Intensification in animal farming has displaced 1,000,000's of people from

their traditional lands - eg. indigenous people in south & central america,

native americans in north america & crofters in Great Britain - this is

continuing today

7. People displaced from their lands into cities succumb to dietary deficiency,

diseases, parasites & opportunistic diseases

8. In third world countries 1 in 10 babies die before their first birthday

9. The UK imports 46,000,000 worth of grain from third world countries tofeed our livestock

10.Due to overgrazing 850,000,000 people live on land threatened by

desertification & over 230,000,000 already live on land so severely

desertified that they are unable to sustain their existence & face imminent

starvation

11.1,000,000,000 people in the west gorging on meat & dairy leave1,000,000,000 to waste away & 3,500,000,000 teeter on the brink

LAND

12.If they continue to clear American forests to raise cattle at the present rate,

in 50 years there will be none left

13.1 acre yields 165 lbs of beef or 20,000 lbs of potatoes

14.8/10 of cultivated land in the UK is used to grow food for animals

(14,732,000 hectares)

15.It takes 16lbs of high protein soya to produce 1 lb of beef

16.Since 1945 in the UK we have lost 95% of flower meadows, 50% of ancient

woodlands, 40% of heathlands, 50% of wet lands & 224,000 km ofhedgerows all due to animal farming


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17.Pressure on land due to meat farming leads to soil erosion 6billion

tons/year in the USA

18.If everyone went vegetarian upto 90% of land used for animal farming

could be taken out of production & used to replant woodlands, leisure

activities etc.19.25% of Central america's forests have been destroyed for cattle grazing

since 1960

20.Between 1966-1983 38% of the Amazon rain forest was destroyed for

cattle grazing

21.90% of cattle ranches established on cleared forest land go bankrupt in less

than 8 years as the land becomes barren due to nutrient loss & overgrazing

22.Overgrazing by cattle is destroying the land & increasing desertification,

nearly 430 million acres in the USA alone has suffered a 25-50% reduction

in yield since first grazed23.An inch of topsoil takes 200-1000 years to develop - yet in the USA they

have lost around 1/3 of their prime topsoil in 200 years (around 7 inches)

due to animal farming

24.Land will be lost due to rises in sea level due to global warming due to

animal farming

AIR

25.The destruction of the rainforest by cattle farmers is destroying the lungs

of the planet & reducing the worlds capacity to replenish our oxygen supply

26.The 1,300,000,000 cattle in the world emit 60,000,000 tons of methane per

year (methane is a greenhouse gas & leads to global warming)

27.Burning of forests, grasslands & agricultural waste associated with animal

farming releases 50-100,000,000 tons of methane per year

28.Combining these figures, 25% of methane emissions are due to animal

farming (not including the billions of sheep, pigs & poultry so the real figure

is much higher)

29.Fertilizer used to grow crops to feed to animals releases nitrous oxide -

thought to account for 6% of the greenhouse effect

30.Fertilizer, weedkiller & pesticides sprayed on crops enter the atmosphere

creating a noxious carcinogenic cocktail

31.CFCs are released into the air from refrigeration units used to store

decomposing flesh (meat), milk & butter - CFCs are destroy the ozone layer

32.Ammonia from animal urine also pollutes the atmosphere

33.CO2 is released by burning oil & petrol in lorries, ships, abattoirs, dairies,

factories etc. associated with meat & dairy production

34.Emissions from large chemical plants which produce fertilizer, weedkiller &

other agricultural chemicals are also poisoning our air


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WATER

35.25 gallons of water to produce 1lb of wheat & 2500 gallons to produce 1lb

of meat

36.UK farm animals produce 200,000,000 tonnes of slurry (liquid excrement)every year, the majority of which ends up in our rivers

37.Bloody waste water from abattoirs ends up in our rivers

38.In the USA every second humans produce 12,000 lbs of effluent while

farmed animals produce 250,000 lbs

39.Nitrates & pesticides used on crops grown to feed livestock end up in our

rivers

40.Meat & dairy farming uses 70 litres of water per day per animal in the UK

or 159,250,000,000 litres per year in total

41.The water used to produce 10 lbs of steak is equivalent to the averageconsumption of water for an entire household for an entire year

42.Depletion of groundwater reserves to grow crops for animals & to supply

abattoirs will lead to greater water shortages

43.Aquafers (stores of underground water) in the San Joaquin valley in the

USA are being drained at the rate of 500,000,000,000 gallons/year to

produce meat

44.18% of all agricultural land in the world is irrigated & as global warming

increases (partly due to animal farming) it will cost $200,000,000 to keep

these systems going

45.The water used to produce a 1000 lb beef steer is enough to float a

Destroyer battleship

46.The liquid waste from the various parts of the meat & dairy industry flow

into the rivers & from there into the seas polluting them & encouraging

huge algal blooms to grow

EFFICIENCY

47.To produce 1calorie of energy from meat takes 60 calories of petrol,

whereas growing grains & legumes to directly feed people produces 20calories for each calorie of fuel used ( thats 1200 times more efficient)

48.Meat & dairy farming uses billions of gallons of oil to run tractors, fuel ships

& lorries (to move animal feed & animals), pump billions of gallons of water

to irrigate fields & run slaughterhouses, power refrigeration units to

prevent the corpses from decomposing & to power sewage plants to clean

up some of the pollution produced

49.Cattle convert only 6% of their energy intake (mainly grains & soya) into

flesh, the remaining 94% is wasted as heat, movement (which is why they

keep many animals in very close confinement), hair, bones, faeces etc50.1lb of beef takes 1 gallon of petrol to produce


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51.A family of four eating beef for a year uses enough petrol to run a car for 6

months (obviously depending on how far you drive!)

52.If the full ecological cost of meat was passed onto the consumer - the price

would be quadrupled (at least)

53.The EC spends 100,000,000's to subsidise animal production resulting inlakes of unwanted milk & mountains of unwanted meat & butter. This

money could be better spent encouraging organic fruit, vegetable & grain

production

54.In the USA in 1979 145,000,000 tons of crops were fed to cattle resulting in

only 21million tons of animal bodies - the cost of the wasted crops was

$20,000,000,000

55.Between 1950 & 1985 grain production in Europe & the USA increased

massively but 2/3 was fed to animals

56.70% of all grain is fed to animals57.Eating vast quantities of animal flesh, eggs, milk & butter is a luxury that

most of the planet can not afford

ANIMALS

58.Fishing with drift (and other modern) nets weakens & destroys ecosystems

by indiscriminately killing billions of sea creatures & disrupting the sea bed

59.Fishermen's nets kill 10 times as many other animals as the fish they are

hoping to catch

60.Fish caught in nets die an agonising slow death of suffocation

61.Each year 15,000,000,000 land animals are slaughtered for food & an

unknown but much larger number of sea creatures (including 1000's of

dolphins caught accidentally)

62.Chickens are crammed into battery cages with upto 3 other birds, they are

unable to even spread their wings & many can not even stand up

63.Unwanted male chicks (because they can't lay eggs) are gassed or pulped

while their sisters go to the battery sheds

64.Chicks are debeaked without anaesthetic to prevent them injuring each

other in the unnaturally confined conditions they are kept in - this is

equivalent to having your fingernails pulled out without anaesthetic

65.Modern farming methods using growth hormones & artificial lighting mean

that many chickens out grow their bones, resulting in fractured & broken

legs

66.Sows are kept tethered in stalls 1.3 x 1 metre on concrete or slatted floors -

they can not even turn around

67.Poultry raised for meat are kept in windowless broiler sheds, with around

20-30,000 in each shed, they live in an area of 10-20 cm square - fighting


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due to overcrowding is common & like battery hens they commonly suffer

from supperating bed sores

68.Broilersheds are artificially lit 23 hours a day to produce rapid growth

69.Animals travel between farms & to slaughter in overcrowded transporters

with no food or water - resulting in stress, injuries & deaths - legalrequirements are widely ignored

70.95% of poultry suffer injuries before being killed & 30% suffer broken

bones

71.Problems with stunning practices mean that many animals have their

throats slit while still conscious (around 6% of cattle or 200,000 per year) &

are then dipped in tanks of scalding water (to loosen feathers, bristles etc.)

again while fully conscious

72.4000 animals die spurting their blood out every minute in a British

slaughterhouse73.Calf leather comes from animals killed at just 2 weeks old

74.Cows were fed on the ground up remains of other cows & sheep - the

result is thought to be BSE (mad cow disease) in the USA cattle are fed

partly on recycled plastic pellets

75.Cows only give milk for 10 months after they have a calf - so they are

routinely artificially inseminated (ie. mechanically raped) to keep them

pregnant & milking - their calves are taken away (usually at 12 hours old)

for meat or export to veal crates

76.Cows would naturally live upto 20 years but are slaughtered after 5-7 yearswhen their milk production begins to fall

77.In the UK animals are killed by first being stunned with electricity or a

captive bolt gun (ie. a bolt is fired into their heads) before having their

throats slit & being plunged into boiling water - all this happens on a

production line with the animals being hung upside down from a moving

conveyor belt - this is factory farming

78."Animals are those unfortunate slaves & victims of the most brutal part of

mankind" - John Stewart Mill (philosopher)

79.Veal calves are confined in stalls in the dark, unable to move & are fed onpigs blood , chocolate & dried milk (we are drinking the rich fresh milk of

their mothers)

80.Cows naturally produce 5 litres of milk per day for their calves - under the

intensified systems of modern farming they produce 25-40 litres per day -

resulting in swollen & inflamed udders - at this rate they are soon worn out

81.Large areas of land are under monoculture to grow crops to feed to

animals - these areas are wildlife deserts supporting fewer & fewer species.


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HEALTH

82.Vegetarians have a 20% lower rate of mortality from all causes (ie. they live

longer & don't get sick as often)

83.Meat is full of traces of antibiotics, hormones, toxins produced by stress &pesticide residues that become concentrated from all the crops they have

eaten

84.Fish contain heavy metals & other pollutants -many of which originated on

farms

85.The world health organisation recommends a diet low in saturated fat,

sugar, salt & with plenty of fibre - exactly what you get on a

vegan/vegetarian diet

86.Farmed animals contain upto 50% saturated fat in their bodies

87.Vegetarians have 24% reduced risk of getting heart disease & Vegans a 57%reduction (heart disease is the biggest killer in the UK accounting for 50% of

deaths)

88.Obesity is rare in vegetarians, obesity is related to many diseases

89.Vegans & vegetarians have lower blood pressure & cholesterol levels - high

levels are associated with heart disease, strokes & kidney failure

90.Vegetarians have a 50% reduced risk of dying of diabetes

91.Vegetarians have a 40% reduced level of cancer than the general

population thought to be because they have a higher intake of vitamins A,C

& E

92.Vegetarians have a reduced risk of developing gall & kidney stones

93.80% of food poisoning is due to infected meat (faeces, bacteria etc.) after

all meat is decomposing flesh - most of the rest is due to salmonella in eggs

94.Osteoporosis due to calcium loss from bones is mainly due to the sulphur

content in meat & casein protein in milk that cause calcium to be lost in the

urine - the countries with the highest meat & dairy consumption are those

with the highest levels of brittle bones

95.50% of people do not have the enzyme to digest milk properly & milk

allergy is related to asthma & eczema

96.Meat eaters have double the rate of Alzheimers disease as Vegans &

Vegetarians - some people also think that Parkinsons disease is also linked

to meat eating

97.Egg yolk is a dense concentration of saturated fat & the white is high in

albumin protein associated with leaching calcium into your urine. Butter is

80% saturated fat, cream is 40% saturated fat & cheese is 25-40% saturated

fat

98.Meat eaters are two and a half times more likely to get bowel cancer than

Vegetarians


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99.The cling film used to wrap meat in supermarkets & butchers contains

chemicals linked to falling sperm counts in men

100. Chinese people (living mainly on a vegetarian diet) consume 20%

more calories than Americans but Americans are 20% fatter

101. Of 2,100,000 deaths in the USA in 1987, 1,500,000 were related todiet (ie. meat & dairy)

AND I COULD GO ON !

If you've read this far, I hope that you are beginning to see that the Meat & Dairy

industry is a major contributor to misery on this planet. It is destroying the health

of people in rich countries, starving those in poor countries, it is torturing & killing

billions of animals every year and in the meantime it is one of the major factors in

the destruction of the environment - so what does the meat & dairy industry have

to say in it's defence?

Well their only real point is usually "Meat is tasty" - fair enough a lot of people

enjoy the taste of meat - but there are plenty of delicious alternatives (just consider

the huge range of vegetarian dishes in Indian cooking - one of the oldest & most

sophisticated cuisines in the world) and if you really crave meat & dairy, nowadays

there are plenty of healthy non animal alternatives - just look in the supermarket &

health food shop. So I hope you will agree it's pretty pathetic to consider all the

evidence & then say "well I know you're right about the environment & health &

the animals - but I just love my meat"


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A Reason To Live

Most people have thought about killing themselves at one, or more, times in their lives.

As a counselor I have often been asked to give someone one good reason to go on living. Theproblem with that question is what one person thinks is a good reason to live will not seem good

enough to another person.

In 1983 the Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology (Vol 51, No 2) published a study conducted

by Linehan, Goodstein, Nielsen & Chiles which contained a list of reasons people gave for continuing

to live when they were considering suicide.

Here is the list of reasons people gave in that study. Some of them may give you food for thought or

a reason to live you never thought about before. I hope so. Reason number one is the reason I

would most encourage you to work towards making your own.

You may have reasons not listed here; reasons you think might help someone carry on living in the

face of despair.

Reasons To Live When You Are Thinking About Killing Yourself

1. I care enough about myself to live

2. I believe I can find other solutions to my problems

3. I still have many things left to do

4. I have hope that things will improve and the future will be happier

5. I have the courage to face life6. I want to experience all that life has to offer and there are many experiences I havent had yet

which I want to have

7. I believe everything has a way of working out for the best

8. I believe I can find a purpose in life, a reason to live

9. I have a love of life

10. No matter how badly I feel I know that it will not last

11. Life is too beautiful and precious to end it

12. I am happy and content with my life

13. I am curious about what will happen in the future

14. I see no reason to hurry death along

15. I believe I can learn to adjust or cope with my problems


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16. I believe killing myself would not really accomplish or solve anything

17. I have a desire to live

18. I am too stable to kill myself

19. I have future plans I am looking forward to carrying out

20. I do not believe that things get miserable or hopeless enough that I would rather be dead

21. I do not want to die

22. Life is all we have and is better than nothing

23. I believe I have control over my life and destiny

24. It would hurt my family too much and I would not want them to suffer

25. I would not want my family to feel guilty afterwards

26. I would not want my family to think I was selfish or a coward

27. My family depends on me and needs me

28. I love and enjoy my family too much and could not leave them

29. My family might believe I did not love them

30. I have a responsibility and commitment to my family31. The effect on my children could be harmful

32. It would not be fair to leave the children for others to take care of

33. I want to watch my children as they grow

34. I am afraid ofthe actual act of killing myself (the pain, blood, violence)

35. I am a coward and do not have the guts to do it

36. I am so inept that my method would not work

37. I am afraid that my method of killing myself would fail

38. I am afraid of the unknown

39. I am afraid of death

40. I could not decide where, when and how to do it

41. Other people would think I am weak and selfish

42. I would not want people to think I did not have control over my life

43. I am concerned about what others would think of me

44. My religious beliefs forbid it

45. I believe only God has the right to end a life

46. I consider it morally wrong

47. I am afraid of going to hell

Additional Reasons To Live

1. I refuse to give up

2. I will not let life or my problems beat me

3. I do not want to be seen as a quitter

4. I believe there is a good reason for my existence

5. I believe I can use the lessons learned in my struggles to help other people win their battles

Reasons to Laugh, To Be Vegetarian and to Stay Alive

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