To be vegetarian is much better. When people are vegetarian, it’s much better; it greatly reduces disease. You know, yesterday one man came to me and said he had just had a heart attack, which is “normal”, basically “normal.”
In America and other western developed countries 52% of the population will die from cancer or heart attack, heart trouble. 52%. That’s a lot, over half dying from cancer and heart problems.
The major cause of heart problems is meat eating. All this cholesterol which blocks the arteries, where does that come from? You look at a meat eater and you look at a vegetarian, and you will find a huge difference in cholesterol. So it increases heart disease and other disease.
So a vegetarian diet is positive in every way: physically, mentally, spiritually, environmentally, economically. There are no negatives but only a plus; very, very obviously so.
One can be a vegetarian, but still be a junk food vegetarian.
Why do people usually eat meat? Let’s get real here now. Because they like the taste. “Oh! I can’t give up my ribs! I can’t give up my kebab, my barbeque!” “Oh! I love McDonalds!” And on and on it goes. It’s the taste! It’s not really so much the protein; this is, of course, can be a concern, but the real thing is – the taste, “I like it! Oh, I like those sausages, juicy ones!”
So really we sacrifice basically our physical, mental health, our spiritual well-being for our tongue. This is not very intelligent.