If you’ve been eating meat your whole life, you might think, “Why switch to a vegetarian diet?”  You’ve lived your whole life eating eggs, hamburgers, hot dogs, and poultry, so why switch now?

There are many reasons to switch.  Start by looking in the mirror. 

• Are you a little overweight?
• Do you look and feel good most of the time?
• Do you wake up energized?
• Or do you wake up tired and sluggish?

How is your general health?  Is your blood pressure within a healthy range? Are your cholesterol and blood sugar ranges normal? If not, consider what you’re eating every day.

How do you feel after eating?  Do you feel energized?  Or are you tired and dragged out?  Do you often need a nap after eating?  Food isn’t supposed to make us tired and sleepy.

Food should nourish and feed our bodies and leave us energized and refreshed.  The human body is a machine that needs the right fuel to keep it running in peak condition.  When we’re overweight, with high blood pressure, Type II diabetes, high cholesterol and other unhealthy conditions, it’s like a car engine that hasn’t been tuned or isn’t running on the right type of gasoline.

Your body is the same way.  It needs the right kind of fuel to run at peak efficiency, and when you’re eating high-fat meat, that’s just not the kind of fuel the human body has evolved to run on.

Try eating vegetarian for a week or a month.

See if you don’t feel different, more mentally acute and more physically fit and energized.  At least reverse the proportion of meat to vegetables.  Make meat more of a side dish, if you don’t think you can just stop eating meat altogether.  Even that change can make a big difference in your overall health and well-being.