How did our family traditions become centered around eating meat? Think about it. When we think of Thanksgiving, we think of turkey. If we eat pork, then New Year’s celebrations often revolve around pork and sauerkraut. At Christian Easter, the traditional meal is ham. And in the summer, we wait for that first hamburger or steak on the grill.

How did that happen to a species that was designed to eat vegetables and fruits, nuts, berries and legumes?

We can imagine that eating meat was initially an opportunistic event, born of the need to survive. The taste of cooked meat, plus the sustained energy that came from eating high-fat meat products made primitive sense even to earliest man.

Initially, finding cooked animal meat, from a forest fire, would have been cause for celebration. It’s something everyone in a clan would have participated in eating together. When man learned to hunt and moved to a hunting orientation, rather than a hunter-gatherer orientation, he would have done this in groups. They would have had to hunt in teams, and killing an animal for food would have been a group effort. Hunting and killing an animal meant food not just for the individual, but for the clan, and would have been cause for celebration when the hunters brought the food home.

If they brought the animal back to the clan, it would have taken a group effort to skin the animal and tear or cut the meat from the carcass. Everyone would have participated in this, and subsequently, shared in the rewards of their work.

It’s easy to see how, once we didn’t have to hunt for meat, but could buy it, the need for gathering and celebration was deeply ingrained in our natures. We celebrate the seasons and life’s events with family and friends, and because those early celebrations involved eating meat, that tradition has continued to modern times.

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How do you feel spiritually when you eat a meal that contains meat? You’ve probably never given it any thought, but that may because spiritually you feel nothing after eating a meal of meat except tired and sluggish. A diet of meat makes our bodies less functional, and we think of nourishing our bodies in terms of our organs and blood, but we don’t often think about how what we eat can impact the most important organ in our body, the brain.

When you eat a vegetarian diet, you begin to feel physically lighter and fit. When your body is fit, your mind is also lightened. Most cultures that focus more on spirituality and enlightenment are also vegetarian cultures. From the beginning of recorded history we can see that vegetables have been the natural food of human beings. Early Greek and Hebrew myths all spoke of people originally eating fruit. Ancient Egyptian priests never ate meat. Many great Greek philosophers such as Plato, Diogenes, and Socrates all advocated vegetarianism.

In India, Shakyamuni Buddha emphasized the importance of Ahimsa, the principle of not harming any living things. He warned His disciples not to eat meat, or else other living beings would become frightened of them. Buddha made the following observations: “Meat eating is just an acquired habit. In the beginning we were not born with a desire for it.” “Flesh eating people cut off their inner seed of Great Mercy.” “Flesh eating people kill each other and eat each other… this life I eat you, and next life you eat me… and it always continues in this way. How can they ever get out of the Three Realms (of illusion)?”

These are cultures that are considered more enlightened and focused more on spirituality than is Western culture. If we are to evolve into more spiritual beings, then we must begin to manage our physical lives in a way that will enhance our spirituality, and this means taking the path of vegetarianism as a path to enlightenment.

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There are plenty of weight loss medications available today, but you shouldn’t take any until you have had a chance to discuss your best options with your personal physician. However, there is nothing stopping you from doing your own research on those options before you have the talk with your doctor. In fact, it’s a really good idea to be as informed as possible, as this with give you a solid base of knowledge to help you understand whatever your doctor has to say.

One of the main things to consider is whether or not you really need weight loss medication in the first place. After all, millions of people lose weight every year without taking any kind medicine whatsoever. Remember, all prescription medicines have the risk of side effects. You can actually think of the positive benefits as a sort of side effect. In other words, losing weight could be labeled as a side effect. But what we’re talking about is the potential of harmful side effects.

It’s probably a safe bet that, because you’re looking into weight loss medications, you have already tried to lose weight several times before; with little or no long-lasting success. The latest and greatest diets come and go, and get rid of a few pounds here and there, but then you go back to your old weight (or end up weighing even more than when you started). Exercise plans may have helped at first, too, but then you give up on them and go back to your regular activities. And none of this includes starvation diets or extreme exercise regimens.

The big problem with all of this that it’s just so easy to stay overweight. But the health risks associated with weighing too much make it worth trying as many times as it takes to see lasting results. The question is if weight loss medications are right for you.

Remember, there are risks when taking any medication. This is also true of medications for losing weight. In fact, there have been past cases of popular medications that led to serious side effects, and even death in a few cases. You need to balance the risk with the potential reward. For example, if you only want to lose five pounds or so, then the risk probably isn’t worth it. On the other hand, if you want to lose fifty pounds or more, and you have health problems related to obesity, then the risk of adverse side effects may not matter as much.

The main thing is to talk to your own physician about the choices you have. They will know your health history, and also have a better idea of what the real risks are for you. A doctor will also know which weight loss medications have been around for a long tome and have a proven track record of helping people lose weight. Assuming your doctor approves of giving you a prescription, you should see results in a short time.

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People have different motivations for eating a vegetarian diet. For many people, it’s a health issue. They need to reduce their weight, bring down their blood pressure and cholesterol, manage their blood sugars. A vegetarian diet helps them do this.

For others, it’s also moral and ethical decision not to eat animal products. Through the centuries, we’ve become accustomed to thinking of man as superior to all other animals on the planet. We use animals for food, clothing, shoes, belts or other accessories. We use them for scientific experiments. We discount their place on the earth and consider that animals are here to serve us and our needs.

PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and is an organization devoted to changing that mindset among humans. They are against using animals for food or for clothing, especially for what they consider the needless or particularly inhumane use of animals, such as killing or trapping them for their fur.

They are passionate about their cause. In their own words, PETA believes that animals have rights and deserve to have their best interests taken into consideration, regardless of whether they are useful to humans. Like you, they are capable of suffering and have an interest in leading their own lives; therefore, they are not ours to use-for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation, or any other reason.

We are supposedly an evolved society. But how evolved can a society be that thrives on the suffering of animals? In his excellent book, When Elephants Weep, author Jeffrey Masson explores the emotional lives of animals and presents compelling evidence for it. As a species, we must begin to re-evaluate our place on this earth and where we fit in relation to every other creature that inhabits it. PETA believes this as well and is a passionate advocate for the rights of animals.

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