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World Vegetarian Day was on October 1. This day was created by the North American Vegetarian Society (NAVS) in 1977 and then endorsed by the International Vegetarian Union in 1978. World Vegetarian Day kicks off Vegetarian Awareness Month. You can make a difference by informing others about the benefits of being a vegetarian. Vegetarian diets have health benefits and save animals' lives.

Here are some reasons to become a vegetarian, according to NAVS:

• Reduce the risk of major killers such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer while cutting exposure to foodborne pathogens.
• Provide a viable answer to feeding the world's hungry through more efficient use of grains and other crops.
• Save animals from suffering in factory-farm conditions and from the pain and terror of slaughter.
• Conserve vital but limited freshwater, fertile topsoil, and other precious resources.
• Preserve irreplaceable ecosystems such as rainforests and other wildlife habitats.
• Reduce the greenhouse gases that are accelerating global warming.
• Mitigate the ever-expanding environmental pollution of animal agriculture

Additional Reasons

1) Your health: Prevent disease. Meat-eating has been linked with cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, kidney stones, and many other devastating diseases. By eliminating meat from your diet, you can take a crucial step towards a long life of health and happiness.

2) Increased energy and endurance: A vegetarian diet improves your stamina, concentration, and sense of well-being. In one study, athletes who switched to a vegetarian diet improved their endurance to almost 3 times as much as those who remained carnivorous.

3) Avoid toxic food contaminants: Flesh foods are loaded with dangerous poisons and contaminants such as hormones, herbicides and pesticides, and antibiotics. As these toxins are all fat-soluble, they concentrate on the fatty flesh of the animals. Not to mention the viruses, bacteria, parasites such as salmonella, trichinella, and other worms, and toxoplasmosis parasites.

4) Humans are by design vegetarian: Our flat teeth are perfect for grinding grains and vegetables, not for tearing apart animal flesh. Similarly, our hands are designed for gathering, not for flesh-ripping. Our saliva contains the enzyme alpha-amylase, the sole purpose of which is to digest the complex carbohydrates in plant foods. This enzyme is not found in the saliva of carnivores. Basically, we have all the right apparatus to consume vegetarian products and none of the right apparatus for flesh foods.

5) Care for the environment: By improperly using animals for food, we are eating ourselves off the planet. The raising of animals specifically to kill them and eat them has resulted in incredible waste and devastation of our precious resources. Just one example of the consequences is the fact that due to plundering our farmlands to fatten animals for slaughter, over 4 million acres of cropland are being lost to erosion in this country every year.

6) Help end world hunger: Every day forty thousand children on this planet needlessly starve to death. According to the Department of Agriculture statistics, one acre of land can grow 20,000 pounds of potatoes. That same acre of land, when used to grow cattle feed, can produce less than 165 pounds of edible cow flesh.

7) Become a more peaceful person: When we consume animal flesh products we are necessarily at odds with nature and our fellow living beings. Consumption of flesh foods has been scientifically linked with violent and aggressive behavior.

8) Have compassion for animals: Animals who are raised for slaughter needlessly experience incredible suffering throughout their life and death. Many people try not to think of the torturous experiences of the animal whose flesh ended up in their hamburgers or on their dinner tables. But if it is distasteful to think about, consider what it is like to experience it.