In fact, the American Dietetic Association has determined that vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of life and that vegetarians are less prone to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity than are meat-eaters.
Cut out meat, and you'll also cut out a heaping dose of cruelty at every meal. Kids have a natural affinity for animals, and they'd be horrified if they knew what happens to animals before they reach our dinner tables.
The chickens killed for McDonald's McNuggets, for example, are dumped out of their transport crates at slaughterhouses and slammed upside down into metal shacklesà ??often resulting in broken bones, extreme bruising and hemorrhaging. The birds have their throats cut while they are still conscious, and many are immersed in tanks of scalding-hot water while they are still alive and able to feel pain.
Undercover investigators from PETA have documented factory-farm workers beating and kicking pigs and slamming piglets onto the ground. Fishà ??whom scientists now know can feel pain, as all animals doà ??bleed or suffocate to death on the decks of ships, gasping for oxygen. They can be left to suffer for as long as 24 hours.
If we don't want our kids to know about the horrible abuses endured by animals in the meat industry, then the decent thing to do is to stop feeding them meat in the first place. Our kids would be better off if we did.
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