help me to convince people not to eat meat

iheartveggies

Hi There! I posted a question about a speech I was doing for my speech class a while ago, and everyone helped me so much I thought I would try again! So...I am doing a persuasive speech tomorrow and it has to be on a subject I think my classmates will benefit from. Well, I read an article in "Vegetarian Times" about how if Americans all stopped eating meat on Mondays we would prevent tons and tons (literally) of carbon emissions, plus save the animals and ourselves. SO...I have decided to give my speech to try to persuade my classmates to at least stop eating meat on Mondays by explaining to them all the benefits. Does anyone have any particularly "attention getting" information that I should include?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

RawKidChef

I wrote a persuasive essay a few months ago that my teacher really liked..to persuade people to eat raw food. Basically I wrote how the lack of enzymes in cooked food causes the degeneration of organs as well as cancer, and therefore aging. I didn't write specifically about not eating meat but here are a a few technical points about human anatomy that show we are vegetarians:

Unlike carnivorous animals, which have very short intestines designed to digest meat, the human intestine is excessively long and therefore unfit for digesting meat but instead plant foods. Another big point is that carnivores contain parasites in their intestines to digest the acidic meat, whereas alkaline foods (most plants) would cause kidney problems in these animals. Humans were meant to eat alkaline food, however, and because meat is highly acidic, it is not meant to be eaten. Alkaline foods include most fresh fruits and vegetables, and fit the body pH of a human. Meat is especially acidic and is the culprit of most degenerative diseases including cancer. Even years after people convert to vegetarianism there is still undigested meat in their colons. The buildup of this undigested food accumulates toxins in the body, which are the cause of illness. Meat eating humans are the only people who get colon cancer.

I took a couple sentences out of this great article:

http://www.celestialhealing.net/physicalveg3.htm

KathrynL

found this link on the Purely Raw site. It's long, but it has some great points, especially (for your purposes) about speaking to specific demographics. It's hard to convince the average male college student he's not going to live forever, so health benefits may not be the point to make, but tell him that eating meat can lead to erectile dysfunction and you've got his attention :)

Sounds like you're already on a good track using environmental issues (a key issues to students today). Here's another awesome link that may give you more good arguments.

iheartveggies

Thank you both SOOOOOOOOO much for these amazing resources. I have put a speech together that is encouraging my classmates to refrain from eating meat on Mondays, but with all the information I have I am hoping they will go meat free all week! I really appreciate you guys taking the time to help me out. After I did my speech on raw food, one of my classmates said to me, "I don't think I can ever look at vegetables the same way again." So, I know I have their attention and you guys are really helping me to open their minds, THANKS A MILLION!!!