There are many reasons people choose to switch to a vegan diet.  Vegan's don't eat meat and they also don't eat any animal byproducts which includes all dairy products and any food, including many pastries, that use animal fat, milk, or eggs in them.  They don't even eat honey!  Becoming a vegan involves much more than just going on a diet.  Becoming a vegan is a lifestyle choice and takes a tremendous amount of self discipline to be successful.  With that in mind, here are some surprising reasons to switch to a vegan diet.

1. Stop World Hunger – It takes 13 pounds of grain just to produce one pound of animal meat.  Animal farming is a highly inefficient use of resources to produce food.  All of the grain that was produced just to be fed to the animals going to slaughter, could have been better used to feed people around the globe.

2. Halt Deforestation – All the grain that must be grown to feed cattle, and other farmed animals, leads to mass deforestation.  Mass deforestation is needed to clear enough land to grow all that grain to feed the animals.

3. Land Conservation – It takes way less land to grow produce than it takes to farm animals.  1 acre of land can produce 50,000 lbs of tomatoes or potatoes, but the same amount of land only produces 250 lbs of beef.

4. Save the Planet – The production of meat adds a lot of contamination and emissions into the environment.  The meat industry as a whole produces more emissions than the transportation industry. 

5. Save the Animals – The mass amounts of meat we have to produce in this country to meet the demands of consumption have led to some deplorable conditions for animals being farmed for food.  Not only are some of these conditions inhumane, but they increase the risk of disease and contamination, which can then be passed on to humans when they consume the contaminated meat.

6. More Protein – Wait, what?  It's true!  Vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower actually have higher concentrations of protein than chicken, beef, and eggs.  Who knew?

7. Build Muscle – Many professional athletes are going vegan, debunking the myth that you can't build muscle on a vegan diet.  Between the high concentration of protein and the limiting the toxins and fats that are often found in meat, a plant-based diet is ideal for athletic performance.  Even Arnold Schwarzenegger is eating less meat.

8. Healthy Arteries – Vegans tend to have healthier arteries than non-vegans.  They do not have the buildup of cholesterol and plaque in their arteries that meat eaters do.  In fact, the arteries of a typical vegan are comparable to those of a distance running athlete.

9. Preventable Diseases – A plant based diet has been shown to be effective in preventing a number of different serious ailments such as diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and certain cancers.

10. Mindfulness – Being a vegan takes a lot of discipline and preparation.  Vegans have to be very mindful about what they eat, not just to make sure it has no animal byproducts in it, but to ensure they are getting all their essential nutrients, such as B12 which is not found in plants.