The Benefits of a Plant Based Diet and Lifestyle-

Personal Solutions for Global Challenges

The following examples are provided as an introduction to plant based diet and lifestyle benefits and are not intended as a comprehensive representation. Directions and support systems for how to learn more about plant based dieting and living are provided at the end of this list.

The Challenges and their Solutions

Health-

Heart Disease, many forms of cancer, diabetes, osteoperosis, hypertension, impotence, colic, premature aging and an incredible host of other afflictions* are being increasingly associated with symptoms of meat and dairy consumption.

Solution

          Adopting a plant based diet will help to prevent and alleviate the symptoms of the vast majority of contemporary diseases.

Support

          OLA nutrition and food prep classes with recommended readings. OLA also offers Lifestyle Immersion Advances with personal guidance and coaching in these areas.

Environment- 

          Present agricultural practices are resulting in-

·       Public and global waterways being consumed and contaminated at alarming rates. Dead zones are appearing globally as a result.

·       Carbon release from intensive farming methods have established themselves as leading contributors of Green House Gas emissions and Climate Destabilization.

·       Pristine forests are being rampantly cleared (1.5 acres/second) for grazing land which last from 5 to, at most, 10 years before becoming a wasteland.

·       Placing livestock in unnatural settings leaves valuable topsoil damaged and unfertile. Resorting to synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides results in further damage to soil fertility.

·       The resulting rampant habitat destruction diminishes viable land for natural resources or even human habitation.

·       With out natural habitats entire species vanish from existence. Presently about 10,000 per year. Ocean reserves are being severely depleted and are on the brink of collapse.

Solution  

          As demand for meat and dairy products diminishes the need for such destructive agricultural methods will subside and allow vital natural systems and habitats to rebuild and flourish over the next several millennia. 

Support

          OLA offers the above programs as well as Nature Immersion Advances to assist with reconnection and appreciation of our natural support systems, our habitats.

Economy-  

·       Government subsidies to support livestock production draws viable funding away from other needful resources.

·       As national health indexes decline from overt patronage into meat and dairy products spending on health care increases exorbitantly.*

·       Massive release of Green House Gasses from livestock populations are a major contributor to Climate Destabilization which leads to increased spending in weather related disaster relief.

·       Damaged ecosystems cost billions of dollars and years, decades, or centuries to restore.

·       Contaminated waterways further debilitate communities, damage ecosystems, and deem otherwise viable land unfit for habitation.

*[As of 2009 our National Health Market is approaching 2.5 Trillion per year]

Solution  

     As communities and societies evolve to ever more plant based diets and lifestyles;

·       Demand for livestock subsidizing will diminish which will reallocate generous government funding.

·       Symptoms and diseases of meat and dairy consumption will reside allowing for greater health and vitality and diminish the need for exorbitant health care expenses.

·       Livestock populations will diminish and along with them GHG emissions.

·       Damage to remaining ecosystems will diminish in threat.

·       Less contamination to waterways will support the rebuilding of natural ecosystems and allow for increased possibility of habitation or wilderness preserves.

Support

          The above mentioned OLA outreach offerings along with Conscious Consumerism classes.

Hunger- 

Presently over sixty million people a year are dying of starvation, most of them are children, about forty thousand per day. The average meat eater requires about three and a quarter acres of agricultural land to support their personal diet and lifestyle. Those who limit their intake of animal products to eggs and dairy require about half an acre. The grain to feed our appetites for animal products is enough to make two loaves of bread for every man, woman, and child on Earth.

Solution  

          For every egg and dairy eater who transitions to a genuinely vegetarian diet three more people can be fed. For every meat eater who transitions to a completely plant based diet and lifestyle twenty more people can and will be fed.

Support

          All of the above OLA programs plus ‘The Benefits of a Plant Based Diet and Lifestyle’ presentation.

Peace- 

·       Disputes over land for livestock and the grain to feed them has long been the impetus for social conflict.

·       As we permit violence in our dietary choices we are more prone to permit violence in our world.

·       Slaughterhouse workers, active or retired often continue with acts of violence in society.

·       A society that assumes violence as a necessity of its existence is condemned by it own oppressiveness.

·       Cortisone, a survival hormone that is transmitted in the flesh of tortured animals, promotes hostility in the humans who eat their flesh.

Solution

          Diminishing and eliminating violent food choices from personal and societal considerations by adopting a plant based diet and lifestyle will serve to alleviate the ripples of violence that have emanated from within our own homes.

Support

          All of the above listed OLA programs along with counseling, aspiration clarification, and emotional alignment techniques.

Intelligence- 

          Scientific evidence suggests that human consumption of survival hormones such as cortisone, from the flesh of animals can contribute to emotional stress, irrational fear, and impaired cognitive performance. Denying that animals feel pain or suffer at our hands is exercising self imposed ignorance which is by definition a form of reduced intelligence.

Solution

          Abstinence from flesh products will eliminate cortisone induction. Conceding that non-human animals do feel pain and suffer at our hands will allow other denials of reality to re-emerge as well and provide for more consistent and effective attainment of desired results.

Support

          Nutrition and food preparation classes along with recommended readings and Nature Immersion Advances.

Compassion- 

          Disconnection from our environment, our habitats, non-human animals, and our fellow humans has left many in society challenged to recognize the value of benevolence towards those who we share our existence with. As a result, exploitation and oppression have become far too common a part of the human experience.

Solution

As we relinquish the acts that contributed to the exploitation and oppression of others humanity grows more likely to reach out and empathize with the plights of each of the above mentioned facets of our existence. In doing so we are also empowered to discover a greater depth, potential, and meaning in our own character.

Support

          All of the above programs as well as Evolution 101, Character Sculpting, and Empowerment Circles.

Heritage- 

          No culture has ever been built on the idea that stagnancy of its evolution will best serve the future generations. Without exception the guiding principle of all cultures has been to provide a brighter future, a better opportunity for health and happiness, for the coming generations. Culturally our present examples which are the templates from which our progeny’s characters are built, include exploitation, oppression, and apathy that leave a legacy of abuse, suffering, destitution, and death in our wake.

Solution

As we stop to consider the maladies that are being imposed on our lives from our patronage to a violent, meat centered diet and lifestyle, and we compare that to the remedial, healing benefits of a plant based diet and lifestyle, we grow in our clarity that we stand before a grand opportunity.

From this position of clarity we have the opportunity to sculpt the character of a humanity that:

·       Exemplifies and promotes vital personal health

·       Supports environmental sanctity

·       Contributes to a thriving economy

·       Perpetuates an ever more peaceful and caring community

Support

          All of the above listed OLA programs along with Lifestyle Immersion Advances opportunities in Onipa’a, OLA’s developing sustainability and compassion center.

The Optimum Living Alliance…

Creating Personal and Planetary Vitality Together

OLA, the Optimum Living Alliance, is designed as a community education and support organization. We look forward to your inquiries and interest in our programs and services.

For more information please email Home.

To explore, research or validate any of the claims made in this document you are welcome to request sources, reference books, websites, and other resources. We also recommend independent ‘net searches’ using the topic titles listed above along with the words, ‘vegetarian’, ‘vegan’, or ‘plant based’ and ‘solution’, ‘remedy’, ‘alleviate’, ‘prevent’, ‘prevention’ etc. If you do not find what you are looking for you are welcome to email us with direct inquiries as well. Bear in mind that much propaganda has been spread into the internet to further confuse potential patrons of the meat and dairy and pharmaceutical markets. To help clarify the validity of specific claims it is always important to follow the sources of those claims. Quite often ‘studies’, ‘research’, and ‘scientific data’ is funded by corporate marketing interests. For help with such research OLA can provide links to web sites that assist with researching techniques.