Wearing a sizzling stars-and-stripes bikini, Playboy magazine’s Miss July 2002, vegetarian Lauren Anderson, is sure to whet appetites as she greets legislators and staffers at PETA’s Sixth Annual Veggie Hot Dog Lunch on Capitol Hill.

For starters, animal suffering is a big turnoff. On today’s factory farms, cows, calves, chickens, and pigs are kept in small overcrowded stalls and cages, where they’re often unable even to turn around. These intelligent, social animals are deprived of veterinary care, exercise, sunlight—even the feel of grass beneath their feet.

Vegetarianism is natural “Viagra.” Unlike many of their meat-eating counterparts, carrot-crunching Casanovas don’t need to pop pills to be better in bed. That’s because it’s a hard medical fact that eating meat clogs the arteries going to ALL your organs, not just to your heart.

Vegetarians have better endurance. Researchers have found that vegetarians live about seven years longer than meat-eaters, and vegans (who eat no animal foods, including eggs and dairy products) live 15 years longer. Meat-free diets help ward off heart disease, cancer, stroke, and other debilitating diseases.

Going vegetarian is the best method of “girth control.” Vegans are about 30 percent leaner than meat-eaters, who are much more likely to suffer from flabby thighs and bulging bellies. Sixty-one percent of American adults are now overweight, and 26 percent are obese. Many flesh-fed children are so fat that they waddle when they walk.

Meat-based diets waste water, energy, land, and other resources. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, factory farming pollutes America’s waterways more than all other industrial sources combined.

Have we aroused your interest in vegetarianism?

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