Life as a vegetarian means a life without consuming meat. That's right — no hamburgers at summer cookouts, no pepperoni pizza at your friend's house, and no turkey at Thanksgiving. Living in a culture where meat is the focal point of every meal can make things challenging and prompt inquisitive people to question your meatless eating habits sometimes in an unintentionally condescending manner. Choosing to live a lifestyle that is both healthier for you personally and the environment as a whole is never a good idea. Here are 12 reasons why being a vegetarian is the absolute worst.

1. Decreased the risk for heart disease

By putting a halt to your meat consumption, you have just lowered your risk of being affected by the number one cause of death, no big deal.

2. Lose weight

Vegetarians may have lower BMI due to consumption of a diet that is high in fiber-rich and low-energy foods such as fruits and vegetables. Who doesn't want to keep their BMI in check?

3. A potentially longer lifespan

More years on earth eating plants > less years spent on earth eating meat

4. Water conservation

Fresh, clean water is an extremely essential limited resource that is crucial for all organisms to thrive; therefore, we need to use the water that we do have effectively. It can take as much as 15% more water to produce animal protein as it does to produce plant protein. But, it's just water.

5. A more efficient use of grains

Rather than feeding the animals, that people will eventually eat, mass amounts of grain, just eat the grains instead!

6. You will be exposed to less harmful chemicals

Since animals are higher on the food chain than plants, they contain more concentrations of manmade chemicals; thus, eating meat results in simultaneously consuming more pesticides. Would you ever drink a pesticide straight from the bottle? No, then why are you eating food that is indirectly affecting your consumption of those chemicals?

7. You will have more energy

Through shifting your eating habits so that you are primarily putting nutrient-dense plant-based foods into your body, you will decrease the amount of cholesterol-laden products and replace them with complex carbohydrates that will provide energizing fuel for your body.

8. You are personally reducing pollution

The meat industry has an immensely negative impact on the environment as a result of the chemical and animal waste runoff into water systems.

9. Justice for animals

The horrific treatment and slaughter of animals just so that humans can eat them is absolutely astonishing. But, because animals are not humans automatically means that we shouldn't even waste our time worrying about them.

10. Establishes a personal awareness for what you are putting into your body

As a vegetarian, you are making the personal choice, for a combination of reasons, to restrict what you consume; this shows that you have made an educated decision based off of values that you prioritize in your life.

11. You get to experiment cooking with beautiful fruits and vegetables that come straight from the earth

Who knew that creating delicious dishes out of basic vegetables could be so exciting? Expanding your culinary skills and palette...who has time for that?

12. Future generations are taken into consideration

This stakeholder is commonly forgotten; who cares if they aren't right here, right now?

As you can see, there are plenty of reasons that you should turn vegetarian, or at least consider decreasing your meat consumption to a few times a week rather than a few times a day. The impacts that vegetarianism has on the environment are serious and should inspire people to make choices that will not only change immediately, but also take into consideration the world we are leaving for future generations. Furthermore, the health affects that result from lowering, or completely cutting out, meat consumption will potentially provide a life of longevity and better quality for the human making these direct decisions, as well as the animals freed from factory farming.