Graphic by Sana Amin/The Gazelle

In today's world, vegetarian or vegan lifestyles no longer evoke the image of a long-haired, earthy person who doesn’t wear deodorant; now, it's well-known and often revered celebrities such as Beyoncé, Jane Goodall and Donald Trump who are going veg.

Despite previous animal protein-pushing doctrines, doctors are also starting to promote living vegetarian or vegan. In many countries, there are more and more innovations and options that make veg diets less likely to become repetitive.

As people realize that living veg is not difficult, not tasteless and not as expensive as it was once thought to be, the option is becoming increasingly attractive and even cool.

Many cite altruistic reasons as the primary reason to go veg, but this argument requires much less defense. We’ve all seen videos of hundreds of crammed and caged chickens unable to walk and cows with huge, festering wounds being slaughtered and sold as filet mignon at the local grocer.

But now, videos and articles advocating veg lifestyles — like this one, which made me disgusted by the thought of ever eating meat, eggs or dairy again — have educated people about the harmful health effects of consuming animal protein. Overall, the pro-veg argument has transitioned from being purely ethical to also practical.

Let’s begin with common health myths — often purposefully engineered untruths — associated with meat and dairy. Red meat is portrayed in the media and mainstream health marketing as the ultimate source of iron, dairy as the ultimate source of calcium and other meats as the necessary protein component to everyone’s diet.

However, this message is the result of incredibly wealthy and powerful meat and dairy industries. In the United States, there are equally powerful lobbies behind these industries; in the past ten years, meat and poultry industries gave $9 million USD in campaign contributions, with $1.4 million USD coming from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

With the meat and dairy industries claiming such a monopoly on messaging, it’s no wonder that Got Milk commercials, which claim that a glass of milk a day will give you strong bones, feature in every young U.S. American’s childhood.

It also explains why the Food Pyramid that many families and schools abide by hasn’t been redrawn to minimize the role of meat, dairy and eggs in a diet, despite repeated proposals to do so.

Evidence shows that those who eat less or no animal protein live healthier lives. Cancer, obesity and heart disease have all been directly linked to consuming animal protein. Recent studies have shown that diets high in animal protein are just as likely to cause cancer as cigarettes. Blue zones, areas around the globe identified to have the healthiest and longest living populations, all have diets high in plant-based matter. Many blue zones are completely vegan.

Contrary to popular belief, it is an outright lie that drinking milk is good for your bones. The United States, a country with one of the highest milk consumption rates, also has the highest rate of osteoporosis.

Health media and professionals all recommend drinking more milk and taking supplements to combat the high rates of bone fracture, but that simply worsens the problem. We are the only mammals that drink milk from another animal — milk that is specifically engineered to provide nutrition only for baby cows.

This explains why 75 percent of people lose their lactose enzymes after weaning, making them lactose intolerant. Additionally, consuming milk turns our blood acidic, and the amino acids needed to neutralize the acidity are only found in our bones. These are bonded to calcium, and so taking in milk actually leeches the calcium from our bones.

Humans weren’t made to be meat eaters in our evolutionary habits or in the forms of our bodies. We have hands for foraging, not claws for capturing, and flat teeth for grinding vegetables rather than fangs for ripping flesh.

Health concerns meet sanitation concerns in the treatment and killing of animals. A 1996 USDA study found that 80 percent of ground beef is contaminated with disease-containing microbes. Increasingly, news concerning the egg and dairy industries is following suit; high levels of pus in milk — yes, even when pasteurized — have been identified as a side effect of the growth hormones that cows are treated with.

In a world that is prioritizing environmental care and sustainability more and more, the huge negative impact of the meat and dairy industries cannot be ignored. A 2006 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization states that 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions comes from the livestock industry, a figure that is undoubtedly higher now.

A shocking 30 percent of the world’s ice-free land is used to feed meat and dairy animals, an absurd concept when you consider that feeding animals only to kill and eat them means filtering your nutrients through another animal before ingesting them. Viral videos like this one stress the idea that cutting down one’s animal protein intake can cut global emissions in half.

Overall, the fears and myths associated with a plant-based diet are disintegrating, as are the typical stereotypes of vegetarians and vegans. While moral arguments against subjugating another species, abusing them and exploiting their reproductive systems are still valid, they are now strengthened by purely practical reasons to drop animal protein from one's diet.

The powerful messaging of big meat and dairy will be overcome as the truth reaches popular discourse. It seems that a veg lifestyle may be the best choice for all of us, our planet and the animals we cohabitate with.