Like most vegans and vegetarians, I didn’t make the switch to a more compassionate diet for just one reason. Everything from the health benefits of a plant-based diet to the environmental impact of factory farming to the needless suffering inflicted on farmed animals motivated me to go meatless.
In one study at the University of California, Berkeley, nearly 50 percent of participants said helping others left them feeling calmer, stronger, and more energetic. And because kindness stimulates the production of the “love hormone oxytocin and the “feel-good chemical serotonin, those people also reported greater feelings of self-worth.
Practicing kindness also decreases stress, anxiety, and depression. According to the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, perpetually
kind people have 23 percent less of the stress hormone cortisol, which is part of the reason
they live longer than average. And for anxious people, practicing kindness is an effective addition to any treatment plan. In
a University of British Columbia study, a group of highly anxious people performed six acts of kindness each week for a month. At the end of the study, all participants reported a significant increase in positive moods and relationship satisfaction, and socially anxious participants reported a decrease in social avoidance.
Earlier this year, research conducted by the Born This Way Foundation found
a direct link between kindness and mental health in teens and young adults. After surveying 3,000 people between the ages of 15 and 24, researchers discovered that young people who described their academic, home, and work environments as kind were more likely to be mentally healthy.
People 55 and older who volunteer for two or more organizations have an impressive 44 percent lower likelihood of dying [early]—and that’s after sifting out every other contributing factor, including physical health, exercise, gender, habits like smoking, marital status, and many more. This is a stronger effect than exercising four times a week.
Information like this reinforces what I knew to be true the day I stopped eating meat: Being kind to farmed animals isn’t just good for the animals—it’s good for me too.
Clearly, factory farming has been anything but kind to humanity, animals, and the planet we all share.
So the next time you sit down to eat, please practice kindness by leaving animals off your plate. Not only will you be one less person hurting animals, people, and the environment; you’ll be protecting your own health and happiness in a multitude of new ways.