It’s the time of the year again, the time when turkey’s are scared the most. If you said Thanksgiving, you are correct. This time you are going to break the tradition of eating turkeys. This will help the turkeys and you! The population of turkeys are decreasing and turkeys are being hunted and killed at 5 months of age.  It’s important to start respecting the lives of animals.

What is a Turkey?

First of all, what is a turkey?  A turkey is a large North American bird related to chickens, peafowl, & pheasants. American Indians raised turkeys for food as early as A.D. 1000. Male turkeys are called toms, and female turkeys are known as hens. Baby turkeys are called poults. Scientists classify two species of wild turkeys: the ocellated turkey,and the North American turkey. The ocellated turkey lives in Guatemala and the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. It has brilliant coloring with eyelike spots on its tail. The North American turkey inhabits the United States and other areas in Mexico.

How Turkey is unhealthy

Now that you know what it is now you should know why you shouldn’t eat it. Apart from the fact that it’s ugly, they are high in cholesterol, and are very high in fat. The USDA confirmed that 80 percent of all antibacterial drugs used in the U.S. are given to turkey’s ,which make them very unhealthy for humans. Also turkeys contain diseases. Astroviruses are a leading cause of gastroenteritis in mammals and birds worldwide. Studies suggest that people with contact to turkeys can develop serological responses to turkey astrovirus. Research shows most of the turkey’s body is chemicals and they are injected with antibiotics. These chemicals make the turkey more fat than it originally was. Turkey is brimming with fat and cholesterol. Just one homemade patty of turkey contains 244 mg of cholesterol. Also you could get a virus called Bird flu which is harmful to us.

Why do we eat Turkey?

Why do people eat turkey on Thanksgiving anyways? As a matter of fact they didn’t even eat turkey on the first feast of Thanksgiving, the foods that the first pilgrim ate on Thanksgiving were oysters, mussels, geese, venison, corn and berries.

Another alternative

If I couldn't eat turkey, another alternative for me would be tofu or bread. Tofu or bread would be an good alternative because it’s healthier, but I would recommend tofu more because if you eat too much bread you can get a knot in your stomach. Tofu is a popular food derived from soya. It is made by curdling fresh soya milk. Tofu is a good source of protein and contains all eight essential amino acids. It is also an excellent source of iron, calcium, minerals manganese, selenium, and phosphorus. In addition, tofu is a good source of magnesium, copper, zinc and vitamin B1. Tofu is an excellent food from a nutritional and health perspective. It is thought to provide the same sort of protection against cancer and heart disease as soya beans.

Don’t kill those poor turkeys

Last year, somewhere between 250 and 270 million turkeys were raised. Approximately 46 million of those turkeys were eaten at Thanksgiving, 22 million at Christmas and 19 million at Easter. “Aggressive marketing by turkey farmers by advertising and availability of parts rather than the necessity of cooking a whole bird,” has doubled turkey consumption in America in the past 25 years, with 74 percent used in sliced turkey sandwiches. Imagine, for a minute, that you are a duck, chicken, or  a turkey and ever holiday or so your friends or you are being eaten, every time they choose you, not any animal but you. After turkeys, ducks, and chickens get extinct they ignore the fact and just find a replacement for it. Nobody will say, “Hey I think we should eat a variety of foods instead of picking on just one of them!” Come on,wake up everybody from this insane trance and be the savior of humankind! It’s time to make a difference!