Lowering the amount of red and processed meat in your eating is one way of preventing and controlling Type 2 diabetes...
as well as heart disease and colorectal cancer, two complications of Type 2 diabetes.
According to a study published in October 2012 in the British Medical Journal, it can also make an impact on the amount of green house gases emitted into our atmosphere.
Investigators for the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge in the UK used information taken from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey of British Adults.
They calculated how much green house gas was caused to be emitted in the production of red and processed meats, and how consumption of the meat created a demand for such production.
The participants, members of the British general population, were divided into five groups of people depending upon how much meat they consumed and a sixth group consisted of vegetarians:

• women who consumed the highest amounts of red and processed meats had a greater than 3 per cent higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes than those who did not consume such meats.
  
• men who ate red and processed meats had a greater than 12 per cent higher risk for developing colorectal cancer than did men who did not consume them.
  

Greenhouse gas emissions were estimated to be almost half a ton a year, or 3 per cent, lower for those not consuming red and processed meats as for those who ate the highest amounts of them.
If all Britons were vegetarians, according to calculations, 27.
8 million tons less of carbon dioxide would be emitted into our atmosphere each year.
From this information it was concluded less consumption of red and processed meats would bring not only health benefits to the population, but environmental benefits as well.
Plants take in carbon dioxide from the air and use it to make sugar.
When animals eat plants they take in the sugar and use it for energy.
In the process of breaking down sugars, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere:

• cows have been bred for size, and large animals eat a great deal of plant tissue and release a great deal of carbon dioxide.
  
• cows and pigs are driven to slaughter houses in trucks and electrical machinery is used to prod them and carve them.
  
• later the meat is driven to market in more trucks.
  
• electrical machinery is used to grind meat, mix it with spices, and mold it into sausages and other processed meats.
  

All that equipment means fuel is burned to make electricity to run the meat factories.
Tractors used for growing vegetable products also burn fuel, but when food is sent directly to the market instead of being used to feed cows and pigs, less fuel is used and less carbon dioxide is emitted.
Why not do yourself and the environment a favor? Look up some vegan recipes and you might be surprised at how good they really are.