Skyhunter said:
Ben Franklin is my favorite vegetarian.
Although he reduced the amount of meat he ate, he was not actually a vegetarian, that's a false assumption many have made.
"Ben was a vegetarian.
False. Evidence suggests young Franklin was adverse to killing animals for food. He also figured vegetables cost less than meat, so he could spend more of his earnings on books. His diet wasn’t completely meat and fish free, though.
http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2005/mar/franklin061605.html
"The following February, Franklin wrote again to Collinson,
announcing his decidedly mixed results. “Please to acquaint
[William Watson] that we made several experiments on fowls
this winter,” he began, proceeding to describe precisely how
strong a shock had killed a chicken. “But the turkeys,” he
continued, “though thrown into violent convulsions, and then
lying as dead for some minutes, would recover in less than a
quarter of an hour.” Using several Leyden jars together, he
finally managed to killed a turkey “of about 10 lb. wt. and
suppose they would have killed a much larger. I conceit that
the birds killed in this manner eat uncommonly tender.”18
http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/pdfplus/10.1525/gfc.2006.6.4.19
"When Franklin was about 16, he met “with a book written by one Tryon, recommending a vegetable diet,” (Franklin, Autobiography) which he promptly stuck to, more or less, for the next three years, and which he returned to for brief spells throughout his life. In addition, he repeats endlessly over the years his recommendation for moderation in eating: “Be temperate in Wine, in eating, Girls, and Sloth, or the Gout will sieze you and plague you both” (Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1734)"
http://www.benfranklin300.com/etc_article_foods.htm