HEALTHY VEGETARIAN CHOICES FOR LIFE

Archive for the ‘Animal Consumption’ Category

An E. coli outbreak in Europe has claimed the life of over twenty people and as of yet the cause is unknown.  One thing is for sure, however, only a fool would place the blame on vegetables.  It has never been a plant derived disease and never will be.  Meat is the culprit and always has been.

This deadly strain seems to be new and seems to be resistant to antibiotics which makes it almost impossible to eradicate.  But this is not difficult to understand, since farm factory livestock is continuously pumped full of antibiotics so they won’t die of disease from the filth they live in as well as the unnatural diet of grains which they are forced to eat and cannot digest.  Death before the slaughterhouse is unacceptable but also feeding cattle fresh grass from the field is unacceptable because it is too costly.  Besides saving money by feeding livestock indigestible food they are also forced to live in unimaginably cramped conditions.  They literally stand in their own urine and feces for the majority of their lives.  That is why they are force fed antibiotics, and that is why bacteria become immune to these heavy doses of antibiotics.

I don’t know for sure who is responsible for placing the blame for this deadly strain of bacteria on plants instead of meat but it would not be hard to imagine that this nonsense comes from the meat industry.  As far as they are concerned feeding cows grain instead of grass as well as ground up parts of other animals cannot be the cause of the E. coli outbreak.  They would also sternly deny that the unnatural conditions that this feed causes in the digestive tract of these poor tortured animals could actually be the problem.  But getting back to reality for just a moment, the question should be, “How can these animals be fed this unnatural diet and it be expected that resistant strains of deadly bacteria will not be the result?”

Every time you eat a hamburger you are eating the ground up remains of hundreds or even thousands of cattle that have lived and died in these horrible conditions.  Do you think the meat industry cares any more about you than they do the cattle that they raise (torture)?  Of course not.  But even if they did care about you the consumer there is no way to monitor the raising and slaughter of billions of animals that have been abused, drugged, cannibalized, mass produced and mass slaughtered.  Step inside a modern day farm factory or a modern day slaughterhouse and what I am saying would soon make perfect sense.  If you became aware of how your meat got to your table you would be a fool to eat it and a child abuser if you fed it to your kids.

As long as farm factories exist, animals will be tortured and fed a diet that is totally incompatible with their intestinal tract.  As long as they are forced to live the entirety of their lives standing in their own fecal matter they will continue to produce deadly strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria.  When their feces is spread over fields of plants grown for human consumption it will always add up to a very bad problem.  But this problem is not going to end soon because the antibiotic, hormone, and bacteria laden feces of multiplied billions of farm animals has got to go somewhere.  Don’t think for a moment that it only pollutes our drinking water.  No, it also becomes part of the plant kingdom.

Keep the vegetables and get rid of the farm factories.  This is the simple solution to any and every past or future outbreak of E.coli.  As a matter of fact it is the simple answer to almost every disease that plagues this great country.

If one had to name a Hot Dog season in the U.S. then that season would run from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  In this stretch of time Americans will consume over seven billion hot dogs.  With such a tremendous level of hot dog consumption (around 820 per second) it should be a no-brainer to desire to know what it is we Americans will be putting into our mouths over this period.

One famous hot dog brand boasts these ingredients in every delicious hot dog:
Mechanically separated turkey, pork, mechanically separated chicken, water, contains less than 2% of salt, flavor, sodium lactate, corn syrup, dextrose, sodium phosphates, sodium diacetate, sodium ascorbate, sodium nitrite.

The sodium nitrate by the way is a well known cancer causing ingredient which is found in all processed meat.  This additive is the reason your meat looks red even after a carcass has been dead for more than a week.  Have you ever seen or smelled a dead carcass after a week?  Actually at around four days the smell is unbearably nauseating and the meat sure doesn’t look rosy red.  Unfortunately every piece of meat you by at the grocery store is over a week old, so you can understand why all the additives with chemical names you can’t pronounce are part of the ingredients.  If this were not so, you couldn’t even stray anywhere near a meat counter because the smell would be horrifying.  Actually you couldn’t walk anywhere near the supermarket at all because of the horrible smell permeating the walls.

Mechanically Separated Meat

What the heck is mechanically separated meat anyway?  I’m glad you asked!  When you force the scraps and parts from thousands of cows, pigs, turkeys, chicken bones etc. through a high pressure sieve in order to separate the bone from the flesh a paste-like product emerges.  This yummy process is used in the production of almost all hot dogs.

The sad fact is, if every American were forced to step into the world of the meat processing industry there would not be any meat eaters left by the next morning except for knuckleheads who have a couple screws loose anyway.  The fact is that this disgusting meat processing world is kept utterly secret from the public at large.  I can assure you, however, you would not be feeding this garbage to your kids if you only knew.  Unfortunately in this case what you don’t know will kill you anyway.

Besides the fact that the ingredients in a hot dog ought to make you tremble, I would like to ask you to at least recognize and acknowledge the meat on your table for what it really is:  “the antibiotic- and pesticide-laden corpse of a tortured animal.” Ingrid Newkirk

And all of this does not even take into consideration the enormous environmental impact of the raising of livestock for human consumption, yet this should be a grave concern for all civilized people who inhabit this planet.  Our love affair with meat and their by-products is the most irresponsible stewardship that one could imagine in terms of feeding our population.

Parts After All Are Just Parts

You should also be aware that meat processing companies don’t waste any part of the cow, turkey, chicken, or pig, and most or all of these parts can potentially become incorporated into your juicy hot dog.  Hooves, tails, tongues, lips, skin, meat, bones, blood, pus, and even brains.  I don’t know about you, but I refuse to feed this to my family!

If you continue to ignore that the meat that is on your table was horrifically slaughtered, hung upside down to bleed to death, carved, and in the case of your hot dog, squeezed out of a carcass squeezing machine to form a paste and  stuffed with cancer causing chemicals so that the sight and smell won’t make you vomit, then by all means eat and enjoy.  In this writer’s opinion anyone who knows the truth and continues the practice of dead carcass consumption is either hooked on sodium nitrate and corn syrup and can’t quit, or actually possesses less intelligence than the turkey, cow, chicken, and pig whose parts were pasted together to make his or her lunch.  I don’t know about you, but I have become progressively more nauseated as I have written this short blog and I would never even consider eating that crap!

On the lighter side I would like to wish each American a safe and happy Memorial Day.  Many before us have freely given their lives so that we might enjoy the freedoms we so often take for granted.  And a special thanks to all the men and woment that are serving their country on dangerous battlefields far away from home at this very moment.  God Bless You!

According to a recent NPR report, laws in the States of Florida and Iowa would make it illegal to take photos or videos of livestock facilities without the owners permission and doing so would be classed as a felony.  A Minnesota bill is taking it even further.  This bill doesn’t just make it a felony to take undercover photos at livestock facilities, but would also make it illegal to distribute or even possess them.  I don’t know about you but the implications of such tyrannical laws first scares me, and then makes my blood boil.

It would be one thing if ample evidence did not exist as to business as usual at factory farms around the globe.  Every time a camera makes its way into one of these places the most horrendous atrocities are uncovered and these are not isolated incidents either, they happen all the time and they happen everywhere.  I find it hard to believe that any civilized person with any measure of human kindness could witness a day in the life of a laying hen, or a milk cow, or a pig, without literally breaking down and crying like a baby.  And that’s exactly why these huge factory farms do not want the wrong element in there.  The wrong element being anyone with a camera and a heart.

Kansas and Montana have already passed into law these types of bills but they all have one thing in common and one goal; to protect the big agricultural business bottom line at all costs.  The Minnesota bill should not have any trouble passing since it is being proposed by a state legislator who was formerly the president of the Minnesota Pork Producers and is still an active member today.  I wonder if he will receive any perks for making sure this bill passes?  Nah, he wouldn’t take compensation from a multi-billion dollar industry (his industry) for abusing his office now would he?

I know that the brave souls that are risking much to uncover atrocities inflicted on animals and the environment get all sorts of malicious labels attached to themselves and their activities.  I only wish I had the guts to suffer more persecution for such a cause.  But I can assure you dear reader that the poor animals that suffer untold heinous abuses each and every day of their artificially shortened lives have no voice.  They will have no voice when they are brutally transported to slaughter and they will have no voice when they are mercilessly put to an agonizing death.  The only chance they have is when someone cares enough to take a huge risk and uncover these evils.  Generally all it takes is to make civilized and compassionate people aware of the suffering and terror that goes into every bite of the meat they ingest before there is first a change of heart that leads to a change of actions.

If you would classify yourself as a civilized and compassionate human being yet you remain unaware of the brutality that is omnipresent at every farm factory in America, then it is probably time that you take your head out of the sand and find out how the meat got to your table.  Ingrid Newkirk summed it up quite succinctly when she said, “…recognize meat for what it really is: the antibiotic and pesticide laden corpse of a tortured animal.”  If you have recognized this and still care to indulge in your love affair with meat then surely innocent blood is on your hands.  But I pray that at least you won’t get in the way of brave folks who are risking much to bring to public attention that which you are causing by your food choices.

I was born in the great country of America and have lived here every day of my 53 years.  I was thinking the other day about the subject of meat and from whence it comes and I asked myself why I have never heard a discussion about this subject before at any dinner table or around any supposedly civilized folks.  Then I asked myself why I had not asked myself this question in all my years.

When was the last time you sat down at your dinner table to a rousing discussion of the life and death of the animal you were about to eat?  If little Johnny does begin to question how the animal he is eating got to the dinner table he will generally either be lied to or told to shut up.  Unfortunately the subject is so strictly taboo, it is very likely that little Johnny’s parents don’t really even know what the animal might have suffered on the way to their dinner table. 

I bet you have never heard of a 6th grade field trip to a slaughterhouse, or battery hen farm, or a factory cattle, dairy, or pig farm.  As a matter of fact you have never seen these places on the night time news unless it was a story uncovered by someone who infiltrated one of these places in order to expose the atrocities.  They seem to be America’s best kept secret.  But what is it about these places that we are not supposed to see?  They provide America with a large percentage of the food we eat, and the raising of this food uses up vast stores of water and grain that could very easily be used to alleviate the suffering of hunger and thirst around the world.  Our fresh water supply has an endless stream of vast amounts of hormone and antibiotic laden feces from these farm animals poured into it every day so that our drinking water is no longer pure and healthy but a source of dangerous toxins.  These are just a few of the penalties we suffer because of our love affair with meat, so we must really love it.  Why is anything we love that much such a taboo subject?

In this writer’s opinion these questions go unasked as well as unanswered for a very good reason.  People really don’t want to know!  Nevertheless, ignorance of the horrid conditions that the animals raised for your consumption endure does not excuse you from one iota of guilt.  The blood of their tortured existence and then their brutal slaughter is on your hands and in your mouth.  You ingest the sheer terror of these animals each time you gorge yourself on this innocent flesh.

I have written much about the tortures of the raising and slaughter of these poor creatures and many before me have been far more eloquent than I about the unimaginable brutality that these intelligent sentient beings endure both in life and in death so I will not go into the gruesome details now.  The fact is, however, many a brave soul has risked much to expose the truth of what goes on in these places and that information is now public knowledge thanks to such mediums as the Internet.  Therefore, no intelligent adult has any excuse in this world for not knowing.  If they are honest they just have to admit that they do not want to know, and this makes them no better than the industry that is responsible for the hands on torture of multiplied billions of animals each and every year.

If you still fantasize that your dinner was raised and slaughtered humanely you have been duped, and if you are that easy to fool then you do have a reasonable excuse because you don’t fall into the category of an intelligent adult.  If, however, you are an intelligent adult and you do not experience any pangs of conscience over the cruelty that provided you with your dinner than you must surely be classified in a completely different way.  I am sure you would have different feelings if it were your dog or cat who was subject to these horrifying abuses, but your ability to steadfastly refuse to care about other intelligent sentient beings does not speak very well of you.  You should know however that the pig who provided you with your pork chop is far more intelligent and inquisitive than your dog.  It was subject to such atrocities before it found it’s way to your already clogged arteries that if you witnessed one single day in it’s artificially shortened life and then the horror of it’s transport and slaughter, and you didn’t break down and cry like a baby, you probably don’t deserve to have an animal for a pet.

The reason I have stumbled and bumbled through the writing of this particular blog entry is to hopefully give a nudge to good folks who are uninformed.  If you are one who truly loves and cares about all of God’s creatures, then it is your duty to find out about how you got your dinner and then make the humane choice to quit supporting such cruelty through your unhealthy food choices.  If you stay uninformed so that you can continue to enjoy your antibiotic and hormone laden beef in peace, then surely you are just as responsible for the torture and cruelty inflicted upon these creatures as if you did the deed yourself.

There is ample research which has shown conclusively that virtually every meat eater has worms and parasites alive in their intestinal tract.  This is only logical since dead flesh attracts a vast array of microorganisms.  Research by the USDA in 1996 showed that almost 80 percent of all ground beef is contaminated with disease causing microbes and the main source is the feces that contaminates over 50 percent of the ground beef you buy in the supermarket.  These germs and parasites living in your dinner are the source of a host of diseases and a weakened immune system that does not have the ability to fight them off.

Actually the vast majority of food poisoning is due to meat consumption.  Death from ingesting E. Coli contaminated meat is very common worldwide and sickness from this strain of fecal bacteria has probably been experienced at one time or another by every meat eater whose source of meat is a modern farm factory.  What is generally termed as “stomach flu” is more than likely the result of the ingestion of tainted meat.  And to reiterate, if you buy supermarket meat regularly than you have without a doubt ingested tainted meat regularly.  Unlike E. Coli which acts swiftly to make you understand that meat consumption is a dangerous practice, most of the parasites that you ingest with every bite of your meat based diet will have cumulative long-term detrimental health consequences that might take years to manifest.  You, however, will definitely pay for your meat consumption with your health as the years go by, that is if the high cholesterol content doesn’t cause a violent heart attack that kills you first.

The majority of deadly parasites and germs which contaminate most of our meat is a direct result of the diet of the farm animals.  They are fed a completely unnatural diet in order to fatten them up for slaughter much more rapidly and also because it is cheaper and therefore better for the bottom line of the farm factory.  The meat you buy at your local supermarket as been fed a steady diet of corn, which a cow cannot digest.  The cattle feed that your dinner was raised on also contained chicken feces, feathers and much more that is too disgusting to mention which was scraped off the floors of the filthy chicken houses.  Some of the other mouthwatering ingredients of cattle feed are delicacies such as diseased chicken, pig, and horse flesh.  Again this is the farm factory industry’s means of raising beef in the most cost effective manner so that you can afford to buy all you wish for your loved ones.

It naturally takes as long as five years to fatten up a steer for market but thanks to the special diet of corn and the above mentioned horrors, these animal factories have cut the process down to less than a year and a half.  Unfortunately the unnatural diet causes every cow to become sick.  They suffer from constant heartburn, ulcers, liver disease, pneumonia and many other infections throughout their shortened lives.  Many cattle die long before the seventeen or eighteen months but in order to ensure that some will make it to slaughter alive, they are fed huge doses of antibiotics.  This merely makes for new strains of superbugs found in your meat which have become immune to the antibiotics.   It only takes a small amount of these antibiotic immune super strains of bacteria to kill you.  Therefore you take a horrible risk every time you ingest a piece of undercooked meat, and if you do not spend inordinate amounts of time disenfecting every area of your kitchen which your meat has come in contact with, these deadly parasites rapidly become living entities in your kitchen and dining area.

The large percentage of cattle who die before they live to a ripe old age of between sixteen and eighteen months are really the lucky ones.  The horrid existence these animals experience at the hands of the farm factories is unbearably brutal every single hour.  The unfortunates who survive the poisonous diet and horrid living conditions will be transported in even more brutal conditions to the filthy slaughterhouse where they will experience a gruesome, terrifying and painful end.   And don’t fool yourself to assuage your guilt regarding your direct responsibility in this brutality,  these slaughtered animals are sentient beings who feel terror and pain just as you and I would in the same conditions.  That this is true would only take one visit to a slaughterhouse to confirm. 

All of this is business as usual for the multi-million dollar animal farm industry.  And as a meat consumer you make it possible for these industries to survive and thrive.  We are a meat eating society here in America and it would be impossible to supply all of these meat products and bi-products at relatively low prices if it were not for the farm factories.  So if you do not mind feeding your family diseased, tortured, germ infested dead carcasses for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then by all means continue to support the barbaric farm factories by your unhealthy food choices.  They will keep the poisoned meat coming until it kills you, or your health becomes so unbearable that you pray for death.

I have received the weirdest looks and some of the dumbest questions by folks when they discover that I am a total vegetarian.  The looks make me want to quickly run and find a mirror and make sure that I don’t have two noses or possibly even manure on my face.  The questions range from “what do you eat?” to “where do you get your protein?” to “how can you live without meat?”  The majority of people seem to think that such a lifestyle choice is extreme.

One such person looked utterly flabbergasted when he offered me one of four hot dogs which were going to be his lunch and I told him that I would rather eat my tennis shoe than one of those abominations.  He just could not rap his brain around the fact that I was a vegetarian.  He thought this type of lifestyle was extreme.  He didn’t feel that his fifty pounds of excess weight was extreme nor the fact that he was eating 4 hot dogs made of many different cow parts to include hoofs, lips, and many other parts of the cow that are too horrible to mention, and for that pale red coloring,  cancer causing sodium nitrate in each mouthwatering bite. 

His processed white flour hot dog buns were another nutritional nightmare.  The process of making the flour that he was ingesting had fully removed the outside bran layer of the seed and the germ.  These are the most nutrition packed parts of the seed and also the most rich in fiber.  His hot dog buns had been chemically bleached and a whole bunch of unpronounceable chemical additives were present in every bite.  Then he washed it all down with a cherry coke.  I won’t even go into how bad a cherry coke is for a human to ingest.  His lunch was nothing short of suicidal, yet he was strenuous to the point of obnoxious in his belief that my dietary habits were extreme.

The Definition Of Extreme

If you want to get a taste of extreme you should start reading the labels of the processed food you buy every day for  your family.  When you find it difficult to pronounce the myriad of  names of chemicals in the food you eat it is because that chemical could very well be used as a rust inhibitor on jet airplanes, lacquer in paint, antifreeze, petroleum, car wax, or plastic, just to name a few of the disgusting, disease causing toxins which are added to your food.  And don’t get me started on the ingredients found in your child’s happy meal at the neighborhood McNasty.  You would be better off giving your child a cigarette and a shot of whiskey than feeding him a McDonald’s hamburger, fries, and shake.  At least the shot of whiskey would deaden the pain while the cigarette was killing him.

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is the most extreme diet in the world.  It has caused cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, stroke, and just about every other infirmity that the majority of Americans suffer.  The (SAD) diet has bankrupted a society with rising health care costs and doctors who prescribe statin drugs as though they were candy.  These drugs do nothing in the world but mask the symptoms that you suffer because of the food you eat.  Oh yeah, they also make the pharmaceutical companies rich!  This is the definition of extreme and yet is considered normal by almost all Americans. Most Americans think it absolutely normal to wolf down a diet consisting solely of processed, manufactured, artificial foods loaded with a myriad of cancer causing chemicals. They think eating processed meat seven days a week at every meal is perfectly natural.

Tell the average American that your diet consists of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole unprocessed grains, beans, nuts and seeds and that you shun all animal flesh as well as their by products and they look at you like you needed to be put away.  They think it quite strange that you would read a label on food and refuse to eat it if it had antifreeze, petroleum, or car wax in it.  Tell them that a vegetarian diet is not only the healthiest diet for your physical body but also the most environmentally friendly and they might turn their back and walk away.  Tell them that their foolish dietary choices are responsible for the untold suffering of multiplied billions of animals and they might strike you.

A Nation Of Sheep

Like sheep led to the slaughter, when it comes to diet and lifestyle Americans tend to follow one another to their death and find it strange when one of the sheep gets out of line and makes an intelligent informed decision about such grave matters.  They find it strange that you don’t continue with them in their death march but through healthy dietary and lifestyle choices begin to take responsibility for your own health and well being and stop putting it into the hands of pharmaceutical companies and doctors who have a vested interest in keeping you sick.

In this writers opinion the most extreme diet in the world is the Standard American Diet (SAD).  It is my prayer that more and more people become informed about what it is they are actually eating and then make intelligent dietary and lifestyle changes that coincide with common sense.  Chemical frankenfood made in a laboratory is not an intelligent dietary decision nor is it a healthy one.  Whole unprocessed foods straight from nature are the only reasonable and sane choice and it is high time that more and more Americans understand this.

I am passionate about my wonderful, compassionate, beautiful homeland called America, and even more passionate about the health of individual Americans and the animals native to our land.  My website is dedicated to the advancement of informed choices that will benefit our health, our environment, and our animal friends.  Sadly and quite discouragingly, more often then not, I don’t have any sense that my voice is so much as being heard among the drone of business as usual, but nevertheless the cause of American health as well as the welfare of our animal population is so tremendously important that I feel I must continue to proclaim the message even if it becomes a heavy economical  and hugely stressful burden to do so. 

I am a vegetarian who believes that animals are sentient beings which have a God given and an intelligent desire to live and thrive in a normal habitat, and that they also desire to see their offspring thrive in a healthy environment.  Our animal friends, which through our opulence and self centeredness become our food, are also intelligent and sentient beings and they most certainly are fully aware of the gross mistreatment that they are subjected to, and they are also greatly distressed when their offspring is stolen from them as in the case of cows which regularly suffer unimaginable abuse in order to make the dairy industry rich.  These mother cows can often be heard whaling for weeks after their babies are taken from them because it is unthinkable to the powers that be that one drop of milk should be wasted on the mother cow’s young.  This process is done over and over until the cow is physically spent and then they are sent to a cruel slaughterhouse fate.  They might not understand why, but  they understand fully the barbaric practices that “civilized man” inflicts on them.  Greedy man’s great desire for wealth energizes, enables, and gives them license to allow and propagate the most atrocious crimes imaginable against sentient beings that are sold for your food. It matters very little what the corrupted United States Department of Agriculture says since they have long been in the hip-pocket of the meat and dairy industry. If you have any love or compassion for our animal friends that share our planet then you should stand with me and advocate strenuously for their protection.  Your voice can best be heard by refusing to buy animal flesh or their by-products for food.

You should also consider the health problems associated with an animal based diet and realize that the most nutritious diet known to man consists of that which is grown in the soil and not that which walks on four legs and is slaughtered for human consumption.  It should be plain to you that the deep colors associated with fruits, and vegetables, and the fact that your eye and your very being are attracted to them, logically constitutes them as healing foods.  Some of the most beautiful paintings are those that depict a basket of fruit.  In contrast, have you ever known a professional artist who chooses to paint a depiction of a slab of dead meat on a plate?  I have never seen such a painting in an art museum, nor have I ever known of such a painting being sold, nor would I buy one. 

It should also be noted that a vegetarian diet is the most ecologically friendly diet.  As a nation we are facing more than out of control health problems and health care costs, we are also facing extreme ecological challenges.  Many of these problems would be solved by merely switching to a vegetarian diet.  I am not going to cite again statistics concerning the environmental benefits of a vegetarian diet as I have already done so in previous posts and many others have done so much more ably than I, but certainly the statistics are there for anyone to see.  These statistics are undeniable for any unbiased mind and they are very one sided in favor of vegetarianism.  The bottom line is that if you are one that is concerned about your own health as well as the health of our nation, if you care about the environment, and if you have any concern for the animals which have no voice, then you should refrain from eating their flesh as well as their bi-products, and stick rather to a heart and health friendly vegetarian diet.

Americans consume by far more fast food per capita than any nation on the planet.  We are also the fattest nation on the planet.  I wonder if there is a correlation?

But what is it we are really eating when we pile the kids in the SUV and head over to the nearest fast food burger joint?

Let’s examine for a moment our fast food craze and what it is we are actually consuming.

Beef factories that supply your fast food hamburger have a firm policy;  they refuse to waste one bit of the slaughtered animal.  They are masterfully efficient in their ability to bring you your burger at the least possible cost to themselves.  Every part of the animal is considered food.  Leftover bits and pieces of hormone laden, antibiotic fed, diseased cows are ground up together and fed back to the live cows.  Then these cows are ground up and fed to you.

The Big Mac you just had for lunch may very well have been the remains of as many as four hundred cows.  That’s right, your hamburger might consist of the ground up parts of up to four hundred cows.  Moreover, your lunch might have been pieced and glued together from the remains of hundreds of cows from many different states or even countries.  Many of those cows died horrible deaths due to malignant diseases. 

It has been estimated that nearly eighty percent of all ground beef is infested with microbes that are spread by fecal matter.  You see, cows produce  a whole bunch of crap and then they stand around in it for their entire lives.  So when they die due to horrible conditions or even make it alive to the slaughterhouse this crap is ground up and becomes part of your Flame Broiled Whopper.

There are roughly ten billion chickens existing on factory farms at any given time in America.  They will live the entirety of their tortured existence never seeing natural daylight.  Egg laying hens live their entire lives in small wire cages which house as many as seven hens.  This prison is where they will live until the day of their untimely slaughter.  They have no room to move or even spread their wings.  They will never do one natural thing in their artificially shortened life.  They are a commodity that produces eggs and nothing more.   Of course these conditions drive these intelligent, social creatures insane and so they are painfully de-beaked so as not to cause harm to their cagemates thereby cutting into the profit margin of their cruel captors.

All of this stress causes their immune systems to quit functioning and so they are pumped full of antibiotics which of course is passed on to you every time you eat a Chicken McNugget.  It is granted that a Chicken McNugget does not contain much chicken but nevertheless the many different parts which are ground up and glued back together to form your McNasty lunch are  also hormone laden and contain fecal matter. 

Part of the reason that the fast food we eat is harmful is because it really isn’t food.  It is processed on an assembly line and then flash frozen.  Of course when you freeze and dehydrate food it loses it’s taste.  To make this processed food taste less like cardboard it is injected with chemicals.  When you order your Burger King strawberry shake there are over forty chemicals used to make it taste like strawberry.  None of these chemicals is actually strawberry however. Methyl anthranilate is a good example of a chemical used to make grape Kool-Aid taste like grape.  This chemical is used to inhibit metal corrosion in jet engine lubricants.  Amyl acetate tastes like bananas and is also used as a paint and lacquer solvent.   Can you imagine what we are doing to our bodies when we eat this crap that we actually call food?

The bottom line is that if you are addicted to fast food as is the case with many Americans, you are eating high calorie, chemical laden, disease ridden nonfood which is causing harm to your body.  You should examine the ingredients of every bit of  fast food you consume and doubtless a thorough examination will leave you in shock.  Once you actually know what you are eating the wisest course of action will be to eliminate all fast food from your life.  It will pay great dividends to your health in the years to come.

A Juicy Steak Please

I am amazed that folks actually enjoy this type of cuisine.  It should be understood however, that when you order this at a restaurant what you are actually saying to the waiter or waitress is this: 

“Please give me a steak and make sure that the blood and body fluids of the hormone, antibiotic, and pesticide laden flesh of the tortured and diseased animal are still visibly oozing.”

I really don’t mean to offend and I’m sorry for being the one to say it but in my mind I have a hard time conceiving of anybody who still possesses a measure of sanity actually asking for this. 

Memory Lane

When I was a young teenager, I worked at a very expensive restaurant that catered to the very, very rich.  I was a dishwasher so I was able to see how the food was prepared.  I must admit that I saw some things that made me quite nauseous, but the worst memories, which to this day remain vivid in my mind,  have to do with the very nice and amiable “Head Chef” with whom I became well acquainted.  He was a really nice guy but I believe he ate too much of his own cooking because he was terribly obese. 

I can remember that on particularly hot days while he was slaving over the hot stove, he would sweat profusely and the sweat would be visibly pouring off of his face and body and dripping  into the very food that he was preparing.  I must say that this memory has stuck in my mind for almost 40 years.  It was really that disgusting.

I just have to admit that when someone orders a juicy steak or hamburger, this vision unfortunately comes back to me in living color.  I say that it is unfortunate because it really is quite an unpleasant memory.  I can actually visualize the body fluids pouring off of the kindly chef into the expensive steak dinners. 

The difference between the chef’s little addition to the steak he was preparing and that of the steak you are ordering this evening is that when you are ordering the body fluids and blood of an innocent animal, that animal was tortured, very likely diseased, full of hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides, and you actually ingest the very terror of that innocent animal’s slaughter.  

My point is that you would be far better off consuming the body fluids of the kindly, yet obese chef who prepared meals at that fine dining establishment.  Although I am sure that he probably had advanced heart disease, at least he was not pumped full of hormones and antibiotics and he had no outward visible signs of disease unlike the cow you are consuming.  These poor tortured creatures often suffer from any number of diseases by the time they reach the slaughterhouse.  This is due to the deplorable conditions in which they are raised.

I must reiterate that it is very difficult for me to conceive of anybody who still has all of their mental faculties in tact actually ordering this for dinner. 

It is my opinion that we as a society should take the time to examine and become more aware of what it is we are putting into our bodies.  Since we are the most unhealthy country on earth maybe we should more often ask ourselves the question, “What’s For Dinner?”

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The average American meat eater has a blood cholesterol level of 208mg/dl.  The average American vegetarian has a blood cholesterol level of 160 and the average American vegan is at 133.

An elevated cholesterol level (which is anything above 165mg/dl) promotes atherosclerosis.  Atherosclerosis is the buildup of cholesterol and fat in the arteries which feed the heart.  When this buildup hardens, plaque is formed.  This plaque narrows the arteries and restricts blood flow to the heart and brain.  That is why heart attack and stroke are so commonplace in our society.  The good news however, is that if your cholesterol level is under 152 you are virtually assured of never suffering a heart attack. 

Please note however, that the above referred to diseases are by no means natural nor are they merely the result of regular living.  Therefore it is not necessary to sit around and twiddle your thumbs until the inevitable heart attack finds you.  These and other maladies are mainly due to a paradigm shift from a plant-based diet to an animal-based diet.  The hard saturated fats found in animal flesh raise cholesterol levels to dangerous peaks.  It is no secret that meat, eggs and dairy products contain large amounts of cholesterol, and saturated fats.  Your body produces all the cholesterol it needs and there is no reason whatsoever to supplement your body with more, that is unless you like the idea of a heart attack or stroke.  In contrast, plant foods contain absolutely no cholesterol.  Actually, soy protein is proven to lower cholesterol as also does the high fiber content inherent in a vegetarian diet.  Unlike plant-based foods, meat, eggs, and dairy products have no fiber at all.

Nearly half of all Americans will develop heart disease, simply because the American diet is a heart attack waiting to happen.  Every time you consume an animal or an animal by-product your blood thickens with cholesterol and saturated fat, which accumulates in your arteries. 

If you are a meat eater you should visit your doctor and have your cholesterol level checked.  You should do this because it is almost certain that your cholesterol is too high and that you have a rendezvous with a heart attack or stroke in your future.  It is really only a matter of time.  There are no symptoms related to high cholesterol levels so if you don’t have your level checked you will probably be the next heart attack statistic and the next believer in what I have been saying.  Many before me have surely said it more eloquently than I, but maybe you did not heed them either. 

If you abstain from consuming meat and dairy you should have your cholesterol level checked also.  However you don’t need to have yours checked because of any imminent danger since in all likelihood you will not be  checking out of this life due to a heart attack.  In my opinion you should have your cholesterol checked because it is a great advertisement for your vegetarian way of living.  When you are asked how much money you have spent on pharmaceutical cholesterol lowering drugs you can tell them you have actually saved around $500.00 dollars per year at the grocery store because you don’t eat meat.  If pressed further that you must certainly be one of the millions who spend billions each year on drugs which lower cholesterol, just prove to them that you do not suffer from any liver problems or the painful muscle condition called myopathy.  Since these are two of the main adverse side effects inherent in cholesterol lowering drugs, your lack of any dangerous complications associated with pharmaceuticals, should be proof enough.  Of course you might also point to your healthy weight since vegetarians who eat a healthy plant-based diet are almost never obese.

The bottom line is that if you adopt a vegetarian diet your food bill will go down, and you will save tons of money on cholesterol lowering drugs since a vegetarian diet will eliminate the need for taking any.  A few of the side effects you will experience for switching to a plant-based diet are:  weight loss, lower cholesterol, no more constipation, more energy, younger looking skin, a strong immune system, stronger bones and teeth, less body odor, fresher breath, and a reversal of the aging process, just to name a few. 

Drugmakers spend billions of dollars promoting cholesterol lowering drugs because the return on their investment is huge.  Millions of Americans have high cholesterol and are willing to dole out huge sums of money because frankly, it’s a matter of life and death.  And although pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars annually, the focus remains on treating the disease and not preventing it in the first place.  Therefore it is certain they will make billions more next year since they do not sell drugs capable of curing what ails us. 

May I be so bold as to make a suggestion to you dear reader?  In my humble opinion you should begin the process of saving between $1500.00 and $2000.00 dollars per year (if you are a family of four) and instead of purchasing expensive artery clogging meat, try buying healing foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds and whole grains.  You probably have never before given much thought as to how wide is the array of foods and savory dishes you will be able to prepare without meat.  Even with a healthy vegetarian diet you will likely not live enough years to experience all of the wonderful vegetarian fare  that awaits you.  These are not bland nor boring meals but rather they are the tastiest most satisfying foods on earth. 

With all the money you will be saving you should treat yourself to some new clothes because very soon you will be losing some unwanted pounds, and happily, this weight loss will seem almost effortless.  It will merely be a natural consequence of your new healthy diet. You will be amazed at how great you feel and how much energy you have.  You will also find that you are thinking much clearer and that you are sick less often.  Thankfully you will not be wasting money and gasoline due to regular trips to your local pharmacy for cholesterol lowering drugs because your new diet will cure the disease.  I would venture to guess that you have better things to do with your money anyway… Don’t you?

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MEET YOUR MEAT

I have watched a few very graphic and informative farm animal cruelty videos such as Meet Your Meat and I just have to tell you that I don’t have the stomach for them.  Do you?  Can you watch one of the many such videos out there which tell the tale of unmentionable, unimagionable farm factory animal cruelty and come away from it without a change of heart.  Or are you like many that I have known who speak of their great love for animals and even demonstrate it in their lives and yet they tell me that they cannot bear to watch even one of these videos.  They are far too sensitive and have far too great a concern for the animals that share our planet and should be our friends, so they tell me that they just have to refuse to view such a disgusting display.  Some of these folks are so passionate and exhibit such a clear love for our animal population that I have often wondered what these same people are thinking when they close their eyes to incomprehensible cruelty.

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE

If you are a meat eater than you are directly responsible for the abject cruelty that the above referred to videos portray.  You are not an innocent bystander to these horrendous atrocities, YOU DID IT!  You are directly responsible for the perpetuation of the most heinous acts that the human mind can fathom, and your responsibility grows with every hamburger you ingest.  Every time you and I have ever visited Colonel Sanders or Jack in the Box or Burger King we were the cause of the untold suffering of an intelligent, loving, loyal, innocent animal. 

The question in my mind is this:  How can you say that you love animals and at the same time continue to be responsible for the torture of so many?  Do you fancy yourself a very caring and sensitive human being?  If so then how can you close your eyes to such brutality?  If you refuse to watch even a video of these atrocities on the grounds that you are too sensitive, how will you ever prove it?  People who truly care about the plight of our animal friends might not be able to stomach the video but they certainly would never help with the acquisition of the footage.  They could never be a party to such horrible atrocities.

If eating the flesh of intelligent, sentient creatures was necessary to sustain human life I would be the first to agree that they need to be killed and eaten. I do not put an animal on the same level as a human being.  A child’s life is more important than that of a dog.  That is my belief.  Nevertheless it is also my firm belief that there is no living soul be it human or animal that should ever be treated cruelly. 

NOTHING MORE THAN A PRODUCT

Farm factory animals are not treated as living souls but as mere products.  They are moved through an assembly line as if they were no more than a piece of steel being cut and bent and formed in order to fashion a bumper for an automobile.  These poor animals are viewed as no more than inanimate objects and are treated as such.  This cruelty is not merely that which occurs at the slaughterhouse but rather it is the norm throughout the totality of their miserable, artificially shortened life. 

I ask you now to click the link I placed at the beginning of this article.  Watch that video from beginning to end if you have the stomach for it.  If however, you can’t make it to the end due to sensitivity then you are the more guilty if you ever again eat the flesh of one of these innocent souls. 

REFUSING ANIMAL FLESH IS AN EXCELLENT CHOICE

Will your health suffer for not eating animal carcasses?  No it will not!  Actually you will live longer, while decreasing your chances of a heart attack, stroke, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and a host of other infirmities.  As an added bonus you will be greatly aiding the healing of our environment.  But most importantly you will be helping to protect the animals that can’t protect themselves.  You will become their voice since they themselves cannot speak. 

Should you choose to continue to be the cause of such brutality, you have not broken any laws of this land.  But please don’t waste time pleading your case that you love and care for the animals that share our planet.  In reality it matters very little how adamantly you declare your great love for animals, because certainly your actions are speaking so loudly that no one can hear what you are saying…

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USDA Does Not Like To Ruffle The Feathers Of The Meat Industry

Senior Public Health Correspondent, Andrew Schneider wrote a telling article today (September 28) entitled:  “USDA May Be Ready to Tackle ‘Other’ E. Coli Strains.”  In the article he shows how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has for years ignored proof that “several unregulated strains of E. coli contaminate America’s meat supply”.  He goes on to write: “It is an axiom in much of the federal government that nothing happens until the bodies stack up. That was certainly the case with E. coli 0157. Its presence in food was long known to cause disease, but for years the USDA completely accepted the meat industry’s position that slaughterhouses and beef-processing plants were not accountable for pathogen contamination because consumers were expected to properly cook the product.”

In 1994 Michael Taylor (at that time the USDA’s food safety boss) showed real courage when he stared down the powerful American Meat Institute (AMI) and declared that E. coli 0157 was a contaminant in beef.  From that point went out an order that all slaughter and processing plants must implement microbial test requirements and pathogen reduction standards for the meat industry.  That was the beginning of the end of unchecked E. coli 0157 causing sickness, and deaths in America.  That is not to say that this strain has never caused a death since 1994, but that there is now regulation in place.

USDA And The American Meat Institute Sleep In The Same Bed

Unfortunately, there are other dangerous strains of E. coli beyond the E. coli 0157.  There is no regulation in place for these strains and if the AMI has anything to say about it there never will be.  But since there is much evidence showing that these strains cause disease and death, how can the USDA justify a stance of non-action concerning this issue.  Andrew Schneider states in his article:  “Eleven years ago this month, Dr. Paul Mead, a medical epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch, reported in Emerging Infectious Diseases that food-borne poisoning from exposure to E. coli non-O157 strains is responsible for at least 31,229 illnesses, 294 hospitalizations and 26 deaths each year.” 

Since that was eleven years ago just imagine how those numbers have increased at this late date.  As I have stated in other writings, the USDA has long ago been bought and purchased by the AMI.  For obvious reasons the USDA cannot afford to buck the powerful meat industry.  Andrew Schneider goes on in the article:  “The meat industry, in particular the American Meat Institute, is extremely powerful, and they play a major role setting public policy at USDA,” said Tony Corbo, a food safety specialist for Food and Water Watch. “For the agency to institute any rules that ensure or increase the safety of meat, they first must overcome efforts from [the meat lobby] to block them.”

Our Health Matters Very Little To The Meat Industry

The “foxes really are guarding the chicken coup” and this makes for a very unstable situation and a dangerous one for the consumer.  The meat industry is not going to accept any mandate that they must test for these other deadly strains without a monumental fight.  It will cost them a load of money to implement these test requirements and your and my health, frankly, is not all that important to them.  What is important to them is the bottom line in dollars and cents. Therefore if a few million become ill, or end up in the hospital, and a percentage of those meet their fate through tainted beef, well… “que sera sera.”

The powerful meat industry long ago shut the Federal Government’s mouth with respect to just about every atrocity imaginable when it comes to the raising (torture) of animals for human consumption.  They really do get away with murder.  They have even bought the right to be able to declare to you with a straight face that meat consumption is actually good for you. That is why you, dear reader, might very well believe that your E. coli burger is necessary for optimum health.  This however is an unmitigated lie of epidemic proportions.  In reality, meat consumption is a major player in the rise in rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, strokes, high blood pressure, dangerous cholesterol levels, obesity, and many other infirmities. 

Hold The Meat Moguls Accountable

I know that America has a love affair with its meat, and this love affair will eventually kill us with a slow, but violent death, but just because we have been sold this “pig in a poke” concerning meat actually being a healthy food choice, let us nevertheless stand up and refuse to be sold DISEASED meat.  Even if the top dogs in the meat and dairy industries are forced to give up a percent or two of their billion dollar bank accounts to insure that the animal products they thrust upon us are actually disease free, then so be it.  If any consumer just can’t sleep at night for sadness at the plight of these insanely rich meat industry giants because they might be forced to play fair and not kill people, then let that consumer forward a donation by direct deposit to the poor abused billionaire’s bank account.  As for me and my house, however, we just refuse to eat meat and we are much healthier for it; moreover we sleep better at night because it is not merely the right thing to do for optimum health, but it is also the right thing to do for the environment and most importantly for the protection of our animal friends. 

More to come…

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The strangest phenomena occurs when you start to tell those you love about your choice to become a vegetarian.  They usually start asking some fairly insensible, unintelligible questions, and the questions really don’t even seem much like questions, rather they tend to have the air of  hostility.  You can actually feel like you are in a prize fight deflecting jabs and straight right hands.  If you have never experienced this I am sorry to say that it is probably just a matter of time. 

If I had decided to quit drinking, or smoking, or any other bad habit, generally I would be met with the standard, “congratulations!”, or “I’m happy for you!”.  Why then, when I have decided to quit putting artery clogging animal fats, and the antibiotic and hormone laden flesh of dead and diseased carcasses into my body, and exchange this for a heart healthy vegetarian diet, am I bombarded with questions and angry commentary as to why I shouldn’t do such a dastardly deed? 

Honestly, my life actually runs a bit smoother when I am not forced to engage in any major disagreements concerning my eating habits or the color and style of my underwear decisions for that matter.  I would rather just point those that have become offended at my lifestyle choices to my blog and let them get a bit more than a piece of my mind on the subject.  Actually this blog is really my only voice for vegetarianism.  I really am not one to wave a banner in front of friends and family and attempt to persuade them to adopt the same life choices that I have, although I will vigorously defend my beliefs if confronted.  If they have honest questions about the merits of a plant-based diet, I feel very comfortable discussing the subject with them, but I don’t generally try to initiate the conversation.  I guess the only reason the subject of what I eat would ever come up at all is because there is meat at every function I attend .  That of course poses a problem.  Of necessity I must inform folks about my stance when it comes to animal consumption, or at least only partake of side dishes that I am comfortable with and hope nobody has any major queries as to what I might be up to.

But there is something else that I also find quite a conundrum each time I am forced to defend my vegetarian lifestyle.  It never ceases to amaze me how really intelligent folks who have displayed much more common sense than I throughout their lives become utterly perplexed when it comes to the issues surrounding vegetarianism. 

In my own personal journey when I first started examining the question of a healthy diet and a vegetarian lifestyle it seemed that the benefits were really crystal clear.  Although I had been a meat eater my entire life I could not deny the mountain of documentation on the subject.  Moreover the evidence was quite  compelling and so easy to believe.  On whatever front the discussion or debate was waged, when comparing a plant-based diet to an animal-based diet the vegetarian way always seemed like common sense to me.  Whether we were comparing the merits of one against another in regards to the health of the human body, the environment, or the inhumane treatment of our animal friends, consuming plants instead of animals is a responsible choice from every angle, and really dare I say, “a no-brainer!”. 

I am also quite certain that if any honest soul examines the issues and compares the virtues and flaws (I can’t find any worth mentioning in a vegetarian diet) of both lifestyles with a view to arriving at the truth, and this without prejudice, they will always find in favor of a vegetarian way of life.  The evidence is simply that one sided and clear. 

For me the intelligent question really should not be, “Why are you a vegetarian”?, but rather “What has possessed you to continue the ridiculously unhealthy, environmentally disastrous, utterly barbaric, and inhumane practice of eating intelligent animals”?

More to come…

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What Do You Imagine?

What do you think of when you envision farm animals?  Do you think of a fat cow in a sun-drenched pasture munching on some green grass?  Or do you imagine some chickens lazing  about pecking on the ground for seed outside of a beautiful red barn?  These scenes look wonderful on a post card but are not the actual proceedings at farm factories.

The Reality 

Animals on most farm factories are literally tormented every hour of their existence until they meet a cruel torturous fate at the slaughterhouse.  Please see my article entitled Animal Consumption – A Cruel Ritual to gain a bit more insight into this incomprehensible abuse.  These farm factories have realized that by cramming the most animals into the smallest space possible they can greatly increase their profit margins.  Let me also assure you that there is absolutely no concern for the welfare of the animal when profits are in reality the only consideration.  This is one of the reasons for the term “farm factory”.  Given this reality do you think that these animals are being fed high quality food or do you think these factories attempt to cut costs here also?  If that answer is not readily apparent to you, may I suggest that you are either deluding yourself, or just have never given the question so much as  a moments thought. 

The truth is that in the brutal farm factories’ never ending search for ways to lower costs and thereby increase profits, they have resorted to feeding these poor abused creatures that which is unbelievably unhealthy for them and also for the humans that consume their flesh.

What’s For Dinner?

Have you ever heard of Mad Cow Disease?  That is the consequence of feeding dead cows to live cows.  The Federal Government has intervened a bit in this connection but cattle can still be fed blood from dead cows as well as other parts from these carcasses.  Pigs, turkeys, chickens, etc. can all legally be fed the dead carcasses of their own species.  And of course these animals can be fed the carcasses of cattle and when they die they in turn can be fed to cows so as you can see the cause of Mad Cow Disease has not really been stopped, but it is just a bit longer cycle now.  The steak you had for dinner last night can legally be fed dead horse, dead dogs and cats, feathers, hair, hooves, blood, internal organs, and other disgusting matter. 

Of course all of this (feed) contains large traces of cow, pig, and poultry manure, as well as the drugs they have been fed such as antibiotics ( to keep these poor creatures alive under terribly crowded, unsanitary, and stress filled conditions) arsenic and hormones (to promote faster growth) and anything else that might sneak into the (food?) they are subjected to.  Much of the drugs which they have been fed passes straight through their bodies without change so that you and I can ingest them with our dinner.  Isn’t this wonderful?

And please don’t forget that your vision of Elsie the cow grazing in a lovely pasture eating what they are meant to eat (grass) is not what is happening.  Besides the antibiotic and hormone rich dead animal carcasses they are fed (which they can’t digest) they are also fed huge amounts of grain ( which they also cannot digest) in order to fatten them up quicker so you can have your share of these delicacies at your next barbecue. 

If you have ever wondered why the antibiotics that used to help clear up your ear infection are no longer as effective please understand that the above practices make bacteria highly resistant to antibiotics and this is just one of the many unhealthy results of the inhumane raising of animals in farm factories.

An Informed Choice 

If you choose to turn a deaf ear to these practices and continue to eat your meat because it tastes good, than there is not much anyone could say.  I must admit however it is very difficult for me to conceive of a choice for the above by any rational human being.  It is even more incomprehensible when there is a simpler, far healthier, and more sterile alternative.  A plant based diet is exactly what the doctor ordered.  If you desire to greatly decrease your chances for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, obesity, etc., please consider the benefits of vegetarianism.  But even if your own health and welfare is of no great concern to you, then at least do it for the benefit of these tortured animals that should in reality be our friends.  And while you are at it you will be simultaneously making a huge contribution to the betterment of the environment of the planet we call home. 

As far as this writer is concerned, a healthy vegetarian choice is the only rational response.  Please be responsible enough to at least become informed.

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As was discussed in Part 1 the first step in becoming a vegetarian is to compile all the data available on the advantages and disadvantages of the subject and then make a decision based on your findings.  Remember also to consider the source of the information as that plays an important role in determining what part of the information is useful and what part is not.  Of course the completion of Step 1 is to actually act on your decision whether positively or negatively. 

In regards to the decision to become a vegetarian this writer believes that if all of the evidence is weighed in the balances the only reasonable choice remaining would be to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle.  As I have written in previous articles, and as many before me have shown far more ably than I ever could, your choice for vegetarianism is a choice for better physical health, and also will greatly benefit our environment, as well as the animals that share our planet.

Be Wary of Myths

When you have decided to make a healthy change in your life however, there is a danger that you might be inclined to embrace any perceived good news concerning your former bad habits.  If you have done any research at all (unless your data comes exclusively from the meat and dairy industry) you know that the old tired myth that vegetarians do not get adequate protein has been shown to be fallacious.  The same is true for the myth about cows milk being the best source for calcium.  This is just not so and the evidence is clear.  Again it won’t be as clear if you use sources connected with the meat and dairy industry as your guide, but then they no doubt have some ulterior motives for their madness.

Vitamin B12 Deficiency

There is a concern however that you should be aware of when changing your diet and adopting a vegetarian lifestyle.  This is the issue of Vitamin B12 deficiency.  Although this deficiency is extremely rare it nevertheless has been over exaggerated whenever the case for a strict vegetarian diet is discussed.  It is actually the last attack that could possibly be waged against a meatless diet and although it is not nearly as serious a concern as those who champion an animal-based diet would have you believe, it still merits consideration.  Since every other attack on a purely vegetarian lifestyle has been shown to be lacking true evidence, this last attack will surely be blown way out of proportion.

The truth is that Vitamin B12 is essential for the process of cell division and the formation of blood.  Although Vitamin B12 is found in animal food products it is not actually synthesized by plants or animals.  Bacteria is the agent necessary to make this vitamin.  It is true that a strict plant-based diet might fail to provide adequate amounts of Vitamin B12 but it is also true that this deficiency is very, very rare.  In his excellent report (McDougall Report, Vol.6, No.11) Dr. McDougall says that the chances are about 1 in a million.  You should really read the entirety of this report.  You can go to the McDougall Newsletter Archives and click on the Nov. 2007 issue to read this wonderfully informative letter. 

All the pulpit pounding surrounding this deficiency notwithstanding, it really becomes a non issue when you take a supplement that supplies about 5 micrograms of Vitamin B12 daily.  This is more than an adequate amount according to Dr. McDougall.  Personally I am a vitamin freak and have had a long affair with the Multi Vitamin, “Centrum”.  This fantastic multi-mineral supplement has been providing this 5 micrograms of Vitamin B12 long before I knew it was necessary.  So I have actually never had a B12 issue and never will.  As a matter of fact even if you have been a vegetarian for a long time and have never taken a B12 supplement you are really very likely not at any huge risk.  But why not supplement this possible deficiency anyway?  It is as simple as taking a good multi vitamin.

Become Informed

In conclusion I hope you will really consider the benefits of a strictly vegetarian lifestyle and sift through all the evidence.  I think when you are really informed, the choice will be clear.  The only actual reason to continue eating meat after you have done your research is because it tastes good.  If  in your estimation “tasting good”  is a good reason to continue eating meat in spite of the evidence, then there is not much anyone could say.  If that is your choice than you will certainly have to live with your decision and very likely die with it.  But please be assured there is a healthier, environmental and animal friendly alternative.

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