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Choosing Animal Free Cuisine - Some Reasons Why

The American Dietetic Association states that vegetarians have “lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; … lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer” and that vegetarians are less likely than meat-eaters to be obese. Well-planned vegetarian diets provide us with all the nutrients that we need, minus all the saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants found in animal flesh, eggs, and dairy products.

Leading health experts agree that going vegetarian is the single-best thing we can do for ourselves and our families. Healthy vegetarian diets support a lifetime of good health and provide protection against numerous diseases, including our country’s three biggest killers: heart disease, cancer, and strokes. Please consider the following issues as incentives for adopting a personal and family health plan based on animal free cuisine.

Your Health

Vegetarian foods provide us with all the nutrients that we need, minus the saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants that are found in meat, eggs, and dairy products. Plant-based diets protect us against heart disease, diabetes, obesity, strokes, and several types of cancer. Vegetarians also have stronger immune systems and, on average, live 10 years longer than meat-eaters do.

Heart Disease -

Almost 700,000 people die from heart disease every year, and its treatment has become a serious business in the United States. Operations cost thousands of dollars, while popping pills has become commonplace and immensely profitable for drug companies. Meanwhile, study after study has shown that a plant-based diet, rich in whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables, can stop and even reverse heart disease. Yes, even if you currently have coronary artery disease, you could possibly reverse the disease by changing your diet!

Cancer -

Diet is not only linked to heart disease, but it is also significantly linked to our risk of developing certain types of cancer. According to the results of the China Study, the largest study ever conducted on the relationship between diet and disease, animal protein significantly contributes to cancer. While it might have come to most cardiologists as no surprise that this enormous study revealed the connection between animal foods and heart disease, the most profound and shocking finding was the correlation between animal protein and cancer. The link was direct and so strong that it was indisputable.

Obesity -

There are now officially more overweight and obese people in the United States than there are people of a healthy weight! American people today are eating an “experimental diet” which has never been seen before since time beginning. Our penchant for high fat foods, like meats and dairy products, and highly-processed, sugar-laden sweets, as well as our immobile lifestyles, has helped push the obesity rates into the stratosphere. As Eric Schlosser wrote in Fast Food Nation, more money is now spent in America on fast-food than on college, new cars, or computers. But fast-food, as unhealthy as it is, isn’t the only dietary problem.

Food Contamination -

Eating a meat-centered diet is not only linked to lethargy, obesity, and the development of certain diseases, but also to life-threatening cases of food poisoning, antibiotic resistance, and other problems. Every year in the U.S., there are 75 million cases of food poisoning,48 with 5,000 of these cases being fatal. According to the USDA, 70 percent of food poisoning is caused by contaminated animal flesh.

Explains Dr. Michael Greger, Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States, “Farmed animals today are sick, these are sick and diseased chickens, pigs, fish, and cows, producing diseased and bacteria-laden flesh and pus-filled milk that even industry standards call ‘unhealthful.’”

Antibiotics -

The antibiotics that humans depend on to treat food poisoning and countless other illnesses are also being used to promote rapid growth in the animals we eat, and to prevent them from dying from the many diseases that run rampant on factory farms. A recent report by the U.S. General Accounting Office warns that “Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been transferred from animals to humans, and many of the studies we reviewed found that this transference poses significant risks for human health.” One antibiotic contains significant amounts of the most carcinogenic form of arsenic, and USDA researchers have found that “eating 2 ounces of chicken per day—the equivalent of a third to a half of a boneless breast—exposes a consumer to 3 to 5 micrograms of inorganic arsenic, the element’s most toxic form.”

Protein -

When people switch to a plant-based diet, they are often concerned about their intake of protein. While plants can provide all essential amino acids, there is a pervasive myth that you need meat in order to get a sufficient amount of protein in your diet. According to a USDA survey, the average American vegetarian gets 150% of their recommended daily protein. Beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains and soy are all high in protein. If you eat a well balanced plant-based diet, consisting of plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes, getting enough protein is pretty simple. Indeed, there are benefits from not eating the level of protein, especially animal protein, that most Americans consume.

Animal protein continues to be marketed as not only good for the body, but as absolutely necessary for good health. In actuality, animal protein is cancer promoting. As mentioned earlier, Dr. Colin Campbell concluded in The China Study, that “...dietary protein proved to be so powerful in its effect that we could turn on and turn off cancer growth simply by changing the level consumed.”

The Environment

As convincing as the data is that eating a plant-based diet is healthy for our bodies, it’s equally compelling that it’s healthy for our planet. More and more, people are taking what steps they can to protect this beautiful and fragile planet. We choose fewer disposables, more gas-efficient cars, and energy-saving appliances and light bulbs. We insulate our homes to cut down on heating and cooling energy use. We reduce, re-use and recycle. Yet most of us are unaware that there is one thing we can be doing every day that would have a tremendous impact on reducing pollution, conserving resources and protecting our ecosystem. Once again, it’s all in the power of the fork! “Other than not driving a car, not eating meat is the second most important positive environmental decision that a consumer can make.”— Union of Concerned Scientists

America’s meat addiction is poisoning and depleting our potable water, arable land, and clean air. More than half the water used in the United States goes to animal agriculture, and since farmed animals produce 130 times more excrement than the human population does, the run-off from their waste greatly pollutes our waterways. Moreover, factory farms pollute the air and water for many miles in every direction, often spreading contamination and illness to the people who live and work nearby. Chronic sickness, brain damage, poisoned waterways, elevated cancer rates, and even death plague these communities, while the government does nothing to protect citizens or regulate the industry.

World Hunger

Raising animals for food is extremely inefficient—for every pound of food that they eat, only a fraction of the calories are returned in the form of edible flesh. If we stopped intensively breeding farmed animals and grew crops to feed humans instead, we would easily be able to feed every human on the planet with healthy and affordable vegetarian foods.

Worker Rights

Human Rights Watch has declared that slaughterhouse workers have “the most dangerous factory job in America.” The industry has refused to do what’s necessary to create safe working conditions for its employees, such as slowing down slaughter lines and supplying workers with appropriate safety gear, because these changes could cut into companies’ bottom lines.

Cruelty to Animals

The meat and dairy industries would like for us to believe that farm animals are happy and comfortable, living their lives on idyllic farm settings. This may have been the case 50 years ago or more. But today, nothing could be further from the truth. And while it may well be a personal decision as to whether an animal should die for our use, factory farming has changed all of the rules. It’s no longer just a personal choice; it demands a public response. The vast majority of farm animals today are raised in conditions which would shock our consciences. Most people assume that there are laws which protect farm animals from egregious abuse. But what few laws exist are almost never enforced. Consequently, since profit is deemed more important than comfort for the animal, farm animals are routinely and patently abused and neglected.

More than 27 billion animals are killed for food every year in the U.S. alone. Animals in factory farms have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats, including neglect, mutilations, genetic manipulation, drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transport through all weather extremes, and gruesome and violent slaughter.

Farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats we cherish as our companions. They are inquisitive, interesting individuals who value their lives, solve problems, experience fear and pain, and are capable of using tools. According to animal-behavior scientists, chickens begin learning from their mothers while they are still in their shells, pigs can play video games better than some primates can, and fish form social bonds and can remember things that they have learned for the human equivalent of 40 years.

The mass production and slaughter of animals has become easier for big corporations. Intense animal confinement is beneficial for animal producers because more animals can be housed in smaller spaces, resulting in increased profit margins. But these overcrowded conditions prevent the animals from carrying out even the most basic and natural behaviors. This causes the animals psychological stress, physical injury, illnesses and agony.

Government Negligence

Between 2000 and 2005, agribusinesses funneled more than $140 million to politicians, who more than earned their money by helping to ensure that laws that might protect consumers, animals, and the environment did not pass. The unfortunate truth is that the federal government does very little to protect human health, animal welfare, and our environment from the factory-farming industry’s negligence and excess.

Excerpts copyrighted by GoVeg.com and from the powerful booklet Our Food Our Future filled with compelling facts concerning health, environment and the treatment of animals from EarthSave.org.

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