Today I will not get into the debate over whether eating meat is good for humans, or the soil, or the air, or the nation, or the world economy, or even the Democratic Party. Maybe another day.
What I do want to get into is the stridency of vegans and vegetarians whenever someone writes an article or recipe on HuffPo that involves meat. This week there's an article about Reuben dip and sure enough, right on cue, there's the vegan telling us how grossed out she is by the concept.
Listen, people, you have a point, I get it, but you are doing your case no good by sounding like a Beck or Limbaugh who cannot go five minutes without yelling "socialism".
Lookit, this new food section is going to have a lot of articles about meat. And vegetables. Get used to it. You cannot do a driveby "meat is murder" strafing every time you see a recipe with muscle protein in it.
So do us both a favor: If the article is about hot dogs, just pass it up. Don't click on it. You are not obligated to drop in, scroll right past my bloody prose, and head straight for the comments to tell me and everyone else about your religion and how meat is murder and how the picture grosses you out and how healthy you are and how much better you feel since you gave up meat and how much weight you have lost and how few cavities you have.
You wouldn't go into a Jewish Synagogue and yell "Jesus Saves!" would you? And that's not a flippant analogy, because to some people, the choice to skip meat is religious. God knows, vegans and vegetarians often speak with the zeal and fervor of an evangelist.
In my case, I have read everything from Pollan to Foer, and given my decision to eat meat serious thought. I don't eat it every day, and I am as horrified by the inhumane conditions under which some factory farms operate as you are. I know the health risks and the benefits. And believe it or not, so have a lot of other carnivores.
So stop preaching. Stop proselytizing. Stop moralizing. You are giving the many intelligent quiet meatless community a bad name.You're only undermining your cause.
In the spirit of something for everyone, click here for a great Bourbon Baked Beans recipe. Vegans/vegetarians can leave out the bacon and it's still delish and healthy. Just remember to take your Beano before you come back to the Food section.
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Really it's everyone's responsibility to be socially conscious not just vegetarians!! I'm vegan almost 15 years and can't believe people still say,"Must be hard to be vegan". Really it's hard to think of enjoying eating an animal that suffered it's whole life and was possibly alive when it was being torn apart. By law, only 8 of 10 animals need be "dead" when they start dismembering them. Violence against animals that share our emotions (mirror neurons) is violence in our society! Eat responsibly!
I think jodm has made a wrongful comment, though, most vegetarians DO like meat, if they have eaten it at some point in their lives, they are vegetarians for ethical reasons. Saturated fat always tastes better, so do NOT assume vegetarians don't like meat. Allison
Of course the drive-by comments are unnecessary, but I'm referencing this: "You are giving the many intelligent quiet meatless community a bad name.You're only undermining your cause."
We heard that refrain in the Civil Rights debate. We heard in in the suffrage debates.
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/06/060413.diet.shtml
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/a-cure-for-cancer-eating_b_298282.html
http://www.pcrm.org/health/powerplate/why.html
http://www.salagram.net/Vege-RedMeatTruths.html
What about physicians like Dr Weil or Dr Oz?
You would go to any length to prove your point, even when the scientific proof is right before your eyes you would disregard it and say its vegan evangelism while I'm supposed to belief the "science" from a Lobbying Interest like Weston Price? Hmmm
I see you are unable to answer my claims about ranching damaging the ecosystem. I could walk you all over the west and show you how public lands have been destroyed by ranching interests from ranchers over grazing, to wanting to have wolves and other predators killed, to lobbying against wild mustangs, who are routinely rounded up and slaughtered. You are talking to a Montana girl (who now resides in NM) here so don't espouse BS from where ever it is you live when I have persona;l experience and know the difference.
My physical condition lets me know that my diet is healthy. The average vegan cholesterol is 143, mine is at healthy 163. The average American meat eaters is closer to 200. Since becoming a vegan, I know longer have allergies or congestion, something that has plagued me my entire life.
In referencing rickets, I have never met a vegan child who has rickets. Have you?
My maternal grandmother who came from a good meat eating family had rickets as a child as did my meat eating stepfather.
Studies linking cancer and disease to meat consumption, my last post on the subject. Red Meat consumption increases the chances for colon, breast and even lung cancers. There is also heart disease to aid to the list.
http://healthspectator.com/possible-link-between-red-meat-consumption-and-cancer/
ttp://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=7153072&page=1
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1043849120071211
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/the-truth-about-red-meat
http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v96/n7/full/6603689a.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7959128.stm
ttp://www.naturalnews.com/023556.html
http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/meat-and-colon-cancer-link.html
http://caonline.amcancersoc.org/cgi/content/full/55/3/143
http://nutrition.suite101.com/article.cfm/eating_red_meat_damages_health
We could go on with countless links to studies about the dangers of soy, which most vegans eat on a regular basis. Or studies showing that a vegan diet leads to brain atrophy. Or studies about bone loss in vegans. Or studies about thyroid damage. Or studies showing that the vast majority of vegans have dangerous B12 deficiencies. Or studies showing that astonishing numbers of vegan children have rickets from D deficiency. Or even studies showing an increased risk of heart disease for people who consume less saturated fat.
Your link-happy veggie propaganda gets you nowhere.
You clearly are uninformed on the difference between fermented soy and unfermented soys. One is safe for consumption (fermented) while the other is controversial.
I have humored you about your nonsensical claims about how billions of animals die for agriculture while your meat eating habit is sustainable. Really?
I have lived all over Montana and Wyoming and let me tell you what devastation the ranching industry does to native grasslands and habitats. Who lobbies against wolves and other wildlife at every juncture,? Your friendly local "rancher."
Here is New Mexico, most of are water comes from wells, turns out the local diary farms are now polluting our water supplies with their cow excrement. So if you want to bull%hit
yourself that you are living this sustainable, small carbon lifestyle, keep espousing your tired and uninformed arguments (and links to lobby groups) I am sure you will find others
like minded people, just don't try to pass off your opinions as anything BUT that.
By the way to Meathead, the author of this article you elicited the responses you got by your provocative headline. You got what you asked for stop whining!
Rule, D. C., K. S. Brought on, S. M. Shellito, and G. Maiorano. "Comparison of Muscle Fatty Acid Profiles and Cholesterol Concentrations of Bison, Beef Cattle, Elk, and Chicken." J Anim Sci 80, no. 5 (2002): 1202-11.
Davidson, M. H., D. Hunninghake, et al. (1999). "Comparison of the effects of lean red meat vs lean white meat on serum lipid levels among free-living persons with hypercholesterolemia: a long-term, randomized clinical trial." Arch Intern Med 159(12): 1331-8. The conclusion of this study: "... diets containing primarily lean red meat or lean white meat produced similar reductions in LDL cholesterol and elevations in HDL cholesterol, which were maintained throughout the 36 weeks of treatment."
A nice tidy and sanitized version of the reality.
I think that many people on both sides of the fence live in a fantasy world when it comes to their food. Meat eaters see a piece of meat all wrapped up for them at the market, and vegans thing that their choices don't even cause animal suffering. Are you aware that the vast majority of vegetables that you buy were grown with animal products? A shocking number of vegans have no idea.
Or that billions of small animals are killed from agriculture every year, and that isn't even counting things such as soil erosion and the destruction of entire ecosystems. Most vegans are blissfully unaware of that.
Or that sustainably pasturing cattle promotes biodiversity, saving the lives of countless animals, massively increases the vitality of the soil, prevents soil erosion and desertification from the ravages of agriculture, controls water runoff, and creates huge carbon sinks that sequester massive amounts of greenhouse gasses? Most vegans have no idea that the grasslands that are essential to our planet's survival coevolved with ruminants, and at this point, sustainable pasturing is the only way to save the grasslands that we depend on.
s-VEGAN-VEGETARIANS-BEEF-CHART-large300.jpg
now THAT is funny.
still looks like French to me. LOL
Sigh, the inhumanity of it all!
In this context it seems preposterous to seriously debate the ethics of survival. Circle of Life, baby; everything we eat is dead or dying. Rotting corpse or banquet - it's just a matter of perspective; who can rightly claim the privileged frame of reference?
The problem facing this planet is not humans eating too many animals, it's animals eating too few humans.
And you are wrong, i do not support industrial agriculture. I support sustainable community agriculture, like the link above me.
And now your lying, I'll tell you what is killing the planet : ANIMAL FARMING. It takes more land, energy and water than plant based agriculture. you cannot possibly argue that.
I can't believe you basically said that if everyone was vegan there would be more of a carbon footprint than if you were a meat eater..have you lost your reasoning???
A cow needs to be fed grain, plants and water. A plant needs to be fed water. 2 billion gallons of water a day go to animal farming (not counting water needed to grow the food to feed the animals). YOU are the one who is lying. I care and think more about the earth in one hour then you obviously do in a year.