Jenna Woginrich was a vegetarian for most of her adult life until she became aware of the horrors of conventional American livestock farming. She now owns and operates a small environmentally friendly farm where she raises chicken, pork, lamb, rabbit, turkey and eggs.
In AlterNet, Woginrich writes:
"Every meal you eat that supports a sustainable farm changes the agricultural world. I cannot possibly stress this enough. Your fork is your ballot, and when you vote to eat a steak or leg of lamb purchased from a small farmer you are showing the industrial system you are actively opting out..."It's a hard reality for a vegetarian to swallow, but my veggie burgers did not rattle the industry cages at all. I was simply avoiding the battlefield, stepping aside as a pacifist. There is nobility in the vegetarian choice, but it isn't changing the system fast enough."
This is a powerful thought.
Avoiding meat really doesn't do anything to change the system. Insisting that the meat is humanely raised, however, will.
Just imagine how the demand would change the face of the meat industry if vegetarians everywhere simply sought out organic, grass-fed meats, instead of avoiding the issue entirely.
Let me make something clear. I'm NOT advocating that everyone should, or even needs to, eat meat. However, there are health consequences of abstaining from animal protein entirely.
Why I Changed My Stance on Vegetarianism
In the mid 1980s, I shared the viewpoint of many vegetarians and tried myself on a mostly vegetarian diet (based on the theories presented in Fit for Life), thinking it would improve my health. It didn't.
The diet actually caused rapid damage to my body. After just a few weeks of eating fruit for breakfast as the program recommended, I was stunned to discover my fasting triglycerides had skyrocketed from below 100 to over 3,000!
Many years later I learned about the principles of nutritional typing and discovered I'm a strong protein type, which explains why avoiding meats and eating primarily fruits and vegetables had such a detrimental effect on my system.
Strong carbohydrate types, on the other hand, can often do quite well on a vegetarian diet.
As for vegetables, I firmly believe everyone should consume high quality fresh organic and locally grown vegetables every day. Vegetables offer a powerhouse of nutritional benefits that will vastly improve your health.
As for fruit, I recommend to avoid eating large amounts of fruit, as most people need to limit their fructose consumption from all sources, especially anyone with insulin resistance conditions, such as being overweight, having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or type 2 diabetes.
Three Important Dietary Factors to Consider
There are certain factors to consider when determining your ideal diet. These factors contribute to people's confusion about meat consumption, because they don't take into consideration the necessary distinctions:
1. Your nutritional type determines what proportion of fats, carbohydrates and proteins your body needs to thrive.
2. Your nutritional type also determines what types of vegetables are most beneficial for you, and how many you should eat each day.
3. The nutritional value of your meat will be determined, in part, by how you cook it.
Factors that Influence the Quality and Health Benefits of Meat
So, how do you determine the quality of your meat? You need to consider the following factors:
1. How it's raised, i.e. in a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) or raised organically. CAFO meat is typically loaded with pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals and is nutritionally inferior to organically raised, grass fed meat. Not to mention the inhumane practices of many massive livestock operations.
2. How it's fed. Grass-fed meats are far better for you than grain-fed meats.
3. Whether or not it contains nitrates. Nitrates are preservatives linked to cancer. Processed meats are not a healthful choice for anyone and should be avoided entirely, as confirmed by more than 7,000 clinical studies.
Next, how you cook the meat will also influence its health benefits. Cooking meat at high temperatures creates dangerous chemicals, including:
4. Heterocyclic Amines (HCAs): HCAs are linked to cancer. The blackened area of meat contains the highest levels of HCA, so you should avoid charring your meat, and never eat the blackened areas.
5. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs): When fat drips onto the heat source and smokes, the smoke can transfer carcinogenic PAHs into your meat.
6. Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs): When food is cooked at high temperatures (including when it is pasteurized or sterilized), it increases the formation of AGEs. AGEs in your body cause oxidative stress, inflammation, and increase your risk of heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes.
Even if you are a protein type who thrives on red meat, eating CAFO grain-feed beef that's been charred to a crisp will NOT improve your health!
For optimal benefit, your meat ideally should be organic and grass-fed and cooked as little as possible. You can, for example, quickly sear the meat on both sides, leaving the inside quite rare. This gives the illusion that you're eating cooked meat, while still getting many of the benefits of raw meat.
Keep in mind that, when it comes to parasites or other infections, the health and happiness of the animal is of utmost importance. Animals that are fed and housed poorly are more stressed and susceptible to disease-causing bacteria, whereas pastured animals rarely develop these infections.
Tips for Finding Safe, Humanely Raised Food Sources
It is important to find sources of high quality, organic grass-fed meats and poultry that are accessible and close to your home. To help you with this, I've assembled a list of sustainable food resources, and many are searchable by geographic area.
Remember, buying local and buying organic are two separate choices and ideally you should seek to do both.
Many smaller farms cannot afford the costly organic certification -- but they employ organic, sustainable practices. The only way to determine the quality of local products is to get to know your local farmers at produce stands and your local farmer's market, which are great community resources.
Dr. Joseph Mercola is the founder and director of Mercola.com. Become a fan of Dr. Mercola on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, and check out Dr. Mercola's report on sun exposure!
Follow Dr. Joseph Mercola on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mercola
Follow Dr. Joseph Mercola on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mercola
Neal Barnard, M.D.: Could Processed Meat Give You Cancer?
Joanna Dolgoff, M.D.: Could You Be At Risk For Stroke?
Dr. Joseph Mercola: What's in Fast Food? What's in the Non-Chicken Half of the McNugget
Dr. Joseph Mercola: Vegetable Diet: The Best and Worst Vegetables to Eat
Cancer Project / Factors Contributing to Cancer / Meat Consumption ...
Red meat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Meat and Cancer: The Carnivore's Conundrum | Psychology Today
Vegetarians less likely to develop cancer than meat eaters, says ...
I'm a new vegan starting last April, out of all my diet changes I have never struggled to give up meat. Others maybe aren't so lucky. So the question really is, why? Are you doing it for health and can't give up that meat? Or is because you are making a conscientious effort to save animals, and its tougher than you thought?
Well here's an article that will tell you that hey, if you're giving up meat for your health, don't worry about it. You're probably a protein type so eat that meat just like you want. If you're still worried about the animals, buy this particular type of meat, the one that's not fed antibiotics and living in feces. You're treating animals better, so its okay. Its an easy, false answer for something that deserves the hard work.
I will say that this article does pose a good point. You're not going to change the world just by not eating meat. It takes time, it takes numbers. It takes people caring. This does push things in the right direction for an industry that is not going to disappear overnight- they make too much money to. Don't give up on your ideals and ethics for it, just appreciate that people are trying in their own way to change the world for the better, and it takes different steps to do it.
We also need to reevaluate our farming practices was well since we could be doing a lot better in that department as well.
Finally anorexics and people with eating disorders need to stop blaming a veg. diet on their poor health and own up to the fact that eating 1000 calories a day will most likely leave you in poor health and a ton of nutritional deficiencies.
Some people are not able to function properly with out animal protein (like the Dalai Lama for example), some are fortunate enough to get along with out it. Instead of condemning those who eat meat, why not encourage those people to purchase grass feed meats that are humanely raised and slaughtered? Not only are you taking the money completely out of the current industrialized food system, you are supporting a new sustainable living paradigm.
Mercola's point was that grass fed meat offer vitamins and minerals far superior to factory meat, so if you are going to eat meat, its best to choose locally sustainable options. Your dollar is the only real vote you have.
"Just imagine how the demand would change the face of the meat industry if vegetarians everywhere simply sought out organic, grass-fed meats, instead of avoiding the issue entirely."
wow. this is our fault too?
according to the american dietetic association and governmental sources in Canada and the US, approximately 2.5-5% of the adult population is vegetarian, from which it can be inferred that the remaining population eat meat/meat products of some sort on occasion. i am neither an economist or statistician but i reckon that if even a percentage of the much larger meat eating proportion of the population began demanding/purchasing "humanely" raised meat, it would have a much larger effect on the industry than if the entire vegetarian/vegan population began doing so. i guess mercola figures that variables such as health, ethics, religion, ecological footprint, (etc) do not factor into this decision and that his mere suggestion is enough for people to change their lifestyle...and his market-share.
lastly. mercola's kind words would hold more water if this whole article was anything but a thinly veiled ad to sell organic (non-local) meat on his website:
http://products.mercola.com/produce/meat-cheese-produce.htm
lastly, i think the following statement is much more sensible:
"just imagine how the demand would change the face of the meat industry if meat-eaters everywhere simply sought out organic, grass-fed meats, instead of avoiding the issue entirely."
F&F
Short video(2min. 20sec.)
This is your brain on meat! lol
http://vegansaurus.com/post/3565276655/this-is-your-brain-on-meat-i-saw-this-video
To all meat eaters. No disrespect ! It's a vegie Joke !
Cows are in the class of animals known as ruminants. Ruminants are hoofed animals with an even number of toes and complicated four-chambered stomachs designed to break down difficult to digest plant matter (such as fibrous grasses).
All ruminants regurgitate and re-chew their food or 'cud' in a process called, appropriately enough, rumination. For 6-8 hours a day, they'll chew their cud to make up for not chewing much while actually eating the grass. This breaks up the plant fibers into smaller and smaller chunks and pumps fresh saliva into the mix.
Speaking of which, depending on the moisture content of their food, cows can make an astounding amount of saliva every day. Although 15-20 gallons is probably closer to the norm and amazing enough, at the extreme, one study calculated up to 66 gallons/day! Nearly 280 liters!
Why so much slobber? A big reason is that plant-digesting microbes work best breaking down tough cell walls in a nearly neutral pH environment, 6.2-6.8, preferably (pH is a way of measuring acidity and alkalinity: 7 is neutral, less than 7 is acidic, greater than is alkaline).
The problem is, waste products from fermentation are acidic, so Nature, in its infinite wisdom, endowed cows with alkaline substances in their saliva (bicarbonate and phosphates) to give it a pH of about 8.2 and help maintain the favorable conditions in the rumen. Amazing!
SEE: http://www.raw-milk-facts.com/about_cows.html
FULL OF DISEASES
The poisoning of meat does not stop here. Meat animals are treated with many more chemicals to increase their growth, fatten them quickly, improve their meat colour, etc.
In order to produce the most meat at the highest profit, animal are forced-fed, injected with hormones to stimulate growth, given appetite stimulant, antibiotics, sedatives and chemical feed mixtures.
Many of these have been found to be cancer causing chemicals, and in fact many animals die of these drugs even before they are led to slaughter.
As farms have evolved into animal factories, many animals never see the light of day, their lives are spent in cramped and cruel surroundings (they never get exercise or fresh air).
Such unnatural practices not only unbalance the body chemistry of the chickens and destroy their natural habits, but unfortunately, also result in the growth of malignant tumors and other malformations. In the U.S., Where 70% of cattle are given antibiotics, even with large scale usage of antibiotics to suppress Disease, the U.S. Dept of agriculture records state that millions of pounds of meat that came from animals contains tumors.
Transferred to meat eaters
The tumors and growths may go undetected or simply ignored by the meat producers are inspectors. Often, if an animal has cancer or tumor a in a certain part of its body, the cancerous part will be cut away and the rest of the body sold as meat.
Grass fed animals take longer to grow (approximately twice as long for cows and sheep, I know nothing about hogs as they do not eat grass, so there is no such things as grass fed pork) because of their lack of nutrition, so they are older and more suseptible to disease. They would be the ones to have all these tumors-although I have had beef cows develop cancer, because of their advanced ages (age 8-10 years old). They die on the farm and are composted. If any animals go to slaughter and do not pass the livestock buyers, and or the meat inspectors, I am not paid for the animal.
As many believe, "All Life is Sacred"
But this is true:
Making the transition toward a vegan diet and lifestyle is the single-most effective step an individual can take toward living sustainably on the planet. For further evidence of this fact, please read about the 2006 report from the United Nations: 'Livestock's Long Shadow'. By making vegan choices, people can lessen their ecological footprint more than with any other lifestyle change, as well as gain control over their health, take part in eliminating world hunger, rediscover their connection with the many different animals who share our world, and make a powerful personal contribution toward the beginning of peace on earth.
•Global warming – Animal agriculture generates 40% more greenhouse gas than all cars, trucks and planes combined.
•Water – It takes far less water to generate vegan food. A vegan could leave their shower running year-round, and still not waste as much water as a non-vegan.
•World hunger – Most of the world’s grain is fed to food animals. On a plant-based diet, we could feed the entire human population. Millions of people who are starving (including 40,000 children who die every day) as a result of the unfair distribution of food could be fed by the many tons of grain that are currently cycled through animals.
•Human health crises such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, asthma, osteoporosis, and many more would be greatly reduced. Diseases created by intensive animal agriculture would disappear.
•Environment – Animal-based food is the primary cause of issues such as rainforest destruction, topsoil erosion, desertification of grassland, degradation of underwater ecosystems, and the declining population of endangered species.
•Global violence – A non-violent lifestyle would create a more compassionate, gentle population.
When examining issues of such catastrophic potential as global warming, species extinction and mass starvation, it is understandable that individuals who care can feel helpless. It is easy to fall victim to the debilitating belief that we might really have no future. The vegan solution contains within it the power to solve the biggest problems we are facing, on every level from personal to planetary. The vegan ideal is nothing less than the next evolutionary step for humankind. We must embrace the ethic of non-violence if we are to evolve; and we must evolve, if we are to survive.
Scientists have found experimentally the liver of the deceased animal is fed to fish, the fish will get cancer.
Deadly Reason #3
FULL OF ANIMALS BODY TOXIN
Just before during the agony of being slaughtered, the biochemistry of the terrified animal undergoes profound changes. Toxic by-products are forced throughout the body, thus poisoning the entire carcass
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, body poisons, including uric acid and other toxic wastes, are present in the blood and tissue.
"Protein obtained from nuts, pulses (lentils, pens, etc.), grains and dairy products is said to be relatively pure compared with beef which tests of 56% impure water content."
Just as our bodies become ill during times of intense rage or fear, animals, no less than humans, undergo profound biochemical changes in dangerous situations.
The hormone level the animals blood especially the hormone adrenaline changes radically as they see other animals dying around them and they struggle futilely for life and freedom.
These large amounts of hormones remain in the meat and later poison the human tissue. According to the Nutrition Institute of America, the flesh of an animal carcass is loaded with toxic blood and other waste by-products.
http://hubpages.com/hub/meatoxic
What it means is that some people will benefit from a plant based diet, while other will need to include animal protein in their diets to function well and maintain health. The secret is to find out what works for you, and not depend on others to tell you whether you should eat meat, or become a vegetarian or vegan.
I myself am one of those people that are healthier on a plant based diet, something I've found out by trial and error. I know others that need considerable amounts of lean animal protein in their diets to function well.
So let's not give each other a hard time about preferring one or the other, everyone has to decide for themselves. That being said, I have no doubt that what we eat, whether it is plant based or meat, should preferably be organic and as free from toxins as possible.
Great article!
You can ignore the reality of insulin-resistance.
I am also living proof as are all of my family members. Read my other post about my "organic vegan" brother.