April
2002
Vegetarian
Advocate: Meat Kills! (Pass It On)
By Jack Vegetarianberger
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Of the people you love, how many of them frequently
eat meat? The reason I ask is because I recently read yet another newspaper
article
about
the relationship between poor human health and meat consumption.
According to a new study by the Harvard School of Public Health,
men who commonly
eat bacon, hot dogs, sausage, and other processed meats are nearly
50 percent more likely to develop Type II diabetes than men who
less regularly
eat processed meats.
The Harvard study, which analyzed dietary data from 42,504 men aged
40 to 75, found that the men who eat processed meats five times or
more
a week are 46 percent more likely to develop Type II diabetes than
men who eat it less frequently. As Frank Hu, M.D., the study’s senior
author, noted: “The effect is dose-related—the more you
eat of these foods, the higher the risk.”
That eating animal flesh can be disastrous for your health—that
it can literally cripple or kill you—is well documented and an
established medical fact (unless, of course, you’re a spokesperson
for McDonald’s or the Cattlemen’s Beef Association). Hu’s
study reiterates what countless other medical studies have demonstrated:
namely, that eating meat increases a human’s risk of heart disease;
obesity; cancer of the colon, breast, prostate, and other body sites;
moral lameness; overall stupidity; and so on. An earlier study by Hu,
for example, found that watching television increases a person’s
risk of diabetes. Put simply, Hu’s study indicated that the more
TV you watch, the greater your risk of becoming diabetic. Why? His analysis
of the study’s participants, 37,918 men, aged 40 to 75 years,
found that the ones who watched more television also tended to eat
more red
meat, processed meat, snacks and sweets, and fewer fruits, vegetables
and whole grains.
Like you, I can reel off the names of numerous friends, family members,
relatives, and co-workers who regularly eat meat. And apparently
they
don’t think twice about it. To them, it’s normal. For me,
it’s painful. I don’t like to watch someone I care about
sit down with a cowburger or a slice of pepperoni pizza and, bite
after
bite, slowly kill her or himself.
So, Jack, what’s your solution? I have decided to firmly but gently
speak up. “Oh, by the way, have you heard about the study by
the Harvard School of Public Health which shows that men who frequently
eat processed meats are nearly twice as likely...”
Our society of carnivores blindly believes in meat consumption just
as it once didn’t think twice about rampant cigarette consumption.
Let’s change that! When the social situation feels right, speak
openly and honestly to your friends and acquaintances about the health
defects of eating animal flesh. Do it in a non-threatening way and remember
that no one likes being lectured to. Speak from your heart. And if you’re
worried that you’ll feel uncomfortable doing this, well, treasure
this thought: You might save someone’s life.
Georgie Porgie
Recently President George W. Bush has played the role of an airhead
cheerleader for the beef industry. He spoke at a cattle industry convention
in Denver last February and was quoted in the media as uttering rubbish
like “Every day is Earth Day for people who rely upon the land
to make a living” and “Thank goodness we don’t have to
rely on somebody else’s meat to make sure our people are healthy
and well fed” and “We want people in China eating U.S. beef.”
Regarding President Bush’s second statement: I think what he actually
meant to say was, “Thank goodness we don’t have to rely on
somebody else’s meat to make sure our people are unhealthy and
obese.”
As for the desire to export U.S. beef to China, is this a covert attempt
on the part of the Bush administration to destabilize the Chinese government?
As any nutritionist worth his or her weight in tofu can tell you, once
the Chinese people embrace beef as a significant part of their diet,
the nationwide healthcare implications will be horrific: the government
of China will be saddled with the cost of fighting heart disease, various
cancers, and obesity, just like America is.
More than ten years ago, T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., a nutritional biochemist
at Cornell University, conducted one of the largest, in-depth dietary
studies in the world. From 1983 to 1988, Campbell and a team of researchers
tracked the lifestyle habits of 6,500 Chinese people. Published in 1990
as Diet, Lifestyle and Mortality in China (Cornell University Press),
the book is nearly 900 pages long. It analyzes 367 dietary, health,
and lifestyle factors of its subjects.
One of the unique aspects of Campbell’s research is that the Chinese
whose lives he examined are ideal test subjects. Their eating habits
and lifestyles vary significantly by region, and in rural areas they
typically live in the same village for their entire lives. Hence, Campbell
could easily study the relationship between certain diseases and lifestyle
factors such as diet.
Not surprisingly, the study found that people who eat the most protein,
particularly the most animal protein, are more likely to suffer the
so-called “diseases of the affluence.” As Chinese carnivores,
like other human carnivores around the world, ate more meat, they suffered
higher rates of heart disease, cancer, leukemia, and diabetes.
Campbell told Vegetarian Times in the April 1992 issue, “The
fat intake on average in a couple of the big cities [in China] is already
up to 30 percent, whereas in our original study [from 1983 to 1988]
it averaged 15 percent. And what’s happening? Mortality from Western-type
diseases rather quickly increases.”
Obviously, the reason President Bush wants to increase the consumption
of U.S. beef in China is to enrich our nation’s beef industry.
Sadly, President Bush, like most carnivores, is unwilling to acknowledge
the health risks of a meat-based diet. Massive denial? A conspiracy
of stupidity? It seems that every week I read yet another newspaper
or magazine article about the relationship between meat consumption
and poor human health, be it diabetes, obesity, cancer, or heart disease.
The information is available. Human carnivores just don’t want
to believe it.
Contact: President George W. Bush, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania
Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20500; (202) 456-1414; fax: (202) 456-2461;
president@whitehouse.gov.
Meat and Cigarettes
What’s the difference between meat and cigarettes? It’s legal
to sell meat to minors.
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