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yao wang
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Joined: 06 Jul 2007
Posts: 23
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 Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 7:46 pm Post subject: the shocking truth about meat |
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The meat, dairy products, fish, and eggs on supermarket shelves today are loaded with bacteria, antibiotics, dioxins, hormones, and a host of other toxins that can cause serious health problems in humans. Every time you eat animal products, you are ingesting known carcinogens, bacteria, and other contaminants that can accumulate in your body and remain there for years.
Eating animal products contaminated with bacteria can cause food poisoning, which can result in symptoms ranging from stomach cramps and diarrhea to organ failure and death. Every year in the U.S., there are 75 million cases of food poisoning, and 5,000 of these cases are fatal.1 The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that 70 percent of food poisoning is caused by contaminated animal flesh.2
The antibiotics that we depend on to treat these illnesses are being used to promote rapid growth in animals and to prevent them from dying from the diseases that are rampant on factory farms. The effect of consuming low levels of antibiotics during a lifetime is unknown but could be serious. One of the antibiotics that we do know about contains significant amounts of the most carcinogenic form of arsenic, and USDA researchers have found that “[e]ating 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.”3 Daily exposure to low doses of arsenic can cause cancer, dementia, neurological problems, and other ailments in humans.4,5
More immediately, this abuse of pharmaceuticals has spurred the evolution of new strains of antibiotic-resistant super-bacteria. Studies have found that most of the meat on grocery store shelves today is contaminated with these bacteria, which cannot be killed with conventional antibiotics. For example, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health recently reported that 96 percent of Tyson chicken flesh in one sample was contaminated with dangerous antibiotic-resistant campylobacter bacteria.6 If you eat meat tainted with these super-germs and fall ill, many antibiotics that doctors rely on to treat sickness will be useless.
Antibiotics aren’t the only chemicals used to promote growth in farmed animals—the cattle industry also doses cows with hormones to make them grow larger and produce more milk than they would naturally. The use of hormones to promote growth in animals used for food has been banned for many years in Europe, and scientists have clearly shown that the hormones used in cows can cause disrupted development and cancer in humans.7 Despite these findings, farmers in America continue to dose cows with powerful hormones that can make humans sick.
If the bacteria, hormones, and arsenic don’t take their toll in the short term, the build-up of dioxins from animal products could cause serious health problems in the long run. Dioxins are chemicals that are released into the environment when substances are burned, and they accumulate in the flesh and milk of animals. These chemicals are present in our environment in small doses, but according to leading scientists and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), nearly 95 percent of our dioxin exposure comes in the concentrated form of red meat, fish, and dairy products, because when we eat animal products, the dioxin that animals have built up in their bodies is absorbed into our own.
A powerful hormone-disrupting chemical, dioxin binds to a cell and modifies its functioning, causing a wide range of effects, including cancer, depressed immune response, nervous system disorders, miscarriages, and birth deformities.8,9 Researchers at the EPA have found that people who consume even small amounts of dioxin from meat and dairy products have an extra one in 100 risk of suffering from cancer—solely as a result of their dioxin consumption and on top of all other risks.10
Animal flesh, eggs, and milk are also often laced with other toxins that have been shown to harm human health, including pesticides, mercury, and PCBs. The late renowned pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock, who was a vocal advocate of vegan diets for adults and children, explained, “Another good reason for getting your nutrition from plant sources is that animals tend to concentrate pesticides and other chemicals in their meat and milk. … Plant foods have much less contamination …”11
Read more about how the contaminants in meat, cow’s milk, and eggs can harm human health. The above article is from http://GoVeg.com
Last edited by yao wang on Sat Jul 07, 2007 9:22 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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yao wang
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Joined: 06 Jul 2007
Posts: 23
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| Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 8:19 pm Post subject: eating animals is killing you |
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Since President Richard Nixon declared a "war on cancer" in 1972, that "war" has become a losing battle. Every year, billions of dollars are spent on cancer research, detection, and treatment in the United States, yet cancer remains one of our nation's top killers.
Fortunately, there's something we can do about it. According to the World Health Organization, up to 40 percent of all cancers are preventable, and one-third of all cancer deaths in the U.S. can be attributed to nutritional factors, according the American Cancer Society (ACS).
Vegan diets maximize the foods that help us fight cancer—fiber-packed grains and beans and phytochemical-packed fruits and vegetables—and minimize the foods that cause cancer. Combine these two factors, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and the scientific evidence is clear: "Vegetarians are about 40 percent less likely to get cancer than nonvegetarians, regardless of other risks such as smoking, body size, and socioeconomic status."
One study compared cancer rates of vegetarians and meat-eaters in 34,000 Americans. The results showed that those who avoided meat, fish, and poultry had dramatically lower rates of prostate, ovarian, and colon cancer compared to meat-eaters. Eating Chickens Can Lead to Bladder Cancer
According to a major 2006 Harvard study of 135,000 people, people who frequently ate grilled skinless chicken had a 52 percent higher chance of developing bladder cancer compared to people who didn’t.
An 11-year-long German study involving more than 800 vegetarian men found their cancer rates were less than half those of the general public. The lowest cancer rates were found in those who had avoided meat for 20 years or more. Studies in Japan and Sweden also have shown lower risk among vegetarians. A 2007 study of more than 35,000 women published in the British Journal of Cancer found that women who ate the most meat were more likely to develop breast cancer than women who consumed the lowest amount of meat. It seems that with every bite of meat, we increase our risk of cancer. Luckily, we can eliminate animal products from our diets and replace them with vegetable proteins that can protect our health instead of harm it.
Dr. T. Colin Campbell, arguably the foremost epidemiological researcher alive today, argues that animal proteins are the prime carcinogen in meat and dairy products. Says Dr. Campbell, "[H]uman studies also support this carcinogenic effect of animal protein, even at usual levels of consumption. … No chemical carcinogen is nearly so important in causing human cancer as animal protein."
But fat is a culprit, too: Higher-fat diets raise estrogen levels, whereas plant-based diets keep them at a safe level, which doesn't promote the growth of cancer cells. Luckily, fiber-a nutrient plentiful in vegetarian diets-helps our bodies eliminate excess estrogen, thus cutting cancer risk.
Read more about specific carcinogens in meat, such as arsenic in chicken and mercury in fish. the above article is from http://GoVeg.com |
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yao wang
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Joined: 06 Jul 2007
Posts: 23
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| Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 8:59 pm Post subject: Meat contain lots of toxic |
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Modern methods of raising animals for food have made matters even worse for meat-eaters. Antibiotics, hormones, heavy metals, dioxins, and various other compounds are raising the risk of cancer.
Because chickens are raised in such crowded and unhealthy conditions, they are very susceptible to disease, so in an attempt to keep them alive through conditions that would otherwise kill them, farmers feed them an array of antibiotics, including one that contains the most toxic form of arsenic. A report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture—published in Environmental Health Perspectives in January 2004—revealed that chicken contains three to four times more potentially poisonous arsenic than other poultry and meats. Eating a typical 2 ounces of chicken a day means ingesting 3.6 to 5.2 micrograms of cancer-causing arsenic.
And arsenic isn't the only thing you need to worry about the next time someone offers you a chicken leg. More than 95 percent of our exposure to dioxin, a well-known carcinogen, comes from eating animal products (the rest is environmental; none comes from vegan foods). Researchers with the Institute of Medicine have even recommended that school cafeterias offer more foods that are low in animal fat so that children aren't exposed to unhealthy levels of dioxins, dangerous byproducts of industrial and natural combustion that can accumulate in body fat. According to Michael Taylor of Resources for the Future, "The most direct way to reduce dietary exposure to dioxins is to reduce consumption of animal fat." Remember, more than half the calories of even the leanest chicken comes from fat.
Fish, in addition to containing concentrated (and carcinogenic) animal protein, is often very high in environmental contaminants. Fish commonly contains mercury, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and other organochlorine pesticides. These contaminants, which have been linked to cancer and other health problems, tend to accumulate in body fat and remain in the body for decades.
In fact, 80 to 90 percent of dietary pesticide exposure, as well as 100 percent of dietary hormone and dioxin exposure, comes from eating animal products, and many of these chemicals are known to cause cancer in human beings.
Finally, additional carcinogens form when meat is cooked. These cancer-causing chemicals, specifically called heterocyclic amines, are found in cooked red and white meats, including fish and poultry. In fact, the amount found in grilled chicken is 15 times higher than in hamburger or steak.
Read more.
The above article is from http://GoVeg.com |
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yao wang
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Joined: 06 Jul 2007
Posts: 23
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| Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 9:33 pm Post subject: toxic shock |
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The meat, dairy products, fish, and eggs on supermarket shelves today are loaded with bacteria, antibiotics, dioxins, hormones, and a host of other toxins that can cause serious health problems in humans. Every time you eat animal products, you are ingesting known carcinogens, bacteria, and other contaminants that can accumulate in your body and remain there for years.
Eating animal products contaminated with bacteria can cause food poisoning, which can result in symptoms ranging from stomach cramps and diarrhea to organ failure and death. Every year in the U.S., there are 75 million cases of food poisoning, and 5,000 of these cases are fatal.1 The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that 70 percent of food poisoning is caused by contaminated animal flesh.2
The antibiotics that we depend on to treat these illnesses are being used to promote rapid growth in animals and to prevent them from dying from the diseases that are rampant on factory farms. The effect of consuming low levels of antibiotics during a lifetime is unknown but could be serious. One of the antibiotics that we do know about contains significant amounts of the most carcinogenic form of arsenic, and USDA researchers have found that “[e]ating 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.”3 Daily exposure to low doses of arsenic can cause cancer, dementia, neurological problems, and other ailments in humans.4,5
More immediately, this abuse of pharmaceuticals has spurred the evolution of new strains of antibiotic-resistant super-bacteria. Studies have found that most of the meat on grocery store shelves today is contaminated with these bacteria, which cannot be killed with conventional antibiotics. For example, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health recently reported that 96 percent of Tyson chicken flesh in one sample was contaminated with dangerous antibiotic-resistant campylobacter bacteria.6 If you eat meat tainted with these super-germs and fall ill, many antibiotics that doctors rely on to treat sickness will be useless.
Antibiotics aren’t the only chemicals used to promote growth in farmed animals—the cattle industry also doses cows with hormones to make them grow larger and produce more milk than they would naturally. The use of hormones to promote growth in animals used for food has been banned for many years in Europe, and scientists have clearly shown that the hormones used in cows can cause disrupted development and cancer in humans.7 Despite these findings, farmers in America continue to dose cows with powerful hormones that can make humans sick.
If the bacteria, hormones, and arsenic don’t take their toll in the short term, the build-up of dioxins from animal products could cause serious health problems in the long run. Dioxins are chemicals that are released into the environment when substances are burned, and they accumulate in the flesh and milk of animals. These chemicals are present in our environment in small doses, but according to leading scientists and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), nearly 95 percent of our dioxin exposure comes in the concentrated form of red meat, fish, and dairy products, because when we eat animal products, the dioxin that animals have built up in their bodies is absorbed into our own.
A powerful hormone-disrupting chemical, dioxin binds to a cell and modifies its functioning, causing a wide range of effects, including cancer, depressed immune response, nervous system disorders, miscarriages, and birth deformities.8,9 Researchers at the EPA have found that people who consume even small amounts of dioxin from meat and dairy products have an extra one in 100 risk of suffering from cancer—solely as a result of their dioxin consumption and on top of all other risks.10
Animal flesh, eggs, and milk are also often laced with other toxins that have been shown to harm human health, including pesticides, mercury, and PCBs. The late renowned pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock, who was a vocal advocate of vegan diets for adults and children, explained, “Another good reason for getting your nutrition from plant sources is that animals tend to concentrate pesticides and other chemicals in their meat and milk. … Plant foods have much less contamination …”11
Read more about how the contaminants in meat, cow’s milk, and eggs can harm human health.
The above article is from http://GoVeg.com
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yao wang
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Joined: 06 Jul 2007
Posts: 23
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| Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 9:47 pm Post subject: Eating meat is not natural |
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"T. Colin Campbell, the former senior science advisor to the American Institute for Cancer Research, is outspoken on the diet/disease connection. He says, 'The vast majority of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and other forms of degenerative illness can be prevented simply by adopting a plant-based diet.'"21 In Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, he states, "I now consider veganism to be the ideal diet. A vegan diet—particularly one that is low in fat—will substantially reduce disease risks. Plus, we've seen no disadvantages from veganism. In every respect, vegans appear to enjoy equal or better health in comparison to both vegetarians and non-vegetarians."22
William Castelli, M.D. says: "A low-fat, plant-based diet would not only lower the heart attack rate about 85 percent, but would lower the cancer rate 60 percent."23
Our anatomy reveals that we are herbivores, as does our natural aversion to meat and the fact that it is harmful to our health. Meat-eaters are out of step with our evolutionary past. Our closest living relatives—the great apes—and ancestral human populations are and have been predominately vegetarian. They may eat the occasional rodent and some raw bugs, but the vast majority of their caloric intake is herbivorous. The key to human health lies in adopting a diet that is consistent with their anatomy and evolutionary history.
Luckily for us, it has never been easier to eat a vegetarian diet. Modern society has been able to provide a healthy vegetarian alternative for all of our favorite meat-based dishes, and more and more restaurants and grocery stores are offering delicious meat-free options. Visit VegCooking.com for free recipes, tips, and more.
The article above is from http://GoVeg.com
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yao wang
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Joined: 06 Jul 2007
Posts: 23
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| Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 10:31 pm Post subject: Optimal Vegan Nutrition |
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"Animal rights is a part of my everyday life. When you live by example, you create a certain level of awareness. Friends of mine-people I have never discussed animal rights or vegetarianism with-are adopting vegetarian habits because they see it."
—Joaquin Phoenix
The health benefits of a vegetarian diet are impressive. Dr. T. Colin Campbell, nutritional researcher at Cornell University and director of the largest epidemiological study in history, says, "The vast majority of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and other forms of degenerative illness can be prevented simply by adopting a plant-based diet." The American Dietetic Association, the nation's largest organization of nutrition professionals, states that vegetarians have lower rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and other health problems. By adopting a nutritious vegan diet, you will likely lose unwanted weight, have more energy, and dramatically lower your risk of various diseases. Here are a few pointers on how to maximize the benefits:
Top Tips
Eat a variety of "whole foods," with plenty of beans, nuts, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
Avoid unhealthy foods like trans fats, which are usually listed as partially hydrogenated oils. Deep-fried foods often contain trans fats. Choose margarines that use nonhydrogenated oil, like Earth Balance or Smart Balance. Although a diet consisting of Coke and French fries is technically vegan, you can't be healthy if you eat nothing but junk food.
Vitamin B12: Vitamin B12 is produced by bacteria, and some experts believe that vegetarians used to get plenty of this vitamin from bacteria in drinking water. Since drinking water is now treated with chemicals that kill the bacteria, it's important to make sure that you get enough vitamin B12 from fortified foods (like most brands of soy or rice milks, some breakfast cereals, and many brands of nutritional yeast) on a daily basis or by taking a sublingual B12 tablet of 10 mcg per day.
"I think there's something odd about eating another living anything."
—Shania Twain
Essential Nutrients
We've listed some nutrients that people often ask about as well as where you can get them. A healthy, balanced vegan diet rich in beans, nuts, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables—along with a bit of vitamins B12 and D—will give you everything that your body needs. But if you often eat on the go and don't always have time to eat nutritious meals, taking a regular multivitamin might be a good option.
Learn More About…
Calcium and Vitamin D
Iodine
Iron
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Protein
Common Questions
Here is information on a few common topics that we are sometimes asked about regarding healthy vegetarian eating. For more in-depth information, see the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s vegetarian starter kit or check out our recommended-reading list below.
Learn More About…
Blood-Type Diet
High-Protein and Low-Carbohydrate Diets
Soy Foods
Vegetarianism and Pregnancy, Children, and Teenagers
Check out our favorite Vegetarian Super-Foods!
It's never too late to turn over a new leaf-you can take control of your health today by going vegetarian.The above article is from http://GoVeg.com |
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