Disease Prevention Benefits of Going Vegan

Eating a healthy vegan diet has shown to prevent a number of diseases. Find out from the list below what you could potentially avoid just by switching to a healthy, balanced vegan way of eating.

1. Cardiovascular disease. Eating nuts and whole grains, while eliminating dairy products and meat, will improve your cardiovascular health. A British study indicates that a vegan diet reduces the risk for heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. Vegan diets go far in preventing heart attack and stroke.

2. Cholesterol. Eliminating any food that comes from an animal and you will eliminate all dietary cholesterol from your diet. Your heart will thank you for that.

3. Blood pressure. A diet rich in whole grains is beneficial to your health in many ways, including lowering high blood pressure.

4. Type 2 diabetes. Not only is a vegan diet a weapon against Type 2 diabetes, it is also "easier to follow than the standard diet recommended by the American Diabetic Association." Read more about it here.

5. Prostate cancer. A major study showed that men in the early stages of prostate cancer who switched to a vegan diet either stopped the progress of the cancer or may have even reversed the illness.

6. Colon cancer. Eating a diet consisting of whole grains, along with fresh fruits and vegetables, can greatly reduce your chances of colon cancer.

7. Breast cancer. Countries where women eat very little meat and animal products have a much lower rate of breast cancer than do the women in countries that consume more animal products.

8. Macular degeneration. Diets with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, especially leafy greens, carrots, pumpkin, and sweet potatoes, can help prevent the onset of age-related macular degeneration.

9. Cataracts. Much the same way macular degeneration is headed off by a vegan diet, cataracts are also thought to be prevented through the intake of the same fruits and vegetables. Produce high in antioxidants are also believed to help prevent cataracts.

10. Arthritis. Eliminating dairy consumption has long been connected with alleviating arthritis symptoms, but a new study indicates that a combination of gluten-free and vegan diet is very promising for improving the health of those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.

11. Osteoporosis. Bone health depends on a balance of neither too much or too little protein, adequate calcium intake, high potassium, and low sodium. With a healthy vegan diet, all four of these points set a perfect scenario for preventing osteoporosis.

Health Reasons to Avoid Milk

1. Cow's milk is for cows.

The biochemical make-up of cow's milk is perfectly suited

to turn a 65-pound newborn calf into a 400-pound cow in one year. It contains, for example, three times more protein and seven times more mineral content while human milk has 10 times as much essential fatty acids, three times as much selenium, and half the calcium. Some may like cow's milk but drinking it is both unnecessary and potentially harmful.

2. Milk is actually a poor source for dietary calcium.

Humans, like cows, get all the calcium they need from a plant-based diet.

3. Contrary to popular belief, milk may increase the likelihood of osteoporosis.

It is still widely accepted that the calcium in dairy products will strengthen our bones and help prevent osteoporosis, but studies show that foods originating from animal sources (like milk) make the blood acidic. When this occurs, the blood leeches calcium from the bones to increase alkalinity. While this works wonders for the pH balance of your blood, it sets your calcium-depleted bones up for osteoporosis. As explained by John Robbins, "The only research that even begins to suggest that the consumption of dairy products might be helpful [in preventing osteoporosis] has been paid for by the National Dairy Council itself."

4. Milk makes you fat.

In 2005, the Harvard School of Public Health had this to say on the consumption of dairy products: "Three glasses of low-fat milk add more than 300 calories a day. This is a real issue for the millions of Americans who are trying to control their weight. What's more, millions of Americans are lactose intolerant, and even small amounts of milk or dairy products give them stomach aches, gas, or other problems."

Environmental Reasons to Stop Drinking Milk

What could be more American than a glass of milk? Cow's milk, that is. In light of this common perception, the time is long overdue to add the milk mustache to that ever-growing list of American myths. Human beings are not designed to drink any milk except human milk (only during infancy, of course). As you'll see below, consuming dairy products—milk, cheese, yogurt, sour cream, ice cream, etc.—is not green and it's not healthy.

It's also a nightmare for the cows themselves. Here's a little of how the folks at GoVeg describe it: "The 9 million cows living on dairy farms in the United States spend most of their lives in large sheds or on feces-caked mud lots, where disease is rampant. Cows raised for their milk are repeatedly impregnated. Their babies are taken away so that humans can drink the milk intended for the calves. When their exhausted bodies can no longer provide enough milk, they are sent to slaughter and ground up for hamburgers."

Living dairy-free has never been easier...so here's a little motivation to get you on the greener, cruelty-free, not-milk track.

Environmental Reasons to Avoid Milk

1. Dairy cows produce waste.
Lots of waste. In fact, your average dairy cow produces 120 pounds of waste every day—equal to that of more than two dozen people, but without toilets, sewers, or treatment plants.

2. Let me repeat: Dairy cows produce lots and lots of waste (and greenhouse gases).
California produces one-fifth of the country's total milk supply. According to MilkSucks.com, "in the Central Valley of California, the cows produce as much excrement as a city of 21 million people, and even a smallish farm of 200 cows will produce as much nitrogen as in the sewage from a community of 5,000 to 10,000 people, according to a U.S. Senate report on animal waste."

3. Milk production ultimately leads to climate change.
The dairy industry is an extension of the beef industry (used-up dairy cows are sent to the slaughterhouse after an average of four years, one-fifth their normal life expectancy) which means it plays a major role in creating climate change. Here's the equation: The dairy industry uses cows before passing them on to be slaughtered by the beef industry which is now recognized as an environmental nightmare. "According to a UN report," writes Brian Merchant, "cows are leading contributors to climate change ... Accounting for putting out 18% of the world's carbon dioxide, cows emit more greenhouse gases than cars, planes, and all other forms of transportation combined." That means the industry of exploiting all cows—including dairy cows—involves destructive practices like deforestation and polluting offshoots like runoff.

4. Milk often contains unwanted ingredients.
Under current industrial methods, cow's milk is often a toxic bovine brew of man-made ingredients like bio-engineered hormones, antibiotics (55% of U.S. antibiotics are fed to livestock), and pesticides—all of which are bad for us and the environment. For example, unintentional pesticide poisonings kill an estimated 355,000 people globally each year. In addition the drugs pumped into livestock often re-visit us in our water supply.

Why Vegetarian? And What Doctors Say About the Diet

Although in a notably staggering economy it might be more economical for Egyptians to switch to a vegetable diet and forego meat, many current vegetarians have their own reasons, such as ethics, hygiene or being "unique."

"To me every part of an animal resembles a part of my body: I too have ribs, shoulders and legs, and I simply can't eat a part of something that breathes!" says Salma Amin, an executive manager who had been a devotee of vegetarianism for the past ten years.

For Heba Tawfeeq, a housewife, shunning meat and poultry began since childhood. "I simply thought that eating something that once had blood flowing through its body is gross!" she exclaims.

Another example we came upon was a group of school girls in Maadi district, who actually thought that being a group of friends who are vegetarians was cool and made them stand out in a crowd!

As for the few men Ahram Online interviewed who endorsed this diet, most had the notion that being a vegetarian can help you live longer and avoid cardiovascular diseases.

"There are various justifications for following a vegetarian diet, whether they be ethical, religious, financial or just for the sake of preventing specific illnesses associated with excessive meat consumption," described Dr Iman El-Tahlawy, assistant professor of Public and Environmental Health, National Research Centre.

"But," the doctor continues "a person should be clear on the type of diet they choose, understand the risks involved and make up for whatever is missing to make sure they get their daily nutritional needs."

Hazards involved

Dr El-Tahlawy elaborates on the risks involved when a person pays no attention to maintaining the right nutritional balance in the case of strict vegetarian diets as follows:

"Keeping fit and healthy is attainable for vegetarians as long as special attention is paid to replacing the elements that might be lacking in their food choices and could subsequently result in health hazards such as anaemia (iron deficiency), macrocytic anaemia (deficiency of B-12) or rickets (vitamin D deficiency)" she says.

"It is very important to note that it is not very advisable for children to follow strict vegetarian diets. Fatigue can set in, for example, as well as 'low protein quality' due to a lack of certain amino acids found in animal proteins. This can be avoided by ensuring that the diet contains various forms of vegetarian protein sources."

Finally, she notes, that vegetarian females should ensure they should ensure they are getting enough calcium.

Know your vegetarianism

"Vegetarianism varies greatly according to a person's preference. For example, some vegetarians follow a very strict diet, avoiding even derivatives of animal products. Others follow what we call a 'flexitarian' diet, where they do occasionally eat meat, fish, chicken, dairy products and eggs. However, there are generally three kinds of vegetarians and knowing which category you fall into is vital to help you plan a balanced diet:

Vegans abstain from all kinds of chicken, meat, fish, eggs and dairy products.

Lacto-vegetarians don’t eat any kind of meat, fish, or chicken and eggs, but do consume dairy products.

Lacto-ovo vegetarians do eat eggs, dairy products, but avoid fish, meat and chicken.

Source : ahramonline

Meat Consuming is Responsible for 80% of the Destruction of the Forests

Did you know?
The meat consuming is responsible for 80% of the destruction of the Forests, Rainforests and Jungles around the world.

Specially in Brazil, the world´s biggest meat productor. Where does this meat comes from? From the AMAZON.

The whole Rainforest is being destroyed and the Native people (Indians) are being expelled with violence from their villages only to give space to grass fields that will feed the oxe for only a few years.

Now they do not have anywhere to go and anything to eat, for their tents and plantations have been destroyed.

The rivers are running dry in those places for the water NEEDS the trees there to keep its cycle.

In Amazon it works like that:
TREES=RAIN
NO TREES=NO RAIN

When the fields go dry, they move to the next fertile land. They do it over and over again.
THEY ARE TURNING THE AMAZON INTO A DESERT!

It happened once, a long time ago the Ancient Egypt was built on fertile lands around the Nile, but they destroyed it with the ox farms to the same way!

Please help us to stop this madness, stop this destruction!
Stop being a parasite!

The food that feeds these animals (a +200 million oxes hood!) could be feeding the children of the brazilian favelas and Africa together!

BE VEG, IT'S YOUR NATURE, JOIN US!

And congratulations to all the vegans and vegetarians around the world.

"Vegan revolution, the next step of the human evolution!"

You Are What You Eat

“You are what you eat”, is a slogan that I love to use to show the mental aspect of vegetarianism. When animals are slaughtered, fear and aggression enzymes are shot into their cells from their glands and other organs, just as in humans, and are part of the dead carcass that goes on to the food store. They remain in the meat until the consumer ingests those same enzymes, which are molecularly very similar to those found in humans. Fruits and vegetables do not have emotions; therefore, when they are picked they do not release any emotions cells prior to digestion. The enzymes within fruits and vegetables supply the body with sufficient nutrients that will always uphold a healthy state of mind.

Fruits and vegetables are high in nutrients; the very thing the body needs to live a long disease and pain free life. The same cannot be said for meat. Nutritionally, the alkaline-based digestive system of humans will not properly break down substantial acid substances, the greatest of which is meat.

So what do you decide? To be vegetarian or not?

The Health Dangers of Eating Meat

Colon cancer is rampant! This is caused by the slow evacuation and the putrefaction in the colon of the remains of meat. Lifelong vegetarians never suffer from such an illness. Many meat eaters believe that meat is the sole source of protein. However, the quality of this protein is so poor that little of it can ever be utilized by humans because it is incomplete and lacks the correct combination of amino acids, the building blocks of protein. Studies show that the average American gets five times the amount of protein needed. It is a common medical fact that excess protein is dangerous, the prime danger being that uric acid (the waste product produced in the process of digesting protein) attacks the kidneys, breaking down the kidney cells called nephrons. This condition is called nephritis; the prime cause of it is overburdening the kidneys. More usable protein is found in one tablespoon of tofu or soybeans than the average serving of meat!

Have you ever seen what happens to a piece of meat that stays in the sun for three days? Meat can stay in the warmth of the intestine for at least four days until it is digested. It does nothing but wait for passage. Often, it usually stays there for much longer, traces remaining for up to several months. Colonic therapists always see meat passing through in people who have been vegetarians for several years, thus indicating that meat remains undigested there for a long time. Occasionally this has been documented in twenty-year vegetarians!

Some vegetarians claim they are more satisfied after they eat. The reason for this is that there are fewer ketones (protein-digestive substances) formed when vegetable protein is digested. For many, ketones cause a trace amount of nausea which one normally interprets as a decreased desire for food due to this uncomfortable and slight degree of queasiness. Although the body calls for more food, the taste buds tolerate less. This is the danger of the popular high-protein diet substances on the market. This abnormally high level of ketones is called ketosis and refers to the state of starvation that the body incurs due to the inability of the appetite to call for nutrition. Most Americans who eat the wrong type of carbohydrates never recognize the high amount of complex carbohydrates required to overthrow this condition. Also, when the blood ketone level is too high, it results in abnormally acidic blood, called acidosis.

Tigers or lions who eat meat and grow strong on it have acid-based digestive systems. Our Hydrochloric Acid isn’t strong enough to fully digest meat. Also, their intestines are in a straight run of about five feet long, not twisted and turned, layer over layer, compacted into a small area like the human intestine, which is twenty feet long.

Why Vegetarian? Consider it!

As World Meatless Day falls on Nov 25, it’s appropriate that we review our eating habits, and reconsider the role of vegetables in our diet.

In the booklet, Why Vegetarian? A Beginner’s Guide, produced by the Malaysian Vegetarian Society in the late 90s, the society’s first president, Sona Zakariya, voiced her hope that one day, instead of people asking, “Why are you a vegetarian?”, the question would instead be, “So how do you become a vegetarian?”

We often are bombarded by messages and advice telling us to “quit smoking”, “lessen sugar intake” and “cut down on fatty foods”. Some habits die hard, others die even harder. But habits can be broken, what more in human beings who are the most adaptable creatures on the planet.

According to Dr P. Vythilingam, current president of the Malaysian Vegetarian Society, there are more than one billion vegetarians in the world today, with about one million in Malaysia. And the numbers continue to grow, which should be proof enough that human beings can and do survive on a non-meat diet.

Dr Vythilingam pointed to industrial farming practices that indirectly leads to the health problems faced by non-vegetarians – how the animals are bred and slaughtered, and the meat produced.

“There are a lot of antibiotics pumped into the animals (to keep them healthy in otherwise harsh living conditions),” he said. “There are the pesticides and DDT sprayed on the corn used for feeding livestock. And chickens, to make them grow faster, they are injected with hormones. This is why some people have hormone-related cancers.”

Prof Nick Day of the University Of Cambridge and the European Prospective Study Into Cancer stated that there are 40% fewer cancers among vegetarians compared to the general population.

“It’s never too late to start a vegetarian diet,” advised Dr Vythilingam. “Human beings are the only ones on earth who can adapt to anything. You can’t give a cow a piece of chicken and condition the cow to eat it. And you don’t give grass to a tiger. But human beings can be ‘conditioned’.”

Why Eat Less Meat?

Why eat less meat? Eating lower on the food chain is probably the single most important thing you can do to help the environment. If the whole world stopped driving cars and SUVs, shipping goods in tractor trailers, flying planes, sending freighters across the ocean and all other transportation activity, it wouldn't do as much as if we all just stopped eating beef.

Livestock accounts for 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations. That includes clearing land for grazing, raising grains for feed (often with the help of fossil fuel fertilizers) -- and the not insignificant burping of cows. All the fertilizer and pesticides used to grow grain, the antibiotics and hormones (often) used to speed up livestock growth on feed lots and the copious manure all add to the environmental impact of raising livestock.

Americans eat the equivalent of three quarter-pounders a day. If we each cut the equivalent of one hamburger from our daily diet, it would be like taking half million cars off the road. We might all live a little longer, too.

When you do eat meat, look for ethically raised animals, raised locally on natural diets whenever possible.

FDA Admits Chicken Meat Contains Cancer-Causing Arsenic

After years of sweeping the issue under the rug and hoping no one would notice, the FDA has now finally admitted that chicken meat sold in the USA contains arsenic, a cancer-causing toxic chemical that's fatal in high doses. But the real story is where this arsenic comes from: It's added to the chicken feed on purpose!

Even worse, the FDA says its own research shows that the arsenic added to the chicken feed ends up in the chicken meat where it is consumed by humans. So for the last sixty years, American consumers who eat conventional chicken have been swallowing arsenic, a known cancer-causing chemical.
(http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/burlington_county_times_news/fd...)

Until this new study, both the poultry industry and the FDA denied that arsenic fed to chickens ended up in their meat. The fairytale excuse story we've all been fed for sixty years is that "the arsenic is excreted in the chicken feces." There's no scientific basis for making such a claim... it's just what the poultry industry wanted everybody to believe.

But now the evidence is so undeniable that the manufacturer of the chicken feed product known as Roxarsone has decided to pull the product off the shelves (http://www.grist.org/food-safety/2011-06-08-fda-admits-supermarket-ch...). And what's the name of this manufacturer that has been putting arsenic in the chicken feed for all these years? Pfizer, of course -- the very same company that makes vaccines containing chemical adjuvants that are injected into children.

Technically, the company making the Roxarsone chicken feed is a subsidiary of Pfizer, called Alpharma LLC. Even though Alpharma now has agreed to pull this toxic feed chemical off the shelves in the United States, it says it won't necessarily remove it from feed products in other countries unless it is forced by regulators to do so. As reported by AP:

"Scott Brown of Pfizer Animal Health's Veterinary Medicine Research and Development division said the company also sells the ingredient in about a dozen other countries. He said Pfizer is reaching out to regulatory authorities in those countries and will decide whether to sell it on an individual basis." (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2011-06-08-fda-chicken-...)

Arsenic? Eat more!

But even as its arsenic-containing product is pulled off the shelves, the FDA continues its campaign of denial, claiming arsenic in chickens is at such a low level that it's still safe to eat. This is even as the FDA says arsenic is a carcinogen, meaning it increases the risk of cancer.

The National Chicken Council agrees with the FDA. In a statement issued in response to the news that Roxarsone would be pulled from feed store shelves, it stated, "Chicken is safe to eat" even while admitting arsenic was used in many flocks grown and sold as chicken meat in the United States.

What's astonishing about all this is that the FDA tells consumers it's safe to eat cancer-causing arsenic but it's dangerous to drink elderberry juice! The FDA recently conducted an armed raid in an elderberry juice manufacturer, accusing it of the "crime" of selling "unapproved drugs." (http://www.naturalnews.com/032631_elderberry_juice_FDA_raid.html) Which drugs would those be? The elderberry juice, explains the FDA. You see, the elderberry juice magically becomes a "drug" if you tell people how it can help support good health.

The FDA has also gone after dozens of other companies for selling natural herbal products or nutritional products that enhance and support health. Plus, it's waging a war on raw milk which it says is dangerous. So now in America, we have a food and drug regulatory agency that says it's okay to eat arsenic, but dangerous to drink elderberry juice or raw milk.

Eat more poison, in other words, but don't consume any healing foods. That's the FDA, killing off Americans one meal at a time while protecting the profits of the very companies that are poisoning us with their deadly ingredients.

Oh, by the way, here's another sweet little disturbing fact you probably didn't know about hamburgers and conventional beef: Chicken litter containing arsenic is fed to cows in factory beef operations. So the arsenic that's pooped out by the chickens gets consumed and concentrated in the tissues of cows, which is then ground into hamburger to be consumed by the clueless masses who don't even know they're eating second-hand chicken sh*t.
(http://www.naturalnews.com/027414_chicken_disease_cows.html)

Source : Natural News

 

Anti-foaming Found in Chicken McNuggets

Ever wonder what's really found in Chicken McNuggets? Some of the ingredients, it turns out, seem to belong more to an industrial factory of some kind, not a food retailer. According to the McDonald's Corporation, its famous Chicken McNuggets are made with ingredients including autolyzed yeast extract (which contain free glutamate, similar to MSG), sodium phosphates and sodium aluminum phosphate. But that's not the freaky part. According to McDonald's own website, Chicken McNuggets are also made with "hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness" and "Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent."
(http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/ingredientslist.pdf)

At least two of these ingredients are artificially synthesized industrial chemicals. TBHQ, a petroleum derivative, is used as a stabilizer in perfumes, resins, varnishes and oil field chemicals. Laboratory studies have linked it to stomach tumors. "At higher doses, it has some negative health effects on lab animals, such as producing precursors to stomach tumors and damage to DNA. A number of studies have shown that prolonged exposure to high doses of TBHQ may be carcinogenic, especially for stomach tumors." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TBHQ)

Dimethylpolysiloxane, a type of silicone, is used in caulks and sealants, as a filler for breast implants, and as key ingredient in Silly Putty. Says Wikipedia:

"PDMS is also used as a component in silicone grease and other silicone based lubricants, as well as in defoaming agents, mold release agents, damping fluids, heat transfer fluids, polishes, cosmetics, hair conditioners and other applications. PDMS has also been used as a filler fluid in breast implants, although this practice has decreased somewhat, due to safety concerns. PDMS is used variously in the cosmetic and consumer product industry as well. For example, PDMS can be used in the treatment of head lice..."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethylpolysiloxane)

Not that the other ingredients are any better. Because cotton is not regulated as a food crop, cottonseed oil may contain chemical pesticides that are banned in food production. It is also almost always genetically modified. Hydrogenated oils, of course, typically contain trans fats, the artificially produced fats that are unusable by the body and that studies have linked to a number of detrimental health problems. And autolyzed yeast extract is a chemical taste-enhancing ingredient containing free glutamate that manufacturers use as a friendlier-looking replacement for MSG.

And what about the chicken in Chicken McNuggets? It's factory-farmed chicken, not free-range chicken. So it's the kind of chicken that's typically treated with vaccines and hormones while being fed conventional feed products that are medicated with pharmaceuticals and grown with pesticides.

Yum!! Don't forget to ask for extra dipping sauce. We haven't even talked about what you'll find in there...

Source : Natural News

Six Reasons Why Vegetarian Diet is so Good

Here are six reasons of why vegetarian diet is so good for you:

1. Vegetarian cuisine is naturally low in saturated fats, and foods of plant origin contain little or no cholesterol.

2. Plant foods are also much higher in fiber than animal foods.

3. Many plant foods contain significant amounts of vital B-vitamins, and folic acid: and fruits and vegetables are powerful sources of phytochemicals - nutrients that help every organ of the body work better.

4. Vegetarians tend to eat fewer calories, since grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables, volume-for-volume, tend to be lower in calories than meat and poultry. Studies have shown that as long as their diet is balanced and nutritious, the people who consume fewer total daily calories live longer and healthier lives.

5. Veggie lovers believe that foods from plant sources, which are lower on the food chain, are safer than animal foods, since pollutants tend to concentrate in fatty tissues. While raw fruits and vegetables can carry harmful bacteria and pesticide residues just like meat, you can remove many of these pollutants by washing the plant foods. Trimming the fat from meat or chicken is less effective. Meat, poultry, and seafood are also more frequent carriers of foodborne illnesses than plant sources.

6. Environmental conservationists believe that having more plant-based diets is healthier for the planet. It takes less energy and less farmland to feed a vegetarian than it does to feed livestock.

Eat Less Meat to Help Double World's Food Supply

MONTREAL - A newly published blueprint for doubling the global food supply includes a key suggestion about how everyone can contribute to this increasingly pressing ambition: eat less meat.

An international team of researchers has developed solutions to respond to what it calls one the greatest challenges of the 21st century — boosting food production while slashing the environmental impact of agriculture.

The research, which will be featured on the cover page of the Oct. 20 edition of the journal Nature, comes as international concern grows over how the planet will feed the rapidly expanding human population.

With the world's population expected to climb from 6.9 billion to 9 billion by 2050, the issue of food was put at the top of this year's G-20 agenda. The study, published online Wednesday, says there are already a billion people who don't have enough to eat.

McGill University's Navin Ramankutty, one of the team leaders on the paper, said the research is the first of its kind to quantify both food production and ecological consequences in the same analysis.

He added that it's also the first study to examine these factors while considering the specific environmental characteristics of different regions of the planet.

Ramankutty said limiting meat consumption is one of several ways to increase food production.

He estimates that simply dedicating prime cropland to growing food for humans — rather than growing biofuels or feed for animals — could spike the global output by nearly 50 per cent.

The study says that three-quarters of the world's agricultural land is devoted to raising livestock, either for grazing or for growing feed.

Ramankutty added that beef is the most resource-intensive animal product of them all.

"That doesn't mean we all have to become vegetarians and vegans, but even if you ... eat meat one or two days less a week, you can hugely contribute to the amount of food that's needed," Ramankutty, himself a meat-eater, said from Montreal.

"It would have a huge impact, but this also happens to be one of those things where people are much more personally attached to it."

He said that scientists in his field rarely raised diet as an issue in the past because they didn't want to infringe on a person's right to choose.

But Ramankutty said fewer researchers are staying quiet on this subject, particularly when the consequences have global environmental impacts.

Changes to the human diet are only one component of the study's strategy to double the global food supply.

The research also calls for improved crop management to increase yields; an end to deforestation to make way for farmland; and a cutback on food waste, which amounts for as much as half of the planetary food production.

The catch? Ensuring these strategies are adopted on a global scale.

Ramankutty was coy when asked about the likelihood of these tactics being implemented in his lifetime — though he did laugh at the question.

"To be honest, I'm probably pessimistic about it, but I always think that optimism is the only choice we have," the geographer said.

"It's not going to happen in a big, single step. Obviously, it's going to happen slowly."

Ramankutty continued by noting that some aspects included in the study are already being discussed politically and at the international level, such as plans to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation.

He hopes the study will influence both policy makers and even personal dietary choices.

"Hopefully, people who had been thinking about these issues before (will) read this paper and say: 'Hey, this can make big changes; it's not just a small drop in the bucket,' " Ramankutty said.

Source : CTV News

 

Why (and How) More Americans are Going Meatless?

Vegetarianism is increasing in popularity in the United States, according to a recently published position paper in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Among adults, 2.3% of the population is vegetarian and 3% of 8- to 18-year-olds follow a vegetarian diet. That doesn’t sound like much, but—compared with just a few decades ago—there is a definite movement from Americans to give up their beloved burgers, at least some of the time.

According to the American Dietetic Association’s new position paper, released in July, “appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.”

In summary, vegetarian diets offer health advantages and are appropriate for all ages and stages of life—from pregnancy to old age. In fact, some of the significant health benefits of eating a vegetarian diet include lower rates of:

• Overweight and obesity

• Type 2 diabetes

• Certain cancers

• Cardiovascular disease

• High blood pressure

• High cholesterol

Now it’s up to the USDA to see if the many benefits of eating a plant-based diet are addressed in the next edition of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, to be issued next year.

Until then, it certainly can’t hurt—and will most likely help your health—to try going meatless at least a few days a week. Here’s how to make sure you get the nutrients you need, and here are plenty of tasty recipes to get you started.

Why Do People Become Vegans/Vegetarians? Survey Says: All of the Above

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A growing number of Americans are choosing to follow vegetarian or vegan diets, but their reasons for doing so differ greatly, according to a new survey.

For some people, their decision to quit consuming meat – or animal products of any kind – stems from their opposition to killing or using animals for food. Others are seeking a healthier lifestyle and say they are concerned about chemical or hormonal additives. And still others associate red meat with heart disease, cancer and “mad cow” disease, among other concerns.

“There is no single reason why people choose to become vegans or vegetarians,” said Peter Cheeke, a professor emeritus of animal sciences at Oregon State University, who launched thesurvey. “In many cases, their reasons are multi-faceted. But if there was a single reason cited by most people, it was the idea of becoming healthier.”

Cheeke presented the results of the survey recently at the American Society of Animal Sciences national convention in New Orleans. His interest in the topic is both personal and professional.

An animal science professor in OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences for more than 40 years, Cheeke ran a couple of small farms and raised four children. Two of them are vegans, one is a vegetarian, and the other is a farmer and rancher who raises livestock. One son, Robert Cheeke, is a well-known vegan bodybuilder and co-author on the survey.

Since Robert Cheeke was speaking at numerous vegetarian/vegan events, the elder Cheeke decided to take advantage of that to launch the informal survey.

“The goal was to find out what prompted all of these people to become vegans or vegetarians,” Peter Cheeke said. “So we decided to take advantage of the people who came to these trade shows and festivals and learn their motivation.”

Over a two-year period, the Cheekes, along with Steve Lukefahr – a former OSU doctoral student in animal sciences, now at Texas A&M University-Kingsville – surveyed vegans and vegetarians in 14 states. In addition to their rationale for choosing their lifestyle and diet, the researchers tried to learn more about people’s background, including experience in living on a farm, participating in 4-H, or having pets.

They went to such places as the Northwest Vegetarian Potluck in Portland, Ore.; an animal rightsconference in Los Angeles; the Vegan Thanksgiving feast in Logan, Utah; a vegan bodybuildinglecture in DeKalb, Ill.; and the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival in Massachusetts.

In general, most of the people who completed the survey were female, over the age of 20, and had little experience living on a farm or participating in 4-H projects. Most, Cheeke said, were strongly opposed to all aspects of livestock production. Almost all sought a healthier lifestyle.

This and other surveys should serve as a wakeup call to the livestock industry, Cheeke said. A 2008 study by the Vegetarian Times found that there were 7.3 million vegetarians in the United States, and another 22.8 million people who followed a “vegetarian-inclined” diet. Harris surveys have put the number of vegans in the U.S. at between 1 and 2 percent of the population.

“That’s quite a few people who for one reason or another are choosing not to eat meat,” Cheeke said. “There may be a bigger role for niche marketing of animal products, including organic meats and free-range poultry.

“Thirty or 40 years ago, the biggest challenge for the livestock industry was producing things more efficiently,” he added. “Now the challenge is healthier products and less-intensive production practices.”

About the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences: The college contributes in many ways to the economic and environmental sustainability of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. The college's faculty are leaders in agriculture and food systems, natural resources management, life sciences and rural economic development research.

Source : Health Canal

Why You are not a Carnivore

Six good points that prove human beings are herbivores. See which dietary class you associate with.

1. Carnivores have claws for shredding flesh. Herbivores do not.
2. Carnivores perspire through their tongues. Herbivores perspire through sudoriferous glands (skin pores).
3. Carnivores have sharp front teeth for tearing and no rear molars for grinding. Herbivores have the molars accompanied by flat front teeth.
4. Carnivores have an intestinal tract that is only 3 times their body length so rapidly decaying food can pass through quickly. Both herbivores and humans have a tract of about 10-12 times the size of their body length.
5. The stomach acid of herbivores and humans is 20 times weaker than the hydrochloric acid of a meat eater.
6. Herbivores and humans have well-developed salivary glands carrying alkaline and ptyalin in the mouth for the pre-digestion of plants. Carnivores do not.

Education and scientific/natural proof is a powerful tool in sharing vegetarianism with others.

Another Reason to Add More Fruit and Fibre to Your Diet

Vegetarians are a third less likely to get a common bowel disorder (diverticular disease) than their meat-eating counterparts, according to a new study.

Diverticular disease has been termed a "disease of western civilisation" because of the higher numbers of cases in Europe and the US compared with parts of Africa.

The condition affects the large bowel or colon and is thought to be caused by not consuming enough fibre. Typical symptoms include painful abdominal cramps, bloating, wind, constipation and diarrhoea.

Previous research suggested that a low-fibre diet could lead to diverticular disease, and that vegetarians may have a lower risk compared with meat eaters, but there was little evidence to substantiate this.

So Dr Francesca Crowe and her team from the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford set out to examine the link between a vegetarian diet and intake of dietary fibre with the risk of diverticular disease.

Their findings are based on 47,033 generally health-conscious British adults who were taking part in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Oxford study. Of those recruited, 15,459 were vegetarians.

After an average follow-up time of 11.6 years, there were 812 cases of diverticular disease (806 admissions to hospital and six deaths). After adjusting for factors such as smoking, alcohol and body mass index, vegetarians had a lower risk of the illness compared with meat eaters.

Furthermore, participants with a relatively high intake of dietary fibre (around 25g a day) had a lower risk of being admitted to hospital with or dying from diverticular disease compared with those who consumed less than 14g of fibre a day.

According to UK figures for the period 200-2001, 72pc of men and 87pc of women were not meeting the recommended average intake for dietary fibre of 18g a day and so the proportion of cases of diverticular diseases in the general population attributed to a low-fibre diet could be considerable.

These findings lend support to public health recommendations that encourage the consumption of foods high in fibre such as wholemeal breads, wholegrain cereals, fruits and vegetables.

Source : Independent.ie

Top 10 Reasons to Become A Vegetarian

Most Important Reasons to Become A Vegetarian

1. Live Longer

Numerous University studies have found that vegetarians live about seven years longer than non-vegetarians, and vegans live on average about 15 years longer than meat eaters. Studies such as these are further confirmed by the Chinese Health Project, which is the largest population study on diet and health to date. The Chinese Health Study found Chinese people who eat the least amount of fat and animal products have the lowest risk of heart attack, cancer, and other serious diseases.

In addition to this, proof comes from a British research group that tracked 6,000 Vegetarians and 5,000 meat eaters for 12 years to find that vegetarians were 40 percent less likely to die from cancer during that time and 20 percent less likely to die from other diseases. See the Vegetarian FAQ!

2. You’ll make regular visits to the restroom

Veggies are the best source for fiber, which pushes waste out of the body. Meat contains no fiber and collects against the walls of the digestive tract, which can lead to colon cancer. Studies done at Harvard and Brigham Women’s Hospital concluded that people who ate a high-fiber diet had a 42 percent lower risk of diverticulitis. People who eat a high percentage of vegetables in their diets also tend to have fewer counts of constipation, hemorrhoids and spastic colons.

3. Healthy heart

Fruits and vegetables are loaded with antioxidant nutrients that protect the heart and the arteries. Fruits and vegetables contain no saturated fat or cholesterol.

The cholesterol levels for vegetarians are on average 14 percent lower than meat eaters. The American diet that is loaded with saturated fats and cholesterol from meat and dairy have made heart disease the number one killer in the United States.

4. Avoid toxic chemicals

95% of pesticide residue in the Western diet comes from meat, fish and dairy products. Seafood, in particular, contain carcinogens (PCBs, DDT) and heavy metals (mercury, arsenic; lead, cadmium) that cannot be removed through cooking or freezing. Meat and dairy products are also laced with steroids and hormones that are injected into the animals to combat disease.

5. You will give your body a detox

Fruit and vegetable juices contain phytochemicals that help our bodies detoxify naturally. Giving up meat helps rid the body of toxins (environmental pollutants, pesticides, and preservatives) that overload our systems and cause illness. Many of these additives cannot be assimilated and pool in various parts of the body.

6. Great Looking Body And Skinnier

A great reason to become Vegetarian is on average, most vegetarians are slimmer than meat eaters. Vegetarian diets are much lower in calories than the standard American diet. Vegetarians are also less likely to suffer from weight-related disorders like heart disease, stroke and diabetes.  Vegetarian FAQ!

7. Save Lot’s of Money

By replacing meat, chicken and fish with vegetables and fruits, it is estimated to cut your food bill by an average of $4,000 a year.

8. Be environmental friendly

By being a Vegetarian you will help reduce waste and air pollution. A farms in Milford, Utah, which raises 2.5 million pigs yearly, produces more waste than the entire city of Los Angeles. And this is just one farm. Each year, our nation’s factory farms, collectively produce 2 billion tons of manure, a substance that’s rated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as one of the country’s top 10 pollutants. And that is not even taking in to account the amount of methane gas released by cows, pigs and poultry, which contributes to the greenhouse effect); the ammonia gases from urine; poison gases that emanate from manure lagoons; toxic chemicals from

9. Vegetarians are More Efficient

Right now, 72% of all the grain that is produced in the United States is fed to animals, which are raised for slaughter. It takes about 15 pounds of feed to get one pound of meat. But if this same grain was given directly to people, there would be enough food to feed the entire planet. Using land for animal agriculture is inefficient in terms of maximizing food production. According to the journal of Soil and Water, one acre of land could produce 50,000 pounds of tomatoes, 40,000 pounds of potatoes, 30,000 pounds of carrots or just 250 pounds of beef. You do the math!

10. Its The Humane Thing To Do

Albert Einstein was quoted as saying “Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” See The Vegetarian Faq!

Did you know that 22 million animals are slaughtered to support the American appetite for meat? It is a great feeling to finish a healthy meal knowing that no beings have suffered.

It's Impossible to Shut off Your Inner Vegetarian

By Danny Katz

"BABY killer," he yelled at me, "Stop stabbing that innocent baby with your knife!"

Fair point he was making: I was stabbing an innocent baby with my knife but that's only because my knife was blunt, so stabbing was the only way of cutting up this baby-flesh easily.

“Simon seems to be getting louder and louder each day: maybe it's because I'm cooking more meat lately because I have teenage kids who won't eat anything that can't be petted in a petting zoo, including miniature horses.” 

But Simon (my inner-vegetarian) was angry, yelling inside my head as I cut up lamb backstraps to put in a soy-honey marinade for dinner — he always gets like this when I'm cutting any meat or using animal products. Though he's strangely silent whenever I eat white chocolate made from animal fat. Not so shouty now, are we Simon, you quinoa-munching hypocrite?

All of us meat eaters have an inner vegetarian living inside us: they're that little voice yelling somewhere down the back of our heads whenever we cook or eat meat. They usually sound like Mahatma Gandhi, look like Missy Higgins, and have little bits of chervil stuck to their teeth.

Most of the time we can ignore their shouting and just eat our meat without shame, but every now and then their feeble, anaemic voices get through. They're the ones who make you feel guilty when you order a seven-meats pizza over the phone, forcing you to change it at the last moment to three meats, half garden-veg.

They're the ones who made you buy that can of nutmeat that's been sitting in your cupboard for a decade, and also that packet of fakon — a delicious smoky bacon-substitute that even rabbis love to nosh. They're the ones who whisper in your ear when you're slicing a rare steak, going, "I love steak too, but I prefer mine FURRY on the outside and BREATHING in the middle."

Try as you might, it's impossible to shut off your inner vegetarian. I've only ever seen it happen once when that guy on MasterChef series one cooked a pig's face and burnt off its bristles with a blowtorch. You could actually hear his inner vegetarian howl in despair, then hang himself from a rope made out of nori strips and celeriac.

Simon seems to be getting louder and louder each day: maybe it's because I'm cooking more meat lately because I have teenage kids who won't eat anything that can't be petted in a petting zoo, including miniature horses. So Simon's been making me watch news footage of Indonesian abattoirs during dinner. I tell you, it really puts you off your beef rendang.

Making me listen to his long anti-meat dissertations every night while I'm cooking dinner: "That animal on your cutting board was once a living being like you, Danny, with a soul and feelings like you, with
legs and snout like you. And fur — let's not forget your fur."

I try to argue back, reminding him of that Sam Neill TV ad where Sam tells us that meat eating allowed us humans to evolve better, then he walks off holding hands with a cute little orang-utan that he's about to eat.

But Simon's not buying it. He reckons I should at least make an effort, so maybe I will. I'll start acknowledging the animal I'm eating instead of using dumb-arse MasterCheffy denial-words like "protein". I'll try thanking the animal for giving its life to me; say a silent blessing to a backstrap, give a grateful cuddle to a chicken fillet. And I'll try cooking more vegetarian meals now and then, starting tomorrow night. I'm going to attempt a bean-based taco: no animals will be harmed except those who have to share a room with anyone who ate it.

Source : The Sydney Morning Herald

What You Never Knew About Dairy

The treatment of bobby calves has been a long-held secret of the dairy industry. For the sake of milk products, the Australian dairy industry discards some 700,000 unwanted week-old calves as 'waste products' every year. You can help these vulnerable animals at http://www.animalsaustralia.org