John Robbins' Nutritional Data
The health advantages of a vegetarian diet are well-known in the American
medical community, but are just beginning to gain acceptance in mainstream
society. The ethical, nutritional and environmental arguments in favor of
vegetarianism have been well documented by author John Robbins in his 1987
Pulitzer Prize nominated book, Diet for a New America, which makes ethical
vegetarianism seem as mainstream as recycling.
It’s healthier to be a vegetarian. During the period of October 1917 to
October 1918, war rationing forced the Danish government to put its citizens
on a vegetarian diet. This was a “mass experiment in vegetarianism,” with
over three million subjects. The results were astonishing. The mortality
rate dropped by 34 percent. The very same phenomenon was observed in
occupied Norway during the Second World War. After the war, heavy
consumption of meat resumed, and the mortality rate shot back up.
Studies done at Yale University by Professor Irving Fisher demonstrated that
flesh-eaters have less endurance than vegetarians. A similar study done by
Dr. J. Ioteyko of the Academie de Medicine in Paris found that vegetarians
have two to three times more stamina than flesh-eaters and they take only
one-fifth the time to recover from exhaustion.
In recent years, there has been widespread concern about osteoporosis, which
is epidemic in America, especially among older women. The popular myth has
been to solve the problem by consuming more calcium. Yet this doesn’t attack
the root of the problem.
Osteoporosis is caused by excess consumption of protein. Americans overdose
on protein, getting 1.5 to 2 times more protein than their bodies can
handle. The body can’t store excess protein, so the kidneys are forced to
excrete it. In doing so, they must draw upon calcium from the bloodstream.
This negative calcium balance in the blood is compensated for by calcium
loss from the bones: osteoporosis. The calcium lost in the bones of
flesh-eaters is 5 to 6 times greater than that lost in the bones of
vegetarians.
Excessive protein intake also taxes the kidneys; in America, it is not
uncommon to find many over 45 with kidney problems. A strong correlation
between excessive protein intake and cancer of the breast, prostate,
pancreas and colon has even been observed.
It must be pointed out that meat, fish, and eggs are the most acidic forming
foods; heavy consumption of these foods will cause the body to draw upon
calcium to restore its pH balance. The calcium lost from the bones gets into
one’s urine and often crystallizes into kidney stones, which are found in
far greater frequency among flesh-eaters than among vegetarians. Studies
have found that vegetarians in the United States have less than half the
kidney stones of the general population.
The high consumption of saturated fats and cholesterol leads to
artherosclerosis—more popularly known as “hardening of the arteries.” Plant
foods contain zero cholesterol and only palm oil, coconuts and chocolate
contain saturated fats. Lowering the cholesterol and fat intake in one’s
diet lowers the risk of heart disease—America’s biggest killer.
As far back as 1961, the Journal of the American Medical Association
reported that “A vegetarian diet can prevent 97% of our coronary
occlusions.” Much has been said about the advantage of polyunsaturated fats
as a means of lowering cholesterol in the blood. Unfortunately, this also
has the adverse side effect of driving the cholesterol out of the blood and
into the colon; contributing to colon cancer. The best way to prevent heart
disease is to avoid foods high in fat and cholesterol.
Up to 50 percent of all cancers are caused by diet. Meat and fat intake are
primarily responsible. The incidence of colon cancer is high in regions
where meat consumption is high and low where meat consumption is minimal. A
lack of fiber in the diet also contributes significantly to colon cancer.
Unprocessed plant foods are high in fiber and carbohydrates, while animal
flesh has none. The highest incidence of breast cancer occurs among
flesh-eating populations; meat eating women have a four times greater risk
of developing breast cancer than do vegetarian women. There is also a
greater risk of cervical, uterine, and ovarian cancer—all linked to diets
high in fat. Men who consume large quantities of animal fat also have a 3.6
times greater risk of getting prostate cancer.
Diabetes is known to be treatable on a low fat, high fiber diet. Incidence
of diabetes balloons among populations eating a rich, meat-based diet.
Hypoglycemia is caused by the excessive consumption of meats, sugar and fat.
Multiple Sclerosis is also treatable on a low-fat diet. MS is prevalent
among populations where consumption of animal fats is high and is least
common where such consumption is low. A brain tissue analysis of people with
MS found a high saturated fat content.
Ulcers occur most frequently in diets which are acid forming, low in fiber
and high in fats. Meat, fish, and eggs are the most acid forming of all
foods, and animal flesh has no fiber and excess fat. Low fiber, high-fat
diets are the principle cause of hemorrhoids and also diverticulosis—which
affects 75 percent of Americans over the age of 75. Similarly, 35 percent of
Americans are afflicted with some form of arthritis by the age of 35. Over
85 percent of all Americans over age 70 have arthritis, yet it is treatable
on a fat free diet.
Excess cholesterol forms gallstones. Gallstones, as well as gallbladder
disease and gallbladder cancer are usually found in people with low-fiber,
high cholesterol, high fat diets. Hypertension is virtually unknown in
countries where the intake of salt, fat and cholesterol is low. At the
University Hospital in Linkoping, Sweden, even severe asthma patients were
found to be treatable on a vegetarian diet. Flesh foods in America are also
contaminated with coliform bacteria and salmonella. Much healthier
alternatives exist.
William S. Collens and Gerald B. Dobkens conclude: “Examination of the
dental structure of modern man reveals that he possesses all the features of
a strictly herbivorous animal. While designed to subsist on vegetarian
foods, he has perverted his dietary habits to accept food of the carnivore.
It is postulated that man cannot handle carnivorous foods like the
carnivore. Herein may lie the basis for the high incidence of
arteriosclerotic disease.”
The Ladrone Islands were discovered by the Spaniards around 1620. There were
no animals on the islands except birds, which the natives did not eat. The
natives had never seen fire, and they lived entirely on plant foods—fruits
and roots in their natural state. They were found to be vigorous, active,
and of good longevity.
In a 1979 interview with vegetarian historian Rynn Berry, Dr. Gordon Latto
notes that carnivorous and omnivorous animals can only move their jaws up
and down, and that omnivores “have a blunt tooth, a sharp tooth, a blunt
tooth, a sharp tooth—showing that they were destined to deal both with flesh
foods from the animal kingdom and foods from the vegetable kingdom...
“Carnivorous mammals and omnivorous mammals cannot perspire except at the
extremity of the limbs and the tip of the nose; man perspires all over the
body. Finally, our instincts; the carnivorous mammal (which first of all has
claws and canine teeth) is capable of tearing flesh asunder, whereas man
only partakes of flesh foods after they have been camouflaged by cooking and
by condiments.
“Man instinctively is not carnivorous,” explains Dr. Latto. “...he takes the
flesh food after somebody else has killed it, and after it has been cooked
and camouflaged with certain condiments. Whereas to pick an apple off a tree
or eat some grain or a carrot is a natural thing to do: people enjoy doing
it; they don’t feel disturbed by it. But to see these animals being
slaughtered does affect people; it offends them. Even the toughest of people
are affected by the sights in the slaughterhouse.
“I remember taking some medical students into a slaughterhouse. They were
about as hardened people as you could meet. After seeing the animals
slaughtered that day in the slaughterhouse, not one of them could eat the
meat that evening.”
Author R.H. Wheldon writes in No Animal Food:
“The gorge of a cat, for instance, will rise at the smell of a mouse or a
piece of raw flesh, but not at the aroma of fruit. If a man can take delight
in pouncing upon a bird, tear its still living body apart with his teeth,
sucking the warm blood, one might infer that Nature had provided him with
carnivorous instinct, but the very thought of doing such a thing makes him
shudder. On the other hand, a bunch of luscious grapes makes his mouth
water, and even in the absence of hunger, he will eat fruit to gratify
taste.”
Some argue that human intelligence has enabled man to transcend his physical
limitations and function as a “natural” flesh-eater. If this is true, then
we must also classify napalm, poison gas, and nuclear weapons as “natural,”
too, because they are also products of (misused!) human intelligence.
Agriculture , cookery, transportation, refrigeration, etc. aren’t found in
nature, either. One might therefore argue if human technology is “natural,”
then human ethical behavior is equally natural.
“I am the very opposite of an anthropomorphizer,” says writer Brigid Brophy.
“I don’t hold animals superior or even equal to humans. The whole case for
behaving decently towards animals rests on the fact that we are the superior
species. We are the species uniquely capable of rationality, imagination and
moral choice, and that is precisely why we are under obligation to respect
the rights of other creatures.”
The fact that predators exist in the wild does not imply man must
automatically imitate them. Cannibalism and rape also occur in nature.
Robert Louis Stevenson, in his book, In the South Seas, wrote that there was
no difference between the “civilized” Europeans and the “savages” of the
Cannibal Islands:
“We consume the carcasses of creatures with like appetites, passions, and
organs as our own. We feed on babes, though not our own, and fill the
slaughterhouses daily with screams of pain and fear.”
Go on to: Joint Statement on Religion
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