Why I'm A Vegetarian

HOME

PURPOSE

AUTHOR

POEMS

QUOTES

MUSES

CONTACT

Why I'm A Vegetarian

and why I won’t defend animal products

(The sources this material was largely taken from are at the end)

This is NOT a Christian article but Christian comments do occur in the third paragraph and the finishing paragraph – comments you may choose to skip, but comments that would be worth reading.

The dental structures of humans posses all the features of a strictly herbivorous creature, unlike carnivores. It’s also worth noting that the lipoproteins in human blood resemble those found in the blood of herbivores. Man is naturally a herbivore.

That man is naturally a herbivore harmonizes with the vegan account (plant food only) found in the Christian Bible, Genesis 1:29. The reason I say vegan as opposed to vegetarian is because vegans eat neither flesh food nor animal products. Hence why they’re called vegans! Vegetarians, on the other hand, still partake of animal products and I believe that animal products would not have been a part of man’s original diet for the following two reasons:
A) Milk is strictly for the weaning of each species. It was never meant to go beyond infancy. Butter and cheese are not so much an animal product but what we do with milk. An adulteration. The purpose of eggs is not consumption but birth. In other words, eggs are meant to become creatures. To eat an egg is to effectively prevent a life.
B) Animal products are proven to be injurious. I don’t believe God would have supplied injurious food in a perfect environment. Thus, milkshakes, ice-creams, cream buns, custard squares, cheese cakes, just wouldn’t have cut it in Eden. Sorry. And hence why I believe man’s original diet was vegan. As to why God eventually allowed flesh food, (specified creatures, that is, Leviticus chapter 11), is open to speculation, but bear in mind that He has never forced anyone to eat it, and I personally believe that He wants it removed from our diets now. In fact, He wanted it removed back then too (Psalm 106:14,15). Yes, even back then folk knew it was injurious (Daniel 1:8,12,15). With its introduction the life span of man rapidly declined from one in the hundreds to one that wouldn’t even make it to one hundred (as a general rule). And by the way, when God allowed flesh food, He said not to eat the blood or fat (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 7:23,24,26), and to therefore only eat a creature that the blood could be drained from, hence “every moving thing” (Genesis 9:3) which He obviously knew would help to lessen the injurious results. One day I hope to ask God why He did allow flesh food. However, as with alcohol, (natural fruit corrupted via fermentation), both meat and animal products are clearly the outcome of Adam’s fall. Originally, the diet of animals was a non-flesh diet too (Gen 1:30). Obviously something took place after Adam’s fall. Cleary then, the path for us to take is the one that leads back to Eden, one that has been scientifically proven. Who would put greasy gritty fat as opposed to top grade oil in a Rolls-Royce? Yet, isn’t that what we often do to our bodies via the wrong foods?

Yes, it’s not because we’re supposed to eat meat, but that we’ve been conditioned to eat meat. Meat in our diet is not only unnecessary but positively harmful, contrary to the age old hype that still continues. Those who think that meat is necessary, or good for us, are clearly not up to date scientifically. The truth is that eating flesh will destroy our health, even eventually take our life. The more meat consumed, and even the kind of creature consumed, the worse the result. But it’s the old story -- people don’t want to hear what they need to, or to put it another way, they don’t squeal until it pinches. And then there’s those who do realise but still won’t change because they like what’s not good for them. Is it worth letting your appetite dictate how long you’ll live, rather than wisdom? And even if you still lived to a good age, would that be much fun if you’re constantly dogged by ill health as a result of your diet?

And yes, it’s quite true that tasks calling for strength and endurance are better performed by vegetarians than meat eaters. The evidence is definitely there, along with copious names. At the very least, they can hold their own. Though I’ve personally suffered from health related problems, (due in part to wilful abuse and lack of care), some folk have been rather surprised at the amount of physical strength and energy I’ve exhibited during my life, given I’m only five foot four inches tall, roughly 8 stone, and slightly built. I believe that such has had a lot to do with my vegetarian diet. I’ve always thought that I would have done very well as a long distance runner had I pursued such. I remember one large fellow (twice my size) who was having a friendly tussle with me one day. He was rather taken aback. I think he called me a wiry little…yes, well. Alas, today my strength and energy have fallen victim to M.E. (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). However, I don't suffer from ME as badly as most can or do. The following book by an M.E. sufferer is helpful: "Coping With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" by Dr Fred Friedburg Ph.D.

Human saliva contains an enzyme designed solely for the purpose of digesting the complex carbohydrates found in plant food. Flesh eating animals have no such enzyme. Their saliva is highly acidic for breaking down concentrated protein. Ours is alkaline. Alkaline saliva does not act properly on meat.

Vegetarians are known to have a different composition of bile acids when compared to meat eaters.

Humans and all plant eating animals have very long intestinal tracts in order to allow sufficient transit time to digest and extract nutrients found in plant foods. A flesh eating animal’s intestinal tract is very short allowing for the rapid expulsion of decomposing, putrefying flesh. A flesh eater’s stomach will secrete a far greater amount (20x more) of hydrochloric acid than a humans, readily breaking down flesh. The quantity and duration of gastric juice is greater in the digestion of meat than of vegetarian food, putting a greater stress on the lining of the stomach and intestines as meat takes much longer to digest presenting considerable danger to humans via putrefaction and toxic waste. Because our stomachs are not able to completely digest animal protein, chunks of meat will literally sit and rot in the intestinal tract and colon. Hence why colon cancer is so prevalent. Remnants of the meat consumed can cling to the walls of the stomach and intestines for days, and traces can remain for months. As time goes by the putrifying flesh gradually forms a black rubbery substance (known as mucoid plaque) that lines the intestinal tract. This process of decay occurring within the body produces poisons like cadaverine and putrescine, and causes poisoning of the blood. Such taxing of the body leads to fatigue, weakness, aging, and inevatably shortens the meateater’s life span -- that is, if the likes of cancer and so on hasn’t taken their life already.

Aside from other parts of an animal’s anatomy, a sausage (for example) could contain ground up intestines. Fancy eating a pig’s intestines? Goodness knows what its contents would be.

The tragedy of all this is that many who have been stricken with cancer, and are undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, are still ignorantly continuing to eat the very thing that caused their cancer, and which in time will see that same cancer return. To call such a tragedy is an understatement.

Research has shown that all meat eaters have worms and a high incidence of parasites in their intestines. The germs and parasites that are found in meat not only weaken the immune system but are the source of many diseases. The newer mutant bugs found in meat today, are extremely deadly. The immune system of vegetarians is actually stronger than that of meat eaters. A vegetarian’s natural killer cells [those responsible for nipping cancer in the bud], are twice as cytotoxic [potent] as those of meat eaters.

The human liver can only process but a small amount of cholesterol. Flesh eaters have the capacity to eliminate huge amounts. Meat is very high in cholesterol, very high in fat, especially saturated fat, and is very low in fibre (unlike plant food). Humans need plenty of fibre to move food through their long intestinal tracks and to prevent their bowels from becoming clogged. Cholesterol is a substance unique to animals and humans and it is a serious health hazard – a plaque. No doubt you’ve heard of high blood pressure (hypertension), arthritis, osteoporosis, heart disease, and even diabetes is implicated. In societies where cholesterol levels are kept low, heart disease is very rare. The main reason that most die of heart disease and strokes is because their arteries are clogged up with cholesterol.
When I was about nineteen and boarding as opposed to living at home, I was fed a rather fatty flesh food diet on a daily basis. After a very short period of time I became very sick and ended up off work for six weeks with liver problems. At home, flesh food was more infrequent, and certainly not as fatty. My parents said that I’d better shift back, so I did. I had to take medication which I understand was tied in with my liver. I also had to refrain from alcohol for a year, not that I drank alcohol anyway, and I had to keep off certain foods. The lady I boarded with seemed to cope with her insidious diet. I guess her body had somewhat adapted to the abuse which no doubt would hit her later. My system (liver) obviously wasn’t used to such sludge, and quite honestly, no ones liver is designed for such. “Get this in to you,” she said, “It’ll do you good.” How wrong that lady was! Not to mention the other boarder who thought he was on to a good thing. I’ve not seen him since. At the time, that little episode cost me my job.

The frying, boiling, and grilling of meat and fish creates carcinogenic compounds -- heterocyclic amines. Studies have shown that heterocyclic amines have considerable genotoxic and mutagenic potential. We’re talking tumours, cancers. At least eight chemicals [toxic] which are linked to cancer and chromosome damage have been identified in over cooked meat. In one kilogram of charcoal-broiled steak there may be as much benzopyrene [a powerful carcinogen] as in the smoke from 600 cigarettes. A recent study has shown that people who prefer their steak very well done are almost 60% more likely to get pancreatic cancer.

Human protein is not built from animal products. Thus, it’s scurrilous to perpetuate the myth that we cannot meet our protein needs without eating animal products. Protein is built from amino acids. Every amino acid needed to build human protein is found in fruits and vegetables. There’s a clear relationship between the amount of animal protein in the national diet and the incidence of certain types of cancer mortality. Studies show that while animal protein raises blood cholesterol, vegetable protein actually lowers it. We only require about 50g of protein per day. Protein is the most difficult food for the human body to deal with, and because of the strain imposed via the  processing of excessive protein, the liver and the kidneys are overworked and they enlarge. Studies have showen that the more protein you consume, the more calcium you lose.
Flesh food (on average) contains more phosphorus than it does calcium -- that is, as opposed to vegetable food. The body releases calcium from the bones to balance this proportion. This release of calcium affects the bone constitution enhancing the risk of osteoporosis.
When the problem of osteoporosis is studied worldwide the highest incidence of osteoporosis is seen in countries where dairy products and calcium supplements are consumed in the largest quantities. Contrary to what we’re told, osteoporosis is not due to a deficiency of calcium in the diet. Green leafy vegetables are a prime source of utilizable calcium in human nutrition. So what can contribute to calcium loss: Tobacco [drains calcium from bones and teeth], alcohol [impairs calcium absorption], caffeine [causes twice as much calcium to be excreted as normal], soft drinks [its phosphoric acid causes the body to remove calcium], salt [the more salt you take in, the more calcium you excrete], antacids [those containing aluminum cause an increase in calcium excretion], insufficient exercise [lack of it causes bone loss], lack of sunshine [vitamin D plays an important role in bone metabolism] and of course, animal products.

Meat contains its own diseases. Unfortunately, diseases can be transmitted from animal to man. They include — tuberculosis, trichinosis, tularaemia, hepatitis and brucellosis. Of more than two hundred communicable diseases of animals, one half are considered infectious to man and more than eighty are transmitted naturally between vertebrate animals and man. Cows can contract leukaemia and there is evidence that bovine leukaemia is transmitted to humans. Twenty six diseases are known to be common to both man and fowl. Salmonella is a major source of food poisoning that seems to be on the increase in the developed world, of which mass chicken rearing techniques introduced, has increased. Salmonella in chickens tends to produce no symptoms and thus infected chickens can easily enter the food chain. Salmonella may also be present in cracked hen’s eggs or egg pulp. It takes temperatures up to 350 degrees for a minimum of thirty minutes to kill salmonella bacteria. Studies have shown positive correlations between meat, meat products, and breast, uterus, prostrate, and colo-rectal cancer, pork showing the strongest correlation. BSE [bovine spongiform encephalopathy], known more commonly as ‘mad cow disease’ is a prime example of what can be transmitted from animals to man, including via animal products. Asymptomatic infected animals may have been entering the food chain for years.
Meat carries the highest risk of bacterial contamination. The lack of strict hygiene critical in meat preparation, both in the home, restaurant, and industry, is compounding an already heavily loaded situation. Meat eaters therefore suffer far more frequently from various types of food poisoning than do vegetarians. The general public has no idea of the shocking and unhygienic practices that can and do go on in the meat industry, and on farms. If they saw what goes on I doubt they’d have anything to do with meat. Flesh food is a ticking time bomb. I guess that’s why meat eaters are dropping like flies.

Animals killed in a state of fear have poured adrenaline into their system. Adrenaline is a powerful stimulating agent that raises blood pressure.

When you eat meat you take in arachidonic acid which causes inflammation and fires up the disease process. It’s known that inflammation can eventually lead to serious health issues.

When an animal is killed the normal digestive processes are halted in their tracks. The meat consumed from animals contains the toxic waste materials not yet eliminated [urea, urine] and from which meat gets most of its flavour. Urea is the half way stage from becoming urine. We expend toxic energy wastes [urea] from our muscles as we use them in our everyday life. After travelling through the blood stream and filtering system of the kidneys the urea is eventually released as urine. This taken in via the eating of meat adds to the load our kidneys and liver already have to bear. Uric acid is one of the most potent poisons known and flesh foods are a major source of uric acid. Those who eat the liver of an animal are literally bombarded with toxic substances. When autopsied, victims of leukaemia show a high uric acid level in their blood. Uric acid is also responsible for gout, arthritis, and kidney stones. An excess of uric acid "causes contraction of the minute blood vessels, resulting in high arterial tension and often the blocking of the blood vessels by the uric acid. This results in serious interference with the circulation and blood supply to the tissues and throws great strain on the vital organs, especially the heart and kidneys." (Dr Robert Perk, Scientific Vegetarianism, Szekely, p. 44.)
I once ate a generously filled steak and kidney pie (before truly becoming a vegetarian) and I can still remember to this day the overwhelming stench of that creature I was eating. I felt as if I was actually right there in the same paddock with it. It really put me off. Uric acid? Though mindful of many things, I hate to think what else must creep into our system when we indulge in such. And hence why many people can feel so unwell at times and yet not register that it has something to do with such food they’ve just eaten.
Along with the animals waste products may also be dead and virulent bacteria that were harboured in the animals intestinal tract and that pass to the tissue. Eating the kidneys and liver of an animal is eating its disposal system. Many elements the body cannot use are trapped in the liver and remain there such as mercury, artificial hormones, etc. The likes of insecticides concentrate in the animal’s fatty tissue and liver, the meat eater eating in a few minutes the pesticides, etc, that an animal has collected over a lifetime.

The use of antibiotics and other veterinary drugs as growth promoters or as prophylactics has been widespread. Such can kill off most or all of the good bacteria in your intestinal track, lead to the development of strains of bacteria resistant to drugs used, and create other serious conditions. Synthetic hormones disturb our hormonal balance and can cause tumour growth.

The threat of contamination from pesticides, antibiotics, filth and bacteria is much greater with meats than with plant foods. Vegetarians consume fewer environmental pollutants.

A high meat diet also lowers the age of puberty and early puberty is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

Pigs will eat anything given to them. They’re effectively vacuum cleaners. The tissues of pigs swarm with myriads of baffling and sinister parasites. Pigs have running sores under their hoofs -- this is one small outlet for the various poisons which they have taken into their body. Quite frequently this oozing artery becomes blocked and the poison backs up into its system. Trichinosis is the name of the disease that originates with the trichina worm -- trichinella spiralis. The trichina is one of the nineteen worms found in pigs not to mention lice or the various swine diseases – rickets, thumps, mange, etc. The trichina worm is deadly. In a pig the trichinae are often so minute and so nearly transparent that to find them (even with a microscope) is a task for expert scientific inspectors. Pork merely passes the routine inspection given meat in general. Trichinosis is the chameleon of diseases. Even blood counts sometimes inexplicably fail to reveal its presence at any stage in its development. The number of ailments with which it is more or less commonly confused approach the encyclopaedic. A sound diagnosis of trichinosis is rarely made. Out breaks of trichinosis are seldom widely publicized, and are seldom even recognized. Trichinosis is a subtle killer. Thus, all said and done, it’s no accident that the word pig is often used in a derogatory sense. When it comes to a pig, there’s little to get excited about.

Iron-deficiency anaemia is a problem which affects a large section of the population who are mostly meat eaters. Years of published research has failed to show that the vegetarian diet causes this problem. Meat consumption, therefore, is not an effective means of preventing widespread iron deficiency. A vegetarian or vegan diet is well capable of providing normal dietary iron requirements. The biggest contributor to high iron levels is meat consumption. It is now recognised that the over consumption of iron may in fact be a heath hazard, increasing the risk of cancer and heart attack.

The vast majority of cases of vitamin B12 deficiency occur not in vegans but in the general meat eating population. Pernicious anaemia is usually caused by an inability to absorb vitamin B 12 – whether or not you eat meat has nothing to do with it.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, the milk of each species is designed strickly for the young of that species. Creatures do not continue the use of milk past infancy. Thus, cows should not take over where our mothers left off. Such could be considered as cross-species nursing. Cow’s milk is designed for creating large heavy creatures. Cows milk causes mucus. Mucus clogs and irritates the body’s entire respiratory system thus inviting disease. Milk is linked with, or contributes to, hay fever, asthma, bronchitis, sinusitis, colds, runny noses, and ear infections. It’s worth noting that the problems associated with drinking milk are much more pronounced with pasteurized milk than with raw milk. When raw milk goes bad it immediately sours and you throw it out. When it’s pasteurized you can’t tell when it’s beginning to spoil. Thus, the chances of drinking contaminated pasteurized milk are much greater than drinking contaminated raw milk. Pasteurized milk is rancid long before it develops an obvious odor. Nature intended that milk be consumed in its raw state. Dairy products are the leading cause of allergies. All dairy products except butter are acid-forming. Dairy products aggravate ulcers. The list of ailments that can be linked to dairy products is so extensive there is hardly a problem it doesn’t at least contribute to. Among them — increased blood pressure, edema, excess secretion of mucus and urine, constipation, diarrhea, bowel impaction, nausea, gas, intestinal discomfort, headaches, catarrh, asthma, eczema, recurrent bronchitis and recurrent attacks of nasal congestion.
Cheese is effectively rotting milk, a product of putrification, with a high bacteria content. It’s generally infested with scavenger organisms. It’s a potential carrier of animal disease to man, a major clogger of arteries, contributes to headaches and constipation, has a high fat content, and is difficult to digest.
Eggs are the most cholesterol-saturated food routinely consumed, significantly contributing to much of the obesity and heart disease. One of the big problems with eggs is bacterial contamination, particularly salmonella contamination. Diseased chickens also mean contaminated eggs. Some experts theorize that salmonella enteritidis may be reproducing, colonizing in the ovaries of hens and infecting the egg yolk directly before the shell is even formed. Eggs contain an excess of sulfur, which produces the sulfur smell usually detected in hard-boiled eggs.

As for fish: Many fish have been found to have cancer. What a fish eats of elements such as mercury it keeps. Tuna being one of the worst mercury wise. Thus, when a human eats fish he also keeps these poisons and they continue to build up. This process ‘biological magnification’ is a major threat in the use of flesh food. Mercury damages the body by binding to the cell membrane structures, disrupting metabolism and causing fragmentation and death of the cell. The oceans of the world and rivers have been dumping grounds for all sorts of garbage. Many forms of marine life, from plants to large fish, contain heavy metals and the higher up the food chain you go the greater the concentration found. Shellfish are linked with bacterial contamination. Man builds up the worst amount of all as he consumes fish, meat, poultry, etc. Heavy metals [mercury, cadmium, lead] are bio accumulative meaning that once they enter the body they stay there for a very long time, and the more heavy metals ingested the more they build up in the body. It’s also worth noting that scavengers such as shell fish contain large amounts of cholesterol.
Mercury that’s consumed by pregnant women via the eating of fish can cross the placenta harming the rapidly developing nervous system and damaging the brain of her baby.
Smoked fish can contain heavy polycyclic aromatic compounds, well-known as carcinogenic.
Scientists have been baffled by neutered dead fish that have been turning up on English shorelines. Is such the result of fish swimming in synthetic hormone (oestrogen) laced Atlantic waters? What might the effect be on humans consuming such fish? There are those who’re of the opinion that the consuming of hormone laced flesh food may be causing men (who are truly male in the sense of genitalia and so on) to become sexually orientated towards other men; and that the consuming of hormone laced flesh food may be causing a sexual distortion/alteration (even mutation of some sort) at conception, and/or as the baby develops in the womb.

Consider the following notes of John McDougall, MD (this paragraph only):
Fish cause a rise in blood cholesterol levels similar to the rise caused by beef and pork. Their highly acidic animal proteins accelerate calcium loss, contributing to osteoporosis and kidney stones. No dietary fibre or digestible carbohydrates are present in fish. Although omega-3 fats thin the blood preventing thrombus (heart attack); this same anticoagulant activity can increase the risk of bleeding complications from other sources, like a hemorrhagic stroke or an auto accident. These good fats have anti-inflammatory properties, which can be beneficial—reducing arthritis pain, for example, as well as deleterious—causing immune suppression, increasing the risk of cancer and infection. Fatty fish (like salmon) are half fat and loaded with calories, adding to one’s risk for developing obesity and type-2 diabetes. Omega-3 fats inhibit the action of insulin, thereby increasing blood sugar levels and aggravating diabetes.

We need to face the fact that flesh is flesh, and that the flesh of an animal (just like ours upon death too) begins to putrefy. Hence harmful additives (like sodium nitrate, etc) that are used to prolong its shelf life – a kind of embalming process. Flesh not only harbors the bacteria infecting the animal when it was alive, but may also carry molds, spores, yeasts and bacilli picked up during postmortem handling. At the end of the day, who truly knows what an animal may be hiding. Despite the best of tests, and let’s face it, there’s only so much they can do, harmful things will get through, and clearly do – very harmful things!

Isn’t it intriguing how those things that are very harmful for us we just can’t seem to leave alone. Addicted?

Other reasons why I’m a vegetarian:
1) Every day millions of animals are being terribly mistreated (tortured) in order to satisfy man’s lust for flesh-food.
2) Meat production is extremely damaging environmentally (being one of the largest contributors), and is a terrible waste of  resources. Killing factories dot this planet infecting the land, sea, air, and waterways with their activity.
3) It only stands to reason that what is injurious to the body must also be injurious to our brain and its functioning. After all, the brain is made up of tissue, nerves, cells, etc, just like the rest of the body. Thus, our brain can become diseased too. And because meat is harmful to us physically it will also harm us mentally/emotionally as mind and body are closely connected. In other words, our thinking will no doubt be more sluggish, less attuned, our capacity for compassion lessened, and our manner possibly more aggressive. According to recent studies, flesh food has a negative influence on brain activity and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease is twice as high for meat eaters.
4) The killing of animals for food just doesn’t gel with a gospel of love and non-violence. In my eyes, the killing of animals is only one step away from the killing of humans. Animals have emotions, intelligence, and a face. How dreadful to think that a human would actually salivate at the smell of cooking flesh. I find it quite bizarre how humans can sit at their table chewing on an animal while at the same time petting a much loved pet. I also find it intriguing how Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas via the death of the likes of a turkey or pig. Isn’t there an irony in that?
5) As mentioned in the first paragraph, it’s my belief (as a Christian) that though God allowed the eating of meat at some stage, He  desires that we remove it from our diet now and return to the Edenic blueprint (Genesis 1:29). It’s clear that the killing of creatures (and subsequently flesh food) will not play a part in the earth made new (Isaiah 11:6-9). I would like to mention that well before the Jewish ceremonial law the distinction between clean and unclean creatures was known (Genesis 7:1-3), and so too was the prohibition not to eat the blood or fat of a creature, both of which we now know are a major contributor to ill health, and if we’re using logic, hardly done away with at the cross. It would do well for Christians to dwell on the following texts: 1 Cor 3:17; 6:19,20; 10:31; James 4:17.

“Some people are still going to want to eat meat.
We do agree though that vegetarianism is a healthier diet.”

David Stroud -- American Meat Institute

Healthier, David? It's the only option as far as I’m concerned, if one wants good health.

Sources used include — The Realeat Encyclopedia of Vegetarian Living; Unmeat: The Case for Vegetarianism by Stoy Proctor; How Safe is Our Food by Australia’s Consumer’s Association, 1991; The House of Yahweh Publications; Living Health by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond; Strict Vegetarianism—God’s Blueprint for the Christian by Katy Chamberlin

You might like to read "101 Reasons Why I'm A Vegetarian" (Link goes to external site).

Say "No" To Flesh Food