Monday, February 18, 2008

With news like this, I'm proud I've not eaten beef in 18 yrs

America's largest beef recall in history.
NYT:
"A California meat company on Sunday issued the largest beef recall in history, 143 million pounds, some of which was used in school lunch programs, Department of Agriculture officials announced."

Reasons not to eat beef:
  1. Beef products, which are loaded with artery-clogging cholesterol and saturated fat. Some fats are good, but NOT beef fat. Fat from any land animal is the wrong kind of fat. By contrast, fat from fish is high in Omega-3 fatty acids, recognized as good for vascular health and is recommended by the American Heart Assoc.
  2. Virtually all commercial beef has bovine growth hormone in it. Reports have found extremely high levels of estradiol, “a potent cancer-causing and gene-damaging estrogen,” in US meat products (i.e. milk, burgers). For this reason, American milk and beef are banned in Europe.
  3. Genetically engineered meat will become more prevalent now that the FDA has lifted the ban on cloned meat. Long term consequences of consuming genetically engineered meat is uncertain and may pose health risks.
  4. Factory farms are huge polluters. They produce a staggering amount of feces that pollutes both the water and the air. Numerous studies and governmental reports have shown higher rates of health problems among people who live near factory farms. Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population of the United States.
  5. Mad cow disease is already in the United States, and the U.S. government is not following World Health Organization recommendations for ensuring that it doesn’t spread. Because it takes 10 years for the disease to show up in humans, there’s no way of knowing how many Americans have already been infected.
  6. Beef production is inefficient. It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of edible animal flesh. Growing all the crops to feed farmed animals requires massive amounts of water and land—in fact, nearly half of the water and 80 percent of the agricultural land in the United States are used to raise animals for food.
  7. The environmental impacts include: rainforest destruction in Central and South America caused by the felling of forests in order to rear cattle for the hamburger trade or to grow soya for animal feed, and desertification from overgrazing in parts of Africa. Also, 10% of greenhouse gases come from livestock.

Personally, I don't drink cow's milk or eat cheese, but on the rare occasion I use butter, it's organic and hormone free. That's the way to go. I'm sure eating yogurt or ice cream once a month isn't going to kill me, but there are excellent substitutes. Organic soy milk, ice cream and yogurt are awesome!

9 comments:

scrub said...

is eating beef which was grazed on organic grass really unhealthy. i think box fed or forced fed beef is rubbish. also if you checked you'd probably find out that your healthy(not so) soy products are from GM crops. cut the rubbish and eat good unprocessed food. good health to all

William said...

In North America, all soy that is labeled "organic soy" is guaranteed to not be genetically-manipulated and not be treated with herbicides.

scrub said...

THAT'S GREAT WILLIAM. HERE IN OZ IT'S PRETTY WELL THE SAME WITH SOY. UNFORTUNATELY WITH 5-6 YEARS OF DROUGHT THE GM LOBBYISTS ARE REALLY PUSHING TO HAVE MORE CROPS ACCEPTED. WE USE FAR TOO MANY HERBICIDES AND PESTACIDES HERE IN OZ NOT TO MENTION THE ONCOMING PLANTING OF GM CROPS.
AS YOU PROBABLY KNOW THE LAMB HERE IS POPULAR AND GENERALLY PASTURE GRAZED. ORGANIC MEATS & VEGGIES ARE FAIRLY EASY TO BUY IN MY AREA. ALL THE BEST, SCRUB

Anonymous said...

The great news is that soy (while being an underwhelming food for humans) is great for supplemental feeding of extensively-raised sheep... :-)

Anonymous said...

The great news is that soy (while being an underwhelming food for humans) is great for supplemental feeding of extensively-raised sheep... :-)

Anonymous said...

William:

I agree with you, but I've been eating meat and milk for 58 years. I smoked for close to 20 years and between the ages of 19 and 32 I was drunk about 5 days out of 7. I'm pretty sure I'm going to die, anyway, so I'm going to try to be moderate--particularly about moderation (thank you, Oscar Wilde).

democommie

Old Man said...

lifestyle choice. whatever floats your boat.

carnivore here.

William said...

Same here, old man. As an athlete, I've found it's actually easier to keep my weight down by adding fish to an otherwise vegetarian diet. I've been vegan but it is hard to find vegetable sources of concentrated protein that are also low in fat, carbs and calories. By eating fish, you can get the concentrated protein without the bad fats of land animals and be more satisfied with less food. However, you do have to buy selectively, some fish species like certain tunas and salmons are high in contaminents. As said, I haven't eaten beef, pig, lamb, poultry or land animals for 18 yrs because it's the wrong kind of fat and for other reasons stated above.

Anonymous said...

Right on! I only buy beef from local farmer. My daughter has sent me her secrets for staying healthy. They are at peoplepowergranny.blogspot.com. Readers can also vote on what keeps them their healthiest.