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Health Notes
Why I Don’t Everyone has their reasons
1 During medical school training I became professionally
aware of zoonoses-the many food-borne and animal-related
diseases. Recent media attention has made the general public
also very much aware of the health concerns associated with
contaminated meat products. Repeated hamburger recalls,
bacterial epidemics and outbreaks have been headline news now
for several disturbing years. U.S. News & World Report 9/1/97 article entitled "Ways
to avoid the hidden risks in meat and poultry" reported that
food-borne illnesses "sicken up to 80 million Americans each
year resulting in some 9,000 deaths." Some of the deadliest
foodborne illnesses enter the body via animal foods. Obviously
the highest risks are seen in consuming raw foods of animal
origin such as raw eggs, undercooked hamburgers, raw clams or
oysters, and raw sushi or ceviche. But there are other
problems.
E. coli, a bacteria that flourishes in cattle
intestines, is the most common. The Centers for Disease
Control in Atlanta reports that ground beef is the most likely
source of E. coli O157:H7. In humans, pathogenic strains of E.
coli cause cramping and diarrhea, progressing to kidney
failure in severe cases. Meat (usually ground beef) can be
contaminated by fecal contact during slaughter. E. coli
contaminated hamburger patties produced in a Columbus,
Nebraska processing plant operated by the Hudson Foods Co.,
caused federal inspectors to force its immediate closure.
Hudson recalled 25 million pounds of meat. Here’s an even more alarming fact: farmers are using
chicken manure as a cheap alternative to grain and hay. Manure
can cost as little as $15 a ton making good economic sense
when you compare the $125 a ton cost of alfalfa. But dangerous
amounts of another bacteria, Campylobacter, in the chicken
guano is contributing to another source of food pollution. In
spite of this, further savings are achieved by annually
"rendering" a staggering 40 billion pounds of slaughterhouse
wastes (blood, bone, viscera) along with the remains of
several million euthanized dogs and cats into livestock feed.
Cows and hogs, normally herbivores, are being turned into
unwitting carnivores for the sake of profit over public
health. Even more serious is the frightening 1996 epidemic of mad
cow disease in Great Britain. We all saw the TV footage of the
poor beasts staggering around before over 500,000 of them were
destroyed in hopes of ending the plague. More than a dozen
Britons died of a type of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)
after eating beef from cattle infected with bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE). Both disorders belong to the unusual
group of progressively degenerative neurological diseases that
are characterized by an unusually long incubation period
during which there is no visible indication of the disease. It
is suspiciously similar to the "slow viral" disease known as
kuru that was first observed in New Guinea cannibals who
especially relished the consumption of their victim’s brains.
The cattle were thought to have contracted the disease by
eating "rendered" brains and spinal cords of sheep infected
with a condition called scrapie a neurological infection
caused by sub-viral protein fragments called prions. And
because 75% of our nation’s 90 million cattle have been eating
feed containing slaughterhouse byproducts, fears were mounting
that a similar outbreak could occur in America. While scrapie
is far less common in the United States (affecting mostly wild
species like elk, deer, mink and goats), nevertheless the FDA
has ordered a halt to the feeding of slaughterhouse wastes to
U.S. cattle and sheep as a BSE safety precaution. With an
expected incubation period of over 12 years, we still do not
know how many more CJD cases may ultimately fall prey to the
prions lying dormant within them. Sea food isn’t any better. Raw shellfish has caused
infection with Vibrio vulnificus. Smoked salmon and steelhead
can transmit fish flukes to human ingesters. Herring worms,
cod and seal worms, and anisakid roundworms have caused
infestations in those eating the flesh of cod, haddock, fluke,
pacific salmon, herring, flounder, and monkfish. Ciguatera poisoning occurs from ingesting the toxic algae
in tropical marine finfish such as groupers, snappers, jacks,
mackerel, and triggerfish. Outbreaks have been reported from
Florida to Vermont, Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and
Puerto Rico and cause various neurologic symptoms perioral
numbness, vomiting, and diarrhea, arthralgia, myalgia,
headache, vertigo, and muscular weakness, cardiac arrhythmias,
and shock that persist from days to months. If it’s true that "you are what you eat", then for many the
real situation may be more like "you are what you eat
ate." Personally, I prefer to get my nutrition direct
from the original source; I’d rather be part of a very short
food chain and know what I’m eating. It’s at times like these
that I have no regrets in being a vegetarian. John Harvey
Kellogg, Battle Creek Michigan physician who promoted a
vegetarian lifestyle and founded the famous cereal industry
that now bears his name once remarked, "It is nice to eat a
meal and not have to worry about what your food may have died
from." Most shoppers today assure themselves that the choice cuts
on display in every grocery were butchered from exceptionally
healthy livestock raised for the sole purpose of being
slaughtered for food consumption. That presumption must be
combined with the sobering fact that too often ailing and
diseased livestock are quickly shipped to meat packing plants
before their death disqualifies them for processing. The all
too frequent occurance of large tumors, bovine leukemia and
tuberculosis in dairy cattle has encouraged a significant
number of meat inspectors to pursue meatless cuisine over the
years. Unless you butcher your own meat, you may never know
how close the cuts you select were to an abscessed or
malignant area that had to be discarded because it didn’t pass
quality controls.
2 My second reason for not eating meat is what I call the E
Reasons. Meat as a food source is economically, ecologically,
ethically and epidemiologically unattractive.
Economical: Sure, you can spend $7.99 a pound on
gourmet greens. But from squash to sweet potatoes, most plants
are a downright bargain. Cruise restaurant menus and you’ll
find that the "vegetarian" selections are usually cheaper than
meat, seafood, or poultry.
Water pollution. The manure and
sewage from stockyards, chicken factories, and other feeding
facilities can pollute water supplies.
Air pollution. "Thirty million
tons of methane-a gas that contributes to global warming-come
from manure in sewage ponds or heaps."
Soil erosion. Nearly 40 percent of
the world’s-and more than 70 percent of U.S.-grain production
is fed to livestock. "For each pound of meat, poultry, eggs,
and milk we produce, farm fields lose about five pounds of
topsoil."
Water depletion. An estimated half
of the grain and hay that’s fed to beef cattle is grown on
irrigated land. "It takes about 390 gallons of water to
produce a pound of beef."
Energy use. It takes almost ten
times more energy to produce and transport livestock than
vegetables.
Overgrazing. "About ten percent of
the arid West has been turned into a desert by livestock."
Ethical: The killing of animals for food may have been
at times and in certain locations a matter of survival. Modern
society and world food production has eliminated the basic
need for culinary hunting. We may be insulated from the brutal
aspects of slaughterhouse operation, but death and dying are
still stark realities for millions of creatures who face a
continuous holocaust in putting beef on our
tables.
3 Third, I was born a
vegetarian-actually, everyone is. Raised, at least initially
on mother’s milk, every baby gets their jump start in life
without a need for beef, chicken, pork, eggs, cheese or sea
food. In fact, I’m continually reminded by my pediatric
collegues that introduction of these foods should be delayed
as long as possible. A multitude of food allergies can be
induced by premature exposure to animal products. Colic,
diarrhea, asthma, eczema, cradle cap, and seborrhea in
children have all been linked to foreign protein ingestion. No
wonder why the two most common first "solid" foods recommended
by the baby specialists are rice cereal (a grain) and apple or
pear sauce (a fruit).
4 And my final reason is (drum roll)…my parents were
vegetarians. And my grandparents. My children can count three
generations. Same on my wife’s side. Surprised? A lot of
people are. Tradition? Partly. Religious orientation mostly.
As a Seventh-day Adventist Christian I follow the instruction
given in the opening pages of Scripture regarding man’s
original diet. It was prescribed by the Creator Himself for
the first two humans to dine on Eden’s sumptuous selection of
fresh, ripe, ready-to-eat foods. Genesis 1:29 lists the menu:
"Every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the
earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit yielding seed."
Perfect foods for the perfect pair who were designed to live
forever in a world where there was no death; food which did
not include any prime cuts from butchered animals. There was
clearly no Barbeque, steak, or Hamburgers in the Garden of
Eden. In an era when arsenic and mercury were employed as part of
a physician’s therapeutic arsenal, when generous portions of
steak were advised for improving health and vigor, when
liberal intakes of milk, cheese and eggs were the foundation
of a nutritious diet, one writer bucked the stance of
scientific thought. "Grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables
constitute the diet chosen for us by our Creator. These foods,
prepared in as simple and natural a manner as possible, are
the most healthful and nourishing." 1905, Ministry of Healing,
Ellen G. White. I couldn't have said it
bettery myself. |