JAMES ROBERT DEAL ATTORNEY PLLC PO Box 2276, Lynnwood, Washington 98036 Telephone 425-771-1110, Fax 425-776-8081 James@JamesDeal.com
April 7, 2020
Snohomish County PUD Attention: Commissioners Rebecca Wolfe, Sidney Logan, Tanya Olson 2320 California Street Everett WA 98201 Sent by email only to: emailcommisioners@snopud.com
Dear PUD Commissioners and other PUD professionals,
Seattle Utilities passed a $100 million bond issue to finance installation of smart meters and on top of that had to raise rates. Smart meters run constantly and therefore use more electricity. Smart meters broadcast 24/7, around 190,000 times daily, reporting on our every electrical behavior. They catch fire. They are not grounded. Their surge protection is weak to non-existent.
Smart meters are an overshoot, meaning that utilities that have installed them should go back to fireproof, grounded, surge protected, all metal analog meters until a wired analog meter alternative is developed.
I compliment the Commission on its avoidance of smart meters thus far.
The installation of 5G antennas is a related issue. Many cities have been granting Big Wireless space on poles for 5G antennas. I urge the PUD to avoid going down this road. 5G aims to make it possible to watch TV and movies on cell phones, which is completely unnecessary. People can go home and watch TV and movies on their TVs and wired computers.
Smart meters and 5G antennas are good for robots but not for humans, birds, and insects.
Policies adopted by reinsurer Lloyds of London mean that it impossible to buy a residential or business insurance policy that will cover all of the harms that wireless radiation can cause, specifically harms to health. If the PUD installs smart meters and allows the use of its facilities for 5G antennas, it will be doing so without coverage when people sue ten years from now for cancer.
Our current 3G and 4G technology along with our constant use of our cell phones is probably an overshoot in terms of health. If we are to use cell phones at all, there should research done on safer frequencies and lower power densities. For all of us, our cell phones should be in airplane mode most of the time, turned on occasionally to check for messages and voice mails and to make a quick phone call.
The World Health Organization has declared that wireless radiation is a carcinogen. Cell phones emit microwave radiation, and the effect is cumulative over time. Ted Kennedy and John McCain both contracted brain cancer directly under the area near the temple where they held their cell phones. Do not hold a cell phone against your ear like a land line telephone. Hold it away from your head and turn on the speaker. Or use an air tube headset.
Children have thinner skulls and are more sensitive to wireless radiation. I cringe when I see parents pacifying their infants by giving them cell phones or tablets to watch. A child should be allowed to play with a wireless device only if it is in airplane mode.
5G antennas are another overshoot. 5G operates at multiple frequencies, from 450 megahertz up to 52.6 gigahertz. A 5G antenna is actually a collection of many antennas operating a many frequencies. 5G antennas utilize beam forming, meaning the radiation emitted by the many antennas in a 5G tower and the many antennas in your 5G cell phone can be aimed right at each other, which is not so good if you are between the 5G antenna and your cell phone. 5G Wi-Fis and 5G cell phones also broadcast at multiple frequencies and do beam forming.
An absurd aspect of 5G antennas is that for them to work, the towers must be interconnected by fiber optic cable. It would make more sense instead to interconnect homes and businesses by fiber optic cable.
Cell phones should not be used for extended periods. The only apparent benefit of 5G is that it enables us to watch TV and movies on our cell phones. When people want to watch a movie they should watch it on a TV or a wired computer.
We have a Wi-Fi in our home, but it is almost never turned on. When I drive, my cell phone is always in airplane mode because cell phone and cell towers are constantly sending handshake broadcasts to each other as I drive from one cell tower area to another. In our home we forward our cell phones to our land line and then turn our cell phones off or put them in airplane mode.
Another overshoot is the use of Wi-Fi in schools. School desks do not move around. Every school computer, including student laptops, could be connected by category 6 cable. Children should not be exposed to constant Wi-Fi radiation. All new Wi-Fis today are 5G capable. Most people do not know that the 5G Wi-Fi in a Comcast router is always turned on by default.
Homes are being built without category 6 cable jacks in all rooms. The presumption is that all TVs and computers will receive data through home Wi-Fi. We are being constantly irradiated in our homes.
New vehicles equipped with radar and lidar operating at up to 77 gigahertz and retina damaging LED headlights are another overshoot. We will be irradiated by the 10,000 cars we pass every hour as we drive on the freeway. Wear blue blocking sunglasses to protect your eyes. See: http://www.wi-cancer.info/wieyes.aspx
This brings me to the subject of municipal fiber optic. The PUD would be the best entity to interconnect the County with fiber optic. Frontier has installed some fiber to homes, but only in some neighborhoods. Fiber optic would be a magnet for high tech industries and a benefit to ordinary families. See: https://www.jamesrobertdeal.org/fiber-optic/.
I am alerting the Commission that Big Wireless will be approaching you to bribe to install smart meters and NOT to install municipal fiber. This is happening in Seattle, where Century Link and Comcast are donating heavily to the campaign of Jenny Durkan, an opponent of municipal fiber, against Cary Moon, a supporter of municipal fiber.
Please set up guidelines that will disallow Commission members and potential members from accepting direct or indirect campaign contributions from Big Wireless.
Congress has passed laws requiring cities and counties to allow installation of 5G antennas. Such laws are unconstitutional and should be resisted in court.
In conclusion, I would urge the PUD to consider carefully before installing smart meters and allowing 5G antennas on PUD poles and instead to install fiber optic throughout Snohomish County.
My thesis: The admonition to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” does not apply just to individuals. It applies to businesses and governments.
In the background are photos I have taken of chemtrails sprayed over Lynnwood. These are composed of coal fly ash and contain mercury, lead, arsenic, and pretty much every other element on the periodic table. Why does the Air Force spray this filth? Ultimately, it is to get rid of it and to create a nice cash flow for Big Coal. Read more at www.JamesRobertDeal.org/white-skies.
The EPA required coal burning plants to capture coal fly ash in wet scrubbers in smokestacks. But there was no place to put the coal flash. So the EPA declared coal fly ash to be usable for almost anything, including drywall and road beds. The EPA is a “captured agency”, infiltrated by industrial manipulators.
All new energy industry capital should be spent on renewables. No new capital should be spent on exploring or drilling for oil and gas.
James Robert Deal Real Estate Attorney & Real Estate Managing Broker James@JamesDeal.com PO Box 2276 Lynnwood WA 98036 Law Office Line: 425-771-1110 Broker Line: 425-774-6611 Cell & Text Line: 425-670-1405 (better to send email) KW Everett Office Line: 425-212-2007 Fax: 425-776-8081
Vitamin D Is More Effective Than Flu Vaccine, Study Says
by Dr. Mercola [2]
Conventional health authorities claim getting a flu shot each year is the best way to ward off influenza. But where’s the actual science backing up that claim?
If you’ve repeatedly fallen for this annual propaganda campaign, you may be surprised to find the medical literature suggests vitamin D [3] may actually be a FAR more effective strategy, and the evidence for this goes back at least a decade.
Dr. John Cannell, founder of the Vitamin D Council, was one of the first to introduce the idea that vitamin D deficiency may actually be an underlying CAUSE of influenza.
His hypothesis [1] was initially published in the journal Epidemiology and Infection in 2006. [2] It was subsequently followed up with another study published in the Virology Journal in 2008. [3]
The following year, the largest nationally representative study [4] of its kind to date discovered that people with the lowest vitamin D levels indeed reported having significantly more colds or cases of the flu. In conclusion, lead author Dr. Adit Ginde stated:
“The findings of our study support an important role for vitamin D in prevention of common respiratory infections, such as colds and the flu. Individuals with common lung diseases, such as asthma or emphysema, may be particularly susceptible to respiratory infections from vitamin D deficiency.”
Vitamin D Works Better Than Flu Vaccine If Your Levels Are Low
Since then, a number of studies have come to similar conclusions. Most recently, a scientific review [5,6] of 25 randomized controlled trials confirmed that vitamin D supplementation boosts immunity and cuts rates of cold and flu.
Overall, the studies included nearly 11,000 individuals from more than a dozen countries. As reported by Time Magazine: [7]
“… [P]eople who took daily or weekly vitamin D supplements were less likely to report acute respiratory infections, like influenza or the common cold, than those who did not …
For people with the most significant vitamin D deficiencies (blood levels below 10 [ng/mL]), taking a supplement cut their risk of respiratory infection in half.
People with higher vitamin D levels also saw a small reduction in risk: about 10 percent, which is about equal to the protective effect of the injectable flu vaccine, the researchers say.”
Like Cannell before them, the researchers believe vitamin D offers protection by increasing antimicrobial peptides in your lungs, and that “[t]his may be one reason why colds and flus are most common in the winter, when sunlight exposure (and therefore the body’s natural vitamin D production) is at its lowest …” [8]
According to this international research team, vitamin D supplementation could prevent more than 3.25 million cases of cold and flu each year in the U.K. alone. [9] Another statistic showing vitamin D is a more effective strategy than flu vaccine is the “number needed to treat” (NNT).
Overall, one person would be spared from influenza for every 33 people taking a vitamin D supplement (NNT = 33), whereas 40 people have to receive the flu vaccine in order to prevent one case of the flu (NNT = 40).
Among those with severe vitamin D deficiency at baseline, the NNT was 4. In other words, if you’re vitamin D deficient to begin with, vitamin D supplementation is 10 times more effective than the flu vaccine.
Optimizing Vitamin D May Be Your Best Defense Against Influenza
In my view, optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the absolute best flu-prevention and optimal health strategies available. Your diet also plays a significant role of course, as it lays the foundation for good immune function.
A high-sugar diet [4] is a sure-fire way to diminish your body’s innate ability to fight off infections of all kinds by radically impairing the functioning of your immune system.
However, I do not agree that fortifying more processed foods [5] with vitamin D is the best solution, although I realize it could potentially have a more widespread impact among people who remain unaware of the beneficial health effects of sunlight in general.
I believe sensible sun exposure is the ideal way to optimize your vitamin D. Taking a vitamin D3 supplement is only recommended in cases when you simply cannot obtain sufficient amounts of sensible sun exposure.
It’s also important to point out that, contrary to what’s reported by most mainstream media, including NPR report above, most people cannot optimize their vitamin D levels by getting the recommended 600 IUs of vitamin D from fortified foods. The dose you need really depends on your current blood level of vitamin D.
If it’s very low, you may need 8,000 to 10,000 IUs of vitamin D3 per day in order to reach and maintain a clinically relevant level of 45 to 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL). The only way to know how much you need is to get tested at least once or twice each year.
If you’ve been supplementing for some time and your levels are still below 45 ng/mL, you then know you have to increase your dose further. If using an oral supplement, also make sure to boost your vitamin K2 and magnesium intake, as these nutrients help optimize vitamin D levels.
Other Studies Supporting Link Between Vitamin D Deficiency and Influenza
In a study published in 2010, [10] researchers investigated the effect of vitamin D on the incidence of seasonal influenza A in schoolchildren. The randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled study included 430 children, half of which were given 1,200 IUs of vitamin D3 per day while the other half received a placebo.
Overall, children in the treatment group were 42 percent less likely to come down with the flu. According to the authors: “This study suggests that vitamin D3 supplementation during the winter may reduce the incidence of influenza A, especially in specific subgroups of schoolchildren.”
Another study [11] published that same year concluded that infection-fighting T-cells need help from vitamin D in order to activate. This is yet another mechanism that helps explain why vitamin D is so effective against infections.
When a T cell recognizes foreign invaders like bacteria or viruses, it sends activating signals to the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene.
The VDR gene then starts producing a protein that binds vitamin D in the T cell. A downstream effect of this is PLC-gamma1 protein production, which subsequently enables the T cell to fight the infection. At the time, lead researcher Carsten Geisler told Food Consumer: [12]
“When a T cell is exposed to a foreign pathogen, it extends a signaling device or “antenna” known as a vitamin D receptor, with which it searches for vitamin D. This means the T cell must have vitamin D or activation of the cell will cease. If the T cells cannot find enough vitamin D in the blood, they won’t even begin to mobilize.”
With that understanding, it’s no wonder flu shots don’t work. Flu vaccines [6]do absolutely nothing to address the underlying problem of vitamin D deficiency [7], which is effectively hindering your immune system from working properly.
In fact, flu vaccines tend to deteriorate your immune function, and their side effects can be significant.
‘Gold Standard’ Studies Ignored by Mainstream Media
The gold standard of scientific analysis, the so-called Cochrane Database Review, has also issued several reports between 2006 and 2012, all of which decimate the claim that flu vaccinations are the most effective prevention method available. In 2010, Cochrane published the following bombshell conclusion, which was completely ignored by mainstream media: [13]
“Influenza vaccines have a modest effect in reducing influenza symptoms and working days lost. There is no evidence that they affect complications, such as pneumonia, or transmission. WARNING: This review includes 15 out of 36 trials funded by industry (four had no funding declaration).
An earlier systematic review of 274 influenza vaccine studies published up to 2007 found industry funded studies were published in more prestigious journals and cited more than other studies independently from methodological quality and size. Studies funded from public sources were significantly less likely to report conclusions favorable to the vaccines …”
So, despite the fact that 15 of the 36 studies included were biased by industry interests, they still couldn’t come up with evidence supporting the conventional claim that flu vaccines are the best and most effective prevention available against influenza!
Scientific Reviews Show Vaccinating Children and Elderly Is Ineffective
Cochrane has issued several reports addressing the effectiveness of flu vaccines on infants and the elderly – two groups that tend to be the most targeted by flu vaccine advertising – and all have had negative findings. For children:
1. A large-scale, systematic review [14] of 51 studies, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in 2006, found no evidence that the flu vaccine is any more effective than a placebo in children under two. The studies involved 260,000 children, age 6 to 23 months.
2. In 2008, another Cochrane review [15] again concluded that “little evidence is available” that the flu vaccine is effective for children under the age of two. Even more disturbingly, the authors stated that:
“It was surprising to find only one study of inactivated vaccine in children under two years, given current recommendations to vaccinate healthy children from six months old in the USA and Canada. If immunization in children is to be recommended as a public health policy, large-scale studies assessing important outcomes and directly comparing vaccine types are urgently required.”
3. In a 2012 review, [16] Cochrane concluded that “in children aged from two years, nasal spray vaccines made from weakened influenza viruses were better at preventing illness caused by the influenza virus than injected vaccines made from the killed virus. Neither type was particularly good at preventing “flu-like illness” caused by other types of viruses. In children under the age of two, the efficacy of inactivated vaccine was similar to placebo.”
The available evidence with regards to protecting the elderly is equally abysmal.
4. In 2010, Cochrane concluded that: [17] “The available evidence is of poor quality and provides no guidance regarding the safety, efficacy or effectiveness of influenza vaccines for people aged 65 years or older.”
5. Cochrane also reviewed whether or not vaccinating health care workers can help protect the elderly patients with whom they work. In conclusion, the authors stated that: [18] “[T]here is no evidence that vaccinating health care workers prevents influenza in elderly residents in long-term care facilities.”
Annual Flu Vaccinations May Raise Risk of More Serious Infections
Other recent studies have shown that with each successive annual flu vaccination, the protection afforded by the vaccine appears to diminish. [19, 20] Research published in 2014 concluded that vaccine-induced protection against influenza was greatest among those who had NOT received a flu shot in the previous five years. [21] The flu vaccine may also increase your risk of contracting other, more serious influenza infections.
* Data shows people who received the seasonal flu vaccine in 2008 had twice the risk of getting the H1N1 “swine flu” [8] compared to those who didn’t receive a flu shot. [22]
* Compared to children who do not get an annual flu vaccine, those who receive influenza vaccinations have a three times higher risk of hospitalization due to influenza. [23]
Research also shows that statin drugs – taken by 1 in 4 Americans over the age of 45 – may undermine your immune system’s ability to respond to the flu vaccine. [24,25,26] When you consider the low efficacy rate of the flu vaccine in any given year, getting vaccinated if you’re on a statin may well be a moot point.
Independent science reviews have also concluded that influenza vaccine does not appear to prevent influenza-like illness associated with other types of viruses responsible for about 80 percent of all respiratory or gastrointestinal infections during any given flu season. [27,28,29,30]
Other Foods and Supplements That Send Pathogens Packin’
Besides vitamin D, there are a number of other foods and supplements that can be beneficial for colds and influenza, including the following:
Garlic: [31] Garlic has natural antiviral, antibiotic and antifungal activity and has long been hailed for its immune boosting effects.
The Cochrane Database, which has repeatedly demonstrated that the science in support of the flu vaccine is flimsy at best, has also reviewed studies on alternatives, including garlic. [32]
Unfortunately, such research is harder to come by, as there’s no financial incentive driving it.
Still, in the singular study identified by the Cochrane group, those who took garlic daily for three months had fewer colds than those who took a placebo, and, when they did come down with a cold, the duration of illness was shorter – an average of 4.5 days compared to 5.5 days for the placebo group.
While this may not seem overly impressive, it’s still better than the results achieved by the flu drug Tamiflu [9]!
Zinc: A Cochrane Database Review of the medical research on zinc [10] found that when taken within one day of the first symptoms, zinc can cut down the time you have a cold by about 24 hours.
Zinc was also found to greatly reduce the severity of symptoms. Zinc was not recommended for anyone with an underlying health condition, like lowered immune function, asthma or chronic illness.
I do not recommend taking more than 50 mg a day, and I do not recommend taking zinc on a daily basis for preventive purposes as you could easily develop a copper imbalance that way.
Vitamin C: A very potent antioxidant; use a natural form such as acerola, which contains associated micronutrients.
You can take several grams every hour (use the liposomal form so you don’t get loose stools), till you are better. I never travel without a bottle of our liposomal C.
A tea made from a combination of elderflower, yarrow, boneset, linden, peppermint and ginger; drink it hot and often for combating a cold or flu. It causes you to sweat, which is helpful for eradicating a virus from your system.
Oregano Oil: The higher the carvacrol concentration, the more effective it is. Carvacrol is the most active antimicrobial agent in oregano oil.
Medicinal mushrooms, such as shiitake, reishi and turkey tail [11].
Propolis: A bee resin and one of the most broad-spectrum antimicrobial compounds in the world; propolis is also the richest source of caffeic acid and apigenin, two very important compounds that aid in immune response.
Olive leaf extract is widely known as a natural, non-toxic immune system builder.
Vitamin D Is Important for Optimal Health and Disease Prevention Year-Round
In related news, researchers are also homing in on how vitamin D may help protect against age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s [12]. The video above discusses research [33] showing vitamin D extends lifespan in nematode worms by 30 percent and helps slow or even reverse accumulation of beta amyloid protein, which is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.Vitamin D deficiency has also been linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression, autoimmune disease and many other chronic diseases. As noted in a recent issue of Orthomolecular Medicine News: [34] “Research on the health benefits of vitamin D continues at a rapid pace. There were 4,356 papers published in 2015 with vitamin D in the title or abstract and 4,388 in 2016 …” Among some of the most impactful studies are ones demonstrating:
* Health benefits from sun exposure unrelated to vitamin D production. One recent review concluded benefits of sun exposure [13] includes lower rates of cancer, heart disease, dementia, myopia, macular degeneration, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. My belief is that the majority of these benefits are due to the near-, mid- and far-infrared wavelengths.
According to the author: “The message of sun avoidance must be changed to acceptance of non-burning sun exposure sufficient to achieve [vitamin D] concentrations of 30 ng/mL or higher … and the general benefits of UV exposure beyond those of vitamin D.” Also, while intermittent sun exposure is associated with higher rates of skin cancer, “the risks of these cancers is dwarfed by the reduced risk of internal cancers from sun exposure,” William Grant, Ph.D. writes.
* Benefits of higher vitamin D levels during pregnancy. Research demonstrates preterm births steadily decrease as vitamin D levels increase among pregnant women. In one study, raising vitamin D blood concentrations from 20 to 40 ng/mL decreased preterm births by 59 percent.
* Reduction in cancer risk from vitamin D supplementation. One pooled analysis showed that women with higher levels of vitamin D had much lower incidence rates of cancer – from a 2 percent per year cancer incidence rate at 18 ng/mL to 0.4 percent at 63 ng/mL.
Overall, maintaining a vitamin D serum level of 45 to 60 ng/mL year-round may be one of the simplest and most efficient ways to safeguard yourself against chronic disease and acute infections. When it comes to seasonal colds and influenza, the rate of protection you get from vitamin D is actually greater than what you’d get from a flu vaccination, and you don’t have to worry about potential side effects either – which in the case of the flu vaccine can be far worse than the original complaint.
While death and complete disability from a flu vaccine [14] may be rare, so is dying from the flu itself. I strongly recommend weighing the risk of suffering a debilitating side effect of the flu vaccine relative to the more likely potential of spending a week in bed with the flu. Remember, most deaths attributed to influenza are actually due to bacterial pneumonia, and these days, bacterial pneumonia can be effectively treated with advanced medical care and therapies like respirators and parenteral antibiotics.
The Role of Vitamin D in Disease Prevention
A growing body of evidence shows that vitamin D plays a crucial role in disease prevention and maintaining optimal health. There are about 30,000 genes in your body, and vitamin D affects nearly 3,000 of them, as well as vitamin D receptors located throughout your body.
[7-signs-you-may-be-vitamin-d-deficient][15]
According to one large-scale study, optimal Vitamin D levels can slash your risk of cancer by as much as 60 percent. Keeping your levels optimized can help prevent at least 16 different types of cancer, including pancreatic, lung, ovarian, prostate and skin cancers.
References
* 1 [16] Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D by JJ Cannell, September 15, 2006 [17]
* 2 [18] Epidemiology and Infection 2006 Dec;134(6):1129-40 [19]
* 3 [20] Virology Journal 2008, 5:29 [21]
* 4 [22] Archives of Internal Medicine 2009;169(4):384-390 [23]
* 5 [24] BMJ 2017; 356:i6583 [25]
* 6 [26] NPR February 16, 2017 [27]
* 7, [28] 8 [29] Time February 16, 2017 [30]
* 9 [31] BBC.com February 16, 2017 [32]
* 10 [33] American Journal of Clinical Nutrition May 2010; 91(5): 1255-1260 [34]
* 11 [35] Nature Immunology 2010 Apr;11(4):344-9 [36]
* 12 [37] Food Consumer July 3, 2010 [38]
* 13 [39] Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews 2010 Jul 7;(7):CD001269 [40]
* 14, [41] 15 [42] Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews 2006 Jan 25;(1):CD004879 [43]
* 16 [44] Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2012; Issue 8 [45]
* 17, [46] 18 [47] Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews 2010 Feb 17;(2):CD004876 [48]
* 19 [49] Vaccine December 1998;16(20):1929-32 [50]
* 20 [51] STAT News November 11, 2015 [52]
* 21 [53] Clinical Infectious Diseases 2014; 59 (10): 1375-1385 [54]
* 22 [55] CIDRAP April 6, 2010 [56]
* 23 [57] Science Daily May 20, 2009 [58]
* 24 [59] STAT News October 29, 2015 [60]
* 25 [61] STAT News September 28, 2016 [62]
* 26 [63] Journal of Infectious Disease October 28, 2015 [64]
* 27 [65] FDA. 94th Meeting of Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee Transcript. Feb. 20, 2003 [66]
* 28 [67] CDC Seasonal Influenza Q&A. Aug. 15, 2014 [68]
* 29 [69] CDC 2014-2015 Influenza Season Week 51 Ending December 20, 2014 [70]
* 30 [71] JAMA Internal Medicine 2013; 173(11): 1014-1016 [72]
* 31 [73] PreventDisease.com January 20, 2013 [74]
* 32 [75] Cochrane , Garlic for the Common Cold, November 11, 2014 [76]
* 33 [77] ABC7 News February 10, 2017 [78]
* 34 [79] Orthomolecular Medicine News February 13, 2017 [80]
Sincerely,
James Robert Deal
Real Estate Attorney & Real Estate Managing Broker
James@JamesDeal.com
PO Box 2276 Lynnwood WA 98036
Law Office Line: 425-771-1110
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Were ancient people conscious?
[Spencer Alexander McDaniel]
Spencer Alexander McDaniel, B.A. Classical Studies & History, Indiana University Bloomington (2022)
In 1976, the American psychologist Julian Jaynes (lived 1920 – 1997) published a controversial book titled The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. In this book, Jaynes claimed that human beings were not conscious of their own thoughts until around 1000 BC and that stories about gods speaking to people originated from people hearing their own inner voices and mistaking them for the voices of external deities telling them what to do.
Jaynes’s claims were regarded as fringe, baseless, and bizarre even when he first proposed them back in the 1970s and today they are almost universally regarded by psychologists as the debunked relic of an earlier, less scientific stage in the development of modern psychology. Nonetheless, Jaynes’s hypothesis of the bicameral mind has garnered something of a cult following among non-scholars and has had considerable influence in popular culture, so I suppose it is worth writing a lengthy rebuttal to it.
Jaynes’s hypothesis
First, let me summarize the basic gist of what Julian Jaynes argues in his book. In the book, Jaynes argues that the human mind was once divided into two separate parts: a part which seemed to be speaking and a part which listened and obeyed. He thought that people in ancient times mistook this inner voice for the voice of a divine figure commanding them to do things. Jaynes called this idea of the mind being divided into two parts “bicameralism.”
Jaynes argued that the bicameral mind broke down around 3,000 years ago around the same time of the end of the Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean. According Jaynes, with the breakdown of the bicameral mind came the beginnings of modern consciousness. He posits that the people we call “schizophrenics” are actually people who have retained vestiges of the original bicameral mind and that, if anyone from ancient times were alive today, we would probably call them “schizophrenic” as well. [cid:image002.jpg@01D5A0B9.0FFF9660]
ABOVE: Photograph of Julian Jaynes holding a model of a human brain—or maybe he is holding his own, actual brain and that is why he had so many crazy ideas about consciousness
Reception of Jaynes’s hypothesis
Reception of Jaynes’s hypothesis among psychologists in the 1970s was, to put it lightly, not overwhelmingly good. In a paper published in January 1979, a scholar named William Thomas Jones wrote an article titled “Mr. Jaynes and the Bicameral Mind: A Case Study in the Sociology of Belief,” examining the question of how on Earth any intelligent person could possibly believe Jaynes’s hypothesis. At the end of the very first paragraph, Jones writes:
“To think of the book as a case study in the sociology of belief, justifies our making a rather detailed analysis of it: only in this way can we see how implausible Mr. Jaynes conclusions are and so lay the basis for answering the question: Why, despite its implausibility, is the book taken seriously by thoughtful and intelligent people?”
Jones concludes that people only take Jaynes’s idea of the bicameral mind seriously because they have an aversion to the ideas of Darwinian evolution and natural selection, they have a longing for lost bicamerality, and they desire a simple, all-encompassing theory that explains everything about human nature.
Nowadays, you certainly will not find a single academic historian or anthropologist who subscribes to Jaynes’s hypothesis. You may find a psychologist or two out there, but they are rare. Very few philosophers of mind accept Jaynes’s hypothesis either. Daniel Dennett, a philosopher who thinks Jaynes’s hypothesis has some problems but that it should be taken seriously, writes the following in an essay titled “Julian Jaynes’s Software Archaeology”:
“After all, on the face of it, it [i.e. the hypothesis of the bicameral mind] is preposterous, and I have found that in talking with other philosophers my main task is to convince them to take it seriously when they are very reluctant to do this. I take it very seriously, so I am going to use my time to try to describe what I take the project to be.”
Nonetheless, despite widespread academic rejection, Jaynes’s hypothesis has managed to seep its way into popular culture. For instance, in 2006, an author named Terence Hawkins published a fictional novel titled The Rage of Achilles, which retells the story of the Iliad using Jaynes’s hypothesis as a naturalistic explanation for all the encounters with deities in the epic. In Hawkins’s novel, the Greek hero Odysseus and the Trojan prince Paris are portrayed as having non-bicameral minds, while the other characters are portrayed as having bicameral ones.
Meanwhile, more recently, Jaynes’s hypothesis was incorporated as a plot device into the HBO science fiction television series Westworld. Westworld differs from earlier portrayals of the bicameral mind in that it does not portray the bicameral mind as a stage in the development of human consciousness, but rather a stage in the development of robot consciousness, which I suppose is somewhat more plausible. The show also, mercifully, referred to the hypothesis as applied to humans as “debunked.” [cid:image003.png@01D5A0B9.0FFF9660]
ABOVE: Scene of the characters Robert Ford (played by Anthony Hopkins) and Bernard Lowe (played by Jeffrey Wright) discussing Julian Jaynes’s hypothesis of the bicameral mind from the HBO television series Westworld
The problem of the physical structure of the brain
One major problem with Jaynes’s hypothesis is the problem of the physical structure of the brain. It is almost universally recognized that the physical structure of the brain and the way we think are inextricably linked. Even most substance dualists, who believe that the mind and the brain are two distinct substances, admit that there is a clear connection between the mind and the brain.
The problem for Jaynes’s hypothesis is that, if his hypothesis that early humans were not conscious in the same way we are conscious were true, we would expect to find that the brains of humans up until around 3,000 years ago were structured significantly differently from our own brains. In reality, though, we find precisely the opposite; as far as we can tell from surviving brain cases and even, in some cases, preserved brains, the structure of the human brain has remained almost completely unchanged for at least the past roughly 10,000 years.
If you examine the skull of the a normal, healthy person who lived in ancient Sumer in the third millennium BC, you will find that the brain case is virtually identical in every way in terms of its structure to the brain case of a person who died yesterday. Likewise, if you examine the preserved brain from a well-preserved body, such as the body of someone who was accidentally mummified or frozen in ice, you will find it structurally identical to a modern brain.
So far at least, there is no physical evidence to suggest that the brains of humans before around 1000 BC were structured any different from the brains of human beings today. This poses a serious difficulty to Jaynes’s hypothesis. [cid:image004.png@01D5A0B9.0FFF9660]
ABOVE: Illustration of the underside of a human brain from the 1543 anatomy book De humani corporis fabrica by the Flemish anatomist Andreas Vesalius
The problem of human behavior
If humans prior to around 1000 BC really thought in a way that is drastically different from how we think today, we would expect to find a great deal of evidence that they also behaved very differently from how we behave today. Unfortunately for those who want to believe in the idea of the bicameral mind, what we instead find is a great deal of evidence that early humans were, in fact, remarkably like us in terms of their behavior. Though their cultures differed from ours in significant ways, judging from our available evidence, they still acted the way we would expect normal, conscious human beings to act.
For instance, a number of customer complaint letters have survived to us from ancient Mesopotamia that read almost exactly like what someone might write today. In particular, in the early twentieth century, the British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley excavated a house in the city of Ur, which contained a large number of letters from angry customers inscribed on clay tablets addressed to a copper merchant by the name of Ea-Nasir. These letters all date to around the middle of the eighteenth century BC.
There are a whole bunch of these letters, but the longest and more irate of all of them is a letter written by a man named Nanni, which covers the entire front and back sides of the tablet he wrote it on. Here is the text of the letter, as translated from Akkadian by the American Assyriologist A. Leo Oppenheim:
“Tell Ea-nasir: Nanni sends the following message:”
“When you came, you said to me as follows : ‘I will give Gimil-Sin (when he comes) fine quality copper ingots.’ You left then but you did not do what you promised me. You put ingots which were not good before my messenger (Sit-Sin) and said: ‘If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!’”
“What do you take me for, that you treat somebody like me with such contempt? I have sent as messengers gentlemen like ourselves to collect the bag with my money (deposited with you) but you have treated me with contempt by sending them back to me empty-handed several times, and that through enemy territory. Is there anyone among the merchants who trade with Telmun who has treated me in this way? You alone treat my messenger with contempt! On account of that one (trifling) mina of silver which I owe(?) you, you feel free to speak in such a way, while I have given to the palace on your behalf 1,080 pounds of copper, and Umi-abum has likewise given 1,080 pounds of copper, apart from what we both have had written on a sealed tablet to be kept in the temple of Shamash.”
“How have you treated me for that copper? You have withheld my money bag from me in enemy territory; it is now up to you to restore (my money) to me in full.”
“Take cognizance that (from now on) I will not accept here any copper from you that is not of fine quality. I shall (from now on) select and take the ingots individually in my own yard, and I shall exercise against you my right of rejection because you have treated me with contempt.”
This sounds very much the sort of thing someone today might write. It is certainly not the sort of thing that one reads and thinks, “Clearly, these people thought in a way completely and utterly different from the way people think today.”
I could give examples of ways in which ancient peoples behaved that are very similar to ways in which people today behave all day, but I will not do that because I reckon this one example is probably enough for an article of this length. [cid:image005.jpg@01D5A0B9.0FFF9660]
ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of Nanni’s complaint letter to Ea-Nasir, complaining about how Ea-Nasir has given him a lesser standard of copper than what he promised him
Construing evidence
The vast majority of the evidence Jaynes tried to marshal to support his argument is evidence that, quite frankly, just can’t be logically construed to support it. Jaynes starts out with the assumption that people prior to around 1000 BC had bicameral minds and then simply reads his own assumptions onto the evidence.
Ironically, on page 177, Jaynes himself offers a warning against reading our own assumptions onto evidence, except what he is really arguing when he says this is that translators should refrain from making logical assumptions and instead make the kinds of insane and illogical assumptions he himself is making:
“The popular and even scholarly literatures are full of such sugared emandations and palatablized glosses to make ancient men seem like us, or at least talk like the King James Bible. A translator often reads in more than he reads out. Many of those texts that seem to be about decision-making or so-called proverbs, or epics, or teachings, should be reinterpreted with concrete behavioral precision if we are to trust them as data for psycho-archaeology of man. And I am warning the reader that the effect of this chapter is not in accord with popular books on the subject.”
Let’s think about this a bit. If you find a clay tablet inscribed with what appears to be a set of proverbs, which of these assumptions makes sense: (a) that this is a set of proverbs written by a scribe, who wrote them the way a person today might write them, or (b) that this is a set of writings by the scribe, who was acting as a mindless drone obedient to the commands of the voice in the back of his head, which seemed to him like the voice of an all-powerful deity?
Most people, I think would say the former of these choices is more sensible. [cid:image006.jpg@01D5A0B9.0FFF9660]
ABOVE: Photograph of an Akkadian clay tablet dating to c. 2270 BC listing the victories of the Akkadian king Rimush
Misunderstanding stories about people hearing voices of deities
In support of his hypothesis of the bicameral mind, Julian Jaynes particularly relies on stories of human beings hearing voices of deities or receiving visions from deities. Based on his readings of religious texts and works of fiction such as the Iliad, Jaynes seems to have the impression that it was common for people in ancient times to think they were hearing the voices of deities. This is far from the case. There are indeed surviving texts that describe people receiving commands or visions from deities, but all of these texts present this as an extraordinary phenomenon that only happens on extremely rare, exciting occasions.
For instance, in around 2125 BC, King Gudea, the ruler of the Sumerian city-state of Lagash from c. 2144 until c. 2124 BC, had two large terra-cotta cylinders inscribed with a very lengthy and detailed description of how he experienced a dream in which he saw the god Ninĝirsu. These cylinders, which are known as the “Gudea Cylinders,” also record Gudea’s reaction to the dream. Here is an excerpt from the translation of the Gudea Cylinders available online through Oxford University’s Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL):
“On that day, in a nocturnal vision Gudea saw his master, Lord Ninĝirsu. Ninĝirsu spoke to him of his house, of its building. He showed him an E-ninnu with full grandeur. Outstanding though his mind was, the message remained to be understood for him.”
“’Well, I have to tell her about this! Well, I have to tell her about this! I will ask her to stand by me in this matter. Profound things (?) came suddenly to me, the shepherd, but the meaning of what the nocturnal vision brought to me I do not understand. So I will take my dream to my mother and I will ask my dream-interpreter, an expert on her own, my divine sister from Sirara, Nanše, to reveal its meaning to me.’”
“He stepped aboard his boat, directed it on the canal Id-Niĝin-dua towards her city Niĝin, and merrily cut through the waves of the river. After he had reached Bagara, the house extending as far as the river, he offered bread, poured cold water and went to the master of Bagara to pray to him.”
“’Warrior, rampant lion, who has no opponent! Ninĝirsu, important in the abzu, respected in Nibru! Warrior, I want to carry out faithfully what you have commanded me; Ninĝirsu, I want to build up your house for you, I want to make it perfect for you, so I will ask your sister, the child born of Eridug, an authority on her own, the lady, the dream-interpreter among the gods, my divine sister from Sirara, Nanše, to show me the way.’ His call was heard; his master, Lord Ninĝirsu, accepted from Gudea his prayer and supplication.”
“Gudea celebrated the ešeš festival in the house of Bagara. The ruler set up his bed near to Ĝatumdug. He offered bread and poured cold water and went to holy Ĝatumdug to pray to her: ‘My lady, child begotten by holy An, an authority on her own, proud goddess, living in the Land, …… of her city! Lady, mother, you who founded Lagaš, if you but look upon your people, it brings abundance; the worthy young man on whom you look will enjoy a long life.’”
Notice how Gudea presents his vision as an absolutely stunning occurrence, something completely out of the ordinary. He describes Ninĝirsu making a glorious appearance to him in a dream. He then describes himself travelling all the way to another city to consult the goddess Nanše (or, presumably, her oracle) to find out the meaning of his dream. The fact that Gudea feels the need to travel all the way to another city shows what a remarkable event this seemed to be for him. Even the fact that Gudea had all this written down shows that he considered this an extraordinary occurrence.
Also notice that Ninĝirsu appears to Gudea in a dream, which means there is no need to invoke the idea of the bicameral mind even if we are to accept the literal truth of this story. Gudea may very well have simply had a particularly vivid dream, which he interpreted as a message from the god Ninĝirsu. This does not prove that ancient peoples were not conscious or that they had bicameral minds; even people today can have vivid dreams. [cid:image007.jpg@01D5A0B9.0FFF9660]
ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the Gudea cylinders on display in the Louvre Museum
Misunderstanding the Iliad
Jaynes devotes an entire chapter in his book to discussion of the Iliad. I would like to pay special attention to how he misunderstands and misinterprets the poem, because it is illustrative of how he generally misinterprets evidence. Jaynes starts out with the assumption that, because Troy was a real city and because there are a few accurate descriptions of, for instance, styles of armor and weapons from the Bronze Age scattered throughout the Iliad, the Iliad is therefore fundamentally a work of history. He writes on page 76:
“There is thus no question of its historical substrate. The Iliad is not imaginative creative literature and hence not a matter for literary discussion. It is history, webbed into the Mycenaean Aegean, to be examined by psychohistorical scientists.”
On the next page, Jaynes responds to the objection that the Iliad contains descriptions of impossible events by insisting that the poem must be historical at its core, but the aoidoi must have changed the poem at some point, adding in exaggerations and legendary elaborations. Nonetheless, he insists that the poem must be mostly historical, saying, “But all these alterations were probably kept in check both for the transcribers’ reverence for the poem at this time, as is indicated by all other Greek literature, and by the requirements of public performances.”
It is in his assumption that the Iliad must have been mostly intended as an accurate historical account that Jaynes commits his biggest error in this chapter. In reality, as I discuss in much greater detail in this article I wrote about the historicity of the Trojan War, there is no good reason to think that the Iliad has any more historical basis than, say, Sir Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur.
The fact that Troy was a real city does not mean that the story about the Trojan War presented in the Iliad is historical. After all, fictional stories can be set in real places; the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral is a real place, but very few people would try to argue that that somehow means the novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo is a historical account about real events. [cid:image008.jpg@01D5A0B9.0FFF9660]
ABOVE: Notre-Dame is a real cathedral, but that doesn’t mean Quasimodo was ever a real person.
Although there are a few scattered examples of accurate remembrances of the Bronze Age preserved in the Iliad, the vast majority of the poem is totally disconnected from what the historical Bronze Age was really like. Even the few things the Iliad gets right it does not get right consistently. For instance, sometimes the Homeric heroes fight with bronze weapons like the Mycenaeans; other times they fight with iron.
There is far more in the Iliad that makes us doubt its validity as a historical account than there is that makes us inclined to trust it. (I mean, in Book Twenty-One, Achilles literally fights a river, for goodness sakes! What is a historian supposed to make of that?)
Because Jaynes starts out from the beginning with the false assumption that the Iliad is mostly a historical account, this leads him to the false conclusion that the Iliad’s portrayal of interactions between humans and deities is an accurate reflection of what everyday life was like for people in the Mycenaean Period, which, of course, it isn’t.
Jaynes makes other errors in this chapter and elsewhere, of course. For instance, he dates the composition of the Iliad to the ninth century BC, when, in fact, most scholars in the 1970s thought it was composed in the eighth and most scholars today think it was composed in the early seventh. Jaynes also claims at one point that the word wanax was only applied after the Mycenaean Period to the gods, when, in fact, even in Modern Greek, the word ἄναξ is still sometimes applied to human kings. [cid:image009.jpg@01D5A0B9.0FFF9660]
ABOVE: The Rage of Achilles Protected by Mars, painted in 1815 by the Italian painter Antonio Galliano
Conclusion
All our available evidence seems to indicate that the brains of ancient peoples were structurally similar to ours and that ancient peoples acted in ways that are behaviorally similar to the ways people act today. I know that I am conscious and I consider it reasonable to assume that everyone else around me is conscious. The most parsimonious assumption, then, is that ancient peoples probably thought more-or-less the same way we think today and that they were every bit as conscious as we are.
Is this an assumption? Ultimately, yes, but it is an assumption that is supported by the evidence and that makes logical sense, unlike the hypothesis Jaynes tries to argue for, which has absolutely no solid or convincing scientific or historical evidence to support it and is full of all sorts of outrageous leaps of logic.
The Law of Parsimony is key here; we cannot know for certain that ancient peoples were conscious because, ultimately, the only people who know what was going on inside ancient people’s heads are ancient people themselves, who are—and this is true!—all dead. Nonetheless, we can come to the conclusion that requires the least number of ad hoc assumptions, which is that people who lived prior to around 1000 BC were indeed conscious.
(NOTE: I have also published a version of this article on my website titled “Were Ancient People Conscious?” Here is a link to the version of the article on my website.)
Sincerely,
James Robert Deal
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[Paul Ramirez]
Paul Ramirez, Research Analyst 30 years with an IQ of 160, InFj MBTI.
Shared 22h ago
A recent study done in Ontario, Canada, established that vaccination actually leads to an emergency room visit for 1 in 168 children following their 12-m vaccination appointment and for 1 in 730 children following their 18-m vaccination appointment
Adverse events following 12 and 18 month vaccinations: a population-based, self-controlled case series analysis.
PubMed comprises more than 30 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. National Institutes of Health * Dec 11, 2018
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Who should get vaccinated for whooping cough? [Paul Ramirez]
Paul Ramirez, Research Analyst 30 years with an IQ of 160, InFj MBTI.
DTAP is considered a very dangerous vaccine by a great many people. Its contains aluminum adjuvant which is linked as a known cause of autism. More people cite DTAP as the vaccine that triggered autism then even do the MMR.
What more is the whooping cough or pertussis vaccine does not grant any immunity from pertussis. It merely masks the symptoms. i.e. you are still susceptible to whooping cough but do not show symptoms. You can all shed live attenuated vaccines. Which means you can actually endanger others, unlike unvaccinated children, which can spread what they have not been exposed to.
Its actually even worse. Those who take the whooping cough vaccine are asymptomatic carriers. They can have caught whooping cough and not show symptoms and spread it to others without even knowing it. That is real not perceived danger, such as ascribed to the unvaccinated.
The unvaccinated that get whooping cough actually show symptoms and know better to be around others, as well as others can obviously see to keep their distance from someone coughing. You get no such warning from those vaccinated for whooping cough. They as asymptomatic carriers can fully spread it and not show symptoms, which is wrongly considered a benefit. Benefit to whom, not society at large as implied by those who profit from vaccines.
Look at the school outbreaks with whooping cough. It was the fully vaccinated that came down With it. Yet the unvaccinated did not in California.
You would be better of with high doses of vitamin D, the cough will soon subside. You will be safe as well as society.
DTP vaccine in other nations increases risk of mortality by 5x or greater. 31 views * View Upvoters
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They can’t because they have studied only 1 vaccine and 1 vaccine ingredient. That’s about less than 10% of vaccines and less than 10% of all vaccine ingredients.
If you haven’t studied over 90% of the schedule and the aggregate effect you don’t know if vaccines can cause autism or not.
The epidemiologic evidence is insufficient or absent to assess an association between diphtheria toxoid–, tetanus toxoid–, or acellular pertussis–containing vaccine and autism.
Weight of Mechanistic Evidence
The committee assesses the mechanistic evidence regarding an association between diphtheria toxoid–, tetanus toxoid–, or acellular pertussis–containing vaccine and autism as lacking
Causality Conclusion
Conclusion 10.6: The evidence is inadequate to accept or reject a causal relationship between diphtheria toxoid–, tetanus toxoid–, or acellular pertussis–containing vaccine and autism.
The cure for tetanus, a life-threatening and often deadly disease, has been sought from the very inception of the modern field of Immunology. The original horse anti-serum treatment of tetanus was developed in the late 19th century and introduced into clinical practice at the time when a bio-statistical concept of a randomized placebo-controlled trial (RCT) did not yet exist. The therapy was infamous for generating a serious adverse reaction called serum sickness attributed to the intolerance of humans to horse-derived serum. To make this tetanus therapy usable, it was imperative to substitute the animal origin of anti-serum with the human origin. But injecting a lethal toxin into human volunteers as substitutes for horses would have been unthinkable.
A practical solution was found in 1924: pre-treating the tetanus toxin with formaldehyde (a fixative chemical) made the toxin lose its ability to cause clinical tetanus symptoms. The formaldehyde-treated tetanus toxin is called the toxoid. The tetanus toxoid can be injected into human volunteers to produce a commercial human therapeutic product from their sera called tetanus immunoglobulin (TIG), a modern substitute of the original horse anti-serum. The tetanus toxoid has also become the vaccine against clinical tetanus.
The tetanus toxin, called tetanospasmin, is produced by numerous C. tetani bacterial strains. C. tetani normally live in animal intestines, notably in horses, without causing tetanus to their intestinal carriers. These bacteria require anaerobic (no oxygen) conditions to be active, whereas in the presence of oxygen they turn into resilient but inactive spores, which do not produce the toxin. It has been recognized that inactive tetanus spores are ubiquitous in the soil. Tetanus can result from the exposure to C. tetani via poorly managed tetanus-prone wounds or cuts, but not from oral ingestion of tetanus spores. Quite to the contrary, oral exposure to C. tetani has been found to build resistance to tetanus without carrying the risk of disease, as described in the section on Natural Resistance to Tetanus.
Once secreted by C. tetani germinating in a contaminated wound, tetanospasmin diffuses through the tissue’s interstitial fluids or bloodstream. Upon reaching nerve endings, it is adsorbed by the cell membrane of neurons and transported through nerve trunks into the central nervous system, where it inhibits the release of a neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). This inhibition can result in various degrees of clinical tetanus symptoms: rigid muscular spasms, such as lockjaw, sardonic smile, and severe convulsions that frequently lead to bone fractures and death due to respiratory compromise.
Curative effects of the anti-serum therapy as well as the preventative effects of the tetanus vaccination are deemed to rely upon an antibody molecule called antitoxin. But the assumption that such antitoxin was the sole “active” ingredient in the original horse anti-serum has not been borne out experimentally. Since horses are natural carriers of tetanus spores, their bloodstream could have contained other unrecognized components, which got harnessed in the therapeutic anti-serum. Natural Resistance to Tetanus discusses other serum entities detected in research animals carrying C. tetani, which better correlated with their protection from clinical tetanus than did serum antitoxin levels. Nevertheless, the main research effort in the tetanus field remained narrowly focused on antitoxin.
Antitoxin molecules are thought to inactivate the corresponding toxin molecules by virtue of their toxin-binding capacity. This implies that to accomplish its protective effect, antitoxin must come into close physical proximity with the toxin and combine with it in a way that would prevent or preempt the toxin from binding to nerve endings. Early research on the properties of a newly discovered antitoxin was done in small-sized research animals, such as guinea pigs. The tetanus toxin was pre-incubated in a test tube with the animal’s serum containing antitoxin before being injected into another (antitoxin-free) animal, susceptible to tetanus. Such pre-incubation made the toxin lose its ability to cause tetanus in otherwise susceptible animals—i.e., the toxin was neutralized.
Nevertheless, researchers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were baffled by a peculiar observation. Research animals, whose serum contained enough antitoxin to inactivate a certain amount of the toxin in a test tube, would succumb to tetanus when they were injected with the same amount of the toxin. Furthermore, it was noted that the mode of the toxin injection had a different effect on the ability of serum antitoxin to protect the animal. The presence of antitoxin in the serum of animals afforded some degree of protection against the toxin injected directly into the bloodstream (intravenously). However, when the toxin was injected into the skin it would be as lethal to animals containing substantial levels of serum antitoxin as to animals virtually free of serum antitoxin [1].
The observed difference in serum antitoxin’s protective “behavior” was attributed to the toxin’s propensity to bind faster to nerve cells than to serum antitoxin. The pre-incubation of the toxin with antitoxin in a test tube, or the injection of the toxin directly into the bloodstream, where serum antitoxin is found, gives antitoxin a head start in combining with and neutralizing the toxin. However, a skin or muscle injection of the toxin does not give serum antitoxin such a head start.
Researchers in the 21st century have developed an advanced fluorescent labeling technique to track the uptake of the injected tetanus toxin into neurons. Using this technique, researchers examined the effect of serum antitoxin, which was induced by vaccinating mice with the tetanus toxoid vaccine ahead of time (the same one currently used in humans), on blocking the neuronal uptake and transport of the tetanus toxin fragment C (TTC) to the brain from the site of intramuscular injection. Vaccinated and non-vaccinated animals showed similar levels of TTC uptake into the brain [2]. The authors of the study concluded that the “uptake of TTC by nerve terminals from an intramuscular depot is an avid and rapid process and is not blocked by vaccination.” They have further commented that their results appear to be surprising in view of protective effects of immunization with the tetanus toxoid. Indeed, the medical establishment holds a view that a tetanus shot prevents tetanus, but how do we know this view is correct?
Neonatal tetanus
Neonatal tetanus is common in tropical under-developed countries but is extremely rare in developed countries. This form of tetanus results from unhygienic obstetric practices, when cutting the umbilical cord is performed with unsterilized devices, potentially contaminating it with tetanus spores. Adhering to proper obstetric practices removes the risk of neonatal tetanus, but this has not been the standard of birth practices for some indigenous and rural people in the past or even present.
The authors of a neonatal tetanus study performed in the 1960s in New Guinea describe the typical conditions of childbirth among the locals [3]:
"The mother cuts the cord 1 inch (2.5 cm) or less from the abdominal wall; it is never tied. In the past she would always use a sliver of sago bark, but now she uses a steel trade-knife or an old razor blade. These are not cleaned or sterilized in any way and no dressing is put of the cord. The child lies after birth on a dirty piece of soft bark, and the cut cord can easily become contaminated by dust from the floor of the hut or my mother’s feces expressed during childbirth, as well as by the knife and her finger."
Not surprisingly, New Guinea had a high rate of neonatal tetanus. Because improving birth practices seemed to be unachievable in places like New Guinea, subjecting pregnant women to tetanus vaccination was contemplated by public health authorities as a possible solution to neonatal tetanus.
A randomized controlled trial (RCT) assessing the effectiveness of the tetanus vaccine in preventing neonatal tetanus via maternal vaccination was conducted in the 1960s in rural Colombia in a community with high rates of neonatal tetanus[4]. The design of this trial has been recently reviewed by the Cochrane Collaboration for potential biases and limitations and, with minor comments, has been considered of good quality for the purposes of vaccine effectiveness (but not safety) determination [5]. The trial established that a single dose of the tetanus vaccine given before or during pregnancy had a partial effect on preventing neonatal tetanus in the offspring: 43% reduction was observed in the tetanus vaccine group compared to the control group, which instead of the tetanus shot received a flu shot. A series of two or three tetanus booster shots, given six or more weeks apart before or during pregnancy, reduced neonatal tetanus by 98% in the tetanus vaccine group compared to the flu shot control group. The duration of the follow up in this trial was less than five years.
In addition to testing the effects of vaccination, this study has also documented a clear relationship between the incidence of neonatal tetanus and the manner in which childbirth was conducted. No babies delivered in a hospital, by a doctor or a nurse, contracted neonatal tetanus regardless of the mother’s vaccination status. On the other hand, babies delivered at home by amateur midwives had the highest rate of neonatal tetanus.
Hygienic childbirth appears to be highly effective in preventing neonatal tetanus and makes tetanus vaccination regimen during pregnancy unnecessary for women who givebirth under hygienic conditions. Furthermore, it was estimated in 1989 in Tanzania that 40% of neonatal tetanus cases still occurred in infants born to mothers who were vaccinated during pregnancy [6], stressing the importance of hygienic birth practices regardless of maternal vaccination status.
Tetanus in adults
Based on the protective effect of maternal vaccination in neonatal tetanus, demonstrated by an RCT and discussed above, we might be tempted to infer that the same vaccine also protects from tetanus acquired by stepping on rusty nails or incurring other tetanus-prone injuries, when administered to children or adults, either routinely or as an emergency measure. However, due to potential biologic differences in how tetanus is acquired by newborns versus by older children or adults, we should be cautious about reaching such conclusions without first having direct evidence for the vaccine effectiveness in preventing non-neonatal tetanus.
It is generally assumed that the tetanus toxin must first leach into the blood (where it would be intercepted by antitoxin, if it is already there due to timely vaccination) before it reaches nerve endings. This scenario is plausible in neonatal tetanus, as it appears that the umbilical cord does not have its own nerves [7]. On the other hand, the secretion of the toxin by C. tetani germinating in untended skin cuts or in muscle injuries is more relevant to how children or adults might succumb to tetanus. In such cases, there could be nerve endings near germinating C. tetani, and the toxin could potentially reach such nerve endings without first going through the blood to be intercepted by vaccine-induced serum antitoxin. This scenario is consistent with the outcomes of the early experiments in mice, discussed in the beginning.
Although a major disease in tropical under-developed countries, tetanus in the USA has been very rare. In the past, tetanus occurred primarily in poor segments of the population in southern states and in Mexican migrants in California. Although tetanus incidence wasn’t reported in the pre-vaccination era, one can infer that tetanus incidence was swiftly diminishing with each decade prior to the 1950s (in the pre-vaccination era) from data on diminishing tetanus mortality and a similar case-fatality ratio of about 67-70% in the early 20th century [8] and the mid-20th century [9]. The tetanus vaccine was introduced in the USA in 1947 without performing any placebo-controlled clinical trials in the segment of the civilian population (children or adults), where it is now routinely used.
The rationale for introducing the tetanus vaccine into the U.S. population, at low overall risk for tetanus anyway, was simply based on its use in the U.S. military personnel during World War II. According to a post-war report [10]:
a) the U.S. military personnel received a series of three injections of the tetanus toxoid, routine stimulating injection was administered one year after the initial series, and an emergency stimulating dose was given on the incurrence of wounds, severe burns, or other injuries that might result in tetanus;
b) throughout the entire WWII period, 12 cases of tetanus have been documented in the U.S. Army;
c) in World War I there were 70 cases of tetanus among approximately half a million admissions for wounds and injuries, an incidence of 13.4 per 100,000 wounds. In World War II there were almost three million admissions for wounds and injuries, with a tetanus case rate of 0.44 per 100,000 wounds.
The report leads us to conclude that vaccination has played a role in tetanus reduction in wounded U.S. soldiers during WWII compared to WWI, and that this reduction vouches for the tetanus vaccine effectiveness. However, there are other factors (e.g. differences in wound care protocols, including the use of antibiotics, higher likelihood of wound contamination with horse manure rich in already active C. tetani in earlier wars, when horses were used by the cavalry, etc.), which should preclude us from uncritically assigning tetanus reduction during WWII to the effects of vaccination.
Severe and even deadly tetanus is known to occur in recently vaccinated people with high levels of serum antitoxin [11-14]. Although the skeptic might say that no vaccine is effective 100% of the time, the situation with the tetanus vaccine is quite different. In these cases of vaccine-unpreventable tetanus, vaccination was actually very effective in inducing serum antitoxin, but serum antitoxin did not appear to have helped preventing tetanus in these unfortunate individuals.
The occurrence of tetanus despite the presence of antitoxin in the serum should have raised a red flag regarding the rationale of the tetanus vaccination program. But such reports were invariably interpreted as an indication that higher than previously thought levels of serum antitoxin must be maintained to protect from tetanus, hence the need for more frequent, if not incessant, boosters. Then how much higher “than previously thought” do serum levels of antitoxin need to be to ensure protection from tetanus?
Crone & Reder (1992) have documented a curious case of severe tetanus in a 29-year old man with no pre-existing conditions and no history of drug abuse, typical among modern-day tetanus victims in the USA [13]. In addition to the regular series of tetanus immunization and boosters ten years earlier during his military service, this patient had been hyper-immunized (immunized with the tetanus toxoid to have extremely high serum antitoxin) as a volunteer for the purposes of the commercial TIG production. He was monitored for the levels of antitoxin in his serum and, as expected, developed extremely high levels of antitoxin after the hyper-immunization procedure. Nevertheless, he incurred severe tetanus 51 days after the procedure despite clearly documented presence of serum antitoxin prior to the disease. In fact, upon hospital admission for tetanus treatment his serum antitoxin levels measured about 2,500 times higher than the level deemed protective. His tetanus was severe and required more than five weeks of hospitalization with life-saving measures. This case demonstrated that serum antitoxin has failed to prevent severe tetanus even in the amounts 2,500 times higher than what is considered sufficient for tetanus prevention in adults.
The medical establishment chooses to turn a blind eye to the lack of solid scientific evidence to substantiate our faith in the tetanus shot. It also chooses to ignore the available experimental and clinical evidence that contradicts the assumed but unproven ability of vaccine-induced serum antitoxin to reduce the risk of tetanus in anyone other than maternally-vaccinated neonates, who do not even need this vaccination measure when their umbilical cords are dealt with using sterile techniques.
Ascorbic acid in tetanus treatment
Anti-serum is not the only therapeutic measure tried in tetanus treatment. Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) has also been tried. Early research on ascorbic acid has demonstrated that it too could neutralize the tetanus toxin [15].
In a clinical study of tetanus treatment conducted in Bangladesh in 1984, the administration of conventional procedures, including the anti-tetanus serum, to patients who contracted tetanus left 74% of them dead in the 1-12 age group and 68% dead in the 13-30 age group. In contrast, daily co-administration of one gram of ascorbic acid intravenously had cut down this high mortality to 0% in the 1-12 age group, and to 37% in the 13-30 age group [16]. The older patients were treated with the same amount of ascorbic acid without adjustments for their body weight.
Although this was a controlled clinical trial, it is not clear from the description of the trial in the publication by Jahan et al. whether or not the assignment of patients into the ascorbic acid treatment group versus the placebo-control group was randomized and blinded, which are crucial bio-statistical requirements for avoiding various biases. A more definitive study is deemed necessary before intravenous ascorbic acid can be recommended as the standard of care in tetanus treatment [17]. It is odd that no properly documented RCT on ascorbic acid in tetanus treatment has been attempted since 1984 for the benefit of developing countries, where tetanus has been one of the major deadly diseases. This is in stark contrast to the millions of philanthropic dollars being poured into sponsoring the tetanus vaccine implementation in the Third world.
Natural resistance to tetanus
In the early 20th century, investigators Drs. Carl Tenbroeck and Johannes Bauer pursued a line of laboratory research, which was much closer to addressing natural resistance to tetanus than the typical laboratory research on antitoxin in their days. Omitted from immunologic textbooks and the history of immunologic research, their tetanus protection experiments in guinea pigs, together with relevant serological and bacteriological data in humans, nevertheless provide a good explanation for tetanus being a rather rare disease in many countries around the world, except under the conditions of past wars.
In the experience of these tetanus researchers, the injection of dormant tetanus spores could never by itself induce tetanus in research animals. To induce tetanus experimentally by means of tetanus spores (as opposed to by injecting a ready-made toxin, which never happens under natural circumstances anyway), spores had to be premixed with irritating substances that could prevent rapid healing of the site of spore injection, thereby creating conditions conducive to spore germination. In the past, researchers used wood splinters, saponin, calcium chloride, or aleuronat (flour made with aleurone) to accomplish this task.
In 1926, already being aware that oral exposure to tetanus spores does not lead to clinical tetanus, Drs. Tenbroeck and Bauer set out to determine whether feeding research animals with tetanus spores could provide protection from tetanus induced by an appropriate laboratory method of spore injection [1]. In their experiment, several groups of guinea pigs were given food containing distinct strains of C. tetani. A separate group of animals were used as controls—their diet was free of any C. tetani. After six months, all groups were injected under the skin with spores premixed with aleuronat. The groups that were previously exposed to spores orally did not develop any symptoms of tetanus upon such tetanus-prone spore injection, whereas the control group did. The observed protection was strain-specific, as animals still got tetanus if injected with spores from a mismatched strain—a strain they were not fed with. But when fed multiple strains, they developed protection from all of them.
Quite striking, the protection from tetanus established via spore feeding did not have anything to do with the levels of antitoxin in the serum of these animals. Instead, the protection correlated with the presence of another type of antibody called agglutinin—so named due to its ability to agglutinate (clump together) C. tetani spores in a test tube. Just like the observed protection was strain-specific, agglutinins were also strain-specific. These data are consistent with the role of strain-specific agglutinins, not of antitoxin, in natural protection from tetanus. The mechanism thereby strain-specific agglutinins have caused, or correlated with, tetanus protection in these animals has remained unexplored.
In the spore-feeding experiment, it was still possible to induce tetanus by overwhelming this natural protection in research animals. But to accomplish this task, a rather brute force procedure was required. A large number of purified C. tetani spores were sealed in a glass capsule; the capsule was injected under the skin of research animals and then crushed. Broken glass pieces were purposefully left under the skin of the poor creatures so that the gory mess was prevented from healing for a long time. Researchers could succeed in overwhelming natural tetanus defenses with this excessively harsh method, perhaps mimicking a scenario of untended war-inflicted wounds.
How do these experimental data in research animals relate to humans? In the early 20th century, not only animals but also humans were found to be intestinal carriers of C. tetani without developing tetanus. About 33% of tested human subjects living around Beijing, China were found to be C. tetani carriers without any prior or current history of tetanus disease [18]. Bauer & Meyer (1926) cite other studies, which have reported around 25% of tested humans being healthy C. tetani carriers in other regions of China, 40% in Germany, 16% in England, and on average 25% in the USA, highest in central California and lowest on the southern coast. Based on the California study, age, gender, or occupation denoting the proximity to horses did not appear to play a role in the distribution of human C. tetani carriers.
Another study was performed back in the 1920s in San Francisco, CA [19]. About 80% of the examined subjects had various levels of agglutinins to as many as five C. tetani strains at a time, although no antitoxin could be detected in the serum of these subjects. C. tetani organisms could not be identified in the stool of these subjects either. It is likely that tetanus spores were in their gut transiently in the past, leaving serological evidence of oral exposure, without germinating into toxin-producing organisms. It would be important to know the extent of naturally acquired C. tetani spore agglutinins in humans in various parts of the world now, instead of relying on the old data, but similar studies are not likely to be performed anymore.
Regrettably, further research on naturally acquired agglutinins and on exactly how they are involved in the protection from clinical tetanus appears to have been abandoned in favor of more lucrative research on antitoxin and vaccines. If such research continued, it would have given us clear understanding of natural tetanus defenses we may already have by virtue of our oral exposure to ubiquitous inactive C. tetani spores.
Since the extent of our natural resistance to clinical tetanus is unknown due to the lack of modern studies, all we can be certain of is that preventing dormant tetanus spores from germinating into toxin-producing microorganisms is an extremely important measure in the management of potentially contaminated skin cuts and wounds. If this crucial stage of control—at the level of preventing spore germination—is missed and the toxin production ensues, the toxin must be neutralized before it manages to reach nerve endings.
Both antitoxin and ascorbic acid exhibit toxin-neutralizing properties in a test tube. In the body, however, vaccine-induced antitoxin is located in the blood, whereas the toxin might be focally produced in the skin or muscle injury. This creates an obvious physical impediment for toxin neutralization to happen effectively, if at all, by means of vaccine-induced serum antitoxin. Furthermore, no placebo-controlled trials have ever been performed to rule out the concern about such an impediment by providing clear empirical evidence for the effectiveness of tetanus shots in children and adults. Nevertheless, the medical establishment relies upon induction of serum antitoxin and withholds ascorbic acid in tetanus prevention and treatment.
When an old medical procedure of unknown effectiveness, such as the tetanus shot, has been the standard of medical care for a long time, finalizing its effectiveness via a modern rigorous placebo-controlled trial is deemed unethical in human research. Therefore, our only hope for the advancement of tetanus care is that further investigation of the ascorbic acid therapy is performed and that this therapy becomes available to tetanus patients around the world, if confirmed effective by rigorous bio-statistical standards.
Until then, may the blind faith in the tetanus shot help us!
Disclaimer: Information presented in this article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice.
References
[1] Tenbroeck, C. & Bauer, J.H. The immunity produced by the growth of tetanus bacilli in the digestive tract. J Exp Med43, 361-377 (1926).
[2] Fishman, P.S., Matthews, C.C., Parks, D.A., Box, M. & Fairweather, N.F. Immunization does not interfere with uptake and transport by motor neurons of the binding fragment of tetanus toxin. J Neurosci Res83, 1540-1543 (2006).
[3] Schofield, F.D., Tucker, V.M. & Westbrook, G.R. Neonatal tetanus in New Guinea. Effect of active immunization in pregnancy. Br Med J2, 785-789 (1961).
[4] Newell, K.W., Dueñas Lehmann, A., LeBlanc, D.R. & Garces Osorio, N. The use of toxoid for the prevention of tetanus neonatorum. Final report of a double-blind controlled field trial. Bull World Health Organ 35, 863-871 (1966).
[5] Demicheli, V., Barale, A. & Rivetti, A. Vaccines for women to prevent neonatal tetanus. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 5:CD002959 (2013). [6] Maselle, S.Y., Matre, R., Mbise, R. & Hofstad, T. Neonatal tetanus despite protective serum antitoxin concentration. FEMS Microbiol Immunol3, 171-175 (1991).
[7] Fox, S.B. & Khong, T.Y. Lack of innervation of human umbilical cord. An immunohistological and histochemical study. Placenta11, 59-62 (1990).
[8] Bauer, J.H. & Meyer, K.F. Human intestinal carriers of tetanus spores in California J Infect Dis38, 295-305 (1926).
[9] LaForce, F.M., Young, L.S. & Bennett, J.V. Tetanus in the United States (1965-1966): epidemiologic and clinical features. N Engl J Med280, 569-574 (1969).
[10] Editorial: Tetanus in the United States Army in World War II. N Engl J Med237, 411-413 (1947).
[11] Abrahamian, F.M., Pollack, C.V., Jr., LoVecchio, F., Nanda, R. & Carlson, R.W. Fatal tetanus in a drug abuser with "protective" antitetanus antibodies. J Emerg Med18, 189-193 (2000).
[12] Beltran, A. et al. A case of clinical tetanus in a patient with protective antitetanus antibody level. South Med J100, 83 (2007).
Berger, S.A., Cherubin, C.E., Nelson, S. & Levine, L. Tetanus despite preexisting antitetanus antibody. JAMA240, 769-770 (1978).
[13] Crone, N.E. & Reder, A.T. Severe tetanus in immunized patients with high anti-tetanus titers. Neurology42, 761-764 (1992).
Passen, E.L. & Andersen, B.R. Clinical tetanus despite a protective level of toxin-neutralizing antibody. JAMA255, 1171-1173 (1986).
[14] Pryor, T., Onarecker, C. & Coniglione, T. Elevated antitoxin titers in a man with generalized tetanus. J Fam Pract44, 299-303 (1997).
[15] Jungeblut, C.W. Inactivation of tetanus toxin by crystalline vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid). J Immunol33, 203-214 (1937).
[16] Jahan, K., Ahmad, K. & Ali, M.A. Effect of ascorbic acid in the treatment of tetanus. Bangladesh Med Res Counc Bull10, 24-28 (1984).
[17] Hemilä, H. & Koivula, T. Vitamin C for preventing and treating tetanus. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2:CD006665 (2008).
[18] Tenbroeck, C. & Bauer, J.H. The tetanus bacillus as an intestinal saprophyte in man. J Exp Med36, 261-271 (1922).
[19] Coleman, G.E. & Meyer, K.F. Study of tetanus agglutinins and antitoxin in human serums. J Infect Dis39, 332-336 (1926).
The BLM just released its decision on its proposed Bruneau Owyhee Sage-grouse Habitat Project (BOSH Project) which will degrade 617,000 acres of southern Idaho by logging juniper, creating linear weed patches known as fire breaks, and using other questionable management strategies, all done, we are told in the name of enhancing sage grouse habitat.
Remarkably the BLM failed to note that livestock grazing is by far and away the biggest factor in sage grouse decline across the West, in part, because of the multiple ways that the livestock production harms the bird. But, of course, seeing its role to pander to the welfare ranchers of the West, the BLM has taken the politically expediate measure of doing more harm in the name of sage grouse.
The BLM starts out with some questionable assertions. The first is that juniper, a native species, is expanding its range and thus must be eradicated. Any number of studies challenge that assumption. Juniper woodlands tend to burn at intervals of hundreds of years, and in stand replacement blazes. After such blazes, the juniper slowly recolonizes the landscape. Also climate change has led to natural expansion of juniper in some areas. In either case, the presence of juniper is not abnormal or something to be destroyed.
Instead of even responding to such studies, the BLM relies only on studies by Range Department professors who exist to justify livestock grazing on public lands. These studies start with the incorrect assumption that wildfire was very frequent in sagebrush ecosystems and therefore, also in juniper woodlands, but more recent sagebrush fire studies also find sagebrush burns at long rotations of hundreds of years.
Beyond the fact that juniper woodlands are native and natural, the BLM advocates logging and burning which has been shown in many locations to become inoculation sites for cheatgrass. Cheatgrass is spread wherever there is disturbance. Disturbance from logging or disturbance from livestock.
Livestock by trampling soil crusts and consuming native grasses, aids the spread of cheatgrass.
Cheatgrass poses a far greater threat to sage grouse because it increases the fire frequency and burns out both juniper and sagebrush.
The other major assertion of the BLM that is equally as misleading is that creation of 200-foot-wide linear “fuel breaks”. While fuel breaks may work to some degree under low to moderate fire weather conditions, under extreme fire weather, such breaks are for the most part useless. All large fires occur under extreme fire weather conditions of drought, low humidity, high temperatures and wind, especially wind. Wind blows embers miles ahead of a flaming front. A 200-foot-wide “fuel break” has absolutely no effect on such wind-driven fires.
But such linear disturbances are wonderful pathways for the spread of weeds, including cheatgrass.
Beyond these concerns, the BLM again has ignored the multiple ways that livestock degrades sage grouse habitat. Beyond the trampling of soil crusts and spread of cheatgrass mentioned earlier, livestock fencing is a major mortality factor for the low flying birds. Fences are also perching for avian predators like raven that feed on sage grouse chicks and eggs. Livestock are also the major factor in the destruction and loss of riparian areas and wet meadows which are critical to young sage grouse chicks. Livestock also consume some of the forbs (flowers) critical for growth by sage grouse chicks. Livestock also consume the native grasses and other vegetation that would otherwise hide nesting exposing birds and young to predators. The irrigated hay fields that dot the West, usually created by eliminating the native vegetation, not only eliminates much of the native habitat for grouse, but can fragment habitat because grouse at loathe to fly across large expanses of hay meadow without cover from sagebrush.
There are other ways that livestock production harms sage grouse, but you would never know that any of these exist from the way the BLM ignores science to facilitate the use of our public lands for private profit by the West’s welfare ranchers.
This article was written by Sayer Ji, Founder of Greenmedinfo LLC, where it originally appeared.
· Reflect On:
Wheat consumption has been linked to psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia for over 60 years, but recent research indicates the mind-altering properties of this popular food are, in part, caused by it cutting off blood flow to the frontal cortex.
As far back as 1954, reports of the full or partial resolution of schizophrenia following a gluten free diet began to surface in the medical literature. I explored this remarkable phenomenon in a previous article titled, “60 Years of Research Links Gluten Grains to Schizophrenia.” While the explanation for this intriguing connection has remained focused on the disruption of the gut-brain axis and the presence in wheat of a wide range of pharmacologically active and mostly opioid receptor modulating polypeptideswithglutathione-depleting properties, a new and possibly more disturbing explanation is beginning to surface: wheat consumption also cuts off blood flow to the brain.
Starting with a 1997 case study published in the Journal of Internal Medicineinvolving a 33-year-old patient, with pre-existing diagnosis of ‘schizophrenic’ disorder, who first came to medical attention for severe diarrhea and weight loss (classical symptoms of gluten intolerance), brain scan technology determined that cerebral hypoperfusion (decreased blood flow to the brain) was occurring within the patient’s frontal cortex.[i] A gluten free diet resulted not only in the normalization of intestinal damage and autoantibodies, but also in the return of blood flow to the frontal cortex, and the resolution of schizophrenic symptoms.
Then, in 2004, a follow up study was performed to verify if the 1997 case study was just a fluke, or perhaps a widespread effect of untreated celiac disease. Published in the American Journal of Medicine, researchers from the Institute of Internal Medicine, Catholic University, Rome, Italy, compared 15 untreated celiac patients without neurological or psychiatric disorders other than anxiety or depression, with 15 celiac patients who were on a gluten-free diet for almost 1 year, and 24 healthy volunteers of similar sex and age. All subjects underwent cerebral single photon emission computed tomography examination.
The results were remarkable, with dramatically increased incidence of impaired brain blood flow in untreated celiac patients, reported as follows:
“Of the 15 untreated celiac patients, 11 (73%) had at least one hypoperfused brain region, compared with only 1 (7%) of the 15 celiac patients on a gluten-free diet and none of the controls (P = 0.01). Cerebral perfusion was significantly lower (P <0.05) in untreated celiac patients, compared with healthy controls, in 7 of 26 brain regions. No significant differences in cerebral perfusion were found between celiac patients on a gluten-free diet and healthy controls.”
They concluded: “There is evidence of regional cerebral blood flow alteration in untreated celiac patients.”
So, let’s take a closer look at what cerebral (brain) hypoperfusion means.
Hypoperfusion is simply decreased blood flow through an organ. Whether it is an internal organ like the kidney, a muscle or the brain, the organ will experience lower availability of oxygen (hypoxia) and nutrients, and will therefore function at a suboptimal level. Cerebral hypoperfusion, therefore, is decreased blood flow to the brain – an organ with extremely high energy demands, and upon which our entire consciousness depends.
Dr. David Perlmutter, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling book Grain Brain, has made great strides in introducing the concept to the world that grains adversely affect brain health. We know that the carbohydrate content of grains alone contribute to disrupting insulin-mediated glucose homeostasis within neurons, ultimately contributing to their suboptimal functioning and in some cases demise, but the discovery that wheat in particular has blood flow disrupting properties to the frontal cortex of the brain, has profound implications.
For example, it is know that the frontal lobe house the ‘executive functions‘ of the brain, including:
· Recognizing future consequences resulting from current actions
· Choosing between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ actions
· Overriding and suppressing socially unacceptable responses
· Retaining longer term memories which are not task-based.
· Determine similarities and differences between things or events.
If wheat consumption, through some as of yet unknown mechanism, interferes with blood flow to the brain in susceptible individuals, and as a result disrupts the executive functions of the brain, abstaining from it should be considered a reasonable precautionary behavior, assuming we wish to retain these critical functions related to morality, cognizance, and social responsibility. I explore other socio-political implications of the Western world’s several thousand year old love affaird with wheat, the ‘king of grains,’ in my essay The Dark Side of Wheat.
People reject the bible for many reasons and none are because it’s accurate in any way, shape, or form. I’ll give a few examples:
1. Genesis 11:31 states Abraham was from ur of the chaldees. Problem with that was ur was not conquered by the Chaldeans until 1000 years after Abraham was born
2) genesis 24:11 states Abraham had camels and was able to control them inferring they were domesticated at that time. Camels were not introduced into that land until centuries after king David
3) Zechariah 14:5 states there was an earth quake during the time of uzziah of Judah. Problem is, this likely happened in in the mid 8th century bc, hundreds of years earlier.
4) genesis 26:1, 21:34, 6:14, exodus:13:17 state that the phillistines were around the time of abraham and his progeny but the phillistines arrived in the Mediterranean in the 1200s bc hundreds of years before Abraham and over 100 years before moses
5) the noahide flood myth states there was a worldwide flood which never happened. Oceanography, history, geology, geography, anthropology etc. All prove otherwise. In matter of fact, the Egyptians nor the yazidis who lived in that area never even mention a flood and the noahide flood would have happened about the year 2409 in the yazidi calendar amd they are still here. The noahide flood is a flood myth which is a recycling of other Mesopotamian flood myths which are almost identical to noah’s. In other words, it never happened
6) the birth stories of Luke and Matthew’s gospels state Jesus was born at different times. Luke states in 6ce under quirinius and Mathew in 4bc under herod. That’s not where the problems end, both stories concoct fallacious narratives in order to make Jesus born where the prophecised messiah was supposed to be. Mathew states herod was killing newborns and so Mary and Joseph fled to save Jesus. Herod never did such a thing. Luke states that the census made people go back to their ancestral cities to be counted in the census. The census never stated such a thing. All it was looking for was the head of household of each family to collect taxes.
7) genesis 40:15 states Joseph told pharoah he came from the land of the Hebrews, there was no such thing until after the conquest of Joshua there is over 150 years between them.
8) Joshua 6:1-27 states Joshua destroyed the cities of Ai and Jericho but those cities were already in ruins hundreds of years before the life of Joshua.
There are many many more historical innacuracies but for the sake of avoiding proloxity, I’ll move to the others errors.
Failed prophecies
1. Ezekiel 26:14,21, 27:36 prophecised the destruction of tyre and would never be rebuilt, it was never destroyed and was still inhabited and didn’t need to be rebuilt
2) Ezekiel 29:16-21 states Egypt will be conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, this never happened.
3) Isaiah 17:1 This verse prophesies that Damascus will be completely destroyed and no longer be inhabited. Yet Damascus has never been completely destroyed and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities.
4) Isaiah 19:17 states Judah will be a terror for Egypt. Judah never posed a threat to Egypt better yet invaded or did anything to it
5) Isaiah 50:39 states Babylon will never be inhabited again. Iraq is till and has always been inhabited after that.
6) hosea 11:1 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt."
Matthew (2:15) claims that the flight of Jesus’ family to Egypt is a fulfillment of this verse. But Hosea 11:1 is not a prophecy at all. It is a reference to the Hebrew exodus from Egypt and has nothing to do with Jesus. Matthew tries to hide this fact by quoting only the last part of the verse ("Out of Egypt I have called my son").
7) Mathew 1:23 states that isaiah 7:14 was fulfilled by Jesus even though the word was mistranslate to “virgin” from young woman.
8) Mathew 2:17-18 states that Mary and Joseph were fleeing from herod because he was killing children (which he wasn’t) was a fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:15 but the next two verses of Jeremiah clearly indicate it is about Babylon.
9) Mathew 15:24 states jesus visited tyre but according to the prophecy I stated earlier Ezekiel 26:14, 21, 27:36 and 18:19 tyre wasn’t supposed to exist.
10) mark 1:2 claims that John the Baptist fulfilled the prophecy given in Malachi (3:1, 4:1, 5). But the Malachi prophecy says that God will send Elijah before "the great and dreadful day of the LORD" in which the world will be consumed by fire. Yet John the Baptist flatly denied that he was Elijah (Elias) in John 1:21and the earth was not destroyed after John’s appearance.
11) John 5:46 states moses wrote about him but there is not one verse moses wrote about him.
12) Peter 2:17 states speaking in tongues is to be expected because they were living in the end of days. 2000+ years later no end of times.
13) Mathew 12:40 Jesus states he will be in the belly of the earth for 3 days and 3 nights like how Jonah was in the belly of the whale for the same amount of time. Jesus was allegedly crucified on Friday afternoon and resurrected Sunday morning. Any way you cut it that is not 3 days and 3 nights. In Israelite talk, sometimes if someone does something for a portion of a day they can say it was a whole day but this states 3 days and nights. There isn’t even 3 days and nights between Friday evening to Sunday morning.
Scientific innacuracies.
1. Jonah 1:17 states he was swallowed by a big fish and Mathew 12:40 clarifies that big fish is a whale. Whales are not fish.
2. Genesis 30: 25-43 states that isaac was able to produced striped offspring from having his animals stare at striped poles while mating. That’s not how that works
3. Many verses from job to the psalms to revelations, Mathew, and Isaiah state the earth is flat, is immovable, and has pillars. That’s just wrong.
There are many errors but I think is is more than adequate to show the bible is in every way from its own claims to scientific and historical claims that it is inaccurate
Fried chicken, bacon cheeseburgers and pepperoni pizza aren’t uncommon to see on vegan menus — or even the meat-free freezer section of your local supermarket — but should we be calling these mock meat dishes the same names? A new Missouri law doesn’t think so. The state’s law, which forbids “misrepresenting a product as meat that is not derived from harvested production livestock or poultry,” has led to a contentious ethical, legal and linguistic debate. Four organizations — Tofurky, The Good Food Institute, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and the Animal Legal Defense Fund — are now suing the stateon the basis that not only is the law against the United States Constitution, but it favors meat producers for unfair market competition.
While some newly formulated meat-free products, like the plant-based Beyond Burger or its rival the Impossible Burger (the veggie burger that “bleeds”), may be deceptively meat-like, it’s hard to understand how consumers could actually be duped into thinking non-meat products are legitimately meat.
“The law violates constitutional right to free speech,” explains Animal Legal Defense Fund attorney Amanda Howell. “It’s wide in scope, vague, broad and problematic. An ordinary person can’t tell you what this law is about.” Although legal jargon is often hard for the typical non-attorney to understand, Howell explains that one thing is easy for the everyday American: distinguishing plant-based meat-like products from actual meat. To date, there are zero consumer complaints on file in Missouri of shoppers confusing meat-like products with actual meat, according to Howell and the Animal Legal Defense Fund.
Missouri currently produces the third-highest amount of beef cattle in the US (preceded by Oklahoma, and Texas at the top spot), and the beef industry is threatened by imitation meat products, proven to be better for the environment (though Beef Magazine attempts to negate climate science) and sometimes healthier than animal-derived red meat. As food science disrupts what people think of as “meat,” the future of the livestock industry may be endangered, and that’s a threat to ranchers.
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Legally, there’s no reason why fake sausage or imitation turkey can’t be labeled as such. Under the Consumer Protection Law, as long as a product’s statement of identity is “truthful and not misleading, it’s legal,” says Howell. This statement of identity informs consumers of what’s inside a package and can help inform them of how to use and eat a product. “Consumers would be more confused if they were not able to use meat-related terminology,” Howell says. “It’s pretty obvious that they’re taking away the terminology so consumers won’t know what the products are, and they’ll sound less appealing.” Vegan sausage is understandable; seasoned soy patties, not so much. “Consumers should have access to truthful information, clearly labeled [foods], instead of taking away naming conventions just because an industry is scared,” Howell says.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which takes a staunchly anti-meat stance, also stands behind using meat terms and “letting the terms ‘steak’ and ‘sausage’ evolve with the times,” according to Ben Williamson, PETA’s senior international media director.
“The meat industry is going up against a public that is learning that eating meat is responsible for tremendous animal abuse, linked to diabetes, strokes, heart disease and cancer, and is an environmental nightmare,” Williamson said. “Healthy, ethical and 100-percent humane, vegan products are a booming market, and lawmakers’ time and efforts would be better served helping transition meat producers into vegan companies.”
Linguistically, calling plant-based meat “meat” is not necessarily an issue in English. “If we go back to what meat used to mean, it referred to food in general,” says linguist Carrie Gillon. “In about 1300, the definition changed to mean animal flesh food.” But even though the definition of “meat” narrowed centuries ago, that doesn’t mean it can’t also be used more generally as language evolves. Gillon uses prototype theory to explain this — that is, the theory that each noun we use has a prototype. If you think of a bird, you may think of a wren, but a penguin is also very much a bird — it just doesn’t share all the characteristics of a stereotypical bird, like flying. This theory could also apply to meat, or non-meat meat: When we think of meat, we think animal flesh, but why not expand the definition to foods that share characteristics with meat, like the meat of a peach, perhaps, or ground tofu that mimics ground beef?
“As long as the food has something in common with meat, like texture or taste, it makes total sense to extend the word meat to plant-based proteins,” Gillon says, noting that this wouldn’t work, say, with just a block of tofu, but anything that has something in common with our prototype of meat.
For vegetarians like food blogger Lori Nelson, meat-free foods named after their animal counterparts are preferred, for clarity. “Labels like ‘vegan chicken’ save me time because I don’t eat meat. If it’s labeled ‘vegan chicken,’ I don’t have to worry about it being actual chicken,” she explains. Plus, for vegetarians who have previously eaten meat, or at least seen meat in media, these mock products’ names provide a clearer idea of what they will taste like.
“We’re just trying to ensure a level playing field for plant-based meats,” says Howell. “People want cruelty-free sausage.”
This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute.
Melissa Kravitz is a writer based in New York. She is a writing fellow at Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute. She’s written for Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, Glamour, AlterNet, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Architectural Digest, Them and other publications. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Columbia University and is also at work on a forthcoming novel. Follow her on Twitter: @melissabethk.
Thanksgiving is quite a holiday. In one day, we manage to eat and enjoy 44 million turkeys, twice the number consumed at Christmas. Yes, vegetarians may live longer and vegans even more so, but the smell of a roasting turkey in the kitchen lingering in the nostrils, titillating appetites as friends and relations gather, is synonymous with Thanksgiving — a meal where it is politic to keep politics away from the table.
Yet the news about our world cannot cease. The annual greenhouse gas bulletin issued by the World Meteorological Organization reports a new high in CO2 levels of 405.5 parts per million reached in 2017; it is 46 percent higher than preindustrial levels. The rising trend continues for on May 14, 2018, another high of 412.60 ppm was recorded.
The enthusiastic consumption of meat in industrialized countries is one cause. The worst culprits are lamb, mutton and beef because sheep, goats and cattle are ruminants and their digestive systems release methane mostly through belching rather than the other end. Cattle emit so much greenhouse gas that if they were a country they “would be the planet’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter.” They produce an astounding 270,000 tonnes of emissions over their agricultural life cycle per tonne of protein, multiple times more than pork or poultry or eggs. Transferring our carnivorous instincts from beef to poultry reduces so much emissions as to be near as good as being vegetarian although not quite.
When people ask, ‘but what can I do about climate change?’ we have an answer, ‘eat less beef.’ We can also drive less by cutting unnecessary trips — for example, grocery shopping only once a week. Turning down the thermostat in winter and up in summer to reduce energy consumption (and lower gas and electricity bills), walking or bicycling instead of driving short distances for better health and for our environment are suggestions we have heard before. It’s time we complied.
COP24 or to give it its official name the 24th Conference of the Partiesto the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is upon us (December 3rd to 14th in Katowice, Poland). Its purpose is to develop an international agreement compelling all countries to implement the Paris accord on climate change; it limits global mean temperature rise to 2 degrees C.
The U.S. government’s Fourth Climate Assessment was released Friday afternoon. A massive undertaking involving 13 Federal Agencies and 300 scientists it portrays a somber reality of hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses, damage to health and a compromised quality of life. It warns of crop failures, altered coastlines, expanding wild fires and severe weather events.
The young have an answer to the tardiness of the U.S. government officialdom to act on these reports. In Eugene, Oregon, they have gone to the courts. They accuse the government of endangering their future by failing to alleviate the effects of climate change and promoting antithetical policies. Lawyers from the current and previous administrations have tried to have the case dismissed; they have requested stays all the way the Supreme Court where they were denied, and now are on a temporary stay ordered by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to allow trial preparation. The District Judge has promised to issue a trial date once the Appeals Court lifts the temporary stay.
The president does not believe his own government’s climate assessment — he also does not accept the CIA’s conclusion that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the Jamal Khashoggi killing. Donald Trump’s perverse hostility to the organs of government is being played out not only in the embarrassing possible presence of the Crown Prince at the coming G-20 meeting but worse still in the mounting damage to the environment, in the worsening of greenhouse gasses instead of abatement, and in the decline of U.S. preeminence and influence as observed during the WWI memorial ceremonies in Paris recently.
For now let’s cheer for the kids in Eugene, Oregon … even if countries other than the U.S. produce about 88 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. This country can lead by example.
Rick Dove, a founding member of Waterkeeper Alliance, lives in New Bern, North Carolina. From small planes, he and some of his colleagues have been been monitoring the millions of gallons of untreated animal waste overflowing across the state since Hurricane Florence struck the area.
Dove wrote about what he’s seen, in a piece for the Washington Post:
Though the skies were rough at first, we’ve had beautiful flying weather for the past few mornings. I’m a Marine vet who did two tours in Vietnam, but the devastation I’ve witnessed here still shocks and grieves me.
According to Dove, the 2.2 million hogs in North Carolina’s Duplin County alone produce twice as much manure as the waste produced by the entire New York City metro area—and not one ounce goes to a sewer plant.
Hog farms aren’t the only scourge on North Carolina. The state is also a favorite location for industrial chicken farms. Dove writes:
I also saw how the industrial chicken production facilities had flooded. Water had gone over the chicken barns, washing the waste from their floors down our streams. I didn’t see the corpses of animals, though I knew they were inside. In the past, the facilities used to open the doors during storms to let the animals out, but the images we collected were so horrific that the practice ended.
As global warming rages on largely unchecked, more hurricanes and more floods will lead to more environmental disasters, especially in areas populated by industrial factory farms. That’s a good reason to end industrial factory farming. But it’s hardly the only reason.
As we speak, companies like Costco are looking to expand industrial meat production, not curb it. And while Costco has its sights set on Nebraska, not North Carolina, the damage to Nebraska’s already impaired waterways will be just as devastating.
Factory farms must go. What can you do? Eat less meat—and choose meat produced by farmers who use organic regenerative practices.
8
THE VEGETARIAN THEME IN CHRISTIAN TRADITION
MISASSUMPTIONS ABOUT JESUS AND CHRISTIANITY
Most Christians assume that Jesus ate fish and Passover lamb and therefore could not have been a vegetarian. Most feel that their religion does not place any limits on what animals they may kill and eat. Most believe that the Christianity of today is the same as the religion of Jesus’ original followers. Most assume that Jesus was a fundamentalist. I challenge all these assumptions.
OVERVIEW: THE CONNECTION BETWEEN JESUS AND MY THEME
My thesis is this: There was a Judeo-Christian “church” before Jesus, an Essene group from which Jesus got his values. That church lasted until the early 400s, when they were scattered by the newly Christian Roman emperors. They disappear from history, save one mention by a Moslem historian in the 800s. I refer to this group loosely as “Judeo-Christian,” although they did not call themselves “Christian,” at least not initially. They probably called their church a synagogue.
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My thesis is that Jesus was one of a long line of those prophets, one of the greatest. His aim was the moral perfection of humanity. Sadly, his legacy was derailed. His memory and teachings were hijacked by the Romans and their religious allies, the new gentile Christians, particularly the Latin Christians, and transmogrified into a New Testament and a Creed that get his story all wrong, omit many of his most significant ideas, and introduce ideas he would have disagreed with, first and foremost, his deification. As I like to say, Jesus did not want to be worshipped; he wanted to be followed.
Legend has it that from Adam to Noah humankind sacrificed no animals and ate no meat, which I believe indicates that there were societies which were vegetarian or which had a vegetarian religious or class priesthood. (Genesis 1:30, 9:3.) Moses tried to return Israel to the vegetarianism of the matristic Eden but failed. (Exodus 16:15; Schwartz, Judaism and Vegetarianism, p. 6; Recognitions of Clement, 1:35 ff, Roberts and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers, 8:87-88; Numbers 11:7, 18-34.)
Moses predicted that a prophet would come after him who would complete his work. (Deuteronomy 4:12, 36.) Jesus’ followers believed Jesus was that prophet (Acts 3:22) and that Jesus’ aim was to complete Moses’ work of returning the world to its Edenic peaceful state, as it was before the patriarchal invasions. Part of Moses’ work was to eliminate animal sacrifice from the Jewish religion. Jesus shared this goal and actually shut down the sacrificial system in the Jerusalem Temple for some short period of time. (John 2:14-16.) Jesus and his immediate circle of apostles were vegetarian, and so too was his Judeo-Christian church for 400 years until it was persecuted out of existence. That’s my theory.
OVERVIEW: WHAT WAS GREAT ABOUT JESUS?
Christians generally consider Jesus to have been great because he made the cosmic sacrifice—trading his life for our sins. However, the churches acknowledge he was great for a second reason—although, they rarely mention it—and that is because of the content of his ethical teachings. The points I make here will be developed more fully below.
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He took over the temple, drove out all those who bought and sold animals, and also drove out all the animals. Thus, he abolished animal sacrifices in the Temple for some period—as the messiah was to do: “In the time of the Messiah the sacrifices will cease (except that of thanksgiving).” (Pesik 9:79, “Antinomianism,” www.JewishEncyclopedia.com; see the section of this book entitled Jesus Stopped the Animal Sacrifices in the Temple, p. 179.) And he was crucified as messiah-king of the Jews. The sign on the cross said “King of the Jews.” (Mark 15:2, 25.)
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Jesus and those around him were vegetarian, and his followers were encouraged to “bear what they were able” regarding eating meat, which I believe meant they were to observe a vegetarian fast at lest two days per week (Didache 8:1-2), always to avoid eating the flesh of animals killed in connection with pagan sacrifices and sold in the public market, and always to avoid cruelty to animals. The rule against “eating things strangled” was a term of art or code name that stood for the rule against eating the meat of animals tortured or painfully killed. (Acts 15:20.) It is probable that vegetarianism was not an immediate or absolute requirement but a goal to be striven for. (See the sections of this book entitled James, Brother of Jesus, p. 108, and The Burden Theme, “Bear What Thou Art Able”, p. 158.)
The Judeo-Christian movement was persecuted out of existence by the 400s, although Muslim sources make mention of it as late as the 800s. Their books were banned. They were forbidden to be copied, which meant that after a few hundred years they rotted out of existence. Probably some were burnt in the bonfires that thug monks set alight in the streets.
Jesus did not succeed in establishing his kingdom of ethical monotheism in his lifetime, but that does not mean he was a failure or that his followers will not yet someday succeed in his name. He pointed the way. He was a major player in the process that I am trying to describe in this book, the process of trying to return the world to a state of peace, justice, high ethical and environmental standards; to put an end to slavery; to find a balance between the sexes; to end child abuse; and achieve a sensitivity to the suffering of the animals.
CHRISTOLOGICAL INFLATION
Paul, John, and their disciples—who aimed their teachings at gentiles—completely dropped all references to Jesus as prophet and son of man. They preferred “son of god,” and not in the sense of adopted son of god but as pre-existent logos, and only-begotten son of god. They referred to Jesus as “Lord Jesus Christ,” and they used the term “christ” to mean “messiah-god” instead of “messiah-king.”
Ultimately, through a process of “christological inflation,” a term I have coined, Paul, John, and their successors made Jesus into god coequal with the father. Matthew and Luke taught Jesus was begotten of god at the time of his conception. (Matthew 1:18, Luke 1:35.) The author of Mark taught that Jesus became god’s son at his transfiguration or enthronement. (Mark 9:7.) Paul taught that Jesus was designated son of god and begotten at his resurrection. (Romans 1:4; Acts 13:33.) John taught Jesus was begotten of god from the beginning of time. (John 1:2.) The original Ebionites teaching was that Jesus was the natural born son of Joseph and Mary, that Jesus had been “begotten” at his baptism, meaning he had been adopted, like all Israel’s kings at their coronation, as god’s honorary and preeminent son. (2 Samuel 7:14; Psalms 2:7; Mark 1:11; Acts 10:38, 13:33; Hebrews 1:5, 5:5.)
Because the denomination known as “orthodox” or “catholic” or the “great church” was so well organized, because it so fiercely attacked all other Christian and pagan sects, and ultimately because it made an alliance with the Roman government, it ended up as the official religion and used that position to suppress or destroy all other pagan religions and all other sects of Christianity. In its many councils it perfected the theory that Jesus was the cosmic sacrifice in the Greek mystery religion sense that wiped away the sins of those who believed in him. Those who expressed doubts were excommunicated and told they would go to hell. Later, doubters were killed.
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How could so much Christological inflation have occurred so quickly? See the section of this book entitled Information from Moslem-Nazarene Sources, p. 134, for my theory as to how it happened.
Christological inflation may seem a little far afield from my topic, which is the diet of Jesus and his early followers. However, bear in mind that the process of elevating Jesus to status as deity coequal with god the father included a simultaneous deemphasis of Jesus as a teacher of ethical principles about making peace, which principles included making peace with the animals. Gentile Christians found it more convenient to worship a god who demanded certain beliefs but who put few restrictions on behavior, less convenient to follow a prophet who demanded that they make great changes in their behavior, including their dietary behavior.
FOLLOW JESUS BY BEING DEEP HISTORIANS AND STUDENTS OF ETHICS
The Christianity of today focuses too much on the New Testament and too little on the many other sources of information about Jesus, too much on Jesus’ cosmic sacrifice and too little on Jesus’ ethical teachings, too much on getting forgiveness for sins and too little on stopping the sinning—including the sins we commit against innocent animals and the physical environment.
As you read this section, you will see that I am an admirer and follower of Jesus—not as the cosmic sacrifice but as our greatest teacher of peace, law, and justice. I am an admirer and follower not of the Jesus you read about in our mangled New Testament, but of the Ebionite Jesus of Judeo-Christian history.
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Fundamentalists will have problems with my hypothesis that Jesus ate no meat, because the gospels clearly say Jesus ate fish, fed fish to others, and called apostles who were fishermen. (Matthew 7:10, 4:19, 14:17, 15:36, 17:27; Mark 1:17; Luke 24:42, John 6:9, 21:9. See the section of this book entitled What About the Fish Stories? p. 191, for an explanation of how the fish passages arose.)
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I will discuss the surviving sources of information regarding these vegetarians. The sources are extensive, and some are right in the New Testament. The revisionist editors did a haphazard job of purging vegetarian references as they edited the gospels. And some of what we know comes from quotations which ultra-orthodox heresy fighting Church Fathers made of now lost Judeo-Christian writings.
I will have much to say about Paul, who was not a vegetarian and who was contemptuous of vegetarians. He referred to them as being weak in faith because they would not eat meat. (1 Corinthians 8: 4-13.) He was contemptuous of the Jerusalem founders of Christianity, referring to them as “superlative apostles” and the “circumcision party.” (2 Corinthians 11:5,13, 12:11; Galatians 2:12. See Paul, James, and the Jerusalem Council, p. 122.)
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Why do I take a critical approach? Shouldn’t I just focus on the evidence for Jesus’ vegetarianism and leave everything else about Christianity untouched—which is what groups like the Christian Vegetarian Association do? (www.christianveg.com.) Why risk upsetting the faith of unlearned Christians? Because, simply put, the CVA approach is not convincing. It appears to focus arbitrarily on the verses that favor vegetarian theory and ignore those that disfavor it.
For me to demonstrate the high probability that Jesus was a vegetarian, I must teach you the critical method and teach you the method in full. Using this tool, you will be able to read our highly edited New Testament and understand how to tell the oldest layers from those added later. A little bit of the critical method might just be enough for you to conclude that nothing in the New Testament is true. But if I take you all the way through the process, you will come out on the other side possessing tools sufficient to understand what Jesus stood for.
There is one final reason why I take a critical approach: I think if Jesus is looking over the balcony rail and observing what goes on down here on earth, he is probably tired of Christians inflating him into something he was not and completely missing what he actually was. Clarifying who he really was is a service I think he would appreciate. Something similar could be said of poor, confused Saul of Tarsus. He would probably appreciate someone undoing all the damage he did.
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Most theologians take little notice of dietary matters as they construct their theories. I believe they overlook a powerful analytical tool. A focus on diet can lead to insights they otherwise might miss. I will return to this point frequently in this chapter, so I will say no more about it here.
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Essenes were strict vegetarians, and older Essenes were generally celibate. I take the position that Jesus was of Essene background, while others say he was a Pharisee. The two positions are not irreconcilable because Essenes and Pharisees respected each other and shared most beliefs and customs.
Josephus, Philo, Eusebius, and Plinius say the Essenes were vegetarians. The Essenes shared vegetarianism and many other customs with the Pythagoreans.
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The quest for the historical Jesus is a worthy one. At the end of this quest we do not find a Jesus of doctrinal quibbles or a Jesus who focused on finding an innocuous inner peace.
We find instead a Jesus of action who challenged injustice and illegality and sought an end to poverty, war, slavery, subjugation of women, abuse of children and prisoners, and violence in general. We find a Jesus of compassion, ethics, and right-living, all of which extend not just to other humans but to the animals as well. As I say elsewhere, we do not find a Jesus who wanted to be worshiped but one who wanted to be followed.
It is often said that Jesus was a failed messianic pretender, such as Jesus Bar Kokhba, because he did not succeed in bring peace to the world. Even after 2,000 years, I would suggest that this might be a hasty judgment. We who are part of Jesus’ tradition may yet complete his work. Is there a time limit on how long a true prophet and messiah-king has to achieve results? Christians should not give up but should rechannel their efforts in the ethical direction in which Jesus pointed us.
It is not too late for us to learn what Jesus was challenging us to do and do it.
In the jungles of Costa Rica, where humidity routinely tops 90 percent, simply moving around outside when it’s over 105 degrees Fahrenheit would be lethal. And the effect would be fast: Within a few hours, a human body would be cooked to death from both inside and out.
We published “The Uninhabitable Earth” on Sunday night, and the response since has been extraordinary — both in volume (it is already the most-read article in New York Magazine’s history) and in kind. Within hours, the article spawned a fleet of commentary across newspapers, magazines, blogs, and Twitter, much of which came from climate scientists and the journalists who cover them.
Some of this conversation has been about the factual basis for various claims that appear in the article. To address those questions, and to give all readers more context for how the article was reported and what further reading is available, we are publishing here a version of the article filled with research annotations. They include quotations from scientists I spoke with throughout the reporting process; citations to scientific papers, articles, and books I drew from; additional research provided by my colleague Julia Mead; and context surrounding some of the more contested claims. Since the article was published, we have made four corrections and adjustments, which are noted in the annotations (as well as at the end of the original version). They are all minor, and none affects the central project of the story: to apply the best science we have today to the median and high-end “business-as-usual” warming projections produced by the U.N.’s “gold standard” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
But the debate this article has kicked up is less about specific facts than the article’s overarching conceit. Is it helpful, or journalistically ethical, to explore the worst-case scenarios of climate change, however unlikely they are? How much should a writer contextualize scary possibilities with information about how probable those outcomes are, however speculative those probabilities may be? What are the risks of terrifying or depressing readers so much they disengage from the issue, and what should a journalist make of those risks?
I hope, in the annotations and commentary below, I have added some context. But I also believe very firmly in the set of propositions that animated the project from the start: that the public does not appreciate the scale of climate risk; that this is in part because we have not spent enough time contemplating the scarier half of the distribution curve of possibilities, especially its brutal long tail, or the risks beyond sea-level rise; that there is journalistic and public-interest value in spreading the news from the scientific community, no matter how unnerving it may be; and that, when it comes to the challenge of climate change, public complacency is a far, far bigger problem than widespread fatalism — that many, many more people are not scared enough than are already “too scared.” In fact, I don’t even understand what “too scared” would mean. The science says climate change threatens nearly every aspect of human life on this planet, and that inaction will hasten the problems. In that context, I don’t think it’s a slur to call an article, or its writer, alarmist. I’ll accept that characterization. We should be alarmed.
I. ‘Doomsday’
Peering beyond scientific reticence.
It is, I promise, worse than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible, even within the lifetime of a teenager today. And yet the swelling seas — and the cities they will drown — have so dominated the picture of global warming, and so overwhelmed our capacity for climate panic, that they have occluded our perception of other threats, many much closer at hand. Rising oceans are bad, in fact very bad; but fleeing the coastline will not be enough.
Indeed, absent a significant adjustment to how billions of humans conduct their lives, parts of the Earth will likely become close to uninhabitable, and other parts horrifically inhospitable, as soon as the end of this century.
Even when we train our eyes on climate change, we are unable to comprehend its scope. This past winter, a string of days 60 and 70 degrees warmer than normal baked the North Pole,melting the permafrost that encased Norway’s Svalbard seed vault — a global food bank nicknamed “Doomsday,” designed to ensure that our agriculture survives any catastrophe, and which appeared to have been flooded by climate change less than ten years after being built.
The Doomsday vault is fine, for now: The structure has been secured and the seeds are safe. But treating the episode as a parable of impending flooding missed the more important news. Until recently, permafrost was not a major concern of climate scientists, because, as the name suggests, it was soil that stayed permanently frozen. But Arctic permafrost contains 1.8 trillion tons of carbon, more than twice as much as is currently suspended in the Earth’s atmosphere. When it thaws and is released, that carbon may evaporate as methane, which is 34 times as powerful a greenhouse-gas warming blanket as carbon dioxide when judged on the timescale of a century; when judged on the timescale of two decades, it is 86 times as powerful.In other words, we have, trapped in Arctic permafrost, twice as much carbon as is currently wrecking the atmosphere of the planet, all of it scheduled to be released at a date that keeps getting moved up, partially in the form of a gas that multiplies its warming power 86 times over.
Maybe you know that already — there are alarming stories in the news every day, like those, last month, that seemed to suggest satellite data showed the globe warming since 1998 more than twice as fast as scientists had thought (in fact, the underlying story was considerably less alarming than the headlines).Or the news from Antarctica this past May, when a crack in an ice shelf grew 11 miles in six days, then kept going; the break now has just three miles to go — by the time you read this, it may already have met the open water, where it will drop into the sea one of the biggest.
But no matter how well-informed you are, you are surely not alarmed enough. Over the past decades, our culture has gone apocalyptic with zombie movies and Mad Max dystopias, perhaps the collective result of displaced climate anxiety, and yet when it comes to contemplating real-world warming dangers, we suffer from an incredible failure of imagination. The reasons for that are many: the timid language of scientific probabilities, which the climatologist James Hansen once called “scientific reticence” in a paper chastising scientists for editing their own observations so conscientiously that they failed to communicate how dire the threat really was; the fact that the country is dominated by a group of technocrats who believe any problem can be solved and an opposing culture that doesn’t even see warming as a problem worth addressing; the way that climate denialism has made scientists even more cautious in offering speculative warnings; the simple speed of change and, also, its slowness, such that we are only seeing effects now of warming from decades past; our uncertainty about uncertainty, which the climate writer Naomi Oreskes in particular has suggested stops us from preparing as though anything worse than a median outcome were even possible; the way we assume climate change will hit hardest elsewhere, not everywhere; the smallness (two degrees) and largeness (1.8 trillion tons) and abstractness (400 parts per million) of the numbers; the discomfort of considering a problem that is very difficult, if not impossible, to solve; the altogether incomprehensible scale of that problem, which amounts to the prospect of our own annihilation; simple fear. But aversion arising from fear is a form of denial, too.
In between scientific reticence and science fiction is science itself. This article is the result of dozens of interviews and exchanges with climatologists and researchers in related fields and reflects hundreds of scientific papers on the subject of climate change. What follows is not a series of predictions of what will happen — that will be determined in large part by the much-less-certain science of human response. Instead, it is a portrait of our best understanding of where the planet is heading absent aggressive action. It is unlikely that all of these warming scenarios will be fully realized, largely because the devastation along the way will shake our complacency. But those scenarios, and not the present climate, are the baseline. In fact, they are our schedule.
The present tense of climate change — the destruction we’ve already baked into our future — is horrifying enough.Most people talk as if Miami and Bangladesh still have a chance of surviving; most of the scientists I spoke with assume we’ll lose them within the century, even if we stop burning fossil fuel in the next decade.Two degrees of warming used to be considered the threshold of catastrophe: tens of millions of climate refugees unleashed upon an unprepared world. Now two degrees is our goal, per the Paris climate accords, and experts give us only slim odds of hitting it. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issues serial reports, often called the “gold standard” of climate research; the most recent one projects us to hit four degrees of warming by the beginning of the next century, should we stay the present course. But that’s just a median projection. The upper end of the probability curve runs as high as eight degrees — and the authors still haven’t figured out how to deal with that permafrost melt. The IPCC reports also don’t fully account for the albedo effect (less ice means less reflected and more absorbed sunlight, hence more warming); more cloud cover (which traps heat); or the dieback of forests and other flora (which extract carbon from the atmosphere).Each of these promises to accelerate warming, and the history of the planet shows that temperature can shift as much as five degrees Celsius within thirteen years. The last time the planet was even four degrees warmer, Peter Brannen points out in The Ends of the World, his new history of the planet’s major extinction events, the oceans were hundreds of feet higher.*
The Earth has experienced five mass extinctionsbefore the one we are living through now,each so complete a slate-wiping of the evolutionary record it functioned as a resetting of the planetary clock, and many climate scientists will tell you they are the best analog for the ecological future we are diving headlong into.Unless you are a teenager, you probably read in your high-school textbooks that these extinctions were the result of asteroids. In fact, all but the one that killed the dinosaurs were caused by climate change produced by greenhouse gas. The most notorious was 252 million years ago; it began when carbon warmed the planet by five degrees, accelerated when that warming triggered the release of methane in the Arctic, and ended with 97 percent of all life on Earth dead. We are currently adding carbon to the atmosphere at a considerably faster rate; by most estimates, at least ten times faster.The rate is accelerating. This is what Stephen Hawking had in mind when he said, this spring, that the species needs to colonize other planets in the next century to survive, and what drove Elon Musk, last month, to unveil his plans to build a Mars habitat in 40 to 100 years. These are nonspecialists, of course, and probably as inclined to irrational panic as you or I. But the many sober-minded scientists I interviewed over the past several months — the most credentialed and tenured in the field, few of them inclined to alarmism and many advisers to the IPCC who nevertheless criticize its conservatism — have quietly reached an apocalyptic conclusion, too: No plausible program of emissions reductions alone can prevent climate disaster.
Over the past few decades, the term “Anthropocene” has climbed out of academic discourse and into the popular imagination — a name given to the geologic era we live in now, and a way to signal that it is a new era, defined on the wall chart of deep history by human intervention. One problem with the term is that it implies a conquest of nature (and even echoes the biblical “dominion”). And however sanguine you might be about the proposition that we have already ravaged the natural world, which we surely have, it is another thing entirely to consider the possibility that we have only provoked it, engineering first in ignorance and then in denial a climate system that will now go to war with us for many centuries, perhaps until it destroys us. That is what Wallace Smith Broecker, the avuncular oceanographer who coined the term “global warming,” means when he calls the planet an “angry beast.” You could also go with “war machine.” Each day we arm it more.
II. Heat Death
The bahraining of New York.
In the sugarcane region of El Salvador, as much as one-fifth of the population has chronic kidney disease, the presumed result of dehydration from working the fields they were able to comfortably harvest as recently as two decades ago.Photo: Heartless Machine
Humans, like all mammals, are heat engines; surviving means having to continually cool off, like panting dogs. For that, the temperature needs to be low enough for the air to act as a kind of refrigerant, drawing heat off the skin so the engine can keep pumping. At seven degrees of warming, that would become impossible for large portions of the planet’s equatorial band, and especially the tropics, where humidity adds to the problem; in the jungles of Costa Rica, for instance, where humidity routinely tops 90 percent, simply moving around outside when it’s over 105 degrees Fahrenheit would be lethal.And the effect would be fast: Within a few hours, a human body would be cooked to death from both inside and out.
Climate-change skeptics point out that the planet has warmed and cooled many times before, but the climate window that has allowed for human life is very narrow, even by the standards of planetary history. At 11 or 12 degrees of warming, more than half the world’s population, as distributed today, would die of direct heat.Things almost certainly won’t get that hot this century, though models of unabated emissions do bring us that far eventually. This century, and especially in the tropics, the pain points will pinch much more quickly even than an increase of seven degrees. The key factor is something called wet-bulb temperature, which is a term of measurement as home-laboratory-kit as it sounds: the heat registered on a thermometer wrapped in a damp sock as it’s swung around in the air (since the moisture evaporates from a sock more quickly in dry air, this single number reflects both heat and humidity). At present, most regions reach a wet-bulb maximum of 26 or 27 degrees Celsius; the true red line for habitability is 35 degrees. What is called heat stress comes much sooner.
Actually, we’re about there already. Since 1980, the planet has experienced a 50-fold increase in the number of places experiencing dangerous or extreme heat; a bigger increase is to come. The five warmest summers in Europe since 1500 have all occurred since 2002, and soon, the IPCC warns, simply being outdoors that time of year will be unhealthy for much of the globe.Even if we meet the Paris goals of two degrees warming, cities like Karachi and Kolkata will become close to uninhabitable, annually encountering deadly heat waves like those that crippled them in 2015.At four degrees, the deadly European heat wave of 2003, which killed as many as 2,000 people a day, will be a normal summer.At six, according to an assessment focused only on effects within the U.S. from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, summer labor of any kind would become impossible in the lower Mississippi Valley, and everybody in the country east of the Rockies would be under more heat stress than anyone, anywhere, in the world today. As Joseph Romm has put it in his authoritative primer Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know,heat stress in New York City would exceed that of present-day Bahrain, one of the planet’s hottest spots, and the temperature in Bahrain “would induce hyperthermia in even sleeping humans.” The high-end IPCC estimate, remember, is two degrees warmer still. By the end of the century, the World Bank has estimated, the coolest months in tropical South America, Africa, and the Pacific are likely to be warmer than the warmest months at the end of the 20th century. Air-conditioning can help but will ultimately only add to the carbon problem; plus, the climate-controlled malls of the Arab emirates aside, it is not remotely plausible to wholesale air-condition all the hottest parts of the world, many of them also the poorest. And indeed, the crisis will be most dramatic across the Middle East and Persian Gulf, where in 2015 the heat index registered temperatures as high as 163 degrees Fahrenheit.As soon as several decades from now, the hajj will become physically impossible for the 2 million Muslims who make the pilgrimage each year.
It is not just the hajj, and it is not just Mecca; heat is already killing us. In the sugarcane region of El Salvador, as much as one-fifth of the population has chronic kidney disease, including over a quarter of the men, the presumed result of dehydration from working the fields they were able to comfortably harvest as recently as two decades ago. With dialysis, which is expensive, those with kidney failure can expect to live five years; without it, life expectancy is in the weeks. Of course, heat stress promises to pummel us in places other than our kidneys, too. As I type that sentence, in the California desert in mid-June, it is 121 degrees outside my door.It is not a record high.
III. The End of Food
Praying for cornfields in the tundra.
Climates differ and plants vary, but the basic rule for staple cereal crops grown at optimal temperature is that for every degree of warming, yields decline by 10 percent.Some estimates run as high as 15 or even 17 percent.Which means that if the planet is five degrees warmer at the end of the century, we may have as many as 50 percent more people to feed and 50 percent less grain to give them. And proteins are worse: It takes 16 calories of grain to produce just a single calorie of hamburger meat, butchered from a cow that spent its life polluting the climate with methane farts.
Pollyannaish plant physiologists will point out that the cereal-crop math applies only to those regions already at peak growing temperature, and they are right — theoretically, a warmer climate will make it easier to grow corn in Greenland. But as the pathbreaking work by Rosamond Naylor and David Battisti has shown, the tropics are already too hot to efficiently grow grain, and those places where grain is produced today are already at optimal growing temperature — which means even a small warming will push them down the slope of declining productivity. And you can’t easily move croplands north a few hundred miles, because yields in places like remote Canada and Russia are limited by the quality of soil there; it takes many centuries for the planet to produce optimally fertile dirt.
Drought might be an even bigger problem than heat, with some of the world’s most arable land turning quickly to desert.Precipitation is notoriously hard to model, yet predictions for later this century are basically unanimous: unprecedented droughts nearly everywhere food is today produced.By 2080, without dramatic reductions in emissions, southern Europe will be in permanent extreme drought, much worse than the American dust bowl ever was.The same will be true in Iraq and Syria and much of the rest of the Middle East; some of the most densely populated parts of Australia, Africa, and South America; and the breadbasket regions of China. None of these places, which today supply much of the world’s food, will be reliable sources of any. As for the original dust bowl: The droughts in the American plains and Southwest would not just be worse than in the 1930s, a 2015 NASA study predicted, but worse than any droughts in a thousand years — and that includes those that struck between 1100 and 1300, which “dried up all the rivers East of the Sierra Nevada mountains” and may have been responsible for the death of the Anasazi civilization.
Remember, we do not live in a world without hunger as it is. Far from it: Most estimates put the number of undernourished at 800 million globally. In case you haven’t heard, this spring has already brought an unprecedented quadruple famine to Africa and the Middle East; the U.N. has warned that separate starvation events in Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria, and Yemen could kill 20 million this year alone.
IV. Climate Plagues
What happens when the bubonic ice melts?
Rock, in the right spot, is a record of planetary history, eras as long as millions of years flattened by the forces of geological time into strata with amplitudes of just inches, or just an inch, or even less. Ice works that way, too, as a climate ledger, but it is also frozen history, some of which can be reanimated when unfrozen. There are now, trapped in Arctic ice, diseases that have not circulated in the air for millions of years — in some cases, since before humans were around to encounter them. Which means our immune systems would have no idea how to fight back when those prehistoric plagues emerge from the ice.
The Arctic also stores terrifying bugs from more recent times. In Alaska, already, researchers have discovered remnants of the 1918 flu that infected as many as 500 million and killed as many as 100 million — about 5 percent of the world’s population and almost six times as many as had died in the world war for which the pandemic served as a kind of gruesome capstone. As the BBC reported in May, scientists suspect smallpox and the bubonic plague are trapped in Siberian ice, too — an abridged history of devastating human sickness, left out like egg salad in the Arctic sun.
Experts caution that many of these organisms won’t actually survive the thaw and point to the fastidious lab conditions under which they have already reanimated several of them — the 32,000-year-old “extremophile” bacteria revived in 2005,an 8 million-year-old bug brought back to life in 2007,the 3.5 million–year–old one a Russian scientist self-injected just out of curiosity — to suggest that those are necessary conditions for the return of such ancient plagues.But already last year, a boy was killed and 20 others infected by anthrax released when retreating permafrost exposed the frozen carcass of a reindeer killed by the bacteria at least 75 years earlier; 2,000 present-day reindeer were infected, too, carrying and spreading the disease beyond the tundra.
What concerns epidemiologists more than ancient diseases are existing scourges relocated, rewired, or even re-evolved by warming. The first effect is geographical. Before the early-modern period, when adventuring sailboats accelerated the mixing of peoples and their bugs, human provinciality was a guard against pandemic. Today, even with globalization and the enormous intermingling of human populations, our ecosystems are mostly stable, and this functions as another limit, but global warming will scramble those ecosystems and help disease trespass those limits as surely as Cortés did. You don’t worry much about dengue or malaria if you are living in Maine or France. But as the tropics creep northward and mosquitoes migrate with them, you will. You didn’t much worry about Zika a couple of years ago, either.
As it happens, Zika may also be a good model of the second worrying effect — disease mutation. One reason you hadn’t heard about Zika until recently is that it had been trapped in Uganda; another is that it did not, until recently, appear to cause birth defects. Scientists still don’t entirely understand what happened, or what they missed. But there are things we do know for sure about how climate affects some diseases: Malaria, for instance, thrives in hotter regions not just because the mosquitoes that carry it do, too, but because for every degree increase in temperature, the parasite reproduces ten times faster.Which is one reason that the World Bank estimates that by 2050, 5.2 billion people will be reckoning with it.
V. Unbreathable Air
A rolling death smog that suffocates millions.
By the end of the century, the coolest months in tropical South America, Africa, and the Pacific are likely to be warmer than the warmest months at the end of the 20th century.Photo: Heartless Machine
Our lungs need oxygen, but that is only a fraction of what we breathe. The fraction of carbon dioxide is growing: It just crossed 400 parts per million, and high-end estimates extrapolating from current trends suggest it will hit 1,000 ppm by 2100. At that concentration, compared to the air we breathe now, human cognitive ability declines by 21 percent.
Other stuff in the hotter air is even scarier, with small increases in pollution capable of shortening life spans by ten years. The warmer the planet gets, the more ozone forms, and by mid-century, Americans will likely suffer a 70 percent increase in unhealthy ozone smog, the National Center for Atmospheric Research has projected.By 2090, as many as 2 billion people globally will be breathing air above the WHO “safe” level; one paper last month showed that, among other effects, a pregnant mother’s exposure to ozone raises the child’s risk of autism (as much as tenfold, combined with other environmental factors).Which does make you think again about the autism epidemic in West Hollywood.
Already, more than 10,000 people die each day from the small particles emitted from fossil-fuel burning; each year, 339,000 people die from wildfire smoke, in part because climate change has extended forest-fire season (in the U.S., it’s increased by 78 days since 1970). By 2050, according to the U.S. Forest Service, wildfires will be twice as destructive as they are today; in some places, the area burned could grow fivefold. What worries people even more is the effect that would have on emissions, especially when the fires ravage forests arising out of peat. Peatland fires in Indonesia in 1997, for instance, added to the global CO2 release by up to 40 percent, and more burning only means more warming only means more burning. There is also the terrifying possibility that rain forests like the Amazon, which in 2010 suffered its second “hundred-year drought” in the space of five years, could dry out enough to become vulnerable to these kinds of devastating, rolling forest fires — which would not only expel enormous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere but also shrink the size of the forest. That is especially bad because the Amazon alone provides 20 percent of our oxygen.
Then there are the more familiar forms of pollution. In 2013, melting Arctic ice remodeled Asian weather patterns, depriving industrial China of the natural ventilation systems it had come to depend on, which blanketed much of the country’s north in an unbreathable smog.Literally unbreathable.A metric called the Air Quality Index categorizes the risks and tops out at the 301-to-500 range, warning of “serious aggravation of heart or lung disease and premature mortality in persons with cardiopulmonary disease and the elderly” and, for all others, “serious risk of respiratory effects”; at that level, “everyone should avoid all outdoor exertion.”The Chinese “airpocalypse” of 2013 peaked at what would have been an Air Quality Index of over 800.That year, smog was responsible for a third of all deaths in the country.
VI. Perpetual War
The violence baked into heat.
Climatologists are very careful when talking about Syria.They want you to know that while climate change did produce a drought that contributed to civil war, it is not exactly fair to say that the conflict is the result of warming; next door, for instance, Lebanon suffered the same crop failures. But researchers like Marshall Burke and Solomon Hsiang have managed to quantify some of the non-obvious relationships between temperature and violence: For every half-degree of warming, they say, societies will see between a 10 and 20 percent increase in the likelihood of armed conflict. In climate science, nothing is simple, but the arithmetic is harrowing: A planet five degrees warmer would have at least half again as many wars as we do today. Overall, social conflict could more than double this century.
This is one reason that, as nearly every climate scientist I spoke to pointed out, the U.S. military is obsessed with climate change: The drowning of all American Navy bases by sea-level rise is trouble enough, but being the world’s policeman is quite a bit harder when the crime rate doubles. Of course, it’s not just Syria where climate has contributed to conflict. Some speculate that the elevated level of strife across the Middle East over the past generation reflects the pressures of global warming — a hypothesis all the more cruel considering that warming began accelerating when the industrialized world extracted and then burned the region’s oil.
What accounts for the relationship between climate and conflict? Some of it comes down to agriculture and economics; a lot has to do with forced migration, already at a record high, with at least 65 million displaced people wandering the planet right now.But there is also the simple fact of individual irritability.Heat increases municipal crime rates, and swearing on social media, and the likelihood that a major-league pitcher, coming to the mound after his teammate has been hit by a pitch, will hit an opposing batter in retaliation. And the arrival of air-conditioning in the developed world, in the middle of the past century, did little to solve the problem of the summer crime wave.
VII. Permanent Economic Collapse
Dismal capitalism in a half-poorer world.
The murmuring mantra of global neoliberalism, which prevailed between the end of the Cold War and the onset of the Great Recession, is that economic growth would save us from anything and everything.
But in the aftermath of the 2008 crash, a growing number of historians studying what they call “fossil capitalism” have begun to suggest that the entire history of swift economic growth, which began somewhat suddenly in the 18th century, is not the result of innovation or trade or the dynamics of global capitalism but simply our discovery of fossil fuels and all their raw power — a onetime injection of new “value” into a system that had previously been characterized by global subsistence living. Before fossil fuels, nobody lived better than their parents or grandparents or ancestors from 500 years before, except in the immediate aftermath of a great plague like the Black Death, which allowed the lucky survivors to gobble up the resources liberated by mass graves. After we’ve burned all the fossil fuels, these scholars suggest, perhaps we will return to a “steady state” global economy. Of course, that onetime injection has a devastating long-term cost: climate change.
The most exciting research on the economics of warming has also come from Hsiang and his colleagues, who are not historians of fossil capitalism but who offer some very bleak analysis of their own: Every degree Celsius of warming costs, on average, 1.2 percent of GDP (an enormous number, considering we count growth in the low single digits as “strong”). This is the sterling work in the field, and their median projection is for a 23 percent loss in per capita earning globally by the end of this century (resulting from changes in agriculture, crime, storms, energy, mortality, and labor). Tracing the shape of the probability curve is even scarier: There is a 12 percent chance that climate change will reduce global output by more than 50 percent by 2100, they say, and a 51 percent chance that it lowers per capita GDP by 20 percent or more by then, unless emissions decline. By comparison, the Great Recession lowered global GDP by about 6 percent, in a onetime shock; Hsiang and his colleagues estimate a one-in-eight chance of an ongoing and irreversible effect by the end of the century that is eight times worse.
The scale of that economic devastation is hard to comprehend, but you can start by imagining what the world would look like today with an economy half as big, which would produce only half as much value, generating only half as much to offer the workers of the world. It makes the grounding of flights out of heat-stricken Phoenix last month seem like pathetically small economic potatoes. And, among other things, it makes the idea of postponing government action on reducing emissions and relying solely on growth and technology to solve the problem an absurd business calculation. Every round-trip ticket on flights from New York to London, keep in mind, costs the Arctic three more square meters of ice.
VIII. Poisoned Oceans
Sulfide burps off the skeleton coast.
That the sea will become a killer is a given. Barring a radical reduction of emissions, we will see at least four feet of sea-level rise and possibly ten by the end of the century.A third of the world’s major cities are on the coast, not to mention its power plants, ports, navy bases, farmlands, fisheries, river deltas, marshlands, and rice-paddy empires, and even those above ten feet will flood much more easily, and much more regularly, if the water gets that high.At least 600 million people live within ten meters of sea level today.
But the drowning of those homelands is just the start. At present, more than a third of the world’s carbon is sucked up by the oceans — thank God, or else we’d have that much more warming already. But the result is what’s called “ocean acidification,” which, on its own, may add a half a degree to warming this century. It is also already burning through the planet’s water basins — you may remember these as the place where life arose in the first place. You have probably heard of “coral bleaching” — that is, coral dying — which is very bad news, because reefs support as much as a quarter of all marine life and supply food for half a billion people.Ocean acidification will fry fish populations directly, too, though scientists aren’t yet sure how to predict the effects on the stuff we haul out of the ocean to eat; they do know that in acid waters, oysters and mussels will struggle to grow their shells, and that when the pH of human blood drops as much as the oceans’ pH has over the past generation, it induces seizures, comas, and sudden death.
That isn’t all that ocean acidification can do. Carbon absorption can initiate a feedback loop in which underoxygenated waters breed different kinds of microbes that turn the water still more “anoxic,” first in deep ocean “dead zones,” then gradually up toward the surface.There, the small fish die out, unable to breathe, which means oxygen-eating bacteria thrive, and the feedback loop doubles back. This process, in which dead zones grow like cancers, choking off marine life and wiping out fisheries, is already quite advanced in parts of the Gulf of Mexico and just off Namibia, where hydrogen sulfide is bubbling out of the sea along a thousand-mile stretch of land known as the “Skeleton Coast.” The name originally referred to the detritus of the whaling industry, but today it’s more apt than ever. Hydrogen sulfide is so toxic that evolution has trained us to recognize the tiniest, safest traces of it, which is why our noses are so exquisitely skilled at registering flatulence. Hydrogen sulfide is also the thing that finally did us in that time 97 percent of all life on Earth died, once all the feedback loops had been triggered and the circulating jet streams of a warmed ocean ground to a halt — it’s the planet’s preferred gas for a natural holocaust. Gradually, the ocean’s dead zones spread, killing off marine species that had dominated the oceans for hundreds of millions of years, and the gas the inert waters gave off into the atmosphere poisoned everything on land. Plants, too. It was millions of years before the oceans recovered.
IX. The Great Filter
Our present eeriness cannot last.
So why can’t we see it? In his recent book-length essay The Great Derangement, the Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh wonders why global warming and natural disaster haven’t become major subjects of contemporary fiction — why we don’t seem able to imagine climate catastrophe, and why we haven’t yet had a spate of novels in the genre he basically imagines into half-existence and names “the environmental uncanny.” “Consider, for example, the stories that congeal around questions like, ‘Where were you when the Berlin Wall fell?’ or ‘Where were you on 9/11?’ ” he writes. “Will it ever be possible to ask, in the same vein, ‘Where were you at 400 ppm?’ or ‘Where were you when the Larsen B ice shelf broke up?’ ” His answer: Probably not, because the dilemmas and dramas of climate change are simply incompatible with the kinds of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, especially in novels, which tend to emphasize the journey of an individual conscience rather than the poisonous miasma of social fate.
Surely this blindness will not last — the world we are about to inhabit will not permit it. In a six-degree-warmer world, the Earth’s ecosystem will boil with so many natural disasters that we will just start calling them “weather”: a constant swarm of out-of-control typhoons and tornadoes and floods and droughts, the planet assaulted regularly with climate events that not so long ago destroyed whole civilizations. The strongest hurricanes will come more often, and we’ll have to invent new categories with which to describe them; tornadoes will grow longer and wider and strike much more frequently, and hail rocks will quadruple in size. Humans used to watch the weather to prophesy the future; going forward, we will see in its wrath the vengeance of the past. Early naturalists talked often about “deep time” — the perception they had, contemplating the grandeur of this valley or that rock basin, of the profound slowness of nature. What lies in store for us is more like what the Victorian anthropologists identified as “dreamtime,” or “everywhen”: the semi-mythical experience, described by Aboriginal Australians, of encountering, in the present moment, an out-of-time past, when ancestors, heroes, and demigods crowded an epic stage. You can find it already watching footage of an iceberg collapsing into the sea — a feeling of history happening all at once.
It is. Many people perceive climate change as a sort of moral and economic debt, accumulated since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and now come due after several centuries — a helpful perspective, in a way, since it is the carbon-burning processes that began in 18th-century England that lit the fuse of everything that followed. But more than half of the carbon humanity has exhaled into the atmosphere in its entire history has been emitted in just the past three decades; since the end of World War II, the figure is 85 percent. Which means that, in the length of a single generation, global warming has brought us to the brink of planetary catastrophe, and that the story of the industrial world’s kamikaze mission is also the story of a single lifetime. My father’s, for instance: born in 1938, among his first memories the news of Pearl Harbor and the mythic Air Force of the propaganda films that followed, films that doubled as advertisements for imperial-American industrial might; and among his last memories the coverage of the desperate signing of the Paris climate accords on cable news, ten weeks before he died of lung cancer last July. Or my mother’s: born in 1945, to German Jews fleeing the smokestacks through which their relatives were incinerated, now enjoying her 72nd year in an American commodity paradise, a paradise supported by the supply chains of an industrialized developing world. She has been smoking for 57 of those years, unfiltered.
Or the scientists’. Some of the men who first identified a changing climate (and given the generation, those who became famous were men) are still alive; a few are even still working. Wally Broecker is 84 years old and drives to work at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory across the Hudson every day from the Upper West Side. Like most of those who first raised the alarm, he believes that no amount of emissions reduction alone can meaningfully help avoid disaster. Instead, he puts his faith in carbon capture — untested technology to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which Broecker estimates will cost at least several trillion dollars — and various forms of “geoengineering,” the catchall name for a variety of moon-shot technologies far-fetched enough that many climate scientists prefer to regard them as dreams, or nightmares, from science fiction. He is especially focused on what’s called the aerosol approach — dispersing so much sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere that when it converts to sulfuric acid, it will cloud a fifth of the horizon and reflect back 2 percent of the sun’s rays, buying the planet at least a little wiggle room, heat-wise. “Of course, that would make our sunsets very red, would bleach the sky, would make more acid rain,” he says. “But you have to look at the magnitude of the problem. You got to watch that you don’t say the giant problem shouldn’t be solved because the solution causes some smaller problems.” He won’t be around to see that, he told me. “But in your lifetime …”
Jim Hansen is another member of this godfather generation. Born in 1941, he became a climatologist at the University of Iowa, developed the groundbreaking “Zero Model” for projecting climate change, and later became the head of climate research at NASA, only to leave under pressure when, while still a federal employee, he filed a lawsuit against the federal government charging inaction on warming (along the way he got arrested a few times for protesting, too).The lawsuit, which is brought by a collective called Our Children’s Trust and is often described as “kids versus climate change,” is built on an appeal to the equal-protection clause, namely, that in failing to take action on warming, the government is violating it by imposing massive costs on future generations; it is scheduled to be heard this winter in Oregon district court.Hansen has recently given up on solving the climate problem with a carbon tax alone, which had been his preferred approach, and has set about calculating the total cost of the additional measure of extracting carbon from the atmosphere.
Hansen began his career studying Venus, which was once a very Earth-like planet with plenty of life-supporting water before runaway climate change rapidly transformed it into an arid and uninhabitable sphere enveloped in an unbreathable gas; he switched to studying our planet by 30, wondering why he should be squinting across the solar system to explore rapid environmental change when he could see it all around him on the planet he was standing on. “When we wrote our first paper on this, in 1981,” he told me, “I remember saying to one of my co-authors, ‘This is going to be very interesting. Sometime during our careers, we’re going to see these things beginning to happen.’ ”
Several of the scientists I spoke with proposed global warming as the solution to Fermi’s famous paradox, which asks, If the universe is so big, then why haven’t we encountered any other intelligent life in it? The answer, they suggested, is that the natural life span of a civilization may be only several thousand years, and the life span of an industrial civilization perhaps only several hundred. In a universe that is many billions of years old, with star systems separated as much by time as by space, civilizations might emerge and develop and burn themselves up simply too fast to ever find one another. Peter Ward, a charismatic paleontologist among those responsible for discovering that the planet’s mass extinctions were caused by greenhouse gas, calls this the “Great Filter”: “Civilizations rise, but there’s an environmental filter that causes them to die off again and disappear fairly quickly,” he told me. “If you look at planet Earth, the filtering we’ve had in the past has been in these mass extinctions.” The mass extinction we are now living through has only just begun; so much more dying is coming.
And yet, improbably, Ward is an optimist. So are Broecker and Hansen and many of the other scientists I spoke to. We have not developed much of a religion of meaning around climate change that might comfort us, or give us purpose, in the face of possible annihilation. But climate scientists have a strange kind of faith: We will find a way to forestall radical warming, they say, because we must.
It is not easy to know how much to be reassured by that bleak certainty, and how much to wonder whether it is another form of delusion; for global warming to work as parable, of course, someone needs to survive to tell the story. The scientists know that to even meet the Paris goals, by 2050, carbon emissions from energy and industry, which are still rising, will have to fall by half each decade; emissions from land use (deforestation, cow farts, etc.) will have to zero out; and we will need to have invented technologies to extract, annually, twice as much carbon from the atmosphere as the entire planet’s plants now do. Nevertheless, by and large, the scientists have an enormous confidence in the ingenuity of humans — a confidence perhaps bolstered by their appreciation for climate change, which is, after all, a human invention, too. They point to the Apollo project, the hole in the ozone we patched in the 1980s, the passing of the fear of mutually assured destruction. Now we’ve found a way to engineer our own doomsday, and surely we will find a way to engineer our way out of it, one way or another. The planet is not used to being provoked like this, and climate systems designed to give feedback over centuries or millennia prevent us — even those who may be watching closely — from fully imagining the damage done already to the planet. But when we do truly see the world we’ve made, they say, we will also find a way to make it livable. For them, the alternative is simply unimaginable.
*A version of this article appears in the July 10, 2017, issue of New York Magazine.
Plants, herbs, healthy microbial life and ecological diversity are all being tortured byMonsanto’s famous herbicide chemical, glyphosate. Introduced commercially in 1974,glyphosate took the world by storm. Today it practically rains down over the fields as if it were water.
In the Midwest, farmers obey orders and blast the chemical even after they have harvested their crops; according to directives, glyphosate is used as some sort of weed prevention through the winter to keep resistant plants from coming up in the spring. In the spring, large trucks can even be seen blasting glyphosate along the highways, right into the ditches, adjacent to yards. Small town gardeners aren’t even safe from glyphosate, as nearby sprayers do not care about other people’s property.
MORE EVIDENCE THAT GLYPHOSATE ACCUMULATES IN ANIMAL TISSUE
The chemical doesn’t just break down safely into water after it’s sprayed on plants, as the industry purports. Previous tests have measured glyphosate in human urine, blood and even breast milk, accurately detailing the chemical’s pervasive toxicity. The chemical is even being found in women’s tampons, thanks to cotton crops being sprayed with glyphosate.
Now, new lab tests by the Alliance for Natural Health-USA provide more evidence that glyphosate persists throughout nature and accumulates in animal tissues. This is a devastating reality, because the chemical works as an antibiotic and depletes the human microbiome, ravaging a person’s digestive system and subsequent ability to assimilate nutrients and activate immune responses.
Honestly, this herbicide is one of the main terrors causing the cancer epidemic, blocking the ability of people to utilize nutrition properly in their bodies.
GLYPHOSATE TAINTING ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTS
This silently destructive herbicide is even finding its way into organic soils, and can now be measured in products that were once considered safe from the horrors of chemical contamination. New lab tests conducted by the ANH-USA, find that glyphosate has made its way into a plethora of breakfast products, including oatmeal; organic, cage-free, antibiotic-free eggs; organic whole wheat bread; organic bagels; and organic coffee creamer. See the lab results.
This is a nightmare scenario for anyone who is looking to maintain their health from the ground up. Consumers who want to avoid toxins like glyphosate tend to buy certified organic foods. How can organic food be trusted as a clean source of nutrition, if glyphosate is silently making its way into these products too?
The Environmental Protection Agency has set an “allowable daily intake” level of glyphosate in different food products, but what do these “allowable” levels of glyphosate do to the body over time? How can any level of glyphosate be considered safe in water, when one understands the all-important role water serves for every cell in the body?
As reported by Health Impact News, the newest tests searching for glyphosate included 24 popular breakfast foods and ingredients. Glyphosate was measured in products such as flour, corn flakes, bagels, yogurt, potatoes, organic eggs and coffee creamers. Consumer advocates believe that the levels are too high, even though they fall under the “allowable” levels set by the EPA. When did chemical contamination of organic food products become an acceptable, “allowable” trend?
Most of the foods tested are derived from non-Roundup Ready crops. For these foods to have even a trace of glyphosate is appalling. The most worrisome products that glyphosate was found in were organic eggs and dairy creamers. These products are never sprayed directly with glyphosate. This is clear evidence that the toxic herbicide is being taken up into animal tissues and building up, ultimately exposing humans to the effects thereof.
How is this affecting everyone’s genes over time?
We can no longer afford to watch the consequences roll out before us.
Avoid glyphosate. Confront its use. Know the causes behind disease, especially cancer. Defend your future.
At first sight, this voluminous and (too) large-format book appears to be an amateur issue. And at second sight it is just that – in the word’s best sense. I learnt a lot from it.
The author stopped his studies of theology due to the theo-logical problem: “I took my religion seriously, but I also took my science seriously. The teachings of my church often conflicted with my academic studies.” This is why Deal holds two bachelors, one master degree and ½ M.Div. Small wonder that the whole book is characterized by this non-conformist and open-minded view of life, planet, history, religion and ethical nutrition (Deal is vegan since 1981, when hardly anyone knew this term!).
His peak experience started with his question during a starlit summer night: “How can I know which way to go?” and left him with the answer: “Search for truth and follow it wherever it leads you. And don’t fear the truth you will find. Truth is the one thing not to fear.” Consequently, his approach to ethical nutrition is by no means dogmatic but rather unconventional, down-to-earth, multi-faceted – and tastefully illustrated with drawings of (admittedly differing) artistical skill.
And practical at that: Cooking recipes make for almost fifty pages of this volume which starts with a ten-page table of contents and concludes with “vegetablearian songs”.
If you’ve ever had qualms about eating genetically modified (GM) foods, you’d likely be deeply concerned about receiving a GM vaccine as well.
Such vaccines are already being produced – some are even on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommended vaccine schedule – even though, as is the case with GM foods, we know very little about their long-term effects.
In the interview above, Vicky Debold, PhD, RN, director of research and patient safety with the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), spoke with me about the many reasons to be very wary of this new technology, which is far more intertwined with other biotech “innovations,” like GM food, than you might think.
Nobody Knows What Happens When You Inject People with GM Vaccines
There have been some fair warnings, though. In 2006, researchers wrote in theJournalof Toxicology and Environmental Health:1
”Genetically modified (GM) viruses and genetically engineered virus-vector vaccines possess significant unpredictability and a number of inherent harmful potential hazards… Horizontal transfer of genes… is well established. New hybrid virus progenies resulting from genetic recombination between genetically engineered vaccine viruses and their naturally occurring relatives may possess totally unpredictable characteristics with regard to host preferences and disease-causing potentials.
…There is inadequate knowledge to define either the probability of unintended events or the consequences of genetic modifications.”
Though this was six years ago, little has changed even as the technology has advanced. Today we have several different types of GM vaccines in production, development or research phases, such as:
DNA vaccines: DNA for a microbe’s antigens are introduced into the body, with the expectation that your cells will take up that DNA, which then instructs your cells to make antigen molecules. As the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (a division of the National Institutes of Health) put it, “In other words, the body’s own cells become vaccine-making factories.”2
Naked DNA vaccines: A type of DNA vaccine in which microscopic particles coated with DNA are administered directly into your cells.
Recombinant Vector vaccines: Similar to DNA vaccines, but they use a virus or bacteria to act as a vector (or “carrier) to introduce microbial DNA into your cells.
There are experimental GM vaccines being developed that use tumorigenic cancer cells and cells from humans, dogs, monkeys, cows, pigs, rodents, birds and insects. What happens when foreign DNA is inserted into the human body is a mystery. Will it trigger undesirable changes in human cells or tissues? Will it combine or exchange genetic material with human DNA? Will it transfer to future generations? No one knows…
”We don’t know what portion of the [GM] DNA can be incorporated into our own genome, we don’t know what portion could be inheritable to our children, we also don’t know what happens when the immune system is exposed to DNA that has been recombined in lots of ways that the human body, through the course of time, has never had any exposure to… what diseases of the immune system may occur because of these exposures,” Debold said.
”Use of foreign DNA in various forms has the potential to cause a great deal of trouble, not only because there is the potential for it to recombine with our own DNA, there is the potential for it to turn the DNA ‘switches,’ the epigenetic parts of the DNA, on and off.”
Vaccine Adjuvants Used in GM Vaccines May be Even More Toxic Than Usual
An adjuvant is added to a vaccine in order to boost the body’s immune reaction to the viral or bacterial antigen contained in a vaccine. Under ideal circumstances, the antigen is what your body responds to and makes antibodies against (e.g. the lab altered viral or bacterial organisms being injected). By boosting your body’s immune response in this artificial way, the vaccine manufacturer can use a smaller amount of antigen, which makes production less expensive and the product more profitable (although definitely not safer, as adjuvants are usually foreign substances, metals or chemicals which can cause the immune system to overreact and attack the host body.)
Aluminum is a common vaccine adjuvant and also a well-known neurotoxin that can cause chronic inflammation in the body, including the brain. Although aluminum adjuvants have been added to inactivated vaccines used for decades in the U.S.,aluminum-based adjuvants are not strong enough for GM vaccines, according to Debold, so drug companies are primarily interested in using oil-based adjuvants, like squalene, and other substances that can hyper-stimulate the body’s immune response.
While oil-based vaccine adjuvants like squalene have been proven to generate powerful acute inflammatory immune responses that stimulate increased production of antibodies, they have also been associated with unresolved, chronic inflammation in the body that can cause brain and immune system dysfunction, including autoimmune diseases.3 While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has so far not licensed any vaccines distributed in the U.S. that contain squalene as an adjuvant, squalene adjuvants are used in some vaccines sold in Europe and other countries.
GM Vaccines You May Have Given to Your Kids…
Many are unaware that, despite the completely unknown long-term health consequences, GM vaccines are already in use and have been administered to American infants, children and adults for many years. Among them:
Hepatitis B vaccine: An inactivated recombinant DNA vaccine licensed for newborn infants and children in 1991, in which parts of the hepatitis B virus gene are cloned into yeast
Rotavirus vaccine: Live attenuated vaccines first licensed for infants and children licensed in 2006, which either contain genetically engineered human rotavirus strains or human-bovine hybridized reassortment rotavirus strains4
HPV vaccine (Gardasil or Cervarix): A recombinant vaccine licensed in 2006, which is prepared from virus-like particles (VLP’s) and may also include use of an insect-cell Baculovirus expression vector system for production
Then there are those “hybrid” vaccines that cross the (very narrow) threshold into the GM food realm… for instance, goats are being genetically engineered to become “pharm animals” that carry vaccines in their milk. If the experiments being conducted by researchers from Texas A&M are successful, they will produce an “edible” malaria vaccine, with the ultimate goal being that children drinking the milk will become vaccinated in the process. If vaccines in your milk sounds a bit to “out there,” it shouldn’t, as there are many connections between the companies that make GM food and those that make GM vaccines.
The Close Ties Between GM Foods and GM Vaccines
The companies that make vaccines and GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are deeply intertwined, only recently spinning off or merging to specialize in one or the other. Most vaccine revenues are earned by five companies that together held nearly 80 percent of the market in 2010:5
Sanofi Pasteur
GlaxoSmithKline
Merck & Co.
Pfizer
Novartis
These companies, which use genetic engineering to produce vaccines, are also primarily responsible for the introduction of genetic engineering into the food supply. For instance:
Genetic engineering giant Syngenta (third in total sales in the commercial agricultural seeds market) is the progeny of parent companies Novartis and AstraZeneca.
In 2001, Bayer CropScience became a leading genetically engineered crop producer with its purchase of Aventis’ agribusiness division.6
In 2004, Aventis merged with and into Sanofi. The new Sanofi-Aventis Group became the world’s 3rd largest pharmaceutical company. Aventis Pasteur, the vaccine division of Sanofi-Aventis Group, changed its name to Sanofi Pasteur. Sanofi Pasteur is the vaccines division of Sanofi Group. It is the largest company in the world devoted entirely to vaccines.
Prior to splitting its genetically engineered crop business from its vaccine business, Aventis was known primarily for the StarLink corn debacle (a type of GM corn grown for use in animal feed that contaminated the U.S. food supply in 2000). Bayer now sells Aventis’s Liberty Link crops, engineered to tolerate high doses of the company’s toxic herbicide called Liberty (glufosinate).7
Stauffer Seeds was a spin-off of Stauffer Chemical, formerly a division of Novartis.8 Stauffer Seeds and Prodigene conducted clinical trials on pigs using an edible vaccine for transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) expressed in corn.9
Prodigene was caught contaminating the food supply with its edible vaccine and the company went out of business, but not before it received a $6-million investment from the Governors Biotechnology Partnership, chaired by Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack. Vilsack, now the Obama Administration’s USDA Secretary, didn’t want any restrictions placed on experimental pharma crops. In reaction to suggestions that pharma crops should be kept away from food crops, Vilsack argued that ‘we should not overreact and hamstring this industry.’10
Prior to 1997, Monsanto (the world leader in GM crops) operated under three parts, the Ag Business (for agricultural products), the Chemicals Business, and the Pharmaceuticals Business, which is now Pharmacia, a subsidiary of Pfizer, the biggest pharmaceutical company in the world and the largest manufacturer of vaccines for food animals.11, 12
GlaxoSmithKline, while producing few products for food or agriculture, has been genetically engineering plants, animals and microorganisms for use in vaccines, pharmaceuticals and medical research.13
Bill Gates, Warren Buffet Supporting Propagation of Both Vaccines and GMOs
The most influential, and, of course, richest advocates for genetic engineering and vaccines are Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. They have business as well as philanthropic interests in these technologies and their Gates Foundation (Buffet has donated over $1.5 billion to the Foundation) allows them to mix business with philanthropy.
They – and the corporations they invite to join them – use the tax shelter of a non-profit organization to invest in for-profit enterprises. Gates & Buffet get tax write-offs for putting money in their foundation, but their foundation can give money (both as grants & investments) directly to for-profit corporations creating for-profit products.
This, obviously, creates huge conflict of interests.
For instance, Monsanto and other biotech companies have collaborated with the Gates Foundation via the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to promote the use of genetically modified (GM) crops in Africa. The Gates Foundation has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to AGRA, and in 2006 Robert Horsch was hired for the AGRA project. Horsch was a Monsanto executive for 25 years. In a nutshell, the project may be sold under the banner of altruism and ‘sustainability,’ but in reality it’s anything but. It’s just a multi-billion dollar enterprise to transform Africa into a GM-crop-friendly continent. The Foundation has also invested heavily in Monsanto stock, purchasing over $23 million worth in 2010.14
The Gates Foundation is also closely partnered with Big Pharma, to whom Bill Gates pledged $10 billion to distribute and administer multiple vaccines to children around the world. This, too, is billed as a humanitarian effort to save lives, but what children living in poverty in developing countries need most is healthy, plentiful food, clean water, better sanitation and improved living conditions. These are the keys to preventing the spread of infectious disease, and they appear to be wholly ignored by Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and non-profit organizations with financial ties to Big Pharma – at the children’s expense.
The Gates Foundation is even funding surveillance of anti-vaccine groups, and the following vaccine companies are supported by the Foundation through both investments and philanthropic projects:
Sanofi
GlaxoSmithKline
Merck
Pfizer
Novartis
Important Movements on the Horizon for Both GM Foods and Vaccines
It’s important to get all the facts before making your decision about vaccination; and to understand that in many state public health laws you still have the legal right to opt out of using a vaccine that you or your child do not want to receive. At present, all 50 states allow a medical exemption to vaccination (medical exemptions must be approved by an M.D. or D.O.); 48 states allow a religious exemption to vaccination; and 17 states allow a personal, philosophical or conscientious belief exemption to vaccination.
However, Washington state now requires parents to obtain the signature of a medical doctor or state-designated medical worker to obtain a philosophical exemption to vaccination. That is because non-medical vaccine exemptions have been restricted in Washington and Vermont and are under attack in California and New Jersey, while there is evidence that medical trade association lobbyists will be working to eliminate or severely restrict vaccine exemptions in Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Colorado and many other states.
Health liberty in America is being threatened by forced vaccination proponents employed by federal and state health departments, who are working with pharmaceutical companies and with Pharma-funded non-profit organizations to encourage government-enforced implementation of “no exceptions” one-size-fits-all vaccine laws. If you want to protect YOUR freedom to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions in America, you need to take action today. (National vaccination policies are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level, and it is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights will have the greatest impact).
Signing up to be a user of NVIC’s free online Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org gives you access to practical, useful information to help you communicate with your elected state legislators and become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community. You will get real-time Action Alerts about what you can do if there are threats to vaccine exemptions in your state. With the click of a mouse or one touch on a Smartphone screen, you will be put in contact with YOUR elected representatives so you can let them know how you feel and what you want them to do. Plus, when national vaccine issues come up, you will have all the information you need to make sure your voice is heard.
I also recommend that you join NVIC on facebook, and if you can contribute monetarily, doing so at NVIC.org.
As for GM foods, you can help to pass the United States’ first GMO labeling law – Proposition 37 – that will require labeling of genetically modified (GM) foods and food ingredients – and ban the routine industry practice of labeling and marketing such foods as “natural.” Prop 37 is the best chance we have of defeating the corporate agri-giants, and of forcing food manufacturers to stop hiding dangerous ingredients in our food, without our knowledge.
Here is an excellent collection of scientific papers finding adverse biological effects or damage to health from Wi-Fi signals, Wi-Fi-enabled devices or Wi-Fi frequencies (2.4 or 5 GHz), complied by campaign group WiFi In Schools.
The papers listed are only those where exposures were 16V/m or below. Someone using a Wi-Fi-enabled tablet computer can be exposed to electromagnetic fields up to 16V/m. Papers are in alphabetical order. A file of first pages, for printing, can be found here.
If you feel like sending a copy of this collection to the local schools in your area, you can search for them here and either print out this article to post or email the link.
Wi-Fi papers
1. Atasoy H.I. et al., 2013. Immunohistopathologic demonstration of deleterious effects on growing rat testes of radiofrequency waves emitted from conventional Wi-Fi devices. Journal of Pediatric Urology 9(2): 223-229. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22465825
2. Avendaño C. et al., 2012. Use of laptop computers connected to internet through Wi-Fi decreases human sperm motility and increases sperm DNA fragmentation. Fertility and Sterility 97(1): 39-45. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22112647
3. Avendaño C. et al., 2010. Laptop expositions affect motility and induce DNA fragmentation in human spermatozoa in vitro by a non-thermal effect: a preliminary report. American Society for Reproductive Medicine 66th Annual Meeting: O-249http://wifiinschools.org.uk/resources/laptops+and+sperm.pdf)
4. Aynali G. et al., 2013. Modulation of wireless (2.45 GHz)-induced oxidative toxicity in laryngotracheal mucosa of rat by melatonin. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 270(5): 1695-1700.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23479077
5. Gumral N. et al., 2009. Effects of selenium and L-carnitine on oxidative stress in blood of rat induced by 2.45-GHz radiation from wireless devices. Biol Trace Elem Res. 132(1-3): 153-163.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19396408
6. Havas M. et al., 2010. Provocation study using heart rate variability shows microwave radiation from 2.4GHz cordless phone affects autonomic nervous system. European Journal of Oncology Library Vol. 5: 273-300. http://www.icems.eu/papers.htm?f=/c/a/2009/12/15/MNHJ1B49KH.DTL part 2.
7. Havas M. and Marrongelle J. 2013. Replication of heart rate variability provocation study with 2.45GHz cordless phone confirms original findings. Electromagn Biol Med 32(2): 253-266.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23675629
9. Margaritis L.H. et al., 2013. Drosophila oogenesis as a bio-marker responding to EMF sources.
Electromagn Biol Med., Epub ahead of print.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23915130
10. Naziroğlu M. and Gumral 2009. Modulator effects of L-carnitine and selenium on wireless devices (2.45 GHz)-induced oxidative stress and electroencephalography records in brain of rat. Int J Radiat Biol. 85(8): 680-689. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19637079
11. Nazıroğlu M. et al., 2012. 2.45-Gz wireless devices induce oxidative stress and proliferation through cytosolic Ca2+ influx in human leukemia cancer cells. International Journal of Radiation Biology 88(6): 449–456. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22489926
12. Nazıroğlu M. et al., 2012b. Melatonin modulates wireless (2.45 GHz)-induced oxidative injury through TRPM2 and voltage gated Ca(2+) channels in brain and dorsal root ganglion in rat. Physiol Behav. 105(3): 683-92. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22019785
13. Oksay T. et al., 2012. Protective effects of melatonin against oxidative injury in rat testis induced by wireless (2.45 GHz) devices. Andrologia doi: 10.1111/and.12044, Epub ahead of print.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23145464
15. Shahin S. et al., 2013. 2.45 GHz Microwave Irradiation-Induced Oxidative Stress Affects Implantation or Pregnancy in Mice, Mus musculus. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 169: 1727–1751.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23334843
16. Türker Y. et al., 2011. Selenium and L-carnitine reduce oxidative stress in the heart of rat induced by 2.45-GHz radiation from wireless devices. Biol Trace Elem Res. 143(3): 1640-1650.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21360060
And here are a few more studies of similar microwave frequencies at low exposures (6V/m or below) (this is not comprehensive):
17. Balmori A. 2010. Mobile phone mast effects on common frog (Rana temporaria) tadpoles: the city turned into a laboratory. Electromagn. Biol. Med. 29(1-2):31-35.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20560769
18. Erdinc O. O. et al., 2003. Electromagnetic waves of 900MHz in acute pentylenetetrazole model in ontogenesis in mice. Neurol. Sci. 24:111-116 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14600821
19. Fesenko E. E. et al., 1999. Stimulation of murine natural killer cells by weak electromagnetic waves in the centimeter range. Biofizika 44:737–741 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10544828
20. Fesenko E. E. et al., 1999. Microwaves and cellular immunity. I. Effect of whole body microwave irradiation on tumor necrosis factor production in mouse cells, Bioelectrochem. Bioenerg. 49:29–35http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10619445
21. Havas M. et al., 2010. Provocation study using heart rate variability shows microwave radiation from 2.4GHz cordless phone affects autonomic nervous system. European Journal of OncologyLibrary Vol. 5: 273-300 http://www.icems.eu/papers.htm?f=/c/a/2009/12/15/MNHJ1B49KH.DTL part 2.
22. Kesari K. K. and Behari J., 2009. Microwave exposure affecting reproductive system in male rats. Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 162(2):416-428 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19768389
23. Kesari K. K. and Behari J., 2009. Fifty-gigahertz microwave exposure effect of radiations on rat brain. Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 158:126-139 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19089649
24. Khurana V. G. et al., 2010. Epidemiological Evidence for a Health Risk from Mobile Phone Base Stations. Int. J. Occup. Environ. Health 16:263–267 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20662418
25. Maier R. et al., 2004. Effects of pulsed electromagnetic fields on cognitive processes – a pilot study on pulsed field interference with cognitive regeneration. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica 110: 46-52 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15180806
26. Nittby H. et al., 2008. Cognitive impairment in rats after long-term exposure to GSM-900 mobile phone radiation. Bioelectromagnetics 29: 219-232 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18044737
27. Novoselova E. G. et al., 1998. Stimulation of production of tumor necrosis factor by murine macrophages when exposed in vivo and in vitro to weak electromagnetic waves in the centimeter range Bofizika 43:1132–1333.
28. Novoselova E. G. et al., 1999. Microwaves and cellular immunity. II. Immunostimulating effects of microwaves and naturally occurring antioxidant nutrients. Bioelectrochem. Bioenerg. 49:37–41http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10619446
29. Otitoloju A. A. et al., 2010. Preliminary study on the induction of sperm head abnormalities in mice, Mus musculus, exposed to radiofrequency radiations from Global System for Mobile Communication Base Stations. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 84(1):51-4.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19816647
30. Panagopoulos D. J.et al., 2010. Bioeffects of mobile telephony radiation in relation to its intensity or distance from the antenna. Int. J. Radiat. Biol. Vol 86(5):345-357.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20397839
31. Persson B. R. R. et al., 1997. Blood-brain barrier permeability in rats exposed to electromagnetic fields used in wireless communication. Wireless Networks 3: 455-461.
32. Pyrpasopoulou A. et al., 2004. Bone morphogenic protein expression in newborn kidneys after prenatal exposure to radiofrequency radiation. Bioelectromagnetics 25:216-27http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15042631
34. Salford L. G., et al., 2003. Nerve cell damage in mammalian brain after exposure to microwaves from GSM mobile phones. Environ. Health Perspect. 111:881-883.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12782486
BELIEF
AlterNet / By Sean McElwee comments_image COMMENTS
5 Biblical Concepts Fundamentalists Just Don’t Understand
Here are some verses liberal Christians wish they would get “fundamentalist” about.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/Vlue
July 30, 2013 |
Right-wing Evangelical Fundamentalism claims to “go back to roots of Christianity.” In fact, the “literal” (i.e. the earth was created in seven literal days) reading of the Bible was invented in the 19th century. Few fundamentalists care about the early church, the Gospels, the Catholic traditions, Augustine, Arian heresies, encyclicals and councils. Rather, they blend Southern Conservatism, bastardized Protestantism, some Pauline doctrine, gross nationalism and a heavy dose of naive anti-intellectualism for a peculiar American strain of bullshit. As Reverend Cornel West has noted, “the fundamentalist Christians want to be fundamental about everything, except ‘love thy neighbor.’”
Here are some verses we liberal Christians wish they would get “fundamentalist” about:
1. Immigration:
The verse:
When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. – Leviticus 19:33-34.
Why Fundamentalists Hate This Verse:
Because fundamentalists are xenophobic: religious fundamentalism is a reaction to the multiculturalism of liberal democracy. Rather than seek a “brotherhood of man,” religious fundamentalism longs for a tribal community, without the necessary friction from those with foreign beliefs, cultures and customs. Here’s an open letter from the President of an organization called Christians for A Sustainable Economy (Or as I call it: Christians for an unsustainable environment):
We are called to discern among, “sojourners” (like Ruth and Rahab who intend to assimilate and bless) and “foreigners” (who do not intend to assimilate and bless) and to welcome the former with hospitality.
This is an odd spin, given that in Leviticus, the command is unambiguous, there is no aside about a distinction between those who intend to assimilate. The letter then addresses the immigration bill:
Its passage would allow 11 million illegal immigrants to become citizens in the short-term, with likely an additional 20 million family members as new citizens within about a decade. … The net price tag of S. 744 will be in the trillions of dollars. … Such escalation of debt is one way to destroy a nation. It is immoral. It is theft from American seniors and children. It is unbiblical. It is unkind.
I could write a bunch of stuff about those numbers being crazily inaccurate, but let me allow the Lord to respond:
I will be a swift witness against… those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against … those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3:5.
2. Poverty
The Verses:
One of the most humorous aspects of modern-day, far-right Christianity is its reverence of capitalism. That’s because Christ could be considered almost “anti-capitalist.” Consider this verse:
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. – Matthew 19:24.
There is some version of the story of the rich man approaching Jesus that appears in every synoptic Gospel. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus tells the rich man, “go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”
The story of Lazarus should similarly terrify modern day fundamentalists:
Lazarus is a beggar who waits outside of a rich man’s house and begs for scraps. When both Lazarus and the rich man die, Lazarus ends up in heaven, while the rich man ends up in hell. When the rich man begs for water, Abraham says, “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.” Luke 19:25.
Why Fundamentalists Hate These Verses:
Because the only thing fundamentalists dislike more than immigrants is poor people. Seriously. Just this year, Tea Party congressman Stephen Fincher explained why he thought the government should cut food stamps entirely, “The role of citizens, of Christians, of humanity is to take care of each other, but not for Washington to steal from those in the country and give to others in the country.” Michelle Bachmann has also made a similar statement. The entire Tea Party movement is based on the idea that a huge portion of Americans are “takers” who suck the lifeblood out of the economy.
The Catholic Church actually has a long history of decrying the exploitation of the poor and supporting union movements(See Rerum Novarm). G.K. Chesterton’s writing on the rich often hits Occupy Wall Street levels (“The rich man is bribed… that is why he is rich.”) But fundamentalists insist that poverty be explained in terms of a personal moral failure. They therefore hold that success should be described in terms of morality; this is the so-called Protestant ethic that Weber praised. But it is also, as Nietzsche noted, the “ethic of the hangman.” The poor are considered culpable so that they can be punished – like today’s cuts to food stamps or the public shaming of those on welfare.
3. The Environment
The Verse:
In Genesis, man is given stewardship of the Earth, God’s creation. [Stewardship, in the Christian tradition implies protection. Man should exist in harmony with the earth, not work against it.] As is noted in Colossians 1:16-17:
By him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Why Fundamentalists Hate The Verse:
Jesus Christ once told his followers:
No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. – Luke 16:13.
Increasingly, the religious right is trying to do exactly that, intertwining Evangelical fundamentalism with unfettered capitalism — with disastrous results for the environment. Thus, American political life is increasingly dominated by Christians who reject the religious ethos, in favor of capitalist ethos.
One Conservative Evangelical publication, World Magazine, hypes the “We Get It” campaign, which seeks to discredit the threat of global warming. It also claims the threat of climate change is “alarmism” and fears that efforts to clamp down on emissions will hurt the poor (read: corporations). In reality, climate change will have its greatest effect on people living on less than a dollar a day who can not adapt to higher temperatures. Conservative Evangelicals are not concerned with dwindling biodiversity, the destruction of ecosystem, rampant pollution, global warming and the numerous other environmental challenges we face. Rather they, with the business community, are concerned with the bottom line. The future is irrelevant (unless we’re talking about government debt). Thus, the Biblical command to protect the environment is widely eschewed.
4. War
The Verse:
In two Gospels, Jesus tells his followers:
You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. – Matthew 5:38-42, Luke 27-30.
In another passage he says:
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 5:43 – 45.
Why Fundamentalists Hate This Verse:
As a religious and political movement, fundamentalists have defined themselves as a party of opposition, rather than of love, grace and mercy.
In her fantastic essay, Onward Christian Liberals, Marilynne Robinson argues:
The excitement we are seeing now is called by some scholars a thirdgreat awakening, yet it is different from the other two… it is full of pious aversion toward the so-called culture… and toward those whose understanding of religion fails to meet its standards.
While past “Great Awakenings” have looked inward, seeing sin within the conflicted self, this new awakening looks outward, seeing sin in the wider culture. The culture, that which is secular is evil, while the church is sacred. This is why modern religious fundamentalism gravitates towards xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, etc. Fear and disgust are its motivating factors.
This fundamentalism inclines some religious people toward a pre-emptive “war of religion” and a strong disgust (that sometimes culminates in violence) toward Muslims. Oddly enough, the Christian tradition has developed a theory of “Just War” (developed by Aquinas) which condemns war except when all other options have been exhausted and there is just treatment of prisoners (with a specific condemnation of torture). If only one of the past two “Christian” presidents had listened.
5. Women
The Verse:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. – Galatians 3:28
Why Fundamentalists Hate it:
Although the right often claims the Bible supports their absurd ideas about gender roles (just like the Bible supported anti-miscegenation) such claims have been thoroughly debunkedby theologians. Generally, when you’ll hear an explanation of why women belong in the home, it’ll rely on a misreading of one of Paul’s doctrines.
In contrast to Paul, Christ rarely concerned himself with sexual mores, he was far more concerned with fighting oppression. Fundamentalists want to keep women submissive and subservient, but Jesus won’t let them. In Luke, for instance, Jesus is blessed by a priestess named Anna. He praises a woman who stands up to a judge and demands justice. It’s worth noting that in a time when women could not testify in a court of law, all four resurrection stories have women arriving first to Jesus’ tomb (although it’s unclear which women). Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman at a well and praises Mary Magdalene for listening to his words (Luke 10:38-42).
Fundamentalism Obscures True Religion
These verses are powerful and I believe that they should be carefully considered.
I worry that Christianity and religion in general is represented by its most conservative, fundamentalists elements. Remember that Marx drew his the inspiration for his famous quote “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” from the example of the early church (Acts 4:32-35).
I understand the fun that Sam Harris and Reddit have destroying fundamentalism, and I went to a Christian college and had jolly good time of it as well. “Haven’t you read your own book?” I would ask smugly. But once the gleeful potshots are finished, we all have to face the fundamental and aching deprivation of having been born. We can continue to have a fun time berating those who believe the Bible explains science and that there was a snake in the Garden of Eden, but it’s really a waste.
The Christian message doesn’t contradict science, and nor is it concerned with bourgeois politics. Ultimately Christianity (and many other religions) are about transcending politics and fighting for social justice. Think of Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Thich Quang Duc – all of whom were influenced by their religion to change the world. Jesus saw how oppression and oppressors consumed the world. He, as all great reformers have, sided with the oppressed. This kind of skewed fundamentalism is radically new and far removed from true Christianity. True Christianity offers us a far superior doctrine — one of social justice, love and equality.
Sean McElwee is a writer for The Moderate Voice and blogs at seanamcelwee.com. He has previously written for The Day and The Norwich Bulletin and on WashingtonMonthly.com and Reason.com. He blogs at seanamcelwee.com. Follow him on Twitter @seanmcelwee.
NEW YORK — A city public school is one of the first in the nation to adopt an all-vegetarian menu, school officials said Tuesday.
Public School 244, in the Flushing section of Queens, has been serving tofu wraps and vegetarian chili since going all-veggie earlier this year, schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said during a lunchtime visit.
“I am proud of the students and staff for trailblazing this extraordinary path,” Walcott said.
P.S. 244 opened in 2008 and houses just over 400 students in pre-kindergarten through third grade. The school, which wanted to offer the children healthy food options, started serving a vegetarian lunch three times a week and then increased it to four times a week before making the switch to an all-vegetarian menu every day.
It is the city’s first all-vegetarian public school.
“We discovered early on that our kids were gravitating toward our vegetarian offerings, and we kept expanding the program to meet the demand,” principal Robert Groff said.
Tuesday’s menu included black beans and cheddar quesadillas served with salsa and roasted potatoes.
A staff member at the animal-welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said he believes P.S. 244 may be the first all-vegetarian public elementary school in the nation.
“We think this is a really exciting development,” said Ryan Huling, who coordinates PETA’s work with colleges that serve vegetarian fare. “The school should be commended for providing students with low-fat, nutrient-packed brain food.”
P.S. 244 is a zoned neighborhood school, so students who prefer meat-based meals would not be able to transfer out, nor would vegetarian children at other schools be able to transfer in.
Bill Gates is the co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He also posts updated information and videos about the future of food on Gates Notes.
The global population is on track to reach 9 billion by 2050. What are all those people going to eat? With billions of people adding more animal protein to their diets — meat consumption is expected to double by 2050 — it seems clear that arable land for raising livestock won’t be able to keep up.
That’s one reason why I’m excited about innovations taking place now in food production, which especially interests me as someone who worries about the poor getting enough to eat.
There’s quite a lot of interesting physics, chemistry and biology involved in how food tastes, how cooking changes its taste, and why we like some tastes and not others.
My friend Nathan Myrhvold took a deep dive into the science and technology of cooking with his huge book, Modernist Cuisine. Nathan is great at explaining things like why we like meat so much, and why cream-based sauces are so good. Which leads to interesting questions, like could we create those tastes in ways that are less expensive, less fattening and less work?
I’ve gotten to learn about several new food companies that are creating plant-based alternatives to meat through some monetary investments I’ve made with Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins. Their products are at least as healthy as meat and are produced more sustainably.
But what makes them really interesting is their taste. Food scientists are now creating meat alternatives that truly taste like — and have the same “mouth feel” — as their nature-made counterparts (see two recipes below, for example).
Flavor and texture have been the biggest hurdles for most people in adopting meat alternatives. But companies like Beyond Meat, Hampton Creek Foods and Lyrical are doing some amazing things. Their actual recipes are secret, but the science is straightforward. By using pressure and precisely heating and cooling oils and plant proteins (like powdered soybeans and vegetable fiber), you can achieve the perfect flavor and texture of meat or eggs.
I tasted Beyond Meat’s chicken alternative, for example, and honestly couldn’t tell it from real chicken. Beyond Eggs, an egg alternative from Hampton Creek Foods, does away with the high cholesterol content of real eggs. Lyrical has drastically reduced fat in its non-dairy cheeses. Even things like salt are getting a makeover: Nu-Tek has found a way to make potassium chloride taste like salt (and nothing but salt) with only a fraction of the sodium.
All this innovation could be great news for people concerned about health problems related to overconsumption of fat, salt and cholesterol. It’s important too in light of the environmental impacts of large-scale meat and dairy production, with livestock estimated to produce nearly51% of the world’s greenhouse gases.
But the new, future food is crucial for the developing world, where people often do not get enough protein. This is partly due to heavy reliance on animals as the primary source. However, that doesn’t have to be the case. There’s plenty of protein and necessary amino acids in plants, including the world’s four major commodity crops — rice, maize, wheat and soy.
The problem is that instead of feeding these crops to people, we’re feeding most of them to livestock. And so we’re caught in an inefficient protein-delivery system. For every 10 kilograms of grain we feed cattle, we get 1 kilogram of beef in return. The calorie kick-back is just too low to feed a growing world population.
So we need to find new ways to deliver protein and calories to everyone.
Our approach to food hasn’t changed much over the last 100 years. It’s ripe for reinvention. We need to look for new ways to raise nutrition in the poor world while shifting some of our choices in the wealthy world.
Fortunately, there are thousands of plant proteins in the world, and many of them have yet to be explored for use in the production of meat alternatives. Current investigations of the world’s vast array of plant proteins could fundamentally reshape our food supply for the better.
I’m hopeful that we can begin to meet the demand for a protein-rich diet in a new way. We’re just at the beginning of enormous innovation in this space.
The massive stone enclosures of the Gobekli Tepe ruins (known to many as Turkey’s “Stonehenge”) may be the earliest examples of Neolithic religion. What do the enclosures and the fascinating reliefs that adorn their pillars reveal about the oldest religion in the world? (Photo: Vincent J. Musi/National Geographic Stock)
On a hill known as Göbekli Tepe (“Potbelly Hill”) in southeastern Turkey, archaeologists have uncovered several large megalithic enclosures that date between 10000 and 8000 B.C.E., the dawn of civilization and the Neolithic age. Each of these circular enclosures, which many have described as Turkey’s “Stonehenge,” consists of ten to twelve massive stone pillars surrounding two larger monoliths positioned in the middle of the structure. There are no village remains at or near the Göbekli Tepe ruins, suggesting that the unique site was a ceremonial center exclusively used for the practice of the Neolithic religion of local hunter-gatherer groups.
Given the early age of the site, equally surprising are the varied and often highly elaborate carvings that adorn the pillars of the Göbekli Tepe ruins. Among the pillars are detailed and often very realistic depictions of animal figures, including vultures and scorpions, lions, bulls, boars, foxes, gazelles, asses, snakes, and other birds and reptiles. In addition, some of the massive monoliths are carved with stylized anthropomorphic details—including arms, legs and clothing—that give the impression of large super-human beings watching over the enclosures.
The Göbekli Tepe ruins and enclosures—the earliest monumental ritual sites of Neolithic religion and possibly the oldest religion in the world—are causing experts to rethink the origins of religion and human civilization. Until recently, scholars agreed that agriculture and human settlement in villages gave rise to religious practices. The discoveries at the Göbekli Tepe ruins, however, indicate that earlier hunter-gatherer groups that had not yet settled down had already developed complex religious ideas, together with monumental ceremonial sites to practice the sacred communal rituals of Neolithic religion.
Indeed, excavations at the Göbekli Tepe ruins have uncovered tens of thousands of animal bones, indicating that many different species—including those depicted on the pillars—were slaughtered, sacrificed and presumably eaten at the site. While it is uncertain to whom these sacrifices were made, it’s possible they were offered to the enclosures’ stylized human pillars that, as some have suggested, may represent priests, deities or revered ancestors in Neolithic religion. Given that human bones have also been found, others believe the Göbekli Tepe ruins may have been a Neolithic burial ground where funerary rituals and perhaps even excarnations were practiced.*
To learn more about the Göbekli Tepe ruins and Neolithic religion, read Ben Witherington III’s article “In the Beginning: Religion at the Dawn of Civilization” as it appears in the January/February 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
*For excarnation in the later Chalcolithic period, see Rami Arav, “Excarnation: Food For Vultures,” Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2011.
Last month, when GQ asked Rubio “how old do you think the Earth is?” he stammered through an answer.
“I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says. I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians.” He continued, “Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.”
He said, “There is no scientific debate on the age of the Earth. I mean, it’s established pretty definitively. It’s at least 4.5 billion years old.”
But then he hedged: “I just think in America we should have the freedom to teach our children whatever it is we believe. And that means teaching them science. They have to know the science, but also parents have the right to teach them the theology and to reconcile those two things.”
Why the hedge? Because he is in a party of creationists. According to a June Gallup report, most Republicans (58 percent) believed that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. Most Democrats and independents did not agree.
This anti-intellectualism is antediluvian. No wonder a 2009 Pew Research Center report found that only 6 percent of scientists identified as Republican and 9 percent identified as conservative.
Furthermore, a 2005 study found that just 11 percent of college professors identified as Republican and 15 percent identified as conservative. Some argue that this simply represents a liberal bias in academia. But just as strong a case could be made that people who absorb facts easily don’t suffer fools gladly.
Last month, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said on CNN:
“We need to stop being the dumb party. We need to offer smart, conservative, intelligent ideas and policies.”
This is exactly the kind of turn the Republicans need to take, but Jindal’s rhetoric doesn’t completely line up with his record. As The Scotsman of Edinburgh reported in June, “Pupils attending privately run Christian schools in the southern state of Louisiana will learn from textbooks next year, which claim Scotland’s most famous mythological beast is a living creature.” That mythological beast would be the Loch Ness monster.
The Scotsman continued: “Thousands of children are to receive publicly funded vouchers enabling them to attend the schools — which follow a strict fundamentalist curriculum. The Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) programme teaches controversial religious beliefs, aimed at disproving evolution and proving creationism. Youngsters will be told that if it can be proved that dinosaurs walked the Earth at the same time as man, then Darwinism is fatally flawed.”
This is all because of a law that Jindal signed. Thankfully, last week a state judge ruled that the voucher program is unconstitutional. But Louisiana isn’t the only red state where creationism has state support.
Kentucky has a Creationist Museum that warns visitors to “be prepared to experience history in a completely unprecedented way,” according to its Web site. It continues: “Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden. Children play and dinosaurs roam near Eden’s Rivers.” Unprecedented is certainly one word for it.
And the beginning of the world isn’t the only point of denial. So is the potential end of it. A March Gallup poll found that Republicans were much less likely than Democrats or independents to say that they worried about global warming. Only 16 percent of Republicans said that they worried a great deal about it, while 42 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of independents did.
This as the National Climatic Data Center reported that “the January-November period was the warmest first 11 months of any year on record for the contiguous United States, and for the entire year, 2012 will most likely surpass the current record (1998, 54.3°F) as the warmest year for the nation.”
Surely some of this is because of party isolationism and extremism and what David Frum, the conservative columnist, called the “conservative entertainment complex.” But there is also willful ignorance at play in some quarters, and Republicans mustn’t simply brush it aside. They must beat it back.
If the Republicans don’t want to see their party go the way of the dinosaurs, they have to step out of the past.
You may be surprised to learn that there is enough calcium in vegetables to supply all of your daily calcium requirements. The advertising industry has led us all to believe that cow’s milk is the best primary source of this vital element. Not only is this not a fact, but cow’s milk can be linked to a variety of health conditions that include allergies, lactose intolerance, autoimmune disorders, and, ironically, osteoporosis.
Why You Don’t Want Calcium from Cow’s Milk
Most cow’s milk that you buy in the grocery store has been pasteurized. Even some so-called organic milk brands are pasteurized, which in my opinion, defeats the entire purpose of an organic food product. The reason why pasteurization is such an undesirable practice is because it creates calcium carbonate within the milk. Calcium carbonate is basically the same thing as chalk, and without a chelating agent, cannot be absorbed directly by the body. Instead, the body must draw calcium from bones to assist in absorbing the material. When too much calcium is leached out of bones, it can contribute to the rise of osteoporosis.
Another reason why calcium in vegetables is preferable to that of cow’s milk is the presence of methionine in milk. This amino acid, in excessive amounts, will make the body acidic. An acidic body pH can also contribute to the leaching of calcium from bones. This defeats the whole purpose of drinking milk for your daily calcium allowance.
Calcium Daily Allowance
This term refers to the amount of calcium that an individual requires. This amount varies per age, and to a certain extent, per gender. Both women and men ages 19-50 require about 1,000 mg of calcium daily. Women over the age of 50 require 1,200 mg of calcium daily. After the age of 70, both men and women require 1,200 mg of calcium each day.
Calcium does 179 things for the human body, so it is something that none of us can do without. Fortunately, there is enough calcium in vegetables to provide any adult, of either gender, or of any age, with her or his daily calcium allowance. The following list shows us how much calcium is present in just one cup of any of the following 10 readily available vegetables that can be purchased from any organic grocery section:
Raw Kale – 137 mg
Collard Greens – 357 mg
Turnip Greens – 105mg
Garlic – 246mg
Arugula – 32mg
Rapini, (Broccoli Rabe) – 516mg (a cup of milk has 300 mg by comparison)
Mustard Greens – 152mg
Sun Dried Tomatoes – 59mg
Raw Spinach – 30 mg
Okra – 177mg
There is also calcium present in vegetables raw broccoli, sweet potatoes, lettuce, and cabbage—just to name a few. There are several fruits that also contain calcium, chief of which is the apple, which offers a number of other health benefits to the body and is quite possibly one of the best fruits you can eat.
Supplementation
It is also important for us to note that agribusiness has depleted the soil on our world. As a result, the amount of calcium in vegetables and many fruits has diminished over the past 5 decades. While organic growing processes has helped to offset this decrease to some degree, we recommend that people enhance their diet with an all-natural, calcium orotate supplement to make certain that they get all the calcium they require.
-Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN, DABFM
References:
Non-Dairy Sources of Calcium, http://www.ellenskitchen.com/faqs/calcium.html
Ursula Moon, CALCIUM IN VEGETABLES & FRUITS, http://www.livestrong.com/article/260867-calcium-in-vegetables-fruits/
Aureau Walding, ADULTS REQUIRE HOW MUCH CALCIUM?, http://www.livestrong.com/article/525826-adults-require-how-much-calcium
Milk Information Web Site, Why Does Calcium Leave our Bones from Drinking Calcium Rich Milk?, http://milk.elehost.com/html/why_does_calcuim_leave_the_bon.html
WHAT IS CALCIUM?, http://www.uswellnessmeats.com/Calcium_Myth_and_Facts.pdf
The chemical and fertilizer companies make large donations to medical and dental schools, thus getting their friends in influential positions so that fluoridation becomes university policy.
If you doubt this, consider how Monsanto buys influence favoring GMO from the University of California at Davis.
Just in case you need another reason to cut back on junk food, it now turns out that Alzheimer’s could well be a form of diet-induced diabetes. That’s the bad news. The good news is that laying off soda, doughnuts, processed meats and fries could allow you to keep your mind intact until your body fails you.
We used to think there were two types of diabetes: the type you’re born with (Type 1) and the type you “get.” That’s called Type 2, and was called “adult onset” until it started ravaging kids. Type 2 is brought about by a combination of factors, including overeating, American-style.
The idea that Alzheimer’s might be Type 3 diabetes has been around since 2005, but the connection between poor diet and Alzheimer’s is becoming more convincing, as summarized in a cover story in New Scientist entitled “Food for Thought: What You Eat May Be Killing Your Brain.” (The graphic — a chocolate brain with a huge piece missing — is creepy. But for the record: chocolate is not the enemy.)
The studies [1] are increasingly persuasive, and unsurprising when you understand the role of insulin in the body. So, a brief lesson.
We all need insulin: in non-diabetics, it’s released to help cells take in the blood sugar (glucose) they need for energy. But the cells can hold only so much; excess sugar is first stored as glycogen, and — when there’s enough of that — as fat. (Blood sugar doesn’t come only from sugar, but from carbohydrates of all kinds; easily digested carbohydrates flood the bloodstream with sugar.) Insulin not only keeps the blood vessels that supply the brain healthy, it also encourages the brain’s neurons to absorb glucose, and allows those neurons to change and become stronger. Low insulin levels in the brain mean reduced brain function.
Type 1 diabetes, in which the immune system destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, accounts for about 10 percent of all cases. Type 2 diabetes is chronic or environmental, and it’s especially prevalent in populations that overconsume hyperprocessed foods, like ours. It’s tragically, increasingly common — about a third of Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes — and treatable but incurable. It causes your cells to fail to retrieve glucose from the blood, either because your pancreas isn’t producing enough insulin or the body’s cells ignore that insulin. (That’s “insulin resistance”; stand by.)
Put as simply as possible (in case your eyes glaze over as quickly as mine when it comes to high school biology), insulin “calls” your cells, asking them to take glucose from the bloodstream: “Yoo-hoo. Pick this stuff up!”
When the insulin calls altogether too often — as it does when you drink sugar-sweetened beverages and repeatedly eat junk food — the cells are overwhelmed, and say, “Leave me alone.” They become resistant. This makes the insulin even more insistent and, to make matters worse, all those elevated insulin levels are bad for your blood vessels.
Diabetes causes complications too numerous to mention, but they include heart disease, which remains our No. 1 killer. And when the cells in your brain become insulin-resistant, you start to lose memory and become disoriented. You even might lose aspects of your personality.
In short, it appears, you develop Alzheimer’s.
A neuropathologist named Alois Alzheimer noticed, over a century ago, that an odd form of protein was taking the place of normal brain cells. How those beta amyloid plaques (as they’re called) get there has been a mystery. What’s becoming clear, however, is that a lack of insulin — or insulin resistance — not only impairs cognition but seems to be implicated in the formation of those plaques.
Suzanne de la Monte, a neuropathologist at Brown University, has been working on these phenomena in humans and rats. When she blocked the path of insulin to rats’ brains, their neurons deteriorated, they became physically disoriented and their brains showed all the signs of Alzheimer’s. The fact that Alzheimer’s can be associated with low levels of insulin in the brain is the reason why increasing numbers of researchers have taken to calling it Type 3 diabetes, or diabetes of the brain.[2]
Let’s connect the dots: We know that the American diet is a fast track not only to obesity but to Type 2 diabetes and other preventable, non-communicable diseases, which now account for more deaths worldwide than all other causes combined.
What’s new is the thought that while diabetes doesn’t “cause” Alzheimer’s, they have the same root: an over consumption of those “foods” that mess with insulin’s many roles. (Genetics have an effect on susceptibility, as they appear to with all environmental diseases.) “Sugar is clearly implicated,” says Dr. de la Monte, “but there could be other factors as well, including nitrates in food.”
If the rate of Alzheimer’s rises in lockstep with Type 2 diabetes, which has nearly tripled in the United States in the last 40 years, we will shortly see a devastatingly high percentage of our population with not only failing bodies but brains. Even for the lucky ones this is terrible news, because 5.4 million Americans (nearly 2 percent, for those keeping score at home) have the disease, the care for which — along with other dementias — will cost around $200 billion this year.
Gee. That’s more than the $150 billion we’ve been saying we spend annually on obesity-related illnesses. So the financial cost of the obesity pandemic just more than doubled. More than 115 million new cases of Alzheimer’s are projected around the world in the next 40 years, and the cost is expected to rise to more than a trillion of today’s dollars. (Why bother to count? $350 billion is bad enough.)
The link between diet and dementia negates our notion of Alzheimer’s as a condition that befalls us by chance. Adopting a sane diet, a diet contrary to the standard American diet (which I like to refer to as SAD), would appear to give you a far better shot at avoiding diabetes in all of its forms, along with its dreaded complications. There are, as usual, arguments to be made for enlisting government help in that struggle, but for now, put down that soda!
This post is part of the HuffPost Shadow Conventions 2012, a series spotlighting three issues that are not being discussed at the national GOP and Democratic conventions: The Drug War, Poverty in America, and Money in Politics. Check out the Shadow Conventions big news page here, and join the conversation at HuffPost Live.
As the Republican and Democratic national conventions are approaching, the debate on how to address soaring Medicare costs is heating up. But there is much more heat than light, and our country seems more polarized than ever.
Health care costs (really, sick care costs) are now reaching a tipping point. Many Republicans are recommending that Medicare be privatized or even abolished since Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program accounted for 21 percent of the Federal budget in 2011, or $769 billion. Many Democrats are advocating raising taxes and letting the deficit increase. Not much common ground when the issues are framed in this way.
Here’s a third alternative: address the underlying causes of illness. These causes are primarily the lifestyle choices we make each day: what we eat, how we respond to stress, whether or not we smoke, how much we exercise, and how much love, intimacy and social support we have in our lives.
This is a radical approach — “radical” comes from the Latin word meaning “root.” When we address these root causes of our health and well-being, we find that our bodies often have a remarkable capacity to begin healing themselves and much more quickly than had once been thought possible. We can make much better health care available for many more people at far lower costs when we treat the causes rather than the symptoms.
More than 75 percent of the $2.8 trillion in health care costs are due to chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease and Type 2 diabetes that can be largely prevented by making comprehensive lifestyle changes. We don’t need to wait for a new drug or laser or high-tech breakthrough; we simply need to put into practice what we already know.
For example, in the EPIC study of 23,000 people, walking for just 30 minutes/day, not smoking, eating a reasonably healthy diet, and keeping a healthy weight prevented 93 percent of diabetes, 81 percent of heart attacks, 50 percent of strokes and 36 percent of all cancers. Bigger changes in diet and lifestyle can do even more.
In the INTERHEART study of 30,000 men and women in 52 countries in all seven continents, lifestyle factors accounted for almost all of the risk of heart attacks in both sexes and in all ages.
Think about it: Heart disease and diabetes, which account for more deaths in the U.S. and worldwide than everything else combined, are completely preventable by making comprehensive lifestyle changes. Without drugs or surgery. Today.
In addition to preventing chronic diseases, these comprehensive lifestyle changes can often reverse the progression of these illnesses. My colleagues and I at the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute proved, for the first time, that lifestyle changes alone can reverse even severe heart disease. At any age.
Our research has shown that when comprehensive lifestyle changes are offered as treatment (not just as prevention), significant cost savings occur in the first year because the biological mechanisms that control our health and well-being are so dynamic.
For example, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield found that overall health care costs were reduced by 50 percent in the first year when people with heart disease or risk factors went through our lifestyle program in 24 hospitals and clinics in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Nebraska.
In another study, Mutual of Omaha found that they saved $30,000 per patient in the first year in those who went through our lifestyle program. Steve Burd, the visionary CEO of Safeway, put many of these principles into practice at the work site and found that overall health care costs decreased by 12 percent in the first year and have remained essentially flat since then.
At a time when the power of comprehensive lifestyle changes to prevent and reverse chronic diseases is becoming more well-documented, the limitations and costs of high-tech medicine are becoming increasingly clear:
Recent studies have shown that angioplasties and stents do not prolong life or prevent heart attacks in stable patients, costing $60 billion per year.
Type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes will affect half of Americans in the next eight years at a projected cost of $3.3 trillion. Lowering blood sugar with drugs does not fully prevent the economic and human costs of diabetes (including heart attacks, strokes, amputations, impotence, kidney failure, and blindness), but lowering blood sugar with diet and lifestyle prevents all of these human and economic costs.
Only 1 out of 49 men treated for prostate cancer lives longer because of the surgery or radiation treatments; the other 48 often become impotent, incontinent, or both. Because of this, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently recommended that men not even be screened for prostate cancer, since there is such pressure to undergo treatments that, for most men, do not benefit them but may cause them harm in the most personal ways. Intensive lifestyle changes can be a third alternative.
Changing lifestyle actually changes your genes — turning on genes that keep you healthy and turning off genes that promote heart disease, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and diabetes — hundreds of genes in just three months. People often tell me, “Oh, it’s all in my genes, there’s not much I can do about it.” Knowing that changing lifestyle changes our genes is often very motivating — not to blame, but to empower.
Medicare is now covering “Dr. Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease” after 16 years of review. This had bipartisan support — from Bill Clinton and George W. Bush when they were president, from Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich when they were Speaker of the House, from Congressmen Dan Burton (conservative Republican from Indiana) and Charles Rangel (liberal Democrat from New York), and many others from both parties as well as from independents.
Why? Because these are human issues that affect all of us and transcend our polarized political process, enabling us to find common ground. For Republicans, this appeals to their core values of empowering the individual, personal responsibility, and freedom of choice. For Democrats, this appeals to their core values of making better health care available to more people at lower costs.
And the only side-effects are good ones.
Dean Ornish, M.D.
Medical Editor, The Huffington Post
Founder & President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute
Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco www.ornish.com
By By ROD McGUIRK | Associated Press – 36 mins ago
REUTERS – A combination photo shows illustrations obtained by Reuters of some of the proposed models of cigarettes packs in this April 7, 2011 file photo. Australia’s highest court will rule on the world’s …more
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia has urged other countries to adopt the world’s toughest law on cigarette promotion, which was upheld Wednesday by the country’s highest court and prohibits tobacco companies from displaying their logos on cigarette packs.
The High Court rejected a challenge by tobacco companies who argued the value of their trademarks will be destroyed if they are no longer able to display their distinctive colors, brand designs and logos on cigarette packs.
Starting in December, packs will instead come in a uniformly drab shade of olive and feature graphic health warnings and images of cancer-riddled mouths, blinded eyeballs and sickly children. The government hopes the new packs will make smoking as unglamorous as possible.
“Many other countries around the world … will take heart from the success of this decision today,” Attorney General Nicola Roxon told reporters after the court ruling.
“Governments can take on big tobacco and win and it’s worth countries looking again at what the next appropriate step is for them,” she added.
British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International, Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International are worried that the law will set a global precedent that could slash billions of dollars from the values of their brands. They challenged the new rules on the grounds that they violate intellectual property rights and devalue their trademarks.
The cigarette makers argued that the government would unfairly benefit from the law by using cigarette packs as a platform to promote its own message, without compensating the tobacco companies. Australia’s constitution says the government can only acquire the property of others on “just terms.”
The court, which ordered the tobacco companies to pay the government’s legal fees, withheld its reasons for the judgment on Wednesday. They’ll be released later this year.
Philip Morris said it would continue to pursue compensation through the terms of a bilateral investment treaty between Australia and Hong Kong.
“There is still a long way to go before all the legal questions about plain packaging are fully explored and answered,” company spokesman Chris Argent said in a statement.
British American Tobacco spokesman Scott McIntyre said the company was disappointed in the court’s decision but would comply with the law.
“Although the (law) passed the constitutional test, it’s still a bad law that will only benefit organized crime groups which sell illegal tobacco on our streets. … The illegal cigarette black market will grow further when all packs look the same and are easier to copy,” McIntyre said in a statement.
Imperial Tobacco echoed that argument.
“Plain packaging will simply provide counterfeiters with a road map,” spokeswoman Sonia Stewart said in a statement. “The legislation will make the counterfeiters’ job both cheaper and easier by mandating exactly how a pack must look.”
Australia’s Health Minister Tanya Plibersek dismissed those claims, saying there are still measures to prevent counterfeiting, such as the use of alphanumeric codes on legitimate cigarette packs.
Australia faces a potential challenge to its laws through the World Trade Organization, with three tobacco growing countries — Ukraine, Honduras and the Dominican Republic — making official requests for consultation on plain packaging. Consultations are the first stage of the WTO’s dispute resolution process.
These countries argue that the laws contravene Australia’s international obligations in respect to trade-related aspects of intellectual property.
Roxon said while countries had raised with Australia the trade implications of the laws, her government would fight to maintain them.
“It’s never been asserted successfully around the world in any trade dispute that governments are not allowed to take public health measures to protect their community,” she said.
Ross McKenzie, a Macquarie University lecturer on health studies, said it was likely that the tobacco industry was behind the WTO challenge.
“From everything I’ve read, the challenges won’t be particularly strong,” McKenzie said.
“The trademarks aren’t being expropriated; they’re being restricted in their use, which is quite different. There’re lots of trademarks that are restricted by lots of governments,” he added.
Tobacco advertising was banned from Australian television and radio in 1976. Restrictions on advertising have tightened over the years to include print ads, the Internet and retail outlets.
Smokers account for 17 percent of Australia’s population, compared with around 20 percent of American adults.
With high taxes aimed at dissuading smokers, a pack of 25 cigarettes retails in Australia for about 16 Australian dollars ($17).
(NaturalNews) A U.K. group devoted to helping parents customize appropriate vaccination schedules for their children has been targeted by British authorities for posting scientifically-backed warnings about the dangers of the combination measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, also known as MMR. BBC News reports that BabyJabs.co.uk has been ordered by the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to pull information from its website that merely explains the known scientific links between MMR and autism.
Citing a 2002 study in which MMR could not be definitively ruled out as a cause of autism in children, BabyJabs had made claims on its website that MMR “could be causing autism in up to 10 percent of autistic children in the U.K.,” which is a more than reasonable claim. The group also made suggestions that most experts now agree that rates of autism in children are on the rise, and that this rise is not due solely to increased diagnosis.
BabyJabs also included information on its website explaining that the vaccine-strain measles virus has been found in the guts and brains of some autistic children, which is problematic. The U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM), after all, discovered back in 1994 that vaccine-strain measles virus is capable of causing serious infection, which in some people can lead to death. (http://www.nvic.org/vaccines-and-diseases/MMR.aspx)
MMR has never been proven not to cause autism
Though there is more scientific evidence than not to suggest a link between MMR and autism in some children, BabyJabs did not even go so far as to make this claim. Rather, the group merely pointed out the fact that MMR has never been proven not to cause autism, an undeniable fact that many parents need to be aware of, particularly parents of children that are at higher risk of experiencing vaccine damage.
But once ASA got wind of the fact that someone, somewhere was not towing the official myth that MMR is completely safe and in no way linked to causing autism, this government body slammed down its iron fist and ordered BabyJabs to remove the information from its website. BabyJabs also referenced Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s extensive research into MMR as having been “strongly rejected” by the government and medical establishment, rather declared to be false, a nuanced variation in wording that appears also to have upset the powers that be.
Because of its open and independent positions on the issue, BabyJabs has now had its free speech censored by officials in the world’s most tyrannical police state, the U.K. This so-called progressive nation is now actively censoring freedom of health speech as it pertains to vaccines — if you do not agree with the official vaccine dogma and choose to write about it online, in other words, you could very well be the ASA’s next target.
Numerous studies link MMR vaccine to horrific side effects, including autism
It is remarkable that any authority or government body dares make the audacious claim that MMR has never been linked to causing autism, which is what the ASA has done in this case. As far back as 1981, right around the time when the earliest versions of MMR were first released for public use, researchers were already identifying some very serious side effects associated with MMR.
The British National Childhood Encephalopathy Study, for instance, had identified a link between the measles vaccine and serious neurological disorders, which only appear to have been intensified once measles was packaged into the three-in-one MMR vaccine. There were also several other studies in subsequent years, including another out of the U.K. in 1995, that identified a link between measles vaccine and ulcerative colitis.
These, of course, were the same findings arrived at by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who had begun advocating that measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines be given individually rather than combined — that is, until he became the target of the state-run medical industrial complex. Dr. Wakefield had observed that MMR causes gastrointestinal problems, including enterocolitis, in some children, while the same vaccines administered individually appear to have less risk.
If this is not enough, an IOM report released last year openly admits that MMR can cause vaccine-induced measles, febrile seizures, anaphylaxis, and transient arthralgia in women and children, which make it far from the safe vaccine that authorities claim it is. (http://www.naturalnews.com/033447_Institute_of_Medicine_vaccines.html). And an Italian court recently ruled that MMR indeed triggered autism in a young boy who developed severe bowel problems and various autism spectrum disorders, including the inability to speak, after receiving the MMR. (http://www.naturalnews.com/036255_MMR_autism_court_case.html)
Those who choose to ignore this pertinent information, and instead believe the official story that MMR is safe and does not cause autism, do so at their own risk. At the very least, the jury is still out on the issue as it cannot definitively be proven that MMR does not cause autism, which is a claim being widely proclaimed by many health authorities and government officials. Meanwhile, much of the independent science that has been conducted over the years shows that MMR is linked to causing autism and other permanent side effects, at least in some children.
With all this in mind, is allowing MMR to be injected into your child simply because the government insists it is harmless really a risk that you want to take?
Nature fights back – bugs devour GM Monsanto corn with a vengeance
by Tony Isaacs
(NaturalNews) Corn genetically engineered by Monsanto to kill western corn rootworm is reportedly being devoured by those pests with a vengeance. Thanks to heavy reliance on the genetically modified (GM) crops, the tiny rootworm pest has overtaken fields, outsmarting the genetic engineering that was supposed to keep it away.
Nature fights back against GM corn
The GM corn, launched in 2003, is engineered to produce a protein, known as Cry3Bb1, derived from a bacterium known as Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. In theory, rootworms ingest Bt corn roots and the protein is fatal. However, recent reports indicate that pesticide-resistant rootworms are showing up weeks earlier and more voraciously than ever.
In a research paper published in the July/August/September 2012 issue of the journal GM Crops & Food, scientists reported that samples taken in 2010 indicated that rootworm populations had an eleven-fold survival rate on Cry3Bb1 maize than did control populations. The paper noted that resistant corn rootworm populations first identified in 2009 had three-fold survival rates on Cry3Bb1 maize at that time compared to other populations.
Mike Gray, a professor of entomology with the University of Illinois reported: “We’re still early in the growing season, and the adults are about a month ahead of schedule,” explained Gray. “I was surprised to see them – and there were a lot.”
Reports of increasing rootworm damage began coming in last year after Iowa State University researcher Aaron Gassmann published a study saying that the rootworms in Iowa were becoming resistant to GM corn, creating so-called “superbugs.” Farmers in several states found that the western corn rootworm was surviving after ingesting an insecticidal toxin produced by the corn plants.
With both demand and prices high, many farmers are planting corn year after year and on more acres, increasing the possibility that resistance could develop. Typically, corn farmers have had to rotate corn crops to minimize pest pressures. But with Bt corn, many simply planted “corn on corn,” year after year. Federal regulators require a 20 percent “refuge” of non-Bt corn near Bt acres, but many growers have ignored that and oversight has been lax.
The new “superbug” rootworms may lead to serious financial woes for both farmers and the rest of us, according to a letter sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by 22 prominent scientists and corn-management experts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and universities across the Midwestern Corn Belt. Patrick Porter, PhD, associate professor at Texas A&M University, who drafted the letter, noted that farmers are paying almost twice as much for seeds that don’t live up to their promises, and are then having to resort to insecticides on top of that.
The potential result, according to Porter, is crop failure which could raise food prices at the grocery store. Porter said, “If farmers start taking damage (from) any pest, that will lower yields. That will reduce the supply of corn and increase prices.” Porter also noted that when prices for corn go up, more farmers start planting corn despite the risks, and when growers shift to growing more of one crop, they grow less of other crops and those crops’ prices also go up.
Adding to GM crop concerns, recent research from Canadian scientists found that pesticides used on genetically modified (GM) crops and, in some cases, the genes used to create GM crops are able to survive in our digestive tracts, move into our bloodstreams and, in the case of pregnant women, show up in their developing infants. The research contradicts repeated contentions by Monsanto and the EPA that only insects would be hurt by GM crops.
Tony Isaacs, is a natural health author, advocate and researcher who hosts The Best Years in Life website for those who wish to avoid prescription drugs and mainstream managed illness and live longer, healthier and happier lives naturally. Mr. Isaacs is the author of books and articles about natural health, longevity and beating cancer including “Cancer’s Natural Enemy” and is working on a major book project due to be published later this year. He is also a contributing author for the worldwide advocacy group “S.A N.E.Vax. Inc” which endeavors to uncover the truth about HPV vaccine dangers.
We wish we could say we are surprised. Registered dietitians are now being given formal education by the Coca-Cola Company on how safe its ingredients are.
The credentialing arm of the American Dietetic Association, the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR), has approved a program created by the The Coca-Cola Company Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness. This covers what it calls “urban myths” about the safety of food ingredients. Participating in this program will earn registered dietitians Continuing Professional Education unit credits.
“Children’s Dietary Recommendations: When Urban Myths, Opinions, Parental Perceptions & Evidence Collide,” tells dietitians that fluoride, sugar, artificial colors and nonnutritive sweeteners have been “carefully examined for their effects on children’s health, growth, and development.” The presenter, Dr. Ronald Kleinman, “explores prevalent misconceptions about these food ingredients” and suggests ways the dietitian can help quell unnecessary “concern among parents about their children’s health.”
At first glance, Dr. Kleinman should know what he is talking about. He is physician-in-chief at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, chief of the Pediatric Gastrointestinal and Nutrition Unit, and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Couldn’t sound better, could it? But he has also received a great deal of money from industry sources—like artificial infant formula manufacturers Mead Johnson and Nestle Ltd. His study on optimal duration of breastfeeding was funded by Gerber Products. He also served as a paid expert witness for Gerber when they were sued for deceptive advertising. And he contributed to a brochure intended for children entitled “Variety’s Mountain” produced by the Sugar Association.
Now he’s being sponsored by the Coca-Cola Company and telling dietitians that the ingredients in Coke which everyone is alarmed about are safe. The dietitians, in turn, will be telling parents that their fears are unfounded, and Coke can sell more Coke to kids.
Program materials include gems like “[a] majority of studies so far have not found a link between sugar and behavior in children generally or children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.” This is certainly news to us, since we have seen many studies that say the opposite. Apparently the dietitians are to teach us that any connection between artificial colors and neurotoxicity, or fears of the dangers of fluoride, are imaginary and come from hysterical (or at least unduly concerned) parents.
As we reported recently, sugar and artificial sweeteners are anything but safe. Fluoride poses a significant risk to the kidneys. And commonly used food dyes pose risks which include hyperactivity in children, cancer (in animal studies), and allergic reactions. Even the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an organization that supports nuking food, agrees with this. And the British government and European Union have taken actions that are virtually ending the use of dyes throughout Europe.
The ADA is sponsored by the soda and junk food industries—which we feel greatly tarnishes the organization’s credibility. And you may recall that the ADA has mounted a state-by-state campaign to make sure that its Commission is the only one which will be accepted as a credentialing body for both registered dietitians and nutritionists.
There are, of course, significant philosophical differences between nutritionists and dietitians—they represent two different fields of study and practice. By accepting only a single credentialing agency—one run by the dietitians, not nutritionists—state boards are establishing a “one-size-fits-all” standard which removes all competition, essentially handing the ADA a government mandated monopoly over nutritional therapy.
Unfortunately, the Nevada bill we told you about last month passed both the Assembly and the Senate and was signed by the governor on June 5th. While some amendments were made, the most troubling parts of the bill still remain: only registered dietitians can practice “dietetics,” which is defined by the law to include nutrition assessment, evaluation, diagnosis, counseling, intervention, monitoring and treatment—everything that a good nutritionist does and should do.
We also told you about an ADA bill in New York, S.3556. The state’s Senate Finance Committee met on June 13 and decided to pass the bill to the Rules Committee so that it could be considered on the Senate floor. They are trying to rush these bills through, because next week the Assembly is scheduled to finish its work for the year, unless the chair calls a special session in the fall. Please click on our New York Action Alert here.
The ADA’s power grab is a complete travesty. We will keep fighting it state by state until we restore competition in nutritional counseling and stop gagging PhD-trained nutritionists who don’t become dietitians.
Gospel Secrets: The Biblical Controversies of Morton Smith
Anthony Grafton | January 7, 2009
Adrian BellesguardMorton Smith
In 1973, Morton Smith, professor of ancient history at Columbia University, shook the world–or at least the world of scholars who work on early Christianity. Fifteen years before, Smith had found an unknown document in the Mar Saba Greek Orthodox monastery, fifteen kilometers southeast of Jerusalem–an ancient Christian text that no one before him had ever mentioned. A letter in Greek, originally composed in the second century by a church father, Clement of Alexandria, and addressed to one Theodore, it was handwritten in ink, in an eighteenth-century hand, on the blank end pages of a seventeenth-century printed book. Less than a thousand words long but rich in detail, the text attacked one of the wonderfully named sects that made the early centuries of Christianity so complex–the followers of Carpocrates, or Carpocratians. These heretics, as Clement and Theodore saw them, claimed that they possessed a secret version of the Gospel of Mark. Jesus, they believed, had taught his followers that they were freed from the law and could do whatever they wanted without sinning. According to one of their Christian critics, Irenaeus, they actually thought they earned salvation by “doing all those things which we dare not either speak or hear of, nay, which we must not even conceive in our thoughts.”
Clement assured Theodore that he had been right to silence these “unspeakable teachings.” But he also admitted that there was a secret version of Mark’s Gospel–a version that the Church of Alexandria made available only to initiates. In a passage that Clement quoted, Jesus raised a rich young man from the dead in Bethany. “And after six days Jesus told him what to do and in the evening the youth comes to him, wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God. And thence, arising, he returned to the other side of the Jordan”–a passage that suggests a libertine interpretation of its own, at least to the twenty-first-century reader. At the same time, Clement denied that an inflammatory phrase, “naked man with naked man,” which the Carpocratians had cited, came from the true secret Gospel. The evil Carpocrates had obtained a copy of the text and “polluted” it with lies.
It was an astonishing discovery. A scholar can catalog thousands of manuscripts without ever striking this kind of gold. But Smith was perfectly equipped to assess the new text. Though American by birth and most of his education, he was a great philologist in the old European style. Long before he made the Mar Saba discovery, he had mastered Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and examined and photographed Greek manuscripts in monastic libraries on Mount Athos, the island of Patmos and elsewhere. As a student, he had savored the long, hypnotic services at Mar Saba. Now he spent his time going through the collection, book by book and page by page. When his philological dreams came true, he knew exactly how to make the best of his discovery. Before he left the monastery, he photographed the letter. Back in the United States, he spent years establishing and interpreting the text and consulting many other scholars.
Though Smith announced his find as early as 1960, at a meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature, and completed his analysis of the text by the late ’60s, he did not release the new document until thirteen years had passed. Then he did so in two forms at once: a scholarly monograph published by Harvard University Press, Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark, and a popular book published by Harper & Row, The Secret Gospel, in which Smith pardonably dramatized the religious and personal adventures he had experienced on the way to his discovery. He argued that Clement had written the letter, that the secret Gospel really went back to the early church and that Jesus, as it suggested, had offered his disciples initiation into secret libertine practices. Later in his career, Smith would develop the larger thesis that Jesus had been a practicing magician, and that his revelations were steeped in widely attested magical techniques and beliefs.
But Smith’s original arguments proved provocative enough. By July 1974 he had amassed, as he told a friend, “a dossier of newspaper clippings and reviews two or three inches thick, and an even thicker pile of private letters, some of them screamingly funny.” The professional scholars chewed more slowly, of course, than the newspaper critics and religious polemicists, but within a few years they too had digested the new material and begun to respond to it–or, in some cases, to spew it out again. For more than thirty years, the document and Smith’s interpretations of it have served as the grit around which layer on layer of scholarly pearl has grown. Debate is normal, of course, in scholarship–without it, we could not go on producing doctoral dissertations and scholarly articles. But most debates eventually come to an end, as one side clearly wins or all participants reach a consensus. By contrast, the secret Gospel of Mark continues to spawn commentary of radically opposed kinds.
Most experts went at least part of the way with Smith. The new letter soon found its way into critical editions of Clement’s works. Few agreed that Smith’s discovery offered privileged new evidence for the actual teachings of Jesus–a very ticklish subject, since the four Gospels were themselves written quite some time after Jesus’ death. But a number of prominent New Testament scholars accepted the letter’s internal quotations from Mark as genuinely ancient. Helmut Koester, a New Testament authority who has taught for many years at Harvard, argued that the standard text of Mark’s Gospel actually derives from the secret one quoted by Clement. The long passage quoted by Clement removes an awkward transition in the text. And the fact that the young man is told to wear a single garment when he comes to Jesus for instruction could explain a curious passage in Chapter 14. According to Mark, a young man wearing a single garment was with Christ in Gethsemane when he was arrested. Though the police attempted to take him too, he fled, naked, leaving his cloak in their hands.
But it is just as possible to argue the opposite case: to dismiss the secret Gospel quotations as a pastiche assembled from pieces of the existing text–an equally satisfactory way, after all, to explain the young man’s single garment–or even to reject Clement’s letter as a fake, like many other texts attributed to early Christian writers. The archive of recognized fakes includes the letters that St. Paul supposedly exchanged with the Roman philosopher Seneca, and as many as 900 spurious sermons ascribed to the church father John Chrysostom. Some scholars have always thought that the new Clement letter belonged there.
But almost from the start, some have suggested a much more radical explanation. In 1975 Quentin Quesnell, a Catholic New Testament scholar, argued that the manuscript was a modern forgery–presumably, though he did not say so directly, the work of Smith. This theory has continued to find supporters. Two recent books–The Gospel Hoax, by a lawyer named Stephen Carlson, and The Secret Gospel of Mark Unveiled, by Peter Jeffrey, a Princeton musicologist, MacArthur Fellow and renowned expert on the history of liturgy–argue that Smith composed the text. The sexual undertones of the document have led some to suggest, explicitly or by innuendo, that Smith, a gay man, forged the text for personal reasons. In fact, Smith laid relatively little emphasis on the document’s sexual implications, as opposed to the more general evidence, as he saw it, that Christ taught salvation through sin. But Jeffrey, in the course of an intricate, minutely detailed analysis, argues that Smith deliberately made his case by indirection, distracting readers from his true purpose as a magician distracts the members of his audience.
Who is right? One problem with the scholarly arguments–a problem that often comes up in arguments about the authenticity of a text–is that they have tended to move in spirals. Is the letter really by Clement? From Smith on, scholars have attacked this problem by comparing the letter’s language and syntax with those of Clement’s better-known works, using detailed indexes published in the 1930s. The document is full of words and thoughts that appear only in Clement. Some are unique. But does that mean, as Smith held, that Clement wrote it? Or that its author–perhaps Smith–steeped himself in Clement, using the modern indexes that listed every word in his writings, before he went to work? Some claim that the document uses too many words found only in Clement–is, in other words, too Clementine–to be genuine. Others disagree. In the absence of a complete corpus of his work–something we have for no ancient writer–how can we know, except by assuming what we want to prove? Stalemate threatens.
Some of the arguments, pro and con, have reached a staggering level of ingenuity. In the document, Clement warns against the Carpocratians’ interpolated Gospel: “the true things being mixed with inventions, are falsified, so that, as the saying goes, even the salt loses its savor.” This reads like an analogy between the words of the text and the Christians themselves, to whom Jesus had said, in the Gospel of Matthew, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?” But Carlson argues that ancient salt–which came in lumps, not in free-flowing crystals–could not be adulterated, as Clement suggests. Only after 1910 did a chemist find a way to keep salt from clumping. He, of course, worked for Morton Salt. Could Morton Smith have mischievously added the salt reference to assert his authorship, as forgers sometimes do? The new text was entered in the last pages of the 1646 edition of the letters of Ignatius of Antioch. The corpus of Ignatius’s letters had included forgeries, which the editor of that edition, Isaac Vossius, omitted. The first page of Clement’s letter actually faces the end of the printed text of Vossius’s commentary, where the editor denounces forgers. Could Smith have chosen these endpapers for his text in order to let the cleverest readers know that he had written the letter himself? Or are these coincidences simply the result of chance? The more questions are raised, the more evidence is brought into play, the more the letter becomes a Rorschach for its readers and the harder some find it to decide what they think. Even Bart Ehrman, a University of North Carolina professor who has written some notably polemical popular works on the corruption and interpolation of all the documents of early Christianity, refuses to take a firm position on Secret Mark.
One way to arrive at certainty seems obvious: study the manuscript pages, using scientific methods to date paper and ink, and assess the script, drawing on the less scientific, but still elaborate, methods of paleography. But if the scholarly disputes over Secret Mark resemble the caucus race from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the manuscript plays the role of the Cheshire cat. The volume of Ignatius’s letters remained at Mar Saba, where Smith left it, until the 1970s. But then it was transferred to the library of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem. And here it disappeared–or so, at least, the librarians claim–without ever being subjected to chemical tests. Stasis again, so it seems.
The situation is distressing–especially for those who admire, as many do, Smith’s immense learning and independence of mind. For in his case it has particularly unpleasant implications. Smith was the kind of critic who makes grown scholars tear off their own heads for fear of reading his reviews. He regularly pulverized others’ publications, compiling remorseless lists of errors and responding to stupidity with searing wit–as when he suggested that the printer had omitted one word at the end of an especially conventional article in the first volume of TheCambridge History of the Bible: “Amen.” To a conference session in honor of one of his former students, the famously prolific and famously contentious Jacob Neusner, Smith brought two boxes of copies of Saul Lieberman’s fiercely negative review of Neusner’s “preliminary translation” of the Palestinian Talmud. When recognized during the question period, he read a prepared statement and then “began marching up the aisle like a staff sergeant, distributing the reviews to a stunned audience,” an academic journal reported. Sometimes, Smith was more severe than his victims deserved. But to accuse him of forgery–or deception of any kind–is to call him a hypocrite of a particularly systematic and deliberate type. The worst thing about stasis is that it leaves these suspicions undispelled.
Last year, a distinguished Israeli historian of religion, Guy Stroumsa, set out to settle the question. His interest is understandable: as a young man, he played a minor but meaningful role in the story. In 1976 Stroumsa drove three other scholars–two of whom, David Flusser and Schlomo Pines, were among the greatest of the Hebrew University greats–from Jerusalem to Mar Saba, where they picked up the Vossius edition of Ignatius, still inscribed with the inventory number Smith had given it, and transferred it to Jerusalem. Flusser apparently thought Clement’s letter a fake. But Stroumsa believes the document is genuine. He ascribes most of the resistance to Smith’s groundbreaking discovery to more conventional scholars’ prejudices: discomfort with what they thought they knew about Smith’s sexuality, on the one hand; refusal to accept a radical discovery, on the other. “It is a well-known fact among scientists and epistemologists,” Stroumsa has written, “that it takes a long time, up to thirty years, before scientific breakthroughs are widely acknowledged and their implications fully recognized. Smith published the account of his discovery in 1973. It seems the time has come to accept it.”
To prove that Smith invented nothing, Stroumsa has published a fascinating collection of primary sources: Smith’s correspondence with a lifelong friend, the twentieth century’s greatest Jewish scholar, Gershom Scholem. Smith, an adventurer in life as well as in scholarship, went to Jerusalem in 1940 on a Sheldon Traveling Fellowship awarded him by the Harvard Divinity School. Caught in Palestine by World War II, he spent four years there. At the Hebrew University–the pre-eminent German university in the world in those days, thanks to its faculty of erudite, brilliant refugees–Smith studied classics with Moshe Schwabe and Hans Lewy and Jewish mysticism with Scholem. He helped translate Scholem’s first great book on the Kabbala, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, and translated an ancient Jewish mystical text under Scholem’s supervision. More remarkably, Smith wrote a doctoral dissertation, in Hebrew, on Tannaitic (early rabbinical) parallels to the Gospels and became the Hebrew University’s first Christian PhD. Returning to the United States in 1945, he began a career in the Episcopalian ministry, then moved back into scholarship and became, eventually, a professor of ancient history at Columbia University, where he taught until 1990. From 1945 until Scholem’s death in 1982, the two men corresponded regularly. Their letters, which Stroumsa and associates have edited, open a new window on Smith’s career, the scholarly world in which Smith flourished and the Secret Mark.
For Stroumsa, the documents make one point clear beyond doubt: Smith could not have forged Clement’s letter or Secret Mark. For Smith’s letters show him discussing the material with Scholem, over time, in ways that clearly reflect a process of discovery and reflection. From the start, he was sure he had a new work of Clement’s on his hands. In August 1959, Smith wrote to Scholem that “the material by Clement of Alexandria which I found at Mar Saba last year is turning out to be of great importance, and as soon as I get all minor nuisances off my hands I must work hard at it.” Later that year he went into more detail, noting that the letter “contains some amazing information about the Carpocratians and the Gospel according to Mark.” By early 1961 he was working up the materials that eventually went into his two books.
But the more radical conclusions took time to emerge. Not until October 1962 did Smith tell Scholem that “I am really beginning to think Carpocrates and the sort of things he represented (and especially the ascent through the heavens) were far closer to Jesus than has ever been supposed.” If Smith really forged Clement’s letter, then he also must have spent years deliberately deceiving one of the few scholars he deeply respected. Yet he showed remarkable equanimity when his efforts proved partly unsuccessful. When Smith’s scholarly book on Secret Mark appeared, Scholem accepted the letter as Clementine. But though he appreciated Smith’s evidence about the magical side of early Christianity as “very good and convincing as far as it pertains to the tradition of the original church,” he also found himself “not sure whether the story can be truly taken as historical evidence about Jesus himself.” Smith, in his reply, showed only gratitude for his friend’s detailed critical response: “Your letter pleased me very much and I thank you most sincerely for writing me at such length about my book…. As to Jesus, I should perhaps have emphasized more strongly that all accounts of his teaching and practice are conjectural, and I claim to my own conjectures only that they fit the reports as well as any and better than most.” This is the tone of a colleague in inquiry, not a foiled forger.
Scholem, after all, was famous as a scholar for two qualities: a passionate interest in the occult, esoteric and antinomian elements of the Jewish tradition, and a fastidious intolerance of incompetent scholarship that matched Smith’s. In 1972 the Jewish scholar Amos Funkenstein and the Christian historian Martin Marty, as well as Smith, published reviews of the three volumes of The Cambridge History of the Bible. In the course of his detailed review of Volume 2, Funkenstein–who could quote reams of texts in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin from memory–complained that the book failed to deal with the influence of the medieval Jewish thinker Ramban (Nachmanides) on Christians like Meister Eckhart. From Scholem’s erudite, minutely critical point of view, this apparently precise remark was actually a gaffe–one so serious as to reveal that Funkenstein was an ignoramus. “What kind of Jewish scholar is this,” he wrote to Smith, “who can confuse the Ramban with the Rambam [Maimonides, the medieval Jewish scholar who actually influenced many Christian thinkers]?” Scholem’s absolute rigor and integrity–as well as his dedication to the study of magic–inspired Saul Lieberman, an authority on the Talmud, to offer the greatest backhanded tribute in the history of scholarly irony when introducing him at the Jewish Theological Seminary: “You know that I believe that mysticism is nonsense, total and complete nonsense, but the history of nonsense is scholarship. And the man who is about to speak knows more about the history of nonsense than anyone has ever known.”
No one understood Scholem’s attitude better, or shared it more completely, than Smith. He took one lesson above all away with him from Jerusalem: “the difference,” as he put it in 1945, “between books, on the one hand, that display a special way of thinking that is worth reflecting on, and all other books, on the other hand.” Smith’s sense that most scholarship was second-rate made him reluctant to become a professor, since he felt “more and more opposed to the reading of the nonsense that needs to be read to become an expert in any given research method.” Even after he decided to cast his lot with Wissenschaft, and even after his success was assured, he wondered–as he confided to Scholem–“why is it that the study of religion attracts so many nitwits?” He took delight in witnessing the “squelches” that Scholem administered to lesser scholars during a conference discussion. Nothing pleased Smith more about the visiting professorship he helped arrange for Scholem at Brown University, it seems, than being able to explain why the university’s professor of Old Testament did not want Scholem to require that students in his seminar know Hebrew: “He says he thinks there would be a number of students who would like to take a seminar with you, but who could not meet that requirement. (He is right at least as to one student–himself…).” To Stroumsa, it seems psychologically impossible that Smith could have spent years deceiving the man to whom he owed, and whom he admired, so much, and whom he saw as one of the few who shared his sense of what makes true scholarship.
Yet the depth and rigor of Smith’s scholarship don’t necessarily absolve him from suspicion. Great scholars–scholars intolerant of complacency, stupidity and error–have also been forgers. Erasmus, the greatest of the Renaissance humanists, insisted that theologians read the New Testament in the original Greek, not just the Latin Vulgate. He also omitted a controversial verse that supported the doctrine of the Trinity from his edition of the New Testament when he found that the Greek manuscripts did not contain it. This daring scholarly move brought swarms of traditionalists out of their nests, determined to sting him. He cheerfully beat them off–until they produced a manuscript written for the occasion in which the verse appeared in Greek. In his commentaries on the texts and in his satires, Erasmus rallied scholars across Europe to join him in extirpating the folly and ignorance of conventional theologians–for instance, the Dominicans who used the Bible to support the persecution of witches. Yet we know he forged a complete work by the early Christian writer Cyprian in order to support his views about Christian martyrdom.
Smith’s letters, moreover, show that he possessed at least a couple of the qualities of the successful forger, and in spades. Unlike British and European scholars, most Americans receive relatively little training in composing ancient Greek and Latin. We have as yet produced no counterpart to “Herodotus at the Zoo,” a brilliant homage to the Greek traveler and historian Herodotus composed by the legendary expert on Athenian pottery, J.D. Beazley. Smith, however, was a gifted and assured practitioner of prose composition–he wrote his dissertation and his first letters to Scholem in Hebrew. Most philologists, as is well known, have little sense of humor–something every forger needs. But Smith’s letters are consistently witty, at others’ expense and his own. In 1960, when he decided to turn down an offer from Cornell and stay at Columbia, he explained his decision to Scholem with a characteristically neat paradox: “If I buried myself in Ithaca I should never forgive myself for having sacrificed the theater and the opera and the galleries, but so long as I stay here I can indefinitely put off going to them, and feel happy and virtuous about it.” A really good academic novelist–someone like Allegra Goodman, who wove the dismal straw of contemporary laboratory life into fictional gold in Intuition–could find rich material here for a tale of how the ironist of Providence and Morningside Heights became the forger of Mar Saba.
But another story–a less dramatic one suggested by the letters–seems much more likely to be the true one. When Scholem learned that the Mar Saba discoveries bore on the Carpocratians, he replied enthusiastically: “I am amazed to hear that there is still unknown information about the Carpocratians to be found. Those are the Frankists of Antiquity. Produce it as soon as possible!” The Frankists were the followers of Jacob Frank, an eighteenth-century Polish Jew who had taught that those who followed him were free from the law and should pursue salvation through ecstatic sexuality. In a famous essay published in 1937, not long before Smith joined him in Jerusalem, Scholem explored the mysteries of what he called “redemption through sin”: “It would be pointless to deny that the sexual element in this outburst was very strong: a primitive abandon such as the Jewish people would scarcely have thought itself capable of after so many centuries of discipline in the Law joined hands with perversely pathological drives to seek a common ideological rehabilitation.” In this characteristically imaginative way, Scholem, no religious believer, re-created the deep meanings that Judaism had even–or especially–for its heretics in another age.
How much of Scholem’s vision did Smith take away with him from Jerusalem? Back in America in the late 1940s, Smith wrote to Scholem as a busy, engaged Episcopalian cleric, giving sermons and organizing youth groups. Soon afterward, however, he abandoned the church for the academy. The evidence of the letters–like that of his books–makes clear that he also abandoned, and even came to despise, Christianity (in one letter to Scholem he thanked “the non-existent” for a special piece of good fortune). Again and again, over the past 200 years, Christians and Jews raised in traditional Orthodox communities have found their faith challenged, or even destroyed, when a training in scholarship forced them to confront the fact that the Bible is not infallible. Bart Ehrman, for example, has described how studying New Testament textual criticism at Princeton Theological Seminary prompted him to stop “reading the Bible as an inerrant blueprint for our faith, life, and future” and to start “seeing it as a very human book, with very human points of view, many of which differ from one another and none of which provides the inerrant guide to how we should live.”
As a midcentury Episcopalian, Smith would never have thought the Bible inerrant. But he did think almost that of Scholem. Could Scholem’s enthusiastic comparison of Carpocrates to Frank have set Smith on the way to making Jesus a magician? Could Scholem’s teaching have inspired Smith to rethink the nature of religious experience, and Christianity, and find new meanings in the life of Jesus? It seems very likely, to me at least, that Scholem’s way of thinking about redemption and salvation, religion and sex, acted slowly but irrevocably on Smith–in just the time-bomb way that great teaching often acts: like so many of the great Jewish scholars he knew, he found in history of a particular kind a way to appreciate the emotional richness of traditions to which he could no longer pledge personal loyalty. In The Secret Gospel, Smith described Scholem’s deep impact on him and recalled that when he told Scholem about the letter, “he pounced immediately on the mention of the Carpocratians,” whose leader supposedly “taught that sin was a means of salvation…. A remotely similar theme was important in the writings of some seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Jewish heretics whom Scholem had been studying (Sabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank).”
The newly published letters, though they suggest and support this reading, don’t quite clinch the case: indeed, they suggest that Smith, writing years later, may have remembered as conversations exchanges that actually took place on paper. I believe that Smith really found his letter, and that Scholem gave him the framework into which he inserted it. But that’s just what I think. Many will disagree. This time, the professor is the Cheshire cat. He smiles and is gone.
“We’re losing the war against obesity in the U.S.,” says chef Jamie Oliver. “Our kids are growing up overweight and malnourished from a diet of processed foods, and today’s children will be the first generation ever to live shorter lives than their parents.”
About 1 in 3 adults and 1 in 6 children are obese, according the Centers for Disease Control, and such obesity-related diseases as Type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer have become leading causes of death in our country.
HBO shed a harsh light on the obesity epidemic last week with its four-part documentary, “The Weight of the Nation.” The question is: What do we do about it? Critics of the program complained that it didn’t advocate for policy changes. But perhaps it’s up to people to inspire change, to spread awareness and to add pressure to the makers and sellers of harmful food by not buying their products.
That’s certainly Oliver’s view. “I’ve given up on governments,” he said in an interview with The Times. “But I have endless hope and faith in people once they are given knowledge and skills. I’ve certainly seen all over the world in many different communities that, once people have a few skills and confidence, they make different choices in the grocery store. Once they make different choices in the grocery store — and on the Main Street fast-food restaurants — then companies will be forced to serve a higher quality offer. That’s when the real change happens.”
To that end, Oliver launched Food Revolution Day on May 19, a global initiative “to inspire, educate, and empower people everywhere to stand up for real food.” Oliver said that about 60 countries participated, with people hosting dinner parties and other food-conscious events within their communities. “And this is just the beginning.”
Oliver, for his part, spent the afternoon at UCLA in his “Big Rig” kitchen truck, teaching children of the Santa Ana Boys and Girls Club how to cook healthful meals. He has paid particular attention to children, as viewers saw on his “Food Revolution” program on ABC, which chronicled his efforts to reform school lunch programs. “I want them to learn about fresh food, where it comes from and how to cook it,” he said. “Kids really thrive when they’re just given some ownership over what they’re cooking.”
Later, he hosted a dinner party turned think tank above Gjelina in Venice. At the event, which I attended, Oliver spoke about taking social action by becoming involved in the community, which is an area where he has a proven track record. He also challenged the guests to brainstorm ways that Food Revolution may continue to make an impact. Ideas included grading food products with simple letters and initiating more gross-out awareness campaigns a la pink slime. Some suggested getting more high-profile figures involved to endorse healthy eating, like Adrian Grenier, who was in attendance and counts himself among Oliver’s “soldiers.” (He can actually cook too.) Another idea: Directing attention to adults with such programs as Time Warner’s Fit Nation, which rewards employees who participate in healthy-living challenges.
All of this isn’t to say Oliver doesn’t think we should allow ourselves the occasional indulgence. About President Obama eating a burger in front of photographers, he said: “Burgers are a wonderful thing when made from good quality meat by someone who cares about cooking them. I’m not anti-burger. I am anti-[expletive] burgers made from poor quality meat.”
They are called “atmospheric aerosols”. They are apparently being sprayed aloft to reflect heat back into space and reduce global warming.
I really don’t know whether to believe in chem trails as non-naturally occuring. But there is some evidence that governments are spraying aluminum particles into the atmosphere, and so I remain open minded but skeptical.
The science of osteoporosis and its resultant fractures has long been plagued by some vexing observations. Why, for example, are osteoporotic fractures relatively rare in Asian countries like Japan, where people live as long or longer than Americans and consume almost no calcium-rich dairy products? Why, in Western countries that consume the most dairy foods, are rates of osteoporotic fractures among the highest in the world? And why has no consistent link been found between the amount of calcium people consume and protection against osteoporosis?
An alternative theory of bone health may — or may not — explain these apparent contradictions. It is the theory of low-acid eating, a diet laden with fruits and vegetables but relatively low in acid-producing protein and moderate in cereal grains. Its proponents suggest that this menu plan could lead to stronger bones than the typical American diet rich in dairy products and animal protein, often enhanced by calcium supplements.
These dietary changes might even prevent or delay other chronic conditions that rob far too many people of a wholesome old age.
The low-acid theory was first fully promulgated in 1968 by two American doctors in the leading medical journal The Lancet and has since been the subject of much debate and confusion among bone specialists.
The science behind low-acid eating and the research findings that do, and do not, support it have been spelled out in a new book, “Building Bone Vitality,” by Amy Joy Lanou, an assistant professor of health and wellness at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and Michael Castleman, a health writer.
At the same time, researchers at the Yale School of Medicine are studying the possible bone benefits of adding protein supplements to the diets of older Americans who habitually consume low levels of protein.
Dr. Karl Insogna, a professor of internal medicine directing the study, said in an interview that the 18-month placebo-controlled study would determine whether raising protein intake to a more normal range could increase bone mineral density and help prevent osteoporosis in people over age 60.
Science of the Skeleton
Bones are not immutable. Rather, they are continually being broken down and rebuilt, and when breakdown exceeds buildup, they get progressively weaker. Vital to the solid framework of the body, bones play an equally important metabolic role hidden from casual observation.
Bones are the storage tank for calcium compounds that regulate the acid-base balance of the blood, which must be maintained within a very narrow range. When the blood becomes even slightly too acid, alkaline calcium compounds — like calcium carbonate, the acid-neutralizer in Tums — are leached from bones to reduce the acidity.
The researchers note that fruits and vegetables are predominantly metabolized to alkaline bicarbonate, whereas proteins and cereal grains are metabolized to acids. The more protein people consume beyond the body’s true needs, the more acidic their blood can become and the more alkaline compounds are needed to neutralize the acid.
In one study by Dr. Dawson-Hughes and colleagues, published in January in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 171 healthy men and women age 50 and older were treated with either bicarbonate or no bicarbonate. Those receiving bicarbonate, in an amount equivalent to nine servings of fruits and vegetables daily, experienced much lower levels of calcium loss in the urine, as well as a loss of N-telopeptide, the biochemical marker of bone resorption.
(By contrast, Dr. Insogna said that although eating more protein raised the loss of calcium in urine, it also improved intestinal absorption of calcium and thus might not result in bone loss.)
The Dawson-Hughes team concluded that increasing the alkaline content of the diet by eating more fruits and vegetables should be studied as a safe and low-cost approach to preventing osteoporosis and improving bone health in older Americans.
The finding is consistent with current recommendations from several federal health agencies to consume nine servings daily of fruits and vegetables. That amount has been shown to lower blood pressure and has been linked to a reduced risk of developing heart disease, stroke, diabetes, some cancers and Alzheimer’s disease. Now prevention of osteoporosis might be added to the list.
As the book authors point out, “animal foods, especially cheeses and meats, don’t contain much alkaline material” and hardly enough to “neutralize all the acids they introduce into the bloodstream; the body must draw calcium compounds from bone to restore optimal blood pH,” a measure of acidity. On the other hand, the alkaline material in fruits and vegetables, which are low in protein, can buffer that acidity.
Except for hard cheeses, which are acid-producing, most dairy foods, including milk, are “metabolized to compounds that are essentially neutral,” Dr. Dawson-Hughes said.
In their exhaustive review of the scientific literature, Dr. Lanou and Mr. Castleman found that “two-thirds of clinical trials show that milk, dairy foods and calcium supplements do not prevent fractures.” They conclude that the high fracture rate in countries that consume the most milk and dairy products results from the fact that “these affluent Western countries also consume the most meat, poultry and fish.”
Lessons From Research
This does not mean that older people, many of whom chronically consume too little protein, should avoid this essential nutrient, which helps prevent frailty and the falls that result in fractures. Nor must people become vegetarians to maintain strong bones.
But it does suggest that those at the high end of protein consumption may be better off eating less protein in general and less animal protein in particular and replacing it with more fruits and vegetables. Consider adhering to the amount of protein that health experts recommend, which has a built-in safety factor of 45 percent above the minimum daily requirement and is based on ideal (not actual) body weight and age.
For an adult, that amount in grams is 0.36 multiplied by ideal body weight. Thus, a woman who should weigh 120 pounds needs only 44 grams of protein a day, the amount in 3 ounces of flounder, one piece of tofu and a cup of cooked bulgur. A 60-pound 8-year-old (the multiplier is 0.55) would need only 2 ounces of chicken and one-half cup of cottage cheese to get the recommended 32 grams of protein.
Burger lovers are not having an easy time lately. Last month, news broke that the USDA’s National School Lunch Program had recently purchased seven million pounds of something delectably called “pink slime.”
Soon thereafter, news reports trumpeted that pink slime hasn’t just been making its way into school lunches, as bad as that sounds. In recent years, nearly a billion pounds of this ammonia-laced burger filler have been mixed annually into the ground beef sold in the U.S. As a result, more than two-thirds of the nation’s pre-made burger patties have contained pink slime.
The name “pink slime” sounds, well, slimy, but what exactly is it? The answer isn’t reassuring. In fact, it’s as gross as it seems. Just 10 years ago, according to Mary Jane’s Farm, “the rejected fat, sinew, bloody effluvia, and occasional bits of meat cut from carcasses in the slaughterhouse were a low-value waste product called ‘trimmings’ that were sold primarily as pet food.” But then Beef Products, Inc. began converting the stuff into a mash and treating it with ammonium hydroxide to kill bacteria. The resulting product was given the name pink slime by Gerald Zirnstein, a microbiologist working for the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. He said it was “not meat,” but “salvage.” Zirnstein added: “I consider allowing it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent labeling.”
Does such fraudulent labeling still take place? In March, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer reported that 70 percent of U.S. supermarket ground beef contained pink slime, and that it is often labeled “100% ground beef.”
After the ABC special generated a great deal of negative attention to pink slime, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack held a press conference in an effort to defend the product. His justification for including it in the school lunch program? He said it is safe, cheap and helps to fight childhood obesity. The main problem, he said, is the unfortunate name “pink slime.” That night, Jon Stewart offered his help. He suggested that, instead, consumers adopt the term “ammonia-soaked centrifuge-separated byproduct paste.”
The beef industry shot back, saying the proper term is “lean finely textured beef” and suggesting it simply be called “LFTB.” The following night, Stephen Colbert agreed. “Yes, LFTB,” he said, “because our beef now has so many hormones, it’s a member of the transgender community.”
And now, as if the burger business needed any more bad press, a case of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE) has been discovered in a California dairy cow. In the U.S., virtually all dairy cows are eventually ground up into burgers.
Mad cow disease, or BSE, you may remember, is the infection that decimated English cattle herds in the 1980s and 1990s, and caused hundreds of deaths in humans from a gruesome and lethal brain disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). When a former cattle rancher, Howard Lyman, appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, explaining that the very same livestock-feeding practices that had caused the problem in England were in place in the U.S., Oprah famously remarked, “It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger.”
The beef industry doesn’t like anyone causing their market to shrink, so they sued Oprah for $20 million, telling her they would drop the case if she’d eat a hamburger on her show. She refused, and they brought the case in Amarillo, Texas, distributing bumper stickers throughout the town stating “the only mad cow in Amarillo is Oprah.” It was a bitterly contested case, and the cattlemen spent many millions on attorney fees, but to no avail. After Oprah won, she appeared on the court room steps and fiercely proclaimed: “The First Amendment not only lives, it rocks. And I’m still never going to eat another hamburger.”
Soon thereafter, the U.S. cattle industry ceased the feeding practices that Lyman had said could lead to a major pandemic of the disease in the U.S. And as far as the beef industry was concerned, the matter was settled. That is, until now.
The appearance this week of a case of mad cow disease in the U.S. herd has made a lot of people very nervous. Two major South Korean retailers immediately pulled U.S. beef from their stores, and Indonesia has banned all imports of U.S. beef. Faced with yet another blow to their image and their revenues, the U.S. meat industry is frantic to reassure the public.
Meat industry officials are pointing to the rarity of BSE in the U.S. as evidence that U.S. burgers are safe to eat. An American Meat Institute executive vice-president, James Hodges, is repeatedly reminding the media, government officials, and the public that only four American animals, including this new case, have been diagnosed with the disease in the last 10 years. “That translates into one of the lowest rates of BSE in any nation that has ever diagnosed a case,” he says proudly.
But there’s a problem. Could this be a case of “Don’t look, don’t find”? Nearly 34 million cattle are slaughtered every year in the U.S. Of those, only 40,000 are tested for BSE. That’s about one in every thousand animals. If we tested 80,000, would we find two? If we tested them all, would we find 1,000 cases a year? One cow can make its way into many thousands of burgers. So then, how many burgers might be contaminated?
No one knows. And it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the U.S. meat industry would like to keep it that way. The disease in humans is invariably fatal, but it takes years to show up, and can appear to be an early-onset and rapidly developing dementia. As a result, it is very difficult to track.
A key to solving the case at hand is finding where and when the cow was born. But tracking how this dairy cow came to be infected with BSE is not a simple matter, because the U.S. is one of the only beef-producing countries in the world that does not have a mandatory identification system that tracks animals from birth through slaughterhouse. Even Botswana tracks its cattle with microchips. In New Zealand, bar codes on meat packages enable consumers to learn just about anything they want to know about the history of the animal whose flesh they might consume.
There have of course been many attempts in the U.S. to create a national identification system for cattle. But they have all been stymied by resistance from segments of the cattle industry.
This recent case of mad cow disease could be an isolated case. It could amount to nothing more than a fleeting news item. That, certainly, is what the U.S. meat industry would like officials to think, and what it would like consumers to believe.
On the other hand, mad cow disease is no joke. It killed hundreds of people in England who ate burgers they had no way of knowing might be tainted.
And here’s another point. Even if a burger isn’t carrying mad cow disease, and even if it isn’t filled with ammonia-laced pink slime, should we be eating it? Last month one of the largest studies in medical history was reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine. More than 120,000 people were followed for almost 3 million person-years. What did the researchers find? That consumption of red meat is linked to an increased risk of premature mortality, not just from heart disease and cancer, as had already been known, but from all causes.
I think I’ll have a veggie burger, thank you.
John Robbins is the author of eight books including the newly-released No Happy Cows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Food Revolution, and host of the Food Revolution Summit. Sign up for free to hear him interview 23 of the world’s top food leaders at foodrevolution.org. John is the recipient of the Rachel Carson Award, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, the Peace Abbey’s Courage of Conscience Award and Green America’s Lifetime Achievement Award. To learn more about his work, visit http://www.johnrobbins.info.
(NaturalNews) Preservatives and synthetic food agents found in foods inhibit oxygen and delay the development of fungus and mold, creating a longer shelf-life for products. But after being consumed, these toxins deprive human cells of oxygen and rob them of nutrients, thus leading to cell mutation and the perfect breeding ground for cancer.
Just like humans, cells need oxygen to survive and thrive. “Fungus fighting” preservatives and man-made food agents choke out your body’s nutrients at the DNA level by depriving mitochondrial cells of oxygen, sometimes completely shutting them down. And if the body does not have enough essential nutrients, it becomes more susceptible to disease.
Longer shelf life, shorter human life
If you’re not a label-reader already, you better become one soon. You don’t have to be a chemist or a linguist either, just be able to sight read and spot the poisons so you can live cancer-free. Most food toxins are followed by a phrase, often in parenthesis, to make them sound “safe” and in your best interest, like “as a preservative,” or “for added freshness,” or “to preserve flavor.” These catchy little phrases really mean for the added choking of your cells to aid with cancer development.
The top 10 cell stranglers revealed
The United States has several major regulatory agencies and “cancer prevention” organizations which have not only been suppressing natural cancer cures for 70 years, but have been approving, supporting, endorsing and profiting from cancer-causing agents in food, beverages and cosmetics since World War II.
1. Sodium Benzoate: This stealthy killer flies under most people’s radar, and is found in just about everything in jars and bottles, like salad dressing, pickles, sauces, mayonnaise, almost all soda and juice drinks, and even in foods labeled as “all natural.”
2. Canola Oil: This artificial, Canadian-exported GMO is super popular and is found in over 30% of all products. It chokes out your mitochondrial cells. Canola oil is really rapeseed oil and can cause emphysema and respiratory distress, eventually leading to cancer.
3. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG): The FDA allows 20 “pseudo” names for it including autolyzed yeast extract, free glutamate, glutamic acid, soy lecithin, calcium caseinate, hydrolyzed corn, hydrolyzed soy protein, and maltodextrin to name a few. Just because a product says “No MSG” doesn’t mean it’s not in there!
4. Sodium Nitrates (nitrosamines): Used for fertilizers and explosives, and as a solvent in the dry cleaning industry. This ingredient keeps hemoglobin molecules in your blood from carrying oxygen to your body tissues. It’s considered a “super salt” (like MSG) added to things like hot dogs, cold cuts and bacon for added shelf-life, color and flavor. Problems compound when microwaved.
5. Margarine: The body cannot incorporate trans-fatty acids into membranes, thus causing deformed cellular structures. Vegetable shortening and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils accelerate aging and degenerative changes in tissues.
6. Anti-foaming agents: (Dimethylpolysiloxane) An industrial chemical used in caulks and sealants. This component is mostly used in fast food chicken nuggets and eggs. Also watch for TBHQ, a petroleum derivative, used as a stabilizer in perfumes, resins, varnishes and oil field chemicals, and linked to stomach tumors and DNA damage.
7. Anti-caking agents: Chemicals that absorb moisture and prevent other compounds from sticking together. These are added to table salt and powdered food products. They are often composed of phosphate, carbonate, silicate and oxide compounds which contain aluminum. Watch for sodium alumino-silicate, alumino-calcium silicate and aluminium silicate. Aluminum is linked to Alzheimer’s and is also used in flu shots and vaccines.
8. Artificial colorings: Synthetic petrochemicals made from petroleum, antifreeze and ammonia. Blue #1 causes kidney tumors in mice. Red #2 and Blue #2 cause brain and bladder tumors in rats. Red #3 causes thyroid cancer in animals, and is banned in cosmetics, but still allowed in food. Red #40 debilitates the immune-system. Green #3 causes bladder and testes tumors. Yellow #5 and #6 cause adrenal tumors in animals.
9. Emulsifiers: Carrageenan, polysorbate 80 and brominated vegetable oil (BVO). These are stabilizing, smoothing and thickening agents. They are typically found in chocolate milk, cottage cheese, ice cream, infant formula and jelly. BVO remains in body fat for years. Polysorbate 80 is also found in most vaccines.
10. Artificial Sweeteners: Aspartame, Acesulfame K, Sucralose, Sorbitol, Truvia, and of course, Saccharin. Because they taste sweet, these chemical sweeteners trick the body into ingesting them and holding on to them for extended periods of time, turning rancid in the body fat. Fake sugars are the “Trojan horses” of the cell-choking and mutating, food agent industry. Sorbitol is also found in many vaccines.
America has been breeding and treating cancer with chemicals for 70 years
How does a politician running for office or for a position with a United States Government regulatory agency guarantee winning that election or appointment? He or she simply supports the insidious toxic food and medicine industry by meeting with lobbyists, promising the approval of chemical food agents that strangulate human DNA cells, and furthering legislation which supports cancer treatments to do more of the same.
Besides the wars in the Middle East, there’s a Domestic War going on right now in our country, so pay very close attention to everything you eat, and every “medicine” your doctor recommends. Also, do some research of your own if you want to protect your cells and keep them oxygenated, preventing cancer and other disease.
Corporations by today’s definition, are obligated to make as much money as they can. But a new kind of corporation is changing that and potentially our economy, too.
April 15, 2012 |
Photo Credit: Shutterstock/Dusit
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In 2012 corporations reign supreme. Citizens for Tax Justice reports that 26 Fortune 500 companies — including General Electric, Verizon and Mattel — paid no federal income taxes from 2008 through 2011. Big banks have gotten big bailouts, while kicking back hundreds of millions to elected officials and political parties in the last year alone. It took the government only 18 months to award BP another permit for deep water drilling in the Gulf after its catastrophic well blowout in 2010.
It doesn’t seem to matter if corporations cripple the economy, destroy communities or trash the environment, it’s still an all-you-can-eat buffet for them. The 2010 Citizens United decision was icing on the cake. Politicians eat from the hand of the corporate kingmakers. The rest of us muscle for the crumbs.
It hasn’t always been like this. When the American colonies were first starting out, incorporation was granted for things that would benefit the public good — like building roads. But corporations by today’s definition, are obligated to make as much money as they can. They are legally beholden to shareholders and the bottom line and that makes being “good” difficult and risky.
“The public benefit has all too often been subverted as a result,” writes Francesca Rheannon on the Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire. “Those corporations that sincerely wanted to operate according to the Triple Bottom Line (variously characterized, but traditionally defined, as ‘People, Profits, Planet’) have had to privilege profit over the other two goals, or risk shareholders’ wrath if pursuing environmental or social goals lessened potential financial returns.”
But that may be changing with the nonprofit B Lab, which started a program less than two years ago to certify a new kind of corporation — a Benefit Corporation or B Corp.
In that short time over 500 companies have become B Corps. Legislation to change corporate law and make B Corps official entities has been signed in seven states — Maryland, New Jersey, Vermont, Virginia, California, Hawaii and New York — with legislation pending in seven more states. The folks behind B Corps believe that, “Governments and nonprofits are necessary but insufficient to solve today’s most pressing problems. Business is the most powerful force on the planet and can be a positive instrument for change.”
Our vision is simple yet ambitious: to create a new sector of the economy which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. This sector will be comprised of a new type of corporation — the B Corporation — that meets rigorous and independent standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.
B Corp in Action
In 1995 in Corte Madre, California, Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell launched Equator out of a warehouse with a few employees. Today the company has grown into a successful boutique artisan coffee roaster. It has 22 employees and roasts 700,000 pounds of coffee annually, supplying some of the best restaurants, including many San Francisco Bay Area favorites like Thomas Keller’s French Laundry, Pascal Rigo’s La Boulange bakeries, Tracy Des Jardin’s Jardinière, and Sharon Ardiana’s Gialina.
Equator has been praised for its quality as well as its mission. “They started out very modestly, and as they have gotten bigger they have had to make choices concerning their growth,” said Ardiana. “They have always had a keen eye concerning making choices that are sustainably based, rather than purely profit driven. Equator really is a model for other businesses, no matter how large or small, to evaluate their practices and make changes. Because every little bit does matter! They have a huge composting program that incorporates all of the chafe and coffee grounds. They even rethought their bagging. Going from a black treated bag to a natural brown one, even though the black one from a branding prospective was their look.”
“We’ve always been fairly progressive and thoughtful in how we run our business — we’re women-owned and green-certified,” said Equator founder Russell. They also bought Priuses for service cars, a biodiesel delivery truck, and an energy efficient roaster that uses 80 percent less natural gas. They worked to build direct relationships with coffee growers, aided their efforts with micro-loan programs, and started their own farm in Panama, which is a year away from harvest. Their employees have health insurance, opportunities for professional growth and profit sharing.
This year, they took their commitments to the next level by becoming a B Corp. “We want to be a truly triple bottom line company — and how do you do that?” asks Russell. “We felt it was a good way to educate our customers and consumers about the work that we’ve been doing. It is a way for consumers to easily identify what our values are and mission is. It’s the same thing that Fair Trade certification did for coffee 15 years ago.”
The B Corp process assesses companies on their environmental, community and workforce impact. While Equator scored high enough to qualify for the program, they’re already seeing ways in which they can be even better.
“One of our roles as an organization is to educate the consumer,” said Maureen McHugh, Equator’s vice-president of operations. “We feel strongly that this is a positive role for business.” The B Corp label helps them take the conversation with consumers to another level. It becomes not just about ensuring a “green” or socially conscious end product, but about guaranteeing the entire process is sustainable and fair. “Capitalism is changing — we are moving to more of a stakeholder economy. Equator coffee is such an identifiable chain from the farm to here — there are so many stakeholders in that chain,” said Russell. And the B Corp program helps to make that chain transparent to consumers and investors.
Russell see B Corps as the changing face of business. “There is a shift happening, there is a need for it. It can’t just be about shareholder value, it’s about everyone in the chain, all boats have to be raised or I don’t know where the capitalism model will go if we don’t go in this direction.”
The model for Russell’s company gets to the heart of B Corps. “We have to grow revenue to grow our impact — the more coffee we can sell, the more we can do for our employees and farming partners. Grow revenue, equals grow impact.”
The Business of Saving the World
While the coffee world has set up some of their own product standards through Fair Trade certification, most other industries operate without third-party verification and it can be hard to tell a green and socially conscious business from just clever marketing and a big ad budget. B Corp, however, holds a company accountable for not just its impact, but its mission. In fact B Corps have a Declaration of Interdependence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That we must be the change we seek in the world.
That all business ought to be conducted as if people and place mattered.
That, through their products, practices, and profits, businesses should aspire to do no harm and benefit all.
To do so requires that we act with the understanding that we are each dependent upon another and thus responsible for each other and future generations.
Last month B Labs released its list of the top companies that are the “best for the world.” In terms of overall impact, they highlighted companies such as Method Products, Better World Books, Global Green Energy Corp, Namaste Solar, Piedmont Biofuels, New Resource Bank, Re:Vision Architecture, to name a few. They also recognized the top performers for environmental impact like Patagonia, Bullfrog Power, Guayakí Sustainable Rainforest Products, IceStone, gDiapers, Larry’s Beans. For community impact there was Change.org, Care2, Cap Global, Virginia Community Capital, Ideal Network and for worker impact there was Exponent Partners, Heller Consulting, King Arthur Flour Company, Peaceworks Technology Solutions, Sungevity. The full list of top companies can be found here, along with high-fives for most impactful small companies, too.
While there are a few big names on the list — like Patagonia, Method and Change.org — many of the companies are ones most consumers likely haven’t heard of. As Alex Goldmark writes for GOOD — that’s because many of these companies are actually business-to-business operations. “These businesses deserve twice the recognition because they don’t face the same public pressure to go green,” writes Goldmark. “Of the 19 companies that took the title ‘best for overall impact,’ more than a third are business-to-business. Another third also provide some mix of consumer- and commercial-focused offerings … B Lab measures results and brings us companies that toil away on principal even when nobody’s looking.”
It’s easy to see why a consumer would seek out a B Corp when looking for a product or service. But there is more in it for companies than just winning over progressive-minded consumers and earning the accolades. “For one thing, Benefit Corporations can’t be held liable by courts for failing to place profits over everything else,” writes Jamie Raskin for the Nation. “This is an important shift in law. The fear of shareholder litigation has driven many public-spirited businesses, most famously Ben & Jerry’s, to take the high bid rather than the high road in a corporate takeover fight. Becoming a Benefit Corporation declares legal independence from the profits-über-alles model. More important, having Benefit Corporation status sends a powerful message to shareholders, employees, business partners and consumers about what kind of company you’re running.”
This, Raskin writes, is one of the most powerful shifts we’ve seen in business. “We can have a market economy without having a market society, and we can have prosperous corporations that act with conscience.”
Right now the mighty power of 500 B Corps may be a drop in the bucket compared to the huge multinationals that control our economy and politics. But our business-as-usual model in recent decades has put us on the fast track to financial and ecological ruin. Without a dramatic shift toward revolutionary change, we’re in a mess of trouble. By changing the way we do business, B Corps may be providing an invaluable part of the equation for change.
“It may take a while to displace the rent-seeking leviathans that get rich off lobbying, power plays, pyramid schemes and defense contracts,” concludes Raskin. “Then again, a lot of those companies have relocated their operations abroad in search of cheaper labor, while the Benefit Corporations are taking root and blossoming right here in America, restoring the bonds of community while doing honest commerce. This is what economic recovery looks like.”
Let’s hope you’re not reading this column while munching on a chicken sandwich.
That’s because my topic today is a pair of new scientific studies suggesting that poultry on factory farms are routinely fed caffeine, active ingredients of Tylenol and Benadryl, banned antibiotics and even arsenic.
He said that the researchers had intended to test only for antibiotics. But assays for other chemicals and pharmaceuticals didn’t cost extra, so researchers asked for those results as well.
“We haven’t found anything that is an immediate health concern,” Nachman added. “But it makes me question how comfortable we are feeding a number of these things to animals that we’re eating. It bewilders me.”
Likewise, I grew up on a farm, and thought I knew what to expect in my food. But Benadryl? Arsenic? These studies don’t mean that you should dump the contents of your refrigerator, but they do raise serious questions about the food we eat and how we should shop.
It turns out that arsenic has routinely been fed to poultry (and sometimes hogs) because it reduces infections and makes flesh an appetizing shade of pink. There’s no evidence that such low levels of arsenic harm either chickens or the people eating them, but still…
Big Ag doesn’t advertise the chemicals it stuffs into animals, so the scientists conducting these studies figured out a clever way to detect them. Bird feathers, like human fingernails, accumulate chemicals and drugs that an animal is exposed to. So scientists from Johns Hopkins University and Arizona State University examined feather meal — a poultry byproduct made of feathers.
One study, just published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, Environmental Science & Technology, found that feather meal routinely contained a banned class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. These antibiotics (such as Cipro), are illegal in poultry production because they can breed antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” that harm humans. Already, antibiotic-resistant infections kill more Americans annually than AIDS, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
The same study also found that one-third of feather-meal samples contained an antihistamine that is the active ingredient of Benadryl. The great majority of feather meal contained acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. And feather-meal samples from China contained an antidepressant that is the active ingredient in Prozac.
Poultry-growing literature has recommended Benadryl to reduce anxiety among chickens, apparently because stressed chickens have tougher meat and grow more slowly. Tylenol and Prozac presumably serve the same purpose.
Researchers found that most feather-meal samples contained caffeine. It turns out that chickens are sometimes fed coffee pulp and green tea powder to keep them awake so that they can spend more time eating. (Is that why they need the Benadryl, to calm them down?)
The other peer-reviewed study, reported in a journal called Science of the Total Environment, found arsenic in every sample of feather meal tested. Almost 9 in 10 broiler chickens in the United States had been fed arsenic, according to a 2011 industry estimate.
These findings will surprise some poultry farmers because even they often don’t know what chemicals they feed their birds. Huge food companies require farmers to use a proprietary food mix, and the farmer typically doesn’t know exactly what is in it. I asked the United States Poultry and Egg Association for comment, but it said that it had not seen the studies and had nothing more to say.
What does all this mean for consumers? The study looked only at feathers, not meat, so we don’t know exactly what chemicals reach the plate, or at what levels. The uncertainties are enormous, but I asked Nachman about the food he buys for his own family. “I’ve been studying food-animal production for some time, and the more I study, the more I’m drawn to organic,” he said. “We buy organic.”
I’m the same. I used to be skeptical of organic, but the more reporting I do on our food supply, the more I want my own family eating organic — just to be safe.
To me, this underscores the pitfalls of industrial farming. When I was growing up on our hopelessly inefficient family farm, we didn’t routinely drug animals. If our chickens grew anxious, the reason was perhaps a fox — and we never tried to resolve the problem with Benadryl.
My take is that the business model of industrial agriculture has some stunning accomplishments, such as producing cheap food that saves us money at the grocery store. But we all may pay more in medical costs because of antibiotic-resistant infections.
Frankly, after reading these studies, I’m so depressed about what has happened to farming that I wonder: Could a Prozac-laced chicken nugget help?
Decision Comes as WHO Meets to Discuss Global Treaty on Mercury Use
WASHINGTON, April 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Chile has become the first developing country to stop the use of mercury in vaccines.
In meetings with the Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs (CoMeD) held last week in Santiago, Chile, the current Vice President of the Chilean Senate, Alejandro Navarro Brain, committed to adopting legislation in the Senate that would prohibit the mercury-based preservative Thimerosal from vaccines.
Thimerosal, which is 49% mercury by weight, continues to be used as a preservative in vaccines and other drugs worldwide, despite the fact that it is a human neurotoxin and that safer, less toxic alternatives are readily available.
Chile’s decision comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) meets today in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss a global, legally binding treaty on mercury use. That meeting will examine alternative vaccine preservatives, as well as the economic, programmatic, and manufacturing implications of moving to single-dose, preservative-free vaccines. While applauding the WHO for giving the issue of mercury use in vaccines the urgent attention it merits, CoMeD expressed serious reservations about WHO’s decision to meet in closed-door session.
Noting that past closed-door sessions have led to “repeated and, we believe, untrue declarations that there is no evidence of harm from the use of Thimerosal in vaccines,” the Reverend Lisa K. Sykes, President of CoMeD, states, “Such unfounded assertions have led to the establishment of two standards of vaccine safety, one which is predominately mercury-free for developed, western countries and one that is mercury-preserved for developing countries.”
As a result, Rev. Sykes continues, “The most vulnerable among us continue to be intentionally exposed to mercury from Thimerosal in childhood vaccines. This exposure is entirely avoidable, and must be stopped.”
Dr. Mark R. Geier, a CoMeD Director, agrees, adding, “Recent statements by those holding national and global responsibility for vaccine safety are difficult to reconcile with the known and published toxicity of Thimerosal.”
According to CoMeD, numerous scientific studies and extensive peer-reviewed scientific and medical papers have all concluded that Thimerosal poses a significant health risk. Thimerosal manufacturers also acknowledge that the preservative can cause mild to severe mental retardation in children.
For additional information about CoMeD and its work to ban mercury from drugs, including vaccines, worldwide, visit www.mercury-freedrugs.org.
FDA admits in court case that vaccines still contain mercury
by Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
(NaturalNews) It is a common myth today that the vaccines administered to children no longer contain the toxic additive thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative linked to causing permanent neurological damage. But a recent federal case involving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revealed that, contrary to this widely-held belief, thimerosal is actually still present in many batch vaccines, including in the annual influenza vaccine that is now administered to children as young as six months old.
Filed by a citizen-backed coalition advocating vaccine safety, the lawsuit against the FDA alleged that the agency’s continued endorsement and approval of thimerosal as a vaccine additive is a serious public health threat, especially since safer alternatives already exist and are widely used voluntarily by many vaccine manufacturers. But Judge Brett Kavanaugh, siding with antiquated pseudoscience, decided that thimerosal is not a health threat, and that those who wish to avoid it can simply choose thimerosal-free alternatives.
Ignoring the evidence of thimerosal’s dangers brought before him on behalf of the millions of children across the country who continue to be injected with this mercury-based additive, Judge Kavanaugh declared that the plaintiffs, which include groups like the Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs (CMFD), did not have proper standing to file the lawsuit. And in the process, both he and the FDA inadvertently admitted that thimerosal is still present in many childhood vaccines, which counters popular claims to the contrary.
FDA admits on its website that thimerosal is still in vaccines
The fact that Judge Kavanaugh refused to hear the case is tragic in and of itself, as thimerosal, which is composed of 50 percent mercury, has been proven to cause serious health damage. But what may be even worse is the fact that many people falsely believe that thimerosal is not even included in vaccines anymore, which is leading them to blindly allow them to be administered to their children. And the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the FDA have continued to provide dubious and misleading information on the subject, which the mainstream media has been complicit in spreading over the years.
But the FDA explains, in no uncertain terms, directly on its website that thimerosal is still added to certain vaccines. For this reason alone, it is crucial that parents who choose to vaccinate their children ask for an ingredients list for each and every vaccine before allowing them to be administered to their children.
“While the use of mercury-containing preservatives has declined in recent years with the development of new products formulated with alternative or no preservatives, thimerosal has been used in some immune globulin preparations, anti-venins, skin test antigens, and ophthalmic and nasal products, in addition to certain vaccines,” writes the FDA on its Thimerosal in Vaccines page (http://www.fda.gov).
Don’t believe the lie: Thimerosal is eventually converted by the body into highly-toxic inorganic mercury
Another myth often spread by thimerosal advocates claims that the ethylmercury compounds that compose roughly 50 percent of the preservative are not actually harmful because they are different from the type found in a can of tuna. But a comprehensive review conducted by Dr. Paul G. King has proven otherwise, showing that ethylmercury is first metabolized by the body into toxic methylmercury, which is then metabolized into inorganic mercury (http://www.infowars.com).
Both methylmercury and inorganic mercury are listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as toxic substances responsible for causing neurological problems, brain disorders, nervous system illnesses, gastrointestinal problems, kidney failure, respiratory illness, and death (http://www.epa.gov/hg/effects.htm).
You didn’t think I’d miss my chance to weigh in on the latest round of pink slime discussions, did you? Rather than recapitulate the horror that is your favorite form of “lean finely textured beef,” I will instead point you to my favorite statement in defense of pink slime. It was given by American Meat Institute Director of Scientific Affairs Betsy Booren to NPR:
“This is not the same ammonia you’d use in cleaning supplies,” explains Betsy Booren of the AMI Foundation. “It’s a gas, it’s a different compound, and it’s a well-established processing intervention that has a long history of success.”
First off, the AMI Foundation? AMI’s own website identifies the group as “a national trade association that represents companies that process 95 percent of red meat and 70 percent of turkey in the U.S. and their suppliers throughout America.” Foundation my arse.
And granted, I’m no chemist — but my understanding is that the form of ammonia used in cleaning products is typically ammonium hydroxide. And the form used in pink slime is … ammonium hydroxide! The only difference is the household cleaner is a liquid and pink slime is treated with a gas.
But that’s not really the issue. When you have to defend your food production practice by saying, “Hey, at least we don’t use household cleaners on it!” you know you’ve got a big problem.
What pink slime represents is an open admission by the food industry that it is hard-pressed to produce meat that won’t make you sick. Because, I hate to break it to you folks, but ammonium hydroxide is just one in a long list of unlabeled chemical treatments used on almost all industrial meat and poultry.
Helena Bottemiller of Food Safety News dug up this United Stated Department of Agriculture document [PDF], which lists dozens of chemicals that processors can apply to meat without any labeling requirement. Things like calcium hypochlorite (also used to bleach cotton and clean swimming pools), hypobromous acid (also used as a germicide in hot tubs), DBDMH (or 1,3-dibromo-5,5-dimethylhydantoin, which is also used in water treatment), and chlorine dioxide (also used to bleach wood pulp), to name just a few.
All these chemicals can go on meat. Not that you’d know it, because both the industry and the USDA keep it on the down-low. In fact, they work together on this. The USDA requires processors to label certain approved antimicrobials, such as salt, spices, and even lemon as ingredients, but not their hard-to-pronounce brethren. Why not? Perhaps because it might shock and disgust consumers to know how thoroughly their meat must be chemically disinfected before it can be sold. USDA’s head of food safety Elizabeth Hagen told Bottemiller recently that, “Just being honest, I don’t think your average consumer probably knows a lot about how food is produced.” She’s right. We don’t know the half of it — and the more we find out, the angrier many of us get.
Andy Bellatti recently wrote a piece he called “Beyond Pink Slime,” in which he enumerates all the problems with industrial meat production that led it to this point. And in many ways pink slime is the perfect embodiment of a food industry gone off the rails.
In short, they took meat that was too dangerous to feed to humans, disinfected it so thoroughly that a block of the stuff will make your eyes water, and then celebrated the fact that they’d created a two-fer (it’s a food! it’s a disinfectant!). The industry embraced their creation so completely that around 70 percent of all supermarket ground beef now contains the stuff. But this goes way beyond hamburger. As Tom Philpott points out, pink slime is used in a huge variety of products including “hot dogs, lunch meats, chili, sausages, pepperoni, retail frozen entrees, roast beef, and canned foods.” By industry standards, it is nothing short of a food “intervention” success story.
The irony, of course, is that the 2010 debate over pink slime brought to light evidence that this treated meat product is not nearly as reliable a disinfecting agent as its maker asserted. It was likely those indications that led the fast food industry, in most ways farther ahead of the food safety curve than supermarkets or school food providers, to abandon the ingredient late last year. And now that the mainstream media has taken notice of pink slime, even the USDA has had to back off its wholehearted endorsement for it in school lunch.
But don’t let the appearance of a back-and-forth debate fool you. Pink slime is truly worse than other forms of disinfected treated meat since the trimmings used in pink slime are known to harbor pathogens at high levels before treatment. Should it disappear from store shelves, however, we can rest assured the meat that remains will continue to be treated with other industrial chemicals. Because that’s — pure and simple — the only way the industrial meat industry can prevent its products from making people sick.
I’d like to see more consumers and media outlets asking why exactly that is.
A 17-year veteran of both traditional and online media, Tom is a founder and Executive Director of the Food & Environment Reporting Network and a Contributing Writer at Grist covering food and agricultural policy. Tom’s long and winding road to food politics writing passed through New York, Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, Florence, Italy and Philadelphia (which has a vibrant progressive food politics and sustainable agriculture scene, thank you very much). In addition to Grist, his writing has appeared online in the American Prospect, Slate, the New York Times and The New Republic. He is on record as believing that wrecking the planet is a bad idea. Follow him on Twitter.
How the Sausage is Made: It’s Still a Jungle for Consumers
Daniel Honan on March 17, 2012, 12:00 AM
What’s the Big Idea?
Over the last two weeks, pink slime has become the safe food movement’s equivalent of the Kony 2012 campaign. Over 200,000 people have signed an online petition to ban the use of what the food industry calls “lean beef trimmings” in school lunches. Larger questions have been raised about why it has taken consumer advocates and government watchdogs so long to catch on.
After all, haven’t we seen this movie before?
106 years ago Upton Sinclair blew the whistle on the Chicago stockyards meatpacking industry in his famous muckraking novel The Jungle. I have quoted a representative, nausea-inducing passage from the book below, but here is a quick tease:
These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together.
These reports shocked an incredulous nation. President Teddy Roosevelt, for instance, initially concluded that Sinclair must be “a crackpot.” Yet subsequent investigation confirmed Sinclair’s reporting (although claims that workers who fell into rendering vats were ground into lard were not officially substantiated). Public outcry led to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and ultimately the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration in 1930.
And yet, consumer protection requires vigilant oversight, and that is exactly what critics say was lacking during the administration of George H.W. Bush, when low-grade ammonia-treated “lean beef trimmings” previously reserved for pet food were declared safe for human consumption. According to The Daily, health concerns were muted by JoAnn Smith, Undersecretary of the USDA.
Then for the next two decades, apparently, Smith’s successors at the USDA were out to lunch.
What’s the Significance?
Pink slime is everywhere. It’s sold in grocery stores and served in school lunches, meaning most of us have probably consumed it at some point in our lives. The government purchased 7 million pounds of pink slime for school lunches just last year. While the USDA announced it would let schools opt out this week, food administrators and consumers alike have found pink slime to be so ubiquitous that it is nearly impossible to avoid. Some experts estimate it can be found in up to 70 percent of the ground beef sold in grocery stores.
In other words, we know how the sausage is made. We don’t like how it is made, but we don’t know how to avoid it. That is because you will never see packaged meat in the grocery store labeled “pink slime.”
How Can I Avoid Pink Slime In Meat?
Look for meat that is labelled “USDA Organic” and shop at stores such as WholeFoods and Costco that have guaranteed their products don’t contain pink slime. Your other choices are to go vegetarian, or grind your own meat (or watch a butcher do it for you).
In the meantime, if you are looking to give up red meat altogether, this passage from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle might just have the desired effect:
There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white – it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one – there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit. There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage. There were the butt-ends of smoked meat, and the scraps of corned beef, and all the odds and ends of the waste of the plants, that would be dumped into old barrels in the cellar and left there. Under the system of rigid economy which the packers enforced, there were some jobs that it only paid to do once in a long time, and among these was the cleaning out of the waste barrels. Every spring they did it; and in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water – and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the public’s breakfast. Some of it they would make into “smoked” sausage – but as the smoking took time, and was therefore expensive, they would call upon their chemistry department, and preserve it with borax and color it with gelatine to make it brown. All of their sausage came out of the same bowl, but when they came to wrap it they would stamp some of it “special,” and for this they would charge two cents more a pound.
(NaturalNews) Genetically modified organisms and bovine growth hormones are in thousands of prescription drugs all over the world without any warning whatsoever. Plus, over 40% of humans are allergic to either consuming or injecting gelatin, which is the most popular hidden animal part in drugs and vaccines today. In fact, the gelatin coatings, capsules and liquid additives for medicines are not made from harmless food, but rather from the skin, cartilage, connective tissues and bones of animals, and to put “nails in the coffin,” these are NOT the grass and grain fed, free range, humanely treated animals, that’s for sure.
For decades now, gelatin has come from abused, hormone-fed, antibiotic injected, sick, dying, and disease laden animals; which means the dead animals that even the fast food giants won’t accept are dumped into grinders and made into gelatin. These poor animals that are shot up with hormones and fed GMO, pesticide-ridden corn by-products their whole lives, have blood infections from mal-nourishment and corn sugar, and this settles into their body, so when humans consume gelatin, they are also consuming these horrific, disease breeding chemicals. Many animals in CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) in the U.S. and the U.K. are also fed by-products of their own species. Remember the mad cow disease outbreaks?
Meat in Medicine and Vitamins
World wide production of gelatin exceeds 300,000 tons per year. Vegetarians and vegans are usually very careful shoppers, trying to avoid all meat products and chemicals on a regular basis, but millions of consumers do not know about gelatin and where it comes from, and that’s the way the food industry likes it. Vegan or not, everyone who takes vitamins and supplements is likely eating infected animal parts when they swallow gelatin capsules.
A survey in a recent postgraduate Medical journal shows 25% of patients are unknowingly prescribed drugs containing gelatin, contrary to their beliefs. That’s correct: there are unlabeled, cancer-causing growth hormones in prescription pharmaceuticals and vaccines. Are you ready to get that flu shot, or maybe the next swine flu scam shot? In vaccines, gelatin is used as a heat stabilizer and suspension agent. Allergic reactions include abdominal pain and cramping, high pitched breathing sounds, and anaphylaxis (can include swelling of the throat). Vaccine companies cannot guarantee the purity of animal cells used in their vaccine cultures.
Using common sense is vital
Would you take a pill which came in a gelatin capsule that contained a viral and bacterial mixture of the disease which that very pill’s ingredients were intended to prevent? If you could inject a syringe in a diseased cow or pig’s stomach, extract some blood, mix it with a small portion of a specific new disease, and then inject it into your arm, all in hopes of avoiding that disease, even though you might get it from this very procedure anyway, would you do it? Wouldn’t it be wiser to just take vegetarian vitamins and minerals to build up immunity? (http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00112/mad_cow_frameset.htm)
In 1997, the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) met with the TSE Advisory Committee (Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies; a.k.a. BSE/Mad Cow Disease) to help assess the safety of imported AND domestic gelatin, and gelatin by-products (how much worse can it get?) with regard to the risk of BSE posed by gelatin sourcing and processing. The big question at the meeting was whether the processing procedure was enough to optimally “inactivate” any contaminating agent. They all agreed that the “alkali treatment” was a key step, but also agreed that scientific evidence was “insufficient at this time to demonstrate that these treatments would effectively remove the BSE infectious agent if present in the source material.” (Meaning it’s too late to kill it at the factory).
TSE went on to recommend that the FDA consult “outside experts,” and also assure that manufacturers adhere to these regulations. That’s a complete joke, because the origin of gelatin, as defined by the FDA, states that it is “derived from either bovine, porcine (pig), or other animal source; however, no formally validated reference method to confirm the origin of gelatin’s raw materials is available yet.” So how are those inspections and regulations going to hold water if they don’t even know where the raw materials are coming from? Maybe those raw materials are also cats, dogs and horses?
(http://www.gelatine.org)
Plus, if you think for one second that the FDA, the organization which allows nearly 90% of all food to be contaminated with GMO chemicals, is going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to consult “outside experts” to review the safety of gelatin, research where it comes from, and inspect the processing plants, you’re dead wrong.
Gelatin is classified as “food stuff” by the FDA, so you can be sure it took years of research and lab testing, and millions of dollars to come up with such a technical and scientific name.
Because of concern over the environment, animal rights, or even their health, more people are adopting a vegetarian diet—see the “Meatless Mondays” movement, for starters—but how to convince hardcore meat-eaters to switch? At the AAAS Meeting on Sunday, a panel of experts talked about the quest to create “test tube burgers” and realistic meat substitutes, which is closer than many of us realize. One scientist revealed the product could even hit store shelves this year.
Meat consumption has a huge environmental impact: it’s a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and foodborne illnesses, like E. coli. By the year 2050, Nicholas Genovese of the University of Missouri told the crowd today, meat consumption will increase by 60 per cent. What’s needed, he continued, is “the next agricultural revolution”—one that changes the way we produce meat. Stanford University’s Patrick Brown and Eindhoven University of Technology’s Mark Post presented two very different visions of what this “new meat” could be.
Mark Post—a doctor by training—is trying to grow meat from animal stem cells. By crafting the skeletal muscle tissue of a pig or cow in the lab, he could actually make meat for eating, he says. They’re working with cow cells at the moment, trying to make a hamburger, and don’t yet have quite enough in the lab to make a meatball; once they do, they’ll cook it and see how it tastes. It’s hard to say how long it will be before we see products like this become widely available: first they have to find a way to significantly up the production, and getting financial backing before there’s a real “proof of concept” is a challenge. Post admitted to having a “reputable” financial backer on this project, but wouldn’t reveal his or her identity. Animal rights group PETA famously offered a $1 million prize to the team that could successfully grow meat in the lab but all these researchers said they don’t intend to claim that prize: as Genovese said, the greatest prize would be creating a technology that can “sustainably support humanity, without destroying the ecosystem.”
Brown, meanwhile, has a different approach: he’s working making meat alternatives from plant sources that can actually compete with beef, pork, chicken and other animal products—even dairy. The point isn’t to make another tofurky or almond milk, he says. It’s to make something that “can compete head-on with meat and dairy products,” especially among meatlovers who’d never touch a veggie burger. A “major Silicon Valley venture firm” is backing him, he said, although he wouldn’t identify which—and, most tantalizingly, he suggested their first meat alternative could be on store shelves within the year. The product “totally rocks,” he says, adding that it’s virtually indistinguishable from what it replaces, “even by hardcore foodies.” But he wouldn’t elaborate on whether it will be more like a steak, sausage, chicken or rack of lamb. Hopefully, he said, the ideal product will be something that can satisfy all meat cravings.
Agricultural farming is “by far the biggest ongoing environmental catastrophe,” Brown said. To find a meat alternative that can really convince people to switch, these three scientists are convinced, could help save the world.
This post is part of Protein Angst, a series on the environmental and nutritional complexities of high-protein foods. Our goal is to publish a range of perspectives on these very heated topics. Add your feedback and story suggestions here.
Most people erroneously think proper nutrition is mainly about vitamins and minerals, but there is a whole other world within the plant kingdom: phytonutrients. Photo: MJM
By and large, the most environmentally friendly dietary decision one can make is to eat less animal protein (see deforestation, water pollution, and greenhouse-gas emissions, etc). But for many, the notion of eschewing — or significantly cutting back on — meat, eggs, and dairy brings up nutritional concerns. As I see it, not only are those concerns usually unfounded, they should pale in comparison to the question of getting enough plant-based foods.
Let’s begin with protein. Here’s something most people don’t know: Barring oils and some fruits, there is protein in almost every food. Yes, that includes broccoli, spinach, and potatoes. Most people are surprised to learn that a cup of cooked oatmeal offers as much protein as an egg, and an almond butter sandwich on whole grain bread provides 15 grams of protein (around a quarter of a day’s recommendation for a 160-pound male). To determine your protein requirement, divide your weight in pounds by 2.2, and then multiply that number by 0.8. You can, of course, surpass that figure.
You’ll hear lots of talk about “complete” versus “incomplete” proteins, but I consider that concept irrelevant and outdated. It goes something like this: Complete proteins contain all essential amino acids (“essential” meaning our bodies don’t produce them, so we need to get them from food); incomplete ones have very low amounts of — or lack — an essential amino acid. Meat, poultry, and fish are complete proteins. While there are some plant-based complete proteins like amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa, and soy, the vast majority is “incomplete.”
Incomplete proteins are only a concern if someone eats exclusively from one food group (i.e. nothing but potatoes, or nothing but bread) for extended periods of time. Luckily, eating from more than one food group is not only possible, it’s what most of us crave. You would be hard pressed to find someone who won’t naturally, throughout the course of the day, consume food from more than one food group. Even if you subsist on nothing but peanut butter sandwiches for a week you are getting all the essential amino acids (legumes and grains are two different food groups, and it just so happens that the essential amino acids that are low in bread are high in legumes, and vice versa).
Frances Moore Lappé, who popularized the idea of “protein combining” in the first edition of her book Diet For A Small Planet(1971), retracted that theory in the book’s 1981 edition:
In 1971 I stressed protein complementarity because I assumed that the only way to get enough protein … was to create a protein as usable by the body as animal protein. In combating the myth that meat is the only way to get high-quality protein, I reinforced another myth. I gave the impression that in order to get enough protein without meat, considerable care was needed in choosing foods. Actually, it is much easier than I thought.
With three important exceptions, there is little danger of protein deficiency in a plant food diet. The exceptions are diets very heavily dependent on [1] fruit or on [2] some tubers, such as sweet potatoes or cassava, or on [3] junk food (refined flours, sugars, and fat). Fortunately, relatively few people in the world try to survive on diets in which these foods are virtually the sole source of calories. In all other diets, if people are getting enough calories, they are virtually certain of getting enough protein. [Emphasis mine.]
The other group of plant protein critics are those who believe its quality to be low. They usually reference the “Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score,” which is a tool for measuring protein digestibility in humans. A quick glance at the list and you may conclude that plant-based protein sources are indeed inferior to milk, eggs, and beef. After all, the only plant-based food with a “perfect” score of 1.0 is soy protein, while chickpeas get a 0.78 and vegetables get a 0.73. However, as with the “complete vs. incomplete protein” argument, as long as you eat different types of plant-based foods throughout the course of the day, they will complement each other and form a “perfect” protein score.
As a nutrition professional, I get very frustrated by the protein-centric framework that inevitably comes up when plant-based eating is discussed, particularly because the average American consumes sufficient protein, but nowhere near the daily recommended amounts of fiber and several important minerals, like magnesium. Low intakes of both are associated with higher risks of chronic disease. And, here’s an indisputable fact: No matter how humane, local, pastured, or organic your steak or chicken is, it does not offer fiber or significant levels of magnesium. Vegetarian sources of protein, meanwhile (nuts, seeds, beans, whole grains, pseudograins, and vegetables) are good — and in some cases, excellent — sources of both.
Never heard of “pseudograins” before? Though cooked and consumed like grains, amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, and wild rice are seeds.
Most people erroneously think proper nutrition is mainly about vitamins and minerals, but there is a whole other world within the plant kingdom: phytonutrients. These chemical compounds, which we are learning more about with each passing year, are not present in animal products. But, they occur naturally in plant-based foods. These compounds give fruits, vegetables, beans, and grains their particular colors and aromas. Added bonus: They also confer their own sets of health benefits.
Quercetin – a phytonutrient found in apple peels, onions, and tea — is believed to improve blood cholesterol levels and help lower the risk of some cancers. Research on isothiocyanates, abundant in dark leafy greens, has also demonstrated their capacity to help protect against chronic disease. Other popular phytonutrients include lignans (in flax and sesame seeds) and phenolic acids (peanuts, walnuts). Mind you, there are over 170 phytochemicals in a single orange.
Phytonutrients are sensitive to processing, which is why they are most abundant in whole, plant-based foods (think a diced apple in a salad rather than a glass of commercial apple juice). Most importantly, phytonutrients are relatively new to the field of nutrition, so there are many still yet to be discovered and studied.
As you can see, plant-based foods are more than just meat and protein substitutes. We must stop treating meat as the nutritional golden standard, especially since so-called “alternatives” offer an array of health-promoting compounds. The United States is in the grips of a nutritional deficit disorder that would be drastically minimized if we all started eating less meat and more plants.
One final note: Vitamin B12 is not present in plant-based foods. Fortunately, it can easily be fortified in foods and supplemented. The unique biochemical makeup of plant-based foods, however, cannot be replicated in a pill. Not only are there thousands of phytonutrients, but research has shown they need to operate within their original food matrix to be efficient (aka, isolate them and they get separation anxiety and can’t function right).
So by all means, cut back on animal protein and eat more whole, plant-based foods — it’s good for both bodies of water and human bodies!
Andy Bellatti, MS, RD, is a Seattle-based dietitian who approaches nutrition from a whole-foods, plant-centric framework. He also takes a strong interest in food politics, nutrition policy, and deceptive food industry marketing tactics. He is the creator of the Small Bites blog and can be followed on Twitter.
Aerial shot of the Nelson Faria Dairy in Royal, Wash. Note the tiny dots that are the dairy cows congregating in the holding pens. (Image by Google Maps.)
In a precedent-setting decision earlier this month that received scant national coverage, a federal district court judge in Washington state ordered a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation), also known as a factory farm, to monitor groundwater, drainage, and soil for illegal pollution resulting from its grossly inadequate manure management practices in violation of the Clean Water Act. This first-ever ruling holding a CAFO accountable for its pollution was a result of a lawsuit by the nonprofit Community Association for Restoration of the Environment (CARE) against the Nelson Faria Dairy in Royal, Wash. The ruling upholds the terms of a 2006 settlement CARE had with the dairy’s previous owners, which the current owners subsequently ignored.
The case underscores one of the major problems with CAFOs, which is the massive amount of manure they produce and the manners by which operators dispose of it, which have major environmental implications. According to the EPA, “a single dairy cow produces approximately 120 pounds of wet manure per day,” which is “equivalent to that of 20-40 people.” The quantity of manure produced by one dairy cow can be multiplied on a CAFO by hundreds or, in some cases, thousands of heads. This higher concentration of CAFO animals leads to a higher concentration of animal waste, a problem that holds true for all types of livestock raised in these operations. As CARE describes the scale of the waste problem:
Operations like the Nelson Faria Dairy produce as much waste as a city of over 200,000 people. Unlike cities, however, which treat their wastes, the dairy industry applies manure to agricultural fields primarily to get rid of it.
Photo by Tonvolz.
In moderation, manure is a great soil fertilizer, but the sheer amount (and concentration) of untreated waste generated by CAFOs is a serious liability. When too much manure is spread out over fields for soil to properly absorb it, or when manure lagoons leak, overflow, or rupture, rain and stormwater runoff can carry the waste into groundwater and nearby waterways. This over-application or discharge of CAFO animal waste is an egregious example of nonpoint source pollution, where the source(s) is diffuse and can have a wide distribution area. Untreated animal waste is a hazard for both public health and ecosystems because it can contain harmful quantities of nutrients, pathogens, and heavy metals. (Ecocentric has covered the problems associated with large amounts of untreated CAFO animal waste.)
The case of the improper handling of manure on the Nelson Faria Dairy is typical of the CAFO industry. While state and federal animal waste rules exist, their enforcement is lax at best. As CARE president, Helen Reddout, explained:
The Washington Department of Agriculture had recently inspected the dairy and found that it was doing an excellent job managing its manure. Nothing could be further from the truth … It is now time for the agencies who are supposed to be protecting our health to follow the precedent set by this Order. Our state and federal laws were aimed at protecting people and now it’s time for the agencies responsible for safeguarding public health to do just that.
Reddout goes on to explain the reality of state agency CAFO inspections:
Washington Departments of Ecology and Agriculture (WSDA) are supposed to monitor and regulate the dairy industry to ensure that operations do not harm public health or the environment. Unfortunately, inspections often involve nothing more than cursory visits by WSDA staff. If problems are found, dairy owners receive only a slap on the wrist, at best.
The hope is that this court victory against CAFO manure handling and pollution — little mentioned in the media — will help set a precedent toward better practices, regulation, and enforcement of the CAFO industry. Reddout acknowledges that this court victory is one small step, albeit an important one, that shows that CAFOs aren’t above the law and puts them on notice for pollution practices, a particularly big deal for the economically (and thus politically) strong Yakima Valley dairy industry. Based on the compelling evidence of agricultural water contamination in the Lower Yakima Valley, and bolstered by the recent ruling, the EPA selected the area for inclusion in a study monitoring nitrate pollution in groundwater. Reddout expects the EPA report to be released in late spring 2012.
CARE and their allies in the Royal City area deserve our congratulations for this major legal victory that may ultimately inspire a regulatory approach to CAFOs capable of safeguarding human and ecological health. Government agencies must acknowledge the great harm cased by CAFO pollution and hold the industry accountable for the true costs CAFOs impose upon the public.
As expressed by CARE’s lead attorney, Charlie Tebbutt, “Citizens have once again proven that the CAFO industry is a huge polluter. It is time for the state agencies to step up.”
Kai Olson-Sawyer is a Research and Policy Analyst in the GRACE Water and Energy Programs where he also works on H2O Conserve project operations. Prior to joining GRACE, Kai was employed at the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon and researched with NYC Apollo Alliance. His body is composed of 60 percent water.
Bonnie suffered from the physical and emotional pain of cystic acne since her teenage years. She tried just about every medication available to relieve the symptoms, but to no avail. Then she made the decision to replace the standard American diet with high-nutrient foods. Today Bonnie’s skin is clear, except for some scarring, and she’s now a passionate advocate of nutritarian eating! Welcome to Disease Proof, Bonnie.
What was your life like before discovering Dr. Fuhrman’s nutritarian eating-style?
I was a typical junk food eater. I was always relatively thin but suffered constantly from cystic acne; the kind that hurt when I talked or moved my jaw. I loved white flour products, processed foods, and my biggest love was cheese. Pizza was my food of choice. I probably ate pizza at least three times a week. Unfortunately, acne was the price I paid for eating the standard American diet.
I’d been seeing dermatologists since I was 16-years-old. I was on countless acne drugs: Benzoyle Peroxide, Tetracycline, Doxycycline, Minocycline, Duac, Erythromycin, Differin, Tazorac, Retin-A, and different birth control pills to stabilize hormones. The next step was to take Accutane, but the side effects scared me so I thought of it as a last resort.
My doctor always told me that diet had absolutely nothing to do with my acne. I felt depressed, and my relationships and self esteem suffered greatly, because I felt I had no control over it. I became obsessed with desperately trying to find a solution. I didn’t know what I could do to fix it, and it was so frustrating. I knew in the grand scheme of things it was not a life or death situation, but for a girl in her twenties, it was mortifying. I also dealt with migraine headaches, severe acid reflux, bad allergies (hay fever), asthma, chronic bronchitis, constipation, high cholesterol and borderline high blood pressure.
In 2006 I read Eat To Liveand joined Dr. Fuhrman’s Member Center. I thought his eating plan made so much sense. It was such a far cry from what I was used to, and for the first five years I had a hard time getting into it. Because I didn’t have weight to lose or health problems (so I thought), it was easy to keep going back to my old ways of eating.
In 2011 I started eating nutritatian all the time and didn’t deviate. [My motivation was having my son in February 2011.] I stuck with it, and I’ve been consistently compliant since March 2011. My skin is now completely clear, and I’m on no prescription acne medications!
How do you feel now?
I finally feel in control of my health and my acne. I know what I can do to keep my skin clear and stay healthy. I know that if I eat cheese (the worst!) or sugar and white flour I will break out. Even if I have it just once, I usually end up with a blemish. If I continue eating the standard American diet my skin reverts back to a diseased state.
I also feel so much better! I never have acid reflux or migraines anymore, and my allergies, asthmas and bronchitis have disappeared. I lowered my cholesterol, and I also lost about 20 pounds in the process. [I never even knew I had weight to lose.] At 5’2” I now weigh about 103 lbs. I’m happy to be passing this healthy lifestyle onto my son.
In a nutshell, what has nutritarian eating done for you?
Nutritarian eating has become a passion of mine. I’m not perfect but each day I make small tweaks to keep striving to get better. This lifestyle has helped me feel more in control of my health and less dependent on the corrupt healthcare system in this country. I want nothing to do with Big Pharma or insurance companies. I want to make sure I never have to rely on greedy corporations for my health or the health of my family. This lifestyle has been amazing in terms of how little I am sick and all of the money I no longer spend on the ten different prescriptions I used to be on. I’m hoping to instill the love of this food into my son and my husband.
Congratulations Bonnie on getting your health back and your beautiful smile!
Monsanto is getting a taste of its own medicine; the company is being taken to court.
In this corner, we have a corporate biotech giant with a tighter grasp on the agricultural Monopoly board than your over-enthusiastic little sister on game night. (Their patented genes are in more than 80 percent of the soybeans, corn, cotton, sugar beets, and canola seeds grown in the U.S.) And in this corner, 83 scrappy plaintiffs representing non-GMO seed producers, farmers, and agricultural organizations who say they want the biotech company to stop suing and threatening them. While most are organic, not all of them are.
As we reported last March, when the lawsuit was first announced, OSGATA et al. is fighting an old battle against Monsanto’s so-called “seed police” and their practice of suing farmers for patent infringement because pollen or seeds from a farm growing GMO plants nearby drifts onto their land.
OSGATA and company finally got their day in court on Jan. 31. Approximately 200 farmers and supporters showed up in front of the Federal District Court in Manhattan for opening arguments. Occupy Wall Street’s food justice working group helped organize the rally, though they are not plaintiffs in the suit. “We’re part of OWS, which is all about corporate consolidation, and you can’t discuss that without addressing agriculture,” says Corbin Laedlein, a member of the working group.
“We want nothing to do with Monsanto. We don’t want their seed. We don’t want their technology. We don’t want their contamination,” says Jim Gerritsen, an organic farmer from Maine and president of OSGATA. The organization originally brought the idea of a suit to the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), a group that wants to change how patent law works in the U.S., and PUBPAT took on the case pro bono. In Gerritsen’s estimation, about 300,000 individuals are involved in the case by proxy of organizations they’re a part of, including most certified organic farmers in the country. Gerritsen calls the dustings of GMO-crop pollen and the occasional seed carried wayward by the wind — a natural atmospheric occurrence found in what is known as the “outdoors” — contamination which not only is unwelcome, but can also could potentially lower the quality and value of organic and other non-GMO crops.
“They are probably the most aggressive patent holder in the U.S.,” Gerritsen adds. According to PUBPAT, between 1997 and April 2010, Monsanto filed 144 lawsuits against farmers for patent infringement, and more than 500 farms are investigated each year.
“The seed that Monsanto doesn’t control, they will control through contamination,” Gerritsen says. “Monsanto wants ultimate and absolute control over everything.” Cue the menacing Hollywood music.
The lawsuit highlights potential dangers of transgenic crops. “We think [the technology behind transgenic crops] was released too early. Way before it was peer-reviewed,” says Dave Murphy, a plaintiff and executive director of Food Democracy Now! “The question is that Monsanto never did rigorous double blind studies.”
Increasingly, though, organic and transgenic seeds are coexisting on American farmland. Last year, the Agriculture Department said that crops would not necessarily lose their organic status if they were found to have some transgenic content.
For consumers, this means that transgenic ingredients may be present in the organic staples they pay a premium for.
Several of the plaintiffs took to Twitter to critique Moskin’s characterization of coexistence as hunky-dory. The OWS Food Justice twitter account responded by pointing out: “1st para. of plaintiff’s complaint: ‘coexistence between transgenic seed and organic seed is IMPOSSIBLE.’”
Ultimately, the lawsuit does not seek reparations or a resolution for those issues, however. It merely aims to stop the patent infringement lawsuits, require Monsanto to pay plaintiffs’ costs and legal fees, and ensure that many of Monsanto’s patents are deemed invalid.
Of course, Monsanto denies being lawsuit-happy.
In a press release, the company called the suit “false, misleading and deceptive.” In an email to Grist, Monsanto spokesman Tom Helscher wrote, “Monsanto never has and never will sue a farmer if our patented seed or traits are found in his field as a result of inadvertent means.” Not surprisingly, the company would like to see the case dismissed. We’ll know whether it goes to trial by late March.
Jenny An is a writer based in Brooklyn. She’s written about food, technology, and the arts for Mashable, Conde Nast Traveler, and whomever else will let her.
Help us persuade Congress to reform the agency with our Action Alert!
Drug research, even from clinical trials sponsored by the federal government, is routinely suppressed, according to a new study in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), an international peer-reviewed medical publication. The study found that less than half of all NIH-funded clinical drug trials were published in a medical journal within two and a half years of the trial’s completion—with fully one-third of trial results remaining unpublished even four years after the trial. Why? Because the drug manufacturers didn’t like the data.
One example cited in the study was the FDA-approved diabetes drug Avandia, which in 2007 was found to increase heart attacks and cardiovascular deaths—even though the drug’s maker, GlaxoSmithKline, had known about the risk before the drug was approved. The BMJ study found that 35 of the drug’s 42 clinical studies had never been published, and were obtained only because a court case required the pharmaceutical company to turn over the data.
Not only does this irresponsible practice harm patients, it also increases healthcare costs. Eugene Carragee, a Stanford University orthopedic surgeon and editor-in-chief of the Spine Journal, spearheaded an unprecedented independent analysis showing that the medical device manufacturer Medtronic—not to mention a circle of orthopedic surgeons who received millions of dollars in royalties from the company—systematically failed to report serious complications with Medtronic’s bone-growth stimulating back surgery device known as Infuse. The results of a crucial clinical trial of the product were not published until nearly five years after the trial had to be halted because unwanted bone was growing around the spines of the trial volunteers.
For two years, Schering-Plough, the maker of the popular cholesterol drug Vytorin, sat on the results of a clinical trial showing that the drug provided no benefit in improving artery health. During that time, the drug was heavily marketed to consumers in TV ads; the marketing was only halted in 2008 after a congressional investigation was launched.
In 2003, a clinical trial of Multaq, a drug that treated cardiac arrhythmias, was stopped because more patients who were getting the drug were dying than those who received a placebo—though the study results weren’t published until five years later. Even so, the drug was approved by the FDA in 2009 as a treatment for atrial fibrillation in certain patients—just not as a means to reduce deaths!
Why does FDA approve drugs whose data have been suppressed by the manufacturer? Is it because FDA depends on Big Pharma for its budget—and needs drug companies to hire former FDA employees. The Wall Street Journal reported that FDA advisers, in a recent vote, said the benefits of four popular Bayer AG birth control pills outweigh the blood clot risk. What the FDA didn’t disclose is that three of the advisers have had ties to Bayer, serving as consultants, speakers, or researchers!
Despite the FDA’s bias in favor of drugs and against supplements, there are tremendous shortages of some drugs (though no shortage of supplements—so far!). This drug shortage prompts some hospitals to engage in price gouging, so a drug that usually costs $26 is being offered for $1,200. Moreover, the FDA artificially inflates drug prices—especially generic drug prices, which should be far lower than they are—as we have reported previously.
The shortage in the US drug market also makes foreign counterfeit drugs more popular. Recently, some 65 million counterfeit pills were seized in China; no word yet on how many of them had already made their way to the US.
If this is the way FDA oversees dangerous drugs, what will happen if we give them the same authority over supplements? It’s not just that the agency doesn’t have the knowledge to properly oversee supplements—they also don’t have the capacity. If they can’t keep up with the hundreds of drugs already under their purview, how will they cope with the thousands of supplements on the market? One way, of course, is for them to drastically reduce the number of supplements that can be marketed—one inevitable result of the NDI draft guidelines that we have been campaigning against.
There must be sincere and honest people working for the US Food and Drug Administration, but it is currently being run in a corrupt and incompetent way. It desperately needs to be reformed. Please help us in our ongoing campaign to overhaul the agency by signing our petition to Congress. As we say in the petition, “Everything about the FDA must be taken apart, reviewed, redefined, and re-created so that it supports, not obstructs, the mission of advancing medical science and vibrant good health for all.” Please take action today!
Paraguay farmer educates his neighbors about Monsanto:
We are going to talk about the production model of GM soybeans promoted by Monsanto. It’s a true multi-national company. It’s everywhere in the world. It’s objective is to control all of the world’s food production through farmerless farming. The result is that Monsanto is depriving us of our food sovereignty, of our ability to feed ourselves without depending on anyone else. That is why we say that we must fight for our independence – for our land. We must defend our communities, our families and our country.
The approval of GMOs was not a scientific decision but a political one. Initially foods derived from new plant varieties were to be evaluated the same as foods derived from traditional seed propagation. But in May 1992 the Bush Regime created “The Principle of substantial Equivalence.” This decision applied to all products of biotechnology. The Bush regime decided none should undergo any special testing or evaluation.
Michael Taylor was Deputy Commissioner of Policy under the Bush regime. He participated in policies regarding GMOs. He had no background in science or agriculture. As an attorney his role was to implement a policy that would benefit one of his former clients . . . Monsanto.
FDA claims that there is an overwhelming consensus in the scientific community that GMOs are as safe as their conventionally produced counter parts. However over 44,000 pages from the FDA’s own files are prove positive that this is a gross lie.
The documentary also brings to light the truly evil role PR firms now play in our society. These highly paid companies will work for anyone, have absolutely no morality – repeat have absolutely no morality – and provide the spin or lies necessary to protect corporations from public scrutiny.
The World According to Monsanto perfectly exemplifies that the dead legal fiction known as The Corporation is a parasitic blight consuming and destroying the natural world for no better reason than to produce profit and engage in unlimited growth.
Perhaps one day all of humanity will recognize this, deconstruct this business model, fire paid liars (PR people) and create another model that values life on planet earth.
It has been known for some time that religious belief and behavior affect the brain—in the same way all habits, emotions and memories build neural pathways. But can we pinpoint specific chemicals, genes and clusters of neurons that give rise to religiosity, or to atheism?
Rutgers University evolutionary biologist Lionel Tiger thinks we can: “Religion is really made by the brain. It is a secretion of the brain,” says Tiger, who thinks the root of religious belief is an evolutionary drive to seek this “secretion”—namely serotonin—which provides the believer with feelings of well-being. A neurotransmitter that regulates mood and appetite, serotonin is linked to feelings of well-being when it floods the central nervous system.
“One of the ways of looking at religion is to what extent and how does it generate the serotonergic juices that make us feel good,” says Tiger. Attending a religious service, for example, can be a flurry of social activity and controlled procedure, which releases a cocktail of serotonin-led neurotransmitters in the brain. This chemical response “soothes” the organ, he says, echoing the results of recent studies. Working with neuroscientist Michael McGuire, Tiger has connected this research on serotonin as it works in the brain with the social aspects and origins of religion.
“Religion may be one of the main producers of the brain-soothing phenomenon in a way that is not that expensive or destructive or difficult. All you have to do is show up Sunday morning,” Tiger says. Religion, in this sense, becomes a self-created, self-consumed endeavor, he adds.
Tiger’s conclusion is that the neurochemical response of religion serves a biological need for humans, as shown in its absence. As an example, he points to France, a nominally Catholic country with low mass attendance and rare religious observance that has one of Europe’s highest rates of antidepressant consumption. “It may be that they’re taking the mass into their skull with a pill, so there is the pharmacological element of brain soothing,” he says.
Yet, religion is not all soothing, and serotonin itself cannot account for bouts of religious ecstasy and visions from—in Christianity alone—Pentecostal glossolalia and the charismatic movement stretching all the way back to Saul’s dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus.
To get to the root of religious zeal, scientists are looking beyond neural chemistry to the architecture of the brain itself. There isn’t one part of the brain dedicated to processing the divine, as the pineal gland was once thought to be the seat of the soul. Instead, according to recent research, religiosity is dislocated and strung out along a neural network comprised of the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes.
Decreased parietal lobe activity, for example, has been linked to some religious experiences, while the decision-making and social aspects of religion seem to interplay in the frontal lobes. It is the temporal lobes that have been the focus of significant recent interest for their connection between epilepsy and religious visions and conversion. Epileptic seizures, and the brain chemistry at work between seizures, leads in some patients to a “gradual personality change which disposes them to mystical and religious thinking,” says neurologist Oliver Sacks in an interview with Big Think.
In the late 18th century, Benjamin Franklin was something of an icon in Europe. The French hung portraits of Franklin on their walls much in the same way college students pay tribute to John Belushi or Jim Morrison in their dorms. Everywhere Franklin went, his feisty personality preceded him, and it was this reputation in Europe that played a key role in securing the foreign aid the revolutionaries needed to triumph over the British. Many consider the celebrated polymath to be the first “American” in numerous regards—in entrepreneurialism, in political discourse, and, of course, in partying. As it turns out, Franklin was also the first American environmentalist, and his inventions influenced the scientific community for decades.
Energy Efficiency
In the age of clean energy technologies racing to meet grid parity, we often forget that there was a push for cleaner energy in the time of the founders. Ben Franklin himself designed a four-sided street lamp to replace the commonly used globe lamps. A build-up of soot darkened the globe lamps, which required near-daily cleaning, and let off an excess of smoke. The Franklin lamp increased air circulation within the lamps, allowing for better fuel efficiency and less cleaning.
Similarly, Franklin sought to design a more fuel-efficient stove that consumed less wood and produced more heat. Incidentally, though Franklin managed to sell multiple sets, the stove did not work very well. It was later improved upon, however, and has come to be known as the “Franklin Stove.”
When Franklin was holed up in the suburbs of France due to a debilitating case of gout, his friends encouraged him to find ways to keep busy. And so, Franklin occupied himself in the only way he knew how: by devising ingenious and occasionally self-deprecating plots. In a 1784 letter to the Journal de Paris, Franklin parodied his penchant for sleeping late, observing, after a loud noise awoke him at dawn, “Your readers, who with me have never seen any signs of sunshine before noon… will be as much astonished as I was, when they hear of [the sun] rising so early.”
As a more serious corollary, Franklin observed that, should he or any of his French compatriots rise with the sun, they would not have to burn candles for extra hours in the evening—a chore that Franklin, as a self-proclaimed cheapskate, found decidedly inefficient. It was from this observation and the desire to save a few bucks that Franklin outlined a rough idea for daylight saving time as a means for farmers to maximize production during light hours and cut down on fuel costs of illuminating the dark. The idea would not be adopted until after 1895, when George Vernon Hudson proposed the modern conception of daylight saving time.
It is no surprise that the first man to demonstrate that lightning was electrical would take a keen interest in electricity and energy. And take an interest, he did. Amid his busy schedule of promoting the American agenda, learning French in parlors, and drinking to excess, Franklin was the first to propose the theory of conservation of charge. Franklin also supported the controversial wave-theory of light. Among other contributions to physics, Franklin’s work with electricity precipitated his ascent to the first presidency of the American Philosophical Society, at the time a herald of scientific inquiry, which would later be headed by another famous scientist-statesman, Thomas Jefferson.
Environmentalism
Despite his humble birth, Ben Franklin rose to prominence via his publication of Poor Richard’s Almanack, a collection of aphorisms and amateur guide to meteorology. This interest in meteorology extended itself into other environmental realms, including those of forestry, oceanography, and clean air.
Franklin built his own paper mill in order to furnish himself with a cheaper, more efficient supply of newsprint that would save trees. In doing so, he undercut his competitors. In the 1740s, he encouraged his friends to do the same, and eventually found himself at the center of a wholesale paper mill industry that was also environmentally friendly.
It was in his study of postal routes that Franklin took an interest in oceans and currents. When sailors took Franklin’s advice on the Gulf Stream, they managed to cut their commute by two weeks. Franklin’s studies into oceans lent itself to a concern for clean water. In 1739, Franklin petitioned the Philadelphia government to prohibit local tanneries from dumping waste into the tributary of the Delaware River. Similarly, in the 1760s, Franklin led a commission to monitor water pollution and waste disposal in Pennsylvania. Franklin also urged people to decrease their chimney use so as not to pollute the air.
Public health
Franklin also concerned himself with promoting public health. His contemporaries assumed that wearing damp clothing caused the common cold; however, Franklin observed that sailors wore wet clothes frequently and remained healthy. Before germs were deemed the culprit of compromising the immune system, Franklin suggested that the common cold was transmitted from people living in close quarters—a trend that happened to coincide with winter.
In keeping with his commitment to public health, Franklin launched a campaign to open a public hospital. Franklin diverted funds to the nation’s first hospital, also known as the Pennsylvania Hospital, in order to care for the poor and the mentally ill—two demographics long marginalized by colonial society.
In his will, Ben Franklin stipulated the construction of a water pipeline to provide fresh, clean water to the city of Philadelphia. This construction led to the Philadelphia Water Commission, which institutionalized Franklin’s belief that the public right to health should supersede private interests.
Given his commitment to environmental issues and sustainable business practices, it may be prudent to say that Franklin would have opposed some of the House cuts that stand to strip the public of food safety and farming innovation grants. He certainly would have taken no pleasure in the “Drill, Baby, Drill” chants, and not just because he would have found them lacking in wit.
Today’s political discourse supposes that the Founding Fathers were suspicious of the popular majority and favored limited government. Yet while our nation’s founders may not have intended the government itself to be run by direct democracy, they certainly believed that government had an obligation to protect the welfare of all its citizens. For Ben Franklin, a truly self-made man, that welfare included clean air, clean water, and general hygiene and sanitation. In retrospect, Ben Franklin did a couple things right. Maybe we should follow his lead in the arena of civic duty to protect our earth and our health.
— Lauren Simenauer is finishing her bachelor’s degrees in biology and psychology at the University of Virginia.
This is the third installment in a Science Progress series about the founding fathers’ relationships with science, and what they might have to say about the science policy issues of today. Parts one and two, about Thomas Jefferson and George Washington respectively, can be found here, and here.
SOLAR MEGASTORMS can GENERATE a GLOBAL NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE
By Mark Goldes
MILLIONS of LIVES may DEPEND on WISE, RAPID, EFFECTIVE, ACTION! Giant Sunspot Now Aimed Directly at Earth. The largest active region seen on the sun since 2005 has rotated to the center of the sun’s face, as seen from Earth–which means any eruptions it produces will be aimed right at us. National Geographic News
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Sunspot 1339 is a complex region and earlier ejected an X1.9 flare. X-class flares can cause major problems. An X-class coronal mass ejection heading for Earth could have devastating effects. NASA warns they can cause power outages lasting for years. Little recognized and unpublicized, a solar megastorm could cause a mortal threat – meltdowns at nuclear power plants across the planet.
We are unprepared and are playing Russian roulette with the sun. The NOAA sees the peak peril during the next 2 to 5 years. They state the maximum threat may occur in 2013.
3 million people lost power in the recent snowstorm. 130 million could suffer long-term, life-threatening, blackouts in the USA — and China, India, Japan, most of Europe and much of the remainder of the planet.
N.Y., Washington, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, and many other heavily populated communities could be in great peril. A similar threat to major cities and large populations exists worldwide.
To prevent the worst requires a massive 24/7 effort – similar to the optimum response to a major military attack on the entire earth.
The big problem is solar induced destruction of huge electrical transformers that take years to replace. The loss of those transformers and the long time required to restore them could black out large areas of the planet for several years.
Preventing this nightmare is urgent.
In the USA there are 5,500 of these transformers. 350 are critical. Over 20,000 such transformers may exist worldwide. New technology might protect them all.
Survival of millions, and numerous nations, possibly including our own, may depend on safeguarding critical grids, providing sufficient standby power to nuclear plants, and rapidly decentralizing energy!
This almost unimaginable tragedy might be prevented if we quickly install newly developed technology to protect the grid and safeguard nuclear facilities. It would also be wise to decentralize electric power generation as fast as is humanly possible.
A map of the USA on the Aesop Institute website reflects a NASA study based on the 1921 solar storm. There are two huge areas that NASA warns can experience a total loss of the electrical grid for years. After one month without grid power nuclear plants and many other nuclear installations are in danger of life-threatening meltdowns.
The NASA map shows the possible effect, if one of the powerful solar emissions that may strike in this decade, smashes into our geomagnetic field. Far worse than any terror attack, the entire world is totally unprepared for such an event. Based on this NASA map 71 nuclear plants in the USA are at direct risk from a solar megastorm. These nuclear plants could be without grid electricity necessary for cooling their fuel pools. Imagine 71 Fukushima meltdowns in this country. More than 400 facilities are at risk worldwide.
Without including probable nuclear plant meltdowns, NASA estimated the price tag in the USA could reach $2 Trillion the first year, with 4 to 10 years required for full recovery.
NOAA Assistant Secretary Kathryn Sullivan says countries should prepare for “potentially devastating effects.” Sullivan, a former NASA astronaut who in 1984 became the first woman to walk in space, said in Geneva that “it is not a question of if, but really a matter of when a major solar event could hit our planet.”
“Widespread disruption of electric service can quickly … endanger millions.” Joseph McClelland Director, Reliability, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
This is a little publicized multi-trillion dollar, planet wide nightmare! Preventative steps could minimize the damage.
Radiation experts recently estimated that more than 1 million people will die from Fukushima radiation. According to Dr. Tatsuhiko Kodama, the director of the Radioisotope Center at the University of Tokyo, the amount of radiation released thus far is equivalent to more than 29 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs. “While the remaining radiation from atomic bombs decreases to one-thousandth of the original level after a year, radioactive materials from the nuclear power plant only decrease to one-tenth the original level.”
The massive program needed would directly and indirectly provide millions of jobs and boost the staggering global economy far beyond current expectations.
PREVENTING THE WORST MAY MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE!
Cheap green electricity to supersede fossil fuels is in the birth canal – development and production might be sharply accelerated. $50 per barrel diesel from sunlight, water, CO2 and bacteria, is in pilot plant production today! Heat and eventually electricity might begin to be fueled by miniscule amounts of Nickel powder and Hydrogen from water.
These and other surprising positive Black Swans — highly improbable energy innovations with huge potential implications – are being born. See MOVING BEYOND OIL and CHEAP GREEN on this website to learn more.
After one month without grid power, a nuclear plant poses a grave problem. Once the water has evaporated in the stored fuel ponds, meltdowns become likely, spewing deadly radiation. Unless quickly prevented by sensible action, a solar megastorm can cause this nightmare to occur at a very large number of nuclear plants and other nuclear facilities .
There were huge solar flares in each of the last five months. A strong geomagnetic storm and a severe solar flare were experienced in September. The June flare covered half of the sun. An X Class flare occurred this month. Mobilizing to minimize the damage can stimulate broad support for decentralized energy production and emerging cheap green electricity.
An advisor to the Japanese government reported that as a result of the Fukushima catastrophe, millions of people will have to be monitored indefinitely for radiation sickness.
Will a Solar Megastorm create 71 U.S. Fukushimas?
We face a severe potential emergency. External threats serve to unite. The world faces an unrecognized nuclear peril! Uniting to confront it can generate the missing popular and government support to generate millions of jobs and revitalize the global economy.
A THREAT GREATER THAN ANY TERROR ATTACK!
A NASA funded study by the National Academy of Sciences was titled Severe Space Weather Events–Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts. The resulting Report detailed what might happen in the event of a solar megastorm launching a powerful Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that strikes our geomagnetic field. The study predicts blackouts that may last for years. As the map above indicates, highly vulnerable areas include most of the Eastern and Northwestern parts of the nation.
The NOAA estimates each 11 year sunspot cycle is capable of launching 4 “extreme” (X class) CMEs and 100 “severe” CMEs at the earth. More X class events than were anticipated have occurred in the current cycle. The most dangerous period is the next 5 years. The peak peril is predicted by some to occur in May, 2013.
So far, neither NASA nor NOAA have publicly acknowledged the mortal threat these events may cause as the result of multiple meltdowns of nuclear plants worldwide. To date, there is no indication that the White House, Congress, Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and/or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have adequately prepared to prevent the horrendous effects of such a solar megastorm.
The recent statement by a NASA scientist that human life would not end as the result of the direct effects of a solar storm during 2012 is misleading. A solar megastorm that causes widespread meltdowns of numerous nuclear power plants can seriously end millions, if not hundreds of millions, or even billions, of lives from radioactivity. This event could very well parallel the aftermath of a nuclear weapons exchange had there been war between the USA and the USSR — massive amounts of radioactivity carried on prevailing winds all over the planet. The issue is not the specific year. This entire 11 year sunspot cycle should be of concern.
Aesop Institute is a non-profit California corporation. S ubstantial private funding is expected in January for a documentary film as part of The Brooklyn Project described on the www.aesopinstitute.org website. A five year grant has also been approved for a Power Grid Protection Project.
Preventing this nightmare urgently needs Congress to reintroduce the GRID RELIABILITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE DEFENSE ACT , HR 5026, as unanimously passed by the House, and pass the SHIELD Act, HR 668!
Submitters Bio:
Mark Goldes is Co-founder of Chava Energy and Chairman of Magnetic Power Inc. (MPI) in Sebastopol, California. Chava is acquiring assets of MPI. Earlier, he founded SunWind Ltd. and began the non-profit Aesop Institute. He previously was CEO of a financial and economic consulting firm. Once a student of Electrical Engineering, he earned BA and MA degrees at San Francisco State University, and later served two years on active duty with the USAF, culminating as a Senior Director of the Berlin Corridor control radar in Germany. Afterwards, from 1956 thru 1958, he earned a second Master’s degree and was a Fellow in the Graduate Program in the History of Ideas, at Brandeis University. In 1960, he founded Emerson College of the Monterey Peninsula, and later initiated the free university movement, which spread to at least 600 locations worldwide.
Former health official says H1N1 scare shows what pushes people to get needed shots
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Sept. 16 (HealthDay News) — Sometimes a little fear might be a good thing.
To run an effective public vaccination program, you’ve got to make sure that adequate amounts of the vaccine are available and there are enough staff members to administer it, said Dr. Adewale Troutman, director of the public health practice program at the University of South Florida, who, until recently, headed the Department of Public Health and Wellness in Louisville.
You also have to figure out when the public will be available to come get the vaccinations you offer.
And, of course, you need to make sure they are properly frightened.
Fear has proven to be the most potent motivator in getting people to not shrug off important immunizations, like an annual flu shot, Troutman said.
“The influenza vaccine is really an important immunization that people discount because, ehh, it’s just the flu,” he said. “But tens of thousands of people die every year from the flu.”
That changed with the H1N1 scare, when public health officials were concerned that a very potent strain of the flu would combine with scarce amounts of vaccine to create an epidemic. “If it turned out to be a very virulent virus, it could have been disastrous,” Troutman said.
The public got the message and flooded locales that were offering flu shots.
“H1N1 resonated because I think people were afraid of it,” Troutman said. “Once the fear message got out there, people became concerned about potential shortages of the vaccine. We literally had staff from all over the department doing extra time to make vaccinations available.”
Another motivator for some people, mainly senior citizens, can be the cost of the vaccination, he said.
For example, health departments may offer a shingles vaccine at a very low cost, but only as long as supplies last. When they run out, seniors have to go to their doctors to get a more expensive shot.
“So there’s a cost motivation for people to come get the shot from the health department,” Troutman said.
Once the public is motivated, public health officials then have to make sure they have enough vaccine on hand to treat everyone. “There seem to always be different levels of availability,” he said. “It’s always a concern: Is there going to be enough vaccine to go around this year?” Then there need to be enough staff members available to apply all the shots.
Once the resources are set and events are timed to the public’s convenience, public health directors then start pressing the public to get vaccinated, by writing op-ed articles and doing radio and television interviews — but knowing all the while that there’s a small number of people who don’t believe in immunization. Instead, they believe that vaccines are harmful.
“You probably can’t change their mind,” Troutman said. “They don’t accept the science. They don’t accept your expertise. The just believe what they believe.”
But to reach the majority of adults who accept the concept but don’t always act on it, “you talk as much as you can,” he said. “You push as hard as you can.”
More information
A companion article on adult vaccinations offers details on who should get what, when and why.
SOURCE: Adewale Troutman, M.D., M.P.H., director, public health practice program, University of South Florida, Tampa, Fla.
Forest gardening is an approach to gardening that involves the replication of a woodland ecosystem with food-producing trees and plants. Several cultures have a long history of gardening in forests, as seen in regions like South America, but the creation of entirely new garden environments for forest gardening appears to have originated in England in the 20th century. Forest gardens can fit on very small plots of land, making them an option for people with limited gardening space.
Conventional gardening takes place in a single plane, as a general rule. Crops are planted flat and tended in the open. In a forest garden, intercropping is used to create different levels or layers. This results in very high yield because multiple crops are sharing the same space. It also creates a more natural looking garden that includes habitat for animals, as well as plants. Forest gardening can be practiced by people of all ages and levels of gardening skill.
The upper layers of a forest garden are the canopies of mature fruit trees. Dwarf trees and shrubs are planted below, with smaller plants in the lower layers of the garden, which creates a series of layers like those found in the natural forest. Climbing plants are interspersed through the forest garden. The companion planting provides plants with a number of benefits, including richer soil, protection from the elements for fragile plants, and greater water conservation.
Once the garden is established, depending on what plants are used, forest gardening can be less labor intensive than managing a conventional garden. Many of the plants are perennial or reseed themselves easily and the soil enriches itself just like it does in natural forests with fallen fruit, leaf litter, and other organic detritus. Plantings can be arranged to include plants that need sun, as well as plants that prefer partial shade. Pathways through the garden provide access to various plants for harvest and maintenance.
Forest gardening can be done with native trees and plants for an especially low maintenance garden, or introduced plants can be mixed with the native species. One benefit to this form of gardening is that the intercropping keeps weeds down, as there are few areas where weeds will have an opportunity to get a foothold.
Establishing a forest garden requires some planning and forethought. Major elements of the garden, such as fruit trees, must be planted with care so that they have room to grow, and the smaller permanent plants need to be arranged around them. Forest gardeners may find it helpful to draw overhead maps to organize their plantings, in addition to drawing the garden from the side to get an idea of how the layers will look once the garden matures. It can take several years for the garden to fully establish itself.
We’ve previously run an expose on the Weston Price Foundation which shows how its founder actually recommended a vegetarian diet as the healthiest, and not the meat-heavy diet the Foundation recommends today. To read that article, click here. Following are a series from Dr. Fuhrman’s newsletter.
Deadly Dietary Myths
Premature death is too high a price to pay for bad advice!
by Joel Fuhrman MD
This series of articles is devoted entirely to debunking some of today’s most popular – and potentially most dangerous – diet and nutrition myths. In previous newsletters, and in my book Eat to Live, I have warned readers about adopting fad diets such as The Atkins Diet, The Zone Diet, and Eat For your Blood Type because the scientific data is so clear about the fact that eating more that a few small portions of animal products each week is associated with a host of serious diseases.
Conclusive scientific warnings notwithstanding, people continue to flock to diets like these because a) they reinforce existing bad habits, and b)numerous organizations encourage this behavior. One of the more influential organizations is the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF).
The Weston A. Price Foundation is named in honor of a Cleveland dentist, author of the book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. In the 1930s, upon observing that a large number of his patients had poor dental health, Dr. Price traveled to remote regions of the world and found that people in those areas who were still eating diets consisting of unprocessed foods had healthier teeth than his patients, who were eating large amounts of processed foods. He concluded that poor dental health was the result of nutritional deficiencies.
WAPF is a relatively small non-profit with a modest budget, but its leaders and members have been very effective in advocating a meat-centered diet, with lots of butter and whole, raw milk. Unfortunately, although some of its recommendations are laudable (such as the admonition to avoid highly processed foods, and the warning that most popular vegetarian and vegan diets are not ideal), many others are entirely out of step with modern nutritional science.
They promote a range of irresponsible and potentially dangerous ideas, including:
Butter and butter oil are our “super foods” which contain the “X factor”, discovered by Weston Price.
Glandular Organ Extracts – to promote health and healing of the corresponding organ.
Poached brains of animals should be added to other ground meats for better nutrition
Raw cows milk and meat broth should be fed to newborns who don’t breast feed, rather than infant formula.
Regular ingestion of clay (Azolimite Mineral Powder) because the clay particles remove pathogens from the body.
There are benefits of feeding sea salt to infants and babies
Fruits and vegetables should be limited in children’s diets.
There are plenty of organizations offering woefully out-of-date and inaccurate dietary advice, so I do not want to give the impression that WAPF Is alone in this regard. But there is limited space in a single newsletter, and a review of some of the WAPF recommendations offers an opportunity to point out examples of nutritional misinformation readily available in books and on the Internet.
How to feed your baby
WAPF advocates a severely deficient and dangerous diet for infants and children that has the potential to cause a lifetime of medical problems, reduced brain function, and an early death from cancer.
Infants have their best chance of developing normally when they consume breast milk from well-fed mothers. But contrary to a plethora of scientific studies indicating that breast milk should be the only food for the first six months, Sally Fellon, founder and president of WAPF and coauthor (with Mary Enig) of the book Nourishing Traditions says that pureed meat (including organ meats) is an excellent early food for babies.
What does WAPF recommend?
One WAPF baby formula mixes cow’s milk with heavy cream and other oils, while another is made from cow’s liver, beef broth, whey powder, and various oils.
It is well established in the scientific literature that a diet high in saturated fats and low in fruits and vegetables in early childhood is the leading cause of adult cancers. Infants fed cow’s milk instead of breast milk or formula do not get sufficient iron, vitamin C, linoleic acid, or vitamin E, and take in excessive amounts of sodium, potassium, and protein, which can lead to dehydration and kidney damage. For many years, the American Academy of Pediatricians has warned against the use of any whole cow’s milk during the first year of life after it was found that infants given cow’s milk developed iron deficiency and occult (silent) bleeding of the digestive tract.1 The resultant iron deficiency seen in children raised on cow’s milk in early childhood leads to long-term changes in behavior and loss of intelligence that can not be reversed even with correction of the iron deficiency later on in life.2 In other words, permanent brain damage can occur from the feeding of whole cow’s milk to babies.
Good intentions gone awry
How can an organization offer nutritional advice so out of step with the world’s scientific literature? Part of the blame can be placed at the feet of those who remain loyal to some of the original observations pf Weston Price rather than his original intent.
When Dr. Price traveled to remote areas, his intent was to find healthful solutions for his dental patients. When we look back with 70 years of scientific hindsight, we can see that his examinations and conclusions were flawed. When he touted the health of primitive peoples, he was not aware of their short life expectancy and high rates of infant mortality, endemic diseases, and infection.
It can be argued that few scientific researchers in the 1930s would have understood the complexity of multi factorial causation of health, disease, and longevity, and Price should not be held to today’s higher standards. But the same cannot be said for his followers today. To advocate eating a diet high in saturated fat is to ignore all of the nutritional research-especially of the past 40 years-that links this diet to shorter life spans and higher rates of heart disease and cancer is unconscionable.
References:
1. Kazal LA. Prevention of iron defiency in infants and toddlers. Am Fam Physician 2002, 66(7):1217-24.
2. Beard JL, Conner JR. Iron status and neural functioning. Annu Rev Nutr 2003; 23:41-58
Nutritional Facts and Fiction Fanciful folklore is no match for modern science!
The Weston A. Price website states that “people with high cholesterol
live the longest,” and that it is a myth that “for good health, serum cholesterol should be less than 180 mg/dl,” adding, “There is no greater risk for heart disease, even at levels as high as 1,000 mg/dl.” This doesn’t jibe with every respected scientific authority in the world and is utterly ridiculous in light of thousands of respectable studies.
WAPF correctly points out that processed foods, sugar, corn syrup, and white flour are harmful, but nutritional deficiencies caused by “junk foods” are not remedied by a diet high in meat and butter, animal products that are devoid of plant-derived photonutrients, which promote health and slow the “aging” process. By contrast, the saturated fat in meat and butter raises cholesterol and is one of the significant causes of heart disease.Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fellon and Mary Enig, is a smorgasbord of woefully outdated and potentially dangerous advice. For example, “If you cannot get your family to eat organ meats when served as such, there are plenty of ways to add them to their food without their knowledge… Poached brains can be chopped up and added to any ground meat dish, as can grated raw liver.” Even if it were not so clearly known that animal products in general need to be strictly limited in the diet, common sense should tell us not to eat the brains of animals in light of what is known about Mad Cow disease and its human equivalent, Creutzfeld-Jakob disease.
Nourishing Traditions is full of bad science and illogical reasoning, and its appeal is dependent on people’s ignorance about nutrition. Fallon and Enig perpetuate long-held nutritional myths by referencing the same people who started the myths in the first place.
Nutrition is a complicated subject, and it takes familiarity with a comprehensive body of scientific studies and articles to devise recommendations to prevent disease and promote longevity. Science is not perfect, but evidence builds on prior studies, and ongoing research attempts to test each hypothesis and check validity in an unbiased manner. Today, we have a comprehensive body of knowledge with over 15,000 articles written since the 1950s documenting the link between a diet high in saturated fat and low in fresh fruits, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and beans and the increased risk of cancer and heart disease.
While Nourishing Traditions has over 200 references, many are antiquated, with poor observations. For the most part, the authors reference their own articles and those of other Weston A. Price Foundation authors. Only fourteen of the references are from peer-reviewed journals published in the last ten years, and for most of those fourteen, the authors misrepresented what was stated in the articles. By contract, my book Eat to Live contains over 1,000 medical references to peer-reviewed medical journals. (For the abstracts of some of the most respected references of modern nutritional science go to Dr. Fuhrman’s website, drfuhrman.com for his article “Saturated Fat, Heart Disease, and Cancer” in Dr. Fuhrman’s Healthy Times, July 2006)
Do-It-Yourself Metabolics for Meat Eaters Why use good science to help design your diet when a handy $59 Internet questionnaire is available!
Honorary Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) board member and Internet health guru Joe Mercola, D.O, became the most public member of the WAPF contingency after the previous guru Stephen Byrnes died of a stroke at the age of 45.
Dr. Mercola claims that consuming pasteurized milk (instead of raw milk) causes autism, and that coconut oil kills viruses and is the secret to weight loss, detoxification, and the reversal of heart disease. (And he has been reprimanded by the FDA to cease making these fraudulent health claims about this coconut oil and another “health” product-chlorella.
Mercola’s website advocates that people fill out a detailed questionnaire (which costs $59) to help him determine which of these “types” they fall into. Instead of using blood type, eye color, shoe size, date of birth of your first born, or other silliness that alternative health entrepreneurs use to decide how much meat is right for your health, Mercola simply asks questions such as: How do you feel when you eat meat? And Do you like dark meat of white meat? (This is like asking a smoker if he feels better after he smokes to determine how much smoking is good for his health.)
He divides people into three categories: protein type (meat lovers), carbo types (veggie and grain lovers), and mixed type (everyone else). Mercola claims that to feel great and avoid disease and obesity, you must know your unique type. Mercola does not think avoiding meat is a good idea for most people because their metabolic type indicates that red meat is needed and good for them. He explains that while the Atkins diet is good because of its recognition of the glycemic index of food, it is not as good as his diet, which takes into account your metabolic (self) typing.
Confusion of ideas
Mercola’s views on diet and health fail Nutrition 101: too much science contradicts him. But not everything he says is incorrect. He correctly points out that most vegetarians may not have excellent health because of their overdependence on grains. The literature is abundant with evidence that demonstrates that the foods with the best correlation with longer life and resistance against later-life diseases are vegetables, beans, raw seeds, fruit, and raw nuts.
Notice that grains are not included on the list. Eliminating animal products and continuing the consumption of processed grain foods is not a recipe for health or longevity. The bottom line is most vegetarians are unhealthy: they eat too much processed food. Whole grains are not nutrient-rich foods. They can form a minor part of your diet, but when they are baked, fried, toasted, shot out of cannons or otherwise processed or adulterated, they become low-nutrient junk foods that are powerfully disease-promoting.
There is good science to back up Mercola’s contention that some people are not going to get all of their nutritional needs met on a vegan diet and will need to add supplements to make their diet complete or even eat small amounts of animal products.
There are two very critical areas where Mercola departs from universally accepted science. First, if you add the large amounts of animal products he recommends (including red meat and butter)-and especially the large amounts he recommends for his “protein-type”-you will have a diet that powerfully promotes heart disease and cancer. There is no genetic “type” that has immunity from such a high-saturated fat, disease-causing diet.
All Americans, not just some, develop atherosclerosis when they eat a diet so high in animal products. Over 90% of Americans eventually develop atherosclerosis and hypertension from the low intake of unprocessed vegetable, fruits, beans, nuts and seeds, and high intake of animals products. Diets like the ones Mercola recommends-especially if they include processed foods-also lead to premature death from heart attacks or stroke.
The second critical departure is that his metabolic typing questionnaire is not an accurate way to determine a person’s nutritional needs. When he advises his “protein type” to eat a diet in which most calories are supplied by animal products, he is appealing to that person’s food preferences and addictions. The more you crave something and the worse you feel when you stop consuming it, the more likely that you are addicted to it and that it is harming you, not helping. Encouraging people who are addicted to meat or other animal products to eat more of them will lead to even shorter life spans.
No need to be vegan
Keep in mind, I am not arguing that a person who eats no animal products (a vegan) will be healthier or will lead a longer life than one who eats small amounts of animal products (such as a small amount of fish or eggs). What I am pointing out s that as animal products increase in the diet (and natural plant foods are forced off the plate), the modern diseases that kill over 80 per cent of Americans (heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes) will occur in greater and greater likelihood in every genetic type.
My review of over 60,000 articles in the scientific literature supports the conclusion that if animal products are consumed they should constitute no more that 10% of total caloric intake. Remember, animal products are high in calories and very low in nutrients-per-calorie compared with vegetables. The higher animal product consumption compared to a vegetable-based diet, the lower the nutrient intake. The typical American gets 40% of total calories from animal products (those on the Zone and South Beach diets get 60%, and Adkins adherents get 80%). Mercola’s high protein type diet is in the 60-80% range. Diets like these are extremely high in dangerous fats and extremely low in nutrients and phytonutrients.
Unscientific double talk
Mercola and other adherents of the “saturated fat is good for you” myth produce articles with supposedly scientific references. But the writers either quote the same bunch of people (each other) and ignore a ton of modern reputable research, or they distort what is said in legitimate studies in order to hold on to the myth that saturated fat is okay and not related to heart-disease.
These fiction writers all use the same distorted logic when they contend that the consumption of trans fats is responsible for heart attacks, not saturated fats. Trans fats have been processed to saturate their carbon bonds so they mimic saturated fats, but just because trans fats are bad or worse does not make saturated fats good.
Mercola tries to make his bad advice sound scientific. He states:
Some of you might be watching your weight and be rather hesitant to add butter into your diet. Have no fear. About 15% of fatty acids in butter are of the short and medium chain variety, which are NOT stored as fat in the body but are used by the vital organs for energy.
Of course, you have to buy the special butter that Mercola recommends, the “good quality” butter. In much the same way, he contends that you can eat meat and not increase your chances of disease by eating “grass fed” beef. These arguments remind me of a patient who told me that he wouldn’t get lung cancer because he used “high quality” tobacco, grown without pesticides.
These laughable “good quality” exceptions can’t withstand scientific scrutiny. To make these arguments you have to overlook all the data that show that it is not merely the barbecued meat or processed or commercial meats that are linked to heart attack and cancer, it is other important features that are present in grass-fed beef as well.
Colon cancer connections
Let’s review just a few of the scientific studies on colon cancer. A study examining meat consumption over many years prior to the diagnosis of cancer illustrated that prolonged high consumption of red and processed meat increases (more than doubles) the risk of colon cancer. In this study, even two to three ounces of red meat per day increased risks significantly.1
Two other studies identify the mechanism by which red meat promotes colon cancer. Since red meat contains no fiber, it remains in the gut much longer than fiber-filled foods. The studies describe the biochemical effects of this slower transit time, including heightened exposure to red meat’s nitrogenous metabolites. In other words, red meat’s slower transit time in the bowel promotes prolonged exposure to these carcinogenic compounds (naturally occurring N-nitroso compounds) when a larger percentage of the diet is made of animal products rather than plant materials. Another important mechanism reported was the high haem content of red meat, because dietary haem increased cytolytic (cell-killing) activity and colonic epithelial proliferation, this explaining why red meat is more colon cancer promoting compared to fish or chicken.
Understanding the ingredients of a nutrient-sufficient diet is critical for the health seeker. Longevity and disease protection are the ultimate goals of dietary advice; but when you settle for second class advice, you doom yourself not only to a shorter life, but to a lower quality life-especially in your later years, as you suffer with medical problems that could have been avoided.
References
1. Chao A. Thun JT. Connell CJ. Et al. Meat Consumption and Risk of Colorectal Cancer JAMA. 2005;293:172-182.
2. Sesink AL, Termont DS, Kleibeuker JH, Van der Meer R. Red meat and colon cancer: dietary haem-induced colonic cytotoxicity and epithelial hyperproliferation are inhibited by calcium. Carcinogenesis 2001; 22(10):1653-9. Hughes R; Cross AJ, Pollock JR, Bingham S. Dose-dependent effect of dietary meat on endogenous colonic N-nitrosation. Carcinogenesis 2001; 22(1):199-202
Do primitive peoples really live longer?
No. For example, Innuit Greenlanders, who historically have had limited access to fruits and vegetables, have the worst longevity statistics in North America. Research from the past and present shows that they die on average about 10 years younger and have a higher rate of cancer that the overall Canadian population. 1 Similar statistics are available for the high meat-consuming Maasai in Kenya. They eat a diet high in wild hunted meats and have the worst life expectancy in the modern world. Life expectancy is 45 years for women and 42 years for men. African researchers report that historically Maasai rarely lived beyond age 60. Adult mortality figures on the Kenyan Maasai show that they have a 50% chance of dying before the age of 59.2
We now know that greatly increasing the consumption of vegetables, legumes, fruits, and raw nuts and seeds (and greatly decreasing the consumption of animal products) offers profound increased longevity potential, due in large part to the broad symphony of life-extending phytochemical nutrients that a vegetable-based diet contains. By taking advantage of the year-round availability of high-quality plant foods, we have a unique opportunity to live both healthier and longer than ever before in human history.
References:
1. Iburg KM, Brennum-Hansen H, Bjerregaard P. Health expectancy in Greenland. Scan J Public Health 2001;29(1):5-12
2. http://www.kenya.za.net/maasai-cycles-of-life.html, http://www.who.int/countries/ken/en/
Legitimate Concerns for Vegans
There are some plausible reasons why a person might think that people should include some animal products in their diets. Even if they did not kill and eat animals, small insect metter and bacteria were always present on wild food. Modern washed and sanitized food even makes a natural, whole-foods vegan diet incomplete. There are three weaknesses of a vegan diet:
Plant foods contain no vitamin B12 (which all vegan should take).
Some vegans have a need for more taurine (or other amino acids) and may not get optimal amounts with a vegan diet. A blood test can be checked to assure adequacy.
Some vegans may not produce ideal levels of DHA fat from the conversion of short-chain omega-3 fats found in such foods as flax and walnuts. I advocate that people who do not eat fish should supplement with DHA or get a blood test to assure adequacy.These are three areas of potential deficiency on a vegan diet are easily remedied by taking supplements. Obviously, there are loads of advantages of a vegetarian diet that also should be considered, but that is not the topic for this article. A poorly designed vegetarian diet or one that is not supplemented properly with vitamin B12 and vitamin D (the sunshine vitamin) can be dangerous. However, these considerations cannot be used as an argument to justify dietary recommendations
that include lots of high-saturated fat animal products.
I advocate a diet rich in micronutrients, especially antioxidants and phytochemicals, and the largest percentage of everyone’s diet must be from unrefined plant foods-no matter what your genetic “type.”
In order to do this, you must understand the nutrient density of all foods and eat more foods higher on the nutrient density scale. (Animal products are very low in nutrient density.) This nutrient per calorie density principle is what my book Eat to Live is about.
Joel Fuhrman MD is a board-certified family physician who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods. Author of Eat To Live. The above article comes from Dr. Fuhrman’s Healthy Times Newsletter, which is available at www.drfuhrman.com.
ABSTRACT: ANNALS OF SCIENCE about the future of cultured meat. Willem van Eelen was born in 1923 in the Dutch East Indies, yet his youth of freedom ended abruptly on May 10, 1940—the day the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. Van Eelen enlisted and served in Indonesia, but he was eventually captured and spent most of the war as a prisoner, dragged from one P.O.W. camp to another. After the war, he studied psychology at the University of Amsterdam, but he struggled with the intertwined memories of starvation and animal abuse in the camps. At one lecture, he was seized by an idea: “Why can’t we grow meat outside of the body? Make it in a laboratory, as we make so many other things.” In-vitro meat can be made by placing a few cells in a nutrient mixture that helps them proliferate. As the cells begin to grow together, forming muscle tissue, they are attached to a biodegradable scaffold. There the tissue can be stretched and molded into food, which could, in theory, be sold, cooked, and consumed like any processed meat. Most people laughed when they heard about van Eelen’s project—it took decades for the science to catch up to his imagination. That began to happen in 1981, when stems cells were discovered in mice. In 1999, van Eelen received U.S. and international patents for the Industrial Production of Meat Using Cell Culture Methods. A new discipline, propelled by an unlikely combination of stem-cell biologists, tissue engineers, animal-rights activists, and environmentalists, has emerged in both Europe and the U.S. Teams are forming at universities around the world. Mentions Vladimir Mironov and PETA. Lab-grown meat raises powerful questions about what most people see as the boundaries of nature and the basic definitions of life. Yet our patterns of meat consumption have become increasingly dangerous for both individuals and the planet. The global livestock industry is responsible for nearly twenty per cent of humanity’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Cattle consume nearly ten per cent of the world’s freshwater resources, and eighty per cent of all farmland is devoted to the production of meat. The consequences of eating meat, and our increasing reliance on factory farms, are almost as disturbing for human health. Vascular biologist Mark Post says, “The goal [of cultured meat] is to create the volume previously provided by a million animals.” Mentions the Eindhoven University of Technology and Daisy van der Schaft. Describes the process of growing meat in a laboratory. Mentions Stone Barns and chef Dan Barber. The moral and ethical issues that would accompany the use of lab-grown beef may ultimately prove more intractable than the scientific issues. Mentions Princeton philosopher Peter Singer.
Your article asking “Is Raw Milk Safe?” (March 21, 2010) missed the forest for the trees.
Cow’s milk—pasteurized or not—is unhealthy. It contains too much phosphorus and sodium for humans. Conversely it contains too little iron, potassium, magnesium, vitamin E, and essential fatty acids.
Cows milk does contain calcium, but it is only 25% absorbable. Get your calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium the way cows get them, by eating greens. Eat flax to get your essential fatty acids.
Why then is cow’s milk good for calves? Because calves also eat grass, which is high in all the nutrients milk is low in.
Drinking cow’s milk adds to our protein overload, harmful to kidneys. Osteoporosis results not from under-consumption of calcium but from over-consumption of protein.
Homogenized milk is whipped until fat is mixed evenly in small fat balls, which contain small protein fragments. These fat balls spiced with protein fragments can pass through the linking of the stomach and go directly into the blood stream, causing immune reactions such as allergies, ear infections, and arthritis.
Milk is an exceedingly cruel food. For a cow to continue to lactate she must bear a calf each year. Most calves go into the veal crates where they spend three months of absolute mysery.
Only humans continue to drink milk after weaning, and only humans drink the milk of another species. We continue this bad habit because cow’s milk is heavily marketed, and it is heavily marketed because it is a way to turn grass into money.
The amount of milk one should drink—raw or pasteurized—is zero.
Study the www.NotMilk.com website if you want more information on this subject.
If we take in the memories of the owner of the heart we take into our bodies, why would it be impossible for us to take into our bodies the memories of the animals we eat?
Could our depression, dismal view of the world, our mental illnesses – could they be related to our revival of the memories of utter mysery of the animals we eat?
It was almost a decade ago when seven families in Prairie Grove, Arkansas, a town of only about 2,500 people, got together to discuss the high number of rare cancers diagnosed there in recent years. Many of the afflicted were children. “We asked ourselves, ‘What in the world is going on?’”says Beth Green, whose son Michael “Blu” was one of 17 children diagnosed with diseases ranging from brain and testicular cancer to leukemia.
Rachel Albert, Cooking With Rachel, Creative Vegetarian and Macrobiotic Cuisine, Oroville, CA: George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation, 1989, ISBN 0-918860-49-0 (strictly vegetarian).
American Vegan Society, The Vegan Kitchen, 501 Old Harding Hwy., Malaga, NJ 08328 (strictly vegetarian).
Rynn Berry, Famous Vegetarians and their Favorite Recipes, New York; Pythagorean Publishers, 1993, ISBN 0-9626169-1-5, (strictly vegetarian).
Bette Hagman, Gluten-Free Gourmet, 1990, and More From the Gluten-Free Gourmet, 1993, Henry Holt and Company, New York (lacto-ovo vegetarian).
Jeanne Marie Martin, Hearty Vegetarian Soups and Stews, Harbour Publishing, Box 209, Madeira Park, B.C., Canada V0N-2H0 (strictly vegetarian).
Amadea Morningstar and Urmila Desai, The Ayurvedic Cookbook, Wilmot, WI: Lotus Press, 1991, ISBN 0-914955-06-3 (lacto-vegetarian).
Joanne Stepaniak and Kathy Hecker, Ecological Cooking, Summertown, Tennessee: The Book Publishing Company, 1991, ISBN 0-913990-85X (strictly vegetarian).
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Farming Express, February 1, 1962.
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Jennifer Ferrara, “Sour Milk, In These Times, May 26, 1997, p. 20.
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M. Fisher. “The Effect of Vegetarian Diets on Plasma Lipid and Platelet Levels.” Archives of Internal Medicine, June, 1986, 146(6), p. 1193-7.
J. Fleagle, Primate Adaptation and Evolution. San Diego: Academic Press, 1988, ISBN 0-12-260340-0.
Jorge B. Flechas, M.D., “Vegetarianism and Seventh Day Adventists,” Nutrition and Vegetarianism: Proceedings of Public Health Nutrition Update, May, 1988, Chapel Hill, John J.B. Anderson, Ph.D., Department of Nutrition, Univ. of N. Carolina, p. 53-67.
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Michael Fox and Nancy Wiswall, The Hidden Costs of Beef, Washington, D.C., Humane Society of the United States, 1989.
Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians, Penguin Books, 1986.
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Susan Gilbert, “Early Puberty Onset Seems Prevalent,” New York Times, April 9, 1997, p. B-12
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Joe Green, “Chalutzim of the Messiah—The Religious Vegetarian Concept as Expounded by Rabbi Kook,” lecture given in Johannesburg, South Africa.
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Ashley Haase, “The Pathogenesis of Slow Virus Infections; Molecular Analyses,” Journal of Infectious Diseases, Vol. 153, No. 3, 1987.
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Joan Harper, The Healthy Cat and Dog Cook Book, Richland Center: Pet Press, 1992.
Harper’s Bible Dictionary, HarperSanFrancisco, 1985.
Marvin Harris, Cannibals and Kings, New York: Random House, 1977.
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Pol Koenig, Basic Book of Vitamin Health, Montreal/Toronto: Robert Davies Publishing, 1994, ISBN 1-895854-18-0.
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“Howard Lyman, “Voice for a Viable Future,” a $6.95 audio tape, available from EarthSave at 800-362-3648.
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Malachi Martin, S.J., The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church, New York: Bantam, ISBN 0399126651, 1983.
J. Mason and Peter Singer, Animal Factories, Crown Publishers, 1980.
R. Mazess and W. Mather, “Bone Mineral Content of North Alaskan Eskimos,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 27 (1974) p. 916.
J. McDougall, The McDougall Plan, New Century Publishers, 1983.
Virginia Messina and Mark Messina, The Vegetarian Way, New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1996, ISBN 0-517-88275-2.
Marvin W. Meyer, ed., The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts, 1987, ISBN 0-8122-1692-X.
“Milk Has Something for Everybody?” Journal of the AMA, 232 (5) 539, May 5, 1975.
W. Miller, et al., “Diet Composition, Energy Intake, and Exercise in Relation to Body Fat in Men and Women,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, September, 1990, 52/3, p. 426-30.
Irvin Molotsky, “Antibiotics in Animal Feed Linked to Human Ills,” New York Times, February 22, 1987.
Denis Montgomery, Aquatic Man and African Eve: A Search for the Origins and Evolution of Humankind in Africa, www.Sondela.co.uk.
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K. Noren, “Levels of Organochlorine Contaminants in Human Milk in Relation to the Dietary habits of the Mothers,” Acta-Paediatr-Scand. 1983 November 72(6), p. 811-816.
Robert L. O’Connell, Ride of the Second Horseman: The Birth and Death of War, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-19-506460-7.
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Dean Ornish, M.D., Program for Reversing Heart Disease, New York: Ballantine Books, 1990, ISBN 0-345-37353-7.
Our Food Our World: The Realities of an Animal-Based Diet, EarthSave Foundation, 706 Frederick Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95062, March, 1992. Send $2.50.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Loeb Classical Library, tr. Frank Justus Miller, 1984.
Eileen Pagels, The Gnostic Paul,Valley Forge: Trinity Press International, 1975, ISBN 1-56338-039-0
Pratapaditya Pal, The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1994, ISBN 0-500-01650-x.
The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, tr. Frank Williams, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1987, ISBN 90-04-07926-2.
James Parkes, The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue: A Study in the Origins of Antisemitism, Atheneum, 1969, Library of Congress No. 61-011472.
L. Pauling, quoted in P. Chowka, “Cancer Research—The $20 Billion Failure,” Vegetarian Times, December, 1981, p. 32, quoted in J. Robbins, Diet For a New America, p. 248.
James A. Peden, Vegetarian Cats & Dogs, Troy, Montana: Harbingers of a New Age, 1995, ISBN 0-941319-02-4.
John Pfeiffer, The Emergence of Society, New York: McGraw Hill, 1977.
R. Phillips, “Coronary Heart Disease… Differing Dietary Habits: A Preliminary Report,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1978), 31:181.
Philo Judaeus: The Essential Philo, Nahum N. Glatzer, ed., Schocken Books.
Philo Judaeus, C.D. Yonge, tr., The Works of Philo, Every Good Man is Free, Hendrickson Publishers, 1993, ISBN 0-943575-93-1.
Ron Pickarski, Friendly Foods, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1991.
David and Marcia Pimentel, Food, Energy and Society, London: Edward Arnold, 1979.
David Pimentel et al., “Energy and Land Constraints in Food Protein Production,” Science, 21 Nov. 1975.
Shlomo Pines, “The Jewish Christians of the Early Centuries of Christianity According to a New Source,” Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Vol. 11, No. 13, 1968, reprinted in Shlomo Pines, Studies in the History of Religion, ed. Guy Stroumsa, Magnes Press, Jerusalem, ISBN 965-223-830-9, www.JewishAustralia.com.
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Plato, “The Republic,” Great Dialogues of Plato, 24th Ed., New York: Mentor, 1956.
Plato, Timaeus, Critas, Cletophon, Menexenus, Epistles, tr. R.D. Bury, London: Harvard University Press, 1929, 1989, ISBN 0-674-99257-1.
Pliny, Natural History, Loeb Classical Library, tr. W.H.S. Jones, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1951, ISBN 0-674-99431-0.
Porphyry, On Abstinence from Animal Food, ed. Thomas Taylor, Saifer, 1965, ISBN 0-87556-238-8.
Ray A. Pritz, Nazarene Jewish Christianity, Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1992, ISBN 965-223-798-1, p. 53, 64.
Paul Raeburn, Seattle Times, Associated Press article, Evolving Bacteria Pose Deadly Threat: Antibiotics Losing Control, Researcher Warns,” February 20, 1994.
Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, Mad Cow U.S.A., Could the Nighmare Happen Here? Common Courage Press, 1997, ISBN 0-567-51111-2.
Recurrent Abdominal Pain in Children: Lactose and Sucrose Intolerance, A Prospective Study,” Pediatrics, 64:43-45, July 1979.
Richard Rhodes, Deadly Feasts, Tracking a Plague, Simon & Schuster, 1997, ISBN 0-671-57660-7.
Jeremy Rifkin, Beyond Beef, New York: Penguin Books, 1992, ISBN 0-525-93420-0.
John Robbins, Diet for a New America, Walpole, N.H.: Stillpoint, 1987, ISBN 0-913299-54-5.
Diet For a New World, New York: Avon, 1992, ISBN 0-380-71901-0.
The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World, 2001, ISBN 1573247022.
Reclaiming Our Health, Exploding the Medical Myth and Embracing the Source of True Healing, Tiburon, CA: J.J. Kramer, 1996, ISBN 0-915811-69-3.
Dr. William Clifford Roberts, M.D., American Journal of Cardiology, 57 (2), February, 1992.
W. Robertson, “The Effect of high Protein Intake on the Risk of Calcium Stone Formation in the Urinary Tract,” Clinical Science, 57:285, 1979.
Lewis Regenstein, How to Survive in America the Poisoned, Herndon, VA: Acropolis Books, 1982.
Sally J. Rockwell, “Dietary management Using Non-Dairy Sources of Calcium,” Union Institute Graduate School Dissertation, July 25, 1994.
Willy Rordorf et al., The Eucharist of the Early Christians, tr. Matthew J. O’Connell, New York, Pueblo Publishing Company, 1976, ISBN 0-916134-33-4.
“Sacrifices,” Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, New York: Abingdon Press, 1962, Volume 4, p. 155.
Marshall Sahlins, Stone Age Economics, New York, Aldine De Gruyter, 1972, ISBN 0-202-0109906.
Anthony J. Saldarini, Mathew’s Christian-Jewish Community, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-73419-6, 1994.
“Salmonella Contamination Linked to Raw Eggs—CDC Atlanta Reports,” Nutrition Week: Community Nutrition Institute, Vol. XVIII, No. 17, April 28, 1988, Washington, D.C.
“Salmonella in Slaughter Cattle,” Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 160(6):884, 1972; “Salmonella Contamination in a Commercial Poultry Processing operation,” Poultry Science, 53:814-21, 1974.
Oscar Skarsaune and Reidar Hvalvik, eds., Jewish Believers in Jesus, Hendrickson Publishers, ISBN 978-1-56563-763-4, 2007.
Orville Schell, Modern Meat, New York: Random House, 1984.
Rabbi Elijah J. Schochet, Animal Life in Jewish Tradition, New York: Ktav, (1984).
Hugh J. Schonfield, The Essene Odyssey: The Mystery of the True Teacher and the Essene Impact on the Shaping of Human Destiny, Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element, 1984, ISBN 0-906540-63-1.
Hugh Schonfield, The Pentecost Revolution: The Story of the Jesus Party in Israel AD 36-66, London: Element Books, 1974, ISBN 0 906540 79 8.
Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah, New York: New American Library, 1974, Library of Congress: 73-77035.
Richard H. Schwartz, Judaism and Vegetarianism, Micah Publishing, 1988, ISBN 0-916288-28-5.
N. Seppa, “Cows’ Milk, Diabetes Connection Bolstered,” ScienceNewsOnline, June 26, 1999, Vol. 155: No. 26.
Isaac Bashevits Singer, “When Keeping Kosher isn’t Kosher Enough,” New York Times, September 14, 1977, p. 64.
Carl Anders Skriver, The Forgotten Beginnings of Creation and Christianity, Vegetarian Press, Box 61273, Denver, CO 80206.
“Slaughter, Ritual,” Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, 1939 edition.
William Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, New York: Meridian Books, 1956, quoted by Marvin Harris, Cannibals and Kings, 176.
S.M. Stern, “Quotations From Apocryphal Gospels in Abd al-Jabbar,” Journal of Theological Studies, N.S., 18, Oxford, 1967, reprinted in S.M. Stern, History and Culture in the Medieval Muslim World, Variorum Reprints, 1984, ISBN 0860781488.
S.M. Stern, “Abd-al-Jabbar’s Account of How Christ’s Religion was Falsified by the Adoption of Roman Customs,” Journal of Theological Studies, N.S., 19, Oxford, 1968, reprinted in S.M. Stern, History and Culture in the Medieval Muslim World, Variorum Reprints, 1984, ISBN 0860781488.
Henry Bailey Stevens, The Recovery of Culture, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949.
Soyfoods Industry and Market: Directory and Databook (Soyfoods Center, 1985).
Colin Spencer, The Heretic’s Feast: A History of Vegetarianism, Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1995, ISBN 0-87451-760-5.
J. Stamler, “Elevated Cholesterol May Increase Lung Cancer Risk in Smokers,” Heart Research Letter, 14:2, 1969.
Frederick Stare, M.D., Adventures in Nutrition, Christopher Publishing House, 1991, ISBN 0-8158-0470-9.
Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries, HarperCollins, 1997, ISBN 0-06-067701-5.
David Stipp, “Detective Story: Brains Turn to Sponge and Scientists Find Some Bizarre Clues; Research on Deadly Disease May Bear on Alzheimer’s and Theories of Life Itself; an Outbreak in Pennsylvania (Spongiform Encephalopathy Research),” Wall Street Journal, January 7, 1991, p. A1.
K. Stoller, “Feeding an Epidemic,” Animals’ Agenda, May, 1987, 32-33.
Merlin Stone, When God Was a Woman, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976, ISBN 0-15-696158-X.
Gedaiahu G. Stroumsa, “The Early Christian Fish Symbol Reconsidered,” Messiah and Christos: Studies in the Jewish Origins of Christianity, 1992, ISBN 3-16-145996-2, p. 199 ff.
Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, The Biogenic Revolution, International Biogenic Society, Box 849, Nelson, B.C., Canada V1L 6A5, 1990, ISBN 0-89564-021-x.
Cosmos, Man and Society, International Biogenic Society, 1990, ISBN 0-89564-070-8.
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The Essene Gospel of Peace, Three Volumes. International Biogenic Society, Box 849, 1990, ISBN 0-89564-0007.
The Essene Science of Fasting, International Biogenic Society, 1990, ISBN 0-89564-011-2.
The Essene Way: Biogenic Living, International Biogenic Society, 1990, ISBN0-89564-019-8.
Treasury of Raw Foods, International Biogenic Society, 1990, ISBN 0-89564-042-2.
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Sharon Yntema, Vegetarian Pregnancy, Vegetarian Baby, and Vegetarian Children, McBooks Press, Ithaca, N.Y., 1994. Three books.
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23
Vegetablearian Songs
WE JUST NEVER UNDERSTOOD
Sung in the style of a negro spiritual
Chorus in minor:
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord
Lord, Lord, Lord
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord,
We just never understood.
Minor:
Someday the Lord will come.
That’s what the good book have said.
He be punishin’ the wicked,
And rewardin’ the good.
And most of those remaining
Will be wishing they was dead.
They’ll be singing, Lord, Lord, Lord,
“We just never understood.”
Chorus in major:
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord
Lord, Lord, Lord
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord,
We just never understood.
Major:
You had that prophet Jesus down here,
Teaching the truth.
Matthew wrote his words down.
Later they were burnt.
Mark who never knew him
Wrote again third-hand.
And so it ain’t no surprise,
He wrote it down all wrong.
Chorus in minor:
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord
Lord, Lord, Lord
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord,
We just never understood.
Minor:
You sent us other prophets,
Messiahs, and priestesses.
Why, the one who came last year SHE won,
A Nobel prize for peace!
But they all are speaking languages
We (and even they) just don’t understand
And so it ain’t no surprise,
We still don’t understand.
Chorus in major:
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord
Lord, Lord, Lord
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord,
We just never understood.
Major:
But there be some of us that’s trying
To do your will
And so we have a right to ask
One question still.
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord,
With all due respect,
Lord if it was all so important,
Why didn’t you make it clear?
A KOSHER XMAS CAROL
1. Father:
Every man descended from King David
Wonders when he holds his baby close:
Will he be the one who frees his people?
Will he teach the world the way of peace?
2. Father and Mother together:
Why did the stars shine so brightly the night he was born?
What words those shepherds had to say of him!
Why did those wise men travel so far to see him?
Why did they praise him, and why did they bring him such gifts?
3. Mother:
Every mother of the tribe of Judah
Wonders when she has a new-born son:
Will he be a good man like his father?
Will he love his mother when he’s grown?
4. Father and Mother together:
Why did the stars shine so brightly the night he was born?
What words those shepherds had to say of him!
Why did those wise men travel so far to see him?
Why did they praise him, and why did they bring him such gifts?
5. Mother:
Will he be scholar, or will he be poet or healer?
Will he be messiah or the prophet?
Give us another, prophet like Moses,
Who writes down God’s truth with his own hand.
6. Father and Mother:
How long will God’s people have to suffer?
When will messiah come to set us free?
7. Father:
When he is grown, will people follow and quote him?
Will strangers think him greater than he is?
Mother:
And will his goodness, and their admiration
Be the very cause of his undoing?
8. Father and Mother:
How long will God’s people have to suffer?
When will messiah come to set us free?
Drink a lot of liquids when you first wake up. See the section in the previous chapter entitled Liquids, Juice and Tea, p. 349.
FRUIT, JUICE, SMOOTHIES, NUTS
These can make a quick, healthy, and tasty breakfast. See the section in the previous chapter entitled Fruit, Juice, and Smoothies, p. 351. According to food combining theory, nuts go with fruit.
NUTS AND FLAX OIL ON RICE WITH GREENS
By midday, you will be ready for more substantial food. Shovel brown rice from your rice cooker into a bowl. Pour on a little soy sauce, a little pepper, and some flax oil. Add walnuts and pumpkin seeds–which are rich in the essential fatty acids. Stir it up and eat it with fresh greens. If it’s off season or if you don’t have a garden, add sprouts or buy organic kale, collards, scallions, and mustard greens, and eat them with your rice. Try cooking with other grains such as wheat, rye, spelt, and kamut. I recommend you sprout grains before cooking them in a rice cooker. All grains except rice will sprout.
Raw food option: Do the same thing using sprouted grain instead of cooked grain.
LAST NIGHT’S LEFTOVERS
Why is it that people associate breakfast with bacon, sausage, and eggs? That’s a very unhealthy, no fiber, high-cholesterol cliche. Instead, eat the cooked grain, steam-stir fry, and soup from the night before.
WALNUT RAISIN PANCAKES
If you want to eat a more conventional breakfast, try my pancake recipe.
Ingredients: 5 tbsp. ground flax seeds, 3 cup of flour (rice flour, buckwheat, garbanzo, oat, barley flour, or a mixture of these), 1/2 cup rolled oats or other rolled grain, 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, 1/4 cup chopped raisins, 1/4 tsp. sea salt (optional), 1 tsp. baking soda, 2 tsp. baking powder, 3 to 4 cups of plain or vanilla flavored soy milk, 1 tsp. cinnamon. 2 tbsp. canola or olive oil.
Smoothie topping (optional): Whip up a smoothie as described in the desert section. Use frozen fruit or berries, fruit juice, and frozen or fresh bananas. Use it as a health alternative to syrup.
Chop the raisins with a cleaver or food processor. Pour 3 cups of soy milk into a large bowl; add the raisins and the rolled oats or other rolled grain.
Allow the raisins and grain to soften.
In a separate bowl, add the other dry ingredients, including the ground flax, and stir them up. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir the batter the minimum amount needed to mix the ingredients, lest you eliminate the air from the mixture. Add extra soy milk if it is needed to produce a runny batter.
Heat the pan to around 325° F. Lightly oil the pan, preferably with coconut oil, and pour on the batter. Make a large pancake or preferably several small pancakes at one time. When bubble holes form on top of the pancakes, flip them over. Cook another minute, and put them in a covered pan to keep them warm.
Pour the smoothie mix, maple syrup, or rice syrup over the pancakes, and enjoy this traditional breakfast food.
TOFU SCRAMBLE
Ingredients: One 16 oz. pkg. of fresh, firm, organic tofu, 2 large potatoes, 1 minced red bell pepper, 1 small onion minced, 3 tablespoons of chopped parsley, 1 clove chopped garlic, 1 stalk minced celery, 2 chopped green onions, 1 tsp. nutritional yeast, 1 tsp. turmeric, 1/2 tsp. salt (to taste), 1 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp. dried basil or oregano, 1 tsp. rosemary, salsa.
Get all your ingredients ready in advance, neatly lined up in bowls.
Slice the tofu and spread the slices on a butterfly colander in a big pot. Add an inch of water to the pot. Steam for ten to 20 minutes. The tofu will get firm, even rubbery.
Chop the potatoes into cubes. Chop up the onions. Mix potatoes and onions in olive oil and rosemary, and bake them in the oven at 350° for 20 minutes.
Get the wok or frying pan ready. Add the parsley, celery, and green onions, and cook a few minutes in olive oil and a little water—added to keep the oil from exceeding the boiling point of water and turning into trans-fatty acids.
Next add the yeast, turmeric, salt, cumin, and oregano. Cook the mixture for about two minutes, stirring constantly.
Last add the steamed potato wedges, onions, and tofu and steam-stir-fry for another two minutes.
Serve this delicious meal with toast and perhaps a little salsa on the side. It’s a winner.
If you are in a hurry, buy Tofu Scrambler mix. (Fantastic Foods, www.FantasticFoods.com.) It contains all the spices and dried vegetables. You only need to add the fresh vegetables and tofu.
This beats scrambled eggs—for breakfast, brunch, or anytime.
SOUPS
Soups are good any time of day or night. Cook a lot of soup, and freeze it in plastic containers for eating later. Most of us do not drink enough water, and soup is a good way to get it.
Any soup can be transferred to a blender, blended, and then returned to the soup pot. This helps break down hard ingredients like beans and broccoli stems. It gives soup a creamy texture. Soup, blended if necessary, is great for people whose false teeth are not up to chewing veggies anymore.
MISO SOUP
Miso is fermented soy paste. (www.Westbrae.com; Miyako Oriental Foods, www.coldmountainmiso.com.) Miso makes an instant soup base. Most cooks think you have to use chicken or beef to make a good soup base. Nope, miso is perfect. Use it to make any kind of soup, including miso soup.
Ingredients: 4 tbsp. miso, 8 cups boiling water, 1/2 pound soft tofu, 2 chopped scallions, 1/2 cup dried wakame or several sheets of nori seaweed, one tbsp. nutritional yeast.
Option: 2 carrots, sliced, 1/2 cup shredded cabbage, kale or spinach.
Many kinds of seaweed are good in miso soup; read the recipes on the seaweed packages, and experiment until you find the seaweeds that you like the most. I like nori.
If you want firm tofu, slice and steam the tofu in advance and set it aside. Place a butterfly colander in a pot with a half inch of water under it and spread the sliced tofu on it. Pre-steamed tofu has a very firm texture, and it will hold together in the soup. When it cools, you can easily slice it into strips, or you can skip this step and just float the tofu slices on top of all the other soup ingredients.
Mash the miso in a little bit of water to dissolve it. Some people find miso to have a very strong flavor, so start with four tablespoons and add miso until it tastes right to you.
Put all the ingredients, except tofu, into boiling water. When the vegetables are tender, add the steamed tofu. The miso itself needs no cooking. Garnish the soup with finely chopped scallions and serve. This is the fastest soup you will ever make.
POT HERBS
Pythagoras (569 to 470 B.C.E.) and Simon Peter (The Recognitions of Clement, 7:6, Roberts and Donaldson, ed., Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol 8, p. 158) ate “pot herbs,” cooked vegetables and spices. The probable method was for all family members to cut and dig up whatever edible greens and root crops they came across during their day’s work and then bring them all home, wash them, chop them up and put them in a huge pot for slow cooking, a form of vegetable hunting. I cook up an every-green-thing-you-can-find pot herb soup and commune with these two vegetarian prophets.
Ingredients: 12 cups water, 4 cups chopped greens from out of the garden—collard, mustard, bok choi, kale, broccoli or cauliflower leaves, chickweed, parsley, dandelion flowers, nasturtium, or whatever greens you have available. To this add 2 cloves garlic, 2 medium unions, fresh herbs such as oregano, basil, and/or mint, 1 chopped leek, one large diced potato, 1 cup diced carrots, 3 tbsp. almond butter, peanut butter, or sesame butter, 2 to 20 tbsp. whole flax seeds, 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (to taste), 1/4 tsp. black pepper (to taste), and sea salt or tamari or soy sauce (to taste). Other vegetables can be added or substituted.
Cook this in a big stock pot, the bigger the better. You can saute the onions and garlic in oil, but you can also skip this step. Get the water boiling. Add garlic, unions, oregano, basil, mint, leek, almond butter, peanut butter, or sesame butter, flax seeds, cayenne pepper black pepper and sea salt.
After these have softened, add the greens, along with the leeks, carrots, beans, and potatoes, filling the pot. After ten minutes of steaming, the greens will wilt and sink, and there will be plenty of room to add more greens. Add enough water to cover everything. And make sure that the ingredients are not wedged against the bottom, where they can burn. Don’t be afraid to make a really watery soup; most of us don’t drink enough water.
Pythagoras and Simon Peter probably knew nothing of tofu or miso, but I think they would add them to pot herbs if they were around today. Steam the tofu separately if you want firm tofu, or let it float on top of the soup where it will get a little firm as it cooks. Add 6 tbsp. of miso near the end.
Simmer this soup slowly for an hour. Eat some and freeze the rest.
Raw food option: After cooking is done, add sprouted sunflower seeds, which are especially tender, or any sprouted grain or legume. You will then be eating a partially raw food meal.
POT HERBS WITH SPROUTED BEANS
Except for fava beans, known as broad beans to the English, there were no beans in the Old World before the Spaniards brought them back from the New World, and some say the Pythagoreans did not eat fava beans. A small percentage of people in the Mediterranean basin had and still have severe allergies to fava beans. (John Gregerson, Vegetarianism: A History, p. 9. Google “Favism.”)
This recipe is similar to the Pot Herbs recipe, but 2 cups of sprouted beans (fava, lentils, garbanzo, adzuki, mung, pinto, or any other) are added. Soak the beans the first day under water, replacing the water several times a day. On the second and third days rinse the beans several times a day, and pour the water off. Use a large stock pot with a lid. Beans will dominate in flavor, so this beany soup has a very different taste than straight pot herbs. Beans sometimes fail to soften enough, so you may want to pour the soup in to a blender, blend it, and return it to the stock pot. Lentils sprout are very tender and need no cooking, so add them at the very end.
PUMPKIN OR SQUASH SOUP
This recipe works equally well with pumpkin or squash. Most people think of pumpkins only as something to make pumpkin pies and jack-o-lanterns out of, but they also make good soup. Pumpkins have a smooth, interesting flavor that serves as a good host to other flavors. When making pumpkin pie, you use such spices as cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Don’t use these spices in making pumpkin soup unless you want a truly weird soup. Don’t pick a big jack-o-lantern pumpkin. They are bred for size only. Pick any other smaller pumpkin variety. Or pick a squash.
Ingredients: 12 cups water, 2 lbs. of pumpkin meat or the equivalent amount of squash, 1 tbs. basil, 1 tbs. oregano, 2 large potatoes (optional), 8 tbs. almond or sesame butter, 20 tbsp. whole flax seeds, 2 large onions, 2 cloves garlic, 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper, 1/8 tsp. black pepper (to taste), sea salt (to taste), 8 tbsp. seaweed such as kelp. Early, still-green pumpkins make good soup too.
Prepare your pumpkin out on the back porch. Hose it off. Whack it in half with a big butcher knife. Dig out the seeds with a strong spoon. Save the seeds; spread them out on a Pyrex plate and toast them in the oven under the broiler. Or you can dry them and plant them next summer in the garden. Slice the pumpkin and put the slices into a big stock pot on a butterfly colander with an inch of water at the bottom. Steam them until they begin to soften. Then put the slices in the blender or food processor and blend them until they are smooth. Don’t peel the skin off except for the tough part near the stem; the skin softens nicely and adds texture.
Remove the colander from the stock pot; leave the water, and put the blended pumpkin back in it.
Add all the other ingredients. You can saute the onion and garlic in olive oil in a separate pan, but it works just as well to put them in uncooked. The ingredients will have plenty of time to meld. Simmer the soup for at least an hour. Add sea salt and pepper to taste.
LENTIL, SPLIT PEA, WHOLE DRIED PEA SOUP
Ingredients: 2 cups sprouted lentils, split peas, or sprouted, whole dried peas, 12 cups water, 1 diced medium onion, 1 tsp. basil leaf, 1 tsp. oregano, 1/2 tsp. sea salt (to taste), 1/8 tsp. black pepper and 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper (to taste), one large potato chopped into big pieces, two large carrots chopped into big pieces, 4 tbsp. flax seeds.
Put all the ingredients into a large pot. Cover all the ingredients with water. Cook with the lid on at a boil for ten minutes and then simmer for an hour. Lentils and split peas are rich in flavor, so you can add a lot of water and
make a lot of soup. Lentils and split peas cook more quickly than beans and soften more easily.
If you are making lentil soup, or whole dried pea soup, I recommend you sprout the lentils or whole dried peas for 12 to 72 hours—longer in winter than summer. Split peas have no germ and do not sprout but you can soak them for a few hours.
If you want an even quicker meal, do the same thing with a pressure cooker. The soup will be ready in 10 minutes.
To make lentil soup, use lentils and potato. To make lentil pilaf, use lentils and rice.
SPROUTED BEAN SOUP
Ingredients: 2 cups of soaked or sprouted adzuki, mung, black, or other beans, 12 cups water, 1 diced medium onion, 1 tsp. basil leaf, 1 tsp. oregano, 1/2 tsp. sea salt (to taste), 1/8 tsp. black pepper and 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper (to taste), one large potato or sweet potato chopped into big pieces (optional) and two large carrots chopped into big pieces (optional), 8-20 tbsp. flax seeds.
Soak the beans under water underwater overnight. Better yet, sprout them for 24 to 72 hours: Drain the water and rinse them every 8 to 12 hours. In summer in a warm house beans will grow little leaves and roots in 24 hours; in winter the process may take two or three days. Sprouting increases the vitamin content and reduces the phytates which bind to minerals and make them unavailable. (See the section of this book entitled Sprouting, p. 54.)
The beans go in first with the basil, onion, oregano, miso, salt, and pepper. Boil for ten minutes and simmer for a half hour. Then add the potatoes and carrots, all sliced thick. Simmer for another 20 minutes.
If your beans are sprouted mung beans or adzuki beans, bear in mind that they are soft and do not need much cooking time. Put them in last, after the other veggies are done.
If you want to add cauliflower or broccoli florets, put them in near the end so as not to over cook them. Eat your soup with rice, bread, or toast.
WEIRD SOUP
When I am not expecting guests, I sometimes make my soup without following any recipe or plan. I just start throwing whatever I have available into the pot. Sometimes this produces a dynamic new recipe. Sometimes this produces a truly weird soup.
Ingredients: a gallon of water, 2 cups lentils and 1 cup chick-peas well soaked or sprouted, 1 large diced onion, 4 big cloves of chopped garlic, 1 raw diced potato, 1 raw diced sweet potato, 1 raw diced yam, 1 cup of broken up, dried bean curd (Mount Elephant brand, available at oriental grocery stores), 12 cups of greens such as collard, kale, or mustard, 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (to taste), 1/4 tsp. black pepper (to taste), 2 tbsp. dried basil leaf, 1 tsp. curry, 1/4 cup of seaweed (a source of trace minerals), 1/4 cup large flake nutritional yeast, 8 tbsp. almond butter, peanut butter, or sesame butter, 1/8 cup whole flax seeds, 3 tbs. untoasted sesame oil.
Add all the ingredients to a stock pot and bring to a boil for about ten minutes, and then simmer for an hour.
Well, that’s a weird soup. It’s a smooth, tasty, healthy soup, but it also is a soup that tries too hard. It has too many conflicting flavors. I have included the recipe for didactic purposes, as a pharmacopeia of ingredients you might choose from, and as a homework project for you. The challenge is to figure out what should be left out. Simplicity is the key to good cooking. I included leafy green vegetables; I find they are really important to balancing a soup. Some kind of nut butter adds smoothness. Experiment.
CENTERPIECE SERVINGS
STIR-FRIED VEGETABLES WITH TOFU
Ingredients: One lb. firm tofu, 2 medium cloves garlic, 1 tsp. dried basil or 1 tsp. dried oregano, 20 tbsp. ground or whole flax seeds, 1 medium onion, 1/4 cup olive oil; 1/2 cup of raw peanuts or raw cashews, 2 cups sprouted lentils; 6 cups of any of the following chopped vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, green beans, kale, spinach, asparagus, zucchini, squash, or cabbage.
Any combination of vegetables, spices, and sauces can be used to make stir fry. I have never had stir-fry come out the same way twice. Experiment. Develop your own favorite way to cook stir-fry.
Any big, thick frying pan will work. However, I suggest you buy an electric wok. Get the biggest one you can find so you can stir with more vigor and less risk of the ingredients spilling out.
If you have a gas stove, you can use a standard wok that sits on a metal base over the flame. However, this kind of wok will not work on an electric stove because the wok sits too far above the element and will just not get hot enough.
Steam the tofu in a separate stock pot. Put a butterfly colander in the bottom of the pot, add a half-inch of water, cut the tofu into slices, and steam it until the tofu is firm and rubbery. Ten minutes will do it.
Get the wok hot and add olive oil and 1/2 cup of water. First add the garlic, basil, oregano, and flax. After five minutes add the hard vegetables: carrots, broccoli stalks, green beans, collards, kale, spinach, cabbage, garlic, flax seeds, and onions. After ten minutes add the medium-hard vegetables: celery, zucchini, squash, asparagus, broccoli flowers, cauliflower.
Then, toss in the veggies that need minimal steaming: herbs, sprouted lentils, raw cashews, raw peanuts. Keep stirring rapidly and constantly for three minutes. Then add the steamed tofu. Keep stirring until all the ingredients have cooked together for a few minutes. Throughout the process, keep adding water as it boils off, however, at the end, allow the last of the water to boil off so that the ingredients will not be damp.
Serve stir fry on rice, kamut, spelt, millet, or quinoa. Top it with soy sauce, lemon-tahini sauce, or spicy peanut sauce.
This recipe will make a big stir-fry. Make as big a stir-fry as you can, the only limitation being the size of your wok. If you are cooking, you might as well cook a lot. It’s the same amount of work. You can eat the left overs the next day for breakfast. Mix the leftover veggies with the leftover rice or grain and put it all together in plastic containers for portable lunches and instant dinners. Freeze some containers.
LEMON-LIME TEMPEH
Tempeh is fermented whole soy beans. There are many different tempehs. Tempeh has a concentrated savory flavor like cheese but different. It has a special zing. You may not want to use a full package each time, especially if you are only cooking for one or two. I recommend you use half the package, a slab about three inches by four, and freeze the rest in a plastic bag. When you want a quick meal, take the bag out and smack it on the counter, breaking the tempeh in pieces. Take out what you need and put the rest back in the freezer.
If you are good at planning ahead, marinate your tempeh over night. Otherwise marinate it for at least a half hour in lemon or lime juice, wine, garlic, sesame oil, and tamari. Brown the tempeh in a little olive oil for five minutes. You can buy tempeh that is already flavored and doesn’t necessarily need to be marinated. I like Seasoned Italiano Tempeh. (Surata Soy Foods Co-Op, Box 652, Eugene, OR 97440.)
Ingredients to be marinated: 6 ounces of tempeh (a slice 3 x 4 inches), 4 tbsp. lemon and/or lime juice, 2 tbsp. white wine, 1 tbsp. olive oil or grape seed oil, 1/2 tsp. in toasted sesame oil (optional), 1 tsp. soy sauce or salt (to taste). Slice the tempeh and marinate it in the above ingredients.
Ingredients to be sauted: 2 cups of celery; 2 cups of broccoli; 4 tbs. raw cashews, peanuts, or sunflower seeds; 1 clove of garlic (optional); 1 small onion, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup water, 2 tbsp. whole flax seeds.
Heat the wok. Add the oil and water, and steam-stir-fry the onions, flax seeds, and garlic. After five minutes, add celery, broccoli, chopped onions, sunflower seeds, cashews or peanuts.
Add the marinated tempeh at the end, stir for another minute. Continue steam-stir-frying until the water is evaporated.
GRAPE LEAF ROLLS, DOLMATHES
Ingredients: One 16 oz. jar of grape leaves, 1 cup of uncooked brown rice or 1 cup of uncooked, sprouted kamut, rye, or spelt, 1 cup of sprouted lentils, 1 bunch of chopped scallions, 4 large garlic cloves, juice of 2 lemons, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 cup of finely chopped fresh mint leaves from your garden, 2 tbsp. whole flax seeds, 1/2 tsp. cumin, 1/2 tsp. allspice, 2 tsp. sea salt (to taste), 1/2 tsp. pepper (to taste), 1 cup of tomato juice, 1 cup of vegetable broth or 1 cup of water plus 1 vegetable bullion cube or 1 tbsp. of miso, approximately 1 cup of water.
If you have grapes growing in your back yard, pick large but tender, new leaves. To store them you need to blanch and can them in salt water. If you have no grapes growing (what a shame!) or if it’s winter, then buy grape leaves in a jar. Rinse them because they are stored in brine, and cut off the stem of each leaf. Add a little olive oil to the bottom of the pot and spread it around. Line the bottom of the pot with leaves; if you have broken leaves, use them for this.
Mince the onions and garlic. Mix them uncooked with the uncooked rice, olive oil, mint, flax seeds, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.
Unfold each grape leaf on a cutting board, putting the stem end towards you. Let’s say for the sake of this illustration that you are facing north and the stem end of the leaf is facing south. Put a heaping tablespoon of the filling a little south of the center of a 5 or 6 inch wide leaf, with the mixture extending about three inches from east to west, depending on the size of each leaf. Add more filling for big leaves and less for small ones. Part of the leaf will extend out to the east and west past the mixture, and fold that excess over the filling. Then roll the leaf up loosely from south to north. The rice will expand, so make loose rolls about the diameter of a quarter. If you roll them too tightly, they will burst while cooking. Place the rolls as you produce them in a large pot, packing them in closely.
Pour the mixture of tomato juice, vegetable broth or dissolved miso, and lemon juice over the rolls, covering them. There is no need to use tooth picks to hold the rolls together. Instead put a plate on top of them to keep them from moving around and unrolling while they are cooking. Add weight by putting a bowl on top of the plate; fill the bowl with water to add more weight. Put the lid on the pot, bring the rolls to a boil, and then simmer them for around an hour on low heat. You will probably need to add more water. When the stuffing is soft, they are done. If there is too much water in the pot, cook the rolls a little longer with the lid off. If they are dry, add a little more water. The secret of successful grape leaf rolls is lots of lemon juice. So add the juice of two more lemons at the end. Eat the rolls hot or refrigerated.
Thanks to Marcie Simon for teaching me how to cook this tasty concoction.
LENTIL PILAF
Lebanese call this “um-zhad-dtha-dah.” Egyptians call it “mo-zhidth-ra.”
Ingredients: 2 cups gray-brown lentils, preferably sprouted, 1 cup rice or sprouted grain, 1 medium onion chopped finely, 1 tbsp. basil leaf, 1 tbsp. oregano leaf, 6 cups water, 2 tbs. sea salt (to taste), 1 tsp. black pepper (to taste), 4 to 8 tbsp. whole flax seeds.
Into a pot pour one cup of brown rice, or sprouted grain, and two cups of lentils. Lentils, unlike beans, do not have to be soaked, however, I prefer them soaked and sprouted. Rinse the lentils and rice several times—until the water runs clear. Add the oregano and basil. Add salt, black pepper, and water. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add the chopped onions, and simmer the mixture at a very slow boil for up to an hour. You may need to add water. It’s okay to open the pot and test the pilaf from time to time. Your goal is a conglomeration like sticky rice.
You can add twice as much water and turn this into a lentil and rice soup, although I think lentil soup is better with potatoes than with rice. Either way it’s delicious. Leave part of the mixture in the pot and eat it right away and the next day for breakfast. Put the rest into plastic containers. If you refrigerate them immediately, before bacteria can start growing, they will keep for weeks. Freeze them and they will last indefinitely. They reheat well and make great dinners in a hurry.
You can saute the onion, oregano, and basil in olive oil before adding them to the lentils and rice. If you want to avoid frying, then skip the frying. Add the onions, basil, and oregano to the rice and lentils and just boil it all.
You can cook lentil pilaf in a rice cooker. If you are really in a hurry, use a pressure cooker, and you will have dinner on the table in about 15 minutes.
PASTA WITH PUTTANESCA SAUCE
Puttanesca is one meal that Italian restaurants could make strictly vegetarian but usually don’t. Usually they add butter to the sauce, and sometimes they add anchovies. Pasta is sometimes made with eggs. At home it’s quick and easy to make.
Ingredients: 1/4 pound of egg-free pasta, 1 cup chopped onions, 3 chopped garlic cloves, 4 tbsp. olive oil, 4 large chopped tomatoes, 1/2 tsp. dried oregano or basil leaf, 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp. fresh black pepper or cayenne pepper or to taste, one 3 1/2 oz. jar of Napoleon capers (or use bulk capers, often sold at coops), 25 pitted calamata olives, 10 sprigs of chopped parsley, 1/4 cup water, 1 chopped red pepper, 4 to 20 tbsp. whole or ground flax seeds.
Put your water on to boil for the pasta.
Cut up the pitted olives.
Into your electric wok (or large frying pan with a lid) put water, olive oil, chopped tomatoes, chopped onions, pepper flakes, black pepper, oregano or basil, flax seeds, half your chopped garlic, half your chopped parsley, and half your chopped red pepper. Set the wok on 250° F. Add black pepper to taste.
What we are doing here is steam-stir-frying, and we added the tomatoes from the beginning to put water into the mix. This prevents the temperature of the oil from rising above the boiling point of water, so it can’t burn and break down. (See the Stir-Frying and Steam-Stir Frying section of this book, p. 355.)
If you want to do real stir frying, leave out the water and tomatoes, and fry the other ingredients listed above. Add the tomatoes at the end.
When the onions are soft, after about five minutes of steam-stir-frying, add the capers and olives. Cook for another two minutes, and turn the heat down to simmer. Finally, add the other half of your chopped garlic, parsley, and chopped red pepper and turn off the heat.
Simultaneously, you will be working on the pasta: When the water is at a rolling boil, add the pasta, and keep stirring every minute or so. Cook it at a rolling boil for 8 to 10 minutes. Don’t cook the pasta to the point where it is soft, because it will continue to cook after it is mixed with the sauce. When the pasta is firm and has no taste of flour, pour it into a colander, pour cold water through it. This slows the cooking process. Your pasta will keep cooking when you mix it with the hot sauce.
Next you can pour the sauce onto the pasta or move the cooked pasta into the sauce mix. I have given you a recipe that is very heavy on sauce and skimpy on pasta. This intensifies the taste. You can safely double the amount of pasta in this recipe if you have a lot of hungry kids to feed.
Option: Use sprouted, cooked grain or rice instead of pasta.
Raw food option: Use sprouted, uncooked grain instead of pasta.
PASTA WITH TOMATO SAUCE
Ingredients: 1/4 pound egg-free pasta, 1 cup chopped onions, 3 chopped garlic cloves, 4 tbsp. olive oil, 4 large chopped tomatoes or two 12-ounce cans of chopped tomatoes, 1/2 tsp. dried oregano, 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves or 2 tbsp. basil pesto, 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp. fresh black pepper (to taste), 10 sprigs of chopped parsley, 1/2 cup TVP (texturized vegetable protein, made of soy), 2-20 tbsp. whole or grated flax seeds, 1 cup diced celery, 2 cups diced broccoli, 1 cup diced carrots, 1/8 cup grape juice. Optional ingredients: 1/2 cup fresh, well chopped, tender grape leaves.
Add all ingredients except celery, broccoli, and carrots to the pan, and cook for 30 minutes at a slowly bubbling boil. Add the celery, broccoli, and carrots, and simmer for another five minutes.
Prepare the pasta as outlined in the puttanesca recipe above, and serve the sauce on the pasta.
Option: Use sprouted, cooked grain or rice instead of pasta.
Raw food option: Use sprouted, uncooked grain instead of pasta.
VEGETABLE CURRY
Ingredients: 6 cups water, 1 small acorn squash diced into 1/2 inch cubes, 1 large potato diced into 1/2 inch cubes, 1 large bok choi sliced, with the stalk separated from the tender leaves, 1 large diced onion, 1/4 cup of chopped fresh ginger root, 2-20 tbsp. whole flax seeds, 1 large red pepper sliced into strips, 1 leek chopped, 2 cups diced broccoli, 2 cups diced cauliflower, 1 bundle asparagus chopped, 1 medium zucchini sliced into 1/2 inch slices, 1 handful of fresh green peas, 1 small can of bamboo shoots, 1 cup of sprouted mung beans, 1 pound package of tofu, sliced into 1 inch cubes, 2 cans coconut milk, 5 stalks of green onions finely chopped, 1 tbsp. yellow curry, 1 tbsp. sea salt to taste, 1 cup fresh, chopped basil. Different combinations of veggies can be used.
First, steam the tofu. Slice it and spread the slices on a butterfly colander opened up in a stock pot. This takes ten to twenty minutes.
Pour the coconut milk into a separate mixing bowl. Add the yellow curry, salt, chopped green onions, and stir. You will add this to the cooking veggies at the end.
Pour the 6 cups of water into a stock pot. Bring it to a gentle boil. Add the veggies that need the most time to cook, first the squash, potatoes, onions, ginger, pepper, and the firm stalk of the bok choi. Cover with lid and steam semi-submerged for five minutes. This will not be a soup, but it will be soupy.
Next add leek, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, zucchini, green peas, sprouted mung beans, and bamboo shoots. Stir. Cover with lid. Steam three more minutes.
Add the bok choi leaves, and basil leaves, sliced tofu, and the coconut milk mixture. Let it steam and simmer for another three minutes and serve over rice or other cooked grain.
Raw food option: Instead of rice of cooked grain, use sprouted grain.
MEAT SUBSTITUTES
FALAFEL
Falafel is the strictly vegetarian hamburger of the Middle East. It is made of chick-peas, also known as garbanzo, or fava beans (referred to as fool in Arabic), or a combination of the two. Fava beans are hard to find except in Middle Eastern stores and coops. Fava beans impart a special flavor. However, a small percentage of the population gets sick when they eat fava beans. Go easy on fava at first. I love fava. My wife hates it. (www.Favism.org.)
Ingredients: two 15-ounce cans cooked chick-peas, also known as garbanzo beans, or fava beans or a mixture of the two, 1/3 cup of flour, 6 tbsp. or more of ground flax, 1/2 minced onion, 1/4 cup minced parsley, 1/4 cup water, 1 tbs. lemon juice, 1 tsp. cumin, 2 tsp. turmeric, 2 tsp. salt, 3 large cloves of garlic.
You can buy precooked, canned garbanzo and fava beans, and they work fine. If you want to cook your own chick-peas or fava beans, soak them overnight or even until they sprout, and pour off the water before cooking. You will need to simmer them for up to two hours until they soften. Pour them into a big colander to drain off the water. Some cooks rub the skins off the chick-peas with the help of a rolling pin. I leave the skins on.
Put all ingredients except the flour into a blender and make a batter. Add the flour and blend again. In restaurants round balls are cooked in deep fat. Instead, make flat patties and fry them on low heat in coconut or palm oil. Or bake them in a 350° oven for 30 minutes in a Pyrex dish or on a baking sheet.
Top the patties with lemon-tahini sauce, which I describe below in the Sauces, Spreads, Dips section, p. 390. Falafel can be served naked or wrapped in pita bread as a sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and onions.
After a late night movie on “The Ave” near the University of Washington, we sometimes order a falafel sandwich at the Aladdin. It is their custom to heat the pita bread on the grill, the same grill that is used to fry meat. So if you are a strict vegetarian, tell the cook to heat the bread in the microwave. Falafel cafes are a good place to shop for tasty ingredients such as zater, garbanzo beans, fava beans, and excellent olives. I also buy their hummus (chick peas) or fool (made with fava), which are not fried but boiled.
You can even make falafel from a mix. (Fantastic Foods.) Just add the minimum amount of water to wet the mix.
STRICTLY VEGETARIAN BURGERS MADE FROM MIXES
There are various brands of instant, powdered, strictly vegetarian burger mixes. My favorite is the Loveburger. (Love Natural Foods, 5384 Blair Road, Cohutta, GA 30710.) With all these mixes add several tablespoons of ground flax seeds, which will help the patties hold together better. The Loveburger is made of soy nuggets, sesame seeds, oat flour, wheat bran, potato flour, nutritional yeast, onion powder, basil, garlic, powder, and marjoram. Even a regular beef burger addict will like this burger.
As an option, mash some soft tofu in a large bowl and add the mix to the tofu. Then add the minimum amount of water necessary to wet the mix. Less water is needed when you use tofu, because the tofu is moist. Again, let the mix wait for fifteen minutes and form it into patties. You can add grated beets to your burger mixture to give it color, texture, and more iron.
Another winner is Nature’s Burger (Fantastic Foods, 888-254-3711, www.FantasticFoods.com.). It contains barley, brown rice, oats, onion, potato, tomato, garlic, wheat, yellow peas, dried yeast, rice syrup powder, green peas, salt, spices, and soy sauce. Add ground flax.
Another good instant mix is Seitan Quick Mix. (Arrowhead Mills, 800-434-4246, www.ArrowheadMills.com.) Seitan is made of wheat and has been eaten by the Chinese for centuries.
If you are making a burger from mix, pour the mix into a bowl and add salt before you add water. The mixes come saltless. Add a half teaspoon of salt to each cup of mix—to give the burger the salty taste that meat eaters crave. You can phase out the salt later if you prefer. I also add pepper.
Boil water and add it slowly to the mix. Add the minimum amount of water necessary to form patties; if you add too much water, the patties will fall apart during frying. I like to let the patties sit for ten minutes before I fry them so the ingredients inside the patty can get wet. Adding a little ground flax helps the burgers hold together a lot better during frying.
Fry the patties in coconut or palm oil. The tropical oils can handle high temperatures for a longer period of time without breaking down. Instant falafel is not quite as good as fresh, but instant falafel and instant burgers are still a hundred times better than E. coli beef hamburgers. All these burgers are high in protein, low in fat, and free of cholesterol.
All these burgers can be baked. Put them on a non-stick baking sheet or on a Pyrex dish or on parchment baking paper. You will need about twenty minutes of baking time at 350°. I like the taste better if they are fried.
STRICTLY VEGETARIAN BURGERS READY TO HEAT AND EAT
There are instant refrigerated vegetarian burgers available. They only need to be heated. None of them tastes exactly like a beef hamburger, but they should not be compared with beef hamburgers. They are a new class of fine food in their own right. They have a very wholesome and satisfying taste. Island Spring (www.IslandSpring.com) has several flavors, all of them excellent.
There are frozen burgers too such as Ken & Robert’s Veggie Burger (www.ImagineFoods.com), Superburgers (Turtle Island Foods, 800-508-8100, www.Tofurky.com), and vegan original Boca Burgers (www.BocaBurger.com.)
These burgers come precooked. Heat them briefly in a skillet in a little oil, and they are ready to serve open-faced or in a bun like a beef burger. Or heat them in the microwave, 30 seconds on each side.
Some instant burgers contain cheese; look for the term “vegan” or “vegan original” on the package.
STRICTLY VEGETARIAN PIZZA??
This recipe will make five big pizzas.
Vegetarian pizza parties are an exercise in participatory cooking. Your job as chef is to get the toppings and dough ready and coach your guests.
One easy way to make dough is go to the bakery and buy several pounds of bread dough. If you have a bread baker, this is the time to use it. Put it on the mix setting, and make yourself some dough. Or you can make dough the old fashioned way:
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
In a very big bowl, dissolve 2 tsp. of active dry yeast in 3 cups of 100° F. water. Add two tbsp. of maple syrup, barley sweetener, or rice sweetener and 2 tsp. of salt. Let the mixture sit for ten minutes. Gradually add a total of 9 cups of flour, stirring first with a spoon and then with your hands. Transfer the dough to a cutting board dusted with flour. Knead the dough for 5 minutes. Cover it and let it rise for an hour. Kneed it again and let it rise again.
Now for the toppings. As with stir fry, the key to pizza is getting the ingredients ready in advance, all lined up in bowls.
Chop up fifteen or more large onions. You will need a lot of onions. You cannot err on the side of chopping up too many onions. Put the onions in a wok with a half cup olive oil and a cup of water, 2 tablespoons of dried basil and 2 tablespoons of oregano. Steam-stir-fry the mixture on low heat with the lid on until the onions are soft and sweet. I repeat: You need a lot of onions; onions cook down to a relatively small amount. Set them aside, as you will do all the following ingredients.
Mix three 12 oz. cans of tomato sauce with three 12 oz. cans of tomato paste.
Slice up a half-pound of green olives and/or black olives. I favor green olives. Don’t use ripe, canned olives.
Slice two pounds of Vegan Rella cheddar and mozzarella soy cheese into thin slices, or grate it. Read the fine print because all soy cheeses I know of other than Vegan Rella contain milk casein. Add salt.
Open a can of pineapple pieces or crushed pineapple. Drain off the liquid.
Look for the pineapple packaged in its own juice, not in sugar syrup.
Cut up a half-pound of firm, precooked tofu, the jerky-style tofu such as Five-Spice Tofu or Savory Tofu. (The Soy Deli, Quong Hop & Co., www.quonghop.com.) As a good alternative, use a package of tempeh.
Slice thinly and steam two pounds of regular tofu to make it firm and chewy. Spread the slices on a butterfly collander sitting in a half inch of water in a covered pan. Then marinate it in lemon juice or lime juice, garlic, sesame oil, and tamari.
Slice and dice the following vegetables into small pieces: peppers of all kinds, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, squash, mushrooms, and other vegetables—enough to fill a quart container.
Pour into a bowl some chopped almonds, peanuts, walnuts, pecans, cashews, and/or sesame seeds, preferably raw.
Dice 20 cloves of garlic into very small pieces.
Copy up parsley, cilantro, scallions, oregano, basil, thyme, and rosemary.
If you have sprouted sunflower seeds, sprouted lentils, or sprouted mung beans ready, use them.
Make pepper and sea salt available.
Now you have all your ingredients in bowls, and you are ready to make pizza. Roll out the dough to the thickness you prefer, oil the baking sheets, and spread the dough on them. I prefer to make a lot of small pizzas instead of a few big ones. Prick the dough with a fork in several places so air bubbles will not develop under the pizzas.
Let your guests add the toppings they prefer, starting with the steam-stir-fried onions. Don’t put all your ingredients on each pizza; make pizzas with different ingredients. Bake your pizza for about 25 minutes until the dough turns crusty. Invest in a real pizza cutter, a sharpened wheel on a handle; it makes slicing a lot easier.
CHEWY MEAT SUBSTITUTES
FIRM TOFU SANDWICH
Tofus come in various textures ranging from silken soft to very firm. My favorite very firm tofus are Five-Spice Tofu and Savory Tofu. (The Soy Deli, Quong Hop & Co., www.Quonghop.com.) Also good is Teriyaki Tofu. (Soy Select, Dae Han Inc., Portland, OR 97214.) These firm tofus have the smoked flavor of beef jerky—with none of the cholesterol—, and they are tough and chewy like jerky.
Toast some good bread and put some heart-healthy olive or flax oil on it. Toasted sesame oil adds an exquisite flavor. Add Vegenaise vegan mayonnaise (www.followyourheart.com.) Add lettuce or a layer of mustard or kale leaves from the garden, then a slice of tomato, then a slice of the firm tofu, then more lettuce or greens. Add another piece of toast or eat it open faced. Chomp into this crunchy, chewy sandwich. Share it with your carnivorous friends. Expressions of shock will appear on their faces. As they chew away with their mouths stuffed full, they will say muffled words such as, “Hey man, this is really good!”
STEAMED TOFU
People who are new to tofu look at a block of white, raw tofu and wonder what to do with it. They taste the chalky stuff and make “yuck” noises. It’s easy. Get out a big stock pot, and pour in a half-inch of water. Put one of those butterfly colanders that unfolds like a tulip into the bottom of the pot. Slice the tofu into quarter-inch thick slices and spread the slices on the colander. Bring the water to a boil, and steam (parboil) the tofu for ten or 20 minutes. When it cools, it will be very firm, even rubbery, much firmer than it will get if it is fried in oil, because steamed tofu gets well-cooked all the way through. Much of the water is evaporated out, leaving small voids. Steamed tofu marinates well, sucking up liquids like a sponge. Dice the steamed tofu slices and toss them into a stir fry or soup. Or dice and marinate for five minutes in lemon juice or balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, and chopped garlic and serve separately or toss the tofu into a salad. Experiment. Note: Some say unfermented tofu is not good for you.
OTHER PLANT-BASED “MEATS”
Try Trim Slice beef, ham, and turkey-flavored seitan, which is wheat gluten and strictly vegetarian. (Legume/A-1 International, Box 609, Monticello, NJ 07045.) They don’t really taste like beef, ham, or turkey, but they do taste good. They go well in school lunches. Use Veganaise vegan mayonnaise and make sandwiches with the sliced seitan.
Strictly vegetarian hot dogs are a lot like meat hot dogs. They boil and barbecue just like meat hot dogs. Or cut them down the middle, and fry them in a little oil. (Meatless Healthy Franks, White Wave Soy Foods, www.WhiteWave.com; Tofu Pups, Lightlife Foods, www.lightlife.com; Veggie Tofu Wieners, Yves Veggie Cuisine, www.YvesVeggie.com.)
These tofu meats are made of clean, wholesome organic soy and spices. You don’t have to be a strict vegetarian to eat a plant-based diet at least some of the time. It has never killed anyone not to have animal-based foods every day.
HERBED PUMPKIN OR SQUASH
Do not select a jack-o-lantern pumpkin; they are bred for size not taste. Pick an “eating” pumpkin or squash. Slice the pumpkin or squash; remove the seeds; put the slices into a big stock pot with a butterfly colander at the bottom, and steam them.
Arrange the slices on a platter. Partially mash them with a potato masher or fork. Add olive, flax, hemp, or sesame oil. Add soy sauce, tamari, sliced scallions, and a sprinkling of zater or nutritional yeast. Mash. Add pepper to taste. The skin is soft enough to eat but still chewy. It has a good flavor and provides that “chewing satisfaction” that meat affords. Bake the seeds in a Pyrex dish in the oven or microwave.
TOAST DIPPED IN OLIVE OR FLAX OIL, ZATER OPTIONAL
Pour extra virgin olive or flax oil and soy sauce (to taste) in a bowl or shallow dish. Break off a piece of chewy sprouted whole grain bread or toast, and dip it into the oil. This is the way Italians eat their bread. This is what to eat instead of margarine, high in harmful trans-fatty acids. B-12 Option: Add nutritional yeast. Option: add zater. Zater is a Middle Eastern delicacy composed of dried thyme, toasted sesame seeds, and a little salt, and it is widely available at Middle Eastern grocery stores.
ZATER PATE ON TOAST WITH OLIVE OIL
Pour five tablespoon of olive or flax oil into a bowl. Add one tablespoon of zater. Add a half teaspoon of soy sauce. Optional: Add a small clove of finely chopped garlic or a tablespoon of finely chopped scallions. Stir well and let the mixture sit for five minutes so the zater can soften. Spread this decadent but heart-friendly pate onto chewy, whole grain toast. It satisfies meat cravings.
FENNEL AND GARLIC WITH TOAST
Go outside and harvest feathery fennel or dill strands from the garden You may chop the fennel or dill strands and mix with olive oil or flax oil and soy sauce. Eat with baked or steamed garlic cloves and chewy whole grain bread or toast. Fennel and dill have a pleasing aroma and taste, and they are surprisingly chewy, something we seem to crave. The husk of garlic cloves is chewy too. I invented this recipe, and it is excellent!
BAKED GARLIC (BAKE OTHER VEGGIES AT THE SAME TIME)
Ingredients: 2 heads of elephant garlic or 4 heads of regular garlic, 4 tsp. olive oil. Optional ingredients: 2 tsp. basil, thyme, or oregano.
Slice the bottom off the garlic head, the better to expose the cloves to the heat and oil. Or you can break the heads of garlic down into cloves. Then hit each clove a whack with the flat side of a heavy knife or cleaver, and remove the husk of the clove. I bake them without removing the husk. It absorbs the steam and softens into a tasty, chewy consistency, especially if it is baked with a little olive oil.
Put the whole heads of garlic or the individual cloves in a garlic baker made of clay pottery. Or use a small Pyrex bowl with a Pyrex lid or plate on top. Bake for around 20 minutes at 350°.
You can bake garlic without adding anything, but I like to add a tablespoon of olive oil for each head of cloves. Pack the cloves together so they can absorb some of the olive oil. Add a half teaspoon of soy sauce for each head of cloves. You can add basil, thyme, or oregano.
Roasted garlic is soft and smooth and adds new dimensions to foods. Spread it on sprouted bread toast or chewy rye bread as an appetizer. Add it to pasta sauce. Add it to mashed potatoes.
Garlic is very important to good health, but don’t eat raw garlic in the morning before going to work. It gets into your blood and comes out your pores. I had been eating chopped garlic on rice for breakfast! My office associates leveled with me and told me that I smelled like a garlic factory, even down the hall. It never occurred to me that any one would notice. That proves my theory that all of us great blind spots in our self awareness. We all need friends to point them out. I switched to baked and steamed garlic and quit eating garlic for breakfast.
I prefer garlic and potatoes baked in the oven and not nuked in the microwave. When you bake garlic, you can bake other food with no added fuel cost: potatoes, yams, parsnips, and corn for example.
EGGPLANT WITH LEMON JUICE
Ingredients: 1 large or 2 long Asian eggplants (I prefer the flavor of Asian eggplant), 1/2 cup olive oil, juice of one large lemon, soy sauce to taste.
Slice the eggplants lengthwise in half. Saute them briefly in olive oil until soft. Flip them and saute. Or microwave the slices for five minutes. Place the slices on a serving platter. Mash them gently with a fork. Sprinkle on lemon juice and soy sauce to taste.
OLIVES WITH BREAD
I lived on olives, bread, fruit, nuts, sprouted lentils, and raw vegetables all through Spain. Spanish fare is heavy on pork, pork, pork. But the bread, although unsprouted, is excellent, and the olives are fabulous. Back in the USA where do you find good olives? Find a Middle Eastern, Greek, or Italian food store. My favorite olives are cracked green olives from Turkey; they come in huge cans, and the price is reasonable. (www.Ziyad.com.)
STEAMED, BROILED, ROASTED CORN ON THE COB
Don’t boil corn on the cob. Boiling shrivels the kernels and sucks the flavor out of them, producing corn that is waterlogged, soft, and overcooked. Steam corn instead. Put a half inch of water in your stock pot, insert the butterfly colander, and lay in the cobs of corn. Keep the cobs out of the water. It takes about ten minutes. You can also steam the corn along with other vegetables you are steaming.
Or broil your corn under the broiler. Check the cobs every few minutes, and turn them when you can see they are browning. Broiled corn has an entirely different texture than steamed or boiled corn, and the flavor seems more concentrated. It has a firm bite and chewiness you will enjoy.
And for a real taste treat, roast your corn, in the husk, out on the barbecue pit.
Most people eat corn on the cob with butter and salt. Try eating it naked. It’s great as-is, with nothing added. If you want to add something, pour olive oil in a dish, and roll the cob in the oil. Sprinkle on sea salt, to taste.
Oh yes. Most corn grown now is genetically modified, GMO. Buy organic corn or grow your own.
RELIABLE VEGGIE DISHES
GREENS STEAM-STIR FRIED
Ingredients: 2 big bunches of mustard, turnip, or collard greens,
1 chopped large onion, 2-20 tbsp. whole flax seeds, 2 chopped cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp. chopped ginger, 4 tbsp. olive oil, 2 cups water.
Mustard and turnip—unlike collard and kale—are hot and a little bitter, and most people won’t eat them raw. So steam them or steam-stir fry them.
Some greens cannot be eaten raw; people with false teeth or failing teeth cannot eat greens raw. So even the raw foodist must admit there is a place for lightly cooked greens. Steam-stir-fry your greens the minimal amount of time to soften and sweeten them, allowing them to retain a relatively firm texture. You will be eating a semi-raw food diet.
In your wok steam-stir-fry onions, garlic, soy, and ginger in olive oil and water until the onions soften. Then add whatever greens are available either out of your garden or from the grocery store. The greens are full of moisture, and along with the little bit of water you add, they will be boiling in their own juices. Let them steam-stir-fry for ten minutes or so. Yes, some of the vitamins are lost in the heat, but the greens become easier to chew and thus you can eat more of them.
Optional: Add kale, bok choi, or other greens such as chickweed, or dandelion flowers and stems. In the Northwest you can grow greens all through the winter. When you run out of garden greens, buy organic greens at the coop, and then buy frozen, and even canned greens. Or sprout lentils and adzuki beans and steam-stir fry them.
Mustard greens are my favorite. Dip your fork into the wok and blow on the greens to cool them. When you bite into mustard greens, an irresistible grin will come across your face. Mustard is magic. It will become your favorite vegetable. I could eat mustard greens every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of them.
Pythagoras, the greatest physician of his day, raved about the health benefits of mustard greens: “Mustard… [is] judged to be chief of those whose pungent properties reach a high level, since no other penetrates further into the nostrils and brain.” He recommended mustard for stomach troubles, bites, asthma, epilepsy, menstruation, and other conditions. (Pliny, Natural History, Loeb Classical Library, Vol. VI, 20:87, p. 137.)
If you are brave, you can eat mustard greens raw. Take a small bite, and then chew, chew, chew. Your saliva will cool and sweeten them. I sit in front of my computer writing legal documents eating raw mustard greens and parsley. Mustard greens are not at all hard on my stomach, and maybe that is because they are loaded with calcium. You can eat collards straight too; they are not hot, but during the summer they are a little bitter. Chew, chew, chew, and they sweeten.
In winter, the collards that grow in your yard will be sweet enough to eat raw. And this is an advantage of having your own garden: In winter the greens are sweet, while store-bought greens, which come from California where it is always hot, never get sweet. Another advantage is that you can eat the small tender leaves of the greens that never make it to the market.
STEAMED VEGETABLES AND GREENS
Into a big stock pot put a metal butterfly colander—the kind that opens up like a tulip. Add an inch of water. Keep the vegetables on top of the colander and out of the water so they will not lose any of their vitamins and taste.
Start with the hard veggies that need to cook longest: Carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli stalks, frozen peas, onions, or beets, et cetera.
Optional: On top of the hard veggies, spread a layer of sliced tofu.
After ten minutes or so, add the leafy greens: kale, spinach, collard greens, bok choi, broccoli and cauliflower tops.
Steam until tender.
Serve veggies alone or on rice, spelt, or kamut. As a topping add flax oil, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, lemon-tahini sauce, or spicy peanut sauce. See the Sauces, Spreads, Dips section of this book, p. 390.
Or just eat the veggies piece by piece during the day. You can stuff yourself with this kind of food, and you won’t get fat. And it’s all brimming with mysterious enzymes and vitamins that will make you a stronger person.
Stir frying and steam-stir frying are great, but I have come to prefer steaming over a butterfly colander. It’s quicker and easier than frying. It’s easier to clean up afterwards. Light steaming is only a step away from raw food, and just a little easier to eat.
STINGING NETTLE (WARNING: USE GLOVES!) and dandelion
Nettle is just another leafy green, and you cook it the same way you would any other leafy green. Because nettle is so good for your health, so easy to grow, so easy to cook, and so arcane—it merits special mention.
Buy nettle seeds by mail order. (www.mountainroseherbs.com, www.localharvest.org.) Or find a friend who can give you a plant or seeds. It is it’s a unique and useful gift. Or keep your eyes open and you might find nettle growing somewhere by the road. Nettle makes lots of seeds. They are extremely tiny; in the heat of August, when there is a slight wind, the pollen rises from the plant like white smoke. It is easy to collect the seeds in a paper bag in the Fall.
When you work with nettle, wear gloves, a long sleeve shirt, and long pants—just like when you are picking blackberries.
Brush the nettle plant lightly across the back of your hand, and you will feel tiny stings—strong although not painful. The stinging will go away in a couple of hours. I sometimes eat the tiny leaves raw. My fingers and tongue get stung.
Go out to your yard and pick any yellow dandelion flower in sight.
Nettle and dandelion flowers make a great tea. Put them into a pot of boiling water. After you are done drinking the tea, you can eat the well done nettle leaves and flowers.
Or steam stir fry them together in a pan with water, olive oil, dried basil or thyme, maybe some flax seeds, maybe some onions or garlic. Optional extras: sliced new potatoes, sprouted garbanzo beans. Be creative.
GREEN BEANS OR SPINACH
Ingredients: four cups of green beans or Asian long beans chopped into pieces an inch long, 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/2 cup of water, 2 chopped, medium white or yellow onions, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, or filberts.
Steam-stir-fry the onions in olive oil and a little water until they begin to soften and sweeten. Add the chopped nuts and mix.
Cut the green beans into pieces an inch long and add them to the onions. Steam stir-fry until the beans are tender.
Devour this luscious mixture hot or at room temperature.
This recipe works with spinach as well as green beans. Use two bunches of chopped, fresh spinach. Spinach needs less cooking that green beans.
Thanks to Mom for this recipe.
GREEN BEANS AND TOMATOES
Ingredients: 2 pounds of fresh Blue Lake green beans or Asian long beans or two 12 ounce cans of beans, 4 large chopped tomatoes or one 16 oz. can of chopped tomatoes, 2-20 tbsp. whole flax seeds, 1 medium onion, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. sea salt (to taste), 1/4 tsp. pepper (to taste).
Steam-stir-fry the onions in olive oil and water, which brings out the flavor and makes them sweet. Cut the green beans into pieces an inch long and add them to the onions.
Fresh beans are preferable, but canned beans work too. If you use canned beans, pour off the water in the can. Canned beans are partially cooked, so shorten cooking time. Add the chopped tomatoes. If you use canned tomatoes, use the liquid because it is tomato juice. You won’t need to add water to this recipe, because the tomatoes are full of moisture. Add salt and pepper to taste and cinnamon.
Cover and bring the mixture to a boil, and then simmer until the beans are al dente, that is, cooked but still firm. Take the lid off and cook until most of the moisture is gone. This concentrates the flavor of the tomatoes. Serve over rice or some other sprouted and cooked grain. Thanks to Mom for this recipe.
POTATOES AND TOMATOES
Ingredients: 2 large baking potatoes, 2 large tomatoes or one 16 ounce can of whole tomato, 1 medium yellow or white onion, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2 tsp. salt (to taste), 1/8 tsp pepper (to taste), 2 to 20 tbsp. whole flax seeds.
Do not peel the potatoes; just wash them. Slice the potatoes a quarter inch thick. Chop up the onion. In a pan with a lid, steam-stir-fry the potatoes, onion, and flax seeds in olive oil and water until the potatoes begin to soften. Add the chopped or canned tomatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Don’t add water to this dish, because the tomatoes are full of moisture. Cook the mixture on medium until the potatoes are done. Then take the lid off and cook until the moisture is nearly all absorbed. The potatoes should be well-done, not al dente. Thanks to Mom for this recipe.
POTATO SALAD
Ingredients: 4 large baking potatoes, 1/2 lb. of smooth tofu, 1/2 large well-chopped onion, 1 tbsp. mustard, 1/2 cup grape seed oil Vegenaise (www.followyourheart.com), 2 tbsp. olive oil, 2 tbsp dill pickle juice or juice of 1 lemon, 1 finely diced stalk of celery, 1 cup diced bell pepper, 1/4 cup chopped parsley or one finely chopped clump of dill or fennel from your garden, 1/2 tsp. salt (to taste), 1/4 tsp. Tobasco pepper sauce (to taste).
It’s best to bake the potatoes the night before. Prick the potatoes with a fork so they won’t explode. Bake them for an hour at 350°; let them cool and then refrigerate them. Bake garlic, sweet potatoes, peppers, corn, and yams at the same time to make more efficient use of your oven.
Slice the tofu and spread it on a butterfly colander sitting in a stock pot with a half inch of water at the bottom. Steam it for 10 minutes or more. After the tofu has cooled dice it.
Mix all the ingredients except the potatoes and tofu. Add the diced tofu. Add the potatoes last and stir.
ROASTED PEPPERS AND OTHER VEGETABLES
Peppers are expensive most of the year, and the quality is inconsistent. However, in late summer the local pepper crop comes in. The quality goes up, and the price comes down. It’s pepper time!
Food markets will have a dozen different types of peppers during pepper time, ranging from mild bell peppers to fiery hot jalapeños. Buy some of each variety. Chop them up and put them in baking pans or Pyrex dishes. Add garlic cloves and chopped basil. Add olive oil and stir. Roast the mixture under the broiler, watching it closely. Turn or stir the mixture several times. All broilers are different, so I can’t tell you just how long the vegetables should cook.
Be creative here. Add any other vegetable that you think will roast well, such as green beans, snow peas, egg plant, squash, zucchini, and so on.
BAMBOO SHOOTS
Ingredients: 2 cans of bamboo shoot strips, ¼ cup olive oil, 3 tsp. soy sauce, ½ chopped red onion, 3 cloves minced garlic, ½ cup water.
In the olive oil and water, steam-stir fry first the minced garlic and onions. Simmer with lid on for 3 minutes. Add bamboo shoots. Add water. Cover for 5-7 minutes until water is absorbed.
Fresh bamboo shoots are very cheap in the tropics but frightfully expensive in the West. Canned bamboo shoots are almost as good and much less expensive. If you start with whole bamboo shoots, steam them for ten minutes before slicing them into strips. Thanks to my wife Emelyn for this recipe.
LONG BEANS AND SQUASH
Ingredients: 1 big bunch of chopped Asian long string beans, 1 big red onion chopped, 5 cloves smashed and chopped garlic, 2-20 tbsp. whole flax seeds, 1 cup roasted peanuts or cashews, ½ tsp. hot pepper, ¼ tsp. black pepper, 3 tbsp. soy sauce, ¾ cup olive oil, 1 medium size squash (chopped in squares), 2 cups tomato sauce, 2 cups of water, salt to taste, 2 cups water.
Steam stir fry garlic, onions, and flax seeds in olive oil with a little water.
After 3 minutes add tomato sauce. Stir for 3 minutes more. Then add 2 cups of water, soy sauce, and salt to taste. Cover and bring to a boil. Add chopped squash. Stir and cook until the water gets sticky. Add chopped string beans and stir for 2 minutes, cooking only until the beans are al dente, still firm to the tooth. Don’t overcook the beans. Add the roasted nuts just before serving. Thanks to my wife Emelyn for this recipe.
OKRA & TOMATOES
Ingredients: 10 pieces of okra, 1 large tomato diced well, juice of half a lemon, 3 tbsp. soy sauce (to taste).
Steam the okra whole until it is tender. Cut the stems off and chop the okra into pieces about a quarter inch long. Mix okra with diced tomatoes, soy sauce, and lemon. Thanks to my wife Emelyn for this recipe.
CHINESE BABY BOK CHOI
Ingredients: 10 pieces of small, baby bok choi, 5 cloves of garlic, 1/4 cup of ginger, 1/8 cup soy sauce, 2 cups of wild chanterelle or shitake mushrooms, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup water, salt to taste, 2-10 tbsp. whole flax seeds, optional.
Dice the ginger and garlic finely or run them through a food processor or coffee grinder. I much prefer wild grown mushrooms instead of those grown in manure, indoors in sheds. Slice the bok choi at a slanting angle.
Steam-stir fry the garlic and flax in olive oil and water for two minutes. Add ginger and stir for a minute. Add mushrooms and stir for three minutes.
Add soy sauce and the heavier pieces of bok choi and stir for three minutes. Finally, add the lighter pieces and stir for two minutes. Add water, put the lid on the pan, and allow the mixture to steam for another three minutes. Serve hot. Thanks to my wife Emelyn for this recipe.
BAKED YAMS, SWEET POTATOES
In most parts of the world yams and sweet potatoes are a staple. They are loaded with vitamins and minerals, and they are a reasonable source of protein. They are a natural source of progesterone, a plant estrogen which is especially beneficial to postmenopausal women. Progesterone strengthens bone.
Put your yams or sweet potatoes on a baking tin in the oven at 325° F. and bake them for an hour or more. Wrap them in aluminum foil if you want to keep them from drying out. I prefer to bake them naked and to bake them until the skin turns crusty and the insides become hollowed out through loss of moisture. This makes the yams really sweet. The steam is ascending and cooking the upper hemisphere of the yam first, so after the first half hour, turn the yams over.
When you bake yams or sweet potatoes, make use of that hot oven also to bake potatoes, garlic, peppers, and corn.
CARROTS, SWEET POTATOES, AND PARSNIPS
Steam these vegetables together and then puree them in a food processor. They produce a very sweet vegetable dish that kids will love. It could go in the desert section below.
SALADS, RAW FOODS
Raw Food Feast
Ingredients: Sprouted kamut or other grain, sprouted lentils or adzukis or mung or sunflower seeds, flax oil or olive oil, tamari sauce, fresh fennel or dill strands from your yard or lettuce or other leafy green.
Sprout kamut and lentils. Mix them in a bowl. Add flax or olive oil, soy sauce, and some kind of chopped leafy greens, preferably dill or fennel strands.
The healthiest and cheapest food a poor person could eat would be sprouted grain and sprouted lentils or mung beans, plus dandelion and other edible flowers and plants that grow wild. There would be no fuel cost. The longer you sprout your green things, the more they produce. You can easily double their mass, thus cutting your food bill in half.
In all the recipes where I have suggested that you serve something over cooked rice or grain, consider using sprouted grain instead. It’s a little more chewy than cooked grain.
TABOLI SALAD
Ingredients: 1 big bunch of minced parsley (which should be growing in your yard), 1 cup bulgur wheat, 3 tbs. minced mint leaves (which also should be growing in your yard), juice of two lemons, 1/4 cup oil, 2 chopped tomatoes, 3 medium cloves garlic, mashed and chopped, 6 minced green onions (also easy to grow), 2 tsp. sea salt (to taste), 1/2 tsp. black pepper (to taste).
Bulgur wheat is cracked wheat that is boiled and then dried. When water is added back to it, it quickly softens. Boil water and pour it into the bulgur. Add water gradually. Don’t drown the bulgur in more water than it can absorb. Remember this bulgur is going to be getting more moisture from the tomatoes and lemons which will be mixed with it, so add a minimal amount of water.
Dried bulgur is one of those foods bedouins have carried across the desert for thousands of years. Dried bulgur, dried hummus, and dried falafel will all survive in heat without spoiling. Dried bulgur and dried hummus can be mixed with water and be made into instant meals. Dried falafel can be mixed with water and then fried in oil.
Chop the parsley, eliminating the big stems. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except the bulgur. Mix. Add the softened bulgur last.
Raw food option: Add sprouted sunflower seeds. Use sprouted kamut berries instead of bulgur.
Don your turban, and enjoy a substantial and satisfying salad. Refrigerate the leftovers; it is even better the next day.
GRANDMA’S TOMATOES
Peel the tomatoes and slice them. Add salt and pepper to taste. As an option add olive oil and some lemon juice. Now isn’t that the shortest recipe you have ever seen in a cook book? But it belongs, because people just never seem to think of eating tomatoes as-is, without a lot of lettuce cluttering up the fine flavor. This is the way my mother’s mother served them. Set aside the south facing wall of your house for growing tomatoes.
SAUCES, SPREADS, DIPS—FOR STIR FRY, RICE, OR SALADS
LEMON-TAHINI SAUCE
Ingredients: 1 bunch of green onions, 3 stalks of celery, 1 cup of olive oil, 1/8 cup of tamari, 1/2 cup raw sesame tahini, 2 green peppers, juice of 2 lemons.
Into your food processor go all ingredients except the tahini. The celery, bell pepper, and lemon will provide the moisture needed. Add the tahini last. This sauce is great served on falafel, salad, and stir fry. It also goes well on vegetarian burgers. This sauce is divine. It is my favorite non-peppery sauce.
Organic sesame tahini is available from Westbrae Natural Foods (www.westbrae.com), and Arrowhead Mills, (www.ArrowheadMills.com).
SPICY PEANUT SAUCE
Ingredients: 10 tbs. peanut butter, 1 clove of garlic, 3 tbs. white wine vinegar, a large pinch of cayenne pepper, 3 tbs. soy sauce, 1 tbs. molasses, 10 tbs. water.
This is my favorite spicy sauce. It is easy to make. Spicy peanut sauce is great on stir fry.
Use organic peanut butter if you can find it. Use peanut butter that contains no shortening. Smash your garlic with a heavy knife or cleaver turned sideways on a cutting board. “Vitamin G” is high in vitamin C and is good for colds. Toss all the ingredients into a blender and blend them. Gradually add more water until it is runny.
Kids get addicted to spicy peanut sauce.
This recipe works with hazel nut butter, raw sesame tahini, and almond butter.
SPICY PEANUT SPREAD
When your jar of organic peanut butter is down to one-quarter full, use it to make a delectable spread. Right into the peanut butter jar add vinegar, soy sauce, cayenne pepper, molasses, and—for the courageous—chopped garlic. The ingredients are the same as for Spicy Peanut Sauce, but the Spicy Peanut Spread has less water in it. Use a heavy knife to stir the mixture up. Spread it on toast or bagels. It stores well in the refrigerator. You can use this recipe with any other nut butter. Umm umm, good!
BABA GANOOJ
Ingredients: 1 large eggplant or two long Asian eggplants, 3 tbsp. sesame tahini, 2 garlic cloves, juice of 2 lemons, 2 tbsp. water, 1 tbsp. olive oil, 2 tbsp. chopped walnuts, pecans, or filberts, 2 tbsp. chopped parsley, 1/2 tsp. salt (to taste), 1/4 tsp. pepper (to taste), 1 tsp. toasted sesame oil.
Pierce the eggplant in several places with a fork to allow the steam to escape. Broil it under the broiler, for 15 minutes, watching it closely and turning it frequently. If you have a barbecue pit, then barbecue the eggplant, turning it frequently. If you have a gas stove, you can skewer the eggplant on a long shishkabob fork and hold it over the flames, turning it rapidly. The skin will burn a little, but that adds a delectable smoky flavor. Or microwave it for five minutes. Pierce it first.
After the eggplant cools, cut it up into large pieces, and put them into the food processor. Hit the garlic a few good licks with the flat side of a heavy knife or cleaver, chop it, and toss it into the processor along with the sesame tahini, sesame oil, lemon juice, water, and salt and pepper. Blend the mixture.
Spread the mix on a platter and garnish it with olive oil, chopped nuts and toasted sesame oil. Dip pita bread or sprouted grain bread into this creamy, rich and healthy concoction.
HUMMUS OR FOOL
Ingredients: 2 cups of sprouted, cooked garbanzo beans (chick peas), 3 tbsp. raw sesame tahini, 3 minced garlic cloves (or more to taste), one-half finely chopped onion, 1 tsp. toasted sesame oil, 3 tbsp. olive oil, 1/8 cup parsley, 4-20 tbsp. flax seed, sea salt to taste.
Soak the garbanzo beans overnight. Or sprout them for several days. Cover the beans and flax with water and boil them. If they have only soaked overnight, they will need to be boiled for an hour. If they are well sprouted and alive, a half hour will do. In either case, they should be cooked until tender. Pour off the water.
Some people take the skins off. This give the hummus a smoother taste and texture. Loosen the skins by mashing the garbanzo beans with a rolling pin or the flat side of a heavy knife. I leave the skins on.
Or use garbanzo beans already cooked from a can. You don’t have to reveal your timesaving secret to your guests.
Chop the onions and garlic finely, and blend in a food processor with sesame tahini and toasted sesame oil. You may omit the sesame tahini and add only sesame oil.
Add the cooked chick-peas to the food processor. Add sea salt to taste. Spread the mix on a plate. Make dimples in the hummus and pour on the olive oil. Garnish with parsley.
Spread it on toast in the morning, or put it in a sandwich with pickles and cucumbers. It is good served on rice. It’s good hot or cold. Enjoy one of the most ancient and delectable foods.
You can also make hummus from a powdered mix. While it is good, it is not as good as hummus made from fresh or canned beans.
To make fool, follow this recipe, but replace the garbanzo beans with fava beans. A small percentage of the population is allergic to fava beans, so go easy on fool the first time you eat it.
Bedouins would cook and then dry all the ingredients into a powder and then carry it across the desert, adding water and stirring to make a quick dinner.
TOFU SOUR CREAM
Ingredients: 1 lb. of organic, silken tofu, 10 tbsp. of olive, sesame, flax, hemp, or pumpkin oil, or a mixture of any of these, 1/2 tsp. sea salt, juice of 1/2 lemon, 2 crushed and diced garlic cloves.
Slice the tofu, put it on a butterfly colander in a pan with a lid with an half inch of water under the colander, and steam the tofu for 10 to 20 minutes. Let it cool, and it will become firm and rubbery. Blend the tofu with all the other ingredients. Add a small amount of water or the juice from Greek olives if needed to make it more liquid. Be creative: Add chopped Greek olives, chopped mint leaves, chopped parsley, chopped scallions, chopped fresh basil leaves, or a combination of some or all of these.
DRIED CHERRY TOMATO PESTO
Cherry tomatoes are my favorite tomatoes because they are sweet and tender. Cherry tomato plants are very productive, and they will produce more tomatoes than you can eat. Here in the Northwest they are the only variety we can count on to produce heavily. Dry them and store them in olive oil as a pesto.
With a sharp knife, cut the tomatoes in half. Use a fruit dryer if you have one. If you don’t, spread the tomatoes on baking pans and put them in the oven at 200° F. for an hour. The flavor will become very concentrated. Pack jars full of them, and pour in enough olive oil to fill in the spaces between the tomato pieces.
You now have a long-lasting pesto to put on pasta, spread on toast, put in sandwiches, or serve on rice.
DESERTS
TAPIOCA PUDDING
Ingredients: 1/2 cup of tapioca, 3 cups vanilla rice or soy milk, 1/4 cup maple syrup, fruit sugar (Fruit Source, 1803 Mission St., Suite 404, Santa Cruz, CA 95060), rice sweetener, or Sucanat, 6 tsp. of Egg Replacer, 1/2 tsp. vanilla bean extract, 1/4 tsp. salt.
Soak the tapioca for several hours in the rice or soy milk and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add the sweetener. Let the mixture simmer for 5 minutes.
In a separate bowl make the equivalent of two eggs of egg whites using Ener-G Egg Replacer, that is 3 teaspoons of Egg Replacer mixed with 4 tablespoons of water. Beat the mixture until it makes peaks.
In a separate bowl make the equivalent of two egg yolks using Egg Replacer, that is 3 teaspoons of Egg Replacer mixed with 2 tablespoons of water. Mix it thoroughly.
Add the “egg yolk” mix to the simmering tapioca mix, stirring constantly. Bring the mix to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook the mixture for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, let cool for a half hour, and fold in the “egg white” mix and the vanilla. Spoon the mixture into small bowls and refrigerate. As tapioca cools, it becomes firm. As an alternative to egg replacer just add 4 tbsp. or more of ground flax seed. Flax has its own strong flavor, so whether you use flax depends on how much you like it.
SMOOTHIES
Do you like milk shakes? Here’s something much better. Buy overripe bananas; preferably organic. Overripe bananas have more flavor than green ones, and they are cheaper. You can sometimes buy them by the box for ten cents a pound. Peel them and put them in plastic bags and freeze them.
For breakfast or a snack take a frozen banana out of the freezer, and toss it in the blender. Add soy milk, rice milk, orange, raspberry, apple, or grape juice, or a mixture of some or all of these liquids. Throw in some of the frozen blackberries you picked by the bag last Fall. Or add frozen plums. (Cut out the seeds and freeze them in plastic bags.) Add frozen grapes, even seeded grapes. The blender breaks up the seeds. (Just swallow them.) Add vanilla bean syrup and rice milk. Whip it up in your trusty blender.
Optional: Add peanut butter, lecithin, wheat germ, and nutritional yeast.
Umm good! It will taste better than a milk shake—with zero cholesterol.
NONDAIRY ICE CREAM
To make a tasty sherbet that has the richness of cream, make a smoothie as described above. However, use as little liquid ingredients as possible and use a food processor instead of a blender. Use just enough juice to get the banana and frozen fruit to blend. Put the mix in the freezer for a half hour, and it will become very firm. The banana gives it a very sweet and creamy texture and taste.
BANANA COCONUT TOFU PIE
Ingredients for the crust: one package (1/4 lb.) of vegan graham crackers, 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup of wheat germ or “Masa Repa” corn meal which is precooked (Goya Foods, Secaucus, NJ 07096), 1/3 cup of flaked coconut, 1/2 cup of raw, organic, unprocessed sugar or turbinado sugar, 1/3 cup of canned coconut cream, which floats to the top in a can of coconut milk.
Health Valley has a vegan amaranth graham cracker. (www.HealthValley.com.) Allegedly Nabisco Original Graham crackers are vegan. Vegan graham crackers are hard to find. There is a good alternative: Use cereal flakes and crush them just as you would the crackers.
Coconut cream substitutes for butter or shortening. Coconut oil is saturated, but it does not break down into trans-fatty acids at baking temperatures, and it is water soluble.
Crumble the graham crackers or cereal and mix all the dry ingredients for the crust in a food processor, including the flour, corn meal or wheat germ, flaked coconut, and organic sugar. When it is well mixed, stir in the coconut cream in lieu of butter or shortening. The coconut cream will barely wet the dry ingredients; don’t use more than the 1/3 cup called for. This crust recipe will make a really thick crust. Use your hands to mold the crust into the pie dish. Use a bowl or small cup to flatten the crust. Mold the crust up to top of the pie dish.
Use a knife to score the bottom of the crust with several cut lines. This will allow steam to escape as the pie bakes instead of creating bubbles under the crust. Bake the crust for 20 minutes at 325°. Leave peaks on the crust, little thin pieces that stick up. When these turn black, the crust is done. Let the crust cool.
Ingredients for the filling: 3 large bananas sliced and 3 large bananas blended, 1/3 cup of flaked coconut, 1 lb. pkg. of silken organic tofu, 1/2 cup of raspberries or blackberries,
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla bean extract, 1/2 cup of organic sugar, 1/2 tsp. of sea salt.
Slice 3 large bananas in long, irregular strips. Drop them onto the crust in a crisscross, disorganized way. The bananas create a foundation for the other pie ingredients, and help the slices of pie hold together when you cut them and lift them out of the pie tin.
Blend the coconut, tofu, 3 large bananas, vanilla, berries, sugar and salt in a food processor, and pour the mix over the sliced bananas. Refrigerate, slice, and enjoy.
PUMPKIN TOFU PIE
Prepare the same crust as described above for banana coconut tofu pie, but don’t bake it separately. You are going to bake the crust and pumpkin filling altogether.
Ingredients for the filling: 28 oz. of pumpkin, sliced and steamed for 10 minutes, or one 28 oz. can of pumpkin (Natural Value Products, www.naturalvalue.com), 1 lb. package of silken organic tofu, 1 cup of raw, unprocessed bulk organic sugar or turbinado sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp powdered ginger (or less), 1/2 tsp. nutmeg or allspice, 1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla bean extract, 1-1/2 tbsp. molasses. If your ginger is very fresh and pungent, use less of it; err on the side of using less ginger. This filling requires no thickeners such as agar agar, kudzu root, or ground flax seed, but you can add small amounts at your option.
Squeeze as much of the water out of the tofu as you can; this helps the pie filling to “set up,” to coagulate. Blend all the filling ingredients in a food processor. Blend them for up to five minutes or until the filling is creamy smooth. Pour the filling mix into the pie shell. The Natural Value pumpkin is precooked, so you will only need to bake the pie for 17 to 22 minutes at 325°. Use a knife or spoon to create peaks on the filling as a method for fine tuning cooking time: The peaks act as your thermometer, and when they turn brown, the pie is ready. Refrigerate, slice, and enjoy.
APPLE PIE
We are blessed with four apple trees which make more apples than we can eat. So we juice a lot of them, which means we are left with a lot of pulp. We have learned that apple pulp makes a great pie filling.
The crust: Prepare the same crust as described above for banana coconut tofu pie, but don’t bake it separately. You are going to bake the crust and apple filling all together.
Ingredients for the filling: 3 cups apple pulp, 2 cups coconut milk, 1/2 cup (to taste) maple syrup, 2 -10 tbsp. ground flax, 1 cup soy milk, 2 tbsp. vanilla, 1/2 cup cornstarch.
Mix the ingredients in a blender and pour it all into the crust. Bake for 30 minuets at 350 degrees. Add blackberries as topping.
APPLE SAUCE
Ingredients: 10 small apples run through a blender, 1/4 cup organic sugar or maple syrup (to taste), 2 to 10 tbsp. ground flax to taste.
Mix the blended apples, sugar or maple syrup, and ground flax in a sauce pan and let it simmer for 30 minutes or more until it gets sticky.
VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE
The cake ingredients: 1 cup shredded coconut, 3 cups all-purpose flour (or a mix of all-purpose and whole wheat flour), 1 tsp. baking soda, 2 tsp. baking powder, 2/3 cups cocoa, 1 cup coconut milk, 2-1/2 cups soy milk, 2-1/2 cups organic sugar, 2 tbsp. vinegar, 6 tsp. ground whole flax seeds, 6 tsp. corn starch. All purpose flower produces a fluffier cake. Whole wheat flour makes a chewier, denser, more brownie like cake, which I prefer.
Grind the flax seeds in a coffee grinder. I suggest you dedicate a coffee grinder to flax grinding and not try to use the same one for both flax and coffee grinding. Your flax will taste like coffee and your coffee will taste like flax.
Sift flour for best results. Mix dry ingredients in a big bowl: cocoa, flour, shredded coconut, ground flax, corn starch, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar in a large bowl.
Mix coconut milk, soy milk, and vinegar in a medium pan on low heat, stirring until well mixed.
Add the liquid ingredients to the mixed dry ingredients and stir carefully. Pour the mixture into two cake pans and bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees F. for 40 minutes. The cake is done when a sharp knife goes in and comes out dry.
The frosting ingredients: 1-1/2 cups maple syrup, 3/4 cup cocoa, 6 tsp. ground flax seeds, 6 tsp. corn starch, 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 cup chopped almonds.
Mix all the frosting ingredients except the nuts in a sauce pan on low heat, starting with the maple syrup, and stirring constantly until thick. Let the mixture cool before spreading the frosting on the cake.
Put the first cake layer on a big, round platter and cut it into quarters. Separate the quarters from each other by a quarter of an inch. Add icing, allowing it to flow down between the four quarters. Add the second layer, again cut into quarters, and add icing. Add icing to top and sides. Sprinkle the almonds on last. You’re done.
Some people find flax to have a very dominating flavor. If you choose not to use flax, you should some other thickener such as Egg Replacer, agar-agar, corn starch, arrowroot, kudzu, or tapioka starch.
I made my own vegan chocolate cake for my wedding. It was a big hit.
Let’s say you’re convinced. You’d like to make a change. Where do you start? How do you cook this healthy food I’m talking about? Keep reading, and I’ll tell you step-by-step.
LIQUIDS, JUICE AND TEA
When we wake up, we are thirsty. Drink a glass of water. Exercise and drink more water or tea. If you drink coffee, drink water first. I speculate that the craving some people have for coffee is really a craving for water. If you drink too much coffee, maybe it’s time to quit. Please do not drink lattes and mochas made with milk. Drink Americano, and keep asking your local espresso stand to get some soy or rice milk and organic sugar or maple syrup.
I make tea a glass at a time. But I also make it in bulk. I buy teas in bulk at the Coop; they cost a fraction of the cost of tea in bags. I put one or even six different herbs or teas into a big pot and boil or steep them in a lot of water. After the tea cools, I put it into big glass peanut butter jars, refrigerate them, and drink them over a period of days, sometimes heated, sometimes cold.
Some of the store-bought teas and herbs I make teas out of are as follows, listed in no particular order: Licorice root, mint, fennel seed, fenugreek seed, pau di arco, milkweed seeds, clove, sarsaparilla, ginger, ginsing, dandelion, hyssop, star anise, turkey rhubarb, burdock, sheep sorrell, slippery elm, lemon grass, and others. Licorice root sweetens tea, as does stevia. You get the idea.
I also make tea out of things that grow in our garden. Our front yard is blessed with raspberries. The fresh leaves make an excellent tea. We have stinging nettle growing in several segregated areas of the yard. And we have several kinds of mint.
Generally, you should steep and not boil teas made from green leaves, while you should actually boil teas made from dried leaves, seeds, or roots.
Each edible plant species contains dozens of different minerals and phytochemicals, none of which can harm us, and some of which may be just the phytochemicals our cells may need to repair themselves. Bark, twigs, seeds, and leaves are inedible unless boiled. Generally you would not want to eat the cellulose, so you drink the soak water, which is richer in minerals and phytochemicals if boiled. So give your cells a phytochemical smorgasbord: Drink your tea.
FILTERED OR DISTILLED WATER, BARLEY WATER
Buy a carbon block water filter. It will remove chlorine and some chemicals from the water. Granulated charcoal is inadequate, because water tends to flow in channels around the granules, and thus some water is not filtered. Chlorine is very important to public health because it eliminates bacteria. On the other hand, it is carcinogenic and contributes to atherosclerosis. The best solution would be for cities to convert from chlorine to ozone treatment. Until that happens, an alternative is to filter out the chlorine just before you drink the water. Another alternative is to let your drinking water sit in an uncovered pitcher for a day; and the chlorine will evaporate. If you are concerned about removing chemical pollutants and such bacteria as giardia and cryptosporidium, additional and special filtration will be required.
From the moment you install a new filter it begins filling up with the things it filters out. Fluoride is a tiny molecule that is not filtered out by the typical carbon filter. The most thorough way to clean your water is with a water distiller. What you are left with is straight water. Dr. Mercola says distilled water is good for you as part of a temporary cleansing but bad for you on a long term basis. (www.mercola.com/article/Diet/water/distilled_water.htm; www.chetday.com/distilledwater.htm.) He says that it is so free of minerals that it absorbs carbon dioxide and becomes acidic. His alternative is to use a filter, however, he says nothing about the amazingly high levels of pollutants in tap water and that fact that filters do not remove all of them. Dr. Andrew Weil disagrees and says distilled water has “close to a neutral pH and has no affect on the body’s acid/base balance.” www.distilledwater.ca/Is%20Distilled%20Water%20Safe.PDF).
If Dr. Mercola is right, and given the fact that distillation is the best way to remove impurities, then the solution is to add minerals back to the distilled water. One way to do this is to make Korean barley water. Start with unhulled barley, also known as sprouting barley, not pearled barley. Roast the barley in a pan on low heat. Keep it moving until it is lightly browned. Drop a tablespoon of the roasted barley into your water carafe and leave it there. Or add water to the barley in the hot pan and turn off the heat. This should mineralize the water. Problem solved.
Another alternative is to add raspberry leaves, mint, or stinging nettle to your water. You should be growing all of these in your yard.
FRUIT, JUICE, AND SMOOTHIES
I often do not eat cooked food until lunch time. It’s a good way for me to control my weight. Once I start eating, I have trouble quitting until I go to bed. So I start the day drinking water, tea, and juice, and eating fruit. Fruit and juice are very easy to digest. They contain healthy vitamins, minerals, and other phytochemicals, and they are full of the water we don’t drink enough of. From May to September we have raspberries growing in our front yard. In August and September we pick the blackberries that grow along our jogging route. From September to December we eat the grapes and other fruit we grow.
We have ten different varieties of grapes growing in our yard. Prune the plants properly and give them proper support and they will produce heavily. My favorite grape is the blue concord grape with seeds—tart skins with sweet meat inside. All through the fall I harvest several big bunches each morning. I carry them away in a paper bag to the office and eat them as I work. I would store the seeds under my upper lip until it would bulge out and then I would go outside to spit them out. One day in a micro-epiphany I realized it would be lot easier just to swallow them. It is the same way with watermelon seeds. They come out the other end. There is nothing more invigorating than fresh grapes. They make you feel strong.
The good thing about grapes is that you can put them in a ziplock bag and freeze them as-is. Later you can toss the frozen grapes into a blender with frozen banana, some rice milk, juice, peanut butter or sesame butter or avocado, nutritional yeast, and lecithin, and you will have a great smoothie. I freeze both seedless and seeded grapes. The blender breaks up the seeds; I swallow them without chewing them. People pay big bucks for a grape seed extract known as pycnogenol. I get it for free.
Why freeze bananas? Because you can buy boxes of overripe bananas for ten cents a pound. It is impossible to eat so many bananas before they go bad. So take the skins off and freeze them at their sweetest in plastic bags. Put them frozen into the blender. They have all the wonderful flavor of fresh, overripe bananas. The same thing is true of other fruit, which we have in abundance in the fall and need to store for later enjoyment. Mix sweet frozen bananas with frozen fruit that is tart, and eat them together, for a tasty combination.
We save frozen plums, berries, bananas, and grapes in our freezer.
BACKYARD GREENS
I enjoy going out back to my garden and eating whatever is growing there. I sit by the lettuce on a stool and eat some. I sit by the kale and eat some. I sit by the parsley and eat a few more mouthfuls. Parsley is one of my favorites, and once you get it growing you will have it in great abundance. Collect the seeds in the fall and sow them everywhere around the yard and neighborhood. As I edit this today (April 16, 2005), I am eating fresh greens that I picked and cooked in olive oil and water: collard, spinach, mustard, red Russian kale, snow pea leaves, scallion, and leaks.
The lawn produces lots of dandelions—because I do not use Weed & Feed, which contains atrazine. Dandelion flowers are a tasty morsel, a combination of sweet and a little bitter. Bitter is good; we eat far to little in the way of bitter herbs. I pop and eat them like little hunks of juicy bread. I might eat 20 while out jogging. I suspect the neighbors think I’m nuts. Well, by ordinary standards, I am. The stems and young leaves are edible uncooked but are bitter. Larger leaves and roots are tougher and more bitter and need cooking. That’s right: The entire dandelion plant is edible—and nutritious. True dandelion has only one yellow flower per stalk.
During the Summer I get a big handful of whatever is growing and sit on the back deck under the grape arbor, spread out the newspaper on the table, and really chow down as I read. I carry my bag of greens in the car and eat them as I drive and in the office. Once I ate greens before going to see a Chinese herbal doctor. He wanted to see my tongue; Eastern doctors always look at your tongue. I wonder what Eastern doctors see in the tongue that Western doctors never look for. When I opened my mouth and stuck out my tongue, he did a double take and said: “Never see such green tongue!”
In the Northwest many of these greens will grow all year round. Second only to grapes, fresh greens is my favorite snack, any time of day or night. Each variety contains dozens of different kinds of phytochemicals, as I say frequently in this book, none of which can harm you and any one of which might be just the chemical your body needs to fight off some disease. (See “Wildman” Steve Brill’s Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild and not-So-Wild Places and his Shoots and Greens of Early Spring.) Always chew greens thoroughly. Chew, chew, chew. This aids digestion and helps avoid gas.
JUICING
There is more nutrition your body can absorb from fruit and greens than your jaws can comfortably chew up, especially if your teeth are failing. If you have a successful garden, you will have more greens than you can eat raw. And the more you prune your kale, collards, cabbage, and other greens, the more they will grow. So fill up a paper bag with greens and blend them with a food processor. Juice apples or carrots with them to sweeten them.
COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES
RICE
Rice is versatile and nutritious. Everyone can digest rice, whereas about 30 percent of humans have a mild allergy to wheat and its kin, spelt and kamut.
Around 4 percent of people are celiacs, reacting to gluten. They should avoid wheat, rye, spelt, and kamut. Most but not all celiacs can tolerate rice. Fortunately they can eat corn, potatoes, quinoa, millet, and buckwheat.
Brown rice is a complex carbohydrate that requires a lot of energy to digest and thus accelerates your metabolism and helps you lose weight. (See the Obesity section of this book, p. 250.) It also provides fiber that helps clean out the crooks and crevices of your intestine. It is bulky and filling.
Brown rice, although stripped of the hard outer husk and the germ, is to be preferred over white rice. White rice has also been stripped of the inner husk, which contains more vitamins and roughage than the white inner starch. The nutritious part is fed to chickens and pigs. Louis Pasteur discovered that rats fed nothing but brown rice stayed healthy while those fed nothing but white rice died of malnutrition.
Does your family prefers white rice? Here’s how to convert them: Cook white rice, but add a little brown rice, wild rice, or kamut berries. Gradually increase the proportion of the whole grains and gradually eliminate the white rice. White rice is a bad habit, just like white bread. It really has no taste, just a particular sticky texture that people become accustomed to. On the other hand, brown rice has a nutty flavor that your family will gradually come to prefer, just the way people come to prefer whole-grain bread. Buy organic rice; if you persist in asking for it, your grocer will stock it.
How do you cook rice? Put the exact amount of rice and water in a pot as stated in the recipe book and cook for the exact amount of time. You must not open the lid or you will ruin the rice. This always frustrated me: How do you check to see if the rice is ready without opening the lid?
There’s a better way to make perfect rice: Cook it in a rice cooker, the way most Asians do. Most Asians eat rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so they have made a science of cooking rice. The word for meal in Japanese is gohan, which is also the word for rice. I recommend the Zojirushi rice cooker from Japan. There are several sizes that range in price from about $80 to $200 depending on the size and where you buy them. A good rice cooker makes perfect rice every time.
Measure three cups of rice into the Zojirushi. Rinse the rice until it flows clear. Add water up to the three-cup line if you are making white rice or up to the 4.5-cup line if you are making whole-grain rice. The rice cooker has a spring loaded switch in the bottom that turns the electricity off when the water is cooked out. Whole-grain rice needs to cook longer, so you must add more water. With brown rice, err on the side of adding too much water instead of too little; it’s hard to make whole-grain rice that is too soft. In a half hour you have perfect rice.
Spend a little extra money and buy a rice cooker with a thermos jar lid. The rice, once cooked, will be sealed in. You can keep the rice hot and ready-to-eat continuously for up to 48 hours by leaving the Zojirushi on the “keep warm” setting. Apparently the heat prevents bacteria from getting a foothold. Rice will gradually dry out, so add a little water, stir it up, and put the Zojirushi on the “cook” setting again. The cooker will turn off again when the new water is cooked out.
OTHER GRAINS besides rice, preferably sprouted
Having said good things about rice, I will point out something better.
What I refer to as “brown rice” and what most people refer to as “whole grain rice” is not whole at all; the outer shell and germ have been removed. Thus, brown rice will not sprout. I had never seen true whole grain rice until I visited the Philippines and saw it being dried on the road. There true whole grain rice is referred to as palo. It will sprout, but palo is too hard to eat even after it is sprouted and cooked. A coarse outer husk is removed from palo to make brown rice, and then it is milled again to make white rice.
While you cannot sprout brown rice, you can sprout whole wheat, rye, spelt, barley, and all other grains. Ask your coop to stock barley with the husk intact. It is referred to as “sprouting barley,” as opposed to “pearl barley.”
Unsprouted grains tend to be high in phytates which bind with minerals and impede the body’s ability to absorb them. So grains should be sprouted before they are cooked. Because rice cannot be sprouted, I recommend you eat other grains instead and sprout them first. Otherwise the white rice will get too soft.
Variety is the spice of life. Sprout and then cook wheat, spelt, kamut, oats, barley, and other grains in your rice cooker. Don’t mix different grains and cook them together, unless you combine grains that take approximately the same time to cook. You could cook millet and quinoa together, because they both require little cooking time, but you should not mix either with spelt or kamut, which take a long time to cook. Cooking times are longer for whole wheat, brown rice, spelt, or kamut than for white rice. When you want to cook them mixed with white rice, you should add them to the rice cooker first to give them extra cooking time, and then ten minutes later add the white rice.
Kamut and spelt are bigger than rice. They have a nutty flavor and a chewy texture. When spelt or kamut berries are cooked in a rice cooker, they get very plump. Just add extra water for those berries to absorb.
SPROUTING
Sprouting is very important, so I will discuss it in some detail. There is much said about the importance of eating whole grains, but little about the importance of sprouting whole grains before eating them. Grains are high in phytates that can interfere with mineral absorption, and some people have allergies to grains. Sprouting grains before eating them allegedly eliminates these problems.
Further, sprouted grains, legumes, or beans are living foods. They have come alive. Their DNA has gone to work making pristine new growth. Sprouts are the stem cells of the plant world. They are the very best thing you can eat to strengthen health. Are you trying to overcome some chronic disease or cancer? Then get into sprouting.
And there is the economic side too. An ounce of grain or legumes or beans quickly becomes two ounces of sprouts. Water and air join with the seed to give you free food. Sprouted grains and legumes are soft enough that they don’t even have to be cooked, saving gas or electricity. They are rich in the Omega-3 fatty acids you need, along with thousands of other nutrients. All beans should be soaked or sprouted before they are cooked, and even soaked or sprouted beans should be cooked. Lentils can be eaten uncooked provided they are soaked or sprouted.
What can you sprout? It is easier to list the things you cannot sprout: You cannot sprout split peas because the germ has been removed. However, you can sprout whole dried peas, and they are very tasty. You can also buy them by the pound and plant them in your garden.
Nor can you sprout brown rice or white rice. The germ has been removed in the process of removing the brick hard hull. You can sprout true whole grain rice, but the hull is still too hard for eating, even if the rice is cooked. This is why I recommend that instead of eating rice you sprout wheat, barley, kamut, rye, or spelt and then eat the sprouts raw or cooked in your rice cooker or cooked in your soup or stir fry. Minimal cooking is needed; you can even add the sprouts at the very last, and they will remain raw foods.
You can also sprout lentils, adzukis, mung, and any other kind of pea or bean. You do not need to sprout anything to the point where there are big leaves, in fact if you wait this long, the sprouts can become bitter and tough. Lentils swell and split open in twelve hours and become a living food. Sprout them for another day or two and they grow little roots and leaves. That’s enough. Eat them while they are tender.
How do you sprout? Sprouting jars are popular, but they offer too little air circulation, and sprouts will mold easily in jars. I recommend that you use a glass bowl for soaking and sprouting. Soak grains, legumes, or beans overnight under water. Rinse them frequently. After a day under water, pour out the water. Keep them wet by running water over the sprouts two, three, or four times each day. In winter let your sprouts grow for three days. In summer one or two days is enough. When your sprouts have grown as much as you want them to grow, put them in a sealed plastic container in the refrigerator. With this method, there is little problem with the sprouts molding.
OILS
OLIVE OIL INSTEAD OF MARGARINE
Italians, Greeks, Lebanese, and Cretans don’t smear butter or margarine on their bread. They pour olive oil into a shallow bowl, perhaps add salt, and dip their bread into the oil. Cretans eat a high percentage of their diet as fat, but they have very little heart disease because their fat is mostly olive oil. They eat little meat. They even guzzle olive oil straight.
Tear off some tough, chewy bread, and dip it in olive oil. Olive oil has a delectable flavor. It’s good for you, but bear in mind that fat tends to make you fat—more so than carbohydrates or protein. If you are too skinny and need to gain weight, eat more olive oil, flax oil, or other healthy oils. If you are overweight, cut way down on fat of all kinds except for the essential fatty acids.
To obtain the essential fatty acids, eat flax, hemp, chia, kukui, pumpkin, borage flowers, evening primrose flowers, walnuts, and greens of all kinds.
Margarine is hydrogenated, which means it contains trans-fatty acids. It contains no essential fatty acids. Most margarines contain whey, perhaps because whey is cheaper than soy. (See Healthy Oils and Flax section of this book, p. 253.)
FRIED FOODS
Any oil that gets hot enough to smoke is being broken down into trans-fatty acids and other compounds that are as bad for you as saturated fat and cholesterol. What we are looking for is a way to fry without burning the oil.
To fry foods for long periods at high heat, the best oils are saturated tropical oils, such as coconut and palm oil. These oils can survive heat longer than other oils without breaking down. However, no oil can resist breaking down into unhealthy by-products if the oil is kept hot for long periods of time—as with the oil used to fry French fries in restaurants. The next best oils for frying are high oleic sunflower or safflower oil, refined peanut oil, refined avocado oil, sesame oil, canola oil, and olive oil—roughly in that order. Olive oil is marginally acceptable for low-temperature frying.
The general culinary wisdom is that to make a good pie crust you need a saturated fat such as butter, margarine, lard, or shortening. Nope, coconut cream serves just as well. It is actually a much healthier alternative because although it is saturated, the fatty acid chains are short, and so coconut oil is more easily digested.
Udo Erasmus believes fried foods are never completely healthy:
Frying and deep-frying are completely prohibited if optimum health is what you are after, or if you are attempting to reverse cancer or any other degenerative condition using natural means.
He points out, however, that are there ways of frying that are much less harmful than others: “Traditional Chinese cooks put water in their wok before they add oil.…”? Water keeps the temperature of the oil no higher than the boiling point of water, a temperature that does not transmute oil into trans fats. On the other hand, such heat may destroy some vitamins; so cook no longer than necessary. Erasmus suggests frying with onions and garlic in the oil because they contain sulphur, which lessens free radical damage. (Udo Erasmus, Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill, Chapter 22, Frying and Deep-Frying, p. 125-129. Again, see the Healthy Oils and Flax section of this book, p. 253.)
STIR-FRYING AND STEAM-FRYING TECHNIQUES
There are several ways to make stir-fry. I will focus on methods that burn oil the least.
Whichever method you use, chop everything before you start cooking anything. Cut the tofu into slices. Arrange your chopped and diced veggies, garlic, onions, nuts, and everything else in bowls or in piles on the counter top. Get out the herbs. With everything ready, you will be able to add ingredients at the right time.
Tofu is the first thing you will cook. You cannot stir fry tofu with veggies because even firm tofu will crumble into little pieces. You can fry your tofu in oil, steam it, or steam it first and then add it to the veggies at the end. The latter is the best method.
The old hippie method is to cut the tofu into strips and fry it in oil with garlic and ginger. Brown the strips on both sides. Take the tofu, garlic, and ginger out of the oil and put them on a plate. Then fry the veggies, and add the tofu back to the mix at the end. The problem with the old method is that the oil burns and forms trans-fatty acids.
A better method is to steam (parboil) the tofu first. Put a metal butterfly colander into a big pot, pour in a half-inch of water, and spread the tofu slices on the colander. Bring the water to a boil, and steam the tofu for up to 20 minutes. It will get very firm, even rubbery, much firmer than it will get if it is fried in oil, because steamed tofu gets well-cooked all the way through. Much of the water is evaporated out, leaving small spaces, so steamed tofu marinates well, sucking up liquids like a sponge.
A next optional step is to marinate the tofu in soy sauce, chopped garlic, and lemon juice or balsamic vinegar, especially if you are going to serve it separately instead of stirred into the stir fry.
Now let’s talk about cooking the veggies. The old hippie method was to fry them in the same oil that cooked the tofu. Get the oil really hot, and keep the veggies moving. Throw in the thick vegetables first, the ones that will require more cooking time— broccoli stalks, onions, collard, mustard, and cabbage. A little later add the vegetables that need little cooking, and next those that can be eaten raw and only need to be heated. Finally, return the tofu, garlic, and ginger to the mix at the end, frying for a few minutes so flavors can intermix.
Instead I suggest you steam the veggies first. You can even steam the veggies and the tofu together in the same steamer. Put the tofu in first on the bottom. Give the tofu a 15-minute head start so it will have plenty of time to get firm. You can over-steam vegetables, but it is hard to over-steam tofu. Again, add the veggies in stages, starting with those which need the most cooking.
At this point you have a choice: steam the tofu and veggies to perfection, dump them onto a serving plate, add sauce and eat them without any frying.
Or take the half steamed veggies and the tofu out of the steaming pot and put them into the wok for frying. If you do it this way, put your onions, garlic, ginger, and other herbs into the oil and water mix and cook them for ten minutes so they can soften. Then add the steamed veggies and last the tofu.
Steaming or parboiling and then frying may seem like twice as much work, but it’s really not. It involves the same amount of washing and cutting of vegetables. The steaming is very easy, and once it’s done, the steam-frying just takes a jiffy. Steaming involves no grease, so the big pot and the colander rinse out clean without serious scrubbing.
Let’s look at a fourth method, a really lazy way. It is done all in one pan. Pour a half-inch of water into the pan. Spread the hard veggies such as broccoli stems on the bottom, with some of them actually immersed in the water. Add collard greens and onions because they can take a lot of cooking. Add the tofu strips, not on the bottom in the water, because you want the tofu to dry out and harden, but on top of the veggies. Put the lid on, and steam the mixture. In ten minutes add the veggies which need little cooking. Keep the lid on the pan and steam them together without stirring them.
When the tofu is firm and the thick vegetables are half cooked, add olive oil, and turn up the heat. The fact that the water is boiling means the temperature of the oil stays at 212° F., no more and no less. The food is plenty hot enough to cook, but the oil cannot burn. When the vegetables are almost done, stop adding water. Keep cooking until all the water is gone and there is only oil left. This dries out the vegetables and gives them more of an oily and crispy fried taste.
CRAVINGS FOR MEAT
According to my theory, there are several reasons why people crave meat:
1. People crave salt, and meat is salty.
2. Meat is oily. People crave oily foods because they coat the mouth and lubricate the lining of the stomach, producing a feeling of satisfaction.
3. People crave food with a firm texture to it. Food that has to be chewed a lot lasts longer in the mouth and yields more flavor; meat has “bite” to it, a firm texture. Ironically, although meat is a chewy food, it contains no fiber at all.
4. Animals are frightened when they are killed, and so their adrenal glands have filled their bodies with adrenaline, which is a stimulant to those who eat meat.
5. People have not only hunger cravings, but also vitamin cravings. It is likely they confuse their vitamin cravings for meat cravings, because meat, with its high-fat content, coats the mouth and provides a feeling of satisfaction. However, it does not permanently satisfy vitamin cravings, because meat is not rich in vitamins.
6. People crave essential fatty acids, and those who eat no flax, hemp, chia, or kukui need meat as a source of essential fats, however, animals fattened on corn and soy contain less essential fatty acids than animals which eat grass. Also the sheer volume of non-essential fats so outweighs what essential fats there are, that the essential fats cannot do their job. Except perhaps for the meat of cold water fish or grass fed land animals, meat is not a good source of essential fats.
By perhaps several mechanisms, meat is addictive. I theorize that we have a predisposition to becoming addicted to meat because meat often saved our ancestors when they were starving in winter cold. When we introduce children to meat, we activate this addiction. Dr. Harris says we are a “fat-addicted species.” (William Harris, M.D., The Scientific Basis of Vegetarianism, p. 24.) The addiction may also relate to the stimulative effect of adrenaline or some other chemicals in meat or to our need for essential fats.
Milk products and eggs are salty and oily. Their texture is not as firm as meat, however, cheese can be chewy, especially on pizza, and pizza is ranked first among Unitedstatesians as their favorite food. And eggs can be fried and scrambled to firm consistencies. Most of my theories about meat cravings apply to milk products and eggs.
My theory is that you can wean people off meat with non-meat foods that satisfy these cravings. This can be done with soy burgers, falafel, burgers made from Nature Burger mix with ground flax seed added, seitan, tofu, the imitation soy and gluten meats, the firm grains such as spelt and kamut, and other salty and oily concoctions such as my Herbed Pumpkin or Squash and my Zater Pate in the recipe section. I repeat, to wean people off meat, you must add flax, hemp, chia, or kukui to their diet to supply Omega-3.
Don’t take this too far and make everything salty and oily. However, there is a place for such dishes from time to time, especially for those who are making the transition to a plant-based diet, provided they do not suffer from salt-related high blood pressure. (See the recipe section of this book entitled Meat Substitutes, Entrees, at p. 377.)
EATING VEGAN IF YOU HAVE FALSE TEETH
“Spend any amount of money you can lay your hands on to keep your teeth,” said my wise and toothless mother to me on her 90th birthday. Google “Elizabeth Abraham Deal” to read her story. I refused to look at her with her teeth out. I remember well how as a child I thought her the most beautiful woman in the world. Pyorhea, gum disease, is what causes most people to lose their teeth. Eating a diet rich in food that strengthens bones is also important. Milk does not strengthen bones. In the long run it weakens them. Milk has calcium, but it has little magnesium, and without magnesium, your body cannot utilize the calcium. Fluoride also weakens bones, and it weakens bones more in people who do not eat the right balance of minerals.
What do you do if you have lost your teeth and your dentures do not fit well? You can’t chew vegetables well? If salads or vegetables or nuts are too hard, run them through the blender or food processor. As an option, add water and make soup out of them. If the soup is too bland, remember, any soup, and in fact, any food, can be “repaired” by adding sesame tahini and/or nutritional yeast.
STRICTLY VEGETARIAN BURGERS—TRANSITION FOOD
Vegetarian burgers are a transition food; they are popular with people who have recently quit eating meat and who still need something meat-like in the center of their plates. Vegetarian instant burgers and dry mixes all need salt to taste good, and frying them or heating them in a little oil adds to their “burger-ness.” And remember to add ground flax to the burger mix.
I enjoy falafel burgers from the Middle Eastern restaurants down on the Ave in Seattle’s University District. But they are deep fried in fat, and I have gradually made a transition away from most fried foods. At Middle Eastern restaurants I generally go for hummus, baba ganooj, and fool, made of chick peas, eggplant, and fava beans. They are not fried.
Should you be concerned about salt? When you cut out the meat, milk, and eggs, you eliminate 85 percent of the salt in your diet. So you should not feel too guilty about occasionally eating a vegetarian burger with some sea salt in it. Sea salt contains a variety of trace minerals. Braunstein suggests that humans started eating salt after they learned to use it as a means of preserving meat. (Mark Mathew Braunstein, Radical Vegetarianism, p. 37.)
For people who are making the transition out of meat eating, give them the chewy, salty, oiliness they crave. A little bit of oil and salt on a vegetarian burger is much better for a person than a hamburger. Frankly, I find most burger mixes and instant burgers to be a little bland because they are all made without salt.
Ultimately you will probably cut back on the salt and oil. You will find that when you eat everything salty, you mostly taste the salt. When you use less salt, you will then taste all the other flavors. To a certain extent the same is true of oil.
If you want to cut down on oil, heat your out-of-the package vegetarian burger on a Pyrex dish in the oven or microwave. Falafel and burgers made from dry mixes can be baked in the oven instead of fried.
See the Meat Substitutes section of the Goddess Recipes chapter, p. 377, for all the details on how to cook vegan burgers.
EATING WELL WITHOUT DAIRY PRODUCTS
GRANOLA WITH JUICE
I don’t drink milk. But I sometimes like cereal or granola for breakfast or as a late night snack. So I put grape juice, orange juice, apple juice, raspberry juice, or any kind of juice on my granola.
I get the oddest reaction when I tell people about this. They screw up their faces and say “yuck.” The first thing I say is, “Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.” Cereal with juice tastes much better than cereal with milk. And then I ask them, “Why is it that pure, organic fruit juice on cereal is yuck but white, greasy cow juice that’s loaded with cow hormones and pesticides is not yuck?” Let’s get our yucks straight here. Cow’s milk is yuck. The dairy industry has done a thorough job of brainwashing people to think of milk when they think of cereal.
STRICTLY VEGETARIAN “MILK” PRODUCTS
Get your calcium the way cows get it, by eating leafy green vegetables—greens, spinach, kale, and so on. Almonds contain much more calcium than milk. Soak almonds in water for an hour or overnight, and they swell up and come alive.
A good alternative to cow’s milk is soy milk and rice milk. Buy the vanilla or carob flavor for straight drinking or to put on cereal. Soy and rice milk are sold in aseptic boxes, keep for months, and do not require refrigeration until the box is opened. So it is a low-risk item for your grocer to stock. (Imagine Foods, 800-434-4246, www.TasteTheDream.com; Vitasoy, www.Vitasoy-USA.com, 800-848-2769; Edensoy, www.EdenFoods.com, 888-424-3336; Westbrae Natural Foods, www.Westbrae.com, 800-434-4246; all organic sources.)
For drinking I prefer rice milk to soy milk. However, original flavor soy milk is the best replacement for milk in recipes that call for milk. Some experts say soy milk and unfermented soy can be bad for us. They rail against it with anger in their voices. However, no one seems to object to soy miso and soy tempeh, which are fermented.
What about eating milk products in the form of ice cream? You don’t need it. It’s 40 or 50 percent butterfat and loaded with hormones. Rice Dream makes excellent, strictly vegetarian rice ice “cream.”
Instead of cheese, try soy cheese. (Zero-Fat Rella, Sharon’s Finest, Box 5020, Santa Rosa, CA 95402-5020, 707-576-7050.) Tofu cheese does not taste exactly like cheese, but it has the same texture, and it does have a good taste, especially the spicy soy cheeses like the jalapeño jack and garlic spice flavors. Soy cheeses are made without salt, and you must add salt to make them taste somewhat like real cheese.
You can use soy cheese to make a pizza that is somewhat like the real cheesy thing. You can even buy frozen pizza made with soy cheese. However, these soy cheeses generally contain casein from milk. Read the label.
Add a little olive oil and salt, because soy cheeses are not oily or salty.
Soymage (Soyco, 2441 Viscount Row, Orlando, FL 32809) is a Parmesan cheese imitation that is very convincing. It comes powdered, and you can sprinkle it on your pasta.
FLAX
I have written about the importance of eating flax in the health section. (See the section of this book entitle Healthy Oils and Flax, p. 253.) But how do you eat flax? You can put a teaspoon of the seeds in your mouth and chew, chew, chew for a long time and swallow them. I actually like the taste. You can broadcast flax seeds in your garden or yard and eat the seed pods. You can grind the seeds in a coffee grinder and add them to oatmeal, soup, falafel, or other burgers. You can add the whole seeds to your soup or steam stir fry. The seeds will fall to the bottom and soften and swell. I like to spoon up these tender seeds into my bowl. Chew them before swallowing. Or you can pour flax oil onto your potatoes, salad, soup, or baked squash. If you are not eating fish, you should eat flax to get your essential Omega-3 fatty acids. It is a great frustration of mine that vegetarian restaurants do not add flax to anything they cook. Vegans cannot be healthy without the essential fatty acids found in flax, hemp, chia, or kukui.
EATING WELL WITHOUT EGGS
When you need eggs to make cookies or cake, use powdered Ener-G Egg Replacer. (Ener-G Foods, www.Ener-G.com, 800-331-5222.) It is made out of tapioca. Vegenaise made with grape seed oil is an excellent vegan mayonnaise, much better than egg-based mayonnaise. (Heart Island, www.FollowYourHeart.com, 818-348-3240.)
Flax seed, cheap, available widely, and long lasting, is another egg replacer alternative, one that I prefer because it contains the two essential fatty acids we need most and in the right proportions. Plus, it is easy to prepare. To make the equivalent of two eggs, put a half cup of water in a small pan, bring it to a boil, and add two tablespoons of whole flax seeds. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes. It gets as gooey as egg white. If you have a coffee grinder, it’s even easier: Grind the seeds: then add the boiling water to the ground seeds; let the mixture set up for a couple of minutes. Or add the ground seeds as a dry ingredient in pancakes, cookies, muffins, and cakes before adding any liquids. The last method is really the easiest and most practical.
Eggbeaters, frozen and sold in little cartons, is not a plant-based product. It contains egg whites but no egg yolk. Although it is low in cholesterol, it is high in animal protein.
THICKENERS
The best thickeners are ground flax, agar agar—a seaweed—and kudzu root. Arrow root is acceptable. Corn starch works too.
SWEETENERS
Neither ordinary cane sugar—sucrose—nor high fructose corn syrup is good for us since each is highly refined. They raise cholesterol and triglyceride levels. (“Is Fructose More Natural Than White Sugar?” Natural Health, May/June, 1994, p. 40.) We should move to sweeteners that contain lower amounts of sucrose and fructose and more complex carbohydrates, such as barley malt and rice syrup. When buying packaged items, look for those made with FruitSource, which is made from grape juice and rice and which is a mixture of fructose, glucose, maltose and complex carbohydrates. (Fruit Source, 1803 Mission St., Suite 404, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, 408-457-1136.)
Some commercial cane sugar is filtered through cow bones. This is done to remove impurities and produce a sweeter taste. There is no way to tell which sugar is or is not filtered through cow bones. Sucanat is cane sugar made without bone filtration. Some say to avoid honey as it may harbor botulism. Some strict vegetarians believe that bees are exploited: Hives are destroyed when production drops. Some bee keepers clean all the honey from hives in early winter, and as a result the entire hive starves to death.
Stevia is now available in bulk. It is a natural artificial sweetener that is very low in calories.
SALT SUBSTITUTES
One-third of people who have high blood pressure are salt sensitive. There are herbs that satisfy the cravings most people have for salt on their foods. Vegesal and Vegit (from Modern Products of Milwaukee WI 53209) are all tasty. Frontier Herbs (Norway, IA 52318) has an entire line of low salt and saltless seasonings. Potassium chloride is a good alternative to ordinary sodium chloride table salt. When you do use salt, use sea salt, which contains several kinds of salt. (Hain Pure Food Co., Inc., Los Angeles, CA 98061.)
SOAPS AND HOUSEHOLD CLEANSERS
Commercial soaps are often made of animal fat. Laundry soap is usually made of animal fat. I prefer detergent for that reason. Commercial household cleansers are made of some pretty serious chemicals. Upgrade your below-the-sink collection of soaps and cleansers. Throw out those that are chlorine-based.
VEGETARIAN DOGS AND CATS
Meat is graded into the following categories: prime, choice, select, good, cutter, and canner. Canner is meat from animals that are dead, dying, disabled, or diseased. It includes the meat of animals that died for unknown reasons and animals that had cancerous tumors. It is no-questions-asked meat. It can be used to make dog and cat food.
There are roughly 53 million dogs and 64 million cats in the United States. Pet owners spend over $8 billion per year to feed 30 billion pounds of meat to them. The pet food industry is an integral part of the meat industry because canner class meat would otherwise be wasted.
There is a cannibalistic side to the story too: There are roughly 10 million pets which are euthanized yearly in this country. That’s 200 million pounds of dead pets. Much of their remains is used to make pet food. Our cats and dogs are eating our cats and dogs. An aside: Much whale meat is made into pet foot.
The vegan who loves pets–what is she to do? For those who want no part of the animal-based food system and who do not want the stuff in their refrigerators and cupboards, there are plant-based alternatives.
Wild dogs eat almost anything; wild cats eat meat almost exclusively, although the first thing a lion eats out of her kill is the stomach with its vegetable content. Domestic dogs and cats hunt instinctively, but they do not necessarily know how to kill, and generally those that will kill will not eat their kill unless they are taught to do so while still puppies and kittens. Does it follow that because wild dogs and cats eat what they hunt, that domesticated dogs and cats should eat meat from animals grown in cruel confinement and which is polluted with chemicals and cancers?
Some vegan pet owners say “No.” They have set about analyzing what specific nutrients dogs and cats need that are not present in plant-based foods or not found there in sufficient quantity for good dog and cat health. They have identified plant-based foods which contain these needed nutrients in sufficient quantities.
The results are in: Dogs can survive quite nicely on the table scraps of a strictly vegetarian household. Cats flourish on a well-planned, plant-based diet that includes a taurine supplement. Animals fed this way are healthier than animals that eat the standard commercial pet food. They live longer. Surprisingly, the animals really like this food, and once they have been eating it for some time, they turn away from commercial pet food. (James A. Peden, Vegetarian Cats & Dogs; R. Pitcairn and S. Pitcairn, Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats; Joan Harper, The Healthy Cat and Dog Cook Book; for strictly vegetarian dog and cat biscuits contact WOW-BOW Distributors, www.Wow-Bow.com, 800-326-0230.)
Milk and eggs contain very little taurine, and plants contain none. Taurine can now be synthesized using chemical processes. Designing Health produces an apparently vegan cat and dog supplement which contains “flax seed, sunflower seeds, blackstrap molasses, rice bran, primary dried yeast, dried alfalfa, dried carrot, dried kelp, lecithin, taurine, spirulina (blue-green algae), sprouted green barley, yucca, garlic, and nettle. (The Missing Link Dog/Cat Vegetarian Formula, Designing Health, 800-774-7387, www.designinghealth.com.)
In addition to such supplements, what do vegans feed their dogs and cats? Tofu, rice, seitan, peas, cauliflower, spinach, shredded carrots, sprouted lentils, nutritional yeast, flax seed oil, chick-peas, olive oil, cornmeal, oatmeal, rice, TVP (texturized vegetable protein), potatoes, squash, and sweet potatoes.
For a while I semi-adopted a wild cat that hung out on my back deck. I fed the critter brown rice or kamut topped with flax seed oil, soy sauce, and nutritional yeast. With a little taurine supplement her diet would have been complete. She gulped it down. It is easier to start a kitten off eating vegetarian food than it is to convert a cat that is accustomed to eating commercial cat food.
Is it unnatural to feed our cats and dogs vegan food? It is less unnatural than feeding them the popular alternative, canner grade meat in the form of commercial dog and cat food. We have taken these animals away from their natural food chain. We can’t feed them live animals or whole dead animals, and we don’t want them hunting in our towns, so we have to feed them. We should feed them responsibly.
EATING VEGAN WHILE TRAVELING
When I fly, I carry my own food. I was flying back to Seattle from Promised Land, Arkansas, in the Summer of 1995, after representing Dad in a five-day jury trial. We won! with the Little Deal standing up for the Big Deal. It was an important father-son bonding experience.
Mom cooked for me during the trial, and I took notes and added several of her recipes to this book. I had lots of great leftovers to pack into plastic containers. I got upgraded to first class but declined the meal offered. Instead I spread out my containers on the tray, displaying my taboli salad, lentil pilaf, green beans and tomatoes, potato salad with mustard, and mustard greens. Mom was always worried I would starve, even though I reassured her that it was only a four-hour flight from Memphis back to Seattle. The stewardess took great interest in my food, and I gave her one of the early drafts of this book.
It is hard to eat a green, plant-based diet while traveling. Vegetarian restaurants, common in Seattle, are rare in most places. In Spain I lived mainly on olives, raw vegetables, fruit, and bread. I carried lentils in a plastic bag. I added a little water to the bag, inflated it half way, knotted it with a slipknot, and let the lentils sprout in my backpack. I started a new sprouting bag each day so I would have a continuous supply. I did the same thing with hulled sunflower seeds. The Spanish eat very badly: The country seems to worship ham. I was happy to get to Morocco, where strictly vegetarian dishes are available everywhere.
In poor countries, it is easy to eat a strictly vegetarian diet: just eat as the poor do. They generally cannot afford meat. In Nicaragua and the rest of Central America, where I have spent many months, I enjoyed beans and rice, plantains, and yucca. Realistic compromises are necessary because otherwise vegetarian food is often cooked in pans that have also cooked meat.
It was in Nicaragua that I learned to pick up food dropped on the floor and eat it and to lick my plate clean. Starving people do not waste any food. Now days, people ask me why I do such things, I tell them about Nicaraguan and explain that I do it as my prayer for Nicaragua.
I have picked up some useful phrases that will help you order vegetarian food: In Spanish: Por favor, vegetales todo sin carne (vegetables completely without meat). Sin huevos (without eggs). Sin leche o queso (without milk or cheese). Sin pescado (without fish). Sin manteca animál (without animal fat). Sin chancho (without pig lard). Como se dice _____ en español? (How do you say _____ in Spanish?)
In Korean: Goji (meat) nun bay go (without) yakeloman (vegetables) juseyo (give me). Turando bay go (without eggs). Sang san do bay go (without fish). Ta ko ji bay go (without chicken). Tach say yo (more please). Aw to kay mathanayo…? (how do you say _____?)
In Japanese: Yasai o kudasai (vegetables please). Gohan-o kudasai (rice please). Wakame-o kudasai (sea weed please). Miso shiru-o kudasai (miso soup, please). Niku-wa arimasen (without meat). Sakana-wa arimasen (without fish). Nihongo-de do imas-ka ____________ ? (In Japanese how do you say ______?)
Google for George Roger’s the tiny but useful booklet entitled Vegan Passport.
THE INITIAL HURDLES
Some people who become vegetarians claim they never felt better and would never go back. Others try to become vegetarian but give up, complaining that they don’t feel good in some way or that they feel the need for meat. However,
… the neophyte’s nausea does not come directly from vegetarianism or from fasting. Rather, nausea comes from cleansing; it is the cleansing that comes directly from vegetarianism or from fasting. Those who complain of tiredness and headache during their first month of vegetarianism blame their ills on doing without flesh food rather than on having done with it for so long. (Mark Mathew Braunstein, Radical Vegetarianism, p. 56.)
As one loses fat, toxins stored there are released, and it is these toxins which cause nausea. Braunstein suggests that beginning vegetarians undertake a raw foods diet and then a fruit juice fast in order to cleanse their systems and get past these feelings as soon as possible.
What will you do when you eat with people who serve animal-based food? Just eat the vegetables, potatoes, rice, and whatever else is strictly vegetarian and do so with out preaching any sermons. What you are eating and not eating will say enough. Wait until after dinner to answer the inevitable and indelicate questions.
I will not under any circumstances eat meat, eggs, or dairy products—even if the host is offended. I reassure the host that it is my problem and not hers, not to worry about me. If all else fails and she persists, I tell the host that not eating animal-based foods is contrary to my religion. That gets them to back down.
Make sure you eat flax, hemp, chia, or kukui. Your body craves Omega-3 fatty acids. Flax and hemp are the best non-meat sources in the temperate zone. Chia and kukui grow in the tropics. The reason why you crave meat is probably because you crave Omega-3.
STRETCHING, EXERCISE, MEDITATION—FIRST THINGS FIRST
This is a food book, not an exercise book, but I must digress for several reasons: If you change your diet and also meditate, stretch, and exercise, the transition will be easier. You will see progress more quickly, which will reinforce the dietary change. Dr. Dean Ornish in his Program for Reversing Heart Disease ranks meditation and exercise as being as important for good health as dietary change.
Stretch as soon as you wake up. Gently move every muscle in your body. Stretch several times during the day. Lie on the floor and do sit-ups; raise your legs up over your head; do upside-down pushups if you can. Lie on your stomach and do pushups, or at least raise your upper body. Do pull-ups or hang from a tree branch. Lift light weights and hold them above your head for a minute or so, shifting the weight around to stretch different muscles. At work keep your back very straight as you sit at your desk. Move around and stretch at the office. Stretching is the most fundamental form of exercise; it helps keep the body young, and it feels great. Buy a paperback book on hatha yoga, and follow the simple exercises.
If you have a bad back or a bad neck and stretching hurts, then start very slowly, and don’t extend yourself very far. But stretch anyway. Gradually you will find yourself loosening up, and that bad back or bad neck will gradually improve. Sleep without a pillow. A pillow curves your neck forward. Sleeping on a pillow may—in my non-medical opinion—cause people to stoop as they age. Or sleep on a pillow but lie on your side: Your spine will remain straight. Maybe you will stop snoring.
After stretching, meditate for 20 minutes. After meditating, and if you are a writer, move to the computer and start writing. Write as much as possible in a state of meditation, with your eyes closed if you are a touch typist. Learn touch typing: Those keys don’t move around.
Then go out and jog or walk around the neighborhood. Do a slow, stretching jog. When it rains, do it anyway, mocking the weather. When it’s cold you will have to jog or walk faster to keep warm. In dry weather ride your bicycle instead.
Do a few pull-ups on the backyard grape arbor or a low tree limb along your jogging route. Stop and do a few pushups. Jog or walk along and whistle at the birds. Caw at the crows. Meow at the cats. Carry old bread to throw to the dogs that bark at you. Bark, bark—bark, bark—bark, bark, bark. Feed them, and they won’t bark so much. All they want to do is smell you, so let them smell you, and they will calm down. For dogs, smelling things is like reading the newspaper. Jog or walk in the morning, and it will make you feel great. Jog or walk again after work, and it will relax you.
I was out running late one night. I ran by a couple of lazy, overweight teenagers, and one of them asked me, “Why do you run, man?” I passed them, turned around, and jogging backwards, told them, “Because it feels so good.”
Exercise is an empowering experience that anyone can enjoy: For some it will be jogging; for some it will be walking; for some it will be working on an indoor bicycle or rowing machine. Don’t say you don’t have time. Just get up 20 minutes earlier than usual. Do the most important things first every day.
Through stretching, jogging, and meditating, you can bring the best parts of your personality to the forefront so they can dominate the weaker parts of your personality. In this way you can strengthen your sense of purpose. By the time you are done with your morning ritual, you will be a more committed person.
CHEW, CHEW, CHEW YOUR FOOD
Some people find that eating greens and beans gives them gas. Humans cannot digest cellulose. Fear not (trumpet flourish) Beano is here! Beano really does take the gas out of beans, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, granola, grains, and other gassy foods. Beano is an enzyme, and it gradually is digested, so you need to take a few drops every day or so. Do not put it in your food before you cook it, because heat kills the enzyme. The instructions say to eat eight drops a day, but you will find you can taper off to one or two drops every day or every other day. I no longer need Beano. I have learned that the best way to reduce the gas from greens is to chew, chew, chew them. We should chew all our food much more than we typically do in our in-a-hurry society. It can also help you lose weight. When you chew well, you eat more slowly, so there is more time for your blood sugar level to rise and your appetite to diminish.
Eating plant-based foods does make some people gassy at first, but net total embarrassment is still less. When a strict vegetarian expels gas, there is little odor. A good analogy is the difference between a baby’s poop when she’s breast fed—cute little baby’s odor—and the same baby’s poop when she drinks cow’s milk—peee-yooo!
FASTING
As a good introduction to the subject, I recommend Edward Szekley’s The Essene Science of Fasting, along with all the score of books Szekely wrote. (www.members.aol.com/esseneinfo/essenecatalog.html.)
Everyone who is reasonably healthy should fast at least one day each week. Everyone should fast daily until noon. Consult with your physician if you have some doubts about your health before fasting, particularly if you are planning to exceed a one-day fast. Fasting gives your stomach and intestines an opportunity to rest and rejuvenate. It gives your body the opportunity to expel toxins.
Your physician is going to say, “You’re going to do what?” He has probably met only two other people in his entire life who fasted, and they were monks. So you will have to persist and ask: “All I want to know, Doc, is whether a one- to three-day fast with juice is going to give me a heart attack.” He will probably shrug and give you his blessing.
Fasting is a way to strengthen yourself physically and emotionally. If you want to quit some bad habit, make some dramatic life change, or make some important decision, fasting will help you do it. If you want to defeat an allergy, fasting will help. Fasting induces an altered state of consciousness without the consumption of any drugs. When you fast, a profound sense of peace and thoughtfulness pervades your body and mind.
There are various ways to fast. A “dry” fast is the most stringent; Muslims do this during Ramadan, and when Ramadan falls during the summer, this can be a 16-hour, no-water fast. The next most stringent fast is a water-only fast. Without advice from a physician, one should fast in these ways only for brief periods. On a long, water-only fast, the mineral balance of the blood can be upset, and a heart attack can be the result.
Normally, one would at least drink water and juices while fasting. Juices are digested within twenty minutes and pass immediately into the blood stream. Drinking juice is close to eating nothing. And juices help maintain the mineral balance of the blood. Another alternative is only to drink juice and eat fruit. Fruit is digested within four hours. A juice and fruit-only fast is a good way to fast for the first time.
Another good way to fast is to eat nothing at all and only drink water or juice from the time you wake up until noon, late afternoon, or even until the evening.
It is best not to fast too long while working. It is best to fast at home. Walk in the yard, read, and meditate. Fasting encourages meditation. Fasting is a time when meditation can be most profound and when you can learn the most about yourself.
A typical omnivore should not jump right into a water and juice fast. She should eat fruit, sprouts, and steamed vegetables for a day or two before beginning her juice fast. As she fasts, her tongue will turn strange colors, and she will have bad breath. Her stool will turn black. Her urine will turn strange colors. However, this is no cause for alarm; she is expelling toxins. During a fast the body burns fat, and it is in the fats that the body stores toxins it is not good at excreting.
Szekely says that strict vegetarians who eat a mostly raw foods diet can jump right into a juice-only fast. They are already living on a diet that purifies their bodies. In fact, raw-foods vegetarians do not have as great a need to fast to purify their bodies, although they may still want to fast for spiritual reasons. (Edward Szekley’s The Essene Science of Fasting; Mark Mathew Braunstein, Radical Vegetarianism, p. 59.)
Those who eat the standard American diet, “SAD,” will carry several pounds of greasy, hardened E. coli fecal matter hiding in crevices in their intestines. Fasting is a good way to eliminate it.
It is not advisable to fast for extended periods in cold weather, unless you can keep your house warm. During a fast your pulse and body temperature drop, and you will feel cold. Dress warmly. When you meditate, wrap a blanket around yourself.
GET THE FAMILY INVOLVED
Cooking is more fun when you get everyone—kids, spouses, and guests—to join in, chopping, mixing, stirring, and sampling the food.
As family members and guests show up, put them to work. This is not bad manners. Most people want to be helpful and appreciate getting some direction. Ask people, “John, can I recruit you to cut up these vegetables?” I encourage you, when you are the guest, to be a low-maintenance guest and offer to help. When I am a guest, I go right to work, without even being asked, cleaning pots and pans. I have great talent in this field: I was once a restaurant dishwasher and bus boy.
Start with a clean kitchen and keep it clean throughout the cooking process. Wash and put away pots and pans as you finish with them. Assign this job to kids, spouses, and guests.
The chef’s job is to decide what to cook, select the recipes, buy the groceries, and direct and coordinate the cooking. The chef leads the cook’s helpers, asking one person to wash vegetables, another to cut, another to stir the stir-fry, another to wash dishes. The chef hands knife and veggies to someone and puts him in front of the cutting board. He hands someone a bowl, and says, “Would you please wash this, dry it, and put it away there.” People who are bad cooks are often good dish and bottle washers.
If everyone works on dinner together, it will be ready in short order, and when dinner is over, the kitchen will be clean. There are such obvious advantages to this shared approach that I am surprised that so few families cook this way. It is fun. It is a unifying experience. It is a way of teaching organization. The typical family meal custom in the United States is a tragedy: Mom cooks while husband and kids watch TV. She calls them to dinner. They eat in a hurry, sometimes with the TV blaring. They quickly return to their TV. Mom is left alone in the kitchen to clean up. I love those bumper stickers that say “Kill Your TV.” Unplug the contraption for a month at a time and “get a life.” If you can’t pull this off due to family political considerations, at least work out a rule that requires that the sound be turned off unless someone is watching a specific program. It’s amazing what a difference this can make. There are cordless TV headphones. Buy a set and use them.
This is a good place to mention another American tragedy: the great number of people who don’t know how to cook. An enormous number of people eat packaged TV Dinners and takeout pizza on a regular basis. Undo this tragedy. Teach your entire family how to cook. Teach them by getting them involved with you in the kitchen. Kids learn best by doing, and that includes cooking. Teach the boys too.
Food is very important to kids. They are growing and exercising, and they are hungry all the time. If you give kids the opportunity to learn how to cook, most will quickly take responsibility to cook the food they prefer. There is a side benefit: Shared cooking creates the setting for talking with kids in a way that doesn’t put them on the spot.
A GOOD TIME TO QUIT SMOKING
What does smoking have to do with a vegan diet? Cigarettes and other tobaccos often contain animal products. http://quitsmoking.about.com/cs/nicotineinhaler/a/cigingredients.htm.) Further, before a chemical is added to tobacco, it is tested in the eyes of rabbits and the lungs of monkeys to determine if it is especially toxic.
Smoking causes an acid condition in the body that quickly draws calcium out of the bones and thus contributes to osteoporosis. It damages arteries, constricting them and reducing blood flow to all parts of the body, including flow to the genitalia, which contributes to impotence. Smoking causes blood to clot more readily.
Smoking multiplies the effect of other unhealthy conditions and behaviors: High cholesterol levels contribute more to heart disease in smokers than in nonsmokers. Stroke is more common among women who use birth control pills and smoke than among those who use birth control pills but do not smoke. Smoking diabetics have more complications than nonsmoking diabetics. Smoking increases risks of cancer and heart attack. When a smoker quits, his risk of heart attack drops rapidly. (Dean Ornish, M.D., Program for Reversing Heart Disease, p. 310 f.; Neal Barnard, Eat Right, Live Longer, p. 39, 114, 153, 166 f.; Dean Ornish, M.D., Program for Reducing Heart Disease, p. 70.)
Children take up smoking out of an infantile desire to appear grown up. In the long run smoking really does make them look older—a lot older. Smoking dries out and wrinkles skin, particularly facial skin, particularly around the eyes and mouth. Smoking makes a person lethargic and sedentary.
There is a paradoxical crossover, psychosexual symbolism involved in cigarette smoking, and cigarette advertisers capitalize on this. See the interesting treatment of this subject by David Krogh, in Smoking: The Artificial Passion. He says kids are so determined to learn to inhale something as bitter as tobacco smoke because it looks like fellatio. Kids say smoking is “cool,” but what they are really saying is that they have come to believe it makes them sexually attractive. It a form of exhibitionism which borders on the sexual and the bisexual. Kids confuse smoking with their innate sexual programming: They are programmed to suck on nipples and draw out a warm white fluid, which they confuse with white smoke. They are programmed to stick thumbs, nipples, and food into their mouths, but they subconsciously confuse these programmed behaviors with cigarette smoking. You don’t believe it? You would mock the theories of Krogh and Deal? Well, they mocked Freud too! If you don’t agree, then come up for some other explanation for why kids persist at smoking long enough to become addicted.
The monsters who design advertising for cigarette companies are very much aware of this psychosexual connection and exploit it for their enrichment. All cigarette advertising says that one ought to smoke. That is a lie. There is no constitutional right to lie. Tobacco should not be banned, because such a law would be unenforceable and would interfere with personal privacy. However, all advertising of tobacco products could legally be banned and should be.
There are people who have been able to give up eating animal-based foods but still have not defeated their addiction to tobacco. Ironically, vegetarians who smoke have a lower rate of lung cancer and heart disease than meat eaters who smoke. This is the case with Japanese men, 60 percent of whom smoke, but most of whom eat a not vegetarian but still low-fat, high-vegetable diet. They have low cholesterol levels and little heart disease, although they do tend to have high blood pressure. Japanese men who smoke have a lower rate of lung cancer than North American men who smoke. (Charles R. Attwood, M.D., Dr. Attwood’s Low-Fat Prescription for Kids, p. 6, F. Lemon, “Death From Respiratory Disease,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 198:117, 1966; J. Stamler, “Elevated Cholesterol May Increase Lung Cancer Risk in Smokers,” Heart Research Letter, 14:2, 1969.)
However, I hope you will not use this as a rationalization for smoking. Declare war on the demon weed. Throw those cigarettes in the fireplace at night and burn them or in the commode and flush them. Get up the next day and stretch, meditate, pray, and exercise. Meditation is another word for self-hypnotism. Go see a hypnotherapist. Get acupuncture. Homeopathic remedies are especially helpful. When you feel like smoking, exercise. Do sit-ups. Do pushups. Do side straddle hops. Smoking revs up the metabolism, and exercise will accomplish the same thing.
Some continue to smoke fearing they will gain weight. Smoking does generally poison the body and may in itself interfere with weight gain. However, you can only take this argument so far. There are a lot of overweight people who smoke and a lot of slim people who don’t. Smoking makes you lethargic. If you tend to be obese and are still smoking, continuing to smoke is not going to help you lose weight, because you are not going to exercise as long as you smoke.
Eating more will not make you gain weight if you eat plant-based food. Eat steamed vegetables—delicious. Eat cooked greens—luscious. Eat raw greens. Eat parsley. Eat fruit—oranges, apples, and plums. If you want to lose weight rapidly, dramatically reduce oil consumption except for the essential fatty acids, and eat steamed veggies, raw greens, and fruit. Eating food like this will build the body chemistry and immune system that resist and defeat cancer and heart disease. It is a lot of work for the body to digest high-fiber, strictly vegetarian food; this turns up the body’s thermostat and burns up calories, which means you will be eating more and soon be weighing less. (See the Obesity section of this book, p. 250.)
There will be a voice within you which will tell you to delay quitting smoking until you lose weight, but remember that this is a rationalization which arises from the addiction and thus a way the addiction manifests itself. How many years have you been smoking? Have you lost weight as a smoker? No, you have probably been gradually gaining weight. So try something else. Use reason against such rationalizations.
EXPLAINING YOURSELF AS A VEGETARIAN
Most people have been taught all their lives that there is nothing wrong with eating animal-based foods, and they have developed no sensitivity to these issues. Many people will conclude that your not eating animal-based foods means that you are condemning them. Explain to them that this is something you have decided to do for the environment, for the animals, and for your health. Explain that you do not impose your dietary choice on others.
Meat eaters can be intrigued with vegetarians—especially vegetarians with a sense of humor. They love to make jokes about us. The Greek playwrights made Pythagoras the butt of their jokes for hundreds of years. They would point to an animal and warn people to be nice to the animal because it might be the reincarnation of Pythagoras—because Pythagoras believed in reincarnation, or metempsychosis, as he called it. They poke fun at us because they feel guilty. Don’t be offended when omnivores laugh at you. Laugh with them. Make jokes about yourself.
There are times when I try to be funny and get no laughs, and then there are times when I say something not intending it to be funny and get an unexpected laugh. Some people take offense when you laugh at them when they are not trying to be funny. I have always aspired to be a comic, and I have learned to accept a laugh any way I can get it. You get more net total laughs that way. My point is that although we environmental vegans take our calling seriously, people are not generally convinced by continuous and intense serious argumentation. Usually people learn a little at a time. And they learn more easily from humorous and happy people.
Saying something clever can help open a person’s mind: I have been known to say, “When I was in law school I had high blood pressure, but then I became a vegetarian and learned to meditate, and now I don’t have any blood pressure at all.” I refer to myself as a “vegetable” or a “vegetablearian” or a “vegerian.”
I explain that I hold myself to a different standard than I do others. I point out that even if they choose to continue to eat animal foods, they should eat more veggies—”just like your mother said.”
The best way to lure meat eaters away from cholesterol is to feed them tasty vegan food. Let the food do the convincing. It will make them feel light and healthy. They will enjoy chomping on this food for an hour and not feeling bloated. Tell them some of the amazing tales in vegetarian history. Point out to committed Christians that Jesus and all his apostles (except Paul) and the entire Judeo-Christian church for 400 years was vegetarian, and that orthodox Christians are still vegetarian two days each week and all during Lent. Point out the environmental advantages. Tell them how vegetarians eat more and weigh less. Tell them that they can take up a green diet as much or as little as they want.
WHERE TO BUY VEGETARIAN AND ORGANIC FOOD
If you are fortunate enough to live in the Seattle area, shop at Madison Market, Puget Consumer’s Coop, Whole Foods, or Manna Mills. In other areas you will have to be creative. Grocers in ordinary stores will help you because they are consumer conscious. They will try to stock whatever you and others are willing to buy. In this book I have made things easy for your grocer by identifying suppliers. Pledge loyalty to your grocer if she will go to distributors and get these products on the shelves.
Your grocer is more likely to stock vegetarian and organic foods if they have a long shelf life, that is, if they are frozen, dried, canned, or aseptically packaged. Frozen organic vegetables and frozen organic fruit juices are available from Cascadian Farm (www.cfarm.com), which has recently been bought out by Welch’s, which means you are going to be seeing the Cascadian brand all across the country. So if you are persistent, you will be able to buy these products. In remote areas the only thing you will have trouble buying will be fresh organic fruit and fresh organic vegetables, and that is why you should grow your own garden and get into sprouting beans and seeds.
Look up local health food stores and ethnic grocery stores. Chinese and Middle Eastern stores will stock many of these items.
Look for a Seventh Day Adventist Church. Most will have a book and grocery store. The Adventists hold to a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet in their church dinners, and many Adventists eat the same way at home, although they are not required to do so by their religion. Note, however, that many of the vegetarian meat substitutes sold in Adventist book and grocery stores contain milk and eggs and are not strictly vegetarian. Nor are they always organic. The most important ingredients will be available everywhere: kale, mustard, collard, leek, turnip greens, onions, basil, and garlic. Chop them up and cook them in a big pan with water and olive oil and flax.
EATING OUT AS A STRICT VEGETARIAN
More and more restaurants offer vegetarian and strictly vegetarian food. They do so because our numbers are growing. Look for Middle Eastern, Thai, Moroccan, and Ethiopian restaurants; they almost always offer strictly vegetarian food. Indian vegetarian food usually contains milk, butter, and cheese, so ask.
Most restaurants cook meat, milk, eggs, and vegetables in the same pots, pans, and skillets. The veggie burger you eat at a restaurant may be broiled on the same broiler where the hamburgers are cooked. So you are eating little bits of meat. If that bothers you, ask your waiter to tell the cook not to fry your veggie burger on the griddle or broil it on the broiler but to microwave it on a plate. Many veggie burgers are made with cheese and eggs, so ask the waiter if the package says “vegan” on it.
In Middle Eastern restaurants, when you get a falafel, fool, or baba ganooj sandwich, the cook will often heat the pita bread on the meat grill. Ask the waiter to heat the pita in the microwave.
In Chinese restaurants, almost everything is cooked with small bits of meat. Ask for rice and steamed vegetables. Ask the waiter to gather every type of vegetable, nut, and tofu he has and steam it.
In any kind of restaurant, focus on the salads and appetizers. Many will be vegetarian. When ordering salad, ask for vinegar and olive oil and dress your own salad.
In restaurants that have a salad buffet, you can eat salad, or you can order a plate of rice or pasta and then add the salad toppings to the rice or pasta.
In Italian restaurants eat bread with olive oil to dip it in, salad with vinegar and oil dressing, olives, and baked garlic. Ask if the pasta is egg noodles or wheat, and order the pasta naked. Ask for olives to put on it. Most Italian restaurants have a marinara sauce, which may or may not be strictly vegetarian. Ask if it is cooked with butter or anchovies. Say clearly: “no meat, no cheese, no butter, and no anchovies.”
In ordinary restaurants, there may be nothing on the menu that is strictly vegetarian. In such cases write out your order. Go through the menu and make a list of all the ingredients mentioned which are strictly vegetarian. Order a salad or rice topped with all those items on your list, typically the following: tomatoes, sunflower seeds, chick-peas, pickles, artichoke hearts, water chestnuts, baby corn, peas, green beans, kernel corn, carrots, celery, and olives. Tell the waitress to charge you whatever is fair. Those eating with you will wish they had ordered the same.
Bear in mind that waiters, waitresses, and cooks are busy people who work odd hours for low pay, and that they may not understand what a strict vegetarian does and does not eat. So be explicit. Say “no eggs, no cheese, no milk, no meat, and no fish.” If you do not, you may find grated cheese or a fried egg on top of your food. Write it down for the cook. Leave them a 25 percent tip, and go by the kitchen and thank the cook. These people are going out of their way to serve you a special dinner, so be reasonable and generous.
It is disappointing that most vegetarian and vegan restaurants serve nothing containing flax, hemp, chia, or kukui. These ingredients are absolutely necessary for a vegetarian or vegan diet to supply Omega-3 fatty acids. Encourage vegetarian and vegan restaurant owners to buy this book and cook the recipes in it, many of which use flax.
CHANGE YOUR LIFESTYLE ALL AT ONCE
Let’s presume the worst: You are overweight, have high blood pressure and diabetes, drink too much coffee, are addicted to tobacco and alcohol, consume too much legal and illegal drugs, and don’t exercise. How do you change your lifestyle? Most people will say they will eliminate one bad habit at a time. For example, they say they will give up coffee after they have quit smoking, and when they have done both, only then will they think about quitting drinking and only then think about starting an exercise program, and only then think about switching to a vegetarian diet.
However, you will have greater success if you change everything at once. The exercise, the improved diet, the clear thinking that comes with giving up caffeine, nicotine, and drugs, the immediate weight loss, the focusing of purpose that comes with stretching, meditation, and exercise, and the good feeling that will come with changing to a strictly vegetarian diet—all these changes will reinforce each other and make the change easier.
WHO’S STRANGE?
If you adopt a green diet, you will be in the minority, and people may imply that you are strange because you are in the minority. However, being in the majority doesn’t prove anything. The majority has been wrong on many issues: For hundreds of years the majority defended slavery, anti-Semitism, the subjugation of women, bleeding with leaches, killing witches, and the idea that the earth was flat. You will be in the minority, but it is animal eating that is strange.
VEGETARIANS OF OLD
The term “vegetarian” is one that arose in the 1800s, and its exact definition is still not settled. The ancient vegetarians obviously did not refer to themselves as “vegetarians.” They described themselves as “not eating flesh food” and as “Pythagoreans.” The Roman historian Ovid (43 B.C.-17 A.D.) wrote about Pythagoras (569-470 B.C.), noted physician, musician, mathematician, humanitarian, philosopher, and vegetarian. Pythagoras opposed eating all flesh food, including fish. However, according to Ovid, who lived 500 years later, Pythagoras referred favorably to drinking the milk of sheep. (Metamorphoses, Book 15, line 80, 101, 115.) Likewise, Plato and Socrates, intellectual heirs of Pythagoras, in speaking of the ideal city in The Republic (Great Dialogues of Plato, p. 165 ff.), refer to its inhabitants eating cheese, but they speak against meat, including fish. So far I have found no hint as to whether the ancient vegetarians did or did not eat eggs. Pythagoras was possibly a lacto- or lacto-ovo-vegetarian. I have found no evidence as to whether Jesus, Peter, James, and John the Baptist ate milk and eggs. However, Catholics for several centuries and the Orthodox even today keep to a strictly vegan diet on fast days, not just a vegetarian diet, which would indicate that Jesus and those around him did the same.
“VEGETARIAN”, “STRICTLY VEGETARIAN”
Most people use the term “vegetarian” more loosely to mean a diet that includes no meat but can include milk, eggs, and honey.
A minority argues that a “vegetarian” is someone who eats no meat or animal-based foods, no fish, chicken, eggs, milk, or honey. Such a vegetarian will eat anything else, assuming he/she likes it. A vegetarian can eat grains, beans, peas, nuts, bread, beer—and vegetables. A vegan goes further and wears and uses no animal products.
Some use the term “vegetarian” to describe the person who eats no red meat but does eat chicken or fish, however, most vegetarians would disagree with this definition.
There is a need for a general term that includes people who don’t eat meat but who eat or might have eaten eggs or milk, for example, the ancient vegetarians. So in this book I will use the word “vegetarian” to refer generally to those who do not eat meat but who might or might not eat milk and eggs. I will refer to “strict vegetarians” as those who eat no meat, milk, or eggs.
“RELATIVE VEGETARIAN”
We can trace vegetarian societies back to Pythagoras in the Sixth Century B.C.E., and these were probably descended from the goddess worshiping societies, which populated Old Europe before the invasions of the Indo-European speaking Aryans beginning around 4300 B.C.E. Some tribes might have been vegetarian, but there is evidence that meat was a part of the diet of most, although a smaller part than after the Aryan invasions, and so I would refer to the goddess societies as relative-vegetarians. I hypothesize that at least the pious were vegetarians or part time vegetarians like the Pharisees, Judeo-Christians, and the Orthodox Church today.
Up until the invention of refrigeration, most people did not eat meat three times a day as we do. Most did not even eat it daily. Most did not drink animal milk regularly until the development of refrigeration. People ate a lot of vegetables, nuts, roots, fruit, eggs, and a modest amount of animal protein. The typical diet was relatively vegetarian compared to the 50 percent fat diet we eat today.
TYPES OF VEGETARIANS: HEALTH, ETHICAL, ENVIRONMENTAL
Most vegetarians first become so for health reasons. It happened for me when I was in law school back in 1977. I developed moderately high blood pressure—130 over 90. My doctor proposed to put me on a life long course of drugs. He wanted me to walk a half-mile across campus every day to have my blood pressure tested. “Well, Doc, can’t I take my own blood pressure?” I asked. “No, taking your own blood pressure will raise your blood pressure even more,” he said. Bad advice!
Being a take-charge guy, I ignored his advice and bought a blood pressure cuff. I sat on the sofa with my legs crossed, meditated, and tested my pressure. I learned what high blood pressure felt like, and I lowered it through informal biofeedback. I cut down on meat, milk, and egg consumption for health reasons.
In 1979 I met Paul, a young man just back from working with the Peace Corps in Afghanistan. He spoke of vegetarian health issues, but for him the ethical and environmental issues were more significant. He spoke of how badly factory farm animals are treated. He made me ponder the significance of what I was eating. I completely quit eating meat. Later I gave up milk and eggs, including bread, cakes, candies, and chocolates that contain milk and eggs. The punch line of my story is: “And now I don’t have any blood pressure at all.” Today my blood pressure tests out today at 115 over 72. My pipes are clean. My total cholesterol level is a low 139. I had the obligatory colonoscopy at 50—with no anesthetic—and my colon was totally smooth.
Others become vegetarians for ethical reasons. Cows, pigs, and chickens live horrid lives in “animal penitentiaries.” Ethical vegetarians refuse to participate in a system they disagree with. Their not eating animal-based foods is a protest against an industry that does ghoulish things to other species in its blind pursuit of profits.
Environmental vegetarians follow the vegetarian path because modern animal husbandry is profoundly destructive to the animal and plant kingdoms. Every burger, omelet, or glass of milk you consume destroys part of a rain forest, grassland, or river somewhere. Each adds fecal and urinary pollution from stockyards, dairies, and pig and chicken ranches to ground water, rivers, and estuaries.
“LACTO-OVO VEGETARIAN”
A lacto-ovo vegetarian eats no meat but does eat eggs and milk products. Some people would call such a person simply a “vegetarian.”
Becoming a lacto-ovo vegetarian is a practical, first step on the way to a strictly plant-based diet. It is easy to find a broad selection of food that is lacto-ovo vegetarian. However, such a change is not a significant improvement over the standard omnivorous diet in terms of health, ethics, or the environment.
A diet heavy in milk and eggs is high in the saturated fats and calories we do not need and low in the essential fats we do need, the Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids. In the good old days of the family farm, milk and eggs produced in the barnyard were clean, and the fat and nutrient composition of these foods was more healthy than the eggs and milk that come from today’s factory farms. (Udo Erasmus, Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill, p. 233.)
Further, the production of milk and eggs is intimately linked with meat, leather, and glue production. Dairy cows and laying hens are sent quickly to the slaughterhouse when production drops. Cows must bear a calf each year to continue to lactate heavily, and almost all the innocent calves they bear go into the brutal veal industry for 100 days of hell. (See the Veal section of this book, p. 290.)
Nevertheless, lacto-ovo vegetarianism is where most vegetarians are today. In reality, there are very few strict vegetarians. Most vegetarians will eat a little milk or eggs, particularly if it is imbedded in cake, cookies, pies, pastas, or breads. As I will point out below, there are excellent replacements for eggs and milk.
“OVO-VEGETARIAN”
An ovo-vegetarian would eat eggs but would not eat milk products. In many sections of this book I have ranted about how unhealthy, unethical, and harmful to the environmental milk is and how milk is not the last thing that a vegetarian should give up but the first thing that anyone should give up. If you still eat meat; quit milk. If you still eat eggs; quit milk.
“LACTO-VEGETARIAN”
Some of India’s Hindu population is lacto-vegetarian. High caste Brahmans tend to be strict lacto-vegetarians, whereas members of lower castes add fish, chicken, and lamb to their diets; they eat whatever they can afford, except for beef. Mohandas Gandhi influenced millions of Hindus to renounce the eating of all meat. Except for Moslems and Christians, hardly any Indians eat beef. McDonalds serves lamb burgers in India. Indian vegetarians generally eat milk but not eggs. Cattle provide milk and fertilizing manure, and they are used to pull plows and carts. Most cattle owned by Hindus are not slaughtered when they grow too old to work as draft animals; instead they are allowed to roam the farms and countryside, trimming the grass and providing manure for fertilization and cooking fires. Hindus revere and worship the cow as the natural partner of humankind; hence the term “holy cow.” To some extent, Hindu lacto-vegetarianism is grounded more in a taboo against harming or eating cattle than in a general respect for all lower forms of life.
Sometimes Hindus sell old cows and oxen to Moslems or Christians, who then slaughter them. And some less-observant Hindus will tether a cow to a post until it starves.
Indians generally use unhomogenized, unpasteurized milk, which they boil. It is often buffalo milk instead of cow milk, and it comes from healthy animals that roam free eating grass, animals which are not confined in sealed buildings or fed the unnatural diet of their counterparts in the United States. Boiling the milk breaks down the hard-to-digest casein protein, and it neutralizes many of the hormones and kills the bacteria. Pasteurization, on the other hand, does not increase the temperature of milk sufficiently to destroy hormones and kill all viruses—including paratuberculosis, which may cause Crohn’s disease.
In recent years Western style dairies have been set up in India, which produce the same pasteurized and homogenized milk sold in the West. Homogenization breaks milk into microscopic globules of protein and fat which can pass directly through the lining of the stomach and intestines into the blood, bypassing digestion, and which thus contribute directly to arteriosclerosis. Indians consume small quantities of milk compared to Americans. (Amadea Morningstar and Urmila Desai, The Ayurvedic Cookbook, p. 260-261.) Milk is a much less healthy substance in the United States than the boiled, unpasteurized and unhomogenized milk of India, and Hindus in this country who can’t find a source of organic, raw milk which they can boil should give up milk and become strict vegetarians. It is true that organic milk is now available in this country, however, it is homogenized and pasteurized, and the cows which produce it still live in many cases in buildings and feedlots instead of pastures. (See the sections of this book entitled Dairy Products, Osteoporosis, and Animal-Based Foods, p. 261, and Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, p. 284.)
“VEGAN”
A vegan (it rhymes with “be fun” with the accent is on the first syllable) is a strict vegetarian, who eats no milk, meat, or eggs, and who in addition makes no unavoidable use of animal products.
The word vegan … was originally derived from “vegetarian” in 1944 when Elsie Shrigley and Donald Watson, frustrated that the term “vegetarianism” had come to include the eating of dairy products, founded the UK Vegan Society. … They combined the first three and last two letters of vegetarian to form “vegan,” which they saw as “the beginning and end of vegetarian.” (“Vegan,” www.Wikipedia.org.)
All vegans are vegetarians. Not all vegetarians are vegans. Vegans go further than vegetarians. A vegan would not wear leather shoes, but a vegetarian might.
Because animal products are imbedded in so many products we buy, it is impossible to be a perfect vegan. For example, the glue holding your sofa together is probably made of rendered animal bones. Some other products containing animal products are: adhesive tapes, air filters, antifreeze, asphalt, ball bearings, bone china, brake fluid, buttons, candles, cardboard, cellophane, cement, ceramics, chalk, chewing gum, clothing, crayons, deodorant, electrical bushings, emery boards, explosives, galvanized steel, gold, ink, hair brushes, insecticides, lipsticks, paper matches, paint, photographic film, plastics, records, rubber, sandpaper, shampoo, shaving cream, shoes, soap, steel (including metal for pots and pans), sugar, tires, toothpaste, upholstery material, and varnish. (List compiled from C. David Coats’ Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm, p. 173, and Jeremy Rifkin’s Beyond Beef, p. 274 ff.)
“VEGAN”, “VEGETARIAN”, AND “STRICTLY VEGETARIAN”
A tendency has arisen for the term “vegan” to be used to describe one who eats no meat, milk, or eggs without also including the vegan’s non-use of leather and other animal products. The term “vegan” has slid out from under its original meaning and become less rigorous.
Likewise, the word “vegetarian” is being used—too broadly—to mean lacto-ovo vegetarian. If the word “vegetarian” means lacto-ovo vegetarian, why do we have the expression “lacto-ovo vegetarian”?
Nevertheless, in this book I use the term “vegetarian” in its most common sense to describe the broader group that includes the person who is a strict vegetarian and the person who eats no meat but might eat milk or eggs. There is a need for such a general word, because it is sometime not clear just how strict a vegetarian one is, particularly when it comes to the ancient vegetarians, who may have consumed milk and eggs.
In order to avoid confusion, I use the term “strict vegetarian” to mean one who eats a diet that contains no meat, fish, milk, or eggs. A strict vegetarian is not necessarily also a vegan and might still wear leather shoes.
I use the term “vegan” to mean one who eats no meat, fish, milk, or eggs, and who in addition, makes no unavoidable use of animal products.
“RAW FOODS VEGAN”
A raw foods vegan eats fruit, raw vegetables, nuts, sprouted seeds and sprouted grains. For breakfast such a person might eat fruit and nuts. For lunch she might eat a huge salad, with a dressing made of the essential oils. For dinner she might eat a meal of sprouted lentils, sprouted adzuki beans, sprouted wheat or barley berries, and raw vegetables. She might add juice made from veggies which are too hard to eat raw, such as broccoli stalks. Or she might lightly steam hard veggies which are not otherwise edible—a slight compromise in a raw foods regimen. Virtually all row foods vegans eat some of their food cooked. One does not have to eat a 100 percent raw diet to be considered a raw foodist. Such a diet would be very high in vitamins and plant phytochemicals. This would be an excellent diet for one trying to prevent or defeat cancer, lessen symptoms of endometriosis, lose weight, strengthen bones, and/or extend life-span.
Oddly enough, vegetarians tend to eat too few “vegetables.” Most vegetarians eat mostly grains and breads, and most of what they eat is cooked.
Modern-day Essene prophet Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, who died in 1979, divided foods into four categories, biogenic, bioactive, biostatic, and biocidic. (The Biogenic Revolution, p. 54.) Biogenic foods are young, sprouted seeds and sprouted grains. He says they are brimming with healing power at this stage. Bioactive foods are raw vegetables and nuts. They are healthy, but they do not contain the enormous healing power of biogenic foods. Biostatic foods are vegetarian foods which are cooked; they are not harmful to the body, but they have even fewer healing powers. Their vitamin content has been reduced. Biocidic foods are animal-based foods. Dr. Szekely recommended that one’s diet be at least 25 percent biogenic foods, 50 percent bioactive foods, 25 percent biostatic foods, and zero percent biocidic foods. Unfortunately, Szekely advocated drinking goat milk.
When one eats raw foods, one should chew them thoroughly. Flow of saliva is stimulated, and the digestive process is begun. We don’t have cuds like cows, and we don’t get a second chance at it. Thorough chewing helps with gas problems.
FOOD COMBINING
Most of us open our mouths and shovel everything in all together, foods of all different sorts. Some vegetarians suggest that we should instead avoid eating this kind of food with that kind. Friend and poet Mark says:
Those who observe the strictest food-combining laws sometimes simplify the number of daily meals to two: one of fruit, the other of vegetables…?. Fresh fruits eaten with seeds or nuts are good, but eaten alone are better; fresh vegetables eaten alone are good, but eaten with nuts or seeds are better; fruits and vegetables are never to be eaten together; and best of all are those days when we eat nothing at all. (Mark Mathew Braunstein, Radical Vegetarianism, p. 24, 29-30.)
“EATING A PLANT-BASED DIET,” A “GREEN DIET”
“Plant-based” is a good way to describe the diet of a strict vegetarian. John Robbins may have coined this phrase; he certainly popularized it. The term “plant-based food” is not as equivocal as “vegetarian food.”
I eat plant-based food, which makes me a strict vegetarian. What do I do if the physician gives me medicine in a gelatin capsule? If I cannot find a vegetarian replacement, I open the capsules, pour the contents into water or fruit juice, and drink it down. I see it as an opportunity to educate the doctor, or pharmacist. I write the manufacturer and ask him to switch to vegicaps or vegan soft gels. It is absurd to be packaging medicine or vitamins in something as filthy and cruel as gelatin.
A “green diet” is a plant-based diet. I use the term because it is so common today to talk about “green homes,” “green buildings,” “green energy,” green this, and green that.
“ORGANIC”
Organic food is grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers made out of petrochemicals. Before World War II, most agriculture was organic. As a part of the war effort, DDT and many other chemicals were developed which could kill insects that spread disease and eat crops. Their use continues to grow because petrochemical companies profit enormously from their sale.
These chemicals indiscriminately kill both good and bad insects, bacteria, and birds, impoverishing the soil. It is important that root crops such as potatoes and carrots be organic—because strong chemicals are applied to the soil before planting non-organic potatoes and carrots; every real or imagined threat—insect, microbe, or worm—is wiped out. Commercial root crops are grown in dead soil.
According to one source, 700 million pounds of pesticides are sprayed on crops and fed to farm animals yearly in the United States. Ninety percent of non-organic tomatoes contain pesticide residues as do 60 percent of non-organic apples. Worst are non-organic strawberries, celery and lettuce: 70 percent show residues, with up to 70 different chemicals being found in strawberries and celery and up to 30 different chemicals in lettuce.
Agricultural chemicals not only kill animals and plants; they also kill people. Farm workers inevitably breathe the pesticides and chemicals they work with and absorb them through their skin.
I know a little about this from personal experience: When I lived in Canada in my 20s, I took a part-time job driving a tractor and applying a foul-smelling, green poison to spring peas. Despite the breathing filter, rubber gloves, and rubber coat and boots, I got the stuff on my face and even in my eyes. I had nowhere to wash off. By the end of the day I was as green as a pea myself. That’s why I’m in solidarity with the Farm Workers Union: My brothers and sisters die young from such chemicals. The difference is that I was able to quit after one sickening day, while their exposure to poison continues for years. Farm workers have a shortened life expectancy.
Important aside: Farm workers are the only sector of American labor that has no right to bargain collectively. Even if a majority of farm workers working for a company vote to form a union, their employers are not required by law to recognize their union or negotiate in good faith with them, which is contrary to the situation with every other class of workers. This dates back to passage of the Wagner Act in 1937: FDR was pushing for a law to give all workers the right to bargain collectively. However, he needed the votes of Southern senators to get his bill passed, and so he sold out the farm workers. The Wagner Act instituted collective bargaining rights for all workers except farm workers. Farm workers are our last slaves.
In many cases farm workers have no place to wash the pesticides off or to relieve themselves. When they do have health care insurance, they typically have to pay 30 percent of the cost. The doctor provided is usually a company doctor, and he is usually under pressure to minimize the significance of chemical poisoning and injuries in order to protect farm owners.
Organic fruits, vegetables, and grains do cost more, but buying them is a moral obligation we owe to our farm worker brothers and sisters. If we buy organic produce, more of it will be grown; the health and productivity of the soil will be improved; more farmers will turn to organic farming; and the price of organic foods will drop. Sometimes organic produce is sold for a lower price than regular produce. Once an organic farmer has built healthy soil, he or she can produce massive quantities of beautiful, healthy vegetables without wasting money on chemicals.
Because pesticides contain chlorine radicals and often fluoride, they tend to be carcinogenic. The Surgeon General has issued warnings to women that if they want to avoid breast cancer, they should eat organic fruits and vegetables. Men who want to avoid prostate cancer should do the same. The breast is a vulnerable point in the female anatomy. The prostate is a vulnerable point in the male.
How do you get your grocer to stock organic foods? Encourage her to start with organic grains, frozen organic vegetables, and frozen, organic fruit juices. They have a long shelf life, and so she will be taking little financial risk in stocking them. She is taking a bigger risk stocking fresh organic fruits and fresh organic vegetables, because if they do not sell right away, she will be left holding the wilted bag.
If you must eat non-organic fruits and vegetables, wash them with soap and water. If they can be peeled, peel them.
Farmers have found that insects are getting twice as much of the crop as they did before we started using chemicals after World War II, so more and more of them are turning to organic farming. (Udo Erasmus, Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill, p. 391.) Farmers are tired of poisoning their soil, their workers, and themselves. Yields can be better without chemicals. In the long run the soil and those who work it will be healthier.
Even big food companies are seeing the light: Welch’s recently bought out Cascadian Farm, the finest organic producer in the Northwest. We can still rely on Cascadian Farm to put out an organic product because there is state inspection and certification. They may be seeing the light only because it is more profitable. But, hey, if someone does the right thing for the wrong reason, it’s still better than doing the wrong thing.
I hope that the farmers of my home state of Arkansas will someday see the organic light. I used to return there to visit my parents. I would avoid visiting during the growing season. In cotton and rice country, the smell of pesticides is constant and sickening. Drinking water comes from deep, artesian wells, which are becoming contaminated. It’s tragic, because there are ways to grow cotton and rice organically.
While it is important to eat organic vegetables, it is important to put this in perspective. Non-organic meat, eggs, and dairy products are almost always many times more laden with chemical residues than common, non-organic vegetables. Factory farm animals are fed corn and soybeans which are grown with heavy applications of chemicals. Cattle must eat 16 pounds of corn and soybeans to produce one pound of meat, and 61 percent of all pesticides used in this country are applied to corn and soybeans. (Michael Fox and Nancy Wiswall, The Hidden Costs of Beef, p. 25-26.) “The major source of pesticide residues in the Western diet is meat, poultry, and dairy products.” (Lewis Regenstein, How to Survive in America the Poisoned, p. 173; cited in Our Food Our World: The Realities of an Animal-Based Diet, p. 15.)
Atrazine is banned in much of Europe, but it is used in cornfields in the United States to kill weeds. Studies show it can damage DNA. Atrazine is sometimes present in American corn, beef, and milk. It is as damaging as DDT in its effect on estrogen metabolism. In the Midwest it is now showing up in 60 percent of streams. It is also in Scot’s Weed & Feed, meaning it’s in your or your neighbor’s yard. The federal government does not test such chemicals before they are used; the producers do their own testing. (Dan Fagin and Marianne Lavelle, Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law, and Endangers Your Health, 1997; cited by Bob Herbert, “Dangerous Deception,” New York Times, February 17, 1997, p. 23.)
These chemicals are concentrated in the tissues of factory farm animals because they are fed the ground-up remains of other factory farm animals. Likewise, these animals are fed a great variety of drugs. Animal and human bodies did not evolve to excrete these pollutants, so many of them remain in their tissues and organs, and when we eat them, they remain in ours, where they may cause DNA damage and cancer.
Most of the fish that people eat live at the top of the food chain, and so heavy metals and chemicals such as DDT accumulate in their tissues and organs. According to Howard Lyman, the milk of mothers who eat fish is so polluted with these contaminants that if it were cow’s milk it would fail government tests. (Interview, Seattle, November 14, 1996.)
So again, put this in perspective: The first way to “go organic” is to stop eating animal-based foods. Non-organic vegetables at their worst are much less toxic than animal-based foods.
“VEGANIC”
One last word about organic vegetables. Regulations pertaining to organic growing allow growers to apply cow manure, blood meal, fish meal, and bone meal to their land. There are frequent reports of spinach and lettuce being contaminated with E. coli bacteria. Clueless journalists express puzzlement as to how E. coli is infecting these veggies. It is very simple: Insufficiently composted manure is being used to fertilize the plants. Or raw manure is flowing from nearby feedlots to vegetable farms. Or birds or pigs or the other wild animals are bringing the manure from feedlots into the fields. Organic veggies should be grown without the addition of animal products, veganically.
“PESCA-VEGAN”
I asked Dana Lyons, singer of “Cows With Guns” and other songs with environmentalist lyrics, if he were a vegan. He said he used to be vegan and still was vegan except that he perceived the need for meat, and so he eats fish, but only fish raised in the wild.
16
TWO VERSIONS OF REALITY
I read a lot of newspapers and news magazines. However, I always read them critically. I consider myself something of a media analyst. I was a member of the respected Seattle Central America Media Project back during the Sandinista-Contra War in the 1980s. I made five trips to Central America and spent a total of six months there. I joined because of the extreme contradictions I saw between reports in the orthodox US media on the one hand and reports from eye witnesses, alternative media, and foreign media on the other hand. We read newspapers from Europe and Mexico, where reporting on Nicaragua was balanced. In the United States the press mechanically quoted the Reagan administration line about the evil Sandinistas and the heroic Contras. In the US media there was a politically correct version of the truth that only loosely correlated with the actual truth.
Yes, the Sandinistas were a tad pink, but they were certainly not communists and they were no threat to the US. Nicaraguan capitalists were not dispossessed and remained free to get rich. It was only the 25 percent of the economy that had been owned by the corrupt Samoza family that was nationalized. It was called a “mixed economy.” The Sandinistas allowed Nicaraguan newspapers more freedom than other countries at war typically allow. I saw a Nicaragua in 1985 which was an idealistic and utopian experiment where everyone was fed, where there was little crime, where everyone had good health care, and where all the children were in school. The Reagan administration could not overthrow the Soviets or Fidel, and so it chose to pick on the Sandinistas. Reagan slapped an embargo on Nicaragua, cut it off from international finance and markets, and hired and directed the nun-murdering Contras to harass the country militarily. By the last time I visited Nicaragua in 1990, Reagan had achieved his goal of “making the economy scream.” That year the Sandinistas held free and fair elections and accepted the outcome when they were voted out. A United States crony was voted in. Today half the children are not in school; many of them peddle chewing gum in the streets and sniff glue. Unemployment and underemployment are around 50 60 percent, and three-quarters of the people live on less than $2.00 per day! Few have health care. The economy is the pits. Crime is so bad you should never go out after dark.
I see the same contradictions in reporting about animal-based foods. There is a commercial version of the truth that only loosely correlates with the facts. That’s one of my primary motivations for writing this book. I hate lies, especially, as in this case, when the lies harm people, the environment, and innocent animals. Most people prefer to believe these lies because they taste good and perhaps because the food itself is addictive.
Meat marketing organizations run commercials about “real food for real people” and “nutrition you can sink your teeth into.” They advertise that “beef gives strength.” According to the California Milk Producers, “Every body needs milk.” The FTC declared this last add to be false, misleading, and deceptive. Milk producers switched to the meaningless slogan “Milk has something for everybody,” leaving it unstated just what that something might be. Egg producers boast of the “incredible edible egg.” Only incredibly bad things can be said about factory farm eggs: They are infected with salmonella and campylobacter and loaded with cholesterol and more protein than we need.
These are alluring lies, presented in flashy colors, with toe-tapping music, projected to us and our children by corporations which mindlessly value profits above all else, clever, witty, convincing advertising engineered by marketing agencies that will promote anything for a big fee. Not surprisingly, most adults and children hold tenaciously to these lies and think there is something odd about people who do not also believe them.
Colonel Sanders speaks from beyond the grave to sell us buffalo wings, cooked in ground-up chicken skin, and containing over fifty percent fat. McDonalds sells us burgers that are fifty percent fat. Burger King display all-meat patties on TV to people who have been seduced to believe their bloody pink color to be beautiful. Jimmy Dean hawks sizzling sausage made of ground-up leftovers—ears, snouts, feet, and brains and other organs.
Meat, dairy, and egg producers provide free booklets, videos, and lesson plans for teachers to use to indoctrinate children that they should eat their products at every meal. Schools serve lunches heavy on USDA subsidized animal products. Some hospitals now have McDonald’s outlets on premises!
Women smear lipstick on their lips without thinking about the sordid chemicals they gradually lick off and swallow. (www.mdvventures.com/cib2.htm.)Buy lipstick from Beauty Without Cruelty, made with no animal products and without animal testing. (http://www.beautywithoutcruelty.com.)
Educated dentists continue to put mercury amalgam in people’s mouths. It’s not a stable compound. It outgasses. People breathe it in. The body converts it to organic mercury. Think about it: We have phased out mercury thermometers. Mercury is highly toxic. You can either dispose of it as hazardous waste or put it in people’s mouths. (www.toxicteeth.org, www.iaomt.com.)
Most dentists defend the addition of industrial grade fluoride to city water, although it also contains lead, mercury, and arsenic. This stuff is the “slurry liquor” that’s left after the smokestacks of fertilizer, aluminum, steel, and uranium plants have been “scrubbed.” If cities were not paying $180 per ton for the stuff, the sellers would have to pay dearly to dispose of it. And I have to spend my money on electricity to distill my water to get these chemical’s out or drive miles to fill jugs with well water. (http://fluorideclassaction.wordpress.com, www.fluorideaction.org, www.keepersofthewell.org, www.bruha.com, www.earthisland.org/ search for “fluoride,” stopfluoridation.homestead.com, www.holology.com/water.html, www.fluoridation.com/lead.htm, www.fluoridation.com/atomicbomb.htm, www.sonic.net/kryptox/surveys/politz.htm, www.nofish.org, www.nofluoride.com, www.geocities.com/reddingsafewater/index.html). Scholarly dentists who have kept up with the scientific issues are among fluoridation’s most vocal critics.
As a species, we humans are fundamentally flawed. We are suckers for glossy, attractive, well-packaged lies. Most of us, most of the time use our big brains to construct complex rationalizations which allow us to ignore inconvenient facts. We prefer to believe what tastes good.
We stubbornly cling to views we receive from our parents, friends, and the majority culture around us. Most of us do not understand the science, history, and theology behind what we believe, and so we believe what we have become accustomed to believe based on what those we love and respect believe and what the majority culture around us believes. The same is true of highly-educated people. Education seems to equip some with the ability to create ever more complex rationalizations. College teachers often viciously attack those with different ideas.
Cattle associations lobby Congress and obtain subsidies for cattle barons in the form of low rents for public lands for grazing purposes. Veal growers enjoy rock bottom prices for the surplus milk and butter they use to fatten their calves. Meat is indirectly subsidized through the subsidies paid to growers of the corn and soy that is fed to animals. All this is considered by our government to be good social policy, although our standard, high-fat diet causes degenerative diseases that escalate medical costs. Elected representatives need money to run for office, and so they are for sale to the saturated fat industry.
Our medical industry for the most part goes along with all these lies for complex reasons. Medical schools offer few classes in nutrition and preventive medicine. Doctors are raised in the same society as the rest of us, and they grow up believing the same lies. They are bombarded constantly with drug company advertising. They have high IQs, however, most tend to use their intelligence to construct ever more complex rationalizations. Many doctors vainly rely on the fact that they “made it” through the most difficult educational regimes and pull down $20,000 or $50,000 per month salaries as proof that they “know better” than non-doctors who write books such as mine. I asked a doctor friend of mine to suggest a few medical books I could read to get a broad understanding of medicine, and he said I shouldn’t read or study anything but simply trust my doctor. That sounded to me like what a priest in the middle ages would say to his parishioner about religion: Theology is too complex for laymen; just leave it to the clergy.
For doctors it is easier to prescribe drugs for health problems than to teach patients how to change the diet and life-style that cause the problems. People go to doctors expecting to get pills rather than be told to eat greens, fruit, nuts, and flax. Doctors know that most people have a total disconnect between their diet and their health, and they do little to help the client make the connection.
Cynics suggest doctors go along with the lies because there is much more profit in the treatment of degenerative diseases than in their prevention. Ironical, health insurance and Medicare will pay $50,000 for a heart bypass operation and $10,000 for angioplasty, but it will not pay anything for counseling about what to eat to become healthy naturally. (Dean Ornish, M.D., Program for Reversing Heart Disease, p. 28.)
University medical research is underwritten by the same giant corporations that produce unhealthy, animal-based foods. For example, in 1986 the Harvard University Department of Nutrition received over $20 million from such companies as the American Meat Institute, Armour, McDonalds, the National Dairy Council, and the National Livestock and Meat Board. These companies and associations fund studies that look in all the wrong directions, focusing on drugs and operations to cure diseases at enormous cost, diseases that could be prevented at low cost through dietary and lifestyle change. (Frederick Stare, M.D., Adventures in Nutrition, p. 126, cited in William Harris, M.D., The Scientific Basis of Vegetarianism, p. 101.)
Drug companies advertise heavily in medical journals. They fund the research that tests the effectiveness of the drugs they produce and sell, and often these are drugs designed to treat degenerative diseases that could be prevented and treated through eating a low-fat, green diet. They pay researchers and physicians to speak at medical seminars and endorse their products. Drug companies introduce a succession of drugs to lower blood pressure, however, most are extremely expensive. “Since there are 100 million Americans with elevated blood cholesterol levels, treating everyone with these drugs would cost $200-300 billion per year…?.” (Dean Ornish, M.D., Program for Reversing Heart Disease, p. 56-57.) The high-tech drug solution to degenerative diseases is no solution at all.
Monsanto, manufacturer of bovine growth hormone, BGH, made gifts of $30,000 to the American Medical Association and $80,000 to the American Dietetic Association in late 1993. The two associations promptly endorsed BGH and declared it to be safe. The American Medical Association did a video for physicians about treatment of high cholesterol. It was financed by the Beef Board, Pork Board, and the National Livestock and Meat Board, and it certainly did not advocate a vegetarian diet. (Neal Barnard, Eat Right, Live Longer, p. 73.) We lawyers call this a conflict of interest.
In many cases these issues are often systematically repressed or subject to disinformation. According to Corporate Crime Reporter, “[a] public relations campaign [for] National Breast Cancer Awareness Month made no mention of the fact that synthetic chemicals such as organochlorines have been linked to breast cancer. The reason is that Imperial Chemical Industries, the world’s largest manufacturer of organochlorines, was the sole sponsor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.” (“Appall-O-Meter: The Disease of Disinformation,” In These Times, November 14-27, 1994, p. 7.)
When health experts do talk about fat in the diet, they simply suggest that people cut fat consumption to 30 percent of total calories consumed, which is far too high a level for good health. This is marginalism, nipping around the edges but really changing nothing. These experts are taking a moderate approach perhaps because it is politically dangerous to suggest that people should just quit eating all animal-based foods.
Those who speak out are sometimes taken to court. McDonalds sued David Morris and Helen Steel in the longest-running suit in British history. McDonalds claimed they libeled the company in a 1990 pamphlet, “What’s Wrong With McDonald’s.” The defendants accused McDonalds of
“…promoting poor nutrition, exploiting children through advertising, encouraging litter, mistreating animals and workers, and destroying rain forests.”
The “McLibel Two” defended themselves pro se, without the direct representation of attorneys, but with the assistance of scores of experts and friends. In Britain the defendant in a libel suit has the nearly impossible burden to prove his or her every allegedly defamatory statement to be completely true, and so it is not surprising that McDonalds won a £40,000 judgment against the defendants. However, the court found that most of the defendants’ allegations had been true. The defendants appealed their case to the European Court, which in large part overturned the decision. (See the ‘Verdict & Evidence’ bulletin produced by the McLibel Support Campaign, at the “McSpotlight” Web site: www.mcspotlight.org/. See Sarah Lyall, “Britain’s Big ‘McLibel Trial’ (It’s McEndless, Too),” New York Times, November 29, 1996, p. A4.)
The Texas beef industry filed suit against Oprah Winfrey and Howard Lyman because of a discussion they had on her program about beef. Howard said that in ten years human spongiform brain disease could be as common as the common cold. Oprah said she would never eat another burger. The judge threw out one cause of action: The food defamation law forbids disparaging perishable foods, and beef is either alive, frozen, or refrigerated and therefore not perishable. The remaining cause of action was common law defamation, which requires that the defendant knowingly publish something untrue. The cattlemen’s expert witnesses helped Oprah and Howard prove their case, admitting that 14 percent of beef is feed back to cattle. The FDA had released its proposed rules limiting the feeding of beef to cattle shortly before the trial. Oprah and Howard’s defense team relied most heavily on First Amendment arguments: An open discussion of health issues is necessary. Although Oprah and Howard won, the cattlemen won in the sense that they intimidated others who would speak or write about these issues. Few people have the millions of dollars Oprah was able to spend defending the case.
The Food and Drug Administrations has made changes in regulations regarding feeding cattle meat to cattle. However, certain body parts from cattle such as blood, gelatin, and milk can still be fed to any animal, including cattle. Cattle meat can be fed to other non-ruminant animals, and meat from those animals can be fed to cattle. Cattle meat pellets fed to chickens fall to the floor. It is collected along with feathers and feces, which are then made into cattle feed. Any animal product can still be used to make human food. Any animal tissue can still be used as a medium to make drugs for human consumption. (See the Spongiform Brain Disease section of this book, p. 280.)
Saturated fat industry advertisers have made parents fear that their children’s health will suffer if they don’t feed them animal-based foods. The exact opposite is true. White is black and black is white, especially where billions of dollars in corporate profits is at stake.
This leads us to the explanation as to why these distortions, pressure tactics, and lies are allowed to continue: profit and the blindness it induces, ignorance produced in part by the profit-making, and our flawed tendency to construct elaborate defenses against truths we want not to believe.
Why is the vegetarian opposition so ineffectual? First, because there is little money to be made telling people not to eat these things. No one can afford commercial advertising to counter the lobbying and false advertising of the saturated fat industry. As a result most people remain ignorant of these issues. Producers of more healthy, vegetarian foods earn only a fraction of the mega-profits the saturated fat industry makes. The saturated fat industry will always be able to out-spend its vegetarian opposition.
When it comes to the writing of history, there is an equally curious tendency toward conventionality. Conventional historians skip from gatherer-hunter tribes to the city state civilizations of Mesopotamia, Greece, and Egypt, completely omitting the peaceful, agricultural, matristic civilizations of Old Europe and the Old Middle East that came between them. (See the section entitled Old Europe, Before 4300 B.C.E., a Paradigm of Partnership, p 39.)
Lawrence H. Keely ridicules the idea that there was ever a time when humans were not raiders and killers of their own species. His error is that he simply does not go back far enough. (Lawrence H. Keeley, War Before Civilization.)
Scholarly articles and books consistently ignore vegetarian themes. For example, an otherwise impressive book about the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Essenes, completely omits any reference to the many sources that say that the Essenes—according to my theory the ancestors of the Judeo-Christians—were vegetarian. (Hershel Shanks, ed. and author of “Essene Origins—Palestine or Babylonia?” Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reader from he Biblical Archaeology Review, p. 83 ff.)
There has been a cover-up—or at least consistent scholarly neglect—of the fact that the Judeo-Christian Ebionites who survived at least into the 400s, were vegetarian. The same is true of the two-day per week vegan fast that the Catholic Church observed for its first 900 years. It is not even mentioned in the Catholic Encyclopedia. Such an omission is incredible in a scholarly work, given the fact that the vegetarianism or partial vegetarianism of all early Christians is so well documented.
How can scientific historians neglect such an important and conspicuous theme? Perhaps they enjoy meat and see nothing wrong with it, and so they simply avoid the subject. I can offer an analogy: The Pythagoreans, Essenes, and Judeo-Christians opposed drinking alcohol; I like an occasional glass of beer or wine. I am not an alcoholic, and the occasional drink does me no harm. But I have not systematically omitted from this book the ancient opposition to alcohol of the Pythagoreans, Essenes, and Judeo-Christians. If I had, it would have been comparable to the typical omission which conventional scientists, historians, and theologians make regarding the vegetarian theme. Non-vegetarians seem uninterested in saying anything at all about vegetarian history.
Perhaps some historians and theologians are committed Christians or Jews who fear that acknowledging the existence of the strong vegetarian tradition in these religions might create controversy. Some theologians would be fired if they acknowledged the ideas contained in this book.
Another factor is the narrow specialization of most scholars. Most are not broadly educated. They confine their intellectual pursuits to the quark in the atom in the molecule in the vein on the leaf—never looking at the tree or the forest. Modern universities require scholars to narrow their focus to some small specialty in some narrow field. So graduates do not know enough about other disciplines to know how to see the bigger picture and make the connections. Thus, I would argue that a person generally educated in many areas, can be as useful as the person more deeply educated in one narrow field.
Academics live in mental universes constructed of ideas. When some fact threatens their world view, many tend to ignore it for their own psychological protection. Academics come up through a culture where believing certain things is a key to success. They care what their peers think of them. Many, when they consider adopting an unorthodox line, fear they will lose respectability. Many academics are as conventional as everyone else.
In conclusion, there are many factors at work acting to convince people to believe our conventional and twisted version of reality and to doubt the alternate reality I propose.
14
THE ETHICS OF DIET
THE MYTH OF THE WHOLESOME BARNYARD
Seattle resident David Coats points out in his book (Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm) that our image of animals living a happy existence in the barnyard is a myth of the past. The barnyard was phased out after World War II, and the factory farming system has replaced it almost entirely. Today the vast majority of dairy cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys spend their entire lives in windowless buildings where animals are crammed together, usually in cages. Cattle spend their final months standing and lying in manure in feed lots. In the industry they are called “CFOs,” which stands for “confinded feeding operations.” I call them factory farms. My compassionate adopted sister Betsy—who did most of the drawings in this book—calls them “animal penitentiaries.”
HUNTING
Hunting season is a time of terror for wild animals. The woods echo with booms, as men stalk them through woods and fields. When animals are wounded by a hunter who has not shot straight, they die a slow and painful death. And according to various sources, there are one or two animals wounded for every animal killed immediately. Nevertheless, an animal shot by an accurate marksman dies quickly after having lived a free and natural life. In comparison, modern methods of housing and killing livestock are barbaric. The area of greatest ethical concern is not how animals are killed but how they are raised—in filthy, unhealthy, malodorous and confining conditions. I do not hunt, except with a camera, and I do not advocate hunting. Nor do I fish. However, I regard hunting and fishing to be less unethical than factory farming.
Wild meat is leaner and fairly free of pesticides, antibiotics, and the diseases of factory farmed animals. If you are determined to eat meat, you should go hunting for it. Or you should raise laying hens in your backyard.
A carnivorous animal kills to survive. If a human hunts to survive, I have little objection to it. In winter in the north, there is little else to eat but hunted meat. Hunting one animal at a time is a far different thing than burning down forests to graze cattle by the millions, housing animals in filth and cruelty, and convincing millions of people through mass marketing to buy and eat animal products in order to make huge profits. An entirely different scale of moral culpability is involved.
Fishers, hunters, and vegetarians should not be adversaries. They could combine efforts in an alliance dedicated to returning overgrazed lands to wild preserves. Several hundred million buffalo, elk, and other animals could roam free in a Western buffalo commons stretching in a corridor through the western great plains from Texas to Alberta. I would not necessarily oppose killing animals in the wild that are injured, sick, or aged or when over population of a species is desertifying an area, or if a species has been imported and is upsetting the ecological balance of an area. If people are determined to eat game animals, then culling of wild animals is the way they should kill them. And they should be killed in a painless way that avoids terrorizing them. Millions of animals could be harvested yearly, producing more meat than Western cattle ranches but with no environmental damage. And let’s not forget about all the edible insects that could be harvested. Dry lands could be replanted in the piñon trees which ranchers cut down, and which would produce a small fortune per acre in pine nuts.
BEEF CATTLE
Beef cattle live somewhat normal lives for their first five or six months, grazing on pasture land. However, males are castrated, and the deed is not done by veterinarians. The animals are held in a huge clamp, and the testicles are cut out—without anesthetic. Infection often ensues. Another method is to fasten a thick, tight rubber band around the scrotum to cut off blood circulation. The testicles fall off after a week or so. Castration makes animals somewhat docile, turning a bull into an ox. Some believe the meat tastes better. (See Jeremy Rifkin, Beyond Beef, for the full story.)
Beef cattle are usually branded, which means a white-hot iron is held against their rumps for five seconds, cooking the flesh, burning the hair away, and creating scar tissue so the hair cannot grow back. Because cattle are sold repeatedly, they are branded repeatedly, sometimes in the face. Life is improving slightly for branded animals: Ear tagging and freeze branding are replacing hot branding, not for humanitarian reasons but because they are cheaper.
Cattle spend their last four or five months being “finished” on corn and soy beans to fatten them up. Because they will be closely confined in stock yards and during transportation, they are dehorned. This is a very painful procedure in which the horns and surrounding tissues are cut out and then further burned away with caustic chemicals. Dehorning is necessary because these animals are going to become violent as a result of the way they will be treated.
An old federal law requires that cattle, pigs, and sheep transported by train be fed and watered. However, animals transported by truck are not subject to such regulations. As a result most animals are transported by truck and not by train. Despite the crowding, some animals fall and are trampled. They have been bred to have big bodies and small, weak legs. When such “downers” and “spreaders” arrive at their destination, a chain secured to a post is attached to them, the truck drives away, and they are dragged out of the truck. Some downers are still eligible for human consumption, but others are ground up and fed to other animals as protein supplements and pet food.
Many cattle succumb to shipping pneumonia, and to prevent this they are administered chloramphenicol, which remains in meat and is highly toxic to some humans who consume such meat.
Beef cattle pass their last weeks in feed lots where not a blade of grass grows, standing and lying constantly in mud, dust, and their excrement. They eat mostly corn, soy beans, other grains, and protein supplement, which can contain fish meal, chicken feathers, and chicken droppings. Hay is their natural food, and without it cattle develop ulcers. Eating grains without hay causes acidosis, liver abscesses, and inflamed feet. Many cattle die before they are to be slaughtered. To try to keep them alive, corporate farmers feed them antibiotics. To prevent flies from breeding in the mountains of manure which are produced, industrial farmers feed them larvicide, which kills the maggots which flies lay in the manure.
Cows have been bred for docility. They are not as intelligent as the great aurochs from which they are descended, and which survived in Poland until 1627, but they are smart enough to know from the cries of other animals that they are about to die. Some cattle are stunned with a captive bolt pistol shot to the brain. Others are slaughtered by means of the modern “kosher kill,” which is far different from ancient kosher methods.
The kosher rule, according to the Talmud, is that an animal is eligible for sacrifice or consumption only if it is completely healthy, conscious, and not stunned or bludgeoned in advance of slaughter. The shochet, or ritual slaughterer, is to calm the animal and get it to lie down. He then bends down over the animal and reaches around its neck and, with a long, straight blade that is extremely sharp and free of any nicks or serrations, quickly makes one very deep cut that severs the jugular vein. The knife must move back and forth along the single cut line. Motion must not stop until the job is done. The animal loses consciousness quickly and dies with little pain. (“Slaughter, Ritual,” Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, 1939 ed.)
Modern methods of kosher slaughter make a mockery of the laws of kashrut. Animals are sometimes hoisted up by a chain attached to one rear leg without being stunned in advance, a process that rips muscle and cartilage and pulls the leg out of its socket. If the line is moving slowly, the animal might dangle in this unnatural position for many minutes. The animal bellows in pain and terror. Only then is the throat cut. Or the animal may be locked in place by heavy machinery, its throat cut, and its trachea removed. The animal is dumped out of the machine, and it struggles to get up. The modern kosher kill is really not kosher at all, because a more fundamental rule of kosher is that animals be killed in a relatively painless way. I suspect that the problem with modern kosher slaughter is that animals are being killed by the thousands and with industrial efficiency. Original rules of kosher probably assumed animals would be slaughtered in a field on grass, one at a time. Dr. Temple Grandlin has written extensively on humane methods of slaughter. (http://www.grandin.com.) Even the best seem barbaric.
For our eating pleasure 100,000 cattle are slaughtered every day in the United States, 36.5 million per year. The killing is all done out of sight because if the public witnessed the savagery, most would quit eating beef. (John Robbins, Diet For a New America, p. 134-145; Jeremy Rifkin, Beyond Beef, p. 118 ff., 132 ff.)
DAIRY CATTLE
America’s ten million dairy cows rarely see a growing blade of grass. The modern factory farm method is to house them in feedlots. In some cases dairy cattle are chained in stalls and the milking machines are brought to them. In the most modern operations the stalls themselves, “Unicars,” move the cows on tracks to the milking facility. The cow never leaves her stall.
Left to nature, a calf will nurse its mother twenty times a day for up to a year, and the mother’s udders will not carry much milk. However, modern cows have been bred to have udders so huge they drag on manure soaked concrete. Cows sometimes trample their own udders. Even nursing can injure them. By the time a cow is milked?—?two or three times each day—, her udders are painfully full. Such super-cows frequently develop udder infections, known as mastitis, and milk will contain puss. Cows in more normal conditions can live 20 years or more, but modern cows—fed hormones, grains, and high protein feed, which often includes ground-up meat and fish meal—burn out in three to five years, meaning that production begins to drop. The muscles holding up their bulging udders collapse, and these super-cows are converted into hamburger. C. David Coats, Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm, p. 49-59.)
Certain bulls and boars have their penises redirected to exit to the side so they cannot impregnate cows and sows. These “sidewinders” are used only to determine which cow or sow is in estrus. Then the cows and sows are mounted in a “rape rack” and artificially inseminated with specially bred sperm. Sidewinders are becoming outmoded; now hormones are being used to induce fertility in cows and sows on demand.
VEAL
Dairy cows must bear a calf each year in order to keep their milk flowing. Calves are removed immediately after they are born. If even a day passes, the cow bonds with the calf, becomes frantic at its disappearance, and struggles to be reunited with it. The calf bawls at the loss of it’s mother. Unless the cow is a prize breed that has been artificially inseminated with prize sperm to produce high-production offspring, her calf, male or female, is likely to be taken immediately for veal production.
The old way to produce tender, white veal was to slaughter calves shortly after birth when they weigh around 150 pounds. The modern way is to fatten them for around 100 days to a more profitable weight of 350 pounds.
Beef calves, male and female, are all fattened to full size and are generally not slaughtered young for veal. So, veal calves are almost always dairy calves. Only some of these females calves are needed for milk production, and the rest go to the veal crates. Very few male dairy calves are required to sire the next generation; most conception is through artificial insemination, and so almost all males are made into veal.
Veal crates are typically 22 inches wide. Calves can move only a few inches in any direction. The goal is to prevent them from getting any exercise that would toughen their muscles. Calves cannot even get their heads around to yield to their strong instinct to groom themselves. While calves are small they can squat down but not lie down in the normal way. As they grow, even squatting becomes difficult. Their legs atrophy through lack of exercise, and they have trouble walking to their deaths.
Factory farmers feed veal calves an iron-deficient diet so the meat will stay white instead of turning pink. Their diet is government surplus milk and butter—subsidized with our tax dollars. Veal calves are never given water to drink. Calves are helplessly weak. Water would quench their thirst, and they would drink less milk. They are given no hay, lest they absorb the iron it contains. They develop chronic diarrhea and live constantly in their own excrement. The smell would knock you down. But don’t try to visit a veal factory farm; corporate owners generally will not allow the public to see the barbaric way veal is produced.
Calves are normally very playful animals. A free calf will frolic about like a puppy or kitten. Veal calves, on the other hand, are raised in almost total darkness to minimize activity, and many go blind.
Around 20 percent of veal calves die before the customary age of slaughter, which is about 100 days old. By that point they are afflicted by numerous diseases—anemia, pneumonia, intestinal diseases, septicemia, ulcers, bloat, and diarrhea. Veal calves are regularly dosed with nitrofurazone, a recognized carcinogen.
To treat and prevent pneumonia, veal calves receive chloramphenicol, extremely minute amounts of which can cause aplastic anemia in a small percentage of humans. A plate of veal Parmesan made with meat from an animal recently treated with chloramphenicol will likely contain a dose large enough to sicken or kill a human who is susceptible. And those who are susceptible usually are not aware they are. (Food Animals Concern Trust (Fact Inc.) Newsletter; Wallace, I., et al, The Book of Lists #2, p. 240, cited by Robbins, Diet for a New America, p. 105, 117.)
Even if you are not going to become a strict vegetarian, at least quit eating veal. And because the dairy industry is so closely tied with veal production, quit eating dairy products. (C. David Coats, Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm, p. 61-68.)
LAYING HENS
The story of laying hens is another scandal. Laying hens are a different breed from broilers. They are bred for laying eggs not for meat production and are skinnier. Their newly hatched chicks, never having seen their mother hens, are separated into useful females and useless males. The males are tossed into big plastic bags where they slowly suffocate. (J. Mason, and Peter Singer, Animal Factories, 1980, p. 5.) They are ground up and fed back to other chickens.
The surviving females are debeaked with a red-hot clipper. A chicken’s beak is extremely sensitive, and de-beakeding is as painful for a chicken as it would be if someone whacked off part of your nose, lips, and chin. Chicks are de-beaked because they are going to be driven mad by their coming confinement, and without debeaking they will peck each other to death. Sometimes beaks grow in a deformed way, and birds cannot eat or drink well and fail to gain weight. Four or five laying hens are housed in cages less than two feet tall, wide and deep. The hens are never able to extend their wings. When one moves the others must move. Lighting is manipulated. Chickens are very dependent on a routine of day and night, but they are subjected to almost complete darkness except when workmen need light to do their work.
When they begin laying, the lights might burn 23 hours per day. Manipulation of lighting and claustrophobic confinement drives the birds crazy. They become hysterical at the slightest noise. They scream and peck each other, and “cannibalism” is a serious problem. Although the point has been cut off their beaks, they can sometimes still peck each other to death. Cage floors are slanted so that eggs will roll down for easy collection. The weakest chicken will sometimes become lodged in this low spot in the cage and be trampled constantly. The floors are wire bars, and sometimes the birds’ toes actually grow around the bars and have to be cut off after many months when the hens “burn out” and are harvested.
Cages are stacked several layers high, so chickens below are showered with urine and feces raining down from above. The stench is overpowering. Diseases race through the chicken population, and the birds are fed a continuous diet of antibiotics. A significant number of hens are infected with the virus which causes leucosis and the leucosis tumors it causes, as well as with Marek’s virus and the lymph cancer it causes. (http://www.merckvetmanual.com.) Minerals are leached from their bones and many cannot stand. They suffer from a host of diseases—blindness, kidney damage, brain damage, paralysis, internal bleeding, anemia, malformed backbones, and twisted necks. The U.S. Department of Labor lists working with chickens as a very hazardous occupation since humans can contract diseases from them.
Hens in their cages do not look like hens as we would picture them. Most of their feathers are gone as a result of rubbing against the bars, and their skin is raw and red. Chickens normally live up to 20 years, but when egg production drops at 18 to 24 months, they are harvested to make soup or pet food or ground up to be fed back to the other chickens. (C. David Coats, Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm, p. 81-96.)
BROILER CHICKENS
Broilers are bred to produce a lot of meat. They are raised in giant factories like the layers, and often they are caged, with the cages stacked many layers high. Turkeys are usually raised in the same way. So called free-range chickens are not raised outside in fresh air, but in factory buildings. The only difference is free range chicken are not put in cages. That’s not much of an improvement. (See C. David Coats, Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm, p. 81-96 and John Robbins, Diet for a New America, page 48 ff., for more sad details.)
DUCKS AND GEESE
In order to fatten ducks and geese as quickly as possible, factory farmers use a long funnel to force-feed grain down their necks, typically one kilogram per day for a mature bird, around one-fourth of the bird’s weight. Sometimes their stomachs burst. Their livers become diseased and swell to twice their natural size, producing as much as possible of the “delicacy” known as foie gras, which sells for $12 per ounce. (“Force Feeding Exposed: PETA Uncover Investigators Take You Behind the Scenes of a Foie Gras Farm,” PETA News, Winter, 1992, p. 5-7.) Protest this obscenity by not buying down pillows, coats, comforters, or sleeping bags, duck or goose meat, and of course foie gras. Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic have banned forced feeding of birds.
PIGS
A sow is confined tightly in a cage that allows her piglets constant access to her tits so they will grow rapidly. Piglets that are deformed or that are crushed by the sow are fed right back to her, along with the afterbirth. The motto in the pork industry is “feed it back to them.”
Piglets are taken from her three to five weeks after birth, far sooner than their normal eight to twelve week weaning time, and the sow screams and struggles in vain to try to find her young. Piglets are moved to cages, which can be stacked many layers high. Eight piglets are housed in a cage less than four feet square. Urine and feces rain down onto piglets in the lower cages. The smell of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide sears their lungs. Because of pigs’ highly developed sense of smell, the stench must be particularly disgusting to them. In most animals the section of the brain committed to the sense of smell is the largest.
When pigs are housed all together in a building without individual confinement, they engage in “tail biting,” which means they eat off each other’s tails and start consuming each other’s buttocks, resulting in the cannibalistic death of many animals. Their long eye teeth are cut out so they will not be able to do as much damage. Their activity level is reduced by keeping the lights off at all times—except when workers must enter these automated buildings and need to see the grizzly work they are doing. Another remedy for tail biting is “tail docking,” cutting off the tails, a very painful procedure. Pigs are highly intelligent animals, and the conditions in which they live drive them insane.
When the lights go on the animals become frantic, kicking and screaming. Are they angry at their torturers? Or are they crying out to humans for their release?
Pigs grow very large and become hard to handle, and so for better control over them, factory farmers frequently house them in “Bacon Bins” that give the pigs only a few inches of movement in any direction. In some factory farms Bacon Bins are stacked several layers high. The floors are slatted metal, which allows feces and urine to fall through onto animals below. They live constantly in their excrement. Pigs are normally clean animals that would never soil their nests. They wallow in mud because they have no sweat glands and need to cool themselves. Mud also helps kill irritating insects. Hog magazines proudly suggest that pregnant sows can live without any feed whatsoever; they can survive solely on excrement. The cynical motto again is “feed it back to them.”
Pigs have cloven hooves that evolved to stand on soft earth. Metal and concrete floors are bad for their feet. Most are lame by the time they are sent to slaughter. This problem is exacerbated by lack of exercise and the fact that pigs are being bred to have larger bodies and smaller legs and feet.
Pigs are difficult animals to slaughter. They hear the screams of the dying, and they know death awaits them, so they fight for their lives. According to Howard Lyman, former feedlot operator, ten percent of pigs die of heart attacks, fighting furiously, while being driven to their deaths with baseball bats. A large, wounded pig running free in the slaughter house among its axes, knives, and saws can do great damage.
ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION
In a C-SPAN interview on January 14, 1995, Actor Alec Baldwin, member of PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, reported that he had been targeted by companies that do animal testing. They have labeled him as a radical opponent of all animal testing. In fact, he proposes that all unnecessary animal testing be abolished as a first step, and he cites studies saying that 90 percent of all animal testing could be replaced with computer modeling and individual cell research. Rabbits are commonly used to test chemicals to be used in cosmetics because their eyes do not produce tears which would wash away the chemicals. Their eyelids are propped open and the test chemical is put in their eyes and not washed away to determine the long-term effect of the chemical. By the thousands these animals experience months and years of terrible pain.
LEGAL LIABILITY
What about your ethical obligations to your customers? Burger King and Sizzler paid out big money to patrons who contracted E. coli by eating their meat. Suits over salmonella would be more common if people did not confuse it with the common flu.
What about students who get sick eating animal-based food at school? What if you have guests to your home and you feed them animal-based food that makes them sick? Someday someone is going to be the test case in court. Restaurants are already getting sued. So far I known of no homeowner who has been sued. Does your homeowner’s policy cover food poisoning of your guests? Don’t be the test case.
THE GHOULISHNESS OF ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
Chickens, pigs, dairy cows, and veal calves are confined in such conditions to minimize the amount of land and building space required, to control the animals, to allow for automation of the feeding and waste disposal process, to insulate habitat and conserve heat, which helps turn food consumed into meat instead of body heat. All of this allows the factory farm to cut its greatest expenses, the cost of human labor, the cost of leasing or buying land, the cost of feed, and the cost of energy. All other considerations are put aside in favor of profit maximization.
These animals have the same pain receptors we have. They lack our intellectual capacity, but they have much of our emotional capacity. Cow and calf, sow and piglet, hen and chick—they bond with each other, mother and child. They are very upset when they are separated, just as human mother and child would be. Animals dream; their eyes move when they sleep. Young animals frolic and play like children.
These animals have the same fear of death we do. Cattle in an open farmyard will moan in sadness and fear when they witness the death of another animal. In the same way, when these animals arrive at the slaughterhouse entrance, they hear their fellows crying out, and they understand that their deaths are coming. Animals often have to be forced into the killing pens.
In all practical ways relating to their suffering and death, animals are like us: They experience pain. They value their lives. They value the lives of animals they have bonded with. They are capable of understanding that their deaths are coming, and they fear their deaths. They appear to be able to intellectualize about injustice, as in the case of Koko, the gorilla who has learned sign language, and who tells the story of the killing of her family and her abduction as a baby.
Let’s return to the calves in the veal crates and do some back-of-the-napkin math: A dairy cow must bear a calf every year to continue producing milk at high levels. Although dairy cows can live into their twenties, milk production in factory milk barns begins to drop after five years, and dairy cows are converted into hamburger. Assume there are 100 million dairy cows around the world (a hypothetical number) producing 100 million calves each year, 50 million male and 50 million female calves.
Male calves are obviously useless for milk production. They are useless for ordinary beef production because they do not grow to sufficient size. Only very few male dairy calves are saved to grow up to be the dairy bulls that will produce sperm for insemination of dairy cows. Thus, almost 50 million male calves go to the veal crates each year.
With 100 million cows lasting only five years, only 20 million female calves are needed each year to replace cows which are “retired.” The other 30 million female calves also go to the veal crates. This is how 80 million calves each year live their 100-day lives.
Take my math further, the way personal injury lawyers do in court, when they try to help a jury to assign a dollar value to the pain and suffering their clients have experienced: Is one minute of severe pain worth ten cents? they ask. Is one hour worth $6? Is one day worth $144? Is one year worth $52,560? Is ten years of severe pain worth half a million dollars? There are different levels of severity, and the jury has to quantify the severity and make a judgment. One way to do that is to assign a per-day value to it. The money damages system makes sense because the only other alternative is for aggrieved parties to take justice into their own hands.
Apply the same calculus to the pain and suffering of animals. Think about the various levels of pain animals feel. Think of the number of months the pain is experienced. Think of the numbers of animals which experience this pain. Visualize Dante’s Inferno, with millions of sinners screaming in torture, except in your visualization there will be millions of sinless animals. Sit and meditate on it. Ask these animals, “What should I do?” You might receive an answer then and there.
These animals lack verbal skills with which to talk or write about their experiences. They could not testify about it in court. But is their terror and pain any less real than the terror and pain a human would feel in the same situation?
The only difference between their pain and ours is that they are members of the wrong species. Before you accept this as some kind of justification, bear in mind that not too long ago slaves, women, and members of certain races and religions were generally believed to be lower forms of life that had no rights. Was the pain of slaves and women and blacks less real before they were emancipated and enfranchised? It was real, but it was ignored because they lacked power.
If we were being terrorized and killed in the same way, would the fact that we can speak and write make our terror or pain any worse or more significant? No vocabulary is needed to experience terror and pain. The significance of the animals’ inability to speak and write is that we can ignore their pain and terror.
So we must ask: How can we live comfortably with ourselves, knowing the terror and pain that exists on a daily basis for the world’s 15 billion (some say 40 billion) factory farm animals? Why would we want to hire and train—through our purchases of animal-based products—a cadre of death camp managers and slaughterers to carry out the terror in our names?
We humans have enormous compassion for our pets but little compassion for the factory animals that are killed to put meat on our plates. The only difference I can identify is that pets are close at hand while livestock is kept discretely out of sight, like World War II death camps. “Out of sight is out of mind,” some say. But if a pet deserves some degree of compassion, doesn’t a cow, pig, or chicken? Should we not modify our eating behavior to take compassion for them?
Vegetarian George Bernard Shaw said that killing animals for food requires humans to suppress one of their most important emotions: compassion. The Golden Rule says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Why do we apply it only to humans? If Jesus were here to speak on the subject today, would he not pronounce an Eleventh Commandment, “Do unto other species as we would have them do unto your own”?
The only justification we can offer for killing animals is when it is necessary for our own survival. Arguably, it is justifiable in starvation situations to sacrifice animals for food. It is possible that the ancient ritual of sacrificing animals and praying to god for forgiveness was done because humans felt guilty for killing animals for food. Or maybe it was a cynical way for priests to get their ten percent of the meat.
For certain cultures such as the Eskimo, eating meat is probably their only alternative unless they join the cash economy. Their mostly-meat diet is too high in protein, resulting in severe osteoporosis and a much shortened life span. (Udo Erasmus, Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill, p. 226.)
Carnivorous animals eat other animals. Why is it acceptable for them to do so and not for us? For them, it is their only alternative. For us, there are in almost all situations other, more healthy, alternatives. When wild animals kill, they kill quickly. We imprison our food animals and kill them slowly and painfully. When carnivorous animals kill, they only kill what they need to survive. We humans, on the other hand, breed and kill animals in saleable quantities and convince the gullible masses through our advertising to eat the resulting, highly-profitable meat.
Why is it wrong to kill and eat animals but not wrong to kill and eat plants? Plants may have some perception of pain, but it is at a very low level. Further, plants often flourish as they are cut back; they generally grow back stronger. Plants rely on animals to eat their seeds and excrete them elsewhere in order to spread them. Most important, it is absolutely necessary for us to kill and eat plants to survive, whereas in almost all cases it is unnecessary for us to kill and eat animals.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), saint and doctor of the Church, believed that animals had no souls and therefore no eternal life. For that reason man with his immortal soul had no moral obligation to animals. However, Aquinas did not do his homework: In Genesis (1:20, 1:21, and 1:24) the Hebrew word nephesh, which is translated as living “creature,” clearly refers to animals and literally means “living soul.” Aquinas also believed women had no souls! Rene Descartes (1596-1650) considered animals to be mere machines created by god for man’s use. Their apparent pain is merely the noise the machine makes as it breaking down.
However, Jeremy Bentham in 1780 countered: “The question is not Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but Can they suffer?” Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in his On the Basis of Morality, said in 1841,
The assumption that animals are without rights, and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance, is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality. (Quoted in C. David Coats, Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm, p. 145 ff.)
Most people do not think about the ethical issues involved; for most people, meat is just something they buy in a package or on a plate in a restaurant. It is just food; it is not a piece of an animal that was living and breathing and then kicking and screaming only a few hours earlier.
Most people do not actually butcher the animals they eat, and they usually regard the killing as something that cannot be charged against them. In a court of law, there is not less but more responsibility assigned to the person who hires someone to kill a human. The same ethical analysis should apply to those who hire the killing of animals by the millions.
Nor is it correct to say that if you did not buy the hamburger that someone else would. To the contrary, every burger you do not eat is one less burger that is produced. When it comes to meat, supply follows demand.
Various animals have a sense of humor. Chimps and gorillas can now talk with us by way of sign language, while humpback whales sing lengthy songs of mysterious beauty with lyrics that seem to signify something. I hope we learn to translate their songs before we kill off these impressive animals. Most people, except the defiantly traditional Japanese, now believe it is unethical to kill and eat whales. Why do only whales, chimps, and our pets deserve our compassion?
And let’s look at this from a broader perspective: If we survive as a species, the time will probably come when we will encounter species more advanced than we are. If E.T. comes to earth, he may class humans as just another animal and cook us up for dinner. Would that be ethical? Or would a vegetarian E.T. avoid communicating with us because of the brutal way treat other earth species?
That is all the more reason why the Eleventh Commandment should apply: “Do unto other species as you would have them do unto your own.”
VEGETARIAN ACTIVISM
What about splashing catsup on fur coats? What about breaking into mink farms and releasing the unfortunate critters? What about setting fire to slaughter houses? That’s what is known as “direct action.” It’s not my method. Maybe I feel that way because my writing provides me with another way to take action.
I understand people who take direct action. They are frustrated for good reason: McDonald’s spends millions of dollars promoting saturated fat. McDonald’s makes deals with Disney and gives away toys with burgers. Some McDonald’s restaurants include playground equipment. How can a vegetarian compete with such a pervasive campaign? Direct action grabs headlines at low cost.
My sympathies are with the activist vegetarians. I do not say that their behavior is on the same level as those who smuggled slaves out of the Old South, but it does lie on the same continuum. Animals are lesser beings, but they are still sentient beings; and they are worthy of our actions on their behalf.
However, when property is destroyed, resistance is aroused. If someone were seriously injured or killed as a result of a direct action, it would make all vegetarians look bad and undermine the moral force of our movement. In most circumstances, nonviolent protest is more powerful and less threatening than violent protest. It is tricky to use violence to teach nonviolence. The change we are trying to accomplish is going to take generations. We should not give up, but we should also not become impatient and do things that will discredit our movement.
THERE SHOULD BE A LAW
We humans are not the biggest animals on the block, but we are the meanest, and the other animals are rightfully terrified of us. The Hebrew Bible seems to authorized humans to terrorize animals:
The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. (Genesis 9:2-3.)
In lawless societies the way humans deal with each other is established according to who is biggest and strongest. In societies that are truly grounded in law, humans deal with each other according to rationally based standards of ethics, justice, and natural law.
On the other hand, in almost all our dealings with other species, might still defines what is right. We are humans and we are mighty, and so we define what is right. Is this the way things should be? I think not. What is and isn’t ethical should not depend on which end of the fork you are on.
There are laws against cruelty to animals, however, the federal Animal Welfare Act covers only pets and excludes animals that are customarily used as food. (7 U.S.C. 2131-2156.)
Should there be laws against killing animals? Sometimes pests and predators just have to be killed. Some humans would sometimes go hungry without meat. Who is to decide if and when the killing is necessary?
You can argue that laws against killing animals for food would be unenforceable at this low point in human moral history. It weakens the structure of law to enact laws that are unenforceable. In such cases, should right and wrong be left to the conscience of the individual? Should those who want to change human meat-eating behavior focus on education instead of passing laws?
According to Hebrew legend, god gave up trying, at least temporarily, to force humans to quit eating animals. (See the Mining the Legends of Genesis section of this book, p. 51.) Vegetarians who are “religious” about it—as I am—would say that god is still trying to get humans to quit eating animals.
“If I were the king of the world,” I would stop all killing of all animals except in cases of our own protection or defense. But I am obviously not king of the world. Human perceived need to eat animal products will not go away quickly or easily. Until all become enlightened on this subject, it makes sense to advocate passage of laws that at least mitigate the worst offenses against the other species as initial first steps.
The torture of nonfarm animals such as dogs and cats is already against the law, and well it should be. In Washington we had the sad story of Posada, a donkey that was tortured for several hours and killed by some teenagers. This was a non-food animal, so its torture was a minor crime.
However, there are no laws against the torture of factory animals. There should be, for they suffer far more than Posada. Factory farming of animals and their close confinement should be abolished by law. The close confinement of farm animals should be forbidden by law. It should be illegal for animals to be housed in conditions of filth, in small cages with no light, no fresh air, with no escape from their own excrement, in conditions of such disease that they must be dosed constantly with antibiotics. By law, animals should not be fed the excrement or the meat of other animals.
It should be against the law for animals to be slaughtered in ways which cause them terror and pain. The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, 7 USC 1901-1907, pretends to address the issue, but is very generalized. Captive bolt stunning is allowed along with a bullet to the brain and electrical stunning. The law specifically declares that kosher slaughter is humane and exempts it from regulation, although the kosher kill in the United States involves shackling and hoisting of an animal before it becomes unconscious and its throat is cut. (See also Washington RCW 16.50 and WAC 16-24.)
It should be against the law to feed animals to animals—in order to stop the spread of disease and to lower the fat content of meat. (See the Spongiform Brain Disease section of this book, p. 280.)
By law, cattle should not be fattened on soy and corn, 80 and 90 percent of which is fed to animals, and which is grown on land that is being eroded unnecessarily. Cattle should be raised exclusively on grass. The meat grading system should be turned on its head: Grade A meat should come from the leanest, toughest, grass-fed animals, not from the softest, flattest, grain- and meat-fed animals. While it would take cattle five instead of two years to grow to full weight if they were fed only grass, the meat would be more healthy.
More antibiotics are fed to animals than are administered to humans, and as a result dangerous bacteria are evolving that are immune to antibiotics. By law, antibiotics should not be fed to farm animals. It is common to feed larvicide to cattle, so that fly larvae will not be able to grow in the manure as it piles up on factory farms. Insecticides should not be fed to farm animals.
By law arid lands should not be utilized for grazing. The Department of Interior should cancel all Western grazing leases. This land should be replanted with the native grasses that were crowded out when seeds of European grasses were carried west on and in cattle. The arid western great plains should be restored to the American Serengeti it was, and as such it would probably produce more revenue as a tourist attraction and perhaps as a hunting area than as grazing land. Until this politically unlikely event occurs, environmental groups should compete with ranchers by bidding against them and lease this land and put an end to grazing there.
It is an ethical issue that animals are killed for food, but it is a much greater issue how 15 billion animals who would not otherwise exist are mistreated in factory farms. I support proposals to create a buffalo commons on arid Western grazing land. Several hundred million bison could roam the semiarid west.
Completely banning the sale of animal-based foods would be just as impossible as banning the sale of tobacco. However, the analogy is clear: Just as there is no inherent right under principles of natural law to advertise and thus encourage the use of tobacco—because it is addictive and deadly—there is no right to advertise and thus encourage the eating of animal-based foods. They are unhealthy to consume; their production is destructive to the natural environment; and their use promotes an insensitivity to violence towards living creatures and thus lower the moral tone of our human species. Advertising the sale of animal products should be banned.
Just as life insurance rates and health insurance rates are lower for non-tobacco users, they should be lower for vegetarians and even lower for vegans.
Without the coming of a new messiah, it will be impossible to get the kinds of laws passed which I have in mind. Although the likelihood of achieving the final goal may be slim, the likelihood of making some progress is great.
Some say that animals should not be given “rights” per se because they are not subject to duties and because they lack the capacity as persons to comprehend laws and rules or assert their rights intelligently. The same could be said for infants. Do infants have no rights?
Peter Singer in Animal Liberation brushes aside rights and duties analysis and says that what matters is “equal consideration of interests.” Animals have as much interest in surviving and not suffering as we do and so merit protection.
The Spanish Parliament has awarded the great apes with certain limited rights, for example, not to be killed except in the case of self defense, and the right not to be tortured, kidnapped, or imprisoned.
In theory, guardians could be appointed to represents animals’ rights.
Regardless of the philosophical analysis made, it should be unlawful for species to be driven to extinction, for animals to be housed in conditions of torture, and for animals to be killed in ways which are terrifying and painful. Laws should be enacted which provide elephants, the apes, and all primates with protected reserves where they will be left alone and from which they cannot be kidnapped. It should be illegal to hunt these animals for bush meat or for any purpose. By law whales and dolphins should be protected from hunting. A special UN police force should be established to protect these species and serve as their legal guardians. There are other species which could be added to this list. A bill of rights or legally protected interests for animals should be built up, species-by-species and right-by-right or interest-by-interest.
I may live to see some of these idealistic proposals enacted into law. I doubt I will have complete success, but I am certain I will not be completely defeated.
***
I will pickup this thread again in Chapter 22, Final Speculations, p. 397.
12
POPULATION EXPLOSION AND
A PLANT-BASED DIET
WHY DO WE HAVE A POPULATION EXPLOSION?
Our species has been on the verge of extinction many times. The latest low point came with the explosion of the volcano known as Toba in Sumatra around 74,000 years ago. Ash was dumped on much of the world, and huge amounts of sulphur dioxide were released into the atmosphere. The climate grew cold and dark. The human population was reduced from an unknown level, probably in the millions, to a few hundred or even a few score reproducing women in one area in Africa. I would hypothesize that Toba gave rise to the legend of the Deluge of Noah, followed by the death of most of humanity. (See Quest for the Historical Deluge, page 55.) Before Toba humans had spread to many parts of the Eastern Hemisphere, but all populations were wiped out or later died out except those in Africa. We are all descended from a small group of African Bushmen. Bushmen once lived throughout Africa, but retreated to the Kalahari, a desert no one else wanted, until governments discovered diamonds in the desert.
World population grew to around one million to 20 million around 12,000 years ago, 200 million by the time of Jesus, 1.0 billion around 1804-1840, 2.0 billion by 1927, 3.0 billion by 1960, 4.0 billion by 1974, 5.0 billion by 1987, 6 billion by 1999, and 6.6 billion by 2007. (Estimates vary for the early years.) Our numbers have increased a thousand fold in 12,000 years, from around 6.6 million to 6.6 billion. Our numbers have tripled since 1930. There are approximately 133 million births and 53 million deaths per year world wide, for a net increase of around 80 million people per year. It is considered inevitable that world population will rise to around 10 billion before it levels off around 2050 and perhaps begins to decline. Perhaps as a result of our near extinction at the time of Toba, we have an instinctual urge to reproduce aggressively. Maybe we always had that urge. What changed and set off the population explosion starting around 12,000 years ago was the discovery of plant and animal agriculture, which enabled us to give up nomadic life and settle down. More food meant more people could live in more compact communities. Disease remained a countervailing factor.
According to Jean Jacques Rousseau (died 1778) half of all children in his day died by age eight. As clean drinking water and sewer technologies were developed and as medical technology advanced, infant and child mortality dropped, and the rate of population growth increased even more. Our genes were programmed to urge us to have as many children as possible to overcome high mortality rates, but because mortality rates have dropped, we must learn to control this instinct.
There are estimates that we could feed five times as many people well if we fed them a vegetarian diet. In feeding 16 pounds of grain to a cow to make one pound of meat, fifteen pounds of soy and corn are wasted. If you fed the grain directly to humans, there would be a lot more left over for humans. As discussed elsewhere, feeding the world a vegetarian diet would greatly decrease environmental degradation. Animal herding contributes to desertification. Lands receiving low rainfall are strikingly different when there are no domesticated animals grazing on them. Cattle trample areas near streams and wells, as they travel there to drink, causing erosion and crop destruction. Cattle, sheep, and goats, kill trees. They eat new saplings and thus prevent trees from growing back after fires or after humans have cut them down. Often a poor and hungry country must export the animal protein it produces to service the country’s foreign debt. Animal domestication enriches the few but impoverishes the many.
The United States has ruined the rural economies of the Third World with its massive subsidies to U.S. growers of corn, wheat, soy, and cotton growers. Small farmers in Third World countries cannot compete. Nor, by the way, can the Third World compete in meat, dairy, and egg production, because crop subsidies are indirect subsidies to the growers of the animal products. The rural economy of the Third World is destroyed, so villagers emigrate to the big cities and to the United States. The way to get the Mexicans and Central Americans to quit coming here and to go home is to change our crop subsidy system.
Feed five times as many people on a vegetarian diet? Yikes! says the ZPG member. ZPG is Zero Population Growth, a middle-of-the-road group that believes we should slow and stop the increase in population and eventually level it off at some level higher than our present level. Yikes! Says NPG, Negative Population Growth. These guys are more radical than ZPG. They believe we should stop growth now and reduce the human population dramatically, even down to two or even one billion people or even less. Yikes! they both say. If we could produce enough food to feed five times as many people on a plant-based diet, then switching to a plant-based diet would allow the population to quintuple. This is an unfounded fear. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, it is nevertheless a fact that well-fed people are more likely than hungry people to limit the number of children they have. Parents on the edge of starvation will have more children if only to provide more family labor and support them in their old age. Further, there are constraints on population other than food constraints. Space, energy, material resources, pollution, and global warming also act as limits on growth. All should be fed. All should be fed well. Hunger and starvation should not be used as tools for reigning in population growth.
HOW DIET RELATES TO POPULATION GROWTH
If ample food were available at reasonable prices, people would be freed from their desperate quest for food. They would have more time and energy to perform productive labor or obtain education—including education about family planning. Population stabilization correlates directly with the economic and educational level of women specifically and society generally. In terms of food production—with vegetables fed to people instead of animals—a more vegetarian world would be able to feed people better.
Some of my ZPG friends have said that what I propose—switching to a plant-based diet to feed people better and thus promote smaller families—is too indirect a method of population control. A few have employed the ghoulish logic that they don’t focus first on feeding people better because if people ate better, fewer would die, and thus the population would increase even more. They have said that I should focus on condoms and not cuisine.
I disagree. While contraceptive education cannot be ignored and is a fundamental component in the effort to reign in population growth, dietary change is equally important in the long term. My thesis is that dietary change towards a green diet would civilize society generally and make it more healthy, sustainable, and prosperous, and that contraceptive education would be more teachable and more effective in such a society.
A person concerned about the population explosion should take both lines of attack—contraceptive education and dietary change. They are not mutually exclusive; they complement each other. The connection between population and diet is indirect but definite and multifactoral.
Already half the land surface of the earth is taken up by animal grazing and growing grain to feed to them. Animal husbandry reduces soil fertility, contributes to erosion and desertification, and pollutes water supplies. Those poor who improve their lot have a tendency to adopt the meat eating ways of the middle class. This will only increase our assault on the land and wild animals, reduce soil fertility, and pollute more waters.
People will generally be more prosperous when land is more fertile. Prosperous people are more secure economically. People who are economically secure will feel that most of their children will survive, and so they will be more willing to limit the number of children they will bear. Prosperous people will be more able to afford birth control technologies. Prosperous people will be more educated and more capable of understanding the reproductive process.
For all these reasons, a vegetarian community has much more potential to be prosperous and reign in population growth than one that herds and keeps animals. General prosperity has lowered population growth rates in richer countries; rising prosperity is doing the same even in countries still poor.
But what about the fact that Western countries consume the most animal products but have the lowest rates of population growth, while Africa eats the least animal products and has the highest rates of population growth? Does meat eating reduce European population? Does relative vegetarianism increase Africa’s growth rate? The answer again is that population growth is multifactoral. Western nations control their populations better because they are richer and more secure that their offspring will survive, and in spite of the fact that they eat more fat and are thus more fertile. They have enough money to buy contraceptives, and the education to understand how to use them. Poor nations have problems with population growth because they are financially insecure and less educated. Europeans can husband animals without completely wrecking their environment and economy because in most of Europe there is consistent rainfall, something lacking in much of Africa. The best way to reduce insecurity in poor nations, especially those which are prone to desertification, is to give them food security, and that comes easiest when animal husbandry is reduced or eliminated.
Another important factor is the relatively free access to abortion in richer countries. If women in richer countries gave birth to all the children they abort, the statistical picture would be very different. Fertility rates may actually be lower in the poorest countries, but with relatively few abortions, overall growth rates are higher there.
Vegetarian girls enter puberty several years later than other girls. Vegetarian women enter menopause several years earlier than other women. Women who eat a low-fat diet remain relatively infertile for significant periods of time following childbirth, whereas those who eat a high-fat diet become fertile sooner. Thus, vegetarian women experience lower average fertility over the course of their lives. A small change in fertility can result in a significant percentage change in population growth, which cam result in a big difference in total population over a long period of time. (See the section of this book entitled Eating Animal-Based Foods: Earlier Puberty, Later Menopause, p.250.)
Some worry because the population of some European countries is actually falling. “With so few children coming along, who will finance Social Security?” they ask. The solution is to raise the retirement age, reduce benefits, raise Social Security taxes, raise general taxes, or raise the maximum income level on which Social Security taxes are imposed. Richer nations should encourage their populations to fall because they consume much more in resources and energy than the poor of th