by Phillip Day
The short bottom line?
Haven't we always eaten meat?
The first thing to appreciate is how much more meat society eats these days compared with the past. In fact, culturally, chronic meat-eating by Western populations is a relatively recent fad. Back in the medieval times, meat was a luxury few could afford. The average peasant subsisted on a largely vegetarian diet. He didn't kill his cows because he wanted the milk. He didn't kill his chickens because he wanted the eggs. Straying into the King's parks to poach himself some venison or even a rabbit would, likely as not if he were caught, see him twisting in the wind by sunset.
Perhaps single-handedly though, the rise of the burger after World War 2 changed diets forever when Ray Kroc and Richard McDonald became everybody's fast-food fixation. There is no doubt that meat features prominently in most people's diets in the developed world today but why do we think we eat it?
Why do we eat meat?
We think we eat meat because we love it, because it gives us protein and because it makes us strong. But once again, consumption of meat, especially on the scale we are currently witnessing, goes against logic, common sense and instinct if you pause to think for a moment. It is not my intention to persuade you to give up meat, fish, sugar, milk, cigarettes, and a host of other ‘goodies' if you're attitude is, ‘I am a consumer, I intend to consume!'
My intention is to give you the information you need to make an informed decision about your lifestyle if you are serious about achieving a healthy longevity or clearing a life-threatening disease. And with meat, this decision is probably as confusing a choice as any you are likely to contemplate, because not even the experts appear to agree on what's best. But it need not be so. Let's use a little common sense.
Excessive meat-eating, according to researcher Ethel R Nelson MD, is at the root of many of the health woes that have damaged our families for years:
"For about the past twenty-five years, researchers in human nutrition have pointed to the unrefined plant dietary as a more ideal food than animal products. They have designated the Western world's high-fat animal product, fibre-poor, refined diet as the chief cause of so-called "Western diseases", e.g. coronary heart disease, diabetes, obesity, gallstones, appendicitis, diverticulosis of the bowel, hiatus hernia, haemorrhoids, osteoporosis, kidney disorders, varicose veins, cancer and accelerated sexual development in children.
Some of today's most prevalent and devastating diseases in the United States have now been credited to excessive consumption of meat and animal products (milk, cheese, eggs) and insufficient ingestion of plant foods." [1]
Humans are not natural carnivores
Humans, as Harvey Diamond explains, are not natural carnivores:
"A carnivore's teeth are long sharp and pointed - all of them! We have molars for crushing and grinding. A carnivore's jaws move up and down only, for tearing and biting. Ours can move from side to side for grinding. A carnivore's saliva is acid and geared to the digestion of animal protein; it lacks ptyalin, a chemical that digests starches.
Our saliva is alkaline and contains ptyalin for the digestion of starch. A carnivore's stomach is a simple, round sack that secretes ten times more hydrochloric acid than that of a non-carnivore. Our stomachs are oblong in shape, complicated in structure, and convoluted with a duodenum.
A carnivore's intestines are three times the length of its trunk, designed for rapid expulsion of animal proteins which quickly rot. Our intestines are twelve times the length of our trunks and designed to keep food in them until all nutrients are extracted. The liver of a carnivore is capable of eliminating ten to fifteen times more uric acid than the liver of a non-carnivore.
Our livers have the capacity to eliminate only a small amount of uric acid. Uric acid is an extremely dangerous toxic substance that can wreak havoc in your body. All meat consumption releases large quantities of uric acid into the system. Unlike most carnivores and omnivores, humans do not have the enzyme uricase to break down uric acid.
A carnivore does not sweat through the skin and has no pores. We do sweat through the skin and have pores. A carnivore's urine is acid, ours is alkaline. A carnivore's tongue is rough, ours is smooth. Our hands are perfectly designed for plucking fruit from a tree, not for tearing the guts out of a dead animal as are a carnivore's claws."[2]
Fancy some road kill? (parental guidance advised)
If the above doesn't convince you humans are not natural carnivores, then trust to instinct. What do you think you are psychologically programmed to eat? Next time you pass over some road kill, screech to a halt, leap out of the car with your juices flowing and go back and get stuck into the blood and guts. Tear that rabbit apart and delight as the blood flows down your throat.
Feel the satisfying crunch of its bones and the slippery visceral sensation of its organs in your mouth. Well, why not? You're a meat-eater by instinct, aren't you? Any of your brothers and sisters-in-kin, like a fox, dog or a crow, would likely beat you to it. Don't be the runt of the pack! Get your muzzle in there, barge aside the competition, and chow on down.
And, while you're about it, leap over the fence when you're done and go and suckle a few of those Jerseys to slake that rabid thirst with some liquid meat. Don't worry about the cars pulled over on the side of the road, occupants staring in ghastly fascination. They're just a jealous bunch of failed meat- and milk-scarfers wishing they'd come along and got tuckered down a minute before you did.
The point being made is that even though they disapprove of your meat-garnering activities, these hypocrites will be down at Safeways, Asda or Piggly Wiggly's later that afternoon buying up their own supplies of meat and milk.
Do you watch wildlife programs because you wish you were out on the Serengeti, charging down the zebras yourself? Is your toddler crying in the kitchen? Maybe your little one is hungry. Try an experiment and give her a live hamster in one hand and a strawberry in the other. What will this child do by instinct? Eat the hamster alive and then toy with the strawberry?
Then imagine walking through a vineyard in summer time. You're sweating from the heat that is only now burning off the dew and mist cloaking the pasture in its morning glory. Above you, glistening in the sun, are bunches of grapes still with the dew on their skins. What are you instinctively going to do?
Nutrional value of meat
Meat is touted as ‘a source of protein', but what kind of protein? Animal protein! Humans cannot create human protein directly from animal protein. We have to break down the animal protein into its constituent amino acids and then reconstruct human protein from these building blocks. Proteins are formed from chains that can range anywhere from 50 to 200,000 amino acid links. These chains have to be deconstructed and recombined into human links, a procedure extremely tiring to the human not to mention remarkably inefficient for manufacturing protein.
Flesh foods have very little going for them in terms of their nutritive value. They come with a whole slug of dietary cholesterol which thickens the blood for up to five hours after consumption. Even if you're eating meat for protein you aren't, since the meat is almost always cooked, charbroiled, fried, boiled or roasted, which destroys much of its enzyme and amino acid content, resulting in a toxic, acidic gunk the body will later have to eliminate.[3] A true carnivore chomps its beef, chicken and duck raw to maximise protection of the meat's amino acids.
The other deficit in logic centres around the question seldom asked - where do the animals we eat, such as cows, sheep, fish and chickens, get their protein from? That's right, from grass, vegetation and cereals! From the amino acids and nutrients they derive naturally in the plant kingdom. Notice carnivores only attack and eat other carnivores in an emergency. In almost all cases they eat herbivores, commencing with the stomach cavity first to slop down the amino acid pool collected there, comprised of pre-digested, nitrilosidic grass and vegetation.
Meat makes us strong?
"But I eat my steaks to make me big and strong!" This also is a lie. All your tumultuous steaks are doing is giving you corpse-like breath, a bypass by sixty, an overdose of cholesterol and protein your body has to neutralise and eliminate, an inside track on bowel cancer and arthritis, and chronic indigestion problems resulting in bowel movements from hell.
I worked with many bodybuilders when I was in California, and the ones who were clued up weren't using meat to win their contests. Many of the top 230lb hulks at Gold's Gym, World's Gym and the Marina Athletic Club were mostly fruit and salad boys, consuming a minimum of flesh foods but ingesting free amino acids.
As Harvey Diamond points out, the silverback gorilla is pure vegetarian and has no problems with strength. It's three times as large as you are and over thirty times as strong.[4] Have an arm-wrestling match with one of those and I'll guarantee two things off the bat. The gorilla won't have had a milk shake or a T-bone steak all day. And it'll rip your arm off at the shoulder.
In regard to energy, meat contains almost no carbohydrates, yet carbs are where your fuel comes from. Meat also contains next to no fibre, is high in saturated fat and can take days to pass through the gut.[5] Meat quite literally rots in the stomach, especially when ill-combined with carbs such as rice, potatoes and pasta. Meat proteins require the stomach to secrete acid to digest them whereas carbs require an alkali.
Put the two together in the form of steak and fries, chicken tagliatelli, or eggs on toast, and the digestive juices cancel one another out. Later, as this gridlock jams up our insides the putrefaction commences, resulting in bear's breath, foul gas, rancid body odour, deposits of mucoid plaque along the colon, a frantic race against time to procure a ready supply of Tums, and 15 minutes reading the Wall Street Journal straining on the toilet with the veins popping out of your forehead.[6]
Dr Herbert Shelton wonders at the insanity of modern man's predicament: "Why must we accept as normal what we find in a race of sick and weakened human beings? Must we always take it for granted that the present eating practices of civilized men are normal? ...Foul stools, loose stools, impacted stools, pebbly stools, much foul gas, colitis, hemorrhoids, bleeding with stools, the need for toilet paper are swept into the orbit of the normal." [7]
The meat industry
At the turn of the 20th century, heart disease was so rare it was barely given a mention in the medical texts. That all changed when the world began to embrace industrial farming between the wars and diets went from being plant-based to animal-based.
Worse, a cosy arrangement soon developed between commercial meat and milk producers in America, who gave big campaign contributions to politicians in return for significant state and federal subsidies to produce milk and meat. By the 1960's, heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis and other problems familiar with us today were becoming endemic. What man had begun to eat was literally killing him.
Nutrition researcher Mike Harrison points out that today $30 billion is spent by the food industry marketing processed products in the US against $30 million for fruits and veg. Put another way, $100 is spent per person per year advertising food products that kill Americans against a mere 10c on what will save and prolong their lives.[8]
Many doctors are now waking up. Like Dr Ethel Nelson, Dr Dean Burkitt indicts the West's fibre-deficient, refined animal-based diet for causing heart, stroke, cancer, kidney, osteoporosis, diabetes and liver problems.[9] So do Drs Dean Ornish, Andrew Saul, John McDougall, Neal Bernard, Malcolm Baxter, Caldwell Esselstyn and Joel Fuhrman.
By studying bowel transit times, Dean Burkitt and colleague Alec Walker determined that meat-heavy, ill-combined meals were creating an aftermath of appendicitis, constipation, diverticulosis, varicose veins, haemorrhoids and colon cancer (the second leading cancer death). They found that the average time for passage for this putrefying detritus was three to five days, and even as long as two weeks in the elderly. Rural Third World peoples, by contrast, consuming diets rich in yams, cassava, cereals, vegetables and fruits, with little animal products, passed easily propelled stools in 24 to 36 hours.[10]
William J Mayo, founder of the famous Mayo cancer clinic in America, addressed the American College of Surgeons thus: "Meat-eating has increased 400% in the last 100 years. Cancer of the stomach forms nearly one third of all cancers of the human body. If flesh foods are not fully broken up, decomposition results, and active poisons are thrown into an organ not intended for their reception." [11]
We need the protein?
We also chomp meat because our society has bought into the fear of dying through lack of protein, most believing that unless we scoff down animal flesh by the rack-load we are in danger of becoming protein-deficient. This myth originated from early trials conducted on rats. Later it transpired rats require up to eleven times more protein than humans, as evidenced by the commensurate supplies of proteins in their milk compared with human milk.
Whoops. Today, it is recognised that human protein requirements are not nearly as great as formerly assumed (between 20 - 40 g/day), yet many are ingesting 100 - 200 g/day! It is this excess that causes acidosis in the population that can often prove fatal. Nevertheless, the protein-scoffing trend has been hard to extirpate from the minds of the laity, which in turn has led to an overabundance of illness in the protein-gorging West.
Research shows that ancient peoples were also cursed with diseases that came from heavy protein consumption, ironically a trait of prosperous societies. In Exodus 15:26, God addresses the Israelites, refering to the diseased Egyptians:
"If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians."
What were the diseases suffered by the Egyptians? Dr Marc Armand Ruffer is a paleopathologist who, with his associates, has performed over 36,000 autopsies on Egyptian mummified remains of Pharaonic royals. Ruffer's research demonstrates that most of the diseases striking the Egyptian royalty are those killing us today: atherosclerosis, various forms of heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, stroke, obesity, tooth decay, arthritis, diverticulosis of the colon and early sexual development in children.[12] [13]
Meat's links to cancer
Even back in 1992, heart disease alone was claiming 3,000 Americans a day. Stroke is the leading cause of disability in most industrialised cultures today. Colon and rectal cancers, now the second cause of cancer-death in America, are associated with high-protein, low-fibre diets (excessive bile acids are required to process proteins in the bowel and bile acids are carcinogenic to humans [14]).
The transit time for foods through the alimentary tract is prolonged with low-fibre content, allowing a longer period for bile acids to act on bowel mucosa. Pork, beef and chicken consumption closely correlates with the incidence of colon cancer.[15]
Interestingly, Americans have two and a half times the incidence of colon cancer deaths as the Chinese, and yet Chinese-American women who adopt the high-fat, high-meat dietary of the US suffer four times the rate of colon cancer of their counterparts in China. In Chinese-American males, the colorectal cancer rate is seven times that of their Chinese counterparts. Colon and rectal cancers increase more than 400% among sedentary people, which also correlates with the increased incidence of constipation in this group.[16]
High protein diets have also been linked to breast cancer since high estrogen levels are a predominant factor in the disease. Meat-eating women have higher levels of estrogen in the urine than vegetarians, according to research.[17]
The simple fact is, if you consume a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts, you couldn't get a protein deficiency if you were hit over the head with one, because your body will have access to all the amino acids required to construct human protein. There are twenty-three amino acids, fifteen of which can be produced by the body. The final eight have to be procured through diet and so have been labelled the ‘essential amino acids'.
Meat does not need to enter into the picture so far as amino acids are concerned. The body makes use of a constant circulating bank of amino acids in the blood and lymph systems - known as the amino acid pool - which the liver and cells use to withdraw whatever material is required. The liver and cells are also capable of storing amino acids, which in a balanced diet are in more than plentiful supply.
Once we understand how the body trades in amino acids, not proteins either foreign or domestic, all the claptrap about protein deficiency can be tossed out and a new, healthier, leaner ‘you' can emerge from the myths. The remaining problems with meat-eating are in essence very similar to those with milk.
Beware chemical contamination?
Meats can be contaminated with recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, pesticides, insecticides, arsenic, antibiotics, hormone accelerators, steroids, ticks, parasites, viruses and pus cells. In many countries, additives such as estradiol and DEA (synthetic estrogen mimics) are added to the food chain. In spite of a clear record of carcinogenicity since its introduction in 1947, the FDA has failed to curtail DEA use in spite of repeated attempts to have it scrapped.[18]
Meat is rarely unadulterated. Some meats are treated with dyes to turn them a ‘healthy' red from the grey of dead flesh. Some meat receives sulphite treatment to decrease decay.
The bottom line?
1) Meat, fish, dairy and eggs are not required to maintain health. In fact, in the case of calcium, meat can be a problem. Meat is generally high in phosphorous, an acid, which bonds with calcium ions to form apatite. This is then precipitated from the body causing a net calcium loss.
2) Humans are not designed to consume human milk past infancy, nor for carnivorous meat intakes. All humans require for optimum health may be obtained from the plant kingdom with no downside save that of a recent mineral deficiency (over-farming). A good organic supply of fruits and vegetables should be the first thing you secure.
3) This is not to say humans cannot eat some meat and dairy. If you are completely stubborn, intakes of animal-based foods should be kept below 5% of total food intake to avoid serious illness.
4) A 100% plant-based diet is used by leading clinics to reverse cancer, heart, disease and the other problems mentioned in this article. Results can be dramatic.
5) Conduct an experiment. Eat nothing but whole plant-based foods for a month see what a difference this makes to your weight, energy and well-being. The sheer variety of foods you have available is astonishing if you take the trouble to seek them out. If you can't do a month, try a week or fortnight. As time passes, you'll be glad you read this article!
Resources
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Nature's Living Superfood 142 g
See our range of organic foods, seeds, nuts, grains, etc.
Footnotes
[1] Nelson, Ethel R The Eden Diet and Modern Nutritional Research, the Twin Cities Creation Conference, Northwestern College, 1992 [2] Diamond, Harvey & Marilyn Fit For Life, Bantam Books, pp.97-98
[3] Okitani, A et al The Journal of Food Science, "Heat Induced Changes in Free Amino Acids on Manufactured Heated Pulps and Pastes from Tomatoes" 48 (1983): 1366-1367
[4] Diamond, Harvey, Fit For Life, op. cit. p.89
[5] A 3 oz piece of steak contains around 75 mg of cholesterol. The same size of skinless chicken comes in at around 72 mg. (www.ravediet.com)
[6] Heartburn can be easily treated by simply increasing your daily intake of water to 4 pints a day and cutting out animal foods. The extra water adequately hydrates the stomach and colon and the pain of heartburn will pass. Drink a glass of fresh water half an hour prior to eating, and then two and a half hours after eating a meal. Drink before you sleep. Drink when you wake up, and especially drink water during exercise. If you feel the heartburn sensation coming on, simply drink water. If you have any kidney complaints, consult a health practitioner prior to increasing your intake of water. Your diet should be amended to avoid acidic ash foods in favour of the alkali alternatives.
[7] Shelton H M Food Combining Made Easy, Shelton Health School, TX, 1951. p.32
[8] The Eating documentary, www.ravediet.com
[9] Burkitt, D P Don't Forget Fibre in Your Diet, London: Martin Dunitz Ltd., 1979
[10] Walker, A R P, Burkitt & Painter Lancet 2, "Effect of Dietary Fibre on Stools and Transit-Times, and Its Role in the Causation of Disease", (1972): pp.1408-1412
[11] Leonardo, Blanche Cancer and Other Diseases from Meat Consumption, Santa Monica, CA: Leaves of Healing, 1979
[12] Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and other heavy meat-consumers sometimes married young girls who were under 10 years of age. Such actions demonstrate that these children were apparently ready for child-bearing.
[13] Mysteries of the Mummies, Loma Linda: Slide-tape program produced by Loma Linda University School of Health, 1984
[14] Galloway, D "Experimental colorectal cancer: The relationship of diet and faecal bile acid concentration to tumour induction", Br. J. Surg. 73:233-237, 1986
[15] Berg, J Quoted in Robbins, J Diet for a New America, Stillpoint Publ. 1987. p.254
[16] Whittemore, A "Diet, physical activity and colorectal cancer among Chinese in North America and China", J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 82:915-926, 1990. Also Nelson, Ethel, op. cit.
[17] Schultz, T "Nutrient intake and hormonal status of premenopausal vegetarian Seventh Day Adventist and premenopausal non-vegetarians", Nutr. Cancer, 4:247-259, 1983
[18] Epstein, Samuel S, Politics...op. cit. p.151
The short bottom line?
- You don't need meat, fish, dairy or eggs to maintain health. In fact, in the case of calcium, meat can be a problem.
- Humans are not designed to eat meat; plants can provide everything we need for optimum health.
- Of course, humans can eat some meat and dairy if they choose. Sometimes it can even taste really good.
- Be aware that leading clinics use a 100% plant-based diet to reverse cancer, heart, disease and the other problems mentioned in this article. Results can be dramatic.
Haven't we always eaten meat?
The first thing to appreciate is how much more meat society eats these days compared with the past. In fact, culturally, chronic meat-eating by Western populations is a relatively recent fad. Back in the medieval times, meat was a luxury few could afford. The average peasant subsisted on a largely vegetarian diet. He didn't kill his cows because he wanted the milk. He didn't kill his chickens because he wanted the eggs. Straying into the King's parks to poach himself some venison or even a rabbit would, likely as not if he were caught, see him twisting in the wind by sunset.
Perhaps single-handedly though, the rise of the burger after World War 2 changed diets forever when Ray Kroc and Richard McDonald became everybody's fast-food fixation. There is no doubt that meat features prominently in most people's diets in the developed world today but why do we think we eat it?
Why do we eat meat?
We think we eat meat because we love it, because it gives us protein and because it makes us strong. But once again, consumption of meat, especially on the scale we are currently witnessing, goes against logic, common sense and instinct if you pause to think for a moment. It is not my intention to persuade you to give up meat, fish, sugar, milk, cigarettes, and a host of other ‘goodies' if you're attitude is, ‘I am a consumer, I intend to consume!'
My intention is to give you the information you need to make an informed decision about your lifestyle if you are serious about achieving a healthy longevity or clearing a life-threatening disease. And with meat, this decision is probably as confusing a choice as any you are likely to contemplate, because not even the experts appear to agree on what's best. But it need not be so. Let's use a little common sense.
Excessive meat-eating, according to researcher Ethel R Nelson MD, is at the root of many of the health woes that have damaged our families for years:
"For about the past twenty-five years, researchers in human nutrition have pointed to the unrefined plant dietary as a more ideal food than animal products. They have designated the Western world's high-fat animal product, fibre-poor, refined diet as the chief cause of so-called "Western diseases", e.g. coronary heart disease, diabetes, obesity, gallstones, appendicitis, diverticulosis of the bowel, hiatus hernia, haemorrhoids, osteoporosis, kidney disorders, varicose veins, cancer and accelerated sexual development in children.
Some of today's most prevalent and devastating diseases in the United States have now been credited to excessive consumption of meat and animal products (milk, cheese, eggs) and insufficient ingestion of plant foods." [1]
Humans are not natural carnivores
Humans, as Harvey Diamond explains, are not natural carnivores:
"A carnivore's teeth are long sharp and pointed - all of them! We have molars for crushing and grinding. A carnivore's jaws move up and down only, for tearing and biting. Ours can move from side to side for grinding. A carnivore's saliva is acid and geared to the digestion of animal protein; it lacks ptyalin, a chemical that digests starches.
Our saliva is alkaline and contains ptyalin for the digestion of starch. A carnivore's stomach is a simple, round sack that secretes ten times more hydrochloric acid than that of a non-carnivore. Our stomachs are oblong in shape, complicated in structure, and convoluted with a duodenum.
A carnivore's intestines are three times the length of its trunk, designed for rapid expulsion of animal proteins which quickly rot. Our intestines are twelve times the length of our trunks and designed to keep food in them until all nutrients are extracted. The liver of a carnivore is capable of eliminating ten to fifteen times more uric acid than the liver of a non-carnivore.
Our livers have the capacity to eliminate only a small amount of uric acid. Uric acid is an extremely dangerous toxic substance that can wreak havoc in your body. All meat consumption releases large quantities of uric acid into the system. Unlike most carnivores and omnivores, humans do not have the enzyme uricase to break down uric acid.
A carnivore does not sweat through the skin and has no pores. We do sweat through the skin and have pores. A carnivore's urine is acid, ours is alkaline. A carnivore's tongue is rough, ours is smooth. Our hands are perfectly designed for plucking fruit from a tree, not for tearing the guts out of a dead animal as are a carnivore's claws."[2]
Fancy some road kill? (parental guidance advised)
If the above doesn't convince you humans are not natural carnivores, then trust to instinct. What do you think you are psychologically programmed to eat? Next time you pass over some road kill, screech to a halt, leap out of the car with your juices flowing and go back and get stuck into the blood and guts. Tear that rabbit apart and delight as the blood flows down your throat.
Feel the satisfying crunch of its bones and the slippery visceral sensation of its organs in your mouth. Well, why not? You're a meat-eater by instinct, aren't you? Any of your brothers and sisters-in-kin, like a fox, dog or a crow, would likely beat you to it. Don't be the runt of the pack! Get your muzzle in there, barge aside the competition, and chow on down.
And, while you're about it, leap over the fence when you're done and go and suckle a few of those Jerseys to slake that rabid thirst with some liquid meat. Don't worry about the cars pulled over on the side of the road, occupants staring in ghastly fascination. They're just a jealous bunch of failed meat- and milk-scarfers wishing they'd come along and got tuckered down a minute before you did.
The point being made is that even though they disapprove of your meat-garnering activities, these hypocrites will be down at Safeways, Asda or Piggly Wiggly's later that afternoon buying up their own supplies of meat and milk.
Do you watch wildlife programs because you wish you were out on the Serengeti, charging down the zebras yourself? Is your toddler crying in the kitchen? Maybe your little one is hungry. Try an experiment and give her a live hamster in one hand and a strawberry in the other. What will this child do by instinct? Eat the hamster alive and then toy with the strawberry?
Then imagine walking through a vineyard in summer time. You're sweating from the heat that is only now burning off the dew and mist cloaking the pasture in its morning glory. Above you, glistening in the sun, are bunches of grapes still with the dew on their skins. What are you instinctively going to do?
Nutrional value of meat
Meat is touted as ‘a source of protein', but what kind of protein? Animal protein! Humans cannot create human protein directly from animal protein. We have to break down the animal protein into its constituent amino acids and then reconstruct human protein from these building blocks. Proteins are formed from chains that can range anywhere from 50 to 200,000 amino acid links. These chains have to be deconstructed and recombined into human links, a procedure extremely tiring to the human not to mention remarkably inefficient for manufacturing protein.
Flesh foods have very little going for them in terms of their nutritive value. They come with a whole slug of dietary cholesterol which thickens the blood for up to five hours after consumption. Even if you're eating meat for protein you aren't, since the meat is almost always cooked, charbroiled, fried, boiled or roasted, which destroys much of its enzyme and amino acid content, resulting in a toxic, acidic gunk the body will later have to eliminate.[3] A true carnivore chomps its beef, chicken and duck raw to maximise protection of the meat's amino acids.
The other deficit in logic centres around the question seldom asked - where do the animals we eat, such as cows, sheep, fish and chickens, get their protein from? That's right, from grass, vegetation and cereals! From the amino acids and nutrients they derive naturally in the plant kingdom. Notice carnivores only attack and eat other carnivores in an emergency. In almost all cases they eat herbivores, commencing with the stomach cavity first to slop down the amino acid pool collected there, comprised of pre-digested, nitrilosidic grass and vegetation.
Meat makes us strong?
"But I eat my steaks to make me big and strong!" This also is a lie. All your tumultuous steaks are doing is giving you corpse-like breath, a bypass by sixty, an overdose of cholesterol and protein your body has to neutralise and eliminate, an inside track on bowel cancer and arthritis, and chronic indigestion problems resulting in bowel movements from hell.
I worked with many bodybuilders when I was in California, and the ones who were clued up weren't using meat to win their contests. Many of the top 230lb hulks at Gold's Gym, World's Gym and the Marina Athletic Club were mostly fruit and salad boys, consuming a minimum of flesh foods but ingesting free amino acids.
As Harvey Diamond points out, the silverback gorilla is pure vegetarian and has no problems with strength. It's three times as large as you are and over thirty times as strong.[4] Have an arm-wrestling match with one of those and I'll guarantee two things off the bat. The gorilla won't have had a milk shake or a T-bone steak all day. And it'll rip your arm off at the shoulder.
In regard to energy, meat contains almost no carbohydrates, yet carbs are where your fuel comes from. Meat also contains next to no fibre, is high in saturated fat and can take days to pass through the gut.[5] Meat quite literally rots in the stomach, especially when ill-combined with carbs such as rice, potatoes and pasta. Meat proteins require the stomach to secrete acid to digest them whereas carbs require an alkali.
Put the two together in the form of steak and fries, chicken tagliatelli, or eggs on toast, and the digestive juices cancel one another out. Later, as this gridlock jams up our insides the putrefaction commences, resulting in bear's breath, foul gas, rancid body odour, deposits of mucoid plaque along the colon, a frantic race against time to procure a ready supply of Tums, and 15 minutes reading the Wall Street Journal straining on the toilet with the veins popping out of your forehead.[6]
Dr Herbert Shelton wonders at the insanity of modern man's predicament: "Why must we accept as normal what we find in a race of sick and weakened human beings? Must we always take it for granted that the present eating practices of civilized men are normal? ...Foul stools, loose stools, impacted stools, pebbly stools, much foul gas, colitis, hemorrhoids, bleeding with stools, the need for toilet paper are swept into the orbit of the normal." [7]
The meat industry
At the turn of the 20th century, heart disease was so rare it was barely given a mention in the medical texts. That all changed when the world began to embrace industrial farming between the wars and diets went from being plant-based to animal-based.
Worse, a cosy arrangement soon developed between commercial meat and milk producers in America, who gave big campaign contributions to politicians in return for significant state and federal subsidies to produce milk and meat. By the 1960's, heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis and other problems familiar with us today were becoming endemic. What man had begun to eat was literally killing him.
Nutrition researcher Mike Harrison points out that today $30 billion is spent by the food industry marketing processed products in the US against $30 million for fruits and veg. Put another way, $100 is spent per person per year advertising food products that kill Americans against a mere 10c on what will save and prolong their lives.[8]
Many doctors are now waking up. Like Dr Ethel Nelson, Dr Dean Burkitt indicts the West's fibre-deficient, refined animal-based diet for causing heart, stroke, cancer, kidney, osteoporosis, diabetes and liver problems.[9] So do Drs Dean Ornish, Andrew Saul, John McDougall, Neal Bernard, Malcolm Baxter, Caldwell Esselstyn and Joel Fuhrman.
By studying bowel transit times, Dean Burkitt and colleague Alec Walker determined that meat-heavy, ill-combined meals were creating an aftermath of appendicitis, constipation, diverticulosis, varicose veins, haemorrhoids and colon cancer (the second leading cancer death). They found that the average time for passage for this putrefying detritus was three to five days, and even as long as two weeks in the elderly. Rural Third World peoples, by contrast, consuming diets rich in yams, cassava, cereals, vegetables and fruits, with little animal products, passed easily propelled stools in 24 to 36 hours.[10]
William J Mayo, founder of the famous Mayo cancer clinic in America, addressed the American College of Surgeons thus: "Meat-eating has increased 400% in the last 100 years. Cancer of the stomach forms nearly one third of all cancers of the human body. If flesh foods are not fully broken up, decomposition results, and active poisons are thrown into an organ not intended for their reception." [11]
We need the protein?
We also chomp meat because our society has bought into the fear of dying through lack of protein, most believing that unless we scoff down animal flesh by the rack-load we are in danger of becoming protein-deficient. This myth originated from early trials conducted on rats. Later it transpired rats require up to eleven times more protein than humans, as evidenced by the commensurate supplies of proteins in their milk compared with human milk.
Whoops. Today, it is recognised that human protein requirements are not nearly as great as formerly assumed (between 20 - 40 g/day), yet many are ingesting 100 - 200 g/day! It is this excess that causes acidosis in the population that can often prove fatal. Nevertheless, the protein-scoffing trend has been hard to extirpate from the minds of the laity, which in turn has led to an overabundance of illness in the protein-gorging West.
Research shows that ancient peoples were also cursed with diseases that came from heavy protein consumption, ironically a trait of prosperous societies. In Exodus 15:26, God addresses the Israelites, refering to the diseased Egyptians:
"If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians."
What were the diseases suffered by the Egyptians? Dr Marc Armand Ruffer is a paleopathologist who, with his associates, has performed over 36,000 autopsies on Egyptian mummified remains of Pharaonic royals. Ruffer's research demonstrates that most of the diseases striking the Egyptian royalty are those killing us today: atherosclerosis, various forms of heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, stroke, obesity, tooth decay, arthritis, diverticulosis of the colon and early sexual development in children.[12] [13]
Meat's links to cancer
Even back in 1992, heart disease alone was claiming 3,000 Americans a day. Stroke is the leading cause of disability in most industrialised cultures today. Colon and rectal cancers, now the second cause of cancer-death in America, are associated with high-protein, low-fibre diets (excessive bile acids are required to process proteins in the bowel and bile acids are carcinogenic to humans [14]).
The transit time for foods through the alimentary tract is prolonged with low-fibre content, allowing a longer period for bile acids to act on bowel mucosa. Pork, beef and chicken consumption closely correlates with the incidence of colon cancer.[15]
Interestingly, Americans have two and a half times the incidence of colon cancer deaths as the Chinese, and yet Chinese-American women who adopt the high-fat, high-meat dietary of the US suffer four times the rate of colon cancer of their counterparts in China. In Chinese-American males, the colorectal cancer rate is seven times that of their Chinese counterparts. Colon and rectal cancers increase more than 400% among sedentary people, which also correlates with the increased incidence of constipation in this group.[16]
High protein diets have also been linked to breast cancer since high estrogen levels are a predominant factor in the disease. Meat-eating women have higher levels of estrogen in the urine than vegetarians, according to research.[17]
The simple fact is, if you consume a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts, you couldn't get a protein deficiency if you were hit over the head with one, because your body will have access to all the amino acids required to construct human protein. There are twenty-three amino acids, fifteen of which can be produced by the body. The final eight have to be procured through diet and so have been labelled the ‘essential amino acids'.
Meat does not need to enter into the picture so far as amino acids are concerned. The body makes use of a constant circulating bank of amino acids in the blood and lymph systems - known as the amino acid pool - which the liver and cells use to withdraw whatever material is required. The liver and cells are also capable of storing amino acids, which in a balanced diet are in more than plentiful supply.
Once we understand how the body trades in amino acids, not proteins either foreign or domestic, all the claptrap about protein deficiency can be tossed out and a new, healthier, leaner ‘you' can emerge from the myths. The remaining problems with meat-eating are in essence very similar to those with milk.
Beware chemical contamination?
Meats can be contaminated with recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, pesticides, insecticides, arsenic, antibiotics, hormone accelerators, steroids, ticks, parasites, viruses and pus cells. In many countries, additives such as estradiol and DEA (synthetic estrogen mimics) are added to the food chain. In spite of a clear record of carcinogenicity since its introduction in 1947, the FDA has failed to curtail DEA use in spite of repeated attempts to have it scrapped.[18]
Meat is rarely unadulterated. Some meats are treated with dyes to turn them a ‘healthy' red from the grey of dead flesh. Some meat receives sulphite treatment to decrease decay.
The bottom line?
1) Meat, fish, dairy and eggs are not required to maintain health. In fact, in the case of calcium, meat can be a problem. Meat is generally high in phosphorous, an acid, which bonds with calcium ions to form apatite. This is then precipitated from the body causing a net calcium loss.
2) Humans are not designed to consume human milk past infancy, nor for carnivorous meat intakes. All humans require for optimum health may be obtained from the plant kingdom with no downside save that of a recent mineral deficiency (over-farming). A good organic supply of fruits and vegetables should be the first thing you secure.
3) This is not to say humans cannot eat some meat and dairy. If you are completely stubborn, intakes of animal-based foods should be kept below 5% of total food intake to avoid serious illness.
4) A 100% plant-based diet is used by leading clinics to reverse cancer, heart, disease and the other problems mentioned in this article. Results can be dramatic.
5) Conduct an experiment. Eat nothing but whole plant-based foods for a month see what a difference this makes to your weight, energy and well-being. The sheer variety of foods you have available is astonishing if you take the trouble to seek them out. If you can't do a month, try a week or fortnight. As time passes, you'll be glad you read this article!
Resources
Green Superfoods 283 g and Green Superfoods 907 g tubs
Nature's Living Superfood 142 g
See our range of organic foods, seeds, nuts, grains, etc.
Footnotes
[1] Nelson, Ethel R The Eden Diet and Modern Nutritional Research, the Twin Cities Creation Conference, Northwestern College, 1992 [2] Diamond, Harvey & Marilyn Fit For Life, Bantam Books, pp.97-98
[3] Okitani, A et al The Journal of Food Science, "Heat Induced Changes in Free Amino Acids on Manufactured Heated Pulps and Pastes from Tomatoes" 48 (1983): 1366-1367
[4] Diamond, Harvey, Fit For Life, op. cit. p.89
[5] A 3 oz piece of steak contains around 75 mg of cholesterol. The same size of skinless chicken comes in at around 72 mg. (www.ravediet.com)
[6] Heartburn can be easily treated by simply increasing your daily intake of water to 4 pints a day and cutting out animal foods. The extra water adequately hydrates the stomach and colon and the pain of heartburn will pass. Drink a glass of fresh water half an hour prior to eating, and then two and a half hours after eating a meal. Drink before you sleep. Drink when you wake up, and especially drink water during exercise. If you feel the heartburn sensation coming on, simply drink water. If you have any kidney complaints, consult a health practitioner prior to increasing your intake of water. Your diet should be amended to avoid acidic ash foods in favour of the alkali alternatives.
[7] Shelton H M Food Combining Made Easy, Shelton Health School, TX, 1951. p.32
[8] The Eating documentary, www.ravediet.com
[9] Burkitt, D P Don't Forget Fibre in Your Diet, London: Martin Dunitz Ltd., 1979
[10] Walker, A R P, Burkitt & Painter Lancet 2, "Effect of Dietary Fibre on Stools and Transit-Times, and Its Role in the Causation of Disease", (1972): pp.1408-1412
[11] Leonardo, Blanche Cancer and Other Diseases from Meat Consumption, Santa Monica, CA: Leaves of Healing, 1979
[12] Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and other heavy meat-consumers sometimes married young girls who were under 10 years of age. Such actions demonstrate that these children were apparently ready for child-bearing.
[13] Mysteries of the Mummies, Loma Linda: Slide-tape program produced by Loma Linda University School of Health, 1984
[14] Galloway, D "Experimental colorectal cancer: The relationship of diet and faecal bile acid concentration to tumour induction", Br. J. Surg. 73:233-237, 1986
[15] Berg, J Quoted in Robbins, J Diet for a New America, Stillpoint Publ. 1987. p.254
[16] Whittemore, A "Diet, physical activity and colorectal cancer among Chinese in North America and China", J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 82:915-926, 1990. Also Nelson, Ethel, op. cit.
[17] Schultz, T "Nutrient intake and hormonal status of premenopausal vegetarian Seventh Day Adventist and premenopausal non-vegetarians", Nutr. Cancer, 4:247-259, 1983
[18] Epstein, Samuel S, Politics...op. cit. p.151
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