Genesis 1:29: June 2009

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Great Book (Odd Name!)

These ladies lay it on the line - funny, clever, and very informative!

"You are what you eat!" You've heard it before, and it's still true. What you put in you becomes part of you. Too many of us have been feeding garbage into our bodies only to think, "why do I feel bad so much of the time?"
DUH!

1) If you look at the original plan for man and woman (in Genesis 1:29) you see we were DESIGNED to eat vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs, etc. NOT MEAT. Man didn't start eating animals for thousands of years after he was created - until after the flood.

Our bodies are vegetarian machines. Put diesel into your gasoline engine - consistently - and see how well it runs! Same with your body. DON'T EAT MEAT or other animal stuff, such as eggs, milk (it's awful for you!) or cheese.
Oh, and yes, chickens are animals. Sheesh!

2) Fat is hard on your body. Some are OK, yes, such as olive oil and grapeseed oil. But too much of any fat is hard on your blood vessels and cells. Keep the fats to a minimum.

3) Fiber and "low glycemic index" foods are good for your heart, your cells, your whole body. They fight cancer. They keep your vessels clean. Beans are life giving food!

This isn't some haphazard experiment some great Someone threw together without thinking. God, in His infinite and glorious wisdom created not only our bodies, but the perfect fuels for them - at the same time! In Eden, when everything was perfect, He gave us the perfect food for our bodies.

Use some common sense and eat what we were meant to eat.

The Cost of Eating Meat

According to a new report by LiveScience (http://www.livescience.com/environment/080505-chicken-beef.html), the most damaging part of carnivorism (ecologically, that is) is the "production" part - you know, the part where the cows, chickens, pigs, or whatever else is eaten are crammed together and slaughtered, then chopped into mouth-sized pieces so they can be eaten.

Wow!

Their report states: "

The production phase is responsible for 83 percent of the average U.S. household's greenhouse-gas burden with regard to food, while transportation accounts for only 11 percent, the new study found. The production of red meat, the researchers conclude, is almost 150 percent more greenhouse-gas-intensive than chicken or fish."

Did you get that last bit: 150% more harmful to keep/kill/eat cows than other animals!

I am so glad I don't eat them anymore.
Aren't you?!

Greatest Cancer Threat? Animal Protein!

Dr. T. Colin Campbell makes a startling (even for me!) statement in his video found on the VegSource web site. After describing his research and his journey from growing up on a dairy farm to a leading researcher into cancer and diet, Dr. Campbell's studies led him to state, "(animal protein) is the most significant carcinogen we consume. Forget about DDT and dioxin and things like that - we're talking about animal protein." Wow! What a radical idea.

Go watch the video at http://www.vegsource.com/video/colin.htm, and visit Dr. Campbell's web site at http://www.thechinastudy.com/about.html and let me know what you think.

His research and studies are well founded (over a forty year period) and well supported (National Institute of Health and American Cancer Society). It looks pretty solid to me - what do you think? Is cancer caused directly by eating animal products?

Think You're Healthy? Think Again!

Chances range from fair to pretty good that you're knocking at the door of a serious health breakdown.
What? You don't believe me?
Maybe you'll believe the US Food and Drug Commission: "Oy veh! are they in bad shape! I'm shaking my head they're so bad off! The direness of their situation is exponentially increasing on a moment by moment basis! Or is it decreasing? Either way, they're not long for this world, I'm tellink you."
Or perhaps you're more convinced by a university study? Someone like UCLA, maybe: "Like, MAN! You dudes are like all gnarled up inside, man! You're body is so ticked off at you for the way you're treating it, you're lucky if you don't just like off yourself, man! Whoa!"
If that doesn't convince you of the seriousness of your plight, listen to someone who has only your best interests at heart, like your own mother: "What are you, stupid!? Letting yourself go like that! Eating that, that - I don't even know what to call it, what you're eating, it's so not good for you! Did I raise you to be an idiot what doesn't take care of my precious baby like you're doing? To think of all the hours I broke my back caring for you and now you ...".
See, now you have her all upset. You should be ashamed.
The point is, you've let yourself fall into some basically rotten eating habits. We all have. Don't be too hard on yourself. But what's really dumb is to keep on doing something wrong after you realize you're doing something wrong. That's just ... wrong!
Well, it's too late now. I've told you! So now you either have to go on, knowing you're poisoning yourself, or change.
Change can be good. In this case, change can be very good.
Read on, my friends.

What's My "Diet" All About?

To answer basic questions about what I eat, what I don't eat, and why, here's a list of facts:

I don't eat eggs

I don't use dairy*

I DO use soy milk

I don't eat refined white sugar**

I don't eat artificial sweeteners***

if I use a sweetner, it's raw sugar or local organic honey

I don't drink sugarpops (coke, etc)

I don't eat refined white flour**

I DO stick with rye or pumpernickel breads

I DO eat pretty much everything else!

I DO get lots of protein from various sources

I DO get plenty of calcium, and everything else

I have lost 30 pounds on this "diet"

I have corrected my diabetes and cholesterol numbers through this lifestyle

I started out just for health sake, but now continue out of respect for God's pets, which He has created in infinite detail for His enjoyment, and which we were put in charge of to care for

"meat" is the only source of bad cholesterol: no meat = no cholesterol

"good" fats are in most vegetables

tofu, when prepared correctly, is super!
(even potatoes can taste bad if not cooked or if cooked wrong)

NOTES:
* I do eat imported cheese on rare occasion - imported cheeses are free from all the pesticides and hormones of American cheeses
** as much as possible, but these damaged goods are snuck into so many foods it's almost impossible to avoid them totally
***these have all been proven to be poisonous to one extent or another

NOTES Regarding Vegetarian/ Veganism

Genesis 1:29, "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, ... and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat"

Isaiah 11:7-9, "The cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, ... they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord."

Some people are still going to want to eat meat.. we do agree though that vegetarianism is a healthier diet.
-David Stroud of the American Meat Institute

I don't understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open and put them on cholesterol-lowering drugs for the rest of their lives.
-Dean Ornish, MD

We should remember in our dealings with animals that they are a sacred trust to us from our heavenly Father. They are dumb and cannot speak for themselves.
-Harriet Beecher Stowe

"We have these weapons of mass destruction on every street corner - donuts, cheese burgers, french fries. ... 40% of caloric intake from animal products; 50% is processed foods = 10% veg, grain, nuts, seeds, high in phytonutrients" Anon.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman: it takes between 2,500 and 5,000 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef; it takes ten acres to produce one pound of beef

Jonathan Wolf: vegetarianism is a much more responsible way to manage our limited resources on Earth

Gen 9: 9,10 - "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you (10) and with every living creature that was with you--the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you--every living creature on earth.

Deut 30:19 - "This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live"

Eccl 3: 19-21 - "Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. (20) All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. (21) Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"

Mahatma Gandhi: The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

Thomas Edison: "Until we stop harming all living beings, we are still savages."

James A. Froude (1818-1894): If you visit the killing floor of a slaughterhouse, it will brand your soul for life.

Howard Lyman: A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.

Leo Tolstoy: In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people.

Ruth Harrison, author of Animal Machines: The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of 'real food for real people,' you'd better live real close to a real good hospital.

Neal D. Barnard, M.D., President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Washington, D.C.: About 2,000 pounds of grains must be supplied to livestock in order to produce enough meat and other livestock products to support a person for a year, whereas 400 pounds of grain eaten directly will support a person for a year. Thus, a given quantity of grain eaten directly will feed 5 times as many people as it will if it is eaten indirectly by humans in the form of livestock products....

M.E. Ensminger, PH.D.: Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you any more.

Jeremy Bentham: What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason or perhaps the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a week or even a month old. But suppose they were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being? The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes ...[18] [Bentham, Jeremy. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, 1789. Latest edition: Adamant Media Corporation, 2005]

You ask people why they have deer heads on the wall. They always say, Because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother's attractive, but I have photographs of her.

I take vitamins daily, but just the bare essentials not what you'd call supplements. I try to stick to a vegan diet heavy on fruit, vegetables, tofu, and other soy products.
-Clint Eastwood

I don't eat meat, fish, or eggs. I was never a big meat-eater, but I've got more energy now," says Shania, who hasn't eaten an animal since she married longtime vegetarian (and record producer) Mutt Lange.
-Shania Twain

I think there's something odd about eating another living anything.
-Shania Twain

Vegetarians have the best diet. They have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country....Some people scoff at vegetarians, but they have a fraction of our heart attack rate and they have only 40 percent of our cancer rate. They outlive other men by about six years now.
-Dr.William Castelli

Excessive animal protein is at the core of many chronic diseases.
-Dr.Campbell

The transition of world agriculture from food grain to feed grains represents an...evil whose consequences may be far greater and longer lasting than any past examples of violence inflicted by men against thier fellow human beings.
-Jeremy Rifkin

I tremble for my species when I reflect that God is just.
-Thomas Jefferson

The Utopians feel that slaughtering our fellow creatures gradually destroys the sense of compassion, which is the finest sentiment of which our human nature is capable.
-Thomas More

It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation, that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion; and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and disgust.
-Percy Bysshe Shelley

Based on my experience in Los Angeles, my advice to the public is not to eat meat. -Gregorio Natavidad-meat inspector

I don't eat chicken anymore. I won't eat it. I won't allow it in my house. -Rodney Leonard -U.S. Poultry inspection

We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, passions and organs with our own, and fill the slaughterhouses daily with screams of pain and fear.
-Robert Louis Stevenson

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian. We feel better about ourselves and better about the animals, knowing we're not contributing to their pain.
-Paul and Linda McCartney

Mark Twain: I am not interested to know whether vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't...The pain which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further.

Plutarch: Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind did so, the first man touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds? It is certainly not lions and wolves that we eat out of self-defense; on the contrary, we ignore these and slaughter harmless, tame creatures without stings or teeth to harm us, creatures that, I swear, Nature appears to have produced for the sake of their beauty and grace. But nothing abashed us, not the flower-like like tinting of the flesh, not the persuasiveness of the harmonious voice, not the cleanliness of their habits or the unusual intelligence that may be found in the poor wretches. No, for the sake of a little flesh we deprive them of sun, of light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and being.

Proverbs 12:10: A righteous man takes care of his beast, but the heart of the wicked is merciless.

He is a heavy eater of beef. Me thinks it doth harm to his wit.
-Shakespeare in "Twelfth Night"

A human can be healthy without killing animals for food. Therefore if he eats meat he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite.
-Leo Tolstoy

Many things made me become a vegetarian, among them the higher food yield as a solution to world hunger.
-John Denver

While not a vegetarian, as we understand the term today, Jefferson was unusually moderate in his consumption of meat and was notable for the amount and variety of vegetables that he ate. His granddaughter wrote: "He lived principally on vegetables....The little meat he took seemed mostly as a seasoning for his vegetables." Jefferson's fondness for vegetables can be traced in his garden books that contain thousands of entries detailing the many varieties that he grew for his own consumption. Two of his favorites were peas and cucumbers.

You are a meathead, Meathead!
-Archie Bunker

Food & Behavior

The connection between food and behavior is so basic that it is being over looked by parents, the school system, counselors and most of the medical professionals.
Ask any hyperactive child, depressed, angry teenager, violent adult or criminal what they eat and you'll find they "live" on junk food - sweetened boxed cereals, candy, carbonated drinks, potato chips, fast foods.
Junk food abuses the mind, undernourishes the body and distorts the behavior.
SOURCE: Food & Behavior by Barbara Stitt