devi@maisha.DEC (Gita L. Devi PKO1/D1 223-7046) (08/21/85)
I'd like to respond to Barry Steel. I'm sorry if you interpreted my statements to mean that meat alone is the cause of man's problems. Obviously, this is not the case: you can add alcohol, drugs, fast-paced life, improper eating in general to the list. But - assuming that you are a well-read person who cares about health, you cannot deny the link between a meat-based diet and disease. And neither can the medical establishment, although this has been a long time coming. I'd like to refer you to a very interesting, if provocative book, that could prove enlightening: Vegetarianism, A Way of Life, by Dudley Giehl Mr. Giehl has an excellent chapter called, Anatomy, Diet, and Disease in which he goes into detail about the deleterious effects of a meat-based diet. To quote him briefly: "...if more protein is consumed than in needed for its basic function (tissue repair), the excess amino acids (protein constituents) are converted to fuel uses. The nitrogen portion of these amino acids becomes waste. It is, therefore, evident that a high-protein diet necessarily produces excessive waste, especially nitrogenous waste. In addition to the waste created as a result of excessive protein intake, meat in itself contains its own waste products. When an animal is slaughtered, its metabolic process ceases. The cells can no longer receive their necessary nutriments nor are they able to pass off their waste products. Therefore, by eating meat we are taking into our own bodies the waste products contained in the animal's body. It should be apparent that by eating flesh we are doing more than simply taking additional waste into our systems. Aside from the issue of quantity, these wastes are of a more pernicious nature than those created as part of our own metabolism. The animal, after all, is now dead. The waste products created by flesh foods are retained in the human body for a substantially longer period of time than in the body of any of the carnivorous species..." "...Waste is stored in the colon before it is finally eliminated from the body. Essentially no digestion occurs in the colon. Various digestive juices that serve to detoxify pathogens during digestion are not present in the colon; there are only residues of these secretions. Consequently, the warmth, moisture, and lack of antiseptic agents makes the colon an ideal environment for harmful bacteria to breed. ...It is widely believed that there is a relationship between meat consumption and cancer of the colon....." He goes on and on...Read the book. Gita Devi
barrys@tekecs.UUCP (Barry Steel) (08/26/85)
In article <64@decwrl.UUCP> devi@maisha.DEC (Gita L. Devi PKO1/D1 223-7046) writes: >I'd like to respond to Barry Steel. I'm sorry if you interpreted my statements >to mean that meat alone is the cause of man's problems. Obviously, this is >not the case: you can add alcohol, drugs, fast-paced life, improper eating in >general to the list. But - assuming that you are a well-read person who cares >about health, you cannot deny the link between a meat-based diet and disease. >And neither can the medical establishment, although this has been a long time >coming. > >I'd like to refer you to a very interesting, if provocative book, that could >prove enlightening: > > Vegetarianism, A Way of Life, by Dudley Giehl > > ... > >Gita Devi I would agree that alcohol, drugs, etc. are certainly some of man's problems. But is there evidence that the eating of meat increases man's agressive behavior? I'm genuinely curious. I will check out the book. barry steel