Instead of reading The Lovely Bones this weekend as I planned, I decided to read the classic You Don't Need Meat. The movie was not very good in my opinion and a comment left here last week about how going veggie was bad for health gave me new direction. I knew the book by Peter Cox was jam packed with studies and scientific evidence that meatless diets are not unhealthy but I still hadn't gotten around to reading it yet. The meat industry and the media likened this guy to Hitler when his book was first published… that is how damaging it is to the meat industry.
Cox has been a vegetarian since he was 2 years old. He grew up thinking he was some sort of freak and his parents and doctors spoke of his imminent demise because he refused to eat meat. Except he didn't die and he was in fact very healthy and active. Later on he found out that he was simply a vegetarian, a term he is not keen on because it makes his diet sound alternative when in reality it is not. From the dawn of our existence their have been meatless folks. When asked to write a book about the subject he dove into the research and was pleasantly surprised that there were numerous studies going back to the 70s that compared vegetarians and meat eaters. And these weren't little anecdotal studies either. These were comparisons of LARGE groups of people, as in 25,000 plus done over time periods that spanned decades. The data showed conclusively that vegetarians were 50-60% less likely to die of heart disease or cancer than those who ate meat. The more meat that was consumed, the higher the risk. The book is full of graphs and charts that analyzes each part of these studies and breaks it down for us. And it has rebuttals to all the common straw man arguments.
After throughly slaying the concept that eating meat is required for good health he goes on to tell us why this information isn't common knowledge and he really demonizes the PR industry. It all boils down to money. No one gets very rich when everyone eats veggies and no one gets rich when everyone is healthy and fit. Most individuals would rather they eat whatever it is that gives them the most pleasure and hope that a magic bullet will be found in the form of a pill or a cure so they don't have to take responsibility for what they eat.
There are also numerous chapters on horrors found in meat packing plants and slaughterhouses and the diseases found in these animals that can be transferred to us. It goes through many atrocities committed by these companies and it names names.
It is a good book but the info I liked the best was the chapters that discussed various diseases and what the risks are for veggie eaters and meat eaters. I found the info on colon cancer interesting since that is what I had. Also it had a chapter that discusses all the common arguments against vegetarianism and veganism. I tried a meatless existence in my late teen years and my health suffered so I always assumed that this meant that vegetarianism and veganism were unhealthy. But when I started to eat raw last year I quickly saw what the real problem had been. I was a junk food vegetarian! I wasn't eating lots of veggies and greens.. I was eating iceberg lettuce salads, processed crap, sugary baked stuffed, white flour and rice, and saying it was healthy because it didn't have meat. I was a vegetarian without the veggies and duh.. it didn't work out so well. Other vegetarians and vegans put too much emphasis on not eating fat and they get themselves in trouble there cause we NEED dietary fat. Plus eating the majority of my food cooked is no good because cooking foods kills off half the vitamins. My raw experiences have really helped me to see that if you are unhealthy eating veggie… you are doing it wrong, period.
The only thing I didn't like about the book was the tendency to sometimes dip into extremes. Even I was rolling my eyes when one gal in the book was relating how mean her family is because they won't stop eating meat when she is around and how she won't even go to family events anymore because she knows "murdered animals" will be on the table. Maybe I haven't been meat free long enough but I am relatively certain I will always be able to get through Thanksgiving dinners without bawling and accusing my family and friends of being heartless meanies.
On the home front if you remember my post about getting my husband on board with vegetarianism it has been a smashing success. For 2 months now we have been totally meat free in this house and no one is complaining. My hubby even cooked tonight and made veggie burritos. They were so good I told him he must be the designated burrito maker from now on. He has also made scrumptious stuffed mushrooms and a killer mushroom soup. Now he just accepts that we eat veggie at home and that if he wants meat he has to cook it or get it when he eats out. He started out buying meat to cook himself but after he spent the better part of a day cooking expensive sausages only to have my son discover them and promptly throw them away, he stopped buying meat, LOL.
I think he likes the challenge of coming up with new ways to cook old favorites and finding new dishes that are just as good as meaty ones. His eyes roll back in his head when I make a vegetarian version of Chicken Scallopine. And the best part is that digestive issues are miraculously a thing of the past.
Soon I want to read The China Study. It was referred to several times in this book and is considered the "Grand Prix of epidemiology" since it is a study that examines more than 350 variables of health and nutrition with surveys from 6,500 adults in more than 2,500 counties across China and Taiwan, and conclusively demonstrates the link between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. I just haven't been able to find it for $1 at my local thrift store like I did this book.
I think both books lay to bed the the myth that going veggie is somehow bad for you. The data, the science, the epidemiology… does not support it. I doubt I will ever be on board with telling other people they can't eat a modest amount of meat and be healthy. But I hope more people come to realize that meat is in no way, shape, or form something we NEED.
