In this sequel post to follow up "Attacking Anti-Smoking Propaganda and Anti-Smoking Hypocrities", I am focusing on one of the several arguments in particular put forth: the argument that eating animal products kills more people than smoking. I must first state my amazement that several readers are stuck in a helpless state of mind where they cannot simply research this further themselves and instead need people to hand feed them everything. People, seriously, you obviously know how to use the Internet. Chances are you know how to use a search engine. It's really, really not that hard.
In Part I, my main objective was to make people rethink about common propaganda and also rethink about their own choices in life, vegeteranism and veganism were one of a few suggestions put forth that, if you are intellectually and ethically honest in your arguments against smoking, you must also apply it to your diet. if you do not, then you are simply part of a dishonest propaganda culture.
After all, if you truly as an individual oppose smoking on the grounds of health, environmentalism, and clean air, you should absolutely and considerably object to the animal product industry ten times more for these same reasons.
There are some very common myths about meat/dairy and about vegetarianism and veganism. In a parody of the anti-smoking propaganda language, here is the Truth about eating animal products.
Number one myth: you need to eat meat (this includes eggs) and dairy to be healthy.
Truth: a diet of regular meat and dairy consumption is unhealthy, especially in comparison to a vegetarian or vegan diet.
The number one factor that creates high cholesterol is a diet of animal products. A plant-based rich diet (not your average American meal), on the other hand, is recognized to result in low cholesterol. People are so oblivious and cannot see the forest before their eyes in America that they all believe that their diets are meat in moderation. The standard American diet is not a moderate diet of animal products. High cholesterol is the number one cause of heart disease. Heart disease kills more people than smoking.
If meat and dairy were essential to be healthy human beings, you would expect groups and cultures that minimize or avoid both to be unhealthy. Facts show otherwise.
In the Western world, Seventh-Day Adventists promotes vegeterianism. In the November 2005 of National Geographic, "The Secret of Long Life", states that research shows that Seventh-Day Adventists in California, for example, live four to ten years longer than the average Californian.
There is abundant academic, scientific, and nutrition studies that demonstrate the increased health of a plant-based diet. For example, in research published by Key TJ, Thorogood M, Appleby PN, Burr ML of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, "Dietary habits and mortality in 11,000 vegetarians and health conscious people: results of a 17 year follow up", shows that it lowers the risk of colon cancer, heart attack, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, prostate cancer, and stroke.
Especially in the American factorized animal product industry, heavy usage of growth hormones and antibiotics because of the intensively "farmed" animals, there is enough indications that that it may affect fetal and childhood development negatively that growth hormones (which require antibiotics as it it severely increases weakness to diseases) are illegal to use in the European community. See "Hormones in meat: different approaches in the EU and in the USA" from the
National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM/ARO) by Stephany RW (these are articles from the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health's archive, ergo the first/middle name abbrevations).
The American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada states in "Position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada: Vegetarian diets":
"This position paper reviews the current scientific data related to key nutrients for vegetarians, including protein, iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin D, riboflavin, vitamin B-12, vitamin A, n-3 fatty acids, and iodine. A vegetarian, including vegan, diet can meet current recommendations for all of these nutrients.In some cases, use of fortified foods or supplements can be helpful in meeting recommendations for individual nutrients. "
Something that most people realize is that different individuals actually can have significantly different nutrient requirements. The statement goes on to say that:
"Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence."
A common criticism against smoking is that it is optional. Well, so is your diet in animal products.
If you believe that because something is harmful and optional, it should be avoided and campaigned against, you should avoid and also campaign against eating animal products, as they are more harmful than cigarettes in every category and, like cigarettes, is entirely optional.
It continues:
"Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals. Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer."
Government statistics, as stated in the post that this is a follow-up of, shows that heart disease is the number one killer of Americans. For simplicy sake in the Part I post, I avoided complicating the issue, simply desiring to question how people think and what they think and make them apply intellectually honest standards to their own life and live accordingly.
The truth is that eating animal products is linked, as these statements show, to a spectrum of diseases, poor health, and cancer. However, on the issue of heart disease alone, the standard American diet's intake of animal products kills more people in America than cigarettes. And this is only considering heart disease and ignoring significant increases in things such as colon and breast cancer and conditions such as diabetes.
And entire, free, online, academic and scientific book is available online provided by the National Academies Press is "Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer: Directions for Research" which goes into a lot more detail regarding diet and cancer. Published in 1983, the directions of research since, as only touched upon in this post, indicate and confirm the connection between diet and cancer, especially a diet in animal products that Americans possess. This work was published by the Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council, and Committee on Diet, Nutrition, and CancerThe China Project by Roger Segelken of Cornell University contributed to this study and did a follow-up in 1989.
A basic conclusion of the study is that a Western diet is linked to Westernized levels of disease. And that the standard amount of animal intake in the Western diet is connected to those diseases. I have referenced studies from Oxford, Cornell, The American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada, the Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council, Committee on Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer, the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, and I could reference dozens more.
However, the first draft in this post took me approximately a full hour already. I am not here to write a book. You can find books that can reference even more.
Traditions and religious beliefs which advocate vegetariansism date back to around 200 BCE in India. Today Indian vegetarians, usually lacto-vegetarians make up 20–42% of the population in India. Seventh-Day Adventists in America. Jainism is one of the world's oldest religions and is still practiced today and is a pretty strict vegeterianism. The Cathar Christians in the Middle Ages were strict vegetarians (except for fish). The standard American myopic perception of the growing vegetarian and vegan movement is that these ideas are new and risky healthwise. However, entire peoples, regions, and religions for thousands and thousands of years have been perfectly healthy without the consumption of meat or dairy and/or with a much lower intake of meat and dairy consumption than the standard American meal.
What does all of this mean?
Eating animal products is a dietary option, not a dietary requirement.
Eating animal products is detrimental to health.
The calories of energy needed to create meat compared to a plant-based equivalent in energy is incredibly wasteful. Spending energy to create nutrition in the form of meat is also wasteful of energy. As stated in Part I, a United Nations report revealed that the animal product industry was the number two or three worst offender in every type of environmental problem, clearing land, polluting water, air, etc.
However, if you choose to do "go vegan", please research what a healthy vegan diet entails.
Remember: the Web and its search engines are before you, you can use it, you can learn.
And let us be intellectually and ethically honest with ourselves:
If you object to smoking on the basis of health, environment, and pollution, if should object even more to the animal product industry and follow a vegetarian and/or (even better) vegan diet.
Last notes:
The danger is not that a vegan diet cannot provide you the nutrients you need, but that your standard American diet and meal culture hinders you from being able to see out of it. It is difficult to change one's diet not because of a lack of choices or tastes, but because your region's culture makes animal products the center of everything in its diets and meals.
So, I repeat.
If you choose to do "go vegan", please research what a healthy vegan diet entails.
Remember: the Web and its search engines are before you, you can use it, you can learn.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
