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HEALTHIER FOOD CHOICES: Did you know...

Protein, Health, & Fitness: Did you know that a diet consisting of a variety of beans and lentils, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts & seeds has all the proteins people need to be healthy and active? Ask vegan athlete Carl Lewis, winner of 9 Olympic gold medals in track and field, or fellow vegan Ricky Williams, Heisman Trophy winning running back for the Miami Dolphins.

Nutritional Needs: Did you know that virtually all vitamins, minerals, and amino acids are created in soil or plants? That's why people who eat only plant foods can obtain plenty of protein, iron, calcium and other important nutrients.

The China Study generated massive volumes of comprehensive data, suggesting that the more animal protein we eat, the greater our risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney disease, osteoporosis and autoimmune diseases. The director of that ground-breaking study also concluded that the consumption of animal products causes more cancers than does any chemical carcinogen.

Heart Disease: The clinical studies of medical doctor Dean Ornish have shown us that most patients who followed standard medical advice for coronary artery blockages got worse, while those who adopted a total vegetarian diet coupled with lifestyle changes showed improvement, including reversal of coronary artery blockages.

Diabetes: Health professionals used to believe that once we develope diabetes, we are stuck with it. The clinical studies of Neal Barnard, MD, which were funded by the National Institute of Health, have shown that it is possible to repair insulin function and reverse Type-2 diabetes.

Heart Disease: Cleveland Clinic physician Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn has convincingly shown that even severe coronary artery disease is completely reversible thru dietary change. Seventeen patients with advanced heart disease went on his vegan dietary plan. 49 cardiac events had previously occurred in this group, and 5 patients had been given less than a year to live. 23 years later, all were still alive and free of heart disease symptoms.

Lactose intolerance is not a disorder. It’s normal. Most of us lose the ability to digest milk sugars upon weaning, usually in our third year of life. 70% of the world's population fits this profile. And calcium deficiency and osteoporosis are rare in populations with low dairy consumption.

Antibiotics are routinely fed to chickens, turkeys, pigs, and dairy cows in massive amounts. As a result, bacterial resistance to antibiotic treatment of humans has jumped dramatically since the 1970s.

Milk: Did you know that there is virtually no evidence that drinking two or three glasses of milk a day reduces the chances of breaking a bone? … or that the highest hip fracture rates are found in the countries in which the most dairy products are consumed?

Chickens: Those who have witnessed the conditions in which chickens are raised and killed can understand why poultry is the most common cause of food poisoning in the home. The Atlanta Journal Constitution interviewed 84 federal poultry inspectors and found that more than two-thirds of them were so concerned that they had stopped eating chickens, themselves.

Erectile Dysfunction: Did you know that physicians are now using male erectile dysfunction as a marker for heart disease? The artery that leads down there can become clogged or damaged, just like any other. It can also be restored to vitality, like any other. Let food be your medicine!

Food Borne Illness: According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the major food borne microorganisms that make people sick and can even kill them – viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi – occur mainly in “meat, poultry, seafood, dairy products and eggs” (Buzby & Roberts).

COMPASSIONATE FOOD CHOICES: Did you know…

Farmed Animals: The vast majority of farmed animals today are raised in appalling conditions, which few of us would want to imagine, let alone experience. The federal Animal Welfare Act offers no protection, because it doesn’t even apply to farmed animals. And the few state laws that exist are often simply ignored.

Dairy Industry: Did you know that a cow on a modern dairy farm will spend nearly all of her short life pregnant, so that milk production and profits can be maximized? The male calves, who are inconvenient by-products of that industry, are taken from their mothers within hours of birth, often to be chained at the neck in one spot for their entire, brief lives.

Egg Industry: You might not know that the egg industry has no use for newborn male chicks, so they are routinely tossed into plastic bags with hundreds of others and left to smother. Free range egg production is typically no different.

Farmed Animals have individual personalities and love their lives just as we do. Our taste for meat supports an industry that confines and houses them in deplorable conditions; that deprives them of fresh air, sunlight, and freedom of movement; that frustrates nearly every need and natural instinct. How do we feel about this…

EARTH FRIENDLY FOOD CHOICES: Did you know…

Climate Change: A recent UN report says that livestock produce more climate-changing greenhouse gases than do all forms of transportation combined. The human appetite for animal flesh is also a driving force behind air and water pollution, soil erosion, deforestation, and fresh water scarcity. Our meat eating habit poses a serious threat to our future.

Modern meat production uses massive amounts of water, grains, fossil fuels and other resources to convert plant foods, which are naturally low in fat, high in fiber, and contain no cholesterol at all, into a food that is high in fat, high in cholesterol, and contains no fiber at all.

Shrimp & Fish: Did you know that for every pound of shrimp that we take from the ocean for food, we throw back another 20 pounds of mostly dead and dying sea life? And fish are being harvested in much the same way, with devastating results for marine ecosystems.

Chicken Manure: Did you know that the poultry industry on the Delmarva peninsula produces 1 million tons of chicken manure every year? It's a primary source of dangerous bacteria and nutrients that steal oxygen from our waterways. And it’s the main reason why so little progress has been made on restoring the Chesapeake Bay.

Fishing Industry: Did you know that virtually every species of seafood is either already severely overfished or being harvested at maximum sustainable levels? There's simply no way to balance recommendations to eat more fish with the state of the world's oceans, & certainly not with a world population about to hit 7 billion!

Hunger: Industrialized meat production is very inefficient, and squanders precious resources that could be used alleviate hunger. 80% of American farmland is used to grow grains, beans, and grasses to feed livestock. Our farms could provide for about 7 times as many people who adhere to a purely plant-based diet.

Thoughts on Spirituality and Peace

Early Native Americans hunted animals out of necessity and revered them as their brothers and sisters who, as they believed, were offering their bodies willingly so that others may live. Indians referred to the white man's livestock as "slave animals". Which of us, who has seen the way animals are treated in today's mass production of meat, dairy, and eggs, could imagine that any living being would go willingly into that process? And where is our reverence when we are killing purely for our own comforts… Where is the reverence when our food choices are damaging our own health and the health of the earth…

Will Tuttle, PhD, author of "The World Peace Diet", sees animal agriculture - which requires a desensitization to violence - as a root cause of oppression, exploitation and spiritual disconnectedness. Such a reduction of essential feelings, awareness, and intelligence serves to perpetuate violence & war.

Adopting a plant centered diet is one of the most loving things we can do. It’s a way of loving ourselves enough to really care about our health and our time left on earth; a way of loving and respecting animals enough to allow them their own place in nature, aside from what they can do for us; and a way of loving our planet enough to allow its beauty and resources, and its magical healing properties to be here for generations yet to come.

We’ve been blessed with bodies that don't require us to take the lives and the freedom of those with whom we share the planet. As we begin to eat and live more simply and sustainably, we bring our lives into greater alignment with our true peaceful nature. We grow in wisdom and share the joy of living with an ever broadening circle of friends.