Dear Congressional Representative,
Concerning the latest efforts to save our failing health-care system, there are several attitudes and practices that MUST be changed if you are truly desirous of legislating decent health services to the public at a reasonable price as well as minimizing costs to the government. The present proposals are insufficient at best and only maintain the status quo: more and more unhealthy Americans putting more and more demands on the health care system, with minor tweaking to fit political agendas. Here are the steps necessary to accomplish a truly beneficial change to our health-care system:
* You must recognize that the greatest medical costs to Americans and to the existing health-care system are from treatments for the big four chronic diseases: heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity.
* You must change the goal of all medical practices from treating symptoms of disease to that of preventing disease, especially the chronic diseases, as the President specified in his talk to the AMA some weeks ago.
* You must understand that the major contributor to the development of these 4 dreaded and disabling diseases is our excessive consumption of meat and dairy products, a fact well-supported by independent medical researchers.
* You must educate yourselves and your constituents about the great health benefits of plant-based eating.
* You must end the financial support of the meat and dairy industries, along with support of the farmers who grow the food for these industries and, instead, support the farmers in growing and harvesting of plant foods to be directly eaten by consumers.
* You must be prepared to resist the pressures of the medical communities, pharmaceutical companies, the meat and dairy conglomerates, the fast-food and restaurant businesses. They will fight like hell but will all adapt to the changes when a hamburger reaches its natural price of around $10, a small steak around $20 while a veggie burger might go for $2, a Portobello sandwich for $3 and a hummus wrap for about $4.
* A healthy society with minimal heart disease, obesity, cancer and diabetes can only be attained by changing our eating patterns. You must find a way to accomplish this. A by-product of this major lifestyle change for Americans will be the spending of billions instead of hundreds of billions of dollars.
* If you find these ideas radical, think how radical it is to have half our population dying unnecessarily from preventable heart attacks or strokes, most of the remaining half dying from one of the dozen or so forms of cancer. Think how radical it is for a large segment of our population suffering with diabetes and about 1 in 3 obese. We’ve been looking for a ‘cure’ for cancer and the other diseases for up to 40 years, but the cure can be on our dinner plates within weeks.
* You can consult with many professional experts currently studying and reporting on the health benefits of plant-based eating, including: John McDougall, M.D., Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., Michael Greger, M.D., T. Colin Campbell, M.D., Neal Barnard, M.D., Dean Ornish, M.D., Michael Klaper, M.D., Paulette Chandler, M.D., Milton Mills, M.D., Kerrie Saunders, Ph.D., Joel Fuhrman, M.D., Brenda Davis, R.D., George Eisman, R.D., Jeff Novick, R.D.
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Showing posts with label plant-based eating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plant-based eating. Show all posts
Friday, July 24, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
DEATH AND DESTRUCTION ON A PLATE
We think that war is the most destructive force on earth, more than geologic forces or terrorism. Wrong. We think that diseases such as malaria, AIDS, influenza wreak more death on humans than anything else. Not true. It is our current lifestyle that is responsible for the most death and destruction.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year by the meat, dairy, fast-food and restaurant industries telling us that we need to buy animal products for health and enjoyment. Their advertising is pervasive: on television, in newspapers and magazines and even on billboards. But they don’t tell you that millions of acres of grassland and forests, especially in tropical rainforests, have been and continue to be destroyed to make space for growing the corn and soybeans to feed cows, pigs and chickens that we eat. Likewise for cattle ranching. They don’t tell you that most of our water resources are used for farmed animals, nor do they tell you that 70% of our arable land is used for animal food production. They don’t tell you that, according to a widely accepted study from the Univ. of Chicago, more greenhouse gases result from animal agriculture than from all forms of transportation combined. That means that eating meat and dairy contributes more to global warming than all the exhaust from our cars, buses, trucks and planes. They also don’t tell you about the waste from animal-production facilities going into water systems and killing the life of the ecosystem. These environmental impacts are true not just for the U.S. but for all countries using meat and dairy as major foods. The impact on the environment is world-wide, and it is devastating.
Far and away, the most dangerous substances threatening human health are meat and dairy products. Those countries where people consume large quantities of animal food suffer the highest levels of death from heart disease, several nasty cancers and diabetes, not to mention the suffering from auto-immune diseases triggered by these foods. Fifty or so years ago these diseases were hardly on the map. People died from contagious diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms. Only since we’ve become addicted to meat and dairy have we developed the major chronic diseases that are now at the top of the list for death-production. Heart disease and cancer seem to be competing to be considered our #1 killer. More people world-wide die from preventable chronic disease caused by the foods they eat than from all the wars, geologic actions, car accidents, terrorism or contagious diseases. Our only hope in avoiding these unnecessary tragedies is for a plant-based eating lifestyle to become the standard rather than the exception. It will make for a healthy society and will restore our land, air and water to normal functioning. Adopting plant-based eating will turn us away from the most deadly and destructive human activity on our planet. Food for thought.
We think that war is the most destructive force on earth, more than geologic forces or terrorism. Wrong. We think that diseases such as malaria, AIDS, influenza wreak more death on humans than anything else. Not true. It is our current lifestyle that is responsible for the most death and destruction.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year by the meat, dairy, fast-food and restaurant industries telling us that we need to buy animal products for health and enjoyment. Their advertising is pervasive: on television, in newspapers and magazines and even on billboards. But they don’t tell you that millions of acres of grassland and forests, especially in tropical rainforests, have been and continue to be destroyed to make space for growing the corn and soybeans to feed cows, pigs and chickens that we eat. Likewise for cattle ranching. They don’t tell you that most of our water resources are used for farmed animals, nor do they tell you that 70% of our arable land is used for animal food production. They don’t tell you that, according to a widely accepted study from the Univ. of Chicago, more greenhouse gases result from animal agriculture than from all forms of transportation combined. That means that eating meat and dairy contributes more to global warming than all the exhaust from our cars, buses, trucks and planes. They also don’t tell you about the waste from animal-production facilities going into water systems and killing the life of the ecosystem. These environmental impacts are true not just for the U.S. but for all countries using meat and dairy as major foods. The impact on the environment is world-wide, and it is devastating.
Far and away, the most dangerous substances threatening human health are meat and dairy products. Those countries where people consume large quantities of animal food suffer the highest levels of death from heart disease, several nasty cancers and diabetes, not to mention the suffering from auto-immune diseases triggered by these foods. Fifty or so years ago these diseases were hardly on the map. People died from contagious diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms. Only since we’ve become addicted to meat and dairy have we developed the major chronic diseases that are now at the top of the list for death-production. Heart disease and cancer seem to be competing to be considered our #1 killer. More people world-wide die from preventable chronic disease caused by the foods they eat than from all the wars, geologic actions, car accidents, terrorism or contagious diseases. Our only hope in avoiding these unnecessary tragedies is for a plant-based eating lifestyle to become the standard rather than the exception. It will make for a healthy society and will restore our land, air and water to normal functioning. Adopting plant-based eating will turn us away from the most deadly and destructive human activity on our planet. Food for thought.
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