Re: Stop Eating Your Friends! (Go Vegan)

by lizardking Thu Mar 24, 2016 7:56 pm

"when you tell someone you’re vegan and they become a plant rights activist"

Stop Eating Your Friends! (Go Vegan) - Page 9 Tumblr_inline_o1lpyfFm1x1thf03t_500

Stop Eating Your Friends! (Go Vegan) - Page 9 Tumblr_inline_o1lpyfFm1x1thf03t_500

by lizardking Fri Mar 25, 2016 6:33 pm

11 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Bacon

1. Pregnant Pigs Are Kept in Extreme Confinement

The pork industry’s use of gestation crates, which keep pigs immobilized, is one of the worst forms of institutionalized animal abuse in existence. In fact, these crates are so cruel they’ve been banned in nine states and the entire European Union.
2. Bacon (and Other Processed Meats) Could Give You Cancer

Just last year, a study by the World Health Organization placed processed meats like bacon and sausage in the same carcinogenic category as asbestos and smoking cigarettes.
3. Piglets Are Mutilated Without Painkillers

Piglets are taken from their mothers when they’re as young as 10 days old. After having their tails cut off, their teeth clipped, and their testicles ripped out without any painkillers, they’re packed into filthy, overcrowded pens.
4. Pig Farming Is Destroying Our Waterways

With thousands of animals crammed into a single farming facility, millions of tons of feces, urine, and blood require disposal. The result is massive toxic waste lagoons that can become so taxed they overflow and seep into water tables, rivers, and streams, creating a toxic mess.
5. Sick Piglets Are Killed in Horrific Ways

Piglets who are too sick or who aren’t growing fast enough are gruesomely killed. Many are slammed headfirst onto concrete floors, and others are tossed into overcrowded gassing carts where they slowly suffocate from CO2.
6. Pig Farms Are Breeding Grounds for Dangerous Bacteria

On factory farms, antibiotics are used to make animals grow faster and keep them alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them. Bacteria can develop resistance to these antibiotics, making it virtually impossible to treat humanswho become infected by these “superbugs.”
7. No Federal Laws Protect Pigs on Factory Farms

Unfortunately, not a single federal law protects animals during their lives on factory farms. The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act pertains to cows and pigs only at the slaughterhouse, providing zero protection to them for the majority of their lives.
8. Farmers Feed Dead Piglets and Feces to Pigs

In 2013, Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV), an often fatal diarrheal illness, killed a tenth of pigs raised for pork. Last year, Fox News reported that farmers were combating the epidemic by feeding pigs manure containing the virus or remains of dead piglets who were infected.
9. Pigs Receive Little to No Veterinary Care

As countless MFA investigations have documented, many pigs are left to suffer from open wounds, serious injuries, and infections without proper veterinary care. As long as factory farmers prioritize profit over animal welfare, animals will pay the price.
10. Bacon (and Other Processed Meats) Can Shorten Your Life

Researchers at Loma Linda University School of Public Health found that vegetarians had a lower risk of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and death from all causes. Consuming high amounts of processed meats like bacon can increase your risk of premature death by up to 44 percent.
11. Pigs Are Incredibly Smart

Pigs are considered the fifth-most intelligent animal in the world—even more intelligent than dogs—and are capable of playing video games with more focus and success than chimps! Despite this, factory farmers treat them as meat-producing machines.
–
We can take a stand for animals, the environment, and our own health by ditching pork and other animal products.
For a list of delicious vegan bacon recipes, click here.

by lizardking Fri Mar 25, 2016 6:34 pm

“When you “go vegan”, you are basically waving your middle finger with an exclamation point saying “fuck you” to a billion dollar industry responsible for the torture and murder of billions of animals and the sickness and death of billions of human beings.”
— Dominick Thompson

“…And after the ancestors, the lions, the teeth, the religions, the traditions, the cultures, the remote tribes somewhere, the feeling of plants, the caring farmer they know nearby, the protein…the ugly truth of willfully ignorant non-vegans surfaces - ‘I like the taste and I don’t care’.”
~Anita Mahdessian

by lizardking Fri Mar 25, 2016 6:54 pm

Turkey Talk Day 9: Breeding “Food” Animals: What No One Wants to Talk About

One of the more disturbing, yet often overlooked, aspects of raising animals for human use is the breeding process.

A worker at a ConAgra turkey breeding factory in Missouri described his job in the following way: “I have never done such hard, dirty, disgusting work in my life: 10 hours of pushing birds, grabbing birds, wrestling birds, jerking them upside down, pushing open their vents, dodging their panic-blown excrement and breathing the dust stirred up by terrified birds.”

Modern, farmed turkeys have been so genetically manipulated through breeding that they can no longer mate naturally. Poultry farmers use artificial insemination to fertilize eggs. Male turkeys are masturbated and females are injected with their semen.

The entire process of mating, laying, and rearing has essentially been hijacked and technologized. The process of capturing and forcefully inseminating birds is not pretty. The same birds are used repeatedly for breeding throughout their short lives until their production wanes ever so slightly and slaughter becomes more profitable.

by lizardking Fri Mar 25, 2016 6:56 pm

“All sentient beings should have at least one right—the right not to be treated as property”
— Gary L. Francione

by lizardking Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:01 pm

by lizardking Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:03 pm

Ten Things You Should Know About Eating Eggs

1. Chickens are very intelligent, sensitive and social. They have communication skills as complex as some primates. Karen Davis, PhD, president of United Poultry concerns states that “chickens are endowed with memory and emotion that influence their social behavior, and have a keenly developed consciousness of one another and their surroundings. … chickens recognize each other as individuals, especially after they’ve been separated.”

2. 95% of egg laying hens in the US (nearly 300 million birds) are kept on factory farms, where they spend their lives crammed into battery cages. Battery cages are around 67-76 square inches- smaller than the size of a standard piece of paper. Anywhere from 5-10 birds are kept in one of these.

3. The egg industry is responsible for the deaths of 6 BILLION male chicks yearly- simply because they can’t produce eggs. After hatching, chicks are sexed. Females are sent to lay eggs in a factory farm or sent by mail (which is extremely cruel and often results in the death or injury of the chicks) to suburban farmers. Males are killed either by being ground up alive in a macerator or suffocated to death in the garbage.

4. Hens often will endure a process called force molting. This is when the hen is intentionally starved and kept in the dark for anywhere between 5 and 14 days, resetting her reproductive cycle and causing her to produce a large amount of eggs. This will be done repeatedly until the hen is spent.

5. Hens are slaughtered when their productivity declines, which is usually between 18 and 24 months. If they are not killed on the way to the slaughterhouse, they will be cruelly killed and put into premade supermarket foods like canned soups, frozen dinners and other similar low grade chicken meat products. Chickens whose bodies are too destroyed or who are already deceased will be ground up alive, gassed, thrown into landfills, or turned into livestock feed. Even on “high quality”, certified humane egg farms, it is standard practice to kill the chickens when keeping them is no longer profitable.

6. You might think, “well they make the eggs anyways, why not eat them?” This is untrue. Chickens, even alleged “heritage” breeds, have been severely damaged by selective breeding and hormones which cause them to produce a wildly high amount of eggs- 250 to 300, whereas a wild bird will lay only about 10-15 a year. Not only that, but they will usually die after 4-6 years- if they are not killed first- due to incredibly painful reproductive diseases. The natural lifespan of a chicken is between 10 and 20 years.

7. What about backyard eggs? Well, even ignoring the cruelty that takes place at the hatchery, suburban farming is still unethical. Chickens have no way to consent to the consumption of their eggs, and eating them shows a complete disregard for their bodily autonomy. They also will keep laying eggs so long as they are taken away, because they are trying to create a clutch in an intensely strenuous process. Vast amounts of calcium are leached from their bones to produce the shell as the egg passes through their reproductive system. This is best gained back through the consumption of their eggs and the shell.

8. The egg industry is an environmental disaster. It takes approximately 3 kilos of grain to produce one kilo of eggs. It takes an average of 200 liters of water to produce one single egg, which is 2400 liters (or 634 gallons) to produce a dozen. Egg farms are also largely responsible for ammonia gas emissions due to bird feces. Speaking of feces, poop from farm animals is a major water polluter, having already contaminated over 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated the groundwater in 17.

9. Eggs are not healthy! They’re just not. Eggs are very high in cholesterol, which contributes to the risk of heart disease. A Harvard study found that eating a single egg a day appeared to cut women’s lives as short as smoking 5 cigarettes a day for 15 years. Harvard research also concluded that eating a single egg a day is “associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes in men and women” and that eating eggs was “positively related to mortality”. The American Dietetic Association has concluded that heart failure risk is higher with higher egg consumption. It has also been discovered that consuming just 2.5 or more eggs a week increases the risk of prostate cancer by 81%. In fact, eggs are not legally allowed to be advertised as healthy or nutritious because it is considered to be false and misleading. However, this does not stop the American Egg Board from having a yearly advertising budget of $10 million, which they maintain via government subsidies.

10. Eggs are easily replaceable. It’s easy to make vegan versions of egg dishes, find substitutes for nutrients found in eggs, replace them in recipes, and to have delicious vegan meals without chicken ovum.

How to go vegan: one two three

[source] [source] [source] [source] [source] [source] [source] [source]

by lizardking Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:09 pm

by lizardking Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:13 pm

by lizardking Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:14 pm

lizardking wrote:

Picture Sources [1] [2]

Animal slaughter may have increased from a depressing and unacceptable .5 billion a year to a depressing and unacceptable 9.1 billion a year, but don’t fail to notice that it has been decreasing Smile

End the demand for slaughter.

End the demand for wasting government subsidies.

Continue raising awareness and interest in veganism.

Google Confirms: Veganism on the Rise
Interest in Vegan Diets on the Rise: Google Trends Notes Public’s Increased Curiosity in Veganism*

by lizardking Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:22 pm

“I wish everyone felt the emergency of what is happening to animals around the world. Animals in factory farms, elephants forced to perform at circuses, whales being hunted in the southern oceans. I have been on the front lines, I’ve been with the animals in their suffering. This is an emergency. The pain we are inflicting is enormous and unfathomable. Any small step you can take to decrease animal suffering is significant. Encourage everyone you know to do the same.” — Jo-Anne McArthur

by lizardking Sun Mar 27, 2016 7:40 pm

Stop Eating Your Friends! (Go Vegan) - Page 9 Vijftig-dode-koeien-gelderse-boerderij

50 Cows found dead at farm in Gelderland

50 cows died because the farmer didn’t feed them properly and didn’t clean their stalls. They basically stood in their own manure the whole time.

This was one of those ‘Small local happy humane family farms ’, not a factory farm like you’d have in the USA.

by lizardking Sun Mar 27, 2016 7:42 pm

“In observational studies both across countries and within single populations, higher dairy intake has been linked to increased risk of prostate cancer (cited in^[2]).

Observational cohort studies have shown higher diary intake is linked to higher ovarian cancer risk (cited in ^[2]).

Cow’s milk protein may play a role in triggering type 1 diabetes through a process called molecular mimicry^[3].

Across countries, populations that consume more dairy have higher rates of multiple sclerosis^[4].

In interventional animal experiments and human studies, dairy protein has been shown to increase IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor-1) levels. Increased levels of IGF-1 has now been implicated in several cancers^[5].

In interventional animal experiments^[6] and human experiments^[7], dairy protein has been shown to promote increased cholesterol levels (in the human studies and animal studies) and atherosclerosis (in the animal studies).

The primary milk protein (casein) promotes cancer initiated by a carcinogen in experimental animal studies^[8].

D-galactose has been found to be pro-inflammatory and actually is given to create animal models of aging^[1].

Higher milk intake is linked to acne^[9].

Milk intake has been implicated in constipation^[10] and ear infections (cited in^[2]).

Milk is perhaps the most common self-reported food allergen in the world^[11].

Much of the world’s population cannot adequately digest milk due to lactose intolerance.” (x)

“Milk depletes the calcium from your bones”

“Milk might not be as good for us as we thought, study suggests”

“For Strong Bones, Kids Need Exercise,
Sunshine And A Dairy-Free Diet”

“New PCRM Study Shatters Milk Myth: Children’s Bone Health Tied to Exercise, Not Dairy”

“Milk Is Dangerous for Your Health”

“Study Suggests Milk Is Bad For Bones, Heart”

“People who have been taught that cow’s milk is the “perfect food” may be shocked to hear many prominent medical doctors are now saying dairy consumption is a contributing factor in nearly two dozen diseases of children and adults”

“although milk makes bones stronger in the short term, in the long term it erodes bone-making cells, increasing the risk of osteoporosis”

“8 Reasons You Should Stop Drinking Milk Now”

“Got Proof? Lack of Evidence for Milk’s Benefits”

“The idea that you have to drink milk for strong bones is deeply ingrained – the result of very successful PR by the commercial dairy industry. But what most people do not realize is that pasteurized milk has little to do with strong bones, or good health, for that matter.”

“Dairy Doesn’t Make Sense From an Evolutionary Perspective”

by lizardking Sun Mar 27, 2016 7:59 pm

(This article is incredibly disturbing but worth reading if you are still a meat-eater).
www.easyvegetarian.net/theawfultruth.html

THE AWFUL TRUTH

Most people don't want to think about where meat comes from. Notice how it's a taboo subject. From early childhood, we've been brainwashed by our society to go into an unconscious trance about 'meat' and what it actually is. We don't talk about that.

The taboo of talking about 'meat'

People don't sit down to dinner and start discussing the circumstances of the life and the death of the animal they are about to eat. That would be considered offensive - why? Why is it considered offensive or inappropriate to talk about the facts of what it is that is being eaten? Why do the majority of people not want to know, hear, see or even talk about it? Why is it that this is about the only subject that parents and teachers don't teach their children? If children do ask adults or start questioning the subject they are usually given some abrupt answers to shut them up and move onto a 'nicer' subject. How many schools take their children on an excursion to the abattoir? How many children get to go to a battery hen farm or a factory pig farm? These places are out of bounds to the general public. Not only that, we never see images of them on TV or in magazines. These places are secret. We are not allowed to go there. Why not? What is it we are not supposed to see and why?

We grow up in an unconscious daze about meat, blindly supporting suffering we are not even aware of. It's unfortunately true that some people reach adulthood and don't even know that in Australia most eggs come from battery cage hens, or that around 90% of pigs in Australia exist in factory farms, spending long periods of time in either farrowing crates or sow stalls - small metal and concrete pens where they are unable to move, or that cows milk is not a natural food for humans - it's for baby cows who are stolen from their mothers and deprived of her milk so humans can drink it instead.

But animals for meat are slaughtered humanely?

Humane Slaughterhouse

Many people hold on to a fantasy that animals killed for meat are killed humanely. Animals at slaughterhouses know what is happening to them. They can smell, hear and feel the fear, terror, violence and death around them. Although there are technologies used to help minimise the terror and agony during slaughter, because of the numbers being killed, the techniques do not always work as they should and sometimes animals can be butchered or boiled (in the case of pigs and chickens) while still conscious. Tragically, for billions of factory farmed animals each year, the day of slaughter may be the best day of their life, as it will end the endless torment of their physically and psychologically horrendous existence they have endured in factory farms.

Because of the vast numbers of animals killed every day it is impossible for them to be given painless deaths. The U.S. Department of Agriculture documented humane slaughter violations at one processing plant, where inspectors found hogs who “were walking and squealing after being stunned [with a stun gun] as many as four times.” Because of improper stunning methods and extremely fast line speeds, many pigs are still alive when they are dumped into scalding-hot hair-removal tanks—they literally drown in scalding-hot water. This can happen in slaughterhouses in any country.

The concept of humane slaughter is used to keep people in ignorance and an excuse used by individuals to stay in denial about the reality of the pain, fear, and terror experienced by animals in slaughterhouses. Many people cling to this belief so they can continue eating meat without feeling that they are the cause of any suffering. Ask yourself, if someone wanted to kill you but promised they'd do it humanely, would you say, "Sure that's OK, go right ahead"? Every sentient being will fight to the end for their life.

What two former beef farmers have to say about 'Humane Slaughter'

Two American men who spent much of their lives as beef farmers have seen and experienced farm animal 'production', transportation and slaughtering first hand.

Harold Brown is a former beef farmer and his work involved driving cattle, performing castrations, dehorning and butchering farm animals. He also worked in the dairy industry for three years. What he has to say now, "I have often heard the word 'humane' used in relation to meat, dairy, eggs, and other products like cosmetics. I have always found this curious, because my understanding is that humane means to act with kindness, tenderness, and mercy" and "So no, in my experience, there is no such thing as humane animal products, humane farming practices, humane transport, or humane slaughter."

Howard Lyman is a Former Montana cattle rancher. "My life experience has given me a better understanding of what is happening, and what a mistake it is to believe there is anything called humane" slaughter" and "I'm sure that it will take many years before the majority of humans learn as I have that actions, and not words, are the true proof of our understanding of the term humane." click to go to his website: The Mad Cowboy

For more information about the belief that animals can be killed humanely: Humane Myth

'Meet Your Meat' Video - Narrated By Alec Baldwin

Please be aware, this video contains graphic and disturbing images.

The reality

"Slaughterhouse", 1997 "Before they reach their end, the pigs get a shower, a real one. Water sprays from every angle to wash the farm off them. Then they begin to feel crowded. The pen narrows like a funnel´ the drivers behind urge the pigs forward, until one at a time they climb onto the moving ramp... Now they scream, never having been on such a ramp, smelling the smells they smell ahead. I do not want to over dramatize because you´ve read all this before. But it was a frightening experience, seeing their fear, seeing so many of them go by, it had to remind me of things no one wants to be reminded of anymore, all mobs, all death marches, all mass murders and executions ... " U.S meat inspector.

Quotes above from Brightside Farm website

Animal TV Shows what really happens to animals at factory farms and slaughterhouses.

meat.html

Pigs

In Australia pigs and chickens are the animals most greatly exploited with the majority of these animals living in cramped, stinking conditions indoors in unnatural lighting, often unable to even move. Around 90% of pigs live out their lives in factory farms in horrendous conditions. View footage of how pigs live at Save Babe

Chickens

In Australian 2006/2007, 470 million chickens were slaughtered. To find out the reality of what actually happens to Australian chickens read the experience of an Animal Liberationist who worked undercover for three days in a chicken slaughterhouse in Victoria. Chicken Slaughter

Factory Farms

There are over 500 million animals confined like this in factory farms in Australia today. From the Animals Australia website: Despite having the same capacity to suffer, farmed animals such as pigs, sheep, cows and chickens are denied the protection of animal cruelty laws that protect dogs and cats. This means that it is legal to cause suffering to animals raised for food. This includes painful surgical mutilations (without pain relief) and in most cases intensive and unnatural overcrowding or confinement.

For more information about factory farming as well as animal transportation and slaughtering in Australia go to: Animals Australia or ALV or Inside a Queensland abattoir

The Suffering

Wayne Hsiung (an animal rights activist) describes watching a downed dairy cow’s last few moments.

"A friend of mine called and said that he had spotted a stalled transport truck with a downed dairy cow inside. I arrived to witness a grisly scene. The poor girl was collapsed on the ground inside the truck, in a 3-inch-deep cesspool of faeces and urine. You could see her wide, terrified eyes staring into nothingness, her entire body quivering ever so slightly. But she was making no sounds. The other cows had trampled her broken body; she had bloody wounds and bright red lesions that were clearly visible through the filth. Her udder was swollen to many times its normal size. We noticed a ghastly sliver of flesh on a gate mechanism above her. (It was later suggested to us that this might have been her tongue. Cows tend to lick the sides of the truck in search of moisture, but when it's a frozen mechanized gate, that desperate attempt can have tragic consequences.) Our poor friend died that day, on the filthy floor of a bloody transport truck. We witnessed her body go cold, and her eyes stop moving. Her entire life had been enslaved and twisted by violence and prejudice

.Quotes from Slaughterhouse Workers from Gail Eisnitz’s book 'Slaughterhouse'

“I seen them take those stunners – they’re about as long as a yard stick – and shove it up the hog’s ass… They do it with cows, too… And in their ears, their eyes, down their throat… They’ll be squealing and they’ll just shove it right down there.”

“Hogs get stressed out pretty easy. If you prod them too much they have heart attacks. If you get a hog in a chute that’s had the shit prodded out of him and has a heart attack or refuses to move, you take a meat hook and hook it into his bunghole [anus]. You’re dragging these hogs alive, and a lot of times the meat hook rips out of the bunghole. I’ve seen hams – thighs – completely ripped open. I’ve also seen intestines come out. If the hog collapses near the front of the chute, you shove the meat hook into his cheek and drag him forward.” “Or in their mouth. The roof of their mouth. And they’re still alive.”

“Pigs on the kill floor have come up and nuzzled me like a puppy. Two minutes later I had to kill them – beat them to death with a pipe.”

“These hogs get up to the scalding tank, hit the water and start screaming and kicking. Sometimes they thrash so much they kick water out of the tank… Sooner or later they drown. There’s a rotating arm that pushes them under, no chance for them to get out. I’m not sure if they burn to death before they drown, but it takes them a couple of minutes to stop thrashing.”

“Sometimes I grab it [a hog] by the ear and stick it right through the eye. I’m not just taking its eye out, I’ll go all the way to the hilt, right up through the brain, and wiggle the knife.”

“Only you don’t just kill it, you go in hard, push hard, blow the windpipe, make it drown in its own blood. Split its nose. A live hog would be running around the pit. It would just be looking up at me and I’d be sticking, and I would just take my knife and – cut its eye out while it was just standing there. And this hog would just scream.”

“I could tell you horror stories… about cattle getting their heads stuck under the gate guards and the only way you can get it out is to cut their heads off while they’re still alive.”

“He’ll kick them [hogs], fork them, use anything he can get his hands on. He’s already broken three pitchforks so far this year, just jabbing them. He doesn’t care if he hits its eyes, head, butt. He jabs them so hard he busts the wooden handles. And he clubs them over the back.”

“I’ve seen live animals shackled, hoisted, stuck, and skinned. Too many to count, too many to remember. It’s just a process that’s continually there. I’ve seen shackled beef looking around before they’ve been stuck. I’ve seen hogs [that are supposed to be lying down] on the bleeding conveyor get up after they’ve been stuck. I’ve seen hogs in the scalding tub trying to swim.”

“I seen guys take broomsticks and stick it up the cow’s behind, screwing them with a broom.”

“I’ve drug cows till their bones start breaking, while they were still alive. Bringing them around the corner and they get stuck up in the doorway, just pull them till their hide be ripped, till the blood just drip on the steel and concrete. Breaking their legs… And the cow be crying with its tongue stuck out. They pull him till his neck just pop.”

“One time I took my knife – it’s sharp enough – and I sliced off the end of a hog’s nose, just like a piece of bologna. The hog went crazy for a few seconds. Then it just sat there looking kind of stupid. So I took a handful of salt brine and ground it into his nose. Now that hog really went nuts, pushing its nose all over the place. I still had a bunch of salt in my hand – I was wearing a rubber glove – and I stuck the salt right up the hog’s ass. The poor hog didn’t know whether to shit or go blind.”

by vortexkitten Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:51 pm

Hey Lizarking, 'Meet Your Meat' Video - Narrated By Alec Baldwin just fucking breaks my heart to watch. Vegan nearly a year now and feeling way better about everything.
I will try and make others watch this and hopefully it will make the difference for them that they finally change what they eat.

And the Slaughterhouse Workers..hanging is too good for them

by **Admin** Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:54 pm

Thanks for all these great posts LK! This thread is a one-stop shop for going vegan.

by Thinkforyourself Tue Mar 29, 2016 6:55 pm

Below is a great post from VegNews.com which disproves the myth that Vegan's don't get enough protein:

Resident VN nutritionist Julieanna Hever sets the record straight on plant-based protein.

The first question I am often asked when discussing a whole-food, plant-based diet is, “Where do you get your protein?” Protein has become widely recognized as a miracle macronutrient that, apparently, is challenging to acquire in effective doses. However, this is far from accurate. Let’s clear up three of plant-powered protein's three most-common misconceptions.

Myth #1: The More Protein, The Better
Humans do indeed require protein, as it is one of the three macronutrients we need to attain from our diet. Protein is involved in virtually all of the body’s structural and functional mechanisms. All of our cells contain protein and it constitutes the building blocks of muscles, hair, nails, organs, skin, tendons, ligaments, enzymes, membranes, some hormones, hemoglobin, antibodies, enzymes, and much more. However, just because something is critical doesn’t mean that more is better. In fact, when it comes to protein, consuming an excess of what we need may promote disease.

The US Department of Agriculture’s Recommended Daily Allowance for protein is 0.7 grams per kilogram bodyweight per day for adults older than 19 years of age. For an average 130-pound female, that means 47 grams of protein per day. For a 170-pound male, 62 grams is recommended. Many people are consuming approximately 20 to 30 percent of their calories from protein, which equals 90 to 135 grams of protein on an 1,800-calorie diet (typical female intake) and 125 to 188 grams of protein on a 2,500-calorie diet (average male intake). This is equivalent to two to three times more than the USDA recommendations. Much of this excess protein comes from animal sources, which may be particularly damaging. Excess protein taxes the kidneys, contributes to gout, and is associated with an increased risk for many chronic diseases.

Myth #2: “Complete Proteins” are Hard to Find
The other popular misconception is that animal products are the best source of protein. One important reason this myth has been perpetuated is because the amino acids—the building blocks of protein—are assembled in a way in animal foods that more closely resembles what humans actually utilize. However, we now know that this is inconsequential. When you consume any protein, it is broken down via digestion into its separate amino acid constituents and is pooled in the blood for further use. When the body needs to construct a protein for an enzyme or to repair muscles tissue, it collects the necessary amino acids and strings them back together in the sequence appropriate for what it is currently creating. This occurs regardless whether you consume animal or plant protein.

If you eat a variety of whole plants, you will easily attain all of the essential amino acids necessary to sustain proper metabolism and to thrive. Plus, plant protein is perfectly packaged along with an abundance of phytonutrients, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber—all critical components for optimal health and disease prevention. On the contrary, animal protein is wrapped up with unhealthy saturated fat and dietary cholesterol. Animal products are also devoid of phytonutrients, antioxidants, and fiber, and are very low in most vitamins and minerals.

Myth #3: The More Active You are, the More Protein You Need
Humans need about 10 percent of calories from protein. Virtually all whole plant foods contain at least this amount, so if you consume enough volume and variety of whole plant foods, your protein requirement will easily be met. This applies to athletes too, who are often thought to require larger amounts of protein to sustain muscle size and optimize performance. However, athletes have increased overall calorie requirements, so when they boost their intake of whole plant foods, they automatically meet their greater need for all of the macronutrients, including protein.

When it comes to protein, it is not about consuming as much as we can, but rather consuming the right amount. Whole plant foods, as provided in nature, offer the ideal amount of protein necessary for growth, maintenance, and functioning of metabolic processes.

by lizardking Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:13 pm

“We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.”

~ Henry Beston

by Beashambassador Wed Mar 30, 2016 3:24 pm

Please comment on this article below:

The Telegraph science news section. Wednesday 30 March 2016

"Researchers from Cornell University in the US compared hundreds of genomes from a primarily vegetarian population in Pune, India to traditional meat-eating people in Kansas and found there was a significant genetic difference."
"Over many generations vegetarianism can lead to genetic changes"
"Long term vegetarian diet changes human DNA raising risk of cancer and heart disease"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12206669/Long-term-vegetarian-diet-changes-human-DNA-raising-risk-of-cancer-and-heart-disease.html

by mitch Wed Mar 30, 2016 9:46 pm

Beashambassador, a vegetarian diet includes the consumption of cancer and heart disease causing dairy products. Almost all human ailments are attributable to complications arising from long-term ingestion of meat, dairy and oil. As Eric said, this thread is a one-stop shop for going vegan cherry

by lizardking Wed Mar 30, 2016 10:16 pm

mitch wrote:Beashambassador, a vegetarian diet includes the consumption of cancer and heart disease causing dairy products. Almost all human ailments are attributable to complications arising from long-term ingestion of meat, dairy and oil. As Eric said, this thread is a one-stop shop for going vegan

True, but I think they were asking for us to comment because the article is making out as though a vegetarian diet is significantly worse than a carnivorous one and focusing specifically on plant consumption. I couldn't find the comment section though.

by Beashambassador Thu Mar 31, 2016 1:07 am

lizardking wrote:
mitch wrote:Beashambassador, a vegetarian diet includes the consumption of cancer and heart disease causing dairy products. Almost all human ailments are attributable to complications arising from long-term ingestion of meat, dairy and oil. As Eric said, this thread is a one-stop shop for going vegan
True, but I think they were asking for us to comment because the article is making out as though a vegetarian diet is significantly worse than a carnivorous one and focusing specifically on plant consumption. I couldn't find the comment section though.

Correct lizardking, vegetarian vs carnivorous, there is NO comment section on article, so should we use this forum for the comments and I will then forward our collective comments to the reporter on the article.
What say you?

by csp Thu Mar 31, 2016 2:32 am

Beashambassador, as mentioned previously vegetarians still consume animal products and this article is just fear propaganda to reinforce the status quo.

Milk, high in fat, cholestorol, animal protein
Eggs, high in cholesterol, animal protein

Also note that article mentions oil, if you look back further in the thread there is plenty of evidence that concentrated oil's are extremely bad for our health, I've seen plenty of vegetarians and vegans who pour olive oil over all their fancy food.

So it's certainly possible for a person to eat deep fried and processed foods while being completely vegan - but it's still not healthy. Hence why doctors such as Dr Greger, Dr Esselystn and Dr Bernard like to promote a WHOLE FOODS PLANT BASED diet, rather than use the term VEGAN diet. I try to make this distinction too now, use vegan for ethics and morals but talk about plant based when focusing on health.

Also in opposition to the article, the study done by Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn found that a healthy vegan diet caused more than 500 genes to change in three months, turning on genes that prevent disease and turning off genes that cause cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses.

Once more long term studies have been conducted on vegans who eat a purely plant based diet, these MSM outlets will have a hard time trying to convince the masses to continue eating their disease inducing foods.

Also, I doubt much would come from forwarding our collective comments to the reporter that writes for MSM.

by csp Fri Apr 01, 2016 10:05 am

by csp Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:29 am

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