People for Reason in Science and Medicine
Pro-Health, Pro-Environment, Anti-Vivisection
Pro-Health, Pro-Environment, Anti-Vivisection
“The Carnivore Diet – A Dangerous Fad or Health Rescuer?” When we saw this headline in Dr. Mercola’s newsletter we were not surprised. Although Mercola in some ways takes an anti-pharma stance, we disagree with him on most every other issue, including his assertion that eating meat is healthy. Mercola believes in vivisection no matter how many times he is confronted with the scientific argument that proves animal experimentation is a fraud. He also supports pharma’s lies regarding the existence of the Covid virus and believes in the germ theory.
In this article in Mercola’s newsletter in which Dr. Shawn Baker, otherwise known as the “Carnivore King,” extols the virtues of eating red meat, Baker makes many claims that go against countless epidemiological and clinical studies. Baker says that an all-red-meat diet is helpful in preventing auto immune diseases, is beneficial, not harmful, for kidneys, that animal fats are healthy and any study that concludes saturated fats are harmful is useless.
He says he has seen an all-red-meat diet heal ADHD, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis. On the other hand, he tells his followers that plants contain ingredients that cause a variety of health issues. We agree that not everyone can eat certain fruits, vegetables, and grains because of allergies to them caused by a plethora of different reasons like genetic engineering, pesticides, and vaccine poisoning, but the answer to that is to avoid those foods, not turn to an all-red-meat diet.
What Do Scientists Say About a Red Meat Diet?
Even though most of our tax dollars dispersed by the National Institutes of Health are given to vivisectors, the NIH also offers grants to epidemiologists and clinicians who truly are real scientists. Studies done by these scientists have overwhelmingly concluded that a diet of red meat is harmful to our health in many ways.
Here is quote from one of those studies. “Recent evidence from large prospective U.S. and European studies and from meta-analysis of epidemiological studies indicates that the long term consumption of increasing amounts of meat and particularly red meat is associated with increased risk of total mortality, cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer and 2 types of diabetes in both men and women.” (Health Risks Associated with Meat Consumption, A Review of Epidemiological Studies).
Another study concludes: “…There has been growing evidence that high consumption of red meat, especially processed meat, may be associated with an increased risk of several chronic diseases.” (Potential Health Hazards of Eating Red Meat).
Yet another NIH study summarized: “High red and processed meat consumption is related to several diseases. In addition, cooking meat at high temperatures for a long duration forms heterocyclic amines which have harmful health effects… a high intake of heterocyclic amines was associated with insulin resistance. (High Red and Processed Meat Consumption is associated with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Insulin Persistence).
The number of scientific studies that tell us a red meat diet is dangerous for your health is exhaustive. Independent researchers have found that eating meat from all animals promotes breast, prostate, and colon cancers, and erectile dysfunction. According to the Erectile Dysfunction Institute, “Up to 90 percent of all cases of impotence are actually physical as opposed to psychological, meaning the high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, prostate cancer or inflammations, and hormonal imbalances that eating meat causes might also contribute to impotence.”
Meat contains antibiotics, dioxins, arsenic, and can cause Creutzfeldt-Jacob (mad cow) disease, a degenerative disease that affects the brain and neurological system. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that 70% of food poisoning is caused by contaminated animal flesh that has been saturated with feces during processing.
Animals begin to decay as soon as they are slaughtered. The enzymes inside the animal body that cause decay are slowed down by preservatives, but the rot continues. The enzymes in the rotting flesh continue to decay until they are consumed by meat eaters. Before animals are slaughtered, they panic and experience extreme terror at facing certain death and release toxic substances and hormones into their bodies including adrenaline as the fight or flight reflex kicks in. The adrenaline uses up glycogen and lactic acid which toughens the flesh and makes it spoil sooner. The horror these animals experience facing a brutal death they cannot escape is indescribable.
Close Your Eyes and Believe What You Will
Baker says he does not believe in epidemiological studies that go counter to his claims regarding a red meat diet. Nonetheless, in 2021 he took part in and promoted a biased epidemiological study done by Harvard on red meat eating that was useless by Baker’s own criteria. He publicized what he liked from the study on social media and ignored what he didn’t like.
Baker lost his medical license in 2017 and regained it in 2019 but he now prefers to focus on his business, MeatRX, which, reportedly in 2021, had generated Baker a net worth of $900,000. Not satisfied with extolling the virtues of his own diet, he relentlessly criticizes vegans and plant-based diets.
Since beginning his all-red-meat diet in 2018, Baker now has changed his stance slightly and eats cheese and eggs and allows his children to eat dairy. How long Baker and his many followers can sustain their health on the red-meat diet remains to be seen. Four years is not long enough to find that out. But he has attained a large following of true believers and has become a wealthy man because of it.
The Environmental Impact of Meat Eating
We’ve written many articles on this subject and it should suffice to say – factory farms are a disaster for the animals forced to live in hellish conditions and for the air, soil, and water that are polluted by toxic emissions caused by the livestock industry. There are 2 million factory farms worldwide, raising a total of 9.32 billion animals. This amounts to a stunningly massive landscape of horrific brutality towards animals on a magnitude that is beyond our imagination. As long as humans continue to torture animals we will never live in a peaceful world.
1.6 million tons of excrement are produced each year by just one factory farm. The piles of excrement are stored in huge cesspools. These toxic swamps emit around 400 harmful gasses including nitrous oxide, methane, carbon dioxide, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide and are extremely dangerous to nearby communities. With these gasses being released from factory farms all over the world every single day it doesn’t take a genius to recognize that factory farms threaten the environment and the very air we breathe. Furthermore, every year, 150 gallons of water are required to clean excrement off the floor after just one cow.
Can there be any doubt that a vegan diet is not only healthy and compassionate, but also necessary to maintain human life on this planet?
What’s So Great About A Vegan Diet?
Here’s a partial list that answers that question:
But How Do You Get Your Protein?!
All vegans have heard this question countless times. Here is a list of fruits and vegetables that provide us with more than enough protein: soybeans, broccoli, spinach, avocadoes, cauliflower, dates, asparagus, brussel sprouts, apricots, tangerines, coconuts, blueberries, mangosteens, figs, apples, corn, lentils, kale, artichokes, mushrooms, chickpeas, guavas, tomatoes, and bananas. All of these foods provide many other nutritional benefits as well.
While we do not wish ill health on anyone, we believe real science is overwhelmingly on the side of veganism and that an all-red-meat diet does not bode well for any human body. And as for the cows, they love vegans and wish there were a whole lot more of them.
