Headlines are everywhere. Processed meat causes cancer. Meat is not healthy for you.
The New York Times has no problem telling us about this.
The evidence is quite convincing that regular consumption of processed meats is detrimental to health, including colorectal cancer, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology and chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. And, overall, he added, most health experts agree that “processed meats are more harmful than nonprocessed meats.”
The conversation mentions that this might be an emotional problem for some people to handle.
Emotions can run high when the topic of how much red and processed meat to eat is raised. For many of us, eating these foods is culturally important – often tied to specific dishes and traditions.
That’s why this week’s landmark new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) is welcome. The report focuses explicitly on what the science says about how red and processed meat affects our health – and the health of the ecosystems on which we depend.
Medical News Today tells us that genetics also play a part in this. If you’re looking to avoid colorectal cancer, one should consider the food one eats surprisingly enough.
Previous research suggests that eating large amounts of red or processed meat can increase someone’s risk for colorectal cancer. Researchers are now interested in understanding how someone’s genetics influence their colorectal cancer risk from eating red and processed meat.
For women specifically, Everyday Health tells us that reducing or eliminating meat from your diet reduces greatly or risk for breast cancer.
Higher consumption of red and processed meats is strongly associated with an increased risk for breast cancer. Limiting or replacing red and processed meats with other sources of protein may lower this risk. The earlier in life you make this change, the more benefits you will see.
Even The Daily Mail, who really is not looking for the most intelligent readership possible in Britain, maintains that meat, sugar, alcohol and other processed foods, the main staples of the British diet, are just not bloody good for you.
Chemicals added to meats, as well as alcohol, excessive sugar and fat consumption can increase your risk of bowel, breast and liver cancer. And while it isn’t possible to avoid every carcinogen — substances that increase your risk of developing cancer — experts claim you can reduce your risk of cancer by cutting certain things from your diet.
And of course the Guardian is there to (theoretically) tell us the truth.
The World Health Organization defines processed meat as carcinogenic to humans,” says Dr Keren Papier, a nutritional epidemiologist leading research into colorectal cancer at Oxford university. “Eating an extra 50 grams of processed meat a day – about two slices of ham – could increase the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%.” For reference, old age is the main factor in most forms of bowel cancer, with 7% of UK men and 6% of women likely to receive a diagnosis over the course of a lifetime – this would increase the risk to 8% for men and 7% for women. Processed meats have also been linked with an increased risk of developing dementia, with one large 2021 study concluding that every additional 25 grams of processed meat in a person’s daily diet increases the chances of Alzheimer’s disease by 52%.
And this is after three paragraphs telling us how wonderful it is to eat dead animals.
I am 6 or 7 years removed from eating meat. I don’t eat it. If I did break down and eat a roasted chicken once or twice at the beginning, I stopped doing that a long time ago. The thought never comes into my mind. I feel zero social pressure. If I can’t eat anything at a restaurant or at a friend’s house, I won’t eat. I don’t want to put anything in my mouth I don’t want there and I don’t want anyone telling me what I should put in my mouth. I believe I know the truth. I’m okay with my own beliefs and I have enough empirical evidence amassed in the last 2000 days to basically tell me I know what I’m doing. Eating vegan is the healthiest diet on the planet.
I’m tired of listening to meat eaters talk. I’m tired of listening to idiots who can’t put sentences together telling me that the way things have always been is the way things should always be. Anybody can see how wonderful the world is that we live in. Providing you have a good job with adequate medical care and a car that you don’t mind driving in because it doesn’t require too much repair, as long as your own hands are clean, of course food as drugs is the correct way to be. The opportunity for a delicious meal is the right of all industrial people. Let us all be kings.
But all of the miseries that I know in life come from people who love drugs more than anything else. The physical result of eating meat is a drug reaction. Your system doesn’t like it. It shuts down pretty much everything else because of the misery of trying to digest it. That shutting down means your mind stops working amongst other things. Of course, the fact that it is a carcinogen means that your body worries towards the end of digestion. COVID has the same effect on me or at least the latest omicron does. I can’t stop feeding myself or it gets worse. This is not my head working, if I don’t keep the food flowing into my system, my immune system will shut down. And I don’t even eat the stuff that causes this. I just get it from the people who keep it going with all of their hearts.
I believe there is an art to eating well. I think it’s lovely when you put together a meal that truly does it for you. I am not immune to drugs. I made popcorn with some rather vicious hot pepper cooked into it. The steam from the cooking was like a police bomb. But the taste was amazing as was the residual burn. I’ve heard that super hot peppers can cure cancer. I do this to myself knowingly. The burn is not my problem. It’s the omicron.
Bread has a similar effect. Perhaps we are all gluten intolerant but this will give you a desirable effect. Don’t eat bread and you will find yourself losing weight. Put bread back in your diet and suddenly you are full again. It’s there for you and nobody had to die for your plate.
What I am saying is that the human animal was not designed to be a meat eater. We are physically incapable as individuals unless you learn hunting and trapping skills. I’m not talking about store-bought weapons and plastic tarps and petroleum-based clothing to help you deal with nature. If you think you can walk outside naked and barefoot and manipulate your environment to snare small animals or break rocks to make arrowheads, knives and spearheads, good luck. Even the toughest of the tough would not do this as a way of life. There aren’t really too many nomads out there who just live in caves because they hate society completely. I’m also happy for a delivery service to bring me factory beans. I’m just saying that I can probably try and get most of this done myself and I think everyone should at least try.
This lifestyle we lead is not good for us or the planet. Global warming is real. We are living in a time of mass extinction and the destruction of land caused by animal farming is the number one cause. This plus air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution and land pollution all for the sake of perpetuating economy over ecology, lunacy over common sense, drug use over public health is what’s going on here. We choose to do this but the choice is not intelligently made.
I for one say we go another direction. I for one say that I will not be ordering meat for any meal tomorrow or the next day or for the foreseeable future. I’m not interested. I don’t need it, I don’t want it and I really don’t like it in others. I am extremely sick and tired of being made sick and tired by meat-based pandemics spread around by human insanity facilitated by private automobiles. I am tired of the stench of a meat eating system. I vote no and I believe I’m voting with some measure of clarity that is not available to people whose brains are too gunked up with fat to work well enough to establish personal choice.
