I swear I uttered just about every curse word I know while reading an article that Ryan sent me called, “Meat is the New Tobacco.”

I try not to rip on vegetarians too often as I do firmly believe that different diets work for different people. Also, eating WHOLE FOODS is what is really important…(Of course most of the vegetarians I know eat more processed crap than most meat eaters I know…but that is a rant for a different day…)

But seriously…comparing meat to tobacco!?! How did someone even allow such a RIDICULOUS article to be published?

This article is ridiculously biased AND the research Kathy Freston cites has been criticized and torn apart.

Her first ridiculous, unfounded statement:

Animal products kill a lot more Americans than tobacco does.

The West’s three biggest killers — heart disease, cancer, and stroke — are linked to excessive animal product (this was linked to the China Study) consumption, and vegetarians have much lower risks of all three. Vegetarians also have a fraction of the obesity and diabetes rates of the general population — of course, both diseases are at epidemic levels and are only getting worse.

Do you know when the obesity and diabetes rates started shooting up?

They started increasing in the 1980’s when the consumption of RED meat started to go down. And guess what we started consuming more of in the 1980’s?

Carbohydrates in the form of refined grains and starchy vegetables and processed vegetable oils. Yep when we REPLACED animal products (butter and lard) with vegetable and seed oils (such as canola oil), we started to see an obesity and diabetes epidemic.

As a post on Fatty Lane states:

1950- 33% of Americans overweight. 10% Obese

1970- 47% of Americans overweight. 15% Obese

Today– 65% of Americans overweight. 30% Obese

Those are some pretty big changes over 60 years. Health “experts” say we’re getting fatter because of too much fat in our diets and not enough heart healthy “whole grains.” Let’s break it down. (See every year here)

So our meat, egg and nut consumption has increased 4.1% since 1970

Our fruit consumption has increased 22%

Our dairy consumption has decreased 3.7%

Our vegetable consumption has decreased 2.4 percent

Our added sugar consumption has increased 14%

Our added fat consumption has increased 56.3%

Our grain consumption has increased 44.6%

So is it really meat? Or might it be the grains, sugars and processed oils?

Now onto Kathy’s obsession with Dr. T Colin Campbell and his China Study, which she claims proves the link between heart disease, cancer and stroke and consumption of animal products.

His China Study is full of holes. I found numerous articles and a WHOLE SITE dedicated to providing studies refuting the China Study.

First off, the first part of the China Study was an epidemiological study in which a questionnaire was mailed to the Chinese people asking what they ate. Off of this Dr. Campbell claims that the people who ate more meat were at higher risk for disease.

BUT he doesn’t take into consideration what else the meat eaters consumed. He also didn’t take into account what their lifestyle.

Oh and by the way….his data doesn’t actually prove what he claims it does!!

People that have analyzed the study have shown that:

Significant differences in the diet of rural Chinese populations studied suggest that wheat consumption may promote higher insulin, higher triacylglycerol, and lower SHBG values. Such a profile is consistent with that commonly associated with obesity, dyslipidemia, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. On the other hand, the intake of rice, fish, and possibly green vegetables may elevate SHBG concentrations independent of weight or smoking habits. (From Raw Food SOS)

There are more quotes I could pull and studies I can cite, but I gave you a link to a ton so I’ll let them speak for themselves.

Only one more point about the China Study, which has to do with the second part of the study.

The other part of the China study was a rat study in which rats were either given powdered casein or gluten. The rats that consumed casein got cancer while the rats that ate gluten didn’t.

There are two problems with this. One, powdered casein isn’t a whole food and doesn’t accurately represent milk and meat! For example:milk contains vitamins A, D, E, and CLA & omega 3, which are anti-cancerous, which I’m sure the casein powder didn’t have! Secondly, the rats that ate casein, lived longer!! As with any population that lives longer, there is going to be a higher incident of disease! Any reasonable study considers mortality to be the most important factor…but not Dr. Campbell’s….

And now on to my last point…since I’m giving myself just three or I would literally write a ten page rant about this.

Going back to the initial comment that ticked me off: “Animal products kill a lot more Americans than tobacco does.”

Uhm seriously?

I would beg to differ:

According to pure vegetarian ideologists, people consuming vegetarian diet have better health and live longer than nonvegetarians, because persons consuming milk, dairy products, meat, eggs and fish are at health risk. In fact the most healthy people in Europe are inhabitants of Iceland, Switzerland and Scandinavia, consuming great amounts of food of animal origin.

So the healthiest people consume the most animal products…..Hmmm doesn’t sound like animal products are killing more people than tobacco…

Maybe we should be consuming more meat and not less…Maybe processed CRAP like grains and vegetable oils are really the reason we have such a high incidence of heart disease, cancer and stroke…

Ok…now I’m ready for all you vegetarians out there to try to refute me…bring it on!