If you eat-a the meat-a, then prepare for some resistance from PETA!
When you are trying to convey a message of peace, love, care and concern as a core belief in your organization, then you would at least expect the members of that group to exhibit these traits themselves in the tactics they use to promote their philosophy. But apparently that doesn’t hold true if you are a member of the extremist animal rights, anti-meat wacko group known as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). They are a fringe organization that is doing everything in their power to prevent people from consuming meat for two main reasons: 1) on moral grounds for the welfare of the animals and 2) for health reasons contending that a vegetarian or vegan diet is far superior nutritionally to one that consists of meat.
I don’t personally have a problem with someone who chooses to eat a meat-free diet (although you can make your low-carb lifestyle vegetarian, I do think you are limiting yourself from some truly fabulous nutrient-rich foods that are indeed an essential part of a healthy diet), but PETA always seems to take things to the extreme to say the least: dressing up in nothing but cellophane and describing meat-eaters as “cannibals”; conducting a national letter-to-the-editor writing campaign trashing the Atkins diet using the exact same letter; creating fake public surveys to make it look like the ultra-low-fat, vegetarian diet is more mainstream than it is; PETA nutcase Jody Gorran bringing a frivolous lawsuit against Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. that ran the good Atkins name through the mud for several years before a judge finally threw it out last year; and most recently in September 2008, PETA convinced the United Nations that meat consumption was a major reason for global warming! In fact, just this week they pressured the star of the #1 movie in America Daniel Craig from the latest James Bond flick Quantum of Solace to go vegetarian for the sake of the animals and health. Oh brother!
EXTREME? I think that’s putting it nicely. But you gotta hand it to them–just when you think they can’t go any more overboard than they already have, along comes something else that is equally shocking and almost always controversial like this news story out of Vermont last week. You should watch the video report of it because you’re not gonna believe what the PETA people are wanting to do in the Green Mountain State!
With all the gall and audacity that they could muster up in a letter addressed to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, PETA claimed that since meat-eating is so unhealthy the health insurance premiums of meat-eaters in that state should be increased. Additionally, they surmise that vegetarians and vegans live healthier and should be rewarded with decreased health insurance premiums. They’re SERIOUS about this, too!
“Given the latest news about the effects of E. coli on meat-eaters — and the mountain of evidence linking meat consumption to some of our nation’s deadliest diseases — this change will benefit Blue Cross Blue Shield’s bottom line while also helping to ensure that your policyholders don’t flat line,” the PETA representative wrote in a letter to the president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont.
Oh where do you begin with something like this? The continued hyperbole that PETA uses to communicate their message is quite nauseating to say the least. It’s a well-known fact that there is no danger of E. coli if you stick to grass-fed beef and the alleged “mountain of evidence” against meat does not exist. I suppose if you repeat a lie often enough some people will begin to believe it is true, but that doesn’t suddenly make it a fact.
My contention is that those of us who consume a healthy meat-based high-fat, low-carb diet are benefiting our weight and health much more so than the vast majority of Americans who are consuming excessive amounts of processed, refined, garbage foods that are the real culprit in obesity and disease. Meat is not the great health threat PETA wants you to believe it is–sugar, junk food, fast food, and soda are the real enemies to optimal health. Why doesn’t PETA spend any time and money at all exposing the truth about these real detriments to health if they care so much about the subject?
Rather than admit there are multiple ways to live a healthy lifestyle besides being a vegetarian, PETA instead insisted that Blue Cross Blue Shield take action AGAINST meat-eaters to punish them.
“By giving your policy holders a financial incentive to go vegetarian — and penalizing those whose meat-based diets fuel our nation’s worst health problems — Blue Cross Blue Shield could save millions of dollars in the long run,” the PETA representative asserted in the letter.
How about this, PETA? You eat your diet that makes you healthy and I’ll eat my diet that makes me healthy and neither one of us criticizes the choice of the other. That sounds like an amicable plan, right? I’ve always contended that people should find the plan of action that works for them and then do it. If that means low-fat, low-carb, Weight Watcher, and even vegetarian or vegan, then just do SOMETHING that will put you on the pathway towards bettering your health. Too many people are apathetic because they think they have to live up to some standard of perfection in their efforts. But this journey is not about perfection, but rather pursuit. Staying in the game is most of the battle.
Thankfully, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont isn’t buying PETA’s propaganda…YET!
“Under Vermont law, we would not be allowed to vary rates based on the dietary and nutritional habits of various members,” a representative noted. “We have no information one way or the other if vegetarians are more healthy.”
This is why groups like PETA need to be responded to when they propose such public changes. I wouldn’t put it past them to attempt to change the state law in more liberal ones like Vermont, Massachusetts, and California, for example, to define what a “healthy” diet is as low-fat vegetarian. And they’d have a precedent in place on the federal level with the USDA pushing low-fat diets as part of their U.S. Food Pyramid for the past three decades. It sounds outrageous to think about it happening, but the reality is this could indeed come to fruition if PETA gets their way.
Lest you think my description of PETA labeling them as “extremist” is a little too harsh, look at the campaign they are doing for the Thanksgiving holiday season entitled Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals!. It’s quite cutesy (kinda like the Bad Fats Brothers was for the American Heart Association), but the message is so far from the truth it’s not even funny. Be sure to play the game all the way to the end as you get to make your own Tofurkey! Mmmmm, yummy! NOT!
This reminds me of that classic scene in the hit CBS-TV comedy “Everybody Loves Raymond” where Raymond’s mother Marie is on a low-fat diet “health” kick during the Thanksgiving holiday season. So she made a tofurkey and forced everyone to eat it. This is just too funny not to share!
Jimmy,
I totally agree with you on this one. There are ways to go about getting your point across to people, and when it gets to the point where the message itself is lost behind publicity stunts, it’s time to think about a corporate makeover!
If they really want to “help” animals, they will stop doing things that just make all of us roll our eyes.
All the Best,
Andrew R
This and the rest of their lame ideas are so far fetched it’s pathetic. It would be unbelievable except that there really are plenty of other extremist folks out there with the same mentality that will latch onto stunts such as these and go all out to see them accomplished. We’re already seeing the government get involved and passing legislation dealing with dietary requirements at every level. A sad commentary on the real sign of the times we are now living in.
The thing is they don’t agree with killing animals so that’s fine. But trying to say that processed garbage is better than real foods is just ridiculous.
PETA or vegetarians are lucky that they live in a time where there is all this vegetarian processed foods they can eat. If we had to kill and forage for our own foods their choices would be limited to a few berries, roots, vegies etc. They would die of malnutrition and the meat-eaters would thrive.
I am a low-carb vegetarian and I am against animal cruelty. But sometimes PETA goes to extremes and just ends up getting people’s back up. I have never pushed vegetarianism in the 30 years I have been one; it doesn’t work!
I agree, AJ! Their message, although I disagree with it, is not the issue here. It’s the marketing and propagandizing of that message that turns us all off. And yet people in power pay attention to them which is why people like us need to watch what they are doing to warn of their folly.
–Jimmy
Hold your horses there guys.. Now I’m not one to side with anyone usually but the reason PETA are doing things like this is to reduce the amount of animals that are currently being killed for consumption, they don’t expect everyone to stop eating meat as there would be a definite imbalance in the world.
Their “Cooking Mama” parody is actually a really good game, I’ve seen it everywhere on gaming sites – people are all dissing PETA for using propagandha to get a message across but if you just shut off and play the game it’s really good!!
That Daniel Craig ordered English bacon be flown in to his set in Italy is missing a major point, the air miles it took to get there – like it or not meat production IS the number one cause of climate change due to Co2 emissions.
I see your point, I see theirs, overall I think meat, like cigarettes, alcohol and fuel, SHOULD be taxed for the above reason..
TTAP
Fair enough. THANKS for sharing your opinions!
–Jimmy
Probably this is an over-generalization, but it seems like the low carb scientists you’ve had on your show recently think meat is good for you, but the low-carb cardiologists (Gundry, Davis) think it’s not. Since all these guys are smarter than me, it’s hard for me to figure out who’s right.
The scientists work in the lab with study participants and the cardiologists work with patients. Those are two different worlds that intersect somewhat, so it can seem confusing at times. I don’t think Dr. Davis is necessarily in the camp of “meat is bad for you,” but I can certainly ask him to clarify if I have him back on my podcast. A really great guest would be to have a low-carb researcher who happens to be a practitioner as well. I’ve interviewed one–Dr. Mary C. Vernon–recently, but I’m working on another one who is aptly suited to clarify your confusion, Peter. THANKS for your comments!
–Jimmy
While most people are not the nut cases that PETA members are, a lot of people do buy into the idea that vegetarianism and veganism are healthy ways of eating. Sorry, I think humans thrive best with meat in the diet, and while I truly wish animals were raised and slaughtered much more humanely than most currently are, I’m not endangering my health by giving up meat.
I wonder how many of these activists who bewail the killing of animals are also activists in the (human) pro-life movement and speak out as forcefully against the slaughter of the innocents who are victims of abortion? I would guess not many. It’s a messed up world where killing babies is okay, but eating animals for food isn’t.
Speak the truth, Ethyl!
–Jimmy
I agree, Animals were put on this earth, like everything else, for the use of humans. PETA must be looking at the big picture, if a vast majority or everybody became vegetarian then livestock would be wasted, ecosystems would be ruined and out of control due to over population of animals, and hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost. In my eyes, PETA is just another crazy protesting group that doesn’t have their head screwed on strait.
Looking at how my health has improved after I starting eating more fat & protein (meat), my insurance company should give me a discount.
“Hold your horses there guys.. Now I’m not one to side with anyone usually but the reason PETA are doing things like this is to reduce the amount of animals that are currently being killed for consumption, they don’t expect everyone to stop eating meat as there would be a definite imbalance in the world.”
Uhhh, no. They most certainly would like everyone to become vegetarians. Go to their website, http://www.peta.org/, and read “Animals Are NOT Ours to Eat. It elaborates on the terrible conditions that the animals are raised under, the presumed health benefits of vegetarianism, and the benefits to our environment. It can’t get much clearer than that. I understand that there are many problems with factory farming that could be vastly improved, but I don’t think it’s particularly healthy to eat soy frankenfoods for protein.
Also from the PETA site:
“Being vegan doesn’t mean you have to eat wheatgrass and alfalfa sprouts. Most grocery stores carry an array of great-tasting vegan options. Many products, including fantastic faux franks, veggie burgers, chicken-free chicken patties, flavored soy milks, nondairy ice creams, and other sensational soy-based snacks, are marketed to vegetarians and vegans. There’s also an abundance of chips, dips, cookies, candies, frozen pies, soups, and other mouth-watering items by mainstream food manufacturers that are also vegan.
Take a stroll through your local grocery store, check some ingredients, and you’ll see what we mean. You may even be surprised to find that a few of your favorite indulgences happen to be vegan! For example, did you know that Pepperidge Farm Turnovers, Murray Butter Cookies, and Cracker Jacks are all vegan? They may not all be “health foods,” but they are great for the taste buds! Just remember, one cannot live on Goldenberg Peanut Chews alone.”
This list is accompanied by a photo of woman embracing many processed food products. This is ideal? Blech.
PETA = HYPOCRITES
Find it out for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ijLulwUTY
TTAP said “That Daniel Craig ordered English bacon be flown in to his set in Italy is missing a major point, the air miles it took to get there – like it or not meat production IS the number one cause of climate change due to Co2 emissions.”
Absolutely, we should all try to “eat local” and not only because of fossil fuel emissions. But regarding climate change, let me give you the facts:
1) If every human dropped dead, the Earth would continue warming. Since it formed over 5 billion years ago, it has cycled through extremes of hot and cold. The peak of the last ice age was only 100,000 years ago (very short in geological time) and southern Canada was only freed from ice cover around 10,000 years ago. We are coming out of one of the coldest periods in Earth’s history. Most of the bedrock exposed in North America was actually deposited in ancient oceans when sea level was much higher than it is now.
2) Having said that, human activity definitely is increasing the rate of warming. Of course, the greatest contributor to human-induced climate change is humans! And the human population was allowed to get out of equilibrium with its environment because of the advent of agriculture about 20,000 years ago, specifically when grains began to be grown as crops. If we all still had to run around and catch our food (fish, small mammals, large mammals) and gather our food (nuts, leaves, roots), there wouldn’t be nearly so many people on the planet.
And if you add up all of the potential energy stored in the bellies of the 75% of the American population that is overweight (and do the math for the rest of world where overweight/obesity also are reaching epidemic proportions), I bet you’d be shocked at how much wasted energy is stored there. Not to mention the fact that obesity is associated with a mile-long list of health problems, and Americans solve those problems by taking medicines which have now found there way into municipal water supplies….
I eat meat, but I don’t eat more than I need. Eating carbs tricks your body into wanting more fuel than it actually needs.
If you’re really concerned about global warming, put your efforts into decreasing population growth. And the most effective way to do that is to educate women, because educated women have fewer children and they tend to have them later in life.