THANKS Frank! But what are you talking about? Please elaborate on what information I left out and educate us all.

–Jimmy

All kidding aside… I’m wondering if the Doctor is a Hindu? Since Hindus typically consider the cow sacred, they do not eat them. Just a thought.

Yes, he is a Hindu. Does that mean we all should have to follow the dictates of hid faith. I don’t think so. . Thanks for commenting Cathy!

–Jimmy

I read a little more on this after your post. Did you realize that rice may be a bigger problem for global warming than meat and dairy?

“…rice paddy fields are considered an important source of atmospheric Ch4 because the harvest area of rice has increased by about 70% during the last 50 years, and it is likely that CH4 [methane] emission has increased proportionally. Recent estimates that global emissions from rice paddy fields account for about 4-19% of the emissions from all sources… because of the possibility of controlling the emission by agronomic practices, managing rice cultivation must be one of the most likely means of mitigating CH4 emissions…. The world’s rice production must increase significantly for food in the next century… which in turn will increase CH4 increase.”

http://www.springerlink.com/content/x02g246767671815/

So there is a whole other side to this issue.

I’m going to do some more research and I’ll post what I can find on this topic on this website:

http://lowcarbclimatechange.blogspot.com/

If anyone finds good info, please let me know. Thank you Jimmy and all who commented, I learned a lot!

Brian

There’s so much more to this story than I think any of us know which is precisely why I blogged about it to get people talking. Mission accomplished!

–Jimmy

That’s very interesting. I’m also very glad Jimmy posted on this. Recently its been hard for me to deal with my friends who are vegetarian, or have partners who are vegetarian, who “just don’t get it”. They typically insist on the myth about Dr. Atkins dying from all that cholesterol and the conversation stops dead. And this altruisitc eco-morality – I’m saving the animals, I’m saving the planet – is a major factor in their unwillingness to think it through.

Say, aren’t a lot of vegetarian foods butter, cream and egg based? I mean, if I went out with a vegetarian friend and had to eat with them to be polite, then I’d rather eat Indian vegetarian food, ’cause its fried in all that delicious BUTTER. I like going to Indian restaurants and ordering relatively lowcarb dishes – just say no to the extra rice and bread, alot of the food is perfectly fine by itself. Let’s talk to all those cranky, starch-addicted vegetarians and see if can’t find a tiny bit of common ground! Tell them to stop global warming by eating less bread and using butter instead of oil.

We know that there’s a cost to raising animals for meat. Let’s not pretend that there isn’t. I know Jimmy’s rant is meant to incite some hostility from the other side, but I’m not sure that is what this fight needs. Perhaps more compassion and understanding is necessary.

I think finding a way to express our understanding of the world’s concerns may be worth more than picking a fight.

I was hoping that some folks in the low-carb community would talk about this subject after I heard about it on NPR the other day. I’m glad to see you posted on it Jimmy and I’m glad to see that so many have tossed in their comments as well.

I hope all of us endeavor to use no more than we need of all our valuable resources whether they be food, fuel, paper, plastics, metal, glass, etc. Everything comes with a cost and we get so much in return. Let us not take that for granted.

Sorry if I came off sounding like a Boy Scout. I don’t support the good doctor’s recommendations by any means. To me it is pure insanity to ask me to give up all the health benefits I’ve reaped from low-carb.

Why not reduce our factory farming of corn, soy, rapeseed, and wheat. We’re destroying our most fertile land to produce “healthy” oils from soy, corn, and rapeseed (canola), when we could simply use more of the animal fats much of which I’m sure we’re wasting because we’re afraid they’re unhealthy.

Instead of reducing meat consumption, why not try to capture some of that methane? My local landfill does that and they use it to power a local university.

I think these recommendation should be filed with the recommendations to reduce fat consumption to reduce obesity and heart disease. They fail to fully analyze the problems and offer seemingly logical conclusions without looking at all the possibilities and considering the actual impact of the suggested “solution”.

Anyway, thanks for posting about this Jimmy. I think it’s an important subject to discuss.

Alex
Low Carb New England
http://lowcarbnewengland.blogspot.com

I’m an avid reader, and I love everything you have done to promote lowcarb, and thank you for the inspiration to help me improve my health since I started. Sometimes when it seems just too impractical to continue, and start to stray from the path, I tune in to your podcasts and see some of the most advanced minds in the many relevant scientific fields, who take the time to talk to you and give us the general public a window into the cutting edge research and thinking. That gives me extra inspiration I need, and confidence coming from the obvious commitment of the many experts who talk to you, and your own proven skill in bringing key science issues together in a readable, approachable and enjoyable blog.

The UN “Vegetarian Manifesto” is a little shocking, frankly, and my gut reaction is that I personally disagree with it (maybe for slightly different reasons than others, I don’t know, but certainly because it would have a detrimental impact on my health). But could I make a request as a reader who thinks your innovative format and approach on approaching scientific medical issues is a revolution in the blogosphere. It would be great to see if you could throttle back, and invite some of the preeminent scientists on climate change, research on effects of the meat industry, or even those vegetarian alternatives, to present their views in your blog or podcast. The UN is run by committee and they say some pretty stupid things at times. But I bet the UN would even give you a podcast interview, or possibly even give your dissenting view air time in their own internet presence. By presenting a range of scientific views in terms we can all understand, you’d give me (and I think maybe others) a much needed synthesis of the various research going into this issue. There are probably “middle grounds”, like avoiding industrial meat when possible in favor of grass fed and so forth, as has already been mentioned by your readers. The vegetable based high protein foods are not all bad, especially if mixed in with or alternated with pork and other goodies, as Chinese food lovers know. There may be other approaches we haven’t thought about. But it does seem like the climate is changing, and whether our actions can make a difference or not, it is clearly a topic we should listen and learn, your greatest strength in Livin La Vida Low Carb.

I hope you would agree and ask a variety of experts to weigh in in the coming weeks or months. As always, I’ll be tuning in.

All the best with your good works!

THANKS Brian! I welcome all points of view on this and any other subject I blog about. That’s the beauty of the blogging universe–to get people talking and shaping their opinions about what THEY believe. We don’t all have to agree with the conclusions I make in every single post. But getting you to think is one of the primary objectives I try to do each and every day. THANK YOU for your support!

–Jimmy