Quotes About Meat

Corned beef sandwich

In 2012, the American Dietetic Association changed its name to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics but didn't appear to change its policies. It continues to take millions of dollars every year from processed junk food, meat, dairy, soda, and candy bar companies. In return, the academy lets them offer official educational seminars to teach dietitians what to say to their clients.64

The National Academy of Sciences once estimated that a total ban on the widespread feeding of antibiotics to farm animals would raise the price of poultry anywhere from one to two cents per pound and the price of pork or beef around three to six cents a pound, costing the average meat-eating American consumer up to $9.72 a year.1357 Meanwhile, antibiotic-resistant infections in the United States cost an estimated $30 billion every year1358 and kill ninety thousand people.

The fumes produced by frying bacon contain a class of carcinogens called nitrosamines.31 Although all meat may release potentially carcinogenic fumes, processed meat like bacon may be the worst: A UC-Davis study found that bacon fumes cause about four times more DNA mutations than the fumes from beef patties fried at similar temperatures.32

The top-five sources of arachidonic acid in the American diet are chicken, eggs, beef, pork, and fish, although chicken and eggs alone contribute more than the other top sources combined.17 Just a single egg's worth of arachidonic acid a day may significantly raise arachidonic acid levels in the blood.18 Overall, omnivores appear to consume about nine times more arachidonic acid than those eating plant-based diets.

So why are vegetable nitrates and nitrites okay but the same compounds from meat are linked to cancer?110 Because nitrites themselves are not carcinogenic; they turn into carcinogens. Nitrites only become harmful when they turn into nitrosamines and nitrosamides.

doubled your odds of getting pancreatic cancer.89 What about people who eat chicken? The largest study to ever address that question is the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, which followed 477,000 people for about a decade. The researchers found a 72 percent increased risk of pancreatic cancer for every fifty grams of chicken consumed daily.90 And that's not much meat, under two ounces—just about a quarter of a chicken breast.

Drinking just one can of soda a day appears to raise the odds of getting fatty liver disease by 45 percent.25 Meanwhile, those who eat the meat equivalent of fourteen chicken nuggets or more daily have nearly triple the rate of fatty liver disease compared to people who eat seven nuggets' worth or less.26

Men with more aggressive cancer who regularly ate chicken and turkey had up to four times the risk of prostate cancer progression.33

Those who start out more plant-based but then add meat to their diets at least once a week not only appear to double or triple their odds of diabetes, stroke, heart diseases, and weight gain but suffer an associated 3.6-year drop in life expectancy.

It's easy to avoid added phosphorus in processed foods—just don't buy anything containing ingredients with the word "phosphate" in their names, including pyrophosphate and sodium triphosphate.87 With meat, it's more difficult to determine the phosphate content, as producers aren't required to disclose injected additives.

Added phosphate may be labeled as "flavorings" or "broth" or not labeled at all.88 Meat already contains highly absorbable phosphates; adding more may just add insult to kidney injury. Chicken appears to be the worst offender: A supermarket survey found more than 90 percent of chicken products contained phosphate additives.89

Did you know that one hot dog has as many nitrosamines (and nitrosamides, which are similar tobacco carcinogens103) as four cigarettes and that these carcinogens are also found in fresh meat, including beef, chicken, and pork?104 This may help explain the rising rates of kidney cancer over the last few decades despite the falling rates of smoking. Clearing the Confusion: Nitrates, Nitrites, and Nitrosamines Although fresh meat also contains nitrosamines, processed

cancer risk, the researchers concluded that it wouldn't be safe to live near the exhaust of a Chinese restaurant for more than a day or two a month.30 What about that enticing aroma of sizzling bacon? The fumes produced by frying bacon contain a class of carcinogens called nitrosamines.31 Although all meat may release potentially carcinogenic fumes, processed meat like bacon may be the worst: A UC-Davis study found

According to the latest national FDA retail-meat survey, about 90 percent of retail chicken showed evidence of contamination with fecal matter.

The CDC found that 42 percent of packaged meat products sold at three national chain grocery stores sampled contained toxin-producing C. diff bacteria.136 The United States, it turns out, has the highest reported levels of C. diff meat contamination in the world.137

In 2010, the chair of the nutrition department at Loma Linda University published a paper suggesting that giving up meat entirely is an effective way to combat childhood obesity, pointing to population studies demonstrating that people eating plant-based diets are consistently thinner than those who eat meat.28

The pandemic of chronic disease has been ascribed in part to the near-universal shift toward a diet dominated by animal-sourced and processed foods—in other words, more meat, dairy, eggs, oils, soda, sugar, and refined grains. 37

People who once ate vegetarian diets but then started to eat meat at least once a week experienced a 146 percent increase in odds of heart disease, a 152 percent increase in stroke, a 166 percent increase in diabetes, and a 231 percent increase in odds for weight gain.

But there are two other major reasons the food industry adds salt to foods. If you add salt to meat, it draws in water. This way, a company can increase the weight of its product by nearly 20 percent. Since meat is sold by the pound, that's 20 percent more profits for very little added cost.

Where does TMAO come from? Just as short-chain fatty acids are produced by good bacteria in our gut when we eat fiber, TMAO originates from bad bacteria in our gut when we eat lots of choline (concentrated in eggs, but also lecithin supplements) or carnitine (concentrated in meat, but also some energy drinks).

you had two people eating the same number of calories, it appears the person eating more meat would, on average, gain significantly more weight.

red meat that has been processed into bacon, bologna, hot dogs, sandwich meats, and other products with added salt is best avoided altogether.

The [World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research] scientists cited a natural substance in meat call harm, which they identified as promoting the formation of potentially carcinogenic compounds. They also suggested that cooking meat at high temperatures produced a group of more than one hundred substances--known as heterocyclix amines and polycystic aromatic hydrocarbon--that can cause cancer in people with a genetic predisposition.