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The benefits of being a vegetarian
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The benefits of being a vegetarian
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Harman Gill
Forks over Knives Documentary Reflection
The documentary Forks over Knives was an inspiring and educational documentary which discussed about our diets and how our food choices are impacting our lives. This documentary discussed how humans are addicted to fat, salt, sugar and corn syrup, which is ultimately resulting in the human to establish a narcotic- like dependence on them. Forks over Knives advocates a low-fat, whole food, plant-based diet as a way to avoid or reverse several chronic diseases. In other words, the film is trying to promote the vegan diet, but rephrasing the vegan diet as a plant based diet due to the way which others react when they come to the understanding that you are a vegan. It has come to my understanding
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that eating meat and other animal related products are doing great harm to the human body hence increasing cholesterol levels.
The documentary explains that animal protein is bad for you, and so are dairy products. Meats give us a lot of proteins but the animals which are being eaten are not grown up and taken care of as they should be. Animals such as chickens and cows are fed antibiotics from the time which they are born so that they are able to grow much faster, which in the end causes the animal’s meat to not be as good as it should be. In this documentary Lee Fulkerson was at the verge of dying because he was only eating at McDonalds, but his life was changed when he started to eat a plant based whole food diet for six months. This diet changed his life dramatically as it lowered his cholesterol and essentially allowed him to get off of his cholesterol and blood pressure medications, he had also lost a lot of weight and was more energetic throughout the day. This documentary centres on the work done by two doctors named Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. In the documentary it was said that when the Nazis had taken over Norway, they were eating all of the meat and the residents of Norway were all on a plant based diet. The Nazis taking over all of the meat resulted in lower cancer and heart
related diseases which were affecting the residents of Norway. But as soon as the Nazis had left, the residents of Norway had again began to eat meat, which had resulted in increase of cancer and heart related diseases. Another study which was completed by Dr. T. Colin Campbell in China revealed that the increase of cancer and heart related diseases was directly paralleled to the adoption of the Western diet. In conclusion, I would like to say that anything which is tasty and is made outside of your home is not good for your health. Many people enjoy eating out, but have very little knowledge about how their food was made, and where the ingredients are coming from. You should only eat what you know is safe for you and is not causing any harm to your body, also eating safe does not mean that you do not have to exercise.
Lundberg describes how the demand for animal protein was incredibly higher than the production. She quoted Marlow’s article stating, “A nonvegetarian diet requires 2.9 times more water, 2.5 times more energy, 13 times more fertilizer, and 1.4 times more pesticide than does a vegetarian diet and the greatest difference comes from beef consumption” (Lundberg 483). She then questions: "Do we really want to wait until it’s too late to change our way of eating?” (Lundberg 485). These two points will make readers subconsciously pause to answer this question themselves, put themselves in the situation imagining the products used and having an immediate reaction to it.
Jonathan Safran Foer wrote “Eating Animals” for his son; although, when he started writing it was not meant to be a book (Foer). More specifically to decide whether he would raise his son as a vegetarian or meat eater and to decide what stories to tell his son (Foer). The book was meant to answer his question of what meat is and how we get it s well as many other questions. Since the book is a quest for knowledge about the meat we eat, the audience for this book is anyone that consumes food. This is book is filled with research that allows the audience to question if we wish to continue to eat meat or not and provide answers as to why. Throughout the book Foer uses healthy doses of logos and pathos to effectively cause his readers to question if they will eat meat at their next meal and meals that follow. Foer ends his book with a call to action that states “Consistency is not required, but engagement with the problem is.” when dealing with the problem of factory farming (Foer).
I will first show the lack of validity and soundness to Howard’s claim that A) a vegan lifestyle is a healthier choice and B) his claim that one must switch to that lifestyle to enjoy these said benefits. To the claim made in A, Howard uses his own health problems he endured on his meat diet, and uses it as a constant variable comparing it to his now relative healthy lifestyle as a vegan. On first glance anyone who eats a calorie-laden, unbalanced diet and ends up weighing 300 pounds, as Lyman himself admitted, will have health problems regardless of his orientation to meat or vegetables. With this said his comparing analogy is inertly flawed and must be disregarded from the argument he presents. On march 8 before the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, Mary K Young, MS.,R.D,NCBA Director of Nutrition Research and Information, presented the benefits of eating meat. Using Data from the 1995 USDA Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSI) she confirms that red meat enhances one overall diet quality. Young goes on to point out that red meat is the number one source for protein, B12, and zinc, number 2 source for B6 and third greatest source for iron, niacin and potassium. She also pointed out that red meat alone has the greatest concentrates of iron and zinc together. Also included cited in Young’s report was the research recently published in the Journal of the American...
She talks about Americans having a love affair with burgers and fries and how it has its evil side, killing everyone individually with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and many other illnesses that are caused by our unhealthy way of eating. Lundberg continued to state that eating meat is also having a negative effect on our planet, causing forced agricultural practices to feed our intense cravings for meat, causing pollution, global warming and a threatening dependence of fossil fuels (571). This is partially untrue. “Mortality in Vegetarians and Nonvegetarians: Detailed Findings From a Collaborative Analysis of 5 Prospective Studies,” an article of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, states “in comparison with regular meat eaters, mortality from ischemic heart disease was 20% lower in occasional meat eaters, 34% lower in people who ate fish but not meat, 34% lower in lacto-ovo-vegetarians, and 26% lower in vegans”. It also stated that there was “no significant differences between vegetarians and nonvegetarians in mortality from cerebrovascular disease, stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, or all other causes combined.” (Am J Clin Nutr) Science disproves her theory that eating meat will kill you and being vegetarian will save you. She states that the production of livestock in our country is affecting the health both of our
One subject that came up in this documentary was that of Broiler Chicken houses. Food.Inc made it seem as if these houses were cruel, and were bad for the chickens. The one chicken house owner they did interview, made it seem as if this job were terrible and that the regulations that they had were causing harm to the chickens. When they videoed them taking the chickens away to get processed, they made it seem as if they were abusing the chickens.
Throughout “Shattering the Meat Myth”, Freston attempts to convince her audience that eating animal protein is detrimental to the health of humans. While most vegetarian diets (if followed with precision) are very healthy, practicing a diet that involves meat is not necessarily as deteriorating as she implies. Freston quotes Dr. William C. Roberts, editor of American Journal of Cardiology, pertaining to subject of saturated fats and cholesterol. He states, “When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us…” (Freston). This statement however is an example of oversimplification and an appeal to bathos, referencing the power of death. In reality, there are a variety of factors that contribute to the overall health of an individual and consuming animal products, in itself, has not been shown by scientific evidence to cause fatality. Kathy Freston also includes a quotation from Dr. Neal Barnard,
The film enlightened me about many topics concerning the production of food. Although I would prefer not to view many of the graphic animal scenes I believe that they are necessary to present the arguments. I was also surprised to see the connections between so many political figures and the major corporations. I do not think that my eating habits will change, but I do think that I will give more thought to something before I eat it.
In the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, the author talks about, not only vegetarianism, but reveals to us what actually occurs in the factory farming system. The issue circulating in this book is whether to eat meat or not to eat meat. Foer, however, never tries to convert his reader to become vegetarians but rather to inform them with information so they can respond with better judgment. Eating meat has been a thing that majority of us engage in without question. Which is why among other reasons Foer feels compelled to share his findings about where our meat come from. Throughout the book, he gives vivid accounts of the dreadful conditions factory farmed animals endure on a daily basis. For this reason Foer urges us to take a stand against factory farming, and if we must eat meat then we must adapt humane agricultural methods for meat production.
Food Inc. Is a very well made documentary, very explicit and very clear about how the food industry works and how everything has been altered through the years to comply people’s demand. While consumers are demanding more cheap and “qualified food”, thinking that the bigger and the colorful the better, Food Inc. makes clear how meats, grains and corn are not produced in a healthy way for people anymore. In the same way, they show how the workers are being exploited by these huge monster food companies more and also how they have literally “kill” small farms. These fill showed us a lot of information about what we really eat and it tries to let us know how what we think is healthy it isn’t. This film have people who are specialist in a specific
The documentary I was presented with was Forks over Knives. Its general premise is saying meat is bad, it causes cancer, and that all humans should be on a whole- food plant based diet. They took these people into a 12-week program to switch them over to this diet. My knowledge before watching this film was that meat is good for you, we get plenty of amino acids that we don’t make in our own body. It gives us lots of protein. I did know that red meat is not a good meat to eat all the time. But I never would have thought of cutting meat out of my diet. Lee Fulkerson was the director as well the writer of Forks Over Knives. I feel as though
Today’s medical experts say that avoiding meat helps you avoid saturated fat. They have found out from studies that women who eat meat daily have a fifty percent greater risk of developing heart disease than vegetarian women and a sixty-eight percent greater risk in men (staff writer). People may not know about serious diseases meat can cause such as, mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease. In the September 1999 issue of the Emerging Infectious Diseases, approximately 76 million food-borne illnesses- resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths occur in the United States each year from improperly cooked or diseased meat (Licher). That is a lot of fun!
Diets exist that, followed, can provide conscious eating, including all the health benefits of vegetarianism. Reducing one's meat intake is actually more healthy than being completely without it, and simply being conscious and aware of the origin and nutrition of one's meals can provide all the benefits of a meatless diet and more with the supplemental nutritional benefit of healthy meat products, without the danger of crippling anemia and osteoporosis. The problems that vegetarianism seeks to rectify are not inconsequential; there are certainly ethical issues with the way modern meat production works, and health problems with the American diet and populace. When healthier and more pragmatic approaches exist, however, the combative and self-righteous stance of many vegetarians seems like little more than juvenile idealism.
The health benefits of a vegetarian diet are hard to ignore. Vegetarians have a lower chance of developing many diseases, such as cancer and diabetes. Women who eat meat daily are more likely to develop breast cancer. According to an article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, “consumption of well-done meats and, thus, exposures to heterocyclic amines (or other compounds) formed during high-temperature cooking may play an important role in the risk of breast cancer.” Men are also more than almost more likely to develop prostate cancer than those who do not include meat in their everyday diets. “Up to 80 percent of prostate cancer is attributed to dietary practices, and international comparisons show strong positive associations with meat consumption” (Alexander, 2010). Vegetarians have also shown to have lower blood pressure, better digestion, and more energy than humans with a meat based diet. The effects of a vegetarian life style ...
Vegetarians tend to be healthier than those who consume meat. This is due to the prevalent unnatural chemicals used in the processing of meats, and eating these are unsuitable for the body. Meats already contain harmful amounts of cholesterol, and over-consumption of red meat can lead to early heart disease. Animals that are raised on farms for their meat are not treated well, and this mistreatment can lead to harm in the meat they are producing. Although one life choice cannot change one’s environmental
This lesson is designed to review and reinforce a few important concepts about plants (e.g. Needs, parts, sequence of planting) and to also guide the students through applying a few scientific inquiry (e.g. Making observations, experimentation, discussion, reflection, reporting results etc.). The students have previously planted corn and bean seeds and today’s lesson has provided the students a chance to see the results of the planted corn and bean seeds. Additionally, seeds have been planted under and growing under the following conditions: without water, and without soil. The students see the results of these seeds planted under these conditions for the past week. Two plants in particular have already been grown their growth has been