What's In Our Red Meat?

Folks, our goal here at HealYourBodyNow.com is to give you all the information you need to be healthy. Sometimes that information is shocking, going against what we have been told our entire lives. We challenge you to ask yourself this question: If we are doing what we have been told and we are NOT HEALTHY, is it possible that we were not told the truth? The following information will put things into a different perspective from what most of us are aware of.

In order to restore our normal metabolism and maintain our body weight we first need to eliminate certain foods that lead to a sluggish metabolism! As you will soon learn in the words below, red meat is a major contributor to a number of diseases, many of which are attributed to the high amount of FAT found in red meat. But first, here are some quotes from doctors who have a strong opinion on the effects of red meat in our diets.

"The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of 'real food for real people,' you'd better live real close to a real good hospital."
-- NEAL. D. BARNARD, M.D., President, Physicians Committee
for Responsible Medicine. Washington, D.C.

"If you step back and look at the data, the optimum amount of red meat you eat should be zero."
-- WALTER WILLETT, M.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Director of a study that found a close correlation between red meat consumption and colon cancer.

That being said, lets explore the evidence!

Many scientific studies have found a high correlation between the consumption of red meat-- which is high in saturated fats and cholesterol -- and heart disease, stroke, and colon and breast cancer.
George A Bray, "Overweight is Risking Fate..." in Richard J. Wurtman and Judith Wunman, eds. Human Obesity, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences ,(1987). 21
Gina Kolata, "Animal Fat is Tied To Colon Cancer," New York Times, December 13, 1990
Waiter Willett et al.. "Relationship of Meat, Fat, and Fiber Intake to the Risk of Colon Cancer in Prospective Study Among Women," New England Journal of Medicine, 333:24 (1990), 1663
J. Raloff, "Breast Cancer Rise: Due to Dietary Fat?" Science News, April 21, 1(1)90. Geoffrey Howe et al.. "A Conort Study of Fat Intake and the Risk of Breast Cancer." Journal of National Cancer Institute, 85:5 (March 6, 1991).

In 1990, the largest study ever done on the health effects of consuming animal derived foods confirmed the results of previous studies showing a high correlation between meat consumption and the incidence of heart disease and cancer. Participating researchers followed the eating habits of 6,500 people living in 25 provinces in China.
Jane E. Brody, ''Huge Study of Diet Indicts Fat and Meat," New York Times, May 8, 1990, C1

The Chinese study found that Chinese consume 20 percent more calories than Americans, but that Americans are 25 percent fatter. That's because 37 percent of the calories in the U.S. diet comes from fat, whereas less than 15 percent of the calories in the rural Chinese diet comes from fat. The study also found that 70 percent of the protein in the Western diet comes from animal sources and 30 percent from plants. In China, only 11 percent comes from animal products and 89 percent from plants.
Nanci Hellmich, "In Healthful Living. East Beats West," USA Today, June 6, 1990; Anne Simon Moffat, "China: A Living Lab for Epidemology," Science 248, May 4, 1990. 554

Each year, the death toll continues to mount for consumers of beef and other red meats. According to a report by the U.S. Surgeon General, more than 70 percent of deaths in this country -- more than 1.5 million annually -- are related to diet, particularly the over- consumption of beef and other foods high in cholesterol and saturated fat. Study after study confirms that consumption of red meat is a primary factor in the development of heart disease, strokes, and colon and breast cancer. The American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Pediatrics all recommend that people reduce their consumption of red meat and other animal-derived foods, and eat more grain, fresh vegetables, and fruits instead.

What else is going into the beef that slows our metabolism and weakens our immune systems?

More than 95 percent of all feedlot- raised cattle in the United States are currently receiving growth-promoting hormones and other pharmaceuticals, residues of which may be present in finished cuts of beef.
Fred Kuchler et al. "Regulating Food Safety: The Case of Animal Growth Hormones," National Food Review July-December 1989, 26

In order to speed weight gain, feedlot managers administer growth-stimulating hormones and feed additives. Anabolic steroids, in the form of small time-release pellets, are implanted in the animals' ears. The hormones slowly seep into the bloodstream, increasing hormone levels by two to five times. Cattle are given estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone.
Jim Mason and Peter Singer, Animal Factories (New York. NY: Harmony· Books, 1990), 51;
Jeannine Kenney and Dick Fallert, "Livestock Hormone in the United States," National Food Review, July-September 1989, 22-23.

In 1988, more than 15 million pounds of antibiotics were used as feed additives for livestock in the United States. The drugs were used to promote growth and fight the disease which run rampant in cramped, contaminated pens and feedlots. Antibiotic residues often show up in the meat people consume, making the human population increasingly vulnerable to more virulent strains of disease-causing bacteria.
Mason and Singer, Animal Factories, 70, 83-84; FDA Veterinarian, ''Antibiotics in Animal Feeds Risk Assessment," May/June 1989

In addition to antibiotics, US cattle are fed synthetic hormones to accelerate growth, increase fat deposits, bring entire herds of cows into heat at the same time for breeding, increase milk production, and induce abortions in pregnant cows scheduled for slaughter.

These hormones are suspected as a major cause of the high incidence of breast and ovarian cancer in American women, as well as premature puberty in American children.

Since steroid hormone's cause cattle to grow fat fast, it also stands to reason that they cause obesity in humans who consume the meat and milk of such contaminated animals.

This is especially true for growing children, and is confirmed by the fact that whenever big American fast-food chains featuring beef and milk products set up operations in Asian countries, the once healthy children there soon show all the signs of chronic ill health that plague American children: obesity, acne and pimples, respiratory infections, premature puberty, and behavioral abnormalities.

More chemicals

Beef contains the highest concentration of herbicides of any food sold in America, according to the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences. Eighty percent of all the herbicides used in the U.S. are sprayed on corn and soybeans, which are used primarily as feed for cattle. When consumed by cattle, the chemicals accumulate in their bodies and are passed onto consumers in finished cuts of beef.
National Research Council, Board on Agriculture, Alternative Agriculture, 44;
National Research Council, Board on Agriculture, Regulating Pesticides in Food, 78. Table 3-20 to 22

US cattle also absorb all the herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers used to grow the feed crops on which they are forced to gorge, and a high percentage of these hapless creatures arrive at the slaughterhouse riddled with cancerous tumors and tuberculosis.

Many pesticides approved for use by the EPA were registered long before extensive research linking these chemicals to cancer and other diseases had been established. Now the EPA considers that 60 percent of all herbicides, 90 percent of fungicides and 30 percent of all insecticides are carcinogenic.

A 1987 National Academy of Sciences report estimated that pesticides might cause an extra 1.4 million cancer cases among Americans. The bottom line is that pesticides are poisons designed to kill living organisms and can also be harmful to you. In addition to cancer, pesticides are implicated in birth defects, nerve damage and genetic mutation.
J Am Vet Med Assoc 1996 Aug 1;209(3):589-93
Related Articles, Books, LinkOut Patterns of chemical residues detected in US beef carcasses between 1991 and 1993.
Gibbons SN, Kaneene JB, Lloyd JW. Population Medicine Center, College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824, USA.

Currently there are in excess of 1,000 drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) being used by livestock producers. Two thirds of all animal drugs and implants sold in the U.S. each year are made up of feed additives and implants.
Ensminger, M.E., Oldfield, J.E., Heinemann, W.W., 1990. Feeds & Nutrition, 2nd Ed.pp. Clovis, CA. The Ensminger Publishing Company. Pp. 262-263, pp. 502-517.
Jergens, Marshal H., 1993. Animal Feeding & Nutrition, 8th Ed, Dubuque Iowa , Kendall / Hunt Publishing Company pp. 291-302.

OK, so now that you have the TRUE facts,is beef still what's for dinner????

You need to get grass-fed beef! Click here for resources