Many people report that they went vegan after learning about the health risks involved with eating a standard, animal-based diet. It could be learning about factory farms, the environmental problems associated with the animal industry, or the economic strain that keeps someone motivated to stay vegan. For the most part though, they become and remain vegan for health reasons.
More and more often we see reports of the benefits of eating a plant-based diet and the hazards of eating a diet full of animal products. People often tell me, “I eat very few dairy products,” or “We don’t eat much meat at all.” Unfortunately, a little goes a long way toward making you ill. And, most people would truly be surprised at how much they eat that is packed with animal products.
Conversely, I also hear often that “it’s not proven that animal products are bad for your health.” Actually, it is. This section covers the multitude of diseases that have been scientifically linked to eating animal products. Later we’ll talk about a variety of scientific studies that prove that avoiding animal products can help prevent and reverse serious illnesses.
Your health is important and it deserves your best effort.
The problem is that most people believe too much of what they hear and see in the media. It’s hard not to believe. Not only do we have TV commercials, billboard ads, newspaper coupons, but we also have the internet to fuel these misconceptions.
It’s time to rethink what we’ve always thought to be the truth.
If one of your loved ones was diagnosed with a degenerative disease like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or any other serious illness, you would be devastated, but you would probably also know to get a second opinion. We have been taught to question, but not to go deeply enough.
Why does that questioning stop at our diets? We care about what we put on our skin, but sometimes forget that what we put inside our body can make an even bigger difference. If we are sick, wouldn’t it logically have something to do with what we feed ourselves? Almost everyone is giving themselves a degenerative illness (now or later in life) without stopping to reconsider the alternatives.
For decades, we’ve been getting much of the same nutritional information, and we’ve accepted it as fact. Now it’s time to stop and consider who is giving us that information.
Don’t forget that TV commercials are advertisements for products, and they are not meant to be taken as medical advice.
The Milk Processor Education Program that sponsors the “Got Milk?” campaigns are led by Dairy Management, Inc. Those are big corporations, not health institutions. No matter what athlete or celebrity poses with a milk mustache, the goal is to encourage us to buy more milk. That isn’t a health food commercial. It isn’t coming from a doctor who says that milk is good for us. And, if there is a statistic about the healthfulness of dairy products, be suspicious. It’s easy to skew statistics to make them appear how you want them to appear.
Whether a yogurt commercial says it can help us lose weight or not, that doesn’t mean it’s true. We have to remember it’s a commercial, an attempt to make a sale. Beef may be for dinner and pork may be the other white meat, but both are sponsored by the Beef Association and the Pork Board. Both are trying to sell us a product, no different from a used car salesman wants to sell us an old car at as high a price as he can manage.
The problem is that too many people confuse ads on TV with fact.
Even the food guide pyramid many people have been loyally following has some sketchy support coming from meat and dairy lobbyists.
So why don’t you already know about this? Why are you being mislead in every source of media advertisements?
