Fish, vegan BK burgers, & shadows....

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

I am looking for a good resource on health reasons to not eat fish for a

friend. He's very health-oriented and is thinking fish is healthier than

chicken, cows, pigs, etc. I will try and do some research on my own

(everything is on the Internet, isn't it!?) but if anyone knows of any good

sites or books, this will save me some time and I sure would appreciate

it....

 

I am a month behind on news (just reading the Dec 2001 issue of Animal

People now) and caught a reference to Burger King introducing a vegan

burger. What caught my interest was the fact that it was trialed here in

SF. I did a google search and saw that it had been discussed on other

message boards. IDA has a story on it here:

http://www.idausa.org/campaigns/vegan/itn_ap_burgerking.html

 

For my own personal reasons, I prefer to eat at all-veggie restaurants but I

think it's a step forward, definitely. Just curious if anyone has any first

or second hand knowledge of these vegan BK burgers?

 

And one more thing -

 

A few weeks ago I was wearing a McVegan t-shirt and a stranger asked me

about the term vegan. He thought it meant not eating anything that cast a

shadow. That is a definitely a variation that I had not heard before.

 

Tammy

 

" Perform a death-defying act.... Go Vegan! "

 

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email: -

 

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[Guest guest]

> A few weeks ago I was wearing a McVegan t-shirt and a stranger asked me

> about the term vegan. He thought it meant not eating anything that

cast a

> shadow.

 

That's a " Simpsons " reference. In the episode that Lisa went vegetarian,

the leader of the veg*n organization said he was " Level 5 Vegetarian --

I don't eat anything that casts a shadow. "

 

--eric.

[Guest guest]

Tammy,

 

> I am looking for a good resource on health reasons to not eat fish for a

> friend. He's very health-oriented and is thinking fish is healthier than

> chicken, cows, pigs, etc. I will try and do some research on my own

> (everything is on the Internet, isn't it!?) but if anyone knows of any good

> sites or books, this will save me some time and I sure would appreciate

> it....

 

I'm sure you can find anything and everything on the Internet. However, from

'generally respected' sources, there's not going to be much telling people

they should never eat fish. People who do not eat chicken or poultry but who

eat fish tend to have good health, comparable to lactovovegetarians.

 

If you eat little but fish (as some populations have done), you might run

into health problems such as osteoporosis in later life or increased

bleeding, but this is not a problem in moderate amounts, other things being

equal.

 

Some fish from certain waters are contaminated with mercury and PCBs and

pregnant women are advised not to eat these fish:

 

http://www.eatrightct.org/news.html

 

The benefits of fish tend to be from high omega-3 fats (EPA and DHA) and low

saturated fat. These benefits are touted so much that a recent article in

the Loma Linda Vegetarian Nutrition & Health Letter (September 2001) asked

" Should you eat fish? " . They concluded that if you are already at a low risk

for cardiovascular disease, then there was no need to eat fish.

 

Their site is at: http://www.llu.edu/llu/vegetarian/index.html

 

Also, and this might be only a minor point, fish have a higher ratio of EPA

to DHA than is common (and probably optimal) for humans. So, there is good

reason to think that getting your omega-3s from other sources can be as good

or possibly better.

 

See my article on fats at (still somewhat under construction):

 

http://www.veganoutreach.org/health/stayinghealthy.html#Fats

 

There are quite a bit of environmental problems with industrial fishing.

Many of those are listed here:

 

http://state-of-coast.noaa.gov/bulletins/html/ief_03/ief.html

 

This site is not totally anti-fishing, but it does cover a tremendous amount

of problems with fishing and the environment. Fishing kills many marine

mammals such as dolphins, whales, seals, as well as sea birds and turtles.

 

So, even if you don't care about the fish, there seems to be no need to eat

fish and many things to care about such as the environment and other

animals.

 

Jack