A Thousand Words is Worth a Picture

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

I am new to your group. I'm always trying to distil the vegan argument

down to the quintessential words and music. Let me know if this works

for you and/or is helpful.

 

Thanks,

Rex.

 

A Thousand Words is Worth a Picture:

 

People often ask me (I know you didn't but I figured you wanted to)

what the ten most compelling exhibits are that support the argument we

are natural herbivores. Well, these are mine. Each one independently

should give one pause; all together should bring the jury back swiftly

with a unanimous verdict. Forward them on to your family and friends

who consume an animal-centered diet and hear what they have to

say—between their bites of animal muscle, sips of another mammal's

lactation, and chewing of a chicken placenta. They say a picture is

worth a thousand words. How about a thousand words is worth a picture?

I've given you about a thousand—what picture do you see?

 

 

1. NATURE: Would Nature have placed our very means of survival—food—in

animals that can run from us, in another mammal's milk, and in a

chicken placenta OR in 260,000 varieties of immobile plants spread

over the earth? Nature's number one priority, procreation, was made

rather fool-proof. Anyone want to argue that? Who wouldn't think that

Nature didn't make her number two priority, survival, equally as solid.

 

2. ANATOMY: The following five parts of the human anatomy are

virtually the opposite of a carnivores: hands (claws), jaw, saliva,

teeth, and digestive tract. And you could add, instincts, if you cared

to, unless you have recently had the urge to pounce on a chicken, tear

into it, and consume the warm tissue.

 

3. PROTEIN: Output of urinary nitrogen indicates humans require 4.5%

protein. In the aggregate the plant kingdom contains 11.0%. Sixty

percent is usable by the body, or 6.6%. This is about a 50% cushion.

An animal-centered diet will contain roughly 17.0%, three times what

the body requires. Too much protein is directly implicated in the

promotion and perpetuation of the following " degenerative " diseases:

osteoporosis, autoimmune disease, kidney disease, colon, pancreatic,

and bladder cancer, Alzheimer's, and Crohn's disease.

 

4. PLANT PROPERTIES: Found only in plants are complex carbohydrates,

phytochemicals, fiber, linoleic and linolenic fatty acids (the only

fats required by our body), and non-heme iron. Originating in plants

are antioxidants and vitamins (B-12 is a bacteria manufactured in the

environment). Minerals (i.e. calcium, iron) all originate in the soil

and are drawn up by plants. And plants contain no cholesterol

(undetectable amounts). So why isn't it possible that plants could be

our sole food source—Nature's Nutrient Delivery System?

 

5. ANIMAL PROPERTIES: Animals provide too much protein and the wrong

kind (acidic). Animals provide too much iron and the wrong kind

(heme). Animals contain cholesterol (the RDA is zero). Animals provide

fats we don't require. Animals have zero fiber, zero complex

carbohydrates, and zero phytochemicals. Animals synthesize none of the

nutrients essential to humans. Essential nutrients obtained from

animal-based foods all originated, or are contained in the plant

kingdom in ample quality and quantity.

 

6. DISEASE: Direct and indirect evidence obtained through the last 100

years from chemistry, biology, controlled experiments, studies, data

collection, cultural comparisons, diet comparisons, and deductive

observation demonstrates that the promotion and perpetuation of

degenerative diseases such as, but not limited to, heart,

hypertension, breast, prostate, and colon cancers, atherosclerosis,

autoimmune, kidney, diabetes, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer's is highly

correlative to consumption of animals and their byproducts. Roughly

100 million Americans have one or more degenerative disease (and 50

percent are overweight). When these foods are stopped, these diseases

are slowed, stopped, reversed or eradicated. To simple for such a

complex issue? Maybe simpler. If we are consuming the wrong fuel and

we stop and begin consuming the right fuel, then wouldn't this result

be the logical expectation? The only other explanation I can think of

is that Nature did such a poor job of designing us.

 

7. ENERGY EQUATION: The production of all plant-based foods gives us

more energy output than energy input. The production of all

animal-based foods gives us less energy output than energy input. Any

business that ran itself this way would eventually go bankrupt. I

doubt if Nature had that in mind for us.

 

8. GOD: If there was an Instruction Book for humans (the Bible?),

certainly the most important information would be placed on the first

page—like the designated fuel for our survival, maybe? Indeed, on the

first page of the Bible it states we have been given dominion

(authority) over animals. But that could include eating them. Except

the next verse seems to weaken that argument by talking about our food

and using terms like, " herb-bearing seeds, " and " the fruit of a tree

yielding seed. " Then there are a subsequent five full verses on the

front page that talk about the majestic creation of animals ending

with, " It was good. " Combined with the preceding two exhibits it's

hard to imagine that meant " tasty-good. "

 

9. ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION: Consider the following consequential

byproducts of choosing the wrong diet. Like Leonardo da Vinci stated

" Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is

necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with

experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason. " Animal

agriculture consumes 50 percent of our water. Producing meat causes 17

times the water pollution as producing pasta. Livestock grazing has

depleted 50 percent of the earth's forests. Soil erosion is occurring

at 7 to 13 times the sustainable rate because of livestock grazing.

One-third of the earth's land surface has been desertified to some

degree by livestock grazing. One-half of endangered species, according

to the Endangered Species Act, is due to cattle ranching. The

extinction of species, and subsequent ecological breakdown, threatens

human extinction.

 

10. LONGEVITY: Americans are living longer than ever so what's the

problem? Well, here's the problem. Life expectancy for an American is

roughly 75 years. Program and damage theorists say that humans have a

genetically programmed maximum life expectancy of 120 years. Most

Americans' last 10 to 20 years of life are mildly to severely

diminished by one or more degenerative diseases. In gross terms, we

start falling apart at 60 years of age. Pretty Gross. Additionally,

the U.S. ranks 24th in Healthy Adjusted Life Expectancy according to

the WHO, last among developed nations. But then again, the U.S.,

although only four percent of the world population consumes 23 percent

of the world's beef. So maybe we shouldn't be so surprised by these

statistics.

 

 

 

Rex Bowlby

http://rexbowlby.com/about-books-plantroots.html