Diet and Disease, Weight Loss Online

With increasing wealth, people have grown accustomed to feasting at very meal, thus we have the disease of kings and queens.

As scientists are beginning to discover, everything in our environment is connected---what we do to the world around us, and everything in it, eventually determines our own fate. This increase in meat production affects everything from clean water, to enough water, and even global warming.

In order to meet the high demand of an  entire population eating meat for every meal, it is essential to maintain a very large animal population. in fact, there are currently four times more animals than people, and our environment has become very strained truing to support these huge amounts of livestock.

Animals produce six times the waster of humans. When animal stock and plant crops were more equally balanced, the waster was use as fertilizer, thereby benefiting both groups. As urban populations have exploded, beef and dairy farms are no longer neat the plant crops, but rather very close to the ever-expanding cities. Without nearby farms, the fertilizer is not needed, and the waste just piles higher and higher.

High concentrations of nitrates from these waster piles affect the surrounding water supply, causing problems in both the local human and wildlife populations. When nitrates are found in the drinking water, they have been known to cause numerous both defects and some cancers in humans. Nitrates in ponds and rivers cause algae to grow at phenomenal rates, taking all of the oxygen out of the water---thus depriving other life forms. Fish and other marine life are not able to survive in these nitrate infested waters.

 

Not only would we live healthier, fuller lives by eating less meat and more plants.

It takes twelve times the amount of land to grow enough food to feed livestock than it does to feed people, but most to the grain gown in the US---80% of the corn, 90% of oats, and 90% of soybeans---is fed to animals. Acres and acres of land that were previously prairies of forests are now used to grow this food for livestock. These crops require massive amounts of water, and the supply is rapidly decreasing. The Ogallala, an underground reservoir containing as much water as the Great Lakes, is estimated to be entirely depleted shortly after the run of the century, if is continues to be used a the current rate. Water is such a precious commodity, that it is amazing that we use so much of it to produce a product that is ultimately so damaging to our health.

If the demand for meat were to decrease, these lands could be used for a countless variety of other purposes. Many experts believe that we would benefit far more from reforesting these lands than from anything else, by helping to reverse some of the effects of global warming.