jamesoz

BETTER HEALTH MEANS MINUS MEAT

2012-01-20T23:30:00.000-08:00

People often forget the importance of food to health. Food is more of a pleasure, something you desire and like, a treat or a social occasion. If taste and the smell and the appearance satisfy you, you just chomp away. Maybe that's why many people eat the wrong kinds of food and get so fat - because they are hooked on a desire for certain foods.

Like many people I have a weight problem and have always tried to be conscious of what food I eat. The main priority has been to eat healthy food that will do my body good and not harm. I was a regular meat eater until I started questioning the quality and taste of the meat and poultry and its harm to health.

You see I'm old enough to remember when meat was actually naturally produced. The animals were well cared for, had fresh air and green grass and chemicals in farming were basically unheard of. In recent times, however, I just did not like the taste of the various meat I ate and it stank in its raw state. It just was not the same.

Then I learnt about factory farming - intense farming techniques that involve dosing animals and poultry with various chemicals and antibiotics. The animals also live in restricted and often filthy conditions.

When I realised this was why the meat was not so nice that's when I started to eat less of it. Sometimes I felt sick thinking about it and left it on my plate.

At a later stage I learnt about the animal cruelty aspect of factory farming and live animal exports and that was the last straw. After seeing videos of farm animals being tortured and slaughtered inhumanely I just broke down and cried. I decided I was not going to be part of this cruelty and stopped eating meat altogether.

It's got worse since then because I have learnt so much more about what goes on in farms and how animals are treated. I learnt that these animals do actually have intelligence, emotions and feelings like we do and we slaughter them cruelly by the billion every day for meat.

I began to see meat as what it really is - dead flesh, dead body parts that we call chops, rump steak, T-bone and fancy names like that. But it is dead body.

Since I stopped eating meat I found many new avenues in the world of food. I've always been a bit of a cook and now I'm discovering and inventing exciting dishes that don't do me or any animal harm.

The great thing is that my health is better for it. No high blood fat or blood sugar or high blood pressure. And I kind of feel more natural and more part of the natural world.

DANGERS OF WORLD FOOD OBSESSION

2011-12-27T23:36:00.000-08:00

There's currently a world wide obsession with promoting food - all kinds of food from many different nations. TV programmes, magazines and newspapers are continously saturated with food tours in various countries, TV cooking shows, food competititons, recipes.

It's as if the wide world of gastronomy has just been discovered and we are all being urged to gorge ourselves daily.

Of course major and continuous promotions like this are prompted by massive advertising and public relations campaigns from the food industry. It's not just a journalistic whim. It's a serious commercially funded advertising and public relations campaign to sell food.

The food industry includes everybody from the money hungry factory farmers of livestock like cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry to manufacturers and supermarkets and takeaways; from cookery book publishers to restaurantants. It's one of the biggest business interest groups in the world worth many billions of dollars.

Personally I find the scene a tad boring. It's being going on for so long and so intensely that it's starting put me off my food. I'm tired of seeing the same kind of smiling cook or chef touring around places and telling me how to cook his or her recipes and most of the stuff they cook I wouldn't touch with a barge pole. A lot of it is just crap and not your good every day fare.

I also find that most of the food produced is not healthy. There is an emphasis on meat and diary products which are not good for the health. In addition many of the dishes involved are grossly fattening, they drip with fat. oils, butter and cream.

There is also an absence of vegetarian dishes. In fact I've seen none. Nor have there been promotions of foods for diabetics. Essentially it's all about promoting meats and diary products. The next priority is processed foods which account for a large percentage of the items found in every supermarket and are totally unhealthy.

So what I'm getting at is that this continuous promotion of food you see on TV and read about in magazines is not in the least interested in your health. These guys are only about selling and making money.

In real life good food and diet are much different than the glamorised goo that is being presented to you. A simple low fat, low sugar diet that includes fresh fruit and vegetables - preferably with less or no meat - will let you live longer.

MEAT NOT THE SAME ANY MORE

2011-12-17T00:14:00.000-08:00

Christmas is coming - and New Year. Like all festive occasions around the world it's a time when food features as an important highlight. Unfortunately it's often traditional for meat to be the main fare - especially items like turkey and pork.

But I wonder if in these modern times people had to kill their own meat , cut it up, cook and eat it - whether they could eat it. When I was a boy that's what most people did, especially at Christmas time. The turkeys or chickens were killed at home. I never really liked all this when I was young but it did not stop me from eating meat because everybody else did and the killing of animals was a supposed to be a "manly" thing.

Since then - like many others in the world today - I've realised how wrong it all is. The animals and birds we took for granted as "food" are in fact sentient creatures with feelings the same as us and with a good degree of intelligence.

Eating a fellow being - usually the dead body of one - has always seemed wrong to me. I didn't know before that the greatest minds over the past 2000 years have all thought the same.

But what really put me off was the taste and texture of the various meats today. It does not have a good texture or taste. Chicken tasted like soft plastic even when I sauced or curried it. Lamb and beef stank and was usually tough to eat, even with expensive cuts. Pork was also tough and smelly.

When I was young in England the meats we ate were much better and of much higher quality. After you cooked a chicken its bones were pink. Nowadays all cooked chickens have black bones. The flesh before was totally different than it is today.

Then I learnt how modern farming produces its meat and that really put me off eating meat. In the old days everything was natural. Nowadays everything is artificial, force grown and chemically induced. The poor creatures that factory farmers are producing have their bodies manipulated to disgusting degrees. There's nothing natural. It's forced factory farming.

Then I saw how modern farmers treat their animals and that was the last straw. Such mass cruelty and killing has never been seen before on this planet. Millions and millions of cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, horses and other creatures subjected to inhumane conditions and maltreatment.

I learnt that meat is one of the biggest businesses in the world, big big money is involved. Animal cruelty, animal rights even compassion don't get a thought. Cattle farmers don't look their animals in the eye. They only regard them as money making products instead of living beings.

So what I'm thinking as we approach Christmas - and it could be any other festive or religious occasion - is how about rethinking our relationship with our fellow creatures. Does religion actually tell us to eat flesh? I don't think so. Do we need to eat flesh? No because we can get all the nutrition we need from other sources. Can we build a new world that's fair for ALL God's creatures? We can if we try.

Let's make it a Happy Christmas and New Year for all the animals and birds too.

You don't have to become a vegan. Even if you go semi-vegetarian you'll be saving animals and health-wise you'll feel better for it. That's scientific fact.

Not eating meat is not just about saving animals from torture and cruelty. It's about getting healthier, reducing big pollution on the planet and coming to terms spiritually with all living things on the planet.

There never was and never will be justification for killing and eating a fellow creature.

WHEN BEING SAD IS NOT ENOUGH

2011-11-25T01:58:00.000-08:00

If you have not seen some of the horrific animal slaughtering done daily by the food industry it's easily traced on the internet. Cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens and others by the billion every day force grown, force fed, force impregnated and then murdered and butchered and put in little plastic containers on your supermarket shelves as food.

Imagine a life like this

Most people have never seen a real life farm animal, let alone seen one slaughtered. To many meat is just stuff in packages or something that someone else has cooked for you - probably in a frozen or takeaway meal. Few question its beginnings.

When people do see the real thing - the animal full of fear, the fight for life, the screaming, the blood, the killing - they are shocked, often profoundly. Many weep. Many can't watch it. Many say:"Oh it's so sad."

...or living like this

But being sad is not enough to stop the biggest killing machine this world has ever seen, namely the food industry. It spends billions of dollars constantly brainwashing people to eat meat, to eat eggs, to eat cheese and to drink milk. It tell consumers nothing about how the food is produced only that it is good for you ( a blatant lie that should be legally challenged) and how tasty it is. Clever colourful packaging hides the fact that you are buying dead flesh, dead body parts to eat. The advertising and PR razmataz hides the killing fields and the torture that our fellow animals endure every day like -

* being beaten to death
* being hung upside down and having your throat cut while still alive
* spending your life in pens that are smaller than you
* having your beak burnt off
* having your newborn taken away from you and killed at birth
* being tortured in grotesque ways by depraved farmhands and abbatoir works

Being sad enough is not enough to stop this. Action that can be taken includes petitioning, protest letters and emails. This helps as does lobbying to governments for better animal rights and welfare laws. But the one single action that anybody and everybody can take that would be most effective is to stop eating meat, eggs, cheese and milk. The mighty and vast power of the food industry that is mostly based on these things could not exist without consumers support.

Beautiful creatures like these Brahmans could have happy lives if we changed our ways

Such a move would represent a revolution in world opinion about killing fellow animals and eating their flesh. On moral grounds, for health reasons and to massively reduce world pollution the move would be more than justified. Future generations might not then be regarded as flesh eating savages but as one with their planet and the creatures on it. Humans would at last show love and understanding for all living creatures which in turn would make humans better creatures themselves.

So next time you see the dead body parts in the plastic packets at the shops think about how they got there and what they once were - a living animal with feelings - just like you.

LIVE ANIMAL EXPORT PROTEST STRONG IN OZ

2011-11-20T02:02:00.000-08:00

The severe cruelty to live sheep and cattle exported from Australia has shocked the nation and is still a major political issue in the country. It's an issue that could contribute towards the current government's downfall. People's feelings are strong and lobbying is still intense despite the government's failure to stop live animal exporting.

Australia is the world's largest exporter of live animals. It shipped 2.9 million sheep valued at A$343.5 million to Middle East markets in 2010/11.

Over the past 30 years Australia has sent more than 150 million sheep and 13 million cattle to be slaughtered alive in the Middle East and Asia.

More than 2.5 million animals have died traveling on ships - but this is accepted simply as a business loss by money hungry farmers.

When they arrive at their destinations the animals are routinely exposed to brutality that would be illegal in Australia - but money hungry Australian farmers generally disregard this. Filmed exposure of such animal brutality in Indonesia and Egypt recently shocked and shamed Australians enormously. Petitioning and mass demonstrations against live animal were staged all over the country.

Most importing countries have no animal welfare laws. Sheep and cattle have their throats cut while fully conscious and suffer fear, pain and stress - but involved Australian cattle and sheep farmers don't seem to care.

The live export industry says live animals are required for religious reasons or because of a lack of refrigeration in importing countries. This is invalid, yet farmers support it.

The farmers willingness to export live anímals to these countries gives a general impression that Australia supports such cruelty - and it does not. It's been recently estimated that 80 per cent of the Australia public want live animal export stopped. After massive and intense lobbying the Australian Government failed to act despite the opinion of the electoral majority and evidence that exporting frozen killed meat is much more profitable for farmers.

In addition economic reports show that 5000 new jobs would be created in the meat processing industry in Queensland and Western Australia if live exporting were phased out. But the government has not acted.

Live animal export is still a very hot issue in Australia and Federal and State Governments will need to more seriously consider animal welfare if they are to last. Animal welfare will certainly be an important issue at all coming elections.

The current minority government exists mainly because of support from the Greens and some Independents. It is not a popular government. It could however increase its popularity by acting to stop the mass animal cruelty by banning live animal exports from Australia.

If Australia did ban these live animal exports it would set a stunning example to the world that Australia does not support gross animal cruelty. Hopefully other countries might revise their own attitudes towards animal cruelty. It might also encourage countries like those in the Middle East to review their requirements regarding the eating of dead flesh.

DON'T BUY FROM FACTORY FOOD FARMS

2011-11-05T00:33:00.000-07:00

Shopping for food provides a great opportunity to strike a serious blow against animal cruelty.The decisions you make when shopping can greatly influence factory food farms.

Factory food farms are often where animals and poultry are kept tightly confined in filth, fed crap and chemicals and slaughtered in cruel and inhumane ways.

Factory food farms exist because unwitting shoppers buy their products not knowing how they are produced. It's bad enough that most products sold are processed foods but there is a greater horror behind a wide range of everyday food items, things like meat, eggs and even milk.

The vegetarian sections in supermarkets is usually very small and grossly overshadowed by the many unhealthy farm factory items. Vegetarian products include items such as mock mince, pig-free 'bacon' and veggie roasts. Opting for cruelty-free vegetarian alternatives is the one way to ensure that farm animals — who have been excluded from animal cruelty laws — are protected from abuse.

However you don't have to eat veg products because the other wider choice is natural food like fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, cheese. There is a wide selection of food available without having to eat animals.

Personally I find I don't like some of the manufactured vegan products, nor do I like things like torfu and soya bean cake. Instead I create recipes for fresh veg and fruit dishes and only occasionally use a vegan product like, say, soy bacon or mincemeat.

Also spare a thought for lab animals. Millions of animals suffer immensely in stupid product testing experiments. Look for household cleaning products and cosmetics that are not tested on animals.

On the food front cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens all live in a perpetual hell so that the food industry can profit financially. Visual proof of such cruelty can be easily found on the internet so I will not spend time detailing it but beware because viewing it can truly upsetting.

It can all be stopped by shoppers like you at supermarkets. So next time you shop for food try and send the cruel and greedy food farm factories a message.You can either go organic or free range, reduce your meat or (like me) say I'm not going to be part of this.

The world can be a better place if you try.

PEOPLE OF TAIJI - JAPAN

STOP KILLING DOLPHINS

YOU BRING SHAME ON JAPAN

COWS NOT MILK MACHINES

2011-09-11T01:25:00.000-07:00

Did you know cows don't automatically produce milk?

Like all mammals, cows only lactate after giving birth.

For farmers to get high milk production ( and more money) dairy cows are impregnated each year. The resultant newborn calves are taken from their grieving mothers and usually killed

It's believed that over 1,000,000 unwanted newborn dairy calves are slaughtered each year.

Those allowed to live are not even allowed to drink their mothers' milk.

It’s not surprising then that soy milks, oat milks, rice milks and other dairy alternatives are gaining popularity among consumers who care about what goes on.

To maintain high milk production, a dairy cow must produce calves. If a cow turns out to be a substandard producer of milk, she goes to market and can be killed for beef. Dairy farmers usually begin breeding or artificially inseminating heifers around 13 months of age. A cow's gestation period is approximately nine months.

Newborn calves are removed from their mothers quickly, usually within a day of birth because the mother/calf bond intensifies over time and delayed separation can cause extreme stress on the calf.

Domestic cows can live to 20 years, however those raised for dairy rarely live that long, as the average cow is removed from the dairy herd around age four and marketed for beef.

In India, the Hindu majority holds the cow as sacred and a motherly figure due to her capacity to give milk. Cow slaughter is banned in parts of India and remains a contentious issue in states where it is legal. Spent dairy cows don't go to slaughter.

But elsewhere what you basically have is a gentle diary cow who could live for 20 years is kept continually pregnant, has her babes taken away from her and killed, is continually pumped dry of milk and is allowed to live for only four years after which she is slaughtered for beef by being beaten to death or having her throat cut while still alive.

The longer I live the less I believe that animal farming is a respectable business and after seeing the horror of how animals are slaughtered there's no way I'll ever eat meat again.

HUMANS EAT EVERYBODY

2011-08-05T01:15:00.000-07:00

It's amazing what we humans eat. There's animal ears, tails, tongues, hearts, lungs, kidneys, feet, claws, skin, even stomachs and eye balls.

As well as beef, lamb and chicken flesh people in various countries eat rats, mice, dogs, horses, rabbits, hares, frogs, deer, grasshoppers, ants, snakes, buffaloes, kangaroos and crocodiles. People even drink blood or eat it as a jelly.

Bird food includes sparrows, larks, emus and ducks. Insects include ants and witchery grubs. Fish food includes egg roe, whelks, cockles and eels.

It doesn't matter what part of the world you live in, you can be sure there's something weird around that people find acceptable dining. The list is long. There are many other menu items. It's been that way throughout history.

People have even eaten each other and it's rumoured that this still goes on in certain parts of the world.

Sometimes the taste comparisons between people are amusing. For example, Asian friends of mine who eat prawn heads, field mice and rats were totally shocked when I introduced them to black pudding. "Yucky", they screamed in horror. They found it disgusting yet for me it is as acceptable as bacon.

I'm not a total vegetarian but it still amazes me how we earth creatures eat each other, usually in the dead state and sometimes while still alive.

My point is that whatever you eat – whether it be another person, a mouse or a grasshopper – you need to count the calories. Calories in excess to your body's requirements means excess weight.

FORGET DIETING - THINK WEIGHT CONTROL

2011-07-27T03:25:00.000-07:00

If you are overweight forget about diets and dieting. Nowadays you have to think permanent weight control. For men women and and children weight control is the name of the game and it's all about health.

In an age when obese children often don't live as long as their parents, there's an urgent need to tip the scales and get healthy by losing weight.

Many people are fat because of a lazy lifestyle, junk food and eating the wrong foods. People get grossly obese and unfit. It's a common nowadays to see people of all ages so fat they can hardly walk. Even our pets are having weight problems.

Governments are spending millions of dollars trying to persuade people to eat properly, lose weight and exercise. The cost of bad health caused by being overweight is a major political consideration.

Being overweight is not just looking gross. It also means you are likely to have high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, severe back and leg pains or one or more of a host of other potentially killer ailments.

Losing weight means you not only look better but you will also feel better, be more active and live longer.
Weight loss calls for a permanent change of attitude towards eating and exercise.

Short term diets will not solve the problem. It calls for a lifetime change in eating and living habits and a permanent watch on weight. You need to lose weight permanently.

You need to change what you eat for the rest of your life. It all needs careful thought and preparation and in most cases people will require help and guidance.

When you change your eating habits and start losing weight you will feel happier. Mentally you will gain strength of will and this will increase more and more. But remember this is a permanent, lifetime thing and you need to choose a system that you are really comfortable with.

You won't necessarily lose lots of weight quickly but you will lose it - and forever - because you have changed your lifestyle.

On the Planet of the Blobs

2011-05-08T02:20:00.000-07:00

What will humans look like in the future? If we don't become part machine, we could well be just large fleshy blobs that can't walk and move around on some kind of mobile air cushion.

It's a distinct possibility because the way things are going at present half of the human race will soon be blobs. Already one in three of us is a blob. In outer space aliens may eventually be calling earth the planet of the blobs.

The situation is now really urgent and concerned governments around the world are spending lots of money trying to stop the trend. So far they are losing the battle.

A grossly overweight population presents various problems. It's not just because of physical illnesses caused by being overweight. There are also mental illnesses.

Obese people tend to be unhappy, depressed, unproductive and can have a variety of psychological problems.

The cause of it all is our modern style of living - eating and drinking too much of the wrong stuff and sitting on our backsides too much.

Governments can spend millions trying to educate us and our children but the bottom line is it's up to us personally to do something about it.

If we and our children want to evolve as normal looking earthlings then we need to lose weight.

So start your diet right now. And stay with it -- for the sake of the human race!

If you would like to get some really helpful advice about weight loss please take a look HERE. I've vetted lots of weight loss websites on the Net but I think this is the best of the lot. Good luck.

Focus on Getting Fit

2011-05-04T01:11:00.000-07:00

People trying to lose weight should primarily concentrate on getting fit and this means exercise of some kind. It's not just a matter of sensible eating habits.

When you step on your weighing scales they don't really show if you are fit or fat. They just tell you your weight. Sometimes we tend to overlook other body factors.

For example, more important than total body weight is the composition of your body tissue. If a man’s fatty tissue is bigger than 14% of his body mass, or if a woman’s is more than 20%, they are overweight.

Excess fat is not just cumbesome and unattractive. It leads to nasty ailments such as diabetes, gout, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and gall bladder problems.

In losing weight it is best to think the caloric balance equals your total calorie intake, minus the total calorie expenditure.

Some calories are used for metabolism. As people get older, their bodies require fewer calories for this. Some calories are excreted as waste products. Some go into the energy required for physical activity.

So if people take in more calories than are used by these functions, there is a definite calorie excess. Each excess of 3,500 calories is changed into a pound of fat. If people want to reverse this process, they have to burn up 3,500 calories to lose a single pound.

Exercise Important

Fighting fat with exercise is important and it works but it's important to get exercise that interests you.

Other than attending gym, good activities include swimming, running, cycling and walking. They can be performed solo but having a partner or partners is good for breaking any monotony and setting challenges.

It’s a good idea at the beginning to measure your efforts to see how you improve over time.

Exercise is not just for burning calories and weight loss. It builds up the strength and endurance of the heart, lungs, and blood vessels. It has also a tranquilising affect on the nerves.

There are various types of exercise and it's a good idea to take professional advice before you begin, especially if you are older.

Experts can advise on exercises for endurance, for strengthening muscles and to improve your joint mobility and posture. There are even stretch exercises to relieve aches and pains.

Pair some form of regular exercise with sensible eating and you'll not only lose weight. You will also be physically fit.

To get good and helpful advice on weight loss please click HERE. I have vetted lots of weight loss web sites on the internet but this is the only one I recommend and which impressed me. Good luck!

What Would Aliens Think?

2011-05-03T01:18:00.000-07:00

Many people assume that aliens on other planets are probably more advanced than us - more sophisticated. So what would these highly civilised aliens think of us when they see what we eat.

As well as occasionally eating each other, we eat a vast selection of the other life on this planet.

We have no qualms about killing these creatures. Hundreds of thousands of birds, fish and animals are killed every day as part of our meat-food supply.

I think aliens might ask why we eat flesh when we don't really have to. And why do we eat so much? We could easily live on fruit, vegetables, dairy products and other food types.

I'm not a total vegetarian but it still amazes me how we earth inhabitants eat each other, usually in the dead state and sometimes while still alive.

I think aliens might be quite disgusted with us and could regard us as savages. The fact that we haven't stopped killing one another in wars and disturbances for thousands of years is another minus. Killing seems to be a human trait. Then there's how many of us look - so large, so overweight and so blobby.

Of course, this is assuming that aliens are vegetarian or have a more civilised system of nutrition. It might be that they are the same as us, or worse. They might even want to eat us.

But just in case they are highly developed, maybe it's time we reviewed our eating habits, cut down on the meat scene and moved more towards vegetables and fruit. Then one day when our out of space visitors arrive in their huge spacecraft they will not completely regard us as cannibals.

On the other hand they may be vegetable life forms themselves and will be totally appalled that we are vegetable eaters. Their word for cannibal would be vegetarian.

It gets so confusing.

One thing's for sure though. If you ever meet an alien the first thing to do is check out what they eat. In the meantime you can lose weight and slim down. After all, we don't want the aliens to go back and tell everybody out there this is the planet of the blobs.

To get a heap of very good advice about weight loss please click HERE. I have checked out the many diet and weight loss websites on the Net and this is the only one I really liked. Yes, I too have to watch the figure and keep in shape.

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