The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet (7 page)

Let’s take a look at what we’re giving up:

Oxygen:
It is estimated that the global rain forests produce 40 percent
⁴²
of the oxygen we breathe, so think of the rain forests of the world as the planet’s lungs. By cutting them down, we are literally choking ourselves to death. Plus, by cutting and burning the rain forest, we are sending even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Consider this: The average American car produces 3 kilograms of carbon per day. The clearing and burning of enough Costa Rican rain forest to produce one hamburger creates 75 kilograms of carbon.
⁴³
And once that forest is gone, it ain’t coming back.

Biodiversity:
It is estimated that within a 4-square-mile patch of rain forest, you would find the following: 60 types of amphibians, 100 species of reptiles, 125 different mammals, 400 types of birds, 750 different trees, and 1,500 species of flowering plants.
⁴⁴
Some experts believe that six plant or animal species become extinct due to rain forest destruction every hour. That’s tragic enough, but biodiversity is about much more than pleasing birdwatchers and ecotourists. Our natural world is a dynamic system that has evolved over billions of years. Within this sophisticated system, every single organism has a very special job. We—the almighty humans—think these little guys are expendable, but they’re not. When we destroy them, we destroy ourselves. For example, we are all totally dependent upon bees to pollinate flowers and plants, without which we would die. For all our technology, we have yet to develop a man-made substitute for the neat trick of mass pollination. Same thing with worms aerating and nourishing the soil—we can’t do that ourselves! Well done, worms! Even fresh air and water—vital necessities we take for granted—are created by interlinking biosystems that we cannot reproduce. Ever tried making your own air?

Finally, more than 2,000 tropical forest plants have been identified by scientists as having anticancer properties, and 70 percent of the plants identified by the U.S. National Cancer Institute as useful in the treatment of cancer are found
only
in rain forests.
⁴⁵

So, clearly, rain forests are much more than “just” trees. That kind of rich biodiversity doesn’t spring back in one generation or even a hundred. With the land being used to feed or graze cattle, who will soon turn it into desert, it may never come back at all.

Hopefully, we’ll understand—before it’s too late—that we can’t survive in a world consisting of concrete and human beings, even if we wanted to. So if you choose to eat meat—whether it’s beef, pork, chicken, or fish—know that you are stepping very heavily on the planet.

NASTY TO ANIMALS

Animals are my friends—and I don’t eat my friends.

—George Bernard Shaw

Killing is a big deal:
We tend to hide from this fact, but let’s open our minds to it for just a moment. That was a life. Now it’s dead. And it’s in your body. Ever seen someone make the transition to death? It’s a big deal—especially when there’s suffering involved. Just for a moment, stop thinking of it as a delicious treat. Go beyond the sensory pleasure of your taste buds and consider for a moment what you’re really doing when you eat meat. Could you eat your dog? Your cat? Why not? It’s just an animal like a cow or a pig. What’s the difference between your pet and the animal you had for dinner last night? If your answer is “I don’t know,” please meditate on that question for a while before eating meat again.

If your answer is “Well, I
love
my dog and he loves me—that’s the difference,” I ask you to consider what you’re really saying. Does that mean any person I don’t love is also disposable? Is “loving” the litmus test here? Or is it a matter of aesthetics? If so, who made up the rules that cows, pigs, and chickens can be food, but dogs and cats are cute, cuddly things, or that squirrels are cute but rats are not? What’s the difference between your dog’s sweet eyes and a cow’s?

Fish Are People, Too!

If you think that fish brains are so small they don’t do much, think again. Dr. Culum Brown, an Australian behavioral ecologist, has conducted experiments with rainbow fish and found that they have longer memories than we assumed (months as opposed to seconds), the capacity to learn, and that they transmit their knowledge to other members of their school. He’s even teaching fish raised in hatcheries how to respond to predators before being released into the ocean so they have a better chance of survival. So next time a fish looks at you from inside a tank at a Chinese restaurant, read his lips; he’s probably yelling, “Get me out of here!”

If you can tell me you honestly believe there is a difference, then you’ve probably never hung out with a cow. I encourage you to go to an animal sanctuary and hang around with a few. They will love it, and so will you. Roll around with the pigs. Tell me that they don’t love living and that they don’t feel pain. Every single creature wants to live fully. That’s what God designed us to do. That’s our purpose. Who are we to take that away unless we have to? And these days, where’s the “have to”? We used to think that slavery was okay, but we got over that. Why can’t we get over the needless torture and killing of animals for our sensory satisfaction?

Meat production is downright cruel:
The meat industry has also brainwashed us into thinking that we are eating happy cows from peaceful green pastures and that the mom-and-pop farms they come from are part of the great American dream. In truth, the vast majority of the meat you eat comes from corporate-owned factory farms, and even the moms and pops have to go “factory” in order to compete. Yes, there are farms that embrace more humane practices, but they are few and far between.

And it’s not just the pigs and cows who suffer. Farm-raised fish are kept in cages with 40,000 other fish, enjoying the equivalent of half a bathtub of water each. Every egg has an abused chicken for a mother. People like to tell themselves that the animals have been treated decently during their lives and are then slaughtered relatively humanely, but their lives are not lives in any sense that we could relate to. From maternal separation to forced feeding of antibiotic- and pesticide-laden grains to being locked in ridiculously small quarters and being pumped so full of growth hormones that they can no longer support their own weight, their lives are pure torture. But the real price is paid in a way we rarely consider; the chicken, born with wings to flap, never flaps them. Her beak, meant for pecking the earth, is cut off. The cow, meant to roam, is confined to a stall carpeted in her own waste. Sixty-five million pigs are raised in confinement factories where they never see the light of day until they are trucked to slaughter. These animals experience lives tantamount to humans being strapped into straitjackets, locked in cells, abused by jailers, awaiting nothing but death. Their God-given instincts are repressed and their very beings denied.

And by the end, they know what’s coming. Don’t kid yourself. They can smell the blood. They can sense the fear. They can hear the other animals moaning. Wouldn’t you understand, in their position? Denial would have us equate slaughter with having a pet “put down” at the vet. But that’s just a comfortable delusion.

Facts:

• 90,000 U.S. cows and calves are slaughtered every day.
  
• 14,000 chickens are killed in the United States every
  minute
  .
  ⁴⁶
  
• Over 300 million male baby chicks are killed in this country per year—more than one for every person living in this country.
  

Although the Federal Humane Slaughter Act is supposed to keep certain practices in place, the law is rarely enforced. In 2000, a videotape was leaked out of workers at an Iowa Beef Processors (now Tyson Foods) plant in Washington State. Cows were routinely “stunned” by devices that didn’t work, left to experience their painful ends with sensitivity and consciousness intact. The video showed cows being skinned alive, kicking for freedom as their legs were cut off. Employees who were willing to talk estimated that 30 percent of the animals on the kill line were not properly stunned.

Also in 2000, a video showed footage of pigs at a North Carolina hog factory being kicked, stomped on, and killed by blows to the head with cinder blocks. Pigs who did not measure up to industry standards for sale were picked up by the hind legs and bashed against the floor, a practice called “thumping.”

I know these stories are hard to read, but it’s the reality of what goes into the food on your plate. The greatest crime being committed against these animals is not the eating of their meat, but our willful ignorance of their experience. As long as we keep our eyes closed, we can feel comfortable, and as long as we’re comfortable, they will continue to suffer and die.

It’s easy to get angry at the cattle ranchers and the big business that keeps meat rolling into our stores and restaurants, but I have to remember that they are just responding to market demands. If we stop the flow of money to these industries by converting to a plant-based diet, they will eventually have to convert their land and processing facilities into newer, more profitable ventures. Livelihoods need not be lost—they will just change. Likewise, as we spend our dollars on sustainable, ethical industries, we create a better world. It’s simple.

When asked, the majority of Americans consider themselves animal lovers and are genuinely interested in treating animals humanely, yet we spend our hard-earned cash to support cruelty every day. We grill it up on the barbecue, add some ketchup, wash it down with a beer, and then take an antacid in order to digest it all! Weird. Meanwhile, the industries doing the killing—while creating images of happy cows and free-running chickens to assuage our guilt—are working overtime to push through legislation that permits them to be even more cruel and make more money.

Eggs

More than 95 percent
⁴⁷
of eggs sold in the United States come from birds confined in wire battery cages so small they can hardly move. They are virtual laying machines who are sick, abused, and often starved. After all their hard work, these birds end up so spent that the meat can only be used to make soup, chicken pies, and pet food. The rest of the hens are in such bad shape by the end that they are beaten to death, gassed, or thrown live into wood chippers.

Other victims of the egg industry are male chicks; because egg operations need many more hens than roosters, baby male chicks are routinely disposed of in one of two ways: Either they are thrown into dumpsters full of other baby chicks, left to suffocate, or they are put, live, through meat grinders to be fed to other livestock. Female chicks have their beaks ground off with a hot blade at 1 or 2 days old.

God help us all.

P.S. In terms of egg-labeling, beware of “free-range” eggs. When applied to eggs, the term “free-range” has no legal definition in this country. The term “cage-free” does not ensure any humane treatment nor does it imply access to the outdoors. Wings, beaks, and feet are still routinely clipped. Even hormone- and antibiotic-free labels mean nothing in terms of how the chickens are treated. The only certifications that pertain to animal treatment are “Certified Humane Raised and Handled” (beware of imposters; those exact words must be printed on the label) and “Certified Organic,” which also upholds relatively humane standards.

Maybe it’s time to ask the question: Is consuming all this pain and terror hurting us on levels we can’t perceive? Is it cutting us off from the compassion deep within us? By not only condoning cruelty but literally consuming it, have we become desensitized to violence—against not only animals but ourselves and one another?