Meat and your health..sensible comments by Raoul Baxter
The average number of different food items in a normal-sized grocery store is over 16,000. You have a fresh meat case, a fresh vegetable case and a fresh fruit section. The ingredients are just the products themselves.
Then you begin to walk down the various isles and look at the mind-boggling number of processed products. Do you think stores would have entire aisles of snack foods if they weren’t selling them? Read the ingredient lists. I read the lists of 25 products — canned foods, soda pops, fruit drinks [not fresh squeezed], ice creams, frozen dinners, frozen snacks, aisles of candies and chocolates — and they had a minimum of 30 ingredients.
Based on what science, what facts, what peer review says the explosion of diabetes and heart diseases are the result of meat consumption? Do you think people who graze like vacuum cleaners in fast-food restaurants get fat from eating meat? What about the breads, the sauces, the cheeses, the excessive portions, the extra sugar in huge cups of soft drinks and the deserts? Who are you people trying to confuse?
People in fast food sell products people are going to eat and eat repeatedly. Sugar, fat and portion size bring them back. In food consumption, like most things in life, the secret is balance, sometimes even moderation.
What scientific experiments have been done which shows the effect of a diet that mixes meat, vegetables, fruits and some carbohydrates? Not many. Also, humans are very individualistic in their lifestyles and physical makeup. A diet for one may not work for another.
We are at the mercy of a dictatorship of minority thinkers who exist to tear something down. At the same time we have to be very conscious of opposing or challenging views. Most important is to find out facts and verifiable science. The worst thing anybody can do is to just talk to or read things written by people who agree with us. If you do that you will remain biased and ignorant. It’s hard to listen to contradictory views, but you have to.
With food, remember the secret to a happy, nutritious life is balance.