The Case

For Vegetarianism

Reasons Why People Turn Vegetarian
 

Health reasons

Aesthetic reasons

Economic reasons

Moral reasons

In 1947 there were 70,000 registered vegetarians in Great Britain. In 1990 there are over three million. 30 percent of these became vegetarian in a twelve month period spanning 1985 and 1986.

Animals Eaten in The Lifetime
Of The Average 70 Year Old American

150 cows

2,400 chickens

225 lambs

26 sheep

310 pigs

But, Say Some, Everybody Eats Meat!

(1) More than a third of the world's population live on a vegetarian diet.

(2) Aristotle, Diogenes, Buddha, Hippocrates, Plato, Plutarch, Pythagoras and Zoroaster were vegetarians.

(3) Henry Ward Beecher, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther, John Milton, Isaac Newton, Nicolo Paganini, Albert Schweitzer, George Bernard Shaw, Leo Tolstoy, Richard Wagner and John Wesley were vegetarians.

(4) Dennis Weaver, Paul Newman, Samantha Egger, and Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Prince Charles and the Princess of Wales are/were vegetarians.

But Isn't A Vegetarian Diet
Inferior To A Flesh Diet?

`It is of course possible to eat meat dishes less than once a day or to omit them from the diet altogether, for it has been determined that all the necessary protein and energy may be obtained from other materials' (Circular: The United States Department of Agriculture)

`Fruits, grains, and vegetables, prepared in a simple way, free from spice and grease of all kinds, make, with milk or cream, the most healthful diet.' `Meat is not essential for health or strength, else the Lord made a mistake when He provided food for Adam and Eve before their fall. All the elements of nutrition are contained in fruits, vegetables and grains.' (Counsels on Diet and Foods, pp.92,395)

Superiority of A Flesh-Free Diet

(1) Flesh foods are generally acid-forming foods, fruits and vegetables are generally alkali-forming.

(2) Natural food fiber is not found in any animal products.

(3) Cholesterol is present in all foods of animal origin. Foods of plant origin do not contain any cholesterol.

(4) The United States Department of Agriculture reports that there is a poor potassium-to-sodium balance in foods of animal origin (Handbook no. 8)

(5) Magnesium deficiency is associated with many disorders. Flesh foods are a poor source of magnesium. Nuts and grains are richest in this mineral.

(6) The excessive amount of protein consumed on a flesh diet makes it almost impossible for the body to assimilate sufficient calcium to supply the body's needs of this mineral. If you eat plenty of meat and have always wondered why you have sensitive, bad teeth, this could well be the reason. A reasonable variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains will provide a perfectly balanced protein intake.

(7) The added strain placed on the kidneys because they have to deal with the uric acid in the meat of the animal, as well as the uric acid passing from the body of the flesh-eater, is a positive danger to one's health. Plant foods do not present this danger.

(8) An all-meat diet has even been found to be inadequate for domestic animals. The specialists explain that meat contains insufficient calcium, phosphorous, and carbohydrates. It also contains too much fat and protein for the animals digestive system to efficiently metabolize. Many nutrients in meat are in improper ratio - such as calcium to phosphorous, and protein to calories. Too much meat in the diet of even the carnivorous dog results in stiffness, lameness, joint pain, inflammation of the kidneys, obesity, skin and hair problems, diarrhoea, and liver conditions.

But Aren't Vegetarians
Physically Weak?

(1) Rocky Marciano, one of the world's hardest-hitting heavyweight boxers, was a vegetarian.

(2) Murray Rose, who at the age of 17 won three gold medals at the Olympic Games in Melbourne is also a flesh abstainer.

(3) Elephants, horses and rhinoceroses subsist on a simple vegetarian diet, and they are most certainly the most powerful animals on earth.

(4) Our strength comes from carbohydrates and fats, and not from protein, so the argument that one needs meat (protein) in order to be strong is not a valid one.

Dr Per-Olef Astrand's
Bicycle Test

Dr Astrand took three groups of students and fed each a different diet. He then tested their endurance at bicycle pedaling.

¤  Those on a rich fat-protein diet containing meat, eggs and milk were able to pedal for an average of only 57 minutes.

¤  Those on an ordinary mixed diet pedaled for an average of 114 minutes.

¤  Those on a vegetarian diet containing fruits, grains and vegetables averaged 167 minutes.

Dr Irving Fisher's Test

Vegetarians were pitted against flesh eaters in the simple test of holding their arms out horizontally.

¤  Only 2 of the 15 flesh eaters succeeded in holding their arms out over a quarter of an hour - 22 of the 32 vegetarians surpassed that limit.

¤  None of the flesh-eaters reached half an hour, but 15 of the 32 vegetarians exceeded that limit. Of these 9 exceeded an hour, 4 exceeded two hours and 1 exceeded three hours.' (Fisher and Emerson, How To Live, p.184)

The Deep Knee Bending Test

In Dr Fisher's test, only one of the 9 flesh eaters reached 1000 times, as against 6 of the 21 vegetarians

The vegetarians excelled with an average of 833 deep knee bends, as against an average of only 383 for the flesh eaters.

Does Flesh Eating Make One Aggressive?

When we eat meat we are inheriting the last feelings of that animal - horror, fear, aggression and an extremely urgent call for action - and we are eating the adrenalin that pumped through the animals veins just prior to its death.

`Rollin, the celebrated historian, says, that in training the boxers for the bloody arena, to whom a ferocious spirit and great physical strength were the chief requisites, they were fed exclusively on raw flesh.' (How to Live, p.60).

But Isn't A Vegetarian Diet
Deficient In Certain Nutrients?

Meat is only a second-hand vegetarian diet.

`B-12 deficiency is a very rare disorder, and the overwhelming majority of cases occur in non-vegetarians. Contrary to popular belief, B-12 is found not only in meat but also occasionally, but in sufficient frequency, in or on soybeans, various common greens, olives, fruits, sea weed, alfalfa and many other foods.' (Dr. Agatha Thrash, Nutrition for Vegetarians, P67)

`The Lord intends to bring His people back to live upon simple fruits, vegetables and grains. One of the great errors that many insist upon is that muscular strength is dependant upon animal food. But the simple grains, fruits of the trees, and vegetables have all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood.' (MM277)

But Where Do You Get Your Protein?

`On a natural diet, if one takes care of the calories, the protein will take care of itself.' (Dr. Agatha Thrash, Nutrition for Vegetarians, p.55)

It is well established that an excess intake of protein is harmful and that it actually speeds up the ageing process. It is also a well known fact that those animals with long life spans are generally vegetarians, and conversely, that carnivorous animals have shorter life spans. Drs. Fisher and Emerson in the book, How to Live, insist that meat is "one of man's chief life shorteners." (20th Ed. p.67)

`If one eats a variety of unrefined foods sufficient in quantity to keep up a normal weight, he can safely forget about his protein supply.' (Dr Mervyn Hardinge, Nutrition and Food Service, p.63)

`As long as this country has access to a plentiful supply of calories and a variety of whole grain cereals and legumes, it is most unlikely that protein deficiency will ever occur.' (Dr. Stare, American Journal of Public Health 33:1449, 1943)

`The ingestion of protein supplements by athletes who eat an otherwise well-balanced diet is of no use in body-building programs. Athletes need the same amount of protein foods as non-athletes. Protein does not increase strength. Indeed, it often takes greater energy to digest and metabolize the excess of protein. In addition, excess protein in the athlete can induce dehydration, loss of appetite, and diarrhoea.' (C. P. Cyborski, Journal of the American Medical Association. 240 (1978):481)

`Over-consumption of protein has been linked to breast, liver, and bladder cancer and to an increase in the incidence of leukemia.' (V. Kulvinskas, Survival into the 21st Century, p.39)

`Weight loss diets that are high in protein and low in carbohydrates cause adverse side reactions that include breakdown of some protein tissues and increase urinary excretion of calcium and other minerals. It appears that loss of bone matrix occurs on a high-protein diet. (Study conducted by Dr Harold Yacowitz, Ph,D of the Health Research Institute at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey.)

`So insidious and destructive are the effects of a high protein diet, and so extensive is the research which proves as much, that it is difficult to understand why the `lots of protein is good for you' myth still survives. Excess protein is so damningly implicated in premature aging that it is hard to understand how anyone who is serious about caring for themselves in the long term can continue to eat large quantities of high protein foods. A diet which supplies more protein than the body needs actually causes deficiencies of many essential vitamins, including the B vitamins B6 and niacin. It also causes important minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, phosphorus and magnesium to leach out of the body. And during protein breakdown complex by-products are formed some of which, ammonia for example, are highly toxic. These toxic residues deposit themselves throughout the body, predisposing it to degenerative illnesses - to arthritis, atherosclerosis, heart disease, cancer, even to schizophrenia. Lots of protein certainly brings about early and rapid growth, but it also brings about early and rapid aging and disease. One of the most dangerous protein by-products is a fatty-waxy deposit called amyloid, found in large quantities in the tissues of dedicated overeaters of meat. Dr. P. Schwartz, professor of physiological pathology at Frankfurt University and a world expert on amyloid deposits and their implications, refers to amyloid as `the most important and perhaps decisive cause of decline with age.' It not only stifles proper cell metabolism by interfering with the movements of oxygen and nutrients but also damages cell membranes and DNA.' (Leslie & Susannah Kenton, Raw Energy, p.87).

But Isn't Man A Carnivore By Nature?

(1) Man's teeth resemble in number, arrangement and structure the teeth of the gorilla and other vegetarian animals.

(2) In carnivores the jaw motion is up and down only, while herbivorous creatures have three distinct jaw motions; vertical, or up and down, lateral, or from side to side, and forward and backward.

(3) Man perspires through the skin, as do vegetarian animals, while carnivorous animals perspire through the mouth.

(4) Man drinks water by suction, while all carnivorous animals lap up their water.

(5) Man's saliva contains the enzyme Ptyalin for the digestion of starch, while the saliva of carnivorous animals cannot digest starch.

(6) Man's bile salts are like those of herbivorous animals, and unlike those of carnivorous animals.

(7) The colon of man is sacculated ... approximating the herbivorous rather than the carnivorous type.

What About Fish?

The real danger in eating fish lies in the fact that they feed near the sewer outlets of large cities, and then may be caught hundreds of miles away. Who knows what diseases are carried in this way to the body of the unsuspecting fish-lover.

`Fish are also afflicted with tapeworms and roundworms. These worms may infest man if diseased fish are eaten. Leptospirosis has now been found to also infect fish. (SNL Report, Sept 1, 1962, as quoted by Dr. L. & D. Rosenvold, Science and Modern Manna, p.104)

Shell fish are even more dangerous to eat. They are scavengers and are among the foods mentioned as unclean in the Bible. Their mineral balance is completely unsuitable for human consumption. They are extremely acid-forming, while the oil from shellfish raises blood cholesterol levels dramatically. Single shellfish have been know to contain lethal doses of poison.

In recent years an outbreak of hepatitis was traced to clams and oysters by four Boston doctors. (New England Journal of Medicine, April, 1967)

What About Chicken?

United States Department of Agriculture statistics reveal that in one year alone, nearly a million pounds of live poultry and more than ten million pounds of slaughtered birds were condemned. (USDA Marketing Service, Feb 1960, p.1)

`In 1964, the death of more than 12 million diseased poultry was reported to the United States Department of Agriculture by cooperators. Unreported figures would have made the total far higher. Undoubtedly, additional diseased birds reached the slaughter houses.' (B. T. Hunter, Consumer Beware, p.160)

`Poultry or poultry dishes cause about one out of four cases of food-borne disease. Environmental sanitation and handling in poultry packing plants is in many instances deplorable. Chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, pigeons, and other species of poultry are susceptible to many diseases, some of which affect only part of a flock whereas others are highly infectious and may spread through the flock . . . producing extensive outbreaks, or epizootics. Poultry are also infested by numerous kinds of parasites, some of which live on the surface of the body and others internally, especially in the crop, stomach and intestines.' (U.S. Farmers Bulletin No. 1652, 1941 Revision)

`Chickens are now being fed their own excrement to about fifty percent of their total intake of food, it's very economical.' (Peter Cox, Why You Don't Need Meat, p 109)

"Huntmill Broiler feeds contain the antibiotics, penicillin and bacitracin and the growth promoter, 3-nitre-4-hydroxyl phenyl arsenic acid. Also, coccidiostats are added to your order." (Ross Horne, `The Health Revolution', p.341)

Further to the above, recent reports reveal that poultry producers are even adding pesticides to the feed to reduce the number of flies that are attracted to their excrement.

What Of Animal Diseases?

`Those who use flesh little know what they are eating. Often if they could see the animals when living and know the quality of the meat they eat, they would turn from it with loathing. People are continually eating flesh that is filled with tuberculous and cancerous germs. Tuberculosis, cancer and other fatal diseases are thus communicated.' (E. G. White, Ministry of Healing, p.313)

`During 1938 over 32 million inspected, slaughtered swine revealed over 3 million with tuberculosis, and of these over 90 percent were passed after removal of the obviously affected parts.' (United States Federal Bulletin No. 1069)

`The nation loses more than TWO BILLION DOLLARS a year through livestock diseases and parasites.....' (Denver Post of December 8, 1958)

`It takes a physician and a clinical laboratory twenty-four hours or more to determine the causative organism of infection in a human being. In poultry and meat inspection as practiced in this country [U.S.A.] by the federal government, a layman is expected, in as little as two seconds, to determine the wholesomeness and freedom from infection of the meat of a chicken, cow, sheep, or pig that we are to eat. It is impossible.' (Oscar Sussman, Veterinary Medicine, 63:639, July 1968.)

We can therefore understand why in 1968 the American Consumer Report stated that among 177 packages of sausages tested, 30 percent of federally inspected items fell below federal standards for bacteria and filth. One eighth of the inspected packages contained insect fragments, larvae and rodent hairs.

Is It True That Meat Resembles Manure?

When an animal is killed, the mucous lining of the intestines loses its protecting power and allows the manure germs (putrefactive bacteria) to swarm through the organs and the tissues of the animal. Immediately after an animal is killed its meat is tough. The meat processor now relies on the putrefactive bacteria from the colon to break down the tissues and make the meat tender. The butcher will say that he allows the meat to "ripen", but in truth he is only allowing a process of putrefaction, the very process that takes place in the colon. The butcher allows colon germs to swarm through the meat and one could say, partially digest it.

Dr Hoffman points out that in a one ounce piece of hamburger steak there are over 70 million putrefactive bacteria, while an ounce of calf manure contains only 15 million of these same bacteria. Thus it is quite easy to see how Dr Hoffman comes to his conclusion regarding the similarity that exists between meat and manure.

`An eminent sanitary authority states that hamburger steak may contain 850 million bacteria to the ounce. The significance of this will be appreciated when it is remembered that certified milk is not permitted to contain more than ... 300,000 per ounce; that is, marketable hamburger steak may contain a thousand times as many bacteria as certified milk. Milk which contains as many as 600,000 per ounce, is regarded as unmarketable, and is promptly condemned wherever a milk inspection service is maintained, while at the same time hamburger steak containing fifty times as many bacteria is sold and eaten without protest. It is also to be noted that the bacteria of milk consist almost wholly of harmless lactic-acid-forming organisms, or sour milk germs, while the bacteria of meat consist almost exclusively of putrefactive organisms.' (Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Natural Diet of Man, pp.128,129)

Is it True That Meat Resembles Urine?

As the tissues and cells in the body of an animal or human degenerate and die they are carried away in the form of uric acid. This is transported to the kidneys where the uric acid is expelled from the body in the form of urine. When we eat meat we are eating with it the uric acid that has not yet been expelled by the animal's system. It is reasonable therefore for Dr. Hoffman to make his claim as regards the urine. Dr. Rosenvold would no doubt agree with him.

`It is a well known fact that the chemical composition of beef broth closely approximates that of human urine.' (Dr. L. & D. Rosenvold, Science and Modern Manna, p.123)

Dr. Hoffman also points out that when you remove the uric acid from flesh it has no taste whatsoever. We therefore have no problem in working out where meat gets its flavour.

What Do The Scriptures Say?

The Bible makes it quite clear that in the beginning, man was given fruit, grains and nuts to eat (Genesis 1:29). Only much later were vegetables added to man's diet (Genesis 3:18). Very much later, after the earth had been denuded by the action of the flood, (Genesis 7:23), God gave man guidelines as to which were the healthier of the flesh foods (Leviticus 11). But certain conditions were attached to flesh eating. 

`It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.' (Leviticus 3:17)

`But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! "Let us eat and drink," you say, "for tomorrow we die!" The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: "Till your dying day THIS SIN will not be atoned for," says the Lord.' (Isaiah 22:13,14, NIV)

`I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good ... which eat swine's flesh and the broth of abominable things is in their vessels' (Isaiah 65:2-4, KJV). See Deuteronomy 14:8; Isaiah 66:15-17.

(1) In Genesis 5:5-32 we are given the average lifespan of the first inhabitants of the earth. They averaged about 900 years.

(2) In Genesis 11:11-32 we are again given a record of the average lifespan of the inhabitants some time after the great flood. We notice that the lifespan had dropped considerably to around 300 years.

(3) Why the drop in longevity? (See Genesis 9:3-5)

What Of Better Land Utilization?

For every one hundred pounds of plant protein that is fed to cows, only five pounds of it is converted into meat. In a world where more than five hundred million people go hungry every day, where 400,000 children die every day from hunger, and from hunger-related diseases, couldn't we make better use of the land that is available to us?

This Is Happening Right Now!

`In the holding pens the slaughtermen were trying to move a young but fully-grown steer. The animal could sense and smell the death before him and didn't want to move. Using prods and spikes they drove him forwards into a special restraint where he received a meat tenderizing injection [I wonder what is in those injections?]. A few minutes later the animal was driven reluctantly into the stunning box and the gate slammed shut. He was then `stunned' by a captive bolt pistol, his legs buckled beneath him, the gate was opened, and he sprawled out onto the floor. They pushed a wire into the half-inch diameter puncture made in his forehead by the stun bolt, and twisted it. He kicked whilst the wire was in and then was still. A chain shackle was put around one of his hind legs, at which point he started struggling and kicking whilst he was hoisted over the blood bath. He was then still. A slaughterman then approached with a knife. Many people saw the steer's eyes focus on the slaughterman and follow him as he approached. He struggled both before and as the knife went in. The universal opinion, including that of the press, was that it was not reflex action - he was conscious and struggling. The knife was inserted twice and he bled into the bath. (Peter Cox, Why You Don't Need Meat, p157)

End-Time Counsel

`We shall soon reach a time when we must understand the meaning of a simple diet. The time is not far hence when we shall be obliged to adopt a diet very different from our present diet. We need to study the art of preparing in a simple manner the fruits, grains, and vegetables. We do not need these complex combinations that are provided. As the matter now stands we are in danger of making dyspeptics.' (MM281)

`God is working in behalf of His people. He does not desire them to be without resources. He is bringing them back to the diet originally given to man. Their diet is to consist of the foods made from the materials He has provided. The materials principally used in these foods will be fruits and grains and nuts, but various roots will also be used.' (HFM26)

`The time of trouble is just before us; and then stern necessity will require the people of God to deny self, and to eat merely enough to sustain life; but God will prepare us for that time.' (1T206)