Life and Death and the Garden of Eden

by Lorette C. Luzajic

We’ve been told so frequently that vegetarians are healthier and live longer than shameless carnivores that even Paleo diet proponents may be surprised by new headlines refuting this common “wisdom.” Because we’ve had to dig deeply for truth under the monocrop and animal liberation propaganda. When Sally Fallon suggested that saturated fat is “good for you,” her outrageous assertions spawned websites bickering about how some people also think the world is flat. The idea that shunning animal foods is the ticket to paradise is widespread today. It is considered common knowledge that vegetarians enjoy better health benefits, a miraculous life span, and shining skin, along with a squeaky clean conscience. But the truth is that behind all these glowing good intentions and nutrition “facts” is that vegetarianism is not a diet- it is a fundamentalist religion.

When the 1950s Lipids Hypothesis guessed that animal fat in the western diet was responsible for our growing rates of death and disease, it was good news for the vegetable oil industries to glom onto. Where for millennia, we had used lard and butter, now we used corn and soy oils. That these same oils and white sugar and flour might be the guilty party in the deadly western diet wasn’t given the time of day. Forever after, animal fat was vilified as a vicious foe.

But before that, the monocrop monolith took our meat away for moral motivations, not merely monetary ones. In the 1800s, Doctors Graham and Kellogg came onto the scene, pushing their corn and wheat fibre snake oil. Avoiding constipation with fibre, you see, would keep us pure and save us from our sins. Meat had to be avoided at all costs, not because of compassion for our fuzzy friends, but because it incited lust. Leo Tolstoy’s “peaceful” lifestyle was mainly about how meat inflamed lust. Early waves of western vegetarianism were totally based on the religious ideal of avoiding meat to avoid sexuality. (Yes, monastic practices avoid meat to avoid killing, but also to make celibacy easier. Monks knew that soy had a feminizing effect on their manhood.) Incidentally, the infantile obsession that some vegetarians have with “impacted fecal matter” clogging colons everywhere comes from these ancient cereal quacks. Kellogg wrote extensively about how meat clumped into the colon and rectum and pushed onto the sex organs, pressuring them into lust. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. There is zero truth behind this “condition.” It doesn’t exist.

But as the aftermath of this obsession with sex and feces was a fortune in the cereal markets, and as moralizing brought about vast gains in the vegetable oil industry, the world over came to believe that a vegetarian diet was the key to eternal youth and happiness. This is precisely in line with fundamentalist religions. True Christianity is about personal faith and humility- about following a compassionate pauper’s loving imperative. But fundie faith is about raising monolith churches, a “prosperity gospel” that happily robs the poor after lying to them, and builds glowing empires of Porsches and private jets. If you weren’t feeling His abundance, then you just weren’t giving enough, or there wasn’t enough faith, or there was still too much sin in your heart.

This is no different from today’s veganism. If you dare to feel sick or undernourished or starved, it is because you are a slovenly, greedy, murderous, lustful human being. If you are getting sick, you MUST be sneaking in some vile meat products somewhere, or else you are being punished because your envelope adhesive was made out of mosquito testicles.

To these new fundamentalists, veganism is the answer, the key to salvation. It would get rid of disease and wrinkles and let you live longer than the fat, lascivious, pimply gluttons who ate eggs or beef. Indeed, it even became familiar truth that the natural human diet was a vegetarian one, in that idyllic meadow where we played happily among dancing flowers, before the fall of man, when we were seized by the bloodlust killing our species.

The few voices who maintained the reason of our ancient lifestyle, such as Dr. Atkins, were considered new and dangerous radicals. It has only been in the past decade or so that ancient ideas are becoming popular again. The Paleo movement was a result of various convergences- including archeology and anthropology, which were demonstrating that the less meat and the more carbs a culture ate, the more we saw the so-called protein diseases. It became crystal clear in a heartbeat- the diseases of “civilization” were the disease of civilization- of grain, of sugar, of industrial plant oils. Hunting was, after all, not “civilized” and nor did said “uncivilized” societies have disease. In fact, the more “primitive” and the more meat-based the culture, the more healthy and beautiful the people. It seemed that if we wanted to be strapping, solid, sexy, and possess all of our teeth, we should be feasting on carcass and drinking blood like Kenya’s incredible Masai.

Sigh. But these voices of reason were just voices in our heads. A few scientists and doctors led Team Heritage, and surprise, surprise, our natural diet was healing the sick. But our truth has been largely drowned out of the mainstream by the idealist agenda-ists who value animal life over human life, or by the massive money making machine that keeps pushing grains and sugars on us and tells us we will live forever, if only we trust them. In truth, even the “studies” famous for “proving” vegetarian health and longevity did not prove it. This includes the China Study, the infamous Seventh Day Adventist study, and beyond. Many scientists and statisticians examining the data of these bulwarks found that the results were very different from the politically correct information that was touted into the popular canon. The true data of death in the China Study implicates carbs.

Some escape the clutches of cults, or find a more reasonable faith. And so sometimes, the facts begin to reach the masses who need them. Turns out the cause of arterial blockage is sugar after all. Turns out sugar is the cause of diabetes- d’uh. Turns out that sugar causes cellular damage and aging. The animal liberationists posing as doctors concerned for human health who have been pushing the plant diet for diabetes and heart patients are starting to look like idiots, just like the TV evangels who promised salvation and healing and were exposed as shams. It’s turning out that soy protein is deficient in certain animo acids and high in estrogenic compounds, wreaking havoc on human testosterone levels. Turns out meat is loaded with antioxidants, and the strongest antioxidants are not found in plants, but in our own bodies- and they are nourished with, guess what, the amino acids in meat. Turns out that vitamin B12 is one of our most potent protectors from coronary disease. That’s the vitamin found largely in animal foods.

It is reprehensible to withhold knowledge or misguide people for financial gain or an “ethical” agenda. Since B12 was the “only” nutrient found in meat that could not be obtained from plant foods, its importance was greatly minimized in vegetarian literature. Gurus of “compassion” like John Robbins went so far as to instruct followers not to worry about it. But even the China Study’s Dr. Colin Campbell says he takes supplements.

While news about disease caused by the absence of dietary B12 is now finally reaching people, the truth that meat contains a whole host of nutrients not found in plants is still suppressed. Vitamin D, Vitamin A, zinc, iron, chromium, DHA, cholesterol, saturated fat, carnitine….Since some of these nutrients are “technically” found in plants, idealists can fool the populace. Zinc is one example. This extremely important nutrient can certainly be obtained from vegetables. You need to eat hundreds of servings a day. Saturated fat is a vital nutrient, but idealists got rid of the problematic absence in plant foods by declaring it a disease monger.

Yes, our greatest hope of longevity and vibrant health is meat. Cutting modern plant foods out of our diet- grains, sugars, processed foods, vegetable oils- means our antioxidants don’t have as much work to do. Filling up on meat, fish, eggs, and fresh veggies means living longer.

Meat may indeed be the fountain of youth. The much ballyhooed “proof” that most centenarians are vegetarian is another idealist fairy tale that has replaced reality with fantasy. Tribes and cultures that only eat plants apparently live forever, according to much rhetoric. One “vegan” culture constantly referenced in the popular literature is the Hunzas- yet goat milk, high in saturated fat, actually makes up a huge portion of their calories. The fabled Eden of Okinawa, where nary an animal is killed and soy reigns supreme, is where most people make it to 100. This argument comes up nearly every time I have a conversation about meat. The ludicrousness of this information is lost on those who brag about Okinawa’s testament to soy and vegetables. Why? Because Okinawans are not vegetarian soy eaters. They eat loads of raw fish, like most Japanese. But the clincher is that they love lard and pork. They don’t just love lard- their whole culture revolves around pork. Just ask your vegetarian friends to head to Okinawan tourist or history sites. Okinawa “begins and ends” with pork, says one. “Pork is number one,” says another. Recipes for Okinawan-style pork abound.

Plant eaters and carnivores alike may be surprised to discover that many “aging” processes are nothing more than physical damage caused by carbohydrates. With all the talk about antioxidants, we know that much aging is the result of oxidative stress. The newest darling of discovery is carnosine, and the “carn” part is correct- only carnivores, or meat eaters, get it. What is it? Not to be confused with carnitine, another good friend, it is a dipeptide of the amino acids beta-alanine and histidine, found concentrated in muscle and brain tissue. It occurs in our own bodies, and diminishes with age, oxidative stress, etc. We can consume it in our diet, through animal foods.

It is proven to be a high performing antioxidant. It is an antiglycator- those familiar with words like “glycogen” and so forth will recognize the “glyc” and the “anti” from which you can surmise that it “gets rid of sugar.” Well, yes. It gets rid of sugar damage- helping to prevent and repair glycation and glycosylation. Those are fancy words, loosely referring to sugar aldehydes reacting with the amino acids on the protein molecule. Picture, more simply, what happens when you cut fruit open and it goes yellow. Glycation is one of the primary mechanisms for wrinkles!!!!!

Preventing and repairing glycosylation is far reaching- it positively impacts the immune system, the heart, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, kidney problems, cataracts, autism, pain, retards cancer, alcohol damage, liver problems, longevity, neurodegeneration, olfactory sense, cellular health, wound healing, inflammation, protection from radiation damage, muscle mass, and skin health. Animal foods are the only sources of this nutrient, and this nutrient is absolutely vital in aging gracefully and avoiding cancer, diabetes, brain deterioration and immunity problems. So once again I must ask why we are always told to avoid or cut down on our meat intake and eat a plant based diet. I must ask why the truth is suppressed, twisted, or outright denied.

Vegetarianism is completely foreign to the human diet. The only vegetarian societies were meat-free for religious reasons. Vegetarianism is, and always has been, about religion, one that must not be imposed on anyone unless they come to it of their own free will, in full knowledge of their true dietary heritage. Religion has often been about denying the body and sacrificing its needs and lusts. It has often been about controlling the sex lives of its followers. Fasting, flagellation, sexual “purity” and ascetic denial are behind many faith practices. They are behind the agenda of early vegetarian proponents like Tolstoy and Kellogg, who were both obsessed with sex.

But the life of a monk is for a contemplative, not for a layman. And packaging idealism as nutritional science is reprehensible. Some of us see a simple spirituality in accepting our full humanity rather than denying it. Certainly spiritual principles call for truth, not lies. Eating meat is no more immoral for me than it is for a cat- since all claims to the contrary, this IS the way I was “designed.”

But scientific truth will not dissuade ardent veganists. This is because veganism is a fundamentalist religion, and fundamentalists believe the fossil record was put there to test our faith in the Genesis story. Fundamentalists in Iran execute gays despite vast science showing that homosexuality is natural and not a “lifestyle” choice. Fundamentalists decry the healing possibilities of stem cell research that are so far our best hope for disease cures. They defy the facts that stem cells have no brain and fewer cells than a fruit fly, and that only a teeny tiny percent of stem cells ever become children since the womb gets rid of most of them all by itself, all the time. Fundamentalist religions believe their truth is the only truth and that everybody else is going to hell. The rest of the world is sinful slime. No amount of proof that humans need meat to function optimally will change a vegan fundamentalist’s mind that eating meat is sin. There is no room for humanity in fundamental religiosity, just for false morality. Even Jesus spoke against the Pharisees, who were the religious fundamentalists of his day.

Maybe you’ve never run into the Vegan Militia. They are angry, violent people and in true fundamentalist fashion, their approach to their faith is totally blind. They purport to love animals, but refuse to accept the animality of animals. Indeed, some, like Matthew Scully, even speak about the “moral degradation” of meat eating animals like cats! These people actually feed cats vegetables, not meat.

There is no extremism quite like the insanity of the vegan politic. Like fundamentalists of any faith, they refuse to believe in history, anthropology, biology, geography, physics, or any other science or scholastic enterprise, or they rewrite all of these according to their dogma. Like fundamentalists of the conservative Christian right wing, they don’t actually care about people at all, despite puppeting false data about that “16 pounds of grain” for every pound of beef. They have no care or concern for people in need or otherwise, unless those people have converted to veganism. Vegetarians aren’t the “right kind of Christian” since they are not vegans.

But worse than all this, among all the yapping about ethics and caring and compassion and value, veganists don’t care about anything at all. I love my cats and I grew up with chickens on a farm, but just once I’d like to hear veganists talking about the genocide in Rwanda, the terrorist mining for minerals in the Congo (which also affects the gorillas if you need that to give a damn), blood diamonds, the lack of hospitals and doctors in Afghanistan and everywhere else, the million plus child prostitutes in Thailand, Philippines, and the men who buy them, the political torture in Eastern Europe, East Africa, and beyond…Of course, veganists all give lip service to their care for human “health” and the “environment.” But in truth, they really don’t like or care about people at all.

Like fundamentalist believers of any faith, they are certain that other humans following their humanity are simply choosing to defy God and worship the devil. They call for “total animal liberation.” Total? My friends, the wild is a savage place, filled with “immoral” hurricanes and volcanoes and famines that mutilate human and nonhuman animals in unimaginable ways, all of the time. The truth is, the religious type of vegetarian hates humans, and being vegan is a great way to refuse being one.

Activists like Camille Marino say “mutilated cadaver parts have been sold and fed to the all-too-eager-to-eat-misery corpse-munching consumer.”

“It's time to stop waving signs at cars or trying to enlighten the apathetic. The fight for the rights of non-human people is urgent and requires us to act outside the box,” she writes. “Being vegan is the first step in being an ethical human being… Negotiation is over: go vegan or die.”

When President Obama described a wonderful lamb dish from Pakistan, this extremist called him “an enthusiastic participant in the holocaust; Barack prefers to molest and ingest the cadavers of exotic non-humans.”

Most human beings, including, likely, President Obama, are brought up to believe that the only justification for killing an animal is for food. Far from attesting to our atrocity, this is a “moral leap” above other “innocent” animals who attack, mutilate, and kill other animals for fun. Indeed, humans who still do this are anomalies- serial killers and sickos that we consider “unevolved” and especially heinous. They are “still savage.” Far from being the vegetarian peaceniks we are told they are, chimpanzees will tear baby chimps limb to limb and cannibalize them just for fun, laughing and tossing the child chimp around amongst themselves.

I follow Richard at freetheanimal.com and he is very outspoken and eloquent on these matters of morality. He has a video on his blog showing the chimpanzee having a gory hey day with its young. He was also raised to avoid torturing animals, justifying their death only for food. He says about vegans, “In the end, y’all remind me of the born-again Christian fundamentalists I grew up around. It’s always about denial, penance, guilt — and over man’s very nature (’original sin’). Vegetarianism offers the very same unearned guilt trap, and there’s no mystery that it’s the young and as-yet dumb and ignorant where lies the biggest push. In the end, you need emotion and feelings-based ignorance: the only life truly suited to the diet of a pea brain.”

The vegan militia is missing the point entirely- caring about nature, embracing it, loving it, existing within it- these cannot possibly mean denying it. Since vegetarianism is absolutely not about nutrition, then it is entirely about morality. I’ll respect your choice to be a vegetarian if and when you respect my non-choice reality of being a carnivore.

Like most fundamentalists who rail against heathen sinners, vegans who “use no animal products” are also hypocrites. If they live in cities or eat farmed crops, they have destroyed thousands of insects, birds, rodents, and animals. They may argue that this is unintentional, and that’s fine. But not one of these vegans would turn down miraculous morphine or anesthetic and opt for surgery without. Yet some of these would open the door to animal laboratories and “free” the “inmates” who are helping us find cures for disease. Not one would say yes, yes, eat your carnosine so that you can avoid cancer and glycation-related diseases and spare some animal tests or some human animal pain.

It is absolutely moral to feed ourselves and our families on the food nature made for us. Far from being vicious and bloodthirsty, it shows a profound respect for nature unencumbered by naïve fantasy. It shows a respect for the circle of life and death, for the sacrifice another makes to nourish me fully and keep me alive. Amen.