The type of meat you should avoid
Usually when we talk about the consequences of eating meat, the focus is usually placed upon the suffering of the animals that are slaughtered simply for the benefit of our dinner plates.
However, even from a selfish point of view, eating meat is potentially a very dangerous dietary habit…
Most people who buy meat give no thought to where it has come from or what the meat actually contains. For example, we may think that steak has simply come straight from a cow and into packaging… ready to be shelved at the Supermarket.
Even people who are careful about the meat they eat, are misled a lot of the time. While their meat may be expensive and tagged as “prime” meat, it could actually be a lot less organic and healthy than they first think.
Since food manufacturers are not required by law to disclose the process of how they produce their meat – many make huge profits through misleading their customers.
Food manufacturers may even use the plasma of pigs and cows, to create “meat glue”. This is used to glue together pieces of meat from different parts of various animals. They then pass this off as “prime” meat and sell it at a high price.
According to reports, the process of gluing meat has become so refined that even expert butchers cannot tell the difference between glued meat and genuine cuts of prime meat!
Some meat glues are also created using cultivated bacteria. As a result, the risk of food poisoning that arises from eating affected meat rises to a high degree.
Some people might suggest such meat could simply be avoided, but there is absolutely no way of knowing what mass-produced meat has been glued and what hasn’t. Every time meat is consumed, there is always a significant risk to health involved. Is that really worth the “pleasure” of having meat on your plate?
Eating processed meats can also be potentially hazardous to our health. Processed meats are meats that have been refined (i.e. not organic) and preserved by adding chemicals. These meats include bacon, ham, pastrami, salami, pepperoni, hot dogs, and some sausages and hamburgers that have additives and preservatives.
Because of the additives, chemicals and levels of salt that are found in processed meats, they significantly raise the risk of contracting various cancers. They even increase the likelihood of contracting diabetes by 50%! Lung function is also affected by eating processed meats, and there are numerous reports and studies clearly showing that by being ignorant towards what we eat… we really are putting our health at risk in the most dangerous ways.
How can we justify putting ourselves through so much illness, sickness and suffering just for the sake of satisfying our palates for a few moments?
When we honestly take a look at what we eat and what goes into the process of some foods before they reach our plates, it really is frightening! Our bodies suffer so much. We continually complain of discomfort; stomach aches… pains… indigestion and various other ailments that could so easily be avoided if we took the time to know what we put inside our bodies.
Of course, everyone leads busy and hectic lives in today’s modern age. Who has the time to check out everything about what they eat? A simple solution to making sure what you’re eating is good for you and your health is to take the advice of many nutritionists and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and other natural foods.
Many people who have adopted a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle constantly say they have a better sense of well-being, they feel lighter, more energetic, less aggressive and less tired.
They feel much more vibrant after dropping meat altogether from their diets. More importantly, they have put themselves in a position where they have significantly reduced the risk of suffering from serious illnesses that are potentially caused by meat eating.
Please think about the choices you make about the food you eat. Even if you don’t think about the animals that are killed for meat consumption, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that you take a massive chance in damaging your own health by eating meat.
In the end, it is down to your own choice. If you choose to walk across the road with your eyes closed, you might not get hit by a car. No-one wants to risk being hit by traffic, so we all cross the road with our eyes wide open and this is exactly how we should go about choosing the foods we eat.
Tsem Rinpoche
Or view the video on the server at:
http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/MeatGlue.flv
This is something new I have not heard of. Meat Glue!!! Thanks for the information. Now I can share with my friends as this is important information if you care about your body or health. We have only one body and must do all we can to preserve it so that we can do more in this world.
Alongside all the growth hormones, antibiotics, chemicals and metals chickens are fed to make them heavier so the price of each chicken is higher – this meat glue looks like yet another scary proposition for meat eaters – mostly for purely economic reasons. The motivation is just to make money and is at the cost of the health of consumers. As consumers, we should ‘speak’ against this unethical practice by stopping eating meat. Even if we don’t have compassion for the animals in the slaughter houses, at least have compassion for ourselves and loved ones so they don’t suffer because of eating meat.
Wow! This is the first I have heard of this “meat glue”. It sounds pretty disgusting as well as very unhealthy. I have been a vegetarian since the 1960′s, and the more we find out about the bad health risks of eating meat the more I am glad I do not eat it. I chose to be vegetarian because of my love of animals and my wish not to harm them, and not really for health reasons, but of course it is healthier not to eat meat. Factory farming methods in America are also very cruel and very unhealthy, animals that are caged and kept in close quarters so small they cannot even turn around in their cages all of their lives, some that never see the light of day and who are given hormones and antibiotics to make them grow bigger and resist diseases from overcrowding and ill treatment. It is so heartbreaking and so unhealthy. Thank you for this information I had never heard of this before and it is good to know about.
I have been considering changing my diet over the past few weeks, but I kept on making excuses, now that must stop. Thank you for sharing.
I don’t see any problem in eating meat. I see a problem in meat consumption abuse or even on bad meat consumption. But we cannot forget that a variety in food consumption is what makes eating healthy. I respect vegetarians, vegans and all sorts of other diet practices, but I try to eat a little bit of everything to balance my diet. That is actually the healthiest choice: balance + variety + enough doses (of course then there’s exercise to complement that).
I hate animal suffering, but we also have to respect our body, our origins and nature as a whole. It is full of suffering from other animals eating other animals…that’s just something we cannot forget. We can do better, of course, but let’s not be radical about it. All doctors say we must eat fish as well. Fish are animals also. They suffer as well. In my opinion the key is balance, respect, intelligence, eco-equilibrium, harmony.
Cheers
Dear Rui,
Doctors also at one time heavily promoted the practice of smoking. As with spirituality, you should never blindly accept something just because a doctor has said it; check it out for yourself (as far as you’re able, of course). Even medical science gets it wrong, sometimes.
However, chances are, doctors don’t encourage the practice of eating meat in itself, but rather encourage consumption of the nutrients that are found in meats (hence “balanced diet”: it’s not the foods, it’s the nutrients they supply to the body). In any case, there is not one nutrient found in meat or fish that cannot be found in other foods. For example, there are some (raw) vegetables that contain more protein than cooked meat and essential acids and fats can be found in nuts and seeds.
I think if you eat meat, that’s your choice, but be careful of the arguments you give. I eat meat myself, but there’s no gain in hiding behind a wall of defence; it’s just a choice. I would give you my own “arguments” , but when I start writing on the subject, I sometimes forget to stop (as I’m often reminded…).
Regards,
Sandy
I have heard of paper glue, wood glue, ceramic glue…..etc.. but never heard of meat glue that is made up of cultivated bacteria or the blood plasma of the intestines of pigs or cows. It seems to be a never ending story of the food industry to always find ways of how to cut cost and increase profit margins at the expense of the health of the public consumers.
One more good reason to go vegetarian besides those unhealthy antibiotics and growth hormones injected into these livestock. It seems going vegetarian is the way to go…..
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this information with all of us.
I have been vegetarian for a year and a half now. My most recent blood test was fantastic, everything was at a perfect level.
Apart from the blood test result, I have been feeling good. I am stronger than i ever have been and working out seems a lot easier now. The body seems lighter. I have always heard and thought that cutting off meat would hinder the body’s muscle growth, starve the muscles of protein. But since i have become vegetarian, it has been easier for me to train my muscles and the motivation to workout has increased. there are protein sources that are vegetarian. I feel less lethargic. At the very beginning, it was quite hard to stay of meat because of the taste of meat, but today, I no longer think of eating meat because my body works better without the consumption of meat and all the chemicals that comes with it.
for anyone who is looking to be healthier, give vegetarianism a shot for 3 months and see how you feel. If it works, continue. If it doesn’t, go back to meat. You will not have lost anything but gained an experience.
WL
Tsem Rinpoche, thank you for the article. It’s really a shame how people around the world would go so far as to ‘taint’ foods that are supposedly natural to cut costs and satiate (in the wrongest way) the taste buds of people. We’ve seen what the people of China has done to food – milk tainted with melamine; artificial bamboo shoots made from wooden straws, vinegar and a mix of other chemicals that are harmful to the human body; artificial ‘smelly’ tofu made from chunks of rotten flesh, fecal matter, chemicals etc.; and not forgetting the recent news on ‘fake’ eggs as well. I personally think that the act of tainting foods is an unforgivable one.
I guess you could say that meats ‘bundled’ together with meat glue is heavily processed in some way, but it goes the same with every other processed meat, vegetables, and beans in a can. Anything that is heavily processed brings about a health risk, and not just meats that are manufactured with meat glue. Being a vegetarian or vegan has its own risks as well if one is not careful with what they eat. I’ve seen vegetarians with really, really poor diets. It’s harder to get a well balanced meal by being a vegan/vegetarian (it’s already hard if you go about the normal diet) unless you are pretty strict with what you eat, but this shouldn’t discourage people from being a vegan/vegetarian IMO. More so if one is a vegan/vegetarian or lactose intolerant bodybuilder/strength lifter who are looking to source out complete protein foods, which they would opt for soy (plant based, complete amino acids food) most times. Which brings me to my next point..
Tsem Rinponche, I humbly request that you read the following articles that I provide you with:
http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/35/Soy_Is_For_Dorks.aspx
http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/32/Risks_and_Benefits_of_Soy.aspx
In each link, the book “The Whole Soy Story” By Kaayla Daniel was mentioned and I think it’s worth a read if it’s recommended by Charles Poliquin, a world class athlete trainer. There’s a free preview of the book over at Amazon.com, so you can head over to glance through the content.
Why am I recommending such reads? The modern vegetarian diet consists of soy-based foods in abundance, so much that it has somewhat become a staple in the diet. Vegetarian ‘meat’ is often made using soy-based foods like fuchuks (also not forgetting other soy-foods that people eat on a daily basis!). And if one is a vegetarian athlete, he would most likely be consuming soy protein products every day.
If you get hold of the book, please do spread the awareness on the potential dangers of soy-based products. Please understand that my wish is not to steer others away from being a vegetarian, but on soy-based products/foods. And I also hope that you wouldn’t just only write entries on the dangers of eating meat, but also on soy as well (if you haven’t already). There shouldn’t be any biases when it comes to food that harms the body, IMHO, regardless of the type of diet that one favors.
Thank you.
The ability to have life, liberty and to pursue happiness should apply to all sentient beings who are deserving of such rights, irrespective. Even His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, has come forth protestingly with this remark,”I dont see any reason why animals should be slaughtered to serve human diet, when there are many substitutes. After all, man can live without meat.” Even if one doesnt contemplate on the abstinence of meat based on the aforsaid religious reasons, meat eating is also potentially a very dangerous dietary habit in accordance to some medical reports. Processed meats which include bacon, ham, pastrami, salami pepperoni, hotdogs, and many others are preserved by additives and preservatives with added chemicals, of doubtful levels which may raise the risks of contracting various cancers or diabetes to some dangerous levels. As such, is it justiafiable to risk putting our health at such risks just to satisfy momentarily our palates? Like our compassionate and caring guru said,”Whether you choose to walk accross the road with your eyes wide open or closed, the choice is our own”, – and this is also exactly how we should go about choosing the food we eat!! BEST IS TO BE VEGETARIAN.
Thanks Rinpoche for sharing the info.
I read an article from Taiwan saying that, before the animals die, they watch how their friends die, they feel scared and this will cause their body to release certain hormone which is like a poison. So they die with this poison. People who consume the meat will have this poison together.
A lot of people feels angry, hatred, not happy, easily throw temper, it’s the effects indirectly according to the article.
I am not sure does it really work this way, but look at the people around us, there are more and more people feeling depressed over small matters, the suicide rate is increasing and the reason of it always is unhappy. How does this unhappiness invade to so many people??
The statement might not scientifically proven, but taking responsible to your choice of food is just like taking responsible to your own.