Scary Facts - makes you think twice what you eat!

kickitlarson

HUNGER:
-The Number of people worldwide who will die as a result of malnutrition this year: 20 million
-Number of people who could be adequately fed using land freed if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%: 100 million
-Percentage of corn grown in the U.S. eaten by people: 20
-Percentage of corn grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 80
-Percentage of oats grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 95
-Percentage of protein wasted by cycling grain through livestock: 90
-How frequently a child dies as a result of malnutrition: every 2.3 seconds
-Pounds of beef produced on an acre: 250
-Percentage of U.S. farmland devoted to beef production: 56

ENVIRONMENTAL:
-Cause of global warming: greenhouse effect
-Primary cause of greenhouse effect: carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels
-Fossil fuels needed to produce meat-centered diet vs. a meat-free diet: 3 times more
-Percentage of U.S. topsoil lost to date: 75
-Percentage of U.S. topsoil loss directly related to livestock raising: 85
-Number of acres of U.S. forest cleared for cropland to produce meat-centered diet: 260 million
-Amount of meat imported to U.S. annually from Central and South America: 300,000,000 pounds
-Percentage of Central American children under the age of five who are undernourished: 75
-Area of tropical rainforest consumed in every quarter-pound of rainforest beef: 55 square feet
-Current rate of species extinction due to destruction of tropical rainforests for meat grazing and other uses: 1,000 per year

CANCER:
-Increased risk of breast cancer for women who eat meat daily compared to less than once a week: 3.8 times
-For women who eat eggs daily compared to once a week: 2.8 times
-For women who eat butter and cheese 2-4 times a week: 3.25 times
-Increased risk of fatal ovarian cancer for women who eat eggs 3 or more times a week vs. less than once a week: 3 times
-Increased risk of fatal prostate cancer for men who consume meat, cheese, eggs and milk daily vs. sparingly or not at all: 3.6 times.

CHOLESTEROL:
-Number of U.S. medical schools: 125
-Number requiring a course in nutrition: 30
-Nutrition training received by average U.S. physician during four years in medical school: 2.5 hours
-Most common cause of death in the U.S.: heart attack
-How frequently a heart attack kills in the U.S.: every 45 seconds
-Average U.S. man’s risk of death from heart attack: 50 percent
-Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat: 15 percent
-Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat, dairy or eggs: 4 percent
-Amount you reduce risk of heart attack if you reduce consumption of meat, dairy and eggs by 10 percent: 9 percent
-Amount you reduce risk of heart attack if you reduce consumption by 50 percent: 45 percent
-Amount you reduce risk if you eliminate meat, dairy and eggs from your diet: 90 percent
-Average cholesterol level of people eating meat-centered-diet: 210 mg/dl
-Chance of dying from heart disease if you are male and your blood cholesterol level is 210 mg/dl: greater than 50 percent


NATURAL RESOURCES:
-User of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the U.S.: livestock production
-Amount of water used in production of the average cow: sufficient to float a destroyer
-Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of wheat: 25
-Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of California beef: 5,000
-Years the world’s known oil reserves would last if every human ate a meat-centered diet: 13
-Years they would last if human beings no longer ate meat: 260
-Calories of fossil fuel expended to get 1 calorie of protein from beef: 78
-To get 1 calorie of protein from soybeans: 2
-Percentage of all raw materials (base products of farming, forestry and mining, including fossil fuels) consumed by U.S. that is devoted to the production of livestock: 33
-Percentage of all raw materials consumed by the U.S. needed to produce a complete vegetarian diet: 2

ANTIBIOTICS:
-Percentage of U.S. antibiotics fed to livestock: 55
-Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1960: 13
-Percentage resistant in 1988: 91
-Response of European Economic Community to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: ban
-Response of U.S. meat and pharmaceutical industries to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: full and complete support

PESTICIDE:
-Common belief: U.S. Department of Agriculture protects our health through meat inspection
Reality: fewer than 1 out of every 250,000 slaughtered animals is tested for toxic chemical residues
-Percentage of U.S. mother’s milk containing significant levels of DDT: 99
-Percentage of U.S. vegetarian mother’s milk containing significant levels of DDT: 8
-Contamination of breast milk, due to chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides in animal products, found in meat-eating mothers vs. non-meat eating mothers: 35 times higher
-Amount of Dieldrin ingested by the average breast-fed American infant: 9 times the permissible level

ETHICAL:
-Number of animals killed for meat per hour in the U.S.: 660,000
-Occupation with highest turnover rate in U.S.: slaughterhouse worker
-Occupation with highest rate of on-the-job-injury in U.S.: slaughterhouse worker

-Athlete to win Ironman Triathlon more than twice: Dave Scott (6 time winner)
-Food choice of Dave Scott: Vegetarian
-Largest meat eater that ever lived:
Tyrannosaurus Rex (Where is he today?)

Article Source – “Diet For A New America” by John Robbins
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KZOsMommy

Thank you for that! That is some really interesting information. I am going to send this to my husband who was just told at 32 he has high cholesterol and triglycerides. I would really love to be vegetarian just not sure how to go about it with my kids and my husband.

Thanks again for the eye opener!

jrich1

Your stats dont take into account what percentage of Corn grown is actually used in producing Fuel (E85 gasoline/ethanol added to reg gas). Farmers are actually making more money for this and are making less food corn.

katie517

Just an educated guess, but I don't think it was cholesterol that killed the dinosaurs.

jrich1

The downside is, if no one ate meat there isnt enough farmland to produce enough food to feed everyone and people would starve

ZebraHead

I eat stuff that eats vegetarian/vegans (I'm a meat eater no doubt!) :bigsmile:

PixieGoddess

The problem here really isn't meat-eaters vs. vegetarians, despite what those stats might propose. First of all, it has been admitted in almost every test studying the medical differences in meat-eaters vs. vegetarians that most people who are vegetarians are also very active and aware of their food intake; while plenty of meat-eaters are also very active and aware of their food intake, many are not, and thus the numbers develop a bias.

Secondly, most of the problems that DO arise, bias or not, are not from eating meat. Humans have been eating meat for centuries and done just fine. The problem, as also indicated in the article, is how the US grows and eats its meat. We're a spoiled nation who thinks it's necessary to eat meat daily, multiple times a day even, and thus need to make meat cheap so everyone can afford to eat it multiple times a day. The way meat is SUPPOSED to be grown makes it more expensive, but definitely worth it in terms of health, environmental impact, and so many other factors.

The solution isn't necessarily to stop eating meat. It's to go down to your farmers' market, get the meat that was DONE RIGHT, and eat that. It is more expensive; if you can't eat it as often, you'll do fine. You can get all the necessary amino acids from non-meat sources, such as soybeans, quinoua (sp?), rice with beans, pasta with tomatoes, etc.

Of course, I'm one to talk! My current financial crisis has me shopping for the cheapest garbage I can put into my body that will keep it going for now! :laugh:

ZebraHead

We're a spoiled nation who thinks it's necessary to eat meat daily, multiple times a day even, and thus need to make meat cheap so everyone can afford to eat it multiple times a day. The way meat is SUPPOSED to be grown makes it more expensive, but definitely worth it in terms of health, environmental impact, and so many other factors.

Agreed

johnsoag

WOOOOOW. I was amazed, as were my co-workers!

kickitlarson

The downside is, if no one ate meat there isnt enough farmland to produce enough food to feed everyone and people would starve

Reread the first two lines:

-The Number of people worldwide who will die as a result of malnutrition this year: 20 million
-Number of people who could be adequately fed using land freed if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%: 100 million

We have more than enough food - we just need to use it as food instead of feeding it to so many animals. They eat a lot!! But then only give so much in return - and its not more food than if we just ate what we grew.

bigcoon103

Good info, but T-rex isn't a good example (not human). Can't beat the taste of a good steak, just eat in moderation, once in a while.

little_miss_very_bad

Reading all of that has made me glad that I follow a vegan diet

kickitlarson

Good info, but T-rex isn't a good example (not human). Can't beat the taste of a good steak, just eat in moderation, once in a while.

I'm pretty sure the T-Rex thing was a joke....all the dinosaurs are extinct - even the plant eaters.

tabbydog

The real problem is too many people, not enough planet. I agree that we eat too much meat, but I won't elminiate it from my diet. I try to have a couple of non-meat days per week. I

iRun4wine

I think the stats are interesting, but I'm not sure the world's problems are that clean-cut and simple. Interesting nonetheless, though.