In a study at the University of Rome, researchers noticed a “marked improvement” in the behavior of autistic children who were taken off dairy products, but how dairy might worsen or cause autism is still unclear. Some suspect that casein (a component of cow’s milk) harms the brain, while others suggest that stomach problems that are often caused by dairy products cause distress and thus worsen behavior in autistic children.

Not so surprising, considering that milk has already been strongly linked to Crohn’s disease, certain types of cancer, and other serious health problems. But I digress.

Thankfully, there is hope. Testimonials suggest that some people with this devastating disease may be able to find relief by simply removing milk from their diet.

There’s a whole world of information out there for parents and for women who are pregnant or nursing about how to raise their kids dairy-free. Be an informed consumer and check it out!

*The Newark area had the highest rates of autism occurrence among 14 states studied in one report.

Anybody who has ever done an ounce of research about the benefits of vegetarianism has ran across studies and statistics that explain why factory farming is bad for Mother Earth. Besides the needless slaughter of millions of animals, the ecological side effects of stockpiling animals is highly detrimental to the sustainability of natural resources. Moreover, the greenhouse gasses put off by the un-natural overpopulation of animals in factory farms is . . . . well, for lack of a better explanation, bad for everyone, especially the Earth.

I have had these conversations with my meat eating friends before - always receiving the same scoff of a response from them, something along the lines of “Thats a bunch of bull, eating meat is a natural thing and it does nobody harm, get over it, there is no scientific evidence to prove what you are claiming.”

To be frank, at the time I never had hard data or scientific references to back my claims that factory farming was detrimental to the Earth. I always felt like it was my opinion based on vague ideals rather than hard facts. Fortunately, the doctors of the UN are here to get my back!

The recent recommendations they have outlined recommend that the most effective way that people can reduce greenhouse gasses is through a reduction in meat from their diet. There! Its not my skinny, vegetarian, biased opinion, but hard factual data from people who know what the heck they are talking about.

Unfortunately, these facts will land on millions of deaf ears. For most people it is not about hearing the truth - most of my steak and potato buddies don’t’ give a damn about the implications of their diet on their own bodies, much less the side effects to mother earth. They eat beef because they actually believe they need it to survive, or because they have eaten their whole life and just like the way it tastes. They will probably never come around, no matter how much factual and scientific data comes to light.

In order for the following quote and fact to even resonate with your being you must first be even slightly conscious of the greater good, but even with a slight sliver of awareness, surely it should sink in that your personal diet choices can effect the collective. Here is the quote:

Tomorrow, Pachauri will speak at an event hosted by animal welfare group Compassion in World Farming, which has calculated that if the average UK household halved meat consumption that would cut emissions more than if car use was cut in half.

Great facts, love that this stuff is coming to the masses, of course the meat industry will fight like hell to keep most people from hearing about this, but a great step nonetheless.

For the Entire Article visit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/07/food.foodanddrink

“Councilwoman Jan Perry says residents at five public meetings expressed concern with the proliferation of fast-food outlets in the community plagued by above-average rates of obesity.”

But, I mean, come on - so they stopped future fast food restaurants from entering the neighborhood, is this really going to help curb the obesity of the residents? I don’t think so, they are still going to eat the same crap they did before. The only hope for this poor community is that some progressive and health concious affordable food options come in as alternatives, give these people some Griller Burgers and veggie corn dogs!

What do you think is going through McDonalds head when they hear that they have been banned by a City Council - in the board meeting the next Monday “Well, um, what do you say we . . . . . I know, I KNOW lets offer carrot sticks with ranch as a side to our chicken McNuggets. BRILLIANT! Now we can DEFINITELY convince people that we give a rip about their health. . . .”

I hope this continues to happen on a massive scale - and I think it will.

Below you will find an analysis of the relative Karmic Debt that you might incur for eating various animals. The assumptions underlying this chart are that Animals experience pain and suffering. Some animals are more advanced and therefore more able to comprehend pain signals and suffering. Since not all animals experience pain in the same way, the relative Karmic Debts incurred by those who eat the animals vary from species to species.

I assembled and arranged this list based on the biology of animals, brain size, central nervous system, brain neurons, personality traits, intelligence and biological factors. It is merely posturing about the relative Karmic burden of eating various animals.

Primates Karmic Debt: HEINOUS Pain: 1000 Humans, Baboons, Apes, Chimpanzees

Cetaceans Karmic Debt: BRUTAL Pain: 800 Dolphins, Whales

Marsupials Karmic Debt: Grim Pain: 750 Kangaroos, Kuala Bears

Artiodactyla Karmic Debt: FIERCE Pain: 700 Pigs, Lambs, Cows, Deer, Goat

Carnivora Karmic Debt: GRUELING Pain: 675 Cats, Dogs, Bears, Lions, Tigers

Lagomorpha Karmic Debt: SEVERE Pain: 500 Rabbits

Rodentia Karmic Debt: HARSH Pain: 425 Squirrels, Rats, Mice, Hampsters

Birds Karmic Debt: Intense Pain: 400 Turkeys, Chickens, Duck, Geese, Quail

Reptiles Karmic Debt: Moderate Pain: 300 Alligators, Snakes, Lizards, Turtles, Alligator

Amphibians Karmic Debt: Mild Pain: 200 Frogs, Salamanders

The animals listed past this point operate more or less on instinct. It is believed that their respective level of consciousness and pain awareness are so basic that one will incur no negative Karma by killing and eating them. However, they do still experience pain and suffering at some level, so if you don’t want to take any chances, keep your diet relegated to the Plant Kingdom. Consequently, just because an animal is listed below does not necessarily indicate that it is a healthy thing to eat. Lobsters are the cockroaches of the sea, they are filthy, dirty animals and are one of the worst things you can eat.

Fish Karmic Debt: Light Pain: 50 Salmon, Trout, Sharks, Tuna

Crustacean Karmic Debt: Soft Pain: 40 Crabs, Lobsters, Shrimp

Insects Karmic Debt: Incidental Pain: 30 Spiders, Bees, Butterflies, Ants

Mollusks Karmic Debt: MINOR Pain: 20 Snails, Clams

Porifera Karmic Debt: Negligible Pain: 10 Sponge

A few minutes later I got an email from him following up from our conversation:

“Is it bad karma to eat chicken? Ali (Eric’s Boss Lady) wants to know. Any links you can send me to see what is good/bad karma to eat?”

I started to write him an email back explaining the concept of Karmic Debt and Meat when 10 minutes passed and I realized that I had a full blown blog post. So here is my answer to his question:

Here is the rule of thumb:

Animals all experience fear, pain and suffering to some extent - some more than others.

The more developed and advanced the central nervous system is corresponds to how much pain and suffering the animal is capable of experiencing.

Cows, pigs, goats, cats, dogs and other mammals have for the most part physical biology similar to humans - advanced central nervous systems, glands and brain functions that enable them to be more alert and conscious. Consequently, they experience more pain.

These animals experience a great deal of pain and suffering when they are slaughtered - therefore by eating them you are incurring a great deal of negative karma.

On the other hand fish are not a very advanced animal - the have very small brains and are operating more or less on instinct - they are just slightly more advanced and conscious than plants.

It is said that the pain and suffering that they experience is so slight that one can eat them without incurring any karmic debt. I read this in a book: The Yoga of Nutrition by Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov.

This seems to make sense from a biological perspective. I personally choose not to eat fish, mostly because I have found countless other nutritious and tasty alternative but also because I don’t want to take any risks that I am creating bad karma for myself!

However, if you are moving away from a carnivorous diet, I would say continuing to eat fish is a very effective way to ween yourself off of the flesh of more advanced animals. It is a very positive life change to move toward fish in an attempt to exclude other meats - I always encourage people when they tell me about such a life decision.

As far as Chickens go - they are somewhere in between a Cow and a Fish - they definitely experience pain and suffering, and there is no doubt that by eating them you will be incurring a Karmic debt. On this one I would say use your best judgment. Watch “Meet Your Meat” if you are still comfortable eating chicken after watching that video than you are obviously not ready to give up chicken. The good news is this: There are countless soy based meat alternatives available today. Delicious, tasty alternatives that will make you ever wonder why you ate the real thing.

My wife Alison became a Vegetarian about two months after we met 6 years ago. Once she was veg, she would always tell me how much she MISSED chicken fajitas when we would to to Mexican restaurants. It was the one food that she really craved. Well, we went to Whole Foods and found “Lite Life” Chicken Strips. We took them home and cooked them up on the grill and she DEVOURED them. They are delicious and for her they were a perfect substitute.

Chicken is slimy and gross, they have, feathers, beaks and claws - do we really want to eat them?

So when choosing the food you eat, be aware of what all had to happen before it reached your plate. How much pain and suffering was created to cut off its limbs, sear its beak, boil it alive or bludgeon it? When you consume pain and suffering you become pain and suffering.

For the good of all mankind who are still lured by the shredded flesh of dead animals, I have put together a diagram that compares the relative Karmic Debt of consuming animals. This is just my humble opinion. However, I have based it more or less on biology and the advancement of each being and other factors such as: brain size, central nervous system, intelligence and general consciousness. You can find a full breakdown of my theory concerning relative Karmic Debt here

For a few minutes on Oprah they were actually focusing peoples attention on the fact that animals suffer, which was quite honestly AMAZING! Although Oprah did not go so far as to say that she was committing to vegetarianism, I suspect that once that thought and the light has been lit in her it will be difficult for her to continue to eat death. We will see!

It was funny to watch Oprah comically reinforce to the audience that she was “CONSIDERING being a vegetarian” as if the notion is WACKY and INSANE!

Quite the opposite in my opinion, we are the sane ones and those who are still eating the flesh of dead animals are the ones who are no right in the head.

Come on Oprah - come on over, you won’t regret it, and your aura will glow that much brighter when you stop clouding it with the death and misery of the dead animals you eat!

The total recall was around 150 million pounds - imagine the THOUSANDS of cattle who were slaughtered pointlessly and then just buried - better than people eating them I guess . . .

This story is just absurd - what is worse is that around 37 million pounds of the meat made it into the school lunches of our youth - what is this doing to our children? What kind of bad energy and poor vibrations were we stuffing into our kids bodies? This was bad . . .

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beef18feb18,0,4428760.story

Read more

Courtesy of: http://www.betterbodyjournal.com

This video clears that up real quick