Veganist_ Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World - Kathy Freston [44]
Studies have shown that measures as simple as providing straw for pigs so they don’t have the immune-crippling stress of living on bare concrete their whole lives can significantly cut down on swine flu transmission rates. Such a minimal act—providing straw—yet we often deny these animals even this modicum of mercy, both to their detriment and, potentially, to ours as well.
The American Public Health Association, the largest organization of public health professionals in the world, has called for a moratorium on factory farms. In fact the APHA journal, the American Journal of Public Health, published an editorial that not only called for an end to factory farms, it questioned the prudence of raising so many animals in the first place:
It is curious… that changing the way humans treat animals—most basically, ceasing to eat them or, at the very least, radically limiting the quantity of them that are eaten—is largely off the radar as a significant preventive measure. Such a change, if sufficiently adopted or imposed, could still reduce the chances of the much-feared influenza epidemic. It would be even more likely to prevent unknown future diseases that, in the absence of this change, may result from farming animals intensively and from killing them for food. Yet humanity does not consider this option…. Those who consume animals not only harm those animals and endanger themselves, but they also threaten the well-being of other humans who currently or will later inhabit the planet…. [I]t is time for humans to remove their heads from the sand and recognize the risk to themselves that can arise from their maltreatment of other species.
KF: That is a pretty stunning statement! I know people will wonder “If we give up animal protein, will our immune systems be compromised… or enhanced?”
MG: We’ve known for twenty years that the immune function of those eating vegetarian may be superior to those eating meat. In a study first published in 1989, researchers at the German Cancer Research Center found that although vegetarians had the same number of disease-fighting white blood cells as meat eaters, the immune cells of vegetarians were twice as effective in destroying their targets—not only cancer cells, but virus-infected cells as well. So a more plant-based diet may protect both now and in the future against animal-borne diseases like pandemic influenza.
KF: Where does E. coli come from and how does it get into food? Why is it often found on vegetables?
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In a study published in 1989, researchers at the German Cancer Research Center found that although vegetarians had the same number of disease-fighting white blood cells as meat eaters, the immune cells of vegetarians were twice as effective in destroying their targets—not only cancer cells, but virus-infected cells as well.
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MG: E. coli is an intestinal pathogen. It only gets in the food if fecal matter gets in the food. Since plants don’t have intestines, all E. coli infections—in fact all food poisoning—comes from animals. When’s the last time you heard of anyone getting Dutch elm disease or a really bad case of aphids? People don’t get plant diseases; they get animal diseases. The problem is that because of the number of animals raised today, a billion tons of manure is produced every year in the United States—the weight of 10,000 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. Dairy cow and pig factories often dump millions of gallons of putrefying waste into massive open-air cesspits, which can leak and contaminate water used to irrigate our crops. That’s how a deadly fecal pathogen like E. coli O157:H7 can end up contaminating our spinach.