Skinny Bitch (5 page)

However, in their book
Animal Factories,
Jim Mason and Peter Singer disclose an estimate of 20,000 to 30,000 different drugs actually being used.62

We constantly hear the snobby declaration, “I don’t eat any red meat. I just eat chicken.” Well now you know: Chicken is just as bad for you as cow or pig. In fact, it might even be worse. According to the American
Journal of Epidemiology,
eating chicken (and fish) is linked to colon cancer. Researchers examined the eating habits of 32,000 men and women over a six-year period and then monitored emerging cancer cases for the next six years. “Among participants who generally avoided red meat but who ate white meat less than once per week, colon cancer risk was 55 percent higher than for those who avoided both kinds of meat. Those who had white meat at least once per week had more than three-fold higher colon cancer risk.” 63 Researchers at the National Cancer Institute found grilled chicken to have high levels of heterocyclic amines, carcinogens that are formed when animal proteins are heated. With 480 nanograms of heterocyclic amines per gram, grilled chicken regis-tered 15 times higher than beef.64

Do not be lulled into a false sense of security that our government keeps food safe. News of the avian influenza epidemic came and went, but this disease is very real and can run rampant in poultry flocks. And according to a survey by the National Research Council, one chicken processing plant had 90 percent of its poultry contaminated with salmonellosis.65 Ninety fucking percent! Nasty.

Unfortunately, our waters aren’t any better than our land. Yes, some fish contain essential fatty acids and vitamins, minerals, and protein. But you can easily get all these nutrients from flaxseeds; pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower seeds; nuts; soybeans; fruits; vegetables; leafy greens; soy products; and whole grains. Fish and other seafood contain high levels of contaminants from industrial and environmental pollu-tants, waste products, and pesticide residues from farms. Also present in fish and seafood are high levels of mercury and PCBs, which are well absorbed by the body. Other notables are BHC, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, heptachlor, and dioxin.66 These chemicals can cause neurotoxicity, which impairs a person’s mental state and ability. The human body contains acetylcholine, a naturally occurring chemical that helps impulses pass from nerve to nerve. Once the impulse is passed, the chemical is no longer needed and is actually harmful if it remains. So our bodies produce an enzyme, cholinesterase, which rids us of the unwanted acetylcholine. Pesticides inhibit our ability to produce cholinesterase, which causes a buildup of the now-dangerous acety-choline.67 Mercury, a suspected carcinogen, can alter immune function, raise blood pressure, cause blindness or paralysis, increase the chance of cardiac mortality, and is known to reduce fertility and virility.68 It can also inflict permanent brain damage on fetuses, infants, and children.

Appetizing, huh? Have some mercury poisoning with your ahi tuna. How about some trichinosis with your pork? Don’t forget a side of salmonella with your eggs or chicken. We certainly don’t want to leave out an order of mad cow disease. Think about what you’ve been eating. What we call salmon, hamburger, steak, chicken, bacon, sausage, ham, roast beef, salami, bologna, turkey, hot dog, and duck are actually decomposing, rotting animal carcasses.

Bon appétit!

Closing your eyes to the problem will not make it go away. You don’t want to see it, but you’ll
eat
it? So, yeah, if you want to get skinny, you’ve got to be a vegetarian—someone who doesn’t eat dead animals or seafood. Quit whining. We weren’t raised by hip-pie-crunchy-granola parents on vegetarian communes. Growing up, we both ate meat all day, every day. We scoffed at tofu and spit on vegetables. Really. Kim’s addictions included such delicacies as corned beef hash, canned Vienna sausages, and daily Big Macs.

Every single day in 1992, Rory ate a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich for breakfast, followed by a bacon double cheeseburger, fries, and a soda for lunch. Dinner was always a dead chicken, fish, cow, or pig.

Now granted, we didn’t give up meat just to get skinny. We both became vegetarians after learning about the treatment of farm animals. But we each noticed big changes in our minds, attitudes, health, moods, and asses when we gave up carcass. So before you say, “I could never give up meat,” realize that nearly every single vegetarian on the planet said those same words. Then shut the fuck up, look at an inspirational picture of a skinny bitch, and clean out your freezer.

There are a ton of awesome, soy-based fake meat products on the market. Not only do they taste great, but soy has been lauded for lowering cholesterol, protecting against cancer, reducing the risk of heart attacks,69 and helping the body to better utilize calcium. Phytoestro-gens, found in soy, help protect women from breast cancer and can alleviate menopausal symptoms.70 However, there are opponents to soy, who claim that it can negatively impact the thyroid, cause mineral deficiencies, and raise the risk of breast cancer. But according to health expert Dr. Andrew Weil, “There is still much to be learned about soy, but the majority of research so far has shown that it’s a safe and nutritious food when eaten in reasonable amounts—about one or two daily servings.” 71 We encourage you to think for yourself and make your own decision.

If you decide to eat soy products that imitate meat products, know that these foods may not taste exactly like the real thing. But once you get rid of your meat addiction, you’ll be satisfied with the substitutes. You just need to spend a few weeks (and dollars) experimenting until you find the ones you like. Veggie burgers exist by the dozen. Health Is Wealth makes fake buffalo wings that taste so good, your pubes will fall out. Gardenburger’s Flame-Grilled Chik’n is so amazing, you might have to kill yourself. Lightlife has a kick-ass line of “cold cuts” and fabulous “bacon.” Seek and ye shall find. One amazing website is
www.vegieworld.com
. It is an Asian mail order company that not only sells fake chicken and meat, but has fake seafood, too. But you don’t have to look far: We list lots of meatless wonders in Chapter 11. But remember, getting skinny means using your head. You must read all the ingredients and make sure there are
no
animal products in anything you buy. For the rest of your skinny life, every time you buy something that you will be swallow-ing, you must read the ingredients.

Chapter 5

The Dairy Disaster

Go suck your mother’s tits. Go on. Suck your mother’s tits. You think this is ridiculous? It is. Get ready to use your head.

When a woman gives birth, her body produces milk and she nurses her child.

Breast milk can grow an 8-pound newborn into a 24-pound tod-dler. Sounds pretty fattening, huh? It is. By design, it is intended to allow for the biggest growth spurt of a person’s entire life. Breast milk alone can accommodate for a 300 percent weight gain in a twelve-month period. When her child is anywhere from 12 to 24 months old, a mother stops breast feeding. Her milk dries up. The child will never drink breast milk ever again.

Cows, like all mammals, are much the same. Their bodies produce milk only when they give birth. Contrary to popular belief, they do not need to be milked—ever. Their udders, like women’s breasts, exist even when there is no milk in them. There is one major difference, however. Cows’ milk, by design, grows a 90-pound calf into a 2,000-pound cow over the course of two years.72 It allows calves to double their birth weight in forty-seven days and leaves their four stomachs feeling full. Sounds even more fattening than human milk, right? It is. It should be. Cows are bigger than humans. And the inner workings of their bodies are completely different than ours, which they should be. They are cows. We are humans. Duh.

Mammals need the enzyme lactase to digest lactose (the sugar found in dairy). However, between the ages of 18 months and 4 years, we lose 90 to 95 percent of this enzyme. The undigested lactose and the acidic nature of pasteurized milk encourage the growth of bacteria in our intestines.73 All this contributes to a greater risk of cancer because cancer cells thrive in acidic conditions.74

Got mucus? Dairy products produce mucus, and often, the body will develop a cold or “allergies” to fight the dairy invasion.75

Mother Nature is no fool. All species, including ours, have just what we need to get by. She did not intend for grownups to suck their mothers’ tits. We don’t need our mothers’ milk as adults, just like grown cows don’t need their mothers’ milk anymore. We are the only species on the planet that drinks milk as adults. We are also the only species on the planet that drinks the milk of another species. We could be putting gorilla milk on our cereal or having zebra milk and cookies. Why cows’ milk? Using the animal that produces the largest quantity of milk but is more easily housed than an elephant means more money for farmers. It has nothing to do with health or nutrition. Again, it all comes back to money. The dairy industry is a multibillion-dollar industry based on brilliant marketing and the addictive taste of milk, butter, and cheese. It has convinced most doctors, consumers, and government agencies that we
need
cows’ milk. We have been told our whole lives, “You need milk to grow. Without milk, your bones will break. If you don’t drink milk, you’ll get osteoporosis. You need the calcium.”
Bullshit
.

Researchers at Harvard, Yale, Penn State, and the National Institutes of Health have studied the effects of dairy intake on bones.

Not one of these studies found dairy to be a deterrent to osteoporosis.76 On the contrary, a study funded by the National Dairy Council itself revealed that the high protein content of dairy actually leaches calcium from the body.77 After looking at thirty-four published studies in sixteen countries, researchers at Yale University found that the countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis—including the United States, Sweden, and Finland—were those in which people consumed the most meat, milk, and other animal foods.78 Another study showed that though 40 million American women have osteoporosis, only 250,000 African women have bone disease. In fact, of the forty tribes in Kenya and Tanzania, only one—the Maasai—has members suffering from osteoporosis. The Maasai, as it happens, are a cattle-owning, milk-drinking tribe.79

Dairy products have been linked to a host of other problems, too, including acne, anemia, anxiety, arthritis, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, fibromyalgia, headaches, heartburn, indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome, joint pain, osteoporosis, poor immune function,80 allergies, ear infec-tions, colic, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, autism, Crohn’s disease, breast and prostate cancers,81 and ovarian cancer.82

Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, authors of best-selling follow-up
Fit For Life II,
clearly state, “DAIRY PRODUCTS ARE DISEASE-PRODUCING. They’re harmful. They
cause
suffering.

They’re the perfect thing to eat if you want to be sick and have a diseased body. The dietitians and nutritionists who are mouth-pieces and cheerleaders for the dairy industry, telling you that dairy products are a good food, should hide their heads in shame—not only for leading the innocent to believe that dairy products are actually valuable, but also for failing to keep abreast of the field about which they are
supposed
to know something.”

Yes, we are saying it is common knowledge in the medical research field that dairy is bad for you. Yes, we are saying that executives in the dairy industry are well aware of this fact but make claims that milk “does a body good.” How do they get away with this? Easily. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year to market their products. And average consumers don’t spend their time perusing medical journals, but they do read magazines and watch television.

What about medical doctors? Why do they believe that milk is beneficial? It is a sad fact that in this country, most doctors know almost nothing about nutrition. According to a Senate investigation, doctors receive
less than three hours
of nutritional training in medical school.83 They have been duped like the rest of us.

Let’s pretend for a moment that cows’ milk is healthy for humans. Even if it were, by the time factory farms were done with it, it wouldn’t be. Dioxin, one of the most toxic substances in the world, is often found in dairy products.84 And remember, for factory farms, higher production means bigger profits. When you consume dairy products, you are ingesting the same antibiotics, pesticides, steroids, and hormones you would if you ate meat directly. Cows are injected with bovine growth hormone. Their udders, under normal conditions, would supply about ten pounds of milk a day. Greedy farmers have their cows producing up to a hundred pounds of milk a day!

There is no gentle farmer milking the cow with a bucket between his feet. Cows are milked by machine; metal clamps are attached to the cows’ sensitive udders. The udders become sore and infected. Pus forms. But the machines keep on milking, sucking the dead white blood cells into the milk.85 How freaking gross is that? To get rid of all the bacteria and other shit, milk must be pasteurized. But pasteurization destroys beneficial enzymes and makes calcium less available without even killing all the viruses or bacteria. Hell, even radioactive particles are found in milk!86