Licking the Razor's Edge (2015)

Addiction #05 – Freedom from MEAT
“Non-violence leads to the highest ethics … Until we stop harming all other living
beings, we remain savages.” ~ Thomas Edison
“For as long as men continue to massacre animals, they will also kill each other.
Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder & pain cannot ever truly reap the peace
of joy & love.” ~ Pythagoras
This chapter might prove to be particularly provocative for many of you. After all, even
though more and more people are replacing meat in their diets with healthy alternatives –
and even though those of you who are still eating meat are eating a lot less of it every
year, it is still estimated that between 97% & 99% of all Americans eat meat at least
occasionally, with only slightly fewer folks in other countries doing so as well.
On a personal level, meat is more addictive than nicotine. And on a global level, meat is
more destructive than war. As such, because meat is such an incredibly powerful
opponent, it makes sense to begin by looking at some of the most common
rationalizations people give for eating it …
MYTH #01 – “I need to eat meat to maintain my health” …
This is simply not true!
Fact: YOU DO NOT NEED TO EAT MEAT TO MAINTAIN GOOD HEALTH.
“When a man of normal habits is ill, everyone hastens to assure him that he is
going to recover. When a vegetarian is ill (which fortunately very seldom
happens), everyone assures him that he is going to die, and that they told him so,
and that it serves him right. They implore him to take at least a little gravy, so as
to give himself a chance of lasting out the night.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
*on PROTEIN: “I need meat to satisfy my daily protein needs.” …
This myth has been debunked for several years now and is simply not true.
In fact, it has been clearly proven that there is actually more bio-ready protein in raw
vegetables than there is in meat, protein that it only takes a few minutes for the human
body to begin to utilize – unlike meat, where the body must work very hard for many
hours to do so. Many of world’s greatest athletes are vegans and vegetarians, including
several professional body-builders, so meat protein is not even necessary to attain high
levels of strength or muscle-mass.
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