Bacterial contamination While the hormones and antibiotics in meat are slowly poisoning our children, the bacteria found in animal products can strike quickly and unexpectedly. At best, they will make your children sick, at worst, they can kill them. If you give animal meat to your children, you are exposing them to pathogens such as E. coli and Campylobacter. Reports of meat poisoning and stories of children who died after eating contaminated flesh are all over the media. Nearly all of the meat from the 10 billion cows, pigs, and poultry slaughtered in the United States each year is contaminated with fecal bacteria. Our children are particularly susceptible to bacterial infections from meat because their immune systems are often not strong enough to protect the body.
When children become victims of bacteria from meat, doctors usually try to fight the disease with antibiotics. But because farm animals are fed drugs, many pathogenic bacteria are now resistant to antibiotic treatment. So if you give your kids meat and they get infected with one of the resistant bacterial strains, doctors won’t be able to help them.
Spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria Our intestinal tracts are home to healthy bacteria that help us digest food, but eating meat that is contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria can turn our own “good” bacteria against us. Birmingham Medical School scientists have discovered that antibiotic-resistant bacteria from contaminated meat can cause normal bacteria in our gut to mutate into harmful strains that can live in our guts and cause disease years later.
What the government won’t tell you Eating meat is voluntary, and the meat industry is mostly not well controlled, so you can’t rely on the government to keep your children safe. A Philadelphia investigation found that “the flawed meat inspection system in the United States relies heavily on industry self-regulation, preventing government inspectors from overseeing it, failing to protect consumers until it’s too late.”
There are countless grieving parents whose children died from eating contaminated meat and who subsequently began to speak out against an industry that cares more about profit than consumer safety. Suzanne Keener, whose nine-year-old daughter survived three strokes, 10 seizures and a 000-day hospital stay after eating a bacteria-contaminated hamburger, says: “We just have to tell the meat producers and the Department of Agriculture that it’s time for them to change their minds. The industry needs to make wise decisions, not based solely on the pursuit of profit.”
The government and the meat industry cannot be trusted to protect our family – it is our responsibility to protect children from contaminated meat, not to put it on their plates.
Toxins You should never feed your child food containing mercury, lead, arsenic, pesticides, flame retardants. But if you buy tuna, salmon, or fish fingers for your family, you’re getting all these toxins and more. The government has already issued bulletins that warn parents of the danger fish flesh poses to children.
The EPA estimates that 600 children born in 000 are at risk and have learning difficulties because their pregnant or nursing mothers were exposed to mercury when they ate fish. Fish flesh is a veritable collection of toxic waste, so feeding fish to children is extremely irresponsible and dangerous.
Obesity Today, 9 million American children over the age of 6 are overweight, and two-thirds of American adults are obese. We all know that being overweight takes a toll on our physical health, but overweight children also suffer mentally—they are teased, ostracized from their peers. The physical stress and emotional stress of being a “fat kid” can be devastating to your child’s well-being.
Fortunately, feeding our children a balanced vegetarian diet improves their well-being and boosts their self-confidence.
brain health Research shows that meat consumption can also negatively impact children’s intelligence, both in the short and long term, and a meat-free diet can help children learn better than their classmates. A study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that while the IQ of American children barely reaches 99, the average IQ of American children from vegetarian families is 116.
A meat diet can also lead to serious brain diseases later on. Studies have shown that consuming animal fats doubles our risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. A. Dimas, world-renowned researcher and president of the Nutrition Research Institute, is a longtime proponent of a meat-free diet for children. Dr. Dimas’ Healthy Plant Based Nutrition Program is currently being used in 60 schools in 12 states. A school district in Florida that implemented a meat-free diet program has seen amazing positive changes in student health and academic achievement.
According to an article published in The Miami Herald, some students have significantly improved their grades after they switched to a plant-based diet. Maria Louise Cole, founder of the Community School for Troubled Youth, confirms that a vegetarian diet has had a positive effect on the physical and mental endurance of students at her school.
The students also noted significant improvements in their athletic performance after they eliminated meat from their diet. Gabriel Saintville, a high school senior, says the improvement in his athletic performance has been amazing. “I used to get tired when I ran in circles and lifted weights. Now I feel resilient and continue to do so.” Several students even talked about the positive effects of their new meat-free diet during the school’s graduation ceremony.
Dr. Dimas’ nutrition program demonstrates what vegetarian parents have known for a long time – kids outperform students when they eliminate meat from their diets.
Other diseases Feeding meat puts children at risk of exposure to toxins, obesity, and brain deterioration. But that’s not all. Children who eat meat are also more likely to succumb to heart disease, cancer and diabetes than vegetarian children.
Heart diseases Researchers have found hardened arteries that lead to heart disease in children as young as 7 years old. This is the result of consumption of saturated fat, which is found in meat and dairy products. A vegan diet has not been shown to cause such damage to the body.
Cancer Animal flesh contains several powerful carcinogens, including saturated fat, excess protein, hormones, dioxins, arsenic, and other chemicals. Plant foods, on the other hand, are rich in vitamins, micronutrients, and fiber, all of which have been shown to help prevent cancer. Researchers have found that vegetarians are 25 to 50 percent less likely to suffer from cancer.
Diabetes According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 32 percent of boys and 38 percent of girls born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes during their lifetime. The main cause of this epidemic is the dramatic increase in childhood obesity, a condition that is associated with meat consumption.