Psalm 23, revised:
My diet is my shepherd; I shall not be sick.
It maketh me to seek out healthy foods; it leadeth me to the proper combinations.
It restoreth my body; it leadeth me in the path of veganism for my health’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through valley of the shadow of pandemics, I will fear no infection: My diet is with me; its benefits comfort me.
It prepareth a regimen of health in the presence of all diseases; it annointeth my immune system; my antibodies runneth over.
Surely good health shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of long life for ever.
In May 1979, I called my mother, who was living in Oregon at the time, to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. She informed me that my father recently had suffered a stroke while mowing the lawn. He was prescribed prescription drugs and advised to take up a relaxing hobby. He chose crocheting!.
This news was a wake-up call for me, because I was in the danger zone for cardiovascular disorders which ran rampant in both my father’s and mother’s families. I had led a very sedentary life, little to no exercise, up to then and consumed the typical American diet of meat and potatoes with a side of vegetables and sugar-filled desserts. I feared that, if I didn’t change my ways, I would surely succumb to a stroke myself.
Fortunately for me, I always have loved salads, tossed vegetable salads, fruit salads, bean salads, and pasta salads, and the transition to a vegetarian diet was easy to achieve. Gradually, I weaned myself off of animal products; and, August 10, 1980, my birthday, I became 100% vegetarian. Veganism was attained August 10, 2005. I have embraced the precepts of Natural Hygiene, first promulgated in the 1840s: Fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably raw; whole-grain bread and cereals; distilled water; plenty of sunshine, exercise, rest, and mental equipoise. I never have looked back.
Consumption of animal products can be hazardous to your health, dear reader. If you knew how animals are processed to produce the meat you eat, you quickly would follow my example. I guarantee it. You can find this information on the website of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). You’ll find many a horror story there.
Fact: Livestock and poultry are crammed into small, filthy, spaces, colloquially called “factory farms,” where they barely have room to turn around and must stand in their own wastes. They are pumped full of growth hormones to increase their weight and injected with antibiotics to combat any diseases they might be carrying. The former are painful, while the latter are futile.
Fact: The animals are sent off to packing plants where they are butchered in an assembly-line environment. The assembly lines move at top speed in order to process the maximum number of bodies. Little attention is paid to hygiene. Federal inspectors are few and far between, or are bribed to look the other way. Those body parts which cannot be sold for human consumption are tossed into rendering vats and end up in dog food and cat food, “meat by-products” in the list of ingredients.
Fact: At least once a year, we read that tens of thousands of pounds of meat have been recalled, because they have been contaminated by one disease or another. The recalls follow on the footsteps of outbreaks of sickness and/or death of human consumers; those consumers who had purchased the suspect products, but not yet eaten them had been urged to return the product for a refund.
Fact: Animals are incubators of such diseases as salmonella, Ebola, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (“mad cow disease”). Now, coronavirus has been added to the list.
What to do? If you wish to lead a healthier life, dear reader, skip the industrial foods and embrace the diet Mother Nature intended us humans to consume.
Just a thought.