The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet Read Online Free PDF Page B

out in the gut forever. Our intestines are 20 feet long; when we eat meat, it takes a full 72 hours to pass through us. That’s 3 days, and your body, my friend, is 98.6 degrees inside! It’s like having a steak sit out in the hot sun for 3 days straight. Eventually it will start to rot and putrefy. And that’s what’s happening inside of you. You may not feel that process now, but I challenge you to abstain from animal products for a month and then eat some meat. You will feel how heavy and dense it feels in your gut.
    And maybe it’s not in our nature to eat meat. If I were to put a child in a room with a live lamb and say, “That’s your dinner . . . go for it!” what do you think she would do? Chances are I’d come back an hour later to find them cuddling on the floor together. A young tiger would know what to do . . . but a human? I understand that some of our ancestors had to kill, but they did it for survival, used the whole animal, and expended enormous amounts of energy in the hunt. That’s a world away from scarfing down a double cheeseburger for lunch at your desk.
    The argument is often put forth that, in the Bible, man was given dominion over the animals, which is interpreted as, “Hey, let’s go get a ham sandwich!” But it’s hard to believe that God was encouraging us to torture and slaughter His living creatures for profit or fleeting sensual pleasure. Dominion means stewardship, implying a certain respect that just doesn’t exist in our factory-farming world.
    Finally, maybe we should ask ourselves if we really even want to be meat-eaters. The carnivores of the natural world have quick, precise energy, but then they’re tuckered out and sleep for days. They are aggressive hunters with very little endurance. The herbivores, like horses or giraffes, not only have long-lasting energy and strength, but are generally a peaceful lot. Hmmm . . .
    NASTY TO THE PLANET
    Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
    —Albert Einstein
    Our collective environmental consciousness has been raised enormously in the past few years, which is awesome. We’ve made great strides. But there’s a big piece missing in our education. Despite all of our recycling, energy saving, and water conservation (all of which are great), most people still don’t know that they can have the greatest impact on our precious Planet Earth by adopting a plant-based diet. With 20 billion heads of livestock walking the earth—that’s more than triple the number of humans—we are spending precious natural resources on them instead of us. They, in turn, wreak havoc on the environment. Crazy.
    Here’s the deal:
    Meat contributes to global warming and climate change: One of our biggest environmental concerns is controlling the emission of gases into the atmosphere that get trapped and cause the greenhouse effect. You know how in a greenhouse the glass ceilings allow the sun’s warmth to enter while trapping all the heat inside? Well, by burning fossil fuels and creating gas emissions at an unprecedented rate, we are raising global temperatures and changing climate patterns worldwide. The consequences are pretty huge, including coastal flooding, drought, and severe weather events. Even the polar ice caps are melting, and they play a critical role in keeping the planet cool by reflecting sunlight. When they’re gone and the sun’s heat is absorbed by the dark blue water that remains, we’re in for even hotter times and massive catastrophes.
----

Pills versus Plants
Did you know that drug companies spend $19 billion annually to cultivate their relationships with physicians? 18 That’s $52 million a day for free gifts, free drugs, and education about the drug companies’ products. Obviously, the situation creates a conflict of interest for doctors, and it has been documented that all these freebies do influence physicians’ prescribing habits.