cancer. Antibiotics and steroid hormones in the feed, added to prevent infections and increase weight quickly, are passed on to the consumer at dinnertime. The antibiotics so consumed are associated with a decreased responsiveness to antibiotic therapy when it is medically necessary. In 1977 Richard P. Novick, M. D., director of the Public Health Research Institute of the City of New York, wrote that“ Recent years have witnessed massive increases in the use of antibiotics for livestock as well as for human medicine. These practices have caused the development of vast populations of disease-breeding bacteria that are simultaneously resistant to many different antibiotics and are becoming a greater and greater threat to human as well as animal health.” 24 The problem of sex hormones added to the feed or implanted in cattle is of a magnitude we haven’ t begun to grasp. I suspect it will take another generation before we can begin to discern what is going on. For the past thirty years, natural and synthetic sex hormones have been used both in cattle and in poultry to promote faster growth and more efficient assimilation of the nutrients in feed. The hormones include androgens( male hormones such as testosterone), progestogens, and estrogens( both female hormones including progesterone and estradiol). Hormonal imbalances— which can be created by the introduction of hormones from the outside— can lead to such disorders as obesity, infertility, diabetes, dwarfism, gigantism, kidney disease, hypertension, precocious puberty, hypoglycemia, masculinization of females, feminization of males and even cancer. 25 In Puerto Rico between 1973 and 1981 there was a dramatic incidence of premature puberty, breast growth( in boys and girls), and ovarian cysts in children, some as young as eight months; when the children were taken off fresh milk and meat from local sources, the symptoms, in all but 8 percent of the cases, regressed. Sex hormones are used not only to fatten cattle. They are used to bring a pen of cows into heat so they can all be bred at the same time; to bring about abortions in heifers who are destined for the feedlot and eventually, slaughter; or to increase milk production. Significantly, technical instructions accompanying animal-diet supplement-hormone products invariably warn women of child-bearing age to be extremely cautious when handling them. They can apparently cause abortions and menstrual cycle changes simply by absorption through the skin. 26 According to obstetrician-gynecologist Christiane Northrup, there may be a strong link between the hormones in meat and milk and the excessive breast and uterus tenderness experienced by some women. It may not be unreasonable to suspect that just as the hormones fatten the cows, so they would also fatten susceptible human beings that consume the milk and meat of cows so treated. In addition to the medications and additives they are dosed with, grazing animals condense in their body tissues many of the pesticides, herbicides, and other toxic substances used in raising their feed crops. As these substances accumulate in high concentrations in their fat, liver, and kidneys, they present obvious hazards to the meat consumer as well. The problem with meat today, then, is perhaps not that it is meat, but that it is very tainted, chemicalized, adulterated meat, from sick and overmedicated animals. In any case, my comments about the effects of animal protein apply generally to reasonably healthy, naturally raised animals. We simply do not have enough information to determine how many of the physiological effects of meat are due to the chemicals or to the meat’ s intrinsic quality. Meat has certain effects that are not directly related to its physical composition. According to my observations meat eating supports assertiveness, competitiveness, drive. In appropriate amounts, it can keep the senses sharp, reasoning powers keen, and generate excitement and high energy for physical work. On the other hand it can also cause lethargy and sluggishness, a dulling of the senses, as well as aggressiveness, anger, impatience, and a quarrelsome temper. From a spiritual point of view, meat keeps us tied to physical reality and material considerations, prompting us to manipulate matter and expand our territory, sometimes to the point of war. Eating meat to excess inhibits a feeling of oneness with the universe. It can foster self-righteousness, intolerance, and the noisy kind of arrogance that demands center stage and looks for enemies. FISH AND FOWL
• Contractive
• Acid-forming
• Moderately warming
• Buildup food Fish and fowl have some of the same effects as meat, although to a considerably lesser degree. They are buildup foods, high in protein; their lower fat content makes them less warming than meat, a helpful situation in warm climates. Lower fat consumption is also associated, as practically everybody now knows, with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. As with meat, however, it is not unreasonable to wonder whether the manner in which the animals are fed and raised may have both physiological and psychological effects on the consumer.