Other Flesh Foods
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Usually when first discovering the dangers of eating a flesh food diet, the inclination is to stop eating pork and red meat; thinking that eating only fish and poultry would be safer. And that is generally a step in the right direction, noting that the IARC carcinogenic meat classification chart “does not include chicken or fish” but only reports beef, pork, and lamb, as contributing to cancer.
Commercial Fish
Most people choose to eat fish as part of a low-calorie diet which has the benefits of a high omega-3 fat content. But the research reveals some startling facts about this desired lean meat.
One of the most prevalent sources of mercury in the food chain is fish....the Environmental Protection Agency stated that mercury intakes greater than 0.1 micrograms per kilogram of body weight are unsafe....[1] Observe the table chart below to see the F.D.A. reported mercury levels of the most common commercial fish, from 1990-2012.[2]
|
Species |
Mercury (PPM) Mean |
Mercury (PPM) Max |
|
TILEFISH |
1.123 |
3.73 |
|
SWORDFISH |
0.995 |
3.22 |
|
SHARK |
0.979 |
4.54 |
|
MACKEREL |
0.73 |
1.67 |
|
TUNA |
0.689 |
1.816 |
|
MARLIN |
0.485 |
0.92 |
|
GROUPER |
0.448 |
1.205 |
|
BLUEFISH |
0.368 |
1.452 |
|
BASS |
0.354 |
2.18 |
|
HALIBUT |
0.241 |
1.52 |
|
LOBSTER |
0.166 |
0.451 |
|
SNAPPER |
0.166 |
1.366 |
|
PERCH |
0.150 |
0.325 |
|
COD |
0.111 |
0.989 |
|
WHITEFISH |
0.089 |
0.317 |
|
HERRING |
0.078 |
0.56 |
|
TROUT |
0.071 |
0.678 |
|
CRAB |
0.065 |
0.61 |
|
WHITING |
0.051 |
0.096 |
|
MULLET |
0.050 |
0.27 |
|
CRAWFISH |
0.033 |
0.051 |
|
CATFISH |
0.024 |
0.314 |
|
SQUID |
0.024 |
0.07 |
|
SALMON |
0.022 |
0.19 |
|
TILAPIA |
0.013 |
0.084 |
|
OYSTER |
0.012 |
0.25 |
|
CLAM |
0.009 |
0.028 |
|
SHRIMP |
0.009 |
0.05 |
|
SCALLOP |
0.003 |
0.033 |
Fish contamination is common around the large cities. In many places fish become so contaminated by the filth on which they feed as to be a cause of disease. This is especially the case where the fish come in contact with the sewage of large cities. The fish that are fed on the contents of the drains may pass into distant waters and may be caught where the water is pure and fresh. Thus when used as food they bring disease and death on those who do not suspect the danger.[3]
There is also evidence linking fish contamination to cancer. Fish collect and concentrate toxins in their fatty tissues. These toxins include pesticides, chlorinated hydrocarbons, dioxin, chlordane, and mercury....some states had fish consumption advisories that warn against eating certain species....The most common reason for consumption advisories is mercury, which can cause brain and nerve damage....[4]
Cancer tumors inside the fish are increasing; and cancer from the fish is quite evident. Pesticides were the most frequently identified toxic pollutant causing fish kills....Unfortunately, many ill fish that are suffering from these pollutants are caught by fisherman, taken to market, and consumed by humans who think they are eating healthy food. Elevated levels of pesticide compounds have been found in the tissue of breast-cancer patients. The National Cancer Institute data show an increased death rate from cancer among people living in areas where fish have exceptionally large amounts of tumors.[4]
Some people say that since you are buying your fruits and vegetables from a commercial grocery store that gets them from a farmer that uses pesticides, what’s the difference?
Despite the popular belief that fruits and vegetables have the greatest risk of pesticide contamination, FDA research reveals that domestic fish products contain significantly more pesticide residues than domestic fruits, grains, or vegetables.[4]
The health risks for eating shellfish are really not that much different than from commercial fish.
Unlike most food products, in which handling is often the source of contamination, bivalve molluscan shellfish (oysters, clams, mussels and cockles) are most commonly contaminated by fecally polluted water in the harvest area. These shellfish feed by filtering out particles in the water through their gills and diverting the particles to their mouths and digestive tracts. Bivalves can bio-concentrate viruses within their edible tissues to many times the levels in the surrounding water. This makes raw shellfish susceptible to high levels of noro-virus contamination when the water is polluted.[5]
On a more positive note, if you absolutely must eat fish, the Bible does record some good news for seafood:
Lev 11 (v. 9) These you may eat of all that are in the water; whatever in the water has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, that you may eat. (v. 10) But all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fins and scales, all that move in the water or any living thing which is in the water, they are an abomination to you. (v. 11) ....you shall not eat their flesh, but you shall regard their carcasses as an abomination.
God gave specific instructions about which sea creatures were good for food and which should be avoided....God's Word bears up under the investigation of modern research. Dr. Bruce Halsted spent years doing research for the United States Army and Navy health services to determine which fish were safe for human consumption. If servicemen were shipwrecked or stranded, the Navy wanted to know which fish they could eat for survival. After all the research was completed, Dr. Halsted felt the "rule of thumb" for the Army and Navy men to follow would be the one set forth in [the Bible]: "These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales." A few short words of instruction given by God to man so long ago! Still a safe guide.[6]
Poultry
Many people eat only chicken to avoid the health and environmental questions surrounding red meat. Despite the well-documented health and environmental hazards, most consumers are still unaware that well over 90 percent of all chicken meat and eggs sold in the US come from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).[7] Chickens raised for their flesh are often packed by the thousands into massive sheds and fed large amounts of antibiotics and drugs to keep them alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them.[8]
The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) attributes nearly 133,000 illnesses each year to contaminated chicken parts. Frontline cites an even higher number, claiming salmonella contaminated chicken sickens an estimated 200,000 Americans each year.[7]
The dangers of (E. coli) fecal contamination. A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) study found that more than 99 percent of broiler chicken carcasses sold in stores had detectable levels of E. coli, indicating fecal contamination. That means you are almost guaranteed to be swallowing actual POOP every time you chomp down on a dead chicken. Consumer Reports states that there are “1.1 million or more Americans sickened each year by undercooked, tainted chicken.” [8]
The dangers of arsenic poisoning. "What Was Arsenic Doing in Our Chicken, Anyway?" asked a Bloomberg article after the FDA reported the end of all but one poultry arsenic product this month, four years after the Center for Food Safety filed a petition. The agency announced that the Center's petition to have the approvals of arsenic-containing poultry feed revoked had become "moot" after the "sponsors of those drugs requested that FDA withdraw the approvals for those products." One of the four compounds, nitarsone, is still on the market while the FDA reviews its safety. Why are birds fed arsenic? It has been approved in poultry feed for years to control parasites, promote weight gain and improve feed efficiency and "pigmentation." A 2013 study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found detectable levels of arsenic in chicken from grocery stores in 10 American cities, including organic chickens.[9]
The dangers of eating flesh foods becomes more apparent as we assess the ongoing expanding effects of this industries’ problems.
The dangers of poisoning from antibiotics and chemicals.
Raising 9 billion chickens for meat on factory farms each year produces enormous amounts of excrement. Oregon State University agriculture professor Peter Cheeke says that factory farming amounts to “a frontal assault on the environment,” which leads to widespread fecal land and water pollution. Because chickens are often fed massive amounts of antibiotics and additives, these chemicals are also found in high concentrations in their feces, which means that fecal pollution from chicken farms is especially disastrous for the environment. In Maryland and West Virginia, for example, scientists discovered that male fish are growing ovaries, and they suspect that this freakish deformity is the result of factory-farm runoff from drug-laden chicken feces.[8]
Runoff from meat packing plants into our nation’s water supply affects more than just the fish.
The dangers of poisoning from heavy metals. A report from France on 30 October 2000, highlighted what was already known, that contaminated beef and other meats can also have toxic levels of mercury and other heavy metals. The French newspaper, the daily Le Parisien reported that cows consumed lead, mercury, cadmium, nickel, chromium, copper, and zinc as a result of a polluted canal that repeatedly overflowed, flooding the pasture in which the animals grazed....The newspaper said that of the 84 cows that lived in the pasture between 1998 and 2000, more than 40 died as a result of the contamination. Most of the others, some of which took on a rusty hue because of the amount of copper they consumed, were sold to slaughterhouses and became ground beef.[1]
Since the contamination of flesh food is spreading around the globe, it would appear to be safer consuming a vegetarian diet. But for those who find it difficult to just stop eating meat and switch to a totally foreign diet; it can be done over time in stages. The body and mind needs time to adjust slowly.
I know when I first heard this message, I was only able to stop eating pork, red meat, and shellfish; I continued to eat chicken, turkey, and sometimes fish, for about a year. If there was a need for more protein some eggs would be consumed. During that time I also ate the meat substitutes, like Boca Burgers.
The health food store also had meat substitutes for sandwich meat, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, meat balls, and hamburgers. They even had substitutes for bacon and sausage, which I ate with my eggs. So I was able to transition over to a vegetarian diet more quickly. Read this quote about “extreme views of health reform” I believe it puts this process into perspective.
I have something to say in reference to extreme views of health reform. Health reform becomes health deform, a health destroyer, when it is carried to extremes. You will not be successful in sanitariums where the sick are treated if you prescribe for the patients the same diet you have prescribed for yourself and your wife. I assure you that your ideas in regard to diet for the sick are not advisable. The change is too great. While I would discard flesh meat as injurious, something less objectionable may be used, and this is found in eggs.[10]
This is very good counsel!! It’s probably not a good idea to haphazardly jump right into the most strictest diet out there. That is the reason most people give up on a new diet, like we just read “the change is too great” so make incremental changes over time. Sometimes you have to start out with the lesser of two poor choices first, and then to steadily move forward toward the best choice.
Since buying health food can at times be more expensive than the processed junk that you can get at the supermarket, you will have to learn how to make this better diet work for you. The pace that you move may depend on your knowledge or income, but keep moving forward.
Milk, eggs, and butter should not be classed with flesh-meat. In some cases the use of eggs is beneficial....In teaching health reform, as in all other gospel work, we are to meet the people where they are. Until we can teach them how to prepare health-reform foods that are palatable, nourishing, and yet inexpensive, we are not at liberty to present the most advanced propositions regarding health-reform diet.[11] For milk and dairy needs, I would recommend using "Rice Dream" products as a substitute.
So we are to start “where we are at” and then move in the right direction. Continue dropping off meat out of your diet “one at a time” while replacing it with eggs and meat substitutes, until you learn enough to switch over to an entirely vegetarian diet.
References:
1. Neil Nedley, M.D. (2001). Depression: The Way Out, p.42, Nedley Publishing
2. U.S. Food & Drug Administration, (2014). https://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/Metals/ucm115644.htm
3. E.G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p.314-315, par.3
4. Neil Nedley, M.D. (2001). Depression: The Way Out, p.68-69, Nedley Publishing
5. Food Safety Magazine, (2013). http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/februarymarch-2013/noroviruses-in-shellfish-and-other-foods-challenges-of-the-21st-century/
6. Mark Finley, (1995). Beyond Orion’s Gates, p.186-187, Hart Research Center.
7. Dr. Mercola, (2015). http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/05/30/cafo-chicken-hidden-health-hazards.aspx#_edn1
8. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, (2010). http://www.peta.org/living/other/top-10-reasons-eat-chickens/
9. Alternet, (2013). http://www.alternet.org/food/7-horrifying-things-about-chicken-you-eat
10. Manuscript Releases (vol.12) “Necessity of Balance in Health Reform” p.172, par.3
11. E.G. White, Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods, p.41, par.3
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