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You Are What You Eat

A New Look at an Old Axiom

By Carl HambyPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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A new look at an old axiom

We have all heard that said to us as children, "You are what you eat."

For most of us, when we hear this we pass it off as something our parents said to us simply to be annoying or perhaps even to induce feelings of guilt. Why else would we have the emergence of "guilt free foods"? However, what if the statement hold some truth? Surely an axiom as old as this, as with many others that have withstood the test of time, must have some truth to it and if it did what would be the implications today with regard to the meat industry and their products which we consume? May I suggest how frightening that potential could be?

Let's begin with the basics, alchemy.

Yes, alchemy. Anytime you consume anything, after it passes down the esophagus and lands within the stomach this alchemical process begins as the stomach acids begin to breakdown the consumed product. When the product is of a botanical, fruit or vegetable composition this process is quite easy on the body for the body was designed for this product and will provide the easiest of assimilation.

Now as we move on we wish to consider the following. Fish and fowl, which are a bit more difficult on the digestive system yet not altogether taxing to the system. Fish and fowl contain proteins that the body needs yet take an increased mixture of stomach acids to breakdown and a bit more time. Nevertheless, have you ever considered the texture of these meats? Take notice the next time you sit at a meal of fish or fowl. Fish, if cooked properly, is almost flaky while fowl is less flaky yet you can see, if cooked properly, how it tears easily with the fingers. More dense than fruits, vegetables, and botanicals (herbs) yet can still be torn into bite sized pieces by the hands alone. Which brings us to our last consideration and the premise for this article.

Red meat roulette.

Finally we arrive at crux of the article. It is here that I will offer you my subjectifications to at least encourage you to do your own research.

Let's begin as we have before, looking at the ease of digestion. One may, by now asking what ease of digestion has to do with any of this, a lot. As stated before foods such as greens, herbs fruits and vegetables are trans-mutated into nutrients by the secretion of enzymes called amylase's which is secreted by the pancreas. Fats, from foods, are emulsified by bile secreted by the liver and gallbladder. Emulsion is needed when two or more liquids are (not) mixable or antagonistic to each other. Now, the American diet is rich in fats and lacking in whole foods by default. An article in Industrial Agriculture 2011, titled "The American diet in one chart, with lots of fats and sugars" by Tom Philpott shows that Americans are, per capita, eating a diet rich in fats and the larger portion of these fats are actually coming from added fat with fat from meats behind that. Therefore, the majority of our digestion is done by emulsification giving little rest to the system considering our "three square meals a day" rule. Then a third process in digestion is carried out by the pancreas and other enzymes to transmute proteins into amino acids. Of all three of these, the greatest taxing of the system comes from the fats we consume. Fats are indeed needed by the body but do we really need "added fats"? Let's not forget to mention the consistency of red meats. As we have described for fish and fowl the consistency of these meats as stated before are flaky as in fish or grainy type of consistency as in fowl and as stated before tears easily, even with the fingers. However, red meat is marbled and therefore does not share the above mentioned characteristics, which is why a knife is needed to cut it into bite sized pieces. Now I will leave off from these arguments to impress upon you the final consideration.

What follows are my statements of empirical reasoning and not scientific fact. I have no laboratory nor grant funds to prove or disprove the following. However, suffer the following in the interest of good health.

All the above mentioned foods whether it be herbs, fruits, vegetables, fish or fowl are all different except in one thing, for the sake of argument. That one thing is none of them are Mammalian (mammals). That being said we must conclude that red meat is a commonality among all mammals and as mammals we have catecholamines, which include adrenaline and nor-adrenaline. This results in an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate. All things signaling fear. If one has ever watched the workings of a slaughterhouse you will notice the fear in the eyes of the slaughtered. Consider the conditions of a common slaughterhouse crowded, unclean being poked, zapped, and harassed which in turn keeps the animal's sympathetic nervous system pumping these catecholamines throughout the body. Simply put the animal is being kept in a fight or flight situation which in turn keeps these catecholamines permeating the the blood and thus infusing the meat we eat. Thinking in simple terms when we, mammals that we are, get scared the same happens to us and all that negative, fearful energy is then frozen in time as the animal is killed, all that fear, dread, hopelessness and worry transferred and trans-mutated into you.

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About the Creator

Carl Hamby

The dreaded "Bio" portion. I suppose this is where I am supposed to tell how that with my articles all your troubles will vanish away, Well sorry friends I cannot tell you these things. I can say my articles come from a place of Compassion

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