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The Dominion Post, January 28, 2014
(Part of an article in a New Zealand newspaper)

Grilling meat is a summer tradition [in NZ], but it’s not the healthiest thing to do. A growing body of research suggests that cooking meats over a flame is linked to cancer.
Combusting wood, gas or charcoal emits a chemical known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Exposure to these so-called PAHs is known to cause skin, liver, stomach and several other types of cancer in lab animals. Epidemiological studies link occupational exposure to PAHs to cancer in humans.
When PAHs from a flame mingle with nitrogen, say from a slab of meat, they can form nitrated PAHs, or NPAHs. NPAHs are even more carcinogenic than PAHs in laboratory experiments. The reasonable conclusion is that grilling meat may be hazardous to your health.
The evidence linking cancer to cooking meat over a combustion source has been accumulating for decades. Epidemiologists first noticed a connection between the consumption of smoked foods and stomach cancer in the 1960s. Japan, Russia and Eastern Europe, where smoking is a popular way to preserve meat and fish, became laboratories for gastric cancer research.
Newer studies suggest that eating smoked meats may lead to cancer even outside the gastrointestinal tract. A 2012 study, for example, linked smoked meat consumption with breast cancer.
In subsequent decades, it has become clear that smoking isn’t the only problematic cooking method.
Frying bacon, for example, produces significant levels of PAHs, probably due to volatilisation of carbon in the bacon itself.

Why I'm A Vegetarian

And why I won’t defend dairy products

Please note:
Though this is not a Christian article, there are some Christian comments where I felt they had some merit, and those comments being in the second and last paragraph starting from the heading Start Here; comments that are certainly worth reading.
I have highlighted five places (on this page) in RED just in case you're in a rush or not really wanting to wade through the many important or injurious things that are covered here regarding the eating of flesh food (and the consuming of dairy products too), but I would strongly recommend that you read the whole article given that there are other things mentioned here that are just as important or injurious as those I've highlighted.

START HERE:

Man is naturally a herbivore.
a) The dental structures of humans posses all the features of a strictly herbivorous creature, unlike carnivores. We're talking well-developed molars and a jaw that moves laterally. Such features are designed for grinding. Carnivores have enlarged canine teeth and limited jaw movement. Hence why they're seen to tear and gulp their food.
b) The lipoproteins in human blood resemble those found in the blood of other herbivores.
c) Humans have long intestines, unlike carnivores.
d) Human saliva contains an enzyme designed solely for the purpose of digesting the complex carbohydrates found in plant food. Flesh eating animals have no such enzyme. Their saliva is highly acidic for breaking down concentrated protein. Ours is alkaline. Alkaline saliva does not act properly on meat. Hence why vegetarians are known to have a different composition of bile acids when compared to meat eaters.
More pertaining to c) and d) is found in the second red paragraph.

That man is naturally a herbivore harmonizes with the vegan account (plant food only) found in the Christian Bible, Genesis 1:29.
The reason I say vegan as opposed to vegetarian is because vegans eat neither flesh food nor animal products. Hence why they’re called vegans! Vegetarians, on the other hand, still partake of animal products, and I believe that animal products would not have been a part of man’s original diet for the following two reasons:
1)
Milk is strictly for the weaning of each species. It was never meant to go beyond infancy.
At age 68 (well, at the time of penning this) I'm no longer needing to be breast fed, and, in all my life, I've never seen a grown cow suckling its mother's teats. So why are humans (past the weaning stage) still consuming breast milk in the form of a mixture tailor-made for fattening baby cows? Hence why one can buy skim or trim milk, as if fat's the only problem.
2)
Butter and cheese are not so much an animal product but what we do with milk. An adulteration.
As for eggs, the purpose of eggs is not consumption but birth. In other words, eggs are meant to become creatures. To eat an egg is to effectively prevent a life.
3)
Animal products are proven to be very injurious in so many ways. I don’t believe that a wise and knowing God would have supplied injurious food in a perfect environment.
As to why God eventually allowed flesh food (specified creatures, that is, Leviticus chapter 11) is open to speculation, though a probable explanation is given in my article A Brief Biblical Summary which can be seen near the bottom of this page. However, bear in mind that He has never forced anyone to eat it, and I personally believe that He wants it removed from our diets now. In fact, He wanted it removed back then too (Psalm 106:14,15). Yes, even back then, folk knew it was injurious (Daniel 1:8,12,15). Hence why with its introduction the life span of man rapidly declined from one in the hundreds to one that wouldn’t even make it to one hundred (as a general rule). And by the way, when God allowed flesh food, He said not to eat the blood or fat (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 7:23,24,26), and to therefore only eat a creature that the blood could be drained from, hence, “every moving thing” (Genesis 9:3), which He obviously knew would help to lessen the injurious results we know of today.
When God granted the (after the flood) concession for humans to eat certain flesh (minus the blood and fat), it removed the sin aspect but not the curse, which is reflected in health problems, and all why I believe that God wants it out of our life.
One day I hope to ask God why He did allow flesh food. However, as with alcohol (the natural being corrupted via fermentation), both meat and animal products are clearly the outcome of Adam’s fall. Originally, the diet of animals was a non-flesh diet too (Gen 1:30). Obviously something took place after Adam’s fall. Cleary then, the path for us to take is the one that leads back to Eden, one that has been scientifically proven. Who would put greasy gritty fat as opposed to top grade oil in a Rolls-Royce? Yet, isn’t that what we often do to our bodies via the wrong foods?

Yes, it’s not because we’re supposed to eat meat, but that we’ve been conditioned to eat meat. Meat in our diet is not only unnecessary but positively harmful, contrary to the age old hype that still continues. Those who think that meat is necessary, or good for us, are clearly not up to date scientifically. The truth is that eating flesh will destroy our health, even eventually take our life. The more meat consumed, and even the kind of creature consumed, the worse the result. But it’s the old story -- people don’t want to hear what they need to, or to put it another way, they don’t squeal until it pinches. And then there’re those who do realise but who still won’t change because they like what isn't good for them. Is it worth letting your appetite dictate how long you’ll live, rather than wisdom? And even if you still lived to a good age, would that be much fun if you’re constantly dogged by ill health as a result of your diet?

And yes, it’s quite true that tasks calling for strength and endurance are better performed by vegetarians than meat eaters. The evidence is definitely there, along with copious names. At the very least, they can hold their own. I've actually had a few folk tell me that once they stopped eating meat they felt more energetic.

Humans and all plant eating animals have very long intestinal tracts in order to allow sufficient transit time to digest and extract nutrients found in plant foods. A flesh eating animal’s intestinal tract is very short allowing for the rapid expulsion of decomposing, putrefying flesh. Thus there's no time for flesh food to sit and fester.
A carnivore's body produces uricase which breaks down uric acid. Humans do not produce or have uricase.
A carnivore's stomach will secrete a far greater amount of hydrochloric acid than a humans (10 times more, or so) readily breaking down flesh. The quantity and duration of gastric juice is greater in the digestion of meat than of vegetarian food, putting a greater stress on the lining of the stomach and intestines as meat takes much longer to digest (2-3 days) presenting considerable danger to humans via putrefaction and toxic waste.
Because our stomachs are not able to completely digest animal protein, chunks of meat will literally sit and rot in the intestinal tract and colon. Hence why colon cancer is so prevalent in those who eat meat.
Remnants of the meat consumed can cling to the walls of the stomach and intestines for days, and traces can remain for months. As time goes by, the putrefying flesh gradually forms a black rubbery substance (known as mucoid plaque) that lines the intestinal tract. This process of decay occurring within the body produces poisons like cadaverine and putrescine, and causes poisoning of the blood. Such taxing of the body leads to fatigue, weakness, aging, and inevitably shortens the meat eater’s life span -- that is, if the likes of cancer and so on hasn’t taken their life already.
Also note the following:
“Many studies have shown that the incidence of colon cancer is very low among vegetarians but high among meat eaters. Stool samples from strict vegetarians had a significantly higher population of lactobacilli (Lactobacillus acidophilus) - the good guys! Eating meat favoured an increase in putrefactive bacteria such as the bacteriodes (the bad guys) and a decrease in lactobacilli (the good guys). These putrefactive bacteria have the potential to produce chemicals (e.g. toxic amines) which can damage the lining of the colon, ultimately forming a cancerous growth.”
Dr John McKenna, from his book, Natural Alternatives To Antibiotics.

Aside from other parts of an animal’s anatomy, a sausage (for example) could contain ground up intestines. Fancy eating a pig’s intestines? Goodness knows what its contents would be.

The tragedy of all this is that many who have been stricken with cancer, and are undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, are still ignorantly continuing to eat the very thing that caused their cancer, and which in time will see that same cancer return. To call such a tragedy is an understatement.

Research has shown that all meat eaters have worms and a high incidence of parasites in their intestines. The germs and parasites that are found in meat not only weaken the immune system but are the source of many diseases. The newer mutant bugs found in meat today are extremely deadly. The immune system of vegetarians is actually stronger than that of meat eaters. A vegetarian’s natural killer cells [those responsible for nipping cancer in the bud], are twice as cytotoxic [potent] as those of meat eaters.

The human liver can only process but a small amount of cholesterol. Flesh eaters have the capacity to eliminate huge amounts. Meat is very high in cholesterol, very high in fat, especially saturated fat, and is very low in fibre (unlike plant food). Humans need plenty of fibre to move food through their long intestinal tracks and to prevent their bowels from becoming clogged. Cholesterol is a substance unique to animals and humans and it is a SERIOUS health hazard – a plaque. No doubt you’ve heard of high blood pressure (hypertension), arthritis, osteoporosis, heart disease, and even diabetes is implicated. In societies where cholesterol levels are kept low, heart disease is very rare. The main reason that most die of heart disease and strokes is because their arteries are clogged up with cholesterol.
Yes, perhaps looking good and feeling well, but that cholesterol that only comes from animal products is silently building until seemingly out of the blue there’s that oh so often fatal heart attack — and what age might it be for you?

When I was about nineteen and boarding as opposed to living at home, I was fed a rather fatty flesh food diet on a daily basis. After a very short period of time I became very sick and ended up off work for six weeks with liver problems. At home, flesh food was more infrequent, and certainly not as fatty. My parents said that I’d better shift back, so I did. I had to take medication which I understand was tied in with my liver. I also had to refrain from alcohol for a year, not that I drank alcohol anyway, and I had to keep off certain foods. The lady I boarded with seemed to cope with her insidious diet. I guess her body had somewhat adapted to the abuse which no doubt would hit her later. My system (liver) obviously wasn’t used to such sludge, and quite honestly, no ones liver is designed for such. “Get this in to you,” she said, “It’ll do you good.” How wrong that lady was! Not to mention the other boarder who thought he was on to a good thing. I’ve not seen him since. At the time, that little episode cost me my job.

The frying, boiling, and grilling of meat and fish creates carcinogenic compounds -- heterocyclic amines. Studies have shown that heterocyclic amines have considerable genotoxic and mutagenic potential. We’re talking tumours, cancers. At least eight chemicals [toxic] which are linked to cancer and chromosome damage have been identified in over cooked meat. In one kilogram of charcoal-broiled steak there may be as much benzopyrene [a powerful carcinogen] as in the smoke from 600 cigarettes. A recent study has shown that people who prefer their steak very well done are almost 60% more likely to get pancreatic cancer.

Human protein is not built from animal products. Thus, it’s scurrilous to perpetuate the myth that we cannot meet our protein needs without eating animal products. Protein is built from amino acids. Every amino acid needed to build human protein is found in fruits and vegetables. There’s a clear relationship between the amount of animal protein in the national diet and the incidence of certain types of cancer mortality. Studies show that while animal protein raises blood cholesterol, vegetable protein actually lowers it. We only require about 50g of protein per day. Protein is the most difficult food for the human body to deal with, and because of the strain imposed via the  processing of excessive protein, the liver and the kidneys are overworked and they enlarge. Studies have shown that the more protein you consume, the more calcium you lose.
Flesh food (on average) contains more phosphorus than it does calcium -- that is, as opposed to vegetable food. The body releases calcium from the bones to balance this proportion. This release of calcium affects the bone constitution enhancing the risk of osteoporosis.
When the problem of osteoporosis is studied worldwide the highest incidence of osteoporosis is seen in those countries where dairy products and calcium supplements are consumed in the largest quantities. Contrary to what we’re told, osteoporosis is not due to a deficiency of calcium in the diet. Green leafy vegetables are a prime source of utilizable calcium in human nutrition. So what can contribute to calcium loss: Tobacco [drains calcium from bones and teeth], alcohol [impairs calcium absorption], caffeine [causes twice as much calcium to be excreted as normal], soft drinks [its phosphoric acid causes the body to remove calcium], salt [the more salt you take in, the more calcium you excrete], antacids [those containing aluminium cause an increase in calcium excretion], insufficient exercise [lack of it causes bone loss], lack of sunshine [vitamin D plays an important role in bone metabolism] and of course, animal products.

Meat contains its own diseases. Unfortunately, diseases can be transmitted from animal to man. They include — tuberculosis, trichinosis, tularaemia, hepatitis and brucellosis. Of more than two hundred communicable diseases of animals, one half are considered infectious to man and more than eighty are transmitted naturally between vertebrate animals and man. Cows can contract leukaemia and there is evidence that bovine leukaemia is transmitted to humans. Twenty six diseases are known to be common to both man and fowl. Salmonella is a major source of food poisoning that seems to be on the increase in the developed world, of which mass chicken rearing techniques introduced, has increased. Salmonella in chickens tends to produce no symptoms and thus infected chickens can easily enter the food chain. Salmonella may also be present in cracked hen’s eggs or egg pulp. It takes temperatures up to 350 degrees for a minimum of thirty minutes to kill salmonella bacteria. Studies have shown positive correlations between meat, meat products, and breast, uterus, prostrate, and colo-rectal cancer, pork showing the strongest correlation. BSE [bovine spongiform encephalopathy], known more commonly as ‘mad cow disease’ is a prime example of what can be transmitted from animals to man, including via animal products. Asymptomatic infected animals may have been entering the food chain for years.
Meat carries the highest risk of bacterial contamination. The lack of strict hygiene critical in meat preparation, both in the home, restaurant, and industry, is compounding an already heavily loaded situation. Meat eaters therefore suffer far more frequently from various types of food poisoning than do vegetarians. The general public has no idea of the shocking and unhygienic practices that can and do go on in the meat industry, and on farms. If they saw what goes on I doubt they’d have anything to do with meat. Flesh food is a ticking time bomb. I guess that’s why meat eaters are dropping like flies.

Animals killed in a state of fear have poured adrenaline into their system. Adrenaline is a powerful stimulating agent that raises blood pressure.

When you eat meat you take in arachidonic acid which causes inflammation and fires up the disease process. It’s known that inflammation can eventually lead to serious health issues.

When an animal is killed the normal digestive processes are halted in their tracks. The meat consumed from animals contains the toxic waste materials not yet eliminated [urea, urine] and from which meat gets most of its flavour. Urea is the half way stage from becoming urine. We expend toxic energy wastes [urea] from our muscles as we use them in our everyday life. After travelling through the blood stream and filtering system of the kidneys the urea is eventually released as urine. This taken in via the eating of meat adds to the load our kidneys and liver already have to bear. Uric acid is one of the most potent poisons known and flesh foods are a major source of uric acid. Those who eat the liver of an animal are literally bombarded with toxic substances. When autopsied, victims of leukaemia show a high uric acid level in their blood. Uric acid is also responsible for gout, arthritis, and kidney stones. An excess of uric acid "causes contraction of the minute blood vessels, resulting in high arterial tension and often the blocking of the blood vessels by the uric acid. This results in serious interference with the circulation and blood supply to the tissues and throws great strain on the vital organs, especially the heart and kidneys." (Dr Robert Perk, Scientific Vegetarianism, Szekely, p. 44.)
I once ate a generously filled steak and kidney pie, (before truly becoming a vegetarian), and I can still remember to this day the overwhelming stench of that creature I was eating. I felt as if I was actually right there in the same paddock with it. It really put me off. Uric acid? Though mindful of many things, I hate to think what else must creep into our system when we indulge in such. And hence why many people can feel so unwell at times and yet not register that it has something to do with such food they’ve just eaten.
Along with the animals waste products may also be dead and virulent bacteria that were harboured in the animals intestinal tract and that pass to the tissue. Eating the kidneys and liver of an animal is eating its disposal system. Many elements the body cannot use are trapped in the liver and remain there such as mercury, artificial hormones, etc. The likes of insecticides concentrate in the animal’s fatty tissue and liver, the meat eater eating in a few minutes the pesticides, etc, that an animal has collected over a lifetime.

The use of antibiotics and other veterinary drugs as growth promoters or as prophylactics has been widespread. Such can kill off most or all of the good bacteria in your intestinal track, lead to the development of strains of bacteria resistant to drugs used, and create other serious conditions. Synthetic hormones disturb our hormonal balance and can cause tumour growth.

The threat of contamination from pesticides, antibiotics, filth and bacteria is much greater with meats than with plant foods. Vegetarians consume fewer environmental pollutants.

A high meat diet also lowers the age of puberty and early puberty is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

Pigs will eat anything given to them. They’re effectively vacuum cleaners. The tissues of pigs swarm with myriads of baffling and sinister parasites. Pigs have running sores under their hoofs -- this is one small outlet for the various poisons which they have taken into their body. Quite frequently this oozing artery becomes blocked and the poison backs up into its system. Trichinosis is the name of the disease that originates with the trichina worm -- trichinella spiralis. The trichina is one of the nineteen worms found in pigs not to mention lice or the various swine diseases – rickets, thumps, mange, etc. The trichina worm is deadly. In a pig the trichinae are often so minute and so nearly transparent that to find them (even with a microscope) is a task for expert scientific inspectors. Pork merely passes the routine inspection given meat in general. Trichinosis is the chameleon of diseases. Even blood counts sometimes inexplicably fail to reveal its presence at any stage in its development. The number of ailments with which it is more or less commonly confused approach the encyclopaedic. A sound diagnosis of trichinosis is rarely made. Out breaks of trichinosis are seldom widely publicized, and are seldom even recognized. Trichinosis is a subtle killer. Thus, all said and done, it’s no accident that the word pig is often used in a derogatory sense. When it comes to a pig, there’s little to get excited about.

Iron-deficiency anaemia is a problem which affects a large section of the population who are mostly meat eaters. Years of published research has failed to show that the vegetarian diet causes this problem. Meat consumption, therefore, is not an effective means of preventing widespread iron deficiency. A vegetarian or vegan diet is well capable of providing normal dietary iron requirements. The biggest contributor to high iron levels is meat consumption. It is now recognised that the over consumption of iron may in fact be a heath hazard, increasing the risk of cancer and heart attack.

The vast majority of cases of vitamin B12 deficiency occur not in vegans but in the general meat eating population. Pernicious anaemia is usually caused by an inability to absorb vitamin B 12 – whether or not you eat meat has nothing to do with it.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, the milk of each species is designed strictly for the young of that species. Creatures do not continue the use of milk past infancy. Thus, cows should not take over where our mothers left off. Such could be considered as cross-species nursing. Cow’s milk is designed for creating large heavy creatures. Cows milk causes mucus. Mucus clogs and irritates the body’s entire respiratory system thus inviting disease. Milk is linked with, or contributes to, hay fever, asthma, bronchitis, sinusitis, colds, runny noses, and ear infections. It’s worth noting that the problems associated with drinking milk are much more pronounced with pasteurized milk than with raw milk. When raw milk goes bad it immediately sours and you throw it out. When it’s pasteurized you can’t tell when it’s beginning to spoil. Thus, the chances of drinking contaminated pasteurized milk are much greater than drinking contaminated raw milk. Pasteurized milk is rancid long before it develops an obvious odour. Nature intended that milk be consumed in its raw state. Dairy products are the leading cause of allergies. All dairy products except butter are acid-forming. Dairy products aggravate ulcers. The list of ailments that can be linked to dairy products is so extensive there is hardly a problem it doesn’t at least contribute to. Among them — increased blood pressure, edema, excess secretion of mucus and urine, constipation, diarrhea, bowel impaction, nausea, gas, intestinal discomfort, headaches, catarrh, asthma, eczema, recurrent bronchitis and recurrent attacks of nasal congestion.
Cheese is effectively rotting milk, a product of putrefaction, with a high bacteria content. It’s generally infested with scavenger organisms. It’s a potential carrier of animal disease to man, a major clogger of arteries, contributes to headaches and constipation, has a high fat content, and is difficult to digest.
Eggs are the most cholesterol-saturated food routinely consumed, significantly contributing to much of the obesity and heart disease. One of the big problems with eggs is bacterial contamination, particularly salmonella contamination. Diseased chickens also mean contaminated eggs. Some experts theorize that salmonella enteritidis may be reproducing, colonizing in the ovaries of hens and infecting the egg yolk directly before the shell is even formed. Eggs contain an excess of sulfur, which produces the sulfur smell usually detected in hard-boiled eggs.

As for fish:
Many fish have been found to have cancer. What a fish eats of elements such as mercury it keeps. Tuna being one of the worst mercury wise. Thus, when a human eats fish he also keeps these poisons and they continue to build up. This process, ‘biological magnification,’ is a major threat in the use of flesh food. Mercury damages the body by binding to the cell membrane structures, disrupting metabolism and causing fragmentation and death of the cell. The oceans of the world and rivers have been dumping grounds for all sorts of garbage -- chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides and industrial by-products (all being known carcinogens). Many forms of marine life, from plants to large fish, contain heavy metals and the higher up the food chain you go the greater the concentration found. Man builds up the worst amount of all as he consumes fish, meat, poultry, etc. Heavy metals [mercury, cadmium, lead] are bio accumulative meaning that once they enter the body they stay there for a very long time, and the more heavy metals ingested the more they build up in the body.
It’s also worth noting that scavengers such as shell fish contain large amounts of cholesterol. Shellfish are also linked with bacterial contamination. Here is a partial list of toxins linked to shellfish: Vibrio vulnificus, Cholera, Listeria monocytogenes, Norwalk virus, Hepatitis A, and Paralytic shellfish poisoning.
Mercury that’s consumed by pregnant women via the eating of fish can cross the placenta harming the rapidly developing nervous system and damaging the brain of her baby.
Smoked fish can contain heavy polycyclic aromatic compounds, well-known as carcinogenic.
Scientists have been baffled by neutered dead fish that have been turning up on English shorelines. Is such the result of fish swimming in synthetic hormone (oestrogen) laced Atlantic waters (as a result of surrounding factories dumping their waste in the ocean)? What might the effect be on humans consuming such fish? There are those who’re of the opinion that the consuming of hormone laced flesh food may be causing men (who are truly male in the sense of genitalia and so on) to become sexually orientated towards other men; and that the consuming of hormone laced flesh food by women may be causing a sexual distortion/alteration (even mutation of some sort) at conception, and/or as the baby develops in the womb.

Consider also the following notes of John McDougall, MD (this paragraph only):
Fish cause a rise in blood cholesterol levels similar to the rise caused by beef and pork. Their highly acidic animal proteins accelerate calcium loss, contributing to osteoporosis and kidney stones. No dietary fibre or digestible carbohydrates are present in fish. Although omega-3 fats thin the blood preventing thrombus (heart attack); this same anticoagulant activity can increase the risk of bleeding complications from other sources, like a hemorrhagic stroke or an auto accident. These "good" fats have anti-inflammatory properties which can be beneficial (reducing arthritis pain, for example) as well as deleterious (causing immune suppression, increasing the risk of cancer and infection). Fatty fish (like salmon) are half fat and loaded with calories, adding to one’s risk for developing obesity and type-2 diabetes. Omega-3 fats inhibit the action of insulin, thereby increasing blood sugar levels and aggravating diabetes.

We need to face the fact that flesh is flesh, and that the flesh of an animal (just like ours upon death too) begins to putrefy. Hence harmful additives (like sodium nitrate, etc) that are used to prolong its shelf life – a kind of embalming process. Flesh not only harbours the bacteria infecting the animal when it was alive, but may also carry moulds, spores, yeasts and bacilli picked up during post-mortem handling. At the end of the day, who truly knows what an animal may be hiding. Despite the best of tests, and let’s face it, there’s only so much they can do, harmful things will get through, and clearly do – very harmful things!

Isn’t it intriguing how those things that are very harmful for us we just can’t seem to leave alone. Addicted?

Other reasons why I’m a vegetarian:
1) Every day millions of animals are being terribly mistreated (tortured) in order to satisfy man’s lust for flesh-food.
2) Meat production is extremely damaging environmentally, (being one of the largest contributors), and is a terrible waste of  resources. Killing factories dot this planet of ours infecting the land, the sea, the air, and waterways with their activity.
3) It only stands to reason that what is injurious to the body must also be injurious to our brain and its functioning. After all, the brain is made up of tissue, nerves, cells, etc, just like the rest of the body. Thus, our brain can become diseased too. And because meat is harmful to us physically it will also harm us mentally/emotionally as mind and body are closely connected. In other words, our thinking will no doubt be more sluggish, less attuned, our capacity for compassion lessened, and our manner possibly more aggressive. According to recent studies, flesh food has a negative influence on brain activity, and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease is twice as high for meat eaters. Some medical authorities raise the distinct possibility that CJD can be easily misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's. CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) is a rare disease of the brain caused by prions related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
4) The killing of animals for food just doesn’t gel with a gospel of love and non-violence. In my eyes, the killing of animals is only one step away from the killing of humans. Animals have emotions, intelligence, and a face. How dreadful to think that a human would actually salivate at the smell of cooking flesh. I find it quite bizarre how humans can sit at their table chewing on an animal while at the same time petting a much loved pet. I also find it intriguing how Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas via the death of the likes of a turkey or pig. Isn’t there an irony in that? It's also ironic how we're constantly told by the world at large that vegetarianism is an alternative diet, when the truth of the matter is, that it was the original diet that God designed and gave to man.
5) As mentioned in the second paragraph, it’s my belief (as a Christian) that though God allowed the eating of meat at some stage, He  desires that we remove it from our diet now and return to the Edenic blueprint (Genesis 1:29). It’s clear that the killing of creatures (and subsequently flesh food) will not play a part in the earth made new (Isaiah 11:6-9). I would like to mention that well before the Jewish ceremonial law the distinction between clean and unclean creatures was known (Genesis 7:1-3), and so too was the prohibition not to eat the blood or fat of a creature, both of which we now know are a major contributor to ill health, and if we’re using logic, hardly done away with at the cross. If as a Christian you believe in eating only the (so-called) clean meats, then to be consistent, you would also have to make sure that the meat you ate was also free of the blood and fat like God instructed. Otherwise, you're not only going contrary to God's instructions but effectively making a fool of yourself. It would do well for Christians to dwell on the following texts: 1 Cor 3:17; 6:19,20; 10:31; James 4:17.

Some sources used —
"The Realeat Encyclopedia of Vegetarian Living" by Peter Cox;
"Unmeat: The Case for Vegetarianism" by Stoy Proctor;
"How Safe is Our Food" by Australia’s Consumer’s Association, 1991;
"Living Health" by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond;
"The Complete Idiots Guide To Being A Vegetarian" by Frankie Avalon Wolfe
"Strict Vegetarianism—God’s Blueprint for the Christian" by Katy Chamberlin

2.  A Brief Biblical Summary

 — regarding the eating of flesh food.

God is our Creator (Gen 1:26-31). He clearly knows what is best for us. When He first created humans, He gave them a vegan diet. A vegan diet contains no flesh food [animals, birds, fish, etc] (Gen 1:11,12), or even dairy products [milk, cheese, etc]. Even creatures were given this same diet (Gen 1:29,30).
Hence why humans were given the dental structures of a strictly herbivorous creature [animals that feed on grass or plants].
Before Adam and Eve sinned, no creature was killed for food. There was no death or bloodshed. Death and bloodshed only entered this world we live in as a result of sin (Rom 5:12), and the new earth that the saints [the saved] will inherit [be given] will be just like this world was before Adam and Eve sinned — no human or creature will kill for food (Isa 11:6-9; 65:25).
It was clearly not the will of God that man should slaughter animals for food, or that animals should prey upon another.
God only allowed flesh food after the Flood.
After flesh food was introduced, the life span and build of humans rapidly decreased which strongly suggests that God allowed the eating of flesh food in an effort to reduce the length of evil that humans could inflict upon the lives of others and the world in general. Imagine the likes of Hitler living for 900 odd years like Adam!  Don’t forget that God obviously knew it was going to take a few thousand years for Satan’s ultimate plan for planet earth to play out, and come to fruition for all the universe to clearly see. God has had to allow this for His own vindication and for the enlightenment of the universe — that the full results of sin, rebellion, may be seen.
Adam lived for 930 years, whereas David (for example) only lived for 70 years. What a drop by then!
When God allowed flesh food, He made it clear that it was not to be eaten with its blood still in it (Gen 9:4), nor was its fat to be eaten either (Lev 7:23,24). That’s why He said “every moving thing that lives shall be food for you” (Gen 9:3; Note also Ex 22:31; Lev 22:8). You see, no blood can be drained from an animal if it has died of itself [that is, naturally] (Deut 14:21), or been killed by another animal (Lev 17:15). Ancient Jewish tradition declared that when the neck of an animal was broken, the blood flowed into the limbs in such a way that it could not be brought out, even with the use of salt.
This is why the apostle James in the New Testament talks about abstaining from eating anything ‘strangled’ (Acts 15:20), because animals strangled would not normally be bleed.
We know today that the circulating blood harbours [hides, contains] the things that are more harmful to us [disease causing agents, bacteria, viruses, parasites, etc], and that fat in the diet is also very harmful to us [its responsible for heart attacks, hardening of the arteries, strokes, kidney problems, etc] (Lev 7:22-25). People whose regular diet contains these things are dying each day as a result.
Food prepared with blood was common on the tables of both Greeks and Romans. 
God also stated that only certain creatures were allowed to be eaten (Lev chapter 11). The ones allowed to be eaten were called "clean" and the ones that were not allowed to be eaten were called "unclean."
Some wrongly believe that these restrictions [unclean creatures, blood, and fat] were only to do with the Jewish ceremonial law and that they no longer applied after Christ’s death on the cross. However, God’s command not to eat the blood and fat was given long before the Jewish ceremonial law existed [was given]. The distinction between clean and unclean creatures was also known long before the Jewish ceremonial law existed (Gen 7:2; 8:20).
The apostles [during the Christian era] still believed and taught after the cross that the eating of blood was still forbidden [not allowed] (Acts 15:19,20).
Though the Jerusalem council [a Christian council] at that time overturned the ban on eating meat offered to idols, it did not overturn the ban on eating unclean meats or blood. After all, creatures that are unclean, unfit for food, can’t suddenly become clean [no longer harmful to eat]. They’re either suitable or they’re not! Blood and fat likewise.
Hence why Christians who mistakenly think that God has blessed all food now, or that unclean meats are blessed when prayed over, are also dying from the same food related illnesses. Unfortunately, misinterpretation seems to be dogging certain quarters of Christendom.
The biblical wording CLEAN creatures was simply used to DIFFERENTIATE from the WORST flesh food. It didn't mean that CLEAN creatures were SAFE to eat but SAFER, less harmful.
Five commonly misinterpreted texts that are wrongly used to support the eating of flesh food, and each one with an answer, can be found in my Christian section and on the page: Regarding One's Health, grey box, nearer the top, and centre.
One of the reasons God originally set up the Israelite [Jewish] nation was because He wanted them to be a witness to the surrounding nations. He wanted all to see how following Him [doing things His better way] would result in a happier, healthier life.
To achieve this, He attempted to get them off a flesh food diet, but they bitterly complained [rebelled] until eventually He let them have what they wanted. They not only displeased God greatly, but suffered badly as a result of their foolish desires (Ps 106:14-16; Numbers chapter 11). Because they were not happy with those things that God knew would be more beneficial for them, He allowed them to have their own way. The fact that it was the lusting after meat that brought God’s wrath upon them is born out by the fact that no one was slain as he or she began to eat manna or to drink water, even though the Jews murmured over both.
A study in Israel following the Jewish population as it grew from 1.17 million in 1949 to 3.5 million in 1975, over which period meat consumption increased by 454 per cent, saw the death rate from malignant cancers doubled.
Daniel, who was loyal to God, and knew that God’s ways were best, set us an example of what we should also do. When a captive in Babylon he asked for a diet that he knew would be healthier, one that did not contain any flesh food. The result was that he became more healthier than those who continued to eat flesh food (Dan 1:8,12,15). Why would Daniel refrain from flesh food if it wasn’t injurious?
There is much biblical evidence showing  that God’s allowances did not always have His approval and that His allowances were often a marked departure from His original instructions, intentions and designs. God took people where He found them and used their practices of life to teach certain spiritual lessons. Solomon and his concubines, not to mention David’s, are a case in point? Only by understanding this can we make sense out of many statements in the Old Testament and even some in the New.
Yes, though God sometimes allows certain things for certain reasons, He knows that they are not always the best for us and hopes we will do what is better. If we truly love God, and want to please Him, then once we are shown what He really wishes, we will surely do only that. To not do so, once we truly know His wishes, is to surely rebel, and isn't that sin, and what's the penalty for sin? (James 4:17). In God's eyes, we're either genuine or we're not.