The PETA Interviews, Part 3

Today is the final segment in this three-part interview with Ashley Gonzalez of PETA.

In case you missed Part 1 or Part 2, here’s the links:
The PETA Interviews, Part 1
The PETA Interviews, Part 2

In this interview we talk about talks about PETA”s mission; animal cruelty in slaughterhouses and on farms; the prevalence of E. coli and salmonella in animals and why this occurs; the detrimental effects of eating dairy foods; and PETA’s sexiest vegetarian over 50 contest.

After you watch this video, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that it is a very enlightening discussion.

To learn more about PETA, go to peta.org, and to learn about the sexiest vegetarian over 50 contest, go to PETAprime.org.

The PETA Interviews, Part 2

Today I give you the second part of a three-part interview with Ashley Gonzalez of PETA.

The other day was part 1 of this interview, and in this interview we carry on from there.

In this interview we talk about PETA’s outrageous billboard they put up in downtown Glasgow, Scotland; the health benefits of not eating meat; the relationship between eating meat and climate change – meat production is the number one cause of climate change; animal cruelty and the meat industry; how far removed we are from the source of our food; PETA’s educational outreach programs in schools; the origins of the swine flu; and much, more more.

I’m sure when you watch the above video you’ll agree with me that the discussion is an enlightening one.

To learn more about PETA, go to peta.org

This interview will be continued next time…

The PETA Interviews, Part 1

Last week I mentioned that PETA had announced their 2010 sexiest vegetarian male and female over 50 contest, and today I follow that up with the above video, which is the first part of a three-part interview with Ashley Gonzalez of PETA.

I’ve written about PETA in the past – I wrote articles about Mimi Kirk and Julian Winter, the winners of PETA’s 2009 sexiest vegetarian female and male, and I also did a three-part interview with Mimi.

I’ve also written about some of the outrageous things PETA has done with the article The PETA Hijinks. The article covered such things as their banned Super Bowl ad “Veggie Love,” their attempt to pay the city of Topeka, Kansas $6,000 to fill potholes in their streets and mark the repairs with messages condemning Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the billboard they put up in Glasgow, Scotland linking meat eating to man-boobs.

Today’s interview discusses PETA’s mission, their origins, their work in animal rights, their sexiest vegetarian over 50 contest (and their sexiest vegetarian next door contest), the benefits of a vegetarian/vegan diet, and their famous “Veggie Love” ad.

To learn more about PETA, you can go to PETA.org. And to enter into the 2010 sexiest vegetarian over 50 contest, go to PETAprime.org.

To be continued next time…

Obesity – The Health Issue of Our Times

For the next few weeks, I am going to cover the topic of obesity. Obesity is truly the health issue of our times.

When you live a Low Density Lifestyle, one of the beneficial side effects is better health and wellness. And when you live a High Density Lifestyle, one of the detrimental side effects is poor health – and one manifestation of poor health is often times obesity.

Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems.

Body mass index (BMI), a measurement which compares weight and height, defines a person as overweight (pre-obese) when their BMI is between 25 kg/m2 and 30 kg/m2, and obese when it is greater than 30 kg/m2.

Obesity increases the likelihood of various diseases, particularly heart disease, type 2 diabetes, breathing difficulties during sleep, certain types of cancer, gynecological issues, pain, and osteoarthritis. Obesity will also shorten life span.

Before the 20th century, obesity was rare; in 1997 the World Health Organization (WHO) formally recognized obesity as a global epidemic. As of 2005 the WHO estimates that at least 400 million adults are obese, with higher rates among women than men.

The rate of obesity also increases with age at least up to 50 or 60 years old and severe obesity in the United States, the British Isles, Australia, and Canada is increasing faster than the overall rate of obesity. The U.S., by the way, has the highest percentage of obese people in the world.

And Scotland actually is the second most obese country in the world, which is why People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) put up an outrageous billboard not too long ago in Scotland.

Once considered a problem only of high-income countries, obesity rates are rising worldwide and affecting both the developed and developing world. These increases have been felt most dramatically in urban settings. The only remaining region of the world where obesity is not common is sub-Saharan Africa.

Obesity is a public health and policy problem because of its prevalence, costs, and health effects.

The main cause of obesity is the modern diet, and as such, it is an easily preventable situation.

From 1971 to 2000, obesity rates in the United States increased from 14.5% to 30.9%. In that same amount of time, calorie consumption has grown tremendously, and most of the extra calories came from an increase in carbohydrate consumption rather than fat consumption.

The primary source of these extra carbohydrates are sweetened beverages, which now account for almost 25 percent of daily calories in young adults in America. Consumption of sweetened drinks, and sweets in general, is believed to be one of the main contributors to the rising rates of obesity.

A few months ago I wrote an article about sugar and high fructose corn syrup, and in the article I said that these were the main culprits in the obesity epidemic. Both of them are hard for the body to process, and use over time can cause tissue damage in various regions of the body.

It may be a lesser of two evils approach to say which of these two are worse, but the evidence points to high fructose corn syrup as being even more of a detriment to the body than sugar. But that doesn’t let sugar off, as sugar is a close second in its effects on the body and how it contributes to obesity.

Another big contributor is the increasing reliance on big-portion, fast-food meals, and the association between fast-food consumption and obesity is well-known. In the United States consumption of fast-food meals tripled and calorie intake from these meals quadrupled between 1977 and 1995.

Interestingly, the country of Iceland has been in such dire straits financially that McDonald’s recently announced that they are closing their stores in that country, making it one of the few countries in the world that they won’t be in. It will be interesting to see if health statistics and obesity rates will lower because of this.

One thing about Iceland is known: they are a resilient and happy people, even with their financial problems, so without a McDonald’s in the land, they may now have cause to be even happier and truly rejoice.

And it may help their financial situation, because it will lower their health care costs.

The PETA Hijinks

Over the last 2 days I told you about the organization PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – and their awards for the sexiest vegetarian female and male over 50.

These two awards were pretty tame and sedate events by PETA standards. Most of the time they tend to be much more provocative – they have a way of getting the organization’s name in the news in ways that are edgy and aimed at pushing the envelope to the utmost.

Their agenda is simple: stop the brutal treatment of animals, and eat a meat-free diet, or a less-meat diet.

This latter part of their agenda is something I’ve been stressing in this series on meat, as I’ve pointed out that a diet that is heavy on meat is detrimental to health and well-being, and is not conducive towards living a Low Density Lifestyle.

For the fun of it, I want to tell you about three of PETA’s more provocative ways of getting their point across. Call it The PETA Hijinks.

1) is an ad that PETA proposed to have shown on TV during a recent Super Bowl. The people behind the Super Bowl said no way, Jose – they weren’t ready for an ad that proclaimed that vegetarians have better sex. You can see the video at the top of the page.

2) PETA recently offered the city of Topeka, Kansas $6,000 to fill
potholes in city streets and mark the repairs with messages condemning Kentucky Fried Chicken. PETA claims the restaurant chain treats its chickens inhumanely. The $6,000 was double what KFC offered to pay to fill the potholes in the city’s streets.

Topeka’s Mayor, Bill Bunten, refused PETA’s offer, so PETA made a counteroffer: The new offer would pay Topeka $6,000 to place an ad featuring a woman in a lettuce-leaf bikini with the tagline “Vegetarians Do It to Save the Planet. Meat Trashes the Planet. Be Green-Go Veg.” on city recycling trucks.

“If we can’t educate people about KFC’s cruelty to chickens, we’d be happy to let them know how their food choices can save the planet,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “The mayor may be afraid of ruffling KFC’s feathers, but where’s the harm in encouraging Topeka residents to adopt a healthy, humane, and Earth-friendly vegetarian diet?”

The mayor has yet to decide whether to accept the offer.

3) Scotland has the second highest obesity rate in the world (the U.S. has the dubious distinction of being number one). In the city of Glasgow, Scotland, PETA has started a new, and outrageous, advertising campaign.

“Lose the breasts. Go vegetarian” is PETA’s message, and it is a campaign aimed at men, with a giant billboard linking meat-eating with man boobs.

Posted outside a hospital in Glasgow, it shows a protuberant, hairy chest accompanied by the caption: “Dude Looks like a Lady? Lose the breasts. Go vegetarian.”

The campaign claims “meat-eating is forcing many men to get in touch with their feminine side” and bases the claim on a statement attributed to a Scottish surgeon that obesity problems are fueling the demand for breast-reduction surgery in men.

Glasgow was chosen, PETA maintains, “Because since 2007 Scotland has seen an astounding 80% rise in the number of surgeries performed to address gynecomastia – excessive breast development in men.”

The campaign group added: “The advertisement was designed to warn meat-eaters that obesity – which can be caused by a steady diet of animal-derived foods – is linked to the increase in gynecomastia.”

Meat-eaters, PETA contends, are nine times as likely to be obese as vegans. “According to Ken Stewart, a surgeon at Spire Murrayfield hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland’s obesity problem is fueling the demand for breast-reduction surgery in men,” said the group.

“Unwanted breast development in men illustrates that there’s nothing manly about meat and milk,” says PETA’s director of special projects, Poorva Joshipura. “Cruelty to animals, environmental degradation and a host of meat and dairy-related diseases are reasons enough to go vegetarian, but male breast growth is a good reason too.”

The picture, not digitally enhanced, is of a real man’s chest.

All I can say is: Wow!

The Sexiest Vegetarian Man Over 50

Yesterday I told you about the organization PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – and the fact that they are known to do various publicity stunts to get their point across.

Actually, in yesterday’s article, I told you about PETA’s contest to name the sexiest woman over 50. That really wasn’t a publicity stunt at all as the winner, 70 year-old Mimi Clark, truly was the picture of health and an example of the virtues of good, healthy living.

And so today, in the name of gender equality, let’s hear about the man who was named as the sexiest vegetarian man over 50.

He’s Julian Winter, a 51-year-old Framingham, MA financial advisor.

Winter beat out hundreds of other entrants to be named the male winner this past August. He will be featured on PETA’s new baby boomer focused Web site, PETAPrime.org.

Winter’s journey toward becoming a vegetarian started when he was young. His father was an avid hunter, and during a family hunting trip Winter found himself traumatized after shooting a deer.

“The deer didn’t die immediately, and I watched it die. To this day, the memory disturbs me,” Winter said.

On a later hunting trip, Winter was accidentally shot by a fellow hunter. He said that was the breaking point where he decided he no longer wanted to eat meat. He told his father after he had recovered that he was done hunting.

PETA spokespeople cite Winter as an ideal example of why a vegetarian lifestyle is better for a person’s health and overall lifestyle.

“Julian is living proof that going vegan is a great way to protect your health, boost your energy and ramp up your sex appeal at any age,” said Tracy Reiman, PETA executive vice president.

Winter said he has convinced his daughters and his mother to go vegetarian as well. Not having meat in his diet has not slowed him down at all, he said. He is an avid snowboarder and swims several miles a week.

For winning the competition, Winter received an organic gift basket filled with gourmet vegan treats. Some of the items included lime dark chocolate, vanilla bean biscotti and sparkling apple cider.

The Sexiest Vegetarian Woman Over 50

PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – has a knack for keeping their name in the news.

Sometimes controversial, sometimes provocative, sometimes whimsical, and sometimes very serious, they continue to hammer home their message: cruelty to animals in all its forms is inhumane.

Now as I pointed out in the first article of this series, The Meat of the Issue, I am not a vegetarian. I don’t eat red meat, I do eat poultry and fish. Not a lot, sometimes once or twice a week, sometimes I don’t eat it for weeks, but I can’t say I eat vegetarian.

I do believe, as I’ve pointed out in this entire series, that a diet of too much meat is not healthy. And I’ve backed it up with with various studies to make my point, including the landmark China Study.

I like PETA’S message, and I like that they’re ready to occasionally rumble and take off the kid gloves in getting the point across.

And so, over the next three days, I’ll highlight some PETA hijinks.

Today, let me tell you about the woman they recently voted the sexiest vegetarian woman over 50.

And this woman, Mimi Kirk of the San Diego area, isn’t just 50 years old, she’s 20 years past the half century mark – she’s 70!

Mimi Kirk has been a vegetarian for 40 years and won the title after a nationwide vote conducted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Kirk was the oldest of the 10 female finalists — “most could be my daughters” she said — and is thrilled.

“I’m very happy,” Kirk said in August when she found out. “I’m trying to balance this crown on my head.”

Actually, the only prize associated with the win is an organic gift basket filled with chocolate, cider, nuts and coffee. The title is what it’s all about.

Kirk entered the contest a couple of months ago on a whim after seeing an ad on Facebook. She had to fill out a questionnaire and send in lots of photographs. A while back, Kirk was notified that she was a finalist.

Since then, she’s made hundreds of new Facebook friends with whom she’s sharing her secret of sexiness.

“I quit eating meat because I didn’t want to kill animals,” Kirk said. Her food choices, she believes, have helped her stay young-looking.

“I think I dress on the younger side,” she said. “I shop at places like American Eagle, and my boyfriend, who is 19 years younger than me, is always telling me those are clothes for 15-year-olds.”

Kirk said she feels young and dresses accordingly. “I don’t try to dress young, but I do try to dress current.”

After PETA chose the finalists, nearly 5,000 people cast votes on PETA’s Web site, with Kirk winning by a narrow margin in the female over-50 category, said Lindsay Rajt, PETA spokeswoman.

Rajt said PETA held the contest to show that “vegetarianism is a recipe for healthy living.”

Kirk said she’s always been active. She has four children whom she raised alone after being widowed at age 29.

Past jobs have included working as a stand-in for Mary Tyler Moore and designing clothes for Valerie Harper on the TV show “Rhoda.”

Just last year, Kirk sold a business she began a decade ago.

“I invented a board game for women called Cowgirls Ride the Trail of Truth, kind of a gal’s-night-out game. Margaritas with the gals and talking about your life and answering questions about everything personal.”

She said her grandkids are having a great time with all the sexy vegetarian stuff.

“They posted on their Facebook messages about their hot grandma,” Kirk said. “Now their Facebook friends are asking me to be friends.”