[544] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
Re: _health journal_ column in today's wsj's marketplace section, p b1!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Laura Dilley )
Mon May 8 22:19:25 1995
To: krom@media.mit.edu (Matt Krom)
Cc: vsg@MIT.EDU, rdshydur@MIT.EDU
Date: Mon, 8 May 95 22:17:55
From: elsiedee@MIT.EDU (Laura Dilley )
Matt said:
>While reporting that plant foods may
>alleviate cancer, they skirt the issue that meat *causes* cancer
...
>
>It's great that veggies are getting good popular press these days, but is
>it
>still an industry taboo to report on the real facts about meat?
Unfortunately, I think this taboo is still very prevalent. I am waiting for
the day when someone really high-up like the Surgeon General of the U.S.
will tell people to cut back on or eliminate meat from their diet. Right
now the meat & dairy lobbies have too tight a grip on what info is being
released to the public. Even though the info is there, from numerous
reputable studies like the China Study by T.Colin Campbell out of Cornell
or the Framingham Heart Study by researchers at Harvard, the message is
watered down by the time it reaches the public's ears. The most recent
campaign by the Cancer Institute is the "Five a Day - for Better Health"
campaign, a few posters for which I have seen around campus. The message is
to eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day, but nowhere in the campaign does it
explicitly say to cut down on/eliminate meat. It is implicit, for those who
are paying attention, I think. But America needs strong, clear messages for
anything to really happen.
This is our task for the next few decades.
Laura
