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Regular consumption of fish can reduce the risk of various diseases and disorders.

Selected research findings indicate the following: Asthma - children who eat fish may be less likely to develop asthma. Brain and eyes - fish rich in omega 3 fatty acids can contribute to the health of brain tissue and the retina (the light sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye). Cancer - the omega 3 fatty acids in fish may reduce the risk of many types of cancers by 30 to 50 per cent, especially of the oral cavity, oesophagus, colon, breast, ovary and prostate. Cardiovascular disease - eating fish every week reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke by reducing blood clots and inflammation, improving blood vessel elasticity, lowering blood pressure, lowering blood fats and boosting 'good' cholesterol. Dementia - elderly people who eat fish or seafood at least once a week may have a lower risk of developing dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. Depression - people who regularly eat fish have a lower incidence of depression (depression is linked to low levels of omega 3 fatty acids in the brain). Diabetes - fish may help people with diabetes manage their blood sugar levels. Eyesight - breastfed babies of mothers who eat fish have better eyesight, perhaps due to the omega 3 fatty acids transmitted in breast milk. Inflammatory conditions - regular fish consumption may relieve the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and autoimmune disease. Prematurity - eating fish during pregnancy may help reduce the risk of delivering a premature baby. Healthy ways to enjoy fish include baked, poached, grilled and steamed forms. -----------

We know that today we have an epidemic of obesity and heart disease, which includes hypertension, atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis and high cholesterol among many other things.

Many groups and organizations are trying to bring awareness to this situation. Many restaurants are trying to make changes, no matter how small. Many doctors are changing their ways of treating patients. And while all of this is great to hear, not enough of us are listening or hearing the messages loud enough. Most of us are still living with the conditioned idea that we need meat to survive and that this is how people always ate. Both of these which are complete myths. 1. Meat is very high in fat, especially saturated fat There are numerous claims today about saturated fat. Some claim that we do not need any saturated fat to survive, or that all saturated fat is bad, while others tell us to eat freely and that this substance is essential for our health.While not all saturated fat is bad, saturated fat from animal products like meat appears to directly affect the function of our cardiovascular system in many negative ways. Not only is it linked to putting a strain on ones heart through possible fat deposits in the arteries, increasing ones blood pressure and causing artery damage, but it is the major fat responsible for dangerous weight gain. Todays meat is even higher than ever in fat because of how the animals are raised, with no exercise or natural grazing capabilities. Hence they sit in a cage and are over fed, which leads to higher than normal unhealthy fat deposits. 2. Meat is very high in cholesterol Most animals produce their own cholesterol and there is no need to be eating someone elses, especially given the fact that your body is great at regulating its own cholesterol when we dont throw in extra cholesterol from foreign sources. Cholesterol production can also increase in times of stress and decreased activity, both which are real problems for the animals of today. 3. Meat is very dense in calories Since meat contains so much fat, and fat is the most calorie-dense nutrient, it is a substance that if eaten regularly or in excess can easily lead to weight gain. 4. Meat produces carcinogenic compounds when cooked These are called heterocyclic amines and they get produced when animal flesh is cooked, especially at high temperatures. HCAs form when amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and creatine (a chemical found in muscles) react at high cooking temperatures. Researchers have identified 17 different HCAs resulting from the cooking of muscle meats such as beef, pork, fowl, and fish. 5. Meat increases chances of colon cancer

Aside from the heterocyclic amines talked about above, meat does not clear from the intestines fast, unless ample fiber is included in each meal. This is mainly due to the fact that meat is high in protein and protein takes a very long time to get fully digested, thus it sits in our intestines the longest. This time factor, allows any carcinogenic compounds to do the most damage to the lining of the intestinal walls. 6. Meat is hard on the digestive system Besides the increased chances of colon cancer, meat can cause a lot of digestive disturbances for the very same reasons. Meat takes a long time to pass through the intestines, where during this time it putrefies. Putrefaction produces toxins and amines that accumulate in the liver, kidneys and large intestines, destroys bacterial cultures and causes degeneration of the lining of the small intestine. Over a few years of a regular meat diet, putrefied meat is going to adhere to the lining of your intestines, where it often causes various digestive problems such as IBS, stomach cramps, prolapsed colons, haemorrhoids, constipation and many other problems that are not even directly linked to the intestines. 7. Meat carries the highest risk of bacterial contamination Meat is animal flesh, and animal flesh is most prone to bacterial growth. This process is increased even more after the meat has been killed, as it starts to putrefy right away. Today, we do have many advances to decrease this process as much as possible, mainly refrigeration, but the most common food-borne illnesses still come from meats.* * 8. Meat increases chances of autoimmune diseases Due to the fact that some animal proteins are very closely related to ours, the body responds to a lot of these as foreign particles and tries to destroy them. (Not very different from how some organ transplants get rejected.) When the body does this on a regular basis, after some time it begins to turn on itself due to some auto-immune processes that end up resulting in things like arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and others. 9. Meat contains synthetic hormones, which disturb our hormonal balance Unless the meat comes from an organic farm, most farms today inject the animals with various hormones for no other reasons than to speed up and enhance the animals growth. The faster the animal grows, the faster the monetary return and the bigger it grows obviously the more meat can be obtained for less money. Most of the hormones are various growth hormones, which not only disrupt our own hormonal balances, which can lead to many different health conditions, but also have been theorized for the faster than normal onset of puberty and development of our children today. 10. Meat contains various drugs Due to the fact that every animal translates to dollars, most if not all animals are regularly subjected to various drugs, mostly antibiotics. These drugs do not magically vanish and

researchers are studying these effects of them on our bodies. However, what we do know for sure today is that it has contributed to the current antibiotic resistance, where the antibiotics that we may need at a point in our lives, no longer work because the bacteria have gotten so much experience with them in small doses to mutate against them. 11. Meat contains its own diseases As well as each animal and farm is controlled for safety, regulations are nowhere as close as we would like them to be. Even though it is easy to catch an infectious disease in an animal and then treat it appropriately, other chronic diseases are not as easily caught. In fact, think of how healthy an animal can be, that sits all of its short life in a tiny cage, where some cannot even properly stand up, let alone walk around and get some exercise. 15. Meat raised under stressful conditions has a negatively altered biochemistry, that negatively alters ours Just think about yourself and what happens to you in times of stress. The number one thing that happens to all animals under stress is an elevation of stress hormones, which initialize a whole slew of other biochemical reactions that lead away from an animals healthy balanced state. This of course leads to various diseases. When we consume this meat, whether you embrace the Eastern views of karma, qi energy changes and thus chakra disruptions or not, eating meat from stressed animals has been shown to be linked to various negative mental and emotional states of being in us as well. So perhaps it will be for your health, perhaps for the environment, or perhaps for the animals that you give this topic some serious consideration if you are currently consuming meat. Whatever your choice or actions are today or tomorrow, my hope is simply this, that each of us starts taking accountability for our own personal health and starts being the change that we want to see on this Earth.

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