A recent report found that plant based, and lab grown ‘meat’ products are considerably worse for the planet than the real thing. It is perhaps not surprising that ‘meat-free’ manufacturers wish us to believe their products are in fact the ‘real deal’.
Since the 1950s, global soybean production has increased 15 times as massive areas of South American forests have been burnt to make way for soya plantations. This is having a terrible impact on the people and animals that call these forests home and cause catastrophic global climate change.
Clearly traditional livestock farming where cattle and sheep graze extensively, is the most sustainable form of livestock farming. Factory farming may produce cheaper food but at what cost? The debate continues to find a solution which ensures populations get enough healthy food, and we can live alongside nature without destroying it.
A leaked report says the World Health Authority’s cancer research arm will soon declare aspartame, the artificial sugar replacement found in Coca-Cola diet products including Diet Coke, some Snapple drinks, chewing gum and even toothpaste, to be ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans.’
Artificial food and drink, processed foods and substances inhaled are clearly unhealthy at best, a risk to life at worst. E-cigarettes, produce a number of dangerous chemicals including acetaldehyde, acrolein a herbicide used to kill weeds, and formaldehyde. These can cause lung disease, and cardiovascular disease - Do people including kids, understand what they are inhaling?
There is much to be said for returning to the diets and habits of our forefathers. Old photos of our ancestors’ do not show people who are fat or obese, and our parents and grandparents’ generations rarely developed dementia or Alzheimer’s. They mostly died of ‘natural causes’, their bodies worn out rather than abused by overindulgence, not the modern diseases we face today through living what is increasingly clearly stressful and unhealthy lifestyles, in a polluted atmosphere which bombard us with microwaves from mobile phones, radio masts and electricity pylons.
Micro dust in the air and water supplies contain pollutants and particles from roads, dry riverbeds, construction sites and mines, which travel high into the atmosphere. These particles are particularly dangerous as they can get deep into parts of our lungs and blood.
It used to be rare to hear of someone who had died of cancer. Today we all know friends, family, young people in their thirties and forties, or their children who are battling cancer, or have already lost the battle.
Something is going horribly wrong. Cancer, dementia and Alzheimer’s diseases are now the leading causes of death; an increasing toll which rises steadily year on year. It seems no family is immune; these diseases do not discriminate. Prevention is better than cure – but are we what we eat, inhale or where we live?