Green Harmony Living

Hello Everyone!

I have sensed for many years that unhealthy eating habits continue to be promoted as normal and even have been given the most favorable marketing and placement in newspapers and other forms of media. At the same time I have sensed that truly healthy eating and lifestyle habits, while generally known by the government and much of the American public, has continually been described as being extreme and is often hidden away in newspapers and not given the chance to be advertised.

Well, in The Baltimore Sun newspaper on Wednesday, 04.August.2010 I found conclusive evidence for the media bias against promoting true health. Hidden away on page 9, which is about the center of the 20 page main section, there is a small article titled, “Red meats eyed as possible cause of cancer”. This article cites a study by researchers led by Dr. Amanda Cross of the National Cancer Institute, that states that red meat is “a possible cause of cancer”, and the chemical additives often added to meat, namely nitrates and nitrites, “could … raise the risk of bladder cancer”. This article sounds like very important news for the public to hear, and yet it is buried in the middle of the paper. Even serving to disarm the premise of the article is a photo next to the article of a hot dog in a bun.

It looks like standard operating procedure for newspapers to hide the real science based news regarding health in the middle of the paper. The real damming evidence that the media is hiding real health information and glorifying the status quo of eating animal foods is what I found in the same paper. On the front page of the Taste section of The Baltimore Sun on the same day, Wednesday, 04.August.2010, there are large photos of hamburgers barbecuing on the grill, a sausage sandwich, a smoked crab cake, and three people chowing down on foods. The implied message is that this is great food, especially since the article is about “Charm City Food Tours” in Baltimore.

Furthermore, on the same cover there is an article titled “Charleston and Woodberry Kitchen get Zagat honors”. I have never seen an article in any newspaper about restaurants receiving vegetarian or vegan awards or honors, even though they are out there. In addition, on page 4 of the Taste section there is an article titled, “Basting with a brush made of herbs”. The article is about grilling meat and along with it there is a large dynamic photo of grilling meat with flames shooting up. Over on page 5, there is continuation of the Zagat honors with the two above mentioned restaurants basking in glory with a photo of each. I will mention that also on the cover page of the Taste section there is an article titled, “Purslane: a weed with nutritional punch”. So, sometimes a health touting article does make it through to the cover page of a smaller section within the paper, but rarely if ever to the main cover page. However, it is very noticeable that the photo of a purslane plant is tiny compared to the meat photos on the same page. This further validates the premise of my article, that the animal foods diet gets most, if not all, of the press and plant foods get much smaller press.

I think the media have an inherent conflict of interest. Media is supposed to supply the American public with unbiased truthful information, but they are not currently. The reason is, the major media corporations, including publications of all kinds (newspapers, magazines, etc.), TV, radio, & internet, all are dependent on advertising revenue from other mostly large corporations who only want the status quo animal based diets continue. If you don’t believe that this could possibly be true, when was the last time you have seen an advertisement or an article or news story or broadcast or anything that told why eating animal foods was wrong or was a positive depiction of vegetarianism or veganism? Probably never, right? In fact, I heard from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) of how they tried to advertise during the Super Bowl one year recently and the TV network at first allowed and then suddenly disallowed their commercial because many of the other advertisers threatened to pull their ads if PETA was allowed to broadcast their ad. This is the real behind the scenes news that people don’t hear about. And the reason that most of the American public still feel that eating meat and dairy is the right thing to do is because they hear any major opposing viewpoints from the mainstream media or government. I really think that if the truth was broadcast strongly and positively just as the status quo pro meat and airy is broadcast now, vegetarianism and veganism would surge in popularity and the meat eating culture would die out. This was seen when Oprah Winfrey famously declared on her show that she will never eat another hamburger after hearing firsthand about the horrors of industrial agricultures’ treatment of animals and the very unhealthy aspects of eating meat from the former farmer, now vegan, Howard Lyman. After Oprah’s show aired, sales of hamburgers and beef plummeted across the US. That is why the Texas Cattlemen sued Oprah. Oprah eventually won, but the outcome of that episode was that people in the media are still afraid to speak their mind if they believe meat and dairy is harmful since they think they will get sued.

I think the current trend is the truth about the dangers of an animal based diet and the positives of a plant based diet is coming out, however slowly and behind the scenes, and eventually an animal based diet will be in the minority and a plant based diet will be in the majority. The reason is that eventually, after scientists have performed many studies, the evidence will be overwhelming in favor of plant foods. If you research science journals and even the government’s guidelines you will see that a plant based diet being validated all the time as we become better at performing scientific studies and analyzing the data. So, I think it is only a matter of time until we see most of society living in harmony with themselves and the planet. Even today, I sense that meat eaters know that eating meat is unhealthy, but they eat meat for taste or to fit in with society. This will change as evidence to the contrary mounts and habits are changed in children. Smart people today are coming to the conclusion that an animal friendly, plant based diet is the best choice for a healthy, happy lifestyle. Let’s all choose to live a compassionate, healthy, and happy lifestyle today!
What did you think of this article? Please leave your comments if you have something intelligent to add!

Written by Roland Oehme

Thank You and Make Today a Wonderful Day!
Roland and Naoko’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany