On Saturday, Oct. 24, the Independent featured a news article and an editorial cartoon about the risk to children of a hamburger eating contest sponsored by Washington County School District Foundation. I’m now wondering if the Independent has a crystal ball somewhere that tells the future, because today, a report by the World Health Organization shows that red meat and processed meat cause cancer.
None of this is news to my wife and me. My wife’s degree is in biology, and she became convinced of the health benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle a long time ago. The failure of most people to see the obvious truth about the health benefits of not eating meat is an enduring mystery to us.
When my wife and I made the switch and stopped eating meat, she was the chemist who did the lab work for the Utah State Meat Inspection Service. You may have heard that you should never learn how sausage is made. My wife knows way too well how sausage is made and what is in it.
The meat industry is fighting back, of course. They say that meat is an essential source of lots of necessary things like protein and vitamin B-12. The most accurate thing to say about these claims is that they are simply lies. Americans get too much protein in their diet and it’s easy to get enough vitamin B-12 from a vegetarian diet. Fermented foods in general, to name one source, are loaded with it.
We’ve been vegetarians for over 35 years. Don’t you think that if there was some health problem, we would have noticed it by now? Throughout history for thousands of years, there have been people who have lived their lives as vegetarians. Don’t you think that somebody would have noticed any real problem?
Lying has never been a problem for business when there was a dollar to be made.
It’s not scientific evidence, but we’re well past retirement age and—except for a thyroid problem my wife has due to nuclear testing in Nevada (she’s a “downwinder”)—we take zero drugs and have zero health problems. (Well … other than being somewhat overweight. Beer is a vegetarian food.) We’re the kind of people that the insurance companies just love. We just send them money—never bills.
The pushback from the meat industry sounds to us exactly like the lies we remember hearing from the tobacco industry years ago. Did you know that the cigarette makers used to run testimonials from doctors about the health benefits of smoking? Lying has never been a problem for business when there was a dollar to be made. The claims of the cigarette makers and the meat industry are exactly alike:
—”What about the poor (farmers and ranchers)?”
—”There is no proven link between cancer and cigarettes (or meat)!”
—You can’t stop people from smoking (or eating meat) if they choose to.
That last one is true. We tried to outlaw alcohol and marijuana. It doesn’t work. But we can appeal to people’s better judgment. It takes a long time to change entrenched public attitudes, but it eventually does start to work. The goal of this column is to push that effort along just a little bit.
“… flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air … are to be used sparingly. …”
There’s one more factor that should influence a lot of people in southern Utah. I like to give credit where credit is due. I’m not LDS (and I’m not trying to push any religious doctrine) but the Mormons say not to eat meat, or at least their scripture does, and they have actually had this one right for almost 200 years. Section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants, one of the sacred works of the Mormons, reads almost like a tract from PeTA.
12 Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;
13 And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.
14 All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth;
15 And these hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine and excess of hunger.
16 All grain is good for the food of man; as also the fruit of the vine; that which yieldeth fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground—
17 Nevertheless, wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the field, and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks, as also other grain.
It seems that this part of Section 89 of the D&C isn’t getting much attention from LDS folks. What does “sparingly” mean to Mormons who eat meat for all five meals a day? If Section 89 was getting real attention, then the Washington County School District Foundation wouldn’t be training kids to eat hamburgers. I respectfully suggest to all of my LDS friends to read the plain language in Section 89. I’m just giving the Doctrine and Covenants credit for getting this right.
Everybody I have asked about this article has told me that I shouldn’t mention Mormon doctrine. They tell me that it will be like kicking a hornets’ nest.
I disagree.
My Mormon friends are rational, reasonable people, and they will treat this article as what it is: a word of wisdom.
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Let me know when Mormons actually follow the Word of Wisdom as written, until then this is. The first point is that the second verse says that it is NOT a commandment and yet the LDS church treats it like one. There’s been no official revelation indicating that it’s more than a commandment, and it’s still canonized as being advice, but Mormons sit on their pedestals judging anyone that drinks coffee, tea or alcohol. (Even when used in moderation all of these things have been found to be beneficial).
There’s nothing specific about coffee or tea, but they’ll drink things that are heated up like Postum, hot cocoa and herbal tea which are also “hot” when consumed. It’s not about caffeine as energy drinks and soda aren’t against the WoW explicitly stated by LDS leaders. There’s permittance to drink wine and fermented alcoholic beverages as strong drinks are forbidden but barley drinks are permitted and mild drink meant alcoholic beverages. Alcoholic beverages were safer to drink than water at the time due to waterborne pathogens being sanitized by the alcohol. Joseph Smith drank wine to lift his spirits the night before he died according to John Taylor. (It was not a sacrament, he explicitly said so). Wine is also accepted for sacraments and Mormons use water. No one’s using tobacco for a bruise poultice – a BYU student did study this and found that it did not improve healing over other methods.
The culture of Joseph Smith’s era is where many of the themes of the WoW likeliy came from. The founder of homeopathy advised against using coffee, the founder of Methodism advised against tea. The temperance movement was against both alcohol and tobacco use. Tobacco use as snuff was associated with nasal tumors over a century before Joseph Smith was born. Tobacco was also noted to have addictive properties well before Joseph Smith came along, as people noted the difficulty in giving up its use. It was also illegal to use in parts of the world. There was also a pre-existing movement of Christian vegetarianism. Seventh Day-Adventists are actually still vegetarians.
Convenient LDS writings to push a Peta point dude. Why don’t you do a little more research in other qualified scriptures? There are several. Just for starters- Gen. 9:3,4; 18:7, just to name a couple. How many goat herders and fisherman in times past raised animals, fish for consumption?
Granted, the Man said to stay away from eating blood, fat and unclean varmints, but nothing said about having a hard boiled egg. If you feel great when you eat corn flake sandwiches, by all means eat up.
The people you find in Utah are all so gosh darn nice.
Until they decide to talk about their favorite subject. Then it’s time to politely stare at your shoes. I wonder if I can find a job in Colorado?
This article is VERY misleading. First, the Word of Wisdom is a commandment of the CHURCH and not the LORD. Second, in it the Lord NEVER commands us not to eat meat, but to eat it sparingly, or in moderation. The WHO report says the same thing, we can eat meat but is better to eat sparingly and we should eat processed meat as little as possible. Vegans and vegetarians in and out of the LDS Church have jumped on this like anti-vaxxers to autism. If you want to teach people about God’s commandments, why not start with honesty?
D&C 89 is not the only scripture about meat. Scriptures support meat consumption in a sparingly manner, but not in an abstained manner. If you are going to mention meat and Mormons, please don’t forget this scripture in D&C 49:18:
” 18 And whoso forbiddeth to abstain from meats, that man should not eat the same, is not ordained of God;”
Vegetarians who are Mormons do not have scriptural support to abstain from meat. They are abstaining from meat on their own accord, which has a more shaky foundation since they are relying on the man’s philosophies and understandings instead of God’s.
Jesus, however, declared all foods clean. I would wonder if it’s not the meat that makes people sick, but the additives and preservatives.
It’s kind of the same way with Mormonism. They’ve added to the gospel so that it is no longer recognizable. They have also added to what we know of Jesus so that he has become unrecognizable. Both of these are definitely harmful to a person’s spiritual well being.
http://downtownministries.blogspot.com/2015/09/a-different-jesus.html
Oh no! And I had a pastrami sandwich at the Temple cafeteria last Saturday! Oh well… …I guess you can’t get to heaven if you don’t die.
BTW: I understand that Deseret Ranches is the largest cattle ranch in the United States. Maybe we should alert the Brethren.
MGx
Great insights, Dan!
I wanted to let you know that many Mormons are paying a lot of attention to the Word of Wisdom and have given up most if not all animal products and are eating wholesome plant foods! Every week I post a new plant-conversion story on my blog: http://discoveringthewordofwisdom.com.
I’ve also created a short video on the Word of Wisdom which features the scriptures you cited above: http://discoveringthewordofwisdom.com/videos/.
Thanks for helping to spread the word about the wisdom in D&C 89!