Bryan Adams goes from rock star to vegan crusader

Bryan Adams knows that Earth matters more than Billboard charts. For many years, the Canadian-born rock star has combined hit-making with animal rights activism, asking whaling countries to save the whales and KFC to kill its chickens more humanely. Not surprisingly, Adams is a vegan  since 1989.

You travel a lot. What do you do when you can’t find a vegan meal?

It’s usually not a problem, but it can be a bit worrying when you’re in an Asian country. If you want a salad, travelling in India or Turkey can be trying. But luckily there are a billion Indians who are mostly vegetarians, so finding vegan meals isn’t so hard there.

PETA nominated you as the world’s sexiest vegetarian. Does being sexy help when you’re trying to help animals?

Being sexy helps when you’re trying to do anything! Seriously, that is all PR nonsense. What’s important is getting people involved in helping the cause, so if that is what it takes, fine. But what’s laughable is that most of the people on those lists probably eat fish and other non-vegetarian food.

How can our readers help chickens?

Every day when you pick up the paper you see more and more news about the devastation of habitat and cruelty on a massive scale. I’ve made a conscious decision not to be part of the cycle of killing animals because I couldn’t see the point of crusading for Greenpeace and then eating a fish. Seriously, if you are going to talk the talk, you need to walk the walk (become a vegetarian to stop cruelty against animals).

What’s the most amusing thing that has happened to you while campaigning for animal rights?

I took David McTaggert, one of the founders of Greenpeace, on tour with me. It was a mission to help create the southern Antarctic whale sanctuary. We distributed postcards at my concerts in order to persuade countries supporting the whaling industry to vote yes to the sanctuary. We succeeded and had lots of fun doing it. But in one case, the government of a small Polynesian island wrote back pleading with us not to send anymore postcards, because they couldn’t handle the volume.

You’re also involved in the fight against whale hunting. What would you tell a Japanese fisherman whose family has been in this business for generations?

I say, if you were doing (hunting) like your forefathers (did) out on the high seas with a harpoon and a sailboat, then I suppose it’s understandable. But they’re not. For some reason, (people) seem to think the ocean is completely sustainable and they can plunder it endlessly, and everything is edible and it will be OK.

By Elisabeth Braw Metro World News

Q&A After Lectures (11-15)

Excerpt from Master Ching Hai Lectures

Q11: Could you please explain your precepts against killing. Specifically against abortion.

M: Wa! You get me into trouble.  ‘Thou shalt not kill’ is the precept of all religious scriptures, not only Christians. It’s even in Jainism, Hinduism and other religions also. If they truly take this ‘thou shalt not kill’ in a true sense of the precept, abortion, of course, should be avoided. And the doctor should be very precise in determining what is the special situation that people should undertake this. Because maybe sometimes it’s dangerous for the mother, or dangerous for both. So, the doctor should be fair in determining that situation. Otherwise I think we should save life in any way we can. Whatever special circumstance with you, that you have to answer, your self- conscience, and the doctor has to determine that. Okay? I am not here to condemn anyone, because I know life is very hard, and very difficult to say which is right and which is wrong. Because we are also all under the sway of karma, of the law of cause and retribution, and sometimes it is very difficult for a person to go above that, to be saintly, and to be decisive about anything in life. But, bear in mind that if you have faith in God, and in all our wisdom and if we are enlightened, no circumstance is difficult, no situation is hard to handle. So, I just propose enlightenment, and no condemnation for anything.

Q12: Is it okay to receive initiation from more than one master?

M:Yeah, it’s okay. But why is it necessary? For example, if your master has already taught you the light and sound within you, and you are satisfied and you’re making progress with that path, then you don’t have to be initiated by another master who will teach the same method. But nevertheless, if you are not completely satisfied and you would like to have more, I mean you are more convinced in some other master, of course you may do so.

Q13: Jesus ate fish, why do you not?

M: You always put fish in Jesus’ mouth. (Laughter.) Alright, suppose he ate fish, he is Christ, he can do many other things that you cannot do. Why you look at the piece of fish only and not at his qualities and his holiness? As soon as you become holy as he is, and powerful as he is, you can eat human beings also, okay?! (Laughter & applause.) If you are that desperate for meat… Oh God! We always compare the things that other people do to suit our taste. But we do not respect their qualities and their talents. We have to know what we have and other people have, and then we can say what we can do or not. The president he can stay in the white house, he has a lot of bodyguards, he has power over the whole nation. So, something he can do, we cannot. Okay?

Q14: Are pain and illness always the result of present karma? If so, how do we clean them out?

M:We clean it out by enduring it. Because it’s already too late now to reverse the wheel of karma. But we could minimize it, we could lubricate it by being enlightened, by meditation on the perfection of the Father every day through the guidance of a teacher, through initiation. Then, we minimize a lot of things.

Q15: Do you have homosexual disciples?

M: Yes. Do I have to report to you their private business?

You see, homosexuality is just a misconception about their awareness. They misunderstand their body’s function. And when they become enlightened, this will be less and less, because they will identify themselves less with the body, but more with the spirit. Therefore there’s nothing wrong with that.

When the children are very young, they play with plastic models and they cling to their teddy bears, but when they grow up, they will leave them. So do not worry about your miss-identification with your body or with your birth appearance. It’s alright, just get enlightenment, and everything will fix itself in due course.

For more information, please visit:  http://www.suprememastertv.com

Why Do Vegetarians Live Longer?

by Kathy Freston  Health and Wellness Activist, Author    www.huffingtonpost.com

 

 

Nearly a decade of extra life — that’s what you get when you move away from eating animal foods and toward a plant-based diet. This is really exciting science for anyone seeking healthy longevity (and who isn’t?)!

According to a recent report on the largest study of vegetarians and vegans to date, those eating plant-based diets appear to have a significantly longer life expectancy. Vegetarians live on average almost eight years longer than the general population, which is similar to the gap between smokers and nonsmokers. This is not surprising, given the reasons most of us are dying. In an online video, “Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death,” Michael Greger, M.D. explores the role a healthy diet can play in preventing, treating, and even reversing the top 15 killers in the United States. Let’s take a closer look at what the good doctor has pulled together…

Heart disease is our leading cause of death. The 35-year follow-up of the Harvard Nurses Health Study was recently published, now the most definitive long-term study on older women’s health. Dietary cholesterol intake — only found in animal foods — was associated with living a significantly shorter life and fiber intake — only found in plant foods — was associated with living a significantly longer life. Consuming the amount of cholesterol found in just a single egg a day may cut a woman’s life short as much as smoking five cigarettes daily for 15 years, whereas eating a daily cup of oatmeal’s worth of fiber appears to extend a woman’s life as much as four hours of jogging a week. (But there’s no reason we can’t do both!)

What if your cholesterol’s normal, though? I hear that a lot. But here’s the thing: having a “normal” cholesterol in a society where it’s “normal” to drop dead of a heart attack is not necessarily a good thing. According to the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Cardiology, “For the build-up of plaque in our arteries to cease, it appears that the serum total cholesterol needs to be lowered to the 150 area. In other words the serum total cholesterol must be lowered to that of the average pure vegetarian.”

More than 20 years ago, Dr. Dean Ornish showed that heart disease could not just be stopped but actually reversed with a vegan diet, arteries opened up without drugs or surgery. Since this lifestyle cure was discovered, hundreds of thousands have died unnecessary deaths. What more does one have to know about a diet that reverses our deadliest disease?

Cancer is killer number two. Ah, the dreaded “C” word — but look at this hopeful science. According to the largest forward-looking study on diet and cancer so far performed, “the incidence of all cancers combined is lower among vegetarians.” The link between meat and cancer is such that even a paper published in the journal Meat Science recently asked, “Should we become vegetarians, or can we make meat safer?” There are a bunch of additives under investigation to suppress the toxic effects the blood-based “heme” iron, for example, which could provide what they called an “acceptable” way to prevent cancer. Why not just reduce meat consumption? The meat science researchers noted that if such public health guidance were adhered to, “Cancer incidence may be reduced, but farmers and [the] meat industry would suffer important economical problems…” Hmmm, so Big Ag chooses profit over health; what a surprise.

After Dr. Ornish’s team showed that the bloodstreams of men eating vegan for a year had nearly eight times the cancer-stopping power, a series of elegant experiments showed that women could boost their defenses against breast cancer after just two weeks on a plant-based diet. See the before and after here (nutritionfacts.org/video). If you or anyone you know has ever had a cancer scare, this research will make your heart soar. Because there is real, true hope — something you can do to stave off “the big C.”

So, the top three leading causes of death used to be heart disease, cancer, then stroke, but the latest CDC stats place COPD third — lung diseases such as emphysema. Surprisingly, COPD can be prevented with the help of a plant-based diet, and can even be treated with plants. Of course, the tobacco industry viewed these landmark findings a little differently. Instead of adding plants to one’s diet to prevent emphysema, wouldn’t it be simpler to just add them to the cigarettes? Hence the study “Addition of Açaí [Berries] to Cigarettes Has a Protective Effect Against Emphysema in [Smoking] Mice.” Seriously.

The meat industry tried the same tack. Putting fruit extracts in burgers was not without its glitches, though. The blackberries “literally dyed burger patties with a distinct purplish color,” and though it was possible to improve the nutritional profile of frankfurters with powdered grape seeds, there were complaints that the grape seed “particles became visible” in the final product. And if there’s one thing we know about hot dog eaters, it’s that they’re picky about what goes in their food!

Onward to strokes: The key to preventing strokes may be to eat potassium-rich foods. Though Chiquita may have had a good PR firm, bananas don’t even make the top 50 sources. The leading whole food sources include dark green leafy vegetables, beans, and dates. We eat so few plants that 98 percent of Americans don’t even reach the recommended minimum daily intake of potassium. And if you look at killer number five — accidents — bananas (and their peels) could be downright dangerous!

Alzheimer’s disease is now our sixth leading killer. We’ve known for nearly 20 years now that those who eat meat — including chicken and fish — appear three times more likely to become demented compared to long-term vegetarians. Exciting new research suggests one can treat Alzheimer’s using natural plant products such as the spice saffron, which beat out placebo and worked as well as a leading Alzheimer’s drug.

Diabetes is next on the kick-the-bucket list. Plant-based diets help prevent, treat, and even reverse Type 2 diabetes. Since vegans are, on average, about 30 pounds skinnier than meat-eaters, this comes as no surprise; but researchers found that vegans appear to have just a fraction of the diabetes risk, even after controlling for their slimmer figures.

Kidney failure, our eighth leading cause of death, may also be prevented and treated with a plant-based diet. The three dietary risk factors Harvard researchers found for declining kidney function were animal protein, animal fat, and cholesterol, all of which are only found in animal products.

Leading killer number nine is respiratory infections. With flu shot season upon us, it’s good to know that fruit and vegetable consumption can significantly boost one’s protective immune response to vaccination. Check out the short video “Kale and the Immune System,” and you’ll see there’s not much kale can’t do.

Suicide is number 10. Oh yes, vegan food even has something good to offer on this one! Cross-sectional studies have shown that the moods of those on plant-based diets tend to be superior, but taken in just a snapshot in time one can’t tease out cause-and-effect. Maybe happier people end up eating healthier and not the other way around. But this year an interventional trial was published in which all meat, poultry, fish, and eggs were removed from people’s diets and a significant improvement in mood scores was found after just two weeks. It can take drugs like Prozac a month or more to take effect. So you may be able to get happier faster by cutting out animal foods than by using drugs.

Drugs can help with the other conditions as well, but instead of taking one drug for cholesterol every day for the rest of your life, maybe a few for high blood pressure or diabetes, the same diet appears to work across the board without the risk of drug side-effects. One study found that prescription medications kill an estimated 106,000 Americans every year. That’s not from errors or overdose, but from adverse drug reactions, arguably making doctors the sixth leading cause of death.

Based on a study of 15,000 American vegetarians, those that eat meat have about twice the odds of being on antacids, aspirin, blood pressure medications, insulin, laxatives, painkillers, sleeping pills, and tranquilizers. So plant-based diets are great for those that don’t like taking drugs, paying for drugs, or risking adverse side effects.

Imagine if, like President Clinton, our nation embraced a plant-based diet. Imagine if we just significantly cut back on animal products. There is one country that tried. After World War II, Finland joined us in packing on the meat, eggs, and dairy. By the 1970s, the mortality rate from heart disease of Finnish men was the highest in the world, and so they initiated a country-wide program to decrease their saturated fat intake. Farmers were encouraged to switch from dairies to berries. Towns were pitted against each other in friendly cholesterol-lowering competitions. Their efforts resulted in an 80 percent drop in cardiac mortality across the entire country.

Conflicts of interest on the U.S. dietary guidelines committee may have prevented similar action from our own government, but with our health-care crisis deepening, our obesity epidemic widening, and the health of our nation’s children in decline, we may need to take it upon ourselves, families, and communities to embrace Food Day ideals of healthy, affordable, sustainable foods by moving towards a more plant-centered diet. If we do, we may be afforded added years to enjoy the harvest.