Health Chief: Don’t Eat Anything With a Pulse!

Published by Michelle Reynolds.

If it walks, hops, crawls, flies, slithers, has got eyes, a momma and a daddy, it’s meat.

It’s the first week of the new year, which means that gyms are flooded with folks determined to keep their resolutions to lose weight and be healthier in 2012. Chicagoans burning up the treadmill to Fox News Chicago’s morning edition got some advice that may have made them stop panting through the “uphill” setting and take notice: To lose weight, go vegetarian.

Dr. Terry Mason, chief medical officer of the Cook County Health & Hospitals System, asked Windy City residents to quit eating meat for a month and see how they feel. And by “meat” he means, “If it walks, hops, crawls, flies, slithers, has got eyes, a momma and a daddy, it’s meat.”

Dr. Mason has created the Restart4Health program, advising people on what he calls “TLC”—total lifestyle change. For people outside Chicago who are ready to start giving their bodies TLC in 2012, try the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s 21-Day Vegan Kickstart.

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 Ingrid E. Newkirk

“Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights?” READ MORE

— Ingrid E. Newkirk, PETA President and co-author of Animalkind