
This is a summary of the book Diet For A New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Your Happiness, and the Future of Life on Earth by John Robbins. This book was made in 1987 so keep that in mind, I don't know how the animal industry has changed since then if at all. I should also state, I'm not a vegetarian whatsoever but this book did make me critically rethink my position. There are some seriously disturbing facts about our food that I was not remotely aware of.
Part 1 - The Inhuman Treatment of Animals in the Meat Industry
The book goes over the secrets of the farming industry, particularly how they raise animals for slaughter. Good marketing tactics have kept these practices under wraps but the truth is that as long as animals are bred for slaughter, anything goes. Ignorance is bliss in this case as it's pretty fucked up.
The book's first chapter is about animals. It starts out by sharing many heart warming tales of animals saving human lives or performing otherwise altruistic acts to humans, some of which are quite unusual and highly impressive, such as a dolphin that led ships through a rocky channel for years by the D'Urville Islands in New Zealand. He then moves to stories about animals showing types of intelligences unavailable to humans, like recorded accounts of pets trekking hundreds of miles to their owners after their owners moved.
The second chapter talks about how large-scale companies treat chickens. They separate them from their mother at birth, smother the males, cut off parts of their beaks so they don't stab each other, shove them in spaces so cramped that chickens towards the back of the cage sometimes starve to death, cut off their toes so that their claws don't grow around the cages due to lack of movement resulting in death, and fatten them to such an unnatural extent that their bones and joints can't keep up. Chickens are also fed a diet high in chemical intervention with "over 90 percent of today's chickens [being] fed arsenic compounds." Many of their feathers are gone and their skin is rubbed raw either by the state of their cages or other chickens. 90 percent have chicken cancer. This treatment results in them living crazed and tortured lives until their inevitable deaths. Then we eat them, arsenic and all. Also, just FYI, a large percentage of raw chicken contains salmonella.

Next, pigs. Pigs are highly intelligent animals and are very friendly to humans. The way that the industry farms them is by sticking them in pens that are barely big enough for them to be in, to the point that they can't even turn around. The ammonia from their excrement leads them to develop respiratory problems. Their hooves are made for dirt and in the confines of their stalls they develop sores. One study showed that 100% of pigs had damaged feet and legs. The fact that they are bred to be overweight doesn't help the situation. Female pigs are treated as reproduction factories and their young are taken away as soon as possible to get the sow ready for pregnancy again. Farmers have achieved 20 births per year with this method when the normal rate is 6. Researchers predict that they will soon get to 45 pigs a year. Because of their conditions the pigs go crazy, some refusing to eat and wasting away, others cannibalizing their own kind. As cannibal pigs start by eating another pigs tail, all pigs have their tails cut off. For some pigs the only water they receive is liquid waste from factory manure pits. Studies showed that up to 80% of pigs had pneumonia at the time of slaughter and 53% had stomach ulcers. Lastly, pigs are fed recycled waste which contains arsenic, lead, and copper, besides whatever other chemicals they are given for growth. Many farmers don't like pig farming but have no other way to make an income. In 2023 California voted to increase the pig pens to twice their size by a 5 to 4 vote. I guess that's something?

Cows! Cows are typically extremely gentle and will die from both freezing to death and overheating without much complaint. Similar to the other animals they are put in close quarters, about 5 cows worth in a 12x15 foot average room. Their horns are removed, a very painful process, which cows only use when they are overcrowded, hence the necessity. They castrate the males because it changes their hormones to allow for more fat. Their feed may include "sawdust laced with ammonia and feathers, shredded newspaper (complete with all the colors of toxic ink from the Sunday comics and advertising circulars), 'plastic hay,' processed sewage, inedible tallow and grease, poultry litter, cement dust, and cardboard straps, not to mention the insecticides, antibiotics, and hormones." Cows that are bred for milk tend to live less than four years when their lifespan is typically 20-25 years. Similar to pigs, these cows are kept in cages that don't allow them to turn around for 10 months of the year. Many of the cows that are bred for milk have to be given tranquilizers to keep them in line. Male calves from the eternally pregnant milking cows are bred for veal. These cows are also kept in stalls where they can't move with a chain around their neck so that they move as little as possible, the lack of movement being what makes veal desirable. In order to keep the look of the meat, the veal cows are fed a diet without any iron to the point in which the cows will lick iron or eat iron, so nothing with iron is in their cages. They are also given no water so that they will drink the only liquid they have, a skim-milk and fat mixture. Lasty, they live in complete darkness except for their two daily feedings.
FYI as cows are normally passive by nature, bull fighting uses torture methods to produce the desired results. In bull fighting the animals are raged up by attaching a barbed strap (nail, tack, or barbed wire) to their genitals and intestines and then using an electric prod on their rectum before they leave their cage.

Part 2 - The Impact of Diet on Health
The second part of the book goes over research on the impact of meat eating and vegetarianism.
After World War 2 scientists compiled the health information of various cultures around the world and their diet vs life expectancy. Those that ate a nearly all meat diet lived, on average, around 30 years while those that ate a nearly all plant diet, on average, 90-100 years. In a study published in the Yale Medical Journal they researched the impact of diet on three groups: meat-eating athletes, vegetarian athletes, and vegetarian sedentary subjects. They found that the meat eating athletes performed worse on endurance tests than the sedentary group. A Danish team researched the impact of diet on endurance with the same participants and found that when the group was fed meat their endurance was 1/3 of what it was with a vegetarian diet. The same idea held true for a different study in Belgium which tested how many times the participants could squeeze a grip-meter. The vegetarians won with an average of 69 times compared to 38. The author goes over a bunch of people who were all world-record holders in their respective athletic fields including weight lifting and karate, all vegetarians. He is also careful to say that this doesn't necessarily prove anything except to combat the bias against vegetarians and performance.
One study showed how lower meat consumption (by force due to WW2) correlated with circulatory disease deaths. Pretty clear pattern.

A common argument to eat meat is for the protein. The estimates of how much protein the human body needs varies from 2.5%-10% of intake. Apparently it's nearly impossible to be low on protein in any normal diet except in very specific circumstances such as only eating fruits. Moreover, there are a ton of plants that easily fit that criteria.

The author says that many studies show that we don't burn more protein during heavy exercise than we do at rest. The National Academy of Sciences says: "There is little evidence that muscular activity increases the need for protein." Protein actually has an inverse relationship with calcium and excessive protein consumption is a factor that leads to osteoporosis, the loss of bone density, which 25% of women aged 65 and over experience. Intaking more calcium has been shown to be less effective than decreasing protein intake. In a study by the medical tribune "vegetarians were found to have 'significantly stronger bones.'" Calcium is also found in higher quantities in plants than meat. There also may be a link between cancer and protein. T. Colin Campbell, the senior science adviser to the American Institute for Cancer Research said there is "a strong correlation between dietary protein intake and cancer of the breast, prostate, pancreas, and colon."
In the 1970's 2 of the 10 leading causes of death were directly related to atherosclerosis, the hardening/ restricting of blood vessels due to saturated fats and cholesterol. Nearly 50% of deaths in America came down to those two items. In 2024 heart disease is still #1 and stroke is now #5 on the leading causes of death in the USA (#2 cancer, #3 accidents, #4 COVID). Many studies have been done that show that meat, eggs, and dairy are the principle causes of atherosclerosis, with the only plants contributing being coconuts, palm kernel oil, and chocolate. In a three week study where participants had the exact same diet with no high cholesterol foods minus one group being fed an additional egg per day, their cholesterol levels rose 12%, "a 24% rise in heart attack risk." Being in normal range for cholesterol levels is also misleading. The normal range for adults right now is between 160-330 but that indicates averages in society, not overall health. Nathan Pritikin, a nutritionist and researcher said "If your blood cholesterol level is more than 100 plus your age, up to a maximum of 160, you have closed arteries." Moreover the author found that "a person with a blood cholesterol level of 260 is at least five times more likely to die from a heart attack than a person with a level of 200. 1 in 4 men in the US die from heart attacks so being average is not super great. The book gives a lot of examples of other studies done that corroborate these findings as well as the lengths the meat, egg, and dairy industries have gone to in order to hide damaging information from the general public.



Cancer is the second leading cause of death in America. In 1976 the National Cancer Institute director said that up to 50% of cancers are caused by diet. In the journal Advances in Cancer Research they stated "at present, we have overwhelming evidence... [that] none of the risk factors for cancer is... more significant than diet and nutrition." A quick google search said 30-40% of cancer could be prevented from diet and lifestyle changes. Dr. Gori, an expert in cancer research, testified before Congress that "the dietary factors responsible [are] principally meat and fat intake." Diet has been linked to colon cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, cancer of the uterus, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, and lung cancer.
Heart disease and cancer aren't the only diseases that are greatly impacted by diet. Research has found that in diabetes it's not that the body doesn't produce enough insulin, the problem is that it can't distribute it throughout the body due to atherosclerosis. Many studies have been done that show that the majority of diabetics put on a low-fat diet no longer needed insulin after just a few weeks. In multiple studies between 70-90% of diabetics no longer needed insulin. Hypoglycemia and blood sugar levels are more impacted by fat intake than sugar intake. In a study on the impact of fat on multiple sclerosis "about 90 percent of the MS patients who began the low-fat diet during the early stages of the disease not only arrested the disease process but actually improved over the next 20 years." In late stages "over 30 percent were able to arrest the inexorable devastation of the disease and showed no further decline." The impact of fiber on constipation and other intestinal problems is well known, but their relationship to fat is not as popular. A low-fat diet can ease or resolve some intestinal problems. Obesity, perhaps the largest health problem facing our nation with 3 of 4 Americans labeled as overweight or obese (in 2025), shortens life expectancy by a considerable margin. Fat is one of the major players in obesity. Arthritis has been shown to be linked to diet and several studies have shown that a fat-free idea leads to complete abatement of arthritic symptoms. Kidney stones and gallstones are nearly entirely attributed to diet. High blood pressures (hypertension) has been shown to be a product of a fatty diet by hundreds of studies. Anemia is more present in meat-eaters (ironically) than non-meat eaters. "Young children sometimes become anemic due to significant iron loss from intestinal bleeding. The results of exceedingly conscientious and painstaking studies show that over half the intestinal bleeding in children is a reaction to dairy products." Asthma was reduced by more than 90% of participants who engaged in a pure vegetarian diet over the course of a year.
Part 3 - Chemical Pollutants
Chemicals are a widely recognized part of modern farming, both with and without animals. Due to chemical processes, farm raised animals have 30 times more saturated fat than those raised 30 years ago. DES was one hormone that was given to animals that has since been banned. Before it was banned studies found that DES hormones in meat had resulted in some children sexually maturing three years faster than average. The National Cancer Institute found that "it might be possible for only one molecule of DES in the 340,000,000,000,000 present in a quarter pound of beef liver to trigger human cancer." While DES was banned, similar substances are used in virtually every meat farm in the country. While it's unlikely (hopefully) that many of those chemicals given are harmful to humans, we do know that a good percentage of harmful chemicals found in our diet come from eating meat. The Environmental Defense Fund did studies that "indicate that of all the toxic chemical residues in the American diet, almost all, 95 percent to 99 percent, come from meat, fish, dairy products, and eggs." The World Health Organization has labeled processed meats as a group 1 carcinogen meaning it's known to cause cancer, and red meats as a group 2 carcinogen meaning they probably causes cancer. Furthermore, even after such chemicals are banned, because they have such long half-lives, they remain present decades or even centuries later. Experts say the Chesapeake Bay will be contaminated for the next 200 years due to half-lives of chemicals.
Dieldrin, a chemical more poisonous than DDT, up to 40 times more powerful, was used on crops to feed livestock. In 1974 the FDA found dieldrin in "96% of all the meat, fish, and poultry in the country, 85% of all dairy products, and in the flesh of 99.5% of the American people." Dioxin, also known as Agent Orange, who the head of the EPA called "by far the most toxic chemical known to mankind" was used to treat land that cattle graze. A miniscule amount, as low as one part per trillion, can lead to cancer and other health problems. Another chemical, Heptachlor, a verifiable carcinogen and agent causing deformations in utero, was found in 96% of nursing mothers in Michigan and 70% of nursing mothers in Arkansas (1976, 1986) due to it being in milk and dairy products.
"American farmers no apply more than 20 million tons of chemical fertilizers to our farmlands every year, more than the combined weight of the entire human population of the country."
Due to the amount of chemicals dumped into the sea, fish have a high rate of bearing toxins and "more fish are consumed by U.S. livestock than by the entire human populations of all countries of western Europe combined." The book gives many examples of times when hundreds of thousands to millions of animals had to be killed due to the concentration of toxins in them.
Other dangerous chemicals used directly or indirectly include:
PCB's - birth defects, cancer, and sterility.
Kepone - cancer, birth defects, neurological disorders, and sterility.
Toxaphene - cancer, birth defects, causes bones to dissolve.
Dichlorvos - competes with dioxin for toxicity.
In 1966 before Congress the USDA admitted that "no milk available on the market, today, in any part of the United States, is free of pesticide residues" and in a test of 2,600 poultry samples every single one was contaminated with toxic pesticides. Lewis Regenstein, a pesticide expert, said that "Meat contains approximately 14 times more pesticides than do plant foods; dairy products 5.5 times more."
Most of farming now a days is for livestock, not humans, and it's incredible inefficient. "To supply one person with a meat habit food for a year requires three and a quarter acres. To supply one pure vegetarian requires only one sixth of an acre." "Lester Brown of the Overseas Development Council has estimated that if Americans were to reduce their meat consumption by only 10 percent, it would free over 12 million tons of grain annually for human consumption. That, all by itself, would be enough to adequately feed every one of the 60 million human beings who will starve to death on the planet this year." If that wasn't reason enough, our current farming system depletes topsoil, a necessary component of crop growth. "As a result, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says that the productivity of the nation's cropland is down 70 percent, with much of it on the brink of becoming barren wasteland." "Of this staggering topsoil loss, 85 percent is directly associated with livestock raising."
Water, a growing global crisis, is also a factor to consider. One pound of meat takes about 2,500 gallons of water to produce, enough for an average family's water use for a month. "To produce a day's food for one meat eater takes over 4,000 gallons; for a pure vegetarian, only 300 gallons." Producing rice takes 100 times less water than cattle. "More water is withdrawn from the Ogallal Aquifer (for meat use) every year than is used to grow all the fruits and vegetables in the entire country." Excrement from cattle production is also a problem. It accumulates in such large quantities that it can't return to the soil and most often ends up in the water system. "Animal waste account for more than 10 times as much water pollution as the total amount attributable to the entire human population. Astoundingly, the meant industry single-handedly accounts for more than three times as much harmful organic waste water pollution as the rest of the nation's industries combined."
So our current farming methods treat animals horrifically, meat consumption leads to all kinds of preventable disease, and meat is almost guaranteed to contain harmful chemicals. Cool.
Comments