"I'm afraid that most of us conduct our lives as if we were omnivores in that we eat flesh, and we also eat vegetables and fruit. But there's no question as some philosophers indicated 2000 years ago that human beings are far more like herbivores than carnivores."

"Cardiovascular disease kills about 45% of adults in the US. Most common cause of heart failure is hardening of the coronary arteries - atherosclerosis (that's the medical term) - atherosclerosis of the arteries that supply our heart muscles. We have a heart attack, the cavities dilate, and then they can't pump as well. So blood builds up, our feet swell, we get short of breath, and we can't walk up hills. This is heart failure. And we can't sleep flat in bed at night. Heart failure is the biggest cause of hospitalization in the USA in people aged 65 and over. It is a huge expense! We have at least 5 million people with heart failure in this country. It's like having cancer."

"Most of us grew up in the US eating flesh virtually every meal. Breakfast: bacon or sausage. Lunch: sandwich with pig in there, cow, chicken or turkey. And then there is some kind of different flesh at night. So 21 meals a week, flesh at every meal. Now there is no way that a society can live long and live healthy until they are 90 or 100, not with chronic diseases for the last 25 years of life. If you're a vegetarian, you can keep your waistline flat, and you live longer; blood pressure is lower; cholesterol levels are lower; so you don't have to worry about excessive adipose tissue. And your body weighs less, you're not putting so much damage and weight on your hips, on your knees. And you got more energy!"

"The teeth of carnivores are generally very sharp. People have a few in the front of our mouth bottom. But the majority of our teeth are flat for grinding those fruits and vegetables we're supposed to be eating. The other thing is the intestinal tract. The intestinal tract of a carnivore is very short. It is about 3 times body length. The intestinal tract in a human being is 12 times long. So I'm 6 feet tall. I presume my intestinal tract is about 72 ft long. So if I eat a steak, it may take 5 days to roll through (the intestines). Vegetarian societies - fruit eating societies - their transit times are very fast, like 12-18 hours. Carnivores eat by lapping their food with their tongue whereas human beings and herbivores sip it. Now (let's study) cooling our bodies. Carnivores have no capacity to sweat. Herbivores can sweat. So carnivores, to cool their bodies, they pant. Another item is Vitamin C. Carnivores make their own Vitamin C. We herbivores get our Vitamin C from what we eat. Finally, carnivores have paws. We have either hands or hooves. So there are striking differences between herbivores and carnivores. We certainly are much closer to the characteristics of herbivores than carnivores."

"We have approximately 306 million people and we have 100 million cows. We kill about 100,000 cows every day. And the way that's done in the USA is that when those cows reach about 700 pounds, they are put in these feed lots for 4-5-6 months to fatten them up. And they are fed 25 pounds of grains and soybeans so that they gain 400-500 pounds, most of which is fat. In addition to killing 100,000 cows in the USA every day, we also kill about 300,000 pigs. Some of these pigs never touch planet Earth during their entire existence. And there is a lot of fat on some of these pigs. Additionally, if you're a chicken, don't wander into the USA. We kill anywhere from 15 million to 20 million chickens every day."

"There is no question if in the USA as a population became vegetarian society, fruit eating society, that the health of this nation would skyrocket. If one wants to live a long life, if one wishes to grandchildren grow up, not just reach age 10 or 20, but reach age 50, so you really find out what happens to them, you got to survive! And you can't survive by blocking your intestinal tract with bovine muscle."

"I read John Robbins' book. And Robbins is the Robbins of the Baskin-Robbins fame. His father was one of the founders of the ice cream company and Robbins was supposedly going to be the next president of the organization. And then Robbins became a vegetarian, and that was a conflict. So he did not stay with the ice cream company. But he wrote a book entitled, "Diet for a New America". It changed my life overnight."

They [medical doctors in Africa] noticed that many of the diseases seen in the western world were not present; they were not seeing them in the African population living in the rural areas. They didn't see, for example, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, blockages, hardening of the arteries. They did not see high blood pressure. They did not see appendicis, cholecystitis, gallstones, kidney stones, and our three most common cancers: cancer of the breast, cancer of colon, and cancer of the prostate gland. They did not see these polyps in the colon. They did not see hemorrhoids. Even things like osteoarthritis and osteoporisis — very uncommon. So there were a number of articles in medical journals and medical books published in late 40s and 50s talking about the "Western diseases" — the diseases of progress, the diseases that were killing people in Europe and USA, and in all these countries where they were eating cows and pigs and sheep and goat with every meal!"

"The flesh, the muscle that we eat from pigs, cows, sheep, goats and fish contains a lot of protein. Turns out that more protein we take in, the more calcium we lose from our bodies. So it's my understanding that osteoporosis — the thinning of the bones which is so common, particularly women in this country. Pure vegetarian fruit eater infrequently get osteoporosis. Fish is flesh. Fish has cholesterol in it, just like cows, pigs, sheep and goats. And in actuality, for every 100 grams of cow muscle, pig muscle, chicken muscle or fish muscle, there is about the same amount of cholesterol. If you're purely thinking of it from the standpoint of cholesterol, it does no good to switch from cow to fish. There is not as much fish as it used to be in the oceans and lakes as it used to be. When our societies grow to ten billion people or twelve billion from six, there is not going to be any fish."

"The quantity of antibiotics and hormones that are given to the animals that we eat make the antibiotics less sensitive when used in humans with certain infections. So we use way too many antibiotics. We got to diminsh that. Now some young girls, aged seven, their bosoms are coming up. Maybe it's related to all these hormones that are put into the animals so that they grow fatter and quicker."

"The US has the most expensive healthcare system in the world. The US is broke. We can't afford the healthcare system we presently have. And it's my contention that everybody in the USA, everybody in the world needs to grab that wheel of health themselves and do what is right to keep their body healthy. Now when that's done, cost of medical care drops enormously for everyone."

"Cholesterol comes exclusively from animals and their products. And then in the USA, the majority of the cholesterol we take in comes from cows and their flesh which we call beef to be nice, but it's actually bovine muscle. It's muscle we're eating. Or milk or butter or cheese, and then eggs."

"So if we don't eat animals and their products, we don't take in any cholesterol. And actually, most Americans now, at least those living in the USA, we average about 300 or 400 mg cholesterol every day. It does an awful lot of damage."

"Not eating flesh keeps cholesterol levels down. Now the biggest determinant of how long we're going to live, in my view, is our cholesterol level and our blood pressure. And it's important for each of us to know those levels and keep them down. In the US, it's been said for a long time that a normal total cholesterol level is less than 200. The average total cholesterol in adults in USA is now 196. And yet 45% of the population is dying from cardiovascular diseases. We need to get our cholesterol levels: total less than 150, and our bad choleserol - LDL cholesterol (I think of the L to mean Lousy) less than about 70 at least, or 60. When we are born, our LDL cholesterol is 40. That maybe where we should go."

"The second thing is to keep our blood pressure down. Now in societies that eat no salt, blood pressure is generally about 90 over 60 their entire lives! But in US, we eat about 10 grams of salt a day. If we don't eat salt, our blood pressure stays down. Our canned foods are loaded with salt. Everybody in the USA eats too much salt. I never have salt at the table But that's only about 15% of the salt we take in; most of it is already put in the foods."

"Fat is awful for us because so much of that fat is saturated fat. There are three types of fats. They're really called fatty acids. They're the saturated fatty acids, the monounsaturated fatty acids, and the polyunsaturated fatty acids. And all these fatty acids are carbon chains with hydrogen atoms attached to them. And these chains may be 13 carbon atoms long, 27, 33 or whatever. It turns out that the saturated ones are the ones that are bad for us. And they are the ones where every carbon atom has a hydrogen atom attached to it. There are no double bonds. If there is one double bond, that means one carbon has no hydrogen atom — that's monounsaturated. And if it's more than one, it's polyunsaturated. And it turns out that the monounsaturated fatty acids and the polyunsaturated fatty acids are not bad for us. Indeed, they are good for us. Whereas if every carbon atom is covered by a hydrogen atom, it means it's saturated — that's very bad for us. In actuality, I worry more about the saturated fatty acids than I do cholesterol."

"Now diabetes mellitus is skyrocketing in the USA because so many of us are gaining weight. Therea are two types of diabetes. One is the genetic form that we get under 20 years of life, or at least under 30, often in teenage, seven to eight (years of age). And then there is the acquired form after age 50. Now the acquired form is an obesity-related problem. So if we keep our weight down, we don't develop diabetes later in life. Diabetes is an expensive disease. The number of diabetes who go blind, who need hemodialysis because their kidneys are no longer functioning, who are losing a toe, and then another toe, and then the lower leg, upper leg, amputations. Half the people in this country with chronic kidney disease have it because of diabetes mellitus. Diabetes is preventible in 90% of us. We have to control our weight."

"I know a lot of people say, "Well, I need to lose some weight, I got to do some more exercise." You have to remember: you've got to walk miles to lose one pound. In actually, you have to do a lot of exercise to lose weight. But exercise has many wonderful things. Number one, those who exercise go to sleep pretty quickly. They sleep better. Their mind is clearer as a rule. They don't go to the psychiatrist as much as non-exercisers. Their body weight tends to stay down. Exercise is particularly good for maintaining an ideal body weight once you've reached it."

"When a little child goes off to school, and hollers back in the house, 'Mommy, what are we having for dinner tonight?' Well that means, 'are we having chicken, steak, turkey?' If mommy hollered back, 'we're having okra tonight', the little child may not come home! So we have to start early in life. I think the young people are going to be the ones to change. It's very difficult to convince a 60 year old to change their eating habits."

"We kill the cows, and then they kill us. That's how the system actually works. When we send grain, soybean, wheat to Russia, for example, as we've done in the past when their crops are low, mot of that is to feed their cattle, not for human beings. There is great abundance of potential food on planet Earth to feed the 6.3 or 6.4 billion without any problem. But 80% of that oat crop in this country and the USA - 80% of the wheat crop approximately are used for the cattle. It's a major problem, and what it does is produce the atmosphere of killing, killing, killing."

"So, in my view, the easiest way to stay healthy is to be a vegetarian fruit eater. It's the most civilized way to be healthy because we're treating our animals decently. We're treating our planet decently. We're not eroding the topsoil to feed tee animals. So what is good for human health is good for non-human animal health, an d it's also food for the planet."

"I would say that my philosophy is similar to yours. Be veg, go green, save the planet."