Beware the positions of meat-hating physicians

November 15, 2006

PETA grilled on its "chicken little" cancer clucking You know I'd rather eat a pound of nails than defend any part of the fast-food or mainstream restaurant business, but fair is fair... According to a recent article on NewsTarget.com (not a tier-one source, but a place I occasionally get something interesting from), a group called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is suing fast-food giants McDonald's, Burger King, and Chick-fil-A - as well as major mainstream restaurants Applebee's, Chili's, TGI Friday's, and Outback Steakhouse. Their transgression, according to the PCRM: Selling grilled chicken products that are laced with a carcinogenic compound. Now, this sounds like it could be a big deal - a real public health crisis, right? And indeed, a cursory reading of the PCRM's charges seems enough to get anyone's dander up. The credible-sounding group claims that samples of grilled chicken from each of

these restaurants tested positive for a chemical called PhIPm, one of a group of cancer-causing compounds called HCAs. Seemingly bolstering their argument is the fact that HCA has been officially recognized by the U.S. government as carcinogenic-and that the state of California has listed PhIPm in particular as a cancer-causing chemical for more than a decade... Sounds open and shut, doesn't it? Time to slap on the warning labels or enact bans, right? Not so fast. First off, the NewsTarget piece - which is based solely on a PRESS RELEASE from the PCRM - fails to specify: How much PhIPm is in the average piece of grilled chicken (there's at least a trace of something that may cause cancer in just about everything you can eat, drink, breathe, or wear) How much PhIPm is

considered "unsafe" - and by whose measure How much restaurant-grilled chicken would you have to consume to increase your risk of developing cancer As if this didn't raise a red flag for you, consider this: The PCRM's president claims that because of these HCAs, the seemingly healthier grilled chicken selections are actually "as bad for (people) as high-fat fried chicken." That's what sent my bells ringing. Keep reading... As anyone with half a brain knows, it isn't the fat in chicken (or even the frying grease, if it's pure lard) that causes problems for the heart and arteries - it's all the flour and breading they coat the yard-bird in that's deadly, especially once it soaks up what most restaurants use for frying: Vegetable oil that's loaded with killer trans-fats! That's

why, to the truly medically educated (such as, say, a country doctor like me), the PCRM's sky-is-falling rhetoric about grilled chicken doesn't pass muster. If it doesn't ring true to you, either, you're smarter than the average bear. Besides this, you've got a good nose for propaganda... Because guess what? Despite its earnest-sounding name, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (which is made up of less than 5% actual doctors) is nothing more than a front group for PETA - that's right, the militant animal-rights fringe that would outlaw meat, leather, animal testing, hunting, and fishing. Protecting animals is their real agenda, not responsible medicine, a balanced diet, or your health. That's why they're clucking about carcinogenic grilling - because healthy chickens are more important to them than healthy people! Bottom line: MEDICALLY (not politically) speaking, you're far less likely to develop cancer or other diseases from eating

restaurant grilled chicken - even from fast-food joints - than if you eat what the PETA crowd would feed you: Tofu this, soy that, fattening grains and artery-clogging vegetable fats instead of butter and lard... If you really want a good cancer scare, do a little digging into what these things will do to you, especially the soy products. Truthfully reporting what they're distorting, William Campbell Douglass II, M.D. "Get off your ass and take your government back." ~Rocky Ward

Sponsored Link$200,000 mortgage for $660/mo - 30/15 yr fixed, reduce debt, home equity - Click now for info