The meat scare and mainstream media coverage

thedudeinthehat

Did anyone catch any of the radio analysis last few days following the release of the world health org report.?

What was striking was the complete lack of balance on any station during these discussions. However newstalk was biggest culprit.

To debate the report finding that eating more red and processed meat increases risk for certain cancers. .......
Joined in studio by
1. A butcher
2. A bed and breakfast owner who sells the full irish to visitors.
3. A nutritionial scientist from either a govt agency or university-who rallied behind irish agriculture line of ignore report sure aren't scientists always changing their minds.

It seemed to me to be a perfect chance to provide a platform for somebody from vegan Ireland or nutritionists supporting a vegan diet to offer alternatives to people.

Presenter and contributors all in agreement that sure we love the meat, best source of protein iron and calcium, and not forgetting, buy irish. As if cancerous cells can tell the difference.

It seems across all media report was put up for analysis , and IFA, animal industry, Bord bis etc all said nothing to look at here and back to lIving in blissful ignorance. As an aside, a 1907 new york times headline linking meat consumption and cancer is doing the rounds. Will it be another 100 years before we look at this again.

Most depressing of all was vox pops with punters on the street. "Sure we will all die in the end. Can't beat a piece of meat " and "running a bag of rashers up to me ma " . We're people so blase when smoking studies came out in 50s?

Rant over but it leaves the question why irish media haven't done their job about wider questioning of animal flesh and secretions as part of nations diet -at a time of deteriorating health

Caoimhgh1n

I completely agree, even when watching RTÉ, I noticed all the people on the street they interviewed were completely ignorant and biased towards "I loves me meat" and "I only eat the odd bit of fish and poultry". They really should have interviewed vegetarians and vegans too.

paul0103

I haven't heard much of the coverage, but I did read this the other day. Maybe both sides could benefit with reading some measured reporting of the actual report such as this piece:

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/robert-o-connor-who-is-not-saying-don-t-eat-meat-1.2407797

henryporter

One of the things we humans are very good at is not taking advice on empirically proven facts when the alternatives are less appealing, either from a dietary or financial point of view (both in this case).

The IFA, and various politicians leaped forward on Tuesday morning to refute the findings by the WHO, using the age old argument that they were talking through their bums (whereas in reality the IFA and politicians were)

A cursory search on google turns up other reports with findings that people leading vegetarian or vegan lives are less prone to colorectal cancers. Moderation may be beneficial but certainly not as prudent as abstinence.

In reality people don't really know what they are eating (another report issued last Tuesday indicated a percentage of human DNA found in hotdogs :eek: including vegetarian hotdogs) so the bottom line really is to follow a balanced diet using fresh ingredients that can be combined to create healthy, nutritious meals.

Mentalmiss

Attack is the best form of defense when no logical other defense exists. What choice do that have. You hardly expect them to accept it for a while but like cigarettes they will have to accept it in time.

henryporter

Needless to say looks like the WHO have done a partial rollback on their "outrageous scaremongering" - how dare they put countless thousands/millions of farmers and producers jobs at risk by suggesting that processed meat is potentially life threatening - now its only so if you make an absolute glutton of yerself and meanwhile the countless millions/billions of animals lives continue to be made miserable with death a welcome outcome for most of them given the conditions they are subjected to for a public that only wants to consume them without wanting to know anything else about their existence.

greenwicklow

Not sure if the program mentioned that all human beings on the planet have cancerous cells. This is a fact. What switches it on for some and not for others is because some individuals have onco-genes like some women have the BRCA genes. It can also be a life changing event that can switch on the cancer or certain environments. The immune system can reverse cancer if diet is changed amongst other things. This is also a fact that has been suppressed for years. Far easier to nuke the hell out of everyone with chemo and scare everyone into waiting to die as opposed to reversing the disease.

Most meat in the western world is messed with or adulterated if you like. It was just recently where horse meat was doing the rounds in Irish stores (2013). I'd agree with staying away from meat despite having a craving for chilli con carne and cottage pie.