A - Z Listing of Daily Facts

 A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J - K | L |
M | N | O | P - Q | R | S | T | U | V | W-X-Y-Z

• 9 of 10 doctors surveyed admit that animal experiments are deceptive.
• 73% of USDA poultry inspectors surveyed no longer eat chicken.
• 75% of all the grain exported from the US to other countries goes to feed livestock rather than to feed hungry people.
  
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• A 12-year Harvard study of nearly 78,000 women, found that women who drank milk three times a day actually broke or fractured more bones than women who drank little to no milk at all.
• A 1997-1998 report found that only 33 accredited U.S. medical schools (26%) had a required nutrition course.
• A 2007 survey found 88% of Americans with companion animals consider their pets to be "a member of the family."
• A 2008 Harris Poll survey concluded that approximately 3.2 percent of U.S. adults, or 7.3 million people, follow a vegetarian diet. Approximately 0.5 percent, or 1 million, of those are vegans.
• A "factory farm" or a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), is a large-scale industrial site where many animals are confined and treated with hormones and antibiotics to maximize growth and prevent disease. Factory farming is an attitude that regards animals and the natural world merely as commodities to be exploited for profit. In animal agriculture, this attitude has led to institutionalized animal cruelty, massive environmental destruction and resource depletion, and animal and human health risks.
• A growing number of physicians now claim that a healthful plant-based, oil-free diet can prevent and (in some cases) even reverse heart disease.
• A recent study found that higher IQ's in childhood are associated with an increased likelihood of being vegetarian as an adult.
• A recent study shows protein from soy products significantly reduced participants' LDL cholesterol, especially those who had high cholesterol.
• A vegetarian, including vegan, diet can meet current recommendations for all essential nutrients.
• Albert Einstein supported vegetarianism.
• Animal research has a 92% failure rate. Just 8% of (animal-tested) drugs that enter Phase 1 and 2 trials reach the marketplace and half of products fail in the late stage Phase 3 trials.
• Animal testing on cosmetics is not required by the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
• Antioxidants are substances that may protect cells from the damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals. Free radical damage may lead to cancer.
• Artificial coloring in foods and cosmetics is sometimes made from crushed bugs.
• Avocados contain nearly 20 vitamins and minerals and are high in healthy fat.
  
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• Bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%
• Between the years of 1999 and January of 2008, Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus has received over 35 violations of state and federal humane laws from the USDA.
• Broccoli contains chemicals that activate cancer-fighting genes and inhibit others that fuel tumors.
  
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• Calcium absorption from vegetables is better than that of milk.
• Capsaicin (an ingredient found in hot peppers) triggers cancer cell death without harming surrounding healthy cells.
• Carl Lewis, winner of 9 Olympic gold medals, credits his best year of performance in part to the vegan diet he adopted in 1990.
• Chickens are excluded from the U.S. Animal Welfare Act and from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.
• Consuming more fiber on a daily basis can increase lung capacity and decrease the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• Cows automatically point to the north.
  
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• Dead cats and dogs from shelters and vet clinics are often mixed into livestock feed for cattle and hogs on factory farms.
• Dean Ornish, M.D., of the University of California at San Francisco, has shown that if people who have advanced heart disease adopt a low-fat vegetarian diet, stop smoking, reduce stress, and engage in mild daily exercise, the plaques in their arteries will actually start to disappear.
• Debeaking is a common procedure within the poultry and egg industry in which a hot blade is used to chop off half of a birds beak without any painkillers.
• Declawing cats is an unnatural, painful and inhumane act; the surgery is actually an amputation of the last joint of a cat's "toes".
• Despite the recognition that physicians are often called upon to provide guidance in nutritional aspects of disease and disease prevention, nutrition has not been consistently emphasized in medical school curricula. Numerous reports suggest that nutrition education of physicians remains inadequate.
• "Dolphin Safe" labels on tuna fish products do not necessarily mean that dolphins were not harmed or killed in the process.
• During an outbreak of avian influenza among poultry there is a possible risk to people who have contact with infected birds or surfaces that have been contaminated with excretions from infected birds that carry the virus.
• During slaughter, many hogs are alive when they reach the scalding-hot water baths.
  
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• Electric prods (sometimes referred to as "hot shots" are commonly used on rodeo animals.
• Elephants can discern numerical values by observation.
• Estimated number of animals experimented upon in the U.S. annually exceeds 20 million.
• Evidence indicates that foods such as cheese, sugar, meat, and chocolate might actually have brain effects that create a food addiction to these specific products.
  
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• Fiscal 2006 USDA charts list animals used in research by state and category of procedure: NO PAIN, NO DRUGS: 577,885 WITH PAIN/NO DRUGS: 73,640 WITH PAIN/WITH DRUGS: 382,298 Numbers do NOT reflect total animals used.
• Fur farmers often use genital electrocution to kill animals for fur mainly because it's cheaper than other killing methods.
  
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• Garlic consumption may reduce the risk of developing several types of cancer, especially cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.
• Gelatin is derived from soaking animal (usually pig or cow) hides and bone in acids, then boiling them to extract the gelatin, and finally turning it into a dry powder.
• Green and black teas promote a protective vascular effect and are good sources of antioxidants known to inhibit cancer growth.
  
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• Hollywood celebrity paid by Meat Board to tout beef as "Real food for real people": James Garner – 1987. Medical event experienced by James Garner in April, 1988: Quintuple coronary artery bypass surgery
• Homemade, vegan recipes are essential to optimal health; grocery stores also provide an abundance of tasty, convenient, vegan alternatives to traditional meat-based products.
• Humane and reliable dissection alternatives already exist for frogs, fetal pigs, cats, earthworms, rats, fish and crustacean, and other species.
  
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• In 2007, a tenured, and widely admired school teacher was fired for providing students with FACTS about the meat and dairy industry.
• In a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) study, researchers found that 66 percent of beef samples were contaminated with super-bugs resistant to antibiotics.
• In addition to other serious health concerns, dairy products may play a major role in the development of allergies, asthma, sleep difficulties, and migraine headaches.
• In both the U.S. and abroad, investigations have documented egregious cruelty to animals in kosher farms and slaughterhouses.
• In China, dogs and cats are brutally killed and sometimes skinned alive so that their fur can be made into clothes, fashion accessories, and toys.
• In the 1950s, it took 84 days to raise a five-pound chicken. Due to selective breeding and growth-promoting drugs, it now takes an average of only 45 days.
  
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  J - K
   
• Just one quarter-pound hamburger imported from Latin America requires the clearing of six square yards of rain forest.
  
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• Legumes provide a good source of protein and can be a healthy substitute for meat.
• Likelihood of a vegetarian reaching the age of 80 compared to a non-vegetarian :1.8 times greater.
• “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”
  
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• Male chicks, of no economic value to the egg industry, are typically gassed or ground up alive.
• Many former racing horses are slaughtered for profit.
• Many Jewish leaders confirm as it is halachically prohibited to harm oneself and as healthy, nutritious vegetarian alternatives are easily available, meat consumption has become halachically unjustifiable
• Many restrained animals that are confined to a small, enclosed space (in labs, farms, and zoos) resort to stereotypies, the neurotic repetition of gestures such as pacing, swaying, head-bobbing or bar-biting.
• Medical researchers at the University of Minnesota analyzed over a thousand food samples from multiple retail markets and found evidence of fecal contamination in 69% of the pork and beef and 92% of the poultry samples as evidenced by E. coli contamination.
• Milk is a maternal lactating secretion, a short term nutrient for newborns - nothing more, nothing less.
• Milk ruins the health benefits of tea.
• Morgan Spurlock conducted and filmed a controlled experiment by enclosing French fries in glass jars. One jar contained fries from McDonalds, the other from a local restaurant. Ten weeks later, the fries from the local restaurant were completely blackened with mold yet the McDonalds fries were still intact without a single mold spore and appeared as if they were "just purchased yesterday."
• Most chicken meat sold in the U.S. contains traces of fecal matter.
• Most common cause of death in U.S.: Heart Disease Risk of death from heart disease by average meat consuming American male: 50% Risk of death from heart disease by average vegan man: 4%
• "Multiple experts have concluded independently that vegan diets can be followed safely by infants and children without compromise of nutrition or growth and with some notable health benefits."
  
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  N
   
• Nearly 9 billion broiler chickens are raised on factory farms each year in the United States alone.
• New research finds that vegetables appear to help keep the brain young and may slow the mental decline sometimes associated with growing old.
  
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• Odors from CAFO's may contain 170 separate chemical substances.
• On February 10, 2004, Mrs. Atkins released a statement clarifying details about her husband’s health. She confirmed that, in fact, her late husband Dr. Atkins did have coronary artery disease.
• On the typical egg farm, an average of 5.6 hens are confined for their entire productive lifetime in a single wire cage.
• One cup of mushrooms provides about one-third of the recommended daily intake of copper, which helps to produce red blood cells.
• One USDA study concluded, “Eating 2 ounces of chicken per day—the equivalent of a third to a half of a boneless breast—exposes a consumer to 3 to 5 micrograms of inorganic arsenic, the element’s most toxic form.”
• Over 90% of animals used in laboratory experimentation are disqualified from protection under the U.S. Animal Welfare Act. Rats, mice, birds + numerous other species are explicitly removed.
• Over the past 30 years, poultry slaughterhouse workers "have consistently suffered injuries and illnesses at a rate more than twice the national average."
• Oxford University published a study that lists polar bears, lions, tigers, cheetahs and other large carnivores as lousy candidates for captivity.
  
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  P
   
• People living as far as two miles away from factory farms where hogs are raised experience symptoms such as bronchitis and shortness of breath at rates similar to those of farm workers.
• Pigs are capable of high levels of cognitive thought - more so than dogs and certainly [more so than] three-year-old humans.
• Pigs can play joystick controlled video games.
• Premarin and Prempro are hormonal replacement drugs that contain pregnant mare urine (PMU).
• Producing a pound of beef protein often requires up to fifteen times more water than producing an equivalent amount of plant protein.
• Producing a pound of grain-fed steak requires the use of hundreds of gallons of water.
• Protein needs are easily met as long as the diet contains a variety of grains, legumes, and vegetables.
  
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• Raising animals for food causes pollution to surface water, groundwater, air, and soil.
• Raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars, SUVs, and trucks in the world combined.
• Referring to the way we treat animals, Dr. Bekoff states, “We must not simply continue with the status quo because that is what we've always done and it's convenient to do so.”
• Research indicates the extract from cranberries inhibits proliferation of human tumor lines, causing an anticancer effect.
• Researchers at the University of Chicago have determined that switching to a vegan diet is more effective in countering global warming than switching from a standard American car to a Toyota Prius.
• Results from a 10 year study found that cat owners "appeared to have a lower rate of dying from heart attacks" compared to feline-free households.
• Results from recent clinical studies indicate a strong possibility that dogs can be trained to detect various forms of cancer in humans.
  
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  S
   
• Scientific data identifies a positive correlation between a balanced vegetarian diet and a reduced risk of of several chronic degenerative diseases and conditions, and some types of cancer.
• Scientific evidence proves that fish do in fact, feel pain and react to it.
• Sometimes merchandise that is labeled or advertised as fake or 'faux' fur is actually real fur.
• Some elephants can be taught how to paint with a regular paintbrush on canvass.
• Steve Mendell, president of the Westland/Hallmark slaughterhouse, acknowledged his company introduced sick cows into the hamburger supply.
• Study shows monkeys experience joy of giving.
• Sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis may benefit from a vegan diet.
  
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• The 2007 Dairy Checkoff Unified Marketing Plan (UMP) reported a budget of $175.2 million.
• The benefits of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to alleviate menopausal symptoms can be obtained from HRT derived from plants and from processes that do not require any animal suffering.
• The British Medical Journal published findings from a study concluding that lifelong vegans have a 57% reduced risk of death from heart disease.
• The Dairy Checkoff works on behalf of U.S. dairy farmers to increase sales of demand for U.S. dairy products and ingredients.
• The Dairy Council tells us: Milk is nature's most perfect food. The Dairy Council doesn't tell us: Milk is nature's most perfect food for a baby calf, who has four stomachs, will double its weight in 47 days, and is destined to weigh 300 pounds within a year.
• The dairy industry allocates the majority its marketing budget to kids.
• The National Cancer Institute has an "Eat 5 to 9 a Day for Better Health" program, the numbers referring to servings of fruits and vegetables.
• "The number one factor in elimination of Latin America’s tropical rainforests is cattle-grazing... the "hamburgerization" of the forests."
• The USDA recalled 143 million pounds of beef on Feb. 17, 2008, marking the largest meat recall in U.S. history to date.
• The U.S. government is exempt from false advertising laws.
• There are no federal laws requiring humane protection of animals in fur factory farms.
• Thoroughbred racetracks in the U.S. have reported 5,000 horse deaths within the last 4.5 years.
• Throughout ancient history, some of the most revered, influential, and brilliant thinkers of have embraced animal compassion and vegetarian ideology.
• Traveling circuses (such as Ringling Brothers) routinely abuse elephants with sharp, metal bullhooks to train circus elephants into performing frivolous "entertainment" for humans.
  
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• U.S. cattle production has caused a significant loss of biodiversity on both public and private lands.
  
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  V
   
• Veganic farming uses no synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, genetically modified ingredients, nor the use of any manure or slaughterhouse byproducts.
• Vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle.
  
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  W-X-Y-Z
   
• Whole grains contain protective antioxidants in amounts near or exceeding those in fruits and vegetables.
• "Without torture, there can be no rodeo," claims Peggy W. Larson, DVM, MS, JD, a former bareback bronco rider. “In my opinion, and based on my extensive training and experience, it is impossible to create a humane rodeo.”
• World Wildlife Fund supports the Canadian seal slaughter (seals are bludgeoned and skinned alive) because “it is not a conservation issue.”
• Young women eating just 2 to 4 servings a week of beans or lentils seemed to cut their risk of developing breast cancer by about a quarter, compared to those that ate servings less than once a month.
  
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