The harder you work, the more you succeed. You’ve heard that before right? It’s a myth. Infact, myth is a polite way of saying it. It’s a damned lie. A lie that breeds classism and Racism. If you really think poor people don’t work hard, you’re lying to yourself.

Yes, we have a black president. Yes, there are some laws that require everyone to be treated equally. No racism is not a thing of the past. Racism is alive and well. Statistically speaking, the majority of people who will read this post are racist. Yes, that includes you.

The best class I took as an undergraduate was called “The Psychology of Prejudice”. I learned more from that course about how I should live and work than any other course. I also learned that I too was a racist. Every time I’ve skipped over a seat on the bus or laughed at a racist joke… If you’re one of those people who insists you aren’t racist. Read this article in the New York Times that I found from a blogI love called Resist Racism:

“AT least twice a week I ride Amtrak’s high-speed Acela train from my home in New York City to my teaching job in Providence, R.I. The route passes through a region of the country populated by, statistics tell us, a significant segment of its most educated, affluent, sophisticated and enlightened citizens.

Over the last four years, excluding summers, I have conducted a casual sociological experiment in which I am both participant and observer. It’s a survey I began not because I had some specific point to prove by gathering data to support it, but because I couldn’t avoid becoming aware of an obvious, disquieting truth.”

Read the rest of The Seat is Not Taken

Related:

• Racism and Social Services
• Inclusiveness at Occupy Portland

Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat. We should be able to live largely disease-free lives until we are well into our 90s and even past 100 years of age.

Unfortunately, when The Consumerist (a blog I enjoy) covered this story they read his statement as some sort of advertisement for Whole Foods. When was the last time you went to Whole Foods? Because the last time I was there the place was jammed wall to wall with processed foods, meat products, and cheese as far as the eye can see.

John basically told the world not to eat 95% of the products in his stores.

Related:

• Why you should join the #occupation
• The Free Range Lie

Here is a quote from the study you won’t get from the AP.

Subjects who consumed more red meat tended to be married, more likely of non-Hispanic white ethnicity, more likely a current smoker, have a higher body mass index, and have a higher daily intake of energy, total fat, and saturated fat, and they tended to have lower education and physical activity levels and lower fruit, vegetable, fiber, and vitamin supplement intakes.

Now the quote you will read:

In contrast, higher white meat consumption was associated with a small decrease in total and cancer mortality in men and women.

red meat is bad, but white meat is not?

T. Colin Campbell, author of the China Study, has some remarkable insights about how to understand studies which have stunning results like this. Higher consumption of chicken does not reduce your risk of heart disease. This study was done exclusively on a population of heavy meat eaters. In 600,000+ surveys there was no attempt to include vegans, and the vegans had no way to identify their diet differences to the researchers.  The same study performed on a sample that included people with whole food plant based diets would come to drastic conclusions about the health of all meat.

Anytime a new study says something like “decrease in total and cancer mortality” you have to ask yourself a decrease compared to whom? Yes, chicken eaters were better off than beef eaters, but both died from cancer and heart disease at alarming rates.

It’s time to consider another way to eat: Eat meat weekly instead of daily. If your eating meat everyday, you simply can’t eat enough fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and whole grains.

Related:

• The Cancer Project
• Casein The Milk Protein