
Why no to Eggs & Chicken and Fish?
What's Wrong With Free Range Eggs?
In order to get laying hens you have
to have fertile eggs and half the eggs will hatch into male chicks.
These are killed at once or raised as table birds (usually these
days in broiler houses) and slaughtered as soon as they reach an
economic weight. So for every free-range hen happily scratching
around the garden or farm who, if she were able to bargain, might
pay rent with her daily infertile egg, a corresponding male from her
batch is enduring life in a broiler house or has already been
subjected to slaughter or thrown away to die. Every year in Britain
alone more than 35 million day-old male chicks are killed. They are
mainly used for fertilizer or dumped in landfill sites. The hens are
also culled as soon as their production drops. Also be aware that
many sites classed as free range aren't really free range, they're
just massive barns with access to the outside. Since the food and
light are inside the chickens rarely venture outside.
And Normal (Battery) Eggs?
The battery hen, from which the vast majority of all
eggs are produced and almost all products containing eggs
(especially cakes) suffers an even worse fate. The battery hen is an
anxious, frustrated, fear-ridden bird forced to spend 10 to 12
months squeezed inside a small wire cage
with up to nine other tormented hens. There are usually many tiers
of these cages in gloomy sheds which hold a total of 50,000 to
125,000 birds. Caged for life without exercise while constantly
drained of calcium to form egg shells, battery hens develop the
severe osteoporosis of intensive confinement know as caged layer
fatigue. Calcium depleted, millions of hens become paralyzed and die
of hunger and thirst inches from their food and water. Battery hens
are debeaked with a hot machine blade once and often twice during
their lives, typically at one day old and again at seven weeks old,
because a young beak will often grow back. Debeaking causes severe,
chronic pain and suffering which researchers compare to human
phantom limb and stump pain. Between the horn and bone of the beak
is a thick layer of highly sensitive tissue. The hot blade cuts
through this sensitive tissue impairing the hen's ability to eat,
drink, wipe her beak, and preen normally. Debeaking is done to
offset the effects of the compulsive pecking that can afflict birds
designed by nature to roam, scratch, and peck at the ground all day,
not sit in prison; and to save feed costs and promote conversion of
less food into more eggs. Debeaked birds have impaired grasping
ability and are in pain and distress, therefore eating less,
flinging their food less, and "wasting" less energy than intact
birds.
What Can Be Substituted For Eggs?
Ener-G Egg Replacer,
which is make from potato starch, tapioca flour, leavening agents
(calcium lactate (vegan), calcium carbonate, and citric acid) and a
gum derived from cottonseed. It's primarily intended to replace the
leavening/binding characteristics of eggs in baking, but it can be
used for nonbaked foods and quiches.
Alternative
replacements (quantity per egg substituted for)
2 oz of soft tofu
can be blended with some water and substituted for an egg to add
consistency. Or try the same quantity of: mashed beans, mashed
potatoes, or nut butters.
1/2 mashed banana
1/4 cup
applesauce or pureed fruit
One Tbsp flax seeds (found in natural
food stores) with 3 Tbsp water can be blended for 2 to 3 minutes, or
boiled for 10 minutes or until desired consistency is achieved to
substitute for one egg.
1 tsp. soy flour plus 1 Tbsp. water to
substitute for one egg.
But Don't I Need
Eggs And Dairy Products?
Just as the meat manufacturers
would have you believe that you need to eat meat, the egg and dairy
producers are now spending vast amounts of money promoting the
healthy aspects of eggs and dairy products. Eggs and dairy products
contain large amounts of cholesterol and saturated fats, which is
considered a major cause of heart disease. In a 1985 study published
by the J. Am. Med. Ass. dairy products were the major source of
saturated fat and cholesterol for 75 adult vegetarians living in the
USA, whose blood levels of cholesterol were higher than those of
vegans who ate no dairy produce. Dairy products contain lactose, a
milk sugar which the majority of the world's population is actually
unable to digest and is often found to be the cause of digestive
problems. Casein, the milk protein, has been shown to cause iron
deficiency anaemia from internal bleeding in many infants and is
suspected of causing juvenile diabetes. Milk products can also be a
cause of eczema, rash, mucous buildup, wheezing, asthma, rhinitis,
bleeding, pneumonia and anaphylaxis in children and adults.
