Cook County Health Department: Become a Vegetarian!

Dr. Terry Mason, Chief Medical Officer of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System, has a New Year's resolution for you that would make our resident vegetarian John DiGilio proud: Give up meat for a month. Last Friday, he appeared on Fox News Chicago and pointed out that, during the four minutes he was on the air, five people would die because of smoking, drinking and bad eating habits. And he's trying to do his part to cut that number down.

If your New Year's resolution is to lose weight, this might be a great way to do it. What counts as meat for Mason? He's not suggesting that you become a pescetarian or just cut out red meat. He told Fox, "If it walks, hops, crawls, flys, slithers, has got eyes, a momma and a daddy, it's meat."

If you're looking to give up meat (or quit smoking, or drink more water), the Cook County health department is sponsoring a "Restart 4 Health" program, that incorporates churches, colleges and local vegetarian restaurants like Soul Vegetarian. Sessions begin on January 3rd. Watch the complete segment below.

Cook Co. Health Officials say Give Up Meat for a Month: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

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By Anthony Todd in Food on January 2, 2012 11:30 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Matt Hart

This guy is so amazingly uninformed it's crazy. Dietary cholesterol does not significantly affect cholesterol levels in the blood or risk for heart disease, Vegetarian myth debunked. There is also no evidence that meat causes cancer. This is misinformation at it's worst. READ the research!! http://ow.ly/8yDfW

Mimihaha

If he wants to be taken seriously he needs to not be on Fox News.

Jimbo853okg

I'm 100% behind this. Everyone should at least try it. Still, I suspect the National Beef Council is gonna force Rahm Emanuel to chew this guy up and spit him out -- and yes, I deliberately chose that analogy.

t w

I stopped eating beef, pork, and chicken months ago and I feel and look great. My complexion is brighter, I have more energy, and I just feel lighter. I do eat sushi from time to time. There are actually quite a lot of very tasty vegan options such as italian sausage, soyrizo (that tastes just like chorizo), and breakfast sausages. You get our protein minus the grease and extra fat and calories. My main motivation was the factory farming and I did not want to be an enabler of that any longer, however, I think I will stick with it. I may eat some good organic free range beef once in a while if a situation arises, so I will not deny myself completely, but I really don't have the urge or desire to eat meat at this moment, contrary to what I always thought before.

MARSupial_possum

"Sister Species" says organic free range is bogus, but doesn't elaborate. Perhaps life is fairly good until the end, when animals are hoarded tightly into trucks to Central Valley, where they join factory farmed organisms for the kill.

t w

Not if I cut the chicken's head off in my kitchen :p

BombaySplashVermouth

That's great - eat weeds. A good possum or Mall squirrel always makes Sunday dinner delightful.

dd7

I take it you live on fast food and weigh over 300 pounds?

Spirit of 76

There is a middle path. Eat both meat and vegetables. The fact is most supercentenarians (people living to 110) aren't vegetarians, so eating meat is hardly a death sentence.

felixthecat

they may live longer but not well. living on all sorts of medication to function a bit

watch fork over knives.

Spirit of 76

Why am I not surprised that the infamous extremist continues to spew misinformation and even disinformation? Study upon study shows supercentenarians are usually functionally independent well into their 90s despite most being omnivorous. But don't let facts get in the way of a good extremist agenda.