Quick Stats from "The Food Revolution" by John Robbins
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Quick Stats from “The Food Revolution” by John Robbins
Risk of death from heart disease for vegetarians compared to nonvegetarians: Half [pg19]
Patients with high blood pressure who achieve substantial improvement by switching to a vegetarian diet: 30-75 percent [pg29]
Breast cancer rate for affluent Japanese women who eat meat daily compared to poorer Japanese women who rarely or never eat meat: 8.5 times greater [pg44]
Risk of prostate cancer for men who consume soy milk daily: 70 percent reduction [pg48]
Annual medical costs in the United States directly attributable to smoking: $65 billion
Annual medical costs in the United States directly attributable to meat consumption: $60-$120 billion [pg95]
...the majority of Hispanic-Americans, like Asian-Americans, African-Americans, and Native-Americans, are lactose intolerant.. [pg99]
Countries with the highest consumption of dairy products: Finland, Sweden, United States, England
Countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis: Finland, Sweden, United States, England [pg104]
Antibiotics administered to people in the United States annually to treat diseases: 3 million pounds
Antibiotics administered to livestock in the United States annually for purposes other than treating disease: 24.6 million pounds
Antibiotics administered to livestock in Denmark annually for purposes other than treating disease: None
Adverse effects on animal health as a result of Denmark's reduction in antibiotics administered to livestock: None
Adverse effects on producers' income as a result of Denmark's reduction in antibiotics administered to livestock: None
Prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in chickens in Denmark prior to ban on the routine use of antibiotics in chickens: 82 percent
Prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in chickens in Denmark three years after the ban: 12 percent [pg141]
Cow's milk provides more than nine times as much saturated fat as soy beverages, so is far more likely to contribute to heart disease.
Soy beverages provide more than 10 times as much essential fatty acids as cow's milk, so provide a far healthier quality of fat.
Soy beverages are cholesterol-free, while cow's milk contains 34 mg of cholesterol per cup, which again means that cow's milk is far worse for your heart and cardiovascular system.
Soy beverages lower both total and LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels, while cow's milk raises both total and LDL cholesterol levels, providing yet more reasons soy milk is better for your health.
Soy beverages, unlike cow's milk, provide substantial amounts of substances known as "phytoestrogens" (genestein, daidzen, and so on), which lower both heart disease and cancer risk.
All of the most popular beverages sold in the United States provide vastly more calcium than the 3 percent claimed by the Dairy Bureau. Soymoo provides 116 percent as much calcium as cow's milk; Westsoy Plus provides 100 percent as much; Vitasoy Enriched provides 100 percent as much; Pacific Soy Enriched provides 100 percent as much; and Edensoy Extra provides 67 percent as much. Even those soy beverages that have not been enriched provide two to nine times as much calcium as claimed by the Dairy Bureau. [pg106]
Antibiotics allowed in U.S. cow's milk: 80 Antibiotics found in soy milk: None
Average American's estimate when asked what percentage of adults worldwide do not drink milk: 1 percent
Actual number of adults worldwide who do not drink milk: 65 percent [pg107]
Where most Americans get their information about foods: Advertising
Amount spent annually by the dairy industry on the "milk mustache" ads: $190 million
Amount spent annually by McDonald's advertising its products: $800 million
Amount spent annually by the National Cancer Institute promoting fruits and vegetables: $1 million [pg95]
US poultry production controlled by the eight largest chicken processors in 1978: 25.3 percent In 1998: 61.5 percent
U.S. turkey market controlled by the six largest processors: 50 percent
U.S. beef market controlled by the four largest beef-packers: 81 percent
U.S. hog slaughter controlled by four corporations: 50 percent [pg209]
Number of cows and calves slaughtered every 24 hours in the United States: 90,000
Number of chickens slaughtered every minute in the United States: 14,000
Food animals (not counting fish and other aquatic creatures) slaughtered per year in the United States: 10 billion [pg214]
Length of time that baby calves will suckle from their mothers in a natural situation: 8 months
U.S. dairy calves taken from their mothers within 24 hours of birth: 90 percent [pg188]
U.S. hens subjected to forced molting in 2000: 75 percent
Length of time birds subjected to forced molting are given no food (starved): 10-14 days
Length of time birds subjected to forced molting are given no water: 3 days
Bird's body weight lost during forced molting: One-quarter [pg192]
Mass of breast tissue of eight-week old chicken today compared with 25 years ago: 7 times greater
Broiler chickens that are so obese by the age of 6 weeks that they no longer walk: 90 percent [pg196]
Amount of fish caught per person, worldwide, sold for human consumption in 1996: 16 kilograms
Amount of marine life that was hauled up with the fish and discarded, per person, in 1996: 200 kilograms
Amount of world's fish catch fed to livestock: Half [pg296]
Cattle alive today on Earth: More than 1 billion Weight of world's cattle compared to weight of world's people: Nearly double
Area of Earth's total land mass used as pasture for cattle and other livestock: One-half
Grassland needed to support one cow under optimal conditions: 2.5 acres
Grassland needed to support cow under far more common marginal conditions: 50 acres [pg291]
Calories of fossil fuel expended to produce 1 calorie of protein from soybeans: 2
Calories of fossil fuel expended to produce 1 calorie of protein from corn or wheat: 3
Calories of fossil fuel expended to produce 1 calorie of protein from beef: 54
Amount of greenhouse-warming carbon gas released by driving a typical American car, in one day: 3 kilograms
Amount released by clearing and burning enough Costa Rican rainforest to produce beef for one hamburger: 75 kilograms [pg266]
Water required to produce 1 pound of U.S. beef, according to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association: 441 gallons
Water required to produce 1 pound of California foods, according to Soil and Water specialists, University of California Agricultural Extension, working with livestock farm advisors:
1 pound of lettuce: 23 gallons
1 pound of tomatoes: 23 gallons
1 pound of potatoes: 24 gallons
1 pound of wheat: 25 gallons
1 pound of carrots: 33 gallons
1 pound of apples: 49 gallons
1 pound of chicken: 815 gallons
1 pound of pork: 1,630 gallons
1 pound of beef: 5,214 gallons [pg236]
Number one milk-producing area in the United States: California's Central Valley
Amount of waste produced by the 1,600 dairies in California's Central Valley: More than the entire human population of Texas
Total number of water quality inspectors in California's entire Central Valley: 4
Cities that rely on California's Central Valley as an important source of drinking water: Los Angeles, San Diego, and most cities in between
Number of Californians whose drinking water is threatened by contamination from dairy manure: 20 million (65 percent of the state's population) [pg246]
Number of species of birds in one square mile of Amazon rainforest: More than exist in all of North America
Life forms destroyed in the production of each fast-food hamburger made from rainforest beef: Members of 20 to 30 different plant species, 100 different insect species, and dozens of bird, mammal, and reptile species
Length of time before the Indonesian forests, all 280 million acres of them, would be completely gone if they were cleared to produce enough beef for Indonesians to eat as much beef, per person, as the people of the United States do: 3.5 years
Length of time before the Costa Rican rainforest would be completely gone if it were cleared to produce enough beef for the people of Costa Rica to eat as much beef, per person, as the people of the United States eat: 1 year
What a hamburger produced by clearing forest in India would cost if the real costs were included in the price rather than subsidized: $200
[pg257]
World's mammalian species currently threatened with extinction: 25 percent
Leading cause of species in the tropical rainforests being threatened or eliminated: Livestock grazing
Leading cause of species in the United States being threatened or eliminated (according to the U.S. Congress General Accounting Office): Livestock grazing [pg270]
"[It's a] myth [that] beef cattle production uses grain that could be feed the world's hungry." -National Cattlemen's Association
"In a world where an estimated one in every six people goes hungry every day, the politics of meat consumption are increasingly heated, since meat production is an inefficient use of grain-the grain is used more efficiently when consumed directly by humans. Continued growth in meat output is dependent feeding grains to animals, creating competition for grain between affuent meat eaters and the world's poor."
-Worldwatch Institute [pg284]
Number of underfed and malnourished people in the world: 1.2 billion
Number of overfed and malnourished people in the world: 1.2 billion
Experiences shared by both the hungry and the overweight: High levels of sickness and disability, shortened life expectancies, lower levels of
productivity
Children in Bangladesh who are so underfed and underweight that their health is diminished: 56 percent
Adults in United States who are so overfed and overweight that their health is diminished: 55 percent [pg290]
U.S. corn eaten by people: 2 percent
U.S. corn eaten by livestock: 77 percent
U.S. farmland producing vegetables: 4 million acres
U.S. farmland producing hay for livestock: 56 million acres
U.S. grain and cereals fed to livestock: 70 percent
Human beings who could be fed by the grain and soybeans eaten by U.S. livestock: 1,400,000,000
World's population living in the United States: 4 percent
World's beef eaten in the United States: 23 percent [pg292]
Number of people whose food energy needs can be met by the food produced on 2.5 acres of lands
If the land is producing cabbage: 23 people
If the land is producing potatoes: 22 people
If the land is producing rice: 19 people
If the land is producing corn: 17 people
If the land is producing wheat: 15 people
If the land is producing chicken: 2 people
If the land is producing milk: 2 people
If the land is producing eggs: 1 person
If the land is producing beef: 1 person
Grain needed to adequately feed every one of the people on the entire planet who die of hunger and hunger-caused disease annually: 12 million tons
Amount Americans would have to reduce their beef consumption to save 12 millions tons of grain: 10 percent [pg294]
John Robbin’s books can by borrowed from the public library, found in bookstores, or purchased on his website.