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Discovery of Strain of Bird Flu in
New Jersey Prompts Doctors to Offer Vegetarian Starter Kit
Meatless Diets Could Help Stop the Disease at Its Source, Physicians' Group Says
WASHINGTON—In response to the discovery of a strain of
avian flu in chickens and ducks in a live bird market in New
Jersey, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)
is offering a free 16-page Vegetarian Starter Kit to
worried consumers.
The strain in New Jersey is not the lethal H5N1 strain of the
flu, which has not yet been found in the United States. But health
authorities fear the possibility of a deadly pandemic if the
H5N1 virus mutates and begins spreading easily among humans. PCRM
experts are available to explain how a vegetarian diet could
help prevent the disease by eliminating the factory farms where
avian flu breeds.
Avian influenza develops on poultry farms, where routine confinement,
overcrowding, and poor sanitary conditions create the perfect
reservoir for viruses and other diseases to incubate and spread.
Once a pathogen emerges, it can be spread by migrating birds
or commercial livestock transport. As the New Jersey discovery
reveals, the United States is not immune. More than 16 outbreaks
of H5 and H7 influenza have occurred among poultry in the United
States since 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
Transmission from chickens, turkeys, and ducks to humans is
a serious threat. The U.S. poultry industry employs more than
200,000 workers, many of whom come in daily contact with potentially
infected poultry and contaminated surfaces.
But a meatless diet helps eliminate the farms that breed infectious
disease. Vegetarian eating habits also eliminate animal fat and
cholesterol, which have been linked to heart disease, one of
America’s top killers.
“The fat and cholesterol in chicken and turkey are two
good reasons not to eat poultry products,” says PCRM nutritionist
Susan Levin, M.S., R.D. “Switching to a vegetarian diet
would dramatically decrease obesity, high blood pressure, and
heart disease. But consumers also deserve to know that meatless
eating habits could help reduce the risk of a bird-flu pandemic.”
PCRM’s Vegetarian Starter Kit offers a three-step
plan for moving to a healthier diet and is packed with recipes,
nutrition information, and cooking tips. Research has shown that
vegetarians are slimmer than meat-eaters and have less risk of
heart disease, some cancers, and diabetes. To request a free
copy of the Vegetarian Starter Kit, consumers should
contact PCRM at 202-686-2210, ext. 306, or literature@pcrm.org.
Nutrition information and vegetarian recipes can also be found
at www.PCRM.org.
To schedule an interview with Susan Levin or another PCRM expert,
please call Patrick Sullivan at 202-686-2210, ext. 311, or psullivan@pcrm.org.
Founded in 1985, the Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit health
organization that promotes preventive medicine, especially
good nutrition. PCRM also conducts clinical research studies,
opposes unethical human experimentation, and promotes alternatives
to animal research.
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Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine
5100 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., Ste. 400, Washington, DC 20016
Phone: 202-686-2210 | E-mail: pcrm@pcrm.org |
