Last night, following the news of how Stephanie Smith’s life was destroyed by eating E Coli contaminated meat (more…), Larry King Live hosted a debate titled “Is meat safe?”

Three people from families wrecked by contaminated meat told their stories. Then T. Colin Campbell came head to head with Nancy Rodriguez of the University of Connecticut about whether meat is good for you. Colin’s China Study indicated a strong link between animal products, such as meat and dairy, and disease such as cancer and heart disease. Studies since have backed up the findings that a plant-based diet can not only help prevent disease but also cure it. Because of this, Colin strongly promotes a plant-based diet. For more on this, make sure you catch the up-coming movie PlanEat which interviews and shows presentations by Colin.

Nancy, a so-called nutritionist, objects to Colin’s arguement. Her biography univeristy website explains a lot.

Dr. Rodriguez has an active research program that has been extramurally funded by agencies including USDA, NIH, the American Heart Association, the National Dairy Council, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and the Egg Nutrition Center.

Watch the debate and make up your own mind:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2009/10/13/lkl.meat.safety.panel.long.cnn

This weekend the New York Times reported on a frightening story of how a home-cooked hamburger resulted in seizures, coma and paralysis of dance instructor Stephanie Smith.

The article, Woman’s Shattered Life Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection, described the effects of eating an E.coli contaminated hamburger on 22-year old Stephanie Smith’s health, “Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed“.

Although Stephanie’s reaction to E.Coli, which is found in the intestines of cows, was extreme, the investigation following her case revealed that the meat industry is failing to keep meat safe. The hamburger that Stephanie ate was “made by the food giant Cargill, labeled “American Chef’s Selection Angus Beef Patties.” Yet confidential grinding logs and other Cargill records show that the hamburgers were made from a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin. The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria“.

Perhaps the two most frightening sentences in the article were “An Agriculture Department survey of more than 2,000 plants taken after the Cargill outbreak showed that half of the grinders did not test their finished ground beef for E. coli; only 6 percent said they tested incoming ingredients at least four times a year” and “Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies.”

Eating meat is a gamble with your health; if you’re one of the unlucky ones, the consequences could be catastrophic.

Read the full detailed article here; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html?_r=1