Monday, September 03, 2012

Michael Clarke Duncan Turns Vegetarian, Loses Weight, and Dies of a Heart Attack

On 9/3/12, famous actor, Michael Clarke Duncan, died after complications from a heart attack that he suffered on 7/13/12. Some people may not be surprised because they remember him from his roles as an imposing figure in The Green Mile. Duncan was 6 foot 5 inches tall but before he became famous, he weighed up to 315 pounds.

I have yet to see anyone comment on the irony of his death given that he became a vegetarian in 2009, lost about 45 pounds, and became a spokesperson for PETA, touting the health and strength benefits of vegetarianism. As I have made clear many times on this blog, I have no objections at all to people wanting to be a vegetarian. However, I don’t like when people continuously try to convince and badger others that they should not eat meat if they are perfectly content doing so.

As I have also pointed out, the notion that eating a diet full of fruits of vegetables is going to provide some sort of guarantee against sickness and death is completely misplaced. In Duncan’s advertising campaign for PETA, he pointed out how elephants are powerful and strong despite only eating vegetables. However, the real King of the Jungle is the lion and the lion feasts on meat.  I also once saw a nature show documenting a group of hungry tigers attacking and eating an elephant when provoked by hunger.

The bottom line is that there are pros and cons to vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets and each person needs to make their own individual choice. However, the choice should be made based on realistic expectations. In other words, if you really love meat but chose not to eat it because of reported health benefits, you may regret not having the occasional hamburger or hotdog after being diagnosed with a terminal illness and should not be surprised if this occurs. If you truly love being a vegetarian though, won’t regret it when facing your own mortality, and won ‘t be shocked if you are diagnosed with a serious illness (e.g., cancer) then enjoy those fruits and veggies.

Related Blog Entries:


1. When Fruits and Vegetables Kill
2. How Fruits and Vegetables Killed Steve Jobs
3. Exercise and Eat Fruits and Veggies All You Want: You're Still Going to Die

3 comments:

  1. I felt it was informative to readers to see the above comment because it highlights the illogical thinking of militant vegetarians. One is the automatic false assumption that all animals consumed are ensalved and tortured. There are plenty of free roaming animals that are not tortured but whose lives are ended humanely and instantly. But equating people who eat hamburgers with rapists and pedophilia has got to be one of the most misinformed and bizarre things I have ever heard.

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  2. You're missing the point of Misspriss's comment and just focusing on the over-exaggerated straw-man argument. If you want to lie to yourself and say a couple free roaming animals versus the overwhelming majority of tortured (having a hard time finding a better word to replace that but it's pretty accurate) animals makes it ok, then you're just as militant as her. Do you get all your meat from whole foods, and pay twice as much than you would at a regular grocery store? If not then you need to accept that for your discounted price and convenience those animals have to live a horrible and painful f-ing existence. I'm not saying you're evil for eating meat, but "the automatic false assumption" that the meat you eat all live on some magical fairy tale farm that treats them like queens until they happily offer up themselves to be taken to the slaughterhouse is just as bad as her. Acknowledge that fact, and then do what you want. You can get all the nutrition you need from vegetables, but honesty meat has the complete proteins and amino acids your body needs and can't produce on its own, whereas IN GENERAL you need to make sure to eat certain combos of veggies to get those complete proteins. That said, YES vegetarians IN GENERAL have less occurrences of cancers and heart disease, but sometimes you still can't escape your genetics. Anyway, cheers and enjoy your steak just be honest with yourself and other people. You want to eat meat so you're justifying it. She doesn't want you to eat meat so she justifies it. Make decisions with facts and logic.

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  3. Animals kill other animals sometimes eating them alive so that being said who cares

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