Loony Loewenthal Spews Vegan Propaganda
Of all the e-mails I received last week regarding my recent comments about veganism, one stands out above the rest.
A 49-year-old computer programmer from Falls Church, Virginia named Gary Loewenthal is arguably one of the most vocal animal rights supporters I have ever seen. His writings have appeared in various places across the Internet in opposition to what he sees as cruelty towards God's creatures and he uses it to forward his support for veganism.
For example, In this review from last July of a book about modern poultry practices, Loewenthal asserts that "billions of delightful, smart, social animals" are made to go "through Hell each year because we like the taste of their flesh or eggs."
He added in the review: "It's amazing how we put animals down, and use that as an excuse to make them suffer."
As if that wasn't laughable enough, Loewenthal then tries to invoke his Christianity into why he believes in the soul-like existence of animals as somehow being equal with humans in God's eyes. As a Christian myself, I have never heard anything more perverted or sacreligious than that in my life!
This religious-laden essay of his from January 2006 just how truly radical this man is in support for animal life (what's funny is how he TOTALLY neglects the sanctity of HUMAN life in all of his writings and he only seems concerned for animals -- THAT'S JUST SICKO!). Where's his outcry against the needless slaughter of the lives of unborn babies every single day? Hmmm?
Finally, on another extreme animal rights web site, Loewenthal equates the declawing of cats with the amputation of an arm or leg for a human. Oh brother! As the owner of 4 cats, what an absurd and ridiculous statement by a man claiming to be a reasonable-thinking person.
With that background, let's take a look at what dear Mr. Loewenthal wrote in response to this recent blog post.
In defense of the front group for PETA called Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), Loewenthal said the work they are doing to help promote healthy living should not be discounted.
"PCRM's collaboration on the development of a non-animal insulin test, their diabetes trials in which volunteers on a vegan diet improved so dramatically they were able to quit their medications, and their various articles in peer-reviewed medical journals are done by physicians and PhDs."
Well, yippy skippy, Mr. Loewenthal. But diabetes has also been found to improve when a low-carbohydrate diet rich in animal fat and protein is consumed as well. These patients also got to quit their medications and the study results have been reviewed in various medical journals as well. The point is that your so-called perfect vegan diet is but just ONE of MANY ways to attain better health, even as a representative of your beloved Dr. Dean Ornish recently responded to me in an e-mail.
Shifting gears, Loewenthal took direct aim at the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins by mocking what I described as his "great work."
"A bit of advice: never trust a diet guru who a) is selling books and add-on products to promote his diet, b) is overweight. The leanest healthy people on the planet eat a ton of carbs - whole grains, not junk. Carbs are essential. Most mainstream health organizations have already soundly criticized the low-carb craze; there's no need to repeat that here. Fortunately, the fad is starting to fade."
I don't think anyone has a problem with someone who has found an amazing way to lose weight and keep it off forever putting his thoughts and ideas in a book. Nobody made those tens of millions of people by Dr. Atkins' books. They did it ON THEIR OWN, Mr. Loewenthal, because they saw how incredible it was in the lives of people like me.
As for the urban legend that Dr. Atkins was "overweight," this is exactly why nobody takes people like you or the PCRM seriously. You keep telling the same lies over and over again thinking (hoping?) they will become true. Try as you may, you will never be able to make that one stick because Dr. Atkins was as healthy as an ox before his tragic slip and fall on ice.
Carbohydrate consumption is indeed a good thing, but you don't need to "eat a ton of carbs" as you claim. That's just not true. In fact, you could actually live WITHOUT ANY CARBS if you wanted to, but you must have fat and protein in your body to function.
The "low-carb craze" that you describe as a "fad" is indeed on its way out. THANK GOD! People who are genuinely living the low-carb life never bought into the whole consumer scam of the so-called "low-carb" products anyway. Instead, we chose those foods that are naturally lower in carbohydrates, including tender cuts of fresh meats along with the very best cheeses, fruits and vegetables available. Now that the dust has settled on the "craze," people are finding livin' la vida low-carb to be exactly what they needed to lose weight and keep it off permanently.
Moving on to his support for Dr. Ornish's low-fat diet plan, Loewenthal said that plan has revolutionized the thinking about healthy living forever.
"It may not be the low fat per se, but the lack of animal fat and animal protein that produces the dramatic benefits. More recent research from Dr. Ornish shows that a vegan diet may reverse prostate cancer, also. Meanwhile, there are thousands of studies that link meat and dairy to heart disease, breast cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and other serious diseases."
Well, good for you. If you choose to NOT eat meat, then that is your prerogative. But don't go scaremongering or guilt-tripping people into thinking their decision to EAT MEAT as part of their healthy lifestyle change is somehow bad for them. THAT'S A LIE! If it wasn't for the Atkins diet and ALL THAT MEAT I ate doing it, then I would have never been able to overcome my morbid obesity.
I tried low-fat and it failed! It just didn't work for me. Livin' la vida low-carb did and I'll be a changed man forever because of it. Why do we have to make this a debate over which is better and simply move the conversation to what has worked and MAY work for people? That's what I'm trying to do.
Obviously low-carb worked for me and I'm going to tell people about it. But I just wish that people like Loewenthal and supporters of low-fat, low-calorie, portion-control, vegan, vegetarian, and other such diets would just state their case about why their method of eating is preferred without bringing down the low-carb lifestyle. If you want to skip dairy and meat as part of your lifestyle, then GO FOR IT! But don't condemn me for wanting to eat those things.
Unfortunately, that's where people like me and Loewenthal differ. He actually thinks these animals that I enjoy eating so much have feelings and are being tortured all to be sacrificed at the altar of my dinner table.
"Think about how it must feel to be held down while receiving third-degree burns from a branding iron. Think about getting your testicles chopped off without painkillers. Think about dying of thirst in the back of a sweltering truck headed to the slaughterhouse. Think about the repeated reports from slaughterhouse workers of cows still alive, moving, and blinking as their sides are slit open –- the result of super-fast slaughterhouse line speeds to increase profit. Think about more than your own pleasure when choosing what to eat."
Uh, no I'm not going to think about those irrelevant things, Mr. Loewenthal. God put animals on this earth for his chosen creation, human beings, to eat and enjoy while they live on this earth. Unlike humans, animals do not have a soul and cannot attain everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ. That special relationship is reserved for humans alone, not for animals.
While I am sure you earnestly believe you are doing the Lord's work in defending animals against cruelty (and there is real animal cruelty happening with illegal dog fighting and the like), the people you are supporting have nothing but a one-sided agenda up their sleeve. They want to bring down anything and everything that goes against what they believe. That's why PCRM put opportunist Jody Gorran up to his lawsuit against Atkins Nutritionals and why they continue to bash the Atkins diet with all their might.
Try, try as you may, but you will never convince me that eating this way is anything but the healthy, delicious and nutritious lifestyle that I have seen it is for over two years now. Despite reports that low-carb is down and out, there are still tens of millions of people who make this their healthy way of life now. It's a fact that makes you animal rights wackos sick to your stomach, but the truth is what it is.
One final thought: The opinions I express in this forum are my own. I share with you from my heart based on my own experience with the low-carb lifestyle. Nobody will ever take away from me what this way of life has given me -- a new lease on life. I will still face challenges in maintaining my weight, but I KNOW I won't have to worry about how I will keep it under control ever again with low-carb living in my corner. It's the BEST choice I've ever made.
As for Loewenthal, he has his reasons for supporting the vegan lifestyle, too.
"You're more at peace with the natural world. It's far more gratifying than taking pot shots at animal activists, and far more permanent than the latest fad diet. I've seen family, friends, and co-workers try and fail at Atkins. But, with exceedingly rare exceptions, no one who adopts a plant-based diet out of compassion for animals ever regrets it. Their diets actually become far more diverse and interesting, and they never look back."
My life is peaceful now that I don't have to worry about declining health due to obesity. Those people who supposedly did "Atkins" and failed probably never even read his books like I did. This program may not work for everyone, but I highly doubt it didn't work for ALL of your "family, friends, and co-workers" who tried it.
While I have never tried to eat just a plant-based diet and especially never "out of compassion for animals," I know that I couldn't last long eating THAT WAY for the rest of my life. More power to ya if you can, but not me. Give me a way to eat healthy cuts of meat with melted cheese on top and a side salad and I'll show you someone who has lost over 180+ pounds and kept it off for over a year.
Livin' la vida low-carb did that for me and no radical, anti-meat, anti-Atkins animal rights activist will EVER EVER EVER convince me that it wasn't the right thing to do for me.
But thanks for trying, Mr. Loewenthal. Better luck on the next idio...er, I mean prospective convert.
2-26-06 UPDATE: As much as I'm ready to move on from this topic, it's people like this that keep me writing about it! Oi!
2-27-06 UPDATE: Not surprisingly, Mr. Loewenthal decided to respond to my blog post about him today. Here's what he wrote in his comments over at LowCarbNewsLine.com:
Mr. Moore,
I first want to point out how your piece misstates what I have written about declawing. While declawing is, by definition, a series of ten amputations, I do not equate it specifically, in the article you referenced or any other article, to amputation of an arm. It is more like amputation of the last joint of each finger. It is debilitating, since cats use claws nearly every day of their lives for core activities such as scratching. Note that in most countries with high numbers of companion cats, declawing is illegal or de-facto illegal on grounds of animal cruelty. Apparently, veterinarians in these regions of the world are, to use your phrase, "absurd and ridiculous."
Second, you are mistaken about animals not having souls. In the original Hebrew Bible, the same phrase is used to describe the souls of humans and animals. Dichotomies were introduced in later translations, such as King James.
Third, your assertion that animals were put here by God for us to eat misses the bigger picture. Norm Phelps, in his book "The Dominion of Love," references an anonymous Christian who frames our obligation to Creation beautifully: "If God's dominion is love, and a king's dominion is stewardship, why should humanity's dominion be torture, abuse, and killing?"
Fourth, I have done quie a bit of activism on behalf of humans. I highly respect all sentient life, including human fetuses. Just because one is an advocate for animals or for preserving historical buildings, for that matter - does not mean he or she is unconcerned about humans. That's a scurrilous, baseless charge.
I advocate for animals because a) there is enormous ignorance about how we mistreat them (most people don't know that standard industry practice on dairy farms is to steal calves from their mothers when only two days old, or that egg-laying hens typically are alotted a living space smaller than a sheet of notebook paper), b) they are underrepresented, c) they are underprotected (e.g., most animals are not covered by the Humane Slaughter Act), c) through simple actions, such as buying veggie chicken instead of chicken, we can nearly eliminate their human-imposed suffering, d) by acting mercifully toward all creatures, we are applying one of God's fundamental rules of life.
I would respond to other parts of your piece, but, frankly, it is of such poor quality that it is incriminating enough on its own.
Oh, I just feel so enlightened now! NOT!
A 49-year-old computer programmer from Falls Church, Virginia named Gary Loewenthal is arguably one of the most vocal animal rights supporters I have ever seen. His writings have appeared in various places across the Internet in opposition to what he sees as cruelty towards God's creatures and he uses it to forward his support for veganism.
For example, In this review from last July of a book about modern poultry practices, Loewenthal asserts that "billions of delightful, smart, social animals" are made to go "through Hell each year because we like the taste of their flesh or eggs."
He added in the review: "It's amazing how we put animals down, and use that as an excuse to make them suffer."
As if that wasn't laughable enough, Loewenthal then tries to invoke his Christianity into why he believes in the soul-like existence of animals as somehow being equal with humans in God's eyes. As a Christian myself, I have never heard anything more perverted or sacreligious than that in my life!
This religious-laden essay of his from January 2006 just how truly radical this man is in support for animal life (what's funny is how he TOTALLY neglects the sanctity of HUMAN life in all of his writings and he only seems concerned for animals -- THAT'S JUST SICKO!). Where's his outcry against the needless slaughter of the lives of unborn babies every single day? Hmmm?
Finally, on another extreme animal rights web site, Loewenthal equates the declawing of cats with the amputation of an arm or leg for a human. Oh brother! As the owner of 4 cats, what an absurd and ridiculous statement by a man claiming to be a reasonable-thinking person.
With that background, let's take a look at what dear Mr. Loewenthal wrote in response to this recent blog post.
In defense of the front group for PETA called Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), Loewenthal said the work they are doing to help promote healthy living should not be discounted.
"PCRM's collaboration on the development of a non-animal insulin test, their diabetes trials in which volunteers on a vegan diet improved so dramatically they were able to quit their medications, and their various articles in peer-reviewed medical journals are done by physicians and PhDs."
Well, yippy skippy, Mr. Loewenthal. But diabetes has also been found to improve when a low-carbohydrate diet rich in animal fat and protein is consumed as well. These patients also got to quit their medications and the study results have been reviewed in various medical journals as well. The point is that your so-called perfect vegan diet is but just ONE of MANY ways to attain better health, even as a representative of your beloved Dr. Dean Ornish recently responded to me in an e-mail.
Shifting gears, Loewenthal took direct aim at the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins by mocking what I described as his "great work."
"A bit of advice: never trust a diet guru who a) is selling books and add-on products to promote his diet, b) is overweight. The leanest healthy people on the planet eat a ton of carbs - whole grains, not junk. Carbs are essential. Most mainstream health organizations have already soundly criticized the low-carb craze; there's no need to repeat that here. Fortunately, the fad is starting to fade."
I don't think anyone has a problem with someone who has found an amazing way to lose weight and keep it off forever putting his thoughts and ideas in a book. Nobody made those tens of millions of people by Dr. Atkins' books. They did it ON THEIR OWN, Mr. Loewenthal, because they saw how incredible it was in the lives of people like me.
As for the urban legend that Dr. Atkins was "overweight," this is exactly why nobody takes people like you or the PCRM seriously. You keep telling the same lies over and over again thinking (hoping?) they will become true. Try as you may, you will never be able to make that one stick because Dr. Atkins was as healthy as an ox before his tragic slip and fall on ice.
Carbohydrate consumption is indeed a good thing, but you don't need to "eat a ton of carbs" as you claim. That's just not true. In fact, you could actually live WITHOUT ANY CARBS if you wanted to, but you must have fat and protein in your body to function.
The "low-carb craze" that you describe as a "fad" is indeed on its way out. THANK GOD! People who are genuinely living the low-carb life never bought into the whole consumer scam of the so-called "low-carb" products anyway. Instead, we chose those foods that are naturally lower in carbohydrates, including tender cuts of fresh meats along with the very best cheeses, fruits and vegetables available. Now that the dust has settled on the "craze," people are finding livin' la vida low-carb to be exactly what they needed to lose weight and keep it off permanently.
Moving on to his support for Dr. Ornish's low-fat diet plan, Loewenthal said that plan has revolutionized the thinking about healthy living forever.
"It may not be the low fat per se, but the lack of animal fat and animal protein that produces the dramatic benefits. More recent research from Dr. Ornish shows that a vegan diet may reverse prostate cancer, also. Meanwhile, there are thousands of studies that link meat and dairy to heart disease, breast cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and other serious diseases."
Well, good for you. If you choose to NOT eat meat, then that is your prerogative. But don't go scaremongering or guilt-tripping people into thinking their decision to EAT MEAT as part of their healthy lifestyle change is somehow bad for them. THAT'S A LIE! If it wasn't for the Atkins diet and ALL THAT MEAT I ate doing it, then I would have never been able to overcome my morbid obesity.
I tried low-fat and it failed! It just didn't work for me. Livin' la vida low-carb did and I'll be a changed man forever because of it. Why do we have to make this a debate over which is better and simply move the conversation to what has worked and MAY work for people? That's what I'm trying to do.
Obviously low-carb worked for me and I'm going to tell people about it. But I just wish that people like Loewenthal and supporters of low-fat, low-calorie, portion-control, vegan, vegetarian, and other such diets would just state their case about why their method of eating is preferred without bringing down the low-carb lifestyle. If you want to skip dairy and meat as part of your lifestyle, then GO FOR IT! But don't condemn me for wanting to eat those things.
Unfortunately, that's where people like me and Loewenthal differ. He actually thinks these animals that I enjoy eating so much have feelings and are being tortured all to be sacrificed at the altar of my dinner table.
"Think about how it must feel to be held down while receiving third-degree burns from a branding iron. Think about getting your testicles chopped off without painkillers. Think about dying of thirst in the back of a sweltering truck headed to the slaughterhouse. Think about the repeated reports from slaughterhouse workers of cows still alive, moving, and blinking as their sides are slit open –- the result of super-fast slaughterhouse line speeds to increase profit. Think about more than your own pleasure when choosing what to eat."
Uh, no I'm not going to think about those irrelevant things, Mr. Loewenthal. God put animals on this earth for his chosen creation, human beings, to eat and enjoy while they live on this earth. Unlike humans, animals do not have a soul and cannot attain everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ. That special relationship is reserved for humans alone, not for animals.
While I am sure you earnestly believe you are doing the Lord's work in defending animals against cruelty (and there is real animal cruelty happening with illegal dog fighting and the like), the people you are supporting have nothing but a one-sided agenda up their sleeve. They want to bring down anything and everything that goes against what they believe. That's why PCRM put opportunist Jody Gorran up to his lawsuit against Atkins Nutritionals and why they continue to bash the Atkins diet with all their might.
Try, try as you may, but you will never convince me that eating this way is anything but the healthy, delicious and nutritious lifestyle that I have seen it is for over two years now. Despite reports that low-carb is down and out, there are still tens of millions of people who make this their healthy way of life now. It's a fact that makes you animal rights wackos sick to your stomach, but the truth is what it is.
One final thought: The opinions I express in this forum are my own. I share with you from my heart based on my own experience with the low-carb lifestyle. Nobody will ever take away from me what this way of life has given me -- a new lease on life. I will still face challenges in maintaining my weight, but I KNOW I won't have to worry about how I will keep it under control ever again with low-carb living in my corner. It's the BEST choice I've ever made.
As for Loewenthal, he has his reasons for supporting the vegan lifestyle, too.
"You're more at peace with the natural world. It's far more gratifying than taking pot shots at animal activists, and far more permanent than the latest fad diet. I've seen family, friends, and co-workers try and fail at Atkins. But, with exceedingly rare exceptions, no one who adopts a plant-based diet out of compassion for animals ever regrets it. Their diets actually become far more diverse and interesting, and they never look back."
My life is peaceful now that I don't have to worry about declining health due to obesity. Those people who supposedly did "Atkins" and failed probably never even read his books like I did. This program may not work for everyone, but I highly doubt it didn't work for ALL of your "family, friends, and co-workers" who tried it.
While I have never tried to eat just a plant-based diet and especially never "out of compassion for animals," I know that I couldn't last long eating THAT WAY for the rest of my life. More power to ya if you can, but not me. Give me a way to eat healthy cuts of meat with melted cheese on top and a side salad and I'll show you someone who has lost over 180+ pounds and kept it off for over a year.
Livin' la vida low-carb did that for me and no radical, anti-meat, anti-Atkins animal rights activist will EVER EVER EVER convince me that it wasn't the right thing to do for me.
But thanks for trying, Mr. Loewenthal. Better luck on the next idio...er, I mean prospective convert.
2-26-06 UPDATE: As much as I'm ready to move on from this topic, it's people like this that keep me writing about it! Oi!
2-27-06 UPDATE: Not surprisingly, Mr. Loewenthal decided to respond to my blog post about him today. Here's what he wrote in his comments over at LowCarbNewsLine.com:
Mr. Moore,
I first want to point out how your piece misstates what I have written about declawing. While declawing is, by definition, a series of ten amputations, I do not equate it specifically, in the article you referenced or any other article, to amputation of an arm. It is more like amputation of the last joint of each finger. It is debilitating, since cats use claws nearly every day of their lives for core activities such as scratching. Note that in most countries with high numbers of companion cats, declawing is illegal or de-facto illegal on grounds of animal cruelty. Apparently, veterinarians in these regions of the world are, to use your phrase, "absurd and ridiculous."
Second, you are mistaken about animals not having souls. In the original Hebrew Bible, the same phrase is used to describe the souls of humans and animals. Dichotomies were introduced in later translations, such as King James.
Third, your assertion that animals were put here by God for us to eat misses the bigger picture. Norm Phelps, in his book "The Dominion of Love," references an anonymous Christian who frames our obligation to Creation beautifully: "If God's dominion is love, and a king's dominion is stewardship, why should humanity's dominion be torture, abuse, and killing?"
Fourth, I have done quie a bit of activism on behalf of humans. I highly respect all sentient life, including human fetuses. Just because one is an advocate for animals or for preserving historical buildings, for that matter - does not mean he or she is unconcerned about humans. That's a scurrilous, baseless charge.
I advocate for animals because a) there is enormous ignorance about how we mistreat them (most people don't know that standard industry practice on dairy farms is to steal calves from their mothers when only two days old, or that egg-laying hens typically are alotted a living space smaller than a sheet of notebook paper), b) they are underrepresented, c) they are underprotected (e.g., most animals are not covered by the Humane Slaughter Act), c) through simple actions, such as buying veggie chicken instead of chicken, we can nearly eliminate their human-imposed suffering, d) by acting mercifully toward all creatures, we are applying one of God's fundamental rules of life.
I would respond to other parts of your piece, but, frankly, it is of such poor quality that it is incriminating enough on its own.
Oh, I just feel so enlightened now! NOT!
posted by Jimmy Moore at
2/26/2006 03:03:00 PM
5 Comments:
Actually, it is a scientifically proven fact that plants and plant-based life forms have a sense of awareness and some form of intelligence as well.
Just think of all the hundreds of tons of plant-based life forms that have been eradicated, chopped, cooked, sauteed and fried by our great nature-lover Mr. Loewenthal.
In fact, these are horrible crimes! Even Adolf Hitler (another avid vegetarian!) did not chop and CONSUME his millions of victims!
Loewenthal equates the declawing of cats with the amputation of an arm or leg for a human...
That's going a bit far, but I agree that declawing is cruel and is the equivelent of removing the tip of your finger at the first joint. Declawing means removing bone and is a totally needless procedure. A claw should only be removed for a legit medical reason on behalf of the cat, and not because a human thinks claws are inconvenient.
I have two cats and feel very passionate about this. I've never had trouble with my babies scratching things they shouldn't because I give them plenty of better things to scratch. In my tiny apartment I have two ceiling-height cat trees and two scratching posts. They don't need the carpet when they have something better.
So, no, it's isn't amputating an arm or leg, but it is like amputating the tip of all your fingers, and that, to me, is unaccepatable.
I love how these people conveiently leave out the facts they don't like.
Meanwhile, there are thousands of studies that link meat and dairy to heart disease, breast cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and other serious diseases."
All those studies were done using HIGH CARB diets. High fat and high carb together will indeed kill you. High fat without the carbs will not kill you and is very healthy. I lost 64 pounds, reduced my body fat by 15.3%, and improved my cholesterol numbers. :)
I wonder if this guy would be willing to post his cholesterol numbers. Hmmm? Mine are freely available online.
Yes, lovely, isn't it? It's called "data selection" and false reasoning. Besides, he's referring to epidemiological studies and not tightly-controlled, randomized clinical trials - so it's useless data. Association does not prove causation, after all. Perhaps this kind of "reasoning" is much easier to do on a diet that lacks so many essential macronutrients.
I hope, for his and his client's sake, that his programming efforts are more solid than his dietary perceptions and advice.
What I personally found one of the most hilarious statements was his babbling about his "essential carbs". That imbecilic statement alone proves conclusively that the man has no clue whatsoever of nutritional science. Science recognizes essential proteins, and essential fats. There is no such thing as essential carbohydrates in nutritional science.
But hey, why not... I mean, if one is absolutely determined to lie about the most fundamental, basic facts, why not throw all of science out of the window as well?
In fact the man is extremely consistent, LOL!
Actually, he was close to right on ONE thing. Declawing cats is a horrible mutilation of the animal that's the equivalent of chopping a persons fingers. I mean, he can't even get THAT right!
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