A gift… because I love you.
I was amazed at the number of you who endorsed forgoing a range hood. The comments rolled in, practically faster than I could read them!
I got super excited and thrust my fist in the air, shouting – I WILL LEAD THIS REVOLUTION!
Then I started assembling a really snazzy uniform; because a good outfit is the foundation for all significant life-events, and a much-overlooked detail in most social uprisings. Also, I really hate to miss an opportunity to overdress.
But then I heard a deep and somber narrator’s voice; it said – Victoria was unaware that a disturbing theme was about to emerge… bacon.
You need a range hood because:
Bacon smell.
Bacon grease.
Bacon smoke.
Bacon bacon bacon.
My fellow humans!
WHY ARE YOU EATING BACON?
Did the bacon people fail to send out a memo alerting the public to their exciting news: Bacon has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen… Group 1 is: “things we KNOW FOR SURE CAUSE CANCER.”
The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has determined conclusively that consumption of meat is carcinogenic to humans.
Here is the World Health Org Q&A on the research.
Here is Harvard’s School of Public Health article on the research.
Here is the article in The Lancet’s oncology issue.
Now, I know you’re saying– but Victoria! Bacon is everyone’s favorite carcinogen!
DUH!
And to that I say:
ARSENIC IS ALSO TOTALLY DELICIOUS!
And: gives your complexion an indescribably brilliancy!
WOWZA!
Arsenic could totally make a comeback!
The Arsenic Industry just needs to band together! Create an Arsenic Counsel! Pool their resources to invest billions of dollars lobbying the USDA and the FDA!
Next, they should create a fun advertising campaign! With a catchy jingle! Featuring an attractive (but-not-distractingly-so!) “mom” in the kitchen, lovingly sprinkling arsenic on dinner!
Their slogan could be:
Arsenic! Small amounts won’t kill you!*
*(probably)
Arsenic spokespersons could cite studies (funded by the Arsenic Institute) demonstrating that cancer, heart disease, diabetes, endocrine disruptions, etc… are all complex issues that humans do not truly understand!
And certainly our health is influenced by MANY factors other than eating bacon arsenic… So treat yourself!
Plus, you know that all of that advertising and lobbying is expensive; and the bacon Arsenic Institute needs to stay profitable! So they are depending on YOU!
Also, their CEO needs to make a couple billion dollars; his private jet is expensive! So don’t forget to feed it to your kids too!
Besides! It is OUR choice to consume carcinogens! And everyone knows that CHOICE is an essential element of our FREEDOM!
This is AMERICA!!
Don’t tread on me!
Live free or die!
NOBODY TELLS US WHAT TO DO!
I mean, except that one time we let big tobacco give us cancer… and oh, that time with the pharmaceutical industry’s wonder drug– thalidomide! And also that unfortunate period with the lobotomies.
Also, can we discuss taking away the socially-acceptable use of barbiturates for the treatment of hating vacuuming, but leaving us with bacon.
Who made THAT call?
Can we get a re-vote?
But mostly, we can all totally relax and not worry that big corporations don’t care if we die/become addicts/get diabetes/cancer/heart disease!
I mean, would the tobacco, bacon, arsenic industry REALLY sell us a product they KNEW CAUSED CANCER? Of course not!
Vintage ads are hilarious because look how stupid humans were!
But is it less hilarious if we consider the possibility that nothing has changed? Is it possible that our health is OF NO CONSEQUENCE AT ALL to anyone who has a financial stake in our continued consumption of toxic products?
Is it possible that we must be smarter than we were 50 years ago, and NOT FEED OURSELVES CARCINOGENS… or let our children run behind the DDT truck… which my father remembers being a FOOLPROOF WAY TO AVOID MOSQUITOES!
Does it matter that the only people benefiting from our consumption of toxins marketed as “food” are making billions of dollars?
The meat industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the medical industry, and the thousand-fold-increase of massively-profitable businesses that treat diet-related illness; their profit DEPENDS on humans making choices that are in direct opposition to good health.
Which leads us down the road to OUR per-capita tax burden: it’s huge.
Does it matter that the way we subsidize “cheap” food is actually insanely expensive when you factor in the subsidies we pay via tax dollars?
An enormous cost to me and you, that benefits no one other than corporations! We pay our taxes, and corporate lobbyists make sure those taxes are spent in a way that MOST benefits their corporation’s interest.
For every dollar spent on lobbying by all public-interest groups combined, large corporations spend $34. –How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy: The Business of America is Lobbying
Plus! On top of the cost of subsidizing toxic food, there is also the cost of the health-consequences suffered by the segments of our population who MOST rely on this crappy food… their medical care is ALSO our tax burden!
The United States spends significantly more on health care than any other nation… more than twice the average of 29 other developed countries. Yet the average life expectancy in the United States is far below many other nations that spend less on health care each year. — CDC.gov
Who benefits from all this spending and subsidizing? Not me! Probably not you either.
But we do pay the COST: families experiencing cancer, heart disease, diabetes… heartbreak, desperation… frequently experiencing financial drain from expensive treatment, on top of the emotional gutting.
Can we reduce this emotional-cost by considering that the World Health Organization has found that 30% of cancer in America is caused by WHAT WE EAT… whoa!
Stop and think about that for a second!
That 30% is JUST cancer… if we also consider that heart disease, diabetes, endocrine disruptions, etc. are ALSO linked to what we eat, could we further divide that cost to families suffering illness, loss, and financial issues?
The words below are from the National Institutes of Health: OUR GOVERNMENT… not an organization run by woo-woo treehuggers like myself.
Cancer is a preventable disease that requires major lifestyle changes.
Only 5–10% of all cancer cases can be attributed to genetic defects, whereas the remaining 90–95% have their roots in the environment and lifestyle.
—National Institutes of Health
Everytime we put food in our mouth, we are voting for the kind of world we want, and how we want our families to experience that world.
Do we want a world where bacon is considered “food” rather than “toxin” because the meat industry lobbies like crazy and the pharmaceutical industry dances a little jig when yet another person takes blood pressure medication/cholesterol medication/cancer medication?
Does it matter that the intensive farming of animals is the single biggest cause of global warming? (again, that link is our government) The biggest cause of environmental destruction is not cars, not overpopulation, not countries with no environmental regulations… WHAT WE EAT.
In the U.S. alone, factory farming pollutes American waterways more than all other industries combined… Generating over 1.4 billion tons of animal waste annually. —National Institutes of Health
So essentially: human health and the environment future generations will inherit… are MOST IMPACTED BY HOW WE FEED OURSELVES.
BACON, THO!*
*next time you hear someone wax rhapsodic about bacon, you are listening to the dulcet tones of advertising at work! if YOU are the waxer, you are the ad man’s dream!
Anyway… if you’re starting to suspect I am not totally ALL ABOUT BACON, you are correct.
If we can avoid contributing to factors that cause our illness, WHY WOULDN’T WE? We think of these diseases as beginning in mid-life… or late-life… but they begin as children. These are not conditions that come out of nowhere!
My father has had a heart attack… his father died of colon cancer (according to the American Institute for Cancer Research, HALF of colorectal cancer can be PREVENTED.)
Both of my parents have lost a younger sibling to Pancreatic cancer, a horrific and deadly killer… Both siblings were in their 50’s… Both left behind wonderful families; spouses, children, brothers and sisters… families who were utterly gutted.
Might these things have happened anyway? Sure… I know this better than anyone! Dad’s mom lived to be 93; she had all her wits about her AND her sense of humor. And she still had the “dripping can” on her stove– you know, to save the bacon grease to fry with.
And everyone said– wow! 93!
But might she have lived another five years if she ate better?
Two years?
One?
One year is a lot, when you love someone.
Lalagigi
December 19, 2017 @ 11:29 am
OMG…those ads.
Gennie hammes
December 19, 2017 @ 11:35 am
I agree about lobbyists, I say let them eat bacon and arsenic and sleep in asbestos snow. I used to work for two lobbyists and I can not tell you the amount of money passing through the office, SCAM, SCAM, SCAM. It is always all about the money. BTW, I am vegan, hate guns, love animals and no longer work for lobbyists.
M Derthick
December 19, 2017 @ 11:37 am
Husband is a lung transplant recipient. We MUST ventilate the kitchen. That being said, I was in the no-hood camp for a long while. Now I have a powerful hood and I LOVE it. I love the bright lights. I love the absence of salmon in the living room. It compliments my vintage Chambers stove. But to each his own!!
Husband also a dialysis patient before receiving a kidney transplant. (Anti-rejection meds/cystic fibrosis destroyed his kidneys). Dialysis is expensive (both to the public and the patient) and painful and it doesn’t really work all that well. People! Protect your kidneys at all cost! Diabetes and high blood pressure are prime culprits. I watched him suffer, I gave him a kidney. I don’t miss bacon, nope. Wishing you all health and happiness.
Lisa
December 19, 2017 @ 11:41 am
Silly Victoria. Don’t you know that private jets are now tax deductible?
Bacon is gross. I’ve never understood the allure. But, the husband likes it. Bake the bacon if you must make any. It’s easier and far less messy. No need for the vent hood! Our 1910 house does not have one. And when that blissful day arrives when we can reno our kitchen, I certainly won’t be adding one.
Viva la revolution!
Jeliza
December 19, 2017 @ 11:51 am
I began eating a plant-based diet due to increased cholesterol levels (thyroid disease – not something I “did”) as well as a statement against factory farming. My cholesterol levels have improved over last year! I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but for me it’s been confirmation that how I’m seriously choosing to honor my body in a new and better way is having a positive impact for me and for the environment.
And for those not exposed to the health care industry on a daily basis, there is that horrible space between life and death known as permanent disability which will strip every shred of your dignity, your bank and investment accounts and the roof over your head. You deserve better, dear ones.
Keep the faith, Vic – love ya back!
JAptos
December 19, 2017 @ 11:54 am
Hallelujah!
Vickie H.
December 19, 2017 @ 12:13 pm
You are beyond amazing! Thank you for this post! God bless you and yours this holiday season and every day beyond!
S Terry
December 19, 2017 @ 12:17 pm
I don’t even cook, I just think my vent hood is pretty. #noshameinmygame
dux
December 19, 2017 @ 12:20 pm
Huh. I am brand new to this blog and today was the first I received in the subscription. Not what I thought it’d be …. I came because of the piano (in our foyer we’ve a piano desk which was made by my second great grandfather), so that was a warm fuzzy.
Proselytizing is ugly, even if I agree with the message (I’m in my late-40s and have been fluctuating vegetarian / vegan for thirty years). However, even with my relatively healthy diet, I engage in some unhealthy practices (serious stress, grinding my teeth, don’t exercise as often as I “should”).
And for some people (like my favorite youngest child), a ketogenic diet is medically prescribed and necessary, so I’d be careful to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
That being said, when we redid our glorious kitchen nine years ago my partner, who is a magnificent cook (and Japanese, so lots of high-heat going on chez nous), insisted on a super-ultra extractor fan which could suck my wig off (if I wore one, which I occasionally do [a fuchsia pageboy] for kicks). And even still there’s gunk left over. The thought of not having one grosses me out.
To each their own in all things.
Happy new year.
Darling Lily
December 19, 2017 @ 12:22 pm
When I was doing WHO (World Health Org) statistical research ( admittedly decades ago) I was shocked to discover how the differently statistical information is gathered from country to country.
In the US, your age at death is entered, regardless of cause of death, and that info is averaged out. So, if you’re 12 and die in a house fire, you’re entered as 12 and go into the national average. If your 24 and get shot in a drive-by, ditto. 43 and die of cancer, same thing. The national average is then broken down by age, etc.
When gathering stats for life expectancy, many European countries do not factor in anything that was accidental, criminal, or intentional ( suicide, homicide). Many do not factor in cancer, or any kind of disease. They’re not trying to hide it; they account for it in other categories like cancer, heart disease etc, . They break it down first, but their goal with life expectancy stats is to discover the life expectancy of what is considered death by natural causes. They’re basically trying to find out what the average age of death by old age is.
When talking about life expectancy world wide, there needs to be clarity about what is actually being presented as such in whatever set of stats one is referencing.
Which isn’t meant to take anything away from your points, as I mostly agree with them, while allowing for genetic tendencies that make some more susceptible to diet and environmental triggers, even if the cancer itself is not genetically based. Because millions of meat eaters do not get cancer, (just like millions of smokers do not get cancer and only a percentage of people at nuclear accident sites get cancer) and we don’t know if it’s because they simply wouldn’t get cancer under any circumstances because they are not genetically disposed to, or if they have some as yet unknown trait which protects them from it.
If you want to compare health care systems ( socialized vs privatized) you need to check recovery rates, not life expectancy rates. You also need to make sure you are basing it on care/treatments given at government facilities and by government funded providers, and control by excluding anything done at private facilities and/or by private providers, because many people in countries with socialized medicine supplement their free insurance by buying private insurance to supplement the shortfalls.
Infant mortality rates are another statistical subset that you have to be careful with in country-to-country comparisons.
Anyway.
Bernie
December 27, 2017 @ 1:04 am
I cant believe the amount of time I’ve spent reading all 86 (so far) replies. Yours makes the most sense! Thank-You for taking the time to write this.
Darling Lily
December 19, 2017 @ 12:24 pm
Also, Chris Wark has great info about caner and diet, as well as links to other people with other great info!
valz
December 19, 2017 @ 12:26 pm
All bacon eaten in my house is either cooked in the microwave (rarely) or outside on the grill in a pan by my husband so it does not permeate the house with grease and odor and yet I have a fan. So, bacon does not have to be the reason for the season (I mean) fan.
B
December 19, 2017 @ 12:34 pm
Indoor air quality is improved by a vent hood. It doesn’t have to be bacon (which I don’t eat) but anything that aerosolizes during cooking will be removed. I love onions and fish, but don’t want my house, hair and clothing to smell like them for an extended time period.
Ironstone and Pine
December 19, 2017 @ 12:41 pm
OMG those ads…………talk about leading sheep to slaughter………especially those DOCTORS puffing away! Illustrates your point(s) MAGNIFICENTLY!! Wonderful way to get people’s attention, man were we duped!!
Keep up the inner voice posts, you can make a difference!!!
Old House Love
December 20, 2017 @ 12:28 pm
+1!!! Love! Thank you for showing me the light!
Susanne
December 19, 2017 @ 12:41 pm
I appreciate your passion, but I live for bacon. And steak. And chicken. And all seafood.
To each his own:) Vegetables are being mass produced by conglomerates genetically modifying what was originally a pretty perfect food. Cross breeding, pesticides, and modifications have turned wheat into a deadly toxic plant that is literally gut killing people.
And my health is perfect, thankyouverymuch.
Amber
December 19, 2017 @ 1:01 pm
Thank you so much for posting that chart – out of curiosity I went to see what are also Group 1 carcinogens!
—Alcoholic beverages (!!!)
—Dust from leather goods
—Aristohochic acid (found in ginger and many “holistic” medicine supplements)
—Sawdust or wood dust, literally from woodworking
—All paints, except for explicitly marked “non-carcinogenic”
—The birth control pill
—Mineral oil (any kind) used in wood conditioning, as a laxative (my grandmother swears by it!), in MOST baby lotions, cosmetics, creams, and ointments, scented candles, and is used in a lot of commercial restaurants to condition wood surfaces.
—And about a dozen other things that are everywhere OMG.
But again – ALL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES. Merry Christmas!
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IARC_Group_1_carcinogens
Mah
December 19, 2017 @ 1:07 pm
Besides all that, you can cook your bacon in the microwave !
Elaine
December 19, 2017 @ 1:22 pm
I really like perfectly cooked bacon. However, I can certainly live without it and rarely have any bacon or pork of any kind. I missed the whole range hood thing somehow. The thing about range hoods is that a lot of them are serving no function anyway … they are just up there but have no venting whatsoever. But I will admit what I do really want is a range hood that is the kind you see these days in nice kitchens that are tall and made out of wood or metal or a combo of the two, etc. I would really love to have one of those range hoods (vented or not) strictly because I want to look at it. 🙂
judy
December 19, 2017 @ 1:32 pm
I am addicted to all things sugar. Weirdly I have little interest in most food and don’t care for meat because eating a formerly living creature just keeps popping into my brain cells and then imagining the heartless life it has endured and the fear and terror as it was slaughtered….yuck! I agree with your lifestyle, I know it is hard work creating and maintaining a garden but as lots of readers commented-we need exercise and activity not to turn into huge lumps of Bacon ourselves. If we all-especially the poor,had the right to have a garden and raise some chickens for eggs and maybe a pet goat for milk and yogurt the world would be a kinder place.
I am 77 but I really hope that the majority of humans wake up and realize that unadulterated greed and avarice has warped our existence to the point where we ignore the threat of climate change,accept the possibility of Nuclear War or War around the planet as a necessary evil-rising poverty and a return of mindless bigotry-I grew up with separate bathrooms,water fountains. Please do not let a shameful History repeat itself.
Great leaders-absolutely—-Despotic crude borish Ruler? No a thousand times No.
i
Kelly Fisher
December 19, 2017 @ 1:34 pm
So many good points are made in this post…. the pictures make the news easy to follow for those who wish to look the other way. Thank you!!!!