BOOKS: Your Heart Your Planet
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1992:
Your Heart Your Planet. B y
Harvey Diamond. Hay House (501
Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica,
CA 90406). 1990. 238 pages. $7.95
paperback.
Harvey Diamond, founder of
the Fit for Life Foundation, builds upon
his previous experience in health and
physical fitness to demonstrate that ani-
mal products are not only unhealthy for
humans, but are also unhealthy for the
entire biosphere.
His research is thorough, and
the test is well organized throughout. He
cites very impressive statistics to show
that contrary to industry propaganda, ani-
mal products contribute to atherosclero-
sis, among other ills. (“Now,” he writes,
“we see the commercials for what they
really are: obvious attempts to raise
industry profits, at the expense of our
health.”) In somewhat more detail, he
traces the impact of large-scale animal
production on the air, the water, energy,
soil, and world climate. Maintaining an
ecological focus, he passes over the suf-
fering of livestock with a single sentence,
acknowledging in passing “the abom-
inable horrors of factory farming,” and
that “today’s factory farms are ghastly,
austere places.” He concludes with an
appeal for the institution of what he calls
“V-Day,” a weekly day of voluntary
abstinance from consuming animal prod-
ucts, which he contends would be a sig-
nificant step toward rectifying the envi-
ronmental problems he perceives.
While much of this material has
been presented elsewhere, notably by
Jeremy Rifkin in Beyond Beef, seldom
has the situation been stated so simply
and completely and in such reader-friend-
ly fashion.
––Cathy Young Czapla
