Customer Reviews

You Don't Need Meat

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This book will change your life! Peter Cox is solely responsible for my family giving up meat five weeks ago. The information is clearly presented and hits hard. After reading this book, I think it would be virtually impossible to continue consuming a Western diet. You don't need meat!! And you won't want any ever again after reading this amazing book.

Mr. Cox has spent considerable time in the service of corporations as a marketing guru. His focus has shifted from corporate profits to human health and consciences but the tactics employed are the same.

The first 266 pages of his 339 page book are dedicated to "revealing" the realities of the meat industry, the failures of government to protect its citizens from said meat industry, and information about diseases that may be induced or aggravated by consuming the products of the meat industry.

One assumes the target for the bulk of this book are individuals who find themselves on the fence about choosing a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. In which case, this book inevitably has the ability to knock you clean off that fence and onto the non-flesh consuming side. Especially, if you were completely unaware of the realities of the meat industry and the products they produce.

The remainder of the book proves to be helpful, even through its brevity, in converting to a meat-free way of living. There is a small recipe section, some stories about how certain individuals coped with the social complexities of conversion, a Q & A section, and a list of vegetarian organizations.

If you are considering eliminating meat from your diet, or even shooting for the moon and eliminating all animal products, this book is useful in reinforcing your decision to do so. If you are looking for a how-to manual on developing a meat-free way of living, this book is limited in its ability to help guide you in that direction but can still assist you, if ever so slightly. In either case, I recommend, to all would be or current veggies, to read this book eventually.

Another book in a similar vein you may want to explore is Hope's Edge by Anna and Frances Moore Lappe.

If you are looking for information on what steps to take in becoming a vegetarian, I apologize, I haven't found a solid single volume to recomend. I would suggest spending as much time as you can before making this type of decision reading from many sources. Lorna Sass, Steve Brill, Dr. Timothy Smith, Dr. Ronald Klatz and Dr. Robert Goldman are authors you may want to take a look into to get started and get some recipe ideas.

Having been bombarded by vegetarian books lately, I chose not to pick up this book at the library fearing that it would reiterate the same issues over and over again- disease prevention and weight loss. I love John Robbins books and I was hoping for a parallel which is what I found in this. Cox is humerous, he understands the skepticism that non-vegs face, and how much vegetarian research was never put in headlines. He intends to show that there is firm evidence with the connections between the ingestion of meat and spongiform death in humans, that the younger generation's risk of disease are much higher due to high fat and meat diets, that we were meant to be herbivores, and that our livestock was never meant to consume their own kind. Cox includes in his book the reasons behind the Mad Cow epidemic, the proven facts that farmers and meat ad agencies want to cover up, and the overwhelming (yet hardly heard about) reseach that shows different people and cultures that consume less meat are less likely to contract disease. I like the way that Cox writes with the understanding that meat eating is deep rooted and he can attempt to teach us but not convince us to change our eating habits. I like that he doesnt try and impose a strict diet or make us feel guilt trips for eating meat. He just is showing facts and research that we may not have known about and is important. I also like how Cox makes this book easy to read and humerous.

In his book You Don't Need Meat, Peter Cox, details the link between meat and dairy consumption and disease by drawing on a host of scientific studies. While the book is almost overly detailed at some points, Cox's use of evidence supports his conclusion that veganism is not only an animal rights choice but a health conscious decision. This gives vegans, like myself, plenty to reference when told that meat and dairy are essential to a healthy diet.

The book includes a long section about Mad Cow Disease that is both horrifying and shocking, a description of the inhumane treatment of pigs in slaughterhouses, and a series of frequently asked questions and answers. Furthermore, the text contains a portion discussing major contemporary diseases such as cancer and diabetes, the connection to meat and dairy consumption, and alternative ways of treatment or prevention (usually through a vegan diet). In each part of the book, Cox expands on his topic writing with extreme precision and minute attention. This means the reader must be very interested, at some points, to remain engaged. Overall, though, by using humor and simple explanatory language, the complex issues explored by Cox prove easy to understand. Those who succeed in carefully reading through his arguments and evidence are handsomely rewarded with a wealth of knowledge.

You Don't Need Meat proves to be an educational text providing more reasons to choose or continue a vegan lifestyle. This makes it an intriguing and informative book for both the devout vegan and the meat-eater unconvinced by animal rights arguments. --Reviewed by Ellen Roggeman

For the past few years, I have avoided red meat for ethical reasons. I've recently been considering taking that extra step, and this is the book that just might do it for me. A great, easy readable primer on veganism - bringing up ideas and issues that I never gave great thought to before: ie: health benefits to veganism, environmental issues regarding the meat industry and anthropological arguments that we may indeed be a vegetarian species to begin with. Not bad for one book! A definite positive!

'You Don't Need Meat' by Peter Cox is an engaging look at the dangers of eating meat, written by a strict vegan who has been living a vegetarian lifestyle since he was a young boy. Mr. Cox has written a book that is chock full of extensive research to prove his main point that if you eat meat (the more the deadlier) you are walking a tightrope to a short(er) life full of danger and risk. The author shows through numerous facts, figures, tables, and graphs how meat correlates directly with shorter lifespans, and he spends much of the book defending the vegetarian/vegan way of life. Spending nearly as much time discussing the dangers of meat, Peter Cox explains over and over again that eating a vegetarian diet not only is healthier, but it's SAFE to do, proving that the old addage that meat is a NECESSARY part of ones diet and lifestyle is simply untrue.

Coming in at over 350+ pages, this book is at times long-winded but you get the sense that this is an individual who deeply feels for what he is writing and isn't just trying to boost his ego or control the masses for some wrongful purpose.

For anyone that eats meat or is considering the vegetarian way of life, this is a great read to help you realize if nothing else that cutting back on red meat in ones diet is a very healthy choice to make. Since human beings ARE born with incisors I don't believe in a 100% vegetarian lifestyle (it's quite clear that the human brain evolved quicker by eating meat), but certain meats such as red meat, veal, pork, etc can easily be removed from our diets. I don't find that the author has much firepower at all when it comes to chicken and fish, but animal cruelty is always an argument that can be used and used effectively to sway people to vegetarianism.

The meat processing industry has always been a nasty one since things have been taken over by capitalism, and this book will make you sick to your stomach if this is your first look at how animals and employees of the companies that butches these animals are treated. Like most of the world, the rich are made that way by riding the backs of the poor and weak and this proves that fact yet again.

After reading this book I admit that I started eating meat less and I think more about what I put in my mouth before I eat it. I try to get more vegetables in my body and I enjoy other foods other than meat more than I used to. I think this alone would make the author happy as any change for the good is a change in the right direction.

**** RECOMMENDED

Be warned that if you read this book, you might just go Vegan. You wont be able to pull the wool over your eyes any longer. Peter is funny and entertaining but he thoroughly covers every aspect of meat from nutrition, disease of people and animals to slaughter houses. He also helps support you in how to tell others your new life decision. I highly recommend this book.

Everything is referenced so there's no debate. Even if you eat meat, just read it.