Beef

From Future

Ideally this article should be split into a factual page, particularly historical
information about mad cow disease, current understanding of prions, reasons
for its spread, parallels with avian flu etc..  and then separately a scenario
page with speculations about eradication of cows and cures for mad cow disease.

Beef is considered one of the primary factors for causing obesity in Western civilization. Despite this factor, all-beef restaurants like Tony Roma's, Harvey's, and various restaurants that prepare steak and/or hamburgers will continue to garner profits off both their gullible patrons and the male cattle ranchers. The power of beef to make people obese is proven when 4 soy burgers have the same number of calories as a single beef hamburger.

Since the burger chains and steak restaurants refuse to experiment with soy burgers, individuals need to pressure the management to add soy burgers to the menu by discouraging their friends, neighbors, relatives, and themselves from ordering beef hamburgers. Also, governments and private corporations should start to provide tax incentives for restaurants to start using non-beef based hamburgers.

Even if the privately owned restaurants are unwilling to make the change, then the cafeterias of government-funded public schools are trying to get young people to eat healthier with their lunch money. Many high schools in North America sell chicken burgers alongside beef hamburgers. Although chicken burgers have slightly less fat and calories than beef hamburgers, they can still cause obesity when consumed in excess amounts consumed on a near-daily basis by an average high school student with a sedentary lifestyle. While vegetarian burger restaurants are popular in some of the larger cities (Hamilton, Toronto, New York City, Los Angeles, etc.,) the media needs to find a way to make soy burgers as popular with the rural and suburban crowd as junk food and beef hamburgers are to them now. This task would not be easy as rural folks are conditioned to eat beef as early as their toddlerhood. While some stores in smaller towns and communities sell vegetable-based burgers and soy burgers, their sales are nowhere near that of the beef hamburger.

However, the high calorie and carbohydrate count of beef can be counteracted by a fitness regime started either by a medical doctor, workplace unions, employers, politicians, and/or by the individual. This would have to do until the mad cow disease scares become worse and a sizable amount of people decide to stop eating beef (until the disease is eradicated globally in the year 2016).