Skeleton Soup?! Meat Smoothies?! These Weird Food Trends Harm Animals 

Posted by Calvin on September 12, 2024

Have you noticed how many weird food trends there are lately? 🤔 Let’s be crystal clear: There’s nothing wrong with dipping fries in vegan ice cream or putting pickles on everything. But some strange trends are super-harmful to animals and your health. Here are seven food fads to avoid and what to eat instead:

1. Bone Broth

Bone broth is basically skeleton soup. It’s made by cooking the bones, skin, cartilage, and tendons of slaughtered animals—usually cows or chickens—in water. Some folks have claimed that bone broth can restore collagen, but many food scientists and nutritionists are calling B.S.

What to Eat Instead

Eating veggies like kale, broccoli, and spinach can help amp up your collagen production—and you can take vegan collagen supplements to seal the deal.

2. Raw Milk

Raw milk is dairy milk that hasn’t been pasteurized. The dairy industry tears cows and goats away from their families, uses them for their milk, and then sends them to slaughter—and consuming any form of dairy can increase your risk for certain cancers. But because raw milk in particular can be filled with harmful germs, it’s one of the riskiest foods out there.

What to Eat Instead

You know what doesn’t harm animals, tastes delicious, and won’t make you extremely sick? Vegan milk. 😉

3. Raw Meat

Food safety pros are all saying the same thing: Don’t eat raw meat. 🚫 Not only does meat come from animals who once had thoughts, feelings, and interests of their own, eating it raw also risks contaminating yourself with harmful bacteria, which can lead to severe food poisoning. Whether it’s raw or cooked, take a hard pass on meat every time.

What to Eat Instead

Vegan meats have the protein punch you need to fuel your animal-friendly lifestyle.

4. Raw Animal-Based Smoothie

Erewhon Market—a luxury grocery store chain in LA—sells something called a Raw Animal-Based Smoothie. It’s a blend of kefir (fermented cow’s milk), cow organs, freeze-dried cow’s colostrum, raw honey, and other ingredients that not only sounds disgusting but also harms cows for their milk and flesh and bees for their honey. If cruelty to animals and cholesterol is a “luxury” combo, count us out.

What to Eat Instead

Vegan smoothies check all the boxes that the Raw Animal-Based Smoothie doesn’t: They let animals live in peace, actually sound tasty when described, and have no cholesterol.

5. NyQuil Chicken

WARNING: Don’t use cough syrup or any other medication in any way that’s not directed.

TikTok vids promoting the “NyQuil chicken” trend are dangerous af. First of all, chickens want to enjoy roosting and dust-bathing with their friends—not be killed and eaten. Second, eating chicken that’s been cooked in NyQuil cough syrup could cause breathing problems, hallucinations, seizures, and even death. 😨

What to Eat Instead

If you want a better night’s sleep, try foods that are high in tryptophan, like tart cherries, pumpkin seeds, and whole-grain crackers.

6. Bull Testicles

If you want to boost your testosterone levels, there are several sensible options. Here’s what doesn’t make sense: eating raw bull testicles. Sounds bizarre, right? Plus, like every other animal-derived food, it sentences animals to miserable lives and deaths and is packed with cholesterol.

What to Eat Instead

Eating vegan foods such as legumes, onions, and leafy greens is a win-win: These foods can help boost your testosterone levels, and you don’t have to eat testicles. 🤷

7. The Carnivore Diet

People who glaze this diet never mention how restrictive it is: Those who are on it don’t eat anything except animal-derived foods. These foods cause animals to suffer, tend to be high in cholesterol and saturated fat, and lack a ton of nutrients like fiber and antioxidants. Plus, who would want to straight-up cut fruits, veggies, and whole grains out of their life?

What to Eat Instead

Eat vegan! You can get all the nutrients you need without eating any animal-derived foods.

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Weird trends that harm animals have also crept into the beauty world. Find out how humans are exploiting snails, minks, sheep, and other animals for beauty routines and how to push back.