“You don’t eat hamburgers? That is so un-American.”

As someone who has chosen to not eat meat, this is a phrase I hear quite often.

In a country where grilling hamburgers and eating hotdogs at baseball games are common pastimes, many people do not realize what they are actually eating.

A recent Cornell University article indicated that 30 percent of United States dairy cows may be treated with bovine growth hormone, bGH, a growth hormone discovered to produce more milk in cows as early as the 1930s

And that’s just in our milk.

Along with bGH, estrogen was discovered in the 1930s to affect growth rates in cattle and poultry.

The list goes on of other hormones injected in animals, and the issue is many of them are difficult to detect in humans because we naturally produce hormones.

So, how do we go about living our lives afraid of all the food around us?

Sometimes, it seems almost impossible to eat completely organic or to be vegan.

All of our food is somehow chemically altered or the product of some sort of animal.

Without complete knowledge of the deceptions that brands display, how will we know exactly what we are eating and what affect it has on our bodies?

For example, diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, neural diseases, obesity, and leukemia have possibly been linked to the additives in our food.

Most of us are aware of the fact that a lot of the food we are consuming is not healthy for us, but the issue is how many of us care enough?

You may be deathly afraid of getting cancer, but the temporary satisfaction you get from a double-bacon cheeseburger typically wins the battle in this situation.

Many people, despite the knowledge theyhave about the garbage they are putting into their bodies, do not have the strength to give it up.

Unhealthy eating has become an addiction that is hard to kick.  

Companies’ obsession with raising sales  through adding hormones to animals is both cruel and detrimental to our health.

Second to heart disease cancer has become the second most leading cause of death in America according to the Center for Disease control and prevention.

Breast cancer in women has become a huge issue, and although is not completely proven, abundance in estrogen has possibly been linked to this phenomenon.

Based on health concerns, Canada and countries in Europe have banned the use of the bovine growth hormone.

One of the biggest issues of health is that meat is a food source that is a component to living a healthy life, but unless you eat completely organic meat it is not even worth it.

So, the next time you pick up a piece of processed food or a hormone-filled slab of meat you can choose: health or temporary satisfaction.