Since medical science has proven, again and again, that you are what you eat, does it not seem logical to conclude that your desired goal in life should have some influence upon your selection of items to stuff into that opening just beneath your nose? As I am writing this, I have before me some alarming source material from THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE MUSLIM OBSERVER and THE JEWISH PRESS. Each of them contains articles proving that "What you see is NOT what you get!"

The TIMES carried a story headlined "For Hindus and Vegetarians, Surprise in McDonald�s Fries". In it, the writer recalls that "in 1990, when the fast-food chain announced with great fanfare that it was switching from beef fat to �100 percent vegetable oil� to cook its French fries, Mr. (Brij) Sharma joined the legions of Hindu Americans and vegetarians who began venturing into McDonald�s to nibble what they believed were vegetarian fries." The article recounts how horrified he was in April when he saw a headline in his INDIA WEST newspaper which read, "Where�s the Beef? It�s in Your French Fries." He, along with other American Hindus, were outraged, the article says, "to learn that McDonald�s French fries are seasoned in the factory with beef flavoring before they are sent to the restaurants to be cooked in vegetable oil." He is one of three litigants who filed a lawsuit on May 1, in Seattle. In India, the reaction was more speedy, as well as immediately damaging. Reportedly, restaurant windows were smashed, statues of Ronald McDonald were smeared with cow dung and Hindu Nationalist Politicians called for the entire McDonald�s chain to be evicted from the country.

McDonald�s executives have denied publicly that they ever claimed that the French Fries sold in the United States were vegetarian. McDonald�s spokesman Walt Riker is alleged to have told interviewers, "We certainly don�t market ourselves as vegetarian." He is further quoted as stating that, although they may re-evaluate their labeling policies, they have no intention of altering their recipe.

On a similar note, a front page story in the May 11th edition of THE MUSLIM OBSERVER carries the headline, "They Sell Pork And Call It Halal". It begins by noting that a Turkish company has sued an American company, "accusing it of violating a contract by supplying grease, used in livestock feed, tainted with laced pork fat to the predominantly Muslim country."

"Ironically," the article states, "most of the meat Muslims buy from the so-called halal grocery stores is fed animal by-products including rotten feathers and pork." Reportedly, a livestock extension agent informed the Associated Press that most livestock feeds contain some grease to cut down on dust and to increase the energy levels of the livestock. He said that the grease could contain grease obtained from cows, sheep, goats or pigs.

A NY TIMES article reports that during a recent investigation in New York and New Jersey, "The problems at the 22 plants included rodent infestation and germ-ridden processing equipment....Three plants in New York City were temporarily shut down."