PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Benjamin Koenigsberg, Healthcare Professional
2:39:56
·
130 sec
Benjamin Koenigsberg, a native New Yorker with 12 years of healthcare experience, testifies in support of Bill 641, which aims to improve nutrition standards for children's meals. He emphasizes the preventative health benefits of plant-based diets and their potential to address various health issues and disparities.
- Highlights the connection between diet and chronic diseases such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and cancer
- Discusses the environmental and ethical implications of reducing animal product consumption
- Recommends documentaries for further information on the benefits of plant-based diets
Benjamin Koenigsberg
2:39:56
Hello.
2:39:56
My name is Benjamin.
2:39:58
I'm a native New Yorker and also have 12 years working in health care.
2:40:02
I'm not a parent, but I appreciate children because they're awesome and they're our future.
2:40:07
And, also, I feel we have a responsibility to, nurture them and be good stewards for them.
2:40:12
So I'm absolutely, in favor of bill 641.
2:40:16
So we're talking about prevention earlier.
2:40:19
So there is so much causative research that shows hypertension, obesity, diabetes, cancer, even obstructive sleep apnea is caused from meat, dairy, eggs, salt and sugar in in the food.
2:40:34
So with this bill, we can, basically, we have a preventative effect.
2:40:39
We're just getting even if it's just 10% of these calories now that kids are gonna get from whole plant foods, it's gonna be a significant difference for their health.
2:40:47
Not only that, but the more plant foods we eat, the less animal foods we eat.
2:40:50
So that means the less animals we have to exploit.
2:40:53
All these animals are sentient.
2:40:55
They're individuals just like cats and dogs, and it's egregious the way that we treat animals.
2:41:00
Not to mention things like zoonotic diseases and antibiotic resistance when we have, all these animals crammed together in factory farm situations.
2:41:08
So, not only that, but, we can close some of the the gaps, around health for different races.
2:41:14
For example, black and Asian Americans are, 75 to 95% lactose intolerant compared to the white counterparts.
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So we have all these kids drinking dairy milk.
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It's causing a lot of problems just right there.
2:41:26
So, again, they they call plant based diets a Swiss army knife solution.
2:41:32
We have for the planet, when it comes to climate change, resource allocation, human health, animal health.
2:41:39
So it's really just what they call a Swiss Army knife solution.
2:41:43
So I'm super in favor of Bill 641.
2:41:47
Grateful to be here.
2:41:47
And there's some amazing documentaries online.
2:41:49
So there's one called They're Trying to Kill Us.
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There's, one called You Are What You Eat.
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That's on Netflix, the Stanford twin experiment, where they took 2 groups of twins, gave 1 a plant based diet and the other a meat based diet and look at all the health outcomes.
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And then you can also look at What the Health online.
2:42:04
So there's some great resources.
2:42:05
Thank you.
Lynn Schulman
2:42:06
Thank you.
