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An Instagram post claims that canola oil an ingredient in plant-based alternatives to meat is toxic. This is false; nutritionists say the oil is not harmful for humans to consume, and it is recognized as safe by US regulators.
“When people try to tell me Beyond/Impossible ‘meat’ is healthier than beef,” says text in an April 6, 2021 Instagram video. “Canola oil is TOXIC. Ultra processed. Just bc something is labeled as ‘plant based’ doesn’t mean it’s healthy,” the text claims.
Screenshot of an Instagram post, taken April 19, 2021
The video is circulating after Beyond Meat in early 2021 signed partnerships with McDonald’s and Yum! Brands, the parent of KFC and other fast foods, as demand surges for better-tasting meat alternatives.
I finally gave up Christianity when I was 15,” wrote the famous atheist Richard Dawkins in Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide. Dawkins hoped to reach the rising generation of kids with the good news that they don’t need religion. In the decades since the New Atheist movement launched, you might think this was the only message sounding from the academic world. But this is simply not the case.
Religious belief was supposed to decline as modernization swept the world. But it hasn’t. Being a world-class academic and a serious, orthodox Christian was supposed to be increasingly untenable. But it isn’t. Giving up on religion was supposed to make people happier, healthier, and more moral. But it doesn’t. In fact, even Dawkins has had to acknowledge (grudgingly) the evidence that people who believe in God seem to behave better than those who don’t.
In times of trial and trouble, many Americans turn to the Bible for encouragement. And with good reason, according to a new study. In the middle of a global pandemic, a contentious election, and social unrest, the American Bible Society (ABS), with assistance from Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program, found a strong correlation between Scripture reading and hope.
Frequent Bible readers rated themselves 33 points more hopeful than irregular Scripture readers did in two surveys of more than 1,000 people done six months apart. The study also found that people are more hopeful when they read Scripture more frequently.
On a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being the most hopeful, Americans who report reading the Bible three or four times per year scored 42; people who read monthly scored 59; weekly, 66; and multiple times per week, 75.