John Joseph Wants You to Watch What You Eat

"It's about maintaining yourself and a good, healthy lifestyle, but ultimately what are you going to do with this human life?" Cro-Mags frontman John Joseph presented to Noisecreep as the crux behind his second book 'Meat Is for Pussies.' If you've been witness to the legendary New York hardcore outfit on stage, Joseph -- who's now 48 -- is a fury on stage. He might be more in shape and more active than ever before, too. He credits this energy and determination not only to his daily workout regiment of biking and kickboxing, but his chemical- and meat-free lifestyle.

"[Men] pay more attention to what they're putting in their cars than they do their own bodies," said Jospeh, defining his intended audience for the book as men. Most guys or gals don't put much thought into all the ingredients to the food they purchased. Once the words on the back of the box take on four vowels, most pay no mind. But those are the dangerous ones, as Joseph explained it. "You gotta watch what is being put out there to be consumed blindly. And that's why the [genetically modified organism] companies are fighting labeling. They don't want you to know what they are doing to the food."

Joseph first ditched meat on moral grounds after hefty talks with members of Bad Brains over animal treatment. Soon the health issues took hold, and now he believes the human body is not meant for the meat consumption much of society has deemed both acceptable and beneficial. One goal of the book was to take the myths of vegetarianism head on.

"It makes me laugh that people ask the same stupid question. 'Where do you get your protein from?' I say, 'Do you want me to list 30 out of 500 sources?' Where do you get your chlorophyll from? Where do you get your live enzymes? Vitamin K?' In sprouts," Joseph asserted in an amused frustration. This conversation is a regular occurrence at the gym, despite the number of athletes that live meat-free.

The green movements deal very little with how vegetarianism can help aid in the conversation, but Joseph is hoping to cue into the fact that large-scale meat production require vast amounts of resources. "Why don't we feed that grain to human beings? What does it take ... 20 pounds of grain to produce a pound of meat?"

But Joseph realizes that truly living a life of health and compassion is more than just a diet; it's a spiritual thing. 'A sick body creates a sick spirit' is not a bad mantra. "When I see these people walking around with yoga mats, it's the biggest trendiest thing, and they're miserable. One chick last night coming home with a cigarette in her mouth -- that's not yoga. Yoga means to link with the supreme. What they're doing is gymnastics."

'Meat Is for Pussies' is out now.