NUTRITION NEWS - OCTOBER 2020

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I Am Not a Vegan. I Am a Whole Plant Food Vegan! (Top) (Bot)

Anyone who does not eat beef, pork, chicken, fish, eggs or dairy is eating a vegan diet. But someone who is eating vegan foods like beyond burgers, fake sausages, fake cheese, potato chips, corn chips, french fries, white bread peanut butter sandwiches, doughnuts, cakes, pies, and vegetable oils is probably no healthier than someone who eats the Standard American Diet that is responsible for our current pandemic of obesity, diabetes, and coronary artery disease that contributed to many of the deaths arrtibuted to COVID-19.

Heart disease alone killed 655,381 people in the US in 2018, twice the current number of deaths from COVID-19. We have the science that shows the heart disease can be prevented and in most cases reversed but the government does not listen to the science. If anything, the government supports policies that contribute to heart disease.

I can not say for certain that an animal-free whole plant food diet is the best diet for everyone. But I know it is the best diet for me because:

adopting it, along with walking and other exercise, allowed me to easily lose sixty pounds in one year, reverse my coronary artery disease, lower my cholesterol, lower my blood pressure, eliminate all prescription drugs, and improve my memory.
all of the healthiest populations around the world eat a mostly plant based diet with only occasional servings of meat or fish.
as eastern societies have begun to import the animal centered Standard American Diet along with highly processed junk food, their rates of heart disease, diabetes and cancer have been increasing.

Introduction to the Whole Food Plant Based Diet (Top) (Bot)

This article titled An Introduction to the Whole Food, Plant-Based, SOS-Free Diet outlines the basics of the diet including the foods to include, the foods to avoid, where to buy food, and two sample recipes.

The Truth About Food (Top) (Bot)

I have been reading a book by Dr. David Katz titled "The Truth About Food" that is about 750 pages long. To get a clear idea about the book, watch the The Truth About Food video interview of Dr. Katz posted at The Real Truth About Health. Here are two quotes from the book:

"The truth about food is simple; truly it is. It derives from both casual observation and sedulus [without trickery] study. It represents the weight of scientific evidence that has stood the test of time. We would all be better off eating mostly vegetables and fruits, nuts and seeds, beans and lentils, whole grains, and plain water to address our thirst -- with or without additions of anything else. Adding fish and seafood might make the overall diet better for some, but it might not. The same goes for modest additions of dairy, poultry, eggs, and unprocessed meats."

"The metabolism of omnivores, particularly such long-lived omnivores as ourselves, is stunningly forgiving in the short term. For all of the spans we are primed to register -- minutes, hours, days, and even weeks -- we can muddle along on almost any fuel. We can eat nothing but grapefruit, or cabbage soup, or Twinkies, and still function. Such diets, and innumerable other variations on the theme of nincompoopery, are utterly at odds with long term health. But long term health happens too slowly for us to discern the relevant links between causes and effects. We can go without eating fruit, or vegetables, or beans and lentils, and the harms of doing so will happen too slowly for us to attribute such effects to actual causes. By the time we develop diabetes, or heart disease, it will seem to have jumped out at us from the shadows of bad luck, rather than the pantry of bad choices."

Vegan Detox (Top) (Bot)

Many people who have been eating the Standard American Diet feel so bad when they switch to a whole plant food diet that they give up. In the Vegan Detox - How Much Time Does It Take video Dr. Klapper answers the question: How much time does it take to detox the body from animal products once you go vegan?

Dairy and Health (Top) (Bot)

Here are several links to the relationship between dairy and health:

The first is an article titled 12 Frightening Facts About Milk that describes a cohort study that showed increased mortality for woman who drank three or more glasses of milk per day had almost twice the mortality over 20 years compared to those women consuming less than one glass a day. In addition, the high milk-drinkers did not have improved bone health. In fact, they had more fractures, particularly hip fractures.

The second is a video titled 8 Reasons to Give Up Dairy the summarizes the effect of consuming dairy on your health.

Finally, if you have new or expectent mothers in your family, you might want to have them read this article titled Raising Dairy Free Babies.

Burger Viruses (Top) (Bot)

In his NutritionFacts.org video titled The Role of Burger Viruses In Cancer Dr. Greger presents evidence that shows polyomaviruses discovered in meat can survive cooking and pasteurization. He goes on to discuss how some of these viruses in milk can contribute to the increase in some cancers in this country.

Microbiome (Top) (Bot)

What happens to your gut flora when you switch from a more animal-based diet to a more plant-based diet? Dr. Greger explains in his Microbiome: The Inside Sotry and Microbiome: We Are What We Eat videos from NutritionFacts.org.