Inflammation is at the root of our most serious chronic illnesses that are killing us and reducing our energy and freedom to choose the kind of life we want to live: our all important quality of life.   Never have we lived longer but never have we been sicker.  I have been  hanging out with the older set lately ( I am 60) and my brother and his wife were recently visiting me here in Broome.   So, we went to tourist bars and restaurants, where a lot of people with the time and money to  travel were hanging out.   It is a frightening and  sobering experience to see people who have ‘everything’ in this world, plenty of time and plenty of money, be physically crippled. Out of ignorance (because nobody tells them) continue to put the very foods that have crippled them physically, into their mouths-that is largely meat and dairy.   People of this generation and still today, grow up with the idea that protein and calcium are next to God and the only place to get them is meat for protein and dairy for calcium.   The fact that this is patently false, doesn’t stop the myth being perpetuated.

Meat and dairy consumption is associated with ill-health.  You don’t have to take my word for it.  Go to the web and search for international comparisons of dairy consumption and  osteoporosis (hip fractures) and look also at those countries with high dairy consumption and their rates of heart disease, strokes, diabetes, Parkinsons, Alzeihmers etc.  In fact, you name it.   Does this prove dairy is causing these problems?  No, but it sure shows that dairy is not protecting us and our loved ones against our greatest killer diseases.   The higher the consumption of dairy in a country, the higher the rate of our killer diseases.  https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/education/videos/mcdougalls-moments/the-dairy-industry/

https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/education/videos/mcdougalls-moments/milk/

These baby boomers are at the time of their life when the chickens have come home to roost, so to speak-that is they have been unwittingly abusing their bodies so long the effects are obvious.  Food is like smoking-it won’t kill you right away, but it will kill you.   I spoke to a man who was taking 17 prescription medications a day and on top of that numerous metamucil, to help him go to the toilet!    We are a pill popping society.    Pills are never fixing the problem, they are attacking the symptoms and we go on creating the problem by what we eat.

It has become known to me recently, that low level, chronic (that is ongoing) inflammation is the basis of our chronic, killer diseases.   The problems of inflammation are not well known to the general public: that is that chronic, low level inflammation in our bodies is at the base of heart disease, cancer and stroke.  These are the three biggest causes of premature death.

If you look at the two pictures above, without being a bio-chemist or a nutritionist, would it be the meat or plant based wrap: which do you think is more likely to cause low level inflammation in your body?  What would cause more inflammation, a carrot or cows milk, spinach or skeletal muscle from a pig (pork)?   Without any knowledge, common sense or your intuition would tell you that the animal parts would be likely to cause more inflammation than the plant parts: and you would be right.  This is because we are animals and we are more likely to have an immune response (which is what inflammation is) to putting another animal in our mouths, than putting a plant in our mouth.   http://nutritionfacts.org/video/eating-outside-our-kingdom/

Dr Greger in his blog, titled “How Animal Proteins May Trigger Auto-Immune Disease” states

 “A similar mechanism (meaning an autoimmune response triggered by exposure to meat)has been blamed for meat proteins triggering inflammatory arthritis in people eating meat. By eating fellow animals, we are exposed not only to fellow animal diseases, but to animal tissues that our body may mistake as our own. This may be one advantage to eating a more plant-based diet. By eating outside of the animal kingdom—dipping into the plant or mushroom kingdoms for supper—not only do we not have to worry about getting something like Dutch elm disease, but we can be reassured by the fact that never has an “auto-immune polyradiculoneuropathy” been blamed on a head… of lettuce.”

Plants are anti-inflammatory, which means they are anti-disease.  Animal products are pro-inflammatory, which means they are pro-disease.  If our bodies’ immune system is constantly stimulated at a low level, this places a stress on the system which causes illness in the long term.

Dr Colin T Campbell’s  China Study,   showed the higher your rate of animal protein consumption the higher your rate of disease.

How is animal protein the problem and  plant protein not?

Food is a packaged deal and the big difference between the two is what the protein is packaged with (and remember protein is everywhere, from an apple to beans).   In the case of meat, protein is packaged with fat, cholesterol and natural animal hormones/chemicals,  like Insulin Growth Factor 1,  all of which are bad for you, as our body produces cholesterol and hormones in the quantities we need for a human body.  The saturated and trans fat that come from animals are bad for circulation (which is, the good things in and bad things out system, for our bodies).   In the case of plants, protein comes with large amounts of fibre, great for our gut and cleaning out toxins and also thousands of different chemicals, which are great for us.   There is a fascinating story around why plant chemicals are so good for us and it has to do with plants immune systems and defense against environmental threats.   I wil talk about this in more detail in a later blog, but it has to do with the fact that plants are ‘rooted’ to the spot and can’t move to deal with threats.  So they have developed many chemicals to deal with attack, but also to  facilitate dispersal of their seeds.    This is why organic food is higher in nutrients (good chemicals) than non-organic as organic plants have to fight their own battles and are  not being “assisted” by chemical sprays put on by us.

Animal protein is cancer promoting

Even the Cancer Council is clear on this (check their website).   The evidence in terms of bowel cancer is unequivocal in relation to red meat.  Have you ever heard anyone talking about it?  Has your Dr ever mentioned it? ” Oh, by the way if you want to reduce your risk of bowel cancer don’t eat red meat or cut down”.   I don’t think so.  What your Dr and the government want you to do is to be screened.  Find some polyps (growths) in your bowel and have those removed, detect your cancer early, get it treated.  What about preventing it in the first place??   A large percentage of cancers and almost all heart attacks and strokes can be prevented by eating correctly and exercising.   The steps to reduce your risk of cancer are well known and they are the same steps as to reduce your risk of everything else.   Reduce meat and  dairy consumption, increase fruit and vegetables, maintain normal body weight, reduce alcohol intake, quit smoking and increase exercise.    If you were not going to go hungry doing this,  you would need to increase your  consumption of beans, whole grains and starchy vegetables like potato and sweet potato, which is exactly what you should do to be healthy.

Meat causes an inflammation response in our bodies.  Cancer needs inflammation to grow.  We are all likely to have tiny pin prick size cancers in our body and for them to take off, they need a blood supply: their own blood supply.  This is called angiogenesis.   Cancer cells create inflammation so they can bring blood and therefore  nutrients to the cancer cells so they can grow.    But they thrive initially in a state of low level inflammation which can be provided by meat and animal products.  There are two possible pathways:  one is by animal  protein leaking, pre-complete digestion, through the lining of the gut and our body having an auto-immune response to it. (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-leaky-gut-theory-of-why-animal-products-cause-inflammation/)  The other, is through a molecule found in meat (Neu5Gc), which promotes inflammation.

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-tumors-use-meat-to-grow-xeno-autoantibodies/

Dr Greger gives a summary of the many pathways that contribute to higher cancer rates amongst meateaters.

“Why else might those eating plant-based diets have lower risk of all cancers combined? It could be the lack of IGF-1, heme iron, inflammation, viruses, antibiotics, saturated fat,nitrosamines, and arachidonic acid associated with animal product consumption. Or it could be the DNA repair, cellular stress defenses, anti-inflammatory properties, soy, lignans, phytonutrients, and fiber associated with healthy plant food consumption.”

Nitrosamines come in cured meats like  ham and are known carcinogens, that is, cancer causing agents.  Has anyone ever mentioned it to you, that when you are eating ham and  other processed meats, that you are eating something known to initiate cancer.  This is not a new discovery, but until recently I was unaware and the vast majority of the population would also be unaware.  It would be good if the government mentioned it to us, or our Dr.   The cancer council does.  The problem is we are only likely to go the website for  information once we’ve got cancer!

Animal protein is bad for circulation

If it is bad for  circulation this means it is bad for heart attacks, strokes,  sex (both men and women need a good blood flow for sex), lower back pain, dementia (our brain needs a lot of blood, it consumes something like 15-20% of our energy, not to mention  needing a good supply of oxygen via the blood), crippling arthritis and swelling in our legs.  In fact, you name it, poor circulation is bad for it!   Many  people are alive but crippled by these diseases, resulting in hugely reduced mobility and huge reduction of choice about what they are going to do in life:  that is a huge reduction in quality of life.   This can be profoundly depressing.

Meat is bad for circulation through saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, carnitine and  choline, which are processed in the gut and converted into a substance called TMAO which lines the artery and blood vessel walls.  http://nutritionfacts.org/video/carnitine-choline-cancer-and-cholesterol-the-tmao-connection/

It’s worth remembering that it is not just our arteries that get blocked, it’s any of the blood vessels, trying to bring the good stuff and take the bad stuff away.

Vitamin D

We are diurnal animals,  meaning we are active in the day and sleep at night.  On top of that, when we go out in the sun, a chemical in our skin, melatonin, reacts with the sun to produce another chemical, which we call vitamin D.  This vitamin D produced in the skin is turned  into Super Vitamin D and stored in our kidneys  and this is the vitamin D that is used by our bodies.  It is not clear exactly what roles vitamin D plays in our body.   Vitamin D is thought to play a role in diseases such as multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia and mood in general, as well as bone density.

It’s clear Vitamin D is going to very important or why else would  we have a chemical in our skin which reacts with sunlight to produce it?  It turns out that diets high in animal protein and calcium (does that sound like dairy) interfere with the proper use of Vitamin D in our bodies.  (see Colin T Campbell, The China Study for explanation of the pathway and its effects.)   For those of you worried about how you are going to get your calcium if you don’t drink or eat dairy, relax!  There is plenty in wonderful foods like green vegetables such as brocolli, collards and kale.

PS I am running marathon tomorrow,  powered by plants!

Yours in good health

 

Gary

 

 

 

When people of my age were growing up you had to have your protein (oh and your calcium).  Meat and protein were the same thing in our minds.  There was no idea that protein existed anywhere but meat, eggs, milk and cheese.   No-one said you’ve got to have your carbohydrates!  You’ve got to have your fibre!  It turns out getting your carbohydrates and particularly your fibre is much more unlikely these days and much more important.

Like  many people I went through a transition from meat, eggs and dairy eater to vegetarian(so tons of cheese and eggs as I was worreid about getting enough protein!) but with kangaroo meat.  I ate the kangaroo meat as I thought it was better for me (low in fat, compared to pigs, sheep  and cattle) and better for  the environment: no hard hooves breaking up the fragile Austrlalian soils and no overgrazing (kangaroos have lived here a long time in harmony with plants, not like  sheep and cattle, where you can  drive along native pasture and see the difference inside the fence to outside the fence where the sheep and cattle are not).  Of course, I didn’t think too much about the cruelty of kangaroo shooting.

Then when I became vegan, whole food plant based diet, I was extremely concerned about “where was I going to get my protein?”    We recently walked for 8 weeks in Nepal and on the Everest Base Camp trek I talked with young people eating lots of eggs as they were concerned about where were they going to get their protein.  The more realistic concern was where am I going to get my carbohydrate to give the energy to  walk to Everest Base Camp.

Consequently, when I first became a vegan, I used to like to eat tofu and tempeh at least a couple of  times per week.  Now I hardly eat them at all.  I really like tempeh but in the small country town where I live you can’t buy tempeh.  I have given up worrying about protein at all.  If you are getting enough food to sustain life, you are getting enough protein.  Protein is everywhere.  If something has a structure it has protein.    Think of any food from strawberries to sweet potato to beans:they have all got protein.

The other thing we knew about and many people still believe is that meat, eggs and dairy provided ‘complete’ protein, meaning they contain all of the amino acids and are therefore superior sources of protein to plant sources which don’t contain all of the amino acids and which are therefore inferior sources of proteins.  The protein we eat is broken down into amino acids as part of the digestive process in our gut and is reconstituted by our body into the proteins we need.  So, whether they come all  together or not is not important.  The irony is that we need very little protein in our diet and getting our protein from animal based sources is actually bad for us not good for us and getting our protein from plants is good for us, not bad for us.   Why?

• When we are eating meat, eggs and dairy we are eating fat( a lot of fat) and the fat you eat, is the fat you wear.  People  who are overweight, have shorter lifespans than thinner people, are much more likely to be sick and have a poorer quality of life, for example in relation to mobility, joint problems, rhuematoid arthritis, just to name a few
• When we are eating meat, eggs and dairy we are eating a lot of saturated fat.  This what is blocking our arteries and leading to angina, heart attacks and strokes
• When we are eating meat, eggs and dairy we are eating a lot of cholesterol which is blocking our arteries  leading to angina, hearts and strokes
• When we are eating meat, eggs and dairy we are eating a lot of protein and guess what!  Eating  a lot of protein is not good for you.  Meat, eggs and dairy are approximately 30 % protein and approx 60% fat.   Our highest period of growth and therefore our need for protein is highest is when we are a baby, so how much protein does mother’s milk, the perfect food for a baby  have?  5%.  Any adult getting enough food to live on is going to be getting more than  5%.

It turns out that the higher the intake of protein, the more increase the chance of cancer.  Intuition or common sense would tell you that.  What is cancer?  Runaway growth.  What is needed for growth?  Protein.   The body is not as simple as that.  Everything we eat and everything we do works in a complex way to produce a result.

• when we are eating meat, eggs and dairy we are not getting any fibre and fibre has many valuable assets for the body, not the least of which is to fill us up, so we are not hungry.  As we can’t digest fibre which only comes in plants, it fills us up without providing any calories, it is the toxins and rubbish collector and is essential for healthy bowel movements.
• when we are eating meat, dairy and  eggs we have different bacteria in our gut than if we are eating plants.  A recent discovery is that choline a substance in meat, dairy and eggs is changed by bacteria in gut of people for whom that is their normal diet into substance TMAO which is laid down in our arteries leading to blocked arteries.  This is another pathway where animal foods contribute to heart attacks and  strokes.

So, forget about worrying about getting enough protein-just enjoy your food.  If you reduce or cease meat(including fish and chicken by the way), eggs and dairy and increase potatoes, grains, fruits and veggies, you will enjoy your food more.  Two reasons, you will feel better, not so weighed down(if you are overweight you will lose some) and as your taste buds won’t be dominated by all that  fat you were eating you will be able to start to taste some other things and enjoy those flavours.

Happy eating and good health!

Gary

 

Harvard’s Meat and Mortality Studies | NutritionFacts.org.

Protein and Heart Disease | NutritionFacts.org.

Protein Intake & IGF-1 Production | NutritionFacts.org.

Carnitine, Choline, Cancer and Cholesterol: The TMAO Connection | NutritionFacts.org.