Vegan Alert! Quote of the Day

If any kid ever realized what was involved in factory farming they would never touch meat again. I was so moved by the intelligence, sense of fun and personalities of the animals I worked with on Babe, that by the end of the film I was a vegetarian.

–        James Cromwell

The Protein Myth

From The Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine

In the past, some people believed one could never get too much protein. In the early 1900s, Americans were told to eat well over 100 grams of protein a day. And as recently as the 1950s, health-conscious people were encouraged to boost their protein intake. Today, some diet books encourage high-protein intake for weight loss, although Americans tend to take in twice the amount of protein they need already. And while individuals following such a diet have sometimes had short-term success in losing weight, they are often unaware of the health risks associated with a high-protein diet. Excess protein has been linked with osteoporosis, kidney disease, calcium stones in the urinary tract, and some cancers.

The Building Blocks of Life

People build muscle and other body proteins from amino acids, which come from the proteins they eat. A varied diet of beans, lentils, grains, and vegetables contains all of the essential amino acids. It was once thought that various plant foods had to be eaten together to get their full protein value, but current research suggests this is not the case. Many nutrition authorities, including the American Dietetic Association, believe protein needs can easily be met by consuming a variety of plant protein sources over an entire day. To get the best benefit from the protein you consume, it is important to eat enough calories to meet your energy needs.

The Trouble with Too Much Protein

The average American diet contains meat and dairy products. As a result, it is often too high in protein. This can lead to a number of serious health problems:

 ■ Kidney Disease: When people eat too much protein, they take in more nitrogen than they need. This places a strain on the kidneys, which must expel the extra nitrogen through urine. People with kidney disease are encouraged to eat low-protein diets. Such a diet reduces the excess levels of nitrogen and can also help prevent kidney disease.

■ Cancer: Although fat is the dietary substance most often singled out for increasing cancer risk, protein also plays a role. Populations who eat meat regularly are at increased risk for colon cancer, and researchers believe that the fat, protein, natural carcinogens, and absence of fiber in meat all play roles. The 1997 report of the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, Food, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Cancer, noted that meaty, high-protein diets were linked with some types of cancer.

■ Osteoporosis and Kidney Stones: Diets that are rich in animal protein cause people to excrete more calcium than normal through their kidneys and increase the risk of osteoporosis. Countries with lower-protein diets have lower rates of osteoporosis and hip fractures.

Increased calcium excretion increases risk for kidney stones. Researchers in England found that when people added about 5 ounces of fish (about 34 grams of protein) to a normal diet, the risk of forming urinary tract stones increased by as much as 250 percent.

For a long time it was thought that athletes needed much more protein than other people. The truth is that athletes, even those who strength-train, need only slightly more protein, which is easily obtained in the larger servings athletes require for their higher caloric intake. Vegetarian diets are great for athletes.

To consume a diet that contains enough, but not too much, protein, simply replace animal products with grains, vegetables, legumes (peas, beans, and lentils), and fruits. As long as one is eating a variety of plant foods in sufficient quantity to maintain one’s weight, the body gets plenty of protein.

Vegan Alert! Quote of the Day

With complimentary self-description, humans exonerate themselves of wrongdoing. Food-industry enslavement and slaughter cause suffering and death of colossal magnitude. Yet, consumers of flesh, eggs and nonhuman milk count themselves among “animal lovers”.

–        Joan Dunayer

Osteoperosis & Too Much Protein

Posted by Jana Yowell

Osteoporosis is not due to a lack of calcium intake, but a result of too much protein in the diet, especially animal protein.  Excessive amounts of protein in the diet causes the kidneys to excrete the excess protein because the body cannot store it.  The extra protein is excreted through the urine and it takes calcium with it.  Extra proteins cause an acid load in the blood and in order to neutralize this load, calcium is depleted from the bones.  This is shown in populations around the world that consume diets loaded with animal protein such as the United States, England, Israel, Finland and Sweden – all have high rates of osteoporosis. The countries that consume low amounts of animal proteins (including dairy foods), such as African and Asian countries show very low rates of osteoporosis.

One example of a population with a high incidence of osteoporosis is the Eskimos. They have a daily consumption of 250 to 400 grams of protein from fish, walrus, or whale meats and 2,200 mg of calcium from fish bone.  This high protein consumption gives the Eskimos the highest rate of osteoporosis in the world.

 The best way to avoid osteoporosis is to eat foods low in protein, especially from animal proteins. Also, make sure to include a wide variety of calcium-rich vegetarian foods such as, kale, broccoli, garbanzo beans and tofu, etc.  Also, make sure to do daily exercise, especially weight bearing activities.  Lastly, some sunshine is necessary for good health.  Your best source of vitamin D is sunlight which converts plant sterols to the active vitamin in our skin.  Milk is naturally deficient in vitamin D, and only contains this fat-soluble vitamin if added during manufacturing.

In summary, make sure you eat whole foods plant-based diet and get plenty of exercise.  Also, get at least fifteen minutes of sunlight per day along with not eating a high protein diet. Also limit caffeine intake and avoid smoking.  If you follow these suggestions you will get plenty of calcium and avoid calcium drain through your urine.  This will keep your bones strong for life and avoid osteoporosis.

 Sources: McDougall, John A., M.D. The McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook

Vegan Alert! Quote of the Day

Pain is such an uncomfortable feeling that even a tiny amount of it is enough to ruin every enjoyment

Will Rogers

Easing Arthritis Pain

By Brian East Dean
www.livestrong.com

Nearly 60 million adults in the United States will have arthritis by the year 2020, New York Presbyterian Hospital reports. If you have arthritis, follow the advice given to you by your health care team. In addition, nutrition plays an important role in the management of arthritis. If you’re looking for a natural way to reduce your arthritis pain, consider these diets that ease arthritis pain.

 

Vegan Diet

A vegan diet doesn’t allow the consumption of any food derived from animals. This includes most baked goods, dairy products, meat and eggs. People with rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, who switch to a vegan diet may significantly improve their symptoms, reports John McDougall of St. Helena Hospital. In a study published in the February 2002 issue of “The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine,” McDougall prescribed a low-fat, vegan diet to a group of people with moderate RA. At the end of one month, inflammation and RA-related pain significantly decreased. To follow a vegan diet, replace animal products with fresh veggies, whole grains, fruits, nuts, beans and soy.

 

Elimination Diet

Eating certain “trigger foods” can make pain worse for those with RA, Johns Hopkins reports. You may have a food allergy or food intolerance to certain foods in your diet. Eating them can increase the inflammation in your joints. However, identifying the foods that are responsible for your pain can be a challenge. The elimination diet is a diet that targets a specific food group that commonly exacerbates pain. If symptoms improve after eliminating this food group, then it is likely that the food was contributing to your pain. To benefit from an elimination diet, it is crucial that you continue to avoid the trigger food. Johns Hopkins warns that reverting back to your old diet will likely result in the same pain you experienced before the elimination diet.

 

Gluten-Free Diet

Gluten is a protein derived from wheat and it is found in foods such as bread, pasta, sauces, lunch meat and baked goods. Many people have an allergic response to gluten that worsens RA pain, reports Hafström Ringertz of Huddinge University Hospital. In a paper published in the May 2001 issue of “Rheumatology,” Ringertz found that RA patients that switched to a vegan diet that was free of gluten significantly reduced pain levels in 40 percent of volunteers.

Vegan Alert! Quote of the Day

I can’t convince you to stop eating the cookies when you’re a diabetic. You have to do that. And that takes responsibility

Reversing Diabetes

Walk into any pharmacy and you are likely to see a large diabetes section touting the latest medical advances to be used in the care and control of this insidious disease. You won’t find any information about how to reverse or cure the disease, only how to manage it. But what if type 2 diabetes could be completely reversed? What if it wasn’t a progressive disease better managed by drugs and/or surgery? What if changes to what we ate could completely reverse diabetes? That would be great news for millions of people suffering from the scourge of diabetes. Well, get ready for some great news!

 There are a growing number of studies and informational resources available showing type 2 diabetes can be reversed by changing what we eat – specifically adopting a Vegan diet. Not only that but it can be done in less than a couple of months in some cases. Conventional thinking has always been that when the pancreas stops making insulin the only hope was medical intervention. 

The Standard American Diet (SAD) has led to an unbelievable increase in the number of diabetes cases. Almost everyone knows someone who is or has been personally impacted by this illness. One in four Americans over 60 years old has type 2 diabetes. By the end of this decade it will be one in every two.

Diabetes Worldwide Prevalence

Over the last 20 years, diabetes cases world-wide have increased 10 times. In the last 3 to 4 years 110 million more cases of diabetes has been diagnosed. It is becoming an epidemic. Type 2 diabetes used to be called “Adult Onset Diabetes” but today kids who haven’t reached the age of 10 are being diagnosed with the condition. Teenagers are having strokes. Heart surgeries are not only for those who are middle aged and up. Take a minute and consider the financial burden of families, businesses and the economy as a whole. Why is this happening? Why has diabetes become almost a common condition? What are we doing differently?

If you knew Veganism could lead to a cure wouldn’t you be interested in giving it a try? The answer for most people is yes. However, they generally do not get this advice from their personal physicians. Even with the mounting research favoring Veganism, the family doctor will likely favor the latest prescription because getting a patient to change their eating habits is more difficult than getting them to medicate.

There is a lot of information on the web promoting a healthy Vegan lifestyle and its positive impact on reversing diabetes. Do a search and you will find dozens of websites supporting the claim backed up with solid research. Don’t want to do the research on the web. There are more and more books being published on the subject as well. Check out your local book store and get educated. If you or a loved one is dealing with this curable condition you owe it to yourself and to them.

Vegan Alert! Quote of the Day

The appearance of a disease is swift as an arrow; its disappearance slow, like a thread

Chinese Proverb

Heart Disease – Vegan Impact

Veganism is experiencing a surge in popularity. Is it because more and more people are adopting this dietary lifestyle for the benefit of our four legged friends or, because of a desire to improve personal health and quality of life? Probably a bit of both.

Dr. Caldwell Esselsytn, a major force in the rapidly increasing Vegan lifestyle, points out that in Norway during World War II, the occupying German army took away much of the people’s livestock – and there was a striking reduction in heart disease and stroke. Dr. Esselstyn believes heart disease is a food borne illness that shouldn’t exist.

Dr. Esselstyn believes in a hard-line approach to fixing arteries damaged by disease. He advocates a fat intake of no more than 10 per cent of the diet. He instructs his patients to minimize oil intake as much as possible. The doctor believes too many fats make it harder for blood vessels to produce the nitric oxide that keeps them healthy. A proper Vegan diet with minimal oil can even improve the function of endothelial cells which have been damaged due to heart disease and failed surgeries.

As the population ages the desire to improve the length and quality of life will continue to drive an ever increasing interest in Veganism. People are going to search for the best way to live longer and the research leading those seeking to better their chances of long term results is compelling. Eat like a Vegan.