This presentation is not an academic paper and is not intended as such. The formatting and references do not conform to MLA, APA, Chicago, or other standards. The references are linked, however, so they should be even easier to find than those listed in academic papers. The writing is informal, though stuffier than a personal message. I wrote this presentation to try to inform and help my friends with a choice that I regard as absolutely vital for health, happiness, and a good life.
If you have stumbled upon this presentation by chance please give the introduction a read. It takes less than five minutes and will enable you to decide if you might find this presentation interesting. I wish you great health and happiness.
Standard boilerplate: I am not a medical doctor. If I were I would almost inevitably know far less about diet than I do. The advice provided in this presentation is not professional medical advice. Any drastic change in diet should be made after consulting with a physician. Wait.. was that standard?
Reasons for a Vegan Diet
1. Introduction
Yes, I have become that weird vegan who tries to tell his friends about veganism. No, I am not telling you that you need to be vegan. I want you to know some of what I have learned over a year and a half of research on diet, research that I conducted in order to heal myself from a disease that no doctor could provide a helpful diagnosis for or successfully treat.1 You may be a bit overwhelmed by how much information appears to be in this document. Please, before you close it out and never look at it again, at least read the introduction before you decide if it is worth your time. The introduction will take you less than 5 minutes.
Ultimately, I have sent you this presentation because I want you to live a long, but more importantly, healthy life. I find it so sad that Americans, even doctors, believe that your health will inevitably worsen as you age. If you live in the U.S., in your 30s you will likely be overweight. In your 40s you will likely have at least one chronic disease. In your 50s and 60s you will likely feel fatigued, and you will be at a high risk of heart attack, stroke, and cancer. In your 70s you will experience aches and pains and, if you are a woman, be at high risk for osteoporosis. In your 80s you may use a cane, a walker, or a wheelchair, and have a high risk of dementia, and you will eventually have to move to a nursing or assisted living home because you won't be able to care for yourself. At all of these points your happiness will suffer because of your health.
The notion that this macabre struggle against our bodies is fated is a myth. People who live on healthy diets remain healthy and happy for their entire lives and into old age. They don't slow to a crawl, they don't suffer constant pain, and they don't have to move into a nursing home where they become infants again. When they die, it is because their heart has beaten its last beat, and they pass painlessly in their sleep. This is how people once lived and still live in parts of the world.
You should feel loved and respected because I sent this presentation to you. I wrote to you because I care about you and your health, but I also wrote to you because I thought that even if you kept eating animal foods you would want to know what the evidence is in support of a vegan diet. In other words, I think of you as an open-minded enough person to want to be challenged to think about your choices. And make no mistake, eating animal foods is a choice and not a necessity, though it never feels like one when you are doing it. I know this fact well; all of my favorite foods were animal foods up until the start of 2011 when I became vegan for my health.
That said, if you don't want to be open-minded just close out of this document and don't talk to me anymore because I'm now a weird, holier-than-thou vegan. :)
Before going any further I want to address a potential concern. The reasons for veganism in this presentation have nothing to do with PETA, Greenpeace, or communal farming. The reasons provided in this piece are universal, human reasons that apply just as much in Lubbock, TX as in Berkeley, CA.
I have spent hundreds of hours learning about diet over the last year and a half, and I have spent upwards of 90 hours on this presentation in order to find the very best information and video clips, to edit and polish it, and to provide a large number of references. The information that is left is the very best of nutritional evidence. It is accurate,2 fascinating, and almost completely unknown to 99% of Americans. I honestly believe that this information could save you from a life of misery down the road.
I have poured my mind, heart, and soul into this piece, and I hope that you dedicate some time and thought to it. It means a lot to me, and I'm certain that it will mean something to you too after reading what I have to say and watching the attached video clips, whether or not you decide to change your diet.
The three parts of the body of this presentation are "2. Health," “3. Ethics,” and “4. Sustainability.” The “Health” part is by far the largest in the presentation, and diet's relationship with health is my foremost concern.
To keep the presentation easier on your schedule, and to avoid information overload, I recommend breaking it up into three blocks.3 If broken up in this manner, the presentation should be read through “2.1 Animal Foods,” which will take 50-60 min. It should then be read from “2.2 Dairy” to “2.8 “Weight,” which will take 1 hour 15 min-1 hour 25 min. It should then be read from “3. Ethics” to “5. Conclusion,” which will take 50-60 min. The content flows well when the presentation is broken up in this way.
If you still can’t manage those time blocks, at least read an entire section at a time. The more that you break up the content the more diluted the information will be. Also, choose a time during which your mind will not be harried by other concerns. I believe that this presentation is worthy of full attention.
The video clip links are all linked to specific times in the videos. You simply need to click on each link to go to the specified time. There are brief descriptions next to each clip that will be helpful to read before you select the link. Make sure to note the stated stop-time for each clip before you click it. If you don't close out of the new tab at each stop-time the entire presentation will take much longer. For this reason it is better to not full screen the videos, since you can't see the current time of the video in full screen mode unless you manually check it.
All of the links that are part of the presentation are in bold. Other links are provided for your interest and reference.
2. Health
Right off the bat, I want to dispel the myth, that many doctors still mysteriously subscribe to, that whether or not we develop disease is largely determined by our genes. This idea has been thoroughly refuted by the medical literature. There are dozens of "migrant studies" that show that when a migrant moves they begin to assume the disease risk of the country to which they move, and, within a few generations, their descendants assume normal disease risks for the adopted country.4
This relationship cannot be explained away by some oddball theory that maybe there is something in the water in the U.S., or more cell phone towers. As these plant food based cultures (e.g., the Japanese and the Chinese) have incorporated the high animal food, Western diet into their eating patterns, their rates of Western disease have skyrocketed. The vast majority of Japanese obtained the bulk of their calories from rice until about 1970-1980. Fast food chains and meaty business lunches are now the norm in Japanese cities like Tokyo, and the rate of diabetes doubled in Japan from just 1-5% prior to 1980 to 11-12% by 1990.5 Chinese counties where animal food consumption is high have rates of cancer up to 100 times that of counties with the lowest animal food consumption, even though one ethnic group, Han Chinese, makes up more than 91% of China’s population.6,7 The genes remained the same; the diseases did not. It isn't the genes. This fact lends much more relevance to observations that cultures that eat little or no animal foods have very low incidences of Western diseases because the difference in disease rate cannot be explained away by genes.
In March 2012 a large study led by Harvard scientists of 121,000 men and women over 28 years, entitled "Red Meat Consumption and Mortality," was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. After controlling for confounding variables such as physical inactivity, smoking, drinking, and high BMI, researchers found that each daily increase of three ounces of red meat was associated with a 12% greater risk of total mortality, including a 16% greater risk of cardiovascular death, and a 10% greater risk of cancer death.8 Researchers estimated that if people in the study had eaten half as much meat deaths would have declined 9.3% in men and 7.6% in women.9 There is a bevy of other evidence against red meat and most health-conscious Americans know that it is unhealthy.
The only people that believe red meat is healthy are low-carb Paleo or Atkins dieters. There are a number of studies that show that low-carb, high animal food diets are dangerous.10 The studies that have shown the relative superiority of a low-carb diet for weight loss used comparisons to the standard American diet (SAD).11 In comparisons between a low-carb diet and a low-fat, vegan diet high in carbohydrate the vegan diet is substantially healthier.12 And though the primary purpose of low-carb, calorie restriction diets that put you in ketosis (burning fat and fueling the brain with ketones rather than glucose) is weight loss, most of the Paleo authors are now overweight.13
In the “Health” part I will first address the common threads that make all animal foods unhealthy. I will then specifically address the animal foods that most people continue to believe are healthy. Nearly all Americans continue to believe that dairy is healthy. Fish is thought to be the healthier of the last two "healthy" meats, the other being chicken. Chicken I consider sufficiently addressed by addressing fish, since it has no advantages over fish (slightly less saturated fat but no Omega 3 fatty acids). Eggs will come last. I will then, in four sections, cover medical treatment of chronic diseases, various causes of death, the “vegan deficiency” myth, and the low-fat, vegan diet and weight.
2.1 Animal Foods
Before beginning with the research and arguments for why animal foods are responsible for chronic disease, let's look at the data on how much consumption of animal foods has increased in the U.S. over the last century. Meat intake of all kinds (red meat, poultry, and fish) rose from 123.9 pounds/year in 1909 to 200.6 pounds/year in 2007,14 a 62% increase. Increased chicken intake is largely responsible for this growth. Chicken intake rose from 10.4 pounds/year in 1909 to 59.9 pounds/year in 2007,15 a more than fivefold increase. Americans now eat almost 10 billion chickens per year, 31 times the population of the U.S. Cheese consumption rose from 3.8 pounds/year in 1909 to 31.4 pounds/year in 2005,16 a more than eightfold increase. My goal is to convince you, by the end of this section on “Animal Foods,” that the increases in these and all animal foods are responsible for the epidemics of chronic disease in the U.S., and in all places where large quantities of animal foods are consumed.
2.1.1 Animal Protein
Animal protein is well correlated with increased risk of cancer, heart disease, and a number of chronic diseases.
Over twenty years, T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., led researchers at Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine in a survey of diseases and lifestyle factors in rural China and Taiwan. The study looked at mortality rates from 48 forms of cancer and other chronic diseases in 65 counties in China. Data on chronic disease was correlated with dietary surveys and bloodwork from 6,500 people, 100 from each county. The project “eventually produced more than 8,000 statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and disease,” states Dr. Campbell. The group of researchers concluded that people “who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease... People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease.”17,18,19
These, and other, results were published in the bestseller The China Study.
Dr. Campbell did not set out to prove that animal foods increase the risk of Western disease. His original mission when he started in nutritional research was actually the opposite. He grew up on a dairy farm, and his reason for going to Cornell for his doctorate was to learn how to grow cows faster so we could drink more milk and eat more meat. He and other nutritional scientists in the early 1960s believed that the key to malnutrition was getting kids in third world countries enough animal protein.
How does animal protein promote chronic diseases? It compromises Vitamin D status, which affects cancer risk, osteoporosis risk, and the risk of many other chronic Western diseases. It increases insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), a protein that Dr. Campbell likens to the cholesterol of the cancer field.
Animal protein increases cholesterol. Dr. Campbell believes it raises cholesterol even more than does saturated fat.
It also causes calcium bone loss, which I will go into in more detail in the "Dairy" section.
Watch 17:25-19:10 Dr. Campbell on the negative health effects of animal protein.
2.1.2 Animal Fat
Animal fat has a very strong correlation with breast cancer, the most common female cancer at 226,000 new cases/year,20 and cancer in general. Plant fat has no correlation with breast cancer.
Watch 27:34-28:50 Dr. Campbell on the correlation between animal fat and breast cancer.
The researchers involved in the Nurses' Health Study claim that no relationship was found between dietary fat and breast cancer. Dr. Campbell points out that when participants reduced levels of fat with skim milk and lean chicken their animal protein levels rose. When the fat in a high protein food is reduced the percentage of calories from protein increases to make up the difference. Take milk for example. Whole (3.5%) milk is 49% fat and 22% protein, 2% milk is 35% fat and 27% protein,21 and skim milk is 5% fat and 39% protein. So when animal fat is reduced with skim milk animal protein intake rises. As Dr. Campbell says in the following clip, “It's not the animal fat. It’s animal-based foods.” There is no way to get around the negative health effects of animal foods by removing the animal fat.
Watch 28:55-32:30 Dr. Campbell on high-fat diets, animal foods and breast cancer, and the Nurses' Health Study.
Saturated fat from animals is also, as you probably know, closely linked to heart disease, heart attack (an artery is blocked and the heart starved of oxygen-rich blood), and stroke (which is basically like a heart attack for the brain, though unlike a heart attack they can vary greatly in severity from tiny strokes that you don't even notice to large ones that kill). Cultures that live solely on plant foods (e.g., Tarahumara Indians in northern Mexico, Papua Highlanders in New Guinea, and rural Chinese) simply do not have atherosclerosis (thickening of the artery wall by accumulation of fat), heart attack, or stroke. Fascinatingly, during WWII when the Germans occupied Holland, Belgium, and Norway and took away all of their livestock, rates of heart attack and stroke plummeted. When animal foods returned post-war, normal rates returned.
Watch 9:28-14:00 Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., surgeon at The Cleveland Clinic and current director of the cardiovascular prevention and reversal program at The Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, on cultures without heart disease, the ubiquity of heart disease in the U.S., and rates of heart attack and stroke during WWII.
More evidence that animal foods cause heart disease is that heart disease reverses on a low-fat, vegan diet. Dr. Esselstyn demonstrated this fact with a pilot study, started in 1985, of 24 patients, which later became 18 as 6 dropped out. For many of these patients surgery was no longer an option. They were, as Dr. Esselstyn says, "the walking dead." They were placed on a low-fat, vegan diet. The 18 patients in the study had 49 coronary events in the 8 years prior to joining the study. In 15 years of follow-up 17 patients had no further events. 1 patient strayed from the diet and required a bypass. He then returned to the diet. The six that dropped out followed the standard American Heart Association, "low-fat" diet. Within 12 years four needed another bypass and the other two died. These results were published in Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.
Watch 53:01-54:40 Dr. Esselstyn on his pilot study's results.
On this diet, the endothelium (the lining of the blood vessels) immediately starts producing more nitric oxide (a gas that keeps your endothelium slippery and blood moving), a strong cap forms over plaques, and you literally become heart attack proof within three weeks. In a few months some atherosclerosis has cleared in those with narrowed arteries and blood pulse volume with each pump of the heart has dramatically improved. And in a few years, some people have gone from significant narrowing of their arteries to a completely normal artery, as shown by angiogram.
Watch 16:59-26:50 Dr. Esselstyn on heart attacks, becoming heart attack proof, nitric oxide, and why a single high-fat meal damages your blood vessels and paves the way for heart disease.
Watch 22:47-27:20 Clip from a surprisingly open-minded CNN documentary on heart disease. In response to Dr. Allan Schwartz at NY Presbyterian/Columbia, who once said of Bill Clinton's heart disease, "This is not a result of his lifestyle or diet... We don't have a cure for this." Dr. Esselstyn has had hundreds of patients since his pilot study. No compliant patients have sustained disease progression or suffered a heart attack.
Given that every American on the SAD develops heart disease, as you saw in the clip before, and a low-fat, vegan diet prevents and reverses heart disease, it is fairly obvious that animal foods cause the disease, unless you think it is just caused by oreos and potato chips. I will tell you why this processed food theory is wrong in “2.6 Causes of Death.”
The fat in animal foods is also strongly complicit in type 2 diabetes. People generally think of sugar when they think of diabetes since the disease is defined by high blood sugar (glucose). They therefore tend to restrict carbohydrates, believing that fat is actually better for them. Diabetes is not caused by sugar in isolation. It is caused by sugar and fat.
Normally, when glucose levels rise in the blood after a meal, your body’s pancreas produces the insulin hormone. Insulin acts like a key for the lock that is your cells’ insulin receptors. When insulin fits the receptors, it allows glucose into the cells to be used for energy.
When a high-fat meal is consumed, however, insulin cannot do its job effectively. The mechanism is roughly as follows. When you consume a high-fat meal lipid (fat) levels rise in your blood. Some of these lipids enter and take residence in your cells. This fat in the cells reduces the sensitivity of insulin receptors. The insulin key is no longer able to fit snugly into the lock of the insulin receptors, and blood sugar rises.22
Watch 0:13-1:30 Neal Barnard, M.D., founding president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, on diabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Watch 14:04-16:30 Dr. Barnard describes two cases of diabetes reversal.
You may have bought, by now, that poor diet causes heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, but are still having trouble with cancer. Americans have long been taught that cancer is all about the genes. According to Dr. Colin Campbell, research shows that no more than 2-3% of cancers can be solely attributed to genes.23
Like all chronic diseases, cancer begins with genes. Genes, however, act only as a sort of “hardware” for our bodies. As with a computer, which can run using different operating systems, we can change the “software” of the genes, the way that they behave. The way genes act is known as gene expression, and it is determined by diet and lifestyle.24 If you follow a healthy diet and lifestyle, disease-promoting genes never switch on.
The powerfully destructive combination of animal protein and animal fat damages our bodies through a variety of mechanisms and promotes heart disease (and stroke), cancer, and diabetes. I chose to focus on animal foods’ relationship with these three diseases because they are the top chronic disease killers. As you will see in “2.6 Causes of Death,” together they are responsible for more than 1 in 2 deaths in the U.S.
2.2 Dairy
Dairy, in all its varieties, is absolutely terrible for human health. This statement is a radical one in the U.S., but the evidence is overwhelming. By the end of this section, I think you will agree that my statement is justified.
Dr. Campbell demonstrates the strong link between casein, the milk protein, and cancer in The China Study. Animal research showed that casein intake, paired with a carcinogen, aflatoxin, could turn on and turn off cancer growth. This research was reviewed by other researchers and received high marks, and it was published in the best cancer journals. These results were then replicated with a cancer caused by a virus, the hepatitis B virus.25
In his words in the oral presentation linked to, “[Casein] is the most significant carcinogen we consume. Forget about DDT... we're talking about animal protein.”
Watch 7:19-15:05 Dr. Campbell on cancer growth and regression using different levels of casein.
In addition to dairy's relationship with increased tumor growth, it is extremely closely linked with prostate cancer, the most common male cancer at 241,000 new cases/year.26 The correlation between the two is striking.
Watch 32:32-33:50 Dr. Campbell on the relationship between dairy and prostate cancer.
According to cancer data from the World Cancer Research Fund and milk consumption per capita estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, 7 of 10 of the countries with the highest cancer rates ingest more than 230 kg/capita/year of milk. The world average milk consumption is 108 kg/capita/year. Denmark, the cancer capital of the world with 326.1 new cases/year per 100,000 pop., has one of the highest rates of milk consumption with 295 kg/capita/year.27,28
With casein's powerful carcinogenic effect, it is quite clear that drinking or eating dairy is at least as bad in regard to cancer risk as eating red meat.
There is a mountain of other evidence condemning dairy. Dairy is often recommended for its high levels of calcium, yet most of the countries that consume the most dairy have the highest rates of hip fracture (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, UK, U.S.). Countries that consume the least amount have the lowest rates of hip fracture (African and Asian countries).
The reason is that dairy protein, like all animal protein, is high in sulfur, which is highly acidic when metabolized by the body.29 This acid is dumped in the urine, making it too acidic for your kidneys, and must be buffered. Your body buffers out the acid produced by dairy by pulling calcium, which is alkaline, from the bones. The calcium neutralizes the acid in your urine, passes out of the body through the kidneys,30 and you urinate it out. So ironically, the food that is touted for its calcium causes net calcium loss.
Watch 55:57-56:35 Dr. Esselstyn on osteoporosis.
Watch 19:29-22:50, 30:58-32:00, 33:06-34:10, 37:22-40:00 Dr. John McDougall, longtime low-fat, vegan M.D., on dairy and osteoporosis.
One-third of dairy cows in the U.S. are still injected with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH).31 Milk from rBGH-treated cows has increased levels of IGF-1.32 Most developed countries, including Canada, Japan, Australia, and all 27 EU countries, have banned rBGH, but the FDA still doesn't even require labeling.33
Watch 45:40-46:10 Dr. McDougall on IGF-1.
Because bacterial infections are so common in dairy cattle, they are preemptively loaded up with pounds of antibiotics. They also ingest large quantities of pesticide in their food.
Over a million cows each year suffer from bacterial mastitis, or inflammation of the udder. This mastitis results in the formation of white blood cells, also known as pus cells. The dairy industry caps pus cells at 750,000 pus cells/ml (1/5 of 1 tsp.). In New York state, a study found the average number of pus cells in store milk to be 363,000 pus cells/ml. Numbers of bacteria were found to be 24,400 bacteria/ml.
Most disturbingly, the majority of meat and dairy cows in the U.S. are infected with bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV) and bovine leukemia virus (BLV). Both of these viruses can cross species lines and infect other animals, including sheep, goats, and chimpanzees.
Watch 50:03-57:50 Dr. McDougall on pus cells, contaminated milk, BIV, and BLV.
Dairy has been strongly linked to type 1 diabetes, as well as other autoimmune diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease) that can strike at any time. If milk protein leaks through your gut lining into your blood, which it likely will if you consume it over a long period of time because it damages many peoples' gut linings, your body produces antibodies that attack the proteins found in dairy. These proteins are very similar to proteins found in your body (e.g., the insulin producing beta cells of the pancreas). Antibodies destroy the dairy proteins, also destroy proteins in your body, and you develop an autoimmune disease.
Watch 3:56-4:25, 6:01-8:15 Dr. McDougall on leaky gut, type 1 diabetes, and autoimmune disease.
Watch 1:34-2:25 Dr. Barnard on type 1 diabetes.
Other diseases and disorders commonly caused by dairy include constipation, bowel inflammation, migraine headaches, asthma, gastroesophageal reflux (GERD), acne, runny nose, ear infection, and eczema.34 Dairy is the #1 cause of food allergy among infants and children according to the American Gastroenterological Association.35 And at least 60% of people on Earth (including about 75% of Africans and 95% of Asians) are lactose intolerant.36
Watch 1:02:09-1:04:15, 1:06:36-1:08:00 Dr. McDougall on the wide range of diseases caused by dairy and the dairy industry's response.
Everything written above applies to all forms of dairy. The harmful effects of milk are even more concentrated in cheese and butter because it takes 10 pounds of milk to make 1 pound of cheese and 21 pounds of milk to make 1 pound of butter.37 Yogurt is simply fermented milk. Dairy is so clearly terrible for you that I would rather you eat a grass-fed steak than ingest a single oz. of dairy, whether in the form of milk or any other. Of course I would discourage the steak too; this hyperbole just demonstrates how terrible I think dairy is for human health.
In regards to yogurt being beneficial because of the bacteria in it, if you really want bacteria take a probiotic. Please do not put this terrible food in your body, for your own sake.38
2.3 Fish & Seafood
Fish is the last refuge for meat-eating Americans that want to hear good news about pleasurable, fatty meat. Because of its Omega 3 fatty acids, which reduce inflammation, it is thought to be healthy. Omega 3s are the only health benefit of fish while there are many more reasons not to eat it.
Farmed Atlantic salmon has almost the same amount of saturated fat per calorie as that contained in trimmed beef tenderloin. It is also high in cancer-promoting animal protein, obviously, since it is the meat of the ocean.
Watch 19:37-21:20 Dr. Barnard on fatty fish.
Farm-raised fish are packed into small enclosures where pathogens and parasites become rampant. Because of these issues they are given large quantities of antibiotics, just like livestock. Chile, the largest salmon exporter to the U.S., used almost 718,000 pounds of antibiotics in fish-farming in 2008.39 These antibiotics are stored in the abundant stores of fat that fish carry, making them about as toxic as other meats.
Farmed fish are often fed unnatural foods like grain, and their ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fat becomes slanted towards Omega 6, thus removing the only benefit of fish. According to the USDA Nutrient Database, the fat of wild Atlantic salmon is 27% Omega 3; the fat of farmed Atlantic salmon is 17% Omega 3.40 It's clear that farm-raised fish is harmful to your health.
But wild-caught fish are toxic too. All fish and seafood contain some level of mercury.41 The government advises pregnant women to avoid large fish because the mercury may permanently damage their unborn babies. Why would it be healthy for other people? The oceans are extremely polluted, and wild fish carry abundant stores of toxins in their fat. They do have more Omega 3s, but these are more than offset by the aforementioned saturated fat, animal protein, and toxins.
Watch 52:54-54:20 James Wildman, Humane Educator for the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, on fish.
Omega 3 fats are the only beneficial quality of fish. If you want Omega 3s you can eat some walnuts or put some flaxseed in your cereal. These foods have no negative health effects.
In regards to other seafood like shrimp, lobster, and crab, like all animal foods they are almost entirely protein and fat. You have seen, by now, how dangerous animal protein and fat are for human health. They also contain mercury, just like fish. They have much less Omega 3 fat than fish does. There is no argument to be made for seafood.
2.4 Eggs
Eggs are high in saturated fat and, of course, high in animal protein, bringing all the increased risks of Western disease that attend meat and dairy.
Egg whites alone have little fat and are almost entirely protein, leading most Americans to believe that they are health food. At this point I hope you realize that the notion that isolated animal protein is healthy is a deadly myth. Going back to the Nurses' Health Study, when fat intake was lowered there was no reduction in breast cancer precisely because animal protein intake increased. The same applies to egg whites. As Dr. Campbell might say, it is not a single nutrient in isolation that is the problem; it is animal foods in general. Removing animal fat solves nothing.
Egg-laying hens are not given hormones in the U.S. nor are they pumped up with antibiotics as a matter of course like other livestock, but they are still treated with antibiotics when infected with bacteria. The eggs of chickens that are treated with antibiotics can still be sold as organic if the antibiotics are allowed to clear from the chicken's system. Are you willing to bet that the antibiotics always clear before the eggs are again packaged as organic?42
Non-organic eggs contain pesticides from the feed given to hens. Organic eggs have been found to often be more contaminated by pesticides and other toxins because the chickens are allowed more room and exposed to more chemicals (e.g., PCBs and DDT). There is no evidence that shows that organic eggs are healthier than non-organic.43
Oh, and by the way, eggs are hen periods.
Watch 30:52-31:40 James Wildman on eggs.
The risk of toxins is always greater with animal foods because hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides concentrate in fat. Plant foods are always lower in toxins because there is very little fat for toxins to be stored in. What about pesticides? Pesticides concentrate in much larger quantities in the fat of animals, who eat pesticide laden grain and the meat from other toxic livestock,44 than in the skin and flesh of plant foods. Buying certain plant foods organic is ideal, but eating a single non-organic animal food (e.g., a tiny piece of meat, some dairy, or an egg) exposes you to a far greater toxic load than an entire bushel full of non-organic plant foods. Finally, plant foods contain a large number of micro-nutrients that allow your body to effectively eliminate toxins, micro-nutrients that animal foods largely lack.
2.5 Medical Treatment
At this point you should be convinced that animal foods are responsible for the majority of chronic diseases. But hasn't medicine progressed so much that doctors can successfully treat any condition? What does it matter if diet is the culprit if these diseases can be treated with medication and intervention?
If medicine has progressed so much then why is the U.S. 38th in the world in life expectancy at 78.2 years while spending $7,410/person, 37% more than the next biggest spender, Norway?45,46,47 Some people may think this disparity is solely because our health care system is so wasteful, which is certainly an important factor. But Cuba ranks 36th in life expectancy, ahead of the U.S. at 78.3 years, and spends $503/person, 93% less than what the U.S. spends.48,49 Can this massive disparity be explained away by wasteful health care? The most important factor in our astronomical health care costs is that Americans are sicker than almost everyone else.
Chronic disease is expected in this country; there is almost no attempt made to prevent it. When it arrives patients are usually treated with medication. 61% of Americans are on at least one medication to treat a chronic disease.50
If you know any doctors you may know that most of them are extremely reluctant to take long-term medication in their own treatment, if they are unfortunate enough to develop one of the chronic diseases that they treat. Why? Because doctors know that all drugs, even simple aspirin, carry varying levels of toxicity to the human body and side effects that range in number and severity. If you are on medication, ask yourself: "If I am already taking medication in my 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s how many will I be taking in my 70s or 80s?" More than 25% of seniors take at least five medications daily.51
Walter Willett, M.D., Dr.P.H., Chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, states, "The current path leads to increasing adiposity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and disability and an unfit, socially isolated population stuffed with pills and subjected to frequent palliative procedures.”52
While, assuming that you have access to health care, treatment of acute cases, such as infection and injury, is excellent in the U.S., treatment of chronic diseases is abysmal. It isn't abysmal because our methods are worse than say, England, France, Germany, or Australia. It is abysmal simply because medication and surgical intervention are not effective treatments of chronic Western diseases.
Certain cancer survival rates have improved primarily because doctors diagnose patients earlier in their disease progression, shifting forward the 5-year period after which a person is declared a "survivor." Cancers often return, and survival rates over longer periods of time have moved far less. H. Gilbert Welch, M.D., M.P.H., et al. at Dartmouth University published a study that concluded, “changes in 5-year survival over time bear little relationship to changes in cancer mortality.”53
Heart disease progression is only slowed, not halted or reversed, by statins (cholesterol lowering drugs), and only symptoms are eased, and death delayed, by surgical interventions like stents, angioplasties, and bypasses. The patient is still slowly killed by the disease.
Importantly, in half of the cases of heart disease the first symptom of the disease is sudden heart attack. Half of those cases result in death within an hour. A full 1/4 of people with heart disease, therefore, experience sudden cardiac death before they experience any symptoms such as angina or shortness of breath, precluding the possibility of “preventive” medication or surgery.54
Americans assign an almost godlike status to doctors. I was guilty of this wishful thinking when I first went to see a doctor about my many symptoms in early 2010. I saw nine doctors from 2010-2011. I learned after the first appointment that doctors do not, as we would like to believe, have the cure for chronic disease, and was reinforced in this belief with every visit to a new one.
The typical doctor knows almost nothing about the causation of chronic disease. A cardiologist, if asked what causes heart disease, will say that there are many risk factors,55 but the cause is unknown. Poor diet is one of the risk factors, which most doctors will tell you is a diet that is too high in calories, helpful information indeed. Cardiologists only recently accepted that saturated fat plays a significant role in heart disease, and until the last decade most top cardiologists thought this simplest of chronic diseases had nothing to do with diet. A typical layperson will look at a clogged artery, tell you "fat in the blood," and be basically correct.
According to a study conducted by researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill, doctors receive little or no education on nutrition. On average, medical students receive 19.6 contact hours of nutrition instruction during their four years. That’s something right? But only 25% of schools require a dedicated nutrition course. Where are students at the other 75% getting their contact hours? They get it piecemeal in other courses and during clinical rotations. This information is usually extremely specialized diet advice for people with particular conditions. The vast majority of doctors, even those who went through some form of dedicated nutrition course, never receive Nutrition 101. You would think that these shortfalls are in the process of correction by medical school administrators. Instead, education on nutrition actually declined from 2004 to 2008. The percentage of schools that required a dedicated nutrition course, for example, dropped by 5 points in that 4 year period.56,57
When doctors have no idea what causes chronic diseases it is not at all surprising that their first recourse is medication.
The other primary reason doctors only treat symptoms is that most doctors are slaves to the standard of care, which is medication and, when matters eventually worsen, intervention. I do not blame doctors for the standard of care, though many do take advantage of it. Your doctor is responsible for himself and his family, and he will follow the standard of care, which keeps his job secure and him safe from malpractice, even though it will not treat your disease. It is important to accept that your doctor is not responsible for your health. You are the only person responsible for your health. When Americans finally embrace this idea our hospitals and clinics will stop being cathedrals of sickness and will return to being treatment centers for acute illness and injury.
Watch 5:57-6:35, 8:46-9:30, 15:46-19:25 Otis Brawley, M.D. (not vegan), chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society, explains why you shouldn't put your faith in health care to prevent or cure your chronic disease.
Waiting until you get sick and then seeking medical care is a recipe for sickness for the remainder of your life. In order to avoid the chronic disease that affects almost every American during his/her lifetime you need to think about your health now.
2.6 Causes of Death
Rates of chronic disease in the U.S. climb ever higher. In 1900 the heart disease death rate was 137.4. In 2010 it was 192.9, a 40% increase despite the invention of statins, HDL increasing drugs, stents, angioplasties, and bypasses.58,59
The rate of incidence for heart disease has, of course, jumped by much, much more than 40% between 1900 and 2010; the reason the death rate has not is that many heart disease patients are now kept alive until they perish from another chronic disease. For example, the death rate for heart disease steadily rose from 1900, at 137.4, to 1968, at 373.5, an almost threefold increase, as Americans ate diets progressively higher in animal foods. The death rate then gradually fell to the current death rate of 192.9 as new treatments were developed that delayed death.60
So what did they die of if not heart disease? They died of one of the other chronic diseases that came out of nowhere in the last century. In 1900 the death rate for cancer was 64.0. In 1950 it was 139.8, more than double. In 2010 it was 185.9, a 33% increase from 1950. In 1931 diabetes wasn't even on the list. Today it is the seventh leading cause of death. People may live much longer than they did in 1900 or 1950, but they are living much sicker.61
Some people, reluctant to give up their protein and fat-rich meat, have blamed our epidemics of chronic disease on increased consumption of “junk food.” Processed foods cannot be the culprit for the huge jump in heart disease mortality from 1900-1968 because they were consumed in relatively low quantities before the counter-top microwave, introduced in 1967. The more than 100% increase in cancer mortality from 1900-1950 came despite even lower consumption of processed foods. As late as 1982, Americans spent 11.6% of the money spent on groceries on processed foods and sweets.62 The figure jumped to 22.9% by 2012,63 nearly double, despite cheaper processed foods. The boom in processed food consumption has occurred largely in the last 30-40 years, while the biggest jumps in mortality from chronic disease occurred from 1900-1960, more than 50 years ago.
In addition, cultures that had no access to processed foods of any kind, but ate large quantities of animal foods, had high incidences of chronic disease. Two Eskimo women discovered in Alaska, preserved by ice for 500 years, were found upon autopsy to have signs of severe osteoporosis and atherosclerosis. Eskimos in this time period had no access to processed foods of any kind. The only explanation for the presence of osteoporosis and heart disease is the large quantities of animal protein and fat they consumed from whale, seal, and fish.64
According to CDC data for deaths in the U.S. in 2010, the No. 1 cause of death is heart disease at 595,000 deaths/year. No. 2 is cancer at 573,000 deaths/year. No. 3 is chronic lower respiratory diseases, primarily chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), at 137,000 deaths/year. No. 4 is stroke at 129,000 deaths/year. No. 5 is accidents (e.g., unintentional falls, motor vehicle, unintentional poisoning) at 118,000 deaths/year. No. 6 is Alzheimer's disease at 83,000 deaths/year. And No. 7 is diabetes at 68,000 deaths/year.65
Diet is the primary factor in all of the top causes of death in the U.S. apart from pulmonary (lung) diseases,66 Alzheimer’s disease (debatable),67 and accidents.
In reality, the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S. is going to the doctor. Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) from properly prescribed drugs cause 106,000 deaths/year. ADRs from improperly prescribed drugs cause 80,000 deaths/year. Together, deaths from medication cause at least 186,000 deaths/year, making ADRs, taken alone, the No. 3 cause of death.68,69
Hospital infections that involve sepsis or pneumonia cause at least 48,000 deaths/year.70 Heart surgery using stents and bypasses alone causes 27,000 deaths/year.71 These three causes alone put health care mortality at 261,000 deaths/year, 44% the mortality rate of heart disease. Eating a low-fat, vegan diet will not just greatly reduce your risk of death from chronic diseases, but reduce your exposure to medical causes of death as well.
The total number of deaths/year in the U.S. is 2.4 million.72 Heart disease, therefore, accounts for 25% of deaths, or 1 in 4. Cancer accounts for 24%. Stroke accounts for 5%. Diabetes accounts for 3%. Together these food-related diseases account for 57%, more than 1 in 2, of American deaths. Whenever an American dies, chances are that he died, in that time and place, because of the food that he put in his stomach.
The positive upshot of this information is that you can drastically cut the risk of a huge chunk of the causes of mortality through diet and lifestyle alone. Just through food you can slash your risk for 57% of causes. If you include Alzheimer’s, you can raise that figure to about 60%. If you don’t smoke or expose yourself to excessive smoking or pollution, you can slash the risk of COPD and raise it to 66%. If you don’t take any medication, stay overnight in the hospital, or get surgery, and thus remove medical mortality as a cause, you can raise the figure to over 76%. If you are vigilant against accident you can cut your risk further and raise the figure to 81%.73
You may be a bit baffled by the statements I just made. How can you possibly reduce your risk of mortality that much? You make it sound like if I adopt a low-fat, vegan diet and change my lifestyle I won't die. Yes, you will still die. But you may not die from a disease. Although some people say about a senior who just passed, "he was so old; it was his time," that person did not die of old age. He died of a disease when his body was too weak to hold the pieces of his poor diet and lifestyle together. Essentially every American dies of disease. With a healthy diet, it is possible that you will be one of the first Americans to actually die of old age in half a century. Thinking about this topic may be morbid to some, but I find it uplifting. You can be healthy and happy until your very last day on this Earth.
2.7 Deficiencies
The mainstream medical community spouts all kinds of nonsense about deficiencies on a vegan diet. Doctors, as you read in “2.5 Medical Treatment,” receive little or no education on nutrition, yet they can't bear to not speak authoritatively on a subject that they have finally accepted is an important factor in health. If you have questions about a deficiency email me using the email found in the sidebar. I will send you information and links with references. In short, a weekly B12 supplement is the only supplement indicated by a vegan diet.74
I will talk about one deficiency that is supposedly common in vegans: "protein deficiency." Adult protein deficiency exists only in theory. For a person to become protein deficient they must eat such a nutrient deficient diet (e.g., white sugar and olive oil) that they would become malnourished in a number of vital nutrients long before they became deficient in protein. If this diet persisted they may eventually become protein deficient, but at that point the other deficiencies would be life-threatening. You cannot be otherwise healthy and be protein deficient. The WHO requires only 0.66 g/kg of protein per day, or 0.3 g/lb, for a normal adult.75 This recommendation works out to 54g for a 180 pound male or 42g for a 140 pound female, about 5-9% of calories from protein,76 depending on calories consumed. Most Americans would regard this figure as absurdly low, but the WHO understands that protein deficiency is a theoretical illness.
The protein myth is nothing but unquestioned dogma,77 and higher protein levels are indicated only for athletes looking to stack on muscle. Herein lies the only advantage of animal foods. Animal protein is more efficient at building muscle than plant protein. The reason is simply that the animal amino acid profile matches our own amino acid profile more closely than plant proteins do.78
Yet a large number of elite, professional athletes in the last few years have either switched to veganism or become much more vegan. The reason is that you recover faster and last longer on a vegan diet. On a low-fat, vegan diet your endothelial cells produce much higher levels of nitric oxide, increasing blood flow and improving endurance and recovery, and insulin more effectively moves glucose into muscle cells, increasing effective strength. Because a low-fat, vegan athlete recovers faster he can train more. So muscle growth ends up a wash between animal food diets and vegan diets, and the vegan diet is better when you are actually competing because it improves endurance and effective strength.
Elite endurance athletes who are vegan, or nearly vegan, include Brendan Brazier,79 Scott Jurek,80 Dave Zabriskie (vegan but for occasional salmon),81 and Lance Armstrong (vegan until dinner).82 Elite strength athletes who are vegan include Arian Foster,83 Jake Shields,84 and Mac Danzig.85 These athletes are vegan primarily because it gives them an edge, not for ethical or environmental reasons. Professional sports are far too competitive to make performance sacrifices.
2.8 Weight
Every doctor acknowledges that being overweight or obese is a substantial risk factor for a wide range of chronic diseases. People who are on a low-fat, whole foods, vegan diet for an extended period of time are always lean (barring rare genetic factors). Obese and overweight people who adopt a low-fat, vegan diet lose weight quickly and easily until they are much closer to their body's ideal weight.86,87,88,89 Weight loss then slows until they reach ideal weight. People who are at their ideal weight remain steady. And people who are underweight gain weight. I find these observations compelling evidence that this diet is our preferred, natural diet. If you are overweight, I do not provide this information to disparage you. I simply provide it because it is fact.
Watch 8:30-10:10 Dr. Barnard on diet and exercise.
You may have noticed that the low-fat, vegan doctors and researchers in the linked videos are all fit and lean. You may be interested to know their ages. Dr. Neal Barnard is 59. In the clip that you just watched he is 58. Dr. John McDougall is 65. Dr. Colin Campbell is 78. And Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn is also 78. Some of the videos are a few years old, but they look basically the same today. Compare these men to the typical American in their 50s, 60s, or 70s. Compare them even to the typical American in their 20s, 30s or 40s, or of any age. It is obvious that they are doing something right.
3. Ethics
I didn't think about the question of diet and ethics before I became vegan because I never thought of eating animal foods as a choice, and I didn't become vegan for this reason either. But now that I am vegan, and I know that animal foods are purely a choice, and an unhealthy one at that, it makes me so happy that I am no longer complicit in the production of animal foods.
I could talk at length, but it is better to simply watch. And as you watch, ask yourself, "Why do I feel bad at seeing this?" It is because you are naturally empathetic towards these creatures, and that is why it is liberating when you are no longer at all responsible for their slavery and torture. It is tough to watch, and you may say, "Well, I only eat chicken, fish, a little dairy, and the occasional egg; I don't need to see this." Egg-laying hens, chickens, dairy cows, and fish are all in the clip. I firmly believe that if you choose to eat any animal foods then you should be aware of how they are produced, not because you will necessarily stop eating them, but because you will be forced out of the state of denial that most people enter every time they pick up a fork.
Watch 28:52-33:10 Video courtesy of Mercy for Animals.
There is much talk nowadays about "humane meat" and "humane dairy or eggs," in which the animal is kept in an environment in which it is eating the foods it is suited for and is given some amount of space to move around in. The amount of livestock kept this way is 1% of the total livestock in the U.S., but even of those 1% I have doubts and a rebuttal.
For one thing, I am absolutely certain that the people that talk these things up don't get all of their meat at the actual farm where they see for themselves that the cow is eating grass and walking around, or verify that the dairy cow is not intentionally made pregnant every year and then immediately separated from its calf, to which it is, like humans, extremely closely bonded upon birth, or see that the hens are wandering around outside and then strolling back into the hen-house where they lay eggs.
For another thing, only the first example of the beef cow is possible; the second and third examples of the dairy cow and the chicken are practical impossibilities. For a dairy cow to be productive it must be made pregnant and then separated immediately from its calf. The best case scenario is that the calf, if male, is chained and made into veal, or, if female, fed (but not on her mother's milk) and grown to be a dairy cow. The worst case, and normal practice, is, as you saw in the video, that they are simply killed. The only reason you are able to consume dairy is because a calf is not consuming his or her's mother's milk. A hen must be confined at some point to be productive at laying eggs. If it is left to do what it wants it will wander outside for the entire day. These are simple facts of dairy and egg production, regardless of how hard you try to be humane.
And finally, even if these animals were to have happy lives, it wouldn't matter. Why? Because the idea of "humanely" exploiting or killing a thinking, feeling animal is insane. You can't commit a violent act humanely. A person cannot mug, beat, or enslave another person humanely. You know this to be true. Is slitting the throat of a pig not an act of violence? What about taking a calf away from his or her mother? How about keeping hens confined so you can scoop up the results of their menstruation? And so animal foods can never be "humanely" produced. This fact will not necessarily convince you to give them up, but it is something that you should be aware of if and when you eat them.
Watch 24:20-27:35 A video narrated by Jonathan Balcombe, Ph.D., animal behaviorist, with clips taken from Farm Sanctuary, the nation's largest farmed-animal protection organization.
The arguments I have made are usually labeled "hippie talk" and left at that. Dismissing an argument is not the same as addressing it. It is clear that all of these animals, including fish, think, feel, and interact. To use them for eating or for pumping out milk or eggs perverts their true nature and forces us into the denial that they are objects when, on a deeper, less socially conditioned level, we know that they are creatures whom we naturally love and respect.
Watch 1:04:37-1:08:30 Another video courtesy of Farm Sanctuary.
4. Sustainability
There are three reasons within the topic of sustainability that I find the most immediately compelling.
4.1 Food Supply
People in the Western Hemisphere, Europe, and Australia are getting fat on wasteful, unhealthy animal foods while people in Africa, particularly children, still suffer from malnutrition. I find this fact outrageous.
According to David Pimental, professor of ecology at Cornell University, animal protein production requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel energy, at 28 kilocalories (kcal) for every kcal produced, as does plant protein, at 3.3 kcal for every kcal produced. Each year an estimated 41 million tons of plant protein is fed to U.S. livestock to produce an estimated 7 million tons of animal protein, a ratio by weight of 6:1. The 7 billion livestock animals in the U.S. consume five times as much grain as is consumed directly by the entire American population. “If all the grain currently fed to livestock in the United States were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million," says Pimental.90
What about fish? Farmed fish are fed up to 6 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce 1 pound of meat.91 Farmed fish, because they can be bred in large numbers, are even less sustainable than wild-caught fish.
Dairy and eggs are similarly wasteful. Milk production requires an energy input to protein output ratio of 14:1, greater than turkey meat at 13:1. Eggs require a ratio of 26:1, greater than pork at 17:1.92
There is no getting around it. The higher you get on the food chain the more wasteful food becomes, especially considering that the final product is less healthy than the input products.
For the last five years food prices have been sky high, and they continue to rise. Grain prices doubled from 2000 to 2007 and increased by another 50% from 2007 to 2012,93 forcing the poor around the world to spend their entire incomes on food. If people stopped consuming wasteful animal foods staple food prices would plummet, and there would be more than enough food for everyone. It's simple: excluding all animal foods frees up enough food for the rest of the world.
4.2 Oceans
If current fishing trends continue, experts predict that by 2048 all of the fish in the ocean will be gone.94 This prediction alone is enough reason to stop eating fish, besides the fact that it isn't actually good for us, and that fish are thinking, feeling animals.
4.3 Water
Between watering the crops that farmed animals eat, providing drinking water, and cleaning away the filth in factory farms, production of animal foods consumes a massive quantity of water. It takes about 12,000 gallons of drinking water to make one pound of beef and 420 gallons to make one pound of chicken.95
Meanwhile, aquifers that filled over millions of years are running dry. John Robbins in The Food Revolution writes, "The great Ogallala aquifer is the largest body of fresh water on Earth, and it lies underneath some of the richest farmland in the world - the great American grain belt... More than 13 trillion gallons of water are taken from the aquifer every year, with the vast majority used to produce beef. More water is withdrawn from the Ogallala aquifer every year for beef production than is used to grow all the fruits and vegetables in the entire country. If we continue pumping out the Ogallala at current rates, it's only a matter of time before most of the wells in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico go dry, and portions of these states become scarcely habitable for human beings. This scenario is being predicted by many leading environmentalists."96
Water is increasingly scarce by the year. The most significant reduction in water consumption that you can make is by giving up animal foods. In stark contrast to the 12,000 gallons of water required for one pound of beef, rice production takes 230 gallons per pound, wheat 108, and potatoes 60.97
5. Conclusion
If animal foods were necessary for human health, the arguments for ethics and sustainability would still matter to me, because they are so important, but I would eat animal foods regardless. Health is the most important thing to me, especially since I lost it and have worked to regain it over the last year and a half through diet. But isn't it wonderful that animal foods are not only unnecessary, but actually harmful to our health? We don't have to be complicit in the slavery and torture of animals to be used like machines or slaughtered. We don't have to be complicit in a system that forces millions to suffer while other millions grow fat on animal foods, or a system that is killing our oceans or draining our aquifers. The choice that is good for our health also liberates us of these burdens.
For all of the reasons stated above (and more) I believe that there is a preponderance of evidence in favor of excluding all animal foods from your diet. There is no good reason to put something in your mouth that increases the risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. And there are many other reasons that you can be proud of as a vegan.
That being said, the choice to go vegan is a difficult one, mainly because of strong societal norms against it. If someone asks you why you are vegan you can tell them that you do it for health reasons. Or that when you learned that eating animal foods was just a choice, and a bad one at that, that you couldn't be complicit in the enslavement and killing of intelligent animals. Or that you don't want to waste six times the plant protein in order to consume a piece of meat, some dairy, or some eggs, when people are starving. Or you don't need to give a reason at all. Sure, people might think that's strange. I guess that's the choice people get to make. You can damage your health, increasing your risk for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, autoimmune disease, hypertension, etc., and lower your life expectancy and quality of life; purchase products that require the enslavement and slaughter of intelligent animals; waste large quantities of food when children are dying of malnutrition; and destroy the planet; and be normal. Or you can save yourself from "inevitable" chronic disease and free yourself of the ethical and psychological burdens of killing animals and starving other human beings and be weird. I think it's worth it.
At the same time, the number of vegetarians in the US has doubled since 2008 from 2.5% to 5%, and the number of vegans has doubled from 1.25% to 2.5%, according to a national telephone poll conducted by Harris Interactive.98 You may be surprised to learn of some of the people who are now vegan. I have covered some of the professional athletes. Others, past and present, include Venus and Serena Williams,99,100 Carl Lewis,101 and Mike Tyson.102 Celebrities include Tobey Maguire,103 Alec Baldwin,104,105 Russell Brand,106 Ben Stiller,107 Michelle Pfeiffer,108 Alicia Silverstone,109 Ellen DeGeneres,110 and Prince.111 Politicians include Bill Clinton and Dennis Kucinich.112
A number of entrepreneurs and bosses have become vegan because the diet gives them more energy and clarity of mind, and because they want to live long enough to enjoy their wealth. These include Steve Wynn (worth $2.5 billion),113 Russell Simmons (co-founder of hip-hop label Def Jam), Bill Ford (Ford Executive Chairman of the Board), John Mackey (co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods), Biz Stone (co-founder and Creative Director of Twitter), Mortimer Zuckerman (publisher and owner of the NY Daily News and editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report), and Joi Ito (Chairman of Creative Commons and board member of the NY Times Co. and a number of foundations).114
Veganism has become much more mainstream in the last few years. People are beginning to recognize the overwhelming evidence in support of the elimination of all animal foods. You can be part of the vanguard of this movement and be proud of it.
Watch (10 min) Philip Wollen was formerly vice president of Citibank. At age 40 he witnessed great cruelty and changed his life. He is currently a vegan philanthropist fighting for animals and the environment, among other things.
As I stated at the beginning, I did not write to you because I thought that you would necessarily become vegan, but because I thought that even if you kept eating animal foods you would want to know what the evidence is in support of veganism. I hope that you now know a large portion of that evidence. I believe that animal foods, most importantly, are dangerous to human health, but I also believe that the consumption of animal foods is causing malnutrition, upheaval, and, quite literally, an Earth that will not support us. I hope I didn't come off as preachy, I just want you to live a long, healthy life, and be happy about the decisions you make.
My father died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 49. I can't help but think about whether he would have developed cancer, and, if he did, how much longer he would have lived, if he had questioned animal foods when he was young. Many of my relatives died from cancer. I never even met my biological grandmother because she died of breast cancer before I was born. How many of them would still be around if they had eaten the diet that is meant for us? It is so difficult to question eating animal foods because it is so normal; it is never even thought to be a choice. In a way I was blessed to lose my health and be driven to adopt a healthy diet because this is the true way of life for our own health and happiness, for our natural empathy towards animals, and for the future of humanity on this planet.
If you want to learn more about veganism I recommend a few accessible resources. Many of the videos that I linked to are excellent. James Wildman's presentation (1h10m long) covers both health and ethics, and it is very accessible and very entertaining. Dr. Neal Barnard's presentation (55m long) covers a range of topics within health, including why low-fat vegans always lose weight (if they need to), and provides much helpful advice on how to change your diet. Dr. John McDougall's presentation on dairy (1h10m long), which I linked to heavily, should be watched if you are somehow still not convinced that dairy is the absolute worst food you could eat; though I’m not sure what would convince you if my section on dairy didn’t. Dr. Colin Campbell's presentation (45m long) focuses on research, mostly with cancer. Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's presentation (1h5m long) focuses on heart disease and clinical evidence of heart disease reversal. They are both excellent. And Melanie Joy, Ph.D., a social psychologist at the University of Massachusetts, gives a presentation (1h long) on the psychology of eating meat, that is very enlightening. All of the presentations are expertly made and surprisingly entertaining, perhaps except for the last, which is understandably more somber.
For movies, Forks Over Knives, which features Dr. Campbell and Dr. Esselstyn, is an excellent documentary that is available on Netflix Instant and Amazon Instant (free if you have Amazon Prime).
For books, The Engine 2 Diet (engine2diet.com), written by Rip Esselstyn, former elite swimmer and triathlete, current firefighter, and son of Dr. Esselstyn, is extremely accessible, dispels all of the myths associated with veganism, and tells you how to follow a vegan diet (it's way easier than you might think).
If you are convinced that a vegan diet is the best choice, but you simply get too much pleasure from animal foods to give them up, these clips from a presentation made by Doug Lisle, Ph.D., psychologist and Director of Research at TrueNorth Health Center, will explain why you feel that way. It is truly fascinating, and I highly recommend the entire presentation (55m long). If you really are convinced that a vegan diet is the best thing for your health and happiness, but just don't think that you are capable of doing it, then you need to watch these clips. They will take ten minutes in total.
Watch 12:28-14:10, 32:44-34:00, 37:15-41:20, 42:34-43:40, 44:26-46:10 Dr. Doug Lisle on the motivational triad and the dietary "pleasure trap."
If you are ready to embrace a vegan diet and just want to find out how to do it, I highly recommend The Engine 2 Diet, which I already mentioned, and The Starch Solution, written by Dr. John McDougall.
Looking for a vegan cookbook? I highly recommend The Happy Herbivore and Everyday Happy Herbivore, both by Lindsay Nixon. They are the only vegan cookbooks I have come across, so far, that are strictly low-fat vegan, and they have earned the praise of Drs. Campbell, Barnard, and McDougall. The recipes found within use standard ingredients and are quick and delicious.
You might be worried about eating out. It's not that hard.115 You might be worried about feeling deprived and hungry. You don't want to eat salad for every meal, or "rabbit food" as people like to say. Vegetables are only a part of the dishes you make. Starch from whole grains (e.g., rice, corn, oats, wheat, quinoa), legumes (e.g., beans, peas, lentils), and roots/tubers (e.g., potatoes, sweet potatoes) is the main source of calories on a low-fat, vegan diet.
A diet based on starches, fruits, and vegetables is wonderful and simple. There is no calorie restriction; you eat as much as you want. For information on how you can eat until you are completely full and still lose weight (if you need to) check references in “2.8 Weight.”
If you have any questions about a vegan diet feel free to email me at vegandietreasons@gmail.com. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read what I have written. I wish you nothing but health and happiness.
Endnotes
1. Lyme disease was incorrect, and I regard fibromyalgia a non-diagnosis.
2. Although I have worked hard to verify all of the information, and thoroughly referenced lesser known facts and statistics, I’m sure that there are still errors. If you encounter one please let me know.
3. If you get grabbed by it and want to go all the way through in one go, that’s great. I thought that most of you would have a tough time setting aside three hours uninterrupted and might prefer to digest the information more slowly.
4. "Cancer Incidence in U.S. Immigrant Populations." Cancer.gov. National Cancer Institute, n.d. Web. 18 July 2012.
5. Watch 1:48-2:55 Neal Barnard, M.D., on diabetes prevalence in Japan from prior to 1980 to 1990.
6. Campbell, T. Colin. "China Study (Summary)." TCTutoring.net, n.d. Web. 20 July 2012. p. 4.
7. "Han Chinese Proportion in China's Population Drops: Census Data." Xinhuanet.com. Ed. Guanqun Wang. Xinhua News Agency, 28 Apr. 2011. Web. 21 July 2012.
8. Bakalar, Nicholas. "Risks: More Red Meat, More Mortality." The New York Times, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 14 July 2012.
9. Ibid.
10. McDougall, John. "The Atkins Scientific Research – Deceit and Disappointment." DrMcDougall.com, May 2004. Web. 20 July 2012.
11. Watch 10:53-11:35 John McDougall, M.D., on study with Atkins versus “low-fat” diet.
12. Watch 26:17-26:50 Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., on study comparing flow mediated dilatation for Atkins, SAD, South Beach, and plant based diets.
13. Loren Cordain, Ph.D. (exercise physiology), originator of the Paleo diet, before he adopted his diet and present day.
14. Watch 4:17-4:55 Neal Barnard, M.D., on increased meat consumption.
15. Watch 4:56-5:20 Neal Barnard, M.D., on increased chicken consumption.
16. Watch 5:25-6:15 Neal Barnard, M.D., on increased cheese consumption.
17. "About The China Study." TheChinaStudy.com, n.d. Web. 21 July 2012.
18. Brody, Jane E. "Huge Study Of Diet Indicts Fat And Meat." The New York Times, 8 May 1990. The New York Times. Web. 21 July 2012.
19. A number of Paleo-pushers and meat lovers have tried to “debunk” The China Study. Putting aside how ridiculous it is to think that a study involving two of the premier universities on Earth and a well-regarded Chinese health academy, a study that received wide praise from other nutritional scientists when it was released, could be debunked by a blog post, let’s briefly address the criticism. Generally these nutritional “experts” point out that correlation does not mean causation, a brilliant observation. They also reach for minor variables that were not controlled for. In other words, they use the two methods of attack that apply to any and every study ever conducted. These criticisms are not meaningful.
20. "Common Cancer Types.” Cancer.gov. National Cancer Institute, n.d. Web. 15 July 2012.
21. 2% milk is 2% fat by weight, a useless statistic. It is 35% fat by calories.
22. Dietary fat is far more harmful for a diabetic than sugar is. Many people have completely reversed their diabetes on a low-fat, vegan diet that does not limit carbohydrates, even fruit. No person has reversed diabetes, to my knowledge, while they continue to eat high-fat animal foods.
23. Freston, Kathy. "A Cure For Cancer? Eating A Plant-Based Diet." HuffingtonPost.com. The Huffington Post, 24 Sept. 2009. Web. 22 July 2012.
24. Gene expression is even inherited, to a significant extent, by your children. Poor diet and lifestyle choices influence gene expression. This unhealthy gene expression is passed down, making disease more likely in the next generation, and, if bad behaviors continue, even more likely in the next. Healthy diet and lifestyle choices ensure that you pass on healthy gene expression, and, if continued, even healthier gene expression for the next generation. The effects, in both directions, are cumulative. The study of heritable changes in gene expression is known as epigenetics.
25. Campbell, T. Colin. "Animal Protein as a Carcinogen." TColinCampbell.org. T. Colin Campbell Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 July 2012.
26. "Common Cancer Types.” Cancer.gov. National Cancer Institute, n.d. Web. 15 July 2012.
27. "Cancer Rates: See How Countries Compare Worldwide." The Guardian, n.d. Web. 15 July 2012.
28. "Current Worldwide Total Milk Consumption per Capita." ChartsBin.com, n.d. Web. 12 July 2012.
29. You may have heard about acid/alkaline health and diet books. Almost all of the talk about pH balance is junk except for that pertaining to calcium bone loss.
30. This process is the mechanism by which people develop kidney stones. Kidney stones are exceedingly rare in cultures where little animal protein is consumed.
31. "1/3 US Cows Are Injected with Cancer Causing RBGH Growth Hormone." HealthNews.com. Health News, 24 Oct. 2011. Web. 17 July 2012.
32. Botemiller, Helena. "Ban on Milk Labeling Ruled Unconstitutional." FoodSafetyNews.com. Food Safety News, 4 Oct. 2010. Web. 17 July 2012.
33. Ibid.
34. McDougall, John. "Marketing Milk and Disease." DrMcDougall.com, May 2003. Web. 20 July 2012.
35. "American Gastroenterological Association Medical Position Statement: Guidelines for the Evaluation of Food Allergies." Gastroenterology 120.4 (2001): 1023-025. GastroJournal.org. American Gastroenterological Association. Web. 18 July 2012. Table 6.
36. Weise, Elizabeth. "Sixty Percent of Adults Can't Digest Milk." USA Today, 15 Sept. 2009. Web. 18 July 2012.
37. "Fun Facts." MilkCow.org. Georgia Dairy Farmers, n.d. Web. 17 July 2012.
38. People who know much of this information often still have the hardest time giving up dairy, particularly cheese. The casein in dairy breaks apart in the body to create casomorphines, which attach to opiate receptors in the brain. Since it takes 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese, casein is far more concentrated in cheese than in milk. Once receptors have adapted to these levels of opiates, going without them causes withdrawal. This evidence explains why people say things like "I would rather die than give up cheese." (Watch 8:41-13:05 Neal Barnard, M.D., on cheese.)
39. Barrionuevo, Alexei. "Chile’s Antibiotics Use on Salmon Farms Dwarfs That of a Top Rival’s." The New York Times, 26 July 2009. Web. 18 July 2012.
40. "Farmed Salmon and Human Health." PureSalmon.org. Pure Salmon Campaign, n.d. Web. 17 July 2012.
41. The level of mercury rises the larger the fish is. Commonly eaten fish with the highest levels of mercury are tuna, mackerel, and grouper.
42. "Organic Eggs: More Expensive, but No Healthier." Time, 8 July 2010. Web. 12 July 2012.
43. Ibid.
44. Prematurely deceased livestock are ground up and fed to other livestock as standard practice.
45. "World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision." UN.org. United Nations, n.d. Web. 13 July 2012. pp. 80-84.
46. "United States of America." WHO.int. World Health Organization, n.d. Web. 13 July 2012.
47. "Norway." WHO.int. World Health Organization, n.d. Web. 13 July 2012.
48. "World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision."
49. "Cuba." WHO.int. World Health Organization, n.d. Web. 13 July 2012.
50. Kotz, Deborah. "Overmedication: Are Americans Taking Too Many Drugs?" U.S. News & World Report, 7 Oct. 2010. Web. 14 July 2012.
51. Ibid.
52. Van Dam, Rob M., and Walter C. Willett. "Unmet Potential for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in the United States." Circulation 120 (2009): 1171-173. Web. 17 July 2012.
53. Welch, H. Gilbert, et al. "Are Increasing 5-Year Survival Rates Evidence of Success Against Cancer?" The Journal of the American Medical Association 283.22 (2000): 2975-978. JAMANetwork.com. American Medical Association, 14 June 2000. Web. 17 July 2012.
54. Chitale, Radha. "John Hughes' Heart Attack May Have Had No Warning." ABCNews.com. ABC News Network, 08 Aug. 2009. Web. 13 July 2012.
55. Genes is almost always listed first and foremost, as it is with all chronic diseases.
56. Adams, Kelly M., et al. "Nutrition Education in U.S. Medical Schools: Latest Update of a National Survey." Academic Medicine 85.9 (2010): 1537-542. Journals.LWW.com. Association of American Medical Colleges. Web. 17 July 2012.
57. Though the fault for doctors’ lack of knowledge of nutrition primarily lies with their medical education, they should at least be aware of their ignorance and inform patients that chronic diseases, like heart disease and type 2 diabetes, can be reversed, if they would like to look it up on their own.
58. "Leading Causes of Death, 1900-1998." CDC.gov. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d. Web. 12 July 2012.
59. "Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2010." National Vital Statistics Report 60.4 (2012): 1-68. CDC.gov. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11 Jan. 2012. Web. 13 July 2012. p. 54.
60. Ibid.
61. Ibid.
62. Philpott, Tom. "The American Diet in 1 Chart." Mother Jones, 13 June 2012. Web. 19 July 2012.
63. Ibid.
64. Watch 40:03-41:30 John McDougall, M.D., on autopsy results of Eskimos dating back 500 years.
65. "Leading Causes of Death, 1900-1998."
66. Smoking and secondhand smoking are by far the most important risk factors for COPD. Breathing in pollutants is also a factor.
67. While there are competing theories for the cause of Alzheimer’s, it has very low rates in cultures eating few or no animal foods. Studies have found evidence of an accumulation of tiny strokes in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. If strokes are a typical cause then food is indeed a major contributing factor.
68. Lazarou, Jason, et al. "Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients: A Meta-analysis of Prospective Studies." JAMA 279.15 (1998): 1200-205. JAMANetwork.com. American Medical Association, 15 Apr. 1998. Web. 14 July 2012.
69. Mortality from ADRs is likely much higher as the estimate was conservative even in 1998, when far fewer people were on medication.
70. Eber, Michael R., et al. "Clinical and Economic Outcomes Attributable to Health Care–Associated Sepsis and Pneumonia." Archives of Internal Medicine 170.4 (2010): 347-53. JAMANetwork.com. American Medical Association, Feb. 2010. Web. 14 July 2012.
71. Watch 33:53-35:25 Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., on mortality from stent and bypass operations.
72. "Deaths and Mortality." CDC.gov. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 22 July 2012.
73. I haven’t included substance abuse in the analysis. If you refrain from all kinds of substance abuse the figure is even higher.
74. Even B12 deficiency is rare in vegans eating a healthy, low-fat, whole foods diet, but a weekly B12 supplement is a cheap and effective precaution.
75. "Protein and Amino Acid Requirements in Human Nutrition." WHO.int. World Health Organization, 2007. Web. 15 July 2012, p. 150.
76. Nearly any plant food will satisfy this requirement. Even a banana is 5% protein.
77. Protein recommendations were initially established in the late 1800s by scientists who believed that the wealthiest people would automatically choose the proper protein intake. These people ate protein at well over 100 g/day. These recommendations persist in the recommendations of agencies and doctors today. (Watch 25:20-26:55 John McDougall, M.D., on the original protein intake “research”.)
78. In fact, the most efficient protein source for muscle growth is human flesh.
79. Pope, Gabrielle. "Chatting With Hugh Jackman’s Vegan Guru." VegNews.com. Veg News, 20 Sept. 2010. Web. 20 July 2012.
80. Jurek, Scott. "Ultramarathon Running: How A Vegan Diet Helped Me Run 100 Miles." HuffingtonPost.com. The Huffington Post, 12 June 2012. Web. 20 July 2012.
81. Albergotti, Reed. "Riding the Tour De Vegetable." The Wall Street Journal, 29 June 2011. Web. 20 July 2012.
82. Zamona, Rebecca. "Lance Armstrong In 2012: On Exercise, Diet And Why He Won't Go Into Politics." HuffingtonPost.ca. The Huffington Post Canada, 28 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 July 2012.
83. Gant, Darin. "Arian Foster’s Vegan Decision Shouldn’t Impact Performance." NBCSports.com. National Broadcasting Company, 9 July 2012. Web. 20 July 2012.
84. "Jake Shields Makes Vegan Transition." VegetarianStar.com. Vegetarian Star, 14 Sept. 2011. Web. 20 July 2012.
85. Curreri, Frank. "Mac Danzig's Diet - The Truth About Vegan." UFC.com. Ultimate Fighting Championship, 5 Apr. 2012. Web. 20 July 2012.
86. Though you will eat until you are completely full, and feel like you ate the same amount that you used to, you will actually eat less calories than when you were eating animal foods because a low-fat, vegan diet is much higher in fiber. (Watch 27:12-28:45 Neal Barnard, M.D., on fiber.)
87. Your post-meal metabolic rate increases when on a low-fat, vegan diet. (Watch 28:45-30:45 Neal Barnard, M.D., on post-meal metabolic rate.)
88. Watch 36:50-40:55 Neal Barnard, M.D., on weight loss results in a study testing a low-fat, vegan diet.
89. Contrary to popular opinion, calories from carbohydrate don't turn into body fat efficiently. Less than 20% of excess calories from carbohydrate turn into body fat while over 90% of excess calories from dietary fat turn into body fat. (Sievenpiper, John. "Fate of Fructose: Interview with Dr. John Sievenpiper." Interview. Web log post. Evolving Health: Food, Nutrition, and Medicine. Blogspot, 26 May 2012. Web. 18 July 2012.) (The Starch Solution, p. 26)
90. Segelken, Roger. "U.S. Could Feed 800 Million People with Grain That Livestock Eat, Cornell Ecologist Advises Animal Scientists Future Water and Energy Shortages Predicted to Change Face of American Agriculture." Cornell Chronicle, 7 Aug. 1997. Web. 17 July 2012.
91. "Unsustainable Approach: Factory Fish Farming." FoodandWaterWatch.org. Food & Water Watch, June 2011. Web. 17 July 2012.
92. Segelken, Roger.
93. "FAO Food Price Index." FAO.org. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 5 July 2012. Web. 12 July 2012.
94. Dean, Cornelia. "Study Sees ‘Global Collapse’ of Fish Species." The New York Times, 3 Nov. 2006. Web. 18 July 2012.
95. Segelken, Roger.
96. Robbins, John. The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World. Berkeley, CA: Conari, 2001. Print. pp. 238-239.
97. Segelken, Roger.
98. "How Many Adults Are Vegan in the U.S.?" Web log post. VRG.org. The Vegetarian Resource Group, 5 Dec. 2011. Web. 18 July 2012.
99. "Venus Williams: I'm a Raw Vegan." CBSNews.com. CBS Broadcasting Inc., 10 July 2012. Web. 20 July 2012.
100. "Venus and Serena Williams Go Vegan." MindBodyGreen.com. Mind Body Green, 3 Jan. 2012. Web. 20 July 2012.
101. Lewis, Carl. "Carl Lewis on Being Vegan." EarthSave.org. EarthSave, n.d. Web. 20 July 2012.
102. "The Rise of the Power Vegans." Bloomberg Businessweek, 4 Nov. 2010. Web. 12 July 2012.
103. Stein, Ruthe. "Jim Sheridan Directs 'Brothers." San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Nov. 2009. Web. 20 July 2012.
104. "The Rise of the Power Vegans."
105. Baldwin is not a particularly good example because he is still overweight. Oreos, potato chips, and handfuls of nuts are vegan. To be healthy you have to eat a low-fat, whole foods, vegan diet.
106. "Katy Perry Sent Vegan Russell Brand Pic of Half-eaten Big Mac." The Times of India, 3 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 July 2012.
107. LaRusso, Christie. "Christine Taylor’s Latest Role: Healthy Mom." People, 16 May 2012. Web. 20 July 2012.
108. "Michelle Pfeiffer: Why I Became a Vegan." CNN.com. Cable News Network, 4 June 2012. Web. 20 July 2012.
109. "Alicia Silverstone's Kind Diet." Oprah.com, 21 Jan. 2010. Web. 20 July 2012.
110. "The Rise of the Power Vegans."
111. Associated Press. "Prince Is Voted 'Sexiest Vegetarian." CBSNews.com. CBS Broadcasting Inc., 11 Feb. 2009. Web. 20 July 2012.
112. "The Rise of the Power Vegans."
113. Wynn has convinced most of his senior management to go vegan. ("The Rise of the Power Vegans")
114. "The Rise of the Power Vegans."
115. Mexican makes for the best low-fat, vegan fast food. For sit-downs Mexican, Italian (marinara sauce, ask for no cheese), Indian (ask for no dairy), and most Asian places work fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment