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And that,
"No significant association between breast cancer and a high consumption
of animal fats or animal products in general was noted." (48)
Further, it is usually claimed that a diet rich in plant foods like whole grains and
legumes will reduce ones risks for cancer, but research going back to the last
century demonstrates that carbohydrate-based diets are the prime dietary instigators
of cancer, not diets based on minimally processed animal foods (49).
The mainstream health and vegetarian media have done such an effective job of
beef bashing, that most people think there is nothing healthful about meat,
especially red meat. In reality, however, animal flesh foods like beef and lamb are
excellent sources of a variety of nutrients as any food/nutrient table will show.
Nutrients like vitamins A, D, several of the B-complex, essential fatty acids (in small
amounts), magnesium, zinc, phosphorous, potassium, iron, taurine, and selenium are
abundant in beef, lamb, pork, fish and shellfish, and poultry. Nutritional factors like
coenzyme Q10, carnitine, and alpha-lipoic acid are also present. Some of these
nutrients are only found in animal foods--plants do not supply them.
MYTH #6: Saturated fats and dietary cholesterol cause heart disease,
atherosclerosis, and/or cancer, and low-fat, low-cholesterol diets are healthier for
people.
This, too, is not a specific vegetarian myth. Nevertheless, people are often urged to
take up a vegetarian or vegan diet because it is believed that such diets offer
protection against heart disease and cancer since they are lower or lacking in animal
foods and fats.
Although it is commonly believed that saturated fats and dietary cholesterol "clog
arteries" and cause heart disease, such ideas have been shown to be false by such
scientists as Linus Pauling, Russell Smith, George Mann, John Yudkin, Abram
Hoffer, Mary Enig, Uffe Ravnskov and other prominent researchers (50). On the
contrary, studies have shown that arterial plaque is primarily composed of
unsaturated fats, particularly polyunsaturated ones, and not the saturated fat of
animals, palm or coconut (51).
Trans-fatty acids, as opposed to saturated fats, have been shown by researchers
such as Enig, Mann and Fred Kummerow to be causative factors in accelerated
atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, cancer and other ailments (52). Trans-fatty
acids are found in such modern foods as margarine and vegetable shortening and
foods made with them. Enig and her colleagues have also shown that excessive
omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid intake from refined vegetable oils is also a major
culprit behind cancer and heart disease, not animal fats.
A recent study of thousands of Swedish women supported Enigs conclusions and
data, and showed no correlation between saturated fat consumption and increased
risk for breast cancer. However, the study did show,as did Enigs work, a strong link
between vegetable oil intake and higher breast cancer rates (53).
The major population studies that supposedly prove the theory that animal fats and
cholesterol cause heart disease actually do not upon closer inspection. The
Framingham Heart Study is often cited as proof that dietary cholesterol and
saturated fat intake cause heart disease and ill health. Involving about 6,000 people,
the study compared two groups over several years at five-year intervals. One group
consumed little cholesterol and saturated fat, while the other consumed high
amounts. Surprisingly, Dr William Castelli, the study's director, said:
In Framingham, Mass., the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate,
the more calories one ate, the lower the person's serum cholesterol ... we found that
the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, [and] ate the
most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active. (54)
The Framingham data did show that subjects who had higher cholesterol levels and
weighed more ran a slightly higher chance for coronary heart disease. But weight
gain and serum cholesterol levels had an inverse correlation with dietary fat and
cholesterol intake. In other words, there was no correlation at all (55).
In a similar vein, the US Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial, sponsored by the
National Heart and Lung Institute, compared mortality rates and eating habits of
12,000+ men. Those who ate less saturated fat and cholesterol showed a slightly
reduced rate of heart disease, but had an overall mortality rate much higher than the
other men in the study (56).
Low-fat/cholesterol diets, therefore, are not healthier for people. Studies have shown
repeatedly that such diets are associated with depression, cancer, psychological
problems, fatigue, violence and suicide (57). Women with lower serum cholesterol
live shorter lives than women with higher levels (58). Similar things have been found
in men (59).
Children on low-fat and/or vegan diets can suffer from growth problems, failure to
thrive, and learning disabilities (60). Despite this, sources from Dr Benjamin Spock to
the American Heart Association recommend low-fat diets for children! One can only
lament the fate of those unfortunate youngsters who will be raised by unknowing
parents taken in by such genocidal misinformation.
There are many health benefits to saturated fats, depending on the fat in question.
Coconut oil, for example, is rich in lauric acid, a potent antifungal and antimicrobial
substance. Coconut also contains appreciable amounts of caprylic acid, also an
effective antifungal (61). Butter from free-range cows is rich in trace minerals,
especially selenium, as well as all of the fat-soluble vitamins and beneficial fatty
acids that protect against cancer and fungal infections (62).
In fact, the body needs saturated fats in order to properly utilize essential fatty acids
(63). Saturated fats also lower the blood levels of the artery-damaging lipoprotein (a)
(64); are needed for proper calcium utilization in the bones (65); stimulate the immune
system (66); are the preferred food for the heart and other vital organs (67); and,
along with cholesterol, add structural stability to the cell and intestinal wall (68).
They are excellent for cooking, as they are chemically stable and do not break down
under heat, unlike polyunsaturated vegetable oils. Omitting them from one's diet,
then, is ill-advised.
With respect to atherosclerosis, it is always claimed that vegetarians have much
lower rates of this condition than meat eaters. The International Atherosclerosis
Project of 1968, however, which examined over 20,000 corpses from several countries,
concluded that vegetarians had just as much atherosclerosis as meat eaters (69).
Other population studies have revealed similar data. (70) This is because
atherosclerosis is largely unrelated to diet; it is a consequence of aging. There are
things which can accelerate the atherosclerotic process such as excessive free
radical damage to the arteries from antioxidant depletion (caused by such things as
smoking, poor diet, excess polyunsaturated fatty acids in the diet, various nutritional
deficiencies, drugs, etc), but this is to be distinguished from the fatty-streaking and
hardening of arteries that occurs in all peoples over time.
It also does not appear that vegetarian diets protect against heart disease. A study
on vegans in 1970 showed that female vegans had higher rates of death from heart
disease than non-vegan females (71). A recent study showed that Indians, despite
being vegetarians, have very high rates of coronary artery disease (72).
High-carbohydrate/low-fat diets (which is what vegetarian diets are) can also place
one at a greater risk for heart disease, diabetes, and cancer due to their
hyperinsulemic effects on the body (73). Recent studies have also shown that
vegetarians have higher homocysteine levels in their blood (74). Homocysteine is a
known cause of heart disease. Lastly, low-fat/cholesterol diets, generally favored to
either prevent or treat heart disease, do neither and may actually increase certain risk
factors for this condition (75).
Studies which conclude that vegetarians are at a lower risk for heart disease are
typically based on the phony markers of lower saturated fat intake, lower serum
cholesterol levels and HDL/LDL ratios. Since vegetarians tend to eat less saturated
fat and usually have lower serum cholesterol levels, it is concluded that they are at
less risk for heart disease. Once one realizes that these measurements are not
accurate predictors of proneness to heart disease, however, the supposed protection
of vegetarianism melts away (76).
It should always be remembered that a number of things factor into a person getting
heart disease or cancer. Instead of focusing on the phony issues of saturated fat,
dietary cholesterol, and meat-eating, people should pay more attention to other more
likely factors.
These would be trans-fatty acids, excessive polyunsaturated fat intake, excessive
sugar intake, excessive carbohydrate intake, smoking, certain vitamin and mineral
deficiencies, and obesity. These things were all conspicuously absent in the healthy
traditional peoples that Dr. Price studied.
MYTH #7: Vegetarians live longer and have more energy and endurance than
meat-eaters.
A vegetarian guidebook published in Great Britain made the following claim:
"You and your children don't need to eat meat to stay healthy. In
fact, vegetarians claim they are among the healthiest people around,
and they can expect to live nine years longer than meat eaters (this is
often because heart and circulatory diseases are rarer). These days
almost half the population in Britain is trying to avoid meat, according
to a survey by the Food Research Association in January 1990." (77)
In commenting on this claim of extended lifespan, author Craig Fitzroy astutely
points out that:
"The ' nine-year advantage ' is an oft-repeated but invariably unsourced
piece of anecdotal evidence for vegetarianism. But anyone who believes
that by snubbing mum's Sunday roast they will be adding a decade to their
years on the planet is almost certainly indulging in a bit of wishful
thinking." (78)
And that is what most of the claims for increased longevity in vegetarians are:
anecdotal. There is no proof that a healthy vegetarian diet when compared to a
healthy omnivorous diet will result in a longer life. Additionally, people who choose
a vegetarian lifestyle typically also choose not to smoke, to exercise, in short, to live
a healthier lifestyle. These things also factor into ones longevity.
In the scientific literature, there are surprisingly few studies done on vegetarian
longevity. Russell Smith, PhD, in his massive review study on heart disease, showed
that as animal product consumption increased among some study groups, death
rates actually decreased! (79) Such results were not obtained among vegetarian
subjects. For example, in a study published by Burr and Sweetnam in 1982, analysis
of mortality data revealed that, although vegetarians had a slightly (.11%) lower rate
of heart disease than non-vegetarians, the all-cause death rate was much higher for
vegetarians (80).
Despite claims that studies have shown that meat consumption increased the risk for
heart disease and shortened lives, the authors of those studies actually found the
opposite. For example, in a 1984 analysis of a 1978 study of vegetarian Seventh Day
Adventists, HA Kahn concluded,
"Although our results add some substantial facts to the diet-disease
question, we recognize how remote they are from establishing, for
example, that men who frequently eat meat or women who rarely eat
salad are thereby shortening their lives." (81)
A similar conclusion was reached by D.A. Snowden (82). Despite these startling
admissions, the studies nevertheless concluded the exact opposite and urged people
to reduce animal foods from their diets.
Further, both of these studies threw out certain dietary data that clearly showed no
connection between eggs, cheese, whole milk, and fat attached to meat (all high fat
and cholesterol foods) and heart disease. Dr. Smith commented,
"In effect the Kahn [and Snowden] study is yet another example of negative
results which are massaged and misinterpreted to support the politically
correct assertions that vegetarians live longer lives." (83)
It is usually claimed that meat-eating peoples have a short life span, but the
Aborigines of Australia, who traditionally eat a diet rich in animal products, are
known for their longevity (at least before colonization by Europeans). Within
Aboriginal society, there is a special caste of the elderly (84). Obviously, if no old
people existed, no such group would have existed. In his book Nutrition and
Physical Degeneration, Dr. Price has numerous photographs of elderly native
peoples from around the world. Explorers such as Vilhjalmur Stefansson reported
great longevity among the Innuit (again, before colonization). [85]
Similarly, the Russians of the Caucasus Mountains live to great ages on a diet of
fatty pork and whole raw milk products. The Hunzas, also known for their robust
health and longevity, eat substantial portions of goat's milk which has a higher
saturated fat content than cow's milk (86). In contrast, the largely vegetarian Hindus
of southern India have the shortest life-spans in the world, partly because of a lack
of food, but also because of a distinct lack of animal protein in their diets (87). H.
Leon Abrams comments are instructive here:
"Vegetarians often maintain that a diet of meat and animal fat leads to a
pre-mature death. Anthropological data from primitive societies do not
support such contentions." (88)
With regards to endurance and energy levels, Dr Price traveled around the world in
the 1920s and 1930s, investigating native diets. Without exception, he found a
strong correlation between diets rich in animal fats, robust health and athletic ability.
Special foods for Swiss athletes, for example, included bowls of fresh, raw cream. In
Africa, Dr Price discovered that groups whose diets were rich in fatty meats and fish,
and organ meats like liver, consistently carried off the prizes in athletic contests, and
that meat-eating tribes always dominated tribes whose diets were largely vegetarian.
(89)
It is popular in sports nutrition to recommend "carb loading" for athletes to increase
their endurance levels. But recent studies done in New York and South Africa show
that the opposite is true: athletes who "carb loaded" had significantly less
endurance than those who "fat loaded" before athletic events (90).
MYTH #8: The "cave man" diet was low-fat and/or vegetarian. Humans evolved as
vegetarians.
Our Paleolithic ancestors were hunter-gatherers, and three schools of thought have
developed as to what their diet was like. One group argues for a high-fat and
animal-based diet supplemented with seasonal fruits, berries, nuts, root vegetables
and wild grasses. The second argues that primitive peoples consumed assorted lean
meats and large amounts of plant foods. The third argues that our human ancestors
evolved as vegetarians.
The lean Paleolithic diet approach has been argued for quite voraciously by Dr.s
Loren Cordain and Boyd Eaton in a number of popular and professional publications
(91). Cordain and Eaton are believers in the Lipid Hypothesis of heart disease--the
belief (debunked in myth number six, above) that saturated fat and dietary
cholesterol contribute to heart disease. Because of this, and the fact that Paleolithic
peoples or their modern equivalents did/do not suffer from heart disease, Cordain
and Eaton espouse the theory that Paleolithic peoples consumed most of their fat
calories from monounsaturated and polyunsaturated sources and not saturated fats.
Believing that saturated fats are dangerous to our arteries, Cordain and Eaton stay in
step with current establishment nutritional thought and encourage modern peoples
to eat a diet like our ancestors. This diet, they believe, was rich in lean meats and a
variety of vegetables, but was low in saturated fat. The evidence they produce to
support this theory is, however, very selective and misleading. (92) Saturated fats do
not cause heart disease as was shown above, and our Paleolithic ancestors ate quite
a bit of saturated fat from a variety of animal sources.
From authoritative sources, we learn that prehistoric humans of the North American
continent ate such animals as mammoth, camel, sloth, bison, mountain sheep,
pronghorn antelope, beaver, elk, mule deer, and llama (93). "Mammoth, sloth,
mountain sheep, bison, and beaver are fatty animals in the modern sense in that they
have a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, as do the many species of bear and wild pig
whose remains have been found at Paleolithic sites throughout the world." (94)
Analysis of many types of fat in game animals like antelope, bison, caribou, dog, elk,
moose, seal, and mountain sheep shows that they are rich in saturates and
monounsaturates, but relatively low in polyunstaurates. (95)
Further, while buffalo and game animals may have lean, non-marbled muscle meats, it
is a mistake to assume that only these parts were eaten by hunter-gatherer groups
like the Native Americans who often hunted animals selectively for their fat and fatty
organs as the following section will show.
Anthropologists/explorers such as Vilhjalmur Stefansson reported that the Innuit
and North American Indian tribes would worry when their catches of caribou were
too lean: they knew sickness would follow if they did not consume enough fat (96).
In other words, these primitive peoples did not like having to eat lean meat.
Northern Canadian Indians would also deliberately hunt older male caribou and elk,
for these animals carried a 50-pound slab of back fat on them which the Indians
would eat with relish. This back fat is highly saturated. Native Americans would
also refrain from hunting bison in the springtime (when the animals' fat stores were
low, due to scarce food supply during the winter), preferring to hunt, kill and
consume them in the fall when they were fattened up (97).
Explorer Samuel Hearne, writing in 1768, described how the Native American tribes
he came in contact with would selectively hunt caribou just for the fatty parts:
"On the twenty-second of July, we met several strangers, whom we
joined in pursuit of the caribou, which were at this time so plentiful
that we got everyday a sufficient number for our support, and indeed
too frequently killed several merely for the tongues, marrow, and fat."
(98)
While Cordain and Eaton are certainly correct in saying that our ancestors ate meat,
their contentions about fat intake, as well as the type of fat consumed, are simply
incorrect.
While various vegetarian and vegan authorities like to think that we evolved as a
species on a vegan or vegetarian diet, there exists little from the realm of nutritional
anthropology to support these ideas.
To begin with, in his journeys, Dr Price never once found a totally vegetarian culture.
It should be remembered that Dr. Price visited and investigated several population
groups who were, for all intents and purposes, the 20th century equivalents of our
hunter-gatherer ancestors. Dr. Price was on the lookout for a vegetarian culture, but
he came up empty. Price stated:
"As yet I have not found a single group of primitive racial stock
which was building and maintaining excellent bodies by living entirely
on plant foods." (99)
Anthropological data support this: throughout the globe, all societies show a
preference for animal foods and fats and our ancestors only turned to large scale
farming when they had to due to increased population pressures (100). Abrams and
other authorities have shown that prehistoric man's quest for more animal foods was
what spurred his expansion over the Earth, and that he apparently hunted certain
species to extinction. (101)
Price also found that those peoples who, out of necessity, consumed more grains
and legumes, had higher rates of dental decay than those who consumed more
animal products. In his papers on vegetarianism, Abrams presents archaeological
evidence that supports this finding: skulls of ancient peoples who were largely
vegetarian have teeth containing caries and abscesses and show evidence of
tuberculosis and other infectious diseases (102). The appearance of farming and the
increased dependence on plant foods for our subsistence was clearly harmful to our
health.
Finally, it is simply not possible for our prehistoric ancestors to have been
vegetarian because they would not have been able to get enough calories or
nutrients to survive on the plant foods that were available. The reason for this is that
humans did not know how to cook or control fire at that time and the great majority
of plant foods, especially grains and legumes, must be cooked in order to render
them edible to humans (103). Most people do not know that many of the plant foods
we consume today are poisonous in their raw states (104).
Based on all of this evidence, it is certain that the diets of our ancestors, the
progenitors of humanity, ate a very non-vegetarian diet that was rich in saturated
fatty acids.
MYTH #9: Meat and saturated fat consumption have increased in the 20th century,
with a corresponding increase in heart disease and cancer.
Statistics do not bear out such fancies. Butter consumption has plummeted from 18
lb (8.165 kg) per person a year in 1900, to less than 5 lb (2.27 kg) per person a year
today (105). Additionally, Westerners, urged on by government health agencies,
have reduced their intake of eggs, cream, lard, and pork. Chicken consumption has
risen in the past few decades, but chicken is lower in saturated fat than either beef or
pork.
Furthermore, a survey of cookbooks published in America in the last century shows
that people of earlier times ate plenty of animal foods and saturated fats. For example,
in the Baptist Ladies Cook Book (Monmouth, Illinois, 1895), virtually every recipe
calls for butter, cream or lard. Recipes for creamed vegetables are numerous as well.
A scan of the Searchlight Recipe Book (Capper Publications, 1931) also has similar
recipes: creamed liver, creamed cucumbers, hearts braised in buttermilk, etc. British
Jews, as shown by the Jewish Housewives Cookbook (London, 1846), also had diets
rich in cream, butter, eggs, and lamb and beef tallows. One recipe for German waffles,
for example, calls for a dozen egg yolks and an entire pound of butter. A recipe for
Oyster Pie from the Baptist cookbook calls for a quart of cream and a dozen eggs,
and so forth and so on.
It does not appear, then, that people ate leaner diets in the last century. It is true that
beef consumption has risen in the last few decades, but what has also risen
precipitously, however, is consumption of margarine and other food products
containing trans-fatty acids (106), lifeless, packaged "foods", processed vegetable
oils (107), carbohydrates (108) and refined sugar (109). Since one does not see
chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease in beef-eating native peoples like the
Maasai and Samburu, it is not possible for beef to be the culprit behind these modern
epidemics. This, of course, points the finger squarely at the other dietary factors as
the most likely causes.
MYTH #10: Soy products are adequate substitutes for meat and dairy products.
It is typical for vegans and vegetarians in the Western world to rely on various soy
products for their protein needs. There is little doubt that the billion-dollar soy
industry has profited immensely from the anti-cholesterol, anti-meat gospel of
current nutritional thought. Whereas, not so long ago, soy was an Asian food
primarily used as a condiment, now a variety of processed soy products proliferate in
the North American market. While the traditionally fermented soy foods of miso,
tamari, tempeh and natto are definitely healthful in measured amounts, the
hyper-processed soy "foods" that most vegetarians consume are not.
Non-fermented soybeans and foods made with them are high in phytic acid (110), an
anti-nutrient that binds to minerals in the digestive tract and carries them out of the
body. Vegetarians are known for their tendencies to mineral deficiencies, especially
of zinc (111) and it is the high phytate content of grain and legume based diets that is
to blame (112). Though several traditional food preparation techniques such as
soaking, sprouting, and fermenting can significantly reduce the phytate content of
grains and legumes (113), such methods are not commonly known about or used by
modern peoples, including vegetarians. This places them (and others who eat a diet
rich in whole grains) at a greater risk for mineral deficiencies.
Processed soy foods are also rich in trypsin inhibitors, which hinder protein
digestion. Textured vegetable protein (TVP), soy "milk" and soy protein powders,
popular vegetarian meat and milk substitutes, are entirely fragmented foods made by
treating soybeans with high heat and various alkaline washes to extract the beans'
fat content or to neutralize their potent enzyme inhibitors (114). These practices
completely denature the beans' protein content, rendering it very hard to digest.
MSG, a neurotoxin, is routinely added to TVP to make it taste like the various foods it
imitates (115).
On a purely nutritional level, soybeans, like all legumes, are deficient in cysteine and
methionine, vital sulphur-containing amino acids, as well as tryptophan, another
essential amino acid. Furthermore, soybeans contain no vitamins A or D, required by
the body to assimilate and utilize the beans' proteins (116). It is probably for this
reason that Asian cultures that do consume soybeans usually combine them with
fish or fish broths (abundant in fat-soluble vitamins) or other fatty foods.
Parents who feed their children soy-based formula should be aware of its extremely
high phytoestrogen content. Some scientists have estimated a child being fed soy
formula is ingesting the hormonal equivalent of five birth control pills a day (117).
Such a high intake could have disastrous results. Soy formula also contains no
cholesterol, vital for brain and nervous system development.
Though research is still ongoing, some recent studies have indicated that soy's
phytoestrogens could be causative factors in some forms of breast cancer (118),
penile birth defects (119), and infantile leukemia (120). Regardless, soy's
phytoestrogens, or isoflavones, have
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