Healthy Boobs, Hearts, and Brains

I am going to tell you something that few people understand. There is no human nutritional need for the flesh or fluids of animals. By flesh I mean meat: cow, pig, chicken, fish, goat, sheep, rabbit, or even frog bodies. By fluids I mean dairy and eggs. By dairy I mean milk, cream, butter, sour cream, cream cheese, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and kefir. By eggs I mean, you guessed it, eggs. If you have access to a decent grocery store, all the nutrients your body needs to thrive can be purchased as plant foods. By plant foods I mean fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes (beans, lentils, peas), tubers (potatoes and other root vegetables), nuts, seeds, and fungi (mushrooms).

All whole plant foods are a combination of protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and all the other necessary phyto-nutrients like antioxidants your body requires to function well. Yes, an apple contains protein. Who knew? And these plant foods, again in whole, recognizable form, contain none of the substances that cause disease such as the saturated fat-cholesterol combination, carcinogens, or the absence of fiber.

In other words:

Meat is not what needs to be for dinner.
Milk does not do a body good.
The edible egg is, alas, not incredible.

Approximately 97% of Americans are fiber deficient, while only 3% are protein deficient. These few people are malnourished individuals who are not meeting their daily caloric needs like the elderly who have lost their appetites, those suffering from anorexia, or those unfortunate souls who are literally starving from lack of access to adequate food. The 97% who are fiber deficient are eating too many fiberless animal foods (remember all meat, dairy, and eggs have zero fiber), too many highly processed plant foods stripped of fiber, and not enough fiber-rich whole plant foods.

If you eat your required daily calories of a minimum 1,200 per day for every adult in plant foods, you will intake an adequate and safe level of necessary protein and other macro and micro nutrients. For example, one bag of organic frozen sweet peas contains 25 grams of clean, safe protein.

As a vegan who eats only plant foods, you can imagine the question I am most often asked is: but where do you get your protein? And my favorite response is: well, how much protein do I need?

Not a single person I ask this question knows the answer. Yet everyone is concerned that I’m not getting enough protein. More protein is not better.

Considering my individual caloric needs based on my age of 47, moderate activity level, and female gender, I need about 43 grams of dietary protein per day. That one bag of sweet, organic peas supplies 58% of my daily protein requirement. You can see how it is of no daily concern to me whether or not I am intaking enough protein. I am getting enough protein by eating ample daily calories to sustain my weight and energy. I don’t even think about the protein issue…until somebody asks me anyway.

Above: Hip Pea Power Bowl [recipe]

While protein deficiency is rare, there is ample evidence in America of animal protein over-consumption. The formation of kidney & gall stones, gout, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and metabolic syndrome are all related to urate crystals forming when uric acid is not metabolized during animal protein digestion. Animal proteins are very acidic in nature and lead to inflammation in the internal body environment. Medical science is discovering more every day that so many chronic disease trace back to inflammation.

Urate crystals can form when the body pulls calcium from the blood & bones to neutralize the acidity of animal protein digestion which then can give rise to arthritis, rheumatism, bursitis, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and varicose veins. Systemic acidity can contribute to the gene expression of cancer.

Meat, dairy, and eggs have too much protein and absolutely no fiber. The human body with its very long intestinal tract requires insoluble fiber to push food through the passage. True carnivores (cats, wolves, hyenas) have very short intestinal tracts in comparison to humans and do not need plant fiber to move their bowels. If you are not comfortably moving your bowels at least once a day, you are not getting enough dietary fiber. The solution is not to chug some fiber powder in juice, but to cut back or eliminate fiberless meat, dairy, and eggs and increase whole fiber-rich fruit, veggies, grains, legumes, and tubers.

The only vitamin not readily nor reliably available by eating CLEAN, washed plants is Vitamin B12. It comes from bacteria in dirt and collects in the flesh of livestock who eat from the ground and are fed vitamin-fortified feed. B12 is easy and safe for humans to supplement and is the only water-soluble vitamin that can be stored in the human liver for years.

America’s #1 killer, heart disease, currently kills 1 out of every 3 Americans. That means over 600,000 Americans die every year from heart disease alone. 70% of Americans are overweight and are getting fatter. Studies forecast that by 2030…in just 13 years…50% of Americans will be diabetic or pre-diabetic.

This is painful. This is tragic. This is expensive. This is unacceptable. And this is largely preventable and very often reversible.

Before I launch into my next paragraph let me inform you that both my father and my husband are doctors. I am not a doctor-hater AND I dislike the conventional medical system very much. Acute emergency care in America as in the Emergency Room is top notch and heroically saves many lives. Regular care for chronic conditions is abysmal because it doesn’t focus on prevention or the elimination of root causes. It focuses on the management of symptoms.

Being healthy is bad for the long-term healthcare (I mean, sickcare) business which encompasses doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies. As in being healthy, there is also no money to be made from you being dead and absent from the system. You are most profitable to the vast medical business system when you have a supposedly incurable chronic disease that needs to be managed by medical professionals, requires a steady dose of prescription drugs, and gets covered by your insurance policy. The longer you can be chronically sick, the better….for profitable entities who have shareholders to please. 50% of Americans are taking some form of prescriptive drug. Lipitor, a statin drug to reduce cholesterol, is the most profitable drug in the world selling 7.2 billion dollars a year all while high-cholesterol levels are largely preventable and reversible with lifestyle modifications, including diet. Diet alone dictates about 80% of your well being. It is a very powerful tool.

Make no mistake. Your health is no one’s priority but your own. The medical-pharmaceutical-insurance complex wants you in the system and taking drugs for as long as possible. The food industry wants you addicted to their products and formulates their highly processed food-like edibles in such ways that guarantee your repeat purchases. The right combination of fat and salt or fat and sugar mixed with industry chemicals are magically addictive formulas. Potato chips anyone? Ice cream? Candy? McDonald’s, Chik-Fil-A, Starbucks?

Reclaim your health, if you want. Reduce and eliminate refined sugar in foods and drinks, reduce refined starches like fiberless flours and stripped, nutrient-empty grains, reduce or eliminate red meat, processed meat, white meat, dairy, and eggs from all animals. Focus on a variety of whole, fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, tubers, nuts, seeds, and mushrooms. Baked potatoes piled high with spicy chili, cashew sour cream, and fresh cilantro or a mushroom and onion pie with brown rice crust are two examples of whole food plant-based delicious and nutritious eating. The recipes are abundant!

Every cell of your body and brain is fueled by glucose which is obtained most easily through carbohydrates, ideally in the form of whole fruits (which are simple, fast carbs) and whole starches (like whole grains, beans, and root vegetables which are complex, slow carbs). Refined carbs namely flour and sugar are the carbs to avoid. Whole simple & complex carbohydrates are fuel. Proteins are architecture. Fats are insulation. Yes, the body can convert fat and protein into fuel in a state of ketosis however this is an emergency, survival state of metabolism and isn’t intended to be extended for protracted lengths of time. High fat, high protein, low carb diets are all the rage right now. Paleo diets and neuvo Atkins diets are sweeping the nation. Ketosis does lead to rapid initial weight loss but weight loss does not guarantee or equal good health. These diets, while often healthier than the Standard American Diet ( which includes processed, fast, and junk food) beg for heart disease, gall & kidney stones, gout, and diabetes.

Let’s talk about diabetes. Diabetes is a dietary fat problem that causes a sugar problem. Too much fat and too many refined sugars and fiberless carbs is a recipe for disaster. (Seriously, how many recipes start with a cup of sugar and a stick of butter?) Not only is a whole food, plant-based diet a vast improvement toward true wellness, but a specifically low-fat, whole food, plant based diet can prevent 80-90% of the cases of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, obesity, certain cancers and can often even reverse many of these chronic cases.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association “several conditions known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease — such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol — also increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Some autopsy studies show that as many as 80 percent of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease also have cardiovascular disease.” If you’re clogging the blood vessels to and from your heart, you’re blocking the blood vessels to and from your brain. (And to and from your genitals, but that’s another talk. Seriously erectile dysfunction is an early warning sign of heart disease. Vascular disease anywhere is vascular disease everywhere.) Are you seeing how all these chronic diseases are related and stem from the same poor lifestyle choices?

We all have the genes for cancer….right now. Our lifestyle largely dictates whether those cancer genes will be expressed or not…meaning whether they are turned on or kept turned off. Here are various lifestyle and environmental elements that can lead to the expression of cancer. Some you can control, some you can not.

Here are foods that contribute to the expression of or the protection from various cancers.

Did you know that women who consume two or more alcoholic drinks per day are 25 percent more likely to develop breast cancer? The US Government defines moderation as up to one drink a day for women and up to two drinks a day for men. One drink is the equivalent of 5 fluid ounces of wine, 12 fluid ounces of beer or 1.5 fluid ounces of 80 proof liquor.

So if we reduce or eliminate milk and meat and eggs how are we going to get ample calcium, iron, and protein? Let’s look.

Plant foods fight inflammation. Inflammation is common condition of many chronic illnesses.

Now if you don’t believe me because I’m not here wearing a white coat and carrying a stethoscope, listen to cardiologist Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and cancer researcher Dr. T. Colin Campbell, both medical nutritionists, on their website, in their documentary, and in their cookbooks all under the name of Forks Over Knives. Change your diet (fork) to avoid going under the scalpel (knife). This documentary is a game changer…a life real saver.

Also listen to Dr. Michael Greger, author of How Not To Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease and the producer of NutritionFacts.org an indespensible daily resource for true health guidance. His 2016 book – an instant NY Times best seller – reviews the 15 leading causes of death in America and tells you how to best avoid succumbing to them. The second half of his book reviews his top picks for daily food called The Daily Dozen and explains why these are such beacons of wellness. The last 130 pages alone are scientific study citations and footnotes. A whole food plant based diet is the only diet ever scientifically and medically proven to prevent and reverse heart disease. That alone ought to inspire anyone with a heart to learn more about eating this way.

There is much more to say about the merits of a safe & smart whole food, plant-based diet. I encourage you do not take my word for it and do your own research. Use me as a resource. Read my website. Ask me questions. I am more than happy to share what I have learned with you and to guide you toward the work of medical professionals who can assist you in saving and extending your life. Thank you.