[lit-ideas] Re: Some stats
- From: Andy <mimi.erva@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2011 17:09:50 -0700 (PDT)
Paul, yes, you are correct. I never claimed that we're vegetarians as a
species. Our B12 requirement is a dead giveaway that we're omnivores, since
it's only found in animal foods, plus our teeth are capable of both tearing and
grinding. Still, today's animal foods are universes away from the food we
evolved eating, or eating as fully evolved paleoliths. Even corn, for example,
is a highly engineered food, engineered over millennia and is nothing like the
that existed before agrigculture. Corn in fact developed a symbiotic
relationship with humans; it can't survive on its own. Today corn has stuff
genetically engineered into it. However, given the food as it exists today,
being a vegetarian is still more healthful than eating meat. The proof is that
vegetarians and particularly vegans who eat a high quality diet of unrefined
food, don't have the disease that omnivores do, i.e., diabetes, heart disease,
stroke and to a lesser extent,
cancer (food accounts for only an estimated 30% of cancer risk, I can't find
the stats for the other diseases but from memory I think it's 80% for heart
disease and 90% for stroke (salt/high blood pressure connection). Nearly all
diabetics are Type II diabetics, and that is excess weight based, plus now they
think it might be associated with heme iron (the highly absorbable iron that's
in meat). It's nailed down beyond a doubt that plant diets in the so-called
developed countries (what they developed is a whole nother question) are far
superior to omnivore diets. The less meat, the better.
For Robert Paul, the vitamin connection was in another issue of Nutrition
Action (CSPI). I don't have the issue handy and will get you the details when
I can. However, we didn't evolve taking pills. Food is extremely complex,
with probably thousands of macro and micronutrients in who knows what
combinations (literally, nobody knows). To isolate 40 or so is not good
nutrition, and given that pills are not food, they often backfire. For
example, that famous study (going back to the 80's now), where smokers who ate
foods high in beta carotene had (I forget the percentage) less lung cancer, but
smokers who took beta carotene supplements (and I do remember this statistic)
had a 15% higher incidence of lung cancer. Vitamin A supplements (made from
retinol) undermine bones. If you notice on your vitamin pills it probably
lists only a portion of the RDA for vitamin A, and probably a lot of it is from
beta carotene. That's pretty much the pattern
with vitamins out of their natural context.
I love the science of food, can talk about it all day. Gotta run for moment
however. Hope not too many typos in this. See you later.
Andy
________________________________
From: Paul Stone <pastone@xxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, October 3, 2011 2:21 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Some stats
I've been a vegetarian for over 25 years, a vegan for about the last 10 and
don't understand the fascination with meat, especially since factory farmed
meat is about as far from nature as is plastic. Chickens are the worst.
They're a facsimile of chicken. Michael Pollan in fact says today's food isn't
food. He calls it foodish. President Clinton is now a vegan for health
reasons (sitting at death's door after a quadruple bypass does concentrate the
mind). Just a note of caution in the unlikely event anyone is contemplating
veganism (a most wonderful way to live, and so easy), be sure to take
*sublingual* B12 every day, extremely important, since it's not found in any
vegan foods and a deficiency in it can cause irreversible nerve damage.
Another note, studies have shown that people who take multiple vitamins
actually die sooner than people who don't. That doesn't apply to B12 and
vegans, and possibly to some other nutrients like vitamin
D.
>If you need any kind of 'supplements', then your diet isn't balanced. If you
>are a vegan, and you need 'other stuff', then you might want to realize that
>the fact is, WE'RE OMNIVORES! Just my own little statistic...
Still I understand where you're coming from with the 'stats', but there is only
one really important statistic -- there are way too many people in the world
consuming (not just food) but too much of everything. It's simply
unsustainable. That's just basic math. So... "the first thing we do, let's kill
all the lawyers."
paul
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