January of last year Dave Thomas founder
and spokesperson of Wendy's hamburger
fast food chain died he was 69 years old
you know the average life expectancy in
the United States is 77
Wendy's spokespersons however denied any
relationship between the bacon double
cheeseburgers another fast food fare he
hawked on television and his earlier
near-fatal heart attack or his earlier
quadruple bypass operation every minute
American clutches at their chest in
terror and keels over dead from a heart
attack strikes down half a million
Americans every year heart disease has
been the number one cause of death for
men and women in this country every
single year for the last seven decades
the number one cause of death in these
United States and soon thanks to the
export of our diet around the world
thought to be the number one cause of
death in the world soon now contrast
Dave Thomas with Jaden Shaw founder and
spokesperson of the American vegan
society
she's a tireless advocate for the
animals a true inspiration but I never
got to meet him because he died too
currently of a heart attack he was 66
years old what died of a heart attack
how never ate a burger in his life
raised vegetarian vegan for 40 years
made me stop gave me pause went got my
cholesterol checked and wanted to head
over to the medical library to see if
there's anything new in the medical
literature that could help me explain
Jai's death and last time I checked we
were doing pretty good I mean with Jays
death just a fluke so this talk is a
product of that review
I started by looking at mortality rates
comparing the death rates of meat-eaters
to vegetarians to vegans vegans are
vegetarians that strive to exclude all
animal products from the diet including
eggs and dairy most off poor animal
suffering concern well if you look back
at the vegetarian literature you'll see
all sorts of kind of circumstantial
evidence based on kind of indirect
guesses as to how we as vegetarians were
doing so you could point to research
that said that for example those that
ate lots of fruits and vegetables live
longer and hay weed lots of fruits and
vegetables it was not actually the same
thing as falling real-live vegetarians
and vegans I mean what we'd like someone
to do take a few thousand of us fall us
out for a few years and got to see how
we do now one could make guesses as to
what one might find if someone did
something like that take say our
cholesterol levels for example we've
known for over 50 years that vegetarians
have much lower cholesterol levels of
mediator based on those levels
vegetarians would have maybe half the
heart disease mortality that meeting is
doing vegans should have practically
none but is that true again we really
didn't know but I mean sounds good to me
I mean after all cholesterol is a single
biggest risk factor for heart disease
and hey we've got the lowest cholesterol
and bigger rockets I'd just kind of
figure it all out that's of course there
was some kind of adverse effect of
vegetarianism somehow counterbalancing
are low risk but otherwise we should be
just cruising well let's think of some
of the other risk factors for heart
disease cholesterol we've got less
cholesterol obesity we've got less
obesity diabetes we've got less diabetes
hypertension we've got less hypertension
we eat more soy more fiber more
antioxidants less animal protein than
hey don't we have lower stroke rates and
cancer rates do we should just be
I can touch in the whole mortality
Department so anyway I got this email
from farm the farm animal reform
movement an animal rights group in
Washington DC and they were compiling
their annual table of American death for
which the consumption of animal products
represent a substantial contributing
factor and so they asked my medical
opinion that's exactly which diseases
those work so I said aha finally a
chance to go to the to the medical
library and see if indeed there's
anything new that could help explain
Jays death to answer that nagging
question about jadenshell that continue
to haunt me whenever I take on a new
research project the first thing I do is
look at the latest research which is
what I'd like to share with everyone
today
so I went to Harvard Medical Library I
probably the best in the world has
expecting more estimates more guesses as
how we as vegetarians were doing little
did I know we had real data in our
actual studies that took thousands of
vegetarians involved them out for a year
so finally real data the latest data on
vegetarian mortality rate so I was like
drool cleanly even we were doing even
better than our estimation alright well
this is what I've been waiting for a
study of 8,000 vegetarians followed for
18 years I didn't wait to go back to my
seat didn't wait to go home I just stood
there and the newly received journal
section I was just published last year
2002 and read it I stood there and my
jaw dropped stunned into silence shot at
what I saw they reported no difference
between the mortality rates of meat
eaters compared to the mortality rates
of vegetarians no difference
Alicia it doesn't make any sense what
are the top three killers in the US
heart disease cancer stroke how could we
be dying at the same rate as needed does
it make any sense
well there are three findings I'd like
to investigate with everyone today
and that finding number one why do
meat-eater seem to live just as long as
vegetarian and not only did vegetarians
not seemed a little longer they had
basically the same cancer death rates -
the same number of colon cancer deaths
the same fatal stroke rate and what I've
been worried about the same rates of
fatal heart disease we found no
difference in the risk of dying from a
heart attack between those that ate meat
and those that didn't eat meat
doesn't like go against everything we
know though what about our cholesterol
what's counteracting all of our natural
potential as vegetarian now we don't
have more heart disease and meteors but
certainly more than we should so I went
down the list of mortality rates for all
the other diseases same mortality rates
and Stroke hearts the same same same
same difference same different same same
same same same thing same okay well at
least out of the list of the top dozen
or so things people died from there are
at least two classes of diseases for
which the mortality rates were
significantly different between
vegetarians and meat eaters on
fortunately they were not in our faith
some of the data suggested that
vegetarians seem to have a 50% greater
risk of dying from breast cancer for
example but that was explained away by
the fact that vegetarians tend to have
less children which is a well-known risk
factor for breast cancer so
vegetarianism probably has nothing to do
with breast cancer mortality I just want
to make that clear but the second
finding is less easy to explain away
they found that vegetarians and over
twice the risk of dying from
degenerative brain diseases like all
what first of all the fact that the only
two differences were more vegetarian
deaths that's upsetting and itself but
what's this about vegetarians having
twice the risk of dying from mental and
neurological disease when when hi first
fathers these have just got to be some
kind of weird random flukes run it
because it doesn't make any sense
well these the latest published results
but you know it actually takes like a
year to go to publication so these this
data's like years old by now you know
every five years all the experts I'm
vegetarian nutrition get together and
hold an International Congress on
vegetarian nutrition and the last one
with hey this last year April 2002 hey
so is there anything new under the
vegetarian Sun yes indeed preliminary
results from a study released twice the
size 17,000 vegetarian this so-called
epic study out of Europe started in 1993
so we've been waiting almost 10 years
for results to start trickling out well
last year they trickle ready for the
results
once again vegetarians had the same
mortality rate that universally
confirming the other study and okay but
what about this what about the brain
disease thing I mean that has just got
to be some kind of weird fluke sadly no
there was only one significant
difference this time between the
mortality rates of vegetarians and meat
eaters and that was that vegetarians had
a 50% greater risk of dying from brain
disorder now right now all the smug
vegans in the room are thinking I know
what's going on I didn't milk just
liquid meat all that saturated fat and
cholesterol and indeed dairy is the
number one source of saturated fat in
the American diet in aren't eggs like a
little cholesterol but the one that are
doing so hot
dragging down the average write separate
out the vegans and then you see a little
longevity baby you know well
unfortunately neither of these two
studies separated out the vegans all
right so where can we turn well this is
the latest research both published and
unpublished what about the best you know
the best research we have today probably
this study published in American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition called mortality
and vegetarians and non-vegetarians and
what these twelve researchers did we
took all the biggest and best studies to
date and kind of pooled all the data
together so they took a decade of
mortality data from 28,000 vegetarians
from Germany the UK and California and
found no survival advantage for
vegetarians
what about vegans Daria we don't need
all that cheesy crap we have even a lot
lower cholesterol levels right vegans
didn't live any longer either say
mortality rates as ladies Wow there must
be something really working against
being as if we can die those kind of
heart disease rates with such low low
cholesterol level now this isn't the
end-all be-all though it had 28,000
vegetarians only had a few hundred
millions this new epic study out of
Europe has thousands of vegans will
become the best soon becomes the best
study on vegan human history
unfortunately having seen some of the
preliminary data and spoken to the
principal investigators over there
there's no reason to suspect that the
results will come out any different than
what we see right here and in fact just
last month the results from the famous
German Heidelberg study were released
2,000 people fall for 21 years and the
vegetarians live longer than the vegan
and those who ate meat on occasion
outlasted them all
all right before I go about exploring
these findings I would just like to
throw up a third fine and like to
investigate today and so roll up is
right
osteoporosis has reached epidemic levels
in this country 10 million Americans
particularly women suffer from this
disease now if you compare the bone
mineral density of vegetarians to medius
about the same now in some studies the
bone mineral density of vegans has not
been as good but you know that's just
bone mineral density is only one
indicator of bone health you also want
to know is if someone's actually more
likely to break something so hip
fracture rate if we consider kind of
like the gold standard in terms of an
indicator for bone health but just
there's never been any studies of hip
fracture rates and vegetarians I don't
think we can conclusively say much about
vegetarian bone health
yeah we could estimate based on bone
mineral density we're probably doing
pretty good but again we didn't have any
Studies on hip fracture rates in
vegetarians until now presented for the
first time in the Congress last year in
a study of thousands of California
seventh-day adventists vegetarians had
over twice the hip fracture rate as
needed so this is the third finding I'd
like to investigate with everyone today
let's start with this the first finding
about longevity right now this is to say
we couldn't necessarily live longer
right remember our cholesterol levels
our blood pressure and all that we have
a tremendous potential for decreasing
our disease risk but something is
getting in our way
what is it about vegetarian and vegan
diets that's increasing our risk of
dying so much that is counteracting kind
of all of our natural benefits what is
it and just as importantly can we change
it and the good news is about time is a
good news and the good news is is that
yes we think we know exactly what's
going on and yet with but a few
Changez not only will we reclaim all of
our natural vegetarian advantage but we
may surpass our highest expectations
turns out there are two major things
about vegetarian diets and we are going
to nail both of them today as an aside
though I mean just because we don't seem
to lose longer even as we are known are
as we are now with no changes just
because vegetarians don't seem to live
longer doesn't mean they're not
healthier I mean vegetarians do have
lower rates of obesity high blood
pressure diabetes you know colon cancer
heart disease appendicitis the list goes
on and on so it still makes sense to go
vegetarian even if just for health
reasons alone so it still makes sense to
go vegetarian even if just for health
reasons alone but you know you think
with all that we have some kind of
survival advantage right what is it
about vegetarian particularly vegan
diets and increasing our risk so much
it's cancelling out our potential what
are we lacking in our diets what are we
deficient in well to begin our detective
story quest when my thinking what other
risk factors are there besides you know
cholesterol high blood pressure diabetes
all that because we're kicking pushing
although well to answer that question
one might ask well what interventions
have been shown to decrease heart
disease risk right not eating meat
didn't seem to help my job so what has
been shown to help well if you take
people have already have a heart attack
and therefore at high risk of having
another one and you put them on
cholesterol-lowering drugs their risk of
subsequently having another heart attack
and dying drops by about 20 percent
yeah but for those at high risk high
risk - 20 percent is still high risk so
then they gave people fish oil capsules
drop their risk of subsequently dying by
about 30 percent not bad but just cut to
the chase I mean like what's the best
results anyone ever got
well there was this one study and with
heart disease mortality dropped over 70%
cancer death rates were cut in half -
what did they do
researchers are sitting around one day
in france looking at heart disease data
evidently something research is doing
friends they're looking a graph of heart
disease mortality versus cholesterol
levels and not surprisingly the graph
looks like this right the more
cholesterol you have in your blood too
high your risk of dying RZ we've known
about this forever right so let's say
this data from the United States now but
when you did this exact same thing but
charted people lived in the
Mediterranean region of Europe you've
got a different graph you got this now
know this same relationship right I'm
the more cholesterol you have in your
blood the higher your risk of dying from
heart disease but check this out at the
exact same cholesterol level those
living in southern Europe around the
Mediterranean have much lower rates of
heart disease well that's kind of weird
so the so they said what the heck I say
what the heck in French but they took
these 600 heart patients and put half of
them on a Mediterranean diet put the
other half on a so called the American
Heart Association strict prudent step to
diet and what was become known as the
famous Leone diet heart trial after just
two years the survival benefit was so
extreme in the Mediterranean group that
they had to stop the study prematurely
an ethics committee came in and said it
was just tool and ethical to keep
feeding people the American Heart
Association died because there were so
many more deaths in that group and the
results appeared quick to the survival
advantage after just one year you could
already see the results whereas in those
cholesterol-lowering drug trials it took
like three to four years to get that
wimpy little 20% benefit and now
Oh after two years 70% drop in cardiac
more town all right so researchers took
blood from everyone analyze your diets
trying to fire what it was about this
diet that had such a magical effect so
we have the Mediterranean group and the
control group so the first thing that it
was looked at cholesterol levels and
after all cholesterol is the single
biggest risk factor for our heart
disease and found that after two years
on this American Heart Association diet
their average cholesterol was 239 what's
your cholesterol supposed to be a lot
less than that absolutely whereas in the
Mediterranean group after two years on
the Mediterranean diet their average
cholesterol was 239 exactly the same we
take 70% less cardiac mortality and the
exact same miserable cholesterol what's
going on so they looked at everyone's
dad what are these people eating right
what's the Mediterranean group eating a
lot more fish or something is not
supposed to be good for your heart will
no the Mediterranean group was not
eating significantly more fish what they
were eating more of they're eating more
fruits more vegetables more beans more
whole grains less meat no we said we
need that we're not 70% less cardiac
mortality what's the nail
well digging a little deeper they think
they found the deal one of the most
significant differences between the
Mediterranean group in the control group
was what's called in omega-6 to omega-3
ratio the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio the
control group was 20 and the
Mediterranean group it was 4 all right
well
what's the mega six what's omega-3 and
why is the ratio make any difference
well fats and oils are made up of
constituents called fatty acids and you
know there are three types of fatty
acids there are the so called saturated
fat and you know the saturated fats are
what's found these are fats are solid at
room temperature so these are like lard
tallow the animal butter fat using the
animal fat and also some of the tropical
oils like coconut oil and palm kernel
oil and these are bad for you bad and
the second type of set the second type
of fatty acids so called monounsaturated
fats you know monounsaturated fats are
what's found in nuts avocados olive oil
and canola oil and these are liquid at
room temperature mice all in the fridge
now you're all will gets a little some I
saw on the fridge and then the third
type of the so called polyunsaturated
fatty acids these are liquid at both
room temperature and in the fridge and
you know there are two types of
polyunsaturated fatty acids the
so-called Omega threes and the omega-6
Omega threes are found in dark leafy
greens walnuts hemp seeds flax seeds
and flaxseed oil omega-6 is when the
other found are the other hand are found
phenomenal in cotton seed oil corn oil
safflower oil and sunflower oil now to
understand why this ratio makes any
difference we must take a quick
diversion into the making of a heart
attack we all start out with wonderfully
healthy coronary arteries when we're
born the reason why coronary arteries
are so important because they supply the
very blood supply to our heart muscle to
allow it to pump with them for some
reason the inner lining of our arteries
gets injured and that injury can lead to
inflammation and that inflamed area the
arteries can lead to the build-up of
oxidized cholesterol then so
inflammation is called the so called
fatty Street stage of atherosclerosis
and that buildup of oxidized cholesterol
the so called after sclerotic plaque
stage and that plaque can birth forming
a clot in your coronary arteries cutting
off the blood supply to a region of your
heart and that can lead to sudden death
a fatal heart rhythm or just damage your
heart and set you up for another heart
attack or heart failure or all sorts of
other terrible things now up until now
all the attention has been focused on
this stage you know the buildup of
oxidized cholesterol you know that's the
stage we rock at not only we have much
lower cholesterol levels but because of
all the antioxidants we eat and our
fruits and vegetables we keep with a
little cholesterol we do have from
getting oxidized and but what about all
these other stages that we're on mega
threes come in there is is an enzyme in
our body that converts the Amega threes
we eat too
a magical substance called EPA and some
iepa goes on to produce magical
substance number two called DHA
monounsaturated fats are good for you
these are go right what's so great about
these things well they block the
inflammation stage they even block the
clot formation state they even block
this whole sudden-death thing no wonder
they're so great
Omega 6s on the other hand use this
exact same enzyme to produce a
something's called AAA and you know AAA
not so great but you know we need both
of these in our diet omega-3s and
omega-6s because these are so-called
essential fatty acids meaning our bodies
can make them we need to take them into
our diet now up until 100 years ago our
bodies we've been eating about roughly
equal amounts of omega-3s and omega-6s
so we've had an Amiga six to omega-3
ratio of about one to one or one maybe
two to one about equal amounts of mega
six and omega-3s in our diet you know in
our body smart it knows all about this
great and not so great thing right so
when we need about equal amounts of mega
threes and omega sixes this enzyme
prefers omega-3 and so when you eat
about equal amounts this um this enzyme
kind of makes a mega sixes waiting line
if you make a lot more of this stuff and
less of this stuff in that go right but
then about a hundred years ago things
started to change
guys with names like Wesson develop all
sorts of new ways to industrially
produce cooking oils like cotton seed
oil which are just one
loaded with omega sixes now when you
when you started so over the last 100
years we've been our mega 6 to omega-3
ratio has been rising we'd be meeting
more and more foods contain things like
cottonseed oil and corn oil and so we've
been really flooding our system with
omega sixes and although this enzyme
does like a mega threes better when you
just so whomp your body with omega sixes
this poor enzyme is overwhelmed makes
you make a threes wait in line and you
make a lot more of this stuff and less
of this stuff in that yeah not so great
well what's not so great about this AAA
stuff arachidonic acid well it actually
goes on in our body to produce
inflammation in fact this is actually
how aspirin works aspirin blocks our
body's ability to produce inflammation
from the mega sixes we eat in our diet
that's why many health professionals
would have people at high risk for heart
disease take an aspirin a day alright so
the ideal ratio intake ratio should
ideally be less than 4 to 1 for omega-6
and for everyone omega-3 nice and
reducing how about a mega freeze for the
good ones well yes indeed but again this
enzyme prefers omega-3s such that you
can be four times as many mega sixes and
only 1/4 the amount of mega threes and
you still make all the EPA and DHA you
need or at least that's the theory all
right so 4 to 1 or less well so if you
look at the latest studies that
meat-eaters the ratio for meat-eaters
was about 7 to 1 not so good the ratio
for vegetarians though was 10 to 1 and
the ratio from vegans was 15 to 1 there
was a recent study of eating kids that
found a ratio of 44 to 1 just off the
chart
all right well where the most people get
their omega-3 as well in this society
mostly from fish some and poultry a
little and eggs and not only are
vegetarians not getting enough omega
threes but turns out in surveys that for
some reason vegetarians
arguing two or three times as many mega
sixes as a general population for some
reason vegetarians and vegans are just
eating a lot of processed foods
containing cottonseed oil and corn oil
and meat eaters can cheat the flesh of
oily fish like sardines contains
preformed EPA and DHA so fish eaters
don't have to worry so much about this
ratio don't have to worry so much about
this enzyme because they're going to EPA
and DHA directly into their diet and
that's why you give people fish oil
capsules and their risk of heart disease
drops low dying from our cheese drops
about 30% that's the reason why the
American Heart Association recommends
one to two fatty fish flesh meals of a
week and that's reason number one while
vegetarians may not be doing as well as
we should
okay so what's a vegetarian to do well
how do we get our ratio down or ratio
down to facilitate the making of this
stuff and lessen this stuff we'll wait a
second maybe if we ate more omega-3 and
less than megastructures that would work
all right well where do we get to make
it freeze from yes indeed greens and
walnuts but you would have to eat a lot
of spinach shots with walnuts every day
to get your mega threes for the day
thankfully the most concentrated source
of omega-3s on the planet it's not fish
it's flax seed flax seeds are one of the
world's original health foods and widely
prized throughout history
Hippocrates use them Mahatma Gandhi
himself was right and he always when he
said wherever flax seeds become a
regular food item among the people there
will be better health he actually did
say that for more up-to-date reference
the alternative medicine guru dr. Andrew
Weil has stated that if you just make a
single change to your diet if you can
just make one change to your diet it
should be to add flax seeds to your diet
all right oh well how do you eat them
when you go to your natural food store
or like
Starkiller product for odd and you find
them in the bulk section for 99 cents a
pound there are golden ones and brown
ones
nutritionally they're identical so pick
your favorite color flax seeds come in
nature's finest packaging the hard
natural whole which keeps them fresh
such that you can you you don't even
have to refrigerate them you can keep
them on your kitchen counter and
airtight container for a year and they
do just fine unfortunately nature's
finest packaging is just a little too
good such they eat the whole seed it
just kind of comes out the other end
doesn't do any good so you need to go
rind them up so spice grinder coffee
grinder food processor good blender will
do it you can actually buy at green star
cooperative market free ground flax
seeds for three dollars a pound but a
pound will last you for months how much
this stuff you actually have to eat well
recommendations keep changing the NIH
disagrees of World Health Organization
disagrees with Europe but I think the
research points to everyone eating one
to two tablespoons of ground flaxseed
every day of your life when until you
die and that's about equivalent to
American Heart Association is one to two
fatty fish flesh meals a week now and
once they ought once you do grind it
then you do have to put it in the
refrigerator but ground flax seeds last
for months in the refrigerator although
it should not last for months because
you're going to eat it everyday what do
you do with the stuff what's a ground
flaxseeds a light nutty powder you can
do it you can sprinkle them in your
oatmeal or whatever you're eating
throughout the day I'm you can bake with
it you can make muffins breads all sorts
of things with it my current favorite is
smoothie so you take two tablespoons of
flax seeds grind them up and then you
know have some frozen bananas and frozen
blueberries and some nice organic soy
milk these black seeds have this real
binding quality such that you get these
really thick milkshake II smoothies in
fact press that binding quality you can
actually use ground flax seeds to
replace eggs in baking you take one
tablespoon of ground flax seeds mix it
up with three tablespoons of water
and then you mix it up to soft frothy
gooey snotty and that replaces one
egg in baking that's actually the
preferred egg replacer of my favorite
vegan cookbook of Joanne Stepanek like
give away all her secrets yes they do
not and that's the amazing thing about
ground flaxseed you can bake them 450
degrees for an hour and it doesn't hurt
the omega-3 content at all
which is quite surprising however that's
not the case with the flaxseed oil and
the reason I don't recommend the
flaxseed oil is it's more expensive goes
rancid even it won't last even a few
weeks in the fridge it tastes kind of
nasty and you can't cook with it
you can't even heat it up for a few
seconds because it destroys a mega 3 but
somehow the way nature intended in the
feed you can grind the flax seeds up
bake them all you want
doesn't hurt to make triple when you
extract out the oil the Magus trees are
very unstable so you have to use it like
a salad dressing or something uncooked
but I think but the reason why I
strongly recommend the ground flax seeds
instead of flax seed oil is because
you're missing out on all the other
wonderful nutrients that are found in
the flexing flax seeds are also a
wonderful source of soluble fiber and
boron these wonderful pilot westerns
called lignans
anti tumour anti-inflammatory
anti-cancer properties just amazing
things which you miss when you just take
out the oil any way you cut it
flax seeds I think are really the best
way to get your mega squeeze in many
ways better than getting them from fish
just bite you for murdering them fishies
load up your body with toxic heavy
metals like lead and mercury and DDT and
PCBs in fact concerns over mental
retardation and birth defects has led
the FDA and the EPA to recommend that
pregnant breastfeeding women and small
children limit their intake of fish in
this country fish is a real food
disaster from food safety point of view
consider everything hepatitis the
cholera certainly overfishing is a
global environmental disaster not to
mention the poor fishing so when a fish
eating woman comes into my office I've
just got to hold up my hand and say just
Aflac man
okay now if you look at the diagram you
see that's really only half the story
yes we have to increase our mega threes
but we also have to decrease our mega
sixes thankfully that's totally easy oh
afterwards we go home tonight and if we
have any of the following oils if you
have any of the following oils you house
cottonseed oil corn oil safflower oil or
sunflower oil you are in need of an oil
change you should throw them the hell
out and instead if you use oils in your
baking it's in cooking which you don't
have to but if you do usual what else
should you use instead are we go all
those the mono unsaturated oils the
single best oil is olive but it does
have a distinctive taste which may not
be appropriate for all your cooking
needs and so canola oil particularly I
recommend organic canola oil because of
the GMO issue is second choice okay so
anyway back to that lil die of heart
travel how did they decrease their ratio
from 20 down to four exactly where we
want to remember four to one all they do
is they sat down with everyone at the
beginning of the study for a half an
hour and said look go home whatever fats
and oils you're having your house throw
away and replace it with all of them
canola that's all they did
and when 20 down to four exactly where
we want so you know we could do that all
right now see they didn't have to eat
fresh because both sides reading fish
but imagine what we did we could do we
took our flesh got rid of oils on top of
our cholesterol remember they had 70
cent drop and then miserable cholesterol
levels right we are just gone out below
normal life
all right going back to here you'll see
you know we have a lot of omega-6 in our
diet and not a lot of mega threes it
might lead to more inflammation in our
body and that's why a lot of people with
inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid
arthritis etc actually take like
flaxseed oil therapeutically in large
doses to to kind of tip their balance
over to the non inflammatory side and
things you know we're finding more and
more diseases tend to have an
inflammatory component to them diseases
like Alzheimer's disease the study
suggested those people who are taking
chronic aspirin long term for whatever
reason have five times less Alzheimer's
disease now no one should take con
gasps and long-term without a
prescription I think but what we can do
is again we can tip the balance over to
the non-inflammatory side eating more
omega-3s less than mega sixes so am I
saying that the same dietary changes
going to decrease our risk of heart
disease is also going to decrease our
risk of heart of Alzheimer's as well yes
indeed all right so we have explored the
first reason why vegetarians aren't
living up to our potential or more
actively kind of out to our potential
reason number two is probably even more
important let's go back to this heart
disease flowchart here you know as
vegetarians and vegans we are blocking
this step the buildup of oxidized
cholesterol so we as vegetarians vegans
take our flat get rid of those we are
going to be blocking heartsease at every
turn here here here here well yeah every
turn except here wouldn't be cool there
some way we could block this whole
deadly cascade in the first place reason
number two is homocysteine the
homocysteine story started in 1968 when
a Boston pathologist by the name of Cole
McCulloch saw these two kids always bad
when the follow to seat people cuz that
means they're dead an eight-year-old boy
and a two month old infant both died of
massive strokes turns out they both had
a genetic defect which led to abnormally
high levels of this toxic metabolite
called homocysteine which led to these
damage cholesterol clogged arteries
these little kids you know dr. McCulloch
sat down said you know I wonder if this
homocysteine stuff has some role to play
in the adults heart disease as well well
he you know like many brilliant
discoveries in the medical field he was
laughed at and ridiculed for years but
now we know now we know that
homocysteine is a vascular toxin meaning
it directly damages our blood blood
vessels even moderately elevated levels
of this toxic substance have been just
been shown to be a set up for heart
disease
so now the goal is to have a
homocysteine level under 10 this is just
micro moles per liter it's kind of how
we measure it again this is a toxic
substance we want low levels in our
blood and so if you look at data from
2001 for example mean eaters have an
average click average homocysteine level
of well not so good what ovo-lacto
vegetarians had a homo Savage
homocysteine level of 16 and vegans 19
houston we have a problem seems that
people with homocysteine levels as high
as 16 our threefold risk of dying from a
heart attack it's been estimated that if
we just had a 5 point drop in
homocysteine levels in this country we
would save the lives of 56,000 americans
every year and as bad as vegetarians
have it there seems to be an epidemic of
the so called hyper homocysteine nimi or
too much homocysteine in the blood of
vegan and it's not just a vascular toxin
it's a neurotoxin as well it kills brain
cells people with homocysteine levels
over 14 are four times more likely to
develop Alzheimer's disease so this
almost routine is where we think the
bulk of the blunting of our heart
disease benefit comes from that's
homocysteine is also where we think that
our increased rates of degenerative
brain disease come from as well because
of our dangerously high levels of
homocysteine in the same thing with
heart disease yes we have less oxidized
cholesterol but we have so much more in
this initial injury that is cancelling
out our benefits homocysteine is not
just a vascular toxin and a neurotoxin
though it's been linked to stroke risk
age-related hearing loss birth defects
miscarriages blood clots cognitive
decline depression the list goes on and
on and you know this is data from 2000
what we've got new data now 2002 this
study came out you know me neither
we're stuck up at 12 not so hot
vegetarians ovo-lacto vegetarians an
average homocysteine levels 17 though
and vegans 27 so two questions alright
one when the heck are we so high into
how to actually get rid of it well
homelessness is a natural byproduct of
amino acid metabolism meaning it builds
up in every single person every single
day on this earth and our body has three
ways by which by which it gets rid of
this stuff three pathways by which it
neutralizes this toxic substance into
less harmful substrates pathway number
one involves a vitamin called vitamin b6
pathway number two involves a dietary
component called choline and no pathway
3 actually uses two vitamins one's
called folic acid or folate and the
other is called vitamin b12
pretty much everyone gets enough vitamin
b6 is found widely through animal and
plant foods same thing with choline
found widely to the animal and plant
kingdom but you know folate is found
almost exclusively in plant foods and
the vitamin b12 as many of you know is
found almost exclusively in
animal-derived foods this folate is
reason why meat eaters are stuck up at
12 right you just not eating enough
fruits and vegetables I'm getting out
folic acid but this vitamin b12 is the
reason we have such terrible rates of
hyper homocysteine we have such
dangerous levels of homocysteine more
and more evidence is accumulating that
we vegetarians and beings are just not
getting enough vitamin b12 to adequately
lower our homocysteine levels and it
turns out for vegans some vegans aren't
even getting enough b12 to avoid the
classic b12 deficiency disease right you
should be thought you don't need to
worry about your b12 because you need
too little
and and you know it's kind of on
everything that's stored up for years
what's the big deal
severe irreversible brain damage that's
the big deal well what about herbivores
like a relic they don't take no beat
well they seem to be doing pretty good
well they also eat bugs dirt and feces
if you also want to eat bugs urban you
may also not have to worry about your
b12 what if for whatever reason you
choose not to you need to get your b12
contrary to possible vegan miss clinical
b12 deficiency meaning symptomatic b12
deficiency is not uncommon and I will
spare you the gruesome scare story so
the vegans that have died when blind
were paralyzed because of not enough b12
do we want articles in the medical
literature published with titles like
subacute combined degeneration of the
spinal cord and a 14-year old due to a
strict vegan diet poor vegan can fili
got paralyzed right even one of these is
way too many right so the evidence is
perfectly clear you either eat b12
fortified foods or take b12 supplements
I'll need four to five foods their
partner goes I get all the b12 I need
from from fermented foods like tempeh
and miso and C vegetables no you dumb
recipe thought that lots of plant foods
had b12 in it but actually we were using
a faulty test we're using a test that
didn't differentiate between active b12
and he's so-called inactive b12
analogs which look like b12 to the test
but actually unusable by our body so it
actually we do take in these this b12
analyzed it may actually kind of clog up
our b12 machinery and act as anti b12
they say can I just go into my organic
backyard garden kind of pull up a carrot
not scrub all the dirt off if I may turn
your attention to one of the most
prestigious sources of vegetarian
nutrition on some vegetarian nutrition
and health letter at alumni Linda
University March 2002 they had a great
article called the ten most common myths
about vegetarian diets and
number one was drumroll please vegetable
growing to be twelve rich soil can meet
vitamin b12 nee it's a mess it's not
true
okay so I'll get into the nitty-gritty
exactly how we should get our b12 in
just one moment I cannot help but
mention one last studies results from
really landmark study released last year
at the Congress by this Australian
researcher took all these vegetarians
who had low b12 levels and had them fill
out a wellbeing questionnaire kind of
how you're feeling how you're doing
what's your mood and then given b12 for
a couple months and I haven't come back
fill out the survey again and found that
those whose b12 levels rose have highly
significant improvements in well-being
compared like the sugar pill group so
and they felt better they just had more
reserved energy in fact my favorite
anecdote is from Alex her chef she said
president of farm founded meet out day
president of the animal rights
conferences he told me was feeling tired
and sluggish then he took his b12 and it
was like wham and his words quote the
effect was almost immediate and
remarkable my stamina and energy level
are up and I feel middle-aged again
instead of a tired old man so take your
b12 odds are you'll feel better
you're almost 15 levels will go down and
you'll reduce your risk of getting
paralyzed demented and dead all for just
pennies a day you cannot get too much
b12 you just kind of get expensive urine
so user you cannot take too much b12 now
your body can only absorb a certain
amount so you can't just go a couple
months and take whole bottle right but
you need a regular reliable source but
no you cannot get too much b12 you just
kind of excrete it out and no in fact
pregnant women really need to get b12
cuz they're getting b12 for - and what
about lacto-ovo well although lacto
vegetarians those who eat eggs and dairy
regularly probably get enough b12 to
avoid the outright b12 deficiency
disease but aren't getting enough b12 to
adequately lower their homocysteine
levels it's kind of like vitamin C and
scurvy to avoid scurvy the vitamin C
deficiency disease
you just need like six milligrams of
vitamin C a day like nothing right now
but if you actually want a functioning
immune system and all the other one of
the things I vitamin C in foods does
well you need like ten times I like 60
or hundred milligrams a day see that
which you need to avoid deficiency is
not necessarily what you need for
optimum health the same thing with
vitamin b12 about 25% of all over lack
of vegetarians have a functional b12
deficiency meaning their homocysteine
levels are just too high and that figure
may be more like 80% for vegans have
been vegan for two or more years so b12
deficiency is actually not uncommon at
all in the vegetarian community but it
needs be so right nothing's written in
stone all we need to do is get our b12
and there is endless studies have
already been published you take a bunch
of vegetarians vegans you give them b12
and when their homocysteine levels
dropped like a rock down to eight not up
at 12 now the only reason the
meat-eaters are stuck up at 12 is
because they're not eating enough fruits
and vegetables right but we can take
advantage of our folate intake right and
as soon as we get our b12 lammed down to
eight down into the safety zone and meat
eaters are catching on this in a recent
study called vegan diet based lifestyle
program rapidly lowers almost fifteen
level it took these vegans I'm sorry
excuse me they took these meat-eaters
put them on a vegan diet for one week
one frickin week in front of those of us
almost system levels have their
homocysteine levels dropped by over 20%
The Beacon diet is like magic when I
leave we're meteor so they're like v12
coming out their ears right I mean but
it'll all they need with some fruits and
vegetables to bring your homocysteine
levels down but imagine what we could do
we get our flax get rid of those oils
take our b12 on top of our cholesterol
levels or our blood pressure and all
that we are just going to walk all oh
alright so what we need to do to fight
homocysteine vitamin b12 in four to five
b12 fortified foods or supplements if
you want to do supplements there's kind
of two ways you can do them weekly or
daily probably the simplest method is to
to up one
twelve tablets containing two thousand
micrograms or more once a week so you
can go down to Green starkov and get
these five thousand micrograms tablets
and so you can cut them in half and just
take one half of one of those pills once
a week share a bottle with your friend
comes out to be about five bucks a year
pick a day of the week you know I know
might be 12 days Monday I know every
Monday I got to update the mad-cow page
take my b12 and it's kind of part of my
life you know that's what b12 is indeed
water-soluble you K if you take high
enough doses you can take once a week
because your liver actually stores it up
although you can certainly if you don't
like to take so if it's hard for you to
remember to take something once a week
and rather get in the habit of taking
something once a day then you have to
take much less 100 micrograms once a day
so if you have a multivitamin or
something you take once a day you check
to see it has 100 micrograms or more of
vitamin b12 and all b12 thank you for
that question all b12 in supplements and
fortified foods is vegan its bacteria
derived it's all they just put it in
same steel stainless steel tank none of
it is animals arrived it's just too
expensive so having said that some of
the other filler ingredients might not
be vegetarian I have gelatin the capsule
or something but but the b12 itself is
vegan all right now for those of you who
don't like taking supplements when you
can get all of the vitamin b12 you need
by eating for two b12 fortified foods
the whole thing you have to remember is
if you rely exclusively on b12 fortified
foods you need to get at least two
servings a day separated by like six
hours so if in the morning you have a
couple b12 fortified 4 ml then you know
in the afternoon or evening you can have
something else with with b12 like a
teaspoon of the Red Star vegetarian
support formula nutritional yeast or a
lot of the you know fake meats and and
and you know rice milks and soy milks
and breakfast cereals corn flakes Raisin
Bran grape nothing they all have vitamin
b12 in them you just have to read your
labels
what about ovo-lacto how much b12 and
eggs and dairy will you
happy like five eggs a day or three
glasses of milk that's an awful lot of
saturated fat and cholesterol surely
would not recommend that okay I don't
see Memphis did you come in with stack
of oh there they are back here I don't
think I have time to cover some of the
other things like osteoporosis or
chromium copper iron iodine magnesium
rifle in selenium or zinc cell I typed
up all my cuts of chase recommendations
and we will pass them out as we speak
and run through them before I conclude
and take questions all right
that will be as that's going around the
room dr. Michael clapper in part based
on a vegan Health Study describes the
status of minerals in the diets of many
vegetarians and vegans as
underappreciated under consumed and
under absorb if you'd like to read what
dr. clapper says about mineral status
our mineral status I encourage everyone
to read this very important article
which is found online on the bottom of
that you'll see it on your handout when
you get it or of course you don't have
internet access you can use the library
although it's probably only open for
about two minutes we'll hear the ding or
you can of course read it up here I have
it copy up here all right so everyone
almost everyone have it let's start at
the top here vitamin b12 and the mega
threes we talked about that fortunately
didn't get to talk about all the juicy
stuff about VHA suffice to say if you
are even contemplating getting pregnant
or are diabetic you should take 300
milligrams of DHA every day such that
your baby gets it from months before
ideally months before conception
throughout weaning and there are
vegetarians vegan sources in veggie caps
available it may actually be reasonable
for all non-fish users to take DHA it is
an unanswered research question at this
point that is in addition to flexi for
diabetics and pregnant and breastfeeding
moms yes indeed and and may be and may
be appropriate for everyone that's an
unanswered question
next get everyone have a copy get your
vitamin D major study published in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
last summer found quote irrefutable
evidence that vitamin D deficiency is a
major unrecognized epidemic in the
United States are you saying in like
just a sunshine vitamin can go on just
get a little sunshine not in Africa not
during the winter unfortunately during
the months of January and February the
sun's rays at this latitude are at such
an angle that no matter how long you
sunbathe naked urine if occurred during
January and February you are just not
going to make enough vitamin D so you
need to get it into your diet one can
actually get an entire day supplied
naturally in a few mushrooms shiitake
mushrooms and chanterelle mushrooms
actually have natural vitamin D in dumb
but you have to be like a dozen
mushrooms a day certainly there's a lot
of vitamin D fortified foods like the
soy milk and rice mills and other
motherless milks out there as well as
breakfast buy breakfast cereals may come
in handy here and if you're not pasty
white or don't want to die of skin
cancer so correctly use sunscreen or
you're young or you're old or if you own
a cable modem or don't get outside for
whatever reason you may want to take
vitamin D in your diet year-round and
not just during the winter okay and so
for vitamin D the current recommendation
is 200 international units a day for up
to age 50 450 to 70 and over age 70 on
600 nationals although all of those are
probably going up so probably everyone
needs a minimum 400 national units
although the Institute of Medicine
hasn't ruled on that yet all right next
seven hundred to a thousand milligrams a
day of calcium wait a second I thought
we didn't need all that calcium because
we don't eat all that calcium leaching
animal protein all right well if I may
point you back to the ten most common
myths about vegetarianism all tech
online you can see it the URL is on the
bottom of that handout
and this number two is vegetarians need
less calcium than meeting its on this
it's not true and I don't have a lot of
time to talk about of calcium although I
certainly can do in question and answer
I would refer everyone to this very
important article with by Jenny Messina
called hip fracture rates and vegan
calcium needs and again that articles
online or up here so are you eating
three cups of kale a day three cups of
bok choy three cups of collards well you
should that's how everyone should get
their calcium or drinking three cups of
calcium fortified soy milk or three cups
of calcium for our orange juice you know
if you're not you're probably not
getting your recommended daily intake of
calcium so you may want to take a
calcium supplement be happy to talk
about calcium supplements if people are
interested at the end now you could
bring the milk from a cow but
nutritionally cow milk is not the best
source of calcium it doesn't have lots
of the wonderful things that dark green
leafies have that are very important for
your bone health like vitamin K and
boron and vitamin C all important for
bone health but missing in dairy milk
and it's dark leafy greens don't have a
lot of things that you don't want like
the saturated fat and cholesterol and
antibiotics and hormones and puffs and
all those other things that we don't
want to milk and retinol vitamin A
palmitate this animal derived vitamin A
that's added to the low-fat milk supply
and it's thought to critically weaken
people's bones that's why in the Harvard
nurses study which looked at over 68,000
women found that those who drank the
most milk had the most fractures and the
reason they think is because the low
Padma there were all health conscious of
drinking low-fat milk right because they
don't want to die of heart disease
during your low-fat milk and low-fat
milk heads this vitamin A palmitate or
retinol added to it and it's thought to
interfere with bone metabolism and
that's why we think the seventh-day
adventists vegetarians out in California
we're breaking their hip so often
because there are all health-conscious
drinking lots of low-fat milk and that
was weakening their bone we won't know
that until the it's actually published
but that's the leading hypothesis
at the moment iodine alarming a race of
iodine deficiency has been found among
British vegans because they don't
iodized salt over there now the British
milk drinkers were protected because
they use iodine containing disinfectants
to disinfect a milk processing tanks and
kind of leeches into the most kind of
growth but low iodine intake can lead to
hypothyroidism which can lead to high
cholesterol and I almost esteem so if
you don't use iodized salt or EG
vegetable right or drink milk you need
to get iodine from somewhere and so you
may want to take a supplement or or eat
them up from sea vegetables if you're
one of those that uses natural sea salt
don't if you use table salt is not good
idea for your health but if you use
table thought you should use iodized
table salt convenient way to get your
iodine and the best article i've seen to
date on this is this written by steve
awesome vegan society and so again this
iodine article is available online and
up here as well iron given the new rdas
in the united states would seem the only
way a vegetarian woman to get enough
iron is to eat rusty nails every day and
indeed nine out of ten studies done in
western vegetarians have found that
vegetarians are more likely to be iron
depleted have lower iron stores but we
don't seem to have slower rate higher
rates of iron deficiency anemia that's
really what we're worried about but just
because vegetarian women don't have
higher rates of iron deficiency anemia
than meat-eaters doesn't mean a whole
heck of a lot because meteors have such
crappy rates in the first place
basically one in 20 menstruating women
in this country have iron deficiency
anemia which is a serious disease so
vegetarian women eat your beans greens
grains and nuts and eat vitamin C rich
foods with your meals which enhances
iron absorption as well as getting
yourself screened for an email every
year over a few years like when you get
your PAP and men you shouldn't do
anything unless first being tested for
an iron overload disease called
hemochromatosis if you think you're
anemic you should really get tested I
don't think anyone should just take iron
supplements without up
description selenium works as important
cancer-fighting antioxidants a problem
for Northern European vegetarians
because they have selenium deficient so
not a problem for North American
vegetarians but if anyone has any
British Belgium Swedish or Slovakian
vegetarian friends you may want to time
to eat some Brazil nuts every month
all right not a day to go by without
everyone eating green beans nuts whole
grains and fresh fruit aren't so what's
so good about greens what's not good
about green stay healthy a single thing
that we can possibly eat eating just one
serving of dark leafy greens or broccoli
every day and you cut your risk of hip
fracture in half I am just in awe of
greens you should eat them every day
while we're on the subject of best and
worth the greens are the best thing we
can eat you want to know what the most
toxic or dangerous food or food
ingredient in our current food supply is
the worst sugars bad but there's worth
soda is bad but there's worse coffee
yeah a lot of coffee is bad but there's
worse set it up solves not good but
there's worse saturated fat is bad right
bad but there's worse why powered
bathroom is worse
the corn oil is no good for you but
there's worse this cannot be the first
audience that I've been on the road
eleven months come on not good you want
to breathe all right
what plutonium trans-fat hydrogenated
oil all right trans fats are these toxic
trans fats are found only one place in
nature animal fats all animal fats
contain these toxic trans fats but
thanks to better living through
chemistry the food industry found a way
to synthetically create these toxic fats
by hardening vegetable oil in a process
called hydrogenation which rearranges
their atoms and makes them act more like
animal fats and the maximal so there's
you know good fats are bad fat then
there are killer fats and those are
these trans fats the National Academy of
Science just a few months ago concluded
had this damning published this damning
report on trans fats and said the only
safe intake is zero that the upper limit
tolerable intake daily is zero now wait
a second if the National Academy of
Sciences saying the only safe intake is
zero and it's only found in animal foods
and processed foods are they telling
everyone to go vegetarian right I said
well you know actually they didn't so
they were challenged on it and one of
the authors of the report responds to
the challenge a nutritional
epidemiologist at Harvard School of
Public Health respond to the challenge
and he said quote we can't tell people
to stop eating all meat and all dairy
products he said well we could tell
people to become vegetarians he added if
we were truly basing this only on
science we would but it is a bit extreme
and amazing wouldn't want scientists to
base anything on fire would we oh I
decide to get that out all right what's
uh good about beans study just came out
those who ate legumes beans peas or
lentils four times a week or more had
20% less heart disease all right
beans beans are good for your heart the
more you eat those who ate nuts and
these five times a week had half the
mortality rate half the cardiac
mortality
those are eight five servings of nuts or
more a week and for those who are like
oh I don't eat nothing because they're
going to make me fat actually there's an
impressive body research to suggest that
those people who add nuts to their diet
if anything actually lose weight we're
not sure why whether it's satiates the
appetite or actually cause you to
excrete more fat in your feces we're not
sure why but bottom line nuts will not
make you fat you should eat them every
day all right
basically any knots except coconuts and
chestnuts so and peanuts although
they're technically legumes have a
nutritional profile which closely
resembles other nuts and so again any
nuts nut butters cashew butter on the
butter there's some nuts are a little
better than other ones but basically
nuts or nuts and if I could go
specifically down to a list of better
and worse later on next studies also
consistently show that even
health-conscious vegetarians don't eat
the recommended minimum number of
servings of fruits and vegetables every
day which is oh not bad right we have
five and I heard five a day saying you
know five a day that was a few months
ago but the front row knows right the
National Cancer Institute just a few
months up to two nine a day minimum
right nine you thought you weren't doing
some good before now you're really
behind right yes minimus of nine to day
10 and a 12 a day as many fruits and
vegetables as you can possibly stuff in
your face
all right next yeah yeah yeah drink lots
of bottle no seriously
seventh-day adventists study presented
to Congress last year vegetarian or not
those that drink five glasses of water
every day have half the cardiac
mortality half the fatal stroke rate
idea you don't need me nothing having to
eat some nuts
drink some water you have your mortality
rate absolutely amazing
while we're on the subject for anything
else I can just kind of down-and-dirty
have the mortality rate well take the in
the German vegan study for example they
found out that those who were
quote-unquote who surprise surprise
physically active had half the mortality
rates of those couch potatoes or
computer potatoes or whatever the case
may be and maybe get your cholesterol
checked who knows what your cholesterol
is Oh everybody should know if their
cholesterol is the current
recommendations everyone starting at age
20 should get their cholesterol checked
and get it recheck every five years and
quit smoking cigarettes slice at least
like eight years of your life all right
last but not least Z is for zinc and
mention anything specifically about zinc
on there because once again greens beans
nuts and whole grains to the rescue
vegetarians though are prone to low body
zinc pools however my inadequate zinc
intake can impair one's immunity impair
one's taste sensation and impair one's
appetite serious deficiency can lead to
growth stunting or small testicles no
one's actually gone around and measured
the size of vegetarian testicle but
there was a no but there was a taste
acuity study that found that vegetarians
couldn't taste as well as meaning now
I've kissed a few and I think
vegetarians tastes pretty good but no
indeed we should think about zinc and
while I'm being risque especially men
since we lose like 20% of our RDA for
thinking every seminal a mission that's
a good half cup of nuts right there so
I'm serious beans
sprouted or fermented like tempeh and
miso nuts and seeds again dry roasted or
sprouted are good sources and again four
to five breakfast cereals may come in
handy here as well
alright my final word you know when I
will first learn about this stuff my
first thought was like she doesn't see
natural reality pills weird oils and
stuff I mean like when human beings were
evolving in taking out calcium
supplements right well you know I looked
at that I mean they certainly weren't
getting it from milk prehistoric peoples
got all the calcium they needed from
eating wild plants like metals which are
just loaded with calcium
it's estimated that prehistoric peoples
got 2,000 milligrams of calcium every
single day eating wild plant spring
that's three times when milk drinkers
get in this country right but we just
don't eat those kind of plants anymore
because the way we live in our modern
world
cavemen didn't have to take no blacks
right well again that's because their
ratio was one to one there's no such
thing as trans fats no such thing as
cottonseed oil right and interestingly I
mean the wild plants have higher omega-3
content than the cultivated ones so for
example purslane the most common plant
in the world dug up here is a weed
whatever else they eat it does so good
for you is one of the highest plan to
make a3 contents in the world you know
we don't eat weeds anymore we eat
iceberg lettuce right and then didn't
have to take no vitamin B that's because
they lived and worked outside that's
because they could work outside because
it wasn't big hole in the ozone layer
you know there one thing smog ridden
cities and all that you know I didn't
have to take no b12 you know we used to
be able to get all the b12 we needed
water we drank you know drinking out of
a mountain stream or well water you know
but we don't get a lot of b12 anymore
and our water cuz we chlorinate our
water supply to kill off all the
bacteria right so we don't give a lot of
vitamin b12 in our water anymore we
don't get a lot of cholera either right
that's a good thing right but the
unabomber line is that we live in an
unnatural world which is compromising
our health compromising our vegetarian
potential but we can reclaim that
potential with but a few simple changes
and the long life and
somehow thank you
the question was well wait a second can
you just I mean it doesn't have to be
five glasses of liquid a day or can it
specifically water it what about tea and
juice this study so the answer is we
don't know the study asked specifically
glasses of water or glasses of non water
right and it found out that those who
drank five glass of water had half the
mortality rate but those that drank
other liquids other than water that big
category actually had increased
mortality rate probably custody and you
know that we're drinking soda and milk
and some other things right so basically
we don't know I would assume that herbal
tea would I mean is equivalent to water
I mean it just makes sense to me but but
I mean that's an unanswered research
question we really don't know what about
soy soy has been eaten happily by entire
civilizations for thousands of years soy
is thought to reduce one's risk of heart
disease reduce one's risk of
osteoporosis and reduce one's risk of
some of the reproductive cancers like
breast cancer and prostate cancer right
now there has been some that some kind
of critical studies come out against the
way most of them however are based on
laboratory animal data for example there
study there was this recent study that
found that infant rats don't grow so
well on soy milk or or on soy formula
yeah but infant rats don't grow well on
human breast milk either so that means
we shouldn't give babies breasts I mean
that's ridiculous right they are
freaking rats right so and so on so I
give very little credence to that kind
of to that kind of work now the there's
only really one disturbing human study
on period that's the Honolulu Heart
Study which was a good study took
thousands people follow them out for
decades and did find that those who ate
tofu in midlife actually had accelerated
cognitive decline later in life so we're
not trying to Alzheimer's or dementia
but actually the people did did like
word puzzles and stuff as if
were three years older so the 70 year
old actually completed tests like they
were 73 if they happen to eat coke
