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Excerpt Chapter 6: HUMAN ANATOMY AND PRIMATE DIET ... Our closest primate relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas, eat a small amount of meat on a regular basis—insects, grubs, and worms. Chimps occasionally hunt and eat other animals, but not the Bonobos. ... The fact that we can handle small amounts of animal-based foods on a regular basis and large amounts on an occasional basis does not mean that we can handle large amounts on a regular basis and for a long period. ... The colon of a true carnivore is straight and smooth so that meat can slide through cleanly. However, the human colon, like the colon of true herbivores, has thousands of curves and wrinkles. Animal-based fat becomes fatty fecal matter, and it is solid at body temperature, whereas the fecal matter of those who eat plant-based foods does not solidify. ... Carnivores can consume unlimited amounts of cholesterol and saturated fats without developing atherosclerosis, but a rabbit or human that eats this way quickly suffers fatty and waxy build up on artery walls. ... On the whole, primate meat consumption is very light compared to the amount of meat that true carnivores and modern humans consume, and most of the meat that most primates eat is insect meat. ... LIFE EXPECTANCY AND A VEGETARIAN DIET ... Cultures with the highest meat consumption—Eskimos, Laplanders, Greenlanders, and the Russian Kurgi tribes—have the lowest life expectancies, as low as 30 years. On the other hand, cultures that eat very little animal-based food__the Vilcabambas of Ecuador, the Abkhasians of Georgia, and the Hunzas of Pakistan__have the longest life expectancies. (Alexander Leaf, M.D., "Every Day Is a Gift When You Are Over 100," National Geographic, January, 1973, p. 93 ff. ... The diseases we are most concerned about in old age__such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis__are diseases of excess and bad diet. ... VITAMINS AND MINERALS The saturated fat industry works long and hard to convince us that meat, dairy products, and eggs contain superior nutrients and that we are in danger of getting sick and dying if we do not eat them. ... The B Vitamins While meat, eggs, and seafoods do contain vitamin B-1 (thiamine), so also do legumes, peanuts, peas, whole grains, ... and many other plant based foods. ... Vitamin D ... Further, the body can produce sufficient vitamin D if we are exposed to sunlight on our face and hands for 15 minutes per day, three days per week. ... Milk contains vitamin D, but only because it is added as a supplement. Sometimes milk is not thoroughly mixed, so some batches can contain overdoses of vitamin D. Calcium Meat contains little calcium. The calcium in milk is not particularly absorbable, and there are serious problems in drinking milk. ... Good plant-based sources of calcium include leafy green vegetables .... Iron ... Lean sirloin contains only 1.9 milligrams of iron per 100 calories of
food content. ... Dairy products contain virtually no iron. ... Spinach contains
11.3 milligrams per 100 calories. ... Almost all plant-based foods contain iron.
.. Zinc ... While meat, fish, chicken, and egg yolks do contain zinc, so also do ... beans, ... soy, sunflower seeds, whole grains, parsley, and many other vegetables, beans, and nuts. You don't need to eat animal products to get your vitamins and minerals. PROTEIN HYPE ... Most Americans eat far too much protein, typically 90 to 120 grams per day. ... At four calories per gram of protein, the typical North American is eating 360 to 480 calories of protein instead of the 50 to 160 calories we need. When it comes to protein, especially the highly concentrated, sulfur-laden, acid-producing protein contained in animal-based foods, more is definitely not better. ... Meat and dairy propagandists imply it is hard for those who eat a plant-based diet to get sufficient protein. To the contrary, it is hard for one who eats a strictly vegetarian diet not to get sufficient protein. ... CHILDREN FLOURISH EATING A PLANT-BASED DIET The dietary needs of children can be met without any compromise through a plant-based diet. Dr. Charles R. Attwood (Low-Fat Prescription for Kids) and Michael Klaper (Pregnancy, Children and the Vegan Diet) point out that it is important to reduce cholesterol and fat consumption at an early age to control obesity and that a vegetarian diet is the best way to accomplish this. ... EATING ANIMAL-BASED FOODS: ... Girls in the United States are commonly entering puberty as early as seven years of age; a few as early as three. ... Vegetarian girls, on the other hand, often do not enter puberty until they are 15 or 16 years of age. OBESITY There is a direct correlation from country to country between the level of consumption of animal fat and obesity. ... (Marvin Harris, M.D., The Scientific Basis of Vegetarianism, p. 25, citing scholarly journals.) ... DAIRY PRODUCTS, OSTEOPOROSIS, AND ANIMAL-BASED FOODS Dairy products contain animal proteins, enzymes, and hormones that often cause "... allergic and inflammatory reactions such as chronic runny noses, recurrent ear and bronchial infections, eczema, asthmatic bronchitis, and other inflammations of joints, skin and bowels." (Michael Klaper, M.D., Vegan Nutrition, p. 28, citing medical journals. See Robert Cohen's Not Milk web site at www.NotMilk.Com.) ... The bovine leukemia virus infects up to 20 percent of all milk cows, and it is not destroyed in the pasteurization process. ... The highest rates of leukemia are found in children ages 3 through 13, who consume the most milk and dairy products. (Michael Klapper, M.D., Pregnancy, Children, and the Vegan Diet, p. 42, citing medical journals.) ... Factory farmers systematically overfeed cows with ground-up meat to produce maximum quantities of milk that are higher in butterfat. ... Osteoporosis is not the result of eating too little calcium. It is the result of eating of too much animal-based protein, which depletes calcium reserves. ... Generally, those who eat a plant-based diet have higher bone density than those who eat animal-based foods. The best way to get calcium is to get it the way cows get it: by eating leafy green vegetables. CHICKEN AND EGGS ... Salmonella is a bacteria that infects most laying hens and broiler chickens. The FDA estimated that in 1985 four million people contracted salmonellosis, many of the cases being incorrectly thought to be a bad case of the flu. ... It is believed that repeated reinfection by salmonellosis causes or exacerbates arthritis. (Klaper, Vegan Nutrition, p. 23.) Up to 90 percent of chickens and eggs are infected with salmonella. In part, this high percentage is the result of feeding chicken manure and chicken flesh back to chickens. Chicken manure is also fed to cattle and pigs, which is why beef and pork can be infected with salmonella. ... Chicken eggs, too, are infected with salmonellosis, and the salmonella bacteria is not just on the outside of the shell, but throughout the egg. ... Dr. Michael Klaper points out that cancer of the lymph nodes is common among chickens, that chicken lymphoma is "virtually indistinguishable" from human lymphoma, and that there is evidence that lymphoma can be transferred to humans through contact with chickens and eating chicken meat. ... (Klaper, Vegan Nutrition, p. 23.) CATTLE AND PIGS ... In this country, beef cattle and pigs are routinely fed such delicacies as cardboard, sawdust, wood chips, newspaper, ... pulp mill ammonia waste, common garbage, cement dust, beef blood, chicken meat and feathers, and henhouse droppings. You are what you eat. What else would you be? ... Factory farm animals eat trash, and therefore they are made of trash. And because there is no incinerator in our intestines, when we eat animal foods, we too are made of trash. ... Virtually all feedlot cattle are given growth hormones, which are known to be carcinogenic in larger quantities. The human breast, uterus, and are especially sensitive to these hormones. ... CHOLESTEROL, HYPERTENSION, AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE ... Cholesterol melts only ... above 149° C. In our bodies it is waxy and hard. Look at the fat on a cut of beef; it is solid even in a frying skillet and will be solid in our colons and on the walls of our arteries.... Beginning during the Korean War, autopsies were done on soldiers who died. Coroners found that even the arteries of teenagers were streaked with yellow cholesterol. ... According to Dr. Ornish, switching to a plant-based diet can be as helpful—in non-emergency cases—as having a coronary bypass operation, and at a savings of $50,000. ... DIABETES Insulin is fat soluble. Thus, a diet high in cholesterol and fat absorbs insulin and prevents it from doing its job. Adult-onset, Type II diabetics who switch to a low fat diet are able to reduce their intake of insulin or oral hypoglycemic agents or eliminate them entirely. Likewise, childhood-onset diabetics who change their diets can dramatically reduce insulin intake. (Neal Barnard, Eat Right, Live Longer, p. 59 ff.) ... The occurrence of childhood-onset Type I diabetes is most frequent in countries where people eat the most milk products. (Charles R. Attwood, M.D., Dr. Attwood's Low-Fat Prescription for Kids, p. 63; N. Seppa, "Cows' Milk, Diabetes Connection Bolstered," Science News Online, June 26, 1999, Vol. 155: No. 26.) ... Never, never feed cow's milk to young children. CANCER According to Dr. Linus Pauling, "Everyone should know the war on cancer…" initiated in 1971 by President Nixon, "… is largely a fraud." This is because fifty percent of cancers are diet related, while only one percent of the anticancer budget is allocated to diet research. ... Occasionally cures are declared, however, "cure" is defined as survival for five years after treatment. The person whose cancer recurs in the sixth year and who then dies is still counted among the "cured." There are continuous newspaper articles about early detection of breast cancer. There is a debate over whether insurance companies should pay for mammograms beginning at age 40 or at age 50. However, in no article in the mainline press was there any mention whatsoever of prevention of breast cancer. The silence is deafening, revealing, and scandalous. What kind of fools are journalists? What kind of fools do they take us to be? ... For ... a cancer to be of sufficient size to be detected by mammograms—whether they begin at age 40 or 50__, the cancer will already have divided 30 times, producing a tumor with billions of cells. To reach this size, the typical tumor will already have been growing for nine years! ... Changing to a plant-based, low-fat diet that is rich in raw, green vegetables is the best way to prevent cancer. Cancer is easier to prevent than to cure. ... ARTHRITIS ... Milk is a common trigger of allergic reactions which can exacerbate arthritis symptoms. It is the proteins and not the fats in milk that cause the allergic reaction, and so switching from whole milk to skim milk is not a solution. ... SPONGIFORM BRAIN DISEASE ... There is now strong evidence that humans can acquire spongiform brain disease by eating the meat of infected animals. (Review several thousand articles on spongiform brain disease on the Internet at www.mad-cow.org; see Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, Mad Cow U.S.A., Could the Nighmare Happen Here? and Richard Rhodes, Deadly Feasts, Tracking a Plague.) ... EXPOSING A WORLD OF LIES It is one of life's tragic ironies that the vendors of saturated fat have made parents fear that their children's health will suffer if they don't feed them animal-based foods. The exact opposite is true: Your children will be less healthy and will live a shorter life if they eat animal-based foods. White has been made black; black has been made white. ...
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