Top 7 Health Reasons to Bypass Animal Products

Nicci and Sadie chop onions for a vegan stew. Photo: Kneidel

Previous post: Top Five Ways Livestock Wreck the Planet

1. Protect your heart. Multiple studies report that the consumption of beef, pork, and lamb increase the risk of heart disease. Cardiologist Caldwell Esselstyn, in a 20-year-study, found that patients who adhered to his plant-derived diet reduced their cholesterol from an average of 240 mg/dL (high risk) to below 150 mg/dL - the total cholesterol level seen in cultures where heart disease is essentially nonexistent. In addition, Esselstyn's patients who had already experienced heart attacks or bypass surgery, etc., had virtually no further cardiac events after adopting his diet. His work is featured in the new documentary PLANEAT.

2. Vegetarians are 40% less likely to get cancer compared to meat-eaters, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Colon cancer is one of several cancers linked to meat consumption. Total fat and saturated fat, which tend to be higher in animal products than in plant-derived foods, increase colon-cancer risks. The same is true for breast cancer. Countries with a higher fat intake, especially fat from meat and dairy products, have a higher incidence of breast cancer. In Japan, for example, the traditional diet is much lower in fat, especially animal fat, than the usual western diet, and breast cancer rates are low. In the 1940s, when breast cancer was very rare in Japan, less than 10% of the calories in the Japanese diet came from fat.

3. Milk is a "stew of hormones"
Recent studies in adults have linked cow's milk with an excess cancer risk in the prostate, and to a lesser extent in the breast and ovaries, notes oncologist Michael Pollak of McGill University. Researchers suspect milk's "natural stew of hormones, growth factors and other biologically active chemicals" to be causative agents, reports Janet Raloff in Science News. Scientists at the National Cancer Institute analyzed grocery-store milk and found that whole milk contains the smallest quantity of estrogens; skim and buttermilk contain the most. Here's a quandary: although whole milk may contain the least estrogens, it contains the most saturated fat. And saturated fat has been associated with colon cancer for some time. What to do? Jettison the milk. See my previous post about milk and cancer.

4. Diabetes and obesity associated with meat-eating
An August 2011 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that eating as little as 1 daily serving of red meat (beef, pork, lamb) increases your risk of type 2 diabetes. In the study, one daily serving of unprocessed red meat raised the diabetes risk about 20%. Worse, "one serving per day of processed meat like a hot dog or sausage was associated with a 50 percent increased risk of diabetes” said study co-author Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health. “That’s pretty high.” In addition, those who ate the most red meat were less likely to eat fruits and vegetables and more likely to be obese and to smoke. “I think we should change our mindset in terms of protein sources in our diet,” said Dr. Hu. For the summary article, click here. For my previous post about fast foods and health, click here.

5. Fish infused with mercury
U.S. coal-fired power plants release over 48 tons of mercury into the air annually; Asia releases even more. All this airborne mercury winds up in freshwater and oceans - and in fish. The EPA says a mercury blood level below 5.8 mcg/L is safe for pregnant women; the agency estimates that at least 8% of U.S. women of childbearing age have blood mercury levels higher than that. In the Northeast, 20% of such women do. In NYC, 25%. One San Francisco physician found that 89% of patients who said they often eat fish had elevated levels. Symptoms are neurological, ranging from loss of balance to cognitive problems. Says Dr. Nicholas Fisher of Stonybrook, "95 to 100% of the methylmercury in our bodies comes from eating seafood." When the EPA tested predatory and bottom-dwelling fish from 500 lakes, they found mercury in every single one; half were unsafe to eat. Another study by the USGS found mercury-contaminated fish in all 291 streams and rivers they tested. Are any fish safe to eat? If you want to check it out, go to gotmercury.org or epa.gov/ost/fish. For more info, see Sierra Magazine's Nov/Dec 2011 article "This much mercury...how the coal industry poisoned your tuna sandwich."

6. One egg has twice the cholesterol of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese
Aside from the periodic salmonella outbreaks, even uninfected eggs can be a hazard to your health. According to Susan Levin, writing for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 70% of the calories in an egg are fat calories. Eggs also have "a surprising load of saturated fat, which causes the liver to produce more cholesterol, which in turn increases the risk for cardiovascular disease." A typical egg contains 212 milligrams of cholesterol, more than the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee recommends for an entire day. An egg contains more cholesterol than a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese, which sports a hefty 94 milligrams of cholesterol. There is no recommended minimum intake of cholesterol, but 200-300 mg is the recommended daily max.

7. Chicken is "one of the most dangerous...."
Time magazine has called chicken one of the most dangerous items in the American home. Recent studies report that more than 30% of U.S. chicken is contaminated with Salmonella, and 62% is contaminated with Campylobacter. According to the USDA, these two pathogens cause 80% of the illnesses and 75% of the acute deaths associated with meat consumption. Regarding the saturated fat issue: many consumers have replaced red meat with chicken, believing chicken to have less fat. But chicken is not low-fat. According to The George Washington University Health Plan, "Three ounces of lean top round has 5 grams of fat, while three ounces of roasted chicken thigh has 13 grams of fat. Even without the skin, the roasted thigh has 9 grams of fat." For more info and sources about human health and poultry, click here.

What to do?
Avoiding animal products is no longer difficult, given the profusion of substitutes in today's grocery stores and farmers markets. For ideas on family meals, check out some of the menus and cookbooks reviewed on this site.

 Sadie peruses local produce at a farmers market. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Coming soon: Top 5 Humane Reasons to Choose a Plant-based Diet and Skip the Animal Flesh

Keywords: vegan health animal products vegetarian health health hazards of meat health hazards of eggs health hazards of milk health hazards of animal products healthiest diet healthy diet

Ground beef: a risky choice for families and the planet

Story by Sally Kneidel, PhD, of sallykneidel.com

The New York Times reported on October 11 that eating ground beef is still risky. Well, yes, but what's new about that? Of course it's still risky. Every now and then the media decide to write up something about the hazards of beef as though it were new, but the situation remains as it has been for some time.

The New York Times article focused on E. coli, a short name for the bacterium Escherichia coli. We all have E. coli in our intestines; most strains of E. coli are harmless. But one strain can be deadly to humans, causing bloody diarrhea and kidney failure. That strain is E. coli 0157. It lives in the bowels of half of the beef cattle in the United States. A very small number of these bacteria can kill you - some say as few as ten bacterial cells.

 A beef-cattle feedlot in photo above. Photo courtesy of http://oceanworld.tamu.org

Virtually all cattle in feedlots spend their days and nights standing around in manure, and so their coats are usually contaminated with E. coli 0157. Keeping the bacteria out of their meat is a challenge. After cattle are killed in a slaughterhouse, the carcasses pass through a hot-steam area, then are sprayed with a disinfectant to get rid of E. coli 0157. In some slaughterhouses and processing plants, the carcasses are irradiated. The radiation kills bacteria, although there is some debate about effects that irradiated food may have on human consumers.

Young Dancer Paralyzed by E. coli

In the U.S., there are occasional outbreaks of E.coli 0157 poisoning, where several people in one town will become extremely ill and a few may die. Since children eat half the hamburgers sold in the U.S., the victims are often children. The poisoning is usually traced to a single hamburger restaurant that has a batch of meat contaminated with E. coli 0157. The New York Times article featured a children's dance instructor, Stephanie Smith, who was left paralyzed at the age of 22 after ingesting a hamburger contaminated with E.coli 0157 in 2007.

Before the advent of feedlots, dangerous E. coli from cattle could not survive in human digestive tracts because our stomachs were too acidic for them. But the unnatural corn diet fed to beef cattle in feedlots, to marble their flesh and increase their weight gain, increases the acidity of cattle's stomachs so that it's more similar to ours. So the cattle's E. coli 0157 have adapted to a more acidic stomach and now can survive in our stomachs too.

A Possible Solution

It doesn't have to be this way. According to a study by Dr. James Russell at Cornell University, feeding cows their natural diet of hay instead of corn for only five days before slaughter will reduce the acidity in their stomachs and get rid of the acid-loving and dangerous E. coli 0157. Any remaining E. coli would not be able to survive in our acidic stomachs and so would not be dangerous to humans..

Of course, if cows were not fed corn in the first place, but were fed hay or allowed to graze, then we wouldn't have any problem at all with the dangerous E. coli 0157. So, remind me, why is it that cattle are fed corn? Oh yes, it's that familiar corporate incentive: shaving pennies from production costs to maximize profits. Because corn-fed cattle gain more weight and gain it faster, they make more money for beef producers. And we Americans have gotten used to that fat-laced meat and now prefer it.

Is beef worth the risks, and the ecological down-side? You might be surprised at how fast you can get used to a life without beef. Aside from the E. coli issue, consider that a recent Worldwatch document declared beef and dairy products to be the two ecological "hot spots" in our diet - that is, the two diet items whose production does the most long-lasting damage to the planet.

Anyone for a Tofurkey sausage? All plant-based and indescribably delicious.

Sources:
Sally Kneidel, PhD, and Sadie Kneidel. 2005. Veggie Revolution: Smart Choices for a Healthy Body and a Healthy Planet. Fulcrum Books.

BBC Online Network. "Change of Diet Could Defeat Killer Bug." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/169255.stm

Sarah DeWeerdt. "Is Local Food Better?" Worldwatch Institute

Michael Moss."E. coli path shows flaws in beef inspection." October 11, 2009. New York Times.

Photo courtesy of http://oceanworld.tamu.org 

Key words:: beef feedlots E. coli health meat cattle diet hot spots