Found out last night that my father's going to be "merged" with a pacemaker and it pisses me off. The years of eating high-fat, salt, sugar, and non-vegan food have caught up with this still physically vigorous former test pilot. It's hard to convey the depths of frustration, concern, and anger the situation wells up within me, especially since I firmly believe in the 20+ years of independent peer-reviewed research by Drs. Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn that indicate it's the added oil/fat in your diet that is the greatest facilitator of heart disease (whether or not you exercise), and that heart disease can be reversed (and in theory, prevented) through a no-added fat vegan diet.
To his credit, over the past two years since I interviewed Dr. Esselstyn and Dad read his book, he's tried, but like an struggling alcoholic, he still "cheats." The salmon, the fried tortilla chips, cheese, desserts, and so on. The non-vegan and vegan addictive taste for added fat, salt, and sugar is deadly.
Yes... vegans too, need to recognize that we can kill ourselves as easily as the carnivores through the same. Ninety percent of the strokes that kill all of us, regardless of cholesterol levels, physical fitness, and the appearance of health, come from plaque forming in our blood vessels. Added oil/fat is the fuel and fire for that plaque. (Here are 15 documented reasons to avoid added vegetable fat.) I've followed Essy's advice since that interview and have totally re-calibrated my fat receptors such that I no longer crave or care about added fat/oil.
In the thrall of insomnia as I write this, I just saw a new recipe from one of my favorite vegan blogs (Vegan Dad). He posted his "Ultimate Pecan Sticky Buns" recipe. Here's the fat math from the recipe:
1.5 cups pecans: 117 grams of fat
At 12 servings (not counting the 1 cup of soy milk & yogurt), we get: 30 or so grams of fat PER SERVING if you include the nuts.
Federal Government recommendations: 60 to 65 grams of fat PER DAY, max
One "Ultimate Pecan Sticky Bun" contains over 1.5 times worth of recommended total daily fat (Ornish/Esselstyn) or around 1/2 daily recommended fat by the Feds. Refined flour, processed goo (the none-whole-food oil), and sugar. Oh, there's some soy milk, rum, orange zest, spices and nuts involved. Healthy? Not even close.
How ironic that Vegan Dad is so proud that his recipe has fueled so many activists that have helped his admirable social activist efforts. How very ironic, too, is his initial description of the recipe (as though an excuse for this nutritional monstrosity):
Perhaps, then, it would be advisable to not "look at them."
But seriously... IMHO, it's not the size of one's ass one that should be worried about when eating one of these "babies." It's the integrity and longevity of your heart and circulatory system. Then consider My Dad's condition, and realize that the sooner you rid yourself of your unhealthy taste addictions, the better. One's ultimate end comes primarily from the decadent means... and it's not funny.
Excellent piece, as always.
[How kind! Thanks much for the feedback. It's always good to know what people are thinking about my posts.
In the case of this one, it was quite a shock to me to find out what was in the "fat tube" and hope this kind of post encourage others who do product reviews to provide information about what's actually in the stuff they promote. Ironic, though, that for people who care so much about there not being animal products in their food, they so often ignore what's in a vegan product.
Best, Mark]
Posted by: BJ | 2009.05.07 at 13:05