SoulVeggie

"The Devolution of Thanksgiving" - my lecture to Olgethorpe University

"My recent lecture. The History of Thanksgiving, fasting/prayer, corporate excess, the modern turkey, the kitchen as a biohazard laboratory, a no-fat plant-based diet, veganism, metabolic syndrome (heart disease, type II diabetes, alzheimer's disease, etc.), pesticides, gmos, advice for dealing with Thanksgiving, and a host of other related issues.  Roughly a 35 minute talk, and I cut loose a bit in the subsequent 30 minute Q&A.

This slideshow accompanying the audio (the lecture was given via Skype) was a quick'n'dirty assembly of related images to the topics I was discussing.  By no means comprehensive, they seem to augment the whole experience." 

"Plant-Strong by the Numbers" - Heart Disease, Fat, Sugar, & Salt

"Although a knowledge of numbers isn’t critical to successfully navigating the journeyto a plant-strong lifestyle, recognizing important signals on the trip can be very useful for helping in deciding what to eat and what to avoid.  They can also be additional encouragement to help us stay on the road less traveled by and not get lost in false needs."

There are various numbers and statistics that are suggested as being useful to remember to encourage optimatl personal health. A discussion and distillation of these metrics on daily intake requirements for fat, sugar, and salt, as well as their content and measurements in certain foods, can be found in my guest blog post for the "Engine2 Diet" website."

Excerpted Quotes from Dr. Esselstyn on Taste Addiction, Added Oil, & Heart Disease

Been pulling together material to cull through for appendices in my "soon to be announced" cookbook.  The following are selected from Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's landmark "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease."  Most notable are what he says about taste addiction, oil & free radicals, describing how even a little oil is damaging, and Dr. T. Colin Campbell's observation about oil in one's diet.

Enjoy!  Mark    Twitter: @solveggie

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Pg. 114:  "Collectively, the media; the meat, oil, and dairy industries; most prominent chefs and cookbook authors; and our own government are not presenting accurate advice about the healthiest way to eat."

Pg. 114:  "And it's not just a matter of bad information.  The truth is that we are addicted to fat --- literally.  Receptors in our brains account for our addicition to nicotine, heroin, and cocaine, and similar cravings have been identified for fat and sugars as well."

Pg. 114:  "The way to break the fat habit is to abstain entirely from eating it --- just as those who use heroin, cocaine, and nicotine must give them up once and for all.  We have all seen what happens with many people who go on reduced-fat diets in order to lose weight.  A diet that permits even a modest amount of animal, dairy, and oil fat still feeds the habit.  The craving remains.  And the moment diet is completed --- or, more often, fails --- the dieter too frequently returns to his or her old habits of eating and regains the lost weight."

Pg. 04:  "Here are the facts.  Coronary artery disease is the leading killer of men and women in Western civilization.  In the United States alone, more than half a million people die of it every single year.  Three times that number suffer known heart attacks.  And approximately three million more have "silent" heart attacks, experiencing minimal symptoms and having no idea, until well after the damage is done, that they are in mortal danger.  In the course of a lifetime, one out of every two American men and one out of every three American women will have some form of the disease.

Pg. 38:  "Every mouthful of oils and animal products, including dairy foods, initiates an assault on these [cell] membranes and, therefore, on the cells they protect.  These foods produce a cascade of free radicals in our bodies --- especially harmful chemical substances that induce metabolic injuries from which there is only a partial recovery.  Year after year, the effects accumulate.  And eventually, the cumulative cell injury is great enough to become obvious, to express itself as what physicians define as disease.  Plants and grains do not induce the deadly cascade of free radicals.  Even better, in fact, they carry an antidote.  Unlike oils and animal products, they contain antioxidants, which help to neutralize the free radicals and also, recent research suggests, may provide considerable protection against cancers."

Pg. 84:  "...[oils] are not heart healthy.  Between 14 and 17 percent of olive oil is saturated, artery-clogging fat --- every bit as aggressive in promoting heart disease as the saturated fat in roast beef.  And even though a Mediterranean-style diet that allows such oils may slow the rate of progression of coronary heart disease, when compared with diets even higher in saturated fat, it does not arrest the disease and reverse its effects."

Pg, 84 - 85:  "...Colin Campbell, author of the best-selling China Study, was asked his thought on the results of the Lyon Diet Heart Study [Med Diet], and to compare those results with those he found in studying health and nutrition in rural China, where coronary disease is practically nonexistent.  Colin didn't hesitate for a moment.  The Mediterranean and rural Chinese diets are practically the same, he replied.  "I would say the absence of oil in the rural Chinese diet is the reason for their superior success."

Pg. 04:  "The cost of this epidemic is enormous --- greater, by far, than that of any other disease.  The United States spends more than $250 billion a year on heart disease.  That's about the same amount the nation spent on the first two and half years of its military venture in Iraq, and fully twice as much as the federal government allocates for all research and development --- including R&D for defense and national security."

Pg. 04:  "But here is the truly shocking statistic:  nearly all that money is devoted to treating symptoms.  It pays for cardiac drugs, for clot-dissolving medications, and for costly mechanical techniques that bypass clogged arteries or widen them with balloons, tiny rotating knives, lasers, and stents.  All of these approaches carry significant risk of serious complications, including death.

Pg. 04 - 05:  I believe that coronary artery disease is preventable, and that even after it is underway, its progress can be stopped, its insidious effects reversed.  I believe, and my work over the past twenty years has demonstrated, that all this can be accomplished without expensive mechanical intervention and with minimal use of drugs.  The key lies in nutrition --- specifically, in abandoning the toxic American diet and maintaining cholesterol levels well below those historically recommended by health policy experts.

Pg. 05:  "The bottom line of the nutritional program I recommend is that it contains not a single item of any food known to cause or promote the development of vascular disease.  I often ask patients to compare their coronary artery disease to a house fire.  Your house is on fire because eating the wrong foods has given you heart disease.  You are spraying gasoline on the fire by continuing to eat the very same foods that caused the disease in the first place."

Pg. 05:  "I don't want my patients to pour a single thimbleful of gasoline [oil, meat, dairy] on the fire.  Stopping the gasoline puts out [and prevents] the fire.  Reforming the way you eat will end [and prevent] the heart disease."

Pg. 10:  "Cholesterol is a white, waxy substance that is not found in plants --- only in animals.  It is an essential component of the membrane that coats all our cells, and it is the basic ingredient of sex hormones.  Our bodies need cholesterol, and they manufacture it on their own.  We do not need to eat it.  But we do, when we consume meat, poultry, fish, and other animal-based foods, such as dairy products and eggs.  In doing so, we take on excess amounts of the substance.  What's more, eating fat [even as added oil] causes the body itself to manufacture excessive amounts of cholesterol, which explains why vegetetarians who eat oil, butter, cheese, milk, ice cream, glazed doughnuts, and French pastry develop coronary disease despite their avoidance of meat."

Pg. 11:  "The cornonary arteries are the blood vessels that supply oxygen and nutrients to the muscle of the heart.  They get their name from the Latin word for "crown" because they encircle the heart almost like a royal headpiece.  They are relatively small, but exceedingly important: without the nourishment they bring to the incredibly efficient pump they serve, the heart becomes injured, begins to fail, and may die."

Pg. 11:  "The innermost lining of all blood and lymph vessels and the heart is called the endothelium.  Far more thana simple membrane, the endothelium is actually the body's single largest endocrine organ.  If all the endothelial cells in your body were laid out flat, one cell thick, they would cover an area equal to two tennis courts."

Pg. 11:  "Healthy arteries are strong and elastic, their linings smooth and unobstructed, allowing a free flow of blood.  But when the levels of fats in the bloodstream become elevated, everything begins to change.  Gradually, the endothelium, the white blood cells, and the platelets, the blood cells that cause clotting, all become sticky.  Eventually, a white blood cell adheres to and eventually penetrates the endothelium, where it attempts to ingest the rising numbers of LDL cholesterol molecules that are being oxidized from the fatty diet.  The white blood cell sends out a call for help to other white blood cells.  More and more of them converge on the site, becoming engorged with bad cholesterol and eventually forming a bubble of fatty pus--- an atheroma, or "plaque," the chief characterisitic of atherosclerosis."

Pg. 11:  "Old plaques contain scar tissue and calcium.  As they enlarge, they severely narrow and sometimes block the arteries...  A significantly narrowed artery cannot give the heart muscle a normal blood supply, and the heart muscle, thus deprived, causes chest pain, or angina.  In some cases, the coronary arteries actually perform their own bypasses, growing extra branches --- called "collaterals" --- that go around the narrowed vessels."

Pg. 11 - 12:  "However, it is not the old, larger plaques that put you most at risk for heart attacks.  The most recent scientific evidence indicates that most heart attacks occur when younger and smaller fatty plaques rupture their outer lining, or cap, and bleed into the coronary artery."

Pg. 12:  "As the plaque is formed, a fibrous cap develops at its roof, which is covered by a single layer of endothelium about as thick as a cobweb.  For a while, thus protected, plaques lie quiety in place, doing less perceptible harm to the artery's owner.  But an insidious process is nonetheless under way.  The white blood cells that raced to the rescue, now engorged with oxidized LDL cholesterol, are called "foam cells," and begin to manufacture chemical substances that erode the cap of the plaque.  The cap weakens to thethickness of a cobweb.  And eventually, the shearing force of blood flowing over the weakened cap may cause it to rupture."

Pg. 12:  "This is catastrophic.  Plaque content or pus now oozes into the flowing bloodstream, and that constitutes a thrombogenic event: nature wants to heal the rupture, and so platelets are activated.  They try mightily to stop the invading garbage by clotting the rupture. Thus begins a lethal cascade.  The clot is self-propagating, and within minutes, theentire artery may become blocked."

Pg. 37:  "We  should be aiming much higher: at arresting coronary artery disease altogether, even reversing its course.  And the key to doing this, as my research demonstrates, is not simply reducing the amount of fat and cholesterol you ingest, but eliminating cholesterol and any fat beyond the natural, healthy amounts found in plants, from your diet.  The key is plant-based nutrition."

New Mad Cowboy Newsletter Out - Msg. from Howard, & Mr. Clucky

Title: A Special Holiday Msg. from Howard, Recipes from Vegan Unplugged!, Mr. Clucky

TOC and Direct link:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/message/94

"Howdy!  Welcome to the 71th issue of the Mad Cowboy Newsletter.

This edition features a special holiday message from Howard!  You can also learn about Mr. Clucky, Dennis Kucinich's book, how the food industry wants to change the name "high fructose syrup" (and avoid connections with a study showing how HFS feeds cancer), that a new study shows that organic strawberries not only taste better, but are better for your health.  Further on, you'll see some Monsanto backlash, an unusual study about how plants "think" with light, that there was actually a Texas Veggie Fair during the humongous Texas State Fair, more concerns about Frankenfish, and that the oldest Brit is vegetarian.

Don't miss the fine recipes from "Vegan Unplugged!" a unique survival guide and vegan cookbook, quite a few videos worth glomming in the "Vegan Digital Media Theater," how $4.2 billion is being spent to convince you to eat "fast food," and that the Tea Party wants to eliminate "Puppy Mill" legislation.  And of course, there's the obligatory "Mad Cow Info Round-Up."

... as always, a tip of the hat to our new subscribers:  y'all can browse/search through past issues at the Mad Cowboy Newsletter Archives at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/

Here's hoping everyone has a fine, warm, and enjoyable Vegan Thanksgiving with friends and family! Be patient with your non-veg relatives or associations, and set an example by being grateful for what blessings we do have and giving thanks where due.

Best regards, Mark    MC editor/webmaster

***********************************************
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
00: A Special Holiday Message from Howard
01: The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
02: Recipes from "Vegan Unplugged!" by Jon Robertson
03: Mad Cow Info Round-Up
04: HFS Feeds Cancer/Name Chg., US Avoids Vegs, $4.2 Billion
05: Study: Org. Strawbs Best, Monsanto Wins/Loses, Plants Think
06: Vegan Digital Media Theater
07: Tex Veggie Fair, Kucinich Cookbook, Oldest Brit is Veg, Quivers
08: Frankenfish, Mr. Clucky, Pam Anderson, Tea Party vs. Puppies
09: Quick Bytes
10: Closing Thoughts"

Xtreme Eating 2010 Awards: Cheezilla, Sneaky Pizza, Pestocide, +

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has put together a devastating list of "bad food" awards for 2010.  As usual, they are making a good point, and it's great to see them get some press for noting how unbelievably awful some of these foods are nutritionally:

"With two out of three adults—and one out of three children—overweight or obese, you’d think that restaurants would have some interest in keeping their patrons alive and dining out longer.

With mandatory calorie labeling on the horizon for chain restaurants, you’d think that restaurants would be dropping high-calorie items from their menus.

With close to 30 percent of young Americans too heavy to join the military, you’d think that restaurants would at least stop introducing new heavyweight items.

Nope. It’s business as usual in the restaurant industry. And that means it’s business as usual around here.  Welcome to our 2010 Xtreme Eating Awards."

Kudos to the whole CSPI team for bringing these sad issues to public concern.  Pity that these companies don't really care what they are doing to our collective health (and adding immeasurably to overall healthcare costs a few years from now).

"Faith-based" Nutritional Advice or "WTF?"

It's not often I see the diametrically opposed juxtiposition of a fine article, in this case, on the marketing efforts of Fast Food companies, contrasted with the author's own recipes.  Just absolutely amazing.

Here's the deal:  Kristin writes this excellent article about Fast Food Companies marketing to kids and minorities, here.  Makes sense, points out some real problems, has a lot of stats (not referenced, but consistent with what I know from past research).  Then, in the "footer" to the article is a link to her blog.  I'm thinking, "holistic nutritionist" there must be some good recipes there.

Boy, was I wrong.  The most current recipe (here) at that time was a Killer Quiche (emphasis on "killer").  A real "heart attack" waiting to happen.  Refined spelt flour, eggs, butter, whole milk, and a paltry 1 cup of chopped spinach to be spread around four servings.

How ridiculous.  I did the math.  Close to 400 calories and over 40 grams of fat per serving.  To put this into perspective, even the grossly conservative American Heart Association weighs in at no more than 80 grams of fat PER DAY.  Esselstyn and Ornish, who've prevented heart disease, weigh in at 15 to 25 grams of fat per day TOTAL.  One half the fat, per serving, that the AHA recommends per day for an adult.  She must be so proud!

So, a slice of that quiche has about as much fat as a Burger King Whopper and the same amount of calories.  What a winner!  In fact, the Whopper has more vegetables per serving then her quiche!

Refined flour, butter, whole milk, eggs, and a little tiny bit of spinach, and Kristin calls this "healthy and satisfying."

It gets worse.  In private e-mail exchange, which I won't quote here as I haven't asked permission, she points out that these are "traditional foods" and asserts that this makes them intrinsically healthy, and she never bothers to worry about the fat in her recipes.

Unbelievable.  She is essentially saying she knows more than Esselstyn, Ornish, Barnard, McDougall, Campbell and the American Heart Association.  She actually gets paid to counsel people on nutrition and feels that a vegan or vegetarian diet negatively impacts, among other things, your "reproductive capabilities."  Babe, come on over and I'll show you otherwise.

What a load of, well, crap.  What's traditional?  Drinking blood in the Latin American countries during the Mayan period?  Eating sheep intestines (haggis) in Ireland?  Possum in West Virginia?  Consumption of insects which is common in some countries?

It's just stunning to be reminded that there are people out there that actually believe drinking the raw breast milk from another species, that eating congealed pus-filled cheese, and ignoring the amount of fat in a meal is all good and "traditional."  These ignorant people are helping kill us in large numbers.  Unknowingly, with positive motive, they are promulgating absurd and scientifically unfounded myths about diet that altogether too many people, too lazy to do the research, buy into.

She has the audacity to all herself a "holistic nutritionist."  What colossal ego and overall silliness.

Oil is NOT a whole food, neither is raw milk, nor cheese, nor dead animal corpses.

Do your homework and actually help people to live longer, Kristin.  Start with science.  No wonder so many of your clients have problems with a plant-based diet.  A "faith-based diet" is about as sound as a "faith-based foreign policy" and we KNOW where that's gotten us.

Check this out:  15 reasons to avoid vegetable oils, all referenced and cited.  Ironic that your article didn't provide a single source.  Guess we're suppose to believe everything you wrote 'cause you're a "holistic nutritionist."

You are, imho, a well meaning ill-informed promoter of a diet that helps kill people earlier than necessary.  I've got the science, peer-reviewed research, and studies on my side, wadda you got?  Show me the studies that demonstrate the incredible health benefits of cheese, milk, or meat, that aren't industry funded.

Until you can show me some serious, non-industry-funded studies, that praise the anti-cancer or heart disease contribution of meat, dairy, and eggs, your advice is totally unfounded in reality.  There's no real definition of "traditional" and it's clear that the consumption of so much fat is unhealthy.  You prey on the ignorant, without realizing such.

And the bigger reality is that an epidemic number of Americans are dying from disease every year that could be prevented by eating properly.

IMHO, You are not part of the solution; you are part of the problem.  Desperate people buying into such warm and comfy phrases as "traditional foods."

How sad and unnecessary.  I apologize for my anger in this post, but, imho, people like you easily delude others into believing your non-researched nonsense, and that affects the quality of their lives.  And, you called me, in e-mail, "seriously misinformed,"  I've been called stupid, opinionated, and arrogant.  It ticks me off.  I'm NOT stupid.

It's about time we get real with this organic, holistic, raw, local, silly traditional or "paleolithic" stuff.  The underlying foundational issues are fat, sugar, and salt.  THEN the issues of organic, holistic, raw, vs. local come into play.  And just because you believe something is true, without a shred of evidence, doesn't make it so.

Lives are at stake, and the stakes are high.

 

Video Review: "Chow Down," Heart Disease, & Blockage Bob

"Chow Down" is the story of three people, who when faced with heart disease, decide to follow Dr. Esselstyn's advice and follow a no-added fat vegan diet.  Uplifting, with insightful commentaries from Dr. Esselstyn and Dr. T. Colin Campbell (among other experts), this DVD also includes some clever explanatory animations. 

"...CHOW DOWN exposes the three factors that fatally impact our country’s health: the medical community’s allegiance to the status quo, the government’s allegiance to the food industry, and Americans’ allegiance to cheap, convenient food." [from the "Chow Down" website with a trailer]

Emotionally and intellectually convincing, with a lot of disturbing statistics, the authors and producers of "Chow Down" should be praised for taking on a hard topic and pulling few punches.  The medical establishment has been inept in ignoring the solution to what they have not been able to do:  reverse heart disease via a no-added fat vegan diet, as Drs. Ornish and Esselstyn have proven through, collectively, 40+ years of peer-reviewed research.

The problem is a serious one:

"Estimates for the year 2006 are that 81,100,000 people in the United States have one or more forms of cardiovascular disease (CVD)"  [Source:  American Heart Association]

Here's a fun embedded animation from the DVD (also available at the website here) on "Blockage Bill" and what really causes most strokes, dispelling a common myth.

It's also worth noting that Dr. Esselstyn believes that it is added [not a real food anyway] oil or fat, that fuels development of these smaller plaques and the potentially devastating consequences:

"...Every forkful [or spoonful] of fat [or oil], he [Esselstyn] says, causes an immediate biochemical assault on the endothelium, the lining of the arteries. White blood cells collect there, gobbling up bad cholesterol and creating fatty deposits over time. For many people, especially those who smoke or have other risk factors, accumulation of plaque is a time bomb for a coronary event..." [Excerpt Source]

Everyone needs to be aware of the truth, not only why we are dying in epidemic numbers by various degenerative diseases, but how we can prevent, stop, and reverse that process. This fine DVD is a very big step forward in getting the word out.  Kudos to "Peanut Butter Productions" for all their hard work.  Lives will be saved by your efforts, and you have every right to be proud.

Vegan Cupcakes to Die From

"Meatless Mondays" is a great concept, but it's really disappointing to see a recipe promoted for this event that is just plain awful, and the young female chef is promoted as having done something really good (e.g., mainstream recognition).  But, I did the math.  It ain't pretty.  Here's the link to the recipe:

http://meatoutmondays.org/emails/10-09-27.htm

Okay, 5 cups of sugar is 3870 calories and around 1000 grams of sugar.  1 cup of coconut is 552 calories and 57 gms of fat.  1/2 cup of vegetable oil is 900 claories and 100 grams of PURE fat.  1/2 cup of coconut oil is 900 calories, 100 grams of fat, 94% of that SATURATED fat.

Strawberries, refined flour, chocolote, and immense amount of sugar and pure fat.  What does that work out per serving?

FAT:  over 20 grams  (Esselstyn/Ornish daily recommendation, 14 to 24, Feds, 30 grams)

SUGAR:  over 80 grams per serving.  (American Heart Association recommendation for adult woman PER DAY, is around 24 grams of sugar)

CALORIES:  around 500.  A third to a fourth of what most people need PER DAY.

Is this recipe really worth promoting as vegan?  It has an entire day's worth of fat per serving, a ton of saturated fat, and over three times the recommended sugar per day for a woman, somewhere around twice for a full grown adult man.  PER SERVING.  By conservative American Heart Association recommendations, it's bad for your heart on TWO counts:  sugar and fat.  By those who've reversed heart disease through diet, it's even worse.

IMHO, FARM should be embarassed to promote this recipe at all.  Just because it's vegan, doesn't mean it's healthy.  This is the kind of fat and sugar-ladden quasi-food products that are killing people on a massive scale in this country.  Doesn't matter that it's vegan.  It's toxic. Nutritionally a waste of time and it caters to fat/sugar taste addictions.

Furthermore, it's a travesty to the tasty, antioxident rich strawberries.  Do they really need to wrapped in fat, flour, and sugar to be savored?

Chef Chloe, just like "fat is flavor Chef Tal" deserves no praise for creating and promoting such intrinsically unhealthy food mixtures under the "but it's vegan" conceptual umbrella.  This is, well, crap.  You may save an animal, but you will certainly contribute to the higher probability of killing a human prematurely from any number of chronic disorders.

Apparently, FARM doesn't care.  In their zeal to protect the animals, they seem to have forgotten that, SURPRISE! humans are animal, too.  And recipes like those of Chloe and Tal are deadly... to human animals.  These Chefs should be admonished for promoting such unhealthy food mixtures instead of using their celebrity status to spread the word about truly health low-fat vegan meals.

We're sometimes like people who've just had a breakup and are so excited that anyone would be interested in us that we lower our standards and will go out with anyone who is even close to the former.  We get so excited that "a young pretty vegan chef is getting recognized on cable" that we forget, it's not just "vegan."  It's what's healthy vegan that matters.  We don't need to be that desperate.  Over 500,000 people die from heart disease each year in this country, and the research of Esselstyn and Ornish clearly shows it's the added fat that is a primary cause.

Sugar, non-food fat, flour, and a handful of strawberries, just isn't all that impressive as a recipe. I admire FARM's goals to promote vegan food, but let's get real and promote healthy vegan food.  It's not the 60s.  We know how to reverse Type II diabetes and heart disease:  no-added fat vegan food.  Promoting anything else in the vegan realm is hypocrisy... or ignorance.

Update: "Milk in 2009 Contained Less Pus Than 2008 Milk"

It was realizing the amount of pus cells allowed in milk (concentrated in cheese) that was the foundation of my vegan tipping point.  Once again, Robert Cohen has written about this issue in current context.  Here's his latest post, with a link to the full post here.  Vegetarians who consume dairy products may ignore the animal cruelty and environmental issues, but the health issue herein is somewhat inarguable.  You WILL be consuming cow pus cells if you drink milk or eat cheese.  That's a fact.  Thank you, Robert.

"Milk in 2009 Contained Less Pus Than 2008 Milk

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has recently released the dairy industry's latest national pus figures. This has got to be great news for those milk drinkers who recoil at the mention of pus in milk.

In 2008, the average liter of milk sold in America contained 247 million pus cells.

In 2009, the average liter of milk sold in America contained only 227 million pus cells.

Rejoice!

Since there are 33.8 ounces of milk in one liter, the average ounce contains just 7,307,692 pus cells. That translates into 87,692,397 pus cells in an average 12-ounce glass of milk. Yummm.

Ten pounds of milk are required to produce one pound of hard cheese. Twelve pounds of milk are required to manufacture one pound of ice cream. Pus can be rather tasty when either sugar or various bacterial cultures are added to fermenting milk. As for the number of pus cells in cheese or ice cream treats, you do the math. I've got to go take a vomit break....

Milk clearly has become less disgusting. Please wake me when the pus cell count gets to zero.

Question for milk drinkers: If you were told that your next glass of ice cold pure white milk contains 88 disgusting pus cells, would you go ahead and drink it anyway? The truth is that the actual amount of pus in that glass is one-million times greater! Bon appetit!"

Patterns: Added Sugar & High Blood Pressure

"A new study suggests that foods high in added sugar may increase the risk of high blood pressure.

Researchers analyzed data for 4,528 adults with no history of hypertension who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 2003-6. Those who consumed at least 2.6 ounces a day of fructose in the form of table sugar or high-fructose corn syrup were found to have almost double the risk for systolic blood pressure higher than 160. (The top number of the two, a measure of blood pressure while the heart is beating, it should normally be no higher than 120.)

“Systolic pressure is really what physicians are interested in, because it’s related to outcomes, and the increase is pretty dramatic,” said Dr. Michel Chonchol, an associate professor of medicine at University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center and the senior author of the paper, which appeared in The Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

But Dr. Chonchol cautioned that more research was needed to prove that added fructose played a causal role in hypertension. “This needs to be proven with the next step, which is a randomized controlled trial,” he said.  The American Heart Association recommends limiting food and beverages with added sugars. In a statement last year, the association said an “emerging but inconclusive body of evidence” suggested “that increased intake of added sugars might raise blood pressure.” [From July 05, 2010, here]

Vegans and vegetarians need to be reminded that just 'cause we eat a plant-based diet, doesn't mean we are immune to the negative impact of too much sugar.  The next time you add 1 cup of sugar to a recipe, be conscious of the fact that this is equivalent to 16 tablespoons of sugar.  In the study above, 2.6 ounces of sugar or HFS is a little over 5 tablespoons of sugar.  The American Heart Association recommends no more than 9 teaspoons (roughly 3 tablespoons) of sugar a day, max, for an adult male, less for a woman.

Something to consider the next time someone offers you the vegan equivalent of "Death by Chocolate."