SoulVeggie

Homestyle Heart Attack Pot Pie & A Healthy Alternative

Just glommed a vegan "healthy happy Homestyle Tofu Pot Pie" recipe blogged (at http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/)  yesterday.  As busy as I am (harvesting, digging, fencing, etc.), a quick "fat fact check" on this "killer" recipe was in order.  Here's the ingredients with significant fat in them:

1/4 cup oil:  8 grams sat fat or 48 gram fat
1 block (10 oz) extra firm tofu:  about 13 grams fat
4 T olive oil:  8 grams sat fat or 48 gram fat
1 cup full-fat soy milk:  .5 grams sat fat or 4 grams fat
3 T vegenaise:  3 grams sat fat or 27 grams fat

Total:  140 grams of fat  (around 20 grams of saturated fat).

At 4 servings (avg. for a 9" pot pie):  that's at least 35 grams of fat PER SERVING.  Unbelievable.  Remember, the entire Denny's Grand Slam breakfast is around 50 grams of fat (14 grams saturated).  This recipe has, per serving, has about 2/3rds the TOTAL fat content of the entire Grand Slam Breakfast.

Why does this matter?  Well, the guys who've reversed (and in theory, prevent) heart disease (Esselstyn & Ornish), and Barnard (who's reversed Type II diabetes with diet) recommend 14 to 20 grams of fat total PER DAY.  The Feds recommend around 60 grams of fat per (25% of a 2,000 calorie a day diet).  So, that tofu pot pie has over half the daily fat recommended by the Feds in ONE serving or over 1 1/2 times the recommended fat by the three good doctors on the high end.

You can read about the amazing impact just ONE high fat meal can have on your cardiovascular system, for 6 hours, here (courtesy Rip Esselstyn, vegan firefighter).

Please be kind to your cardiovascular system and pancreas.  Avoid the "Homestyle Heart Attack Pot Pie" and instead, try this neat and clever "Savory Swiss Chard Pie" from the always amazing Susan Voisin:
(http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/06/savory-swiss-chard-pie.html)

... it's a fine low-fat vegan pot pie (you could easily use other vegetables), it has less than 3 grams of fat per serving (the tofu pot pie has over 10 times that per serving), and significantly less saturated fat.

Now that's a Happy Heart-Healthy Recipe for a Longer Life!

[ADDENDUM:  08/09/09:  2300 est.:  It's amazing.... said blogger above just bashed a recipe (http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/08/my-review-of-melissas-ten-dollar.html -- Kathy's so proud of her posts that she prevents my blog from linking to them) from some cable food network show as being unhealthy, too fatty, etc.  Surprisingly enough, the per serving of the the torte recipe she complained about (35 grams of fat) is the SAME amount of fat grams per serving of the recipe for "Homestyle Tofu Pot Pie" she posted yesterday.

That blogger also seems to still think that "saturated fat" is the only significant issue regarding health.  For a read on issues about fat, check out a previous post I made summarizing the issues:

http://soulveggie.blogs.com/my_weblog/2009/01/15-reasons-to-avoid-vegetable-oils.html

I do think that if one is going to come down on a recipe for having too much fat, then you probably, from a credibility standpoint, shouldn't post a recipe with the same numbers the day before.  That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

Furthermore, we need to realize, even as vegans, that added oil/fat is wrong, and it's not food... real food... the sooner we get past this taste addiction, the better.  You can have it as a vegan or non-vegan, and that's what altogether too many vegans don't realize.'  But, despite what some people say, you CAN "reset" your taste receptors to not desire fat if you want to.  It takes several weeks, been there, done that.

It works, and will help keep your heart working, too.

Low-Calorie Diet May Extend Life in Primates

"A long-awaited study of aging in rhesus monkeys suggests, with some reservations, that people could in principle fend off the usual diseases of old age and considerably extend their life span by following a special diet.  Known as caloric restriction, the diet has all the normal healthy ingredients but contains 30 percent fewer calories than usual. Mice kept on such a diet from birth have long been known to live up to 40 percent longer than comparison mice fed normally.

Would the same be true in people? More than 20 years ago, two studies of rhesus monkeys were begun to see if primates responded to caloric restriction the same way that rodents did. Since rhesus monkeys live an average of 27 years and a maximum of 40, these are experiments that require patience.

The results from one of the two studies, conducted by a team led by Ricki J. Colman and Richard Weindruch at the University of Wisconsin, were reported on Thursday in Science. The researchers say that now, 20 years after the experiment began, the monkeys are showing many beneficial signs of caloric resistance, including significantly less diabetes, cancer, and heart and brain disease. “These data demonstrate that caloric restriction slows aging in a primate species,” they conclude."

[Full article here and below.  Yet another reason to go low-fat vegan, and also avoid such nutritional absurdities (see last post) as organic 300 calorie high-saturated fat vegan chocolate bars, vegan recipes with cups of coconut milk, cups of oil, with really fatty faux cheeses or fake mayo.  Get with it, people.  Master your addictions to taste and live longer.  You gave up meat, dairy, and eggs... don't stop now... finish the race to real health.]

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NADD - Nutritional Attention Deficit Disorder

Here's a post from a vegan blogger criticizing a SoyJoy Bar (http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/06/soy-joy-bars-butter-eggs-cheese-joy.html)  --- she's so proud of her posts that she prevents me from linking to them here) has having too much saturated fat (3.5 grams, 6 grams of total fat) for one serving.  Normally, I'd praise this insightful conclusion.  Here's an excerpt:

"Soy is Joy. I applaud SoyJoy's plight to bring high quality whole ground soy bean to the mass markets of people. But there is a lot of confusion and propaganda from their marketing. I will bet a lot of people eat these bars thinking, wow I'm being so healthy right now. But 3.5 grams of saturated fat from one tiny bar is not so healthy. "

However, a few weeks later, she's promoting Newman's Organic chocolate bars (http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/07/newmans-signature-series-chocolate.html) , and the vegan version that "tastes so good" weighs in at, yup, 16 grams of saturated fat (28 grams of fat total, almost FIVE times that of the SoyJoy Bar) a single serving:

"For the most health benefits, go with the 70% Super Dark Chocolate flavor. Super Dark ingredients: Organic Dark Chocolate (organic chocolate liquor*, organic evaporated cane juice, organic cocoa butter*, soy lecithin [an emulsifier], organic vanilla). Bars are around 300 calories. When it comes to chocolate, this is some of the good stuff."

WFT? If you ask me, possible signs of "nutritional attention deficit disorder".  Contrast 28 grams of fat (and 330 calories) in a single serving chocolate bar with the 14 to 20 grams of fat per day TOTAL recommended by Drs. Esselstyn and Ornish (the only people to successfully reverse heart disease, and Dr. Neals Barnard (has reversed diabetes through low-fat vegan diet).  Here's 15 Reasons to Avoid Added Fat (and all referenced).

Guess a bigger more unhealthy high chocolate bar with really minimal nutritional value at all & a helluva lot of saturated fat (but it tastes good!!) from a company that's donated a lot of money to charities (but not enough to cover the health care costs of eating their products), is better than any tiny more nutritious one.

Personally, I find this kind of dietary casuistry upsetting, and further evidence that one should take anything this blogger writes about with a pillar of salt.  She appears to play a bit fast'n'free with the term "health."

ADDENDUM:  after posting the above, a friend pointed out that I cited a study awhile back about chocolate and its impact on cardiovascular health.  There have been other studies about chocolate and blood vessel inflammation, I haven't spent much time on that issue.  However, the dangers to the heart from saturated fat and the ability of a low-fat vegan diet to reverse (and in theory) prevent heart disease have involved a considerable amount more people (and age ranges) and twenty years of peer-reviewed research from two independent researchers. 

Furthermore, as I noted in the other post, the impact of added fat to the elasticity of your arteries has been measured many times, and I seriously doubt that the chocolate in the bar mentioned above would cancel out both the total fat and saturated fat issues.  I consider a chocolate bar, as the ingredients described above, still essentially devoid of useful nutrition.  A lot of sugar, cocoa, cocoa butter, and taste stuff.  Hardly a whole food, just a sweet food-like product that feeds an addiction to sweets.

Researchers Find Possible Environmental Causes For Alzheimer's, Diabetes

"A new study by researchers at Rhode Island Hospital have found a substantial link between increased levels of nitrates in our environment and food, with increased deaths from diseases, including Alzheimer's, diabetes mellitus and Parkinson's. The study was published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (Volume 17:3 July 2009).

Led by Suzanne de la Monte, MD, MPH, of Rhode Island Hospital, researchers studied the trends in mortality rates due to diseases that are associated with aging, such as diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes and cerebrovascular disease, as well as HIV. They found strong parallels between age adjusted increases in death rate from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and diabetes and the progressive increases in human exposure to nitrates, nitrites and nitrosamines through processed and preserved foods as well as fertilizers. Other diseases including HIV-AIDS, cerebrovascular disease, and leukemia did not exhibit those trends. De la Monte and the authors propose that the increase in exposure plays a critical role in the cause, development and effects of the pandemic of these insulin-resistant diseases.

De la Monte, who is also a professor of pathology and lab medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, says, "We have become a 'nitrosamine generation.' In essence, we have moved to a diet that is rich in amines and nitrates, which lead to increased nitrosamine production. We receive increased exposure through the abundant use of nitrate-containing fertilizers for agriculture." She continues, "Not only do we consume them in processed foods, but they get into our food supply by leeching from the soil and contaminating water supplies used for crop irrigation, food processing and drinking."

Nitrites and nitrates belong to a class of chemical compounds that have been found to be harmful to humans and animals. More than 90 percent of these compounds that have been tested have been determined to be carcinogenic in various organs. They are found in many food products, including fried bacon, cured meats and cheese products as well as beer and water. Exposure also occurs through manufacturing and processing of rubber and latex products, as well as fertilizers, pesticides and cosmetics..."

"...The authors state that the time course of the increased prevalence rates of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes cannot be explained on the basis of gene mutations. They instead mirror the classical trends of exposure-related disease. Because nitrosamines produce biochemical changes within cells and tissues, it is conceivable that chronic exposure to low levels of nitrites and nitrosamines through processed foods, water and fertilizers is responsible for the current epidemics of these diseases and the increasing mortality rates associated with them..."

[Full article here and below.  Note:  (1) I remember all too well being dressed down by the head of the FDA (Kennedy) during the Carter Administration for suggesting that we had a big problem with nitrosamines in our food back in the late 1970s, at a Washington DC Town Meeting (I was interning), and (2) I'm still having to "peck" out words from hand injury... will address overdue COMMENTS responses later this week (I hope).  FYI, Mark]

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Latest Issue of Mad Cowboy Newsletter Now Available

Title:  06_23_09:  Rip's Recipes, Ask a Vegan, & Largest Red Meat Study.

Direct link to online issue.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/message/87

Howdy!  Welcome to the 66th issue of the Mad Cowboy Newsletter.

In this issue we're delighted to provide a preview of our upcoming interview with the amazing vegan firefighter/author, Rip Esselstyn, in the form of two of his favorite recipes.  Rip's the son of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and has built upon his father's remarkable research via some very practical and easy-to-do ways in his diet/exercise/lifestyle book, "The Engine 2 Diet."

Moving on further, we'll note a study indicating that fish oil doesn't help your heart via Omega-3, some new finds about the benefits of broccoli, results of the largest study of red meat eaters in history, and more indications that high-fat food inflames your circulatory system.  You'll learn about the "Ask a Vegan" booth in New York, some vegan survival tips, resources for learning about animal rights/issues, and the consequences off going veg for just one day.

Continuing in this edition, we've got some gourmet viewing experiences in our Vegan Digital Theater, some details stats and studies showing that our industry-produced produce is definitely less nutritious than it used to be, some great links about the White House Garden (including remarks by Michelle last week during the first major harvest), and a list of 8 ways to eat locally...  some new resource links have been added to "Quick Bytes" and don't miss some of the articles during the "Mad Cow Info Round-Up."

... as always, a tip of the hat to our new subscribers:  y'all can browse past issues at the Mad Cowboy Newsletter Archives.

Best wishes for this start of a new summer and may your gardens be bountiful, healthy, and inspiring!

Mark, MC editor/webmaster

***********************************************
TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00: Quote(s) from Howard
01: A Mad Cowboy Invite to AR2009
02: The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
03: Recipes from "The Engine 2 Diet" by Rip Esselstyn
04: Mad Cow Info Round-Up
05: Fish Oil No Help, Brocc Talk, Largest Meat Study, Fat Inflames
06: Ask a Vegan, Vegan Survival Tips, Learning AR, 1 Day Veg
07: Vegan Digital Theater
08: Food Less Healthy, White House Veggies,  8 Ways to go Local
09: Quick Bytes
10: Closing Thoughts

A Food Nazi Recommends "Go Max Go"

I just read a blog review of "Go Max Go" vegan candy bars and it was most inspiring.  I had a rather testy e-mail interaction with one of the company officers weeks ago about the issue of them being "pushers" of an addictive, essentially nutritionally useless product (was called a 'food nazi') and it's just damn wonderful that they have finally gotten around to posting the nutritional breakdown of their products on their website.

Now, before looking into what's actually IN these wonderful vegan candy bars raved about by the vegan blogger, let's keep in mind two stats:  (1) 14 to 20 grams of fat PER DAY is roughly what Drs. Ornish, Esselstyn, Barnard, etc., recommend to stave off heart disease, diabetes, etc.,  and (2) the Feds (with Corporate encouragement), recommend no more than 60 grams of fat per day, total.

Here's some numbers on their four listed products:

Jokerz:  15 grams of fat per 1 serving bar (a full day to a little over a third day's worth of fat, depending upon who you want to trust)

Twilight:  9 grams of fat per 1 serving (1/2 a day's worth of FAT to over 1/6th)

Buccanneer:  7 grams of fat per 1 serving (around 1/2 a day's worth of fat to 1/9th)

Mahalo:  19 grams of fat per serving (a full day's worth of fat or around 1/3 day's worth of fat)

All four products contain palm oil, one of the oils most extremely high in saturated fat content which has been clearly proven to be bad for your cardiovascular system (only worse one is coconut oil).

"The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute warned that the "high content of saturated fat... found in... palm kernel oil, palm oil, coconut oil, and cocoa butter" puts people at risk for heart attack or stroke."  Source.

Well, that's just fraking fantastic!  Obviously, if you need a "wholesome" and "organic" fat and sugary vegan nutritionally useless food product alternative to a non-vegan fat and sugar ladden nutritionally useless food product, AND want to continue feeding your addiction to sugar and fat, as well as increase your chances for developing heart disease or stroke from added fat and type of fat,  it's clear that "Go Max Go" products are for you.  Highly recommended.

But then, I've not tasted them, and apparently that puts me at odds with many vegan blog product reviewers.  The fact that the nutritional profile of these products is so awful, suffices to tell me that I don't need to.  My tongue doesn't rule my diet (other parts of my life, well....).  I refuse to be a slave to taste and texture over nutritional quality.  Form doesn't rule essence.

So, get real.  Taste and/or texture doesn't matter.  It's what's IN the food you consume that does.  Stop feeding your addictions under the guise "oh, it's vegan... therefore it's gotta be good."  Do a little bit of research on what's IN the crap you're promoting (bloggers) and recognize the consequences of what you consume.  There's a difference between being a healthy vegan and a non-healthy vegan.  Fat, sugar, and salt, are key variables in that equation.  To ignore the impact of excessive amounts of any of these ingredients in your diet is to risk your long-term health... be you vegan or not.

And that's the truth.

Addendum:  06/03/09 - 1254 est - that "Mahalo Bar" contains 80% of the total recommended saturated fat per day by the Feds (which is way too high as a recommendation, anyway, due to Corporate influence.).

...and, from the "Go Max Go"  website;  "What we didn't want in our candy bars was dairy, eggs, hydrogenated oils, trans fats, artificial ingredients, or cholesterol."

How incredibly noble... forget about the overall fat content and that all your products contain high levels of saturated heart-disease causing fat.  After all, it's vegan... and although most of the ingredients, technically, are NOT real food, hide behind this fact by issuing this mindless statement and the addicts will believe your hype, buy your products.

But then, after all, in the final analysis, you really are fat/sugar pushers...

Addendum:  06/03/09 - 1830 est - regarding the ol' "once and awhile won't hurt" red herring.  Here's a post with link to a recent study that shows otherwise.  You can have low cholesterol, exercise, be of proper weight, and STILL it's the added fat that can cause that stroke.

Ultimately Decadent Means

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 (soy) margarine:  264 grams of fat (24 tablespoons of pure added fat)
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.

Ornish/Esselstyn recommendations:  14 to 20 grams of fat PER DAY, max
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):

"These babies are truly decadent and will surely add inches to your hips, thighs, and buttocks just by looking at them."

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.

Free lunches, Antioxidants, & "Wonder Juice du Jour"

POM Wonderful, LLC recently offered to mail me a free box of POM juice-related products for review on my blog.  I wasn't planning to blog the story, but after reading a POM review this morning by another blogger, I thought I'd write about my very different way to approach the same situation.

First, I did a little research online.  8 oz of POM juice costs around $4.99 in some high-end venues, has the equivalent of 34 grams of sugar (1 teaspoon of sugar is 15 grams), 430 grams of potassium (a banana has 560 gms.), and not much else... not even Vitamin C.

The juice is praised by its makers for having "antioxidants," but I knew that there were many other sources of antioxidants found in the fruit and vegetable kingdom, and a little more research showed that pomegranates didn't even make the "USDA's Top 20" list (here and more interesting info,  here and here).

Then, onwards to find out what Dr. McDougall has to say about juices:  here's an article of note.  Essentially, he's pointing out that you'd do better with fresh fruits and not the intense sugar effects of juices, that a lot of other natural benefits won't be in the juice, and that no large mega-doses of antioxidants really deal with or correct the true sources/problems/ravages of the Standard American Diet anyway.

Finally, (me again), the juice is flash pasteurized (heated to a temperatures between 160 and 165 degrees F for 15 to 30 seconds).  That juice is now just filtered cooked fruit.  But think about it:  what might have been lost or "devitalized" in that process nutritionally? 

So, my final thoughts were: 

(1) would I want that much sugar hitting my system that fast? no...(try "Stash's" excellent Pomegranate Raspberry Green Tea, instead... $3 will get you 18 tea bags for 144 oz. of tea)

(2) for the same cost I could purchase much more in terms of healthy antioxidants by spending the same amount on whole fresh fruit, vegetables, legumes (#1, 3, and 4 on the list!), etc.

(3) I can get more potassium from a single banana (at $.59/lb.)

(4) in the case of say, Acai juice (another "wonder juice du jour," and surprisingly high in fat, btw) there might be "free trade issues," don't know about pomegranates, and

(5) for the same price I could juice two pints of blueberries or strawberries, if I really want juice, and know that it's raw, still teeming with enzymes, fiber (should I chose so), and those myriad of gifted ingredients that promote and protect life.

But, $4.99 for cooked fruit juice in an 8 oz. bottle?  Nahhh.... even though it might taste "gud," I can't recommend it economically or nutritionally and be honest (cute bottle though).  So, I politely turned down POM Wonderful's offer.  Not all that "wonderful."

...and maybe there really is no such thing as a free lunch(!)

Biological Avalanches & Moderation

In "The Engine 2 Diet" by Rip Esselstyn (the vegan firefighter) I noted the following quote today:

"Oils, even so-called heart-healthy olive oil, are another debacle.  Oil is fat.  As noted earlier, all vegetable oils are 100 percent fat and are the most concentrated source of calories on the planet:  120 per tablespoon... Study after study has shown that when the percentage of fat calories in the diet exceeds 15 percent of calories in the diet, cancer starts to rear its ugly head.

Sugar is yet another mess.  Cancer cells swarm to sugar like bees to honey, because it is an important source of food for them.  So the farther you stay away from packaged candies, sugary cereals, sodas, juice drinks, refined grains, and alcohol, the better.  Instead, swarm to the good sugars found in fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains."  (p. 53)

Sure, I've been wailing to the Gods and gnashing my teeth a lot recently on this blog about the impact on inviting heart disease added oil has, but not nearly as much regarding the cancer issues.  Imagine my surprise when, a few hours later, I read a post about a vegan recipe for "Goodbye Winter" Mint Cocoa Cookies, the ingredients of which are essentially:  a bunch of white flour, 1 1/4 cups sugar, 4 tbs syrup, 1 cup candied walnuts, 2 tbs added oil, and 1/4 cup vegan butter (4 tbs of pure fat).... oh, and chocolate chips, misc. flavorings.  Devoid of any significant nutritional value (aside from some Omega-3 from the walnuts).

Of course I did the math:  around 10 grams of fat PER COOKIE (for newbies:  that's 2/3 to 1/2 of the recommended TOTAL fat per day by Drs. Esselstyn, Ornish, Barnard, and McDougall).

Now, one of the first "defensive" comments I get about my concerns about these things is "well, in moderation it's okay."  Says who?  McDougall claims, "Moderation kills."  My thinking, from reading the guys above, is that over time, the insults to the cardiovascular system (and overall biological system) add up, and most people who consume added fat (regardless of exercise or being vegan and vegetarian), hit the wall in their 50s and 60s via a heart attack or stroke.  But, the damage starts in your earlier years, kiddos.  And there's no way to measure it (it's related to cholesterol, but low cholesterol isn't proof that you aren't damaged or approaching that point).  So, the sooner you get over the addiction to added fat the better.

I've called it "Russian Roulette" to add oil to your diet, but recently, I've been thinking about avalanches.  I mean, if the avalanche is the plaque that forms that causes 90% of the strokes/attacks that kill us (whether we are plant-based in diet or not), which "snowflake" (or tablespoon of added oil) ultimately causes the avalanche (cancer, heart attack, or stroke)?

Refined grains, 10 grams of fat per serving from nuts and oil, and a ridiculous amount of sugar and syrup. Maybe those cookies should be called "Hello Cancer" or "Hello Heart Disease" instead of "Goodbye Winter."

IMHO, that's much more accurate.

Chocolate Helps Heart - Coffee Dangerous

"Dark chocolate and older lovers of cocoa rejoice – you are helping your heart and arteries, according to two studies presented at the American Society of Hypertension’s Nineteenth Annual Scientific Meeting. But another study found those needing a caffeine jolt [from coffee] had better switch to decaf to preserve the endothelium – the layer of cells lining blood vessels that control the ability of blood vessels to dilate and prevent clot formation. Poor endothelial function and arterial stiffness are considered cardiovascular risk factors in addition to smoking, hypertension, obesity and high cholesterol."

[Full article here and below; study cited here.  Let's see:  since added oil decreases endothelial functions, inflames blood vessels, and provides the fuel for plaques that cause strokes, imagine what topping off that high-fat entree or dessert with a cup of coffee is doing to our cardiovascular system?

Those studies like the "Nurse's Health Study" that conclude coffee reduces a woman's stroke risk are based upon interviews and broad statistics.  The study I'm posting about actually MEASURES the impact on the endothelium after drinking coffee.  We must learn to distinguish between statistical averages and actually measurements of body mechanisms involved.  This is one of the reasons I put more emphasis on Ornish, Esselstyn, and Baranard's (et. al) research:  they measured the impact on blood vessels, for example, and got precise numbers.  The same with the studies showing added fat/oil affecting the endothelium and inflaming blood vessels.  The Med. Diet, the various Harvard studies, and so on, are dealing with statistics and not underlying processes.

A quote of from Dr. Esselstyn that puts these types of studies in perspective: 

"After four years on the Mediterranean Diet, 25 percent of the people either died or had another major cardiac event. To me, that has absolutely nothing to do with the arrest and reversal of heart disease; that is simply slowing the rate of progression." (from this interview)

Anyway, here's a excellent summary article with detailed references about the physically addictive coffee's impact  on your body from Dr. McDougall.  Well worth the long read.]