Diabetes and Obesity


  • Where Do You Get Iron on a Vegan Diet?

    “Where do you get your iron, calcium or protein?” is a frequent question for those on a vegan diet. Well, the same place as gorillas, elephants, the grumpy extinct aurochs, brontosaurus and Argentinosaurus – the largest ever land animal weighing more than 15 elephants. From eating plants.

    Iron is an indispensable nutrient for life. A lack of it leads to iron deficiency anaemia (IDA), which currently affects about 1.2 billion people worldwide.

    With anaemia, the first step (according to most) is to increase the iron intake by promoting the consumption of iron-rich food such as meat, poultry, fish, and seafood. To optimise iron absorption it is recommended to increase vitamin C and fermented product intake and avoid the consumption of iron absorption inhibitors (phytates in cereals and nuts, tannins from coffee or tea and calcium-rich products) together with iron-rich food.

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  • Preventing Disease Through Genetic Testing

    Dr Jane Tiller, Ethical Legal and Social Advisor, Public Health Genomics at Monash University realised that value of DNA genetic testing that could prevent thousands of cancers and heart attacks every year.

    Tiller spent more than a decade fighting for the reform, which throws open the door for larger-scale studies on “preventative genomics” to help identify the 90 per cent of people carrying high-risk genes who are currently undetected.

    Her vision is for a publicly funded national DNA screening program.

    Professor Michael Brown won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1985. In a speech at the 2006 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles, California, he tells the Academy’s students that we do not need new discoveries, we need to implement what we already know. The problem, he explains, has switched from science to changing people's behaviour - which is much more difficult.

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  • Is There Really Good and Bad Cholesterol?

    According to William Roberts, the long-serving editor or the Journal of Cardiology, the only direct atherosclerotic risk factor is high cholesterol. The goal for total cholesterol level is < 150 mg/dL [3.9 mmol/L] and for LDL cholesterol it is < 70 mg/dL [1.8 mmol/L].

    Atherosclerosis is not a disease of carnivores, and it is not possible to produce atherosclerosis in carnivores [dogs, cats, tigers, lions, etc.].

    We are not natural carnivores. We evolved to eat plants, fruits, and starches!

    It is generally accepted that HDL cholesterol absorbs cholesterol in the blood and carries it back to the liver where if is then flushed it from the body. High levels of HDL cholesterol can lower your risk for heart disease and stroke.

    However, excess cholesterol can only occur in herbivores AND ALL animals have HDL cholesterol. The purpose of HDL cholesterol is NOT to flush the excess from the blood.

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  • USA Diabetes and Obesity by State

    The Human Development Index (HDI) was developed by the Pakistani economist Mahbub ul-Haq in 1990. It was incorporated into the the United Nations Development Programme. The index is based on the following criteria: Life Expectancy; Education; Income per capita.

    The map shows the quintiles of the HD Index for the United States.

    The two tables show for each US state the: Life Expectancy; Percentage of the population by ethnicy; Prevalence of diabetes according to ethnicity; OR Prevalence of obesity according to ethnicity.

    The ethnicity categories are: Asian; Black; Latino; Native American; White.

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  • Egg Consumption, B12, Lutein and Zeaxanthin

    B12 is a group of cobalt-containing vitamins. Hydroxocobalamin and cyanocobalamin are synthetic forms of vitamin B12. The two forms of vitamin B12 naturally occurring in foods are methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin. These forms are biologically equivalent.

    B12 is produced by a number of different species of bacteria which is found in the soil, on the surface of some plants and some red and green algae.

    Lack of vitamin B12 can have serious consequences as does high levels of homocysteine. Determining the status of vitamin B12 and homocysteine can be difficult and can be determined by measuring serum vitamin B12, homocysteine and methylmalonic acid (MMA).

    A number of products contain riboflavin, pyridoxine, folate, B12 and methionine way in excess of dietary requirements in an attempt to resolve B12 metabolism problems.

    Many magnesium supplements contain pyridoxine which is usually unnecessary and possibly detrimental.

    Vitamin B12 is not made by plants or animals but by microbes. In today’s world, the water supply is commonly chlorinated to kill bacteria. We don’t get much B12 in the water, we also do not get much cholera.

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  • Egg Consumption and Diabetes

    A number of popular authors and websites advocate eating eggs as a way of preventing type 2 diabetes. However, this is not substantiated by the evidence. To assess the impact of egg consumption on type 2 diabetes in China, a survey was performed among 2849 adults in Jiangsu Province, China. Jiangsu is a coastal Chinese province north of Shanghai.

    There are many more medical journal articles that associate egg consumption with a greater risk of type 2 diabetes.

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  • Bacon Causes Cancer – World Health Organization

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified processed meats including ham, bacon, salami and frankfurts as a Group 1 carcinogen which means that there’s strong evidence that processed meats cause cancer.

    Eating processed meat increases your risk of bowel and stomach cancer. Red meat, such as beef, lamb and pork, has been classified as a Group 2A carcinogen which means it probably causes cancer.

    WHO gives much stronger credibility to Random Clinic Trials (RCT) that other forms of evidence such as Epidemiolocal Studies.

    It is possible to have a very short-term RCT where the participants and researchers do not know the differences in the diet. This can be done by feeding the participants drinks containing a powder with different ingredients that that taste and feel the same for each meal. This is only practical for possibly 3 weeks.

    Any longer it can be a challenge. It can be difficult to learn what really constitutes a healthy, whole-food, plant-based diet. It really needs a supportive partner and learning how to shop, cook and manage changes to social interactions. It is much easier if the participants are living by themselves.

    Epidemiolocal Studies are just as valid.

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  • The Traditional Diet of Inuit (or Eskimo) Peoples

    The traditional diet of the Inuit people was first examined comprehensively by Vilhjalmur Stefansson in 1906. He visited the Copper Inuits during a number of expeditions. Their diet was virtually plant-free, dominated by seal and caribou meat, supplemented by large salmon-like fish and occasional whale meat. However, Stefansson found that cooking was the nightly norm.

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  • Where Do You Get Protein on a Vegan Diet?

    “Where do you get your protein?” (or iron or calcium) is a frequent question for those on a vegan diet. Well, the same place as gorillas, elephants, the grumpy extinct aurochs, brontosaurus and Argentinosaurus- the largest ever land animal weighing more than 15 elephants. From eating plants.

    Milks are complex lipid emulsions in water containing protein, fat, lactose, vitamins and minerals, as well as enzymes, hormones and immunoglobulins which provide initial immunity functions.

    There is approximately 5,500 species of mammals which initially supply their young with milk. There are vast differences in milk composition among the mammal species. Of all the mammals, humans have the lowest protein content.

    Mammals have evolved over millions of years to provide nutrition for their infants in the first stage of life. There are significant difference between species depending upon factors such as rates of growth.

    Proteins in human milk provide sufficient of protein to sustain infants for the first six months without any additional food, as well as supplying the means of establishing suitable environment for the growth of healthy intestinal bacteria and providing the proteins involved in the immune system.

    Human milk is supplied to babies when the need for protein is at the greatest. Babies double in size during the first 6 months of our lives. The ideal food for a baby is mum’s milk where 5% – 6.5% is protein. This should offer reassurance that as long as we a consuming an adequate diet, we do not need a high protein diet.

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  • Methionine Dependent Cancers

    Homocysteine is a non-protein amino acid. It is synthesized in the body from methionine, which is a sulfur containing amino-acid.

    Methionine is much more prevalent in animal products than plant products. Rotten eggs smell the way they do because the sulfur produces a number of sulfur containing gases including hydrogen sulfide— rotten egg gas.

    A high level is of homocysteine is associated with an increased risk for chronic inflammation, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.

    Many human cancer cell and primary tumors have a requirement for methionine, an essential amino acid.

    Methionine-free or methionine-deprived diet causes a regression of a variety of animal tumours.

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Low-carbohydrate Diets - The Myths
Dairy And Wheat
Low-carbohydrate Mania: The Fantasies, Delusions, and Myths

Center for Nutrition Studies

Center for Nutrition Studies