Whole-food, Plant-based Diets

PCSK9 Gene – Reduces Cholesterol and Heart Disease Mortality

High levels of cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol are associated with a higher risk of heart disease.

Popular commentators frequently claim that cholesterol is irrelevant in causing heart disease and suggest that diets high in carbohydrate such as rice, potatoes, wheat (including whole-grain wheat), yams, millet and buckwheat are responsible.

PCSK9 is a gene that reduces the life-time level of cholesterol. PCSK9 is an abbreviation for "proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 serine protease" gene which is why it is much more convenient to refer it as the PCSK9 gene.

The authors' conclusion is the "data indicate that moderate lifelong reduction in the plasma level of LDL cholesterol is associated with a substantial reduction in the incidence of coronary events."
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28 March 2024
Additional Reading – Updated

Below is a list of excellent books that examine the advantages (and disadvantages - there are not any) of eating a whole-food, plant-based diet.

Read John Robbins’s incredible story about The Pig Farmer from Iowa that is moving and transforming.
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15 September 2022
Animal and Plant Protein – Leucine and Telomeres

Leucine is an amino acid that is much more prevalent in animal-based diets than plant-based diets. The leucine is found in the high concentrations, measured in grams per kCal of energy, in beef (0.021), egg white (0.021), isolated soy protein (0.020), poultry (0.018) fish (0.018), spirulina (0.017), lamb (0.014) parmesan cheese (0.010), tofu (0.008), soy beans (0.007).

Aglets are the caps on shoelaces that stop them from unraveling. Our chromosomes have telomeres that perform the same function - they stop our chromosomes from unravelling. The longer they are, the longer the cells survive and the longer we live. An animal-based diet results in shorter telomeres than those on a plant-base diet. Leucine is the amino acid responsible for this.
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21 March 2022
Animal and Plant Protein – Lysine and Arginine

Lysine is an indispensable dietary amino acid for all vertebrates and is required for protein synthesis.

The arginine requirement is influenced by many factors that vary between species. There is an antagonism that can occur between lysine and arginine in some species where excessive intakes of one of these amino acids will adversely affect the metabolism of the other amino acid thereby increasing its requirement.

Lysine is a dietary indispensable amino acid.

Lysine is the first limiting amino acid in most grain and cereal-based diets so it also defines the protein required to meet the amino acid requirements..

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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21 March 2022
Comparison of Dairy Milks with Human Milk

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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18 March 2022
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 gasses 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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17 March 2022
Is It Healthy? What are we Comparing

When we ask the question Is it Healthy?, we need to consider is it healthy compared to what.
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1 January 2022
Strategies to Assist with Arthritis

Neal Barnard suggests that the foods below should be initially avoided whilst eliminating potential arthritic triggers. He recommends that meats, dairy products, or eggs should not be reintroduced back into the diet.

You may be surprised to know how much is known about the causes of rheumatoid arthritis.
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23 December 2021
Harvard Study Shows Plant Protein Consumption Reduces Mortality

There are thousands of medical and scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals showing that a whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) diets are optimal for our health and are also the best for the environment and for the animals we share the earth with.

A number of these studies are documented on this website.

There are many more studies purporting that eggs, dairy, chocolate and even red meat are healthy and even essential for health.

When a comparison is made between two or more groups of people, showing that healthy WFPB are detrimental, be mindful of the nature of the comparison group.
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9 March 2021
Lessons from The China Study

Colin Campbell was a nutritional biochemist at Cornell University. In the 1960s, he was involved in nutritional programs in the Philippines to help families provide for their critically undernourished children. Peanuts were one of their preferred sources of protein. It is a legume— great for improving the soil, easy to grow, and is nutritious and tasty.

At the same time, children younger than 10, were dying at alarming rates from liver cancer. Normally liver cancer is an adult disease— and the children dying from the disease were from the most affluent suburbs in Manila. These are the families that could afford the best housing and the best food.

Whilst in the Philippines, he read a paper in an obscure medical journal. Rats were fed aflatoxin— one of the deadliest carcinogens known. One group of rats was given a diet of 20% protein —and they all died of liver cancer. The second group was given a diet of 5% protein— and they all lived. 100% deaths compared to zero deaths. They were all fed aflatoxin— but only those rats that had a high protein diet died.

A 20% diet of wheat protein, gluten, or pea protein did not result in liver cancer deaths whereas casein, which comprises of 80% of the protein found in cow’s milk, and albumin, which is found in egg white, did result in liver cancer deaths. Plant-based diets are often considered to be lysine deficient. However, adding the amino acid lysine to the wheat protein to match the level found in casein also resulted in cancer deaths.

Significantly, peanuts and corn in the Philippines were often contaminated by aflatoxin— and the wealthy ate Western-style diets, one rich in protein.
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1 March 2021