Tag: whole-food plant-based diet

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
The Cause of Type 2 Diabetes

The cause of type 2 diabetes has been known since at least the 1920s.

In 1923, Dr. P.J. Cammidge wrote "that one of the commonest causes of a seeming progressive failure of carbohydrate tolerance was a conscious or unconscious increase in the fat of the diet."

J.S. Sweeney wrote two papers in 1927 and 1928 that showed high-fat and high-protein diets increase insulin resistance.

Sir Harold Himsworth (1905–93) was a renown medical doctor and researcher. He was appointed Professor of Medicine at the University of London in 1939. He is best known for his work on diabetes although he had many other interests including the effects of radiation, tropical medicine and epidemiology.

Himsworth presented a paper in 1935,

"Showing the different diets eaten by different races, nations and social classes throughout the world and a close correlation has been demonstrated between dietary preference and the incidence of diabetes mellitus. [...] A high proportion of carbohydrate and low proportion of fat were found in all cases to be associated with low diabetic incidence, whilst a low proportion of carbohydrate and a high proportion of fat were associated with a high incidence."
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9 September 2021
Vitamin B12, Homocysteine and Methylmalonic Acid

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.
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5 August 2021
Effect of Single High Fat Meal on Blood Flow

MARS Center for Cocoa Health Science is based at University of California – Davis Campus (which is near Sacramento). Ronald Krauss, one of the authors of Astrup’s 2019 paper WHO draft guidelines on dietary saturated and trans fatty acids: time for a new approach? is based at University of California – San Francisco campus.

MARS has contributed $40 million to fund the institute.

Between 2000 and 2021, the MARS institute has produced 157 articles extolling the benefits of chocolate and cocoa.

“Everyone knows” that chocolate is really healthy and good for you based on research such as this.
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24 March 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
The French Paradox – The Myths

'Everyone knows' about the French Paradox – that is, the French consume lots of saturated fat in the form of meat, butter, cheese and eggs and yet have a low risk of heart disease. This proves that the health advice regarding the role of fats and saturated fats in causing heart disease is wrong.

The French Paradox has only been with us for a short period of time but it quickly resonated with the general population – we no longer need to be concerned about the amount of meat, butter, cheese and eggs that we consume.
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1 October 2020
PREDIMED Trial – Mediterranean Diet with Olive Oil or Nuts

The PREDIMED trial examined 7447 participants ranging from 55 to 80 years of age who were at high cardiovascular risk, but with no cardiovascular disease at enrollment, to one of three diets: a “Mediterranean Diet” supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil; a “Mediterranean Diet” supplemented with mixed nut; or a control diet with advice to reduce dietary fat.

The “Mediterranean Diet” was the participants normal diet.

50% of the participants that did not have metabolic syndrome at the start of the trial, were afflicted at the end of the trial, irrespective of which of the 3 groups the particpants were assigned.
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29 August 2020
Japanese Diet, Cuisine and Health

Japan is at the top of the list for life expectancy and health. There are strong regional variations although the diet in recent decades has become more westernised and the variations in diet are becoming less distinct throughout Japan.

A wide variety of dipping sauces accompany most meals. Udon is a thick wheat flour noodle and yakisoba is a buckwheat noodle. Soba is the Japanese name for buckwheat.

Despite the increase in dairy, egg and meat consumption in recent decades, Japan (according to the National Health and Nutrition Surveys) still consumes a predominately plant-based diet.

Hookaido had the lowest percentage of plant-based foods at 74.5% in 1980 and 82.2% in 2012. In 1980, Kanto II had the highest percentage at 78.2% with Hokuriku topping the list in 2012 with 84.5%.

Australia and the US consume approximately 30% of their diet from plant-based sources.
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18 August 2020
Lyon Diet Heart Study

The Lyon Diet-Heart Study was a

“randomized, single-blind secondary prevention trial aimed at testing whether a Mediterranean-type diet, compared with a prudent Western-type diet, may reduce recurrence after a first myocardial infarction.”

The study consisted of 605 patients who had recovered from a myocardial infarction at a hospital in southern France. The experimental group emphasised “more bread, more root vegetables and green vegetables, more fish, less meat (beef, lamb and pork to be replaced with poultry), no day without fruit, and butter and cream to be replaced with margarine” which was high in alpha-linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid).
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23 June 2020