Health and Nutrition

Health and Nutrition

Can a vegetarian diet improve or restore health? Can it prevent certain diseases?

Advocates of vegetarianism have said yes for many years, although they didn't have much support from modern science until recently. Now, medical researchers have discovered evidence of a link between meat-eating and such killers as heart disease and cancer, so they're giving vegetarianism another look.

Since the 1960s, scientists have suspected that a meat-based diet is somehow related to the development of arteriosclerosis and heart disease. As early as 1961, the Journal of the American Medical Association said: "Ninety to ninety-seven percent of heart disease can be prevented by a vegetarian diet." (Journal of the American Medical Association, Editor: Diet and Stress in vascular disease. JAMA 176: 134-5, 1961) Since that time, several well-organized studies have scientifically shown that after tobacco and alcohol, the consumption of meat is the greatest single cause of mortality in Western Europe, the United States, Australia, and other affluent areas of the world. (Inter-Society Commission for Heart Disease Resources. Report of Inter-Society Commission for Heart Disease Resources: Primary prevention of the arteriosclerotic diseases. Circulation 42: A53-95, December 1970; also Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs: Dietary Goals for the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 20402, 1977.)

The human body is unable to deal with excessive amounts of animal fat and cholesterol.(Saturated fats are found primarily, but not exclusively, in foods of animal origin; hydrogenated fats are found in commercially prepared foods; cholesterol is found only in animal products.) A poll of 214 scientists doing research on arteriosclerosis in 23 countries showed almost total agreement that there is a link between diet, serum cholesterol levels, and heart disease.(Kaare R. Norum, "What is the Experts' Opinion on Diet and Coronary Heart Diseases?" Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association, 12 February 1977.) When a person eats more cholesterol than the body needs (as he usually does with a meat-centered diet), the excess cholesterol gradually becomes a problem. It accumulates on the inner walls of the arteries, constricts the flow of blood to the heart, and can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, and strokes.

On the other hand, scientists at the University of Milan and Maggiore Hospital have shown that vegetable protein may act to keep cholesterol levels low. In a report to the British medical journal The Lancet, D.C.R. Sirtori concluded that people with the type of high cholesterol associated with heart disease "may benefit from a diet in which protein comes only from vegetables."(C.R. Sirtori, et. al., "Soybean Protein Diet in the Treatment of Type II Hyperlipoproteinaemia," The Lancet 1 (8006): 275-7, (5 February 1977).)

What about cancer? Research over the past twenty years strongly suggests a link between meat-eating and cancer of the colon, rectum, breast, and uterus. These types of cancer are rare among those who eat little or no meat, such as Seventh-Day Adventists, Japanese, and Indians, but they are prevalent among meat-eating populations.(R.L. Phillips, "Role of Lifestyle and Dietary Habits in Risk of Cancer among Seventh-Day Adventists," Cancer Research 35:3513, (November 1975); Morton Mintz, "Fat Intake Seen Increasing Cancer Risk," Washington Post, 10 September 1976.)

Another article in The Lancet reported, "People living in the areas with a high recorded incidence of carcinoma of the colon tend to live on diets containing large amounts of fat and animal protein; whereas those who live in areas with a low incidence live on largely vegetarian diets with little fat or animal matter."(M.J. Hill, "Bacteria and the Aetiology of Cancer of the Large Bowel," Lancet, 1:95-100, 1971.)

Rollo Russell, in his Notes on the Causation of Cancer, says, "I have found of twenty-five nations eating flesh largely, nineteen had a high cancer rate and only one had a low rate, and that of thirty five nations eating little or no flesh, none had a high rate."(Quoted from Cancer and Other Diseases from Meat Consumption, Blanche Leonardo, Ph.D. 1979, p. 12.)

Why do meat-eaters seem more prone to these diseases? One reason given by biologists and nutritionists is that man's intestinal tract is simply not suited for digesting meat. Flesh-eating animals have short intestinal tracts (three times the length of the animal's body), to pass rapidly decaying toxin-producing meat out of the body quickly. Since plant foods decay more slowly than meat, plant-eaters have intestines at least six times the length of the body. Man has the long intestinal tract of a herbivore, so if he eats meat, toxins can overload the kidneys and lead to gout, arthritis, rheumatism, and even cancer.

And then there are the chemicals added to meat. As soon as an animal is slaughtered, its flesh begins to putrefy, and after several days it turns a sickly gray-green. The meat industry masks this discoloration by adding nitrites, nitrates, and other preservatives to give the meat a bright red color. But research has now shown many of these preservatives to be carcinogenic.(M. Jacobson, "How Sodium Nitrite Can Affect Your Health," (Washington, D.C.: Center for Science in the public interest, 1973); W. Linjinsky, and S.S. Epstein, "Nitrosamines as Environmental Carcinogens," Nature, no. 225 (1970), p. 21-3; Committee on Nitrate Accumulation, National Academy of Sciences. 2101 Constitution Ave., Washington, D.C., 20418, 1972, and the Lancet, "Nitrate and Human Cancer," 2 (8032): 281, 6 August 1977.) And what makes the problem worse is the massive amounts of chemicals fed to livestock. Gary and Steven Null, in their book, Poisons in your Body, show us something that ought to make anyone think twice before buying another steak or ham. "The animals are kept alive and fattened by continuous administration of tranquilizers, hormones, antibiotics, and 2,700 other drugs. The process starts even before birth and continues long after death. Although these drugs will still be present in the meat when you eat it, the law does not require that they be listed on the package."(Gary and Steven Null, Poisons in Your Body, Arco Press, 1977, p. 52.)

Because of findings like this, the American National Academy of Sciences reported in 1983 that "people may be able to prevent many common types of cancer by eating less fatty meats and more vegetables and grains."(American Academy of Sciences, Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer, National Research Consul, National Academy Press, Washington, June 1982.)

But wait a minute! Weren't human beings designed to be meateaters? Don't we need animal protein?

The answer to both these questions is no. Although some historians and anthropologists say that man is historically omnivorous, our anatomical equipment-teeth, jaws, and digestive system-favors a fleshless diet. The American Dietetic Association notes that "most of mankind for most of human history has lived on vegetarian or near-vegetarian diets."

And much of the world still lives that way. Even in most industrialized countries, the love affair with meat is less than a hundred years old. It started with the refrigerator car and the twentieth-century consumer society.

But even in the twentieth century, man's body hasn't adapted to eating meat. The prominent Swedish scientist Karl von Linne states, "Man's structure, external and internal, compared with that of the other animals, shows that fruit and succulent vegetables constitute his natural food." The chart on the next page compares the anatomy of man with that of carnivorous and herbivorous animals.

As for the protein question, Dr. Paavo Airola, a leading authority on nutrition and natural biology, has this to say: "The official daily recommendation for protein has gone down from the 150 grams recommended twenty years ago to only 45 grams today. Why? Because reliable worldwide research has shown that we do not need so much protein, that the actual daily need is only 30 to 45 grams. Protein consumed in excess of the actual daily need is not only wasted, but actually causes serious harm to the body and is even causatively related to such killer diseases as cancer and heart disease. In order to obtain 45 grams of protein a day from your diet you do not have to eat meat; you can get it from a 100 percent vegetarian diet of a variety of grains, lentils, nuts, vegetables, and fruits."(Dr. Paavo Airola, "Health Forum", Vegetarian Times, August 1982, p. 67.)

Dairy products, grains, beans, and nuts are all concentrated sources of protein. Cheese, peanuts, and lentils, for instance, contain more protein per ounce than hamburger, pork, or porterhouse steak.

Meat-eatereaterbeing
has claws	no claws	no claws
no skin pores; perspires through tongue to cool body	perspires through millions of skin pores	perspires through millions of skin pores
sharp, pointed front teeth to tear flesh	no sharp pointed front teeth	no sharp pointed front teeth
salivary glands in the mouth (not needed to predigest grains and fruits)	well-developed salivary glands, needed to predigest grains and fruits	well-developed salivary glands, needed to predigest grains and fruits
acid saliva; no enzyme ptyalin to pre-digest grains	alkaline saliva; much ptyalin to pre-digest grains	alkaline saliva; much ptyalin to pre-digest grains
no flat back molar teeth to grind food	flat back molar teeth to grind food	flat back molar teeth to grind food
much strong hydrochlorid acid in stomach to digest tough animal muscle, bone, etc.	stomach acid ten times less strong than meat eaters	stomach acid ten times less strong than meat eaters
intestinal tract only 3 times body length so radlt decaying meat can pass out of body quickly	intestinal tract 6 times body length fruits do not decay as rapidly so can pass more slowely through body	intestinal tract 6 times body length

Based on a chart by A.D. Andrews, Fit Food for Men, (Chicago American Hygiene Society, 1970)

Still, nutritionists thought until recently that only meat, fish, eggs, and milk products had complete proteins (containing the eight amino acids not produced in the body), and that all vegetable proteins were incomplete (lacking one or more of these amino acids). But research at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Max Planck Institute in Germany has shown that most vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts, and grains are excellent sources of complete proteins. In fact, their proteins are easier to assimilate than those of meat-and they don't bring with them any toxins. It's nearly impossible to lack protein if you eat enough natural unrefined food. Remember, the vegetable kingdom is the real source of all protein. Vegetarians simply eat it "direct" instead of getting it second-hand from the vegetarian animals.

Too much protein intake even reduces the body's energy. In a series of comparative endurance tests conducted by Dr. Irving Fisher of Yale University, vegetarians performed twice as well as meateaters. When Dr. Fisher knocked down the nonvegetarians' protein consumption by twenty percent, their efficiency went up thirty-three percent.(Irving Fisher, "The Influence of Flesh Eating on Endurance," Yale Medical Journal, 13(5); 205-21 (March 1907).) Numerous other studies have shown that a proper vegetarian diet provides more nutritional energy than meat. A study by Dr. J. Iotekyo and V. Kipani at Brussels University showed that vegetarians were able to perform physical tests two to three times longer than meat-eaters before tiring out-and the vegetarians fully recovered from fatigue three times more quickly than the meateaters.(J.L. Buttner, A Fleshless Diet: Vegetarianism as a rational dietary, Fredrick A. Stokes Company, New York, 1910, p. 131-2.)