Vegan Diet Improves Diet Quality, Cardiovascular Disease Risk, and Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes
A low-fat vegan diet is associated with better diet quality, weight management, and blood glucose control compared to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) dietary recommendations for diabetes, according to a study by PCRM researchers published in the October 2008 Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Ninety-nine adults with type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to follow either a low-fat vegan diet or the ADA dietary guidelines for 22 weeks. The vegan diet significantly improved the Alternate Healthy Eating Index score, which reflects better diet quality and has been associated with lower risk for cardiovascular disease. The vegan group consumed more carbohydrate, fiber, and several micronutrients. The vegan group also lost more weight and displayed better glucose control compared to the ADA group. Long-term adherence to a low-fat vegan diet may reduce the risk of major chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease, in people with type 2 diabetes.

Turner-McGrievy GM, Barnard ND, Cohen J, Jenkins DJA, Gloede L, Green AA. Changes in nutrient intake and dietary quality among participants with type 2 diabetes following a low-fat vegan diet or a conventional diabetes diet for 22 weeks. J Am Diet Assoc. 2008;108:1636-1645.

Foodborne Infection Originates in Meat and Poultry
Ninety-seven percent of human disease from the pathogenic bacterium C. jejuni originates in animals farmed for meat and poultry, according to a study by researchers at Lancaster University, Lancaster, U.K. Researchers analyzed DNA from 1,231 cases of C. jejuni infections in Lancashire, England. Only 3 percent of cases were traced back to environmental contamination or wild animal sources, while 97 percent of cases were traced back to farm-raised chickens, cattle, and sheep. These results implicate livestock as the primary transmission route for the leading cause of gastroenteritis in the developed world, which is thought to infect 2 to 3 million people per year in the U.S. alone.

Wilson DJ, Gabriel E, Leatherbarrow AJ, et al. Tracing the source of campylobacteriosis. PLoS Genet. September 26, 2008;4(9):e1000203.

In the latest McDougall Newsletter, Dr. McDougall compares the health of the presidential candidates, based on reports of their diet, exercise routines, medications, and other factors. To be fair, the conclusion isn’t too surprising: “While it is impossible to predict with certainty any person’s future health, time of death, or degree of disability, the evidence at hand clearly says John McCain is in relatively poor health and Barack Obama is in excellent health. All politics aside, no one could conclude otherwise. To McCain’s credit he appears to be holding up well during this grueling campaign, but his current appearances do not negate the medical facts.”

McDougall also reviewed his recent Advanced Study Weekend, including a photo slideshow.

And, of course, some more recipes. The Garden Potato Medley sounds great.

What the 21st Century Will Taste Like: “The machinery that’s pumped so much meat into our lives over the last half century was never built to last, and now it’s breaking down big-time. Feed is more expensive. Gasoline is more expensive. Milk, rice, butter, corn–it’s all going through the roof. And for the foreseeable future, it’s not coming back down.”

The article about meat shrinking from the diet by Momofuku chef David Chang has the usual anti-vegetarian slant by a lot of chefs, though: “At Momofuku, we’ve made a name for ourselves selling lots of pig and not accommodating vegetarians. So, yeah, I recognize the hypocrisy of me–Captain Fucking Pork Bun–telling you to eat more veggies and less meat. Guilty as charged. But don’t get me wrong: My restaurants still won’t kowtow to vegetarians. We will, however, focus more on vegetable and grain dishes in which meat adds flavor, not heft.”

The pro-veg Cancer Project (a PCRM offshoot group) recently began airing this commercial in some major cities, generating some controversy, much of it ridiculous. 64 percent of people in an AOL poll says the ad goes “too far.” You can read the AOL article here, and see the ad for yourself below:

A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that nuts, corn, and popcorn, which some have suggested might exacerbate diverticular disease, are not associated with diverticulitis or diverticular complications. Researchers at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle analyzed the dietary intake among 47,228 men over 18 years and found that nuts and popcorn were actually protective against diverticulitis. Authors concluded that recommendations to avoid these high-fiber, healthful foods should be reconsidered.

Strate LL, Liu YL, Syngal S et al. Nut, corn, and popcorn consumption and the incidence of diverticular disease. JAMA. 2008;300(8):907-914.

McDougall says it’s time to stop scapegoating standalone salt: “The overpowering taste of salt tricks us into eating foods that innately repulse human beings.This flavoring will disguise the repugnant tastes of animal flesh and cow’s milk secretions, which are the real sources of body damage. Eighty percent of the salt consumed by people following the Western diet is irreversibly intermingled with our processed foods.”

McDougall shares more recipes from Celebrity Chef Weekend, including Gazpacho Verde, Smoky Refried Bean Soup, Skillet Gardener’s Pie, White Miso Soup, and Chai-Spiced Oat Crepes with Grilled Mangos or Nectarines and Citrus-Almond “Ricotta” Filling.

Congratulations to the latest Star McDougaler Donna Byrnes: “The hardest part of changing my diet was being different. So much of life is centered around food. While I am the only one I know that eats this type of diet (aside from the people I have met on the McDougall Costa Rica adventures and on the McDougall discussion board), I was fortunate to have the support of my family and friends.”

According to the PCRM newsletter: A study in today’s American Journal of Epidemiology found that people who were obese or overweight in adolescence were three to four times as likely to have died of heart disease by middle age as compared with their thinner peers. A total of 226,678 Norwegian teens were measured for body mass index (BMI) as part of a compulsory national health survey and followed for an average of 34.9 years. They were found to be two to three times more likely to die from colon cancer or respiratory disease. Women in the highest BMI category were at increased risk of death from cervical cancer and both sexes were at increased risk for sudden death.

PCRM sent out information about two recent medical studies on their e-mail list:

More Evidence Links Cow’s Milk to Type 1 Diabetes

A new study adds more evidence that cow’s milk proteins trigger type 1 diabetes. Marcia Goldfarb of Anatek-EP, a protein research laboratory in Portland, Maine, reports having found antibodies to bovine beta-lactoglobulin in the serum of children with diabetes. Individuals without diabetes did not have the antibody.

Type 1 diabetes is believed to be caused when antibodies destroy the insulin-producing pancreatic cells. Several studies have suggested that cow’s milk proteins may trigger the production of these dangerous antibodies. Larger studies are currently testing this theory.

Goldfarb M. Relation of time of introduction of cow milk protein to an infant and risk of type 1 diabetes mellitus. J Proteome Research 2008;7:2165-7

I know this stuff might get boring, since all the studies seem to link the same diet to different negative results:

High Saturated Fat Diets Linked to Short, Failure-Free Survival Following Prostatectomy

A recent study showed that men who consumed a high saturated fat (HSF) diet were significantly more likely to have a biochemical failure following prostate cancer removal and a shorter biochemical-failure-free survival than men on a low saturated fat (LSF) diet. Researchers looked at 309 white patients at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center with clinically organ-confined prostate cancer who were treated only with prostatectomy. Food frequency questionnaires were compiled to reflect dietary intake one year before diagnosis. Five years after surgery, 80 percent of men who consumed an LSF diet were disease free, compared to 65 percent of men who consumed a HSF diet.

Those who consumed HSF diets were comparatively younger and had higher body mass indices at diagnosis than those with LSF diets. The top contributors to the saturated fat intake for this population were beef steak, cheese and cheese spreads, hamburgers and cheeseburgers, eggs, ice cream, and salad dressings/mayonnaise. In this study, LSF intake was on average 23.4 grams per day and HSF was 37.2 grams per day. The government recommends no more than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat.

Strom SS, Yamamura Y, Forman MR, Pettaway CA, Barrera SL, DiGiovanni J. Saturated fat intake predicts biochemical failure after prostatectomy. Int J Cancer. 2008;122:2581-2585.

My Vegan Cookbook is the sort of site I shouldn’t visit often.

Unlike a lot of vegan sites where you just look and see a lot of great food porn and ornately-plated gourmet treats, when I visit My Vegan Cookbook I want to eat the food I see there. Not in the future. Not tomorrow. But now.

That said, it’s remarkable how few of the recipes I have made so far (I blame the commute for my new job, the new catch-all to explain why anything falls through the cracks, and during which this review itself is being written).

My Vegan Cookbook is the brainchild of Josh Latham, whom I’ve known for years from way back when he ran the now-defunct gay youth site, beautifulboy.com. (I also run a site for gay youth, in case my new vegan audience is unaware). So, it was surprising to find that Josh is also vegan; we’re both huge believers in the findings of T. Colin Campbell’s The China Study, linking animal protein consumption to cancer promotion; and try to eat a low-fat, whole-grain, plant-based diet without a lot of isolated soy protein.

I mention the gay angle because it seems to have a role here. It seems I am drawn to Josh’s balls. Whenever I see his balls online, I am hungry for them. I can’t wait for the next appearance of his balls.

I first put Josh’s balls in my mouth around Christmas. Since I know a lot of people in my hometown think of vegan food as tasteless bland fare, I needed to challenge their thinking. Many people there have the attitude of: You might live longer eating that stuff, but is it worth it?

So, I made Josh’s Vegan “Cheese” ball recipe and took it to different parties. Since I brought it, no one accepted it as a proper cheese ball, of course, leading to a game of “But what is it made of?” The game required eating the cheese ball, but the eating never stopped once they knew the answer. It was a hit at every event to which it was brought.

With such a great start, you’d think I’d be making nearly every recipe Josh posts, and I certainly wouldn’t mind eating it all, but it hasn’t happened. Until recently. And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out it is, to my knowledge, the second appearance of his balls on the site. This time, Josh whipped out his Vegan Meatballs (Isolated Soy Free) and, once again, I made a play for them.

I am a fan of meatballs in spaghetti (or, more likely, my sprouted whole wheat parpadelle pasta, but I digress). It is mainly a texture thing. I don’t even think of them bringing much flavor to the party, I just like something breaking up the abundance of pasta.

The store-bought versions of vegan meatballs are more what I’m used to, oily round brown things with minimal spicing, for textual variety. Josh’s balls redefine that concept.

First, let’s walk through their creation. Although the spices are entirely different, most of the process seems more like baking vegan cookies than making meatballs. From the mixing of ingredients to rolling Josh’s balls around in your hand, it seems like cookies are on the way. I found the mixture sticky and hard to roll initially, until I started rinsing my hand between rolling each ball.

Then, I baked them, flipped them, baked them, let them sit. And, because of my commute, I had already eaten dinner somewhere in the middle of this now late-night process. So, I put Josh’s balls to the ultimate test. They would start their life, sadly enough, as leftovers.

So, the next day, with Josh’s balls (I keep saying Josh’s balls because he claims to be shy, and it brings me great joy to think of him reading that phrase so much) in my refrigerator and not having shrunk as a result, I gave them their trial run. I let them come up to room temp while the water boiled, then just put some in the pan with the spaghetti sauce (sadly, I didn’t have Muir Glen Organic Spicy Tomato, as I had intended to use, since Josh’s balls include both chili powder and chipotle chili powder). But, I warmed them up with the on-hand sauce, and served them over my sprouted pasta, as indicated above.

Well, I must say, the role you desire for your meatballs will determine whether Josh’s balls are right for you. If you want brown, tasteless orbs that spit out some spice and oil when you bite into them, these are not those balls. Josh’s balls make the dish. That is, they are the flavor you will taste throughout the meal. If you like the flavor, you win. If you don’t, or are looking for something more traditional, these are probably not the balls for you.

Although they looked a bit dry going into the sauce, they were nice and chewy when they were heated through, and complemented (and somewhat overpowered) the pasta and sauce. This is behavior to which I am not accustomed from your garden variety vegan meatballs. The others sit back, ready to inject some soy, oil, and spice whenever necessary, but play a secondary role. So, again, this comes down to the role you want for your meatballs.

Personally, I liked them a lot and would make them again. The flavor was unique (in a good way), to the point where it all blended together so well, I can’t identify any one spice as being overpowering. The next test is going to be making them in a larger quantity and freezing them in packs of 3-4 balls per serving, so whenever I want Josh’s balls, I can just reach out and grab them.

Of course, there is still no good reason that I haven’t tried Josh’s Lentil Loaf (probably up next), Eggplant and Zucchini Casserole, and Mushroom and Lentil Stroganoff. All in good time. So, yeah, I’m a big fan of My Vegan Cookbook.

Until I marry Josh and he becomes my vegan feeder, keeping me fat, happy, and rolling in vegan vittles, his balls will have to do.

In his recent McDougall newsletter (free, so sign up!), Dr. McDougall urges people to stay out of the medical business, but also says your health plays a big role in your financial stability. His four considerations, all explained in great detail in the newsletter are:

• Healthy People Attract Employers and Customers
• You Can Regain Lost Health and Appearance
• Reduce Medication Costs
• Buy Only the Medical Insurance You Need

McDougall also shares some of the comments he received to his assertion that Bill Clinton is showing signs of brain damage that might be a result of his heart-bypass surgery.

And, no newsletter woud be complete without recipes! The Southwest Jambalaya sounds especially good.