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.

I remember the first time I saw the Nintendo Wii and thinking, “Hmm, they should create a game that tricks people into getting physical activity.” Apparently, Nintendo is headed in that direction, just without the trickery.

The Nintendo Wii Fit is about to launch in America, after becoming the number one game in Japan. The Wii Fit is a balance board console that players stand on and do activities that work on strength training, aerobics, balance games and yoga. The Fit tracks their BMI and can chart their weight and any weight loss and activity level over time. The unit also asks users to input their fitness goals and tracks their progress over time.

The Wii Fit isn’t just a boring virtual gym, though. It seems like it can do a good job of keeping people entertained while they work out. The hula hoop game has users standing on the balance board, shifting their weight and catching hula hoops on their outstretched arms and having them keep those rotating as well as the hula hoop they are keeping moving around their hips.

There is something to be said about a nation of air guitarists who jog in front of their TV, of course, but that’s an entirely separate issue.

Dr. McDougall recently released some Breaking News to his e-mail list, under the headline “Bill Clinton’s Madness: A Consequence of Heart-Bypass Surgery Brain Damage.” I was sort of surprised the headline didn’t end with a question mark but, in his article, McDougall compares the Clinton that stood against impeachment and being known for his wit, charm, and ability to stay calm under his pressure to the one out stumping for his wife’s campaign:

“Now, he is easily angered by hecklers, and makes factual mistakes and racial slurs while aggressively defending his wife’s campaign for presidency. Everyone sees his mental and emotional decline, yet to date, no medical professionals have spoken out about the cause or offered help.

Not a single one—not one bypass surgeon, cardiologist or psychiatrist—has stepped forward in his defense; even though all of them are trained to recognize “post bypass surgery cognitive dysfunction.” One of the best-kept secrets in medicine is the brain damage caused during bypass surgery.

McDougall gives a lot of facts and figures about the procedure, and finishes up by saying:

“I am saddened to see our former president suffer from public humiliation, but I am disgraced that my profession has thus far failed to come forward with a long over-due explanation and an apology to the Clintons and our nation for the harm they have done and the secrets they have kept.”

Wow, interesting stuff from Dr. McDougall… Definitely worth a read.

Sorry everyone, just started a new job, so my inbox has been piling up while I get use to having regular commitments (as well as incoming money) again. So, all my extra-curricular stuff like website postings have suffered. I’m trying to get a new schedule running here, so things should pick up again soon.

But here’s what’s been building up in my absence:

In a recent newsletter, Dr. McDougall has been helping people realize that a vegan diet helps them save money at the grocery store, and that’s above and beyond the cost of quadruple bypass surgery: “Winning during an economic crunch involves behaviors not much different than those you should already be doing during good times.” Makes sense, as per usual.

After my recent tirade, 24 Hour Fitness has released two more newsletters. The topics? Gardening and yoga. Coincidence? I think not.

Teresa Rodriguez is the latest Star McDougaller: “I was told I have a permanent disabling mental illness by my doctors and that I would never work. I now know that is not true. My journey to regain my life has provided me with purpose and drive, two things that I have been lacking for many years.” Congratulations, Teresa!

Organic Athlete pointed to some good studies that came out recently. One links meat consumption and cancer risk, which is old news, but the more research, the better.

They also found a study showing healthy, middle-aged Chinese women who consumed more legumes had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Again, nothing surprising.

The PCRM noted that increased egg consumption is linked to a higher mortality rate. The group also tipped us off that once your bad diet gives you diabetes, your inhaled insulin might give you lung cancer. Exubera, an inhaled insulin delivery system, has been linked to an increased risk of lung cancer. Pfizer released this statement: “Over the course of the clinical trial program, 6 of the 4,740 Exubera-treated patients versus 1 of the 4,292 patients not treated with Exubera developed lung cancer. In addition there was a post-marketing report of lung cancer in one Exubera-treated patient.” All affected patients had a prior smoking history. It is not yet clear whether Exubera aggravates cancer risk in smokers and former smokers or the link is simply coincidental. The company is updating product labeling to reflect the findings. On October 18, 2007, Pfizer announced its plan to discontinue the product after disappointing sales.

vegan.com had a major relaunch, and is a good source of information. I just find it to be too animal-centric for daily reading. I’m not the kind of vegan who wants to hear about animal slaughter every day.

McDougall recently wrote an article on grains: “All large populations of trim, healthy people, throughout written human history, have obtained the bulk of their calories from starch. Examples of thriving people include, Japanese and Chinese in Asia eating sweet potatoes, buckwheat, and/or rice, Incas in South America eating potatoes, Mayans and Aztecs in Central America eating corn, and Egyptians in the Middle East eating wheat.”

He also wrote an article against intensive therapy: “Research over the past four decades has consistently shown that intensive drug treatment will lower risk factors, such as cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure; but will also cause patients to die sooner, albeit, with better looking numbers.

And Karen Baaron was profiled as the latest Star McDougaller: “Now when I get out of bed I feel very awake and my energy stays level throughout the day. I love the way I look, but even more I love the way I feel: light, energetic, strong, and confident that I can do this for the rest of my life and never have to worry about portion control and weight gain again.” Congratulations, Karen!

I have no issues with my gym, despite a lot of people saying they could never work out at such a “gay gym” in the middle of the Castro. I believe these people are telling the truth, though. If you go into a situation expecting negativity, you will get what you asked for, or at least believe it happened.

No, my main problem with 24 Hour Fitness is they send me e-mail. A lot of it is seemingly written by Apex, whose energy bars and drinks are sold there. A lot of the e-mail is questionable in motivation on top of being factually inaccurate.

Under the heading “fad diets reviewed,” they recently offered their take on Dr. Dean Ornish’s “Eat More, Weigh Less” plan. Now, I follow low-fat diets in the news and in my life and I’d be hard-pressed to consider Ornish to be a fad. In the pantheon of the Atkins and South Beach Diets of the world, I don’t think Ornish ever had the same popularity and acceptance. So, they’re already losing me at the headline, since they are debunking what was never amazingly popular in the first place.

Here’s a line from the overview: “The basic premise is that calories from fat cause one to become fat; however, the author does concede that calories consumed above maintenance levels contribute to weight gain.”

I am just curious that Ornish concedes that calories consumed above maintenance levels contribute to weight gain. Seems to be a rather odd word choice, as that as a pretty non-controversial statement. The definition of concede is “to acknowledge, often reluctantly, as being true.” But, why would that be a concession? If anything, a low-fat, plant-based diet would help you lower your caloric intake while achieving satiety, no concession required.

Under Advantages, it reads: “The benefit to this diet is that a small percentage of the population would feel good with very low fat and high carbohydrates.” Says who? Ornish wrote several books on this topic and has thousands of case studies. McDougall has been on a similar path for decades with amazing results. So, where is the citation for only a small population feeling good with this diet? Again, this seems a huge point for such a glossed-over review. Also, high carbohydrates is true but misleading if you don’t mention that they aren’t refined carbohydrates, which is a big point on these diets. And, this is not only the questionable sentence in the section of Advantages. It is the ONLY sentence in the section. Where is all the text reviewing this fad diet? Oh, wait, I found them…

“Disadvantages” is more than twice as long. And, for disadvantages we even get citations! It reads:

“Studies by the National Weight Control Registry indicate that the majority of those who have lost weight and kept it off were successful with a diet comprised of 55 percent carbohydrate, 20 percent protein and 25 percent fat. This diet encourages minimal fat and protein intake.”

Sounds interesting. Of course, the NWCR website itself summarizes its findings that most of its members have kept their weight off by “continuing to maintain a low calorie, low fat diet and doing high levels of activity.” I can’t imagine NWCR considers 25 percent fat to constitute low fat.

Finally, the long and final section on Long-Term Success is another odd grab bag of facts. Let’s start at the very beginning: “Dietary fat is important to success for a number of reasons including the transportation of vitamins, satiety (feelings of fullness) and the simple pleasure of consuming food with some fat content.”

I agree that there are certain vitamins that require fat to be effective, there are specific fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins for this very reason. But, since it is impossible to have a no-fat diet, wouldn’t a McDougall or Ornish diet contain enough fat to transport these vitamins? Of course.

On the second point, I’ve never heard any claim that fat makes you feel full or has any contribution to satiety. Fiber, sure, but not fat.

The third point is, of course, the silliest for a gym newsletter written by a supplement manufacturer. The simple pleasure of consuming food with some fat content? Once again, no one I’ve ever heard of advocates a no-fat diet. There is natural fat in the most basic vegan food, so it would be impossible.

The article then goes into the basic idea of weight loss of gain being the sum of calories out versus calories in, but misses the picture that a low fat Ornish-like diet steers people toward lower calorie food that also increases satiety through its higher fiber content. Obviously, if you want to take in 4,500 calories a day, but are diligent enough to burn off 5,000 a day at the gym, good luck to you. If, however, you can enjoy a meal of whole, plant-based foods that fill you up faster and have less of a caloric hit, then wouldn’t it naturally follow that you would be full and have less calories in, controlling one important half of the law of thermodynamics?

Then, the makers of drink mixes, cookies, and meal replacement bars that all seem to include dairy in its worst forms (not that any are good) such as Reduced Fat Milk, Milk Protein Concentrates, Whey Protein Concentrates, and Calcium Caseinate, in just one workout shake go on to lecture about the diet and fitness industry and fad diets, ending with a pitch for its own products. Anyone who read The China Study would certainly question the goal of achieving weight loss and health by giving your body such efficient cancer promotion fuel as dairy.

They end with the curious line: “Offering you the choices and guidance you need, our program is based on science, not marketing hype.” This is an article seemingly rattled off specifically to market its own products? (And, trust me, I know. I’ve been a paid shill often enough, but much better than this at it). Against a program that seemingly has more science and results on its side, seeing that Ornish first published the results of a randomized controlled trial backing up his findings way back in 1990. That is one hell of a long fad they are finally getting around to debunking, no?

So, yeah, I love 24 Hour Fitness, but this kind of nonsense needs to go. Either that, or put a little more effort into this newsletter to make it not so poorly-written and provide information for members to determine what sort of diet might work best for them rather than its marketing partners.

The other day, I was picking up a few odds and ends at Safeway (which is pretty much all I ever pick up there), and with my receipt they gave me what I assumed to be a coupon. Typically, I enjoy reading the coupons because it always amuses me to see how Safeway can gather so much data about me being vegan, yet all of their recommendations are slightly off. If I buy an Amy’s No-Cheese Pizza (yes, I know it’s ridiculous to pay so much for something so simple), the coupon will invariably suggest next time I get a DiGiorno Four-Cheese Pizza. So, I always toss the coupon in my backpack to enjoy when I unpack it at home.

As it turns out, it was NOT a coupon, but a notice about a new program they are offering whereby all of my club card purchases are tracked and you can look at the raw data on the Safeway website. So, I enroll online to check it out and it’s sort of interesting to see how it parses my purchases.

There is zero cholesterol (no shock there), low fat, and I’m WAY off the charts for fiber, sodium, and carbs. Pretty much what I’d expect.

There are two flaws in the system, though. One is that most of my food isn’t purchased at Safeway, but at Rainbow Grocery, so I’m not getting an accurate picture of my diet from this data. In fact, there are very specific things I regularly buy at Safeway for existing recipes, and not much else. This would be great for someone like my family back home, though, who tend to do 98 percent of their shopping at one store.

The other problem is not unique to Safeway or this program, but online information in general. For example, whenever I buy a birthday gift for my nephew on Amazon, for the next few weeks, I will be told that people who bought the Doodlebops DVD also tend to like the Wiggles, and I’ll get occasional e-mails alerting me to things other Doodlebop purchasers are also interested in. Sure, you can be conscientious and tag all of your gift purchases as gifts, and I believe there is also a way to go in and edit your purchases along these lines, but even I never found enough free time to bother with that. So, I have been at Safeway before and bought gross things for people staying with me (like milk), or swiped my card for the airline points when a group of drunk queens wanted food at three in the morning, all of which is food I never consume. But overall, if the majority of my personal shopping happened at Safeway, this would be interesting data.

That said, I think it is interesting to show people information like this because it doesn’t lie. I often joke with my grandmother who, whenever we discuss eating less meat, mentions that she would but she already has so much frozen meat in her freezer. I keep asking her to tell the person that does her shopping that she doesn’t want them to keep buying all that meat, but of course, she buys it all herself.

I think it would be interesting for someone to take cholesterol pills and see that their grocery purchases are 40 percent cholesterol. Everyone’s different, so that could be a lightbulb moment for some people. Of course, the people who don’t worry about nutritional information… well, they wouldn’t sign up to get these reports anyway.

I realize there’s a big brother aspect here, which is something that has always existed with these cards. So, for me, this is the first good example of mining that data to benefit the consumer.

It won’t shift me over to making the majority of my purchases at Safeway, but I think it’s a great example of giving consumers important health and nutritional information. Good stuff…

I can’t quite grasp why they seemingly dumped a lot of money into this (if for some reason other than to piggyback on the current presidential race fixation), but it was still amusing:

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