In a study released today by The Lancet Oncology, Dean Ornish, M.D., and colleagues found that comprehensive lifestyle changes, including a low-fat vegan diet, increase the body’s ability to fight premature aging, cancer, heart disease, and other chronic diseases. Twenty-four men participating in a prostate cancer study switched to a plant-based diet and added daily exercise and relaxation techniques. Among other beneficial effects that were previously reported, the intervention led to increased levels of telomerase, an enzyme that protects and repairs DNA. Blood levels of telomerase increased by an average of 29 percent during the study.

Ornish D, Lin J, Daubenmier J, et al. Increased telomerase activity and comprehensive lifestyle changes: a pilot study. Lancet Oncol [advance online publication]. September 16, 2008; DOI 10.1016/S1470-2045(08)70234-1.

From the Dr. McDougall e-mail list: “A study, published in the July 17, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, has generated headlines that may lead the casual reader to believe that a low-carbohydrate (animal-food based) diet is the healthy, effective way to lose weight and a low-fat, plant-food based diet, like the McDougall diet, is not. The diet they called “low fat” was the American Heart Association Diet - a diet of 30% fat with 300 mg of cholesterol daily. The diet I recommend is 7% fat with no cholesterol.

The Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Research Foundation funded the study.

The full study can be read here: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/359/3/229.pdf

This is another case of purposeful deception, publicized widely in order to confuse the public—keeping the status quo. There will be an economic windfall for a variety of industries with an increase in sales of meats, dairy products, cholesterol-lowering statins, and angioplasties. Consumers will pay with worse health, rising medical bills, higher food costs, and an increase in environmental pollution. (emphasis mine)

This was a 2-year trial of 322 moderately obese (about 200 pounds or 91 Kg), mostly men, randomly assigned to follow a low-fat, restricted-calorie; a Mediterranean, restricted-calorie; or a low-carbohydrate, non–restricted-calorie regime. The mean weight losses were 7.26, 10.12, and 12.1 pounds (3.3 Kg, 4.6 Kg, and 5.5 Kg), respectively. There was little change in cholesterol levels (LDL-cholesterol changes were -0.5, -5.6, and -3 mg/dL, respectively).

At our live-in program the average weight loss for moderately overweight people in 7 days is 4.5 pounds (2 Kg)—while eating without limit from a delicious buffet of foods. And the average reduction in total cholesterol is 25 mg/dL.

The PCRM is asking for people to sign its petition to ask the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration to investigate the true cause of the recent salmonella outbreaks, the meat industry: “Contaminated produce is only the last link in a chain that begins with the meat industry. It is essential for consumers to know that burgeoning meat consumption has caused a massive overproduction of chickens, cows, pigs, and other animals, leading to unprecedented production of feces that end up in rivers, streams, and irrigation water, and contaminate otherwise healthful produce. Salmonella are intestinal organisms. Needless to say, tomatoes and peppers do not have an intestinal tract. When feces end up in irrigation water, salmonella can contaminate the surfaces of plants and can apparently pass into their rootlets, ending up inside produce. Infectious bacteria from animal feces also contaminate agricultural fields, workers’ hands, retail shelves, and kitchen surfaces.”

New study predicts that almost 90 Percent of Americans will be overweight or obese by 2030: “A new study in Obesity shows that if the steady increases in the prevalence of overweight and obesity continue through the year 2030, 86.3 percent of adults will be overweight or obese, the prevalence of childhood overweight will double, and 1 of every 6 health care dollars will be used to pay for overweight and obesity-related costs. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health based these projections on trends from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES) data collected over the past three decades. By 2030, the prevalence among African American women and Mexican American men will be 96.9 percent and 91.1 percent, respectively. If trends continue unchecked, 100 percent of American adults will be classified as overweight or obese by 2048.” (Source: PCRM)

And the verdict is still in on the link between diet and Type-2 diabetes: “Three long-term studies published in Archives of Internal Medicine show how food choices lead to type 2 diabetes. Researchers at Boston University followed 43,960 African American women over 10 years, and found that type 2 diabetes developed more often among those who consumed more sweetened beverages. Researchers at Addenbrook’s Hospital in Cambridge, England, found that higher plasma vitamin C levels and greater consumption of fruits and vegetables were associated with a lower incidence of type 2 diabetes among 21,831 adults followed over 12 years. A third article, from Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, Seattle, found that among 48,835 Women’s Health Initiative participants, women assigned to a low-fat diet trended toward a reduced disease incidence, which authors attributed to weight loss.” (Source: PCRM)

Seems like a new vegan place in North Beach is imploding before I even paid a visit.

MenuPages has the run-down: “The initial reviews were mostly glowing and there was talk of the Usual Suspects giving popular veggie spots like Herbivore a run for their money. But a meltdown in the kitchen seems to have left this promising upstart reeling on the brink of closure.”

Sad that they kept the cruelty off the menu, but not out of the kitchen…

So, by now, the stories are everywhere about tomatoes carrying salmonella and now, today, it is also possibly linked to jalapeno and serrano peppers and possibly cilantro. The story always seems to be the same, some vegetable gives you food poisoning, but it nearly always ends up being produce from near some animal agriculture factory, with the barely-inspected fecal runoff going where it shouldn’t. But, it gives meat eaters the usual dodges they love… “you say meat will give me cancer, but spinach and tomatoes give you food poisoning.” It is nice that the animal agriculture industry finds a way to taint other products, too…

And, 8 year olds might be able to score cholesterol-lowering drugs now, so they won’t have heart problems later in life? As part of the same recommendations, kids can go on low-fat milk earlier, since they already get enough fat… so they have that going for them.

Just an FYI, but this whole post will contain WALL*E spoilers, if you’re concerned about such things.

I’m not a big animation nut, but after being disappointed by Wanted and Hancock, I tried to see something bulletproof, so I went to a late night showing of WALL*E (to lessen the amount of kids in attendance).

Wall*E is a robot that is cleaning up the Earth after humans evacuated 700 years earlier, with the hope they would eventually recolonize after the clean-up. But it’s been going for a while now…

Since this isn’t a movie review site, suffice it to say, the robot gets himself transported onto one of the spaceships that held evacuees 700 years earlier, and now houses their descendants. They basically fly around in hover chairs, eat everything in a cup (including cupcakes), and every generation aboard the ship has gotten increasingly fatter and atrophied from doing nothing, since they have robots to do everything for them.

While I did have problems with the movie from a story perspective, it was interesting to
see Pixar be so brazen about a movie where we ruined the earth and became a race of lifeless, connected slugs beholden to a big box store that provides everything we need.

Fact, fiction, or foreshadowing?

If I wasn’t so nutty about keeping my in box cleaned out, I’d never write on here, it seems… big plans in the works to change up the game, don’t worry. Anywhere, here’s this month’s McDougall news:

McDougall is really pushing more lately. First, suggesting that Bill Clinton had brain damage because of his bypass surgery and now, a posthumous interview with Meet the Press’s Tim Russert, who reports on the diet in the afterlife: “…the food’s terrible. Nothing but rice, potatoes, beans, corn, fruits and vegetables.  Everything’s bland, but they say I’ll get used to it.”

This month’s recipes include items from the recent Celebrity Chef Weekend, so worth checking out for Fat-Free Karei-Rice (Japanese-style Curry Rice), Mexican-Spiced Summer Squash, Bryanna’s Italian Polenta, Bean, and Kale Slices, and Bryanna’s Fat Free Vegan Brown Gravy.

And congratulations to Beth Burns, the most recent Star McDougaller, who attributed her switch to a low-fat vegan diet as a cure for her migraine headaches: “My migraines became fewer and farther between. They appeared once a week, once a month, once in a while, and then they completely disappeared. The last time I had a migraine headache was October 2006.”

Here’s your latest McDougall news:

McDougall was quoted in the Wall Street Journal, as Clinton aides “vehemently denied” Bill’s uncharacteristic remarks on the campaign trail were related to brain damage from his heart bypass surgery. In the column, McDougall was quoted as saying: “I have hundreds of patients whose families will say, ‘Dad’s not the same as he was before surgery.”

McDougall also talks about why 2008 is the UN’s International Year of the Potato. McDougall calls the potato “humankind’s best hope for, resolving the current worldwide epidemic of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, and eventually, thriving in the near future.”

McDougall reviews his five favorite articles from recent medical journals:

• Should You Drink 8 Glasses of Water Daily?
• Animal Fat May Accelerate Prostate Cancer
• Monitor Blood Pressure at Home Says the AHA
• Eat Yourself Impotent
• Vitamin Supplements May Increase Breast Cancer

The May McDougall newsletter also offers up some new potato-themed recipes such as Green Goddess Potato Salad, Mexican Potato Stew, and Potato Enchiladas.

Also, if you’re in northern California, their celebrity chef cooking weekend runs in Santa Rosa from June 27 to 29. It is not to be missed, with guest chefs such as Millennium’s Eric Tucker, Fat-Free Vegan Blog’s Susan Voisin, and  Joy of Vegan Baking author Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, among others. Go if you can, it is not to be missed (although for some reason, I do)!

PETA is offering $1 million dollars to any scientist who can grow lab-raised meat that costs the same as chicken and is indistinguishable in taste and texture.

I’ve always been confused by animal rights vegans who are willing to throw the health problems associated with meat consumption into their presentations, but when all is said and done, as soon as animal cruelty is out of the picture, then the rest will sort of just disappear as irrelevant.

My path started with learning the health benefits of eating vegan, then I learned more about the environmental impact of animal agriculture, and I’ve also become far more compassionate in regard to animal rights. I’ve never taken them out of that order, though.

So, it doesn’t sit well with me to create new forms of animal protein, when studies have directly linked consumption of animal proteins with cancer promotion (Read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, I’m not the expert here. That book documents the biggest epidemiological study ever performed studying protein and cancer promotion, so go read it).

It works well with their narrow purpose, but it just seems they should have learned more about the other benefits of being vegan by now.

So, I haven’t been posting, because I seem to instead find myself having intellectual arguments about what I think the message/direction/etc. of this site should be, and what I could offer that would be different and all that good stuff.

But the conclusion I’m going with is that the site needs to find its voice through trial and error rather than careful planning and strategy, so I’m going to try and embrace the chaos a bit more this week and post more frequently.