*March 2004 issue of Dr. Greger's Newsletter*

[Guest guest]

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March 2004 issue of Dr. Michael Greger's Monthly Newsletter

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CONTENTS

 

I. Latest Updates in Human Nutrition

A. Bowel Movement Frequency

B. Raw Vegetables More Protective than

Cooked?

C. Eggs and Colorectal Cancer

Mortality

D. Green Tea May Protect from Prostate

Cancer

E. Girls, Fruits & Veggies and

Skeletal Development

F. Eat the Peel? Antioxidant Power of

Peels and Seeds

 

II. Bird Flu: Meateaters Put the Entire World at Risk

 

III. What's Wrong with Atkins: The 2004 Veg Speaking Tour

 

IV. Update on Mad Cow Disease

 

V. Personal Update - Aah, my laptop is dying!

 

VI. MAILBAG: " You said last month to eat greens and flax

seeds--yeah but how? "

 

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I. LATEST UPDATES IN HUMAN NUTRITION

--------------------------

 

A. Bowel Movement Frequency

 

With a title like " Nutrition and Lifestyle in Relation

to Bowel Movement Frequency, " I knew it just had to be good.[1]

In the biggest study of it's kind ever, British researchers compared

the reported bowel habits of about 15,000 meateaters to 5000

vegetarians and about 1000 vegans.

 

The study was peppered with memorable quotes like " That non

meat-eaters have a higher frequency of defecation is well documented "

and " Our finding of a very clear trend towards an increasing

number of bowel movements with a more rigorous degree of vegetarianism

could be a field for further investigation. "

 

Constipation is the most common gastrointestinal complaint in the

United States, leading to millions of doctor visits every year.

Constipation can increase one's risk for a hiatal hernia, varicose

veins, hemorrhoids, and painful conditions with names like " anal

fissure. "

 

The researchers conclude " Being vegetarian and especially

vegan is strongly associated with a

higher frequency of bowel movements. " Vegans, for example,

were three times more likely to have daily BMs.

 

It's like we've always said: vegans are just regular people

 

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B. Raw Vegetables More Protective than Cooked?

 

Eating lots of vegetables every day is one of the most powerful

things anyone can do to prevent a wide variety of diseases, including

cancer. Researchers have been puzzled, though, why the protective

effect for breast cancer has not been as strong or consistent as for

some of the other cancers. Researchers in Germany may have just found

a clue to the mystery.[2]

 

The researchers looked at the past diets of hundreds of breast

cancer victims and healthy controls, and like many studies before

them, they found a modest trend towards decreased risk of breast

cancer development in people with the highest daily vegetable

consumption. But when they broke up intake categories into raw

vegetables versus cooked vegetables, they were surprised to find that

women who ate just a single small salad a day seemed to cut their risk

of developing breast cancer in half (compared to those who like only

ate a salad every couple days) while the women eating the most cooked

veggies didn't seem to have any protection from developing breast

cancer at all.

 

Cooking reduces the availability of some of the carotenoids in

vegetables like lutein, zeaxanthin, and B-cryptoxanthin, but cooking

also actually increases the bioavailability of other carotenoids like

lycopene, alpha carotene and beta carotene. So I encourage people to

eat a variety of cooked and raw foods. Although this study did show

that raw vegetables seemed to have a distinct advantage, for example,

it also showed that women who ate cooked whole grain products like

whole wheat bread and brown rice also seemed significantly protected

from developing breast cancer.

 

The mechanism by which vegetables decrease cancer risk is

unknown, but evidence suggests that it's immune related. Our immune

system has special cells called natural killer cells, whose mission in

life is to just go around killing cancer cells. Their job is to rove

around the body on seek and destroy missions trying to remove any

budding tumors anywhere in our body. Our mission (if we choose to

accept it) is to boost their cancer-fighting abilities. That's where

vegetables come in. A recent study, for example, found that those

drinking vegetable juice (carrot or tomato) every day significantly

increased the cancer fighting ability of their immune system.[3]

 

It's time for all of us to get back to our salad days of

youth.

 

--------------------------

 

 

C. Eggs and Colorectal Cancer Mortality

 

In the largest study of it's kind ever, researchers compared egg

consumption across 34 countries over a three decade time span to colon

and rectal cancer death rates. They found egg consumption on a

population level was significantly associated with mortality in men

and women in countries across the world. Yes, but perhaps that's

because egg eaters were also more likely to eat meat, or to smoke, or

less likely to eat vegetables. Even after controlling for almost all

established and potential risk factors for these two cancers, the

relationship remained. On a population level, the more eggs that were

eaten, the more deaths there was from rectal and colon cancer.

 

Just because something is related on a population level, however, does

not necessarily mean cause and effect. For example, just because the

total egg sales in one country is higher than in another country, that

doesn't necessarily mean that people are actually eating more eggs in

the first country. Maybe one country feeds more of their eggs to

farmed or companion animals. Maybe one country cooks or stores eggs

differently such that more is wasted or thrown away or spoils in one

country than another. What population comparison studies can do,

however, is to stimulate more research. As the researchers concluded,

if more studies do continue to show this relationship between egg

consumption and cancer mortality, urging people to eat less eggs

" may provide an easy and practical intervention measure to reduce

the tremendous public health burden of colon and rectal

cancers. " [4]

 

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D. Green Tea May Protect from Prostate Cancer

 

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of male cancer death

in Western countries, but countries like China have 60 times lower

prostate cancer rates than the United States. This month,[5]

Australian researchers published evidence that some of that protection

may be because of green tea consumption (without milk). They found

that the men drinking the most green tea seemed to have up to 90% less

risk of developing prostate cancer.

 

As always, vegetarians should try to limit their green or black tea

consumption during meals, as tea can interfere with the absorption of

iron from plant foods. It doesn't interfere with the absorption of

iron from blood, so those who eat blood--meateaters--can drink tea

anytime.

 

--------------------------

 

 

E. Girls, Fruits & Veggies and Skeletal Development

 

We've known that adults can protect their bones eating fruits and

vegetables, but it's never been studied in children... until now.

University of Tennessee researchers just published a study which found

that girls (aged 8-13) who ate more fruits and veggies seemed to have

significantly increased bone mass compared to girls who ate less even

after controlling for many other factors. The size of their skeletons

was significantly increased.

 

Although this study was relatively small (limited to 56 subjects)

and only looked at affluent white girls, hopefully this will be the

first of many studies on maximizing peak bone mass in adolescent

women. The researchers suspect that the reason fruits and vegetables

were so protective is because most plant foods tend to decrease the

calcium loss in the urine that is triggered in part by the consumption

of meat.[6]

 

--------------------------

 

 

F. Eat the peel? Antioxidant Power of Peels and Seeds

 

More and more diseases--Alzheimer's, cancer, heart disease--are

being linked to what's called " oxidant stress " in the body,

which is the tissue damage wreaked by free radicals in our diet and

environment. To prevent these diseases we rely on the superheroes and

heroines of the body, the antioxidants found predominantly in whole

plant foods like fruits. Most studies measuring the antioxidant power

in fruits, though, has only studied the pulp of the fruit. In the most

comprehensive study of it's kind ever published, a recent study out of

China measured the antioxidant power of the pulp, peel and seed

fractions of 28 different fruits,.[7]

 

Researchers found that with a few exceptions, the peel and seeds

of fruit has more antioxidants than the pulp. So for example, the peel

of kiwi fruits, for example, has about three times the antioxidants

than the inside of the fruit and the peel of fruits like pomegranates

have almost 30 times the antioxidant punch. Grape seeds have a hundred

times more antioxidant power than the pulp! So grapes with seeds are

healthier than seedless, but only of course if one actually chews the

seeds up.

 

If you do choose to not to peel nutrition off your fruit, it's

particularly important to wash them under running water and to buy

organic.

 

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II. BIRD FLU: Meateaters Put the Entire World at Risk

 

The deadliest plague in human history was the influenza pandemic

of 1918, which killed up to 50 million people around the world. Modern

flu strains tend to spare young healthy adults, but every few decades

a strain arises that can kill people in the prime of life. In 1918,

more than a quarter of all Americans fell ill.[1] What started for

millions across the globe as a runny nose and a sore throat ended days

later with people bleeding from their ears and nostrils and into their

lungs. The victims drowned in their own blood. Their corpses--tinged

blue from suffocation--were " stacked like cordwood " outside

the morgues as cities ran out of coffins.[2]

 

Where did this disease come from? Brilliant medical detective work,

which included digging up corpses discovered frozen in the Alaskan

permafrost for tissue samples, recently pieced together the genetic

makeup of the virus. The disease came from bird flu.

 

The 1918 virus probably jumped species in crowded World War I army

camps in Europe where they raised chickens for slaughter. That flu

would go on to bury more people than the World War.[3] The army camp

outbreaks started in 1917. It took a year before the virus had enough

human victims to mutate inside of before it could explode upon the

world. " That's what could happen in Asia, " noted one flu

expert this week, " It could be another year before it really gets

moving. " [4]

 

We now know that bird flu is the original cause of all of these human

influenza " type A " viruses. Although the viruses can affect

a wide range of animals including pigs, horses and wild birds, the

initial source seems to be domesticated fowl such as chickens and

turkeys.[5]

 

Over the last few decades meat and egg consumption has exploded

in the developing world, leading to industrial-scale commercial

chicken farming and mass animal transport, favoring the emergence and

spread of influenza superstrains.[6] The World Animal Health

Organization blames changes in the global poultry industry, such as

shorter production cycles and greater animal densities, for the

increased risk of spawning epidemics.[7] Even backyard farms in Asia

have turned almost industrial, filling every square inch with

chickens. " As soon as you have that many animals in one spot you

are likely to get into trouble with disease, " said Dr. Samuel

Jutzi, Director of Animal Production and Health at the U.N. Food and

Agriculture Organization.[8]

 

The World Health Organization also blames the present bird flu

outbreak on " intensive poultry production. " [9] As one

infectious disease expert noted, " There are a whole lot of

practices in animal husbandry that means we have got large numbers of

animals all close together with practices to give often a very

short-term gain that may not be sustainable in the long term, but may

well have long-term consequences that are not known, or not thought

through at the time. " [10] The stress of intensive confinement

alone on the birds' immune systems increases the risk that factory

farms will become the breeding ground for the next global

pandemic.[11]

 

According to a recent editorial in The Lancet, one of the most

prestigious medical journals in the world, " All human diseases to

emerge in the past 20 years have had an animal source... " [12] For

example, hepatitis B, a disease which now kills a million people every

year, probably appeared upon the world stage thanks to people eating

chimpanzee meat. Ebola, the virus that causes one's organs to dissolve

and kills up to 90% of people infected within a week, is thought to

have originally come from people eating gorilla meat. Of course the

disease doesn't limit itself to killing just those that ate the flesh

of their fellow primates. Once it's jumped species it can spread

throughout the human population.

 

The AIDS virus has now infected 50 million people. Where did it come

from? The leading theory is that human beings originally got it

through " direct exposure to animal blood and secretions as a

result of hunting, butchering, or other activities (such as

consumption of uncooked contaminated meat)... " (a competing

theory is that the AIDS virus was originally spread through vaccines

manufactured using chimpanzee kidneys).[13]

 

Historically, tuberculosis and measles emerged when humans started

herding cattle in large numbers. The SARS virus spread into the human

population because people were raising civet cats for their flesh. Mad

Cow disease is another direct result of industrial practices, and now

threatens the safety of the world's blood supply.[14] Animal

agriculture has become a public health hazard for more than those that

consume the meat.

 

The World Health Organization has described the speed at which this

new outbreak of bird flu in Asia has spread as " historically

unprecedented. " [15] And the human lethality of the strain is

ferocious--killing 70% of people it infects.[16] The 1918 strain only

killed 2.5% of it's victims.[17]

 

Although fifty million chickens are dead, only a few people have

become infected. The fear is that the bird flu will spread to a pig or

person already infected with a human strain of influenza. Once this

happens, a deadly gene swap can take place in which the human

transmissibility of the human flu virus combines with the lethality of

the bird flu virus. The World Health Organization in a conference

today reiterated that conditions are " ripe " for the

emergence of just such a virus that could trigger the next global

pandemic.[18]

 

No war, no plague, no famine has ever killed so many in so short a

time as the 1918 influenza pandemic.[19] One scientist observed in

1918 that " civilization could have disappeared within a few more

weeks. " At that time, though, there were less than 2 billion

people in the world and no mass international commercial air travel.

Scientists today fear a global influenza pandemic could be many times

worse even with modern medical advances.

 

According to the Lancet editorial, vaccination would not be a viable

option due to the lethality of the strain, antiviral drugs are not

effective enough, and, since influenza is more contagious than

diseases like SARS, quarantine measures are unlikely to control a

human outbreak. The editorial concludes, " In view of the

mortality of human influenza associated with this strain, the prospect

of a worldwide pandemic is massively frightening. " [20]

 

Humanity's lust for flesh not only kills billions of animals every

year directly, but threatens the health of our planet and may threaten

our health in more ways than we know.

 

 

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III. WHAT'S WRONG WITH ATKIN'S: The 2004 Veg Speaking Tour

 

The American Dietetic Association called the Atkins diet a

" nightmare of a diet. " Pulling in $100 million a year, the

Atkins empire is putting people at risk for permanent physical damage to their health. Thankfully,

we have George Eisman.

 

George Eisman, R.D., is one of my heroes. He is one of the

world's foremost experts on plant-based nutrition--in fact I learn

more listening to him than from almost any other speaker on vegetarian

and vegan nutrition. And he's going on a national speaking

tour!

 

As part of Farm Sanctuary's Veg-for-Life campaign, he's now

booking dates across country to give talks AT NO COST on the dangers

of the Atkins diet. To reserve a spot on his 2004 Veg Speaking

Tour, go to

http://vegforlife.org/veg_tour.htm

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IV. UPDATE ON MAD COW DISEASE

 

The top Mad Cow story last month was the discovery of a new form

of Mad Cow disease that looks just like the sporadic form of CJD

killing hundreds of older Americans every year.

 

Published in the Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences, Italian researchers named the new

strain of Mad Cow disease BASE, bovine

amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy. Based on the CJD-like

pattern of brain damage and molecular " fingerprint " of the

strain, researchers are concerned that this second form may be causing

the form of CJD so often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's disease in the

United States. This builds on earlier evidence (documented in my

latest report available for download at

http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/Greger.pdf) that infected meat may

also be to blame for this so-called " sporadic " form of

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

 

For weekly updates on the evolving Mad Cow disease crisis, visit

my website http://organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm Or for just my

latest writings and commentary, send a blank email to

DrGregersMadCowUpdates- to to my

Mad Cow email list.

*******************************************************

 

 

V. PERSONAL UPDATE - Aah, My Laptop is Dying!

 

Everyone who knows me knows that ever since Vegan Outreach

donated their laptop to me it hasn't left my side. I even seatbelt it

in next to me on the road. Whenever something bad would happen to me

on tour, my mantra was always " At Least My Laptop is OK. "

Unfortunately I can no longer say that.

 

My screen just started flickering. I took it in and was

told that the " inverter " is shot, and that a repair would be

so expensive that it's not worth fixing. Right now it's OK most of the

time, but then all the sudden goes into this like seizure inducing

flicker and blacks out from time to time. The repair guy said

that it will just get worse and worse until it blacks out

permanently. Help!

 

My laptop is how I'm able to get all the work I do done. It turns

hours of bus, train and plane rides into productive time. It's

how I stay in touch with everyone, it's how I update the Mad Cow site,

write my books, this newsletter, etc. It's basically become my life.

If anyone has a used laptop that they are considering getting rid of

please consider donating it to me. If everyone could just ask around

to people and organizations they know, I'm hoping one will pop

up.

 

Not that beggars can be choosers, but I've only ever worked on

Apple computers, and so my familiarity and files are all in Mac

format, but at this point I'm getting desperate. Used or refurbished

Apple laptops are running under $800 these days, and so if anyone

wants to make a tax-deductible donation to help me purchase one if my

search is unsuccessful I would be eternally grateful.

 

The advantage of not having a salary is that I can devote my life

full-time to activism. The way I can do that is that I have almost no

expenses--I don't pay rent (people put me up and feed me), have no

health insurance (or even car insurance now), etc. The downside is

that unexpected expenses like this come up. Please everyone keep

your fingers crossed for me.

 

On an unrelated topic, a few quick things: First of all, I'm so

sorry for accidentally sending the February newsletter out twice.

Hopefully that will never happen again. Also, I am currently all out

of the VHS video copies of my nutrition DVD, but there are VHS copies

still available from the online Earthsave store at http://shopping.earthsave.org/catalog/

Finally, every month I get requests to reprint portions of my

writings. There is no need to ask permission. Please always feel

free to reprint anything I write for any (nonprofit) purpose. The same

goes for my CDs--always feel free to burn them and distribute

copies far and wide.

 

*******************************************************

 

 

VI. MAILBAG: " You said last month to eat greens and flax

seeds--yeah but how? "

 

However you want! But obviously the yummier it is the more you'll

stuff them in your face, so I decided to consult the one and only

Brook Katz, who's been cooking up vegan fare for 18 years (you can

check out his latest cookbook at http://brookkatz.com/books.html). I

called him up and said two words--greens and flax--and this is the

recipe he was so sweet to design for us. Please try it and get back to

me. If everyone likes it maybe I can entice Brook to give us a monthly

recipe featuring some of the plant foods I highlight!

 

GREENS IN JALAPENO MUSTARD FLAX SAUCE

1/2 cup flax seed --ground to a meal (or 2/3 cup preground flax)

1 1/2 cups of water (more if needed to make a thinner sauce)

2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast

1 Tbsp. your favorite mustard

1 Tbsp. tamari

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 jalapeno pepper – remove the seeds if you don't want it that

hot!

Enough broccoli or brussel sprouts or dark leafy greens for 8

people

 

In a blender, combine the flax meal and water, and blend till

it's thick and creamy. (It will almost appear to be gelatinous) Add

the other sauce ingredients and blend well again. Steam the broccoli

or brussel sprouts till they are tender, but not too soft. Remove them

from the heat and pour the sauce directly over the hot vegetables.

Serving suggestion: as a side dish with your favorite Mexican food,

Ole’!

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REFERENCES:

(Full text of specific articles available by emailing

article-request)

1 Public Health Nutrition: 7(2004):77.

2 Nutrition and Cancer 46(2):131.

3 Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism 47(2003):255.

4 Nutrition and Cancer 46(2):158.

5 International Journal of Cancer 108(2004):130.

6 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 79(2004):311.

7 Nutrition Research 23(2003):1719.

 

--------------------------

 

 

REFERENCES (Bird Flu):

(Full text of specific articles available by emailing

article-request)

1 Kolata, G. Flu. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Gairoux,

1999.

2 Crosby, A.W. American's Forgotten Pandemic. New York: Cambridge

University Press, 1989.

3 Ibid.

4 Biotech Week February 25, 2004

5 American Journal of Nursing. 103(7):22.

6 Biotech Week February 25, 2004

7 Australian Financial Review January 31, 2004 Saturday

8 Biotech Week February 25, 2004

9 Australian Financial Review January 31, 2004 Saturday

10 Ibid.

11 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 894:20-7, 1999

12 Lancet 363(9405):257.

13 Science. 287(5453):607-14

14 New York Times. January 28, 2004.

15 The Mercury (Australia) January 31, 2004 Saturday

16 22 out of the 32 infected human victims have died.

17 Kolata, G. Flu. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Gairoux, 1999.

18 Financial Times. February 26 2004

19 Crosby, A.W. American's Forgotten Pandemic. New York: Cambridge

University Press, 1989.

20 Lancet 363(9405):257.

 

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If anyone missed previous months, check out my newsletter archive at

http://www.veganMD.org/newsletters.html

 

Until next month,

love,

Michael

 

--

 

(206) 312-8640

mhg1

http://www.veganMD.org

 

Check out my new Maximize Nutrition DVD at :

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HEART FAILURE: Diary of a Third Year Medical Student (Full text now

available free):

http://www.upalumni.org/medschool

The thinker that most changed my life: Noam Chomsky

http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/index.cfm

The single article that most changed my life:

http://www.petersingerlinks.com/famine.htm

Please everyone donate money to Tribe of Heart

http://www.tribeofheart.org/jointoh.htm

 

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