Super Immunity (20 page)

Choosing the right foods has the power to save your life. Let's start this journey together today.

A question commonly asked of me is if a vegan diet, one totally free of animal products, is better or more health-promoting than a diet that includes a small amount of animal products.

The unbiased, scientific answer is that nobody knows for sure. Even though vegans have lower heart attack rates and generally lower cancer rates than the conventional population, those same benefits are documented in people who follow healthy diets that include the occasional consumption of animal products. This includes, for example, near-vegetarians who eat meat or fish about once a week.
¹
A review of five mortality studies on this issue showed that those who ate fish occasionally had statistics that were just as impressive as those of the vegans. The longest-lived societies in recorded history—such as the Hunzas in central Asia, the Abkhazians in southern Russia, the Vilcabambans in the Andes of South America, and the Okinawans in Japan—all ate very little animal products but were not completely vegan.
²
As we drift considerably up from the occasional use of animal products, to include animal products in significant amounts, we see evidence that more heart disease and most cancers become more prevalent.
³
Clearly, it is the combination of more fruits and vegetables in conjunction with a reduction in animal products that offers us the greatest opportunity for longevity.
⁴

In the United States, the most significant research clarifying this issue studied Seventh-Day Adventists, a religious group useful to study for this purpose because nearly all members avoid tobacco and alcohol and follow a generally health-promoting lifestyle. About half of them are vegetarian, while the other half consume modest amounts of meat. The Adventists' lifestyle allowed scientists to separate the effects of not eating meat from other health-promoting practices. The researchers even tracked those who ate animal products just once a week—the near-vegetarians, as they called them. This twelve-year study, published in the 2001
Archives of Internal Medicine,
found that Seventh-Day Adventists in the United States were the longest-lived population ever formally studied. The strict vegetarian (vegan) females had the longest average lifespan, 85.7 years (over six years longer than that of the average female Californian), and the males 83.3 years (nine and a half years longer than that of the average male Californian). The longest-lived were those vegetarians who ate nuts and seeds regularly; the nut-eating vegans lived slightly longer than the near-vegetarians. The effect of eating nuts and seeds regularly was more significantly linked to enhanced lifespan than was the strictness of the vegan diet. This means that those on a near-vegan diet, with the regular consumption of nuts and seeds, had better longevity statistics than the strict vegans who did not eat nuts and seeds. Overall, studies on longevity show significant reductions in cancer risk among those who avoided meat.
⁵

The contemporary diet in America and many other countries includes over 25 percent of calories from animal products. As I hope the preceding chapter made clear, after my lifetime of study of this issue, carefully evaluating all the science and supporting evidence, it is obvious that there should no longer be any controversy: the preponderance of evidence is overwhelming and conclusive that to maximize longevity we need to reduce consumption of animal products and instead eat more plant products. A legitimate question for further research is whether my estimate of the 10 percent of calories from animal products as an upper limit is sufficiently restrictive to maximize lifespan if the diet is otherwise excellent.

The problem is that there are very few who can study this issue without their predetermined bias affecting their judgment. In modern times, nutrition has become like politics, with camps of various persuasions believing in the righteousness of their approach. Each camp has a mission, agenda, and ego to protect. Some high-protein, low-carbohydrate dietary gurus actually promote more than double the amount of animal products already consumed, under the misconception that raising intake of animal protein will result in satisfactory weight-loss outcomes and better health. Whether some people can lose some weight on such a plan or not is almost irrelevant, if the price they pay is a much earlier death. You could smoke cigarettes to lose weight too!

On the other hand, the vegan diet movement also frequently uses the available science in a selective way, proposing and interpreting studies in a way that supports a diet completely free of animal products. That is not to say there aren't lots of ethical and environmental arguments that justify a vegan diet and its value to mankind. But I am a nutritional scientist, researcher, and physician, and my job is to make sure my advice is not tempered by ancillary motivations and personal views, but sticks to the science of nutrition and health, my expertise. A true scientist tests a theory without a predetermined agenda and collects not just the facts favorable to his or her position, but
all
the facts.

A totally vegan diet is deficient in B
₁₂
, and may result in suboptimal levels of EPA and DHA (eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid), those long-chain beneficial fats commonly found in wild salmon and sardines. If we were living in ancient times, with no potential to supplement a vegan diet with vitamin B
₁₂
, then it would be an inappropriate option. But today it is easy to supplement judiciously, to ensure that no potential deficiencies occur; and we can even do blood work to ascertain if the levels are optimal. That means a vegan diet becomes not just a legitimate option, but maybe even the healthiest option of all dietary patterns.

The inclusion of fish for beneficial fatty acids may be of some benefit to a subset of vegans, who do not naturally make ideal amounts of the long-chain omega-3 fats found in fish. This is more of a concern for those who are aging, as the ability to self-manufacture sufficient long-chain fats decreases in the elderly; and in my experience, a deficiency in this area is more prevalent in males. But even this can be checked with a blood test and supplemented by vegan forms of EPA and DHA to assure ideal levels, without the need to eat fish.

Iodine and zinc are other nutrients of concern in the vegan diet, though the majority of individuals on vegan diets are not deficient; again, blood tests can be utilized to confirm adequacy. Furthermore, adding a small amount of iodine to the diet is easily accomplished with a pinch of kelp a few times each week, or with an appropriate supplement to supply extra zinc, iodine, B
₁₂
, and vitamin D. Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, is also not found in adequate amounts in food and should be supplemented appropriately in those not exposed to sufficient sunshine.

Given the information presented in the preceding chapters, you should understand the benefits of certain plants to enhance immune function and the need to increase their consumption as a percentage of total calories. It is necessary to restrict both processed foods and animal products to have room in the caloric pie to take in adequate amounts of foods rich in cancer-protective nutrients. This is how you get the additional benefit that reduces the biological and hormonal effects of animal foods to promote heart disease and cancer. Furthermore, if you accept the science and logic that a diet rich in micronutrients per calorie potentiates longevity, that automatically makes restriction of animal products a necessity. Some people may choose to eat more animal products than I recommend, and many will defend their food preferences to their death. But we should all recognize that this is not a well-informed choice—and not one made on health issues alone, but influenced by factors such as personal preference.

Many people claim to need animal products to feel good and perform well. In my experience, this assertion generally comes from individuals who felt worse during the first couple of weeks after a change to a lower-animal-source diet. Instead of being patient, they simply returned to their old way of eating—genuinely feeling better for it—and now insist that they
need
meat to thrive.

A diet heavily burdened with animal products places a huge stress on the detoxification systems of the body. As with stopping caffeine and cigarettes, many people observe withdrawal symptoms for a short period, usually including fatigue, weakness, headaches, or loose stools. In 95 percent of such cases, these symptoms resolve within two weeks. It is more common that the temporary adjustment period, during which you might feel mild symptoms as your body withdraws from your prior toxic habits, lasts less than a week.

Unfortunately, many people mistakenly assume these symptoms to be due to some lack in the new diet and go back to eating a poor diet again. Sometimes they have been convinced that they feel bad because they aren't eating enough protein, especially since when they return to their old diet they feel better again. People often confuse
feeling
well with
getting
well, not realizing that sometimes you have to temporarily feel a little worse to really get well.

Don't buy the fallacy that you need more protein. The dietary program recommended here and in my other books offers sufficient protein—and protein deficiency does not cause long-term fatigue
.
Even my vegan menus supply about 50 grams of protein per 1,000 calories, a whopping amount.

One of the most common symptoms that occurs when someone lowers the amount of animal protein and eliminates sweets from the diet is
temporary
fatigue. This is just part of the normal detoxification process that most people have to get through. Again, this process most often results in mild symptoms that last less than five days.

Reducing salt intake suddenly can also cause fatigue from a lowering of blood pressure, which occurs from a temporary dip of sodium in the bloodstream as the kidneys adjust. It could take a few weeks for the kidneys, accustomed to dumping a huge sodium load (from a high-salt diet), to recognize that they need to stop removing so much sodium from the system. This initial miscalculation contributes to the fatigue experienced the first week after a major change in one's diet.

Other symptoms, such as increased gas and loose stools, are also occasionally observed when people switch to a diet containing abundant fiber—and
different
fibers, ones that the digestive tract has never encountered before. Over many years, the body has adjusted its secretions and peristaltic waves (intestinal contractions as food moves through) to a low-fiber diet. These symptoms also improve with time. Chewing especially well, sometimes even blending salads, helps in this period of transition. Some people must use beans only in small amounts initially, increasing them gradually over a period of weeks to train the digestive track to handle and digest these new fibers.

There are some individuals with increased dietary requirements for protein who have to plan their plant-based, nutritarian diet to include more protein-rich foods. Sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, Mediterranean pine nuts, and soybeans are all options to meet this higher requirement with plant sources of protein. Certain people have increased fat requirements too, and if they tried out a vegetarian diet in the past, it may not have been rich enough in certain essential fats for them. This can occur in those eating a plant-based diet that includes lots of low-fat wheat and grain products. Adding ground flax seeds and walnuts to the diet to supply additional omega-3 fats is helpful.

Some people, especially thin individuals, require more calories and more fat to sustain their weight. This is usually resolved by including raw nuts, raw nut butters, avocados, and other healthy foods that are nutrient-rich
and
high in fat and calories. Even these naturally thin individuals will significantly improve their health and lower their risk of degenerative diseases if they reduce their dependency on animal foods and instead consume more plant-derived fats, such as those in nuts.

Last, there is the rare individual who needs more concentrated sources of protein and fat in his diet because of digestive impairment, Crohn's disease, short bowel syndrome, or other unique medical conditions. I have also encountered patients on rare occasions who require more protein because of a particular lack: these individuals, because of their genetics, do not manufacture ideal amounts of one or more of the nonessential amino acids, usually the amino acid taurine. On these rare occasions, an amino acid supplement or more animal product is needed to slow transit time in the gut, and to aid absorption and concentration of amino acids at each meal. This problem can also be the result of some digestive impairment or difficulty with absorption. However, it would be exceedingly rare that an individual who combined high-protein seeds with a taurine supplement and the small amount of animal products I advise would have to eat a diet with a higher amount of animal products to thrive. These rare individuals should still follow my general recommendations for excellent health, and can accommodate their individual needs by keeping animal protein down to comparatively low levels.

People who exercise regularly have fewer and milder colds—at least that's what we tend to hear. Exercise enthusiasts always brag that they're sick less than sedentary people.

Before this was well studied, nobody really knew how true it was. In one particular study, the researchers collected data on 1, 002 men and women from ages eighteen to eighty-five. Over twelve weeks in the autumn and winter of 2008, the researchers tracked the number of upper-respiratory-tract infections the participants suffered. The study accounted for a variety of factors, including age, body mass index, and education. Participants were also quizzed about their lifestyle, dietary patterns, and stressful events, all of which can affect the immune system. In addition, all the participants reported how much and what kinds of aerobic exercise they did weekly, and rated their fitness levels using a ten-point system.