By Jessica Van Sack
http://www.dailyfreepress.com/main.cfm?include=3Ddetail&storyid=3D59320
from - Bruce Friedrich -
[email protected]
Studies reveal plant diets prevent heart disease in
coronary patients. Is it mad to eat meat?
Everyone knows animal advocacy groups such as People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Farm Sanctuary think so.
But what is more surprising is that so do some doctors.
In fact, the only two doctors in the United States whose documented
studies have successfully reduced heart disease - the number one killer
of American adults - advocate strict vegetarian diets.
According to the August 1999 issue of the American
Journal of Cardiology, in studies done by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn of
Cleveland, patients become "heart attack proof" after adhering to an
exclusively vegetarian diet. Subjects experienced cholesterol levels
below 150, which no one has ever documented doing before.
Frustrated with a de-emphasis on prevention in the
medical community, Esselstyn said he sought to find a means to prevent
heart attacks altogether rather than treat its symptoms.
"... It is clear that the goal of cardiology has become
the relief of pain and unpleasant symptoms in the face of progressive
disability and often death from disease," Esselstyn's study reads.
His studies found people who consume animal products are
40 percent more vulnerable to cancer. In addition, meat-eaters are also
at increased risk for other ailments, including "stroke, obesity,
appendicitis, osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes and food poisoning."
The largest longitudinal study of its kind, Esselstyn
tracked patients with severe coronary artery disease for 12 years after
they gave up meat.
"These people had been told by prominent cardiologists
to go home and die," Esselstyn said. Twelve years later, after adopting
a plant-based diet, the patients experienced no further heart problems.
President of the American Association of Endocrine
Surgeons in 1991 and a graduate of Yale University, Esselstyn is a
staunch believer that the phrase, "this little bit can't hurt," with
regard to fatty foods like meat, is deadly.
Every little bit does hurt, according to Esselstyn who
likened eating small amounts of animal products occasionally to pouring
small amounts of gasoline on a "raging brush fire."
Rates of heart disease in America are due almost solely
to poor nutrition and a "hideous toxic food environment," Esselstyn
said. Calling the food pyramid "ridiculous," Esselstyn maintained the
only way to prevent heart disease is with a plant-based diet.
BUILDING A CASE FOR VEGETARIANISM
As research showing animal products cause disease continues to mount,
animal rights groups are using those studies as ammunition to combat
what they see as the unethical treatment of animals in slaughterhouses.
Specifically, animal advocates point to mad cow disease as a reason to
turn to
vegetarianism.
"Mad cow opens a window onto the complete and total
disdain that farmers have for the natural lives of animals," said Bruce
Friedrich, PETA's vegan campaign coordinator. "When people learn that
cows are being fed to cows, they're horrified."
"Everyone is pretty sad in general that so many animals
have been killed by not only mad cow disease, but by the suspicion that
they have it," said Circulation Manager of the Vegetarian Resource Group
Drew Nelson. Nelson, who has been a vegan since adolescence, said in
addition, because of his lifestyle, he has a perfect bill of health.
"Vegans actually have higher levels of iron in general than
meat-eaters," Nelson said.
MAD COW DISEASE
Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is best known for
devastating the British cattle industry since the 1980s. Spread by
feeding cow-parts to cows, Mad cow disease is a fatal brain disorder
afflicting livestock. Its cause is unknown. An agent kills cow brain
cells, forming sponge-like holes in the brain. The cow behaves strangely
and eventually dies. In the early `90s, a brain disorder in humans,
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, was linked to eating beef from cows infected
with BSE.
One of the reasons mad cow is so alarming is the agent
that causes mad cow cannot be killed with disinfectant or heat. Once it
is ingested, it can lay dormant in a person for as many as 15 years
before symptoms appear. After symptoms surface, those sickened will die
in a year or less. Symptoms include paranoia, problems with hearing and
vision and memory loss. Eventually, sufferers lapse into a coma and die.
This year, two patients died at a Colorado hospital from
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and doctors are concerned other patients may
have been exposed because sterilization may not stave off the disease,
according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Although officials are calling the disease "mad
cow-like" rather than confirming that mad cow is probably the cause,
animal rights activists claim the disease is the human variant of mad
cow, caused by ingesting infected cattle tissue.
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