Category: Alzheimer’s

How To Improve Memory: Results From Our Clinical Trials by Steve Blake, Sc.D.-The Real Truth About Health

Steve Blake, ScD is a doctor of science specializing in nutritional biochemistry. He is Director of Nutritional Neuroscience at the Maui Memory Clinic. He is lead advisor and author for the Macmillan Reference, Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine. He has worked as Faculty Nutritional Biochemist at Hawaii Pacific Neuroscience for years. He is a research scientist who just finished a clinical study at the Hawaii Alzheimer’s Disease Center that he designed and ran with a large team. He is research director at the Neuroscience Nutrition Foundation. He has presented grand rounds at John A. Burns School of Medicine at U.H., Castle Medical Center in Kailua, Hawaii, Hawaii Pacific Neuroscience, St. Francis Liliha, Honolulu, and at Boston University Medical Center.

First questions discussed:

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Passionate believers in whole food plant based diets, no chemicals, minimal pharmaceutical drugs, no GMO’s. Fighting to stop climate change and extinction.

 

 

TOP 7 PLANT-BASED FILMS OF ALL TIME by Plant Based News

We go through the best films focusing on the plant-based lifestyle. What are your favorites?

Watch our interview with Kip Anderson of What the Health: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6K24…

Watch our interview with Eating You Alive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnZr2…

The World’s Top Nutrition And Lifestyle Doctors Explain The Latest Research On How To Dramatically Reduce Your Chance Of Getting A Disease While Maintaining Your Optimal Weight And Health

Part 1 with Alan Goldhamer, D.C., Joel Fuhrman, M.D., Pamela A, Popper, Ph.D., Milton Mills, M.D.

 

7 Things That Happen When You Stop Eating Meat | Forks Over Knives

People go plant-based for lots of reasons. These include losing weight, feeling more energetic, reducing the risk of heart disease, decreasing the number of pills they take … there are dozens of great reasons! For even more inspiration, check out these other benefits you can expect when you go plant-based.

1. YOU’LL REDUCE INFLAMMATION IN YOUR BODY.

If you are eating meat, cheese, and highly processed foods, chances are you have elevated levels of inflammation in your body. While short-term inflammation (such as after an injury) is normal and necessary, inflammation that lasts for months or years is not. Chronic inflammation has been linked to the development of atherosclerosis, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases, among other conditions.

In contrast, plant-based diets are naturally anti-inflammatory, because they are high in fiber, antioxidants, and other phytonutrients, and much lower in inflammatory triggers like saturated fat and endotoxins (toxins released from bacteria commonly found in animal foods). Studies have shown that people who adopt plant-based diets can dramatically lower their level of C-reactive protein (CRP), an indicator of inflammation in the body.

Continue reading here: 7 Things That Happen When You Stop Eating Meat | Forks Over Knives

So many great articles on the FOK website! Please check them out and subscribe to their emails.

I received a heads up about several from Healthy World Sedona (HWS) News and also highly recommend subscribing to their newsletter.

https://theplantstrongclub.org/2020/07/01/healthy-world-sedona-news-july-1-2020/

Gripping New Documentary Exposes Attempts to Silence Undercover

HOGWOOD: a modern horror story will be available to watch on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Google Play Movies from 25 June 2020. HOGWOOD has been selected for the British Documentary Film Festival.

Conspiracy theories are everywhere but the documentary HOGWOOD: a modern horror story reveals a real and shocking home-grown conspiracy. Streaming on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Google Play Movies, the 35-minute indie documentary follows an intrepid group of undercover investigators as they enter the UK’s biggest factory farms. The conspiracy unfolds as they fight against some of the most powerful players in the animal agriculture industry, delicately weaving a chilling tale of negligence and greed.

Narrated by Jerome Flynn, best known for his role as Bronn in HBO’s Game of Thrones, the documentary centres around the quaintly named Hogwood farm. Jerome opens the documentary against the picturesque backdrop of rural England, just minutes away from the farm. He tells the disturbing tale of Hogwood and how it came to be one of the most infamous pig farms in the UK. His narrative is intertwined with undercover footage and interviews with investigators and activists representing the animal welfare group Viva! — who conducted the campaign.

The film goes onto feature interviews with a livestock vet speaking out about her horrific on-the-job experiences in similar farms for the first time. It concludes with expert comment from GP and public health expert, Dr Josh Cullimore, and Oxford University researcher Joseph Poore. The release of HOGWOOD could not be timelier, given that the current COVID-19 pandemic came from the consumption and exploitation of animals. It paints a bleak picture of how meat pollutes our planet and puts us at risk of further disease pandemics, highlighting the catastrophic impact if we do not reduce our meat and dairy consumption. This truly is a film for now.

Speaking in interview, Dr Josh Cullimore stresses the connection between the recent coronavirus outbreak and intensive farming:

“Three quarters of the antibiotics used across the world are for preventative animal agriculture rather than to treat diseases in humans. This is used deliberately to support an unnatural, intensive, unsanitary form of animal agriculture.

“But it isn’t just bacteria that are a threat. There are many viruses in wild animals that can jump species into animals kept in markets or intensive farms. They have the potential to mutate and infect humans and the result can be deadly, as we’ve found with coronavirus. Places like Hogwood act as reservoirs of infection and allowing them to continue is like playing Russian roulette.”

Joseph Poore, well-renowned for his recent large-scale research into the environmental impacts of food, added: “The science is pretty unanimous. We just cannot have a future with this volume of animal products in it that is sustainable. It is simply not a feasible option.”

The director and producer of HOGWOOD, Tony Wardle, said:

“I have been producing investigative documentaries for many years and no film has been more harrowing than HOGWOOD. The name ‘a modern horror story’ could not be more apt; there are modern horror stories taking place each day in the British countryside. Not only are these horrors hidden from sight, but they are endorsed and funded by huge corporations and the Government. That is why this film had to be made — because the public has a right to see what takes place beyond the factory farm walls.”

Speaking about the film, Jerome said:

“It is an honour to be presenting this very important film. After seeing the horrendous conditions and animal abuse that is happening behind Hogwood’s walls I had to do something. The pigs of Hogwood aren’t just meat products, they are sensitive, emotionally aware beings just like us and they deserve better than this.”

HOGWOOD: a modern horror story will be available to watch on Amazon Prime Video,
Apple TV and Google Play Movies from 25 June 2020.

HOGWOOD has been selected for the British Documentary Film Festival.

ENDS information:
  • View the electronic press kit here: https://bit.ly/2YsyxfI
  • Viva! is a registered charity 1037486.
  • Viva! has investigated Hogwood pig farm four times from 2017 to 2019.
  • Hogwood was a Red Tractor approved farm, supplying supermarket giant Tesco, major food producer Cranswick plc and supposedly represented the best of British farming.
  • In 2019, after the final ground-breaking investigation which gained national media coverage, Hogwood was dropped by Red Tractor, Cranswick plc and Tesco.
  • HOGWOOD sheds new light on the horrific conditions experienced by animals at Hogwood Farm and is the culmination of months of investigative work by Viva!.

Source: Gripping New Documentary Exposes Attempts to Silence Undercover

Human Genes are Turned On and Off by Diet

Scientists once believed that genetic information was fixed at the time of fertilization, and therefore was beyond any outside influences. This has been found to be untrue. Good genes are “turned on” by a healthy environment, just as “bad genes” are silenced by a healthy environment. In practical terms “a healthy environment” means a diet based on a plentiful supply of starches, vegetables, and fruits (avoiding animal-derived foods and oils). The biochemistry involved is complex, but may be of interest to you.

Genetics is the study of heredity in general and genes (DNA) in particular. Changes in genes occur only over long periods of time (measured in tens of thousands of years) through evolution, whereas expression of the information stored in our genes changes rapidly and is effected by pressures from the outside environment. Epigenetics is the study of these timely adaptations. (The Greek prefix epi- in “epigenetics” refers to biologic changes that occur that are “on top of” or “in addition to” those directed by our basic set of genes that we inherit from our parents.)

Reading the Genetic Code

The most fundamental form of epigenetics accounts for our entire development. Life begins with genetic information from the father (sperm) and the mother (egg) joining together to form a fertilized egg; thereby the basic genetic code for a person is established. Within this one cell is all the information required to grow all the parts of a baby, including perfectly formed hair, a nose, lips, a heart, and two legs. To accomplish this remarkable differentiation during the development of the embryo, specific segments of the genetic code (DNA) either become active or remain silent at specific times within specific cells. For a nose to grow on a child’s face, the “nose genes” in a few embryonic cells must be turned on while unrelated genes are turned off. Exactly how these precisely orchestrated events play out is still a mystery.

How different genes are expressed is also the result of changes in our environment. This plasticity of our genetic material has been clearly demonstrated by “twin studies.” Identical twins begin life as a single fertilized egg that splits into two with identical genes in each egg. If the expression of our genetic code were fixed then identical twins would remain identical throughout life. They would develop similarly and go on to have the same health issues. However, that is not what is observed. Furthermore, as twins age, their DNA actually becomes more dissimilar. The differences are even more apparent when twins are raised in distinctly different environments (this happens when they are separated after birth, for example).

Diet-induced Epigenetic Changes Are Also Inherited

Epigenetic changes that appear in sperm or egg cells prior to fertilization can be transferred to subsequent generations. For example, the effects of severe starvation that took place in the German-occupied Netherlands during the Dutch famine of WWII (1944–1945) were subsequently seen in following generations of Dutch children. Epigenetic changes that allowed a pregnant mother to survive on 580 calories a day for six months appeared in their offspring. In essence, “thrifty genes” were turned on in the fetus in preparation for survival during very lean times. Unfortunately, this enhanced efficiency turned out to be detrimental because post WWII were times of plenty in Western Europe, with an abundance of meat, dairy products, cakes, and cookies.

Daughters born to mothers starved during the Dutch famine were found to have even higher risks of diseases typically caused by over-nutrition. They had over twice the risk of breast cancer, more hypertension, and developed heart disease three years sooner than daughters born to mothers who were well nourished during pregnancy. In line with adaptations made to survive in a world of food scarcity, the daughters born to “starved” mothers were also found to be more capable of reproduction than girls born to mothers who were well nourished. Prolific reproduction enhances survival of the species.

Another example of the influences of food shortages on epigenetic changes is provided by the study of several generations of people from Overkalix, Sweden. Records show that during the years of 1800, 1812, 1821, 1836 and 1856 there was total crop failure followed by extreme suffering. However, 1801, 1822, 1828, 1844 and 1863 were years of food abundance. Not surprisingly, Swedish men exposed during preadolescence to the periods of famine were less likely to die of cardiovascular disease. What was surprising is that similar advantages were passed on to the next generations. Grandsons (of once starving men) were at one-fourth the risk of developing type-2 diabetes, and died on average six years later in life than the grandsons of fathers who were well nourished during a similar time in life.

These differences in the health of offspring from the Dutch and Swedish famines may seem to be contradictory: Mothers pregnant during lean times passed on epigenetic changes that harmed their daughters in times of plenty, whereas fathers passed on changes that seemed to help their grandsons, even though these offspring also ate a rich diet. Adequate explanations for the different outcomes are not available, but both observations point to the fact that sudden changes in the environment (the availability and type of food) can cause rapid changes in gene expressions that are remembered and passed down to subsequent generations.

Epigenetics in Times of Over-Nutrition

We now live in a world where diseases caused by over-nutrition are far more common than diseases of under-nutrition (starvation). Based on observations from times of under-nutrition, we can expect that our bodies are efficiently making epigenetic changes that will enhance the human race. Genes are being turned on to deal with excesses of fat, protein, cholesterol, and environmental chemicals; all at levels never before faced by past populations. Although epigenetic changes may blunt the impact of all this toxicity, they cannot compensate fully. And as before, these adaptations will be passed on to subsequent generations with unknown results to their health.

Fortunately, modifications in gene expression now being caused by over-nutrition are reversible. Studies of people and laboratory animals have identified many chemicals found in foods that result in both helpful and harmful gene expressions. Not surprisingly, plants make beneficial chemicals. For example, folate from plants causes favorable epigenetic changes. For maximum benefit and minimal risk, this natural chemical must be consumed in the right package—like a bean or banana—not as a pill.

Folate-deficiency causes birth defects (neural tube defects), so the obvious solution would be to enrich a reproductive woman’s diet with foliage (plants)—the natural source of folate. Instead, women have been told to take folic acid pills before pregnancy, and the food supply in many countries has been supplemented (folic acid is added to flours and cereal products). Folic acid supplied in this manner, as an isolated concentrated nutrient, results in fewer birth defects but offers no added protection against the risk of death, cancer, and heart disease for the general population.

Animal foods, such as meat, poultry, cheese, milk, and eggs are well recognized as the primary cause of obesity, heart disease, and common cancers in people following the Western diet. Choline, a chemical found in high concentration in animal foods, has profound effects on gene expression and is considered to be an important factor in our modern day diseases.

Finally, calorie-restricted diets have been shown to result in epigenetic changes that are associated with weight loss, and a reduced risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, and cancers. Other than by involuntary starvation (as seen with the Danes and Swedes), the natural, appetite-satisfying, health-enhancing way to restrict calories is to replace meat, dairy, and oils in the diet with starches (beans, corn, potatoes, rice, etc.), vegetables, and fruits.

The science of epigenetics is new and interactions between our environment and our genes are complex. But we know enough about epigenetics to stem the tide in the rise of obesity, heart disease, and cancers for people living in western societies for now and the future. Proper nurturing (by health-supportive foods) will bring out the best in our genes. The fact that the vast majority of people have survived successfully on plant- (more exactly, starch-) based diets for all of verifiable human history should be sufficient evidence for us to make the right food choices now.

Source: https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2013nl/sep/epigenetics.htm

What’s The Scientifically Proven Most Effective Diet To Prevent Obesity, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Cancer, Alzheimer’s And Other Diseases 

with Brian Clement Ph.D., Anna Maria Clement Ph.D., Steve Blake, Sc.D, Sunil Pai, M.D., Gabriel Cousens, M.D.

THOMAS SEYFRIED

Cancer as a mitochondrial metabolic disease

Steve Blake – The Diet Doctor

Dr. Gabriel Cousens

Opinion | The End of Meat Is Here | The New York Times

Is any panic more primitive than the one prompted by the thought of empty grocery store shelves? Is any relief more primitive than the one provided by comfort food?

Most everyone has been doing more cooking these days, more documenting of the cooking, and more thinking about food in general. The combination of meat shortages and President Trump’s decision to order slaughterhouses open despite the protestations of endangered workers has inspired many Americans to consider just how essential meat is.

Is it more essential than the lives of the working poor who labor to produce it? It seems so. An astonishing six out of 10 counties that the White House itself identified as coronavirus hot spots are home to the very slaughterhouses the president ordered open.

In Sioux Falls, S.D., the Smithfield pork plant, which produces some 5 percent of the country’s pork, is one of the largest hot spots in the nation. A Tyson plant in Perry, Iowa, had 730 cases of the coronavirus — nearly 60 percent of its employees. At another Tyson plant, in Waterloo, Iowa, there were 1,031 reported cases among about 2,800 workers.

Sick workers mean plant shutdowns, which has led to a backlog of animals. Some farmers are injecting pregnant sows to cause abortions. Others are forced to euthanize their animals, often by gassing or shooting them. It’s gotten bad enough that Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has asked the Trump administration to provide mental health resources to hog farmers.

Despite this grisly reality — and the widely reported effects of the factory-farm industry on America’s lands, communities, animals and human health long before this pandemic hit — only around half of Americans say they are trying to reduce their meat consumption. Meat is embedded in our culture and personal histories in ways that matter too much, from the Thanksgiving turkey to the ballpark hot dog. Meat comes with uniquely wonderful smells and tastes, with satisfactions that can almost feel like home itself. And what, if not the feeling of home, is essential?

And yet, an increasing number of people sense the inevitability of impending change.

Animal agriculture is now recognized as a leading cause of global warming. According to The Economist, a quarter of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 say they are vegetarians or vegans, which is perhaps one reason sales of plant-based “meats” have skyrocketed, with Impossible and Beyond Burgers available everywhere from Whole Foods to White Castle.

Our hand has been reaching for the doorknob for the last few years. Covid-19 has kicked open the door.

At the very least it has forced us to look. When it comes to a subject as inconvenient as meat, it is tempting to pretend unambiguous science is advocacy, to find solace in exceptions that could never be scaled and to speak about our world as if it were theoretical.

Some of the most thoughtful people I know find ways not to give the problems of animal agriculture any thought, just as I find ways to avoid thinking about climate change and income inequality, not to mention the paradoxes in my own eating life. One of the unexpected side effects of these months of sheltering in place is that it’s hard not to think about the things that are essential to who we are.
We cannot protect our environment while continuing to eat meat regularly. This is not a refutable perspective, but a banal truism. Whether they become Whoppers or boutique grass-fed steaks, cows produce an enormous amount of greenhouse gas. If cows were a country, they would be the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world.

According to the research director of Project Drawdown — a nonprofit organization dedicated to modeling solutions to address climate change — eating a plant-based diet is “the most important contribution every individual can make to reversing global warming.”

Americans overwhelmingly accept the science of climate change. A majority of both Republicans and Democrats say that the United States should have remained in the Paris climate accord. We don’t need new information, and we don’t need new values. We only need to walk through the open door.

We cannot claim to care about the humane treatment of animals while continuing to eat meat regularly. The farming system we rely on is woven through with misery. Modern chickens have been so genetically modified that their very bodies have become prisons of pain even if we open their cages. Turkeys are bred to be so obese that they are incapable of reproducing without artificial insemination. Mother cows have their calves ripped from them before weaning, resulting in acute distress we can hear in their wails and empirically measure through the cortisol in their bodies.

No label or certification can avoid these kinds of cruelty. We don’t need any animal rights activist waving a finger at us. We don’t need to be convinced of anything we don’t already know. We need to listen to ourselves.

We cannot protect against pandemics while continuing to eat meat regularly. Much attention has been paid to wet markets, but factory farms, specifically poultry farms, are a more important breeding ground for pandemics. Further, the C.D.C. reports that three out of four new or emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic — the result of our broken relationship with animals.
Our Cruel Treatment of Animals Led to the Coronavirus

It goes without saying that we want to be safe. We know how to make ourselves safer. But wanting and knowing are not enough.

These are not my or anyone’s opinions, despite a tendency to publish this information in opinion sections. And the answers to the most common responses raised by any serious questioning of animal agriculture aren’t opinions.

Don’t we need animal protein? No.

We can live longer, healthier lives without it. Most American adults eat roughly twice the recommended intake of protein — including vegetarians, who consume 70 percent more than they need. People who eat diets high in animal protein are more likely to die of heart disease, diabetes and kidney failure. Of course, meat, like cake, can be part of a healthy diet. But no sound nutritionist would recommend eating cake too often.

If we let the factory-farm system collapse, won’t farmers suffer? No.

The corporations that speak in their name while exploiting them will. There are fewer American farmers today than there were during the Civil War, despite America’s population being nearly 11 times greater. This is not an accident, but a business model. The ultimate dream of the animal-agriculture industrial complex is for “farms” to be fully automated. Transitioning toward plant-based foods and sustainable farming practices would create many more jobs than it would end.

Don’t take my word for it. Ask a farmer if he or she would be happy to see the end of factory farming.

Isn’t a movement away from meat elitist? No.

A 2015 study found that a vegetarian diet is $750 a year cheaper than a meat-based diet. People of color disproportionately self-identify as vegetarian and disproportionately are victims of factory farming’s brutality. The slaughterhouse employees currently being put at risk to satisfy our taste for meat are overwhelmingly brown and black. Suggesting that a cheaper, healthier, less exploitative way of farming is elitist is in fact a piece of industry propaganda.

Can’t we work with factory-farming corporations to improve the food system? No.

Well, unless you believe that those made powerful through exploitation will voluntarily destroy the vehicles that have granted them spectacular wealth. Factory farming is to actual farming what criminal monopolies are to entrepreneurship. If for a single year the government removed its $38-billion-plus in props and bailouts, and required meat and dairy corporations to play by normal capitalist rules, it would destroy them forever. The industry could not survive in the free market.

Perhaps more than any other food, meat inspires both comfort and discomfort. That can make it difficult to act on what we know and want. Can we really displace meat from the center of our plates? This is the question that brings us to the threshold of the impossible. On the other side is the inevitable.

With the horror of pandemic pressing from behind, and the new questioning of what is essential, we can now see the door that was always there. As in a dream where our homes have rooms unknown to our waking selves, we can sense there is a better way of eating, a life closer to our values. On the other side is not something new, but something that calls from the past — a world in which farmers were not myths, tortured bodies were not food and the planet was not the bill at the end of the meal.

One meal in front of the other, it’s time to cross the threshold. On the other side is home.

Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of “Eating Animals” and “We Are the Weather.”