Whether you become a vegan for health, compassion, or both, everyone who eats should be educated about what’s in our food and how our bodies use the food we eat.
In this chapter, we’ll explore what is in the food we eat, how the food supply has changed over the past fifty years, and how that relates to the current state of our “WellBeing.” You’ll learn about an alkaline diet, why it is important for us to eat an alkaline diet, and how acidic foods affect digestion and the body’s ability to absorb nutrients from our food. We will discuss the body’s nutritional needs and what foods are the highest in those nutrients. We will also address some popular food myths out there.
Most important, we’ll provide the steps you need to take to use your food as “medicine” to prevent and reverse many of the diseases and health conditions that are on the rise today.
For WeBes, understanding how our food is created is very important. We can’t trust labels to tell us how food is produced. In fact, labels aren’t even required to list all of the ingredients used in the product or the harmful chemicals used in the processing of ingredients that are listed on the labels. For example, manufacturers can use “processing aids” (e.g., chemicals that will help foods bake faster) and not declare them on the ingredient label. This is because the chemical should be gone once the product is done baking, and only a slight trace may be left. We should have the right to know that this chemical was added though. So, we need to do our own research. Lucky for you, we’ve already done a lot of the work. First, we’ll start by taking a look at genetically modified foods, overprocessed foods, and “Frankenfoods.”
Essentially, a genetically modified organism (GMO) is an organism that is genetically altered at the DNA level. There is much controversy over GMO foods, and rightfully so because in order to create a GMO, genetic engineers most commonly use a bacteria or a virus in combination with an antibiotic as a vehicle to splice in a gene from another organism. As the laws exist right now, no regulations require companies to disclose if their foods are made using GMOs.
Most conventionally grown (non-organic) corn, soy, and sugar beet crops are genetically modified. In fact, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) the area of land devoted to genetically modified crops has ballooned by 100 times since farmers first started growing the crops commercially in 1996. Over the past 17 years, millions of farmers in 28 countries have planted and replanted GMO crop seeds on a cumulative 3.7 billion acres of land.
For wheat in particular, chemical companies have introduced herbicide-ready crops to the market, then pulled them, then reintroduced them, and pulled them again, when the international market rejected them. Unfortunately, once GMOs are introduced into the food supply, it is hard to eliminate them. Over the years, random wheat crops have been tested and shown to be GMO crops.
What are the problems created through genetic engineering of food and crops? Genetic engineers continually encounter unintended side effects. For example, GM plants create toxins, react to weather differently, contain too many or too few nutrients, become diseased or malfunction, and die. When foreign genes are inserted, dormant genes may be activated or the functioning of genes may be altered, creating new or unknown proteins, or increasing or decreasing the output of existing proteins inside the plant. The effects of consuming these new combinations of proteins are unknown.
Scientists also experiment with inter-species genetic modification (transgenic). This is a real and present danger, both ethically and physically. It’s now possible for plants to be engineered with genes taken from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals, or even humans. To name a few frightening combinations: Arctic fish genes gave tomatoes and strawberries tolerance to frost. Lightning bugs crossed with potatoes make them glow in the dark when they need watering. Human genes inserted into corn produced spermicide. Other trials have inserted jellyfish genes into corn, rice engineered with human genes, and corn engineered with hepatitis virus genes, just to name a few.
While this may all be in the name of science, we feel that we have a right to know what’s in our food, especially if it involves inserting potentially dangerous allergens or animal products into our tomatoes!
It’s interesting to consider that the time frame when GMOs became more prevalent is the same time frame that gluten, peanut, and soy allergies also began to climb exponentially.
What’s the difference between picking an apple off a tree and opening a jar of store-bought apple-flavored “fruit strips”? The fruit strips are dramatically processed. The overprocessing, overpasteurization, and overuse of chemical additives and preservatives have also changed the makeup of our food. This makes it more difficult to digest properly and causes adverse reactions and allergies to what should be healthy, nutritious foods.
To make matters worse, highly processed foods contain very few, if any nutrients. They are also loaded with sugars, unhealthy fats, and sodium, all of which cause diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure, just to name a few.
We also mentioned pasteurization. It’s true that pasteurization creates a product that is free of harmful bacteria, which is something we all want. Yet there is really no reason to consume these often highly processed foods that do not provide nourishment. Cow, sheep, and goat milk, cheese, yogurt, and other dairy foods can simply be replaced with nondairy, plant-based versions. The high temperatures used to pasteurize fruit juices kill important health-promoting enzymes, making a good case to replace them with fresh squeezed and pressed juices.
So many foods today are also chock-full of chemical additives and preservatives. Our bodies are not equipped to digest and effectively eliminate preservatives and manmade chemicals in our food. Once these types of products are ingested, anything the body cannot eliminate or break down gets stored in fat. These substances then cause irritation and contamination to the body, resulting in disease. Many well-documented studies show a link between artificial preservatives and chemical additives and cancers and other diseases.
In 1950, the average chicken raised for meat weighed about 2 pounds (908 g). That’s less than half of the average poultry chicken today. The breasts (the most desirable portion of the chicken) are so large on today’s factory-farmed chickens that their legs cannot support their weight. How do these chickens grow so big? With the use of antibiotics, growth hormones, and selective breeding. The steriods cause the chickens to grow to the size of a six-month-old in only three months.
When our grandparents grew up, they most likely got their eggs from the same chicken that was slaughtered for Sunday dinner. Back then, most chickens and eggs came from small family farms. Technological advances—such as the discovery of vitamin D supplementation that allows chickens to be kept year-round without fear of ailments due to lack of sunlight—led to larger operations. Poultry farms grew bigger and bigger, eventually leading to the factory farms we see today.
Cows are raised similarly. Just like chickens, the dairy cows and beef cattle raised today are nothing like “Bessie” that Ma and Pa had to milk every morning on the family farm.
Large factory farms are not without problems. Housing many animals in a small space provides the perfect breeding ground for parasites, bacteria, and viruses. To try to combat this, even more antibiotics are fed to the animals.
In recent years, the amount of antibiotics being sold (over 30 million pounds, or 13,608 metric tons, in 2011 in the United States alone) for use on livestock has increased to record numbers. Over 80 percent of all antibiotics produced worldwide go to food animals. Unfortunately most of these drugs were not sold to farmers to cure animals that had gotten sick. Rather most of these drugs were sold to make the animals grow faster and to suppress diseases from taking hold because of the alarmingly close animal quarters.
Farmers and ranchers discovered that small doses of antibiotics administered daily made most animals gain as much as 3 percent more weight than they otherwise would. More and more farmers and ranchers are using these drugs to promote artificial growth in their herds.
The problem is that we don’t know enough about these drugs to know if they are safe. We do know that overuse of low-dose amounts of antibiotics in people, such as tetracycline, is leading to more and more drug-resistant strains of bacteria.
In addition to antibiotics, recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST) is injected into cows to make them produce more milk. This hormone causes health problems in cows. That increases the use of antibiotics on dairy farms even more. Studies show that rBGH poses a cancer-causing risk in humans. Yet, at the time this book went to print, the FDA does not require that products produced from cows that have been given rBST declare that on labels.
Over the past forty to fifty years, the science of nutrition has made great strides in understanding how the molecular makeup of foods affects our health. The only time we ever talked about alkaline and acid levels in the past was as it related to preserving a jar of homemade jam. Now we are hearing talk about the pH of our food and whether our bodies are acidic or alkaline.
Have you ever considered the pH of your food? It’s actually quite important to think about pH levels in the foods that you eat. When your body’s pH is out of balance, it becomes vulnerable to all sorts of ailments, including headaches, fatigue, inflammation, joint and muscle pain, skin problems, cancer, and a weakened immune system.
Let’s take a step back. What is pH? The abbreviation pH is short for “potential of hydrogen.” It’s a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of our body’s fluids and tissues. pH is measured on a scale from 0 to 14. The more acidic a solution is, the lower its pH. The more alkaline a solution is, the higher its pH. A pH of 7 is perfectly neutral. The healthiest pH for food is one that is slightly alkaline. Fruits and vegetables, especially those high in potassium, are more alkaline, and so they are natural neutralizers and lower your pH when you eat them. On the other hand, animal foods are more acidic, and when you eat them, they tend to raise your acidity levels. The good news is that eating a plant-based vegan diet will effortlessly increase the pH of your food, making it more alkaline, and therefore more healthful.
With television, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet all shouting out different and conflicting information about health and nutrition, it’s easy to get confused. Some myths have been perpetuated for so long that they’re simply assumed to be true. Next, we discuss a few of the most common food myths out there and the truth behind them.
There is a lot of misinformation about soy out there. Will eating soy cause boys to grow breasts or reduce their testosterone levels? Can too much soy cause or cure cancer? Is genetically modified soy causing girls to start their menstrual cycles at younger ages? What are the benefits and dangers associated with soy protein?
According to the FDA, “25 grams of soy protein per day, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.” The good news is that organic soy products can add a heart-healthy dose of protein to one’s diet. Study after study shows that eating a diet rich in foods that are low in saturated fats (such as soy) can help to reduce heart disease and lower blood cholesterol levels.
Soy, in particular, is especially well suited for this, because soy protein itself can directly lower LDL cholesterol levels by as much as 4 percent. Lunasin, which is a naturally occurring peptide in soy, disrupts the production of cholesterol in the liver and clears LDL cholesterol from the bloodstream.
Most soy foods also contain fiber. Plants are the only foods that contain fiber. Fiber has many very important roles, one of which is to stick to cholesterol, preventing it from being absorbed by the body.
Also, soy is a complete protein. That means it provides all eight of the essential amino acids needed for good health.
In addition, consuming one or two servings (up to 25 to 30 grams) of soy protein per day has been shown to promote bone strength. Protein helps with the production of collagen fibers that provide the framework for bones. A 2000 study conducted at Loma Linda University, a vegetarian promoting school in California, shows that in comparison with animal protein, soy protein decreases calcium excretion, a result of the lower sulfur amino acid content of soy protein. And, according to several large studies, adults over age eighty with low protein intake had much more rapid bone loss and a higher risk of fractures than those who ate plenty of soy.
While whole, organic, unprocessed soy foods can be very healthy for you, overly processed soy products—such as isolated proteins, oils, and flours—contain higher than normal levels of isoflavones in the form of phytoestrogens. These flours, powders, and oils are often used to make commercially prepared soy milk, veggie burgers, soy cheese, and many other overly processed imitation foods. In fact, it’s pretty hard to find a processed food that doesn’t contain some form of soy ingredient.
In moderation, these isoflavones can be beneficial, but in excess, these phytoestrogens can cause unintended side effects, such as mimicking human estrogen behaviors. This has actually been shown to be beneficial in reducing the symptoms of menopause in perimenopausal women, but it has also been shown to have negative effects in young girls and boys, possibly causing early menstruation in girls and mammary development in boys. However, these cases are rare and extreme, and they are caused by consuming very large amounts of highly processed non-organic soy products, including soy protein isolates.
These overly processed soy foods also contain high levels of phytic acid, or phytates, which block the absorption of essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, and especially zinc in the intestinal tract. Overly processed soy foods also contain trypsin inhibitors and hemagglutinin that can stunt human growth.
As you can see, there are many benefits to consuming a diet containing soy protein. Just remember to buy and consume whole foods and foods that are minimally processed. When consuming soy products, stick with soy nuts, edamame, fermented tofu products, and soy milks that do not contain sugars and oils.
In addition to eating a diet with soy protein, adding a variety of vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes will ensure you get the necessary nutrients from your heart-healthy, meat-free diet. Replacing foods heavy in cholesterol and saturated fats with whole unprocessed soy foods such as edamame and fermented soy products such as tempeh and miso, can lead to better overall health.
Really? That’s not what studies show.
Did you know that humans are the only species on the planet that drink milk from another mammal for sustenance? Who perpetuates the myth that milk makes strong bones? Big Dairy, that’s who. And why are millions of people feeding their precious babies what just might be the worst possible food on the planet?
Back in the 1950s, the government decided that milk was the “perfect food.” Since then, the lobbyists behind the dairy industry have worked day and night, spending millions of dollars to convince us that milk is good for us.
The truth is, cow’s milk is the perfect food—for baby cows! Just as a human mother’s milk is the perfect food for human babies, mother’s milk from all mammals is designed for two main purposes: to nourish the offspring and to promote bonding between mother and child.
Mother’s milk provides high levels of nutrition to a newborn: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and yes, calcium. All mammalian species produce milk, but the composition of milk for each species varies widely. Other kinds of milk are very different from human breast milk. When we compare the digestive system of a cow with the digestive system of a human, they’re opposite. Cows have four stomachs and 4 feet (1.21 m) of intestine. On the other hand, humans have one stomach and 27 feet (8.23 m) of intestine. The type of food we eat and the way we digest are dramatically different.
Whole cow’s milk contains too little iron, retinol, vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin D, unsaturated fats, and essential fatty acids for human babies. In addition, it takes a lot of naturally occurring growth hormones in the cow’s milk to turn that 25-pound (11.34 kg) calf into a huge 600-pound (272 kg) cow. Those hormones were never intended to go into a human child. Whole cow’s milk also contains too much protein, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, and chloride, which may put a strain on an infant’s immature kidneys. In addition, the proteins, fats, and calcium in whole cow’s milk are more difficult for an infant to digest and absorb than the ones in breast milk. Some infants are allergic to one or more of the components of cow’s milk, and most often, the cow’s milk proteins. That should come as no surprise, because it was never designed for human babies. Human milk is for human babies, and cow’s milk is for cow babies.
The problem of drinking cow’s milk doesn’t go away as a baby grows. The sugar in milk is called lactose. Infants’ intestinal villi produce lactase, which is an enzyme secreted specifically to break down lactose. As the baby grows, the production of lactase decreases, and the baby begins to naturally deny the breast in favor of solid foods. Once the production of lactase declines, milk drinking should also cease.
However, the dairy industry has done such a good job of promoting its product that we’ve forced our bodies to drink milk and digest it throughout childhood and into adulthood. For many people, this causes great discomfort, otherwise known as lactose intolerance. The real truth is that we are all lactose intolerant, but force-feeding our bodies dairy has created an artificial tolerance to the stuff.
We mentioned that the other reason babies drink milk is to promote the bonding between mother and child. The bonding between mother and child during nursing happens due to the protein casein. Casein, like other opiates such as morphine and heroin, creates a euphoric effect that is highly addictive. The baby literally becomes addicted to mother’s milk. This addiction promotes bonding, and it also ensures the nourishment of the baby.
As the baby grows and thrives, he needs to wean from the breast, both emotionally and physically, the same way a drug-addicted person must wean from the drug.
Big Dairy is literally a drug dealer, pushing milk on babies, children, and adults, lying to us, telling us that their product is “good” for us. For many years now, doctors have known that dairy causes inflammation in human bodies. Often when a person goes to the doctor with the first signs of arthritis, the doctor recommends that the patient stop consuming dairy products because the consumption of dairy creates inflammation. According to the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, the types of proteins in dairy foods can cause irritation in the tissue around joints, leading to increased arthritic pain. Unfortunately, many Western doctors are not often given much training in the study of nutrition, sometimes as little as a four-hour lecture in their entire course of study.
In addition, the protein in dairy milk, casein, which makes up 80 to 87 percent of cow’s milk, has been found in numerous research papers, to promote many types of cancers.
Also, as we mentioned earlier, animal proteins—such as those found in dairy, meat, chicken, and eggs—are high in a certain type of acid. When consumed, particularly in large amounts as in the Sickness and Disease-promoting diet the acid causes a condition in the human body called “metabolic acidosis.” Research over the past few years has shown that cancers grow and thrive in acidic conditions.
This high level of acid also accounts for the fact that countries with the highest intake of dairy products also have the highest rates of osteoporosis leading to bone fractures. “What,” you say, “we thought that milk was good for bones.” Well, the human body is designed to be alkaline. So when the body becomes acidic, this wonderful healing machine goes to work to correct the problem. The body uses minerals to neutralize the acid and return your body to alkaline. Let’s take a wild guess at which minerals it uses. You guessed it, calcium and phosphorous! And where does the body get that calcium and phosphorous? Yes, the bones! So instead of milk making your bones strong, it actually leaches calcium from your bones and weakens them. So you make the call: Does this sound like milk “does our bodies good”?
Try to tell that to mixed martial arts fighter Jake Shields, bodybuilder Jim Morris, or power-lifter Bill McCarthy. You also might want to mention it to four-time Chicago Golden Glove title holder Amanda Reister, NASCAR driver Leilani Munter, soccer Olympian Kara Lang, extreme distance runner Vidal Ixel, mixed martial artist Mac Danzig, or figure skater Meagan Duhamel.
Super strong, super elite, and super vegan, these athletes prove that meat isn’t needed for optimum athletic performance. Furthermore, athletes who eat a plant-based diet claim they have faster recovery times and more energy, and they say that they eat a wider variety of foods than they did prior to going vegan.
Eggs have gotten both a bad rap and a good rap, nutritionally, in recent history. Here’s the truth: Eggs are not meant for human consumption. That is why they are responsible for the second most common food allergy, second only to cow’s milk. Sure, eggs contain a lot of nutrition. Eggs contain all of the nutrition necessary to take an embryo to a fully autonomous fluffy, feathery, little baby chicken, ready to leave the nest in only a few days.
It takes a hen about 25 hours to produce a single egg. During this time, the mother hen uses up many of her resources, especially calcium from her bones to make that shell, to make sure that egg has all of the protein, vitamins, minerals, and fat needed for her chick to properly develop. If left to her own devices, that mother would then eat that egg to regain those resources once she realizes the egg is not fertilized.
In addition to the nutrition in an egg, it also contains 182 milligrams of cholesterol and 5 grams of fat in only 72 calories. In fact, eggs are mostly fat and protein, and you can get all the fat and protein you need from vegan sources that are healthier.
To make matters worse, the proteins in fatty egg yolks can overstimulate your immune system, causing your body to produce excess mucus, fever, fatigue, and pain. Eggs can also slow down your digestion and elimination, leading to that feeling of being “clogged up.”
We hear this one all the time. The truth is: The human body thrives on a diet of plant foods. We are natural herbivores.
Our bodies are not at all well adapted to eating animals. Humans have hands that are useful for gathering vegetables and fruits, but aren’t that good for killing and ripping skin and flesh. And, unlike natural carnivores and omnivores, we do not feel the natural instinct to catch other living animals for food. Natural carnivores (cats, for example) will see a mouse or bird and immediately begin to hunt it. And if they catch it, they will dismember it and eat it raw.
Human canine teeth are small and blunt, and we have flat molars for grinding up plant fibers. Look at the teeth of natural carnivores and omnivores such as dogs or cats, and you’ll see long, pointed canine teeth for catching prey and tearing the hide, and sharp-edged teeth in the back for shearing off chunks of flesh.
Furthermore, our digestive systems are much better designed to digest plant foods. The carbohydratedigesting enzymes produced in our mouths and our long intestinal tracts are that of natural herbivores.
Protein is one of the macronutrients (carbohydrates and fats being the other two) that are essential for our bodies to take in on a daily basis to function properly. But how much protein do we really need, and which are the best sources?
The macronutrient protein was discovered in 1839 by a Dutch chemist named Gerhard Mulder. He named it proteios, which is a Greek word meaning “of prime importance.” You will see why in a moment.
Proteins are composed of long chains of hundreds or even thousands of amino acids linked together. These amino acids are made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. The nitrogen is what makes the protein structure different from carbohydrates and fats, which are made from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Fats and carbohydrates can be stored in the body, but amino acids cannot because there are no specialized cells in the body that can act as reservoirs.
Scientists have identified more than 500 amino acids. Of these, only twenty-two are proteinogenic (protein building). Twenty of these are genetically encoded in the body, while the other two are synthetically produced. So when you hear people talk about amino acids, they’re usually referring to the twenty standard amino acids. Of these twenty, eleven are made by the body, so we don’t have to worry about getting them from our food. Because our bodies do not make the remaining nine, they are referred to as “essential” amino acids. We need to make sure we eat foods that contain these nine.
How these twenty-two amino acids are linked together determines the type of protein and what it does in the body. There are hundreds of thousands of different proteins to accommodate all of the needed proteins in the body. Proteins are required for the structure, function, and regulation of the body’s cells, tissues, and organs, and each protein has unique functions. Examples of proteins are hormones, enzymes, and antibodies.
All foods contain some protein, some carbohydrate, and some fat. Yes, even 15 percent of the calories from broccoli comes from fat. But don’t use that as an excuse to avoid eating broccoli! Fifty-seven percent of the calories from spinach are from protein; however, it is not protein that contains all nine of the essential amino acids, or what is commonly called a “complete” protein. This is where the argument starts, with people thinking that it is vital that we eat animal proteins because they contain all of the essential amino acids, making meat a “complete protein.”
But here is the hole in that theory: At one time it was thought that you needed to eat a food that had all the essential amino acids in it for your body to get a “complete” protein. However, research now shows us that as long as you consume all the essential amino acids throughout the day, you’re covered for your required protein needs. So consuming a variety of whole (not processed) plant foods will provide enough of all of the essential amino acids needed for human health.
In addition, when consuming plants for protein, you’ll also get fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals along with the protein. When consuming animal proteins, a person does get a complete protein, but very little to no vitamins and minerals, absolutely no fiber, and no phytochemicals. (We’ll discuss what these are and how much we need later.) When animal proteins are eaten in large amounts in the Sickness and Disease-promoting diet a person gets a very high percentage of saturated fat and cholesterol and high amounts of acid. This elevated blood acid rate has been shown in numerous studies to create the perfect environment for different types of cancers to grow and thrive.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says 2.5 percent of our daily calories should come from protein. According to the World Health Organization, it’s about 5 percent. After forty years of research, Dr. Colin Campbell, author of the The China Study, agrees that only 5 percent—and no more than 10 percent—of calories should come from animal proteins. It’s interesting to note that 6 percent of the calories in human mother’s milk is composed of protein. So if nature tells us that we only need 6 percent of our calories from protein during the time of our life when we are growing and developing the fastest, why in the world would we think we need 30 percent or more of our calories coming from protein when we’re older? What people get when they eat animal proteins is a very high percentage of saturated fat and cholesterol and acidic blood levels, particularly when animal proteins are eaten as the largest component of every meal.
So what does 5 percent to 10 percent of our daily calories look like? Proteins have 4 calories per gram. For an example, let’s calculate 5 percent protein for a male consuming 3,000 calories/day:
Step One: 5 percent of 3,000 = 150 calories
Step Two: 150 calories × (1 gram divided by 4 calories) = 37.5 g (about 38 grams)
Now let’s calculate 5 percent protein for a woman consuming 2,000 calories per day:
Step One: 5 percent of 2,000 = 100 calories
Step Two: 100 calories × (1 gram divided by 4 calories) = 25 g
That’s a lot lower than the Western average of 100 grams a day, that’s for sure.
“To consume a diet that contains enough, but not too much, protein, simply replace animal products with grains, vegetables, legumes (peas, beans, and lentils), and fruits,” clarifies the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine. “As long as one is eating a variety of plant foods in sufficient quantity to maintain one’s weight, the body gets plenty of protein.”
As you can see by the table above, it is almost impossible to develop a protein deficiency unless a person is consuming a calorie-deficient diet. Excess protein consumption is stressful to the body because protein is not readily usable for fuel and must be excreted. The nitrogen that accompanies protein is released into the body and causes byproducts such as urea and ammonia that must be detoxified by the liver and kidneys.
Nitrogen must be released from the amino acid chains to convert protein to carbohydrate or fat that can be used for energy. The body is meant to get its fuel from carbohydrates, not protein. Therefore, on a high-protein diet, the body cannot efficiently or effectively convert the protein into energy.
We mentioned how a diet high in animal protein raises the acid level of our bodies. When we consume more than 10 percent of our daily calories from animal proteins, this acid level sets up the perfect environment for cancers to grow. We also mentioned that our bodies like to be alkaline, and we think everyone is aware of the many types of new drinking waters that boast higher pH levels. Later we’ll take a look at what all this information about acid, alkaline, and pH in water means.
Today, people have so many questions about food and nutrition. Should I take a multivitamin? What is an omega-3 and where do I get it? How much protein do I need and what are the best sources? Yet, fifty years ago, no one was asking any of these questions. How did we go from families that chose their foods from simple basic food groups in the 1950s (see chart below) to trying to understand the massive amount of dietary information we now receive on a daily basis?
[Daily Food Guide Graphic, 1956]
As the knowledge of nutrition and the important role that food plays in our health has increased over the past sixty years, the social, economic, and health conditions in our world have also changed. The typical family in the 1950s included two parents, and the majority, if not all, of the meals were prepared and eaten at home with the entire family present. Today, the typical family is more likely to consist of either a two-parent household where both parents work full-time or a household with a single parent working two or more jobs to keep food on the table. Add to this the busy school and extracurricular activities of children and caretaking of aging parents, you have family situations that leave little to no time for meal preparation, and very rarely does the whole family dine together. This time-challenged family dynamic has turned the small mom-and-pop-owned corner stores and restaurants of sixty years ago into large worldwide conglomerates that offer quick, easy, inexpensive meal options to help these overburdened families.
One example of the food industry’s first offerings to busy, overburdened families was the American TV dinner offered in the 1950s. Since then, the food industry has grown tremendously, offering thousands of processed and ready-to-eat meals in grocery stores, as well as expanding into the overabundance of international fast food chains. Worldwide food sales have skyrocketed. And even though we are experiencing a worldwide economic depression food industry sales are at an all-time high. When looking at the money that is at stake here, it is easy to see how the food industry has turned into big business competing for our hard-earned money capitalizing on our daily need to eat.
Unfortunately, over the past 50 years, we’ve trusted that the food industry was developing new and convenient foods with our best interest and health in mind, but nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, we gave control of the food we eat to a monetarily driven industry by assuming that these companies would never sell us anything that would be detrimental to our health. If someone came up to you and said, “Here try this,” what is the first thing you would say? Most people would ask, “What is it?” Yet each and every day, most people walk into grocery stores and purchase products without looking at the ingredients or asking, “What is in this?” We assume that because it is packaged and on the shelf that it is safe and good for us. As we can see from the current state of the world’s health, this attitude has not served us well. In fact, it has caused us to become a very sick world.
The food industry cannot be the only ones to blame for the over-processed and-disease-promoting foods we are now eating. The food industry in each country is monitored, following guidelines and labeling regulations set forth by their particular governing agencies. For example, in the United States the Food and Drug Administration establishes and enforces all rules, regulations, and requirements for food ingredients and packaging for packaged foods. In Canada, there are two federal departments, Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), in Europe it is the European Commission (EC), in Japan it is the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), etc. While the initial reasons for government agencies becoming involved in the monitoring of our food were and are well intentioned and for the “good of the people,” that has definitely changed over the years.
Today, the influence of big business has caused our government and the laws they enact to become nutritionally misguided. Numerous government agencies around the world have come under scrutiny for placing people in these agencies that have ties to the food industry, resulting in very large conflicts of interest. For example, recommendations for which foods Americans should eat comes from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Today, although the NAS still accepts public donations, it is funded by food companies. The NAS invites food industry experts to sit on its board, help review the latest findings in nutrition, and then make recommendations for Americans’ dietary consumption. While it seems like industry experts would be the ideal people to review research and make recommendation for food consumption, there is a problem. The food industry representatives who are asked to participate on panels are from the very companies that would stand to profit from the recommendations that will be made to the public.
In Europe, the EFSA is responsible for scientific advice on the safety of pesticides, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and food additives. These recommendations are designed to protect the safety of the public’s health. However, an article published in June 2011 by the Corporate European Observatory (CEO), revealed that the EFSA and the other EU agencies were being investigated by the European Court of Auditors over alleged conflicts of interest. CEO also identified conflicts of interest among the members of the EFSA panel on food additives and nutrient sources in food (ANS panel) by uncovering evidence of incomplete declarations of outside interests, which suggested further possible conflicts of interest. CEO stated that if the new rules established by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in 2011 were applied at EFSA, four of the experts on the ANS panel would be disqualified from sitting on the panel. The CEO also stated that the ANS panel had also been criticized for publishing controversial “scientific opinions” on certain food additives, including aspartame and artificial colorants when several of these substances have been found to provoke allergies or are suspected to be carcinogenic.
In addition to recommendations on what we should eat, our government agencies also write and enforce the laws applying to the information printed on our food packages, nutritional labels, and determine what types of health claims can be made about the food we purchase. While our governments definitely play a vital role in keeping some potentially dangerous products off the market, there is still plenty of opportunity for food manufacturers to use these rules to deceive and mislead customers about products. For example, we have all seen packages proclaiming that a product is “low fat” or “low sodium.” But what exactly does that mean? The food manufacturer counts on you thinking that it means their product is low in fat and sodium, but that isn’t always true. The fat and sodium levels may be lower than in another product, but still way too high.
Also, did you know that some governments allow companies to round the amounts on nutritional labels? For example, a product may have 0.45 grams per serving of trans fat in the product. Hopefully we all know by now that trans fats (products made with hydrogenated oils) are bad, and we shouldn’t ever eat foods with trans fats in them. However, because a government allows the manufacturer to round number on the nutritional label, the 0.45 grams per serving can be rounded down to zero. Therefore the customer thinks the product they are buying had no trans fats when, in fact, it contains trans fats. You would argue that 0.45 grams may not be a lot, but remember that number is per the serving size. If you eat more than one serving (and most of us do), you will have exceeded the amount of trans fats that is safe to have in your diet, which again is zero.
The food on supermarket shelves, nutritional information on packages, and big business-influenced government dietary recommendations are not the only ways in which the food we eat is being manipulated and misrepresented to consumers. The way our food is grown and developed is also being affected and changed without the consumer’s knowledge or consent, which we will cover later in this book.
Now that you have a basic understanding and awareness of what has happened to our food supply over the past fifty years, and how it has impacted the current state of our health, we can show how all the pieces come together to give you a new appreciation for how our bodies function, what type of food is necessary to nourish our bodies, and how a vegan or plant-based diet fits right into that equation. And in the chapters to come, we will explore how our food choices affect our health—and the very world we live in.
We hope that after reading the previous pages, you have a lot of good reasons and the motivation to make some choices in your life that will help you achieve a healthier you and a healthier planet. Gerrie can’t remember where she heard or saw this quote, but it is another reason for us to care about what we eat: “Anything that has the power to make you sick also has the power to make you well.”
We don’t recommend that you try to totally change your current way of eating and living all at once. Going “cold turkey” (no pun intended) and becoming a WellBeing (WeBe) all at once is just too big a step. The convenience-oriented, fast-food society we live in will provide little to no support for your new habits, and you will become frustrated, give up, and never achieve your health goals. So we have put together some steps that may help you get to your goal in an achievable way. These are only meant to be suggestions to help you on this journey. If you find other ways of achieving the goals of eating a plant-based diet; cutting out refined, processed, and extracted foods; and living in a way that improves the well-being of our planet and our lives, then by all means do whatever works for you.
Next, we offer a simple philosophy for going vegan and our easy ten-step process.
Today’s world is full of don’ts, such as don’t eat trans fats, don’t drink soda, don’t eat fried foods, and don’t eat fast food. Making major changes in your lifestyle, as in changing the way you eat, is very rarely done successfully by approaching it in an exclusionary way. When we try to change our eating patterns by telling ourselves what we can’t eat, we automatically feel deprived, rebellious, and unhappy. So here’s our simple philosophy: It is more successful to start out by asking, “What can I eat?” and approach this journey from a place of choosing what you can eat. Think of this as a “replacement” way of eating, not a “denial” way of eating.
So what do we need to eat? The more we study nutrition and its relationship to our health, the more we are convinced that it is more common sense than science. Wouldn’t it make sense that if we eat the foods that supply us with what our bodies need to function properly, our bodies will work better?
Take our cars, for example. If we put the right type of octane fuel, oil, and other fluids in our cars, then they run right. If we swap out the fuel for another type of fuel, or if we don’t replenish the fluids or keep the levels at the proper amounts, then our cars break down.
This is true for all living beings—plants and animals. We’ve seen it with factory farmed cows. Now that they are being fed corn and other non-vegetation ingredients, such as ground-up meats that were not fit for human consumption, the cows have developed mad cow disease and very high levels of E. coli bacteria. Cows are meant to eat grass! When they eat the way nature intended, their bodies work properly and there is very little E. coli found in the meat.
The human body is no different. Research has shown that our genes affect only 2 to 3 percent of our health. The remaining 97 to 98 percent of the illnesses and infirmities we experience come from our environment and the choices we make. It is true that our genes may give us a predisposition to different types of health conditions, but the choices we make determine whether we prevent those conditions from happening, or encourage them.
The human body is an amazing healing machine. It’s hardwired to heal itself. But even the human body has its limits. If we work in concert with the way our bodies are designed to eat, and not against it, our bodies can keep us healed and whole.
What steps can you take to experience a healthy coexistence with your body? We have broken it down into ten simple steps that you can do one at a time, or as many as you can successfully handle at once, and be successful. Once you have mastered one, then move on to the next.
1. Add more greens into your diet. Some of the heartier leafy greens or as some have called them, “angry” lettuces—such as kale, collard, turnip, chard, and mustard greens—are very important for us to eat every day. For every one calorie you ingest of these greens, you get a dose of all the daily essential vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals your body needs. The only reason we can’t live only on greens is because they are so low in calories, you can’t eat enough to sustain yourself. Other leafy greens that are also little powerhouses of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals are spinach and bok choy.
So how do you add these wonderful superfoods into your diet? You don’t need to just eat salads to get your greens. Simply add greens to everything. For example, put greens in your morning smoothie, have spinach enchiladas with red sauce (and no cheese), or add greens to your soups, stews, burritos, tacos, sandwiches, or pita pockets. Leafy greens sure pack a powerful nutrient punch. Just by adding more greens into your diet, we guarantee that you will feel a difference within a week!
2. Replace animal proteins with plant proteins. We love plant proteins such as legumes, beans, lentils, and peas. Depending on how much animal protein you now eat, start by cutting back on the number of times you eat it a day or a week. For example, if you eat animal protein at every meal (and the majority of us do because it is the center of our plates), cut back to once a day. If you eat animal proteins once a day, cut back to only two or three times a week.
At your meatless meals, simply add 1 cup (about 240 g) of beans, lentils, or peas to your dish. Just like adding greens, adding beans will not really change the overall flavor of your dish, but it will definitely give you the protein you need along with fiber, and without all of the fat, calories, and cholesterol that’s in animal protein. As long as you prepare the beans in the manner we suggest and use them in the proper amount, you will not suffer from the dreaded “intestinal discomfort” (flatulence) that so many people dislike.
3. Replace dairy with plant milks and cheese substitutes. Some of our favorite plant milks are almond, oat, soy, cashew, coconut, rice, and hemp. For cheese substitutes, we suggest soy or nut based “cheese” and we love the soy-and-gluten-free tapioca-based products. There are so many plant milk options that we’re sure you will find one that you like. Just make sure that the plant milk you choose is unsweetened to avoid processed sugars. Plus, that way it works well in both sweet and savory applications.
Using plant milk is simple; just use it as you would cow’s milk. Pour a plant milk over your cereal, in your glass, or in your recipe instead of cow’s, goat’s, or sheep’s milk. In most uses, you won’t even notice a difference. The same goes for nondairy cheeses. Add a slice to your sandwich, melt it over nachos, sprinkle it on salads, and top your pizza with it, just as you would an animal-based cheese.
4. Replace overly processed foods with minimally cooked whole plant foods. This step is a little harder for people to adopt than the others because it takes a little bit of planning, which is something most of us don’t take the time to do. This new way of eating is not hard. It’s just different. With a little effort and planning, you will find it easy, cheaper, and more delicious.
This step is all about eating foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. For example, incorporate apples into your diet instead of applesauce or apple juice. This will provide you with more nutrients, more fiber, and less sugar. Instead of purchasing pre-made soups in cans, break out the slow cooker and make your own soups and stews from scratch. Store and restaurant soups and stews are usually loaded with sodium, oils, and other unwanted ingredients, such as preservatives and sugars. Avoid buying foods that come in boxes, bags, or cans unless they have five or fewer ingredients and do not contain unwanted ingredients. For example, Gerrie’s favorite tomato product is aseptically packaged, and the ingredients label reads: tomatoes. (See chapter 5 for more information on reading and deciphering labels.)
We know that in the busy world we live in, it is almost impossible to avoid boxes, bags, and cans entirely, and we certainly don’t. We recommend that instead of heating up pre-made frozen meals, you do a little planning and do batch cooking on the weekends or when you have time. Make enough when you cook to have leftovers for another meal or freeze some. We believe in cooking once and eating two or three times. Swap out products such as protein bars for some homemade yummy oat bars or homemade granolas that are much healthier and do not contain fractionated soy and other overprocessed ingredients.
5. Replace processed sugars with fruits and fruit juices in recipes. Refined sugars have absolutely no nutritional value at all—no vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, or fiber. They are simply junk food, and they have no place in our diets. By replacing sugars with fruits and fruit juices—such as dates and prunes—you’ll add vitamins and minerals, and, in the case of whole fruits, you’ll get fiber as well.
This is actually one of the easier steps. Simply use blended dates (date paste; see the recipe on page 145), applesauce, prunes, or apples in place of sugars in recipes. (See chapter 5 for more information on substituting sugars with fruits and fruit juices in recipes.)
6. Replace extracted oils with foods that have oils in them. Extracted oils are nothing more than fat that has been extracted from a plant. Did you know that it takes approximately forty-four olives to make 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of olive oil? Would you ever sit down and eat forty-four olives all at once? Plus when you eat an olive, you’re getting fiber, vitamins, and minerals along with the fat in the correct concentration. One tablespoon of oil contains 120 calories, and all 120 calories are from fat!
In addition to the concentrated intake of fat, oils are a highly concentrated and often hidden source of calories. If you consumed only 3 tablespoons (45 ml) of oil a day (the Sickness and Disease-promoting diet contains a lot more than 3 tablespoons (45 ml) because oils are in almost everything), you would be consuming 360 calories a day that are nothing but fat. If you multiply that by seven days in a week, you would be taking in 2,520 calories in one week that come from just fat in your food. For a woman, that is more than one day’s worth of calories.
Oils are also high in omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-6s are essential in our diets, but they are plentiful in a plant-based diet, and when converted in the body, they create inflammation. Our bodies produce a limited amount of the enzyme that converts omega-3s and -6s, so when we eat too many omega-6s, they use up the conversion enzyme, and then little to no omega-3s are converted. We then end up with inflammation in the body. So instead of eating oil, we recommend eating the food that the oil comes from instead, such as avocados, olives, nuts, and seeds. This way, you get the right amount of oil, along with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals.
Don’t worry about how you will cook without oil. Sautéing is easily accomplished using water, vegetable broth, and even wine! After all, the purpose of the oil is to keep things from sticking to the bottom of the pot, and we have discovered that any other liquid serves the same purpose.
7. Replace sodium with citrus juices, sodium-free dried vegetables, and other seasonings. The taste buds measuring sour and salty are right next to each other on the tongue. If you add citrus such as lemon juice or lime juice, your taste buds are tricked into thinking that sodium has been added to the food. This will add flavor and satisfy your “taste” for salt without the negative effects.
8. Eat only 100 percent whole grains. Over the past twenty years, we have been consuming more and more cereals, breads, and overly processed products that use cheaper enriched, processed, and refined grains that have higher gluten levels than whole grains. High gluten ingredients are used in more than just baked goods, too. Many prepackaged seasonings, broths, dressings, sauces, and other processed foods listing “natural flavors” contained refined gluten. People are unknowingly eating far more gluten than our predecessors. Gerrie believes that the combination of eating overly processed, nutrient-less and fiber-less grains, and not eating fresh fruits and vegetables is one reason so many people are becoming intolerant to wheat and other grains.
Our bodies are meant to eat whole grains that contain fiber and nutrients. So make sure that any grain product you consume is made from 100 percent whole, organic, and/or sprouted grains.
Beware of products boasting “made with whole grains.” That just means that some of the grains in the product are whole, but not all of them. Be a label reader.
9. Eat three to five servings of fruit a day. This step requires the least preparation, and it’s the most convenient. But surprisingly very few people actually do it each day. Eat a piece of fruit as a snack, put fresh berries on your cereal in the morning, or cut up some mangoes, watermelon, or pineapple for dessert.
10. Eat 1 ounce (28 g) of raw nuts and seeds each day. Nuts and seeds are very nutritious. They should be in your diet every day to help boost your immune system.
Make sure they are raw and not oiled and salted. When nuts and seeds are oiled, salted, roasted, and toasted, the grams of fat and milligrams of sodium are drastically increased, and the nutrients are decreased. For example, 1 ounce (28 g) of raw cashews has 12 grams of fat and 3 milligrams of sodium, but 1 ounce (28 g) of roasted cashews with oil has 62 grams of fat and 86 milligrams of sodium. Also in this small portion, the amount of iron drops 1 percent of the daily recommended requirements. Dry-roasted is acceptable from time to time.
While nuts and seeds are very nutritious and good for you, they also contain a lot of calories, and many nuts have a very high ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3s. So enjoy raw nuts, but make sure to limit them to 1 ounce (28 g)—or maybe 2 ounces (56 g)—a day.
That is so much information! We have packed the rest of this book with even more information, tips, tricks, resources, recipes, meal plans, and more to make your switch to vegan as easy as possible.
We are here to help guide you through your adventure, and hundreds of thousands of people are also on this path. You can meet them at community potlucks, get-togethers, online chat rooms, veg festivals, and other events. There are so many ways to connect with other like-minded WeBes, so let’s get started!