First off, as requested, I've received thousands of photos of readers doing their naked snow-shoveling and other winter activities, so it must be more common than I thought. To the right is one of the few I could actually publish. But I'm so glad people are making an effort to get their Vitamin D even in the winter months.
Okay back to business. So, Larry, my husband—used to waddle when he walked—enough to be in the Ministry of Silly Walks. Although the reason wasn’t silly at all--he had really really painful arthritis in his hips. He popped Aleve and Tylenol every freakin day. Just to get by. Could barely do anything anymore. We were in the Adirondacks this summer and he couldn’t even go on hikes with us. Really felt badly for him. And he’s like 53. Way too young for this to be happening. But what was really scaring me were the visions I had of me pushing him around in a wheel chair with a blanket over his legs like he was FDR and I was that happy-go-lucky side-kick Eleanor. We had to so something. Like what? A double hip operation?? Insane. Or what about something even more drastic? A juice fast.
That’s what I wanted him to do. Go to Kripalu—the hippy dippy yoga center in the Berkshires—and do a supervised juice fast for four days. This, I knew would clean everything out including liver, kidney , colon and his joints and start the healing process. And I suggested he do a vegan diet (no animal products) afterwards . Because my Chinese doctor told me that arthritis is related to eating animal products. Oh yeah, that went over big. This was one beef-eatin, milk-swillin son-of –a –gun who was havin none of that new-fangled diet hokus pokus. I told him that Chinese medicine was hardly new-fangled, being only about 5000 years old, and.... Didn’t matter.
Then Larry’s dad got prostate cancer. And George (Larry’s dad), was given the China Study to read. The China Study (I got it at Barnes and Noble), is a nineteen year study of the eating habits of 6500 Chinese people—chosen by the researchers because they are a genetically homogeneous group. And in this study they found, that in certain areas, particularly the cities, where the Chinese eat a lot of animal protein, they got significantly more degenerative diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. than people in rural China, where they eat an almost entirely plant –based diet. And through this study, they determined it was the type of protein, not the fat, that was doing it.
But anyway, back to George. So he goes on the vegan diet—in order to lower his PSA. And man, he did it. No cheating. And with a gusto you could hardly imagine, knowing his previous eating habits. And in maybe two or three months, he tells Larry on the phone....Yeah, I feel fine and I’m doing well, and, oh yeah, btw, my arthritis is gone. And Larry’s like, Wha--? And then Larry tells me. And says he’s gonna go on a vegan diet. And I’m like, great/oh boy.
So cut to a month later. And we’re doin some mad shoppin and cookin and choppin...(cuz that’s what you do--you boil a lot of brown rice, millet, pasta, and chop a LOT of vegetables—and people always ask this—where do you get your protein? Beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, tofu, seitan). So anyway, a month later of this business. And... nothing. No change. And I’m losing the enthusiasm a little for this cuz now I have to make two kinds of dinners in the house—the kids wanting nothing to do with this stuff. But he keeps it up. Month two—a little change—definitely some improvement, but not like he’s kicking up his heels. But I’m telling him to keep it up because it’s going the right direction—instead of getting progressively worse. Now by month three—he’s off all his pain meds, his walk is back to normal. He’s starting to do some regular exercise. And now, after six months, it’s astounding how much better he is.
Now why did this occur? The author of this study goes into great detail about the physiological aspects of protein and its effect on the immune system. Depending on the disease, whether it be cancer, Mulitple Sclerosis, diabetes or arthritis, he explains the mechanism—and it was different for each. But I’m not gonna go into it because it’s just too damn lengthy.
Although I do want to add one thing—and this has to do with animal protein and cancer. In a previous study this same researcher compared two groups of rats—one was given a major carcinogen (aflatoxin) and then a 20% animal protein diet—the other was given the carcinogen and a 5% animal protein diet. ALL the rats in the 20% protein group got liver cancer, vs. NONE of the rats in the 5% protein group. That’s amazing, huh? He also found that when the rats were given plant-based protein, even up to the 20% amount, they still didn’t get cancer. High animal protein diets are really not lookin too good here.
Bottom line is, we all eat way too much animal protein. Used to be a couple of generations ago, people ate it a couple of times a week. Now it's twice a day for many. It's just wrong. And my advice, if you want to do something about it, is try switching to more plant based meals slowly, if you don't have any major health issues right now. Try a lentil soup instead for dinner once a week. And rice and beans another day. Don't try to change everything overnight. But it gets easier and easier as you go.
And read the China Study. There’s so much great information there and I've really only skimmed the surface here. And like I said, it’s at Barnes and Noble and it’s a very easy, interesting read. It’s also fascinating to hear about all the politics that occurred in the medical establishment regarding the author’s findings and how a lot of his work almost didn’t see the light of day because of how threatening it was to Big Pharma (curing disease with diet= no profits for pharmaceutical co’s) and the meat industries.
I mean, what a concept. We can actually cure a lot of what ails us with the food on our plate. Just like Hippocrates said. Radical.
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