Are Strict Vegan Diets Healthy?

I've recently started reading Jack Norris' blog. Mr. Norris is a Registered Dietitian and a vegan. He addressed this question (Are strict vegan diets healthy?) in his latest post:
Try it Again, Dr. Kim!

Dr. Kim is a chiropractor who runs a fasting clinic in Ontario, Canada. This was the post by Dr. Kim that Mr. Norris was discussing in his blog:
More Thoughts on Earthlings Documentary, Including Potential Problems with a Strict Vegan Diet

Dr. Kim was a strict vegan for 4 years, but he says:

"I only felt like I was optimally supporting my health for the first two of those years. The last two years were marked by low energy, constant cravings for some animal foods, skin breakouts, and emotional lows that I had never previously experienced."

This is what he ate for 4 years:

"My strict vegan diet consisted of plenty of fresh leafy greens, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, celery, sprouts, many varieties of steamed greens, steamed root vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, hard squashes, carrots, and red beets, whole grains like brown rice and quinoa, a wide variety of fruits (including avocados), legumes like chickpeas and red beans, and small amounts of raw nuts and seeds. I also drank fresh lettuce-based vegetable juices a few times a week."

Mr. Norris says that Dr. Kim probably wasn't getting enough vitamin B12:

"Obviously, if a vegan is not taking B12 supplements or eating fortified foods, for more than two years, chances are excellent they are going to get fatigued and have mental issues."

He also says he probably lacked adequate protein:

"If you read Dr. Kim’s description of his diet you have to get well into his list before you come across a plentiful source of protein (quinoa), and the most reliable sources that most vegans rely on, even raw foodists, are listed second to last and last!"

So, both Jack Norris and Dr. Kim state that vegan diets fail to provide adequate vitamin B12. Mr. Norris says that vegans need to be attentive to consuming higher protein plant foods. Dr. Kim says vegans risk deficiencies in the longer-chain omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, in vitamin A (not the plant-based carotenoid precursors), cholesterol and saturated fats (although our body makes these from plant food, he says not enough are made), and several minerals including zinc, iron, and calcium.

I think B12 and minerals are a problem. I still don't know about protein, longer-chain omega-3s, saturated fat, and vitamin A. Although, it's true that animal foods are good sources for these.

What do you think?
________

The Curious Hawk And The Angry Goose

I was on the deck whistling for Chuck and putting out food. I decided to fill the water containers. When I bent down to get the hose a large shadow passed over me. A red tailed hawk had landed in a branch almost directly above me! This is one big bird. I put the hose down and walked towards her, only 10 or 15 feet separating us. The hawk cocked its head this way and that. I whistled to her, she didn't fly away. I went inside to get my glasses and went back out and she was still there plumping her wings. I've never been this close to a hawk, certainly never one that was so at-ease around humans. I began to think maybe it wasn't a good idea to be so close, it being a wild animal, so I backed up and as I opened the door she dropped off the branch and flew by me. Blessed be, within feet! Her wing span looked wider than I am tall.

This is a red-tailed hawk (not mine) from Richard's Bird Blog. He has a nice set there of this juvenile learning to fly. Mine had a bigger head and a broader wing span, perhaps an adult.



This isn't a hawk but the video was making rounds yesterday and it was the reason I backed off:


________

Kitchens In Cuba

Shaun sent this article from NPR that shows kitchens in modern-day Cuba:
What Our Kitchens Might Say About Us

The communist-ruled island has been under a U.S. trade embargo for 50 years, and life for most Cubans is still difficult, despite recent economic reforms.

Silverman's images show the kitchens as she finds them. Well-used pots sit on stoves or burners, utensils hang from plaster walls with faded paint, and mismatched plates are piled haphazardly.

Some of the kitchens don't have tables and chairs. Usually, Silverman says, she would see a pot of rice cooking or a metal coffee maker ready to brew a fresh cup. There seems to be an absence of food on display or on countertops — like fruit in a bowl or vegetables in a basket — stark reminder of most Cubans' difficult economic situation.

"People are still rationed. They get a ration card and you get a certain amount of food a month," she explains. "There are supermarkets, but there are very few ... people buying food on a daily basis. Not everybody has refrigerators."

Below are 3 of the 30 photographs that photographer Ellen Silvermann is showing in her series Spare Beauty: The Cuban Kitchen in New York City this week.






________

Paleo Diet Author Says Potatoes “Punch Holes Into The Membranes Of The Intestines"

I saw that Loren Cordain, professor at Colorado State University and author of the original 2002 meat-based "Paleo Diet" has a new book, "The Paleo Answer."

Browsing the comments led me to one by Jimmy Moore (Livin' La Vida Low-Carb), who recently interviewed Cordain for his site:

The LLVLC Show (Episode 556): Professor Loren Cordain Introduces Antinutrient Foods In ‘The Paleo Answer', Jimmy Moore, March 7, 2012

Moore lists points covered in the interview. This apparent quote by Cordain popped out for me:

- Potatoes will “punch holes into the membranes of the intestines."

I thought this was an unusual way to describe a mechanism. What is getting punched? A membrane transport protein? How does a potato punch? What part of a potato does the punching? Does everyone who ever ate a potato have holes in their intestines? Do the holes heal? Why doesn't someone who eats lots of potatoes, say Chris Voigt, get peritonitis?

Chris Voigt ate 20 potatoes a day for 60 days:



Perhaps I'm being as cheeky as Cordain. But ... why single out potatoes? When you look at any food up close, there's some particle that's harmful, whether naturally present or put there by humans. Tomatoes and eggplant have glycoalkaloids too, sometimes more than potatoes. There's arsenic in chicken, mercury in tuna, endocrine disruptors in cow fat, oxalate in spinach, coumarins in celery and parsley, aflatoxin in peanuts, hydrazines in mushrooms, phenolic compounds in fruits and vegetables that destroy B vitamins, and on. Even the Drs. Jaminet in their grain- and bean-free, carb-restricted "Perfect Health Diet" endorse potatoes. It really is a matter of picking your poison in life. ________

Antidepressants: "Basically Expensive Tic Tacs"

Why The Serotonin Hypothesis For Depression Is Losing Ground; And Why Antidepressants May Be No Better Than Placebos.

Four arguments:

1. Serotonin is only one player. There are hundreds of substances that act as neurotransmitters and that affect mood and mental state. These include amino acids (e.g. GABA, aspartate, glutamate), monoamines (e.g. serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, histamine), acetylcholine, nitric oxide, and a host of peptides (e.g. beta-endorphin).

2. The "chemical imbalance" hypothesis assumes a one-way mechanism, that is, brain chemistry affects mind. It's actually two-way, in that mind, the thoughts we choose to think over and over, can change brain chemistry and brain structure, just as exercising a muscle can change muscle shape and size. (Exercise can also effect brain chemistry, by, for example, the release of endorphins.) Indeed, "chemical imbalance" assumes a measure of "chemical balance" which has not been established.

3. Drugs sold in the US that increase levels of serotonin in the synapse (SSRIs: Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) are used as antidepressants. But drugs sold in Europe that decrease levels of serotonin (SSREs: Selective Serotonin Reuptake Enhancers) are also used as antidepressants (e.g. Tianeptine/Coaxil).

"If depression can be equally affected by drugs that increase serotonin and by drugs that decrease it, it's hard to imagine how the benefits can be due to their chemical activity.
...
The belief that antidepressants can cure depression chemically is simple wrong."
- Irving Kirsch (to Sharon Begley of Newsweek), researcher, professor, and clinical psychologist, author of "The Emperor's New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth"

4. Finally, evidence has been accumulating that, in most cases, SSRIs work no better than placebos in relieving mild to moderate depression. Here's one recent study, a meta-analysis or study of studies. It included 6 gold-standard, randomized, placebo-controlled trials:
Antidepressant Drug Effects And Depression Severity, JAMA, 2010

It found:

"The magnitude of benefit of antidepressant medication compared with placebo increases with severity of depression symptoms and may be minimal or nonexistent, on average, in patients with mild or moderate symptoms."

It's not fair to say that antidepressants work no better than placebos, implying that the placebo effect is not robust. The placebo effect is real, effective, enduring, and provides the foundation for a $10 billion antidepressant industry in the US.

Before signing off I should note two things that keep appearing in my reading as on a par with, and possibly better than taking antidepressants:

Adequate sleep. While antidepressants improved mood by 1.8 points on a 54-point scale used to gauge the severity of depression, better sleep improved mood by 6 points.

Exercise. Gretchen Reynolds in her New York Times article, Prescribing Exercise To Treat Depression, cites a 2011 study that found impressive rates of remission in a group of patients with major depressive disorder who walked for 30 minutes a day.
________

Scotts Miracle-Gro Knowingly Sold Poisoned Birdseed For Two Years

The birdseed was laced with pesticides to prevent insects from eating it during storage. The pesticides are known toxins to birds (and fish and other wildlife), a fact made known to Scotts' managers by 2 of its employees. Scotts went ahead with it anyway:

Scotts Miracle-Gro – The Bird-killing Company?, The Guardian, 21 March

The EPA investigated and:

"The Scotts Miracle-Gro company entered guilty pleas to all charges in U.S. District Court and these guilty pleas were accepted by Judge James Graham on Tuesday, 13 March 2012."

Scotts said they stopped selling the birdseed in 2008, but there's still some out there:

"[Scotts] sold more than 73 million packages of these poisoned bird foods nationwide to an unsuspecting public for a period of more than two years. Only 2 million of those 73 million units could be recalled."

With unfortunate effects:

"[A] San Diego county couple who lost nearly all of their domestic aviary birds at the end of January 2010 after feeding Scotts Miracle-Gro Morning Song Wild Bird Seed that they had recently purchased from a local Wal-Mart. Out of a flock numbering nearly 100 birds, only eight survived."

Just to make a buck:

"Even if a penalty of $73 million -- merely $1 for each poisoned bird food item sold -- was levied against the company, Scotts Miracle-Gro will probably still earn a profit from sales of all their illegal products."

People say we should do away with the EPA. Scotts only admitted what they were doing, and stopped what they were doing, because of the EPA's investigation.
________

Obama Made A Campaign Promise To Label GMOs

While on the campaign trail in 2007, Barack Obama promised to label GMO foods if elected:

"Here's what I'll do as President. ... We'll let folks know whether their food has been genetically modified, because Americans should know what they're buying."

There must be a pretty powerful contingent in Congress preventing follow-through on this.
________

Red Meat Consumption Linked To Earlier Death

The red meat study in the news:
Red Meat Consumption and Mortality, Results From 2 Prospective Cohort Studies, Archives of Internal Medicine, March 12, 2012

The participant pool was large: 37,698 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, plus 83,644 women from the Nurses' Health Study. The follow-up was long: over 20 years.

It found the more red meat one consumed, the greater their risk of premature death from cancer, heart disease, and other causes. How much greater? After controlling for possible confounders,¹ the risk of death was 13% greater for each serving of unprocessed red meat eaten in a day; 20% greater for processed meat.

Replacing meat with other sources of protein lowered risk:

"We estimated that substitutions of 1 serving per day of other foods (including fish, poultry, nuts, legumes, low-fat dairy, and whole grains) for 1 serving per day of red meat were associated with a 7% to 19% lower mortality risk.

We also estimated that 9.3% of deaths in men and 7.6% in women in these cohorts could be prevented at the end of follow-up if all the individuals consumed fewer than 0.5 servings per day (approximately 42 g/d) of red meat."

42 grams is about 1.5 ounces, or a couple big bites.

Here's a chart from the study. Kind of small but you can see that swapping any of these foods (nuts, legumes, low-fat dairy, whole grains, poultry, fish) for meat lowered risk. Look at that protection from replacing processed meat with nuts! (The further the black dot is to the left, the more protective that food was when eaten in place of meat.)


These were epidemiological studies, not more telling clinical trials. It would be a challenge to design and conduct a randomized controlled trial to test this hypothesis. How could you realistically get tens of thousands of people to eat the exact foods except for varying quantities of red meat? For 2 decades! So, these observational studies are useful, but not without their weaknesses.

The increases in risk, I thought, were small. Still, the trend was apparent, and dose dependent. There could always be an unaccounted confounder, though. Maybe those who ate more red meat slept less, had less restful sleep, had poor mental health (depression, anxiety, unmanaged stress, and curiously narcissism all impact health). Even poor dental hygiene has been linked to heart disease.

But it's fun to speculate. What could be making red meat so risky? Dr. Gregor offered a list of possible causes:

"I think the most interesting finding in the new Harvard studies is that even after factoring out known contributors of disease, such as saturated fat and cholesterol, they still found increased mortality risk, raising the question: what exactly is in the meat that is so significantly increasing cancer death rates, heart disease, and shortening people’s lives? A few possibilities include heme iron, nitrosamines, biogenic amines, advanced glycation end products, arachidonic acid, steroids, toxic metals, drug residues, viruses, heterocyclic amines, PCBs, dioxins, and other industrial pollutants."

________¹The results were adjusted for age; body mass index; alcohol consumption; physical activity level; smoking status; race; menopausal status and hormone use in women; family history of diabetes mellitus, myocardial infarction, or cancer; history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, or hypercholesterolemia; and intakes of total energy, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. ... So, for instance, it wasn't that those who ate more red meat also happened to consume fewer fruits and vegetables.

Pumpernickel

It's what I spread peanut butter on, besides my sprouted wheat bread. So hooked.


________Photo snapped while dislodging a piece from my frozen pumpernickel brick this morning.

Bean Paste

This is how I make the bean paste I use in soups. I soak a few handfuls of dried beans overnight, about 12 hours. In the morning I rinse them and toss the water. These are cannellini beans:


Into a heavy pot. Bring to a boil then turn heat down to a simmer. Cover but leave vented about 1/2 inch. Stir periodically and add more water to keep beans submerged. After about 3 hours the beans will be very mushy. Let remaining water simmer away then. (Add water in small amounts, about 1/2 cup increments, slowly, down one side of the pot. You don't want to lose the simmer.)


This is what it looks like after it cools a little. It's not beautiful but it works great. Easier to digest than the intact beans you get from a can, and it creates a nice thick background for soups.


I store my bean paste in the fridge for a few days until I'm ready to put together a soup. I've slowly been transitioning my storage containers from plastic to glass. You can pick up these Pyrex bowls for a few dollars, very reasonable.

I use the same process as above for black beans, adzuki beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, etc. I also cook split peas and lentils this way, although I don't soak those overnight. And only red lentils form a paste.

Here is one soup using this cannellini bean paste I posted about recently: Cannellini Beans With Red Pepper And Rapini
________

Former Mr. Universe Turns 100

Manohar Aich, Former Mr. Universe turns 100:

"In this Friday, March 16, 2012 photo, Indian body builder Manohar Aich flexes his muscles as he poses for a photograph in Kolkata, India. Aich, who is only 4 foot 11 inches tall, won the Mr. Universe title in London in 1952. He turned 100 on March 17.

Aich says his ability to take his troubles lightly and remain happy during difficult times are the secrets to his long life.

"I never allow any sort of tension to grip me. I had to struggle to earn money since my young days, but whatever the situation, I remained happy," Aich said.

I was looking for an older photo of him and found this about his diet:

"Aich's diet: rice (along with other starches), pulses (dal), vegetables, fruits, mango, banana, jackfruit, and guava. Among non-veg items, he likes to have fresh-water fish."

And this about how he sculpted his body prior to using weights:

"He started bodybuilding exercises such as push-ups (earlier known as dips), pull-ups (known as chinning), squats, crunches (sit-ups). He used to do only free-hand exercises with thousands of repetitions in every set."

The site where the photo on the right came from said he was in his 50s here. That would be a little over 10 years after winning Mr. Universe, a title he took at age 40. Look at that waist.
________

Feeding

Native American parable:

"I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart," a grandfather tells his grandson. "One wolf is vengeful, angry and violent. The other is loving and compassionate."

"Which wolf will win?" the grandson asks.

"The one I feed," the grandfather answers.

________The photo is of a recently abandoned cardinal's nest. Those chicks were out flying before I could snap them.

High-Fat Diets Linked To Low Sperm Count

Dietary Fat And Semen Quality Among Men Attending A Fertility Clinic, Human Reproduction, 13 March 2012

The study involved 99 men.

"Men in the highest third of total fat intake had 43% lower total sperm count and 38% lower sperm concentration than men in the lowest third.

This association was driven by intake of saturated fats. Levels of saturated fatty acids in sperm were also negatively related to sperm concentration."

Also,

"The study found that the relationship between dietary fats and semen quality was largely driven by the consumption of saturated fats.

Men consuming the most saturated fats had a 35% lower total sperm count than men eating the least, and a 38% lower sperm concentration.

"The magnitude of the association is quite dramatic and provides further support for the health efforts to limit consumption of saturated fat given their relation with other health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease," said Prof Attaman [lead author]."

This was only an association; it does not show that high fat intake causes low sperm counts. Although, the authors state, "to our knowledge, this is the largest study to date examining the influence of specific dietary fats on male fertility."
________

Global Peanut Shortage

Has anyone noticed the price of peanut butter? It's really high and the stir kind that I like has been out of stock in my grocery store on and off since December. There was a note on the shelf indicating a global peanut shortage.

Peanut Shortage Will Require Demand Rationing, Oil World Says

"U.S. prices for peanuts, crushed to make cooking oil and used in Unilever’s Skippy peanut butter and Mars Inc.’s Snickers bars, jumped 49% in the past 12 months.

“World demand will need to be rationed this season."

Looks like droughts in the US and Africa have dried up peanut crops:

"Another hot, dry summer in key producing states and competition from more profitable crops like cotton have significantly shrunk the U.S. peanut crop this year.

Peanut farmers had to delay planting this spring because of the heat, which cut their production. Others saw the plants they'd put in the ground scorch during the summer when the shoots, which poke back into the ground to produce the peanut seed, burned as they touched the hot soil.

Georgia, the largest peanut-producing state in the country, saw record-breaking heat and a lack of rainfall that prevented some peanut seeds from even germinating in the field. Other plants that did grow were baked in the hot summer sun, producing poor-quality nuts or sometimes nothing at all."

With the warmer temperatures this Spring already, there may not be relief this year. Maybe China can make up our shortfall?
________That's a photo of my peanut butter.

Allergies, Inflammation, And Depression

Update: 12 March - I'm bringing this post to the top because my thoughts at the end of it, where I said depression could be related to inflammation, were confirmed by Weil in his section "Depression And Inflammation: The Cytokine Connection." I just got to this part:

"Researchers in the field of psychoneuroimmunology have developed a cytokine hypothesis of depression, which argues that proinflammatory cytokines are the key factor controlling the behavioral, hormonal, and neurochemical alterations characteristic of depressive disorders, including much of the depression that occurs with cancer."

He effectively squashed the serotonin hypothesis ... which I'll cover in an upcoming post. This inflammation hypothesis has a lot to recommend it, from my reading.
________ How about that. The antihistamine Benadryl was the basis for the antidepressant Prozac.

More from Dr. Weil's book:

"Because all of the early antidepressants had unpleasant side effects and serious potential interactions with other drugs and medications, pharmaceutical chemists continued their search for better ones with more specific action. But what specific action should it be? Some thought deficiency of norepinephrine was the biochemical cause of depression. Others argued for a serotonin hypothesis of depression and looked for compounds to prevent its breakdown or reuptake. The proponents of the serotonin hypothesis would win the day; their big discovery came in the 1970s, again, interestingly enough, as a result of work with antihistamine.

Very likely you have taken Benadryl (diphenhydramine) at some point in your life. It is one of the oldest and most widely used antihistamines, the first such drug to be approved by the FDA for prescription use. Benadryl is so sedating that it is now sold over the counter as a sleep aid. In the 1960s this tried-and-true drug was found to have an action independent of its effect on histamine; it selectively inhibited the reuptake of serotonin. By modifying this molecule, scientists at Eli Lilly and Company in the 1970s came up with the first safe and effective selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor [SSRI], fluoxetine, much better known by its brand name Prozac. The rest is history."

He says that Thorazine and other phenothiazines marketed as tranquilizers, and tricyclic antidepressants which preceded SSRIs were also derived from work with antihistamines:

"Although antihistamines are best known for blocking the effects of the compound responsible for certain immune responses, they also affect the brain."

So, if antihistamines affect the brain, I suppose histamines affect the brain?

Wikipedia says that one role of histamines is as neurotransmitters. And that receptors for histamine are found on cells of the central nervous system, affecting release of the mood-altering substances norepinephrine and serotonin.

And histamine may be just one of a number of inflammatory compounds that impact brain function:

"Over the past decade, a flurry of research has suggested allergic reactions cause feelings of fatigue and depression because of the release of proinflammatory cytokines, proteins released by immune cells rushing to protect an allergic person from pollen or other allergens that have entered the body, says Paul Marshall, a clinical neuropsychologist in the department of psychiatry at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

"It's thought that those cytokines directly affect the central nervous system, causing the release of a chemical in the brain called IL-1 beta that induces sickness behavior, such as weakness, lethargy, low mood and the inability to concentrate," Marshall says."
- Seasonal Allergies Could Spark Depression, Fatigue, USAToday, March 2008

Related: Allergies Can Increase The Risk Of Depression, New York Times, April 2011

It makes me wonder just how much of the epidemic of depression is related to inflammation, and, in turn, to not only seasonal allergies but to pro-inflammatory diets. Not unlike other inflammation-related diseases ... diabetes, heart disease, arthritis.
________

Spring!

The bush from which this bud poked looked like a knarled mess of brown twigs.


________

Why Aren't There Serious Third Party Candidates?

I thought this was interesting, in that he characterized our 2 parties as similar, and both center-right. And that as society becomes more unequal, as the middle class dissolves, political movements will become more distinct, and less compatible.

Zakaria: Why Aren't There Serious Third Party Candidates?, CNN, 7 March, 2012


________

EPA: Sewage Sludge Safe To Use As Fertilizer

Eric Jensen, owner of Jensen Farms, examines
cantaloupes in his field last September.

Cantaloupes from Jensen Farms have to date sickened 146 and killed 33 people. The illnesses were a result of infection by the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. This foodborne illness outbreak is one of the worst in US history, measured by number of deaths.

Today I read:

Exclusive: Biosolids Near Farm Examined For Listeria Link

"A company that sprays treated human waste on Colorado fields is being questioned as investigators look into the source of a listeria outbreak tied to Colorado-grown cantaloupe.

The human waste, known as biosolids ... come from New York and are shipped to Colorado to be disposed of because New York cannot handle the volume of its human waste.

The substance was applied to a field directly across from a Jensen Farms field years ago."

But the EPA says sewage sludge is safe to use as fertilizer because it has been "carefully treated and monitored."

"The use of these materials in the production of crops for human consumption when practiced in accordance with existing federal guidelines and regulations, presents negligible risk to the consumer, to crop production and to the environment."

So, the FDA, who is conducting the investigation, doesn't trust the EPA?

Interesting:

"Dr. David Lewis worked for the EPA for 31 years. In a peer-reviewed article in Environmental Science and Technology he showed that pathogens could easily remain undetected in untreated sewage sludge. Since the government is pushing the use of this sludge for agricultural fertilizer, Lewis was harassed and finally fired in May 2003. At a hearing on the role of science in shaping public policy he charged the EPA with "corrupt[ing] the scientific peer review process in order to support certain political agendas and further the agency's self-interest." "

________

What Is Organic Salmon?

________

Dog Playing Piano, Singing

What else could it be?


________

Bald Eagle And Crow

________Photo from US Forest Service.