POSTED ON 16 FEBRUARY 2012 BY BRODRICK KENT

"Organic" has become quite the buzz word in recent years as health conscious consumers do their best to reduce their risk of exposure to a growing number of toxic pollutants turning up in our water and food supply. 

When a food is classified as being “certified organic” this reassures the shopper that the food growers and manufacturers have adhered to strict codes of practice that promote optimal soil regeneration and the nutrient richness of plant and animal products. As well as minimizing one's exposure to herbicides, pesticides, drugs, antibiotics and any other potential contaminants that are commonly used in commercial farming practice. Even more incentive, for those informed about their food, shopping organic supports a more environmentally sound and sustainable way of farming.

As important as it is to promote this cleanliness standard, for all the right reasons above, some industry groups, naively, over promote the significance of abiding by this certified tick of approval, as if, this alone is going to protect us against all future ailments. The question remains, does the organic standard on meat products protect us from all issues associated with some of our most crippling diseases?

Following are just some of the more well established facts that few are told about meat consumption and human health. 

1. Healthy blood needs to be slightly alkaline (pH of 7.35 -7.45) to counteract the effects of acid-forming conditions such as stress, lack of exercise and poor eating habits. The digestion of acid-forming foods, meats, fish, poultry, eggs and most dairy products impairs this delicate balance, leading to a condition called metabolic acidosis. In an act of efficiency, our body calls upon its largest calcium stores, our bones, to neutralize the excess acid.1,2 Prolonged blood acidosis can lead to a bone mineral deficiency called osteoporosis. Cancer cells also thrive amongst acidity. 

2. Red meat and dairy are the primary source of an amino acid called methionine. When metabolised methionine forms another toxic amino acid called homocysteine. Homocysteine generates large amounts of damaging free radicals that attack cell tissue, cholesterol and blood fats, causing premature aging and disease.3

3. No other species cooks their foods. Barbecuing and grilling meats causes the creatine and natural sugars within the animals tissue, to heat up and coalesce, resulting in the formation chemical carcinogens called heterocyclic amines (HCA’s). Researchers attribute the large increase in colon cancer to this very factor.4 When you cook vegetables they just heat up with no adverse reactions.

4. Researcher and patient advocate Dr. John MacDougall says, “Powerful antioxidants, like beta carotene and vitamin C, that scavenge cell-damaging free radicals, are only found in plant foods (antioxidants neutralise free radicals). Dairy and meats are completely deficient in these cancer and heart disease fighting components.”5 The consumption of animal products results in a build up of free radicals in our blood and tissue, increasing oxidative stress, therefore, accelerating the rate of aging and disease. Animal products contain little, if any, immune building properties. Filling up on meat, dairy and eggs displaces foods containing phytochemicals and antioxidants essential for building and maintaining a strong immune system. Plants provide a perfect balance of macronurtients to micronutrients - hence the reason they are called 'whole foods or balanced nutrition.'

5. Gut friendly bacteria thrive in a bowel filled with the remnants of starches, vegetables and fruits, because their preferred food is carbohydrates (dietary fibre). Healthy bacteria is essential for proper digestion, fermentation of foods and vitamin synthesis. Meat, chicken, fish and eggs contain no starch. A stomach full of starch-less foods promotes the growth of pathogens and will lead to an imbalance in good bacteria.6,7 As a consequence undigested food fragments (proteins) pass across the intestinal wall triggering immune responses that may lead to various health issues. 

6. Dietary fibre is made from densely packed, microscopic sugar molecules (carbohydrates). It is mostly undigestible and forms the bulk of your stool. Fibre keeps you regular, binds to excess hormones, toxins and other by-products, eliminating them in the faeces before they re-enter the blood through the large intestine where they could cause havoc. Dietary fibre ferments in the lower intestinal tract and forms a by-product called butyrate. Butyrate is powerful promoter of cancer cell death.8 Animal products contain zero fibre and cause dehydration and constipation. The perfect bowel movement is soft, usually unformed and easy to pass (the passage may be tubular). Frequency of movements can be up to three times a day!9

7. Believe it or not, but inoffensive smelling gas is a sign of good health. The fermentation of carbohydrates produces odourless gasses. However, a sign of poor digestion is the foul smelling bowel odors from the putrefaction of sulfur compounds found in meat, eggs and predigested milk sugars (lactose), from dairy products.10,11,12

8. Human protein needs are really low. The World Health Organization says that human protein needs are only 2.5% of total calories and set the standard at 5% (20/30 gm daily) to ensure people safely consume enough.13 Plants provide the perfect amount of protein(s) consistent with our biological needs (even for those engaged in strength training programs!).14 Animal products such as meat, chicken, dairy and eggs are high in protein, especially the sulfur containing proteins the worst kind. Protein isn’t an inefficient fuel for our body. Excess protein must be broken down by the liver into urea and other by-products and excreted by the kidneys in the urine. This continual breakdown and elimination of protein is stressful and over some years can lead to liver dysfunction, kidney stones and renal failure.15,16 This same function can cause chronic dehydration as the kidneys prioritize cleansing the body of these toxic sulfur compounds and extract water from surrounding tissue to flush out broken-down proteins and other impurities from the body. Plant proteins are configured differently, compared to animal based protein and are not toxic. Also, plants will not create protein overload. 

9. Iron, a mineral, is the most abundant trace element in the body. Iron is essential for energy as it is a component of haemoglobin production (the red pigment in red blood cells) that transports oxygen to every cell. As important as it is, too much iron is toxic.17,18 Excess iron spawns large amounts of those damaging free radicals. Excess free radicals cause everything from wrinkles to heart disease, cancer and everything in between. Low iron is rarely due to lack of intake, rather things that bind to iron aiding in its absorption (poor gut health). Plants, especially leafy greens, contain non-haem iron that is accompanied by bioflavonoids, regulators that will give you enough iron for your nutrition, but not too much so you become toxic. Conversely, haem iron, found in animals foods does not contain bioflavonoids. You can just about absorb all the iron from a steak, whether its a health benefit or not!

10. Cholesterol is a fatty waxy substance made by all animals, including humans. It is used in the production of hormones and is an essential component in membranes and our cells walls. However, when we consume dietary cholesterol, only found in meat, chicken and eggs, it tends to stay in the blood.19 The accumulation of dietary cholesterol, combined  with excess free radicals, is what leads to the formation of arterial plaques, from lipid pro-oxides, that cause heart disease, the leading cause of death in Western countries. Researchers who are successfully reversing this condition, using food as medicine, say that heart disease is a food born illness that need not exist and if it does exist, it need not progress. Angiograms (X-rays) show when dietary cholesterol is removed and patients adopt a carbohydrate rich, low fat whole foods plants based diet, arteries that were so clogged and damaged they collapsed, heal and reopen.20 

11. Consistent with the recommendations from the World Health Organization, the U.S National Academy of Sciences says that human fat requirements, similar to protein, are very low, around 1-3% of total calories. Women need a minimum of 1.1gms daily and for men its 1.6gms.21 A diet based on starches, vegetables and fruit provides this healthy amount, as well as the right types of fats. These are alpha linolenic and linoleic acids. These fatty acids are converted to Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. When we eat animal foods that are full of cholesterol and excess fat, especially the artery clogging saturated fat, we not only promote vascular disease and insulin resistance, but hormones imbalances as well. High levels of fat stimulate the body's production of oestrogen. Elevated levels of oestrogen are responsible for severe symptoms of pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) and breast cancer is hormone dominant, a disease associated with excess oestrogen.22  Additionally, excess fat compromises nitric-oxide production, a substance that keeps the arterial walls soft and supple. The inhabition of nitric-oxide can result in arterial constriction for several hours after the consumption of a high fat meal.23

12. Type 2 diabetes is a condition caused by the over consumption of empty carbohydrates and food fats from animal products and free oils. Inside our cell walls we have a tiny amount of fat, called intracellular myo-lipid, that is kept on hand for quick energy use. Fatty diets cause an excess accumulation of intracellular fat that blocks insulin as it attempts to escort glucose into the cell for energy production. This results in a build up of blood glucose, consequently, low energy, better known as insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes. When researchers removed free oils and animal fats and placed patients on a low fat, whole foods plant based diet, they increased insulin sensitivity and successfully reversed this condition and cease their continuation of medication.24,25

13. Dairy is designed for one thing - to promote rapid growth. The protein and hormone composition of dairy is configured perfectly to allow a baby calf to double it’s birth size in a very short period of time. No animal, including humans, require any milk after the  age of weaning! Unnecessary stimulation of cell growth, in fully mature adults, can mean cancer initiation. Researchers attribute this to a hormone known as Insulin-Like -Growth-Factor or IGF1.26

Organic meat and dairy are good from the standpoint that they do not contain drugs, antibiotics and other dangerous contaminants. However, certified organic does nothing to protect you against dietary cholesterol, saturated fat and animal protein which current research shows are the causative factors in diseases of the vascular system, some allergies, autoimmune disorders, cancer and many more conditions associated with food imbalances and nutritional excess.

Some of the most comprehensive research investigating diet and its relationship to degenerative disease was conducted in rural Asia where the local people studied were living organic diet and lifestyles in their native land. When the China Study began the Chinese people were all consuming authentic plant based diets and the only deviation in the diet were the amounts animal based foods consumed. This was a very important fact because it allowed researchers to measure differences in health outcomes based on very small deviations in the amounts of animal based protein eaten. It was well documented that at the time in China there were no Westernized farming methods introduced and local the people were consuming grass fed animal products that were free from contaminants.

The results were consistent and profound! Those who ate the most animal based protein had the most heart disease and various types of cancers. Interestingly, those who ate low fat plant based diets had no(!) chronic illness.27

This elaborate project spanned more than 20 years and was the most comprehensive study ever done on human nutrition and degenerative disease. The lead author was Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a giant in the field of nutrition research, from Cornell University, whose life work has been spent studying protein. Campbell’s extensive laboratory findings demonstrate that detriments attributed to protein consumption are due to the amino acid combinations that come together to form animal protein. These amino acid combinations (chains) do not change dependent on how the animal is grown such as organic agriculture, pasteurization (heat treatment) or homogenization.28

The distinct and reoccurring pattern throughout Campbell’s career was clear. All the thousands of nutrients found in plants, worked harmoniously together to maximize health and minimize disease. While, the exact opposite could be said for animal food consumption and human health. Many other prominent researchers are now coming to the same conclusions as Dr. Campbell and his colleagues. That is, humans are genetically and structurally designed to thrive on a diet based on high fibre starches, beans, legumes, fresh fruit and vegetables. 

However, today there remains a long standing belief, amongst the public, that meat is essential for human health. This lopsided paradigm is heavily advertised within industry circles, normally by those selling short term results or by individuals in positions of influence, who are promoting, rather than informing. This keeps the majority of people nutritionally confused and in the dark on such an important matter. Furthermore, greater problems loom, aside from our health issues. That is, our environment.

According to the United Nations the livestock industry emits twice as many carbon emissions as the transport industry. The UN also says, there is currently 7 billion people living on the planet with another 2 billion estimated to join us before 2050. It is estimated that each person drinks 2-4 glasses of water per day, however, most of our water is used up in food production. For example, to produce 1 kilo of beef uses 15,000 liters of water, while, it takes only 1,500 liters of water to produce a 1kilo of grain.29

If the health facts don’t resonate with people, maybe the future of our planet will. To say that we need to consume animals to be healthy, immediately condemns our environment, as there is simply not enough land, water or resources to feed the world's ever increasing population of people an animal based diet (especially organic). It is not half obvious who funds this false message.

Brodrick J Kent 16/02/2012

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