Food that KILLS

Hi everyone.

This is a very interesting pro vegan/vegetarian lecture by a medical specialist. I've watched it multiple times because it was very informative. Have any of you seen this? What are your thoughts about the presentation? 

If you have not seen this before an you are vegan/vegetarian or interested about it, I really encourage you to watch it. This is not a documentary about why killing animals is bad, or what happens to the animal before we eat it. Rather, it is purely focused on the health/diet sphere of concern. As such, it is not about ethics and I think that everyone on CC should take a peak (assuming of course that everyone on CC cares about their own health!).

The presentation is quite one-sided, but nonetheless I promise you that you will learn a wealth of knowledge. Here are the links, it is quite long, so if you don't have the time you can still watch snippets of it. It's pretty easy to catch on, no matter which part of lecture you start watching from. The presentation is quite nicely organized.

Food that kills - Part 1 of 6

Food That Kills - Part 2 of 6

Food That Kills - Part 3 of 6

Food that kills - Part 4 of 6

Food that kills - Part 5 of 6

Food that kills - Part 6 of 6

Wow!  I just watched Part 1, and it's truly interesting.  I plan to watch the other parts as I have time.  Thanks so much for posting the links.  I wish more people would take the time and interest to check them out!  We only get one body and we need to take care of it the best we can!  As the saying goes "garbage in, garbage out".  Well, that applies to what we eat as well!  Again, thanks for the links!

I've only had time to watch a bit of part 1. My only question is that does he get into the human diet from most of the time humans have been around?  Will watch more when I have time.

There are some cultures that have eaten a lot of animal flesh and not so much grain. Grains have only really been eaten for less than 10k years, which seems like a long time but we've been around for about 200k years.

I eat my grains but I make sure to prepare right, like soaking & some fermenting.  Maybe he goes into this later, if there was a written version that would be easier for me than watching a video.

For quite some time we've known that to be in good health for as long as possible we need to eat a balanced diet with plenty of vegetables, keep our weight in control, take regular exercise, drink moderately and not smoke.  That advice hasn't really changed for a long time.

I tried to watch Part 2 of the presentation but failed. Is it really necessary to show the clogged up arteries of heart-patients and so forth to make the point?  It's the fashion these days that for some reason it's not enough to make the argument verbally, but it has to be accompanied with a certain theatrical shock element and grisly visuals. (Thank you Gillian McKeith)  Maybe some people respond to that but, knowing human beings as I do, I suspect more people simply switch off.... as I did. .

Food alone isn't KILLING people... alcohol, smoking, lack of exercise and other factors are all in the mix.  I hope he makes that point somewhere along the way but, I'm afraid I didn't stay the course to find out.  If we only point the finger at 'food' that would be misleading.

Great lecture.  I watched the whole thing.  It just reinforces what I have been saying for a couple months and now I have material as proof against my meat eating skeptical husband.

About the grain argument, I don't believe that saying we've only eaten grains for 10k years means that before that, we only ate meat; in fact, when we were hunters and gatherers (and even the few hunter/gatherer tribes that remain today), our diet did consist of some meat, but VERY LITTLE. We're talking once per week. It is and was extremely hard to catch an animal and eat it, and the majority of our diet was made up of pulses, legumes, berries, nuts, vegetables, tubers, etc. No grains.

Try looking into raw foodism; I think that diet is closer to what our diet was like when we were hunters and gatherers. No grains, soy, or wheat gluten is involved at all in this diet.

The diseases that are routinely affecting people who are on a Western Diet today i.e. Diabetes, heart-disease, gallstones, cancers... have only become prevalent in the last 60-70 years.  So we don't have to go back 10,000 years to find the culprits, just 100 or so.  What's changed?

What's changed is not especially our consumption of grains, fat, gluten, or even meat especially.  But there's been an enormous change in the numbers of mass-produced, long-life, 'artificial' foods developed during the 20th Century to meet the demand for convenience.  Simple example, turn of the 20th Century the typical American was eating & drinking about 5lbs of sugar per year.  Today that number is closer to 200lbs plus another 20lbs of HFCS on top. 

When working out what has had the most impact in the last 70-100 years, I'd be tempted to start my research a little closer to the present rather than 10,000 years in the past.

Great points gi-jane! I wish there was a 'like' button on posts like there is on Facebook, so I could have just pressed 'like' instead of posting to tell you I liked it lol!

Thanks a lot for sharing. I am glad to be a Vegan.

Original Post by gi-jane:

The diseases that are routinely affecting people who are on a Western Diet today i.e. Diabetes, heart-disease, gallstones, cancers... have only become prevalent in the last 60-70 years.  So we don't have to go back 10,000 years to find the culprits, just 100 or so.  What's changed?

What's changed is not especially our consumption of grains, fat, gluten, or even meat especially.  But there's been an enormous change in the numbers of mass-produced, long-life, 'artificial' foods developed during the 20th Century to meet the demand for convenience.  Simple example, turn of the 20th Century the typical American was eating & drinking about 5lbs of sugar per year.  Today that number is closer to 200lbs plus another 20lbs of HFCS on top. 

When working out what has had the most impact in the last 70-100 years, I'd be tempted to start my research a little closer to the present rather than 10,000 years in the past.

Excellent point.  I do stay away from processed food and the majority of my meals are made from scratch.  (with the exception of pounding flour out of wheat, etc.) 

I also think portion sizes have increased due to cheaply available mass produced food (subsidies, etc.).

I agree with GI Jane (on the sugar and fast food diets) as well as the lady who mentioned that we mostly survived on a raw food diet before switching to a meat/grian diet

I want to add that I think that meat consumption HAS raised in the last 100 years as the use of antibiotics and such helped to increase the output. I haven't watched Food Inc, but  I think that would be present in that movie about how our food has changed so much.

Meat consumption has not risen all that much, largely because it's still a relatively expensive commodity.... Antibiotics mean that there is a higher yield from fewer cattle. 

you're saying that antibiotics...cause cows to be bigger...therefore you use less cattle...to make more meat?

You MAY be in reference to steroids, but to antibiotics you are not. The antibiotics are definitely there for the purpose of cramming more cattle together in a smaller space without the consequences of massive loss due to illness.

Perhaps you meant you can get a higher yield from Less amount of space?

Actually, antibiotics do make cattle grow bigger, faster, because it allows them to eat more grain without rupturing their stomach -- grain is not a "natural" food for ruminants.

Although I agree with GI-Jane about the changes (for the worse) in the Western Diet over the past half century, I would also add that many Western Diseases take time to develop, and the longer life span we are enjoying (?) is also a factor in developing more diseases.

For most of our history, we have been constrained in our diet by food availability, and forced to "work" to get food.  I think there are many factors in the modern obesity epidemic and the diseases associated with our modern, affluent lifestyle:

• Poor quality (low nutrition) high calorie foods that take virtually no "work" to procure.
• Too little activity built into our lives.  I was always amazed when I lived in France at how few people "exercised" or played sports, but how active their lives were.  A lot of movement was built into everyday life.  And there was very little obesity.
• Long life that comes from improved medical interventions rather than good genes and good luck and healthy lifestyle choices.
• Portions are too big, and calories from sugar and fat are too big a percentage in what most people eat.

Original Post by dkenworthy:

Although I agree with GI-Jane about the changes (for the worse) in the Western Diet over the past half century, I would also add that many Western Diseases take time to develop, and the longer life span we are enjoying (?) is also a factor in developing more diseases.

That's a really important point.   When people advocate diets dating pre the development of agriculture they often forget that the average lifespan was well under 40.

I watched part one and found it pretty interesting [and funny], but I don't have time to watch anymore or join in with the conversation here, although some good points have been mentioned.
[okay, back to my psychology homework...]

Thank you for sharing it with us, sleepybum

"That's a really important point.   When people advocate diets dating pre the development of agriculture they often forget that the average lifespan was well under 40."

Not really true; my first major was Cultural Anthropology, and we did a lot of studies on the !Kung bushmen of the Kalahari desert, as they are one of the last surviving hunter and gatherer tribes on the planet, and in being so, they give us a great glimpse into what life might have been like before agriculture.

It must be noted that the !Kung inhabit the Kalahari desert, which is not known for it's abundance of resources. Still, the bushmen live well into their 60's and 70's. It's pretty much the same as our lifespan, though when they die it is usually because of something modern medicine could prevent, rather than lifestyle diseases like cancer.

Here's a great article on the !Kung and their lifespan and lifestyle:

http://tobyspeople.com/anthropik/2006/01/thes is-25-civilization-reduces-quality-of-life/

this video was amazingly interesting to me. The only thing that seemed outdated was his bit on tofu. I'm a new vegan, and am trying to stay away from having too much soy because of estrogen levels and, well, it's just never good to have too much of anything!

I've shared Foods That Kill with my mother and a vegetarian friend of mine...they are both starting to join me in veganism!

Original Post by gi-jane:

The diseases that are routinely affecting people who are on a Western Diet today i.e. Diabetes, heart-disease, gallstones, cancers... have only become prevalent in the last 60-70 years.  So we don't have to go back 10,000 years to find the culprits, just 100 or so.  What's changed?

What's changed is not especially our consumption of grains, fat, gluten, or even meat especially.  But there's been an enormous change in the numbers of mass-produced, long-life, 'artificial' foods developed during the 20th Century to meet the demand for convenience.  Simple example, turn of the 20th Century the typical American was eating & drinking about 5lbs of sugar per year.  Today that number is closer to 200lbs plus another 20lbs of HFCS on top. 

When working out what has had the most impact in the last 70-100 years, I'd be tempted to start my research a little closer to the present rather than 10,000 years in the past.

 Well, they have just covered heart disease in ancient Egyptian mummies. Of course, they were from the royal court. Or wealthy. Which meant that they most likely ate meat. Probably too much. Just like we do.