Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The... (11 page)

Studies of Mayan remains lead to interesting conclusions about the long-term effects of a diet devoid of animal products. Archeologists found that the average male skeleton was about 165 centimeters during the early period of Mayan civilization, when meat was readily available. During later periods, the height of the average lower class male declined to 157 centimeters—about the height of the average Pygmy. At the same time, the average height of males from the ruling class increased to about 170 centimeters. The lower class subsisted mostly on corn and beans while the ruling classes were able to supplement their diet with small amounts of scarce animal protein.
⁹⁶
Will such extreme class differentiation divide the American population if it follows the guidelines of the new Food Pyramid—either through ignorance or by necessity?

Vegetarians often claim that animal products shorten life span, but the most cursory look at long-lived ethnic groups proves that this is not the case. Russians from the Caucasus Mountains, an area famous for longevity, eat lots of fatty meat and whole milk products. Studies of Soviet Georgian populations show that those who have the most meat and fat in their diets live the longest.
⁹⁷
Inhabitants of Vilcabamba in Equador, known for their longevity, consume a variety of animal foods including whole milk and fatty pork. The long-lived people of Hunza consume animal protein in the form of high-fat goat milk products. On the other hand, the vegetarian inhabitants of southern India have one of the shortest life spans in the world.
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Not only is it difficult to obtain adequate protein on a diet devoid of animal products, but such a diet often leads to deficiencies in many important minerals as well. This is because a largely vegetarian diet lacks the fat-soluble catalysts needed for mineral absorption. Furthermore, phytates in grains block absorption of calcium, iron, zinc, copper and magnesium. Unless grains are properly prepared to neutralize phytates, the body may be unable to assimilate these minerals. Zinc, iron, calcium and other minerals from animal sources are more easily and readily absorbed. We should not underestimate the dangers of deficiencies in these minerals. The effects of calcium and iron deficiency are well known, those of zinc less so. Even a minor zinc deficiency in pregnant animals results in offspring with deformities, such as club feet, cleft palates, domed skulls and fused and missing ribs. In humans, zinc deficiency can cause learning disabilities and mental retardation. In men, zinc depletion decreases fertility. Man's best source of zinc is animal products, particularly oysters and red meat.

Usable vitamin B
₁₂
occurs
only
in animal products. The body stores a supply of vitamin B
₁₂
that can last from two to five years. When this supply is depleted, B
₁₂
deficiency diseases result. These include pernicious anemia, impaired eyesight, panic attacks, schizophrenia, hallucinations and nervous disorders, such as weakness, loss of balance and numbness in the hands and feet. One study found that a very high percentage of inmates in psychiatric wards suffers from low serum levels of B
₁₂
.
⁹⁹
Vitamin B
₁₂
deficiency has been found in breast-fed infants of strict vegetarians.
¹⁰⁰
Fermented soy foods and spirulina contain compounds that resemble B
₁₂
but these forms are not absorbed by humans because they are not picked up by the "intrinsic factor," a specialized protein secreted in the stomach that allows B
₁₂
to be assimilated. In fact, the plant forms of B
₁₂
may even create B
₁₂
deficiencies.
¹⁰¹
(Viability of the intrinsic factor depends on a number of factors including calcium status, pancreatic enzymes and proper pH in the upper intestine. The ability to assimilate B
₁₂
frequently declines with age so that many elderly people suffer from B
₁₂
deficiency even though they continue to eat animal products.)

Because grains and pulses eaten alone cannot supply complete amino acids, vegetarians must take care to balance the two at every meal. Vegetarian diets also tend to be deficient in phosphorus as meat is the principle source of phosphorus for most people. This is another reason that vegetarianism has been linked to tooth decay. Vegetarians often have difficulty maintaining the proper acid-alkaline balance in the blood and tissues because adequate protein and minerals are needed for this complex regulation mechanism.

Careful examination of mammalian physiology and eating habits reveals that none of the higher animals is strictly vegetarian. All primates eat some form of animal food. Gorillas—mistakenly labeled vegetarian—eat insect eggs and larvae that adhere to leaves and fruit. Other primates eat crickets, flies, rodents, small antelope and other animals. Neither can cattle and other ruminants be labeled strictly vegetarian because they always take in insect life adhering to the plants they eat, and because their stomachs and intestinal tracts contain enormous amounts of protozoa. These microscopic animals help digest grasses and in turn are digested and utilized by the cow. Only during the present modern age has any group of humans been able to follow a diet strictly free of animal products. In less sanitary times, there were always insect parts in the food supply. Small insects with their larvae or eggs left on plant foods prevent B
₁₂
deficiency anemia among Hindus in India. Hindus also eat milk products, and some sects consume termites. When these Hindus move to England, where the food supply is subject to strict sanitary regulations, the incidence of pernicious anemia increases dramatically.
¹⁰²

Current wisdom dictates that Americans should at least reduce their consumption of red meats and the dark meat of birds because these meats contain more saturated fat than fish or white poultry meat; but even this stricture is ill-advised, especially for those who tend to be anemic. Red meat is rich in iron and zinc, both of which play important roles in the body's use of essential fatty acids; and, as we have seen, consumption of saturated fat poses no threat to our health.

A few highly publicized studies have claimed a link between consumption of meat and saturated fats with cancer, especially cancer of the colon.
¹⁰³
Studies claiming a correlation of animal product consumption with cancer do not stand up to careful scrutiny. In many of these studies, the data bases combined saturated fats from animal sources with hydrogenated vegetable oils, known to be carcinogenic.
¹⁰⁴
Furthermore, these studies did not include sugar and white flour in their surveys, even though researcher Lopez and others have shown that in so-called civilized countries high meat consumption and high sugar intake often occur together.
¹⁰⁵
Actually, the pathway for colon cancer is well understood. It involves high levels of omega-6 linoleic acid and hydrogenated fats, which in the presence of carcinogens and acted on by certain enzymes in the cells lining the colon lead to tumor formation.
¹⁰⁶
This explains why colon cancer is prevalent in some industrialized countries where there are many carcinogens in the diet and where consumption of vegetable oils and sugar is high; but in traditional societies, where sugar and vegetable oils are absent and the food is free of additives, meat-eating is not associated with cancer.

We have already seen that both fats and carbohydrates can be devitalized by processing and refining. The same can be said of proteins. Isolated protein powders made from soy, whey, casein and egg whites are currently popular as basic ingredients in diet beverages and many so-called health food products. These protein isolates are usually obtained by a high-temperature process that over-denatures the proteins to such an extent that they become virtually useless
¹⁰⁷
while increasing nitrates and other carcinogens.
¹⁰⁸
Protein powders are often consumed as part of a lowfat diet and can thereby lead to depletion of vitamin A and D reserves. Soy protein isolates are high in mineral-blocking phytates, thyroid-depressing phytoestrogens and potent enzyme inhibitors that depress growth and cause cancer.
¹⁰⁹

Diets in which unnatural isolated powdered proteins from soy, eggs or milk are fed to animals or humans cause a negative calcium balance that can lead to osteoporosis. Critics of meat-eating have seized on these results to claim that meat causes bone loss. But meat or milk—as opposed to protein powders—fed to human subjects do not cause calcium loss nor do they contribute to osteoporosis.
¹¹⁰
The healthy meat-eating groups studied by Weston Price did not show any evidence whatsoever of osteoporosis.

In summary, animal products are important sources of bodybuilding elements in the diet. Furthermore, animal fats supply vitamin A and vitamin D and animal protein is rich in minerals, vitamin B
₆
and vitamin B
₁₂
. The primitive tribes studied by Dr. Price especially valued certain high-vitamin animal products like organ meats, butter, fish eggs and shellfish for growing children and for parents of both sexes during the childbearing years. They also ate some animal food raw.

We cannot stress too highly that animal protein foods—meat, eggs and milk—always come with fat and this is how we should eat them. Animal fat supplies vitamins A and D needed for the assimilation of protein. Consumption of lowfat milk products, egg whites and lean meat can lead to serious deficiencies of these vital fat-soluble nutrients.
¹¹¹

Animal fats and gelatin-rich bone broths both spare protein, which means that meat goes a lot further when eaten in a broth or combined with animal fat.
¹¹²
Individuals who must restrict protein consumption for budgetary reasons should include liberal amounts of good quality animal fats and budget-sparing bone broth in their diets.

Any discussion of meat-eating should include the observation that temporary abstinence from animal products has been traditionally valued as a cleansing, healing practice. This is reflected in the dietary laws of many religions and in the practices of primitive peoples who engage in periods of sparse eating or complete fasting, often in late winter or early spring when food is scarce. This wisdom is justified by the fact that meatless diets often prove beneficial in the treatment of cancer and other diseases such as arthritis, kidney problems and gout. But problems arise when the practice is continued too long. These include caries, bone loss, nervous disorders and reproductive ailments. Strict vegetarianism is particularly dangerous for growing children and for women—and men—during their child-producing years.

We must be careful, as well, not to blindly extrapolate from the habits of carnivorous primitive peoples. There is a great deal to be learned from their dietary habits, but the fact is that we are not fundamentally cave men but beings with a divine component to our being. The desire to abstain from animal products, found so often in those of a spiritual nature, may reflect a longing to return to a former, more perfect state of consciousness that was ours before our souls took embodiment in physical bodies on the material plane. This longing attracts many to the belief that our bodies and souls can be purified, or that we can achieve spiritual enlightenment, through a meatless diet. Saintly individuals are often drawn to strict vegetarian habits, and some have been able to sustain themselves on a diet free of animal products for fairly long periods of time. (Some have even lived on no food at all; for many years St. Therese Neumann of Bavaria consumed only the consecrated host. Similar well-documented examples are found in the lives of Catholic and Hindu saints.) Even so, it is a mistake to think that meat-eaters lack spirituality—many highly spiritual people eat meat regularly. Perhaps they instinctively realize that when we eat animal products we are accepting, reverently and humbly, the requirements of the earthly body temple in which the soul is temporarily housed, even as we look forward to the day when we have completed our earthly assignment and our souls will be free to return to a higher condition, one in which we will no longer be dependent on foods provided by the animal kingdom. Seen in this light, strict vegetarianism can be likened to a kind of spiritual pride that seeks to "take heaven by force," and to shirk the earthly duties for which the physical body was created.

The rare St. Thereses on our planet usually lead celibate and contemplative lives. But most of us were born to live and work in the world and share the responsibility for producing healthy children. Animal products are essential for optimum growth and healthy reproduction. If you feel compelled to adopt the life of a saint or a sage and are attracted to vegetarianism, we urge you to wait until your later years to do so, when the period of growth and procreation is accomplished, and then to avoid fanaticism in its practice. If you choose not to eat red meat nor to serve it to your family, make sure to provide your loved ones with good quality dairy products and an adequate supply of seafood. If your religious beliefs proscribe both fish and meat, then a good supply of high-quality dairy products and eggs is essential. Raw milk or cheese must be used to provide vitamin B
₁₂
, as this essential nutrient is virtually destroyed by pasteurization. If your budget prevents plentiful consumption of animal products, it is important to supplement a balance of grains and pulses with at least a small amount of animal products each day, including animal fats rich in vitamins A and D. Animal studies indicate that animal protein in the amount of one sardine per person per day, combined with protein from grains and pulses, is generally sufficient to maintain reproduction and adequate growth,
¹¹³
but not necessarily to achieve robust good health.