The Vegetarian Advantage

FREQUENTLY at professional and scientific luncheons or banquets, colleagues and friends will ask, "Why don't you eat meat?" Wives at the supermarket compare the high cost of food as they wait in line to check out, and in these days of high meat prices, not in frequently one is questioned, "What's the reason you don't eat meat?"

Today, more than ever before, we can reply with scientific reasons. As you keep several of these facts and figures in mind, you will find opportunity to share them with others.

Meat and Cardiovascular Disease

More than a million Americans suffer heart attacks each year. Six hundred thousand of them die. Twenty-five percent of these succumb within three hours of onset of symptoms. ¹

Medical authorities are finding more and more scientific evidence linking heart attacks to diet, especially diets high in saturated fats and cholesterol.

The Framingham (Massachusetts) studies on more than five thousand persons showed that a person with blood cholesterol of greater than 260 mg. percent had four times the probability of a heart attack as the person whose blood cholesterol stayed below 200 mg. percent. ²

Dr. Ancel Keyes ³ (University of Minnesota) traveled to many geographic areas doing research on dietary-fat intake and the incidence of heart disease. He found that in Japan 10 per cent of total calories in the diet came from fat. Examination of death certificates and autopsy material showed virtually no arteriosclerotic heart disease. A study of the Bantu tribe in Africa showed essentially the same findings, with 15 percent of their calories coming from fat.

One of the most interesting aspects of Dr. Keyes's studies was a comparison study of Japanese families who had moved to Hawaii and Los Angeles. While in Japan, these families had blood cholesterols of 120 mg. per cent with 13 per cent of their calories coming from fat. In Hawaii, their average cholesterol was 183 mg. per cent, and the fat consumption had risen to 32 per cent of the total calories. The Los Angeles members of these Japanese families had blood cho lesterols averaging 213 mg. per cent, and the fat intake provided 45 per cent of their total calories (the typical American figure). The study group found that heart at tacks and cardiovascular deaths increased proportionately to the cholesterol increase.

During the Korean war some interesting observations were made by studying Korean soldiers when these men were fed by the Korean mess kitchens. Seven per cent of their calories came from fat, and their blood cholesterols were very low. Within a few weeks after the American Army began to feed them (with almost 50 per cent of calories coming from fat) a marked rise in cholesterol was observed. ⁴

These and numerous other studies caused leading scientists to issue statements such as the following: "With few exceptions (Trappist monks, Seventh-day Adventists, low-income Negroes), virtually all strata of our population . . . ingest a habitual diet that is potentially atherogenic, i.e., a diet high in total fats, total calories, saturated fats and cholesterol. The prevention of coronary heart disease is not a vaccine but chiefly a change in living habits." ⁵

"The saturated fat content of the diet must be reduced. The principle reduction of fat in the diet must come from two main food groups that contribute most of the saturated fat; i.e., dairy products and meats." ⁶

The American Heart Association states: "Studies have indicated that many people who show no evidence of heart disease are in creasing their risk of heart attack by following a diet that is high in saturated fat and cholesterol. The typical American diet is rich in eggs, which are high in cholesterol, and meats, butter, cream and whole milk, which are high in animal (saturated) fats. These foods tend to raise the level of cholesterol in the blood, and a high blood cholesterol level contributes to the development of arteriosclerosis." ⁷

The U.S. Government has now created the Inter-Society Commission for Heart Disease Resources. This group suggests that:

1. Caloric intake from saturated fat be less than 10 percent of total calories.

2. Egg yolk, bacon, lard, and suet be avoided.

3. Cholesterol intake be less than 300 mgs. a day.

4. High-quality vegetable-protein product development be encouraged.

It is never too late to make a change for the better. Studies on human volunteers at Loma Linda University showed that blood cholesterols could be lowered 25 percent in just seventeen days by eliminating meat and animal products. ⁹

The Risk of Cancer

Consider the following facts: 344,000 Americans died of cancer in 1972 (about 950 a day, or one every 1.6 minutes)

665,000 new cases diagnosed 1,025,000 under medical treatment 53,000,000 Americans now living will develop cancer. ¹⁰

In 1930 there were 200 cancer deaths per 100,000 population. By 1985 there will be 400 deaths per 100,000 population. Leukemia has increased 15 per cent since 1950, to more than 40,000 deaths per year. ¹¹

One hundred million chickens die of lymphomatosis and leukemia per year. ¹² Approximately 71,500 cattle in 1967 had malignant eye tumors; when discovered, only the head was condemned; the carcass could be sold for food. ¹³

In 1910, Francis Rous published a report of his work in transmitting malignant chicken tumors to healthy chickens by cell-free extract obtained from the tumor. (For this he was given a Nobel Prize in 1966.) ¹⁴

Dr. J. J. Bittner in 1936 showed how mice with breast cancer transmitted cancer to their off spring through the milk. ¹⁵

In the May, 1967, Cancer Bulletin,¹⁶ researcher Leon Dmochowski reported finding viruslike particles in lymph nodes of twenty-eight patients with leukemia and lymphomas. In the same issue, R. A. Dutcher re ported finding viruslike particles in both the mammary glands and the milk of leukemic cattle.

The gap between animal and human cancer continues to close. Dr. Frank Rauscher of the National Institute reported in Medical World News of April 19, 1968, that sixty viruses are now known to cause virtually all kinds of cancer in every major group of animals. Of the two viruses that can be detected in human cancer, one is identical with the virus that causes leukemia in animals. ¹⁷

Dr. J. T. Grace injected human leukemic blood into small animals and these developed not only leukemia but other kinds of cancer as well. ¹⁸ As far back as 1956, Dr. Wendell Stanley won a Nobel Prize for his work in human cancer. His research led him to believe that viruses cause most human cancers. The June 18, 1956, issue of Newsweek quoted him as saying: "It is known that viruses can lurk in the human body for years, even a lifetime; some cause trouble and some do not ... in some cases the virus might become active, through circumstances such as aging, dietary indiscretions, hormonal imbalance, chemical radiation, or a combination of stresses, and malignancies may follow."

These viruses must enter the body in some manner. One of the most likely possibilities is through meat eating.

In 1964 Lijinsky and Shubik reported in Science that a charcoalbroiled T-bone steak (2.2 pounds) has eight microgram/kg of benzopyrene. ¹⁹ This is one of the carcinogenic (cancer-producing) substances also found in cigarette smoke. Smoking and Health reported that as little as two micrograms cause cancer when injected under the skin of experimental animals. ²⁰

Zoonoses

Zoonoses are diseases of animals that can be transmitted to man. Some 150 of these diseases are recognized in medical-veterinary circles. A partial list will suffice to illustrate the extent of the problem: ^{21, 22}

Bacterial Diseases

anthrax, brucellosis, salmonella, streptococcosis, tuberculosis, tularemia, leptospirosis, melioidosis

Parasitic Diseases

Protozoa--toxoplasmosis

Metazoa--flukes (Trematodes), lung, liver, and intestinal flukes from eating raw fish and crayfish; tape worms (Cestodes), from raw pork, beef, or fish

Round worms (Nematodes), trichinosis, best known from raw pork, but also giant kidney worm, Angiostrongyliasis and Gnathostomiasis from raw fish and shrimp

Rickettsial viral and fungal diseases could also be included in a more complete list.

Increase in Animal Disease

In 1968, in the U.S.A., 763 swine herds with 99,310 animals were destroyed (28,000 in Georgia alone) because of hog-cholera outbreaks. In 1967 in a two-month period, 280,000 cattle, sheep, and swine were destroyed in Great Britain because of an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease. ²³ Ten percent of all farm animals die each year because of disease or parasitism. The most recent Year Book of Agriculture devoted to animal diseases (1956) gives these figures for animals dying per year:

1.5 million cattle

2.5 million calves

7.5 million sheep and lambs

40.5 million hogs and pigs

235.0 million chickens

7.2 million turkeys.

Many, when found ill, are quickly sent to market, where overworked veterinary meat inspectors undoubtedly miss many, but where during the same years the following were rejected. (These figures represent only federally inspected meat.)

99,000 hogs and 1.6 million

parts of hogs' carcasses

65,000 sheep

120,000 cattle

330,000 parts of cattle

2.4 million beef livers

In 1967, 459,881 parts of cattle were passed after removing infected organs and tissues, and 3,227,605 parts of swine were passed after removing the diseased portions. ²⁴

Pollution

DOT levels of four to five parts per million in fish and meat are allowed for interstate commerce. In Lake Michigan more than a mil lion salmon (Coho) have perished from DOT contamination. Recently the Michigan Department of Agriculture seized more than 250 tons of canned salmon when inspection showed dangerously high DOT levels. ²⁵

Mercury poisoning has become a real threat to fish and shellfish eaters. The tragedy of Minamata Bay, Japan, occurring between 1953 and 1970, is an extreme example. Here, forty-six died a horrible death and scores more were permanently crippled or handicapped physically, mentally, or emotionally as a result of eating "large quantities of mercury-contaminated fish and shellfish containing an estimated 10 to 20 parts per million of methyl mercury chloride." ²⁶

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has established the safe mercury level for food products as below 0.5 parts per million (ppm). In 1970, fish in Lake Erie had mercury up to 10 ppm. Thirty-five to 50 percent of fish caught in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers (California) had levels over 0.5 ppm. The State health department warned Californians to limit fish consumption to one meal per week. ²⁷

In 1971, over 12 million cans of tuna were found to contain mercury above the 0.5 ppm level and were removed from the market. That same year about 4 million pounds of swordfish were taken off the market.

Other things to be considered are hormones, tranquilizers, and antibiotics, which are administered to animals by man; radioactive substances, which animals ingest with their food; and sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, and sodium sulfite, which are used as antispoilage agents in many prepared meats. These agents, in addition to causing nausea and vomiting, headache and flushing, and even cardiovascular collapse, have been shown to be carcinogenic. ²⁸

So far we have focused our attention exclusively on the diseases and hazards avoided by refraining from the use of flesh foods. Next month we will consider the positive benefits to be obtained from following a vegetarian dietary regimen.