vegan debate

[Guest guest]

Misinformation abounds in my opinion, and so I shall

opine. 'There are nutrients in animal food that you will

not find in vegetation sources.' My mother told me this

and I think nearly all meat eaters believe this. Poor

elephant. There is no basis in fact for this assertion.

B12 is produced in the gut of most(?) animals, but poor

old human being misses out. I doubt it. I feel that the

environment in the gut of most humans is not conducive

to B12 production but this environment can be changed.

Methionine and cysteine are particularly important,

but there are plenty of vegetarian sources :

100g methionine cystine

almonds .227 .358

brazil nuts 1.01 .349

cashews .274 .283

peanut .323 .338

pumpkin seed .417 .228

sesame seed .897 .523

sunflower seed .420 .383

lentils .238 .368

mushroom .179 .196

rice .155 .135

eggs .392 .292

beef .737 .332

( From USDA )

So how much do we really need? Depends...

Any vegan that does not eat sesame seeds is not into

basic nutrition. Thus methionine and cysteine are not

an issue for a sensible vegan.

( B6 is required with these : bananas are excellent! )

Sugar : I propose that insulin resistance is the

result of overstimulation of the pancreas. And that a

rapid rise in the blood sugar flowing to the pancreas

is the major cause of this overstimulation. And that

this rapid rise in blood sugar is due to simple sugar

being absorbed through the stomach, and then flowing

directly to the pancreas as very high blood sugar level.

Note that the sugar in fruit is not simple sugar and the

fruit sugar takes time to break down into the simple

sugar. Thus the sugar release from the stomach is

slow. Also the fruit moves into the intestines where

the sugar released does not go directly to the pancreas.

Hence added sugar is much much worse than fruit sugar

in insulin resistance.

Carrot juice has complex sugar which should be digested

easily, especially if chewed properly. To suugest that

carrot juice is involved in insulin resistance is harsh.

Sugar : candida. Does fungus prefer complex sugar

or simple sugar. Almost certainly the simple sugar. So

the fungus can grow nearer the stomach when added

sugar is taken. Not that this is very relevant to the whole

candida issue. Good digestion and good intestinal

bacteria are the issue. Digestive enzymes and a lactobac

supplement is indicated. Sure, carbohydrate foods need

to be reduced initially to overcome high levels of candida,

but fruit is fine if digested properly in small to moderate

amounts.

Stomach acid is important in digestion. Naturopaths

and doctors tell me that older people don't produce much

acid. I hate this. What happens is that a progressive

deterioration occurs due to lifestyle : change your diet

and stresses and then maybe deterioration will slow.

The long living diets have one noticeable thing in common:

the overall calorie intake is quite low. Mice fed half the

calories live twice as long. It seems that if we correct

basic factors causing illness and live with low stress on

a sensibly balanced diet we can slowly adjust to a low

calorie diet.

Which brings me to the issue of basic factors

which produce ill-health. The vegan diet has one major

factor : gluten. This is found mostly in wheat and also

other cereals, but not rice. Autistic chidren have had

their intestinal linings damaged by various means. This

allows the gluten peptide into the bloodstream. Along

with casein this causes the major symptoms of autism.

This is known because removing gluten and casein from

their diet reduces their symptoms to nearly nil and allows

normal childhood development to proceed. Therefore

(and for lots of other reasons) gluten is dangerous and

requires serious consideration and experimentation.

Mercury, lead, aluminium ... deserve a mention

because high levels of these will produce ill effects

regardless of one's diet. Also viruses get a mention, but

a good diet that promotes the immune system should

be able to handle these.

Over-simplified but my views :

Moses.