The above animation is a highly simplified depiction of what happens to the human body on a diet of meat, dairy produce, and processed foods packed with preservatives, sugar and residual agrochemicals (fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides). This kind of diet is harmful to our good (i.e., varied, balanced) gut microbiota.
You are what you eat
Excluding neurones, every cell in our body undergoes constant renewal. Depending on the type of cell, their lifespan varies from a few days (for stomach and gut lining cells) to ten years for bones. Old cells die off and are replaced by new ones our body makes from elements taken from our food. So, what we eat is literally transformed into our body. It’s your choice whether to build up your body from the corpses of tortured animals or from plants. You decide whether your body is a garden or an animal graveyard…
The invisible organ
Bacteria, fungi, and numerous other micro-organisms are an integral part of us. They live symbiotically on us and inside of us, as long as we look after ourselves and live a psychophysically balanced life. The average person’s gut hosts from one to two kilograms of micro-organisms, mostly bacteria. Their role is underestimated, but thanks to them we are alive: they help us digest food, transforming it from indigestible to easily absorbable forms. They raise defensive barriers, and their digestion produces metabolites, which are essential transmitters for the healthy functioning of our whole body. So, the key to good health is taking care of the biodiversity and balance of life within us – the invisible organ known as microbiota.
Harmful beliefs about nutrition
Thousands of books have been written about how diet affects our health, but still very few people are aware of what to eat, and how much. This is because their “knowledge” is mostly acquired from adverts generously sponsored by the meat, dairy and pharmaceutical industries, which leads to harmful beliefs about nutrition. The pharmaceutical industry has no interest in people being healthy, or it would cease to exist… Childhood experience is another poor source of information, as it fails to take into account that the food market has altered diametrically in the past few decades – and not for the better. Many food products sold to people nowadays are actually poison. Our food intake has also changed quantitatively. Historically, we never used to eat as much meat and dairy as we do today. So-called prosperity is reaping its deadly harvest through diseases of affluence. Sadly, obesity, tumours, circulatory disorders, type-2 diabetes and autoimmune diseases are now considered a normal fact of life. Big Pharma grows rich on both fronts – pumping antibiotics into animals cramped together in horrendous factory-farming conditions, while at the same time peddling “medicines” to people with diseases of affluence, some caused by eating animal products.
We are addicted to food. It serves not only to feed us, but to bolster our egos and “eat away” all our problems, loneliness, stress and complexes. We eat mechanically in front of our TVs and phones. We eat sloppily and hurriedly. Whatever our ailment, doctors prescribe us drugs that mask the symptoms, without even trying to find – let alone cure – the root cause. Why are only a tiny percentage of the products on sale in shops branded as “health foods”? And why are half of them healthy in name only and mostly fads for the rich? It’s time to say it straight: the sickest aspect of all is the profit-based corporate system. To break out of it, we need to start thinking for ourselves. So, what’s wrong with our food? Everything! There is a very apt, but little-known saying: illnesses aren’t hereditary, only eating habits…
Currently, the majority of ingredients commonly accepted as “normal” are actually harmful to us. What’s more, many plant-based, potentially beneficial ones – mostly grains and cereals – are grown non-organically, hence contaminated with carcinogens.
It’s not diseases that are hereditary, but eating habits!
Currently, most of the products commonly considered “normal” components of the diet are harmful to us, and a large part of these plant, potentially beneficial – mainly grains and groats – is grown unorganically and thus contaminated with carcinogenic substances.
I am not a dietician and never will be, because I am not interested in the “paper” issued by SYSTEM. I am a practitioner. For the sake of human and non-human animals, I share here my knowledge of nutrition, which over the years has changed my life for the better!
Meat is Murder
People kill animals to eat, yet – slowly but surely – eating animals kills people through illness. Putrefactive bacteria cause meat to start rotting instantly, creating anaerobic conditions and an extremely acid pH that curbs the growth of good gut microbiota. The human intestine is very long, compared to our body length. Instead of passing quickly through the gut, as it does through the short digestive tract of predators, decaying meat clogs it up. Prof. Colin Campbell’s groundbreaking research described in the book The China Study offers scientific evidence that a traditional diet leads to illnesses, including cancer, whereas a healthy vegan diet is fully balanced and even curative. He demonstrates how what we eat is fundamental to gene expression. To put it simply, a plant-based diet “switches off” the genes responsible for disease, while a meat-and-dairy diet activates them. Even the World Health Organization has ranked red and processed meats alongside extreme carcinogens such as asbestos.
Drink Milk! You’ll Get Sick!
Dairy produce is an equally harmful category – another wide-ranging topic covered in many books (a few are listed below). I will outline only the major points affecting digestion. Casein, or cows’ milk protein, is essential for calves(!) to grow horns and hooves. Inside the human stomach, it turns, forming indigestible curds that literally stick to other foodstuffs, making them harder to digest. During the digestive process, casein breaks down to produce homocysteine, which blocks human veins and arteries. Casein’s inflammatory effects have also been proven. Over the past 70 years, cows’ milk yields have been raised artificially more than fourfold, including by administering the growth hormone RBST. The hormone boosts production of IGF-1 – an insulin-like growth factor that gets into the milk and, when ingested by humans, results in increased incidence of breast, prostate and colon cancers. Mother cows are physically incapable of coping with such intense “production” (or, rather, abuse of their bodies), which weakens them and frequently causes mastitis. As a result, they are given lots of antibiotics, also preventively, which enter the human digestive system though milk and its derivatives, and wreak havoc there. Remember the “Drink Milk! You’ll Grow Taller!” ad campaign? Yet more deceitful propaganda… In reality, even though dairy products are calcium-rich, paradoxically they decalcify bones, and research confirms they are a major contributing factor to osteoporosis. They also clog up our bodies with mucus, which leads to more frequent, increasingly severe allergies and upper respiratory tract infections in children and adults alike. Note that humans are the only species on Earth to drink milk not from their own mothers, long after infancy, which is absolutely unnatural. To misquote another advert: “Lactose intolerant? Surprise, surprise – you’re not a calf!” Milk products have never been safe for you. If you feel bad after eating dairy, your body is clearly telling you to give it up. Meanwhile, people are addicted to dairy produce, especially cheese, because when casein gets digested, it releases casomorphin, an opioid with effects similar to morphine, codeine and heroin! This natural mechanism makes cows’ milk act as a sedative for baby calves, and it also strengthens the maternal bond.
No gluten = No glyphosate
Gluten has a similar clogging effect on our gut, and the harm is compounded by the little-known fact that its main sources – wheat and oats – are grown in industrial monocultures and sprayed with Roundup (a herbicide containing glyphosate, a known carcinogen). The problem with glyphosate is that, apart from weeds in the field, it also kills micro-organisms in the soil – and in you, too. This is why even people who don’t have celiac disease (gluten allergy) often feel much better after giving up flour products (bread, pasta, manna, bulgur, couscous). Other crops commonly contaminated with glyphosate include corn, soya, millet, buckwheat, and oilseed rape. The herbicide is not only sprayed onto rape crops, but is also used to dry out the plants before harvesting. To guard ourselves from this poison – although it’s too late to do so completely, as the environment is too polluted already – we need to be very careful about the quality of foods we buy, and eat only certified organic produce. Otherwise, glyphosate destroys more gut microbiota with every mouthful.
The antinutritional value of highly processed foods
Processed foods – including vegan ones – are designed to leave us addicted. Ready meals are always pasteurised – sterilised at high temperatures and drenched in preservatives to slow the growth of any micro-organisms, thus extending their shelf life for as long as possible. Every time preservatives enter our digestive system through food, they reduce the growth and activity of its resident microbiota, thus hindering digestion and decreasing absorption. Basically, such products have no nutritional value, so a lot of fat, sugar and salt are added to make them appealing to our brains. Evolutionarily, our brains see these ingredients as an easy way to guarantee survival. They’re right, for stressful situations, but in the longer term, such thinking can be destructive. Moreover, research has shown that refined sugar, trans fats and salt literally make us more stupid – impeding our cognitive ability, reducing concentration, and slowing our reactions. I would even say that sometimes it’s better not to eat, than to eat such harmful food.
The gut is our second brain
Yes! It has been scientifically proven that 90% of serotonin – the feel-good hormone – is produced from tryptophan by bacteria in our gut. Apart from our mood, this hormone also regulates appetite, gut peristalsis, and digestive-juice secretion. If gut microbiota are out of balance, the hormone production is disrupted, leading directly to anxiety, mood disorders, and even depression. Fascinatingly, the digestive system has its own separate, enteric nervous system, connected to the brain via the vagus – the longest nerve running though the body. According to the latest research, the brain–gut–microbiota axis is vital for maintaining the body’s homeostasis, or psychophysical balance. The gut really is our second brain, and it needs looking after in order to feel good!
So, what should I eat?
The things that nobody ever advertises – PLANTS! Fruit and vegetables in particular, especially fresh, colourful, varied, organic ones They are alive, microbiologically rich, and packed with fibre, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other nutritional substances, such as proteins, healthy fats, and carbohydrates. Unlike refined sugar, plant sugars are not harmful. Legumes and algae in particular contain enough complete protein to cover all our requirements. Every healthy person’s diet should also contain seeds and nuts. But few are aware that they should be soaked properly in water for a long time beforehand, to remove growth inhibitors from the surface. These naturally occurring substances hinder or even prevent us from digesting nuts and absorbing their nutrients. Whole grains and cereals are also healthy and essential, but only if grown organically. According to the less-is-more principle, it’s better to eat less good food than more bad food. These days, food quality is fundamental.
Medicinal fasting
We increasingly hear about the benefits of brief, intermittent fasting. Yoshinori Ohsumi, a microbiologist at the University of Tokyo, won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on autophagy – the bodily process for eliminating damaged cells and accumulated metabolites, which is activated by short-term fasting. Even a fast of sixteen-plus hours launches the body’s built-in self-healing mechanism, without any doctors or medicines. So, when you feed your body with healthy, plant-based, mostly unprocessed and raw foods, you are refuelling it to create new, healthy cells. If the body is allowed to take a break from digestion, it has time to regenerate naturally. If it’s constantly dealing with food, how can it be expected to replenish cells or repair damage?
The meat patriarchy
No matter how I try to explain the wonders of a plant-based diet, in the end I always hear the meat-eaters’ conclusive argument that mankind has always eaten meat. But what if I told you that – once again – you’ve been lied to? Recent interpretations of our prehistory merely indicate that, at one point, our species became scavengers. It occurred once we were able to control fire and cook (boil) meat, which stopped us dying out from food poisoning. Generally, the idea of humans as predators has been promoted – as if it were something to be proud of – ever since the mid-18th-century Industrial Revolution. Food and pharmaceutical companies have spent millions on crafting an image of the macho, meat-eating, whiskey-drinking, cigarette-smoking cowboy as the epitome of pseudo-masculinity. Research has already shown that meat is as harmful as cigarettes and alcohol. This image of the male hunter as the family’s sole provider was also created to entrench the patriarchy and belittle the role of gatherer women, who were the true providers since the dawn of time.
In short, dear friends, it’s time you started thinking for yourselves about your health, animal welfare, and the future of our planet. Opting for a nourishing, plant-based diet is the only way for the Earth to survive, and a conscious choice to live the longest, healthiest life you possibly can.
But don’t just take my word for it! Read up on the subject online and in books by doctors who have dared to speak out against the system. It will open your eyes to the truth of how companies profit from the killing of animals, people, and the environment. As a climate catastrophe looms closer, every enlightened, conscious person fighting for the rights of Earthlings (humans and all other animals) is worth their weight in gold #goVegan
Films:
“Cowspiracy”, “Seaspiracy”, “What the Health”, “Forks over knives”, “Dominion”, “The Game Changers”.
Books:
Dr Michael Greger & Gene Stone, How Not To Die
T. Colin Campbell & Thomas M. Campbell II, The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health
Bożena Przyjemska, Z daleka od mleka. Cała prawda o szkodliwości mleka zwierzęcego i jego przetworów
Alissa Hamilton, Got Milked? The Great Dairy Deception and Why You’ll Thrive Without Milk
Dr Nand Kishare Sharma, Milk: A Silent Killer