The Human Garbage Disposal

We are not human garbage disposals. The body isn’t a magic void that makes equal use of all things. We’ve shared meals with over 1,000 people at this point, and few things could be more evident than how little the general public understands nutrition and fitness. But it shouldn’t come as any surprise. 

   Doctors themselves receive less than 20 hours of nutrition training on average. Seriously! Look it up. Many medical schools don’t require any kind of nutritional education at all. This is completely unacceptable given that the vast majority of diseases they’re treating are due to diet and lifestyle. Diseases which are preventable, if not reversible, by means of those same factors (as we discussed in our last article).

   If we can’t turn to our healthcare professionals, where can we turn? The science!

   We see a lot of claims like: I started keto/carnivore and my numbers are great! I’ve lost weight. I feel stronger. Etc. These are anecdotes, and the issue is that anecdotes don’t control for other variables and confounding factors. If you’re eating junk all day, and some diet gets you to cut out 50% of it, you’re likely going to feel better and have better bloodwork. That doesn’t make it optimal or even good for you. 

   Carnivore and Ketogenic diets are largely bad for us, because of the clear biological mechanisms which contribute to atherosclerosis (arterial plaque), inflammation, and growth signaling which enables cancer progression. Plants pretty much don’t do this. Plants can provide all the nutrients we need, if we’re paying attention, and they do so with the added bonus of cancer fighting, vasodilating phytonutrients. 

   I want to make it really simple here, so just know that it will be somewhat reductive. You know how butter and animal fat is solid, but vegetable oil isn’t? That’s due to the molecular bonds which make it more rigid. Saturated fat has its name because the number of carbon atoms are “saturated” with the greatest number of hydrogen atoms they could be. For that same reason, it’s harder for our bodies to break it down and push it through our arteries. 

   You know what happens when you mix sugar and butter together? They create icing. And yes, this is (sort of) happening inside of us. When we eat fat, it fills our blood. This is known as post prandial lipemia. When we eat sugar (as you diabetics know) it fills our blood. So if you’re eating sugar and saturated fat, you’ll do better than your baseline if you cut out one or the other. That’s why people experience a form of success on otherwise unhealthy diets. That doesn’t make them optimal. 

   You know how bodybuilders eat an excess of protein to grow bigger than average? Cancer needs excess protein to grow as well. As multiple studies on both rats and mice, looking at various toxins, carcinogens, and diseases affecting various organs and body parts have shown, the carcinogen or disease is only half the story. Those initial instigators function as a sort of mutative seedling, damaging our DNA. But like any seedling, those damaged cells still need water and sunlight to grow. In the case of the cells, that nourishment (again, sort of) comes from protein and sugar. 

   Study after study, scientists have been able to turn cancer on and off based on the amount of protein the animal is consuming and the kind of protein it’s consuming. 

   From the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: “We showed that tumor growth in rats was greatly enhanced by diets containing >10% animal protein (casein) and was completely repressed with either 5% animal protein or >20% plant protein. This protein effect depressed the activity of the major enzyme complex responsible for carcinogen activation and for the subsequent and dominant promotion of preneoplastic clones and their sequelae, the life-long development of full-blown tumors. This effect also existed both for chemically and virally induced cancers and was explained, in 1972, by accelerated cell replication as well as by a variety of cellular and enzymatic mechanisms. We could turn on and off tumor development, both in its early and late stages of development.”

   This is incredibly relevant because lab rats share the same basic cancer mechanisms as humans. We share around 90% of our DNA with them, have a near-identical need for protein, and that protein operates within us in a near-identical way. We’re not magically different, and that’s why scientists study them before human trials. We can’t really do these kinds of trials with humans, however, due to what some people might call “ethics.”

   What we do have is extremely convincing epidemiological data showing that as plant consumption goes up and animal products go down, our “western” diseases diminish. 

   We also have a few great intervention studies on already sick people. And unlike the carnivore diet, whole foods plant based diets, along with exercise and stress reduction, have been shown to: reverse type 2 diabetes in as little as 16 days (as shown by the Barnard studies), reverse heart disease in as little as 3 weeks (as shown by the Esselstyn studies), and even reverse prostate cancer (as shown by the Ornish studies). Interestingly, the Ornish studies found they were able to change gene expression itself, turning the “good genes” on and “bad genes” off through plant foods and lifestyle. 

   This shouldn’t surprise us too much. Zoom in with a microscope, and look at what plant based blood does. Scientists have experimented with a variety of bloods, and if you take vegan blood and drip it on a Petri dish of cancer cells, it will slow or even stop the growth. We all have natural biological mechanisms to destroy cancer cells, but vegans? 8 times the stopping power of the standard American. 

   There is no magic tincture. You won’t simply reverse these problems with turmeric shots while gargling pepperoni pizza and steak. It takes the removal of all the stuff that’s killing us. A plant based diet shouldn’t be seen as a one size fits all miracle cure. It’s just what we are meant to eat. 

   Of course, there are always exceptions due to anomalous health issues, but these account for far fewer cases than people want to believe, as if we’re all so genetically different no one could know. Countries living predominantly plant based know. But there are exceptions, such as a Ketogenic diet for epilepsy.

  Much of the issue stems from the way we measure something’s “healthiness.” For example, people will mention olive oil as “healthy,” but it is only comparatively healthy. Just like simple carbs, refined oils surge the blood faster than their whole foods counterparts. Those fats are better found wrapped up in fiber. Greek yogurt is another great example. It has lovely probiotics, and might even have certain characteristics which are protective against cancer, but they are intertwined with other, less favorable qualities, which make it a tricky case.  

   It boils down to this: animal products and processed foods aren’t optimal to our diet. We can survive on them, sure. Some smokers can survive on ultra processed bologna and live to be 100. But we’re making a trade for pleasure over health every time we choose to get the nutrients we could be getting from plants, from those instead. The nutrients you derive from animal products are almost always better derived from plants. 

   Who knew. Fruits and vegetables are good for you.