Sorry 'bout that. But now it's time for that post I promised with a more in-depth review of some of the things Dr. Greger discussed when I went to his talk last week called Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death.
Dr. Greger went through the top 15 causes of death as reported by the Center for Disease Control for 2012. Out of those 15, he explained how veganism can at least help 14 of them (veganism can't help accidents. Sorry.), and can treat or cure 13!
I thought about making a very long post, but in doing some fact-checking to make sure my notes were right, I found that Dr. Greger posted a video of the same talk! I hiiiiiighly recommend that you watch it.
For those of you who don't want to watch an hour-long video, check out the short videos at the bottom of this post that cover the same or similar topics. You can also read through my quick notes on the top two causes of death: heart disease and cancer.
#1: Heart Disease
I was impressed with how quickly and simply he addressed heart disease and how a vegan diet can cure heart disease (especially a low fat vegan diet.)
Here's what he said: Heart disease has two main factors - cholesterol and inflammation. Dietary cholesterol is only found in animal products. Sooo that's easy.
Inflammation is trickier - it can absolutely be caused by some plant foods (inflammatory foods include gluten, sugar, and alcohol.) Dr. Greger said that high-fat diets are one of the leading causes of inflammation. Aside from natural oils, vegan diets are pretty low in fat, but if you are trying to combat heart disease, a vegan diet low in even plant-based fat (meaning oils.)
Don't forget about this amazing key piece of information! (I know I already posted this, but I love love love it. So I'm repeating myself.)
#2: Cancer
This is a much less straightforward topic, but I thought I'd tell you about a cancer study Dr. Greger discussed.
Dr. Greger talked about an amazing study on the effect of veganism on cancer. Here's how they conducted the study: scientists took prostate cancer cells and put them in petri dishes. They drew blood from 12 men on a standard American diet and dropped it onto those cancer cells. Then they had those men go on a vegan diet for one year. They drew their blood again, dropped it onto prostate cancer cells again, and compared the effect the blood had on the cancer cells pre-veganism and post-veganism.
Now, even on a standard American diet, our blood helps to kill cancer. Some of the cancer cells died in every petri dish. But the vegan blood was EIGHT times better at killing and suppressing cancer (and faster too!)
These same scientists wished they'd studied breast cancer too after they finished this study. But didn't want to wait another year (so impatient!), so they conducted the same type of study on breast cancer, but only put the women on a vegan diet for 2 weeks. Even after only two weeks on a vegan diet, the vegan blood killed more cancer cells (I forgot to write down how much more - it wasn't eight times like the prostate study, but it was still impressive.)
Fascinating Facts
The amount of cholesterol you consume by eating one egg a day shortens your life as much as smoking 5 cigarettes a day for 15 years!
The amount of fiber you consume by eating one cup of oatmeal per day extends your life as much as jogging 4 hours per week!
Videos
I also compiled a selection of Dr. Greger's videos on related topics so you can hear it from the man himself! Check these out:
4 comments:
I must be morbid then, because the title of this post excited me greatly. :P I am REALLY excited to watch this tonight! Thanks for sharing it with us!
Hahaha, good! You've come to the right place, then :) Hope you enjoy watching his amazing talk!
Wow, what a great talk. Thank you for inspiring me to watch the video. :-)
Thanks! I'm so happy you'll watch the video, it is such a good talk - definitely worth the time it takes!
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