How Does Meat Cause Inflammation?

How Does Meat Cause Inflammation?

-Michael Greger, M.D.

 

The anti-inflammatory effect of plant-based diets is about more than just the power of plants. It’s also the avoidance of animal foods. In my blog last week, Treating Crohn’s Disease With Diet, I profiled the extraordinary power of even a semi-vegetarian diet to calm inflammatory bowel disease. We’ve known for 14 years that a single meal of meat, dairy, and eggs triggers an inflammatory reaction inside the body within hours of consumption. This results in a stiffening of our arteries (you can see the arterial response curve in my 4-min. video The Leaky Gut Theory of Why Animal Products Cause Inflammation). Within 5 or 6 hours, the inflammation starts to cool down, but then what happens? Lunchtime! At that point we can whack our arteries with another load of animal products for lunch. In this routine, we may be stuck in a chronic low-grade inflammation danger zone for most of our lives. This can set us up for inflammatory diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers one meal at a time.

What exactly is causing the meat-induced inflammation? Inflammation is an immune response to a perceived threat, but what’s the body attacking? At first, scientists thought it might be the animal protein, which is thought to be the culprit in certain types of arthritis. However, similar inflammatory reactions were triggered by whipped cream, which is mostly just animal fat. After digging deeper, investigators discovered that after a meal of animal products one’s bloodstream becomes soiled with bacterial toxins known as endotoxins. No wonder there’s so much inflammation! But where are the endotoxins coming from?

Endotoxins come from bacteria. Where are there lots of bacteria? In our gut. Thus, researchers figured that maybe the saturated animal fat was causing our gut lining to become leaky, allowing our own bacteria to slip into our blood stream. Experiments on mice showed that indeed saturated fat made their guts leaky, so for years this was the prevailing theory as to why animal products caused inflammation within hours of consumption. Only recently did researchers realize this didn’t make any sense.

In my 2-min. video The Exogenous Endotoxin Theory, I illustrate the critical flaw to the leaky gut theory: the time scale. The rise in inflammation after a meal of meat, dairy, and eggs starts within just an hour of ingestion, but our gut flora aren’t in our small intestine–rather, twenty feet farther down in our large intestine. It can take food hours to get down there, so what was going on? If the bacterial endotoxins were not coming from our gut, maybe they were coming from the food.

For the first time ever, 27 common foodstuffs were tested and they found endotoxin equivalents in foods such as pork, poultry, dairy, and egg products, as well as certain fermented foods. Can endotoxins be cooked out of the meat? Find out in the final wrap-up video in the series, Dead Meat Bacteria Endotoxemia.

Saturated fat also appears to have other deleterious effects such as increasing the risk of heart disease (see Blocking the First Step of Heart Disease and Tolerable Upper Intake of Zero) and shortening the lives of breast cancer survivors (Breast Cancer Survival, Butterfat, and Chicken). For more on foods that fight inflammation, see my videos Fighting Inflammation in a Nut Shell and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Purple Potatoes.

-Michael Greger, M.D.

Meat & Dairy

Professor T. Colin Campbell PhD -- Animal protein (meat and dairy) causes cancer 

 

Damaging Kidney Foods

7 Foods Kidney Damaging Foods

Perhaps you don’t think about your kidneys very much. If you practice yoga, your instructor might say something like, “Breathe into your kidneys,” and you have no idea what they are talking about!

Well, your kidneys are workhorses that play a very important role in your body. Located just below your rib cage on either side of the spine, your kidneys are about the size of your fists. According to the National Institutes of Health, the organs filter more than 200 quarts of blood each day, filtering around 2 quarts of waste products! From the kidney, waste products and water filter to the bladder, and you release it as urine.

Keeping your kidneys healthy and functioning, then, is essential for detoxifying your body and removing wastes. Unfortunately, many foods can harm your kidneys and keep them from functioning at optimal levels. Here are the top seven.

1. Meat

Diets high in animal protein can cause kidney damage. In fact, according to the Mayo Clinic, a high-protein diet may cause or exacerbate existing kidney problems because protein metabolism places a heavy load on the kidneys, making it difficult to eliminate its waste products.

A 2003 study in the European Journal of Nutrition showed that a diet rich in animal-based proteins could also increase the risk of developing kidney stones from uric acid, while a vegetarian diet lowered the uric acid and prevented formation of stones. Uric acid is one of the common causes of kidney stone and is a byproduct of eating foods that are high in purines such as meat, seafood, and fish. These foods may also trigger the other common type of kidney stones, calcium oxalate stones, because they increase the amount of calcium excreted in urine. How? Animal protein metabolism leaves an acidic residue in the body. Because your body favors an alkaline state, it pulls calcium and other mineral salts from the bones in order to return you to that alkaline state. This calcium can form calcium oxalate kidney stones.

Instead, eat a variety of veggies, grains, seeds, and nuts and you’ll get all of the protein your body needs.

2. Salt

Your body needs a little bit of sodium in order to maintain proper fluid balance, but you can get enough from eating fruits and vegetables. Many processed foods, however, add a great deal of salt in order to enhance flavors. The most commonly used form of salt is processed table salt. When you eat too much salt, your kidneys respond by retaining water in order to dilute this electrolyte in your bloodstream to maintain proper heart function. This places a load on the kidneys. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, long-term intake of too much salt can damage the kidneys along with the heart and aorta. Salt intake may also raise blood pressure, which can cause damage to the kidney’s nephrons, which filter wastes.
If you must add salt, use just a pinch of high quality Celtic or Himalayan sea salt.

 

3. Genetically modified foods

A large percentage of our processed foods contain genetically modified ingredients including corn, soy, rice, sugar cane, sugar beets, and canola. Seeds are genetically engineered for a number of reasons, including to increase pest resistance, make the plant immune to herbicides, or improve crop yields. Monsanto corporation is one of the largest makers of genetically modified seeds. A 2009 mammal study conducted on three types of genetically modified Monsanto corn showed negative health effects on the kidney and liver functions of rats. The researchers concluded that the three varieties tested created a state of hepatorenal (liver and kidney) toxicity.

Unfortunately, research on the long-term health effects of genetically modified crops on humans remains poorly studied at this time because genetically modified foods have only been a regular part of the Western diet since 1995 when Monsanto introduced the GM soybean seed that was immune to the herbicide Roundup.

Since we have not yet been able to measure the long-term effects of GM crops on humans, it is best to avoid them.

Instead, opt for organically grown produce and avoid common sources of GM ingredients such as processed and prepackaged foods.

4. Artificial sweeteners

Many people believe they are doing something healthy for their bodies when they consume artificial sweeteners because these ingredients are non-caloric. In a review of the Nurses Study, researchers looked at the role of artificial sweeteners on kidney function and found that there was an increase in kidney function decline with intake of just two diet sodas per day.

Your best bet? Skip the artificial sweeteners and stick with stevia if you need a little sweet.

5. Carbonated beverages

Carbonated beverages such as soda (with or without artificial sweetener) and energy drinks are associated with the formation of kidney stones. A 2007 study demonstrated this, showing that drinking two or more colas per day was associated with an increased risk of chronic kidney disease.

Instead, have plain water with organic lemon.

6. Dairy products

The problem with dairy products is similar to that of other animal proteins. In fact, the China Study showed that consuming dairy products increased the excretion of calcium in the urine, which has been associated with a higher risk of developing kidney stones. According to KidsHealth.org, reducing dairy can help people with kidney failure and kidney disease, because it can make the filtering work of the kidneys easier, delaying the need for dialysis.

Instead, try some unsweetened almond milk.

7. Caffeine

Caffeine in coffee, tea, soda, and foods can also place a strain on your kidneys. Because caffeine is a stimulant, it can stimulate blood flow, increasing blood pressure and stress on the kidneys. A 2002 study in Kidney International showed that long-term caffeine consumption exacerbated chronic kidney failure in obese and diabetic rats. Caffeine consumption has also been linked to kidney stone formation by increasing calcium excretion in urine.

Foods That Kill

Great info...however I don't agree with the part where he includes soy as a food source.  Not only is almost all soy genetically modified, but it doesn't digest in your body, and mimics estrogen in your body (which is not a good thing!)  So if you have soy, make sure it's a fermented version.

Video Information

Explore the consequences of a meat (animal based) diet. Are we really designed to be omnivores OR does a plant based diet suit us best?
http://www.foodkills.org/

MEDICAL STATISTICS
* The third highest cause of deaths in the US is what is termed "iatrogenic", which means "induced in a patient by a physician's activity, manner, or therapy." This accounts for an estimated 225,000 deaths per annum which is about 10% of total deaths from all causes including old age. Of these, 12,000 deaths result from unnecessary surgery. The highest cause of deaths in the US is heart disease (725,000) and the 2nd highest is cancer (549,000). Both of these were almost unheard of at the beginning of the twentieth century.

* 180,000 deaths a year occur due to adverse reactions to prescription medications. By comparison, general accidents in life account for 98,000 per annum. This includes 42,000 from car accidents, 120 from airline crashes**, 90 from being struck by lightning** and 5 from Anthrax (in 2001). 15,500 die from murders and 20,000 from flu or its complications.

**averaged over 2-3 decades

Causes of Death Further Breakdown

1. Tobacco 435,000

2. Poor diet and physical inactivity 400,000

3. Alcohol consumption 85,000

4. Infectious agents (e.g., influenza and pneumonia) 75,000

5. Toxic agents (e.g., pollutants and asbestos) 55,000

6. Motor vehicle accidents 43,000

7. Firearms 29,000

8. Sexual behavior 20,000

9. Illicit use of drugs 17,000

* Despite all the media hype about how good the US medical system is and how we're winning the war against cancer, these statistics tell a very different story.

Hot Dog-Cancer Link

Debate-Themed Billboard Warns Las Vegas of Hot Dog-Cancer Link

Frowning Wiener in Red, White, and Blue Ad Highlights Risks of Processed Meats

WASHINGTON—A huge billboard near the Venetian hotel, host to an upcoming Republican presidential debate, warns Las Vegas residents and visitors that chowing down on hot dogs could seriously damage their health and increase their risk of colorectal cancer. The billboard is sponsored by the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Located at 3025 S. Las Vegas Blvd., the billboard features an image of a hot dog wearing a mustard frown, against a blue and white background. The bold red type reads: “There’s no debate: Hot Dogs Cause Cancer” and directs readers to www.PCRM.org.

“Hot dogs gamble away your most precious asset—your health,” says PCRM nutrition education director Susan Levin, M.S., R.D. “Processed meats like hot dogs can increase your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and various types of cancer. Like cigarettes, hot dogs should come with a warning label that helps people in Las Vegas understand the health risk.”

According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, just one 50-gram serving of processed meat (about the amount in one hot dog) consumed daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer, on average, by 21 percent. Americans eat 20 billion hot dogs a year, as well as significant amounts of bacon, cold cuts, and other processed meats.

Every year, about 143,000 Americans are diagnosed with colorectal cancer and approximately 53,000 die of it. Nevada has one of the highest rates of colorectal cancer deaths in the country. Las Vegas has the nation’s highest heart disease death rate.

Studies show a strong link between other types of cancer and processed meats. An NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study found that processed red meat was associated with a 10 percent increased risk of prostate cancer with every 10 grams of increased intake. A study in Taiwan showed that consumption of cured and smoked meat can increase children’s risk for leukemia. A study in Australia found that women’s risk for ovarian cancer increased as a result of eating processed meats.

A review in the journal Diabetologia found that those who regularly eat processed meats increase their risk for diabetes by 41 percent.

If you have questions or want to interview Susan Levin, contact Jeanne McVey at 202-527-7316 or jeannem@pcrm.org.

Meat

Meat: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Larry King Live: Is Meat Safe / Should You Eat Meat aired October 12, 2009 with Dr. T. Colin Campbell. After listening to this debate, ask yourself who benefits from promoting these products.

Transcripts from this entire CNN interview;
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0910/12/lkl.01.html

Dr. Jay Gordon: No one needs meat for health 

Animal Protein -- Meat and Dairy -- Cause Cancer

Celebrated Cornell University professor T. Colin Campbell Phd, presents the overwhelming evidence showing that animal protein is one of the most potent carcinogens people are exposed to.

Mad Cowboy

' REAL EYES REALIZE REAL LIES '
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I choose not to live in delusion! as comforting as it may sometimes be... 

This documentary will speak for itself...

Mad Cowboy - Documentary

Written by the person who posted the documentary

HOW TO TELL THE TRUTH AND GET IN TROUBLE

"I am a fourth-generation dairy farmer and cattle rancher. I grew up on a dairy farm in Montana, and I ran a feedlot operation there for twenty years. I know firsthand how cattle are raised and how meat is produced in this country.

Today I am president of Earth Save International, an organization promoting organic farming and the vegetarian diet.

Sure, I used to enjoy my steaks as much as the next guy. But if you knew what I know about what goes into them and what they can to do you, youd probably be a vegetarian like me. And, believe it or not, as a pure vegetarian now who consumes no animal products at all, I can tell you these days I enjoy eating more than ever.

If you're a meat-eater in America, you have a right to know that you have something in common with most of the cows you've eaten. They've eaten meat, too.

When a cow is slaughtered, about half of it by weight is not eaten by humans: the intestines and their contents, the head, hooves, and horns, as well as bones and blood. These are dumped into giant grinders at rendering plants, as are the entire bodies of cows and other farm animals known to be diseased. Rendering is a $2.4 billion-a-year industry, processing forty billion pounds of dead animals a year. There is simply no such thing in America as an animal too ravaged by disease, too cancerous, or too putrid to be welcomed by the all-embracing arms of the renderer. Another staple of the renderers diet, in addition to farm animals, is euthanized pets - the six or seven million dogs and cats that are killed in animal shelters every year. The city of Los Angeles alone, for example, sends some two hundred tons of euthanized cats and dogs to a rendering plant every month. Added to the blend are the euthanized catch of animal control agencies, and road kill. (Road kill is not collected daily, and in the summer, the better road kill collection crews can generally smell it before they can see it.) When this gruesome mix is ground and steam-cooked, the lighter, fatty material floating to the top gets refined for use in such products as cosmetics, lubricants, soaps, candles, and waxes. The heavier protein material is dried and pulverized into a brown powder-about a quarter of which consists of fecal material. The power is used as an additive to almost all pet food as well as to livestock feed. Farmers call it protein concentrates. In 1995, five million tons of processed slaughterhouse leftovers were sold for animal feed in the United States. I used to feed tons of the stuff to my own livestock. It never concerned me that I was feeding cattle to cattle.

Quoted from Howard Lymans book Mad Cowboy
http://www.madcowboy.com/01_MAP.000.html

Factory Farming

John Robbins at the Longevity Now Conference 2010

This clip had me in tears...I'm glad I'm a Vegetarian

When I first became a Vegetarian it was mainly just for health reasons...but since then it has become so much more to me, due to everything I have become aware of from all the research I have done. 


Factory Farming: A Report Card

We have a huge health and environmental scandal in our modern industrial system of meat and poultry production. The damage documented in today's factory farms far exceeds the damage that was depicted in Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle, a book written over 100 years ago. Some scientists have gone so far as to call the condemned current factory farm practices as "mini Chernobyls."
The European Union stands virtually alone in establishing strong health and environmental standards for the industry. In the U.S and elsewhere, the meat and poultry industry is dominated by dangerous uses of arsenic, antibiotics, growth hormones and by the dumping of massive amounts of sewage in fragile waterways and environments. This video documents the vast catastrophic impact on the environment and public health.
As one observer noted, if terrorists did this, we would be up in arms, but when it is a fortune 500 company, it is just "business as usual."
In 1906, public outrage at the scandal exposed by Sinclair led to major reforms that cleaned up a corrupt and dangerous system.

CAFO / Confined Animal Feed Operations
Drug-resistant infections lurk in meat we eat
Animals routinely fed antibiotics harbour virulent germs that jump to people
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34614380/ns/health-infectious_diseases/ 


Recent news...8/4/2011
USDA suspected maker of tainted turkey two weeks ago
Cargill recalled 36 millionpounds of ground turkey tied to deadly salmonella outbreak

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials suspected as early as July 18 that samples of ground turkey tied to nationwide salmonella infections came from meat giant Cargill Inc., but it took two weeks to gather enough information to urge a recall, an expert said Thursday.  

"We need to be sure everything has lined up in a way that we're convinced," said Dr. David Goldman, assistant administrator for the Office of Public Health Science for the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service. 

Cargill issued a voluntary recall of 36 million pounds of fresh and frozen ground turkey on Wednesday after evidence showed the company's Springdale, Ark., plant products were tied to a death and 77 other salmonella infections nationwide. 

Cargill officials said the firm was suspending production of ground turkey at the Sprindale plant until it could identify the source of contamination and fix it.

The outbreak bacteria, salmonella Heidelberg, are resistant to three common drugs, ampicillin, tetracycline and streptomycin. But they do respond to some other antibiotics, including Bactrim, health officials said.

The outbreak began in March, with sporadic cases of salmonella Heidelberg detected by the nation's foodborne illness monitoring system, said Dr. Chris Braden, director of foodborne, waterborne and environmental diseases for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But an investigation didn't begin in earnest until May 23, when it became apparent that there was an increase in that particular strain of the bacteria.

"There was an aggressive and thorough investigation," Braden said. 

However, the investigation was complicated because some people became ill from ground turkey that didn't come from Cargill, or they didn't eat ground turkey at all, he added.

Information from consumers' shopper cards was key to tying ground turkey from meat giant Cargill to an outbreak of salmonella linked to one death and dozens of illnesses nationwide, said officials. The card data helped trace back three retail purchases to the Cargill facility, said Braden.

Four ground turkey samples from retail stores tested positive for salmonella Heidelberg, including three from a single manufacturing plant, CDC officials found. Two of those three were confirmed to come from Cargill on July 18, Goldman said. The third was confirmed on July 26. 

USDA first met with Cargill legal representatives last Friday to discuss the issue. They met Wednesday with corporate officials, who agreed to announce the massive recall.

Agency officials refuted suggestions that USDA dragged its feet in urging Cargill to issue a recall.

"There was no waiting," said an agency spokesman who asked not to be named. He added that USDA must make sure allegations of contamination are "iron-clad" before approaching a large producer such as Cargill. 

Braden warned consumers that ground turkey has a long shelf life and that contaminated product may remain in home refrigerators and freezers. He urged consumers to check the products against the recall list on Cargill's site and to return or discard any affected product. 

Products include "chubs" of fresh and frozen ground turkey meat, retail trays of ground turkey and ground turkey patties sold at grocery stores including Kroger, Safeway and Giant Eagle, according to company's recall list.

The recall, believed to be the third largest of its kind on record, was announced by Cargill Value Added Meats Retail, a subsidiary of the Wichita-based Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation. The company said it was recalling ground turkey produced at the Arkansas plant from Feb. 20 through Aug. 2.

All of the packages recalled include the code "Est. P-963" on the label, the USDA said. The packages were labeled with many different brands, including Cargill's Honeysuckle White and Kroger. 

Cargill is contacting its customers to make sure they know which ground turkey products are affected by the recall. Consumers are urged to return any opened or unopened packages of ground turkey items listed on the company's recall site: www.cargill.com/turkey-recall.

Health officials said even contaminated turkey meat is safe to eat if it is properly cooked, to 165 degrees Fahrenheit, with temperature confirmed by a meat thermometer. But they also urged consumers to follow good food safety practices when using ground turkey, including washing hands with warm, soapy water for at least 20 seconds before and after handling raw meat and cleaning all cutting boards and other surfaces well.

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