Demonstration of Peng, Lu, Ji, An by Chen Xili, 20th Generation, Son of Grandmaster Chen Quanzhong in Xian, China. Peng, Lu, Ji and An are the four major directions in Taijiquan. They are often translated as Push, Rollback, Wardoff and Press, but this translation obscures their original [...]]]> Tai Chi Peng Lu Ji An 陈氏太极拳 四正手

Demonstration of Peng, Lu, Ji, An by Chen Xili, 20th Generation, Son of Grandmaster Chen Quanzhong in Xian, China. Peng, Lu, Ji and An are the four major directions in Taijiquan. They are often translated as Push, Rollback, Wardoff and Press, but this translation obscures their original meaning. Sometimes called the four directions, or four energies, watch as Master Chen demonstrates how to perform these important movements.

Scientists [...]]]> Do you know you have 4 pounds of bacteria living in your gut? Where do they come from? What are they doing there? Recently, I had a fascinating conversation with a prominent researcher in this field, and here is his advice: be nice to your invisible friends – they are crucial to your health.

Scientists discovered hundreds of trillions of bacteria cells living with us. This huge yet diverse population first immigrated into body when we went through the birth cannel. While drinking our mother’s milk, we inherited all her microbes as well. The rest of the population came from foods we eat, especially cultured, fermented and pickled foods.

Most of the times, the microbiota live peacefully with us, so scientists call them “commensal”, which literally means “eat at the same table”. But they do much more than just eating. Recent studies found out that the microbiota produce vitamins and proteins, break down hard to digest foods, neutralize toxins and suppress harmful bacteria. In a nutshell, they participate in digestion, metabolism and immune functions, so some scientists call them “the forgotten organ”.

This diverse population needs a variety of whole foods to live on, and is easily wiped out by chemical weapon such as antibiotics. Scientists discovered that many chronic conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, allergy, bacteria or fungus infections, and auto-immune diseases, all are associated with imbalances in the gut flora. So, if you want to maintain or improve your health, you have to protect your invisible army and help them thrive. A very good place to start would be to invite them to eat healthy meals with you at the same table.

Spectacular news for the 14 million Americans living today with a diagnosis of cancer: this week, two impressive medical studies show that exercise helps to prevent recurrence of cancer. The first study of 45 peer-reviewed articles published from January [...]]]> Reprinted with permission from Dr. Gabe Mirkin’s weekly E-Zine on Fitness and Health, May 20, 2012.

Spectacular news for the 14 million Americans living today with a diagnosis of cancer: this week, two impressive medical studies show that exercise helps to prevent recurrence of cancer. The first study of 45 peer-reviewed articles published from January 1950 to August 2011 shows that exercisers are less likely to die of their cancers than non-exercisers. Also, 27 observational studies strongly showed that exercise is associated with reduced death from breast and colon cancers specifically (J Natl Cancer Inst, published online May 8, 2012). Those who exercised were also less likely to die from other diseases such as heart attacks.
The second study, from the Netherlands, showed that cancer survivors who exercised had far more energy, were far more active, and were less tired than survivors who did not exercise. Exercising gave them more energy (PLoS One, published online May 2, 2012)

Cancer Cells are Different from Normal Cells
Every normal cell in your body has programmed into its genetic material, a process called APOPTOSIS, that lets it live and multiply only so long and then it dies. For example, skin cells live 28 days and then die; cells lining your mouth live 24-48 hours; and red blood cells live up to 120 days. Cancer cells lose their ability to die. They try to live forever and they kill by going from one type of tissue to invade and destroy another type of tissue. For example, breast cancer cells can eventually spread to your brain or lungs. They replace and destroy these tissues, and you die because your brain or lungs are not able to work properly.
Cancer cells grow and multiply so rapidly that they need huge amounts of the sugar, glucose, to supply them with the energy necessary for growth. Let me explain why cancer cells need so much sugar.

How All Cells Get Energy
All cells get their energy from two major processes: glycolysis, and the Krebs Cycle.
Normal cells primarily use the Krebs Cycle for energy since it is more efficient and provides more energy. However, cancer cells do not use the Krebs Cycle well, and therefore must depend on glycolysis. Because they use this inefficient pathway for energy, cancer cells that have forgotten to die have an incredible increase in need for energy from the sugar, glucose. Since insulin drives sugar into cells, insulin and ILGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1) feed cancer cells glucose, encouraging them to grow and multiply.

Cancer Cells Use Glycolysis
In the early 1920s, Otto Warburg demonstrated that cancer cells can live without oxygen by getting their energy from glycolysis. Since glycolysis uses the single sugar, glucose, for energy, cancer cells use tremendous amounts of glucose to grow. Since cancer cells depend on glucose for energy, anything that interferes with the body’s normal use of glucose supplies more sugar to the growing cancer cells, which will increase growth of an existing cancer and risk for new cancers. This is one of the reasons why diabetes and excess weight increase risk for cancer.

Mitochondria
In every cell are from a few to hundreds of small areas called mitochondria. They provide energy for cells through the Krebs Cycle, which is far more efficient than glycolysis, the process that supplies energy inside cells but outside the mitochondria. All cells need functioning mitochondria, where the Krebs Cycle occurs, to have apoptosis. Cancer cells have defective mitochondria which forces them to use glycolysis for energy. Since cancer cells have defective mitochondria, and do not use the Krebs cycle effectively, they do not have apoptosis, so they live indefinitely and kill by invading and destroying normal cells.

Everything that Raises Blood Sugar Levels Increases Cancer Risk:
Being overweight, not exercising, being diabetic or pre-diabetic, eating sugar or refined carbohydrates when you are not exercising, lack of vitamin D, not having enough muscle, storing fat primarily in your belly, and so forth.

A Cure for Cancer?
Researchers today are trying to cure cancer by blocking glycolysis. This could force mitochondria to become active again and use the Krebs Cycle for energy so that the cells can stop being cancerous and regain apoptosis, their programmable cell death. The chemical dichloroacetic acid (DCA), which increases the chemical reactions of the Krebs cycle in mitochondria, has been shown to kill cancer cells in laboratory tests and in animals. Anything that activates or restores mitochondria can restart apoptosis and cause cancer cells to kill themselves. At the University of Alberta, Dr. Evangelos Michelakis is doing research on DCA. Another activator of mitochondria, 3-BrOP, is being studied at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) is being used at Emory University School of Medicine, and lactate dehydrogenase A is being researched at Johns Hopkins University.

You Cannot Cure Cancer by Preventing All Cells from Using Sugar
You cannot prevent or cure cancer just by avoiding sugar. All carbohydrates are made up of chains of sugars, and the only known way to deprive your body of sugar is to starve yourself to death. Sugar will always be available. The researchers’ goal is to prevent sugar from entering cancer cells.

What Would Happen if Cancer Cells Were Unable to Obtain Sugar?
A possible cure for cancer was presented by Philipp Mergenthaler and Andreas Meisel, of Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany, and McMaster University, Canada. They showed that depriving a cell of the sugar, glucose, while giving it plenty of oxygen at the same time, blocks glycolysis and therefore forces the cell to revive its mitochondria and use the Krebs Cycle for energy. Reviving the mitochondria also revives apoptosis, the process of programmed cell death, and therefore would stop cancer cells from growing and spreading through the body (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, January 2012).

How Exercise Grows Mitochondria and Helps to Prevent Cancer
Today, the only proven way to grow new mitochondria and enlarge existing ones is to exercise. The more vigorously you exercise, the greater the growth in size and number of mitochondria. Cancer cells have defective mitochondria and therefore have to use glycolysis (sugar) primarily for energy. Reviving the mitochondria shifts the primary energy use to the Krebs Cycle. This would revive apoptosis to make cancer cells die normally.

You can find Dr. Mirkin at http://www.drmirkin.com

Grandmaster Chen preserves the sequence and essence of [...]]]> This video is a demonstration of Chen Taijiquan’s first form or Yi Lu in 36 postures (陈氏太极拳老驾一路 (三十六式)). This form comes from my teacher, Grandmaster Chen Quanzhong, 19th generation Grandmaster from the Chen Tai Chi (Taijiquan) family. I am a 20th generation indoor student of Grandmaster Chen.

Grandmaster Chen preserves the sequence and essence of the original routine, while shortening it to 36 movements by removing the repetitions (the full form is 72 movements). This video includes the Chinese and English names of the movements and documents our first level curriculum. The full DVD includes eight complete Tai Chi practice sets with teaching commentary.

Complete DVD Available at CD Baby

Music is “High Mountains and Flowing Waters 高山流水” by TCCII Artist Bing Xia from her album The Rising Moon: Xia Bing Gu Zheng Solo Album 月兒高: 夏冰古箏獨奏專輯. Available at CDBaby

Chen Tai Chi Chuan: Original Forms and Exercises
陈氏太极拳：传统套路和基本功
Contents
1 Warm Up 热身
2 Post Standing 站桩
3 Silk Reeling 缠丝
4 Four Directions 四正手
5 Four Corners 四隅手
6 Five Steps 五步法
7 Thirteen Postures 十三式
8 First Form (36 Moves) 三十六式
9 Teaching Commentary 分解教学

If you’ve read his ‘Sinful Meat’ essay, you know that my husband does not eat meat for the ethical, environmental, and health issues he discusses. However, Ted loved these chicken recipes which came with me as part of our marriage contract and devoured them for decades. And he does bend his vegetarian [...]]]> By Jiji Nawalinski

If you’ve read his ‘Sinful Meat’ essay, you know that my husband does not eat meat for the ethical, environmental, and health issues he discusses. However, Ted loved these chicken recipes which came with me as part of our marriage contract and devoured them for decades. And he does bend his vegetarian principles a bit when I make these dishes now by drowning a bowl of brown rice in the aromatic liquids (no meat!) and reliving his sinful youth. I wonder what he’d do if I made this with a free-range, antibiotic-free, humanely-killed chicken. . . It would be like him to ponder the implications long enough for the rest of us to finish the dish!

You will not want to skimp on the cooking ingredients because these dishes go best with plenty of juice over the meat and rice. A variation of the coconut chicken was mentioned by Mark Bittman (How to Cook Everything, John Wiley, 2008) as a “Philippine classic” and “the best chicken dish in the world.”

A word on recipes: I generally follow a recipe as gospel. Ted cooks a lot and his idea of a recipe is simply a suggested starting point for improvisation, experimentation, and substitution – a philosophy that has spawned family legends and keeps relatives anticipating potluck dinners more for the good laugh than the good food.

I suggest you start with the proportions listed and modify them freely after tasting. More garlic? Great! Light coconut milk instead of full-fat? That’s going too far! Find some other fat to cut from your diet!

Chicken Adobo with Soy Sauce, Vinegar, and Garlic

4 lbs cut up skinless chicken or parts

2 Tbsp chopped garlic

½ tsp finely crushed black peppercorns

½ cup cider vinegar

½ cup soy sauce

Salt to taste

1 large bay leaf

1        Mix everything, pour over the chicken parts layered in a flat pan, add water to cover.

2        Marinate ½ to 1 hour.

3        Remove chicken (reserve liquid) and quickly stir fry over high heat 5 minutes stirring constantly to sear the outside. The browned outside adds depth to the dish.

4        Pour half the marinade over the chicken, bring to a boil, simmer 10 minutes covered, then simmer uncovered about 15 minutes more, adding the remaining marinade little by little to get your desired amount of juice as the chicken gives up its liquid and the marinade concentrates while boiling.

5        Best served on a generous bed of brown rice with lots of sauce.

Chicken Adobo with Coconut Milk

4 lbs cut up skinless chicken or parts

2 Tbsp chopped garlic

½ tsp finely crushed black peppercorns

½ cup cider vinegar

½ cup soy sauce

Salt to taste

1 large bay leaf

1 can (13 – 15 oz) coconut milk (warmed to liquify the fat, and shaken well)

1        Mix all but the coconut milk and pour over the chicken parts layered in a flat pan, add water to cover.

2        Marinate ½ to 1 hour.

3        Remove chicken (reserve liquid) and quickly stir fry over high heat 5 minutes stirring constantly to sear the outside. The browned outside adds depth to the dish.

4        Pour half the marinade over the chicken, add half or more of the coconut milk, bring to a boil, simmer 10 minutes covered, then uncovered about 15 minutes more, tasting and adding more coconut milk (or marinade) to your taste and for more liquid as it evaporates. We suggest using the whole can of coconut milk for a rich, sweet, complex flavor.

5        Best served on a generous bed of brown rice with lots of sauce.

But is eating meat bad for you? Why do we do it? Can we do without it? Are we intelligently designed to eat meat?  What does the ancient wisdom say about it?

The TCM Perspective:

Traditional Chinese Medicine is a complex skill requiring years, even decades, to master [...]]]> No, and neither is pork or chicken.

But is eating meat bad for you? Why do we do it? Can we do without it? Are we intelligently designed to eat meat?  What does the ancient wisdom say about it?

The TCM Perspective:

Traditional Chinese Medicine is a complex skill requiring years, even decades, to master the esoteric connections between seasonal nutrition, environmental effects, Taoist five-element theory, and the thermal natures of foods and the patient. My favorite book touching on the topic is the excellent Healing with Whole Foods, Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition.¹ In it, there are no direct statements against the eating of red meat, except where conditions of excess heat in the body exist. [See the essay “Eating Right for Your Body Type All Year Round” for an introduction to incorporating natural eating into your lifestyle.²]

Meat is a heat-producing food and should be limited in persons with a heat nature who “feel hot, dislike heat, like cool weather and cold beverages in quantity, [have a] yellow coating on tongue, dark yellow urine, red complexion. Localized heat [appears] as inflamed tissues, swellings, eruptions, sores, rashes, all marked with redness.”³ Excess sugar consumption will trigger a desire for more protein, which is often sought in animal products. If the cycle accelerates, a “Meat-and-Sugar Syndrome” ensues, causing “obstructions in the body and mind.” Tranquilizers and pain relievers follow for an immediate, but temporary, relief and the condition then becomes “The Meat, Sugar, and Drug Syndrome.”  [Much more needs to be said about sugar, perhaps the only truly evil legal food. Stay tuned!]

Meat should be eaten with green and non-starchy vegetables. It should be limited in spring, when one attends to the liver and gall bladder [see also “Spring Cleaning for Your Liver”⁴],  and limited on hot summer days. It is contraindicated along with other foods high in saturated fats for liver conditions.⁵

You’ve got to love the ancient wisdom with statements like “meat weakens the bones in the elderly.”⁶ With no concept of statistics or control groups, their common observations a millennium ago previewed research showing the correlation between protein and osteoporosis, discussed below.

So, meat in moderation is more or less OK as a condiment complementing the vegetables which should form the bulk on our plates.  And isn’t this, after all, the way Chinese have been eating for a long, long time? And they still do, even the nouveau riche who can afford their prime fillets in today’s China, as I learned from my Chinese friends.

As with all foods, the question of quality must be considered paramount. Whole foods in your diet means avoiding or minimizing processed, denatured, genetically modified, and non-organic items. Just as the health-conscious consumer would avoid white flour and white rice, so should she consider the environmental and nutritional benefits of organic meat. Grass-fed and grass-finished beef is more expensive but it tastes better and avoids the problems of the steer having been fed grains and then treated with antibiotics. There is a farmer or co-op or weekly market or Whole Foods store near you where you can get organic beef, free-range chickens and their eggs, as well as pesticide-free greens and tree-ripened peaches. Make the effort and you will prosper as will the environment which you share with the living things around you.

Michael Pollan famously summarizes the philosophy behind his book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto⁷ with the seven words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Great book! Buy it and learn what your “food” should be, apply the next five words, and see if the pieces of your life don’t fall a bit more smoothly into place.

Evolution:

Proponents of “paleo” or “caveman” diets claim that our ancestors ate lots of meat and raw vegetables and that we should be consistent with this genetic heritage. True, we are omnivores and can get the nutrients we need from any reasonably varied selection of plants and animals as they are found in nature. But books that tell you to eat mostly meat usually focus on later groups who had fire and weapons and hunting dogs and lived on grasslands. But earlier, tropical, humans ate mostly plants and easily-caught animals like insects, frogs, snakes, fish, small birds, and scavenged carcasses from other animals’ kills. Many of the prehistoric cultures studied by anthropologists appear to have been healthy and not afflicted with the common diseases of settled agricultural people, which are due to crowding, poor sanitation, reliance on just a few food crops, and famines.⁸ But these primitives also died young so their diet is not practical for someone who expects to live to 100. Wild game then and now might be 3% fat; supermarket beef might be 30%. It is inconsistent to claim our chronic problems come from eating grains and beans and then say you should eat animals fattened on grains and beans.

Dr. Richard Wrangham⁹ believes the key to modern human survival is based on an early cultivation of fire, not just 300,000 years ago as is currently thought, but maybe 1.5 million years earlier! Cooking’s ability to soften hard seeds, to break down toxic and irritating substances in roots and leaves, to release nutrients bound in plant cells, to increase the digestibility of starchy foods and beans by 75% to 100%, and to allow our distant ancestors to eat meat by killing parasites and bacteria meant that we could evolve away from the jutting jaw and sharp teeth of carnivores, or the large flat teeth of herbivores for grinding grasses, or their very long intestines or multi-chambered stomachs for extracting nutrients from raw plants. Proto-humans with fire would have had access to more food and survived when other species starved; the extra calories allowed for a larger brain (a very energy-expensive organ) which then allowed their dominance in whatever environment they colonized.¹⁰

Epidemiology:

Death:  Many epidemiological studies show that people who eat red meat are at increased risk for heart attacks, strokes, at least 17 different cancers, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, arthritis and asthma. People who consumed one serving of red meat per day have a 13% increased risk of mortality, compared with those who eat very little meat; processed meats raise the risk of death from these diseases to 20%.¹¹

A study of more than 500,000 Americans over 40¹² shows that those who consume the equivalent of at least a hamburger a day have a 30% increased chance of dying during the next 10 years, mostly from heart disease and cancer. Cold cuts, sausage and other processed meats increased the risk in this study as in the one above. Eating fish, chicken, turkey, and other poultry decreased the risk of premature death.

Weight Gain:  Fatty meats, chicken, dairy products, oils, and refined carbohydrates should be avoided if you are overweight, since obese people produce more insulin than thin people do. After a carbohydrate meal, blood insulin levels rise equally in both thin and obese people, but only the obese have a high rise in insulin after a fatty meal. This insulin surge affects the brain to make the person hungry so he eats more, creating a dangerous spiral that fuels the metabolic syndrome, insulin insensitivity, diabetes, and further fat deposition.¹³

Alzheimer’s Disease: Dr. David Snowden’s ongoing “Nuns Study,”¹⁴ begun in 1986 at the U. of MN and now at U. of KY, seeks to determine the underlying factors contributing to Alzheimer’s disease. Research¹⁵ among Nigerians in Ibadan and their relatives in the US confirm the disease is not genetic but likely something in the US lifestyle or environment.  One in ten North Americans develops Alzheimer’s disease by age 65, and five in ten by age 85.

Snowden determined that the nuns most likely to experience Alzheimer’s had suffered ministrokes, and had low levels of folic acid and high levels of homocysteine, both of which result from too little leafy greens in the diet. The simple amino acid homocysteine is associated with vascular disease in the coronary, carotid, and peripheral circulation.¹⁶ It punches holes in arteries and forms  plaques, causing ministrokes. Meat is rich in the amino acid methionine which is converted to homocysteine, but leafy greens and whole grains rich in folic acid prevent the conversion of methionine to homocycteine and offer a degree of protection against these ministrokes. Folic acid helps convert carbohydrates to energy and can be found in all whole grains, fortified cereals, leafy green vegetables, beans, seeds, nuts, and most plants.¹⁷

The American Cancer Society believes that limiting red meat consumption to two or three times weekly, and making processed meats a “once in a while food” would be wise.

The Protein Myth:

Meat is a concentrated source of protein and is often cited as the reason for a carnivorous diet. The common belief that getting sufficient protein is a major dietary concern comes from the fact that our nutrition information comes from old experiments on rats, and they require far more protein than humans do, as evidenced by the fact that a rat mother’s milk has almost 50% of its calories from protein. Human breast milk is 0.8% – 0.9% protein.¹⁸

Meat does taste good and it’s culturally the center of most meals in America. It’s relatively and artificially cheap in this country because of farm subsidies providing cheap grain for animal feed. But despite the common misconception that meat is an irreplaceable necessity for our daily protein intake, there are better sources of this important-but-over-emphasized nutrient.

The fact is that most Americans get enough, perhaps too much, protein in their diets. An average working man needs about 37 grams of protein per day. Dr. Colin Campbell’s decades of epidemiology among thousands of subjects in China and The Philippines found a strong correlation between dietary protein intake and cancer of the breast, prostate, pancreas, and colon.^19,20,21 In his laboratory studies, mice exposed to the potent carcinogen aflatoxin consistently developed liver cancer with a diet of 20% animal protein and just as consistently failed to develop cancer with a diet of 5% animal protein. Campbell could turn cancer on or off, just by altering the protein content of the feed.

A disease correlation was also found in a natural experiment when Germany invaded Norway in 1939 and confiscated all cattle for its troops. The death rate from circulatory disease, which had been rising for years among the Norwegians, abruptly reversed when they had to adopt a plant-based diet. The dramatic decline in mortality continued until 1945 when hostilities ended; the death rate immediately resumed its upward climb with the reintroduction of meat into the Norwegian diet.²¹

With very little meat or dairy in the diet, the incidence of breast cancer in Kenya in 1978 was 82 times lower than in the US the same year.²¹

With very little meat or dairy in the diet, Japan, with about half the US population had 18 deaths from prostate cancer in 1958, while the US had 14,000 deaths.²¹

Plant protein is equally nutritious as is animal protein, and in many ways it is far superior. Plant foods contain a broad range of essential amino acids. Clinical studies^22,23 compared the intake of the essential amino acids in the diets of meat eaters, lacto-ovo vegetarians (those consuming dairy products and eggs) and vegans (no eggs or dairy products). The study directors set the protein requirement for each amino acid at a level that would easily cover the needs of growing children and pregnant women. The researchers found that not only did all three diets provide sufficient protein, each group exceeded twice its requirement for every essential amino acid. Vegetarians easily get more than enough protein, even without careful planning or intentional protein complementing.

The Calcium Connection:

The research of Deborah Sellmeyer of Johns Hopkins links osteoporosis to excessive meat intake.²⁴ Countries with the most osteoporosis are those where people eat the most meat and dairy products. Countries with little dairy consumption suffer little osteoporosis. Dr. Sellmeyer found that women who eat the most acidifying foods are the ones most likely to have the disease. What happens is that when you take in more protein than you need, it is broken down into its constituent amino acids and the liver converts them to organic acids, causing metabolic acidosis. Your kidneys respond to this acidic blood condition by neutralizing the blood with calcium pulled from bones. Osteoporosis is a condition caused by a number of factors, but the most important is excess dietary protein. Low-protein diets create a positive calcium balance, and high-protein diets create a negative calcium balance. This occurs in men and young women, as well as in post-menopausal women.

The high protein content of milk may actually contribute to the very disease that the calcium in milk is alleged to prevent. While lower-fat dairy products represent an improvement, they are actually higher in protein, and this contributes to kidney problems and some forms of cancer as well. Dairy products are also the leading culprits in food allergies.²⁵ Sufficient calcium should not be a problem in any ordinary diet, but its absorption requires adequate dietary magnesium, phosphorus, and vitamins A, C, and D. Without certain of these nutrients, it appears that calcium cannot be absorbed at all.²⁶

Plant proteins do not result in calcium loss in the same way that animal proteins do. Plant foods that are high in calcium include broccoli, tofu, chickpeas, almonds, cornmeal, soybeans, nuts, baked beans, and leafy green vegetables such as collard greens and kale, to name a few. No need to obsess about your calcium requirement, though, because there is no correlation, “not even a trend,” between calcium intake and bone loss.²⁷ Eskimos, who consume the highest amounts of calcium of any of the world’s people, have the highest number of cases of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis occurs relatively infrequently in China, even though they consume very little milk or other dairy products.²⁸

The Smoking Gun:

Scientists have blamed saturated fats or burnt fats in meats for the increased risk of serious disease due to meat consumption, but this does not explain why red meat is linked to all of these diseases while poultry, fish, or saturated fats from palm and coconut oils, eggs, and shellfish are not.

It is likely that inflammation from the glycoprotein Neu5Gc is the real problem.^29,30

N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) is found in the tissues of every mammal except humans. Our ancestors lost the ability to make this sialic acid sugar shortly after splitting off from the apes, with a genetic mutation adding an extra oxygen atom to Neu5Gc to become the very different Neu5Ac. Neu5Gc, however, is present in high levels in human malignant cells, and is highest in metastasizing tumors. Its only possible source is the ingestion of products containing Neu5Gc – found in very high levels in mammalian meat, in moderate amounts in their milk and cheese, in low levels in poultry and eggs, and in negligible amounts in seafood and plants. The hypothesis is that the human body treats this sugar as a foreign substance and the consequent antibody production maintains a state of chronic inflammation known to lead to heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancers. When cancer-infected mice were treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents the detrimental effect of the inflammation was largely eliminated.

Some meat eaters, of course, do not develop cancer, and subsequent research explained this observation by noting that if pre-cancerous cells are present, Neu5Gc stimulates these to initiate angiogenesis – new blood vessel growth – to bring more nutrition into the area, indirectly feeding the cancer and promoting its growth. Without this nascent malignancy, there is nothing for the Neu5Gc to act on. Billions of times daily, cells in our body unzip the DNA helix, match their sister nucleotides, and zip up. Untold numbers of errors are made in replication, but almost always these errors are caught and corrected before damage occurs. Almost always. There’s always the infinitesimal chance that something will slip through, so flirt with death by skydiving or free climbing or wrestling grizzlies or by joining a cobra-kissing cult, all of which will get you on the evening news, which cancer won’t. Prudence would suggest occasionally seeking alternative protein sources to meat, such as fish, legumes, or poultry.

So, does all this make red meat sinful or not?

Well, to further obfuscate a complex question . . .

Ethics:

. . . it touches on the moral imperative to keep ourselves healthy to minimize the financial and emotional burdens of a sick body on our families and society. The US Department of Health and Human Services is now airing radio ads promoting “Real Men Wear Gowns” to get us to adopt the selfless and responsible attitude that uncomfortable prostate and colon exams and sigmoidoscopies  and regular checkups are part of what makes a responsible parent and spouse.

On a more esoteric level, the question also forces a confrontation with the math we learned in biology – that only about 10% of the energy taken in passes from one trophic level to the one above. Thus, in the wild, roughly one pound of vegetation or insects or small game must be eaten by one consumer to gain an ounce or two of body mass to pass a quarter ounce up to whatever eats him.

However, in the wildly competitive world of the factory farms which stock our supermarkets, decimal point changes in feed conversion ratios quickly become six-figure profits or losses. So beef may have a FCR of 5 to 20 (i.e., 5 to 20 pounds of feed to yield one pound of flesh on the hoof),³¹ pork about 4,³² poultry about 2,³³ farmed salmon (since they are raised virtually weightlessly) about 1.2.³⁴ The US food production system uses about 50% of the total US land area, 80% of the fresh water, and 17% of the fossil energy used in the country. The heavy dependence on fossil energy suggests that the US food system, whether meat-based or plant-based, is not sustainable.³⁵

To minimize feed costs and time-to-market, compromises are made between genetics, feed, and health. Fast-growing breeds cut the background cost for feed lost to maintenance without adding market weight. Pasture is a rare and slow luxury for cattle so huge feedlots process animals quickly with a grain diet. And since grain is not a natural feed for ruminants, antibiotics are widely used to control digestive disorders and speed weight gain – nearly 30 million pounds of antibiotics last year.³⁶ The 38% of the world’s grain crop (plus 30 million metric tons of soybeans) fed to animals could many times over feed the 1 billion people chronically hungry on this planet.³⁷ Add the 20% of the world’s methane (a potent greenhouse gas) produced by cattle, and the 25% loss of Central American forest in the last 50 years to cattle production,³⁸ and the pollution problems of incredibly large pools holding millions of gallons of feces draining a high-rise operation fattening 50,000 hogs at a time, and barely mentioning the inhumane slaughter of sentient beings: 9 billion chickens and 150 million cattle, hogs, and sheep annually and you have a moral question to consider as you beat your way through the starving throngs to pass through the golden arches on your way to a once-in-a-lifetime cardiovascular event.

¹ Pitchford, P. Healing with Whole Foods, Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition, 3^rd ed.  North Atlantic Books, 2002.

² http://tccii.com/articles/2008/eatingrightallyear072008.asp.

³ Pitchford, p. 95.

⁴ http://tccii.com/articles/2008/springcleaningliver042008.asp.

⁵ Pitchford, pp. 324-6.

⁶ Pitchford, p. 366.

⁷ Penguin Books, 2008.

⁸ http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/n248.html.

⁹ Richard Wrangham, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, Basic Books, 2009.

¹⁰ http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/1147.html.

¹¹ Pan, A., et al., 2012.  Red Meat Consumption and Mortality:  Results from Two Prospective Cohort Studies.  Arch Intern Med, 172(7):555-563.

¹² Sinha, R., et al., 2009. A Prospective Study of Over Half a Million People.  Arch Intern Med, 169(6):562-571.

¹³ Speechly, D.,  et al., 2000. Appetite Dysfunction in Obese Males:  Evidence for Role of Hyperinsulinaemia in Passive Overconsumption with a High Fat Diet.  Eur J Clin Nutr,  54(3):225-233.

¹⁴ https://www.healthstudies.umn.edu/nunstudy/articles.

¹⁵ Hendrie, H., et al.,  2001.  Incidende of Dementia and Alzheimer Disease in 2 Communities: Yoruba Residing in Ibadan, Nigeria, and African Americans Residing in Indianapolis, Indiana.  JAMA, 235:739-747.

¹⁶ Loscalzo, J.,  2002. Homocysteine and Dementias.  N Engl J Med; 346:466-468.

¹⁷ http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/9218.html.

¹⁸ Belitz, H.  Food Chemistry, 4^th Edition,  p.501 table 10.5, Springer, 2009.

¹⁹ Campbell, T.C., quoted in Lang, S.  1983, Diet and Disease. Food Monitor.

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²¹ Campbell, T.C., with colleague  Esselstyn, C., Forks Over  Knives, a documentary of The China Study and other research, John Corry, Director. Virgil Films,  2011.

²² Hardinge, M., et al.,  1966.  Nutritional Studies of Vegetarians, Part V, Proteins.  J Am Diet Assoc,  48(1):27.

²³ Hardinge, M., et al.,  1984.  Nutritional Studies of Vegetarians, Part I.  J Clin Nutr,  2(2):81.

²⁴ http://www.webmd.com/osteoporosis/features/build-stronger-bones.

²⁵ https://www.msu.edu/~corcora5/food/vegan/calcium+protein.html.

²⁶ Pitchford, p. 218, table p. 223.

²⁷ Kolata, G. 1986.  How Important is Dietary Calcium in Preventing Osteoporosis? Science; 233:519-20.

²⁸ https://www.msu.edu/~corcora5/food/vegan/calcium+protein.html.

²⁹ Tangvoranuntakul, P.,  et al.,  2003.  Human Uptake and Incorporation of an Immunogenic Nonhuman Dietary Sialic Acid. Proc Natl Acad Sci, 100(21)12045-12050.

³⁰ Cohen, J.,  2008.  Eat, Drink, and Be Wary: A Sugar’s Sour Side.  Science 31 October: 322(5902): 659-661.

³¹ National Research Council.  Nutrient Requirements of Beef Cattle. National Academy Press.  2000.

³² Brown, L., et al., Dynamic Agriculture, Book Three. 2^nd ed.  McGraw-Hill, Sydney.  2001.

³³ ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/a0701e/a0701e.pdf.

³⁴ http://www.mainstreamcanada.ca/salmon-have-most-efficient-feed-conversion-ratio-fcr-all-farmed-livestock.

³⁵ Pimentel, D., et al., 2003.  Sustainability of Meat-Based and Plant-Based Diets and the Environment.  Am J Clin Nutr, 78(3):660-3.

³⁶ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576321642268279446.html.

³⁷ Safran Foer, J.  Eating Animals, Back Bay Books, 2010.

³⁸ Singer, P. Practical Ethics, Cambridge University Press, 1999.