PROLONGED MEAT DIETS WITH A STUDY OF KIDNEY FUNCTION AND KETOSIS.

BY WALTER S. MCCLELLAN AND EUGENE F. Du BOIS.
It's the 1 year study on Vilhjalmur Stefansson and K. Andersen at Bellevue Hospital.

Vilhjalmur Stefansson

See http://www.jbc.org/content/87/3/651.full.pdf The reason why I'm posting this is because of what Stefansson and Andersen drank. I was under the impression that the men drank water only. That was not the case. They drank coffee, black tea, meat broths and water. Black tea is high in tannins, which bind somewhat to haem iron and very strongly to non-haem iron.

Therefore, if you like to eat lots of red meat but you don't like your greens (not even a tablespoonful of spinach), drink strong black tea or eat foods rich in phytates and/or calcium. Vitamin E supplements also help. See Red meat and colon cancer: should we become vegetarians, or can we make meat safer?

Green vegetables, red meat and colon cancer: chlorophyll prevents the cytotoxic and hyperproliferative effects of haem in rat colon.

I've just had a long and fascinating telephone conversation with Jay Bryant. This has inspired me to write three new blog posts. This is the first. There's a recurring theme.

Om, nom, nom!

Lions are obligate carnivores, which means that they have to eat meat. Wild lions also eat processed carbohydrates. Wait, WHAT?!?! The word "processed" usually has bad connotations. However, it merely means "having undergone a process", without being specific about the process.

Lions tear open the stomachs of their prey. The contents spill out and some are consumed by the lions. What do herbivores eat? Green vegetable matter. Being chewed by the molars of a herbivore is technically-speaking food processing. So, on to the study in the title.

See Green vegetables, red meat and colon cancer: chlorophyll prevents the cytotoxic and hyperproliferative effects of haem in rat colon.

"In both studies haem increased cytotoxicity of the colonic contents approximately 8-fold and proliferation of the colonocytes almost 2-fold. Spinach or an equimolar amount of chlorophyll supplement in the haem diet inhibited these haem effects completely. Haem clearly inhibited exfoliation of colonocytes, an effect counteracted by spinach and chlorophyll. Finally, size exclusion chromatography showed that chlorophyll prevented formation of the cytotoxic haem metabolite. We conclude that green vegetables may decrease colon cancer risk because chlorophyll prevents the detrimental, cytotoxic and hyperproliferative colonic effects of dietary haem."

Yes, it's a rat study, but there's also Heme and Chlorophyll Intake and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in the Netherlands Cohort Study. Finally, there's Associations between Red Meat and Risks for Colon and Rectal Cancer Depend on the Type of Red Meat Consumed.

So, always eat some greens with your red meat! A tablespoonful of spinach is all you need.

EDIT: I just found Red meat and colon cancer: should we become vegetarians, or can we make meat safer?

"For instance, promotion of colon carcinogenesis in rats by cooked, nitrite-treated and oxidized high-heme cured meat was suppressed by dietary calcium and by α-tocopherol, and a study in volunteers supported these protective effects in humans."

As dietary calcium binds to haem iron, this suggests that other binding agents would work e.g. phytates and tannins. α-tocopherol is a fat-based antioxidant. Vitamin E supplements contain D α-tocopherol.

News: Vegetarian diet is bad for the thyroid

I spotted this poster outside a newsagent today and it prompted me to buy the paper:

The story is here and basically is telling us that thyroid problems are increasing because:

• More people are cutting RED meat from their diet
• People are eating more soy

 The latest official figures show that NHS Scotland spent £8 million treating thyroid conditions in 2011 compared with just £2.2 million in 2001. Over the same decade, the number of prescriptions for thyroid problems soared from 1.2 million to 2.2 million.

Experts believe a lack of iron from reduced red meat consumption and large amounts of soya in some vegetarian meals has contributed to the increase of more than 300 per cent in Scotland’s thyroid drug bill.

The poster really made me stop - it is so rare to see vegetarian diets identified as UNhealthy.

Real Food hits the Daily Mail

I normally can't stand the hypocrisy and self-righteousness of the Mail (plus its on going cancer chronicles) but this is an interesting account of someone that stopped being a vegan, started eating meat and got healthy.

Damn your low fat diet: How a reformed vegan gorges on all the foods his granny enjoyed... and has never felt better

Food Porn.

It's the only porn you're going to get on this Blog!

I was looking at Richard Nikoley's Blog at http://freetheanimal.com/ and I couldn't help but notice all of the pictures of yummy food on it. When I mention to people that I am on an "Atkins-style" diet, they usually say "Oh, so all you eat is bacon & eggs and those expensive low-carb bars, right?" I have yet to buy a low-carb bar.

This post should give you an idea of what I eat. Some of my meals contain Burgen soya & linseed bread and even sweetcorn. These foods are relatively high in starchy carbohydrate, but my body can tolerate them thanks to Vitamin D.

The first picture is what I often (but not always, as variety is important) have in the morning. It's basically coffee with extra oomph provided by a 60cc scoop of powdered linseeds (in the storage jar) and a 60cc scoop of unflavoured whey protein (a milk protein). Vanilla flavouring, brown sugar & Splenda improve the flavour of this concoction, which has the consistency of wallpaper paste!


I do eat bacon & eggs but not for breakfast. I usually have it for lunch, accompanied by chopped onions & mushrooms microwaved with Losalt, Lee & Perrins & Extra-Virgin Olive oil. A big squirt of tomato ketchup gives me my third portion of vegetables! The whole lot sits on top of a slice of Burgen toast.


For afternoon tea, I may have something salmony. Here's a simple smoked salmon sarnie made with ~100g of smoked salmon and a couple of slices of raw onion.


I have a friend who hates the skin & bones in tinned salmon. As this is where a lot of the omega-3 fat & minerals are, I tried an experiment to see if I could disguise them. I blended a 213g tin of wild red salmon with a couple of dollops of Hellman's Real Mayonnaise & a little "juice" from a tin of sweetcorn. I then mixed sweetcorn with the salmon mayonnaise. I dumped a load of the salmon & sweetcorn mayonnaise mix onto a slice of Burgen buttered with Anchor. A little sliced tomato & cucumber completed the ensemble.


Sometimes. I just dump everything on a plate!


For supper, I usually microwave something meaty with something vegetably. Here are some Somerfield "Best Ever" Pork & Chorizo sausages microwaved with chopped onions & mushrooms in a Lea & Perrins-based gravy.


Here's an Aldi quarter-pounder beefburger with microwaved chopped onions, mushrooms & English mustard.


Here's an Aldi chicken jambonette in a sun-dried tomato, balsamic & sweet basil sauce microwaved with peas & mixed veg. The sauce went everywhere!


Here's an Aldi lamb shank in a mint & red wine-flavoured sauce. The shank was in a bag, so the sauce didn't go everywhere when I microwaved it on the plate alongside the peas & mixed veg. The vegetables look a little strange as I microwaved them as they were with a little Losalt (and no added water), but they tasted just fine. Not adding any water means that there is no loss of minerals.


And finally, here's an Aldi pork shank in sweet & sour sauce cooked as per the lamb shank. Aldi have a lot of different varieties of chicken jambonettes, lamb & pork shanks and I will be trying them out as they are very reasonably priced.


So, can I spend the rest of my life on this sort of diet? Oh, yes yes yes yes yes!