A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has evaluated the current diseases and conditions most likely to end peoples lives in the US. The chief of the CDC’s Morality Statistics Branch, Bob Anderson, explained that such a report is necessary to “create a society where we live as long as we can, as healthy as we can”.
Conditions such as Heart Disease and Cancer top the list, with Alzheimer’s and Diabetes, amongst others, following closely behind. Anderson believes that gathering this data can help in determining how to prevent these diseases.
Medical professionals such as Dr Michael Klaper and Dr Michael Greger believe that a plant-based diet is key to prevention. Greger states in a lecture posted on NutritionFacts.org that an ill-informed public is, in fact, the biggest killer in the US, yet doctors are reluctant to share their knowledge on the role of animal products in causing these diseases.
In the same lecture, Greger proposes that the 8 diseases found in the top 10 leading causes of death, could be reversed or prevented with a vegan diet.
Greger explains, “After a meal of animal products people suffer from endotoxemia, their blood stream becomes awash with bacterial toxins known as endotoxins that are present in the animal products, no wonder our body goes crazy”.
He adds that these toxins are highly resistant to cooking and our own bodily acids. Additionally, saturated animal fat actually boosts the absorption of these toxins into our bloodstream. According to Greger, the obvious solution to combat heart disease and other related diseases, is to reduce our consumption of foods such as cheese and chicken.
While the common belief is that “the western diet is not conducive to this mode of action”, there is proof that western diets are evolving, with vegan meat replacements becoming more and more popular. For example, Impossible Foods now produce one million burgers a week and have even pledged to attempt to eliminate all animal-based foods by 2035.
In terms of Cancer, there are new studies appearing constantly which suggest a plant based diet is key in both preventing and fighting the disease. Greger also addresses the link between veganism and Cancer, observing that when it comes to battling the condition, compared with someone on a standard American diet “the blood of those eating vegan fights is about 8 times better”.
He also goes on to state that when it comes to Cancer cell clearance “literally 5000 hours in the gym is no match for a plant based diet”.
Regarding diseases such as COPD, Alzheimer’s and Diabetes, he claims that vegan diets are key to preventing, treating and in some cases, reversing the condition in the instance of diabetes. Greger observes that even “at the same weight, vegans have just a fraction of the diabetes risk”.
He summarises the lecture by simply stating, “the side effect of a plant based diet is less disease overall”.
