LIFE EXTENSION NEWS

VEGETARIANS LIVE LONGER

By Dr. Sally Harris Sange

Reprinted with permission from FLORIDA TODAY

Every day, it seems, a new ad is touted for preventing disease. Tomatoes are wonder by virtue of their lycopene,. fats help lower cholesterol. Cranberry juice staves off bladder infections. Soybeans prevent heart disease.

Have you ever noticed that pork chops – as disease-busters - never make the news? When was the last time a minimum number of daily hamburgers were recommended? Is there a pattern here? It's pretty clear a plant-based diet is, first of all, adequate for our needs and, second, the healthiest way to eat. A plant-based diet depends on fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts for the lion's share of calories.

This is not the place for a speech about the rights of animals, whose lives are interwoven with ours in so many intricate ways. It is, for the moment, irrelevant that most of the people of the world, throughout history, have avoided the intake .of animal muscle or limited it to condiment status. Just now, we won't contemplate how easy it would be to feed the hungry with the grain set aside for cattle. According to Sharon Gannon and David life, in their book, "Jivamukti Yoga," there are more cows than people in the United States.

We'll put aside economics. According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, fully one-third of our fossil fuels go toward raising feed animals. Above all, we will not namedrop: Plato, Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Ben Franklin, St. Francis of Assisi (smart cookies, vegetarians all). This is not about being politically correct or morally sound. This is about your health. Everything we eat and don't excrete goes toward the formation, the continuous revision, of our bodies and our brains. There is wide agreement, based on observational studies, that heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, colon cancer, breast cancer, osteoporosis and obesity are far less common in women who subscribe to a plant -based diet.

Seventh-day Adventists live longer than the rest of us. They don't eat meat, drink alcohol or smoke. If one separates out the don't-eat-meat part of that, it accounts for 10 additional years. The Nobel prize-winning playwright George Bernard Shaw, vigorous in his 80s, declared he was ready to die but feared it would never happen unless he took to eating meat

Meat has plenty of calories, fat, and protein, all of which are necessary in our diets. But it is devoid of fiber. We used to worry, that a plant-based diet - full of fiber - was insufficient for our protein needs, or that it had to be balanced just so between beans and grains. But now we know the body can store amino acids and wait for complementary protein to arrive.

And our protein needs are not so great that anyone eating a plant-based diet in America need worry. It is true we get no cholesterol from plants. But our body can make its own, and most of us have more than we need, which is why the No.1 and No.2 top selling drugs in this country are Lipitor and Zocor, according to Blue Cross Blue Shield. '

Don't worry about what you're missing.

Worry only if you grill or broil your muscle, for these cooking processes are known to yield carcinogens. Vegetarians are 40 percent less likely to develop cancer than the rest. Grilled pineapple has an amazing flavor but no heterocyclic amines.

Worry only that 90 percent of the pesticides we ingest come not from non-organic fruits and vegetables; but from animals that ate them on their corn, according to a May 19 article in the New York Times. We all know antibiotics are prescribed too often for humans; bacteria are emerging that completely resist their effects. But are you aware healthy livestock ingests 70 percent of the antibiotics sold in this country?

Did you ever make a meal of a really good salad? Do you remember the energizing, satisfying lightness you felt when you rose from the table?

Old habits die hard. But awareness is a first and necessary step to take. Simply to acknowledge we may be off track in our diets, to move away from denial, is the kind of step that is taken in mighty big shoes.

Sange is a gynecologist in private practice on Merritt Island. You can contact Sange by e-mail on ssange@cfl.rr.com

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Doug Skrecky recently posted his 138'th update on fly longevity experiments on Cryonet.

This is the 138'th update of my fly longevity experiments. Average temperature was 22.1 C during this run. Estimated maximal longevity using the formula (363 - T*11.2) is 116 days.

This run had one intriguing result. Although control flies had lost the ability to fly after the day 79 census, flies fed a high dose of purple sweet potato were able to continue flying during the day 91 census, and were still rather "frisky" at the day 100 census. It is tempting to surmise that it was a slowing down of motorneuron degeneration that was responsible for the increase in maximum survival from 91 to 110 days.

It is extremely doubtful that any putative antipathogen effect could account for this, particularly since early mortality was actually increased by this (raw) sweet potato. Only replication studies, now in progress will be able to determine if this increased flying ability, at advanced ages is a real effect, or is simply due to chance.

If the reader wishes to sample purple sweet potato, this item can usually be found in any Chinatown, where it is often mislabeled as purple yam. No purple "yam" as such is available in North America.

Thomas Donaldson responded the next day to Doug’s message: When I wrote my book A GUIDE TO ANTIAGING DRUGS, one of the features which showed up for several of these drugs was that they slightly increased the death rate of YOUNGER animals, even though they ultimately caused a considerable increase in average life spans (and if you look at the graphs, even maximum lifespan, but that's a separate issue which deserves a message to itself).

So purple sweet potatoes may be doing just the same with fruit flies.

As you know, I'm very skeptical that work with fruit flies will (without further experiments at least with much longer lived mammals) tell us how to increase our life spans. Still, at least for fruit flies, that may suggest that purple sweet potatoes will definitely increase their life spans.

All these reports, with tables of results, can be found on http://www.longevity-report.com/lr.htm

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For information about A GUIDE TO ANTIAGING DRUGS, contact Donaldson at P.O. Box 208, O’Conner ACT 2602, AUSTRALIA

We're born with a sweet tooth, but many experts say we now pack in an alarming amount of sugar - an average 320 calories a day, or 16% of total calories. Want to adjust your intake? Here are the pros and cons of various sweeteners.

WHITE SUGAR (SUCROSE). Empty calories with virtually no nutrients. Spikes blood sugar but doesn't cause diabetes, and diabetics can safely eat moderate amounts. 1 tsp. = 68 calories.

BROWN SUGAR. A smidgen of nutrients. Otherwise, it has the same bodily effects as white sugar. 1 tsp. unpacked = 47 calories.

HONEY. Surprising new research finds antioxidants and penicillin antibiotics in honey, giving it a health edge over plain sugar in one study, honey even improved cholesterol. 1 tsp. =21 calories. .

MOI.ASSES. More nutrients than other syrups: 1 tsp. blackstrap molasses has 164 milligrams of potassium (as much as one-third of a banana), 14mg magnesium, 57mg calcium and 16 calories.

HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. Added to soft drinks, it is linked to obesity, especially in kids, and to diabetes, say new :studies. Children's consumption of soft drinks is up nearly, 500%.since the 1950s. And kids are fatter than ever. USA WEEKEND

More than a great way to add flavor to foods, garlic (Allium sativum) is a complex herb containing many nutrients, including calcium, magnesium, potassium, vitamin C, and selenium. Its components contribute to many health benefits, and more than 1,800 scientific investigations support garlic's use for many health problems.

A recent study links decreased risk for prostate cancer to eating garlic, scallions, onions, chives, and leeks. Individuals who reported eating the most of these foods were found to have a nearly 50. percent lower cancer risk than those who ate the least, according to research published in the Journal of National Cancer Institute.

The Iowa Women's Health Study (in which participants' diets were followed for several years) and other research have linked garlic and similar vegetables with lower risk of colon cancer. There have been several other studies that find an association between these vegetables and a lower risk for cancer of the stomach, colon, esophagus, breast, and endometrium (the lining of the uterus).

Garlic also offers numerous benefits for heart health. Several studies show that garlic can decrease the clotting tendencies of blood, thus lowering risk of heart attack and stroke. Test tube studies suggest that garlic may protect blood vessels by holding LDL cholesterol in a less damaging form

Another benefit of garlic is its safety, with no serious side effects noted throughout thousands of years of use. Garlic has been used since the beginning of recorded history, and ancient medical texts from Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, and India each prescribed medical applications for garlic.

Garlic may increase the action of blood-thinning medications such as warfarin (Coumadin), however. So check with your healthcare provider before using. Also tell your physician if you're taking garlic before you undergo any type of surgery.

Use this herb liberally in cooking, chew raw cloves (up to 4 grams daily) if you're not worried about its effect on your breath or digestion, or take supplements. Taking 600 mg of garlic daily in tablet form for only a few weeks can lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. But more than 900 mg daily doesn’t offer added benefits.   - GREENWISE