This is the fifth edition of my monthly column addressing the plant-based lifestyle. Previously I have discussed the concept of caloric density, and how using it to inform which foods you should eat the most of can improve your health, and why oil -- even quality olive oil may not be a good addition to your diet,

If you missed those columns,  they are archived here below this one

So now we can turn our attention to what is probably the most often expressed question I hear from people who aren’t sure that eating plant-based might be one of the smartest things they could do to improve their health and well-being:

Where do you get your protein?

The simple, most intuitive answer is this: From the same place that elephants, cows, gorillas and rhinoceroses do – from plants!

It is virtually impossible to design a diet comprised primarily of vegetables, whole grains and beans that is protein deficient – as long as it includes enough calories to meet their energy needs.

For the most part an actual “protein deficiency” is diagnosed only in cases where people are simply not eating enough calories – such as when they are starving. The fact is, that in America, far more people are suffering from chronic conditions and premature death linked with OVER consuming protein than under consuming it. (The risk of heart disease, some cancers and diabetes increases with an increase in the consumption of protein --- specifically animal protein.)

But understanding the history of why Americans ever became so obsessed with the concept of protein in the first place can be very helpful to calming down anxiety over getting enough protein and that is why I’d encourage you to read any of the books by Dr. T Colin Campbell to help you understand this history and put to rest any concerns about this that you might have. Campbell is a nutritional biochemist who rose to the top ranks of elite scientists involved in public policy, only to be shunned when he, “followed the science” instead of the money. Campbell’s story will help you to appreciate the degree to which the public’s biased view regarding the protein issue has been driven by industry profits.

But some sources of protein are far better for us than others.

One of the most startling findings of Campbell’s research (which the NY Times called the Grand Prix of nutritional epidemiology) was that animal protein had the ability to “turn on” the growth of cancers, while plant protein did not have this effect.

Here is another angle to consider, what is the period of most rapid human growth? When are we supposed to double our body size in less than a year? It’s in infancy. And what is nature’s most perfect food to make this happen...it’s human breast milk right? Did you realize that in mother’s milk, only 5% of the calories are from protein. So if nature designed us to thrive during the time of our most rapid growth, consuming only 5% of calories from proteim, how could it possibly be that we require large amounts of protein at most other times in our life?

Registered Dietitian Brenda Davis – a world recognized expert in plant-based nutrition, recommends that adults on average get about 0.8 grams of protein per kg of body weight. This comes out to about 46 grams of protein for a 126 lb woman and 56 grams of protein for a 154 lb man, though she does suggest that adults over the age of 65 might benefit from increasing this about 20% as they can be less efficient in absorbing protein. Athletes that train hard also might benefit from a little more protein as well.

In addition to increasing cancer risk, protein from animal sources tends to come loaded with more toxins (because eating higher on the food chain means you are consuming the life time exposure of DDT, and many other pesticides and plastics that that animal concentrated in his or her tissues) which may also impact the immune system, hormones and diabetes risk.

Animal protein also appears to increase overall levels of inflammation in the body through multiple different mechanisms, one of which is the fact that eating meat, dairy and eggs will select for gut microbes that up-regulate inflammation in the body. In fact it’s been shown that simply eating a whole food plant based diet dramatically changes your gut microbiome to include more microbes that down-regulate inflammation. This is often experienced by people as a reduction in pain from things many causes including arthritis and angina.

Thirty three years ago, I was a microbiologist working for a global pharmaceutical company. It was what I saw first hand that caused me to forever eliminate meat, dairy, eggs and fish from my diet. A few years later, I became pregnant with our first born. Our midwife and many concerned family members repeatedly urged me to add back at least a little bit of animal protein, “For the sake of your baby.”

I am so grateful today – that instead of following misguided advice, or giving into fear others spewed, I went straight to the medical library (this was before we had internet) and dove into the published literature and discovered that populations of women consuming a whole-food plant-based diet in pregnancy not only had better pregnancy outcomes than any other groups of pregnant women, but also that their breast milk was far lower in toxic chemicals than that of women eating meat and dairy. I also learned that the milk of women consuming fish, which sit at the top of the food chain and thus bio-accumulate things like DDT, and thousands of other toxic substances was the most contaminated of all.

Even after I had two healthy children, who had never eaten meat, dairy or eggs (one of whom was doing back-handsprings on the balance beam as a competitive gymnast – and was also one of the few on her team who never broke a bone) I still felt vulnerable to societal anxiety over what we were not eating. Over and over I met smart, educated people including medical doctors who warned me that “There are no very old vegans.” Most imprinted upon my memory, was a seventy year old, well respected healer I met in a workshop, who angrily shouted at me, “Well god help you!” and then stormed off, upon learning that I never ate anything from an animal.

I share all of this, in the hope that you will begin to appreciate the profound cultural indoctrination and pressure we are all subjected to. Sadly I have observed it derailing some of those who switch to a plant-based diet. So I want to caution you to not underestimate the power of the pervasive, centuries-old belief system, known as, “Carnism” to act upon your mind-body and convince you that you might be harmed by a lack of animal protein.

That is why, in this month’s column, I want to celebrate my plant-based heroes some of whom are not only turning 90 this year, after decades of eating only plants, but are also still living vibrant independent lives.

Doctors T, Colin Campbell, a nutritional biochemist and Caldwell Esselstyn M.D., now retired from, the Cleveland Clinic, who were the subjects of the fantastic 2011 documentary, Forks Over Knives (which you can watch for free online at ForksOverKnives.com.) come to mind first. Ruth Heidrich, who was also in that film is not only turning 90, but just released an updated version of her 2000 bestseller, Race for Life (and I wrote the forward for the new edition.) It tells her story of being diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer when she was 47 years old – and how instead of going along with the recommended chemo, she switched to a whole-food plant-based diet and since then, went on to finish the iron-man triathlon SIX times!

But some of my plant-based heroes are no longer living. Helen and Scott hearing who became famous when their books about “Living the Good Life.” made them world-renowned leaders of back to the land living. They grew all their own food working only 4 hours a day in their gardens and using no animals on their farm while living in their off-the-grid in a stone house they built with their own hands when they were 60 and 80 years old. They lived in that home in rural Maine right up to their deaths at ages 100 (Scott) and 90 (Helen.) Scott died a peaceful death shortly after he turned 100 – he had intentionally quit eating for three weeks saying he was ready to go. Helen died in a car accident ten years later when she was 90. -- living alone in that house without Scott for those ten years.

Ellsworth Wareham MD passed in 2018. He was 104. Born vegetarian, he eliminated dairy and eggs in his fifties. He remained vibrant past the age of 100. You can find video clips of him mowing his own lawn – he was sharp as a tack to the end.

And then there is Donald Watson – the man credited with creating the word, “Vegan.” Born in 1910 and not expected to survive, Donald was such a sickly child, that doctors didn’t vaccinate him – saying it might be dangerous for him. Growing up Donald visited his uncle’s small organic farm, and was so disturbed at learning that the pigs and chickens he had befriended would be killed, that he decided to never eat any animals again. He passed at age 95, and a year before his death, a friend of mine interviewed him and the two went hiking.

So let’s celebrate all of these heroes by making a birthday cake entirely from plants. This is a recipe that I used for my daughter’s 16th birthday, it contains no oil and is also gluten- free.

Ingredients:

1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup quinoa flakes put into blender and ground into flour
2 TBS ground golden flax seeds
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1-1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1-1/2 tsp Rumford baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

3/4 c finely diced and smashed apple or 3/4 cup applesauce
8 dates, pits removed and chopped
6 TBS lemon juice
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
3 TBS raw cashew peices
3/4 c real maple syrup
2 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 nonstick cake pans
parchment paper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Cut two circles from the parchment paper that are exactly the size of the bottom of the cake pans and carefully set them in the bottom of the pans.
3. Add the first 8 ingredients together into a bowl and mix well with a wire wisk.
4. Place the smashed apple, chopped dates, lemon juice and vinegar into a blender (I use a Vitamix) and blend on high until all is totally liquified and smooth.
5. Add the cashew pieces to the blender, and again blend on high until smooth.
6. Add the maple syrup and extracts to the blender, blend once more and then add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry. Use a spatula to get every last drop. Mix just until blended -- be careful not to overmix.
7. Carefully split the batter between the two pans. It will be very thick. Use spatula to smooth the tops as flat as possible, and bake for 25 minutes.

If you have been reading my column these past few months, you may have noticed that the recipes I share don’t use oil. This is for a good reason. For the vast majority of Americans, consuming oil actually increases their risk of developing chronic health problems.

Reading these words, you may be shocked, or disagree. We hear over and over about how much healthier the Mediterranean Diet is compared to the Standard American Diet, (SAD) and how olive oil is part of the Mediterranean dietary pattern. Maybe even, you have tried the Paleo Diet and experienced feeling better on it. Certainly, the Paleo Diet can be beneficial when compared to the SAD because it does eliminate dairy and gluten -- which many people feel lousy after consuming and it eliminates most processed foods. It may also get people to consume more greens and berries – which IS great. But it does allow, even encourages the consumption of “healthier” oils – like olive oil. So why do I believe we are better off not consuming oil – even a supposedly “healthy” one like extra-virgin olive oil or at least keeping it to under a teaspoon per day?

Imagine eating a pound of freshly boiled beet roots. They are rich in carbohydrates, but those carbs come packaged with fiber and thousands of different phytochemicals and antioxidants – all of which work synergistically to help our body use those carbs (and the 1000s of critical nutrients they come with) to our benefit while mitigating the harmful metabolic reactions and the cellular aging that result if we extract the pure carb calories to make sugar. Do you think that the metabolic impacts would be the same from eating the pound of beets vs the extracted sugar from those beets? Of course not. Oil is just as much a processed food as is sugar, and our paleolithic ancestors would have been just as unlikely to extract oil from olives, as they would have been to extract sugar from beets. So we can see the hypocrisy of the Paleo philosophy when it doesn’t apply the same logic to oil as it does to sugar.

Think of it this way. Oil is to healthy whole-food fats (avocado, raw nuts and seeds) what refined sugar is to healthy whole food carbs (fruits, vegetables, beans.)

That said, we DO need to consume some healthy whole-food fat from plants -- hemp, flax, chia, walnuts, almonds and avocado are a few of the optimal ones. And when we consume these as part of the same meal that includes a big serving of dark leafy greens, these healthy fats in addition to providing us with essential fatty acids necessary for health, also enable us to absorb more of the fat soluble nutrients in the greens such as beta carotene. But there are thousands of others too.

This 90 second video from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies compares 100 grams of olives to 100 grams of olive oil:

Perhaps you watched the classic movie, Forks over Knives, or the more recent one, The Game
Changers and wondered what a plant-based diet might do for you? Or, maybe your cholesterol, blood
pressure or fasting glucose are higher than you’d like...and you don’t want to end up on medication...or
even something worse? Or, maybe you noticed the rising rates of heart issues in young adults and the
concurrent increase in (non-covid) all-cause mortality in working age adults – and wonder if those
might have anything to do with the popularity of the various meat-increasing diets?

We’ve known for a long time, that one of the most important things we can do to slow down aging and
prevent or even reverse many chronic conditions and extend both one’s life span AND one’s “health-
span” is to eat fewer calories. However this only works if one is still getting sufficient nutrients. By
“nutrients” we are not just referring to vitamins, minerals and protein, but also to the multiple types of
fiber and thousands of different phytochemicals that are only found in whole plant foods. These
phytochemicals (or “plant” chemicals) with names like beta carotene, thiocyanate, lignin, chlorophyll
and resveratrol (to name just a few of the thousands so far identified) serve roles as anti-oxidants and
are key players in critical cellular processes that fight cancer, boost immunity, increase longevity, repair
damaged tissues and protect us from environmental toxins. However taking them as supplements,
rather then getting them from whole plant foods is not the same. When eating whole plants, we get
thousands of these different phytochemicals together in every bite. Previous research has suggested that consuming them in this way – as part of a whole symphony of phytochemicals is what facilitates all
those benefits I just described. However studies have also suggested that taking them as purified
extracts of a single phytochemical. (ie beta-carotene supplements) can actually do the exact opposite.
In a major landmark study where they gave beta-carotene supplements to smokers, it had to be stopped early, as cases of newly diagnosed cancers in those taking the supplement skyrocketed. In contrast, research clearly demonstrates that those with the highest levels of beta carotene in their blood
(indicative of eating a diet rich in whole plant foods) had the lowest rates of cancer.

Unfortunately, “eating less,” (as a strategy to consume fewer calories) can be one of the hardest things
to actually do! That’s where using the concept of “caloric density” can literally save your life. Shifting
one’s diet in the direction of whole plant foods, allows you to decrease the caloric density of what you
eat, thereby eating fewer calories, without having to count calories, weigh portions or eat less food.
Eating whole, unprocessed plant foods, without added oils, or sugars, can not only be delicious and
incredibly satisfying, it allows you to eat to satisfy your appetite, without counting calories and still
lose weight. Does that sound too good to be true? Here’s why it works. One of the things that drives
our appetite is the volume of food in our stomach, which has stretch receptors that communicate signals
of hunger and satiety to our brain. To understand this concept, look at how many calories are in one
pound of the following:

You could eat a pound of sweet potatoes, plus a pound of spinach and half a pound of beans – a huge volume of food that will make you feel very full, for the number of calories in a single pound of beef. Even better – the two and half pounds of plants come packed with artery-healing, blood sugar-lowering, cancer-preventing phytochemcials, that over time may make the difference between living independently or needing full time care by the age of 80 (if one even makes it to 80.)

Here is yet another way to illustrate this concept. Just simply compare the nutrients in 100 calories of
spinach with 100 calories of steak:

Want to try a really simple experiment to begin to appreciate the power of plants? Here is a very easy
way to start. For the next 30 days commit to just adding this one simple thing to your diet. You won’t
even need to deliberately stop eating anything you currently eat. Just start every single meal with a
leafy green salad before you eat anything else. But there is this one requirement you must follow for
this to work. Your salad, cannot use any packaged salad dressing, nor can you use any oil or sugar. It
must not have any meat, dairy or eggs added to it either. You must use only a whole-food plant based,
home made salad dressing. Here is one of my favorite recipes:

One of the benefits of doing this, is that by eating at least a full packed cup of RAW chopped romaine,
spinach, arugula, bok choy, kale, collard, leaf lettuce, mizuna – or virtually any raw leafy green, is that
it will reduce the blood sugar spike that typically follows when you eat whatever it is that you normally
eat. Another benefit of adding all these greens to your diet is that it will begin to improve your
microbiome. Just two weeks of doing this, will favor the growth of gut microbes that down-regulate
inflammation in your body, and begin to crowd out microbes that contribute to chronic inflammation.
Be sure to check this space next month, when I will explain how adding one more food to your daily
diet, can provide even more benefits!