tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61321143930910733292024-03-18T23:09:20.566+00:00Healthy LongevityHealthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-22678228735389355632021-12-31T16:30:00.045+00:002022-01-15T19:51:53.612+00:00Animals Foods and Smoking: A False Equivalence?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="395" data-original-width="739" height="214" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1QcB8Xul6ZE/YBBM2pPkpVI/AAAAAAAABoo/ywkse_ARUgYqQ7b0MirDH1bfmVts0uKIACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h214/Campring%2BApples%2Bto%2BOranges.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400"></span></div><blockquote><i><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">To understand diet and health, we should compare apples not to cakes, cookies, and cream, but to oranges.</span></i></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"></span><h4 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">The Game Changes: Critics Move the Goalposts</span></h4></div><div class="MsoCaption"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Plant-based diets have no doubt seen an explosion in popularity over the last decade. This has often been attributed in part to the success of several mainstream documentary films. Over the last two years, the documentary <i><a href="https://gamechangersmovie.com/">The Game Changers</a></i> </span><span>has received much attention, and has even been cited for helping to spearhead the more recent rise in interest in plant-based diets. Directed by Louie Psihoyos, produced by James Wilks, and released worldwide on Netflix, the documentary explores many of the documented benefits of plant-based diets on health and athletic performance. It is also backed by many cinema and sports legends, including James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, Sir Lewis Hamilton, Novak Djokovic, and Chris Paul. The documentary even prompted Guinness World Records to publish an article on 11 world record-breaking athletes who adhere to predominantly plant-based diets </span><span><font>(<a href="https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2019/11/the-game-changers-11-record-breaking-plant-based-athletes-601566/">1</a>)</font></span><span>. </span>However, as is common with the success of any form of media promoting plant-based diets, the documentary prompted fierce criticism, particularly from the advocates of popular diets rich in animal foods, including the so-called Keto, Paleo, and Carnivore diets. The main argument of the critics is that the studies cited to support the benefits of a plant-based diet are "cherry-picked" outliers, of inadequate quality to dispute the narrative of the benefits of a diet rich in animal foods for optimal health and physical performance.</div></span></div><font face="arial"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br></div><div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">The critics of plant-based diets have ignored a very substantial body of high-quality evidence of the benefits of a plant-based diet for optimal health and physical performance, including data from over 100 million person-years of follow-up from clinical, genetic, and epidemiological studies, over 1,000 controlled dietary experiments, and thousands of experiments in over 100 species and breeds of animals, including more than 20 species of primates. As with all documentaries that have examined the health benefits of a plant-based diet, the runtime of The Game Changers is far too short to plausibly expect that all lines of evidence could have been documented in any great detail. This review will therefore examine the evidence from the scientific literature to evaluate some of the most well-documented health benefits of a plant-based diet, with a particular focus on those explored in the documentary. In addition, this review will examine how both the certainty of evidence, and the evidence of the magnitude of adverse effects of diets rich in animal foods compare to other harmful environmental and lifestyle exposures, namely cigarette smoking. Furthermore, this review will examine the serious flaws of a number of key arguments and talking points of the advocates of popular animal-based diets, and how ultimately, they are arguing the necessity of idly waiting for a definitive dietary trial they know will likely never be carried out before their narrative can be refuted. </div><span></span></font></div></div><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2021/12/Animal-Foods-Plat-Based-Diet-Health.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-13029434743259293522014-12-13T17:09:00.001+00:002021-12-01T17:28:16.748+00:00Saturated Fat and Heart Disease Meta-Analyses: Were Scientists Wrong? <div style="text-align: right;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x-08KYucndI/VJllriakwMI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/lDJPiKOy3K8/s1600/Time-Magazine-Eat-Butter-Ancel-Keys.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x-08KYucndI/VJllriakwMI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/lDJPiKOy3K8/s1600/Time-Magazine-Eat-Butter-Ancel-Keys.jpg" width="320"></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><i>Was it Ancel Keys or the low carb advocates <br>
who fabricated data on saturated fat?</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span>In a previous review, </span><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2014/03/saturated-fat-heart-disease-meta-analysis.html"><i>Clearing up the Confusion Surrounding Saturated Fat</i></a><span>, I examined several important flaws and omissions in two meta-analysis studies which are frequently cited as evidence against the hypothesis that dietary saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease. The earlier study was published in 2010 by Siri-Tarino and colleagues in the </span>American Journal of Clinical Nutrition<span>, and the more recent study published by Chowdhury and colleagues in the Annals of Internal Medicine. These studies were both cited in a recent Time magazine article by Bryan Walsh as evidence to "</span><i>eat butter</i><span>" for health. In this earlier review I focused primarily on how the studies included in these meta-analyses, as well many other studies actually provide support for the hypothesis that saturated fat increases the risk of fatal forms of heart disease.</span></span></div>
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</span></div><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2014/12/saturated-fat-heart-disease-meta-analysis.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-2112644508561873662014-04-12T13:01:00.001+00:002021-05-21T16:09:44.822+00:00Vegetarian Diets and Quality of Life: Cause or Effect?<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Wu3wyy2Dx34/U0foeNhLBtI/AAAAAAAAAqU/4OM0EDGbCmw/s1600/Plant-based-diet.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Wu3wyy2Dx34/U0foeNhLBtI/AAAAAAAAAqU/4OM0EDGbCmw/s1600/Plant-based-diet.png" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-family: arial;">Very few would argue that simply excluding flesh from the diet will guarantee optimal health and longevity. However, the CBS Atlanta recently featured a concerning article, <a href="http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2014/04/01/study-vegetarians-less-healthy-lower-quality-of-life-than-meat-eaters/"><i>Study: Vegetarians Less Healthy, Lower Quality Of Life Than Meat-Eaters</i></a>, suggesting that diets that exclude flesh promotes poor health. This article which has gathered much attention describes the findings of a cross-sectional survey from Austria that was published in PLoS One.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3917888/">1</a> This study has previously been addressed by Don Matesz in an <i><a href="http://donmatesz.blogspot.jp/2014/02/do-flesh-freed-diets-damage-mental.html" target="_blank">very informative post</a></i>. However, due to very serious omissions made by the CBS Atlanta, I felt that it was necessary to also address this study.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: arial; font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">Vegetarian Diets and Perceived Health: Cause or Effect? </span></h4>
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It cannot be emphasized enough how important it is to recognize that this study, based on the Austrian Health Interview Survey (AT-HIS) examined dietary patterns after the subjects had developed health problems. Many vegetarians are not born into vegetarianism, but adopt a vegetarian diet later in life. Therefore, it is important to address why the vegetarians in this study adopted a flesh free diet. This important limitation was acknowledged by the Austrian researchers, who asserted:</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial;">Potential <b>limitations</b> of our results are due to the fact that the survey was based on cross-sectional data. Therefore, no statements can be made whether the poorer health in vegetarians in our study is caused by their dietary habit or if they consume this form of diet due to their poorer health status. We cannot state whether a causal relationship exists, but describe ascertained associations.</span></i></blockquote>
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More importantly, in regards to causation the researchers asserted:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial;"><i>Our results have shown that vegetarians report chronic conditions and poorer subjective health more frequently. This might indicate that the vegetarians in our study consume this form of diet as a consequence of their disorders, since a vegetarian diet is often recommended as a method to manage weight and health.</i></span></blockquote>
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The researchers suggested that if anything, it was not a flesh free diet that caused a higher rate of a number of health problems, but rather that it was poor health that caused these subjects to adopt a flesh free diet. This is similar to the phenomenon where former smokers report poorer perceived health than current smokers, because they quit smoking with the intention of alleviating poor health.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12948583">2</a> This phenomenon is often referred to as <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2014/02/death-by-veggiephobia.html"><i>reverse causality</i></a>. </span></div>
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Unfortunately, Benjamin Fearnow, the author of the article in the CBS Atlanta ignored the evidence suggesting that these results were the result of reverse causality, and instead suggested that a flesh free diet was actually the cause of a number of health problems:</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial;">...the vegetarian diet — characterized by a low consumption of saturated fats and cholesterol that includes increased intake of fruits, vegetables and whole-grain products — carries elevated risks of cancer, allergies and mental health disorders.</span></i></blockquote>
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It is important to note that the Austrian Health Interview Survey did not measure food intake in actual detail. Subjects who reported consuming a flesh free diet were simply assumed to be consuming a diet poor in dietary cholesterol and saturated fat. However, in this study 36% of the vegetarian subjects were classified as lacto-ovo vegetarians, and 55% pescetarians (allowing fish, dairy and eggs). Only 9% were classified as vegans.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3917888/">1</a> Therefore, up to 91% of the subjects classified as vegetarians consumed dairy and eggs, being the richest sources of saturated animal fat and cholesterol, respectively. The CBS Atlanta failed to mention even the definition of a vegetarian diet used in this study, yet alone the breakdown of subjects in each category of vegetarian diet.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: arial; font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">Vegetarian Diets and Cancer</span></h4>
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At the time of the report, it was observed that 4.8% of the subjects of the Austrian Health Interview Survey classified as vegetarians had cancer, as opposed to 1.8% of the subjects following an omnivorous diet rich in meat. Unfortunately, no details were provided as to what portion of the studied population adopted a flesh free diet after diagnosis. However, data from previous studies suggest that cancer patients are highly motivated to adopt a plant based diet. As <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2014/02/death-by-veggiephobia.html"><i>described previously</i></a>: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">The results of a recent study from the Netherlands illustrates the critical importance of considering reverse causality in research on plant-based diets. The researchers found that 75% of the vegetarian participants with cancer adopted a vegetarian diet after diagnosis, consistent with previous research which found that cancer survivors are highly motivated to adopt a more plant-based diet with the intention of improving poor health.</span></i><a href="http://www.nutritionj.com/content/12/1/156">3</a> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12616253">4</a></span></blockquote>
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If the 75% figure from the study from the Netherlands is to be considered representative of this Austrian population, this would suggest that only 1.2% of the vegetarians adopted a flesh free diet prior to diagnosis of cancer. This is lower than the 1.8% figure for omnivores following a meat rich diet, but similar to that of the omnivores following a diet low in meat. Unfortunately, due to the lack of reliable data these estimates should be taken with a grain of salt. </span></div>
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Prospective (forward-looking) studies which measure diet before diseases are diagnosed are much less likely to be complicated by reverse causality than cross-sectional studies, and therefore considered to be more appropriate for determining causality. I <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2014/02/death-by-veggiephobia.html"><i>previously carried out</i></a> a meta-analysis of 5 prospective cohort studies comparing the rates of cancer incidence in vegetarians compared to health conscious omnivores. For this review, I updated the meta-analysis to include the rates of major cancers in the Adventist Mortality and Adventist Health studies. In addition, I limited the inclusion criteria to studies that provided estimates specifically for subjects classified as either vegans, or lacto-ovo vegetarians.</span></div>
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In a meta-analysis including 7 prospective cohort studies, vegetarians had a statistically significant 9% lower risk of cancer incidence compared to health conscious omnivores (Fig. 1).<a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/70/3/516s.full">5</a> <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1368980002000058">6</a> <a href="http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/14/4/963.full">7</a> <a href="http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v101/n1/full/6605098a.html">8</a> <a href="http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/22/2/286.long">9</a> It is important to note that meat intake was relatively low in the omnivorous group in these studies, especially taking into account that a significant portion of the omnivorous subjects were actually classified as semi-vegetarians. This suggests the difference in cancer incidence may be greater when compared to regular meat eaters.</span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0gM9ZdlyW5E/U0DVSwYqKHI/AAAAAAAAAps/js1EBb7aiCw/s1600/Vegetarian-Diets-and-Cancer-Meta-Analysis.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0gM9ZdlyW5E/U0DVSwYqKHI/AAAAAAAAAps/js1EBb7aiCw/s1600/Vegetarian-Diets-and-Cancer-Meta-Analysis.png" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><b>FIGURE 1.</b> Risk ratios and 95% CIs for fully adjusted random-effects models examining associations between vegetarian diets in relation to cancer incidence. ¹Mortality from cancers of the breast, colorectal, lung, prostate and stomach combined. VEG, vegetarian diet.</span></i></td></tr>
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The finding of a decreased risk of cancer in vegetarians may be explained, in part, by a diet devoid in heme iron. <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/08/forks-over-knives-and-healthy-longevity.html"><i>Controlled feeding trials</i></a> have established that NOCs (N-nitroso compounds) arising from heme iron in meat forms potentially cancerous DNA adducts in the human digestive tract, likely in part, explaining the significant association between heme iron and an increased risk of colorectal cancer in recent meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies.<a href="http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/63/10/2358.long">10</a> <a href="http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/66/3/1859.long">11</a> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23568532">12</a> Heme iron has also been associated with <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2013/08/asian-paradox-low-carb-diets.html"><i>numerous other cancers</i></a>.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: arial; font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">Vegetarian Diets and Heart Disease</span></h4>
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In the Austrian Health Interview Survey, it was suggested that subjects classified as vegetarians were more likely to have had a history of heart attacks. It is important to note however, that, plant-based diets, poor in saturated fat and cholesterol have for long been adopted by individuals at risk of coronary heart disease. For example, it is known that in studies carried out as far back as the late 1950s, subjects with unfavorable blood cholesterol levels tended to limit intake of dietary cholesterol and saturated fat in order to improve cardiovascular risk factor.<a href="http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/115/4/506.short" target="_blank">13</a><br />
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I <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2014/02/death-by-veggiephobia.html" target="_blank"><i>previously carried out</i></a> a meta-analysis of 7 prospective cohort studies comparing the rate of death of coronary heart disease of vegetarians compared to health conscious omnivores. For this review, I examined the incidence of coronary heart disease, and limited the inclusion criteria to studies that provided estimates specifically for subjects classified as either vegans, or lacto-ovo vegetarians. In a meta-analysis including 7 prospective cohort studies, vegetarians had a statistically highly significant 24% lower risk of coronary heart disease compared to health conscious omnivores (Fig. 2).<a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/70/3/516s.full">5</a> <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1368980002000058">6</a> <a href="http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/14/4/963.full">7</a> <a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2013/01/30/ajcn.112.044073.abstract">14</a> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23836264">15</a> </span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fKERupT216M/U0DWN5r3I9I/AAAAAAAAAp0/wdofe2m1Snc/s1600/Vegetarian-Diets-and-Heart-Disease-Meta-Analysis.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fKERupT216M/U0DWN5r3I9I/AAAAAAAAAp0/wdofe2m1Snc/s1600/Vegetarian-Diets-and-Heart-Disease-Meta-Analysis.png" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><b>FIGURE 2.</b> Risk ratios and 95% CIs for fully adjusted random-effects models examining associations between vegetarian diets in relation to coronary heart disease incidence. VEG, vegetarian diet.</span></i></td></tr>
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The degree of reduction in risk of mortality from coronary heart disease observed in vegetarians in these cohort studies was generally in proportion to the expected reduced risk based on the differences in levels of <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2013/02/diet-heart-vegetarian-diets.html"><i>total and non-HDL cholesterol, and blood pressure</i></a>. This is supported by evidence from prospective cohort studies which found that diets characterized as being <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2014/03/saturated-fat-heart-disease-meta-analysis.html" target="_blank"><i>low in saturated fat and rich in dietary fiber</i></a> decrease the risk of death from coronary heart disease. These findings are also supported by a recent meta-analysis of clinical trials and observational studies that found that vegetarian diets are associated with lower blood pressure and a lower risk of hypertension.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24566947" target="_blank">16</a> Interestingly, the rates of hypertension tended to be lower in the vegetarians in the Austrian Health Interview Survey, suggesting that if the subjects adopted a vegetarian diet as a means to control hypertension, they were likely successful doing so. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: arial; font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">Vegetarian Diets and Mental Heath</span></h4>
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In the Austrian Health Interview Survey, it was observed that subjects classified as vegetarians had a higher rate mental illnesses, defined as anxiety disorder or depression. Unfortunately, no data was provided as to what portion of the subjects adopted a vegetarian diet after developing these conditions. These findings have appealed to proponents of Paleoloithic diets who hypothesize that humans have a dietary requirement for meat in order to maintain large brains and mental health. However, in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Powered-Plants-Natural-Selection-Nutrition/dp/1494367963/" style="font-style: italic;">Powered By Plants: Natural Selection & Human Nutrition</a>, Don Matesz examines an extensive body of research that casts considerable doubt on the hypothesis that meat is required to maintain mental health and is responsible for the evolution of the large human brain.<br />
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The findings from a number of clinical trials cast doubt on the hypothesis that an appropriately designed flesh free diet has adverse effects on, and that flesh rich diets, poor in carbohydrate have beneficial effects on overall mental health.</span></div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sacks and colleagues carried out a crossover trial to examine the effects of adding 250 g/day of beef isocalorically to the diet on blood cholesterol of vegetarians. As expected, during the meat phase total cholesterol and systolic blood pressure increased significantly. However, it was also observed that the participants experienced increased anger, anxiety, confusion, depression, and fatigue and less vigor compared to the vegetarian phase.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7019459" target="_blank">17</a></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Beezhold and Johnston compared the mood scores of participants assigned to either a vegetarian diet, excluding all animal foods except dairy to participants assigned to either a omnivorous diet, or a diet that included fish, but excluded meat and poultry. The researchers found that the vegetarian group demonstrated significantly improved mood scores compared to both the omnivorous and fish groups.<a href="http://www.nutritionj.com/content/11/1/9">18</a></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Schweiger and colleagues compared the effects of a vegetarian diet and an omnivorous diet on global mood scores. They found that the vegetarian group demonstrated significantly better global mood, and that carbohydrate intake associated with better global mood.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3783150">19</a></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Kieldsen-Kragh examined the effects of a vegetarian diet on rheumatoid arthritis. The researchers hypothesized that the participants may find the vegetarian diet too restrictive, and that therefore adherence to the diet would impose psychological distress on the them. However, contrary to their expectations, the vegetarian group demonstrated significantly improved physiological health, and were less anxious and depressed compared to the omnivorous group.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8205407">20</a></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Brinkworth and colleagues examined the effects of a very low-carbohydrate diet and a low-fat diet on body weight and mood and cognitive function. Although there was no statistical difference in terms of weight loss between the groups, the participants assigned to the low-fat group demonstrated significantly improved mood scores compared to the participants assigned to the low-carbohydrate diet.<a href="http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1108558">21</a></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Holloway and colleagues carried out a crossover trial to examine the effects of a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet on alterations to heart and brain function. The researchers found that the participants not only demonstrated significantly impaired cardiac health, but also impaired attention, memory recall speed, and mood while following the high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.<a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/93/4/748.long">22</a></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Halyburton and colleagues examined the effects of a low and high-carbohydrate diet on mood and cognitive function. Although, unlike other studies, the researchers found that mood was similar in both groups, participants assigned to the low-fat diet demonstrated improved speed of processing compared to the participants assigned to the low-carbohydrate group.<a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/86/3/580.long">23</a></span></li>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: arial; font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">Mass Media as a Source of Health Information</span></h4>
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The article featured in the CBS Atlanta is just one example of many studies that are misinterpreted, likely intentionally by the mass media. Unfortunately, the mass media is certainly not a reliable source for health information, as their primarily concern is to publish news that appeal to their targeted audience. In this case it was meat eaters who desired to hear negative things about vegetarian diets. This is likely why many important studies do not receive appropriate media attention, and why consumers are either left in the dark or simply confused about health information.<br />
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Although there is convincing evidence of the health benefits of an appropriately planned diet that either excludes or significantly limits the intake of flesh, such findings cannot be extrapolated to all diets that exclude flesh. The definition of a vegetarian diet only provides information as to what foods an individual restricts, and not which foods are included. This is why the emphasis of a healthy diet also needs be on which foods are included, not only on those that are excluded. Future research in this area should address what foods vegetarians are substituting meat with, the length of adherence to a vegetarian diet, and whether subjects adopted a vegetarian diet in order to alleviate poor health. This would allow for a considerably more meaningful interpretation of the effects of vegetarian diets.<br /></span>
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Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-85004395438526496312014-03-28T17:22:00.002+00:002021-05-21T16:09:25.545+00:00Clearing Up The Confusion Surrounding Saturated Fat<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PzsWPaY5Om4/UzGRVLystNI/AAAAAAAAAnc/ru5NHDJcawU/s1600/Confusion.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" height="182" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PzsWPaY5Om4/UzGRVLystNI/AAAAAAAAAnc/ru5NHDJcawU/s1600/Confusion.jpg" width="280"></span></a><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2010, Siri-Tarino and colleagues published a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association between dietary saturated fat and cardiovascular disease in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.<a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/91/3/535">1</a> Based on the results of this meta-analysis, these researchers concluded that there was insufficient evidence from prospective cohort studies to conclude that dietary saturated fat increases the risk of coronary heart disease. However, a number of prominent diet-heart researchers identified many serious flaws and omissions in this meta-analysis that cast doubt on the validity of these researchers conclusions.<a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/91/3/497.full">2</a> <a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/92/2/459.2.long">3</a> <a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/92/2/458.long">4</a> <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=6&fid=8359148&jid=BJN&volumeId=106&issueId=05&aid=8359147&bodyId=&membershipNumber=&societyETOCSession=&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0007114511002236">5</a> <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=6&fid=8403078&jid=BJN&volumeId=106&issueId=07&aid=8403077&bodyId=&membershipNumber=&societyETOCSession=&fulltextType=ED&fileId=S000711451100506X">6</a><br>
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More recently, Chowdhury and colleagues published a separate meta-analysis in the Annals of Internal Medicine, and reached similar conclusions to that of Siri-Tarino and colleagues regarding the association between saturated fat and coronary heart disease.<a href="http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1846638">7</a> Unfortunately, this meta-analysis also failed to sufficiently address a number of important limitations that it shares with the meta-analysis by Siri-Tarino and colleagues. Furthermore, in this meta-analysis, although positively, but not significantly associated in the random-effects model, both dietary and total circulating concentrations of saturated fat were associated with a small, but statistically significant increased risk of coronary heart disease in the fixed effects model (RR=1.04 [95% CI, 1.01, 1.07] and RR=1.13 [95% CI, 1.03-1.25], respectively). These significant findings were however ignored in the conclusions of this study. Nevertheless, the media and proponents of popular Low-Carb and Paleo diets have repeatedly cited these meta-analyses as evidence to support a diet rich in saturated fat. </span></div>
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</span></div><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2014/03/saturated-fat-heart-disease-meta-analysis.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-62292861570788719402014-02-09T14:50:00.001+00:002021-05-21T16:09:10.107+00:00Do Vegetarians Live Longer Than Health Conscious Omnivores? <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
Proponents of Paleo and Low-Carb diets suggest that plant-based diets, particularly those rich in grains and legumes, promote disease, ultimately resulting in premature death. However, there is a <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2013/08/asian-paradox-low-carb-diets.html">substantial amount of evidence</a> casting doubt on such suggestions, with many studies providing evidence that plant-based diets increase longevity. This review will focus on studies examining the longevity of plant-based populations, and some of the criticisms of these studies, particularly in reference to <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/08/forks-over-knives-and-healthy-longevity.html">Denise Minger's</a> recently published book, <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2014/02/death-by-food-pyramid.html"><i>Death By Food Pyramid</i></a>.<br>
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<span>It is not news that </span><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/08/forks-over-knives-and-healthy-longevity.html">Denise Minger</a> <span>has a tendency to downplay the health benefits of plant foods and plant-based diets. In her critique of the China Study, Minger claimed that “<i>as a plant-nosher</i>”, she was hoping to find evidence to support Dr. T. Colin Campbell's findings from the China Study linking dietary fiber to lower rates of colorectal cancer.<a href="http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/">1</a> Somehow, however, despite her vegan bias apparently creeping into her critique, Minger suggested that she was unable to find sufficient evidence outside of the China Study supporting the hypothesis that dietary fiber protects against colorectal cancer. And yet, several months later the omnivorous panel of experts of the World Cancer Research Fund concluded based on a review of over 1,000 publications that there was convincing evidence that dietary fiber protects against colorectal cancer.<a href="http://www.wcrf-uk.org/audience/media/press_release.php?recid=153">2</a> In </span><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2014/02/death-by-food-pyramid.html"><i>Death By Food Pyramid</i></a><span>, </span><span>Minger continues this trend of downplaying the health benefits of plant-based diets. </span><br>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">Failing to Equal the Seventh-day Adventists</span></span></h4>
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<span> </span> <span>In the chapter of her book, <i>Herbivore’s Dilemma</i>, Denise Minger provides a brief overview of the history and the growth of the popularity of vegetarian diets, bringing into picture the earliest of the studies on the Californian Seventh-day Adventists. Loma Linda, California which is highly concentrated by Adventists is considered to be a Blue Zone because of the greater life expectancy compared to other parts of North America. Loma Linda shares the title of Blue Zone with four other populations which are all characterized by traditionally consuming plant-based diets, typically rich in legumes and grains.</span><a href="http://www.bluezones.com/live-longer/">3</a> These other Blue Zones include, Ikaria, Greece; Nicoya, Costa Rica; <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/11/traditional-diets-in-asia-pacific-and.html">Okinawa, Japan</a>; and Sardinia, Italy. It seems that Minger was not even able to get these simple details right in her book, claiming that the Greek island of Crete is considered a Blue Zone, while citing an article that clearly refers to Ikaria.<br>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g9SgINh3G2M/UvYTbIQgfBI/AAAAAAAAAhM/W4f7xUx0XaQ/s1600/Blue+Zones+Map.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g9SgINh3G2M/UvYTbIQgfBI/AAAAAAAAAhM/W4f7xUx0XaQ/s1600/Blue+Zones+Map.jpg" width="400"></span></a></div>
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</span><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2014/02/death-by-veggiephobia.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-8409063726357840612014-02-09T14:48:00.004+00:002021-05-21T16:08:46.111+00:00Denise Minger: Death By Food Pyramid or Saved By Food Pyramid?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qVLEYKEH9kc/UtntB9mniiI/AAAAAAAAAbg/9vuH-s0rfzc/s1600/Denise+Minger+-+Death+By+Food+Pyramid.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br>
<img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qVLEYKEH9kc/UtntB9mniiI/AAAAAAAAAbg/9vuH-s0rfzc/s1600/Denise+Minger+-+Death+By+Food+Pyramid.jpg" width="208"></span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>A few years back, Denise Minger instantly rose to fame in the Low-Carb and Paleo diet circles shortly after publishing a blog post criticizing the chapter describing the findings from</span> the China-Cornell-Oxford Project in <span>the book, The China Study, written by Dr. T. Colin Campbell.</span><a href="http://www.vegsource.com/news/2010/07/china-study-author-colin-campbell-slaps-down-critic-denise-minger.html">1</a><span> This blog post was very welcomed by proponents of these diets as it provided them with a reference which they used to attempt to use refute much criticism they had been receiving for promoting a diet rich in animal foods.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span>One reason Minger’s critique likely received much attention, was that unlike other individuals who have attempted to criticize the China Study, rather than making her intention of defending a diet rich in animal foods obvious, Minger attempted to give readers a false impression that if anything she was bias towards a plant-based diet. Minger’s intentions became somewhat apparent when Paleo diet proponent Richard Nikoley posted an e-mail that he received from Minger on his blog.</span><a href="http://freetheanimal.com/2010/07/t-colin-campbells-the-china-study-finally-exhaustively-discredited.html">2</a><span> The contents of this e-mail made it obvious that Minger had been sending e-mails to proponents of Low-Carb and Paleo diets, suggesting that they cite her blog post as "<i>ammo</i>" to shoot down "<i>vegans</i>" who cite The China Study. The language used by Minger in the e-mail, such as the statement “<i>Of course, they aren't</i>”, in reference to whether animal foods are linked to chronic diseases, suggested the likelihood of confirmation bias in favor of downplaying the harms of animal foods. This raises the question as to whether it was her intention to simply downplay Dr. Campbell’s work, rather than producing an honest review.</span></span><br>
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<span>As described previously by </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4u-5Tb8WHk">Plant Positive</a><span>, and </span><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/08/forks-over-knives-and-healthy-longevity.html">myself</a><span>, there were a number of serious concerns with Minger’s interpretations of the data from the China Study which further casted doubt on her true intentions. One particular example was Minger's attempt to attribute the association between fat intake, a marker of animal food intake, and an increased risk of breast cancer mortality in the China Study to the consumption of "<i>hormone-injected livestock</i>".</span><a href="http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/">3</a><span> The fact that the mortality data that Minger examined was from the early to mid-1970s, a time when the use of hormone injections was not exactly widely practiced throughout rural China casts serious doubt on this claim. Furthermore, it is important to consider that the time lag between exposure to a causal agent and when breast cancer becomes life threatening is more than often several decades. For example, the greatest risk of excess death from radiation-related solid cancers, such as breast cancer among the atomic bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was more than half a century after exposure.</span><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22171960">4</a><span> It is therefore likely that most of the dietary related deaths from breast cancer that occurred in the early 1970s would more likely to have been caused by the diets consumed several decades earlier, likely even before </span><span>hormone injections was used to any meaningful extent in China. This provides further </span>suggestive<span> evidence that Minger was merely trying to downplay the evidence of the harms of animal foods, rather than producing an honest review.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span>Given Denise Minger’s </span><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/08/forks-over-knives-and-healthy-longevity.html">misleading blog posts</a><span>, naturally I was more concerned than interested to see what sort of take home message Minger would be attempting to provide readers of her recently published book, </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books?isbn=0984755128"><i>Death By Food Pyramid</i></a><span>. I have therefore decided to review a number of the key sections of the book to help readers to decide whether to purchase and incorporate the dietary advice in this book.</span></span></div>
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</span></div><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2014/02/death-by-food-pyramid.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-16210174432722817522013-10-24T14:14:00.002+00:002021-05-21T16:08:27.172+00:00Grass-Fed Animal Foods and Diseases of Civilization: Cardiovascular Disease in Ancient Civilizations<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GQaNbAhzujM/UmYWEGNqHiI/AAAAAAAAAXk/BfBB8wxU7Mw/s1600/Vilhjalmur+Stefansson+Memorial+Stamp.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" height="135" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GQaNbAhzujM/UmYWEGNqHiI/AAAAAAAAAXk/BfBB8wxU7Mw/s320/Vilhjalmur+Stefansson+Memorial+Stamp.png" width="240"></span></a><span style="font-family: arial;">Vilhjalmur Stefansson was an Artic explorer known for his observations on the traditional living Inuit-Eskimo, which he lived together with in the winter of 1906-1907 in the Mackenzie Delta of Canada. Stefansson asserted that during this time he subsisted on traditional Inuit fare, based almost exclusively on flesh. In part based on less than extensive observations of the health of the Inuit, Stefansson hypothesized that a number of chronic and degenerative diseases, including cancer are <i>diseases of civilization</i> which can be prevented by adherence to a pre-modern diet and lifestyle. However, Stefansson did not suggest that only flesh based dietary patterns, such as that consumed by the traditional living Inuit, but also primarily vegetarian diets, such as that consumed by the Hunza may protect against such diseases.<a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Cancer_Disease_of_Civilization.html?id=bdBrAAAAMAAJ">1</a> </span></div>
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</span></div><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2013/10/Cardiovascular-Disease-in-Ancient-Civilizations.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-26478265867173793872013-08-12T16:24:00.001+00:002021-05-21T16:08:06.091+00:00The Asian Paradox: End of the Line for Low Carb Diets?<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
The fact that the populations of many parts of Eastern and Southeast Asia have traditionally been slim while consuming a high carbohydrate diet, typically rich in white rice is often considered as a ‘<i>Asian Paradox</i>’ by advocates and followers of carbohydrate restricted <i>Low-Carb</i>, <i>Paleo</i> and <i>Primal</i> type diets who hypothesize that such a dietary pattern promotes weight gain. Mark Sisson, a prominent Paleo diet advocate recently explained that the so-called ‘<i>Asian Paradox</i>’ is not a paradox because he believes that Asians have traditionally conformed to a lifestyle and diet that is comparable with his recommendations.<a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-asian-paradox-how-can-asians-eat-so-much-rice-and-not-gain-weight">1</a></span></div>
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</span></div><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2013/08/asian-paradox-low-carb-diets.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-40048170630036223272013-04-07T14:50:00.001+00:002021-05-21T16:07:38.548+00:00Cracking Down on Eggs and Cholesterol: Part II<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
Recently two meta-analysis papers were published addressing the findings from population studies of the association between egg intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease.<a href="http://www.atherosclerosis-journal.com/article/S0021-9150(13)00243-8/abstract" target="_blank">1</a> <a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.e8539">2</a> Unfortunately the authors of these two review papers reached contradictory conclusions regarding the dangers of egg intake which is likely to lead to unnecessary public confusion. The authors of the most recent meta-analysis paper reviewed studies on coronary heart disease, heart failure, diabetes and all cardiovascular diseases (CVD) combined and concluded:<br>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial;">Our study suggests that there is a dose-response positive association between egg consumption and the risk of CVD and diabetes.</span></i></blockquote>
</div><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2013/04/cracking-down-on-eggs-and-cholesterol.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-53610841755862418802013-04-07T14:44:00.001+00:002021-05-21T16:07:13.230+00:00Cracking Down on Eggs and Cholesterol<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="text-align: left;">Since the breakthrough led by Nikolai Anichkov a century ago, the feeding of cholesterol, and to an extent, dietary fat have been recognized as the <i>sine qua nons</i> for the dietary modification of experimental atherosclerosis, and have been used in thousands of experiments to successfully accelerate the development of atherosclerosis in mammalian, avian and fish species, not only of herbivorous, but also omnivorous and carnivorous nature.</span><a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Experimental_atherosclerosis.html?id=OOEIAQAAIAAJ" style="text-align: left;">1</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/books?id=VWR8AAAAIAAJ" style="text-align: left;">2</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=SgaQoZgfmZwC&printsec=frontcover" style="text-align: left;">3</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=ijps.2004.671.684" style="text-align: left;">4</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://atvb.ahajournals.org/content/26/2/242.full" style="text-align: left;">5</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.intechopen.com/books/lipoproteins-role-in-health-and-diseases/animal-models-as-tools-for-translational-research-focus-on-atherosclerosis-metabolic-syndrome-and-ty" style="text-align: left;">6</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0021915073900257" style="text-align: left;">7</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0021915071900669" style="text-align: left;">8</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0021915074900409" style="text-align: left;">9</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9389784" style="text-align: left;">10</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://atvb.ahajournals.org/content/6/4/453.full.pdf+html" style="text-align: left;">11</a><span style="text-align: left;"> This includes the promotion of experimental atherosclerosis in over one dozen different species of nonhuman primates- New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, and great apes including the closest living relative to humans, the chimpanzee (Fig. 1).</span><a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/books?id=VWR8AAAAIAAJ" style="text-align: left;">2</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=SgaQoZgfmZwC&printsec=frontcover" style="text-align: left;">3</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0014480074900483" style="text-align: left;">12</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://circres.ahajournals.org/content/34/4/447.long" style="text-align: left;">13</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/001448007590060X" style="text-align: left;">14</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1965309/" style="text-align: left;">15</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/path.1711150306/abstract" style="text-align: left;">16</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://atvb.ahajournals.org/content/1/2/144.long" style="text-align: left;">17</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0014480069900471" style="text-align: left;">18</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1903425/" style="text-align: left;">19</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://ebm.rsmjournals.com/content/143/4/1218.short" style="text-align: left;">20</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://atvb.ahajournals.org/content/10/4/633.long" style="text-align: left;">21</a><span style="text-align: left;"> The atherosclerotic lesions induced by cholesterol feeding, including in the form of fresh eggs yolks in many opportunistic omnivores, such as various species of nonhuman primates, birds and pigs have been shown to closely resemble the disease in humans.</span><a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Experimental_atherosclerosis.html?id=OOEIAQAAIAAJ" style="text-align: left;">1</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/books?id=VWR8AAAAIAAJ" style="text-align: left;">2</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=SgaQoZgfmZwC&printsec=frontcover" style="text-align: left;">3</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=ijps.2004.671.684" style="text-align: left;">4</a> <a href="http://ps.fass.org/content/65/5/979.short" target="_blank">22</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1938976/" style="text-align: left;">23</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186%2F1475-2840-10-64?LI=true" style="text-align: left;">24</a></span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FyaIvgbMfp0/UWDly92wdzI/AAAAAAAAASE/6bQ6h6bWUPo/s1600/Aortic+atherosclerosis+of+a+cholesterol+and+saturated+fed+Chimpanzee+who+died+of+a+heart+attack.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FyaIvgbMfp0/UWDly92wdzI/AAAAAAAAASE/6bQ6h6bWUPo/s320/Aortic+atherosclerosis+of+a+cholesterol+and+saturated+fed+Chimpanzee+who+died+of+a+heart+attack.png"></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small; text-align: start;"><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: small;">Figure 1. Aortic atherosclerosis of a chimpanzee which died of a heart attack after long-term feeding of a diet rich in cholesterol and artery-clogging saturated fat</span></i></b></span></td></tr>
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</div><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2013/04/cracking-down-on-eggs-and-cholesterol_7.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-80825629923974610122012-12-29T01:46:00.001+00:002021-05-21T16:06:10.124+00:00Plant Positive Strikes Back: Nutrition Past and Future<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span>Plant Positive has released a brilliant new series on YouTube titled '<i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv3QDzdxan_JkGX47Rpboyh2oYyAFZDBA"><b>Nutrition Past and Future</b></a></i>', featuring 44 videos that address the misleading claims of Paleo, Primal and Low-Carb diet advocates including Gary Taubes, Robert Lustig, Loren Cordain, Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, Andreas Eenfeldt, Anthony Colpo, and members of the Weston A. Price Foundation among others. This new series expand on Plant Positive's two previous video series, '<i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCC2CA9893F2503B5"><b>The Primitive Nutrition Series Playlist</b></a></i>' and '<i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCC2CA9893F2503B5"><b>The Primitive Response Playlist</b></a></i>'.</span><br>
</span></div><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/12/plant-positive-strikes-back-nutrition.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-39889433938389947252012-11-24T14:18:00.003+00:002021-12-02T16:55:09.925+00:00Traditional Diets in Asia Pacific and Implications for Health, and the History of Disease Prevention<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
I <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/08/forks-over-knives-and-healthy-longevity_17.html"><i>previously reviewed</i></a> the health of a number of primitive populations, including evidence from numerous preserved Inuit mummies that predate western contact, demonstrating that without consuming a morsel of modern processed food throughout their entire lifetimes, the traditional Inuit developed atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, breast cancer and numerous other chronic and degenerative diseases that are evidently partly explained by their carnivorous diet. The diets and incidence rates of disease in traditionally living populations can provide implications for disease prevention, which can be used to supplement the current knowledge of the impact of dietary and lifestyle factors on diseases from other forms of evidence, including observational, laboratory and clinical studies in order to achieve maximum protection.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: arial; font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">The Nomadic Kirghiz and Dzungarian Plainsmen</span></h4>
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In the 1920’s, Kuczynski reported on the nomadic plainsmen of the Kirghiz and Dzungarian Steppes in Central Asia and estimated that they consumed an astonishing 20 liters of fermented mare’s milk, and between 10 to 20 pounds (4.5 to 9kg) of meat per day.<a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Biological_Symposia_Ageing_and_degenerat.html?id=eWYXAQAAMAAJ">1</a> <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Arteriosclerosis.html?id=yZtjKQAACAAJ">2</a> Lack of systematically documented dietary data however suggests that these findings could have been slightly overestimated, as evidently has been the case for early researcher's estimates of the Masai's intake of milk, meat, cholesterol and total energy.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3179448/">3</a> Nevertheless, these nomadic plainsmen consumed enormous quantities of organic pasture raised animals foods, perhaps among the largest ever documented. </span></div>
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Kuczynski noted that these nomads, evidently largely as a result of their diet experienced a high incidence of obesity, premature extensive atherosclerosis, contracted kidney, apoplexy, arcus senilis, and gout.<a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Coronary_Heart_Disease_Epidemiology.html?id=2Y0sT6O61CcC">4</a> <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Soviet_Medicine.html?id=h1AsAQAAMAAJ">5</a> In specific, Kuczynski asserted that:<a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Arteriosclerosis.html?id=yZtjKQAACAAJ">2</a></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial;">They get arteriosclerosis in an intense degree and often at an early age as shown by cardiac symptoms, nervous disordes, typical changes of the peripheral vessels, nephrosclerosis and, finally, apoplectic attacks. Even in men thirty-two years old I frequently observed arcus senilis. </span></i></blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><i><b><span>The Nomad</span>ic Kirghiz Plainsmen</b></i></span></td></tr>
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<a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/11/traditional-diets-in-asia-pacific-and.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-45173412861315298552012-10-28T13:39:00.003+00:002021-05-21T16:05:31.855+00:00Diet, Blood Cholesterol, Blood Pressure and Risk of Stroke: Part II<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
In <b><i><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/10/diet-blood-cholesterol-blood-pressure.html">Part I</a></i></b> I reviewed evidence showing that while randomized controlled trials found that lowering LDL cholesterol significantly reduces the risk of coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke and all-cause mortality, but has little appreciable effect on hemorrhagic stroke, prospective cohort studies found suggestive evidence that serum cholesterol, including LDL and possibly triglycerides and the risk of hemorrhagic stroke is modified by blood pressure. The largest meta-analysis of prospective studies found that while serum cholesterol was inversely associated with risk of hemorrhagic stroke mortality in participants with high blood pressure, in participants with near optimal or ‘<i>physiological</i>’ blood pressure, lower cholesterol was actually associated with a significantly reduced risk of hemorrhagic, ischemic and total stroke mortality. Furthermore another very large prospective study found suggestive evidence that the inverse association between cholesterol and risk of hemorrhagic stroke confined to participants with hypertension may not be causal but acts as a marker of binge drinking.</span></div>
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Taking this potential modification by blood pressure and risk of stroke into consideration, as blood pressure is universally high in developed nations among people in the age range most susceptible to stroke, this may result in biasing the results of studies towards finding a lower risk of stroke for dietary changes that raise cholesterol. Therefore this justifies considering this potential bias when evaluating the evidence regarding dietary changes and the risk of stroke.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XkdRJSYKzPg/UIse0pMdrUI/AAAAAAAAAIY/CYzAVchqLTM/s1600/berries-image.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" height="186" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XkdRJSYKzPg/UIse0pMdrUI/AAAAAAAAAIY/CYzAVchqLTM/s320/berries-image.jpg" width="320"></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><b><i>Foods rich in fiber and flavonoids may lower blood pressure and risk of stroke<a href="http://www.globalnaturalfoods.com/2011/09/got-berries/" target="_blank">*</a></i></b></span></td></tr>
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</span></div><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/10/diet-blood-cholesterol-blood-pressure_28.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-63845997498504633432012-10-28T13:38:00.003+00:002021-05-21T16:05:14.366+00:00Diet, Blood Cholesterol, Blood Pressure and Risk of Stroke<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
The controversy surrounding the lipid hypothesis, in particular the relationship between elevated total and LDL cholesterol and coronary heart disease was considered largely resolved and regarded as scientific fact within the scientific community by 1984 when the expert panel from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reviewed the relevant literature and agreed that the relationship was causal.<a href="http://atvb.ahajournals.org/content/5/4/404.long">1</a> <a href="http://www.jlr.org/content/47/1/1.full">2</a> The panel concluded:</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial;">Elevated blood cholesterol level is a major cause of coronary artery disease. It has been established beyond a reasonable doubt that lowering definitely elevated blood cholesterol levels (specifically blood levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) will reduce the risk of heart attacks due to coronary heart disease… Further, we are persuaded that the blood cholesterol level of most Americans is undesirably high, in large part because of our high dietary intake of calories, saturated fat, and cholesterol… There is no doubt that appropriate changes in our diet will reduce blood cholesterol levels.</span></i></blockquote>
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Since 1984 evidence accumulated from over 100 randomized controlled trials of various medical and dietary based lipid modifying interventions has further established that lowering LDL cholesterol significantly decreases the risk of coronary heart disease and all-cause mortality, independent of changes to HDL cholesterol and triglycerides, and non-lipid effects of specific drugs.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2645847/">3</a> <a href="http://content.onlinejacc.org/article.aspx?articleid=1379036">4</a></span></div>
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Controversy however has lingered over whether medical and dietary based interventions to lower total and LDL cholesterol, and perhaps triglycerides may increase the risk of certain stroke subtypes, in particular hemorrhagic stroke. Controversy has arisen in part due to the interpretation of certain statin trials, prospective cohort studies, and observational studies in certain populations with unique cardiovascular profiles, in particular the Japanese.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22588266">5</a> <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673607617784/abstract">6</a> <a href="https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jat/18/2/18_6866/_article">7</a> This has led some to suggest that physiological levels of LDL cholesterol (less than 70 mg/dl; 1.8 mmol/l), the levels observed in newborn humans, free-ranging mammals, and human populations on low cholesterol diets that do not develop atherosclerosis <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">[<a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/08/forks-over-knives-and-healthy-longevity_17.html" target="_blank">reviewed previously</a>]</span></i> may somehow increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke.<br>
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There are two major categories of stroke, ischemic and hemorrhagic. Ischemic stroke occurs as a result of an obstruction with the
blood supply to the brain, while hemorrhagic stroke occurs as a result of a rapture of a
weakened blood vessel. In contrast to the observed decline of stroke incident in Japan where there was a significant improvement in a number of major risk factors but an increase in mean serum cholesterol, Finland experienced one of the highest rates of stroke mortality in the world as well as one of the largest declines, which was in part explained by a decrease in serum cholesterol.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2549289/">8</a> Unlike Japan, Finland also experienced the highest rate of coronary heart disease mortality in the world as well as the largest decline, which was predominantly explained by cholesterol lowering dietary changes <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">[<a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/08/forks-over-knives-and-healthy-longevity.html" target="_blank">reviewed previously</a>]</span></i>. Furthermore, evidence suggests that Japanese Zen monks who consume significantly less meat and fish than the general Japanese population experience lower rates of stroke and all-cause mortality, independent of BMI, alcohol intake and other lifestyle factors.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22677895">9</a></span></div>
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At the opposite end of the dietary spectrum higher rates of stroke mortality have been observed among the three main Inuit populations, including those in Greenland, Canada and Alaska compared to their non-Inuit Western counterparts, yet experience similar rates of non-stroke cardiovascular mortality.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12535749">10</a> Evidence of atherosclerosis and other chronic and degenerative diseases have been observed in numerous preserved Inuit mummies that date back to pre-western contact, suggesting that their high rate of cardiovascular mortality cannot be entirely explained by influences of modern dietary and lifestyle factors <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">[<a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/08/forks-over-knives-and-healthy-longevity_17.html" target="_blank">reviewed previously</a>]</span></i>. Furthermore, the declining rates of cardiovascular mortality, including stroke among the Inuit undergoing a rapid transition towards a western diet and lifestyle has raised questions regarding the health properties of the traditional Inuit diet based on marine animals.<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12535749">10</a></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Coronary atherosclerosis in a pre-contact Inuit mummy dating back 1,600 years</span><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1749564/" target="_blank">*</a></i></b></span></td></tr>
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</div><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/10/diet-blood-cholesterol-blood-pressure.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-90052455662334164722012-08-18T03:46:00.002+00:002021-05-21T16:04:45.634+00:00Forks Over Knives and Healthy Longevity: A Missed Opportunity for the Cholesterol Skeptics<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span>This is the first part of a series of posts that addresses the science regarding </span><span style="background-color: white;">plant based diets and the documentary</span><span style="background-color: white;"> Forks Over Knives and the very serious inaccuracies and omissions that compromise the critiques authored by the cholesterol skeptics, in particular Denise Minger. </span><br>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: arial; font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">Food Shortages, Cardiovascular Disease and All-Cause Mortality in the World Wars</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span style="line-height: 115%;">In </span></span><a href="http://www.forksoverknives.com/" style="line-height: 115%;" target="_blank">Forks Over Knives</a><span><span style="line-height: 115%;">, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn described the classical findings from a paper authored by Strom and Jensen, who observed that in Norway between 1938 and 1948 there was a strong relationship between cardiovascular mortality and changes in intake of fat in the form of butter, milk, cheese and eggs, with the changes in mortality lagging behind dietary changes by approximately one year (Fig. 1).</span></span><a href="http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(51)91210-X/fulltext" style="line-height: 115%;" target="_blank">1</a><span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> Denise Minger not only ignored these findings in her critique despite citing the mortality data from the same paper, but instead claimed in regards to a paper on rationing in Norway that animal foods did not decline until after cardiovascular disease mortality had already started declining.</span></span><a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/article_S0029665147000078" style="line-height: 115%;" target="_blank">2</a><span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> Minger misleads her readers by confusing the period when rationing was introduced with the </span></span><span style="line-height: 18.1818px;">period</span><span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> when the intake of animal foods declined. It can be deduced from the data from the Ministry of Supplies cited by Strom and Jensen that rationing was introduced as a result of a declining availability of such products, and therefore introduced </span></span><i style="line-height: 115%;">after</i><span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> the intake of animal foods had already declined.<o:p></o:p></span></span><a href="http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(51)91210-X/fulltext" style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1818px;" target="_blank">1</a><br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: small;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US">Figure 1</span></i></b><b><i><span lang="EN-US">. </span></i></b><b><i>Mortality from circulatory disease, correlated for age; consumption of fat in form of butter, milk, cheese and eggs, Norway 1938-48</i></b></span>
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</span></div></div></div><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/08/forks-over-knives-and-healthy-longevity.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132114393091073329.post-8228956335050772232012-08-18T03:44:00.001+00:002021-05-21T16:04:17.301+00:00Forks Over Knives and Healthy Longevity: Perhaps the Science is Legit After All<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
This is the second part of a series of posts that addresses the science regarding plant based diets and the documentary Forks Over Knives and the very serious inaccuracies and omissions that compromise the critiques authored by the cholesterol skeptics, in particular Denise Minger.</span></div>
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<b><i>Part I: <a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/08/forks-over-knives-and-healthy-longevity.html">Forks Over Knives: A Missed Opportunity for the Cholesterol Skeptics</a></i></b><br>
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</span><a href="http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/08/forks-over-knives-and-healthy-longevity_17.html#more">Read more »</a>Healthy Longevityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08925293731211334914noreply@blogger.com