The following letter was submitted to the Listener as a response to recent articles on humane farming and healthy diets.  It appears they were unwilling to publish the letter.

The culture of meat and milk consumption is cruel, unsustainable and unhealthy.

 “Humane death” and “humane dairying farming” are both oxymorons.  Never is it humane to prematurely end a healthy life, nor is it humane to forcibly extract secretions from an artificially distended mammary gland, (a cow’s udder).

Less than half the world's population eat meat, yet this requires farming and slaughtering 70 billion sentient beings a year.  This vast plague exploits 75% of all available farm land, proving to be the prime cause of forest destruction; it uses 75% of all antibiotics produced and contaminates the majority of all available potable water. Production and processing of the 70 billion animals discharges 51% of all human caused global warming gasses, more than all transport and power generation combined. 

Those living a whole food plant based lifestyle, on average, live nine years longer and with less non communicable diseases (NCD) than their carnist (sic) counterparts and there is an abundance of examples of plant-pure athletes outperforming their meat eating competitors.

New Zealand has the highest incidence of breast, prostate, colon cancers, and broken hips, per capita in the world.  Is it pure coincidence that we are also one of the top consumers of meat and milk products?

Confusion in regard to fats and cholesterol is reminiscent of the tobacco industry’s 60 years of obfuscation after lung cancer was linked to smoking in 1932.  In a like manner the damage caused by the meat and milk eating culture to animals, human health and the environment has been well proven for many years, but this truth is continually being hidden, in the interests of profit.

We must be sceptical of promotions of diets which both please those who enjoy the status quo and enhance sales of meat and milk.

Three years of Plant Based Whole Food living and I am more convinced than ever than ever that diet and health are inextricably linked.  A good diet, avoiding all animal and processed foods, guarantees us good health. Poor diet, regularly eating meat, milk and processed foods, guarantees us poor health. 

Good health means being thin, with heart, lungs, brain, muscles and joints working well.  Poor health means that some part of our body is not up to standard and requires medical or pharmaceutical support to keep going.

While there are exceptions, most pill takers have never given Plant Based Whole Food living a true go.  I feel that my three year apprenticeship has set me up for a life which is going to continue in a long and healthy manner.

Of course I owe huge gratitude to my on-line mentors, including Colin T Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn, John McDougal, Michael Greger, Joel Fuhrman, Jason Shon Bennett and many others.  Their articles, research and reports on the vast number of positive results attributable to Plant Based Whole Food living, have kept me informed and enthused.

In the past 12 months my comfort has grown in preparing and eating, at home and away, plant based whole food.  My newly purchased Thermomix has made cooking so much easier. I have learned to fast (not the 5:2 fast, but truly fast), regularly and now look forward to each Monday-fast-day, which impinges not a jot on my lifestyle or activities, to give my system a day of rest and reinvigoration. My weight is very gradually going down and my energy levels are growing.

It appears that people’s aversion to this way of living is turning from one of anger and dismissal, to one of interest and mimicry.  Which is pleasing, but the tide turns slowly.

I dream of the day, when animal products, milk products in particular, are seen for what they are as the harbinger of disease and premature death. We have a 400% higher chance of dying prematurely from heart disease or cancer compared to dying from an accident.  When we and our leaders come to recognise this, they will start policing food as they now police the roads.  

Presently we have freewill to kill ourselves with food, but no freedom to ride a bike without a helmet or drive a car without a seatbelt. People shout at me riding helmetless, as they drink their sweet lattes and munch on bacon and eggs, giving no thought as to which of us is at the highest risk of dying.

An enlightened doctor has now perfected the best prescription for his patients.  It has no side effects, and is efficacious in almost all circumstances.  Read his article here.  Also make sure you read all the comments at the end. 

I know that the plant based whole food way of life seems to be full of admonitions to avoiding certain foods, but the list of forbidden food is short, foods that are processed or contain animal protein.

Once we accept that there are thousands of foods and flavours that fall outside of processed and animal, and acknowledge that they are delicious and most important they are life giving, the small deprivation is nothing in the whole scheme of things.

Watch this very short video to see what eggs do to us. 

Having watched it imagine the two alternative life paths that are available to us all.  One, a path with the certain fear of succumbing to a disease or disability; the other with a comfortable understanding that good health will prevail, without recourse to pills or potionts.

I recently came across this excellent article.  We all want to know why so few people seem to know about the value of living on plant based whole food, and why doctors don't prescribe a change in diet for many illnesses.  Well Dr Howard Jacobson, has put together a very succinct explanation, which you can read here.

In health, a chronic condition is a condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects.   An acute condition is a condition or disease with a rapid onset and/or a short course.

Within the public and the government we are constantly reactive to acute conditions and spend fortunes in attempting to eliminate or alleviate them.  Think of the funds spent on road safety, seat belts, helmets, speed restrictions, road and vehicle improvements.  Think of the health industry, OSH, hospitals and emergency services, all focussing on acute conditions by elimination or alleviation of their occurrence and dealing with the relatively few deaths that occur from acute conditions.

On the other hand, we are determinedly careful to avoid controlling, or legislating, the causes of chronic conditions.  Food and lifestyle choices are manifestly left to the individual.  Only when a chronic condition becomes acute do we step in with massive medical intervention.

There are occasional lapses to this law.  Smoking has now been determined to be the cause of a high acute caring cost; we are now no longer able to make entirely free choices for this habit. 

However in food choices we are free.  We are free to allow processed and other dangerous foods to modify our brains and bodies to the extent that obesity, heart attacks, diabetes, cancer and many other chronic conditions will set in, secure in the thought that once they become acute help will be at hand.  We ignore the enormous cost to the individual, the families and the nation that is being perpetuated by this free choice.

Food production is controlled by a few exceedingly powerful groups.  It is their determination to maintain their profits through marketing and lobbying, that keeps us in this subservient mind set.  We and our leaders remain blinded to the damage wrought by so much of the food sold, with the fatuous thought that our freewill is more important than our’s or the nation’s health, impacting on a far wider group than ever deaths from acute conditions ever will.

Chronic conditions kill far more people than acute conditions.  Premature deaths from heart disease and cancer out number road deaths by a factor of 40 to one, yet the media are awash with stories of road deaths, with nary a mention of those whose early demise was caused by a chronic condition.

It is time we recognised this huge discrepancy and along with our law makers, took control of those factors causing so much chronic, untimely pain, misery and death.

Evidence suggests that the first line of defence from unwanted organisms getting into our body is triggered by vegetables.  Without this trigger, we are wide open to the invasion of all sorts of unwanted proteins, viruses and bacteria, mostly threatened through the eating of animal originated foods.

Watch this video The Broccoli Receptor: Our First Line of Defense

Are you unwittingly taking Carnitien and Lethicin supplements?

This homily from Michael Greger is essential reading if you are of any age and want to remain healthy.

To me, it is amazing how much scientific information is out there, opposing so much of the "accepted wisdom" constantly fed to us by food producers.  Their interest is in wealth. Our prime interest must be in health.

Read and learn from this summary.

Dr. Melanie Joy’s acceptance speech, for the Ahimsa Award, at the House of Commons in London.  Dr. Joy is the eighth recipient of the award. Former recipients include the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela.

As one commentator wrote “I wish the whole world would read and understand this speech”. 

Be brave; read it and understand it.

Life Style Medicine has the ability to eliminate 93% diabetes, 81% heart attacks, 50% strokes and 36% of all cancers.  

The EPIC study of 23,000 people shows conclusively that lifestyle intervention in 4 behavioural patterns (not smoking, moderate exercise, eating a healthy plant based diet, and being slim) is more effective in reducing cardio vascular disease, hypertension, heart failure, stroke, cancer, diabetes and all-cause mortality than almost any other medical intervention.

If you claim you have an open mind and have an interest in health, then you must watch this video to learn how Life Style Medicine works and why your doctor does not prescribe the treatment to you.  Click here to read more….