What's the news on going Plant Based?
This blog was born out of enquiries on the benefits of plant based eating, arising from a viewing of “The Game Changers” movie. My aim is to share an un-bias view on plant centred eating and to point out, that the science portrayed in the movie lacked conclusive value in regard to what is actually going to work for the individual. As we discuss health and lifestyle individualities, you may agree with my premise that there is no one “perfect diet” answer for everyone. We need to stop chasing this “one stop solution” as it gets us off track. It is and needs to be super individual!!!
As much as we’d all like things to be simple when it comes to food and health, they often aren’t. We have to use our brains to sift through the available information and make intelligent choices based on several different factors.
I invite you to grab pen and paper and answer these points honestly and with relevance to what is occurring in your daily life as of now.
Things to consider from the get go:
What health outcomes are you wanting to achieve? Examples; longevity, performance, recovery, heart health, lowering inflammation.
Genetic Polymorphisms: Do you have genetic snips that will pull you out of the general cohort - do you need nutritional expertise to assist your decision? In terms of detoxification, CV health, Lipid oxidation or other metabolic issue?
Have you factored in other important foundations to your health? Are you or have you addressed them? Nutrition is only 1 foundation - it is not the only foundation as all studies on Diet and Nutrition reveal to us. Stress management, fitness, movement, sleep, love, genetics, connection all intervene in the root cause of ill health, dissatisfaction and unhappiness.
If you have watched the Movie “The Game Changers” and that has been the main instigator in your decision to change your eating habits - have you recognised that it is just a MOVIE (it was made for entertainment!). It is not hard science AND anything that claims to be a “CURE ALL” should be a bright RED FLAG to your critical thinking.
How much have you beaten your body up in the past? How much recovery do you need to do before moving into a maintenance eating regime? Do you know your starting point? I personally had to address the dysbiosis in my gut caused by long term intermittent antibiotic treatment during my childhood for tonsillitis and an early lifetime of bad food choices and lack of food, before I could seriously examine the effects of a plant based eating regime.
Cooking style of your meat and protein. For omnivores, health issues typically stem from chemical contaminants from cooked animal flesh (including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heterocyclic amines, and advanced glycation end products).
Most large scale and over significant time frames plant based eating studies are epidemiological - basically food frequency questionnaires
Many of these studies show that you can come our better with plant based eating if you already have one of more unhealthy lifestyle factors -
Over weight or obese
Lack of physical activity
Significant alcohol intake
Smoking
Chronic stress - that isn’t a priority to deal with.
Genetic lipid disorders, hyper absorbers of cholesterol and/or plant sterols
The Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality, says that those with a chronic condition or a lifestyle risk factor have a lower chance of mortality from all causes when they adopt a diet that is higher in plant protein, but not exclusively plant protein.
The biggest recent study on the impact of diet and heart health was the PURE study over a 7 year period.
‘Findings from this large, epidemiological cohort study (this means that researchers collected self-reported dietary data) involving 135,335 individuals aged 35 to 70 years, suggest that high carbohydrate intake (the highest intake was 77% of daily calories) increases total mortality by 28%, while high fat intake (35% of daily calories) were 23% less likely to have died than those with the lowest intake of fat (10% of daily calories)
I’m using this study example to unveil the key methodological problems in Nutritional Studies and examination of data - including films such as “The Game Changes”.
Self reported data - big red flag!
“Total carbohydrates” is over-simplified. Different types of carbohydrates have different effects on health. Many of the low-income countries that had high consumption of carbohydrates obtain them from carbohydrates from refined sources, such as white rice and white bread - high glycemic index has been associated with a linear increase in coronary heart disease risk and an increased risk of total mortality. Two studies have recently been published, showed that plant-based diets composed of healthful complex carbohydrates were associated with decreased CVD, whereas plant-based diets with more refined foods were associated with increased CVD. if you are making a switch to more plant based eating - choose non processed carbohydrates more often than not.
Taking pen to paper, we have now opened up more important questions;
What types of carbohydrates are you currently eating? If your having bread, flat bread, hot white rice, pasta, noodles, rice or quinoa crackers, corn chips, cereals, fruit juice, soft drinks, cakes, sweets and the obvious sugary options, alcohol etc, then you will need to change from these options to less processed carbohydrates in your diet. Examples include, vegetables, fruits and properly treated (drop me an email to receive a download on how to do this) pulses, legumes, dried beans, etc.
What do you plan on replacing the above carbohydrate choice with? If it is just vegetables will you be satiated? Will you be able to eat enough vegetables to receive adequate nutrients and energy for what you want to do? A vegan or plant based diet that relies too much on processed foods, lacks variety and/or is packed with things that blocks nutrient absorption can quickly get you into trouble when it comes to your health.
Realistically are you willing to swap these out? Do you have the time, desire and want to eat legumes, pulses, beans, chickpeas, lots of vegetables, temphee and fermented foods? Are you willing and do you have the time to soak and treat grains and legumes (as per my method), to avoid the negative affects of lectins and phytates on your mineral absorption? This is all realistically going to take time - do you have this?
. Gut health. If your microbiome is out of balance, you may experience some health decline and discomfort in introducing a whack of grains, pulses and legumes if you have dysbiosis or your body is not familiar with these foods. Some people are sensitive to the lectins and mould toxins found in grains. You may want to consider Microbial Testing (details are on the website or contact me).
In today’s world, with antibiotics, alcohol excess, sugar excess, hand sanitiser, NSAIDs and other medications, rushing, microbial diversity has gone down hill.
Heart Health
I think that most nutritional analysts agree that the worse diet is the SAD - lots of fast carbs blended with lots of saturated fats.
Perhaps we should all be chasing heart health. If your heart health is good then you should be able to pump blood to your extremities ie: Your sexual performance should be on its game!! If this is a concern you should look at your nitric oxide and endothelial cell health (vital to inflammation, platelet aggregation, thrombosis, vascular smooth muscle proliferation, in addition to providing a selectively permeable barrier to blood and modulating vascular tone and blood flow). Nitric oxide is a compound that expands the blood vessels. In humans, recent clinical studies hypothesised a positive correlation between elevated plasma levels of TMAO and an increased risk for major adverse cardiovascular events. It was previously argued that red meat and eggs increased TMAO and subsequently CDV risk, however it seems that a fish-rich and vegetarian diet, which is often deemed beneficial or at least neutral for CV risk, is associated with a significantly higher plasma TMAO readings than red meat and egg rich diets. Individualities that affect TMAO levels include;
genetic polymorphisms can reduce enzyme activity in NO synthesis & can be associated with increased CVD risk.
Gut microbial flora affects TMAO levels. Microbial health can come from omitting traditional sugars, heavily processed carbohydrates and including foods that feed helpful bacterial. Other ideas include, enjoying a breakfast of probiotic yogurt with berries, flax seeds, and nuts or cooking a stir-fry, using organic fermented tempeh as a meat replacement. However, it is best to incorporate tempeh at the end of cooking as excessive heating can destroy the active cultures. Drinking probiotic-rich beverages, such as kefir or kombucha, Serving sauerkraut as a side dish to main meals.
These inclusion can made us of on both Vegan and plant based or plant centred diets!! So maybe it is not so much about meat vs veg but the quality of your microbiome in terms of heart health??
Little side note - Also, not all fermented foods contain live cultures. Examples of fermented foods that do not have probiotics include: beer, sourdough bread, soya sauce, wine ;-)
There is an ongoing debate about what causes HD - Dr Malcom Kendrick has some interesting views that I related well with. Dr Kahn an integrative cardiologist, Chris Kresser, Ancel Keys, Dr Joel Furmann all have interesting hypothesis. There cannot possibly be just one cause - there is a culmination of factors that amalgamate in the root cause of HD including social and communicative factors.
I run a test called the Organic Acids Test (OAT), this provides many investigations (it is not the be all end all either and can often open up a can of worms). It can reveal things in the way of carbohydrate and fat metabolism. This opens the door to further tests on how well your body is responding to the types of fats your ingesting.
The OAT test can reveal the amount of pyroglutamate (intermediate in glutathione metabolism) in your urine - I usually see higher levels in vegetarians and vegans. They may need to supplement with methionine & glycine. Low glycine levels are associated with higher homocysteine levels (there are links to CVD) So vegans should supplement with Glutathione or a combination of NAC and C (I love Camu Camu as a concentrated food supplement for Vitamin C and you can purchase this on my site). There are caveats to adding methionine to diets as MTHFR variants and homocystinuria often require a methionine restricted diet. Genetic testing is the answer to understanding this further.
Glutathione is so important because it is responsible for keeping so many of the keys to ultra wellness optimised. It is critical for immune function and controlling inflammation. It is the master detoxifier and the body's main antioxidant, protecting our cells and making our energy and metabolism run well.
The OAT test alongside many things can reveal if the body is using glutathione to keep you from loosing amino acids.
This same test can let you know how efficiently your body is utilising B12. If you have a deficiency this may indicate low oxygen delivery. Regardless of a vegan or animal based diet, I see that most people whom are stressed, have non-optimal sleep, have gut issues, dysbiosis or use PPI’s, need to supplement. Your microbes again play a big part here.
Protein-aholics:
My philosophy is to eat as much protein as your body needs for repair and recovery this equates to .8g to 1.4g per kg or body weight (some studies support that their are no more gains to going over 1.5g per kg/BW) take in the rest of your calories from healthy fats and vegetables, with limited fruits and carbohydrates for fuelling intense bouts of physical activity. I will write another detailed post on this topic but there are just too many nuances to get into in this blog. To pull glycogen into the muscle you will need carbohydrate often and ideally close to muscle stimulation time.
Most interestingly to me, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a gene in your body that is directly correlated to accelerated ageing. Decreased activity in this gene is directly correlated to caloric restrictions and lower amino acid intake. So excessive protein intake and a constantly positive nitrogen balance could actually shorten your life. I am a fan of pulsing, with times of increased protein and times of lower protein intakes.
Due to age-related muscle mass loss (sarcopenia) and decreased hydrochloric acid production in the stomach, your protein needs go up as you age, unfortunately this is then at the same time that your ability to absorb protein (in many instances) decreases. Taking HCL or digestive enzymes may be the solution.
If you are working on muscle gains, this too appears to be made from sufficient deviation from baseline protein intake rather than a constant high intake. Pulsing!
Supplements;
Again, there are individual caveats to consider but as a general conclusion drawn from myself, my client base and testing, to operate at your maximum capacity I don’t think that it is possible to meet nutrient needs on a vegan diet without supplements.
Iron: Generally vegan diets are associated with higher incidence of anaemic due to a lack of dietary iron - evidence including my own practice is mixed. Plant-derived foods mostly contain a type of iron called non-heme iron, while meat mostly contains heme iron. These two types of iron are absorbed very differently, with heme iron easily absorbed and then broken apart to remove the protein component (the heme) so the body can use the iron as needed. Non-heme iron requires some help to be absorbed, and, conveniently, the very things that support absorption (vitamin C and organic acids) are usually present in a balanced vegan diet. a person who eats a lot of meat and has genetic mutations (particularly red and processed meat) may accumulate an excess of iron, which is associated with potentially harmful effects on health (iron is a pro-oxidant), including a possible 20-30% increase in the risk of endometrial cancer and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and its progression.
I have already spoken about plant based diets that include legumes and grains for satiety can be high in phytic acid (phytates), which inhibit iron absorption. Soaking legumes before cooking, and cooking grains, helps to eliminate much of the phytic acid, however, making this a non-issue for most vegans.
It can take a few months of eating an exclusively plant-based diet for the body to adapt and up-regulate absorption. This is why I am always keen to point out to new vegans that it makes a lot of sense to pay close attention to iron in the first six to nine months. Arguably, the best way to enhance iron absorption in a vegan diet is to take a vitamin C supplement (around 250-500 mg) with food - Camu Camu!
ZINC:
As with iron, zinc absorption is much improved by simply eating foods that have been prepared using fermentation, germination, soaking, or cooking. Tempeh is a good source of zinc, compared to non-fermented soy products such as tofu. Ensuring a good intake of organic acids, from fresh fruits and vegetables, at every meal will also support better zinc absorption.
Zinc deficiency is much more likely to occur in raw food vegans who tend to eat mainly fruits and vegetables, which are poor sources of zinc. These foods also contain oxalic acid which inhibits the absorption of zinc. Including sprouted legumes and grains in such a diet can help, and raw food vegans who experience a sense of ‘lightness’ and ‘euphoria’ after a few weeks or months of their new diet might want to get their zinc levels checked as this could be a symptom of deficiency.
B12: A deficiency can trigger symptoms such as anxiety, problems with sleep, low energy and poor cognitive performance. Vitamin B12 is synthesised by bacteria and, as such, is primarily found in animal-derived foods such as dairy, meat, eggs, and insects. There are, however, many foods fortified with vitamin B12 that are suitable for vegans, including some (but not all) nutritional yeast, chlorella, shiitake, black trumpet, golden chanterelle and Lion’s mane all contain some bioavailable B12 to give an “assist” on the vegetarian diet (You can purchase some of these on my site).
Absorption of B12 is tricky without sufficient stomach acid (and Intrinsic factor). I personally am now seeing indications of both meat and non meat eaters having insufficient B12 levels. We can store vitamin B12 in our bodies for around 3-5 years, so new vegans who previously ate animal-derived foods rich in B12 might be able to coast for a little while before stores run low. Seniors are especially at risk of vitamin B12 deficiency because stomach acid production is often lower in older adults, and older adults are also more likely to take medications such as proton pump inhibitors that deplete B12 or affect absorption.
I highly recommend that everyone (vegan or not) takes a good quality vitamin B12 supplement daily or weekly (depending on the dose). For long term B12 supplementation, data suggests that it is a good idea to stay well beneath a daily dose 0.4 mg, or 400 mcg. Higher doses may increase cancer risk.
Vegans and Omega-3 Fatty Acids;
Omega-3 essential fatty acids are another potential area of concern for vegans. Fish oil and eggs are the main dietary sources of the long-chain fatty acids docosahexanoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) needed for good health. We have some capacity to convert the shorter-chain omega-3 fatty acid alpha linolenic acid (ALA) found in chia seeds, flaxseeds, walnuts, hemp seeds, and leafy greens to DHA and EPA, but this capacity is somewhat unreliable, genetic SNIPs and age may prove insufficient for good health.
The pathway via which the body produces EPA and DHA from ALA relies on two key genes: desaturase 1 and 2 genes (FADS1 and FADS2). Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in these genes can have a major impact on how well a person is able to convert ALA, meaning that some people are more vulnerable to low dietary intake of EPA and DHA than others.
You can test with me to know what is happening with your EPA and DHA levels.
Vitamin A: Low Vitamin A impairs immunity, plays a role in tissue development and repair (athletes). Snips - certain BCO1 genotypes will have a hard time getting sufficient Vitamin A from plant sources alone.
Choline: Vital nutrient in maintaining brain and liver health. Sources include shellfish, fish, meat and eggs. Interestingly vegans often have less and less can be associated with accumulation dietary fat in the liver).
Creatine; Boots the energy currency of our cells. Brain and memory! In my practice plant only eaters with specific view to exercise/sports performance, have made gains by supplementing with vegan based creatine (Get in touch for my recommendations and products).
Personally, I have chosen to enjoy a plant based diet with the inclusion of seafoods, red meat, offal at particular times of the month. I test regularly and keep a watchful eye on my inflammatory markers, organic acid profile, lipid and hormonal profile, gut and thyroid health, whilst shaping my diet to my genetic knowledge.
The message from “The Game Changers” that Veganism is for all, just isn’t based in sound science. Across the whole spectrum of cult veganism, keto, paleo, carnivore etc diets, often these diet philosophies are cutting out so many foods for people. It makes sense to me that the more foods you cut out, the greater your risk for nutrient deficiency. Inquire into your individuality in genetics, microbiome, hormonal health, goals, emotional health and time constraints and modify your nutrient intake to maximise your potential.