Vegan Men Say What? Guys, If You Have ED It Might Be Your Lucky Day

 A good friend of mine recently passed away from colon cancer. He was only 54.  I was at his bedside the night he passed and his needless death haunts me.  I had known Kelly for almost 20 years and yet I had never done much to encourage him to switch to a plant-based diet.  Kelly’s death caused me to take a deeper look at what is important in my own life.  As part of that self-appraisal and in memory of Kelly I decided I want to encourage my friends and family to live long, healthy and compassionate-filled lives. After all, I don’t want to be golfing by myself when I am 70.  Accordingly, I decided to write a monthly article on topics that perhaps males, my friends and yours, will find relevant to their lives. Thank you to VegansEatWhat.com for including these articles in its monthly newsletter and on its blog.

I must start out this first article by apologizing to my children if they are reading this. No child should read an article on erectile dysfunction (ED) by his or her father. But now that I am in my mid-fifties (okay, slightly more) it seems like a relevant topic for my first article based on all the Viagra, Cialis and Levitra commercials I see on television- and I rarely watch TV. 

You might be asking why I titled this article “Guys, If You Have ED it Might be Your Lucky Day.” That is because from the onset of symptoms of erectile dysfunction to the first manifestation of coronary artery disease (heart attack, serious arrhythmia, or sudden cardiac arrest) there is on average only 2-5 years. 67% of men who suffer a heart attack had the onset of erectile dysfunction about 3 years earlier. Not all men have ED as a warning—they have a heart attack first. The lucky ones are the men who develop ED first because they have a warning that the clock is ticking.

Approximately 45% of men in the USA over the age of 40 suffer from ED. The advent of ED is associated with a 50-fold increase in heart attack risk in men 40-49 years old. Companies have built billion dollar businesses around pills for erectile dysfunction. While these medications work well to maintain erections, they only mitigate the symptoms. They do nothing for the underlying cause. The solution is on your plate not in the form of pills. Companies have built billion dollar businesses around pills for erectile dysfunction. While these medications work well to maintain erections, they only mitigate the symptoms. They do nothing for the underlying cause. The solution is on your plate not in the form of pills.

Coronary artery disease and erectile dysfunction are different manifestations of the same disease—atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a disorder that destroys all our arteries with inflammation, calcification and thrombosis. It is caused by plaque from fatty foods such as meat and dairy and gradually accumulates inside the arteries impeding blood flow. ED often manifests itself before coronary artery disease because the penile arteries are only half the size of the coronary arteries. The same amount of plaque will narrow the penile arteries more significantly than the coronary arteries. The organs connected to the smaller arteries manifest symptoms first. 

In summary, decreased penile artery blood flow accurately predicts the onset of coronary artery disease. The good news is that we can listen to the warning signs and reverse the process that underlies both atherosclerosis and ED.

A study published in 2011 involving hundreds of men with ED showed that dietary changes had a significantly greater effect on reversing ED than the taking of statins. Those taking statins had a zero difference in improvements compared to the placebo group. On the other hand, almost 50% of the men who changed to a plant-based diet regained normal sexual function within only 2 years. Plant-based foods shown to improve erectile dysfunction and decrease blood pressure and cholesterol are watermelon, papaya, grapes, apples, onions, arugula, rhubarb, kale swiss chard, spinach, beets, pistachio nuts, pine nuts, peanuts, walnuts, and almonds. Oats, wheat germ, garlic and green teas will also improve ED. In addition to improving ED, numerous studies by doctors such as Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn prove with certainty that a vegan diet will prevent and even reverse coronary artery disease.

Please don’t eat a burger with blue cheese and then reach for the blue pill. It is only masking a larger problem than ED.  Instead, consider a plant-based diet.

Doug E.  Meier

5/1/14

Doug is an attorney who practices in Colorado.  He ate a vegetarian diet for many years prior to changing to vegan in January, 2013.    

Factory Farming and World Hunger in Developing Countries

By Douglas E. Meier

Access to food is a basic right.  At the 1996 World Food Summit, leaders from almost 200 countries reaffirmed “the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger” and “the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food.”  Yet today over 700 million people in developing countries are seriously undernourished.  12 million children die annually of nutrition-related diseases.  While some have tried to argue that factory farming is a cheap source of protein and the solution to world hunger, the opposite has proven to be true because of the “grain drain” caused by factory farming.   

            Drought and other natural disasters are often wrongly blamed for causing famines.  The 1983-1985 famine in Ethiopia led to more than 400,000 deaths.  I was the Country Director for an international relief agency in Somalia during this time and witnessed the starvation first-hand in the refugee camps along the Somalia-Ethiopia border.  While this famine is often ascribed to drought, widespread drought occurred only some months after the famine was under way. 

The 1983-1985 famine was in large part created by government policies, including the policy to export feed for factory-farmed meat production instead of growing food for Ethiopians.  While people starved in Ethiopia the government exported tons of  linseed cake, cottonseed cake and rape seed meal to developed countries to be used as feed for factory-farmed animals.  Today millions of undernourished children in the developing world live next to fields of food destined for export as animal feed for factory farming, to support the meat-hungry cultures of the developed world.

Hopefully the irony is apparent.  Millions in poor countries starve and go undernourished to support the meat addiction of affluent countries (an addiction that is made possible because of factory farming) while millions in the affluent countries are dying from heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and cancer, brought on by eating animal products.

Factory farming is an incredibly inefficient way to try and feed the world’s growing population.  In developing countries, the shift from growing food to growing feed is a primary cause of hunger.  An acre of legumes such as beans, peas and lentils can produce ten times more protein than an acre used for meat production, in the case of soy, 30 times more.  In Brazil, almost 25 percent of the cultivated land is used to produce soybeans, of which nearly half is for export to be used as animal feed for factory farms.  Twenty-five years ago, livestock consumed less than 6 percent of Mexico’s grain.  Today, approximately one-third of the grain produced in Mexico is being fed to animals. 

I also had the opportunity to be the Country Director for the same international relief agency in Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest countries.  I witnessed first-hand the country’s poverty and massive shortages of food.  Factory farming, especially battery hen systems, has become widespread in Bangladesh.  Plant food that could be used to feed its people is instead used as animal feed. 

In summary, countries where people are starving and undernourished are using their land to grow grain for exports to feed the factory-farmed animals in the West and other wealthy nations.  Nutritionally valuable food is being fed to animals to produce meat instead of people.  Promoting factory farming and meat production can never be a solution to world hunger because it promotes a diet which drains valuable grain stocks. 

The problem of world hunger may seem overwhelming.  What can one person do? I often felt hopeless as I would watch a toddler die from malnutrition in Somalia.  But a man much wiser than me told me that “each child dies one at a time and we can save them one at a time.”  So too as each one of us rejects factory-farming and adopts a plant-based died we can make a difference one at a time.  Please join me in this effort.   

  

*  Doug Meier was formerly the Country Director for a Geneva-based international relief agency in Somalia and Bangladesh.  He currently practices law in Colorado and advocates for plant-based/vegan diets.   

Got Indigestion?

I recently learned about a woman who was just told - by a health care professional - that she has a “sensitivity” to dairy.  “Millie” is about forty and has consumed dairy products her entire life.  My reaction?  A huge smile engulfed my face and I thought “lucky Millie.”   

I don’t know Millie, but I see myself in her - a younger me - and so many others who sadly will never be told they have a “sensitivity” to the most damaging "food" item they ingest.  If they only knew how much they could benefit by entirely eliminating dairy from their diet!    

         

I’ve read a lot about the dangers of dairy, but nothing is more persuasive than firsthand experience.  For many years, I suffered with gastrointestinal problems, bloating and pain.  I underwent numerous medical tests and experimented with a variety of prescription medications and probiotics.  Despite the many “specialists” I saw, not one ever told me to eliminate dairy or even considered that it might be the source of my health problems.   

Millie is lucky.  She may not realize it, but someone just saved her a great deal of time, money, energy and pain.  Based on the advice of a caring professional, Millie will stop ingesting dairy in its many forms including milk, cream cheese, sour cream, ice cream, mayonnaise and cheese.  All of these foods are available dairy-free and are tasty and healthier than the dairy version.  

Millie thinks it will be hard to stop consuming diary. It is true that Millie will need to read labels more carefully in order to avoid dairy. But I think she will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to ditch dairy and how much easier it gets every day as more and more amazing dairy-free products and replacements enter the marketplace.  I wish just one of the professionals I saw told me what Millie just learned.

If Millie is anything like me it may take awhile for her body to rid itself of the toxins she spent years accumulating through the dairy products she ingested.  But, after awhile, Millie will notice differences.  Her skin will begin to change in wonderful ways.   Her energy level will increase and, perhaps most importantly, her digestion will be better than it has been in years.  

I’m happy for Millie.  Happy because she will finally remove from her diet the single worst carcinogen in it.  Happy because she will soon experience the many benefits of a dairy-free diet.  Happy because one more person finally knows the truth.    She is truly lucky.

 

For more information on the dangers of dairy and how to eliminate it from your diet visit

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/prostate-cancer-and-organic-milk-vs-almond-milk

http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/vegdiets/health-concerns-about-dairy-products

http://www.veganseatwhat.com/#!dairy-replacement-chart/cidb

http://www.godairyfree.org/dairy-substitutes/how-to-substitute-butter

http://vegan.com/dairy-free/

http://www.notmilk.com/zerodairy.html

http://freefromharm.org/farm-animal-welfare/what-about-humanely-raised-milk-and-dairy-products/

http://www.chooseveg.com/switchnditch

A great reference book for every diary-free kitchen is  The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions, Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman (Fair Winds Press, 2011).  There are also several amazing books on making plant-based cheese including Artisan Vegan Cheese, Miyoko Schinner (Book Publishing company, 2012) and The Ultimate UnCheese Cookbook, Joanne Stephaniak (Book Publishing Company, 2003). Finally, there are many great tasting commercial alternatives to diary.  Try several brands to see which you prefer or, make your own replacements.  I'm including a few recipes to get you started.   

Not-So Cheese Sauce

This recipe from Vitamix uses raw and unsalted almonds as the base.  Soak the almonds in water for several hours or overnight, then rinse and drain prior to making the recipe if you are not using a high speed blender. 

2/3 cup raw almonds

1 cup hot water

2 oz. jar pimentos

2 T fresh lemon juice

4 T nutritional yeast

½ tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. salt or to taste

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend on high for three to five minutes or until the mixture is very creamy. Keeps refrigerated in covered glass jar about five days.   

Sour Cream 
Adapted from The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions.

½ cup raw cashews (soak overnight then rinse and drain prior to using)

1 package firm water packed tofu, drained (14 to 16 oz. package)

2 T white wine vinegar

2 T fresh lemon juice

2 T sweet white miso

2 T almond or walnut oil

Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed for several minutes or until the mixture is very smooth.  Transfer to a covered glass container and refrigerate for up to a week.  Use as you would dairy sour cream.

Herb Ricotta Cheese

This recipe is from Sarah Comerchero.  If you prefer a plain ricotta simply omit the herbs.  This nut cheese is great for making stuffed shells, lasagna or serving as a dip with veggies and crackers. 

1 cup raw cashews (soaked overnight then rinsed and drained if you are not using a high speed blender)

½ cup macadamia nuts

2 T pine nuts

2 T fresh lemon juice

basil, dill, oregano and parsley to taste

½ cup water

½ tsp. salt

Blend all ingredients together until the mixture is very smooth.  Add additional water, if necessary,  to desired consistency. 

Nutty Whipped Topping

This tasty recipe, from Rebecca, is one of my favorite creamy dairy-free toppings.  Try it on fruit, desserts and even to top off hot beverages.  Please use raw and unsalted nuts and again, soak them if you are not using a high speed blender. 

¾ cup cashews

½ cup macadamia nuts

2 T agave syrup

½ cup water

1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract

2 T cocoa powder (optional – for chocolate whipped topping)

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until very smooth.  The mixture will appear thin, but thickens once refrigerated.  Transfer to a covered glass container.  Refrigerate at least two hours before serving, or if possible, overnight.    

Regards & happy dairy-free eating,

Kris Giovanini