Assignment 17- Katy

Where's the beef? Not here. (Veganism Speech)

Look around you. Nine people in this room right now will get diabetes at some point in their lives. It may be you. It more than likely will be me. Diabetes runs on both sides of my family. For a while I came to accept the fact that I will most likely be pricking my finger and eating meals according to a tiny digital monitor, just as a third of America does today, according to the film Forks over Knives. Although Arcanum research lends the idea that maybe illnesses like diabetes, and even cancer, can be prevented, treated, and possibly even reversed. How, might you ask? What new medicine will do this? It’s not new. And it’s not medicine. Its food. “Let food be thy medicine,” Hippocrates spoke. Finally we are finding truth in these words. For when we eliminate or even just reduce the amount of refined, processed, or animal-based foods, we will see results in treating illnesses such as diabetes, as well as living healthier lives. More energy, less weight, no illnesses. Why don’t more people know of this?

          One main reason is that people believe we need to eat animal meat for protein. Yes we need protein, and yes animal meat has protein, but what most people aren’t aware of is that plants have enough protein to nourish our bodies alone every day. In an interview with Randi Kayne of CNN, Dr. Daniel Nadeau, medical director of diabetes in Maine’s York Hospital, claims that some plants are rich in protein, like mushroom and spinach, and they can give you the necessary protein for a day. What does this mean? Plants are supplemental foods and can replace the normal diets of animal based foods while still providing enough protein. Of course the fact remains that meat contains more proteins, but by combining incomplete proteins in plants, you can create complete proteins and not need to worry if you have enough. Plants can give you what you need nutrient-wise with the right combinations. It’s very important to get the amount of nutrients your body needs in the healthiest way possible. As Hans Gutbrod explains, eating a plant based diet can give you the nutrients you need with less fat. Less fat. We hear this term all the time in commercials and see it all over the boxes in the grocery stores. But clearly these foods aren’t having much effect as 40% of America is still obese. Maybe we need to not look for lean meat and less fat milk, but for the naturally healthy plants instead.

          Perhaps the more amazing aspect of a plant-based diet is the ability to treat and possibly reverse some severe illnesses like diabetes and cancer, along with smaller medical issues such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Everyone can benefit from the healing hands of a plant-based diet. Every minute there is a death due to heart disease. Imagine how many deaths per day could be prevented, just by advising high-risk people of the benefits of a plant-based diet. You see, according to Dr. T Colin Campbell, along with his coworkers in the Biochemist wing of Penn State, dietary cholesterol found only in meat, eggs, and dairy products stays in your blood stream, causing artery build up. However, the patients who partook in a whole foods plant-based diet in the documentary Forks over Knives, starting with high cholesterol from that very reason and high blood pressure, found that both their cholesterol and blood pressure went down to normal levels after a few months. Could something as simple as food choice actually make a difference in our health problems? It’s time that our overweight and unhealthy nation recognizes this.

          Our nation is also facing rising levels of cancer among its citizens. According to the respected doctors on Forks over Knives, few cancer cases solely start from genes, meaning that other factors play a primary role in causing cancer. One such factor is our diets. As discovered by Dr. T Colin Campbell in the same documentary, when rats are fed a 20% animal protein diet, the already present cancerous tumors continued to grow. However, when a second group of rats were only fed a 5% animal protein diet, their tumors did not grow for 12 weeks continuously. “We can literally turn on and turn off cancer,” Campbell explains. All with the power of a plant based diet. The American Institute for Cancer Research agrees. They explain online that plants contain compounds called “phytochemicals” which protect cells from being damaged from things like cancer. They also claim that a plant-based diet would lend a solution to our obesity epidemic.

          Yet still with these numerous benefits, people combat this diet with claims of their own. Already refuted, they believe those on a plant-based diet are protein deficient. What these people don’t realize is that plants have supplemental protein. And in fact, the only actual “protein deficient” people are not the ones on a plant-based diet, but those unfortunate enough to not have access to rich food, or food at all.

          Another believe of those against a pure plant based diet is that we will not be able to get our necessary dairy requirements. However, it needs to be pointed out that humans were never meant to drink cow milk or ingest any products deriving from it. Humans, like other mammals, were meant to be breast fed milk from their mothers during the earliest stages of life. We were not meant to have cow milk on a daily basis. When people have a lot of dairy they can get upset stomachs. After a while they can develop a lactose intolerance, just as my own mother has. When she has too much dairy like cheese, she complains of an upset stomach. We can and do get calcium from other sources. Broccoli is actually very high in calcium, just one option to fill in the gaps of the missing dairy products.

          All in all the bountiful benefits of a plant based diet can be obvious when recognized. With the education and knowledge of the truth about this diet, more people will be willing to accept that change is mandatory when a problem presents itself. Well America, here’s your sign. 33% of Americans will have diabetes. The average person now carries 23 extra pounds. We should not be living our lives in illness and fat! We should eat to nourish our bodies, not to entertain ourselves and our taste buds. Something must be done in order to save our generation and life as we know it. If you aren’t ready to give in to diabetes or cancer, give a thought to changing your diet. It may be the key to a better life and a better America.