Transcript Vegetarian Summerfest Presentation07.2014

VEGETARIAN SUMMERFEST 2014
LESSONS LEARNED
★ 40th Anniversary Celebration★
What I learned about the vegan
lifestyle and…
• Nutrition and Health
• Environmental Impact
• Ethics and Animal Rights
Nutrition and Health Sessions
• Conquering Food Cravings
– Dina Aronson, MS, RD
• Nutrition: A Forgotten Medical Science
– T. Colin Campbell, PhD
• Vegan and Vegetarian Diets and Disease Risk
– Brenda Davis, RD
• The Autoimmune Epidemic
– Wes Youngberg, DrPH
Nutrition and Health Sessions
• A New HealthCare Delivery Model
– Baxter Montgomery, MD
• The Pillars of Health
– John Pierre
• Cardiovascular Counterattack
– Brenda Davis
• Exciting Successes for Healthy School Foods
– Amie Hamlin
Nutrition and Health Sessions
• Ten Tenets to Optimal Health
– Julieanna Hever, MS, RD
• Combating Common Diseases with Plants
– Michael Greger, MD
• New Reasons to Go Dairy-Free
– Mark Rifkin, RD
• Movement: It’s What’s for Dinner
– Stephen Esser, MD
Nutrition and Health Sessions
• Vitamin D and Health
– Wes Youngberg, DrPH
• Tackling Diabetes
– Neal Barnard, MD
• The Psychology of Joyful and Sustainable Diet
Improvement
– Howard Jacobson, PhD
• Including Wild Edibles in Our Diet
– George Eisman, RD
Nutrition and Health Sessions
• Gut Health and Probiotics
– Jill Nussinow, RD
• What Vegans Need to Know About Gluten
– Joann Farb
• The Latest in Nutrition 2014
– Michael Greger, MD
• Stress, Emotions, Food, Adrenals, Caffeine,
and Blood Sugar
– Wes Youngberg, Dr.PH
Nutrition and Health Summary
• Protein consumption is over-emphasized
• Funding for nutrition research accounts for
only 3-4% of medical research
• WHO: Diet and lifestyle responsible for 70% of
deaths in US and 63% worldwide;
recommends shift to plant-based diet
• Lifestyle trumps genes (Ornish): 5-10% genes
and 90-95% lifestyle/diet
Nutrition and Health Summary
• Blue Zones – people live to be 90+ in good
health; common factor – plant based diet,
especially legumes
• Harvard (2012 study): One daily serving of
meat increases mortality 13-20%
• Levine (2014 study): Animal protein intake
>20% of calories = 74% increase in mortality
and 4X increase in cancer death; no effect for
high plant-protein diet
Nutrition and Health Summary
• Institute of Medicine (2010 study): PBD
associated with significantly lower risk of stroke
and heart disease
• Oxford (2013 study): Followed 45,000 people for
12 years; PBD eaters were 32% less likely to
develop CVD; 28% less likely when BMI factored
in
• Adventist Health Study: 73,000 people; Heart
disease 55% lower among vegans; 24% lower
among vegetarians
Nutrition and Health Summary
• Inflammation: CRP levels 0.58 in vegans; 0.75
in endurance athletes
• Plaque: Carotid arteries of vegans healthier
than omnivore runners (average 30 miles a
week for 15 years)
• Couch potato vegans are healthier than
athletes!
• …but why not do both 
Nutrition and Health Summary
• Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn – new 2014 study: PBD
more effective for reversing heart disease than
any medication
• World Cancer Research Fund recommendations:
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PBD
5 daily servings of non-starchy fruits and veg
Eat legumes daily
Findings: Vegans’ cancer risk 20% lower; vegetarians
11% lower
Nutrition and Health Summary
• Diabetes
• Harvard (2013 study): Increase of 0.5 serving of
meat daily = 48% increase in diabetes
• Diabetes risk for vegans is 62% reduced
• Rate of diabetes among vegans = 2.9%
• Diabetes is primarily a food-based disease – not
genetics
• PCRM Study: participants ate unlimited amounts
of vegan food and no exercise – lost an average of
12 pounds in 6 weeks.
Nutrition and Health Summary
• Amount of neurotoxins we get from sprayed
fruits and vegetables is far less than the amount
in meats (even organic)
• Toxins in animal products are strongly associated
with neuro-degeneration (Alzheimer’s Disease
and other forms of dementia)
• Processed meats – highest category for
inflammatory foods
• High meat consumers have 21X the risk of
neurological disorders (including MS)
Nutrition and Health Summary
• There is only one chronic illness – and that is
poor nutrition
• Chronic illnesses are essentially food-borne
illnesses
• The public and healthcare professionals are
misled about nutrition – even dieticians are
trained to perpetuate meat and cheese myths
• 70-85% of fats in fish are the unhealthy kind
(omega 3)
Nutrition and Health Summary
• What you remove from your diet is more
important than what you add.
• Can’t undo the bad effects of eating animal
products by eating more fruits and vegetables.
• Bad food is a thief in your body.
• Myth: Everything in moderation
• Dr. Baxter’s clinic: After 4 weeks of PBD,
significant improvement at cellular level
Nutrition and Health Summary
• 16 totally vegan schools in NYC
• New federal laws and regulations related to
school lunches: soy products count as protein;
water must be served with all meals
• Food is the most powerful control you have
over your entire life.
• The healthier you eat, the better food tastes
• Eat the rainbow (minimum 7 servings fruits
and vegetables) and 1.5 cups legumes daily
Nutrition and Health Summary
• Choose whole food sources instead of processed
oils (olives, avocadoes…even greens have healthy
fat!)
• Commit to 3 weeks to remove all refined sugars.
Use whole food sweeteners (dates)
• Multiple sclerosis caused largely by consumption
of animal fat; most effective MS treatment by far
is PBD; MS and RA shown to be reversible on PBD
• Legume consumption is most significant predictor
of longevity.
Nutrition and Health Summary
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90% of heart disease…
90% of diabetes…
60% of cancer…
…can be prevented with PBD
Milk = opiate of the masses; cheese has
concentrated amounts of morphine
• Dairy products block beneficial effects of
phytochemicals; Ca from milk not absorbed;
trigger for arthritis
Nutrition and Health Summary
• 21 days is enough for your taste to change
• Use transition foods (veggie burgers, etc.)
• Be careful about adding too much gluten – 60% of
Americans carry gene to become gluten sensitive
(untreated gluten sensitivity can develop into other AI
diseases – Lupus, diabetes, osteoporosis) but gluten
does not cause nearly as much inflammation as animal
products do.
• $60 billion = cost of healthcare attributed to meat and
dairy eating
• Vegan athletes: Carl Lewis, Serena Williams, Patrick
Baboumian (World’s Strongest Man)
Environmental Impact Sessions
• Cowspiracy: Film Screening
– Keegan Kuhn, Film Director and Howard Lyman
• Vegetarian Responses to Climate Change
– Lee Hall, JD
• Toxins and Environmental Triggers
– Michael Stepaniak
Environmental Impact Summary
• Our meat addiction is destroying the planet.
• “The only way to save the human species is to
eliminate animal agriculture” – Howard Lyman
• 1 acre of rainforest is destroyed each second
to make room for cattle industry
Environmental Impact Summary
• Animal agriculture is the largest user of water
(2000 gallons to produce a pound of beef vs 43
gallons to produce a pound of beans)
• Perspective: average water use for showers in US
is 4000 gallons per year
• Animal agriculture is responsible for largest
amount of greenhouse gas production / climate
change
• 16 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of beef
Ethics and Animal Rights Sessions
• Winning Compassion for Farmed Animals
– Jenny Brown
• What Really Matters
– Joann Farb
• Vegan on the Hot Seat
– Rae Sikora and Marla Rose
• Relationships Workshop
– Anne Dinshah
Ethics and Animal Rights Sessions
• Animal Intelligence
– Rae Sikora
• After Meat: What Would Happen if Humans
Suddenly Stopped Eating Animals?
– Jonathan Balcomb, PhD
• Dynamic Harmlessness for Today’s World
– Anne Dinshah
• What Animals Teach Us and Why It Matters:
Life-Altering Lessons from Farmed Animals
• Kathy Stevens
Ethics and Animal Rights Sessions
• My Journey in the Movement
– Howard Lyman
• Liberating the Language of Animal Abuse
– Karen Davis, PhD
• How to Produce Your Perfect Vegan Event
– Marla Rose and John Beske
• Vegan Beyond Your Plate: Vegan Ethics
– Rae Sikora
• Taking the Brilliance Home
– Victoria Moran
Ethics and Animal Rights Summary
• “The disaster of animal agriculture is the
fundamental challenge facing humanity.” – Joann
Farb
• Arguments for animal exploitation similar to
arguments for slavery; The Dreaded Comparison
– by Marjorie Spiegel – compares animal slavery
to human slavery
• Our culture teaches us it is okay to eat animals
• Animals on organic farms suffer as much as those
on traditional farms (not allowed to treat with
antibiotics, etc.)
Ethics and Animal Rights Summary
• Veganism is the solution to world hunger
• 800 million people could be fed with the plant
food fed to farmed animals.
• When children are exposed to animal cruelty
and exploitation, they become desensitized
and less compassionate towards humans and
other animals
Ethics and Animal Rights Summary
• Farm Animal Rights Movement – founded by
Alex Hershaft, Holocaust survivor
• There is no such thing as compassionate
exploitation or compassionate slavery.
• Spiritual aspect of veganism
• “When our animal consciousness wakes up,
we become vegan” – Harold Brown
Websites
• http://www.vegetariansummerfest.org/details.htm
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www.plantpeacedaily.org
www.nutritionfacts.org
www.pcrm.org
http://www.tugg.com/events/105113
Documentaries
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Peaceable Kingdom
Speciesism
Cowspiracy
Earthlings
The Ghosts in Our Machine
Books
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The China Study
The Mad Cowboy
Animal Liberation
Eating Animals
Animals Matter
Creatures of the Same God
Signs of Change
• Meat and dairy consumption declining
• We are making a difference; it took 50 years
for policy to catch up with science on
cigarettes; the science for veganism is solid;
public opinion is changing; industry and policy
will follow
Signs of Change
• Our cultural indoctrination is constantly
unraveling; we are awakening to our inner
truth about animal rights
• We are recognizing and honoring animals as
fellow sentient beings; a cow is a loving
mother who grieves when her baby is taken
away and killed. Animals are individuals with
feelings, societies, families, a sense of self, and
a desire to live
Building Bridges
• Invite friends to Tallahassee premier of Cowspiracy
documentary, August 21, 6:30 pm at AMC Theatre
(tickets by advance purchase – we need to reserve 62
more tickets in order for this to happen!!)
http://www.tugg.com/events/105113
• Attend the Orlando Vegetarian Conference
• Plan and support a Tallahassee VegFest!!
• Start a Vegan book study/documentary group to
learn and share in the movement
Find joyful ways to spread the message and infuse our
community with love and compassion
We are the ambassadors
for compassionate change