Here’s a real proven fact, however, and go ahead and research it. Grains and soy and many other plant foods contain an antinutrient, as in TOXIN, called phytates (the veg mafia call this an ‘antioxidant’) Phytates or phytic acid bonds in the body to nutrient molecules, rendering them inert. It is actually plants, especially grains, that ‘leech’ calcium from the body. Furthermore, most nutrients can only be absorbed in the presence of saturated fat and cholesterol- which is why all cultures put butter or lard on veggies.

BTW, Jackson avoided the sun not because he had lupus.

By any chance, have you read a book that came out recently, Catching Fire, by Richard Wrangham? It’s basically one long educated guess about how the biggest leap in our evolution might’ve come from cooking. There’s an interesting chapter where the author researches raw-foodists, and finds out nearly 50% of the raw-foodist women participants in a German study don’t even menstruate. He also makes it very clear that without modern conveniences, “natural” diets like vegetarianism, veganism, etc etc wouldn’t be possible without extinction. It’s sortta “DUH”, but fun hearing from an anthropologist,. Licensed dieticians still can’t figure it out.

I did see that some people said he was eating junk food, even as he claimed to be a vegetarian. I guess we’ll never know for sure. If he was abusing alcohol and drugs, it’s pretty clear his health habits had gone to pot, whatever his diet. I haven’t read Catching Fire, but it sounds good. Right now I’m finishing up “The 10,000 Year Explosion,” which is about how agriculture changed the course of human evolution.

It is actually too much protein in the diet that leeches calcium from the bones and too much protein is linked to cancer.

If your vegetarian friends are unhealthy, maybe they eat too much sugar and are just not eating a balanced diet. A complete protein combination can be peanut butter-whole wheat bread, corn-beans, brown rice-peas-mushrooms and other simple combos. Also important in the diet are seeds and nuts, along with grains, fruits and vegetables. And if a vegetarian is fat, then they are doing something wrong. Vegan is even better than vegetarian because you virtually lose all cravings and therefore don’t eat as much, but you end up eating how much you want and never gain weight. Leaner people, actually those on the skinny category, are shown to live longer too.

Fox News said the coroner said MJ was in healthy condition and that is why they are having the neuropathologist do further testing on the brain, because they have not found a cause of death yet. Also, propofol is allegedly something that can build up in the system to prove fatal as was discovered due to an anesthesiologist found dead who had been abusing it by using it on herself to get high. At first they thought she had committed suicide and then discovered it was due to an abuse of it over time.

Check the research links again. Mormons live longer than Seventh-Day Adventists. They outlive pretty much everyone except Asians.

My vegan friends are not healthy. I’m sure there are healthy vegans out there, but they’re a self-selected group: they can live on that diet without suffering health consequences (some people can smoke and never develop lung problems), so they do. But I also know many ex-vegans who became ill and went back to eating animal foods.

What’s interesting is how quickly some researchers flip-flop on cause and effect when the data is clear that low cholesterol is a risk for cancer. Instead of suggesting low cholesterol leads to cancer, they insist cancer depresses cholesterol. As Malcom Kendrick pointed out, the low cholesterol shows up long before the tumors do, so it’s likely a microscopic growth in, say, the breast tissue could depress cholesterol in the liver.

I didn’t know he avoided the sun. Not a good idea.

On a similar note, one of my distant relatives was recently diagnosed with colon cancer and he could be the poster boy (man) for “healthy eating”. He and his wife are in their 60’s, fit and trim, have always eaten low fat, whole grain, with lots of fruit and vegetables and very little meat. They exercise religiously and take a lot of pride in their appearance. Everyone is shocked that he, of all people would get colon cancer, and unfortunately, their conclusion is that it really doesn’t matter at all what you eat, so have greatly increased their consumption of refined carbs. I mentioned to those folks that perhaps the conclusion we should come to is that what we have been told is a heathy diet really isn’t, but sadly they look at me in total incomprehension as if I am really stupid.

I get a similar reaction from my vegetarian friends. Despite their ailments and my lack of them, they see me tearing into a steak and look at me like I’m suicidal. My great-grandfather loved his bacon and eggs, butter, cream, etc. His diet finally killed him at age 101.