One of my other favorite speakers was Michael Greger, MD. We were in the auditorium for his lecture, so that enabled him to make it into a game show with lots of participants. He was a very charismatic speaker and his lecture was a lot of fun. The first game was 'Harmful, Helpful, Harmless'. He would pick an ingredient or product & we would all stand up and pick which we thought was the right answer. Then he would show us the studies that backed it all up. If you got it wrong, you sat, until there was one. I won't go through all of them, but here are a few:
Kombucha-is this all the rage drink good for you or is it BS? Well, as it turns out, its HARMFUL. Kombucha creates lactic acid in the blood. Acidic blood is not good.
Stevia-this much touted all natural calorie free sweetener is rapidly gaining popularity, but is it as harmless as they say? Kind of. About 2 stevia sweetened drinks a day is ok-any more can be HARMFUL.
Peanut butter-I bet you're all on the edge of your seats for this one. Well, you should know, its HELPFUL. I got that one right.
After the game show, we moved on to very interesting studies & topics. To keep it short, I'll give you the bullet points.
-Lipitor is the most prescribed drug on Earth.
-Statins (like Lipitor) cause muscle damage.
-Only PURE vegetarians DO NOT need statins.
-Most poultry workers have warts on their hands from the chickens.
-Poultry workers have increased cancers of the mouth, throat, nasal passages, rectum, anus, liver & bone marrow.
-The Obama Administration outlawed feeding cow brains to pigs. They have not yet, however, outlawed feeding the brains to farmed fish. Which happens.
-What percentage of fast food burgers are actually muscle flesh? 2.1 -14.8%. They are mostly made up of the same tissue type found in hot dogs-veins, nerves, blood vessels, etc.
-Ammonia is injected into beef to kill pathogens. 1/4 of the patties still contained parasites.
-Fish meal is fed to chicken, so any bugs the fish have, now the chickens have them.
-Fish accumulate all the prescription drugs we pee out.
-Just 1/2 egg a day or more doubles your risk of oral cancers and triples colon & breast cancers. Eggs have high Dioxin levels.
-What's the best test indicator for human fish consumption? In 2009, it was the amount of arsenic in your blood (or hair follicle). In 2010, Mercury & Dioxin.
It kind of makes me not want to eat again! But it just reinforces my belief in making good choices!
It kind of makes me not want to eat again! But it just reinforces my belief in making good choices!
This wraps up the Vegetarian Summerfest Lecture series. I hope you liked it and learned a little something, too. I enjoyed sharing it!
Finally, I will leave you with what Dr. Greger left us. Maybe you've heard of it. The Bristol Stool chart. I won't post a picture.
Finally, I will leave you with what Dr. Greger left us. Maybe you've heard of it. The Bristol Stool chart. I won't post a picture.
