Kelly O'Kane

Go
Vegan!

When I was 40 years old, I qualified for a cholesterol study at the University of Minnesota. I was your average middled-aged white guy heading for a total physical train wreck. My primary care physician (former!) told me "Well, these numbers just tend to creep up with age." It was presented to me as inevitable that I would be on cholesterol and blood pressure medication.
I felt doomed. But I got on the internet, and I went to the library, and started searching. I had to learn how to beat this...

What I learned changed my life. Becoming a vegan helped me shed a ton of extra weight (without dieting!). Within one month, my cholesterol went from borderline bad to 108/72. My cholesterol dropped 70 points without trying. The only medication I take now is the occasional aspirin. Can you blame me for not wanting to share this good news?

I don't preach to anybody about becoming a vegan. I don't like anyone telling me what to do, but, I do like knowing the facts! Then I can decide for myself. Here are two facts that totally shocked me when I first starting learning about nutrition:

Almost every doctor I've ever talked to says your cholesterol should be 200 or under. Guess what? That is totally wrong! The Framingham Heart Study, the largest study of its kind which started in 1948 has discovered that no one with a cholesterol level of 150 or less has ever had a heart attack while particiating in the study. So shouldn't 150 really be the number we are all striving for?! I was angry and felt misled when I learned this; I believed from what I had been told if I was 200 or so, I was just fine. Wrong! Again, I'm not telling you what to do, but if you're like me, you want to know the facts, and make your choices from there!
Our health in this country has deteriorated to the point where we are actually living shorter lives, and the average man's risk of death from heart attack is now 1 in 2! But the average vegan's risk of death from heart attack is 1 in 25. Which odds do you like better?

Now, if you care about your planet, including global warming, pollution, and the depletion of our natural resources, look what being a vegan can do to lessen your carbon footprint in a huge way!

More than half of all the potable water in the US is used to raise livestock.
The state of California (where they don't have enough water) says it takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce ONE pound of beef!
85% of topsoil loss in the US is directly rated to the raising of livestock.
90% percent of the harmful organic waste-water pollution is attributable to livestock.

Know how we give so much lip service to the children being the future? You have to be heartsick at what is happening to the health of our children. You don't need to be a doctor to see what is happening to them: it is shockingly evident just walking down the street- these kids are huge. My heart goes out to them. I was an overweight teen, and I know the hurt it caused my self-esteem. But my weight problem was nothing compared to many of the morbidly obese young people I see today. If you haven't heard these statistics about obesity in the United States, they are a call to action:

Only four states have an obesity rate less than 20%
29 states are between 20% and 25%
14 states between 25% and 30%
3 states over 30%

These are the official statistics from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) from 2005, and it's getting worse.

And maybe the most sickening statistic of all: starting in the year 2000, a child born in the United States has a 50% chance of developing diabetes during his or her lifetime. That's Type II, which can be almost entirely prevented by proper nutrition- not drugs, nutrition. You wouldn't know it to read or watch most medical "experts," but for the vase majority of people suffering from Type II diabetes, it is a terrible disease they don't have to have! Luckily in the circle of friends I have, those with Type II diabetes have not lost things like limbs or eyesight because of the disease, but you can imagine their anger in learning that for almost everyone the outcome does not have to be death or disablement or a lifetime of drugs, but that there is a cure through proper nutrition. Doesn't it make you wonder why the news of a cure isn't getting out?

Finally, there's the argument for compassion, for proving that as human beings we actually do give a damn.

Most people I meet don't regularly think about the almost 40,000 people who die each day from hunger and malnutrition. I do. And most people I meet can't watch a video of an animal being slaughtered because it makes them sick, but they will eat it.
Even if veganism didn't have all the health benefits, the environmental benefits and the humanitarian benefits, if you could have proper nutrition and spare millions of creatures a life in prison and a death sentence, why wouldn't you choose it? You've heard the expression "Who would Jesus bomb?" Well, how about "Who would Jesus eat?"

Any book by Dr. Neal Barnard will give you huge amounts of scientific medical data on the benefits of a vegan diet. His writing style makes the presentation of these medical findings a very easy read, and again, it gives you the facts to make your own decision. Some of Dr. Barnard's books include:
Eat Right, Live Longer
Food For Life
Turn off the Fat Genes