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When I sit down to write an article, I often feel like I’m having a conversation with you, the reader. Except that it’s a one-sided conversation, in which I never ask you about yourself and I just monopolize the whole exchange. So. . . how about a little more about me? I grew up building robots, programming my own video games, and distributing surveys on bizarre topics around my high school. In the enneagram system of personality analysis (remotely like Myers-Briggs), I’m what’s known as a “number five” – AKA “The Investigator” or “The Scientist.” I have spent many a night jumping from one Wikipedia article to the next, or curled up with a thousand page book on herbs.
One of the topics I like investigating the most is major historical shifts in human health, behavior, and life expectancy – i.e., big changes in small periods of time. If you were to follow the trend of human life expectancy over the course of our existence, you’d see a very, very gradual slope upward and then a sharp jump in just the tiniest, most recent slice of time. This sharp upward jump began at different times in different parts of the world, but in the United States, as recently as 1850 the life expectancy at birth for a white male was just 38. Today it’s about 76.
It’s really a profound thing. Modern humans have been around for about 200,000 years. This 150 year revolution of life expectancy has occurred in just the last 0.00075% of our existence. Incidentally, a historical graph of world population shows a similar trend. It increased very, very slowly, and took a few massive hits, especially during the fourteenth century. (As centuries go, the 1300s were pretty much the crappiest ever. They were marked by famine, plague, crime, and general idiocy.) After that, the population continued to grow again, but still rather slowly compared to what began to happen around 1800. In 1800, the world population was 1 billion. In March of 2012, it hit 7 billion.
An anthropologist from another planet looking at a graph of these trends would probably point to that last slice of time and ask, “What the hell happened there?” Well, there are two very important words I used in a sentence about life expectancy a couple paragraphs ago: “at birth.” At birth, a white baby boy in 1850 was expected to live to 38.3 on average. But if he survived to age ten, his revised life expectancy would be 58 – a huge improvement.
At birth, a white baby boy in 2011 was expected to live to 76.3. If he survived to age ten, his revised life expectancy would be 76.9. There’s barely a difference.
If that child from 1850 made it to age 50, his life expectancy would then be 72. Today’s white boy at age 50 would have a life expectancy of 79.6. Again, there’s barely a difference. So, as you can see, the narrowing of the gap has occurred almost entirely in the early years of life. And there are two important conclusions to be made from this.
First, the tremendous increase in life expectancy at birth can be attributed primarily to three things - better sanitation and cleaner living conditions, better safety standards, and better medicine, including vaccinations. Whatever issues we may have with vaccines (and there certainly are some), it’s undeniable that they’ve hugely decreased child mortality.
Second, we’ve made a much smaller dent in the maximum human lifespan. As an adult British aristocrat in the 1200s, you could expect to live to age 64. By the 1500s, if you made it to age 21, you’d probably live to be about 71. And in the past several centuries, these numbers have barely changed.
Nowadays, if we want to live longer we need to take the long view, since most of us won’t die of infections or accidents. The things old people die of are often decades in the making. The primary killers are coronary heart disease (disturbance in blood supply to heart muscle) and stroke (disturbance in blood supply to the brain), both of which are blood vessel issues. Blood vessels don’t just get hard, clogged, or weak overnight, so there’s a huge opportunity to make a positive difference in this process.
As I see it, there are three main interventions that have the most impact. The first is nutrition, and my nutshell recommendation is to strictly limit consumption of sugars and flour, moderately limit red meat and dairy consumption, and have plenty of vegetables, herbs and spices, fruits and fish. The second is exercise, and the best exercise is a form you enjoy and that you can happily do every day. The third is connection – connection to people, connection to nature, connection to whatever you call the greater power that keeps it all going.
I’ll be writing more about these trends and, in particular, the nutrition factor, this month. Meanwhile, I encourage you to choose one of these areas of positive intervention to focus on each day this week – food, exercise, or connection.
Be well,
Peter
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[post_content] => Over the past few decades we’ve seen a number of trends in popular supplements and so-called “superfoods.” First there was ginseng and echinacea, then ginkgo and St. John’s wort, then green tea, glucosamine, kombucha, fish oil, chia, maca, bone broth, magnesium l-threonate, vitamin D, and so on. Often, there’s a widespread hope that this substance is going to give us vibrant health, make us happy, perhaps even solve all our problems.
Turmeric has been on the charts for some years now, so I wanted to write about its uses and limitations – and why we need to take a broader view on health and supplements. First, it’s important to state that there’s some value to nearly all of these substances. Sometimes it’s a rather modest value for a fairly small subset of the population (like kombucha, most of which is essentially an overpriced mildly-caffeinated acidic soda with a little probiotic activity), other times it’s a significant value for a larger portion of the population (like vitamin D and magnesium). A food or supplement doesn’t need to be life-changing for everyone in order to be important; the key is that we’re realistic about what it can do and knowledgeable about who stands to benefit from it.
For several years, turmeric has been hot stuff in the West, though it has been used for at least 4000 years in Asia. Native to India, it’s a prominent herb in Ayurvedic medicine, though it’s even better known for its place in Indian cuisine and its use as a dye. Its particular yellowish-orange color is almost synonymous with Indian culture. It probably appeared in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) about 1500 years ago, but has always been a relatively minor herb in that system.
In both Ayurveda and TCM, turmeric is almost never taken as a single herb. Rather, it’s utilized in a formula of multiple herbs that’s prescribed by a trained practitioner, based on the specific constitution and presentation of the person who will be consuming it. However, as with many adopted herbs, Americans generally take it on its own, without any understanding of its traditional application or the diagnostic framework of the systems that have utilized it for so long. Consequently, many probably conclude that herbs aren't very effective medicines.
This is really the crux of what limits Westerners in their use of herbs – lack of context. The systems through which herbs have been historically defined and applied include methods for determining when and how and with whom to use them. One of the things that makes Ayurveda and TCM so special is that their diagnoses and their interventions utilize the same philosophical framework and terminology. That is, there’s a seamlessness between diagnosis and treatment. For example, for a TCM diagnosis of liver Qi stagnation, the treatment is clear because there are herbs and acupuncture points that specifically unblock stagnant liver Qi.
In contrast, knowing the Ayurvedic properties of turmeric – a pungent vipaka, a heating virya, a light, dry guna, which enters the digestive, circulatory, respiratory, and female reproductive srotas – is meaningless if we’re working from a Western biomedical diagnosis such as lung cancer, because the languages and philosophies don’t match. We can only guess at equivalencies.
For any given symptom presentation, there might be half a dozen or more possible diagnoses of the actual cause. When we take an herb without a diagnosis, it has a limited chance of working as we hope, because we may or may not have the underlying disease pattern that this herb addresses. It might even make things worse.
When we take an herb based on properties revealed by modern research – such as antibiotic, diuretic, or anti-inflammatory – it might work if we’ve correctly identified that we have the biomedical diagnosis corresponding to this biomedical terminology. But we miss out on accessing the body of wisdom developed by the traditions that have utilized the herb for centuries. It’s more like taking a brand new, poorly-understood drug, usually with very little human research behind it.
Years of discussion and trial-and-error in traditional plant-medicine systems reveals important nuances, and synergies with other herbs. Without that context, however, scientists were able to discover that turmeric possesses anti-inflammatory properties. Hooray! People started taking turmeric by the handful. But it didn't work as well as predicted. Later research revealed that unless the inflammation was in the digestive tract itself, the herb (specifically a compound called curcumin) wasn't likely to reach its target. Absorption into the bloodstream, it turned out, was very poor.
Eventually, researchers discovered that with absorption-enhancers, they could get more curcumin into the bloodstream. They came up with two main devices. The first is to combine it with a compound called piperine that helps it pass through the lining of the digestive tract. The second is to attach it to a form of fat known as a phospholipid, that's what our cell membranes are made of. This helps it move into cells more readily. Interestingly, equivalents of both strategies were utilized for centuries (if not millennia) in India. Piperine is a constituent of black pepper and a similar herb called pippali (long pepper), with which turmeric has been traditionally combined. And turmeric is also routinely taken with ghee (clarified butter) which happens to be rich in phospholipids!
In TCM, turmeric is called jiang huang, which means “yellow ginger.” Based on its primary function, it’s categorized as an herb that promotes blood circulation. Therefore (through that handy-dandy seamlessness of diagnostic and therapeutic terminology), it is used to treat conditions of stagnant blood. When we have a condition of blood stagnation, often the tongue takes on a slightly purple color and the veins on the underside of the tongue become more prominent and blue or purple. The pulse at the wrist feels “choppy” or “wiry.” The complexion often becomes dark. In women, the menstrual blood might be clotty and dark. And most obvious, there is usually pain – often sharp, stabbing pain in a fixed location.
Also, low grade blood stagnation – essentially impaired circulation – is thought in TCM geriatrics to be an almost inevitable part of the aging process. Whenever we see an older person with cold and/or purplish feet, hardened skin of the lower legs and feet, prominent purple and blue veins, and perhaps a history of cardiovascular disease and/or diabetes, it’s likely that a TCM practitioner would make a diagnosis of blood stagnation. Biomedically speaking, it’s probable that such an individual has chronic inflammation, and we could therefore think of the herbs that address stagnant blood as likely possessing anti-inflammatory properties, like those ascribed to turmeric.
In such cases, an herb like turmeric might be utilized, but if we look at the actual practice of TCM, we find it’s not especially popular among the herbs in its category. That’s probably because there are about thirty other herbs in this category, and thousands of years of tradition have shown that other herbs do just as good of a job – if not better than turmeric.
In addition, with a palette of thirty herbs to choose from, we have a great deal of specificity available to us. There are blood movers with an affinity for the head, or the abdomen, or the shoulder (one of turmeric’s affinities), or the legs, or the arms, or the back. There are mild blood movers and strong blood movers. There are blood movers with an ability to break up masses or to heal broken bones. There are blood movers that soften tight muscles and tendons and promote healing of unhealing wounds. And there are ways to combine them in order to make them exponentially more effective; to direct them to certain parts of the body; to prevent side effects, and so on.
Since I’m lucky enough to have all these herbs at my disposal (and the training to know how to use them), turmeric isn’t exceptional to me. It’s just an herb that got noticed by Westerners. There are thousands of others that are equally impressive. But don’t get me wrong – I love it, as I love all herbs, and I do occasionally recommend it.
If you don’t have training in traditional herbal medicine and you don’t have access to a practitioner who can help determine if it’s good for you, at least it’s a very safe herb. You can try it, and if it doesn’t work, you’re unlikely to do yourself any harm (though I still recommend checking with your doctor).
If you’re going to take turmeric, be sure to take it in a form that’s going to be well absorbed (unless you’re meaning to target your digestive tract). That means combining it with black pepper, long pepper, or piperine (and a little ghee may help, too); or using a brand that binds curcumin with acetylcholine (such as Meriva); or a brand that utilizes very small particles (such as Theracurmin).
Because I don’t have the ability to teach you traditional diagnosis through this format, we're actually best off banking on what the research shows. And while there's a lot of hope that it does many things, the only thing that it's been really clearly proven to do (on its own) is alleviate inflammation and some of its expressions. Pain, swelling, arthritis, and even hidden inflammatory processes will usually improve with ongoing consumption of turmeric/curcumin (assuming you’re using an absorption-enhancer). The degree of improvement varies. Sometimes it’s dramatic, other times subtle. Just remember that because you may or may not have the underlying diagnostic pattern that makes you a good candidate for turmeric/curcumin, it might not work.
I’d like to finish by discussing some broader measures for reducing the “stagnant blood” (and accompanying inflammation) that we’re prone to in our elder years. First, there’s exercise. Ideally, this isn’t the exercise of going to a gym and using weight machines (though if that’s what you like, keep doing it) – it’s the exercise of walking to the store, riding a bike to work, digging in the garden, shoveling snow, and above all, playing.
Second, reduce your sugar intake. If there’s one part of our diet that provokes inflammation and thickening of the blood more than any other, it’s sugar. By sugar, I mean caloric sweeteners of all kinds (and also white flour). If you’re up for improving your diet, you’d also do well to reduce or eliminate processed meats, deep fried foods, and margarine. Meanwhile, increase your consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts (dry roasted or raw), and oily fish. Third, if you smoke, quit. Smoking is terrible for circulation.
Finally, the best way to keep blood (and energy, and life itself) flowing is to be light-hearted. The circulatory system is an extension of the heart, and a light, open, joyful heart is best able to pump blood to all parts of us (much in the way it’s open to people and experiences of all kinds). Meditate (metta or lovingkindness meditation is especially good for this purpose). Laugh. Find ways to de-stress. Breathe deeply. Engage with community. Accept. Forgive. And love. Love yourself, love your family, love your environment, just love as much as you can. Even if you were to drop dead tomorrow, this is the stuff your soul wants you to prioritize.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
[post_title] => I’ve Been Taking Turmeric for a Year But Still Haven’t Found My Soulmate!
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I get asked about coffee by patients so often that I thought it was about time to write an article thoroughly examining it from all angles. Unlike stronger recreational drugs, I think the potential drawbacks of coffee are usually fairly mild. But if you endeavor to achieve great health – and especially if you’re struggling with a health problem – it’s worth being honest with yourself about whether coffee is contributing to or detracting from this goal.
What’s Good About Coffee
So many people worldwide depend on coffee to wake them up, get them motivated, make them feel sharp, promote digestion, and even lift them out of mild depression. Is that so bad? Well, depending on your constitution, maybe not.
Scientific research has shown that coffee consumption appears to reduce one’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and colorectal cancer. One constituent that’s especially interesting and abundant in coffee is called chlorogenic acid. Chlorogenic acid is an antioxidant, it seems to slow glucose release after eating (so it may help maintain stable blood sugar), it promotes bile secretion, reduces gallstone formation, maybe reduces the incidence of liver disease, and probably promotes weight loss. Chlorogenic acid is much more abundant in green (unroasted) coffee beans than the roasted ones, which has led to the fad of “green coffee extract” for weight loss.
A drawback of chlorogenic acid is that it may interfere with the absorption of certain minerals – namely zinc and iron – from the intestines. For this reason, it may be best to consume coffee or take green coffee extracts a few hours apart from food. Or consider taking extra zinc (or a multimineral supplement). I don’t generally recommend consuming iron supplements, though, unless you have a known iron deficiency. Incidentally, coffee isn’t the only thing that has the potential to interfere with iron absorption. Many compounds (knows as polyphenols or monomeric flavonoids) can do this, and they’re found in black tea, peppermint, chamomile, chocolate, and other natural foods and drinks.
Due to its flavor, coffee acts as a digestive bitter. Like other bitters, it tends to “activate” the digestive system, stimulating intestinal movement and the production of gastric juices. However, if you add cream and sugar to it – diminishing its bitterness – you probably diminish its value as a digestive stimulant, too.
What’s Bad About Coffee
The energy-boosting, mind-sharpening effects of coffee result from the fact that it’s chock full of vitamins, minerals, and everything else our bodies need for good nutrition. Every cup is like consuming a complete, balanced meal.
Of course, the truth is almost the opposite. Coffee is a stimulant. And we’re stimulant addicts. Let’s just be real about that. The first thing I want to know when a patient tells me about their coffee habit is, “How would you feel without coffee?” If the answer is “tired” or “withdrawn” or “constipated” or anything else unpleasant, then I think it’s worth considering whether or not coffee is the best remedy. There are dozens of possible causes of fatigue, and most of them are not coffee deficiency. These issues are best addressed in a more direct, non-coffee way. If coffee consumption masks them, it means putting off a real solution.
Fatigue: If someone is fatigued because of depletion – and often I think of adrenal depletion (the endocrine glands most directly involved in our stress response) – then coffee is specifically a bad idea. Stimulants just drain these glands of what little energy they have left, and make recovery impossible. Adrenal deficiency can lead to reduced immune function, lightheadedness, sleep problems, anxiety and depression, inflammation, hypoglycemia, and other symptoms. If this sounds like you, see a naturally oriented healthcare provider, and meanwhile, try quitting coffee.
Hypertension: Coffee can raise blood pressure, especially in people who consume a lot of it. Regular coffee drinkers tend to develop some tolerance to this effect.
Digestive Upset: The combination of coffee’s acids, its bitterness, and its strong stimulating effects can cause digestive discomfort, nausea, acid reflux, diarrhea, and exacerbation of ulcers in certain individuals. Those with irritable or inflammatory bowel disorders, ulcers, or GERD should be especially cautious with coffee.
Sleep Problems: Despite our visceral understanding of what coffee does to us, many folks with bad sleep don’t consider that their coffee might be part of the problem. If sleep doesn’t come easily and deeply for you, you should at least avoid coffee after noon. Sometimes even just a morning cuppa is enough to disturb our slumber.
Anxiety: As with insomnia, it shouldn’t be surprising that stimulation can contribute to anxiety. Yet most of my anxious patients consume it and nearly all of them improve when they quit.
If you have insomnia, anxiety, or digestive upset, come up with a scale to evaluate how bad it is, then quit coffee and re-rate it after a couple weeks. When coffee contributes to these problems, it’s due to overstimulation. Frequently, as with adrenal fatigue, there’s a background of “diminished buffer.” It’s like running high voltage electricity through thin wires with not much insulation on them. It’s worthwhile to consider what kind of wiring you have, meaning, how sensitive your nervous system is to stimulation. Thin, stressed, and underslept people tend to be less able than others to handle caffeine and other stimulants well.
Dyslipidemia: Coffee can raise LDL and total cholesterol when consumed in large amounts. However, this may be meaningless in terms of the actual health risk it represents. Also, this effect is thought to be mainly due to chemicals that are very effectively removed with a paper filter.
Inflammation: A 2004 study examined numerous markers of inflammation in the blood of over 3000 Greek men and women. It found that in people who consumed over 200 milliliters of coffee a day (that’s about 6.75 ounces), all indicators of inflammation increased. The funny part is that in their conclusion, they wrote, “A relation exists between moderate-to-high coffee consumption and increased inflammation process.” Moderate-to-high coffee consumption?! Clearly they’ve never been to the United States.
Bone Weakness: High doses seem to be associated with increased osteoporosis and hip fracture in older women.
Dehydration: Coffee is a diuretic – it promotes urination. Medically speaking, sometimes there’s a need for a diuretic, but for most people, this property of coffee just means an increased risk of dehydration. Drink extra water to make up for this effect of coffee.
Pregnancy and Nursing: Coffee, especially in larger amounts, probably slightly impairs fertility in women (perhaps in part by interfering with iron absorption), increases risk of miscarriage, and may contribute to low birth weight. Lots of coffee consumption by nursing mothers may degrade babies’ quality of sleep and make them irritable. Pre-term babies seem to be more affected.
Acrylamides: Roasting coffee produces chemicals called acrylamides which are considered a “probable human carcinogen” by several public health agencies. It may be worthwhile to choose a light or medium roast, which, in my opinion, also produces a better flavor, and is also likely to retain more chlorogenic acid. (Incidentally baking or frying starchy things, such as flour and potatoes, also produces acrylamides, with French fries having the highest content.)
Other Factors to Consider
Dosage: Many of the studies revealing health problems from coffee consumption looked at people who consumed large amounts – like five cups a day. But before you dismiss them because you only have two cups a day, consider that a regular cup of coffee is just 6 ounces. That means your Venti from Starbucks is more than 3 cups. showing negative effects of coffee consumption
Additives: What are you adding to your coffee? It might be worse for you than the coffee. A 16 ounce latte contains about 14 ounces of milk or milk substitute. That’s a lot of milk, especially for an adult. If you use soy milk, keep in mind that it’s bean juice and many people have problems digesting it. If you get your latte from a café, it’s unlikely that they use organic milk or soy, so the soy milk is almost guaranteed to have come from genetically modified beans (and probably also highly sweetened). Dave Asprey, a self-styled “biohacker” advocates the use of “upgraded” mold-free coffee beans to brew your coffee and then, instead of cream and sugar, pureeing this with a combination of butter from grass-fed cows and medium chain triglycerides or coconut oil. Stevia, xylitol, or erythritol can be used as a non-caloric sweetener. He calls it “bulletproof coffee.”
Pesticides: Many coffee producing countries happen to be rather indiscriminate users of agrichemicals, and often the kinds and application of these chemicals are unregulated. Luckily, there are still farmers who grow coffee in the same way they have for generations – all natural. Look for coffee from Yemen, Ethiopia, and Sumatra, or anything that’s certified organic.
Traditional Thinking: Although coffee is widely and indiscriminately consumed by everyone who likes the taste or wants a boost, it may be worth applying the wisdom of traditional medical systems, which tend to view it as more of a medicine than a food. That is, it has specific properties – stimulating, drying, and heating, for example – that make it appropriate only for certain people. Just as one wouldn’t assume that everyone could benefit from an antibiotic, it might be shortsighted to assume that everyone’s body and mind should benefit from coffee.
In conclusion, if you choose to drink coffee, here’s my advice: Consume it in moderation, meaning one or two cups (six to eight ounces each) per day. Remember to rehydrate – drink as much extra water as the volume of coffee you consume. Consider using a paper filter to remove some of the unhealthy constituents. Skip the sugar and minimize the milk/cream. Avoid artificial powdered creamers. Choose clean, good quality, light to medium roast beans. If you use a coffee maker, clean the water reservoir (which harbors bacteria) with vinegar at least once a month. Know how your body and mind respond to it (the big picture, please), and if they don’t like it, respect their wishes.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
[post_title] => Coffee: The Highs and Lows
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When I sit down to write an article, I often feel like I’m having a conversation with you, the reader. Except that it’s a one-sided conversation, in which I never ask you about yourself and I just monopolize the whole exchange. So. . . how about a little more about me? I grew up building robots, programming my own video games, and distributing surveys on bizarre topics around my high school. In the enneagram system of personality analysis (remotely like Myers-Briggs), I’m what’s known as a “number five” – AKA “The Investigator” or “The Scientist.” I have spent many a night jumping from one Wikipedia article to the next, or curled up with a thousand page book on herbs.
One of the topics I like investigating the most is major historical shifts in human health, behavior, and life expectancy – i.e., big changes in small periods of time. If you were to follow the trend of human life expectancy over the course of our existence, you’d see a very, very gradual slope upward and then a sharp jump in just the tiniest, most recent slice of time. This sharp upward jump began at different times in different parts of the world, but in the United States, as recently as 1850 the life expectancy at birth for a white male was just 38. Today it’s about 76.
It’s really a profound thing. Modern humans have been around for about 200,000 years. This 150 year revolution of life expectancy has occurred in just the last 0.00075% of our existence. Incidentally, a historical graph of world population shows a similar trend. It increased very, very slowly, and took a few massive hits, especially during the fourteenth century. (As centuries go, the 1300s were pretty much the crappiest ever. They were marked by famine, plague, crime, and general idiocy.) After that, the population continued to grow again, but still rather slowly compared to what began to happen around 1800. In 1800, the world population was 1 billion. In March of 2012, it hit 7 billion.
An anthropologist from another planet looking at a graph of these trends would probably point to that last slice of time and ask, “What the hell happened there?” Well, there are two very important words I used in a sentence about life expectancy a couple paragraphs ago: “at birth.” At birth, a white baby boy in 1850 was expected to live to 38.3 on average. But if he survived to age ten, his revised life expectancy would be 58 – a huge improvement.
At birth, a white baby boy in 2011 was expected to live to 76.3. If he survived to age ten, his revised life expectancy would be 76.9. There’s barely a difference.
If that child from 1850 made it to age 50, his life expectancy would then be 72. Today’s white boy at age 50 would have a life expectancy of 79.6. Again, there’s barely a difference. So, as you can see, the narrowing of the gap has occurred almost entirely in the early years of life. And there are two important conclusions to be made from this.
First, the tremendous increase in life expectancy at birth can be attributed primarily to three things - better sanitation and cleaner living conditions, better safety standards, and better medicine, including vaccinations. Whatever issues we may have with vaccines (and there certainly are some), it’s undeniable that they’ve hugely decreased child mortality.
Second, we’ve made a much smaller dent in the maximum human lifespan. As an adult British aristocrat in the 1200s, you could expect to live to age 64. By the 1500s, if you made it to age 21, you’d probably live to be about 71. And in the past several centuries, these numbers have barely changed.
Nowadays, if we want to live longer we need to take the long view, since most of us won’t die of infections or accidents. The things old people die of are often decades in the making. The primary killers are coronary heart disease (disturbance in blood supply to heart muscle) and stroke (disturbance in blood supply to the brain), both of which are blood vessel issues. Blood vessels don’t just get hard, clogged, or weak overnight, so there’s a huge opportunity to make a positive difference in this process.
As I see it, there are three main interventions that have the most impact. The first is nutrition, and my nutshell recommendation is to strictly limit consumption of sugars and flour, moderately limit red meat and dairy consumption, and have plenty of vegetables, herbs and spices, fruits and fish. The second is exercise, and the best exercise is a form you enjoy and that you can happily do every day. The third is connection – connection to people, connection to nature, connection to whatever you call the greater power that keeps it all going.
I’ll be writing more about these trends and, in particular, the nutrition factor, this month. Meanwhile, I encourage you to choose one of these areas of positive intervention to focus on each day this week – food, exercise, or connection.
Be well,
Peter
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Seems the moral of the story is balance. As you stated “One of those impacts is that meat production – in the prevailing manner and scale – is devastating to the planet.” When did extremism become the health fad? All veggies, all meat, all fat? You speak often of balance in emotion and physicality. It appears to me this too should be practiced in our food consumption.
Wow this is an amazing article! This sums up so much of my own inquires and journey around eating meat. In my ideal world (and in my heart) I would love to be a vegetarian and not eat animals. I look into the eyes of my dog, Honey every day and think how could I feel so much love for this animal but turn my head to the killing and suffering of other animals happening so people like me can eat meat? But I’m allergic to eggs and dairy, so vegetarian automatically means vegan for me. And I’ve found myself to be someone who’s health suffers when I go this route. I’ve also wondered if I’m just not “doing vegan right” and if there’s more that I can experiment with along those lines….Looking forward to the next article.
Thank you for this. I have followed a similar trajectory. Last spring I began eating meat after many years. I noticed an immediate increase in energy and focus. I believe my body NEEDS animal protien. I make a point to only eat locally sourced, humanely raised meats. In addition to being more humane they really do pack more of an energy boost for me. I am now needing to “come out” to my vegetarian and vegan friends.
My mother was put on a strict vegan diet by her doctor, in her fifties for her cholesterol and heart health. Cardiovascular disease runs in my family with my grandfather, her father, dying at age 40 from a massive heart attack. He was otherwise fit and slim- it was a shock to everyone. I feel that I have no choice but to give up meat. I wish I was one of the lucky ones with great genes but meat has been linked to increased cholesterol, blood pressure, and clogged arteries. So that needs to be addressed, too. Especially for the many with family history. There is a book, I can’t remember what it’s called, that actually argues cardiovascular disease is a food borne illness due to aninal consumption. I’d like an article that looks at that side of subject if possible.
I don’t think it is acceptable to treat large herbivores who know pain and fear like we do. In fact, I cringe inwardly every time I see a cattle truck in the highway. It is also a tragedy to the environment. I personally will not go back to meat eating.
I, too, do not like meat; taste, texture or especially the ground meat and the chance of chewing on something that doesn’t feel like meat – yuck. Because of that, I became a vegetarian over 20 years ago. Not being educated enough and having support from family at home – I gained weight, found if difficult to plan meals besides pasta “something” – I failed to continue vegetarian.
Now, five years ago I really researched, was educated on the animal cruelty in the agriculture industry. I went vegetarian which still included egg and dairy. I still did not feel good about eating egg and dairy, I became vegan. I never really liked eggs or cheese anyway. When I stopped dairy my bloating went away and my stomach flattened. I assumed to be lactose intolerant. I felt so good, lost 30 lbs, looked younger and healthy, and also took the right supplements. I ate foods I enjoyed. I thought I would never change my lifestyle.
Well things changed again. A new relationship, where they consume A LOT of dairy, sweets, and some meat. I now again eat some cheese and some dairy. Each time I feel physically terrible; bloated, heavy and I also feel bad just knowing I renigged on my own morals about cruelty. Now, I at least got them to compromise to pescatarian meals.
In the end, I am going back to vegan regardless. I enjoy that the best. By body responds the best. Some folks just do better on certain diets.
Thank you for your article. I am looking forward to your pros and cons opinion next week.
I was a vegetarian for years in the late 80’s and early 90’s because of the ethical ramifications. When I became pregnant with my first child, I craved meat to the point of distraction. After a month of these cravings, I caved. I look at it this way, my body knows what it needs in order to function. Does me craving that cream filled donut constitute a need? No because it is fleeting. I was craving meat so intensely that I could not concentrate. I felt guilty for doing it but knew it was a necessary evil at that time, or at least I thought so. After birth, I returned to vegetarianism and breastfeed successfully. My oldest two daughters are vegetarians now with their two younger sisters starting on the path now and I follow basically a Mediterranean lifestyle. I do eat some meats on the rare occasion but rarely. It’s what works for me and my family. Maybe we all need to just do what works for us, our families and our lifestyles in order to be happy and healthy.
If you do choose to eat meat, there are local, sustainable options. When eating out, you may not have these options. Ask where your ingredients come from. Choose vegetarian if that feels like the best option.
Once, I asked a server where the fish was from. The reply: Sysco.
Thanks for this article. My journey as a vegetarian started at 19, shunning meat simply because our butcher, at the time, convinced my roommate and it was far more cost effective for us on college budgets to buy a whole side of an animal and have him dole it out to us when we wanted it. After consuming All that meat over a period of a couple of months, we simply turned our back on meat, having essentially overdosed on it. Next it became a bit of a crusade for me, then a “religious” and health decision that resulted in raising four children, now adults, all vegetarians. Of the four, two now eat meat, one remains a vegetarian, and one is a vigilanté vegan. I have remained a lacto-ovo vegetarian at 70, have enjoyed good health ( including fast and sometimes miraculous healing), upon occasion order the chicken special without the chicken ( with less perplexed looks from wait staff than years ago), and, having read about the studies on the longevity and healthy lifestyle of the Japanese and Seventh Day Adventist who are/were vegetarians, probably will remain one.
It would be disingenuous of me to not share my experience and ever growing thoughts on the subject.
To keep it brief, every choice has an impact. Agricultural based fueling is not without negative impacts on the environment, social justice, and the human body. I was a vegetarian for twenty years, and some of those years I followed a rigorous vegan diet and lifestyle. When pregnant, my body overrode my brain based choices. Meat and animal products were mandated by my body and the creation of another human being. I was horrified to discover what my body and growing child demanded for fuel. I gave in to what my body demonstrated as prefered sources of protein.
In the past two years, I witnessed three relatives perish and pass while on meatless diets. All three were brutal deaths.
And, now, journeying out of my fertility years, returning to consuming meat has saved me from disorganized thinking and physical manifestations of exhaustion and other dysfunctional coping that are fuel related.
I am disturbed by the idea that the conversation offered appears to be without mention of the overall impacts of fueling the population as a whole. I would suggest that population impacts the environment in a more rigorous manner than meat consumption. There is no escape from the impact of food sources and the best we may do is be mindful in our practice of living.
Good point, feeding the masses is a large part of the problem. Furthermore mass agricultural practices are as harmful to the environment as mass meat production.
This is an interesting and confusing conundrum that it seems many people are facing right now. I am looking forward to the next installment. There seems to be conflicting information about whether meat (and animal products in general) are good for you, bad for you, or if it’s more about balance. I do wonder however, if meat raised in a more natural, humane way (pastured, grass-fed, cage-free, etc) is better for us than regular mass-produced meat…it’s certainly better for the livestock animals. This possibility is something I don’t really see much in this sort of discussion.
I always knew that someday I would becomes a vegatarian. During my ministry training, I heard the inner prompt and knew that it was time. I have always “heard” animals so it was a logical next step on my path. As a professional intuitive and practicing shaman, it is essential to my peace that I am in harmony with nature.
After 17 years, I did the Virgin Diet and found that my inflammation was the result of eggs and dairy. It was shocking to discover how deeply my soul, spirit and intuition were impacted by the change to veganism. I could “smell” how animal products were affecting people. Thankfully, I learned to turn that awareness down! However, I can still “feel” how someone’s diet impacts their vibration.
I have decided that my life cannot be dependent upon the death or suffering of animals.
We still have a long way to go before our food production positively impacts the earth. I am dedicated to organic plant sources. If the animals are honored, a vegatarian diet is an honorable path. However, I cannot comprehend how humans can justify eating animals at this point in our evolution.
If we are to heal this plant and actualize our true potential, we will need to increase our vibrational awareness and harmonize our individual frequencies.
I understand that there are many sides to every story♡
Very interesting topic. Can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it. Pardon me whilst I ramble a bit. 🙂
I didn’t like meat very much as a kid and became vegetarian around the mid-90’s after I couldn’t keep meat down during my pregnancies. But I often cooked meat for my ex-husband and kids, I just didn’t put it on my plate or ate a very small serving. Getting my family to let go of the meat after “declaring” I was vegetarian caused a lot of stress, and the pediatrician fussed at me, even though I was providing other proteins for my kids. Then we moved to Japan. You’re very right about the Asian attitude toward meat being a wealth thing, rather than a health or animal-compassion thing. While living there, I chose to return to eating meat for a few reasons.
1) I wanted to fully enjoy my experience living in Japan, so I wanted to try things like sushi, sashimi, takoyaki, nikuyaki, donkatsu, etc. A big chunk of cultural texture is lost if you’re unwilling to eat local foods when you travel, attend festivals, or visit friends.
2) I wanted to respect my Japanese hosts and be a grateful guest, rather than a picky eater. One of the reasons people started to look sideways at vegetarians in the 90’s in America is because it turned into a religion … because everything in American culture comes down to politics and religion, which is why we are SO divided. Vegans preached at carnivores about being disgusting, and carnivores mocked vegetarians for being “crunchy” tree-huggers, etc. I didn’t want to be “that American” if I was offered sushi. Because I saw plenty of scrunched-up “ick” faces on other Americans while living in Japan, and once a group of tourists even loudly complained about Japanese food while on a Japanese tour bus. I know the bus driver and tour guide understood them. More Japanese people understand English than can speak it well, so there was no way they didn’t hear that. It’s just RUDE.
3) I was in a place where availability was different. Seaweed was abundant, but things like nutritional yeast … not so much. Soy milk is a very different thing in Japan, too. And while my Nihongo reading skills were okay, examining labels to make sure there was no animal product in something became a tedious, difficult labor. Either I had to order and pay more for shipping American foods overseas, or I learned to cook something without the American “health food” ingredients.
4) Going back to family issues … I gave up. It was too much stress. I decided that, like with my Japanese friends and contacts, putting food preferences before relationships was wrong.
Returning to meat didn’t mean I ate it every night. I still wasn’t crazy about it. I served meat dishes only once a week or had it only when we ate out. My sensei and friend and I discussed this once because she was surprised to hear I was a vegetarian in the States, and she didn’t understand American meat consumption in the first place. She said she was shocked to see how much meat some of her other American friends consumed. She held out her hand, palm open, and pointed to it, saying something like, “A chicken breast this big can feed a Japanese family of four. Yet Americans eat one chicken breast each … at every meal!” She was genuinely astonished and confused. And after being vegetarian and going back to meat, I realized I consumed meat probably a lot like how she would have cooked it. One or two chicken breasts is more than enough to add to a stir-fry or soup or curry because the rest of the meal is loaded with veggies and rice.
I now cook meat maybe once every few weeks, and it may last me for a few meals because I live alone these days. But it almost always is a small part of a variety dish (soups, stews, etc.). Otherwise, I love nuts and beans and drink almond and soy milks. I eat eggs. I even bought some takoyaki from Uwajimaya on my last trip to Seattle. 🙂 But it’s very difficult for me to eat a slab of meat as such all by itself because I just don’t like it that much.
Also, my Japanese friend said that Buddhist monks don’t eat meat because of their high regard for life, and, historically, butchers used to be considered very low-class in Japanese society when Buddhism had a lot of influence over the government for that same reason. (Mixing religion and politics tends to influence a civilization’s social status hierarchy. So if the religion has dietary restrictions, which then become law, people outside of that religion become viewed as lower class, and might risk breaking the law by choosing to eat differently.) … But that’s definitely not the case nowadays. In modern Japan, meat is both viewed as a luxury treat and more commonly consumed. Eggs and seafood are consumed more regularly for protein, then chicken and pork, with beef being on top of the list. But they eat more western foods now, too. So fast food, spaghetti dinners, and French pastries are loved, but are often adjusted to Japanese tastes, like McDonald’s offering a tsuki-mi burger during Moon Viewing season in late summer (this is a chicken patty with a moon-like fried egg, teriyaki sauce, and lettuce), or pizza being served with sea urchins. 🙂 All countries alter foreign foods to suit their local palettes, but western foods (fast food in particular) are closely tied to increased meat consumption in Japan. (And, sadly, rising rates of obesity.)
Okay, done with long ramble. 🙂 I usually don’t have much to say, and you probably don’t need any more feedback on Asian nutrition habits; I enrolled with your on-line nutrition course a couple of years ago, and loved it. I just suspect my experiences with going from a vegetarian American food culture to a meat-eating Asian food culture will confirm much of what you say for this discussion. If not, I’m curious about where it differs. Either way, I look forward to hearing more. ^_^
I don’t think that it is possible to humanely raise animals who are killed for their meat. I think that people are kidding themselves by saying that the manner in which a sentient being is raised makes the difference. The being is eventually murdered for his or her body. End of story. That’s why I don’t eat meat. I will take a b-12 and any other vitamin necessary to protect my health, but I consider it a moral responsibility to be a vegetarian/vegan.
Dr. Peter,
I too am confused on this, a proclaimed vegetarian at 10, scant meat eater again at 15. Whole 30 survivor and was a straight carnivor. I am matriculated in acupuncture school, which brings up a whole new set of “rules”. But I think the problem is with the system- the over production, the disconnect from how our food gets to our plate. Also the extensive noise around what and when and how we should eat with the excessive new diet, widget, or trend is exhausting. I appreciate your forum to discuss this.
I have to agree with you that a part of the problem is the disconnect from how our food gets to our plate. I may be shunned by many people posting on this blog, but I have chosen to live a lifestyle that brings me up close and personal to the food I am eating. I have a large garden and preserve as much food as I can in addition to hunting animals. It has been a life changing experience for me to get into hunting and I believe that being able to kill the animal I plan to eat brings a whole new meaning to fueling my body. My boyfriend and I have a goal to only eat hunted meat and participate as little as possible in purchasing meat from factory farms. My body suffers without meat and in the act of spending months in search of an animal I become in tune with what it means to harvest one and use it to fuel my body.
On another note, I believe that vegan and vegetarian diets may be just as bad for the environment as a meat based one. Typically these diets include or require unique foods/supplements that are from far away places and cannot be produced locally. The amount of energy it takes to produce and transport these products can be astronomical. Possibly eating whatever foods can be locally grown might be the best option if the environment is the focus for your food choices. I look forward to further discussion on this topic, thank you Peter Borten
Next month (early Feb.) I will be 78 years old, and I have been a vegetarian / sometimes pescetarian since the early ’70’s (1972, I believe). The reason I stopped eating meat was when I lived in Malibu, CA, and rode through Topanga Canyon to go to work in “the valley) as a sales rep. for Amtrak. Every morning when I drove across the mountain, I passed this little “hippie” farm, with lots of animals running around, and they had a big, huge sign up that said, “Love animals; don’t eat them”. For a while, it would make me angry every time I saw that sign. Then one morning I asked myself, “Why do I get so angry every time I read that sign?!” It then became clear to me that it was because I had a guilty conscience for eating meat. I knew I loved all animals, not just dogs and cats, so when I took a look at what happens to these animals when they are killed, that did it for me. I became a vegetarian and haven’t had meat since, except for some seafood, and ya know what? I haven’t missed it at all! Back then, it was harder because the restaurants didn’t offer many vegetarian options, but now it is so easy, as there are many other choices on menus other than meat entrees. I try not to eat too many diary products, but cheese is just one of those things I can’t give up. Now though, I look at the cheeses in the markets, and many are marked as having vegetarian rennet (Tillamook in the NW, for one example, and most cheeses are labeled now if they are non-meat rennet). Also, when I buy eggs, Zupan’s, Whole Foods and probably some other markets offer eggs that are not just “cage free”, but are free range (at a higher price of course, but worth it). I have never had any health problems in all those years because of being a vegetarian. I think it is up to each individual for the choices they make, but I am at a comfort level being vegetarian/part pechetarian. I have very high respect for people who are totally vegan; I’m just not there, yet. I will say to all vegetarians and vegans, there was a GREAT cookbook out years ago, called “The Cookbook For People Who Love Animals”. I have had that book for DECADES, and it is still one of my favorite books. I look at it more as a book of poetry rather than a cookbook. It is a statement of love, peace, and higher consciousness” to quote the Vancouver Island Vegetarian Assoc.). It is still out there under used books (Powell’s City of Books, for example). All through the book there are poem, quotes and essays from famous vegetarians such Henry David Thoreau, Saint Francis, Leonardo sa Vinci, Mahatma Gandhi, Henry W. Longfellow, Tagore, Count Leo Tolstoy, George Bernard Shaw, and many more. It is so inspiring; a really lovely book, and I think all vegetarians and vegans would love it. Thank you, Dr. Peter Borten, for you interesting and inspiring articles. Wishing everyone the best!
P.S.: Ooops! Please excuse the typo errors; also a mistake on age (I’ll be 76, not 78). Thanks!
Tricia