I confess I don’t understand why hypothesizing by several cardiologists who have expressed this opinion before, involving no new research, citing review articles from two and three years ago on the causes of coronary artery disease should be worthy of publication in the peer-reviewed literature. Generally, it requires more than mere speculation, let alone repeating prior speculation, to clear that bar. I further don’t understand why, in light of all the new research coming out weekly, a commentary lacking both novel comments and new research should be newsworthy. But the media picked this one up just the same.

But perhaps we can account for it after all. The authors make a theoretical argument to contend that saturated fat is not a cause of heart disease. There is nothing we seem to like better in the nutrition space than hearing that everything we thought we knew was wrong, and renewing our license to procrastinate and eat whatever we want. This particular scientific journal’s parent has earned a dubious reputation for favoring dietary dissent over consensus, for whatever reasons. As for the media, there is nothing they tend to like better than an endless sequence of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, because perpetual confusion means you will need to tune in tomorrow for the newest “truth” populating the most recent 20-minute news cycle.

There’s just one problem with all of this theorizing: there is nothing theoretical about coronary disease. Heart disease remains the leading cause of premature death among men and women alike in the U.S., and increasing portions of the world. Heart disease is not hypothetical—it is an almost entirely unnecessary epidemiological scourge siphoning years from lives and life from years.

The new commentary is, in a word, wrong. It is not necessarily wrong in every particular about saturated fat—there are some legitimate uncertainties there. It is wrong in the whole, because it commits the willful deception, or classic blunder, of conflating the part for the whole.

Saturated Fat and Heart Disease

Whatever the specific, mechanistic involvement of any given saturated fatty acid with atherogenesis and coronary disease, the reliably established fact is that diets high in the foods that are high in saturated fat lead to high rates of heart disease—while many variations on the theme of diets low in saturated fats, whether low high or middling in total fat, are associated with lower rates of heart disease, lower rates of all chronic disease, and lower rates of premature death.

The choice of citations in this commentary is highly selective, very limited, and the interpretation of the studies is flagrantly biased. These authors didn’t ‘happen upon’ this opinion because they just reviewed the literature and found a surprise. They are well established, even famous, for espousing exactly this opinion—so they knew the answer before ever they posed a question. Science tends to be better when the question precedes the answer.

Their conclusion that saturated fat is exonerated is based on straw-man arguments. For one thing, it is very hard to isolate the effects of saturated fat. This is because saturated fat is a diverse class of nutrients with differing effects; because saturated fat is consumed in foods, not by itself; and because more of THESE foods in one’s diet ineluctably means less of THOSE foods. Consequently, the attribution of health effects to just one dietary factor is very difficult. The more enlightened researchers in this space have long shifted their focus to overall dietary patterns, and there—the evidence is nothing short of overwhelming: dietary patterns that produce the best health outcomes overall, including less cardiovascular disease, may be high or low in total fat, but are invariably plant-predominant and low in saturated fat.

Best Diet For Preventing Heart Disease

The best evidence regarding the best diets all points to wholesome foods, predominantly plants, in sensible combinations—but provides no decisive evidence that any one level of total fat is best. What matters are the sources of that fat, with nuts, seeds, olives, extra virgin olive oil, avocado, fish, and seafood favored.

High-fat Mediterranean diets have shown great results, but so have vegan and vegetarian diets, and very low-fat omnivorous diets like that of the Tsimane, so recently in the news. The Tsimane reportedly derive up to 72 percent of their calories from carbohydrate; have very low dietary fat intake; experience inflammation on which the current authors blame coronary disease, but due to infections not eating sugar; and yet have the cleanest coronaries ever studied. Fat level, per se, simply does not appear to be a relevant consideration. But the kind of fat, and the sources of that fat, clearly are. Why would these authors conflate the two?

Why, in particular, would they fail even to mention the Tsimane if their commentary were aiming at illumination on this topic? The answer is—they would not. They failed to mention them, or any studies at odds with their predetermined conclusion, because their goal appears to be self-promotion born of controversy. Controversy sells.

To be fair, there are some valid points in the commentary, but they are so lost in a haze of obfuscation that they are devoid of all value.

Imagine a commentary arguing that, in theory, one particular compound or group of compounds in cigarettes is not responsible for emphysema, or lung cancer. We might already be convinced that these compounds are involved, based on the weight of evidence. We might have meaningful, residual doubts about the specific role of these compounds relative to other constituents of tobacco. But we know for sure that cigarettes, per se, are overwhelmingly linked to both emphysema and lung cancer.

But—not so fast!—our commenting theorists tell us. They remind us of the want of randomized controlled trials. They focus their discussion on this one compound, and point out the uncertainties and methodologic challenges in linking this particular moiety to lung cancer. They espouse theories about general mechanisms—random mutations and the inflammatory effects of psychological stress. They cite very impressive sounding work, such as papers in Science telling us that random mutations occur routinely. They systematically avoid citing any impressive research addressing less comfortable areas, such as the paper in Nature indicating that the majority of all cancer is preventable by modifying lifestyle, with avoidance of tobacco at the top of the list. And, they avoid any mention of staggering volumes of evidence establishing the association not between one chemical, but tobacco itself—with emphysema, lung cancer, and other highly undesirable fates.

Such an argument would be almost exactly analogous to the one now making news. The commentary is mostly wrong, but even when it isn’t wrong, it is profoundly misleading—unless you think uncertainties about which chemical in cigarettes is guilty of tobacco’s crimes against humanity, as a license to go back to smoking until the experts sort it all out.

In a paragraph in the middle of the new commentary, the authors all but declare their profound bias, and commitment to finding and citing only evidence in line with the opinion they owned at the start. They contrast a “low fat” diet deriving 37 percent of calories from fat, with a healthy Mediterranean diet deriving 41 percent of calories from fat, and use the favorable outcomes in the Mediterranean diet arm to dismiss and disparage “low fat” diets, and by insinuated extension, diets generously comprised of mostly vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, and lentils.

What isn’t preposterous about this reasoning is just plain mendacious. First, 37 percent of calories from fat is higher than the typical American diet; calling it low-fat is truly bewildering. This is like contrasting 37 cigarettes a day to 41 cigarettes a day. If you think lack of decisive benefit from those four fewer daily cigarettes means it makes no difference whether or how much you smoke, this commentary is for you!

Second, the paper was, as declared in its own title, about saturated fat—what does low total fat (whether described fairly or unfairly) have to do with it? Nutrition experts around the world all but uniformly emphasize the variety and balance of fats over the total quantity, a position formalized in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Report in the U.S. Personally, I have long concluded that total fat content is a very poor indicator of diet quality, just as total carbohydrate is. Avocado and wild salmon are high in fat, and so is pepperoni pizza. Lollipops are high in carbohydrate, and so are lentils. A focus on macronutrients is yesterday’s news, was yesterday’s news yesterday, and in the context of the new commentary, is a diversionary tactic.

Speaking of fats and carbohydrates, these authors go on to borrow a page from the playbook of every “it’s all about the carbs” iconoclast preceding them, suggesting that coronary disease is due to inflammation, and that, in turn, is due to refined carbohydrate and added sugar. The problem here is the obvious one: there is no need to choose. Those of us who know that beans are much better for you than bacon-cheeseburgers also know that water is much better for you than Kool-Aid, and steel-cut oats far better than Pop-Tarts. The idea that you need to pick a dietary scapegoat is one of the great boondoggles of modern public health, and only serves the interests of the junk food industry—ever ready to put lipstick on a new pig.

As for the authors’ references to the Mediterranean diet, I can only say I share their enthusiasm. But what the PREDIMED diet showed, and the Lyon Diet Heart Study before it—is the superiority of a diet high in unsaturated fat from olives and avocados, nuts and seeds, and to a lesser extent fish and seafood—to a diet high in sources of saturated fat. THERE WAS NO ‘LOW FAT’ DIET IN THE COMPARISON. That contention is either willfully misleading or an indication of plain ignorance.

I do have one hypothetical provocation of my own. Let’s imagine that a diet rich in beans, and a diet rich in beef, were comparably good for our coronaries.  The evidence indicates that is untrue, but let’s pretend. If we really had such options for health, we would still have no real option for the environment. The environmental argument for plant-predominant diets is, if anything, stronger than the health arguments. For academics in the public health space to offer dietary advice in the age of climate change and ignore the planetary impact of choices made by 8 billion hungry Homo sapiens is a sad abdication of an obvious responsibility we all share.

There is nothing hypothetical about coronary artery disease; it is a real, clear, and omnipresent danger. Its association with dietary patterns and key dietary components is reliably established by staggering volumes of evidence these commentators simply chose to ignore. If you are inclined to buy this misguided and misleading theorizing about diet, keep your credit card handy; I am confident that tobacco industry theorists have something to sell you, too.

The post Don’t Believe the Hype: Diets High in Saturated Fat DO Cause Heart Disease appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

Modern lifestyles contribute to unbalanced, excessive, or deficient levels of sex hormones in men and women. This may result in unpleasant outcomes—such as low sex drive or infertility—as well as to dangerous diseases, including cancer and heart disease. Here’s key information you need to make choices to help keep your sex hormones balanced.

While there are multiple male and female sex hormones, I’m going to concentrate on the best-known: estrogen and testosterone. You might not be aware that women produce and use testosterone, and men produce and use estrogen. The bodies of both sexes can convert testosterone into estrogen. So all sex hormones are important to you, whether you are male or female.

Balancing Strategy One: Carefully Consider Before Taking Supplementary Hormones

Some people have diagnosed medical conditions that may be treated with supplementary estrogen, testosterone, or other sex hormones. Before deciding whether to use hormones if you have one of these conditions, be sure you thoroughly understand the potential benefits and risks—and weigh these carefully—since sex hormones influence your entire body. Consider if there are alternative evidence-based treatments, as well as the benefits and risks of these. If you use oral contraceptives, be sure to understand possible side effects.

Millions of men and women seek supplementary hormones for vague purposes, such as weight loss, low energy, or a quest to regain lost youthfulness. In this case, the risks are likely to outweigh potential benefits. This is true regardless of whether you use compounded bioidentical hormones or those approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The National Toxicology Program of the Department of Health & Human Services classifies estrogen as a known human carcinogen, associated with both uterine and breast cancer. Supplementary or excessive estrogen has also been linked to ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, dementia, and stroke.

The dangers of testosterone supplements are not as well understood, with studies finding different outcomes. The FDA requires labeling of prescription testosterone products for safety risks affecting the heart and mental health, as well as the potential for abuse. If you take these supplements, benefits, if any, may be small and fleeting. A medical journal editorial titled “Testosterone and Male Aging: Faltering Hope for Rejuvenation” states that “the sole unequivocal indication for testosterone treatment is as replacement therapy for men with … organic disorders of the reproductive system.”

Balancing Strategy Two: Avoid Endocrine Disruptors in the Environment

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are capable of altering the production and/or function of many hormones. Interference with estrogen is the most-studied impact. EDCs may be found everywhere in modern environments, including pesticides, plastics, flame retardants, food, clothes, fragrances, pharmaceuticals, cooking and eating items, and personal care and cleaning products. Adverse effects of EDCs can be developmental, reproductive, neurological, and immune-related. Even tiny amounts can be harmful.

Common-sense strategies to minimize endocrine disruptors include consuming organic food; avoiding pesticides; using stainless steel, glass, or ceramic cookware and storage containers; staying away from air pollution whenever possible; washing new clothes before you wear them; and avoiding personal care, cosmetics, and cleaning products with added fragrance (other than plant oils) and chemicals with long names you can’t pronounce.

One of the most important ways to keep endocrine disruptors out of your body is to not eat animal foods. This is because most endocrine disruptors are fat soluble and accumulate in magnified amounts in animal fat. For example, the Institute of Medicine states that, for the EDCs’ dioxins, “consumption of animal fats is thought to be the primary pathway for human exposure. In humans, dioxins are metabolized slowly and accumulate in body fat over a lifetime.” This brings me to strategy three.

Balancing Strategy Three: Avoid Eating Animal Foods

All animal foods contain sex hormones that are often identical to the human versions. This is true even for animals raised without added hormones. All animals—including mammals, birds, and fish—need hormones for their own functioning. The hormones they produce become part of their tissues and secretions, which you consume if you eat meat, poultry, fish, eggs, or dairy.

Typically, the sex hormones you consume in the highest quantities vary with the type of animal food. Dairy and eggs contain the largest amounts of estrogen. For dairy, the soaring estrogen levels are tied to the fact that modern dairy cows are pregnant most of the year, and during pregnancy females become major estrogen producers. Testosterone exposure is strongly related to eating both milk and eggs (remember that your body may convert the testosterone to estrogen).

Hormones in animal foods are absorbed into your body. One study had adult men and children who had not yet reach puberty drink about 20 ounces of cow’s milk. Both the men and the children had elevated levels of estrogen and progesterone (another female hormone) in both their blood and their urine after consuming the milk. Testosterone secretion was suppressed in the men.

A series of studies considered the changes in diet in Japan after World War II. In the 50 years from 1947 to 1997, intake of milk, meat, and eggs increased 20-, 10-, and 7-fold, respectively. During that time, the death rate from breast cancer roughly doubled, and ovarian cancer deaths increased by a factor of four. The death rate from prostate cancer increased 25-fold. The researchers consider that the estrogen in dairy may have been responsible for these dramatic increases in reproductive cancer death.

All three strategies to balance your sex hormones are important. Avoiding animal foods may be the most powerful—and the most overlooked.

(Additional references)

The post 3 Strategies to Keep Your Sex Hormones Balanced appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

I have two young children and work hard. As a result, I’ve streamlined my diet so it’s affordable and doesn’t take a lot of time. Here are some of the best tricks, rules, and tips I rely on to minimize time, energy, and effort.

1. Serve your salad (and your family’s) right when you start cooking dinner.

Since you’re hungry and the hot food isn’t ready yet, you’ll fill up on more healthy salad than you would if you served it just before the meal hits the table (or worse, at the same time). Over time, increase the size of the salad, and lessen the amount you’re cooking.

2. Keep ingredients on hand for no fewer than three dinners-in-a-pinch.

These are meals that you can make with little effort and time, and ones you can fall back on when your day gets away from you. Having these ingredients on hand is a good tactic to prevent going out to eat at the last minute or ordering takeout, which can lead to several unhealthy meals in a row due to inertia or leftovers. Your dinners in a pinch might not be as healthy as you’d like — you’re looking for ingredients that can sit for a few weeks without going bad, so not a lot of fresh veggies — but they’ll get you through a stressful day or two until you can get back on track.

3. When you discover a meal that meets the big four criteria (tasty, healthy, quick, and cheap), for the love of all that is holy, write it down!

Keep the growing list of these meals in your wallet or phone (with ingredients, or links to the recipes online) so that you can stop by the store on the way home from work when you realize you’ve got nothing for dinner.

4. Anytime you make veggie burgers, make a double or triple batch.

Freeze the leftovers, and when you need a quick, cheap, and easy healthy meal, crumble one on top of a salad. Or put it in a pita. Or eat it by itself. Five-minute meal.

5. Same goes for soups, which you can thaw and serve over pasta or rice for an easy meal.

6. One more on this theme: make a big batch of pesto and use a melon baller to freeze 2-tablespoon size balls.

For a fast weeknight meal, thaw with a few tablespoons of hot water and toss with pasta.

7. Start with a meal that’s healthy but not hearty (salad, soup, or the pasta with pesto above).

Add chickpeas. Bam! Filling meal.

8. Don’t rule out vegan meal services, even if you’re on a budget.

Economies of scale allow them to purchase food for way cheaper than you can, so even after the cost of delivery and their markup, you might not pay much more than you would if you shopped yourself. Plus, oh yeah, you don’t have to shop. Or prep most of the ingredients. Or think about what to make. Or eat the same old thing again.

9. Don’t buy junk food at the grocery store.

Just flat-out refuse to do it. Make it your policy. If it’s not in your house, you’re so much less likely to put in the effort to go get it.

10. Put out a snack bowl in a high-traffic area (we do it for our kids, but it also works for grown-ups).

Fill it with whole or chopped fruits and veggies, a trail mix, maybe even some hummus. Then when your kids pass through or do something at the table, you’ll see them snacking on healthy food without even realizing they’re doing it. Hat tip to Dr. Fuhrman.

(RELATED: Kid-Friendly Snacks in 5 Minutes or Less)

11. Chop your salad vegetables for the week all at once, on the weekend.

Easy to do, but so easy not to do. Do it.

12. Make a big batch of rice (or another food you eat often) to last you the entire week.

I cook a lot of Indian food, so rice is a big one for me, but this works just as well with other grains and pseudograins like millet, quinoa, and bulgur. And you can do it with beans and vegetables too, though veggies generally don’t keep quite as well in the fridge. But the freezer is always an option!

13. If you’re stuck for meal planning ideas because you’ve got too many options (I’m thinking of the thousands of recipes in the cookbooks on your shelf), give yourself some constraints.

Pick a fresh veggie you need to use up, and search the index of a favorite cookbook for that ingredient. Or pick a theme for each night of the week — by ethnicity, color, anything — and search within those parameters. Inspired by Dr. Seuss and Austin Kleon and every other artist who found her greatness by limiting her tools.

14. Follow a “fruit first,” “salad first,” or “water first” rule if weight loss is part of your health goals.

This way, there’s no “missing out” on anything more calorie dense—just a natural desire to eat a little less of it.

15. When your greens start to go, move them to the freezer to use for smoothies.

Start with small amounts, and you might be surprised at how little you can taste that extra nutrition.

16. Skip certain herbs and spices or make substitutions when it’ll save you a grocery trip or time in the store.

Chefs who create recipes are artists, and if your goal is to experience the highest expression of the chef’s creativity, then yes, you should follow the recipe exactly. But for you, the guy or girl who just wants to start eating well and to do it as simply as possible, then it’s not going to matter much whether you use fancy sherry vinegar or substitute the apple cider vinegar you’ve had in the cupboard for the past two years.

Don’t be afraid to take a lot of substitutions and omissions. Plain old Tabasco can stand in for Sriracha or chili oil. If you don’t have cilantro, try basil or parsley if you’ve got either one. Or just Google “substitution for ____” and go with it.

Sure, maybe something will taste weird now and then. But in the long run you can save a lot of money and effort this way, and almost nobody’s going to notice.

17. If you’ve tried and failed to go vegetarian, vegan, or whole-foodist (or harder, to get your whole family to do so), bite off a smaller chunk.

Pick a time in the morning and follow your ideal diet until that point. As you get comfortable and build a string of successes, slowly move the line further back in the day.

The post 17 Tips for Healthy Eating and Living appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

But it’s important to understand that having a higher proportion of essential amino acids, as animal protein does, is actually damaging (not advantageous) for our health. We outline seven ways that animal protein damages your health.

1. Animal Protein and Fiber (or total lack thereof)

Unlike plant protein, which comes packaged with fiber, antioxidants, and phytonutrients, animal protein comes with exactly none of the foregoing. To this point, meat, eggs, poultry, dairy, fish and other animal foods have absolutely no fiber whatsoever.

Many people, in their effort to “get enough” protein, tend to eat large amounts of animal foods, which displaces plant foods that have these important nutrients. Fiber deficiencies, in particular, are far more common than not.

For example, The Institute of Medicine recommends that men consume 38 grams of fiber, but the average adult only eats about 15 grams per day—less than half the recommended amount. In fact, according to the USDA, almost all Americans (~95%) do not get an adequate amount of dietary fiber.^38,39

High fiber intake is associated with decreased cancer risk, specifically colon and breast cancers, as well as lower risk of ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, constipation and diverticulitis. It may also reduce the risk of stroke, high cholesterol, and heart disease.^40,41

2. Animal Protein and IGF-1 (increased cancer risk)

When we ingest proteins that have a higher proportion of the essential amino acids (which is a characteristic of animal protein), it results in our bodies producing higher levels of the hormone insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1).^2-8

This hormone stimulates cell division and growth in both healthy and cancer cells and, for this reason, having higher circulating levels of IGF-1 has been consistently associated with increased cancer risk, proliferation, and malignancy.^2-8

3. Animal Protein and TMAO

Consuming animal protein also results in us having higher circulating levels of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO).

TMAO is a substance that injures the lining of our vessels, creates inflammation, and facilitates the formation of cholesterol plaques in our blood vessels. And that, of course, is highly problematic for cardiovascular health.^9,10

TMAO is created by complex interactions involving our gut flora and the nutrients in the food we eat. And when we eat animal foods, it alters our gut flora in such a way that facilitates the creation of TMAO.^9,10

So, consuming animal foods result in higher TMAO levels, which is damaging to our vessels. Even without all of the other problematic aspects of animal foods, this one issue involving TMAO is, according to the recent president of the American College of Cardiology Dr. Kim A. Williams, sufficient by itself for people to vigorously avoid animal foods.¹¹

4. Animal Protein and Phosphorus

Animal protein contains high levels of phosphorus. And when we consume high amounts of phosphorus, one of the ways our bodies normalize the level of phosphorus is with a hormone called fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23).

FGF23 has been found to be harmful to our blood vessels. It can also lead to hypertrophy of the cardiac ventricle (abnormal enlargement of our cardiac muscle) and is associated with heart attacks, sudden death, and heart failure.^12,13 So eating animal protein with its high concentration of phosphorus can result in increased levels of this hormone in our bodies, which in turn is highly problematic for our health.

5. Animal Protein, Heme Iron, and Free Radicals

Iron is the most abundant metal in the human body. We can consume it in two forms: (a) heme iron, found widely in animal foods like meat, poultry, and fish; and (b) non-heme iron found widely in plant foods.

One of the problems with heme iron is that it can convert less reactive oxidants into highly reactive free radicals.¹⁴ And free radicals can damage different cell structures like proteins, membranes, and DNA.^14,15

Heme iron can also catalyze the formation of N-nitroso compounds in our bodies, which are potent carcinogens. So, not surprisingly, high intake of heme iron has been associated with many kinds of gastrointestinal cancers as well as other pathologies.¹⁵

It is true that heme iron has higher absorption rates and bioavailability than non-heme iron. However, iron itself can cause oxidative stress and DNA damage, so with iron generally, it’s not always a situation where “more is better.”¹⁵

While we definitely need iron, the absorption and bioavailability of iron from a well-rounded plant-based diet is generally adequate, and we can avoid the problems associated with heme iron and other negative health attributes of animal foods.^16,17

6. Higher Sulfur-Containing Amino Acids and Bone Health Problems

Animal proteins also have, in general, higher concentrations of sulfur-containing amino acids, which can induce a subtle state of acidosis when metabolized.¹⁸ One of the mechanisms our bodies use to compensate for this acidosis is leaching calcium from our bones to help neutralize the increased acidity. Over time, this can have a detrimental effect on bone health.^19-24

This is thought to be one of the reasons why some studies have found that populations with higher dairy consumption, as well as higher consumption of animal protein in general, also have a higher incidence of bone fractures.^18-30

7. Animal Protein and Cholesterol

Most animal foods contain saturated fat and cholesterol (this is true for even so-called “lean” meats like chicken, turkey, and salmon, regardless of how they are cooked or prepared—even if boiled, baked, or steamed).

As humans, we do not need to consume any cholesterol, since our bodies synthesize all the cholesterol we need for our physiologic functions.

Eating cholesterol despite this fact is problematic for our health, as it increases our risk of developing heart disease—currently the No. 1 cause of death for both men and women in the United States.^31-37

Atherosclerosis, or plaques of cholesterol that accumulate in the lining of our vessels, is exquisitely less common on a plant-based vegan diet devoid of animal products. And some studies have found that eating this way can even reverse atherosclerosis.^32-37

The Real “High Quality” Foods

Given all the issues, the “high quality” aspect of animal protein might be more appropriately described as “high risk” instead.

And there’s no need to obsess about getting enough protein either. If you are eating a sensible variety of plant foods (e.g., vegetables, fruits, legumes, grains, roots, nuts, and seeds), and you are eating enough calories (i.e., you feel satisfied), there is no need to worry about protein adequacy.

The amino acids we need are structurally identical regardless of the source. However, as discussed above, there are serious health implications depending on whether the amino acids are packaged within animal or plant foods. Dr. Walter Willett, the chair of Harvard’s Department of Nutrition, said it well:

“To the metabolic systems engaged in protein production and repair, it is immaterial whether amino acids come from animal or plant protein. However, protein is not consumed in isolation. Instead, it is packaged with a host of other nutrients.”⁴²

He therefore recommends that you “pick the best protein packages by emphasizing plant sources of protein rather than animal sources.”⁴²

In the end, plant foods are the real “high quality” foods that we should be eating for optimal health.

_Sources:

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4. Campbell TC. Dietary protein, growth factors, and cancer. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;85(6):1667.
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