Vegan Centenarians - where are they?
Jerry Story
link was given. Dr. Fielder posted this in the INHS (International
Natural hygiene Society) discussion group.
Laurie, do you have anything to say about this article?
[quote]
Vegan Centenarians - where are they?
In recent years, I've noticed a growing trend among young people to
follow the teachings of vegan 'gurus' like David Wolfe, Douglas Graham,
Paul Nison and Gabriel Cousens. Many of these followers are obsessed in
their dietary beliefs and have unrealistic expectations of 'living to
100 in a perfect state of health.' They overlook the fact that most
vegan leaders have died prematurely after battling severe illnesses for
years. They also fail to produce a single authenticated vegan
centenarian to validate their beliefs.
While the beauty and simplicity of Veganism and Fruitarianism sounds
appealing, there's just one tiny flaw ... the vast majority of people
who attempt these diets will fail. Eventually, chronic health problems
caused by nutritional deficiencies will force them to add animal foods
into their diets. Sadly, many misguided health- seekers will ignore
this warning and suffer the consequences. How do I know this? Because
30 years of research and experience tells me so.
Think about this for a moment; if the utopian claims made about these
dietary regimes are genuine, where are all the vegan/fruitarian
centenarians??
There are an estimated 60,000 centenarians in the United States, 9,000
in the United Kingdom, and 3,000 here in Australia. Most are meat
eaters and a few are vegetarian, but I've never heard of any who are
vegan or fruitarian.
In fact, in one of the world's longest-running studies of authenticated
centenarians ever undertaken, it was found that none of the
participants were vegan, fruitarian or even vegetarian! The Okinawa
Centenarian Study has been ongoing since 1976 and examined the lives of
over 600 centenarians who were living their traditional lifestyle.
Their diets included fish, pork, poultry, dairy products and eggs.
While I acknowledge they only represent a small percentage of the
population, vegan and fruitarian groups have existed for a long time,
so they've had ample opportunity to establish their longevity bonafides
...
David Wolfe claims, "My mom is from Persia, and in that country they
have vegan communities dating back thousands of years. They also have
raw-vegan communities with similar traditions."
Then why isn't every television station in the world reporting on this
super-race? After "thousands of years" of dietary and genetic purity,
you'd expect to hear of hundreds of fully verified, healthy
centenarians living today. Where are they?
The Arnold Ehret Health Club has operated in the U.S. since the 1920's,
so there should be plenty of 100 -120 year old fruitarians running
around. Yet, when I contacted the club, they admitted they were not
aware of any Ehret devotee who has reached 100. It seems that
fruitarian centenarians are rarer than Bigfoot!
H. Jay Dinshah was the founder and president of the American Vegan
Society. Although a vegetarian from birth, then a vegan for 43 years,
he died from a heart attack at just 66 years of age.
Herbert M. Shelton was the most influential Natural Hygienist of the
20th century. For six decades he preached the superiority of a raw
vegan diet of fruits, vegetables and nuts. Did he enjoy a long and
vigorous life? No! He was in a declining state of health in his
sixties, and was bedridden for the final 13 years of his life due to
Parkinson's disease. He died at just 89.
His protégé, T.C. Fry, taught the infallibility of a raw vegan diet
for 26 years, yet he died at the ridiculously young age of 70!!
However, even more disturbing is the fact that he suffered from
numerous health problems long before his death. According to Dr Bernarr
Zovluck, a close friend for 30 years, Fry died from coronary embolism.
He also had multiple atherosclerotic thrombi of his lower legs, edema,
a lesion on his left lung, anemia, high acid blood pH, breathing
problems, constipation, osteoporosis, teeth and gum problems, etc.
Yes indeed, his vegan/fruitarian diet certainly worked miracles for his
health!
George R. Clements (AKA Hilton Hotema, AKA Kenyon Klamonti) claimed he
became a vegan at 9 years of age after reading a book about health at
school. He also claimed he lived as a breatharian-fruitarian for almost
80 years and would "live to be 150 years of age." He only managed to
reach 92.
Hereward Carrington, author of The Natural Food of Man, believed that a
strict diet of raw fruits and nuts could "sustain man in a perfect
state of health". He died at 78 years of age.
Dr O.L.M. Abramowski was a German born doctor who immigrated to
Australia in 1884. While working at the Mildura District Hospital, he
successfully treated patients with fresh fruit and juices. He wrote
several books including Fruitarian Diet and Physical Rejuvenation and
thought his diet of raw fruit, nuts and grains would enable him to
reach 100 -120 years. He died at 58.
Ross Horne, Australia's most famous raw food author, believed his
fruitarian diet was superior to all others. I met Ross in 1983 and
corresponded with him periodically over the years. Despite rigidly
adhering to his tropical fruit diet for 22 years, he died last year of
Prostate Cancer. He was only 79. Ironically, his final book was titled
Cancerproof Your Body.
Summary: As an 18 year old searching for the secrets of perfect health
and long life, I had a voracious appetite for knowledge and devoured
every book I could find; from Vilhjalmur Stefansson to Adelle Davis to
Arnold Ehret; from carnivorous to omnivorous to frugivorous. Over the
past three decades I've read hundreds of books and scientific studies
relating to diet, nutritional supplements and natural therapies. In
addition to experimenting on myself, I've also observed the practical,
long-term effects various diets have on people. Along the way I've
encountered charlatans, liars and delusional individuals who make
ridiculous and unsubstantiated claims about therapies, diets and
products.
After 30 years of research, I have no doubts that the foundation of a
healthy diet should be fresh, raw, organically grown vegetables and
fruits (and their juices), plus sprouts, nuts and seeds. Short-term,
raw vegan diets offer enormous benefits in overcoming serious health
problems. However, long-term physical and psychological deterioration
will almost certainly occur unless animal foods such as eggs, fish or
dairy products are consumed. Those who refuse to do this should
supplement with B12 (methylcobalamin), folic acid and flax or hemp
seeds.
[/quote]
Satansgoat
.....In doggy years <G>
http://www.dogsinthenews.com/issues/0209/articles/020918a.htm
meta...@gmail.com
Jerry,
I agree with your observations about how few people that you hear about
on the news as living to be 100 are raw fooders.
However, I would say this: the most important thing in life is not
self-preservation. In fact living for self-preservation makes death,
bardo and next-life/nirvana very difficult.
The most important thing in life is to cultivate one's awareness to the
point of being objectively detached from one's own body to the point
that you are ready to set yourself on fire but have enough control of
your senses and mind as to not move.
Death is coming. How shall we meet it? Shall we get another leg of lamb
and shove it down our throats in order to fend off the reaper? Will we
kick and scream and run for cover as the final bells toll or will we
sacrifice this body in ecstatic liberation as we rejoin with the
Immortal Voice of the Silence, the Inner Light and Sound, the Turiya?
Jerry Story
> Jerry,
>
> I agree with your observations about how few people that you hear about
> on the news as living to be 100 are raw fooders.
They weren't my observations. I was quoting an article.
[..cut anti-health stuff ..]
Most people don't much value health until they lose it.
Laurie
"Jerry Story" <jst...@ocii.com> wrote in message
news:1130100198.1...@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Thanks, Jerry.
> Vegan Centenarians - where are they?
> ... teachings of vegan 'gurus' like David Wolfe,
... voluntarily behaves like a New Age Snake Oil salesman; all hype and
no substance, always leading to his overpriced items on his website.
His "lectures" are little more than constant marketing ploys, feel-good
buzz words (The best xxx EVER!!), and mass hypnosis of the gullible by
constant repetition. He tells a lot of jokes to get the crowd happy and
thus receptive to his constant thinly-disguised sales pitches. He makes
repetitive jokes about psychedelic drugs, and frequently implies that his
high-priced, magical "foods" and "monatomic elements" will produce similar
states of consciousness, legally.
Like most charismatic hucksters, he appeals to empathic right-brain
degenerates; those who "feel" their way through life, but never think.
His "biography" claims: "David Wolfe has degrees in Mechanical and
Environmental Engineering and Political Science. He has studied at many
institutions including Oxford University. He concluded his formal education
by receiving a Juris Doctor in Law from the University of San Diego." This,
he claimed to be in "patent law".
http://www.davidwolfe.com/biography/
Repeated e-mails to his website requesting his detailed curriculum vitae
were -all- ignored; what is he hiding? See if you can get an honest
response...
Engineering degrees require a logical, analytical mind, and paradigms
supported by established facts and logic, which are conspicuous by their
absence in his "lectures".
An environmental degree would require a substantial understanding of
chemistry, yet I attended his lecture on "alchemy" on Nov 16, '04, and he
could not pass an 8th grade science quiz, much less a chemistry test. He
claims to have "read 500 books on alchemy" and is the world's authority on
same.
One of his nonsensical pitches, acccompanied by a misleading
demonstration, was that adding lye/Drano/sodium hydroxide to sea water would
produce "monatomic" or "etheric" elements that precipitated out of some
hidden dimension (Star Trek's subspace??) and when the mysterious
precipitate, known by real chemists to be simple calcium and magnesium
hydroxide, was sprinkled around fruit trees it would attract hundreds of
times the normal "prana" into the tree thus producing 2-3 times the growth,
size, nutrients, energy, etc. This produces "walnuts the size of oranges".
He claimed that 50% of the precipitate was not identifiable by current
science, yet actually producing this mystery substance would get him a Nobel
Prize in chemistry, IF it were true. A Nobel Prize for a raw food guru
would be an amazing accomplishment and certainly help him spread the word!
"Water holds all the sine wave frequencies of everything".
He claims that carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are "minerals",
when they are really gasses. Minerals are metals, the name coming from the
fact that they are mined.
Activated charcoal is "pure female energy". Sun is "pure male energy".
"Oxygen sucks all the heavy metals out of the body".
"Pranayama (yogic breathing techniques) collects these (etheric)
elements".
"Cold fusion produces gold", but apparently the physicists who are
working on this foolishly think it will produce energy.
"Gold is a precipitation of the sun's energy". "King Midas is real".
One can separate elements "by electroplating since each element has its
own frequency", yet electroplating is done with direct current, i.e. NO
frequency.
Some things "have mass but no weight". Well, only in outer space where
there is no appreciable gravity. Weight is the result of the interaction of
a mass and a planet (another mass).
Can "grow hydroponically on ocean water".
"Sun compresses water". "159F is the corruption temperature of water".
Perhaps the most insightful revelation on his website is: "David is a
leading cast member in the Reality TV show Mad Mad House, where he plays
himself!"
=====
> Douglas Graham,
http://www.ecologos.org/dg.htm
> Paul Nison ...
.. claims to be: "The World's Leading Raw Food Author, Lecturer & Raw
Food Gourmet Health Chef",
while Wolfe claims: "David Wolfe - Foremost Authority on Raw-Food
Nutrition". This is humorously similar to Guru Marahaji and his brother
fighting over who was the -real- Sat Guru, e.g. the ultimate guru.
I have not read his books.
> Gabriel Cousens.
Not read him.
> They overlook the fact that most vegan leaders have died prematurely
> after battling severe illnesses for years.
As do meatarian leaders, MD's, PhD nutritionists, biochemists, and
almost everyone else. The point is??
> While the beauty and simplicity of Veganism and Fruitarianism
> sounds appealing, there's just one tiny flaw ... the vast majority
> of people who attempt these diets will fail. Eventually, chronic
> health problems caused by nutritional deficiencies ...
The vast majority of people on any diet will "fail" in the same manner,
so what?
This type of unsupported, and never specified, "nutritional
deficiencies" claim always intentionally overlooks the horrifically-poor
quality of produce resulting from decades of current, toxic, agricultural
practices. The true test of any diet would be that of several generations
living on high-quality, highly-mineralized foods -- these do not exist
today.
> ... will force them to add animal foods into their diets.
NOTE: the nutrients in animal foods alleged to cure the unspecified
"nutritional deficiencies" are NOT identified, thus the author makes NO
attempt to support his claims. This is pure propaganda.
> Sadly, many misguided health- seekers will ignore this warning and
> suffer the consequences. How do I know this? Because
> 30 years of research and experience tells me so.
30 years of experiential research on a nutritionally-superior vegan
diet? Nope.
> Think about this for a moment; if the utopian claims made about
> these dietary regimes are genuine, where are all the vegan/fruitarian
> centenarians??
Think about this: plant-based diets have started becoming popular only
in the past ~35 years, and those following them have done so only after
decades on a animal/junk food diet. The quality of current agribiz produce
is terrible.
> ... centenarians ... but I've never heard of any who are
> vegan or fruitarian.
Right: personal ignorance proves the case!
> The Okinawa Centenarian Study has been ongoing since 1976
> and examined the lives of over 600 centenarians who were living
> their traditional lifestyle.
Which included low stress, country living, and exercise.
> Their diets included fish, pork, poultry, dairy products and eggs.
Small amounts compared to much younger-dying westerners. This is the
common fallacy of intentionally ignoring magnitudes commonly seen in
anti-vegan propaganda.
In fact, all the currently-popular "degenerative diseases" are
correlated with the consumption of animal products. Pick the disease of
your choice at:
http://www.ecologos.org/ttdd.html
This is a variant on the old: "My grandfather lived to be 99 drinking a
quart of whisky and smoking 10 cigars a day", with the implication that the
whisky and cigars were the cause of longevity, or had no deleterious effect.
This intentionally ignores the obvious question: "How long would he have
lived with a healthy lifestyle?"
> ... vegan and fruitarian groups have existed for a long time, so
> they've had ample opportunity to establish their longevity bonafides
Ignores poor-quality commercial "foods" and horrible vegan diets.
Sugar, vodka, and tobacco would be a "vegan" diet, albeit not a good one.
An honest appraisal of any diet would be to monitor several generations
eating high-quality foods. Present-day vegans, starting life with a
animal-centric diet, genetic damage, and eating poor quality foods are not
an indication of the validity of any diet.
> David Wolfe claims,
... lots of nonsensical things, with NO credible support.
> The Arnold Ehret Health Club ...
... does not mean that its members were fruitarians, and of course
ALWAYS ignore the quality of foods issue.
> Herbert M. Shelton was the most influential Natural Hygienist
> of the 20th century. For six decades he preached the superiority
> of a raw vegan diet of fruits, vegetables and nuts.
Yet, he consumed clabbered milk, and no doubt consumed far too much
protein via the nuts/seeds.
> His protégé, T.C. Fry, taught the infallibility of a raw vegan
> diet for 26 years, yet he died at the ridiculously young age of 70!!
Yet, he did not follow it.
According to Chet Day's Health and Beyond, Nov 1, 1996, TC had undergone
12-17 ozone therapy treatments, and TC claimed that had made him sick. He
was a workaholic, as was Shelton, and no doubt that led to both their
demises. He was also a scam artist, which no doubt led to mental stress.
"[TC had] a gunshot to the head by a spurned girl friend, an accident in
a car when he hit a tree doing 85 miles per hour where he sustained severe
injuries, and a number of knife wounds from combatants while working as a
detective for New York City undoubtedly had lasting damages on his body. He
also had a heart condition -before- adopting a healthy lifestyle that
contributed to physical weaknesses."
"... mentioned that Fry would make a huge salad with vegetables, nuts,
and fruit and overindulge. The next day he would have gastric distress and
blame it on the nuts." Thus, TC violated the most fundamental food
combining rules, and practiced gluttony.
"The autopsy indicated that a blood clot that had formed in a blood
vessel of his leg had broken loose and eventually moved to his heart,
causing full cardiac arrest."
"It 's important to note that T.C. had tremendous difficulties with his
teeth. For years, he lived with multiple dental abscesses. For some reason,
he refused to have them treated. A Hygienic dentist friend here in Austin,
who knew T.C. well, believes strongly that his untreated dental abscesses
contributed mightily to his health decline by seeding infection throughout
his body and undermining his immune system."
"Natural Hygiene Convention in Santa Barbara...where I was shocked to
see him filling up his plate at the buffet with macaroni and cheese and
other cooked items."
"...her response was that he did not follow the dietary he claimed to
and which he so staunchly advocated and that during their lectures together
he would in private consume canned food."
"T.C. used to enter closets and empty rooms at his fasting retreat in
Missouri and that people would then hear suspicious-sounding cellophane
noises from behind those closed doors."
So, TCFry was not a credible example of anyone on a Hygienic diet, and
he had heart issues BEFORE changing his diet.
But, of course, let's just overlook his animal-centric diet before
becoming a 'health crusader', and his genetic defects, and his own failure
to practice what he preached, and just blame an unspecified vegan diet,
because that is so much easier.
> George R. Clements (AKA Hilton Hotema, AKA Kenyon Klamonti) claimed
> ...many things without any credible support.
> Along the way I've encountered charlatans, liars and delusional
> individuals who make ridiculous and unsubstantiated claims about
> therapies, diets and products.
Right, and so what? One must self-educate and self-experiment to
determine the credibility of any claim.
Orthodox nutrition and the orthodox medical system is loaded with
dangerous, health-destroying claims and practices, and how many orthodox
nutritionists or MD's reach that 100 year mark you accuse vegans of failing
to meet?
> However, long-term physical and psychological deterioration
> will almost certainly occur unless animal foods such as eggs,
> fish or dairy products are consumed.
Note: no substance, just an unsupported claim, as usual. Why?
> Those who refuse to do this should supplement with B12
> (methylcobalamin), folic acid and flax or hemp seeds.
Note: no REASON is given, just a hollow opinion.
Does it all really come down to the B-12 issue?
http://www.ecologos.org/B-12.htm
Mozafar has proven that, indeed, plants contain B-12 if raised on
healthy soil, so one may readily conclude that decades of toxic chemical
agriculture has both removed minerals from the soil (by never replenishing
them), and destroyed the bacteria IN the soil that provide B-12 to plants,
in addition to disrupting many other bacteria, soil organisms, and complex
chemical systems that are absolutely necessary to support soil, plant, and,
finally, human health.
So, apparently, it is not some always-unspecified "vegan" diet, most of
which are horrible, nor people who do not follow the diet they preach, but
agribiz is the real culprit.
Given the poor quality of current agribiz produce, it is wise to
consider a vigorous supplementation program.
The anti-vegan propagandist also totally ignores the QUALITY of life,
choosing to focus only on the QUANTITY, i.e. lifespan; this is a common
fallacy in such propaganda.
Laurie
John Mayer
>
> "Jerry Story" <jst...@ocii.com> wrote in message
> news:1130100198.1...@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Thanks, Jerry.
>
>> Vegan Centenarians - where are they?
>
>> ... teachings of vegan 'gurus' like David Wolfe,
> ... voluntarily behaves like a New Age Snake Oil salesman; all hype
> and no substance, always leading to his overpriced items on his website.
>
More to the point, vegetarians make up only 3% of the US population,
vegans even less. Diet is not the only contributor to longevity -
though vegetarians live, on average, 7 years longer than meat-eaters -
genetics and simple good luck play a big part. So, as a basic
understanding of statistics will suggest, far fewer vegans means there
the odds of their being represented in any population sample are
smaller. I doubt very much that every centenarians dietary preference
is quoted in his/her obituary.
>
>> ... centenarians ... but I've never heard of any who are
>> vegan or fruitarian.
> Right: personal ignorance proves the case!
>
>> The Okinawa Centenarian Study has been ongoing since 1976
>> and examined the lives of over 600 centenarians who were living
>> their traditional lifestyle.
> Which included low stress, country living, and exercise.
And we know, for one thing, that Okinawans eat much less red meat than
Americans.
Cavities are also directly linked to heart disease. See the Merck Manual.
>> However, long-term physical and psychological deterioration
>> will almost certainly occur unless animal foods such as eggs,
>> fish or dairy products are consumed.
Its amazing that our primate cousins are able to survive without animal
foods (except for baboons). No, chimpanzees do NOT necessarily eat any
meat; that varies from tribe to tribe; gorillas are obligate herbivores.
>> Those who refuse to do this should supplement with B12
>> (methylcobalamin), folic acid and flax or hemp seeds.
B12 is a good idea; no time to go into that, now. Folic acid is a good
idea for all women of child-bearing age, vegan or not. Hemp couldn't
hurt.
> Mozafar has proven that, indeed, plants contain B-12 if raised on
> healthy soil...
Here Laurie and I must part company. I'd love to hear evidence to this
effect, but I'm aware of none. We are usually told that natural foods,
in the non-sterile state our ancestors found them, contain enough B12
in bacteria and tiny insects to provide our minimal B12 needs, and this
is probably true. There are, however, at least a couple of other
possibilities...
As to David Wolfe, that fact that a wacko might do the right thing for
the wrong reason doesn't negate the value of doing the right thing.
John Mayer
John Mayer
> chemistry, yet I attended his lecture on "alchemy" on Nov 16, '04, and
> he could not pass an 8th grade science quiz, much less a chemistry
> test. He claims to have "read 500 books on alchemy" and is the world's
> authority on same.
> One of his nonsensical pitches, acccompanied by a misleading
> demonstration, was that adding lye/Drano/sodium hydroxide to sea water
> would produce "monatomic" or "etheric" elements that precipitated out
> of some hidden dimension (Star Trek's subspace??) and when the
> mysterious precipitate, known by real chemists to be simple calcium and
> magnesium hydroxide, was sprinkled around fruit trees it would attract
> hundreds of times the normal "prana" into the tree thus producing 2-3
> times the growth, size, nutrients, energy, etc. This produces "walnuts
> the size of oranges".
> He claimed that 50% of the precipitate was not identifiable by
> current science, yet actually producing this mystery substance would
> get him a Nobel Prize in chemistry, IF it were true. A Nobel Prize for
> a raw food guru would be an amazing accomplishment and certainly help
> him spread the word!
> "Water holds all the sine wave frequencies of everything".
> He claims that carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are
> "minerals", when they are really gasses. Minerals are metals, the name
> coming from the fact that they are mined.
Well, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen are not necessarily gases;
they are elements. Methane is a gas on Earth; pentane is a solid up to
96.8° F, hexane is a solid up to 156.2°. Oxygen is a gas, unless it is
a liquid, often used in idustry and chemistry classes. Right you are
about the word minerals deriving from the same root as mines, but the
geological word mineral and the dietary one are not exactly the same.
Dietary minerals are inorganic ions necessary in our diets. But you're
right: he's wrong about C, H, O and N being minerals; though most
elements are metals these are not even metalloids but full-fledged
non-metals.
It annoys me that New Age charlatans so often claim to speak for vegans
and vegetarians.
John Mayer