From the Desk of Carolyn Dean MD ND
This is my final post summarizing my experience with the Food Revolution Network docuseries that promotes healthy foods as the “cure” for what ails us. Ocean and John Robbins, of the Baskin Robbins ice cream dynasty, founded The Food Revolution Network. It seems they are trying to undo the death and destruction caused by that company by pushing a plant-based diet. What do I have to say about this? Plenty, and I’ll put it in point-form.
- Food has failed us. I believe that ship has sailed. It’s too late to put all our hope in food – even if it’s organic. I’ve proven that personally with my support of a local organic/biodynamic farm. If I eat farm produce and eggs entirely, all my magnesium deficiency symptoms come back. So, I’m not able to get the nutrients that I need from even the most perfect diet.
- 70% of the American diet is processed and ultra processed. We’ve allowed Big Agra and Big Food to put profits first and let food fail us as they openly work with Big Medicine to make more profits off our dietary illness. Nutrition researchers didn’t even realize that the reason people, in one study, ate 500 calories more on an ultra processed diet, was because you naturally keep on eating to try to salvage enough nutrients to run metabolic processes in the body.
- Let’s look at the plant-based diet that the Food Revolution Network is pushing. Such a diet can be low in 4 major amino acids that we have to get from our diet. Also lacking are vitamin B12, omega-3, calcium, zinc, iron, and magnesium along with essential amino acids –
- Lysine is a building block for many proteins like the ones that provide crosslinking for collagen. Lysine helps the uptake of essential mineral nutrients. It promotes the production of carnitine, which is key in fatty acid metabolism. Lysine is also involved in histone modifications that protect DNA. I also know it as an antiviral amino acid.
- Tryptophan is a precursor for the neurotransmitter serotonin, the hormone melatonin, and vitamin B3.
- Methionine is a precursor to cysteine, taurine, SAM-e, and glutathione. It’s also involved in angiogenesis and various processes related to DNA transcription, epigenetic expression, and gene regulation.
- Phenylalanine is a precursor for tyrosine, dopamine, noradrenaline, and adrenaline, and the biological pigment melanin.
- A 2019 Gallup poll found that approximately 5% of Americans are vegetarian and 3% are vegan. My own foster daughter was embedded in the vegan movement for 2 decades and suffered chronic insomnia and a host of other symptoms and she was told by her peers that she just had to be more strict. It wasn’t until she started losing teeth that she woke up to what her body really required – animal protein.
- In my practice, vegetarians who acquired hepatitis healed much faster when they began to eat animal protein. And when I suffered a bad fall, I immediately craved more protein to help make structural protein to heal my injuries.
- I say that most people are suffering PTSD these days and require more nutrients and more animal protein to replace all the damage caused by stress. Also, stress makes us crave sugar and fats, which may go back to our infancy when we had 24/7 access to sweet and creamy breast milk.
- When I began listening to the Food Revolution Network docuseries, I realized that in 2005 I recognized and wrote about all the problems with the food supply in Death by Modern Medicine. At the time I thought the information would help turn things around. It didn’t. So that’s why I took further action and created a dietary supplement company and designed formulas to overcome what our body is missing in the food supply and to also provide the extra nutrients we need to deal with a depleted, toxic, and stressful world.
- The reason I think people can do well on a plant-based diet in the beginning is because it helps detoxify the body; decreases inflammation, with more fiber and potentially more nutrients than a processed diet. So, initial results found on one-to-three month diet studies can be quite impressive. But, over time, I think the lack of several important amino acids, vitamins, minerals and omega 3 fatty acids will take their toll.
Carolyn Dean MD ND
The Doctor of the Future
