Yesterday, I officially completed TCC 501-02: Nutrition Fundamentals course, offered by Cornell University and taught by Dr. T. Colin Campbell. This is the first course in a series of three, designed to gain a Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition and provide continuing education credits to medical professionals like nurses and family physicians.
Feeling lonely amidst vegan students, I plowed through lecture after lecture, learning about the alleged effect of animal protein on cancer growth and heart disease, by virtue of cholesterol. I kept waiting for at least some discussion on the potential negative influence of contaminated water and air, stress and the presence of hormones, antibiotics and pesticides in commercially grown food, but the course seems to have been built entirely around the topic of nutrition and its constituent components.
But wait, isn't the presence of toxins in our food and water supply relevant? How can stress we experience in our daily lives today be ignored when discussing the possible precursors for chronic diseases like cancer? Although an emphasis on a wholistic approach was made throughout the course, a laser-like focus on animal protein and its exclusively negative impact predominated. Alright, I do agree that we as a society consume entirely too much meat (along with excess amounts of sugar, transfats and artificial fillers of all sorts), but I also know that a comparison with an unarguably deficient diet would do no one any good. I mean, let's face it: eating a brick will prove superior to a diet of an average American. At least, the former is a source of minerals.
I had to ask myself the hard question. Am I defending animal foods simply because I've always consumed them, misguided by the faulty science and my parents' best intentions to raise a healthy child? Well, I look at my father-in-law and he is as healthy as can be at 83 years old, having survived and thrived through polio and years of hard labour as a heavy-duty mechanic. By all accounts, having been raised on a farm, he consumed whole milk and grass-fed beef, but mostly wild meat like moose, elk and deer. If animal protein caused damage to our health, its life-long consumption should not result in a long life.
It is rather more important to choose carefully the type of animal product to consume. In one of his lectures, Dr. Campbell featured a meat blend to demonstrate its high fat content and deficiency in vitamins. He presented the following three foods: beef, pork and turkey.
| Dr. Campbell's Meat Blend | grams | Cal. (kcal) | Chol. (g) | Fat (g) | Prot. (g) | B-caro. (µg) | Fiber (g) | Vit. C | Folate (µg) | Vit. E (mg) | Fe (mg) | Mg (mg) | Ca (mg) | Zn (mg) |
| Beef 23573 | 85.00 | 230.00 | 77.00 | 15.15 | 21.89 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.00 | 0.40 | 2.11 | 17.00 | 20.00 | 5.31 |
| Pork 10151 | 85.00 | 207.00 | 53.00 | 14.25 | 18.33 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 0.31 | 0.74 | 16.00 | 6.00 | 1.97 |
| Turkey 05296 | 85.05 | 132.00 | 45.00 | 4.92 | 18.13 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 | 0.32 | 1.39 | 19.00 | 4.00 | 2.16 |
| Total | 255.05 | 569.00 | 175.00 | 34.32 | 58.35 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 16.00 | 1.03 | 4.24 | 52.00 | 30.00 | 9.44 |
| Average | 85.02 | 189.67 | 58.33 | 11.44 | 19.45 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.33 | 0.34 | 1.41 | 17.33 | 10.00 | 3.15 |
Beef and pork, with their high fat content, brought the average up to 11.44 g per 85 g of meat. The nutrition data was taken from the USDA's National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference- a rather amazing online tool, I must say- and the type of beef chosen a patty with 20% fat content, cooked. His rational for this was to choose the type of meat regularly consumed in America. Well, since we already established that much of America consumes very unhealthful diets, we should not be representing all animal products via a greasy McDonald's patty. In fact, when I comprised my own meat blend, here is what I got:
| ALT. MEAT BLEND II | grams | Cal. (kcal) | Chol. (g) | Fat (g) | Prot. (g) | B-caro. (µg) | Fiber (g) | Vit. C | Folate (µg) | Vit. E (mg) | Fe (mg) | Mg (mg) | Ca (mg) | Zn (mg) |
| Game Meat, Elk 17167 | 85.00 | 124.00 | 62.00 | 1.62 | 25.66 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8.00 | 0.00 | 3.09 | 20.00 | 4.00 | 2.69 |
| Turkey 05296 | 85.05 | 132.00 | 45.00 | 4.92 | 18.13 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 | 0.32 | 1.39 | 19.00 | 4.00 | 2.16 |
| Wild Trout 15116 | 85.00 | 128.00 | 59.00 | 4.95 | 19.48 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1.70 | 16.00 | 0.00 | 0.32 | 26.00 | 73.00 | 0.43 |
| Total | 255.05 | 384.00 | 166.00 | 11.49 | 63.27 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1.70 | 28.00 | 0.32 | 4.80 | 65.00 | 81.00 | 5.28 |
| Average | 85.02 | 128.00 | 55.33 | 3.83 | 21.09 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.57 | 9.33 | 0.11 | 1.60 | 21.67 | 27.00 | 1.76 |
According to the table above, the average fat content per 85 g of meat is 3.83 g. In fact, game meat contains so little fat, it only comprises 2% of the total weight! That is an 89.31% reduction in fat content and a 46% reduction in total calories! The cholesterol level is also lower in elk than in beef, although not as significantly.
Now, let's compare this with Dr. Campbell's vegetable blend:
| Dr. Campbell's Veg. Blend | grams | Cal. (kcal) | Chol. (g) | Fat (g) | Prot. (g) | B-caro. (µg) | Fiber (g) | Vit. C | Folate (µg) | Vit. E (mg) | Fe (mg) | Mg (mg) | Ca (mg) | Zn (mg) |
| Tomatoes 11529 | 180.00 | 32.00 | 0.00 | 0.36 | 1.58 | 808.00 | 2.20 | 24.70 | 27.00 | 0.97 | 0.49 | 20.00 | 18.00 | 0.31 |
| Spinach 11457 | 30.00 | 7.00 | 0.00 | 0.12 | 0.86 | 1688.00 | 2.50 | 9.90 | 58.00 | 0.61 | 0.81 | 24.00 | 30.00 | 0.16 |
| Lima Beans 11040 | 180.00 | 189.00 | 0.00 | 0.54 | 11.97 | 180.00 | 10.80 | 10.40 | 29.00 | 1.15 | 3.53 | 101.00 | 50.00 | 0.99 |
| Peas 11301 | 160.00 | 67.00 | 0.00 | 0.37 | 5.23 | 955.00 | 4.50 | 76.60 | 46.00 | 0.62 | 3.15 | 42.00 | 67.00 | 0.59 |
| Potatoes 11674 | 202.00 | 188.00 | 0.00 | 0.26 | 5.05 | 12.00 | 4.40 | 19.40 | 57.00 | 0.08 | 2.18 | 57.00 | 30.00 | 0.73 |
| Total | 752.00 | 483.00 | 0.00 | 1.65 | 24.69 | 3643.00 | 24.40 | 141.00 | 217.00 | 3.43 | 10.16 | 244.00 | 195.00 | 2.78 |
| Average | 150.40 | 96.60 | 0.00 | 0.33 | 4.94 | 728.60 | 4.88 | 28.20 | 43.40 | 0.69 | 2.03 | 48.80 | 39.00 | 0.56 |
In his lecture, he suggests that a whole food, plant-based diet not only contains enough protein, but also superior amounts of vitamins. True, there is no Beta-carotene, vitamin C or dietary fiber in meat, but just like vegetables do not contain any vitamin B12 or vitamin D. Dr. Campbell's tables also do not contain any values for the concentration of thiamine, phosphorous, riboflavin or vitamins A and K, yet all of these minerals and vitamins are present in various types of meat and fish. For example, there is more than double the amount of phosphorous in 85 g of my meat blend than in 150 g of Dr. Campbell's vegetable blend.
It is also erroneous to generalize fat as some evil substance clogging our arteries and causing us nothing but grief. Fat comes in saturated fat, which is solid at room temperature and mono- and poly-unsaturated fat, or oil rather, that is liquid at room temperature. 85 g of cooked wild salmon, for instance, contain 6.91% of total lipids, 73% of which is unsaturated fat linked to reducing harmful LDL cholesterol. And what about saturated fat? There is still a lot of confusion about whether or not it actually causes cardiovascular diseases, as some recent studies revealed that dietary saturated fat might not be associated with heart disease, after all*.
Now, it is not my intention to discredit a plant-based diet. But it should be what the name says, plant-based, not plant-exclusive.
My next course in the series, TCC 502: Deseases of Affluence, starts in 16 days and I look forward to new revelations about the chronic diseases that plague North America these days. And if nothing else, the course material should provide a good basis for research into the topic.
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