EXPERTS: AMERICANS NEED TO ADOPT PLANT-BASED DIET

"Despite warnings from the government, health groups and doctors, more than 70 percent of Americans still eat too much meat and fat and too few vegetables, cancer researchers said on Thursday. They published a survey showing 72 percent of Americans still centered their meals around animal fats, leaving little room for the vegetables that prevent not only cancer but heart disease and perhaps a range of other diseases, too." The Reuters story sums it up with a scientist's quote: "This survey shows that Americans have got the proportions of food on their plates reversed. ... Most are cutting themselves off from the protection afforded by the vitamins, minerals and cancer-fighting phytochemicals found in vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans." The article also reminds us that "The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and many other groups routinely advise Americans to eat a plant-based diet."

LATEST MAD COW STRATEGIES

You really have to hand it to the USDA for their brilliant management of the Mad Cow crisis. I'm not kidding. I don't mean the actual threat to public health, of course, but the threat to the meat industry. They're all over that. The latest move was to release a flurry of findings and hype related to several different aspects of the situation so that overworked journalists would have a hard time sorting it out, or finding out which nugget was front-page news.

I'd nominate this one: "The United States is neglecting to test the majority of cattle most at risk of having mad cow disease." Reuters cites USDA investigators saying that the agency "was not testing adult cattle that died on the farm and had failed to test hundreds of cattle condemned due to possible central nervous system disorder -- a symptom of mad cow disease and many other diseases." More specifically, "the USDA failed to test 518 of the 680 cattle condemned at slaughter for central nervous system symptoms between fiscal 2002 and 2004." Hmmmm. Wonder why they didn't think to test those other 518?

While that was coming through, the USDA's Inspector General, Phyllis K. Fong, gave the final word on the famous so-called-Downer Cow issue, and good for her that no one was paying attention, because this smells exactly like an overcrowded feedlot: "Agriculture Department officials did not intentionally falsify records of a Washington state cow found to be infected with mad cow disease," she said, but added that "two weeks after a USDA veterinarian inspected the animal last December and declared it an ailing 'downer,' he took the unusual step of updating and annotating the records after being queried by Agriculture Department officials." Huh. Yeah, that is a little odd. But no explanation as to why this happened. "She also said he failed to place a required ear tag on the animal." Wow. What a coincidence, right? That this one animal happened to miss out on ear tagging? But it gets sillier: "The man who made the ["no downer"] allegation, Fong said, appeared to be mistaken about which animal turned out to be infected." Oh, really? Funny how the next sentence mentions that "five people at either the slaughterhouse or the dairy farm from which it came saw the cow walking the day it was slaughtered." So not only was Dave Louthan "mistaken," there was some kind of mass hallucination going on that day. And the crowning note: "Fong did not come to any independent conclusion about whether the infected animal was a downer." Of course not - because it's not as if that was a central issue to this entire investigation. Jesus. We all know that if they'd been able to back it up, they would certainly have come to the "conclusion" that it was a downer. The fact that they're trying to weasel out of the whole argument almost proves Louthan and Ellestad were right.

Meanwhile, Steve Mitchell continues to plug away, scaring up interesting documents showing that the USDA in 2002 advised against the very test it's now using, specifically because of the danger of "false positives." But Mitchell's sources argue for a PR strategy even more brilliant than I'd suspected:

"By releasing preliminary positives -- or inconclusives, as the USDA has deemed them -- that are later ruled negative, the agency could desensitize markets, consumers and foreign trading partners to real positive cases when and if they occur, the sources said. 'Bio-Rad was approved as a way of getting people used to a possible case if there ever was one,' a veterinarian with expertise in mad cow disease told UPI. 'They (USDA officials) know it has a high false positive rate ... The more inconclusives they have, the easier it is to "mix something up" and have all negative tests,' said the veterinarian, who requested anonymity. The veterinarian's comments were echoed by other experts in this field, who also declined to be named.

USDA spokeswoman Julie Quick did not respond to UPI's question of whether this was the agency's intended strategy. However, John Clifford, USDA's chief veterinary officer, acknowledged at a recent news conference that release of the inconclusive results could have that effect. 'We want to minimize the impacts upon the markets,' Clifford said. 'We feel like that after we get this information out there a couple of times that hopefully it will continue to minimize that impact.'

Quick insisted the agency's statement was not intended to recommend against the Bio-Rad test. Instead, she said, it was meant to recommend that countries not simply rely on rapid screening tests as a way to confirm a case of mad cow disease. No other testing experts UPI contacted interpreted the statement that way and Quick, who acknowledged she was not familiar with the technical details of the tests, declined to make Clifford or other USDA officials available to discuss the issue or offer clarification.

The USDA's decision not to release the samples from the two inconclusives for verification by outside labs has also come under question. The agency used a test called immunohistochemistry, or IHC, to determine the animals were not infected with mad cow, but experts said this is not always a foolproof test and it can miss cases. Markus Moser, Prionics' chief executive officer and a molecular biologist, noted that Germany was considered BSE-free when using the IHC test. When officials there began using the Prionics rapid test in 2000, he said, they found several cases and so far have detected more than 300 infected animals.

Stuart Wilson, Microsens' scientific director and a molecular pathologist, noted in a document he recently prepared on false positives that there have been instances when Bio-Rad was used more than a few months before the animal developed symptoms and they were found correctly to be positive, but IHC incorrectly ruled them negative.

In other words, in addition to all the other crazy chicanery, the test that overturned the false positives might well have been wrong. I'd think something like that would at least make page 2 or 3, no?

JUST CALL IT ENDO-MEAT-RIOSIS

A new study from the University of Milan found that women who eat more meat are at higher risk for endometriosis, which causes pain and can leave you unable to bear children. Just one more to add to the pile of reasons to kick meat out of your lifestyle.

BAD CHOLESTEROL NOW WORSE

A new panel has said that 21 million Americans at high risk for heart attacks need to have even lower levels of "bad" cholesterol than they'd been previously told. The new goal is to get their LDL cholesterol below 70 milligrams per deciliter. The old goal was 100. The Chicago Sun Times notes that "Patients with high LDL cholesterol should exercise, lose weight if overweight and eat a low-saturated fat diet, said Dr. Sidney Smith of the University of North Carolina, a member of the guidelines panel. Saturated fat is found mostly in foods from animals. A heart healthy diet should include plenty of fiber from such sources as legumes, grains, fruits and vegetables." Although it fails to mention the clearest food link to cholesterol, namely cholesterol in food (it's only in animal products), at least this article mentions the rather obvious importance of diet - unlike the USA Today version, headlined Doctors now want your cholesterol even lower, but how? Gee, that's right, how? No mention whatsoever of diet, only drugs, which leads credence to the reports that this whole study was drug-company driven. (Aren't they all?)

MORE VEGGIE OPTIONS FOR CAMP

A coworker told me about going on prospective college visits and hearing all of them mention to her daughter, without prompting "and over here is where we serve the vegan meals." Another part of this trend is summer camps, which out of necessity are taking the diet preferences of young people more seriously. About Windsor Mountain International camp, the Bradenton Herald reports that "the offerings include vegetarian options at every meal, homemade bread and baskets of fresh fruit." The article adds that "Twenty years ago, vegetarians represented maybe 1 percent of campers and staff members, she said. Today more than 25 percent demand meatless options."

SHOCKER! FDA DELAYS MAD COW RULES

Another perfect two-step by our crafty government "regulators:" All week they've been saying the FDA was going to finally implement the rules proposed in January to stop Mad Cow from spreading. Today, Friday [COUGH] the FDA announced they would be delaying most of these critical safety measuresfor up to two years. The only thing they put in place was a ban on brains and spinal material in cosmetics and pills -though many in the credulous mainstream media headlined the story as though the FDA had come through with what they'd promised.

UPDATE 7/10: "Consumer groups are upset the government is delaying rules intended to keep the infectious agent for mad cow from getting into the feed given to livestock," says ABC News, providing the FDA's exact rationale: The agency "wanted to stop cattle blood from getting into livestock feed. Also targeted was poultry litter, which could contain spilled poultry feed made with cattle protein. On Friday, the agency said that in addition to those restrictions, it had developed new ones and wanted to study all of them as a package."

HE WAS CLEANING IT WHEN IT WENT OFF

Michael Latting of Latting Rodeo Productions received a $300 fine and six months of court supervision last month for animal cruelty, namely using prods on bulls during a rodeo in 2003. The Illinois Department of Agriculture said it was the first such guilty plea in state history. A video shows Latting electrically prodding the animal while it was still in a holding chute at the rodeo. So after lying about having used the prod and getting caught, what does our cowboy do? Lie some more, of course! "Latting contends he used an electric prod without batteries. He said he pleaded guilty because it was the easiest way out." Oh, OK. That makes perfect sense. And by the way, "Grundy County Assistant State's Attorney Jack Schaller said the evidence against Latting comes from witness complaints and a private videotape made at the Morris rodeo. 'This is not a very common thing,' he said. 'It just doesn't happen, probably because it's still an agrarian area here and most people have an understanding and respect for their animals.'" Yep, nothing says respect for animals like events based on taunting and torturing them for people's amusement. Great point, Jack.
 
UPDATE 7/16: I heard from one of the folks involved in the videotaping of this rodeo, who reminds us, "we are alwayslooking for more volunteer abuse investigators around the country." Keeping in mind that this clear-cut case would likely have been no case without the video documentation, if you can weild a camcorder and have some spare time, send an e-mail or check sharkonline.org for more info.

MILK-DRINKING TEENS AT RISK FOR EATING DISORDERS

At least, that would be as fair an inference from this story as the bogus correlation some attempt to draw between vegetarianism and same. "Out of 'sensitivity to their current situation,' the 'got milk?' magazine ads featuring twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have been retracted. Mary-Kate recently entered a treatment program for what her publicist called a 'health-related issue.' People and Us Weekly magazines have reported the 18-year-old actress has an eating disorder." Note that when the ad was launched, Mary-Kate said "We wanted to appear in this ad because we love the campaign and we want to help make sure our fans are healthy like us." No thanks, Mary-Kate.

YET ANOTHER PLANT-FOOD BENEFIT

A study on 3,000 Greek men and women in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows that "some of the benefits of a Mediterranean-type diet -- rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes and olive oil and light on red meat -- may stem from the diet's effect on inflammation." Reuters spells out that "a Mediterranean-style diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts. It includes few saturated fats like the ones in red meat but plenty of healthier fatty acids like ones found in olive oil," and that inflammation is a prime suspect in a number of health problems, including heart disease. More impressively, to make sure that the low levels inflammation "were truly related to diet and were not a reflection of better overall health, the researchers accounted for many other factors, including physical activity, smoking, age, gender, socioeconomic status and several health conditions. Even after taking into account the other factors, the Mediterranean diet was still associated with lower levels of inflammation and blood-clotting markers."

MAD COW: SMOOTH SURFACE, ROILING BELOW

As expected (or, at least, predicted), both BSE tests from last week turned out to be false alarms. So the talking point now is that everything's fine on the Mad Cow front, and the only danger is in scaring the public with news of initial tests. But there are just a few other factors to take into consideration.

For one thing, it has just emerged that France had a Mad Cow epidemic for over a decade that went unnoticed due to arrogance and bad policy. UPI reports that "more than 300,000 cows" contracted BSE, with "almost 50,000 severely infected animals entering the food chain." The report by French researchers shows that "while French politicians blamed Britain for the emergence of the disease — and attempted to create a cordon by banning imports of British beef — they failed to adopt measures to prevent a hidden epidemic at home."

Boy, those goofy French, huh? Banning imports, but not adopting their own safety measures. Huh. Oh, by the way, while the USDA selectively bans imports of Canadian beef, our country's own anti-BSE measures, announced on Jan. 26 by the FDA, have still not been adopted. So "brains, spinal cords and other tissues known to harbor the highest concentrations of brain-destroying agents" are still going into foods, dietary supplements and cosmetics, as is material from downers; poultry litter collected in hen houses -- "typically comprising feces and contaminated feed" -- is still being eaten by cows; and cow blood is still being fed to calves. But that's all irrelevant, 'cause there's no more Mad Cow here to be spread around...

Or is there? According to Robert LaBudde, president a food industry consultancy in Virginia Beach, we'll probably see around 100 more cases of Mad Cow here - and half of those "will go undetected and passed on for human consumption." Only about half the cases will be detected because many animals will not show any symptoms, LaBudde said. This is based on the experience in Europe, where half the animals that test positive have no outward symptoms of infection, he added. Oh, please. Since when do we give any credence to anything coming out of Old Europe?

MORE ANIMAL PROTEIN = MORE STROKE

In addition to heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and obesity, the meat-heavy Western diet raises the risk of stroke, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in the current issue of Stroke. Their study of more than 71,000 nurses found those who cut their meat consumption way down and focused on fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains were less likely to have strokes than nurses eating a more typical American diet.

FRIDAY RECALL NEWS

Technically this seems to be a Thursday recall, though of course it's before a big holiday weekend, so who's gonna notice this? After all it's only 200 tons of chicken recalled for Listeria contamination, not a testament to the all-American spirit of our nation's heartland. Oh wait, actually it's that too.

BIRD FLU GETTING MORE AND MORE DANGEROUS

Remember how dangerous it was last time this came up? Well... this time? More so. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that "A type of bird flu that has killed millions of chickens is becoming more infectious to mammals. Scientists fear it could cause the next worldwide pandemic in humans. Oh, well, you know those scientists. They're afraid of everything.

ELEPHANTS WALK

The elephants being freed from the Detroit Zoo and San Francisco Zoo are getting farewell coverage in their respective towns, and some forceful truths are sneaking out around the cracks. "For its two elephants, the Detroit Zoo doubled the size of their enclosure in 1998 to just over an acre and, in the past two years, had been looking to expand it even further. But the staff came to realize that their expansion would never be enough." For Kagan, even his decision to transfer his elephants came too late. "The problem is that we should have come to this conclusion sooner," he said. In his view, elephants simply don't adapt well to captivity. "While people want to see elephants, I think people don't want to see animals that suffer," he says.

Meanwhile, Lulu and Tinkerbelle from the San Francisco Zoo are moving to a sanctuary in Calaveras County. The director praised the sanctuary's proximity. It's 132 miles from the zoo, a 2 1/2-hour drive. "The lame-duck elephants will have a better trip, and zoo employees can visit more often." It's just like a happy ending to one of those Little Golden Books where a kid somehow acquires a wild animal, but isn't prepared to be able to care for it or house it properly, so it goes to a zoo where the kid will be able to what? "visit it any time." But is it the end? The AZA wanted the elephants sent to another zoo, but San Fran Zoo (with the backing of its Board of Supervisors) bucked the Association's wishes and announced they'd be going to a sanctuary, risking the loss of the zoo's accreditation from the AZA. "That risk hadn't receded Wednesday. 'The decision raises serious ethical and accreditation concerns,' said association executive director Sydney Butler." Ethical concerns. Yeah, that's exactly what it raises, Sydney. Had no idea you were actually paying attention.

Not paying quite enough attention was Carson & Barnes Circus, which trumpeted the arrival in Mendocino County of "Jennie, the baby elephant who performs in the center." Jennie "is very special as she is the first live birth from the breeding program."

That's great. Except that Jennie died in April. I know, I know, how's a busy circus supposed to keep track of which "co-worker" is alive or dead? Let's not bicker and argue over who killed who, after all.

At least some places are paying attention. A town outside of Boston has shut down its annual 4th of July circus, citing "years of low-key animal-rights protests as one of several factors in their decision to forgo the annual event." Interestingly, the story goes on include this tidbit: "The Cole Brothers Circus has stopped using elephants in most of its shows, said spokeswoman Renee Storey, who said the animals were aging and would not be replenished with younger ones." First I've heard of that, thought I don't get over to Circuses.com as often as I'd like. Anyway, it'll be fun to hear Ringling's inspired spin when they're the last corporate institution in America to continue exploiting elephants.

WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AT WAR WITH MAD COW

Remember when I pointed out that Veneman had switched her official stance from the Harvard Risk Study spin of "No Mad Cows" to "Oh sure, there'll be more mad cows"? Remember how I said she was softening us up for the next "discovery"? Well now she's putting that to use as planned, while defending the practice of releasing the inconclusive positive without divulging specifics about the animal or its location. "I would anticipate, I think we've said all along, that we'll not only have these inconclusives, but we may find a few more cases of BSE in this country," Veneman said. Wow - is it psychosis or what? To Ann Veneman, "all along" is the period from May 14 to now. Amazing.

Meanwhile, they've announced that the second animal in less than a week preliminarily tested positive for Mad Cow. I still won't conjecture on this, because these are more sensitive tests, and besides, this wasn't released on a Friday (though it was after the stock market closed today, of course). We'll have to see whether the USDA has anything interesting to say at their press briefing tomorrow afternoon. Stay tuned.

LIFE'S A BREEZE, AND THEN YOU DIE HORRIBLY

Awwww... Temple Grandin is so sweet to those poor dumb cows, helping to ensure they're calm and compliant when they get slaughered for her to eat. And her record of improving slaughterhouses - who can argue with that? After all, "One of Grandin’s first projects, Swift’s plant in Greeley, Colo., serves as her showpiece and a laboratory of sorts." Isn't that terrific? Hmm. Greeley, Greeley, why does that sound familiar? Ohhhhh yeah - a little bit after it became Grandin's showpiece/laboratory, it was the site of 2002's fatal E.Coli recall of 19 million pounds of beef and was temporarily shut down months afterward by the USDA because it was still sending out such huge quantities of feces-smeared meat. Hey, great job, Temple! Hope you're eating some of your handiwork there!

ANOTHER MAD COW? ANOTHER FRIDAY

OK, so there's a preliminary test that says there could be another BSE case somewhere in the USA. I'm not going to go crazy about this or anything, because it's certainly very possible it'll wind up being a false positive. What is beyond dispute, however. is that this came out, once again, on a Friday, giving the USDA the maximum lead time to spin this before anyone really gets wind of it. How many Friday afternoon/evening announcements will there be before someone other than me publicly calls the USDA on it?

VEGANS OF THE MONTH

Ayinde Howell and family run the Hillside Quickies Vegan Sandwich Shop, and got a nod in the Seattle Times for all the A-list celebs that stop by for vegan victuals. The story name-checks Erykah Badu, but goes on to show how the lifestyle may be gaining ground among African-Americans as more hip-hop giants like Russell Simmons, Common, and Outkast's Andre 3000 make their preferences clear to the youth of America. Also, I didn't even know there was a web site called Black Vegetarians - did you?

THE DEFINITIVE ATKINS SITE

I could've added this to the last post, but it needs its own banner headline. The indefatiguable Dr. Michael Greger has a new site up that demolishes the supposed "science" of gorging yourself on fat and protein as a "healthy" and/or "long-term" weight-loss strategy, and I gotta say, I think the name of it is a real winner: ATKINS FACTS. Unlike this site, though, everything he says is footnoted for super-duper factuality.

EXPERTS: LOW-CARB FAD IS A DANGEROUS RIP-OFF

A new coalition of health experts - the Partnership for Essential Nutrition - comprising the Alliance for Aging Research, the American Association of Diabetes Educators, the American Institute for Cancer Research and the American Obesity Association among others, has released a broadside slam against the trend of high-protein, low-carb diets. The group says these diets "are leading Americans to poor health and spawning a rip-off industry of 'carb-friendly' products."
The group asserts that credulous dieters are missing out on "healthy carbohydrates such as vegetables, fruits, beans and whole grains," and Jeffrey Prince of the AICR says "low-carb diets that advocate piling on the animal protein and fat are increasing the risk of developing cancer, heart disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes and other chronic diseases." Dr. Atkins would be spinning in his grave if he weren't so bloated, so instead his representatives at Atkins Nutritionals are here, a few paragraphs in, spinning on his behalf.