Turning meat-eaters into vegans

Rowan Jacobsen, author of "Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis" has an article about plant-based replacements for meat, from which I quote this encouraging paragraph:

“Livestock is an outdated technology,” says Patrick Brown.

Considering the speed of change, the money and smarts being thrown at the problem, and the desperate need, it seems likely that sometime in the next decade, Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods or another rival will perfect vegetarian beef, chicken, and pork that is tastier, healthier, and cheaper than the fast-food versions of the real thing. It will be a textbook case of disruptive technology: overnight, meat will become the coal of 2025—dirty, uncompetitive, outcast. Our grandchildren will look back on our practice of using caged animals to assemble proteins with the same incredulousness that we apply to our ancestors’ habit of slaughtering whales to light their homes.

A1 Beta Casein

There are rumors of the danger of cow's milk.  Further googling reveals the culprit is possibly one of the versions of milk proteins -  A1 beta casein - which is produced in varying amounts by different breeds of cows.  (The safe form supposedly is A2 beta casein.)  A digestion product of A1 beta casein (and not A2) is beta casomorphin, BCM7, which is an opioid and an oxidant that can damage low density lipoproteins (LDL), and "opioids have an effect on immune function which is a possible reason why A1 beta casein and BCM7 are so closely associated with autoimmune disorders."   (We are also told that "BCM7 is too large to be absorbed through a healthy intestinal lining", so you have to apparently have some intestinal problem for BCM7 to act.)

A1 Beta Casein: The Devil in Your Milk.

A2 Dairy Products of Australia Beta Casein web-site.

The first link claims:

A1 beta casein is only produced by cattle belonging to the Bos taurus subspecies which predominately exist in the western hemisphere. The Guernsey breed tends to produce about 10% of their beta casein as A1, the Jersey breed tends to produce about 35%, and the Ayrshire, Holstein, and Freisian breeds tend to produce 50% or more. Goats don’t produce A1 beta casein which makes their milk and the dairy products derived from it an excellent alternative.

 Milk from Indian cows may be lacking A1 Beta Casein.  The second link has a scientific citation

" For instance, a recent study on the beta-casein allele frequency in indigenous Indian cattle (Bos indicus) and river buffalo breeds (618 animals of 15 zebu cattle breeds and 231 buffaloes of 8 river buffalo breeds) reported 99 to 100% presence of the A2/A2 genotype in its indigenous cow (0.987) and buffalo (1.00) breeds (11). The same study also reported an absence of the A1/A1 genotype, thus in Indigenous Indian cow and buffalo breeds, nearly all animals are homozygous for the A2 beta-casein allele. 

While who knows what is true, if it is true, look at the possible implications.  In India, a milk-heavy diet will not contribute to heart disease, Type-1 diabetes, autism and schizophrenia (in all of which A1 beta casein is supposedly implicated).  So the vegetarian Indian milk-heavy diet might cross over to the US of A, where it can no longer work.

Or, assuming that at some point, (e.g, the China Study), milk and specifically casein, was implicated in various diseases studied in the West, but the A1/A2 beta casein difference was not noted, milk alarmism might wrongly influence diets in India.

Also think about what a big mistake trying to cross European and Indian cattle would be for India, unless the European cattle were screened for A1 beta casein.

From the A2 Dairy Products site: (DM-1 = Type 1 diabetes mellitus)

 Figure 2: Correlation of A1 beta-casein per capita (excluding cheese) in grams/day and new cases of DM-1 in 0 to 14-year olds between 1990-94 (r=0.92, 95% CI: 0.72-0.97) (p<0.0001). Dotted lines are the 95% confidence limits of the regression line [adapted from reference (13)].

PS: Here is the counter-argument: (PDF)

Scientific Report of the European Food Safety Authority (2009).

Based on the present review of available scientific literature, a cause-effect relationship between the oral intake of BCM7 or related peptides and aetiology or course of any suggested non-communicable diseases cannot be established. Consequently, a formal EFSA risk assessment of food-derived peptides is not recommended.

Just how bad for us is sugar?

In his talk, "Sugar: The Bitter Truth", Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, goes on a jihad against sugar. What to make of it?

Lustig argues that fructose and ethanol are two carbohydrates in a class of their own. The metabolism of these two involves products that are not exactly good for the liver. Moreover, these are chronic toxins, the damage starts showing only after a thousand meals. The results are obesity, diabetes and heart disease. (Perhaps cancer, too.)

The only safe form of fructose is in fruits where it comes in relatively small quantities along with fiber, which slows down its absorption, and along with other nutrients whose benefits outweigh any harm from fructose. Fruit juice is a no-no. Sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are both equally bad.

Less convincing is Lustig's arguments about how fructose, which unlike glucose and other carbohydrates doesn't cause the body to send satiety signals, causes overeating. The simple reason is that in the cases where you overdose on fructose, you get an equal amount of glucose, which presumably will make you feel full.

Alan Aragon has a detailed criticism of Lustig's ideas, "The bitter truth about fructose alarmism".

Gary Taubes, in the NYT (April 13, 2011), agrees with Lustig.

Epicurious Cake

Recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cake adapted from Epicurious.

Veggies!

Sis. has a sort-of-theory about the unhinged nature of Pakistani public life - "they do not eat enough veggies".

Today, about the American Midwest, A. G. Sulzberger writes of his difficult experience of being vegetarian there (NYTimes)

Even though the region boasts some of the finest farmland in the world, there is a startling lack of fresh produce here. This is a part of the country — and there’s no polite way to put this — where the most common vegetable you’ll see on dinner plates is iceberg lettuce.

So those worrying about "What's Wrong with Kansas?" have their answer :)

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In another NYTimes article, Mark Bittman notes that Americans are eating much less meat.

The department of agriculture projects that our meat and poultry consumption will fall again this year, to about 12.2 percent less in 2012 than it was in 2007. Beef consumption has been in decline for about 20 years; the drop in chicken is even more dramatic, over the last five years or so; pork also has been steadily slipping for about five years.

and notes:

We still eat way more meat than is good for us or the environment, not to mention the animals. But a 12 percent reduction in just five years is significant, and if that decline were to continue for the next five years — well, that’s something few would have imagined five years ago. It’s something only the industry could get upset about. The rest of us should celebrate. Rice and beans, anyone?

All I can say is - three cheers!