Disease Proof

According to the results of a national telephone survey Americans are consuming less undercooked ground beef, raw fish, oysters, and runny eggs. The study examined consumption of foods linked to E. coli, vibrio, salmonella and other food-borne illnesses. The LA Times reports:

The report, made public Tuesday at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, found that the percentage of people eating risky foods dropped from 31% in 1998 to 21% four years later. It was based on results of telephone surveys of 15,000 to 20,000 people conducted by the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, known as FoodNet.

It seems "risky food" only refers to short term risk in terms of this study. Dr. Fuhrman says animal products like hamburger, milk, and certain seafood can have long-term risks that are equally dangerous. Consider this excerpt from Eat to Live:

The link between animal products and many different diseases is as strongly supported in scientific literature as the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. For example, subjects who ate meat, including poultry and fish, were found to be twice as likely to develop dementia (loss of intellectual function with aging) than their vegetarian counterparts in a carefully designed study.1 The discrepancy was further widened when past meat consumption was taken into account. The same diet, loaded with animal products, that causes heart disease and cancer also causes most every other disease prevalent in America including kidney stones, renal insufficiency and renal failure, osteoporosis, uterine fibroids, hypertension, appendicitis, diverticulosis, and thrombosis.2

1. Giem, P., W. L. Beeson, and G.E. Faser. 1993. The incidence of dementia and intake of animal products: preliminary findings from the Adventist Health Study. Neuroepidemiology 12: 28-36.

2. Fellstrom, B., B. G. Daneilson, B. Kerlstrom, et al. 1983. The influence of a high dietary intake of purine-rich animal protein on urinary excretion and supersaturation in renal stoen disease. Clinical Science 64: 399-405; Robertson, W.G., M. Peacock , and P. J. Heyburn. 1979. Should recurrent calcium oxalate stone formers become vegetarians? B.J. Urol. 51: 427-31; Bosch, L.P., A. Saccaggi, A. Lauer, et al. 1983. Renal functional reserve in humans, effect of protein intake on glomerula filtration rate. Am. J. Med. 75: 943-50; Effects of acute protein loads of different sources on glomerula filtration rate. 1987. Kidney International 32 (22): S25-28; Kerstetter, J. E., and L. H. Allen. 1989. Dietary protein increases urinary calcium. J. Nutr. 120: 134-136 Breslau, N.A., L. Brinkley, K.D. Hill, and C.Y.C. Pak. 1988. Relationship of animal protein-rich diet to kidney stone formation and calcium metabolism. J. Clin. Endocr. And Metab. 66: 140-46; Chiaffarino, op. cit., p. 395; Wiseman, M.J., R. Hunt. A. Goodwin, et al. 1987. Dietary composition and renal function in healthy subjects. Nephron. 46: 37-42; Appleby, P.N., M. Thorogood, J. I. Mann, T.J. Key. 1999. The Oxford Vegetarian Study: and overview. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 70 (3): 525-31S; Nordoy, A., and S.H. Goodnight. 1990. Dietary lipids and thrombosis: relationship to atherosclerosis. Arteriosclerosis 10 (2): 149-63.