5. The Evidence Is Mounting

Autopsies performed in Korea showed that 75% of American soldiers had hardened arteries, regardless of their age. Korean soldiers, on a simple diet of vegetables, grains, and very little meat, showed essentially no hardening of the arteries.

Worms are found in fish taken in the cold waters of Yellowstone Lake, and even in fish taken twenty miles out into the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. Parrette's Why I Don't Eat Meat, published in 1972, says on page 17, "On the desk in in front of me is a clipping from a recent Los Angeles Times entitled "Disease Causes Halt of Some Trout Imports." The article tells of the California Fish and Game Department turning back six tank cars of rainbow trout fingerling that were shipped into California to stock our lakes and streams, but were found to be infected with liver cancer ... Rabbits are susceptible to diseases of many kinds. As a lad, I had a friend who used to hunt rabbits and sell them. I often helped him clean them and noticed that nearly all the cottontails were infected with tapeworm."

The rapid rise of leukemia in cattle calls our attention to the fact that blood cancer, or leukemia, is now a major cause of death among children in the United States.

Meat has been implicated in a wide variety of factors and processes known to be associated with cancer, including the following:

1. Chemical carcinogens, added to the meat, or produced by heating.
   
2. Cancer viruses found in tumors in animals, transmittable to humans.
3. Lessened host resistance to invasive disease.
   
4. Lack of fiber in meat, increasing transit time through the colon. Adequate fiber is also necessary to help remove bile acids from the gastrointestinal tract. (Colon cancer patients tend to produce more bile acids than other people.)
   
5. Rapid maturation, early menstruation, higher rates of breast cancer.
   
6. High-fat diet is also associated with breast cancer.
   
7. High Prolactin levels—Prolactin is a pituitary hormone promoting milk formation and lactation. A high-fat diet increases the prolactin-estrogen ratio, which then enhances mammary tumor growth. When humans change from a meat to a vegetarian diet, the prolactin surge appears to be reduced to almost one-half. A diet high in fat, meat and milk (high in cholesterol) tends to increase the incidence of breast cancer. (Dr. Scharffenberg, Problems with Meat.)
   

It has been demonstrated that cancer can be transmitted from one (animal or human) species to another.

When one considers the evidence of the cancer-causing potential of meat, it seems incredible that it is ignored by so many intelligent people. Malignant tumors are found in animals. Many years ago I saw a tremendous tumor on the "innards" of a chicken that had been sold at the City Market in Indianapolis. I witnessed the noisy altercation between the indignant customer who was returning the chicken and the proprietor of the stand. An .exchange was made, and the returned chicken was dipped in water and returned to the sales counter.

In addition to cancerous tumors in fowl, there is a carrier form which is impossible to detect except by painstaking laboratory experiments. "The conclusions drawn must consider the possibility that all chickens show the basic microscopic lesions of lymphomatosis." (Dr. Eugene F. Oakberg, Poultry Science, May, 1950, p. 434)

Colon cancer is acknowledged to be the predominant type of cancer in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer mortality. An article in the Wall Street Journal several years ago tells about a study of colon cancer by Dr. William Haenzel, Dr. John W. Berg and others at the National Cancer Institute, as a result of which Dr. Berg said, "There is now substantial evidence that beef is a key factor in determining bowel cancer incidence."

Scientists have reported evidence that two characteristics of meat-based diets are specific influences in colon cancer:

1. Fecal transit item; a low-fiber diet allows carcinogens to be concentrated and held in contact with the bowel mucosa for long periods, while a high residue diet (a vegetarian diet) produces more rapid passage of body waste.
   
2. Influence of the diet on the amount of carcinogens produced by the body. It has been found that meat fat tends toward production of carcinogens in the intestine.

Dr. Ernest L. Wynder, president of the American Health Foundation, and a long-time cancer researcher, reported long ago that the results of his studies had convinced him of the cancer hazards of diets high in animal fats. On March 31, 1982, Dr. Wynder, now renowned as the health detective who first linked smoking and cancer a generation ago, reiterated his findings. He said that a low animal fat, high fiber, fresh fruit and vegetable diet helps fight both cancer and heart disease. He said that the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute also recommend such a diet.

Sussman (The Vegetarian Alternative, p. 61) gives documented reports about experiments with an anti-cancer enzyme, which can be produced by the liver, depending on the components of the diet. Dr. Leo Wattenberg of the University of Minnesota School of Medicine isolated the dietary elements that increased ability to produce this enzyme. The agents (called indoles) that induced formation of this enzyme were found in alfalfa, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, celery, turnips, broccoli and cauliflower. Citrus fruits also contain similar enzyme-inducing agents (flavones) and beans and seeds yield a type of plant protein (lectins) that also has demonstrated cancer-resisting effects.

Dr. Anthony B. Miller, director of the National Cancer Institute of Canada, said: "Evidence suggests that certain foods, particularly high intake of dietary fat, are associated with increased risk of colorectal, pancreatic, breast, endometrial, ovarian, prostate and possibly renal cancer." He also recommends increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Although these doctors aren't specifically advocating totally vegetarian diets, it is interesting to note that more and more "conventional" professional people are warning against high consumption of animal fat, and recommending increased use of fresh produce.

Hygienists, of course, prefer not to use any part of the animal as food, and find it difficult to understand how so many people can ignore the overwhelming evidence against the use of flesh in the diet.