Red meat raises risk of all kinds of death
Tue Mar 24, 2009 12:29pm EDTBy Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who eat the most red meat and the most processed meat have the highest overall risk of death from all causes, including heart disease and cancer, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
The National Cancer Institute study is one of the largest to look at the highly controversial and emotive issue of whether eating meat is indeed bad for health.
Rashmi Sinha and colleagues looked at the records of more than 500,000 people aged 50 to 71 who filled out questionnaires on their diet and other health habits.
Even when other factors were accounted for -- eating fresh fruits and vegetables, smoking, exercise, obesity -- the heaviest meat-eaters were more likely to die over the next 10 years than the people who ate the least amount of meat.
"Red and processed meat intakes were associated with modest increases in total mortality, cancer mortality, and cardiovascular disease mortality," Sinha and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
They divided the volunteers into five groups, called quintiles. Between 1995 and 2005, 47,976 men and 23,276 women died.
The quintile who ate the most red meat had a higher risk for overall death, death from heart disease and cancer than the men and women who ate the least red meat.
The researchers said thousands of deaths could be prevented if people simply ate less meat.
"For overall mortality, 11 percent of deaths in men and 16 percent of deaths in women could be prevented if people decreased their red meat consumption to the level of intake in the first quintile," Sinha's team wrote.
HELPING THE ENVIRONMENT
Many studies have shown that people who eat less meat are healthier in many ways, and Sinha's team noted that meat contains several cancer-causing chemicals, as well as the unhealthiest forms of fat.
The U.S. government now recommends a "plant-based diet" that stresses fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
Barry Popkin, an expert in nutrition and economics at the University of North Carolina, said the study was unusually thorough and careful.
Eating less meat has other benefits, he said, and governments should start promoting this. For instance, farming animals for meat causes greenhouse gas emissions that warm the atmosphere and uses fresh water in excess, he said.
"I was pretty surprised when I checked back and went through the data on emissions from animal food and livestock," Popkin said in a telephone interview.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE52N0IL20090324?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Feb, 2008
Larry's Trip to Nigeria
Thanks to each one of you that helped with the Little Lad’s project in Nigeria. Two young ladies from Haiti, sisters, each gave one thousand dollars. Another good friend who has helped several times before with this project, to an even greater extent surprised us with a two thousand dollar gift. And the girls from Haiti were not finished yet. They told a friend of theirs, whom I had never met, about this project. He remembered speaking with me by phone over two years ago, asking if I would be willing to help his friends with a restaurant project they were working on. To make a long story short, he and his wife added six thousand more dollars to the fund for Nigeria. Thank you to each one that added the smaller gifts as well, each one goes a long way in Africa.
What is this project in Africa? Over seven years ago we were asked to meet with a group that wanted to start a restaurant in Middletown, New York. We spoke with them about why we run restaurants and invited them to come and see our restaurants in Maine. A Wall Street area attorney had been invited to the meetings by the group in Middletown, hoping he would be interested enough to give them a reduced rate on the legal work they would need to form a company. Interestingly enough, he was the first to come to Maine. He and his wife told us that they believed that this was the way to help their country, Nigeria. They had a quick training in Maine, and an even shorter visit to the Country Life bakery in Korea, a trip to observe the planning stages for the project in Egypt, and then off to Nigeria. We had little idea then that in less than one year they would be relocated in their home country, much to the amazement of their three grown children, two of whom graduated from Colombia University School of Medicine. Since that time Larry and Maria and friends have sent them equipment and help to get them going. What they have done with so little has been truly amazing. They now have a bakery with several products, including popcorn of course; a farm, outlet stores, and small restaurants; and a live-in clinic where people come to get well, and learn to stay well. And of even greater importance, they have a school where students come to learn how to do each or all of these things. The education at the school is a work/study program which gives students an opportunity to learn self supporting concepts right from the start. And because of the nature of their health work, much of it is done without a fee.
Some of you met Samuel Amukele and his wife when they were here in the U.S. for their son’s wedding, only the second time in seven years he has been willing to leave Africa. We asked him give health lectures at our cooking classes while they were here, and you can get the DVD’s if you missed them. I went to Nigeria to have some meetings for their annual convention, and to fix some equipment, plan for expansion and to be surprised with how much they have accomplished with nothing. I have watched patients come from all kinds of backgrounds, rich and poor: Some, the medical industry would not take because of lack of funds; others who ran out of money in the hospital system but were not helped; and even college students whose health was giving out before their course was finished; all of these with no place to turn, end up at Little Lad’s Africa. I remember the young forty-ish woman who had a stroke and had lost the use of her right side, who after a short time at the health clinic and a new diet stood up walked to the front of the meeting un-assisted and sang a beautiful song. And an older tailor who had lost the use of his legs and was now threatened with the loss of his little house and anything he had left, stood up and told how a new diet and some water treatments (hydro-therapy) had brought his legs back to life and that now he could continue to support his wife. Then he proceeded to walk all around the meeting room while he told us that while he never expected to walk again he was now walking several miles a day and gaining strength. The young man in his last year of college, stretched beyond his and his family’s means, took months to ask his friend in medical school what was causing the severe pains in his stomach. He found that ulcers had been let go so long that he needed expensive help which he could not afford. He ended up at one of Samuel’s lectures and after a major diet change and some charcoal, and of course lots of water, he was living pain-free for the first time in a long time. Little Lad’s in Nigeria has now been on National Television and Radio giving interviews and health information. And more people than they can handle are coming for help.
In the meantime, the most impressive thing to me is the students whom I have met over the years. They are now out on their own with their own little places, baking bread to support themselves (you know, “I will work for bread”), and giving health classes and helping people all over Nigeria. One boy who was willing to lose a good job to come for training is now working as a personal assistant to one of the leading men at the University of Science and Technology. They call him “Dr. John,” even though he has only a sixth grade education, because even the professors are coming to him for health information and treatment. One professor, who had a stroke, had been trying to get the use of his right arm back by following the doctors’ and physical therapists’ advice of pulling the limp arm with a rope and a pulley up in the air over and over again day after day. He was told by “Dr. John” that the kingdom of God does not employ force.
He asked John for help, and after a few weeks on a new diet and some intense water treatments he was moving his arm and within a few months had full use again, something he was not expecting. About this time “Dr. John” got word that his mother was dying and that he should come quickly. He had no money, not even the little he needed to travel. So he prayed but got no answer. He thought, “My mother is probably fine.” Two days later he got word that she had died, and then someone who had owed him money gave it to him. So he hurried to his mother’s village, a little confused about why God did not answer his prayer in time for him to see his mother. When he arrived at the village of his mother he was met with scolding and scoffing at his negligence of not getting to his mother before she died. He hurried on to her house and to more rebuke. When he asked to see his mother he was told that she had been taken to the place where they prepare the body for burial, but that when she was there, she had frightened the men by sighing, so they sent her back to lay in her bed unconscious until she was completely dead. John went into her room where she was covered with a blanket and felt her arms and legs, but they were cold. He got a little pot of water and boiled it and then put it under her covers and began to warm her up and rub her limbs to get her circulation going. “Dr. John” was not “smart” enough to know that she was dead or dying. So he dripped warm water into her mouth and made her some herb tea and dripped that into her mouth also. People outside of his mothers’ room continued to scold and make fun of the son who did not come to see his mother in time and was now doing stupid things to try to make up for his poor behaviour. But “Dr. John” did not pay attention. Hewas on a mission for a greater Doctor and by the end of that day all mocking had stopped because his mother was sitting up and eating rice! John said that as the village gathered around to see what they perceived to be a miracle, he then understood why God had seemingly not answered his prayer in time to get to his mother. Now his vegetarian Mother is going about the village telling people to drink their water and to eat brown rice and not white, and not to eat fish and milk. And we say in America, “what a coincidence”! Then there was Anderson who decided he could do more to help people if he had a bakery, as many people he was trying to help could not get whole grain bread any where, so he began to pray for an oven. Poor Anderson did not know that there are hardly any ovens in Nigeria, houses do not have them, most people have never seen one, but nevertheless he is praying for an oven, and his prayer was interrupted by a knock on his door. An old friend from another village has stopped by to see him. “What are you doing?” he asks. “I am praying for an oven,” Anderson informs him. “What is an oven?” he asks. So Anderson begins to describe an oven, at least the only one he has ever seen. The friend says, “I think I know where one of those is!” and Anderson is off, without delay. Together with the friend, to the place in another village where he thinks he saw something that looks like what he thinks sounds like what Anderson described as an oven. When they get to the place and inquire, the owner of the curious object is using it for a table, and has it covered with a cloth, but points out that it is in his way and would like someone to take it away. Anderson lifts the cloth to find a very nice oven, and with the help of his friend takes it home. As he delivers fresh bread to different villages he asks them to bring any that are sick among them so that he can teach them and help them to heal. For me this simple faith is refreshing and healing. And as people have gathered at the meetings to hear the stories of their own people that are having wonderful success in sharing natural healing methods, in harmony with natural law and God’s plan, many more come to Samuel to get training. And I look forward tohearing their stories in the coming year, of how God will lead them to help people without money and without price to reach an understanding of God’s wish for us: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” (3 John 2) Not a promise for any certain creed or race, but for all men.
Thank you again each one for your help,
The Flemings, Little Lad’s, “Dr. John”, Anderson, and many un-named others…..
July 14, 2007
Dear Friends,
It was such a blessing to have Samuel and his wife with us for the time they could spend between wedding plans and events that were the reason for which they came. We still have Samuel talking in the restaurant re-presenting his lectures via DVD, and people are still asking for charcoal and copies of his lectures on simple home remedies and the miracles of healing the God has been working for them in Africa.
Now we are praying that the Lord will multiply the little bit of money that we were able to send with him for the car and other needs he has there in Nigeria. For those of you who were unable to help with that, please pray for his project. In my reports I have been sharing the blessings that God has been giving for us here in NYC and I have left off one of my perplexities as I have really not had any good answers. Each restaurant that we have started in the past, it has been extremely important to us to have all expenses paid on time and of course especially rent. We have never been in a position where we could not pay rent.
So here we are in NY in the nicest restaurant yet, lots of blessings, lots of people benefited, all bills and employees paid, but no money for rent. We had made an agreement with God that we would not quit until he closed the door and so we are waiting each month to get a notice to get out for non-payment of rent. In the meantime our products are moving into stores, Lou took five hundred cups for sampling at a demo in one of the new Manhattan stores. But he called to tell me that he ran out of cups in the first half hour and that the store was scrambling to supply cups, and that customers were ripping products out of his hands. In another store, a store manager with whom Lou was meeting seemed reluctant to place an order, when one of his department managers "happened" to walk through his office and said, "Is that Little Lad's stuff, are you bringing that in? Look out! They make the best stuff. I have people pick it up for me in Maine." The manager quickly told Lou that he wanted at least ten cases to start.
We just met with a distributor who handles five hundred stores in NYC and his wife sent him to get our products in his line because she loves them.
In the meantime Gene the banker from Number One Wall Street, the one who told us that we were the answer to his prayers, has not eaten anything else but Little Lads food for the last seven weeks. He also took a week of vacation time to spend at the bakery in Maine, and returned to NYC to surprised co-workers who not only notice that he is losing weight, but that he looks "so peaceful" as they say. Gene has decided that it is his responsibility to figure out how to finance the expansion of Little Lad's and is working with his bank to come up with plans to expand our project. I must admit, I have trouble understanding the enthusiasm of a banker for someone not able to pay their rent! But Gene keeps telling us, "This is the future! We've got to do this! People everywhere are waiting for it."
Another customer, Rich, a highly sought after computer consultant, was sent to our restaurant because his wife is a vegetarian and thought he should be eating better. He recently admitted to us that he is almost a vegetarian too, now. This week he had planned to visit his relatives who live here in Maine, and rather than fly, he decided he would rather help Larry drive the 500 miles, "to give Larry a break!" So they talked all the way home about how to "spread the word." He stayed at our house and had breakfast before going to visit his relatives. He also announced that his wife needed to make the trip soon too, and he figured that they could let Larry sleep in the back of the van while they drove him home! Thank God for the undeserved help!
Here at the Bakery we finally outgrew the capacity of our van delivering to our stores here in Maine, and we have switched completely to shipping with UPS. We do not miss being in the trucking business, even though Larry is still driving 2,000 miles a week. We are not recommending to anyone to go and rent restaurant space without the ability to pay the rent. We have never done it before and are not planning to ever do it again, but it is important to us to share with you that God's makes provision in every difficulty, and this one certainly has surprised us! Yes, we are aware that other people could do it better, that they are smarter and better planners. But thank God that He takes care of us and makes up for our deficiencies. Reporting to you from Ground Zero.
The Flemings
June 23, 2007 -- Little Lad's New York report
Dear Friends,
Gene the banker that we told you about in the last letter put on a suit that he has not been able to fit into for about six months and is so excited that he told everyone at the restaurant and the bank. He proudly tells them that he has not eaten anything anywhere else since he found Little Lad's. Maria or other crew members pack him his weekend meals, at his request, so he eats our food at home when the restaurant is not open. When he recently had a day off, he came in to the restaurant to have breakfast and lunch and come to the cooking school so that he would not miss anything. When we had a doctor lecturing about a week ago Gene asked him if it was possible if he was getting emotionally attached to this kind of food.
Dr. Howe came down from Maine, riding through the night with the food delivery, helped all day at the restaurant, fixed a cart that was badly needed, then spoke that evening at the nutrition class and fielded questions until he could hardly stand up about 9:30pm. So the class finally ended with the question, "When will you come back?" Talk about house calls, I really have no idea how much that bill should be, but I know that Dr. Howe felt richly repaid as customers begged him to come back and told him how much they needed him in the city. It is amazing how much health information Seventh-day Adventists have that the world is waiting for. One of the best stories I have heard on water came from Dr. Howe that week. He explained that the hospital where he works decided to make available to their approximately 200 employees, free bottled water. This program has gone on for about five years and was beginning to cause some concern to the accounting staff who pointed out that this was costing about $40,000 per year to supply this water. It was also noted that they had observed partial bottles of water left all around the hospital and that still others took the water home for their families. There was consideration of dropping the program. The accounting staff was encouraged to look at some other numbers. Was there a possibility that any money was being saved on medical expenses for hospital staff? Much to everyone's surprise, it was discovered that by the third year the savings were about $250,000 a year. Not bad for a $40,000 investment!! Does drinking water make a difference? Notice that these workers were not especially vegetarians or monitored in any way, and still this kind of amazing results! How much are your health care costs effected by people NOT drinking water? Dr. Howe also shared another amazing study in which a group of people were told to spend five minutes thinking about the worst time in their life. This group was checked for their salivary IGA. This is evidently an indication of your immune systems ability to protect you from sickness or disease. The IGA was measured before and after, and it dropped 70% within a short time and did not return to normal for about 5 hours. They were then asked to think of the happiest experiences in their life, with the same kind of monitoring taking place. In this test it rose 80% above normal and stayed that way for about 6 hours.
As Dr. Howe pointed out, when the Bible writer penned, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine," they probably didn't have this science, but they obviously knew what they were talking about! By the way, you are getting this information second hand, which is not anywhere near the blessing as it was getting it from Dr. Howe with all the statistics, study authors, proper spelling or pronunciation, but I cannot help but share this. In fact it occurs to me, that the reason I write this newsletter might be to keep my own IGA high enough to make it through the next week! Dr. Howe then spent Friday answering many more questions from many more customers, some who heard his talk, and others who heard secondhand of the blessing. He had lunch with Lennon the attorney, and after Lennon told him of some of his desires along missionary lines, Dr. Howe asked him what he was waiting for! Lennon then responded that he was waiting for a sign. Dr. Howe then reminded him that "a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh for a sign." (From the Bible.) Lennon then good naturedly said, "Oh, that is a hard saying." Then Dr. Howe said, "Let's try it then a different way. You have a young daughter and she has gotten very good at crawling. So you say to her, "Daughter, I am going to teach you how to walk." And she says to you, "No, dad I like crawling; that is all I want to learn to do!" Then Lennon said, "Oh! I get the point, I can receive that very well." When I asked Lennon when he came to pay for his lunch how everything was, he added yet another word to his usual statement which used to be "Delicious!" when he first came, and then became "Delicious and nutritious" after his cholesterol dropped dramatically, and then with Dr. Howe there, "Delicious, nutritious, and VERY informative" and added several "Thank you's".
Many people have reported cholesterol drops, blood pressure drops, triglyderides drops, weight loss, more than our newsletter can hold! You can monitor some of the customer comments on the web. One site that people have told us about is www.HappyCow.com. We are always blessed when we read what new customers have to say. It is amazing to me personally, how the Lord turns to good, our feeble efforts. By the way,
Gene dropped another bomb just the other day as I was leaving, when he asked me, if I knew a man who was in charge of the United Prison Ministries in Alabama. He told me how he had met his daughter and was very attracted to her at one time. I almost fell over, as I realized how Gene was being brought into contact with people as a part of God's leading. This man, Richard Bland, many years ago came to train to do restaurant work and stayed with me in Tennessee. Then got involved in Prison Ministry while waiting for some people who promised to help fund a restaurant. He has been doing an amazing work ever since, teaching prisoners the relation between diet and their spiritual welfare. For more information check out their web site if you are not familiar with their program. www.UPMI.org We have no question about how God is leading Gene, and as Paul Harvey would say, "Stay tuned for the rest of the story." Our local farmers have started out this year giving us more spinach than we can possibly pick! I told my customers that I am going to need their help to pick it - which I told them would be the ultimate buffet! Picking it, helping wash it, and after the crew in Maine prepared it, serving it out of the buffet and knowing exactly where it came from. "My God shall supply all your need" "above what we can think or ask" comes to mind! Our customer count continues to climb as our regular customers continue to bring in their friends, co-workers, clients, and proudly announce how many new ones they brought in with them that day. I must admit that I marvel as I see Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Christians, people from Oriental religions and backgrounds, all working together in health education. Getting their friends to try new things, giving their testimonies, and then calling our restaurant "the Seventh-day Adventist restaurant!" It is a pretty humbling experience. Thank you each one for your many comments on past newsletters - that also helps mine, my wifes' , my childrens' and my crews' IGA levels to go up - and we need it! By the way, Samuel is staying an extra week in the US and will be speaking in Maine, and maybe at the Northern New England camp meeting. Pray that the Lord will open the way.
We have 3 DVD's of his lectures at the NY restaurant and one of Dr. Howe's too, for anyone interested in one, please contact us litttleladsonline@gmail.com .
There is a little time left time for anyone else who would like to help Samuel with the needs in Africa - please contact Maria. These people have done great things with the "nothing" at their disposal, and Samuel always says, "we are Africans, we are used to doing things with nothing." But I can tell you personally, that a little bit of money goes a long way with these people. They have more than quadrupled the size of their campus, and they have MADE every block, and LAID every block in each new building, with a little help from a restaurant customer who passed up his vacation and according to him had the best time of his life. If you have an ability to help, don't pass up this opportunity to help our friends in Africa. Thank you all for helping our salivary IGA.
Love from Larry, Maria and family