Veggie regime trumps meats

Your mother always told you to eat your vegetables. Neal Barnard would tell you to eat nothing else. Barnard, founder and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, made the nutritional case for veganism to a standing--room only crowd in Stemmler Hall's student lounge Wednesday afternoon. It was the third of four talks this semester sponsored by Penn Students for Animal Rights. Barnard kicked off the event with a technical discussion of something many medical students know is a rare occurrence -- reversing heart disease. One of his studies took people with the disorder and separated them into two groups. The control group ate the "best available diet" -- the diet doctors usually recommend, including low--fat meat and dairy products -- while the others adhered to a vegan regimen. The control group showed minimal improvement, while the vegans' arteries reopened. On top of that, they lost an average of 22 pounds. "What struck us was the control group," Barnard said. "They didn't especially like their diet, even though it was fairly liberal." The vegans, on the other hand, "grumbled at first... but after four or five weeks, they liked how they felt." He added that the effect was probably because the control group had to measure portions, but the vegans did not. From heart disease, he turned to a discussion of another chronic killer: breast cancer. He explained that, since vegans tend to eat less fat and have lower body weights, they have fewer problems with this illness. Yet his primary concern was with diabetes, a disorder that many people mistakenly think is benign. "We have an epidemic" of the disease, Barnard said, pointing to studies indicating that veganism reduces the need for insulin shots and other controlling medications. While many doctors urge their diabetic patients to eat protein--laden foods, Barnard took issue with the most pro--protein plan of all: the Atkins Diet. Atkins portrays "carbohydrates as the devil," Barnard said. However, he argued that Atkins supporters cannot explain how traditional Asian diets, which are rich in complex carbohydrates like rice, seem to reduce the incidence of obesity. "We just don't know" what the long-term effects of the Atkins plan are, he said. While the Atkins Diet may contribute to the nation's poor eating habits, Barnard said that the federal government is mostly to blame, thanks to its agreement with some segments of the food industry to promote cheese consumption. "Subway had a few sandwiches without cheese. They put an end to that," he said. Throughout the talk, he emphasized the fact that vegans get enough protein and nutrients to be healthy. While most of his speech was technical, Barnard intertwined anecdotal tales with statistics. He related one lecture he gave on the same topic at Texas Tech University, a school where students learn cattle ranching. He said the heckling was so loud that no one could hear him. "So I said, 'Look, you guys, eating meat doesn't just cause heart attacks -- it also causes impotence,'" he said. "I had their complete attention." Most students thought the talk was comprehensive, but a few stayed later for an informal question-and-answer session. "I wished he had gone into more detail about fish," said Chad Sterbenz, a second--year anthropology graduate student, explaining that he believed there were potential benefits. "It dispelled a lot of myths people tell you" about veganism, he added.

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