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Experience
International Vegetarian Congress
by Margaret Grech
FOOD FOR ALL OUR FUTURE was the theme of the International Vegetarian Congress-Edinburgh July 2002.
Dear Members,
I have just returned from the Congress in Edinburgh. I must say the speakers were very professional speakers and backed up their speeches with facts. It was impossible to go all the lectures as they overlapped and the attendees had to choose.
From my diary:
Claude Pasquini from EVU and also IVU Councellor, spoke of the emotional intelligence of all animals, having feelings and sensations just like us, also having moods, emotions and the capability of mental activity and hence decisions. His presentation was backed up with quotes from: Emotional Brain by Ledoux, Synaptic Self by Ledoux and Dr. Tomasio.
John Morlino, founder of ETHIC, spoke about Ahimsa, non-violence and how to reach people's hearts through asking them how they feel about animal experimantation, hunting, fishing and zoos. He said it takes more than reason to ignite people's hearts. He quoted from Albert Schweitzer's book "Reverence For Life".
Sandra Hood spoke about Vegan Diet and Diabetes. She said that Type 2 diabetes is non-insulin dependent patients and is expected to double up to
2010. This can be reversed if people keep to a vegan diet as this is a disease 80% in overweight people. If the only fat taken will be olive oil, and use only whole foods, the disease will be surely regressed as much as 95% of Type 2. Through a study in Sweden in 2001, it was found that many of Type 1 were mostly found in people who were not breast fed.
Professor Hans Diehl who spoke of Osteoporosis said that this is the disease of excess and not of deficiency. He said that too much protein has been found to rob us of bone mass, and that we are eating too much protein even as vegetarians. It is a myth that we need a lot of protein, we are following the meat eaters, and substituting meat for beans and other vegetarian protein, but still we are doing the same mistake. WHO says we
need 50g of protein a day, but he quoted and said we need 0.8grams per kilo of body weight, any excess is injurious to the body.
Profs. Diehl again spoke of Ecology and how we can leave a soft imprint on Earth. He said we need to go to a simpler lifestyle and eat simpler foods.
He spoke of how much land we are taking from rain forests to grow our cattle feed and the consumption of water to grow it and compared it to what we need if we were vegan. He gave the example of how long it takes us to eat 7ozs of Pringles which takes maybe 30mins in front of television. This gives us 1170 calories. One potato gives us 100 calories. How long would it take us to eat 11 potatoes? A whole day and we would not want to eat anything else, whereas we still eat other things after the Pringles as these were just a snack.
He also spoke of the soil erosion and how we are losing 5 billion tons of top soil from overgrazing to have the hamburger. The damage from excrement of the cattle and the green house effect on the planet was also discussed.
Gerry and Ray Coffy spoke of health matters, mainly of how we effect our health directly from what we eat. Gerry has reversed a cancer condition she had by fasting and raw foods. She spoke on how we overeat and our bad habits, on heart disease, on Hypoglycaemia, Diabetes, Deafness and Osteoporosis. Fundamentally, of how we are eating in excess.
Dawn Carr spoke on the dangers of Fish farming, how it is effecting the world around us and how the intensive confinement is creating disease in the fish themselves and how they are attracting Dolphins and these are being killed.
Profs. Diehl spoke this time on Coronary Heart disease and how it is alarmingly growing. He said together with Cancer and Aids is now going up to 70% of death causes. this is the problem of excess and not of genetics.
Only 10% of people who have by-pass surgery elongate their life. Media has
sold us the easy life with doughnuts and chips and it is killing us. He then spoke how we can reverse this with "Knife and Fork". In 1998 Dean Ornish has started studying a control group and 83% of heart patients were healed keeping to a 7% fat on a vegan diet. Now Profs. Diehl runs CHIP program and is having great success with his patients, and study after study shows how we can reverse this disease with "Knife and Fork".
Dr. Stephen Walsh spoke on health and the Elderly Vegetarians. He spoke of bone health and the effect of foods on bone health. He too spoke of the effects of excessive protein intake and the effects on loss of bone mass and effects on our heart. Too much retinol (Vit A) is not good for bones and can create a nutritional imbalance. He also spoke of the importance of the B12 as supplement especially for vegans and this is best to be chewed to be metabolised. One brazil nut a day gives us the amount of selenium we need as an antioxidant and also selenium works with Iodine which we need for a Healthy Thyroid Function. Thyroid gland is our pace-maker and we need to take some iodine in form of sea Kelp. He said 2 tablets of Kelp a week is enough iodine in 150 - 400micrograms a week.
Dr. Doug Graham is a raw food eater and spoke of how we are effecting our planet. He spoke of heated fats and their direct relationship with Cancer. The only stable oil is olive oil and is best to eat it raw. He compared on how much energy we use to cook food and how much simpler it is if we go on raw foods. He quoted from Udo Urasmus's book- Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill.
Profs Rosalind Gruben spoke of the importance of exercise and how we can inspire ourselves to exercise by understanding what happens to our bodies when we exercise. How we oxygenate our every cell and how much fuel it gives us in return. Thus we can avoid osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, heart disease and clean our whole system.
Ruth Heidrich also spoke about the importance of exercise and how it effects our bodies by decreasing aging, and many diseases. It also helps in
Diabetes especially type 2, and increases our blood flow and helps also against impotence.
Paul Appleby gave a lot of statistics in diseases when compared to vegan, vegetarian and meat eating diet.
I encourage you all to join in subscribing in IVU, Vegan Society and EVU as
we need to support their work for our benefit and that of our planet.
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