Endothelial Function: how it works, how it's harmed, how even our children are showing signs of cardiovascular disease, and how you can reverse it.
3.13.2020
Imagine you change your diet for rational, environmental reasons: you learn that you can get plenty of protein and nutrients without participating in a cycle of suffering that is harming the earth and needlessly causing animals to suffer/die.
You do it quietly and you do it alone (your husband and son are not interested). When people ask you why (because you are known to be a past enthusiast of chicken wings, bacon, barbecue, etc.), you simply state the above and leave it at that. What you receive is incredulity and taunting, but you are of Midwestern stock, so you bite your lip and let it wash over you.
As a year passes, you feel better/stronger/healthier/happier than you have in your whole life and being a curious soul you seek out answers to why. What you learn blows your mind and heart right open: it is categorically healthier to eat plant-based whole-foods, there are no nutritional benefits (only health harm) from eating animal products, there are myriad doctors sounding the alarm (and pointing out that industry funded research is published to confuse you, and make you sicker while they line their pockets with cash), and the continuation of animal agriculture is ruining our only planet and affecting millions of other species.
Leading by quiet example has gotten you no where, so you approach your husband and son and get them on board. Unsurprisingly, they also swiftly become stronger, healthier, happier.
With three of you now sitting at the table going counter to cultural comfort, what you receive from loved ones is not inspiration to change their ways: it is passive aggression, mocking, hostility, and vitriol…this is despite the fact that the three of you are healthier than any of the pill-popping souls barking misguided/outdated information in your direction. They even taunt your toddler son.
Now, you may take that as a sign to step back and let the world crumble down around you, but I come from a line of loud, pushy women and the only thing I care about more than the environment is Quillan: when ignorance was aimed in his direction it lit a flame within me that went full nuclear.
Silence on the topic benefits no one: it is cowardly (I’m not interested in being popular, I’m focused on the truth), it is detrimental to my overall objective (the environment), it allows people I love to carry on ignorantly killing themselves from the inside out (and recklessly harming the earth for the sake of taste), and it sets a bad example for the soul I love most in this world.
So I started to howl. I was fully aware that many of us have absolutely no idea why we should not be eating animal products (I WAS ONE OF THOSE SOULS), I knew just how hard it was to kick the habit, but I also knew that I had succeeded in doing so (despite all my cheese-loving, ice cream reveling, chicken wing gobbling glee) and it was with significantly less information than I have today.
If people knew what we knew, they would not possibly continue to harm themselves and the earth…right?
Yet with every informational post, I get someone tearing into me about how “insufferable” I am for amplifying the voices of doctors, and wailing of hurt feelings for being shamed. I’m told to quiet down and be kinder…when my entire objective is to show you how to be as kind to this earth and yourself as possible.
Fact: if you read/listen/watch any of the resources I share and continue status-quo you should be ashamed. Why? Because at that point you can’t claim to be unaware of the science, and with no nutritional need —simply taste seeking pleasure— you are harming the earth and yourselves.
I’ve made it clear that I am going to use all of my ancestral raconteur passion and writing prowess to explain why.
Let’s start with what those animal products are doing to your (and your children’s) cardiovascular systems, because learning this sealed our commitment to never touch eggs, dairy, and animal flesh ever again.
I loved ice cream and custard so much, I made sure my first job was behind the counter of Jarling’s Custard Cup. Though I received scoop-after-scoop during working hours, I would go in and get more during days off. On visits back to Champaign, I’d go multiple times a day and sometimes get two favorites at the same time. When I wasn’t gobbling up custard, I was eating daily mounds of cheese, reveling in weekly chicken wings, and every day involved consuming an animal product of some sort. So lest anyone see the above and think my involvement with animal products was easy to give up, you could not be more wrong. I’m just also the sort that when I learn something beneficial I move forward with the knowledge.
Your endothelium refers to cells that line the interior surface of your blood vessels. Endothelial cells control the relaxation and contraction of your vascular system, as well as enzymes that control blood clotting, and immune function.
If you think those sound like they are important and critical to your health, you would be correct.
Guess what clogs them up, hardens them, and prevents them from working properly? Animal products.
And this isn’t a many-years-down-the-line situation.They become dysfunctional and harden moments after you eat (<—helpful video) that egg, cow breastmilk byproduct, and animal carcass. If you’re eating them day-in-and-day-out, plaques/streaky fats build up and it gets harder and harder for your cardiovascular system to function properly, because our bodies are not meant to process animal fats and cholesterol.
Did you know that there is startling evidence that our CHILDREN show signs of streaky fats clogging up their arteries? It’s increasing their blood pressure, setting them up for heart disease, and giving them high risk of diabetes, cancer, autoimmune disease, etc.
Keep it up and the arteries become so clogged they lead to dementia, Parkinson’s (<—which my grandfather died of, and he was my favorite soul on this earth), and Alzheimer’s.
For TASTE, folks!
No nutritional benefit whatsoever. For the taste sensation of carcass and cow breastmilk —and to the detriment of the whole earth— despite all the available/healthier alternatives, we are continuing to do this to our bodies and the bodies of our children!
Could you understand why I would become passionately vocal about this? Why it would set my brain to flame when people talk down to us as if we are ignorant, but they speak harmful/outdated fiction? I am flush with research and data because I spend my free-time continuously learning all that can be learned on the topic; and I do this because I feel empathetically compelled —despite the emotional minefield of food and culture— to inform and heal as many souls as possible. There are more enjoyable things I could be doing with my time, but to me it is unconscionable to sit back and watch the world burn, arteries clog, and animals suffer needlessly without remark, especially when so many people just don’t know. What makes it especially absurd, is that we come from family histories riddled with heart disease (<—#1 cause of death in America, and totally preventable/reversible with diet), autoimmune disorders (<—my mother died of sarcoidosis, it is spread through the family tree, and that link is from the Foundation of Sarcoidosis Research illuminating that her diet perpetuated her swift decline), dementia, Parkinson’s, ETC; so here we are doing exactly what is recommended to be healthiest for us all (and the earth).
What makes me happy (aside from Quillan, my husband, hiking, and eating delicious/healthy food) in a frustratingly misguided world?
What brings me peace, is that we can reverse much of the damage we have done to our bodies and the earth, and there are so many resources available showing you how.
Aside from the 30+ helpful/illuminating/mind-opening links above (all by doctors, scientists, nutritionalists, etc.) here are even a few more showing you how to be healthier (all you have to do is a simple search and you’ll find a feast of your own), there are ample movies to explain the same things I just did (What the Health, Forks Over Knives, and Game Changers are good ones to start with), and there are many doctor-written books explaining the same, like:
Dr. Dean Ornish’s book explaining how plant-based foods have been proven to reverse many chronic diseases (including heart disease!)
Dr. Neal Barnard’s many books explaining how to heal yourself from the inside out (He covers diabetes, heart disease, and a plethora of hormonal diseases.)
Dr. Michael Gregor’s book How Not To Die
Dr. Angie Sadeghi’s Trifecta of Health
The China Study by Dr. Campbell
There’s also a light-hearted, informative, engaging interview with Dr. James Loomis (team internist for the Cardinals and the Rams) discussing inflammation, chronic disease, and how he healed himself with plant-based whole-foods.
You could even follow Plant Centered Prep on Instagram or through Ashely Kitchen’s (MPH, RD, LPN) site. What I love about her is that she is enthusiastically informative, down-to-earth, encouraging, and you’ll see examples of daily meals, exercises, and even get tips on mental health and behavioral change. Here is a recent post that reflected exactly what the doctors above had preached/seen/researched/seen again/proven.
And stories like this are what fill me with heart-swelling hope and keep me hollering.
ON A STATIN? The above should hopefully inspire you to make some changes that are better for your health and the health of every other species on this planet. To deny any the above and continue on your current path is acknowledging that there is a proven way to be better and you’d rather just not.
There is no more time for excuses of ignorance and comforting yourself with foods that are hurting the earth, you, and your family; and there is absolutely no benefit in me sitting back and quietly leading by example, biting my lip when challenged with misinformation, or sweetly demurring when you posit that this is just my “opinion.”
This is wrought fact that needs to be acted on immediately.
Tune me out if this is not your frequency, but expect more scientific howling from this impassioned, enraged environmental Mama Bear. There are too many important things at stake.
