Vegan Diet, The

The United States is one of the sickest nations on the planet. Despite our wealth, access to educational media, natural resources, and opportunity, most Americans accept atherosclerosis, cancer, hypertension, osteoporosis, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other degenerative chronic diseases as part of the normal aging process. Unfortunately, even our traditional "modern medicine" practitioners believe this misguided and bleak picture out of ignorance. This is because in a traditional curriculum, many physicians-in-training only receive one course in nutrition—the safest, most effective, and least expensive form of chronic disease prevention available. This one course is guided by the faulty 1992 "Food Pyramid" of the American Dietetic Association (ADA), which derived from the even more dangerous "Basic Four Food Groups" of 1956. In both cases, the approval of these dietary guidelines was a political rather than a medical decision, and recent scientific evidence has shown how these guidelines keep Americans sick rather than healthy. The Vegan Diet as Chronic Disease Prevention explores the mountain of evidence that suggests that a diet free of animal products can have radically beneficial effects on many conditions that affect vast numbers of Americans. Dr. Saunders provides an exhaustive list of references and sources in arguably the most comprehensive argument in print for the human health benefits of the vegan diet.