Eggs and cholesterol

I was confronted with wall-to-wall ads for "World egg day" when I visited Yahoo today. The video above covers some of the reasons why you might want to make it "World egg-less day."

Yet, vegans and other ethical eaters would not eat eggs even if they were the extremely healthy. Why so? Don't the hens just give up the eggs for us to eat? What's the harm? "Battery hens" or "cage eggs" are the common responses - hens being forced into incredibly tight wire cages in lightless barns, unable to move or see daylight. Yet, vegans and many other ethical eaters don't eat "free range" eggs either. What's with that?! Well, there are two ways of looking at it. The vegan ideal is to avoid contributing to animal exploitation, so it wouldn't matter how well the hens are treated - they could be in your backyard - they are still being exploited. What about people who abstain for less idealistic reasons? Two main things:

Charitable giving

A quick note that I will post in the not-too-distant future about poverty and charitable giving and the book that made me start thinking about this - hence the link that now resides in the top right of the side-bar to thelifeyoucansave.com. You may also notice a number of links to Amazon.com products - anything purchased from amazon after clicking through to their site from my links will result in a small commission for me. Any revenue from this blog will be donated to Oxfam Australia. Until 30 November, donations to their East Africa Food Crisis Appeal will be matched by the Australian Government, so that will be the first destination.

Peter Singer interview

When we were young(er) and childless, we used to watch Talking Heads on ABC fairly regularly - quite a nice casual interview show. Here is an interview with Peter Singer from 2007. If you don't know who Peter Singer is, suffice to say that he is a remarkable Australian who has had a great worldwide influence. I found the interview interesting. Parts 2 and 3 are featured below...

Part 2:


Part 3:

Best speech you will ever hear?

Best speech you will ever hear. That's the title of this YouTube video with over 300,000+ views. You can be the judge. I will not try to prejudice you one way or another. To help you, though, I'll also point you towards this insightful critical appraisal (below). Save it for after you've watched the whole of Gary Yourofsky's speech, though.

Steve Jobs dies at age 56

Whether you are an Apple fan-boy/girl or not, you have to admit that Steve Jobs changed the world through his company and vision. He passed away yesterday, aged 56. He was a rare 7-year survivor of pancreatic cancer, almost certainly due to having a much less common, less aggressive form - an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. I unknowingly, and coincidentally, posted about pancreatic cancer just last night.

If you haven't already seen it, below is a short inspirational video of Steve Jobs addressing Stanford University students.

Pancreatic Cancer - Largest Ever Prospective Nutrition Study

How did I miss this one?! To give a little background, my main research project at the moment concerns pancreatic cancer. Until we started on this project, I knew nothing of this disease. Now, I know it is the most deadly major human cancer. The survival stats are grim. The most commonly quoted – 5-year survival – is only 5%. Compare that to other common cancers: breast - 87%, melanoma - 86%, prostate - 95%. An even more telling statistic is the median survival time - only around 6 months for pancreatic cancer. That means most newly diagnosed patients won't see out a year. Surgery is normally not an option and/or ineffective; most patients already have metastases at diagnosis; radiation and chemotherapy have minimal effect on disease progression. It is a truly scary disease, and, although the odds are slim, my hope is that my research group may be able to contribute in some way to improving our understanding of the disease, at a biochemical level. Maybe even contribute towards the development of new, more effective treatments.

So, when I become aware that the largest prospective nutritional study ever published shows strong, statistically significant links between animal fat intake and pancreatic cancer, and that other studies show similar links with animal protein and lactose to pancreatic cancer, it strengthens my resolve to remain on a plant-based, whole-foods diet. How could I go to work every day with an aim to contribute in some small way to lessening the burden of this disease, while at every meal consuming foods that are unequivocally associated with its incidence?

Ranking anti-cancer veges

For a nutritional science geek like me, the new NutritionFacts.org site is a must - check it out if you're interested in these kinds of things. The site and its informative videos are delivered by Dr Michael Greger, whose aim is to put up a new short video every day for a year. No mean feat considering how thoroughly researched his videos are. What's more, he has put up a vast number of "back-catalogue" videos.  When I first discovered it, I spent way too much time looking back through these and one of the most interesting was "#1 Anticancer Vegetable." There is also a prequel to this - "Veggies vs Cancer."
These kinds of studies have a lot of caveats and have to be taken with a grain of salt, but nevertheless, I think it is interesting, and the big picture stuff - ie. what veges have the biggest anti-cancer effects - certainly fits in with epidemiological and population studies.

Veggies vs Cancer:


#1 Anticancer Vegetable: