
Are There Any Side Effects to Taking Creatine?
A misinterpretation of lab tests may explain concerns over kidney safety with creatine supplementation.
Topic summary contributed by volunteer(s): Linda
Animal products are a central part of the standard American diet and appear to be linked to a range of unhealthy conditions. As early as 1907, the New York Times reported on a study that suggested increased consumption of animal foods was a key factor in 4,600 studied cancer cases. The massive Cornell-Oxford-China study conducted in the 1970’s and 80’s showed that even small amounts of animal-based food were associated with a measurable increase in risk of some chronic diseases. Diets rich in animal foods have been linked in numerous studies to higher risk for heart disease and cancer mortality. Animal food consumption is also associated with an increased risk of being overweight, possibly because the regular consumption of calorie dense animal foods and junk foods can so blunt our brain’s pleasure center that we can tend to overeat.
Researchers in one study saw improvement in key health measures in people who went on a diet free of animal products for just 21 days. Another study showed that cutting out all animal products and putting Parkinson’s disease patients on a strict vegan diet led to a significant improvement in symptoms. Cutting down on junk food and animal products for even a few weeks may help one’s tongue become more sensitive to fat and less prone to overeating.
Research studies have found potential links between the intake of animal products and risks of the following diseases and conditions:
Reducing animal product consumption while also increasing whole plant food intake has many potential benefits, based on research studies, including:
There are a number of unhealthy substances (naturally occurring, added, or accumulated from feed and the environment) contained in some animal products, including:
U.S. government policy as it relates to animal products has at times been controversial, due especially to lobbying by powerful animal product industries. See Dietary Guidelines and USDA for details. Some health advocates have proposed reducing subsidies that help make animal food products artificially cheap.
See related health topics animal fat, animal protein, beef, chicken, eggs, fish, meat, milk, Neu5Gc, pork, and poultry.
The information on this page has been compiled from the research presented in the videos listed. Sources for each video can be found by going to the video’s page and clicking on the Sources Cited tab.
Image Credit: Pixabay. This image has been modified.
A misinterpretation of lab tests may explain concerns over kidney safety with creatine supplementation.
When accompanied by a progressive strength-training regimen, 3 grams of creatine a day may improve muscle performance in older adults.
Healthy plant-based diets appear to help reduce the risk of severe COVID-19 and getting infected in the first place, even independent of comorbidities.
One cannot assume that simply avoiding animal foods will necessarily produce a healthy diet.
Not all plant foods are linked to less cellular aging based on telomere attrition, and not all animal foods are linked to more.
The SWAP-MEAT study puts Beyond Meat products to the test.
What are the three reasons plant protein is preferable to animal protein for kidney protection?
How might we help flush the pollutants stored in our fat that come spilling out into our bloodstream during weight loss?
The optimal intake of dietary cholesterol may be zero.
What is the most effective way to help people reduce their meat consumption?
I go over a case report of water-only fasting, followed by a whole food, plant-based diet for follicular lymphoma.
Why do the official federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting the intake of dietary cholesterol (found mostly in eggs) as much as possible?
Why can a single meal high in saturated fat impair cognition?
Anti-inflammatory diets can be effective in alleviating chronic pain syndromes.
Fava bean sprouts and soy nuts are put to the test for Parkinson’s disease as natural sources of L-dopa.
Diet appears to mediate the majority of the racial health gap.
I answer some common questions I’ve been asked about cholesterol and diabetes, such as “What is the ideal LDL?” “What’s going on when someone eats healthfully but their glucose is still out of control?”
Even nine out of ten studies funded by the egg industry show that eggs raise cholesterol.
Is the role of cholesterol in heart disease settled beyond a reasonable doubt?
What kind of diet should cancer patients eat?
Can reducing acid-forming foods and boosting alkaline-forming foods replicate the performance-enhancing effects of sodium bicarbonate without the adverse effects?
Tainted chicken may result in more than a million urinary tract infections in American women every year.
How might we cut the risk of dialysis and death in half?
Specific foods have been shown in randomized controlled trials to improve symptoms like hot flashes.
Swapping just 1 percent of plant protein in place of animal protein was associated with significantly less age-related deficit accumulation.
What foods should we eat and avoid to reduce our risk of Afib?
What food can eradicate H. pylori in the majority of patients?
Coffee can improve Parkinson’s symptoms within three weeks compared to placebo, but do the benefits last?
Our gut flora is determined by what we eat, for good or for ill.
If you care about your health so much that it would be unthinkable to light up a cigarette before and after lunch, maybe you should order a bean burrito instead of a meaty one.
Big Meat downplays the magnitude of meat mortality.
The meat industry’s own study concluded that meat consumption increased the risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and premature death.
The same person paid by Big Sugar to downplay the risks of sugar was paid by Big Meat to downplay the risks of meat.
The meat industry comes up with a perversion of evidence-based medicine.
International Life Sciences Organization, a nonprofit, is accused of being a front group for Coca-Cola and other junk food giants.
Adding a healthy option can actually drive people to make even worse choices, thanks to a mind-blowing glitch of human psychology.
Which legumes are best at inhibiting the matrix metalloproteinase enzymes that allow cancer to become invasive?
How can we avoid the breakdown product of pesticides that may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease as much as if you carried APOE e4, the so-called Alzheimer’s gene?
Why are nuts associated with decreased mortality, but not peanut butter?
We co-evolved a symbiosis with our good gut bacteria, but we are not holding up our end of the bargain.