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Shocking Ingredient in Plant-Based Foods

The AHA! Team — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 05:05:42 +0000

Al Sears, MD, CNS – Big Agra, mainstream medicine, and the media have all declared war on traditional protein-rich foods. I remember staying at my grandparents’ farm when I was growing up. I’d wake up to the smell of steak and eggs and race down the stairs to be the first at the table. Your grandparents most likely ate this way, too. But today, it’s a different story. Big Agra, mainstream medicine, and the media have all declared war on traditional protein-rich foods. As a result, you’ve been forced onto a radical, unhealthy, inflammatory, disease-producing diet without your consent. Then in 2016, the war on traditional foods took a drastic new turn. The vegan lifestyle was once again all the rage. Demand for plant-based meat and egg products soared with foods like the Impossible Burger, Beyond Burger, and Quorn “chicken” nuggets. These fake foods began to appear on supermarket shelves and restaurant menus everywhere. Big Agra wanted you to believe these “meat alternatives” were healthier than what nature provides. But they’re not. Clever marketing campaigns wanted you to believe that these meat mockeries taste just like the real thing. But they don’t. And the public knows it. Demand for these fake foods has plummeted. So what are the manufacturers of these knockoff products doing now? They’re adding animal fat back into them to get them to taste more like the real thing! I’ve been warning my patients to avoid meat alternatives for almost a decade. By definition, plant-based “egg and meat products” are processed, unnatural fake foods. They’re made from more than 50 ingredients that are decidedly unrelated to the animals they mimic. Most plant-based products also contain soy and seitan, which gives them their “authentic” texture. Despite the media and marketing hype around soy being a source of good health, the GMO frankenfood is one of the worst plant foods you can possibly consume. Soy is loaded with estrogen mimickers that cause erectile dysfunction, “man boobs,” loss of bone and muscle mass, and at least half a dozen different types of cancer. Soy also impairs insulin secretion and might actually cause diabetes. And new studies reveal that it may even be connected to dementia and mental illness.1,2 Meanwhile, seitan – also known as “wheat meat” – is a starchy, grain-based concoction made from gluten and is highly processed. And as you know, I’ve been recommending that you avoid grain-based foods for more than 30 years. If you followed a grain-based diet like the USDA recommends you’d be diseased, overweight, and prematurely old in no time at all. Unhealthy Ingredients Hiding in These Fake Foods These products, despite clever marketing, are anything but good for you. Soy and seitan, while horrible for your health, are at least real foods. The other ingredients hiding in your veggie burger are anything but… To get these ultra-processed meat alternatives to look and taste like real meat means they have a whole lot of chemical additives. Here’s a small example of what’s hiding in your plant “burger:” Tertiary butylhydroquinone. This synthetic preservative is linked to cancer, vision loss, liver enlargement, and convulsions in lab animals. Research suggests that in humans it damages the immune system, leaving you vulnerable to disease.3 Propylene glycol. This water-absorbing synthetic substance is often used in the cosmetic industry. But it’s also an ingredient in e-cigarettes and antifreeze. Magnesium carbonate. Used as a food additive to prevent caking and retain color, magnesium carbonate is also used in flooring, fireproofing, and fire-extinguishing compounds. Too much causes a laxative effect. Makers of meat alternatives point to studies that declare these compounds are safe. But here’s what they fail to mention… Independent research has discovered the “studies” have been funded or commissioned by the very same companies that manufacture these fake foods. Of course, you’ll never hear from the FDA or the mainstream media that meat alternatives are an unhealthy choice. They’re still pushing the big lie that cholesterol is bad for your heart and your health. As a regular reader, you know I consider the war on cholesterol one of the greatest health food cons of all time. Despite misinformation repeated endlessly by mainstream doctors, the media, and Big Agra, trying to remove animal fats and cholesterol from your diet is a bad idea. A meat-based diet is what made us the humans we are today. It’s grains, carbohydrates, and processed foods that cause excessive weight gain, inflammation, and chronic disease – not dietary fat. Bring Back Real Beef I consider grass-fed meat to be perhaps the healthiest food you can eat. Compared to grain-fed animals, products from grass-fed animals have 10 times more omega-3 fats, more vitamins B, E, D, and K2, more CoQ10 and zinc, and more antioxidants like glutathione and superoxide dismutase (SOD).4 But don’t be fooled by Big Food fakes. To make sure you’re getting the real deal, here’s what to look for: 1. Search For These Keywords When Shopping. Next time you’re shopping, keep an eye out for key terms that show your food isn’t coming from Big Agra farm. “Grass-fed and grass-finished” ensures animals ate a natural diet their whole lives and were never “fattened up” with grain. “Organic” signifies avoidance of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. “Biodynamic” farming goes even further, treating farms as closed, self-nourishing systems. 2. Order Your Food Online. For a list of farms that only raise grass-fed and finished meat, check out these two websites: American Grassfed, Eat Wild, and A Greener World. To order online, I suggest these sites: ✓ US Wellness Meats. I know the owner John Woods and I trust his products. ✓ Polyface Farms. The food from my friend Joel Salatin’s farm isn’t just healthier, it tastes a heck of a lot better. ✓ Okeechobee Farms. This farm is not too far from my clinic. They make and deliver the homemade bone broth I offer all my patients. 3. Look for third-party certification. Groups like AGA, A Greener World, or the Global Animal Partnership offer certification labels you can check to verify it is real grass-fed beef. To Your Good Health, Al Sears, MD, CNS References: Lavigne C, et al. “Cod and soy proteins compared with casein improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in rats.” Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2000;278(3):E491-E500. Svensson T, et al. “Midlife Intakes of the Isoflavone Genistein and Soy and the Risk of Late-life Cognitive Impairment: The JPHC Saku Mental Health Study.” J Epidemiol. 2023;33(7):342-349. Naidenko OV, et al. “Investigating Molecular Mechanisms of Immunotoxicity and the Utility of ToxCast for Immunotoxicity Screening of Chemicals Added to Food.” Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(7):3332. Published 2021 Mar 24. Nogoy KMC, et al. “Fatty Acid Composition of Grain- and Grass-Fed Beef and Their Nutritional Value and Health Implication.” Food Sci Anim Resour. 2022;42(1):18-33. To read the original article click here.

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4 Weird but Sustainable Sources of Protein

The AHA! Team — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 06:04:22 +0000

Zachy Hennessey via Israel21c – Thanks to the marvel of technology, experts have found ways to extract protein from some pretty bizarre ingredients. As global food security becomes an increasing problem, a cadre of Israeli startups is concocting solutions straight out of a science fiction novel. Forget lab-grown meat and plant-based burgers—those are yesterday’s recipes. These innovative companies are diving into the ocean, crawling under rocks and climbing trees in their quest for sustainable alternative protein sources. “The first wave of plant-based meat and dairy alternatives with companies like Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Oatly, and others has done an incredible job at bringing this new category into the mainstream of the food industry. However, consumers are now demanding healthier, tastier, and more affordable products,” says Yonatan Golan, cofounder and CEO of algae-focused food-tech startup Brevel. “Unfortunately, existing sources of plant-based proteins have come near their limit in terms of providing these attributes, and thus the whole food industry is very actively searching for new and better sources of protein to develop version 2.0 of plant-based alternatives,” he continues, adding that the protein ingredient industry is expected to reach $300 billion by 2035. Let’s take a closer look at four of these surprising innovations that are pushing the boundaries of what we consider food… Jellyfish: Not just for stinging anymore When most people think of jellyfish, they picture a gelatinous menace floating in the ocean, ready to ruin a perfectly good beach day. But Qortein, a Rahat-based startup with $400,000 in funding, sees something entirely different: a sustainable and nutritious food source. Qortein specializes in processing jellyfish biomass for use in the food, nutrition, and nutri-cosmetic industries. Their innovative approach not only provides a new protein source but also addresses the growing problem of jellyfish blooms in our oceans. As warming seas and overfishing disrupt marine ecosystems, jellyfish populations have exploded in many areas, causing problems for fisheries and coastal communities. By turning this environmental challenge into a nutritional opportunity, Qortein is killing two fish with one stone (or two jellyfish with one net?). Its products aim to promote consumer health while providing a sustainable alternative to traditional protein sources. Who knows? In a few years, jellyfish jerky might just become your new favorite snack. Bugs: The creepy crawly future of protein If the idea of snacking on jellyfish seems a bit too adventurous, how about munching on some crickets instead? While entomophagy (the practice of eating insects) has been common in many cultures for millennia, it’s only recently gaining traction in the West as a sustainable protein alternative. The numbers speak for themselves: the insect protein market, valued at $143.6 million in 2019, is projected to grow at a hefty compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 45%, reaching an estimated $1.3 billion by 2025. Israeli startups are at the forefront of this six-legged revolution: Hargol FoodTech in Elifelet, with $5.09 million in funding, has developed a line of protein bars called “Holy Locust.” Yes, you read that right – locust protein bars. It’s a clever nod to the biblical story of John the Baptist surviving on locusts and wild honey in the desert. Who knew that ancient survival food would become the next health-food trend? Meanwhile, the increased interest in utilizing insects as protein has given birth to a secondary field of bugs-as-food startups, focused on providing solutions to companies that are producing insect-based foods. A fine example of such companies is FreezeM, a food-tech startup based in Nahshonim with $14.2 million in funding. Instead of selling insects directly, they’re creating breeding hubs in which to grow black soldier flies — a breed of insect popular for its protein density. These hubs provide ready-to-use suspended neonates – essentially, insect “seeds” – to farmers who then grow the larvae using organic waste. This model lowers the barriers to entry for insect farming, accelerating the industry’s growth. Banana leaves: Farm waste to protein source When you think of bananas, you probably focus on the fruit itself. But what about the massive leaves that are usually discarded once they fall from the tree? Day 8, a startup established in 2023 by scientists-turned-entrepreneurs, sees untapped potential in these overlooked plant parts. Day 8 specializes in extracting RuBisCO, a plant protein that’s highly sought after in the food industry, from discarded banana leaves. RuBisCO (which stands for Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase, in case you were wondering) is the most abundant protein on Earth, playing a crucial role in photosynthesis. It’s also a complete protein, containing all nine essential amino acids that the human body can’t produce on its own. With initial funding of $750,000 and a seed round aiming to raise an additional $2 million, Day 8 is turning what was once considered agricultural waste into a valuable protein source. It’s a perfect example of circular economy principles in action, reducing waste while creating a new, sustainable food ingredient. Algae: The edible moss of the sea Last but certainly not least, we have Brevel, a startup that’s brewing up a storm with its ghost protein derived from fermented algae. Set to open a massive 2,500-square-meter production plant in Kiryat Gat next year, this venture has secured $18.5 million in funding to bring algae-based products to market. Brevel’s approach combines the best of both worlds: the nutritional density of microalgae with the scalability of fermentation technology. The company’s indoor bioreactors will be capable of producing hundreds of tons of highly nutritious microalgae powder annually. This powder can be used to create a variety of plant-based products, especially alternative milk. “Microalgae have been known for many decades to be a potential solution for a sustainable future as they are packed with protein — more than 50% — are very healthy, non-allergenic, grow very fast and require very little resources. However, to put it bluntly, microalgae are not tasty and are very expensive, so they cannot become a major ingredient in food,” admits Brevel’s CEO, the afore-quoted Yonatan Golan. “Brevel managed to solve both of these challenges by developing a breakthrough technology both in how the microalgae are grown and in how the protein is extracted. We have a white, tasty, healthy and affordable protein powder,” he says. “We believe that sustainable nutrition on a global scale is not only possible but is just around the corner and we are super excited to lead on this new path.” To read the original article click here.

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The Biggest Lie Ever Told; The War on Red Meat

The AHA! Team — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 05:07:23 +0000

Al Sears, MD, CNS – I’ve spent the past two decades traveling thousands of miles around the world to visit and observe the last remaining native cultures still in existence. A lot of my colleagues question my research methods. That’s because most modern doctors only treat – and most researchers only study – sickness. They don’t consider health. They see a disease and prescribe a pill. That’s not how I see it. I focus on what healthy people have in common… What protects them from getting sick in the first place. And I feel I owe it to my patients – and you – to visit these cultures and pass on their knowledge before it’s lost. Like the Maasai in Kenya. Visiting them was remarkable. I didn’t see one overweight person the entire time I was there.1 Everyone I came across in every village was lean and strong. And they have almost zero heart disease. In fact, they don’t suffer from any of the chronic diseases that have become the world’s worst killers. There’s a good reason for that… It’s a secret inherent in their native diet. A diet that includes almost no grains but plenty of red meat, fat, protein, and bone marrow — all things that are missing or extremely limited in the modern Western diet. Of course, this is exactly the opposite of what the American Heart Association and nearly every standard American doctor recommends…yet, the rate of heart disease among the Maasai is almost zero. There’s no obesity. And the Maasai don’t suffer from chronic aging problems like our culture does. From all my experiences with patients and in all my travels around the world, from Africa to Bali to South America, here’s what I’ve learned: You CAN avoid disease and obesity, and the chronic conditions that plague us in the West. But it has nothing to do with following standard medicine’s recommendations. Instead, you want to be strong, muscular, robust, lean, happy, healthy, and eat the foods you were born to eat. You have a natural desire for them. Dropping weight will come easier and faster. You will wake up charged with energy that will last the whole day, you’ll stay strong and healthy, and you’ll never have to fear heart disease. I’ve helped hundreds of people use this approach. I’ve watched them make a remarkable transition. They are becoming leaner, healthier, and they stay free of heart disease. Unfortunately, the modern medical establishment has been nagging you for over 50 years to eliminate red meat from your diet. They claim that eating red meat causes raises cholesterol, causes heart disease, and can eventually kill you. I call it the biggest lie ever told. Red meat doesn’t cause disease. As a matter of fact, we evolved to eat meat. Our primal ancestors thrived on its fat and protein. And without it, we never would have made it to the 21st century. Almost every cell in your body needs both the protein and the fat from meat to survive. You use protein to build and repair tissues. It’s an important building block of bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, hair, nails, and blood. You need protein to make enzymes, hormones, and other body chemicals. And the fat helps you transport nutrients around your body and deliver them where they’re needed. Vitamins A, D, E, K, and CoQ10 can’t even be absorbed without fat. But there is a problem with today’s red meat… Ranchers aren’t interested in the quality of their beef. They care about making a profit. So they feed their cattle a combination of grain and corn. But cattle evolved to eat grass. Today’s meat factories make cows diseased. So they’re pumped full of antibiotics. The antibiotics make them sick, and they’re given more drugs. It’s an endless unnatural cycle. These animals are also injected with growth hormones so they can be sent to slaughter that much sooner. Because they are confined to a crowded feedlot, they never get any exercise. The result is an unhealthy ratio of omega-3s to inflammation-causing omega-6s. And it’s this chronic inflammation from omega-6s that leads to heart disease and cancer… Eat Like Your Ancestors Avoid commercially raised red meat. I can’t say this enough… You should stay away from factory-farmed meat. Choose grass-fed, pasture-raised, hormone-free beef. I consider this to be perhaps the healthiest food you can eat. Compared to grain-fed animals, products from grass-fed animals have 10 times more omega-3 fats, more vitamins B, E, D, and K2, more CoQ10 and zinc, and more antioxidants like glutathione and superoxide dismutase (SOD).1 Choose bison meat. All bison are grass-fed. In fact, this animal would rather starve than eat corn. Nutritionally, bison has more protein, iron, and B12 than most beef. But what makes it a top meat choice is that it has more omega-3s — and a better omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. Eat “salad-bar” beef. This is what my friend Joel Salatin calls his pasture-raised, grass-fed meat. He gave it the name because the cattle he raises get to graze in an open “salad bar.” His animals are never exposed to hormones, antibiotics, herbicides, pesticides, or other toxins. You can check out and order from his website at polyfacefarms.com. To Your Good Health, Al Sears, MD, CNS References: 1. Daley CA, et al. “A review of fatty acid profiles and antioxidant content in grass-fed and grain-fed beef.” Nutr J. 2019;9:10. To read the original article click here.

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From Adequate Nutrition to Optimum Nutrition

The AHA! Team — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – We need to shift from the concept of merely getting adequate nutrition to getting optimal nutrition. That is, we shouldn’t just aim to avoid scurvy, but we should promote health and minimize our risk of developing degenerative diseases. Research in human nutrition over the past four decades has led to many discoveries as well as a comprehensive understanding of the exact mechanisms behind how food nutrients affect our bodies. As I discuss in my video Reductionism and the Deficiency Mentality, however, the “prevalence of epidemics of diet-related chronic diseases, especially obesity, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers, dramatically increases worldwide each year.” Why hasn’t all this intricate knowledge translated into improvements in public health? Perhaps it has to do with our entire philosophy of nutrition called reductionism, where everything is broken down into its constituent parts; food is reduced to a collection of single compounds with supposed single effects. “The reductionist approach has traditionally been and continues today as the dominant approach in nutrition research.” For example, did you know that mechanistically, there’s a chemical in ginger root that down-regulates phorbol myristate acetate-induced phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and JNK MAP kinases? That’s actually pretty cool, but not while millions of people continue to die of diet-related disease. We already know that three quarters of chronic disease riskâ€“â€“diabetes, heart attacks, stroke, and cancerâ€”can be eliminated if everyone followed four simple practices: not smoking, not being obese, getting a half hour of exercise a day, and eating a healthier diet, defined as more fruits, veggies, and whole grains, and less meat. Think what that could mean in terms of the human costs. We already know enough to save millions of lives. So, shouldn’t our efforts be spent implementing these changes before another dollar is spent on research such as figuring out whether there is some grape skin extract that can lower cholesterol in zebra fish or even trying to find out whether there are whole foods that can do the same? Why spend taxpayer dollars clogging the arteries of striped minnows by feeding them a high cholesterol diet to see whether hawthorn leaves and flowers have the potential to help? Even if they did and even if it worked in people, too, wouldn’t it be better to simply not clog our arteries in the first place? This dramatic drop in risk and increase in healthy life years through preventive nutrition need not involve superfoods or herbal extracts or fancy nutritional supplementsâ€”just healthier eating. When Hippocrates supposedly said, “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food,” he “did not mean that foods are drugs, but rather, that the best way to remain in good health is to maintain a healthy diet.” (Note: Hippocrates probably never actually said thatâ€”but it’s a great sentiment anyways!) The historical attitude of the field of nutrition, however, may be best summed up by the phrase, “Eat what you want after you eat what you should.” In other words, eat whatever you want as long as you get your vitamins and minerals. This mindset is epitomized by breakfast cereals, which often provide double-digit vitamins and minerals. But the road to health is not paved with Coke plus vitamins and minerals. This reductionistic attitude “is good for the food industry but not actually good for human health.” Why not? Well, if food is good only for a few nutrients, then you can get away with selling vitamin-fortified Twinkies. We need to shift from the concept of merely getting adequate nutrition to getting optimal nutrition. That is, we shouldn’t just aim to avoid scurvy, but we should promote health and minimize our risk of developing degenerative diseases. Bringing things down to their molecular components works for drug development, for example, discovering all the vitamins and curing deficiency diseases. In the field of nutrition, “[h]owever, the reductionist approach is beginning to reach its limits.” We discovered all the vitamins more than a half-century ago. When is the last time you heard of someone coming down with scurvy, pellagra, or kwashiorkor, the classic deficiency syndromes? What about the diseases of dietary excess: heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and hypertension? Ever heard of anyone with any of those? Of course we have. Yet we continue to have this deficiency mindset when it comes to nutrition. When someone tries to reduce their consumption of meat, why is “where are you going to get your protein?” the first question they get asked, rather than “if you start eating like that, where are you going to get your heart disease?” The same deficiency mindset led to the emergence of a multibillion-dollar supplement industry. What about a daily multivitamin just “as ‘insurance’ against nutrient deficiency?” Better insurance would be just to eat healthy food. This article has been modified. To read the original article click here. For more articles by Dr. Greger click here.

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