Monkeypox is a rare infection that typically manifests as a rash, which develops into fluid-filled blisters. The rash is often preceded by symptoms such as a high temperature, headaches, muscle aches, backaches, swollen glands, shivering, and/or exhaustion.

It usually takes between five and 21 days for the first symptom to appear after infection.

Monkeypox in the UK

Monkeypox is typically found in Africa, but more than 130 cases have now been discovered in 19 countries outside of the continent, cropping up in Europe, the US, Canada, and Australia.

There are now 71 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the UK – 70 in England and one in Scotland, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

Last week, on May 16, there were just seven confirmed cases in the UK.

According to news outlet i, the recent outbreak is the first time person-to-person transmission of monkeypox has occurred in the UK.

But officials have assured that while the number of cases is “unusual,” the illness is usually mild, clearing up in two to four weeks.

The government has ordered more than 20,000 vaccine doses as a precaution, i reports.

How do you catch monkeypox?

Monkeypox is predominantly spread by wild animals – namely rats, mice, and squirrels – in west and central Africa. A human can catch the disease if they are bitten by an infected animal, or if they come into contact with infected blood, body fluids, blisters, or scabs.

You can also catch monkeypox by eating undercooked meat from an infected animal, according to the NHS, or by handling infected “products” like animal skin and fur.

Touching clothing, bedding, or towels used by anyone with the monkeypox rash also raises the risk of infection. The coughs and sneezes of an infected individual can spread the disease too.

How to avoid getting monkeypox

To lower the risk of contracting monkeypox, the NHS advises people to “only eat meat that has been cooked thoroughly.” Individuals should also not eat or touch bushmeat (the flesh of wild animals).

Washing your hands regularly with soap and water, or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, can also protect against the infection.

The NHS has urged people to stay away from wild or stray animals, animals that look unwell, and dead animals.

Additionally, the organization stresses the importance of maintaining distance from people who are unwell and may have monkeypox, including not sharing bedding or towels.

Those who have monkeypox are advised to self-isolate, and stay away from pets.

Dr. Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser for the UKHSA, said: “If anyone suspects they might have rashes or lesions on any part of their body, particularly if they have recently had a new sexual partner, they should limit their contact with others and contact NHS 111 or their local sexual health service as soon as possible, though please phone ahead before attending in person.”

Visit the NHS website for more information.

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These findings are in line with previous studies that show the benefits of plant-based diets in the prevention of T2D.

The relationship between diet and diabetes

Researchers from the Department of Nutrition, at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, set out to identify any associations between dietary profiles and the risk of developing T2D. 

To do this, they analyzed the metabolite profiles associated with different plant-based diets. A metabolite is a substance that is used or produced by a living organism through the chemical process of breaking down or metabolizing foods. 

The study methodology

The study involved analyzing blood plasma samples from 10,684 adults from three different longitudinal cohort studies (Nurses’ Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study II, and Health Professionals Follow-up Study).

All participants filled out food and diet questionnaires. They were then separated into three different groups:

• Group 1 was made up of participants who ate a diet rich in healthy plant foods, such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes 
• Group 2 was made up of participants who ate a diet of unhealthy plant foods, such as refined grains, fruit juices, sugar-sweetened beverages, and sweets/desserts
• Group 3 was made up of animal foods, such as dairy, eggs, and meat, including fish

The study’s findings

The researchers found that participants who went on to develop T2D generally recorded lower consumption levels of healthy plant-based foods. Those with T2D typically had a higher average BMI and were more likely to have high blood pressure and cholesterol levels. They were also less physically active. 

Further, researchers found that participants who stuck to plant-based foods, especially those rich in polyphenols, had lower odds of developing the disease.

Plant-based diets and diabetes prevention

The authors concluded: “Our findings support the beneficial role of healthy plant-based diets in diabetes prevention and provide new insights for future investigation.

“… our findings regarding the intermediate metabolites are at the moment intriguing, but further studies are needed to confirm their causal role in the associations of plant-based diets and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.”

You can view the full study here.

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Counties such as Sierra Leone, with eight million people and where malaria, Ebola, TB, and HIV have caused such devastation, have registered very few cases and barely any covid deaths; 123 in total, with Kamakwie district having reported just 11 cases and no deaths since the pandemic began. 

Why could this be? Have the sick simply not been counted? The Beta variant ravaged South Africa, as did Delta and Omicron, yet much of the rest of the continent did not report similar death tolls. A lack of consistent record keeping is relevant; and yet research has shown that about two thirds of the population in most Sub-Saharan countries do have antibodies to Sars-Cov-2 (78 percent in Sierra Leone) with only around 14 percent vaccination rates. This means most people will have been infected, but not have been unwell.

Diet and disease

There has been speculation that a younger average age could be playing a part (only three percent of people are 65 or older in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as high temperatures, outdoor lifestyles, and limited public transportation infrastructure.

But in India, with similar amounts of young people and high temperatures, the Delta variant caused millions of deaths – far more than the 400,000 officially reported.

It seems that lower rates of chronic disease has also been an important factor in sparing the African sub-continent – in countries where dietary patterns are whole foods and predominantly plant-based, conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma are far less prevalent.

Surgeon Denis Burkitt who lived and worked in Uganda, was the first to discuss the “fiber hypothesis.”

He noted that middle-aged people (40-60 years old) had a much lower incidence of diseases that were common in similarly aged people living in England, including colon cancer, diverticulitis, appendicitis, hernias, varicose veins, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and asthma, all of which are associated with lifestyles commonly led in high-income countries.

Burkitt attributed these diseases to the small quantities of dietary fiber consumed in places like Europe and the US, due mainly to the over-processing of natural foods. Nowadays, dietary fiber intake is around 15 g/day, which is well below recommended amounts (30g/day) and the amount of 50g/day that Burkitt advocated for, which is associated with diets from rural, southern, and eastern sub-Saharan Africa.

Fiber deficiency

Since Burkitt’s death in 1993, his hypothesis has been verified and extended by large-scale epidemiological studies, which have reported that fiber deficiency increases the risk of colon, liver, and breast cancer and increases all cancer mortality and death from cardiovascular, infectious, and respiratory diseases, diabetes, and all non-cardiovascular, non-cancer causes. 

Gut health and the microbiome is an area of research that has further verified Burkitt’s initial observations – we now know that products of fiber fermentation in the colon, called “short chain fatty acids” (SCFAs) suppress mucus excess, inflammation, and cancer risk in the gut.

SCFAs also have receptors outside of the gut which can affect our metabolism and reduce obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis, allergy, and cancer.

A new approach

My hope is that moving into our third year of the pandemic, epidemiologists and public health physicians will be free to focus on ways to reduce mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa in ways that are most relevant to their biggest causes of mortality; through public health programs designed to combat malaria, HIV, TB, Ebola, and cancers that are linked to communicable diseases. 

In the Western world, Covid-19 has brought us face to face with our vulnerability as a society. We have endured isolation and disruption and for many, long term illness and tragic deaths.

I believe the impact of Covid could have been reduced both by an effective vaccination program, and a collective focus from government, public health campaigns, and industry on making active and healthy lifestyle choices easier for everyone.

Access to healthy whole plant foods and green outdoor spaces without air pollution should not be a luxury, they are a necessity. We have a lot to learn from the experience of the African sub-continent with Covid, especially as factory farming practices globally leave us vulnerable to the next viral epidemic. Let us make changes now, to prioritize healthy plant foods and call for an end to factory farming. Before we have to live through another Covid-19.

This article was written by Dr. Gemma Newman of Orchard Surgery Medical Clinic, author of The Plant Power Doctor. Dr. Newman has worked in medicine for 17 years and is the Senior Partner at a family medical practice where she has worked for 12 years.

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Researchers found that countries with a greater meat intake also have greater life expectancy and decided the two were related. Interestingly, beer and wine come out relatively near the top among some of the high-meat consuming countries too!

The FAO’s most recent data lists the top five meat consumers as Hong Kong, the US, Australia, Argentina, and Spain. The bottom five were Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burundi.

It’s not surprising to see a discrepancy in life expectancy between these two groups. But surely education, income, public health spending, and access to clean water, among many other factors, have a larger impact on life expectancy than meat intake?

Scientists say that Hong Kong’s leading longevity, for example, is “the result of fewer diseases of poverty while suppressing the diseases of affluence.” A combination of prosperity and low levels of smoking helps.

While researchers accounted for some differences (e.g., calories consumed, wealth, urbanization, obesity, and education), they acknowledged shortcomings in their study. They wrote: “Nutritional variations among countries include many more variables than those included into this study.”

They didn’t compare the quality of foods being eaten in different countries – a significant flaw!

Fact and fiction

Much of this study appears to reflect opinion rather than fact. The authors said: “A recent dietary advice published by Lancet Public Health advocates an increase of dietary meat in order to benefit our heart health and longevity.”

But it didn’t. The research advocated carbohydrates making up 50 percent of energy in “a balanced diet that includes fruit, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, fish, dairy, and unprocessed meats – all in moderation.” In fact, the EAT Lancet Commission says: “A diet rich in plant-based foods and with fewer animal source foods confers both improved health and environmental benefits.”

They question the link between saturated fat in red meat and the onset of atherosclerosis (furring up of the arteries) contravening all official guidance which warns against saturated fat. They also question the huge body of evidence linking meat with disease, saying, “there has been no clinical trial evidence to consolidate the putative negative effects of processed meat consumption for human health.” Are they questioning the World Health Organisation’s finding, along with a wealth of other evidence, that processed meat is a Group 1 carcinogen and causes cancer? This is wilfully misleading! 

The research showing how meat harms, they say, is not reflected in official healthy food guidelines. But it is; the UK government’s Eatwell Guide encourages people to consider alternative sources of protein to meat. It reads: “Pulses, such as beans, peas and lentils, are good alternatives to meat because they’re lower in fat and higher in fiber and protein, too.”

It advises eating less red and processed meat like bacon, ham, and sausages too. 

An outdated understanding

The new study attempts to discredit “vegetarian research,” criticizing the methodology of a number of highly respected large-scale studies. The reputable Seventh-Day Adventist studies, for example, take many more variable and confounding factors into account than this study, as does the large EPIC-Oxford study that has reported many health benefits for plant-based diets. 

Lastly, the researchers say: “From the evolutionary point of view, meat has arguably been an indispensable component in human diet for millions of years, which is evidenced, genetically, by meat digesting enzymes and digestive tract anatomy.” This demonstrates a naïve and outdated understanding of human evolution and physiology.

Just consider our blunt soft fingernails, our short canine teeth, and amylase, for example, the enzyme produced in our pancreas and salivary glands that helps us digest carbohydrates.

We are much more suited to a plant-based diet than one containing meat. And evidence shows that our Palaeolithic ancestors ate a much more plant-based diet than previously thought. The average life expectancy of our ancient ancestors was just 25 years. So, even if they did live on a diet packed with meat (they didn’t) they simply didn’t live long enough to develop heart disease. Not a good starting point for modern dietary recommendations.

Earlier this month, research based on meta-analyses and data from the Global Burden of Disease study published in the journal PLOS Medicine, reported how dropping meat, dairy, and sugary foods and eating more pulses, whole grains, fruit, vegetables, and nuts could increase your life expectancy by more than a decade. Much better evidence-based advice! 

Find out how evolution shaped us to be naturally vegan here. 

This article was republished with permission from Viva!

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The Oxford-based team investigated the relationship between diet and cancer risk by analyzing data from over 472,000 British adults collected from the UK Biobank between 2006 and 2010.

This comes just weeks after the European Parliament called on the EU to promote a plant-based diet in order to fight cancer.

Meat-free diet

The participants reported how often they ate meat, and were grouped into four different categories depending on their diet type, as follows:

Group 1: Regular meat eaters (those who ate meat more than five times a week)

Group 2: Low amount of meat consumers (those who ate meat five times or less per week)

Group 3: Pescatarians (those who ate fish and plant-based food)

Group 4: Vegetarians (diets free of all meat)

All participants were free from cancer at the time they were recruited, and they were followed for more than 11 years to see if they developed any.

Over the course of the study, 12 percent of participants, which amounted to 54,961 people, developed different types of cancer ranging from prostate cancer to postmenopausal breast cancer. 

When compared to regular meat-eaters, being a low meat-eater was associated with a two percent lower risk of cancer. Meanwhile, pescatarians had a 10 percent reduced risk and vegetarians were 14 percent less likely to develop cancer.

Types of cancer

In terms of specific types of cancer, the researchers found that:

• Low-meat eaters had a nine percent lower risk of developing bowel cancer when compared to regular meat-eaters
• Vegetarian women were 18 percent less likely to develop postmenopausal breast cancer compared with those who regularly ate meat
• Vegetarian men had a 31 percent lower risk of prostate cancer 
• Pescatarian men had a 20 percent lower risk of prostate cancer

While the researchers found that being a low meat-eater, pescatarian or vegetarian was associated with a lower risk of all cancer, other factors such as smoking and body mass index may also play a part.  

The study ultimately suggests that specific dietary behavior, such as reduced meat consumption or following a vegetarian diet, can have a positive impact on reducing the risk of certain cancers.

This is in line with the World Cancer Research Fund’s long-standing advice that people should limit their intake of red and processed meat and eat more whole foods such as fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and pulses.

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Cancer is Europe’s second biggest killer, with 3.7 million new cases and 1.9 million deaths every year – a quarter of the world’s cancer cases, despite constituting only an eighth of the world’s population. 

Véronique Trillet-Lenoir, from the Special Committee on Beating Cancer (BECA), called the strategy “historic, both in terms of its ambition and its objectives, and in terms of the resources, we will provide.

“We will finally be able to fight effectively, together, against the health inequalities that persist within the European Union and respond to the needs of millions of Europeans affected by this disease,” Trillet-Lenoir said.

A new way forward in the fight against caner

The new strategy shifts the focus from drug testing to preventative research into carcinogenic chemicals, including promoting a balanced, plant-based diet in lieu of meat, ultra-processed foods, and foods high in sugar, salt, and fat.

Meat and animal products are very societally significant in Europe, with carcinogenic foods like salami and frankfurters interwoven in European culture.

On the strategy, Dr Joanna Swabe, Humane Society International (HSI)’s senior director of public affairs, said:

“It is heartening to see the European Parliament acknowledge the risk factors associated with animal products, as well as the protective benefits of eating a more plant-based diet.

“There is mounting scientific evidence that the consumption of meat and dairy products can have a detrimental impact on human health. The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that processed meats are carcinogenic, that red meat probably increases your risk of bowel cancer, and that eating the equivalent of less than two slices of bacon a day increases your chance of colorectal cancer by 18 percent,” Swabe said.

Plant-based diet against cancer

The WHO classifies processed meats (like ham, bacon, and sausages) as a Group 1 carcinogen, known to cause cancer.

Though colorectal cancer is one of Europe’s most common cancers and a leader in cancer deaths, scientists have found that a healthy diet is a preventative measure – with diets high in fiber and legumes and low in animal protein and fat protective against colorectal cancer.

Research has also found that a plant-based vegan diet reduces cancer indicative growth hormones by 13 percent in women and nine percent in men.

The new strategy asks the European Commission and Member States to consider a harmonized front-of-pack nutritional label to facilitate informed, healthy and sustainable choices.

Cancer research on animals

The new EU strategy also promotes greater investment in non-animal biomedical testing to replace obsolete animal testing, drawing on technological advances in mathematical modeling, artificial intelligence, and digital tools to draw more reliable conclusions.

Helder Constantino, director of research policy for HSI’s Research & Toxicology Department, commented:

“HSI welcomes the Parliament’s emphasis on the importance of investing in new, non-animal research technologies, such as next-generation computing and miniature human organoids.

“Non-animal methods for testing the cancer-causing potential of environmental chemicals should provide more human-relevant information than the old, slow, and unreliable rodent tests currently in use,” Constantino said. 

EU animal testing

In 2017, nearly one million animals were subject to medical testing in the EU. Ninty-five percent of cancer drugs tested on animals are not approved, meaning many consider animal testing statistically redundant. 

In 2020, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) said:

“Preclinical breast cancer research currently relies on animal models, mostly rodents. However, animal models mimic limited aspects of human breast cancer.”

Scientific research shows that carcinogenicity testing, specifically using rodents for tests, is not sufficient for human health hazard assessments.

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The study was published in the journal PLOS Medicine. Researchers looked at the life expectancy of adults in the US, and concluded that making healthier dietary choices earlier in life could lead to substantial life expectancy gains.

They compared a typical Western diet to an “optimal diet” rich in whole grains, pulses, fruit, vegetables, and nuts. They found that eating a healthier diet from an early age could add up to 10.7 years of life for women and 13 years of life for men.

A typical Western diet, consumed by the average American, contains hardly any pulses (peas, beans, and lentils) and too few fruits and vegetables. At the same time, it often features too much red and processed meat, dairy, sugary drinks, and refined grains.

Diet and longevity

The largest gains, researchers found, would be made by eating more pulses, whole grains and nuts, and less red and processed meat. But eating more pulses alone could add over two years of life expectancy for both men and women.

For older people, the gains would be smaller but still substantial, the study notes. People in their sixties, for example, could add 8.4 years of life if they swapped red and processed meat for healthier alternatives.

Additionally, those in their 80s could still gain 3.4 years.

Researchers concluded: “Understanding the relative health potential of different food groups could enable people to make feasible and significant health gains.”

Food is fundamental for health. The Global Burden of Disease Study, published in The Lancet, found that poor diets are estimated to cause 11 million deaths every year – that is one in five adult deaths.

Find out more about healthy eating here.

This article was republished with permission from Viva!

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All will be killed, but the total death toll will now stretch into the thousands.

Hamsters killed at Hong Kong pet shop

Around 2,000 other hamsters and small mammals from the store will be culled in a bid to halt the spread.

And anyone who purchased an animal from the shop within the past four weeks is ordered to hand their pet in to be killed.

According to the BBC, authorities announced the news last week after an employee at the Little Boss shop received a positive test for the Delta variant. This prompted the testing of hundreds of animals that were being kept there.

It is understood the animals contracted the virus from the worker.

Infected animals across 34 shops are to be killed as a “preventative measure.” Officials add that the animals will be killed “humanely.”

At a press conference, the director of Hong Kong’s agriculture department Leung Siu-fai called for pet owners to implore a “good hygiene practice.”

This includes washing hands after touching animals or handling their food. And, to avoid kissing them.

Thousands call for hamsters to be saved

Amid the ongoing situation, a petition has gathered wind to try and save the hamsters. At the time of writing, more than 36,100 people are calling on the government to stop the “wrongful” euthanasia.

“Every pet owner knows that their pet’s lives are just as important as their own.

“Yet, the Hong Kong government fails to see that they, the very upholders of the law, are on the dangerous path to the murders of many lives that are barely any different to ours,” it reads.

It goes on: “Just like humans, these pets could be quarantined and isolated rather than killed off mercilessly. Yet, authorities insisted on trading over 2000 lives for the sake of ‘public health needs’.”

You can sign the petition here

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An investigation kicked off following reports that the swine fever was wiping out pig herds across Thailand while authorities allegedly attempted to conceal the catastrophe. 

Officials took blood samples from pigs at ten farms and surface swabs at two slaughterhouses. One sample out of the 309 collected tested positive for ASF.

The highly contagious, fatal disease cannot currently be transmitted from animals to humans, and is not considered a food safety issue. 

However, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) says the disease is a “major crisis for the pork industry,” and can be devastating to biodiversity. 

Pigs suffering from AFS can experience high fever, weakness, skin lesions, diarrhea, vomiting, and difficulty breathing. There is no treatment or effective vaccine available, and some animals can die within a week of infection. 

According to a government spokesperson, more than 500 million pigs have died due to ASF, Bloomberg reports.

Preventative slaughter

Sorravis Thaneto, director-general of the Department of Livestock Development, spoke about the Thai outbreak during a news conference. 

Thaneto confirmed a disease outbreak zone will be established within a five km (three mile) radius from where the positive sample was found. Transportation of pigs will be limited, and animals who may be infected could be killed. 

Last year, more than 159,000 pigs were killed between March and October to prevent ASF, a government official revealed. 

The cabinet announced it will financially support farms affected by the outbreak. Specifically, $17.15 million will be given to smallholder farms in 56 provinces where pigs have been, or will soon be, culled.

The issue has affected pig meat supplies in the country. This year, Thailand is predicted to “produce” 13 million pigs, a noticeable decline from its usual 19 million a year. As a result, prices for pork products are surging.

Germany, China, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Vietnam, Italy, Poland, and Malaysia, among others, have all reported complications surrounding ASF. 

The virus’ potential to spread rapidly remains a major concern. ASF was first detected in Paya Mengkuang in Malaysia at the end of last month. Within two weeks, 19 of the area’s 35 pig farms had been infected, leading to the culling of 13,000 pigs via a high concentration of carbon dioxide.

Another 3,000 will be killed by the end of this week. 

Animal exploitation and disease

The surge of global ASF cases within the pig meat industry follows similar outbreaks in other sectors. 

Across the world, chickens in the food system are falling victim to outbreaks of bird flu. Earlier this month, the Netherlands revealed approximately 190,000 chickens would be culled after the H5N1 bird flu virus was detected on a farm.

Around the same time, the UK reported its first human case of the deadly strain in the midst of the country’s “largest-ever” outbreak. 

Officials maintain that bird-to-human transmission of the disease is extremely rare, but more than 700 cases of human infections have now been recorded around the world. 

Meanwhile, fur farms are being forced to shut down – in some cases, permanently – over COVID-19 concerns. The fur trade and broader wildlife trade has been pinpointed as a risk factor in spreading the virus. 

Along a similar vein, animals kept in zoos across the world are contracting COVID-19, predominantly from their zookeepers. 

And yesterday, reports emerged that 2,000 small animals, such as hamsters, would be killed in Hong Kong after testing positive for COVID-19. The decision was made after a pet store employee tested positive for the virus.

Opponents of humankind’s exploitation of animals have questioned whether these species would be contracting and spreading such diseases if they were left to live their lives naturally, without human intervention. 

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Dr Shireen Kassam, a consultant haematologist and honorary senior lecturer at King’s College Hospital in London, believes the NHS could save more than £30 billion if the country went vegan. 

Based on 2019 figures, the UK forks out more than £225 billion a year for medical spending, Metro notes. 

The true cost of meat consumption

Diet-related illnesses are at an all-time high, Kassam explained to the outlet, placing avoidable pressure on the UK’s health system.

The lifestyle physician highlighted a newly published Taiwanese study, which found that vegetarians have a lower rate of outpatient doctor visits.

As a result, vegetarian individuals were responsible for 15 percent lower medical expenditure compared to meat-eaters. 

This was especially true for chronic illnesses like heart disease and high blood pressure, as well as depression. 

Researchers said this “significantly lower” expenditure should be considered when developing strategies to reduce medical spending. This is in order to “alleviate the medical-economic burden in selected populations.”

A ‘health crisis’

A plant-based diet is often pushed as a more sustainable alternative to meat-eating. As a result, a rapidly increasing number of people are going vegan for environmental reasons.

But the link between diet and disease should not be left out of the conversation, Kassam told Metro. “The climate crisis really is a health crisis and we can’t detach the two,” the physician said. 

“Moving towards a plant-based food system is clearly one of the biggest impacts we can have [on the environment], but I think people forget it’s a personal health issue too,” she added. 

It’s “well borne out in scientific literature” that animal-free diets lower the risk of various health issues, like obesity, and most of these “need not occur,” Kassam said. “Our everyday work is preventable chronic illness.”

“Almost 80 percent of what we do is dedicated to diet and lifestyle-related illnesses that need not occur … and then you’d be left with accidents and emergencies.

“We’re living 12 years on average in ill health, which requires use of healthcare, and social care.”

Lower risk of disease

The physician continued: “We know that a vegan or vegetarian diet reduces the incidence of heart disease by about 25 percent and type two diabetes by over 50 percent. Vegans have a 15 percent reduction in cancer incidence as well.

“You’re much more likely to have normal cholesterol on a vegan diet. Reducing incidence of chronic disease has the knock on effect of usage of healthcare, going to the doctor and medications.”

Some insurance companies are clocking onto the connection too. HealthIQ – licensed in all 50 US states – lowered the price of life insurance for vegans, citing similar figures to above. 

Further, the insurance company pointed out that vegans are 63 percent less likely to suffer from hypertension than meat-eaters. Hypertension is the chief contributor to heart attacks. 

Moreover, on its website, HealthIQ highlights a 2013 study which concluded that vegans have a 15 percent lower risk of all-cause mortality. 

Personal change

A nation-wide shift would need the input of every sector, including supermarkets, farmers, advertisers, and policy makers, Kassam explained.

But the “impact of personal change” should not be ignored. We could all have our last chicken meal, and never eat meat again and nothing [bad] would happen to us,” the doctor maintained.

Kassam noted that many people’s diets, vegan or omnivorous, can be too reliant on heavily processed foods. 

“A healthy vegan diet is centring your diet around whole plant foods. That’s fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, beans, nuts and seeds, mainly water for thirst but tea and coffee is fine if you enjoy it,” she explained. A variety of herbs and spices is also important, Kassam added.

“And that’s obviously in contrast to the usual sort of British way of eating, which has become a processed to ultra-processed diet.”

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