Eating more plant protein is associated with lower risk of death

It is not acceptable to believe that only plant protein diets are healthy.1 “Masked” allergy to wheat and corn, and also to eggs and milk, is common in adults and children. Any increased availability of gluten free food is welcome, especially as there may be a link with increased risk of dementia in older people.2

Dr John Mansfield’s book, “The Migraine Revolution - The drug free solution”. explained how his “Lamb and Pears” diet revealed which common foods commonly precipitated attacks of migraine and headache or other symptoms. Medications are discontinued and only spring water contained in glass bottles is drunk. Even one cup of coffee a day prevents symptoms clearing. Rather than a difficult complete fast for 5 days, which was used in US Clinical Ecology Units, John chose two foods which were unlikely to cause reactions in most people. This withdrawal period is followed by re-introduction of one food at each meal. Foods causing reactions, including increasing pulse rates or elevating blood pressure, are then avoided.

60 Charing Cross Hospital migraine patients completed this elimination diets after a 5-day period of withdrawal from their normal diet and medications. 52 (87%) had previously been using oral contraceptives, tobacco, and/or ergotamine for an average of 3 years, 22 years, and 7.4 years respectively. The commonest foods causing reactions were wheat (78%), orange (65%), eggs (45%), tea and coffee (40% each), chocolate and milk (37%) each), beef (35%), and corn, cane sugar, and yeast (33% each). When an average of ten of these common foods were avoided there was a dramatic fall in the number of headaches per month and 85% of patients become headache-free. 25% of patients had hypertension and all became normotensive. 3,4

John was delighted that medications averaging 115 tablets a month were reduced to half a tablet. However, the reaction of neurologists at an international meeting in 1979 when I presented the results was not so sanguine. There was a furious response and one neurologist said somewhat ironically, “What do you think you are doing? Migraine is our bread and butter”.

Chemicals in the home environment can make this testing difficult for outpatients. Both immunological and non-immunological mechanisms may play a part in the pathogenesis of migraine caused by food intolerance. Deficiencies of zinc and magnesium increase the number of common foods causing adverse reactions.5

Wheat, cow’s milk and eggs are common causes of infantile eczema in atopic families. In my experience infantile colic can be caused when a lactating mother eats these foods. After weaning such babies can often benefit from having goats’ or even sheep’s milk. Some powered goat’s milk is fortified with minerals and vitamins to be more like human milk. 6

1 Aune D, Keum N, Giovannucci E, et al. Whole grain consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all cause and cause specific mortality: systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies. BMJ 2016;353:i2716.

2 Stetka BS, Perimutter D. Dementia: is gluten the culprit? Medscape Jan 21, 2014

3 Grant ECG. Food allergies and migraine. Lancet 1979;1:966-69

4 Grant ECG. Oral contraceptives, smoking, migraine and food allergies. Lancet 1978;2:581-2.

5 Grant ECG. The pill, hormone replacement therapy, vascular and mood over-reactivity, and mineral imbalance. J Nutr Environ Med 1998;8:105-116.

6 ZHOU et al. Nutritional adequacy of goat milk infant formula for term infants: a double blind randomised controlled trial. British Journal of Nutrition 2014 111: 1641-1651

Eating more plant protein was associated with a 10% lower risk of death but only in Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study participants with at least one unhealthy lifestyle factor such as smoking, heavy alcohol intake, overweight or obesity, and physical inactivity.1,2

For women, the most important mortality risk factor is use of progestogens and oestrogens. This reality is often missed due to lack of never exposed controls in such epidemiological studies. In the Nurses’ Study only 13.7% of women (16,670/121,577) had never used OCs or HT.3 Exogenous hormone use increases overt or masked reactions to common foods such as migraine and hypertension which inevitably increases mortality. 4,5

It is understandable why respondent Hugh Mann believes that “no popular diets seem to work and leave us hungry and weak as he believes we should all eat a lacto-ovo-vegetarian LOVE diet. Unfortunately scientific withdrawal and re-introduction studies, immunoglobin E blood tests or skin prick tests, all find that the main foods causing adverse reactions, when re-introduced in ‘clean’ patients, include wheat, corn, cow’s milk and eggs. Therefore the LOVE diet is likely to cause problems.

In my experience, John Mansfield’s high protein lamb and pears for 5 days (followed by “safe” meat or fish three times daily diet plus reintroduced vegetables and fruit) prevents headaches, migraines and hypertension in chronic migraine patients and also usually restores mental and physical energy.6

A major concern with high protein diets is the consumption of beef from cows treated with growth hormones. In my experience vegetarians who do not take nutritional supplements are likely to be zinc deficient when tested. Also amino acids such as L-glutathione and methionine are important in preventing oxidative damage and also to chelate common toxins especially ubiquitous nickel.

1 Wise J, Eating more plant protein is associated with lower risk of death. BMJ 2016;354:i4243.
2 Song M, Fung T, Hu F, et al. Association of animal and plant protein intake with all-cause and cause specific mortality. JAMA Intern Med 2016; doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.4182.
3 Charlton BM, Rich-Edwards JW, Colditz GA, Missmer SA, Rosner BA, Hankinson SE, Frank E Speizer FE, Michels KB. Oral contraceptive use and mortality after 36 years of follow-up in the Nurses’ Health Study: prospective cohort study. BMJ 2014;349:g6356.
4 Grant ECG. The pill, hormone replacement therapy, vascular and mood over-reactivity and mineral imbalance. J Nutr Environ Med 1998;8:105-116
5 Grant ECG. Oral contraceptives, smoking, migraine and food allergies. Lancet 1978;2:581-2.
6 Grant ECG. Food allergies and migraine. Lancet 1979;1:966-69

1. Lower risk of death? Living evermore? Please, subeditors! Give us better headlines.

2. Dear Dr Mann. I doubt if anyone will listen to you. Might I suggest that you tell us how we can HAPPILY switch to the LOVE diet? The best I have achieved is antagonism. When I refuse to imbibe that French drink called Champagne and drink a toast instead in aqua tappa, I get looks that stab me in the heart. Could we switch from refined sugar to unrefined brown sugar? Or, could we tap the sap ( it rhymes!) from our numerous maple trees? Natural. And free. We do not have to import Canadian Maple Syrup.
Potatoes? Originally, a South American import. In England we should stop importing potatoes from abroad. We have plenty of barley. Instead of brewing it to produce DEVIL's Drink, we should eat it. And oats too.

3. How do we eat! It matters too. A slow half an hour chewing ploughman's lunch (cheese in hard bread), No beer. Just water, or, butter milk with butter all skimmed off.
Is this OTT?