I became a vegetarian
in 1950, while I was a
student at the University
of Iowa (USA).
And then when I finally
got around to completing
my internship at
San Diego County Hospital,
I realized that in order to
get milk out of a cow
you have to keep her
pregnant.
And I hadn’t realized that,
and I didn’t realize that
there’s a huge amount
of suffering involved
in the dairy industry,
so I became a vegan.
Hallo,
compassionate viewers,
and welcome to
another edition of
Healthy Living featuring
Dr. William Harris
a now retired respected
US physician,
a board member of
the Vegetarian Society of
Hawaii and
a long-time promoter
of the vegan lifestyle.
Today he will share
his insights
on diet and health.
For decades, Dr. Harris
has been deeply concerned
about the issue of dietary
choices and their effect
on well-being and
has conducted extensive
research on the subject.
In 1996, he launched
the Kaiser Permanente
Vegetarian Lifestyle
Clinic in Hawaii, USA,
where clients learned
about the benefits of
the plant-based diet
including how
it prevents disease.
The last couple of years
as a physician
for Kaiser (Hospital),
I ran a volunteer Kaiser
Permanente Vegetarian
Lifestyle Clinic, and
the idea was to take
a few patients who were
willing to listen and try to
make changes and
teach them how to be
successful vegetarians,
and by doing that,
getting off many of
their medications.
I didn’t actually
get any real support.
This was a volunteer effort.
I initiated it back in 1996
and I ran it myself, but
I think some of it must
have rubbed off, because
it is true that they’re now
trying to prevent disease
rather than trying to
treat it after it’s arrived,
which is the only sensible
thing to do, really.
In 1998, desiring to
spread the word
regarding the hazards of
animal agriculture,
Dr. Harris published
“The Scientific Basis of
Vegetarianism” and
sent the book to
every member of the US
Congress to inform them
of the harmful impacts
of providing
federal subsidies for
livestock raising and that
government support
for fruit and vegetable
production is
a constructive way to
improve public health.
We are the long-term
descendents of large
arboreal primates.
Our ancestors,
if you go back three or
four million years ago,
were living in the upper
branches of trees.
And they were eating
what was available
up in those trees, which
was leaves and fruit.
They didn’t have to
be eating meat
in order to be healthy.
And they certainly
weren’t drinking
cow’s milk, because
cows don’t live in trees.
The dangers of
consuming meat, eggs
and dairy products are
being confirmed by
more and more scientific
research every day.
The connection is
becoming increasingly
clear that all animal food
contributes to most of
the degenerative diseases
of our time: cancer,
heart disease, diabetes,
certainly type two diabetes,
and probably a whole
bunch of esoteric diseases
that are so unusual
that they are known
by hyphenated names.
Dr. Harris now addresses
the myth that humans need
to eat meat for protein.
Protein is a co-polymer
of amino acids, which
means it’s a long string
of amino acids
hung together
by chemical bonds, and
all of the essential amino
acids, the ones that you
have to have in your diet,
are synthesized only
by plants and
microorganisms.
So when a doctor tells
his patient that he’s got
to eat meat in order to
get over thus and such
disease, I see it only
as a misinformed doctor.
When you feed the meat
protein to a human,
the first thing they do is
break down the protein to
the amino acids
of which it’s made.
And the amino acids
are identical, whether
they came from a plant
or from an animal.
There’s absolutely
no difference.
Vitamin A is important
to maintaining healthy
eyesight, skin, teeth,
and mucous membranes.
Vitamin D is essential to
keeping our bones strong,
as it helps us absorb
calcium.
Both are easy-to-obtain
nutrients for those
following a vegan diet.
Vitamin A is
an essential metabolite.
That means you have to
have it in your body.
But you can make it
from beta-carotene, and
if you have enough leafy,
green vegetables and
carrots and things like that,
pigmented vegetables
generally have
the carotenoids.
Vitamin D, the best way
to get it is from the Sun.
And just a little bit of
exposure to the Sun
in sub-Arctic latitudes is
enough to give you all the
vitamin D that you need.
If you’re afraid
you won’t get enough,
a vegan source of
vitamin D is mushrooms.
You turn the mushrooms
gill side up and
hang them out in the Sun
for a while, and they
develop the so-called
vitamin D, which is
actually ergosterol.
And from that you can
make the hormone
that you need, which is
misclassified as vitamin D.
Dr. Harris wishes that
all vegans pay special
attention to ensuring their
diets include sufficient
amounts of vitamin B12.
One vitamin that is an
absolute must for vegans
is vitamin B12.
You have to have this
vitamin as a supplement.
You can’t get B12 from
higher plant foods.
You won’t find it
in spinach or in rice
or grain.
It’s made by bacteria of
a couple of species.
And it’s an extraordinarily
complicated,
complicated molecule.
It has the highest
molecular weight of
any of the vitamins, and
it has a very complicated
transport mechanism.
And so you do have to
have the stuff, and
you have to add that
to your vegan diet.
When we return,
Dr. Harris will continue
to discuss how to
supplement one’s diet
with vitamin B12, and
presents more practical
suggestions on
choosing nutritious foods.
Please stay tuned to
Supreme Master
Television.
Welcome back to
Healthy Living
here on
Supreme Master Television
where we’re talking
with Dr. William Harris
a now retired respected
US physician,
a board member of
the Vegetarian Society
of Hawaii and
a long-time promoter of
the plant-based lifestyle.
A vegan since 1963,
Dr. Harris has done much
in his career to promote
healthy eating.
In 1998 he published
“The Scientific Basis of
Vegetarianism”
and sent the book to
every member of the US
Congress to inform them
of the destructive effects
of government subsidies
for animal agriculture.
Dr. Harris now continues
discussing vitamin B12
supplementation.
I think if you just add
a little Red Star T-66 35
nutritional yeast to any
recipe, you’ll get enough.
A teaspoon of the stuff
will give you
your day’s requirement
for vitamin B12.
That’s the only
nutritional yeast that
I can recommend.
I can also tell you that
most of the other things
that have been alleged to
have B12 in them, like
spirulina, and I think nori,
various seaweeds, have
B12 analogues don’t.
They look like B12 from
a molecular standpoint,
but they’re lacking
the essential component,
which is cobalamin.
Dr. Harris has long been
concerned about
the consequences of
livestock raising
on public health which
include its large role in
spreading deadly illnesses.
There is a book which
was written
by a couple of
non-vegetarian doctors,
who conclude that 75%
of the contagious diseases
that humans suffer from
we get from
domesticated animals.
And the swine flu is
just one example.
Swine flu and the bird flu
seem to interchange.
The swine flu,
people should start by
understanding that
that virus was a normal
inhabitant of the GI tract
of waterfowl; ducks
carry the influenza virus.
They can then transmit it
to the swine, and the
swine transmits it to us,
and their manner
of transmission is
fecal contamination.
But we transmit it
to each other by aerosol.
If somebody with the flu
sneezes on you,
or you get some dirt
off the person’s hands, or
maybe from the cook that
has a case of the flu,
then you get it.
Dr. Harris provides us
with two simple,
practical tips on
choosing healthy foods.
First of all, if it doesn’t
have fiber in it,
don’t eat it.
All these animal foods
have no fiber, because
animals cannot
synthesize cellulase,
which is the main
component of fiber.
And refined sugar and
vegetable oil also have
no fiber because they are
either 100 % sugar
or 100% fat.
Here is another bit of
advice: if man made it,
don’t eat it.
That’s probably the most
important piece of advice
I have here.
How should parents
help their children
who want to adopt
a plant-based diet?
Get one of any number of
well written diet books
or vegetarian books
by professional authors,
by MDs who’ve had
experience.
And there are lots of them.
You can read (John)
McDougall, you can read
(Michael) Klaper.
Read a good book written
by somebody that knows
what he’s talking about.
And make sure that
your kid gets vitamin B12.
Now, that’s an essential.
The other possible
nutrient that might be
valuable, particularly in
a neo-natal child, is DHA,
which is one of
the omega-3 fatty acids.
And that is
vitally important in the
membrane structure
of the brain and
the developing retina.
For new mothers,
Dr. Harris strongly
recommends breastfeeding
over formula feeding.
So pregnant women
have to give
some thought to this.
I absolutely don’t think
there is any substitute
for breastfeeding.
And the best breast milk
comes from
a well-nourished,
vegan mother.
Dr. Harris always
encourages people to
stop smoking and
alcohol consumption.
In addition, he advocates
doing regular exercise,
especially running.
He sets a good example
for others
with his fitness routine.
My daily exercise is
about 38 flights of stairs
in my condo.
And I swim a half-mile
I do some
light weightlifting.
I used to do
heavy weightlifting, but
I found out that you can
bulk up and as soon as
you stop weightlifting
you lose it all.
So I just stay with
the light weights.
And then my main activity
is acrobatic trampoline,
which gives you
an aerobic work out,
which is equivalent to
competitive running.
Dr. Harris’s other
favorite sport may be
a bit of surprise to many.
I was a hang glider until
1998, and then I switched
and started skydiving.
I actually made my first
skydive the day after
I retired from
medical practice.
At almost 80 years of age,
Dr. Harris still
skydives with friends.
We sincerely thank
Dr. Harris for
his splendid example
of following the healthy
vegan lifestyle
and wish him continued
health and happiness.
Hi, I’m Dr. Bill Harris.
I’m a board member and
the TV coordinator for
the Vegetarian Society
of Hawaii.
Be Veg,
Go Green,
and Save the Planet.
For more details
on Dr. William Harris,
please visit
www.VegSource.com/harris
“The Scientific Basis
for Vegetarianism”
is available
at the same website
Compassionate viewers,
thank you for joining us
on this edition of
Healthy Living.
Up next is
Science and Spirituality
after Noteworthy News.
May we all be embraced
by Heaven’s love and light.
Meet the soft-hearted
Doberman Pinscher
canine who did
everything to let
his caregiver know
that an elderly neighbor,
who was hidden
from view, needed help.
I tried feeding him and
he wouldn’t do anything.
I called a friend of mine,
who trains animals,
and they said,
“Just let the dog out.
He’ll take you to
whatever the problem is.”
Sensing that
a human diver was
struggling in
the deep icy water,
Mila the beluga whale
immediately
rushed to her aid.
Everyone was surprised
to see Mila carrying
the diver and then pulling
her up to the surface.
Join us for
the presentation
of the Shining World
Hero Award
to Jackson the Dog
and Mila the Whale,
Thursday, April 8,
on Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants.