A new study in the UK proves the points made in our film Planeat, highlighting the groundbreaking work of doctors T. Colin Campbell and Caldwell Esselstyn. They clearly demonstrated the benefits of plant-based diets for treating heart disease (not just reducing risk). Now Channel 4 News reports that in the biggest ever study of its kind in the UK, researchers from Oxford University have found a vegetarian diet dramatically reduces the risk of heart disease:

Fancy a burger tonight? A new report might make you think again about your dinner. Researchers from the University of Oxford have analysed the diets of almost 45,000 volunteers in England and Scotland, to compare the rates of heart disease in those who do, and don’t eat meat and fish.

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that vegetarians had a 32 per cent lower risk of falling ill or dying from heart disease.

Dr Francesca Crowe, who lead the team from the university’s cancer epidemiology unit, said: “Most of the difference in risk is probably caused by effects on cholesterol and blood pressure, and shows the important role of diet in the prevention of heart disease.”

The research was funded by Cancer Research UK and the Medical Research Council, and began recruiting volunteers to take part during the 1990s. Around a third of the participants were vegetarian.

The volunteers were asked detailed questions about their diet and exercise, as well as other factors which might affect health, like smoking, alcohol consumption, and educational and socio-economic background.

Those who didn’t eat meat or fish had lower blood pressures and levels of cholesterol than the others, which the experts concluded was the main factor behind the reduced risk of heart disease.

Other research already shows people are already becoming inclined to eat less meat. Global food trends agency Thefoodpeople carried out a study earlier this month, predicting a 50 per cent surge in vegetarianism in the UK.

They also found the number of people adopting a semi-meat, or flexitarian diet was also rapidly increasing. The agency’s director, Charles Banks described it as a mega-trend: “20 years ago vegetarianism was scoffed at, but of late there has been a seismic shift in attitudes towards celebrating vegetables and opting to eat less meat.”…

[continues at Channel 4 News]

By Shelley Lee Davies

With global warming looming, Amazonian rain forests being felled, and the world’s rivers and oceans choked with pollution, it’s easy to feel a little despondent. Is there anything we can really do to change the situation? And what role do we play in contributing to these problems? These thoughts weighed heavily on my mind and I was determined to find some answers. Oddly enough, it was my stomach that led the way.

I met chef Chad Sarno, who prepared the first meal I had ever had that was entirely made up of plants. Not a drop of butter or milk, and definitely no beef, duck, or chicken. He cooked lasagna, with cheese made from cashew nuts and pasta made from thinly sliced courgettes. Being half-Chinese, with roast duck and char siu my all- time favorite dishes, this was foreign territory for me. But I was instantly hooked. I had no idea that a plant-based meal could taste so good or be so satisfying, especially since I’d always believed a meal wasn’t a meal without a big portion of meat. So I started to investigate what impact it would have on the planet if we all adopted a plant-based diet, and this was the start of the research that led to our feature documentary film, Planeat.

Through the power of Google, I discovered the work of US environmental scientist Professor Gidon Eshel, one of the main characters in our film. He conducted a pioneering study to investigate the impact of an average diet, made up of meat, fish, dairy and plants, on the environment. He made the surprising discovery that if you want to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions it is more important to give up red meat than to buy a hybrid car. Last year, he completed further investigations, which showed how eating a diet heavy in meat and dairy is one of the main causes of ocean “dead zones,” pockets of the ocean where no fish or creature can live. This is due to the run off of nitrogen and phosphates into the sea from livestock-supporting agriculture. Eshel also discovered how eating a plant-based diet uses up half the amount of land than eating an average diet based on animal products. With 70 per cent of the world’s total agricultural land used to support the production of animals for food, shifting towards a plant-based diet can help prevent deforestation and promote biodiversity. At the same time there is a huge amount of food wasted in the process of raising animals for food. More than half the world’s crops are used to feed
livestock, and after feeding grains or soybeans to cows, for example, we only get 10 per cent back of the food value we feed to them. If we just ate the plants directly, rather than feeding the crops to animals, we would have much more food for the world’s population.

Further investigation revealed that Eshel is not alone in his thinking. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has urged people to observe one meat-free day a week to curb carbon emissions. And as the global population surges towards a predicted 9.1 billion people by 2050, the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management has said that diets rich in meat and dairy products are unsustainable and a global shift towards plant-based diets is needed in order to reduce the pressures on the environment.

But I had one other worry. While moving towards a plant-based diet may be good for the environment, would this be at the detriment of our own health? This led me to look into how a plant-based diet would affect our health, and I discovered the other characters in our film, Professor Colin Campbell and Dr Caldwell Esselstyn. Campbell, a nutritional biochemist at Cornell University, led a ground-breaking study that revealed that populations with a heavy animal-based diet were more likely to suffer from cancer than those with a plant-based diet. Esselstyn, surgeon and medical advisor to former US president Bill Clinton, used a plant-based diet to treat patients suffering severe heart disease. And over the course of 20 years, he showed how a plant-based diet could help prevent and even reverse coronary artery disease.

So it seems that what’s good for the environment is also good for our health, too. And it turns out we can make a difference. It’s as simple as breakfast, lunch and dinner. All we need to do is eat less meat and dairy.

Shelley Lee Davies is co-director and producer of award-winning feature documentary film ‘PLANEAT‘. Although the film was made independently and with no funding, ‘PLANEAT’ ended up being released in cinemas across the US and UK. ‘PLANEAT’ was was thought to be so important, that it was shown in London’s Parliament by the Shadow Minister for Food & Environment, to galvanise support over changes in UK food policy. It has gained far-reaching support from individuals like Sir Paul McCartney, food businesses like Whole Foods Market and critical acclaim from press: ‘Earth-shattering’ (The Times), ‘Compelling scientific evidence’ (Time Out), ‘Should be compulsory viewing’ (The Herald).

In the related Room For Debate section of the Times, various experts (well you can decide for yourself if you think they know what they are talking about) weigh in on the benefits, or lack thereof, of a plant-based diet.

Here at True Mind, we suggest reviewing all the pros and cons and trying out which balance of foods is best for you. One thing you shouldn’t worry about unduly, though, is the quality and variety of a plant-based diet. In our July release PLANEAT, various chefs show just how good vegetables and veg-based meals can be. Enjoy!

As a filmmaker, directing Amazonia was a unique experience. Spending time on the Madre de Dios, a river that feels more like a lake in the deep jungle, creates a rich visual and aural environment for me to capture the emotions and spiritual experiences that all of the interviewees and crew experienced during the making of the film. We were quite literally overwhelmed by the power of Mother Earth, the pachamama, at her best and most awe-inspiring.

Miguel Heded Abraham (left) with Amazonian Shaman Edison Panduro Rumayna

Working with the film’s star, Alberto Villoldo, is always a great pleasure, and a profound learning experience. His energy and wisdom penetrate the camera in a very magnetic way. I sometimes feel that his words are full of light and that’s why the audience loves to listen and see him.

I really enjoyed making this film. It was very moving emotionally to hear the testimonies of so many people making quantum leaps in their lives through the discovery of the power of the sacred plants of the Amazon. Co-star Marcela Lobos was so honest and direct with her experience in the jungle ceremonies and the shamans were so open and willing to share their knowledge that I feel as though the film is a compelling invitation to get on a boat and travel with us along the Madre de Dios…

Watch Now:

Dr. Alberto Villoldo has written to us about his film Amazonia, which is now available on DVD:

I started out in the brain laboratory at San Francisco State University – literally surrounded by hundreds of formaldehyde preserved brains. We were studying how we develop psychosomatic disease, and how we could create psychosomatic health.

One day I realized that I had been looking out of the wrong end of the microscope, becoming caught in the minutiae of neurons and brain chemistry, and missing the larger picture of the mind. I decided to leave my lab and travelled to the Amazon, to work and study with medicine men who had no MRI’s and brain scans, only the power of the mind and local herbs to heal their patients.

For twenty-five years, I apprenticed with extraordinary shamans and healers, and learned the use of the fabled vine of the dead, ayahuasca. My new documentary film, Amazonia: Healing With Sacred Plants is the product of my decades of study among the jungle shamans, and explains the levels of non-ordinary reality that one enters during the heightened state of consciousness that ayahuasca affords. It presents the rigor and discipline that the shaman undergoes as part of his training, and the dangers and cautions westerners must have when exploring these domains.

Amazonia is also available to Watch Now:

Have you heard the buzz about plant-based diets being the answer to preventing heart disease and some cancers?

Doctors T. Colin Campbell and Caldwell Esselstyn have been featured on every medical TV show you can think of, from Dr. Oz to Sanjay Gupta on CNN, telling people how they discovered that heart disease can be prevented and in many cases reversed by adopting a plant-based diet.

True Mind is delighted to have been chosed to distribute the documentary film PLANEAT, which asks:

• Where have we gone wrong?
• Why has the death rate from heart disease and cancer exploded in recent times?
• Why are the ice caps melting, the oceans dying and the forests being cut down as we produce the food necessary to support our burgeoning populations?

Against a backdrop of colorful and delicious food grown by organic farmers and prepared in the kitchens of world-famous chefs, PLANEAT for the first time brings together the ground-breaking studies of three prominent scientists:

• Dr. T. Colin Campbell shows the conclusive link between diet and disease;
• Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn successfully uses nutrition alone to treat chronically ill heart disease patients; and
• Professor Gidon Eshel demonstrates how our food choices contribute to global warming, wasteful land use and lifeless oceans.

This powerful documentary film inspires us to make the right food choices—choices that can dramatically reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, protect our environment and make our planet sustainable while celebrating the joys of food.

PLANEAT features delicious plant-based cooking by some extraordinary chefs, including the team at the acclaimed Pure Food & Wine in New York City, Whole Foods’ celebrity chef Chad Sarno, and Dr. Esselstyn’s wife Ann.

We won’t be able to widely release the film until the summer of 2012, but we will have some special partners helping to bring the film to you early, so check back for updates!

We’re really pleased to announce our third True Mind release, Amazonia: Healing With Sacred Plants.

The star of the film, Alberto Villoldo, and his wife Marcela Lobos were kind enough to invite my family to come and visit them in Chile, where I also got to know the director, Miguel Heded Abraham. We talked a lot about their work and I’m delighted to finally have an opportunity to bring some of it to people in North America and beyond.

The film will be released in November 2011 in the United States and Canada (we’ll post details on where you can view the movie soon). Here’s a little more about Dr. Villoldo and the film:

Perhaps more than any westerner, [Villoldo] has mastered the ancient art of ‘seeing,’ which gives more direct insight into the true causes of disease than can be revealed through all the technological advances of Western medicine.
– David Siegfried, Booklist

Alberto Villoldo, psychologist, anthropologist and bestselling author, has studied the shamanic healing practices of the Amazon for over 25 years. In this beautifully filmed documentary he reveals secrets of the jungle’s sacred plants and the healers who administer them, deep in the Amazon rainforest.

Amazonia chronicles the work of the master shamans of Peru’s Madre de Dios River in the Amazon watershed. Dr. Villoldo explains the process and theory of the powerful brew made by the shamans known as “Ayahuasca,” the “vine of the souls.”

More and more people in the West are discovering the powerful medicinal properties of Ayahuasca, but few are able to travel to the Amazon Basin to discover how it is truly used in the visionary and transformative work of the indigenous healers. In Amazonia Dr. Villoldo reveals how it is a central part of the philosophy of health and wellbeing in this vibrant and rich environment.

Shot completely in High Definition by director Miguel Heded Abraham, the power and beauty of the virgin jungle transports the viewer into Amazonia and shares the wisdom of its healers.