Scientists Discover Another Reason Not to Consume Meat and Dairy

This is some research that was brought to my attention by my student Luma. So consequently I asked her to write an article for Parallel Perception blog to emphasize the reasons why we should not consume red meat and dairy products.

Over the last few years I have converted over to a high-raw vegan diet. In many traditions this has been said that it is not prudent to eat animals for one’s spiritual growth.

My primary concern as a teacher in terms of shamanism is to increase my student’s vitality through generating more bioavailable electricity within the cells of a human body. This article provides evidence that if one wishes to obtain higher levels of consciousness it would be advantageous to take this very seriously.

By Luma Chichiwa

Throughout my life I have experienced several health issues tied to inflammation and food, running parallel to how I process the information from my environment on a spiritual level. Over time, skin conditions developed into food allergies, then onto adrenal exhaustion and more serious conditions requiring surgery.

Along the journey I tried diets and supplements that alleviated the issues to a certain degree, yet the inflammation remained, flaring up in the milder symptoms or worse depending on my stress levels and diet. It’s an ongoing journey along the path.

Learning Lo Ban Pai with Lujan has naturally taken me deeper into my body consciousness, and this has allowed me to listen to my body and also for information to arrive that is spot on. Lately, I have used the 8 Gates of Dreaming Awake to connect to my cells when getting to the last gate. Or maybe it was my cells that speak to me. Since then, information has arrived from many sources and woven with the unspoken song within my cell consciousness. I’d like to share some of it with you.

The ‘skin’ of our cells is made up of glycan chains, which are long chains of sugar molecules (monosaccharaides) attached to glycolipids (fats) and protein molecules. At the end of a chain there are these sugar molecules called sialic acids. Glycan chains have a myriad of functions but the one that I will focus on here is the function of the immune system in regards to the glycan chains present in our body.

Human cellular structure differs from that of any other mammals in that our glycan chains contain a sugar molecule called Neu5Ac, like the cells of birds and reptiles. All other mammals, and some higher invertebrates, convert Neu5Ac (N-acetylneuraminic acid) into Neu5Gc (N-glycolylneuraminic acid) before they attach it to the cell wall. We cannot make Neu5Gc because we don’t produce the enzyme for the conversion, so our cell walls use Neu5Ac in their glycan chains instead. This genetic difference has been traced back to Neolithic humans, so our bodies have not made this molecule as far back as we know.

What has been discovered is that when humans consume mammals and other invertebrates that make Neu5Gc, this molecule is so similar to NeuAc that our bodies use it and attach it to our glycan chain. However, our immune system recognizes it as foreign material as it is not in our genetic code, and so it creates antibodies to fight it.

Problem is, it’s attached to our cell walls. This creates a constant state of immune inflammation in our bodies, as our immune system tries to antagonize our own cells because this foreign sugar molecule is attached to the cell wall. Until that cellular material is released, it will antagonize the immune system by creating an immune response.

The story of the research into the Neu5Gc and it’s effects on human biology begun about a decade ago by scientists at UC San Diego under the guidance of Dr Ajit Varki, as they were looking for a possible link between cancer and high red meat consumption. They found it, in the name of a sugar molecule called Neu5Gc.

Dr Varki first begun by testing himself and seeing the effects of eating meat with Neu5Gc. Most adult humans show antibodies to Neu5Gc in their blood, and his antibodies to Neu5Gc increased within 24 hours of him eating vast amounts of food containing Neu5Gc. The immune response was immediate and measured in his blood work, though he felt physically fine. But what could happen long term?

This personal experiment could draw little scientific data, as well as being very frowned upon, so Dr Varki and his team recreated the human condition by breeding mice that made Neu5Ac but could not synthesize it into Neu5Gc to study the effects on their immune system. They found the same thing, and something completely unexpected. Once they put Neu5Gc antibodies in the mice, like we have in our bodies, the mice had an immediate immune inflammation response to food with Neu5Gc.

Of more concern, the long-term exposure resulted in a five-fold increase in tumors that developed into hepatic carcinomas. Neu5Gc has been found in human tumor cells. Being genetically engineered, these mice had a predisposition to liver cancers; however, the control group did not show the same response.

Another consideration is pathogens. Pathogenic bacteria coat themselves in sialic acids to mimic hosts (by making it themselves or stealing it) so as to avoid the immune system from attacking them. There is concern that pathogens that use this mechanism to attack mammals that produce Neu5Gc will further compromise our immune system by creating more immune system responses from our Neu5Gc antibodies.

Human beings have used mammal protein as a source of food out of necessity for millennia, however, groups that have not relied on it often tended to have longer lifespans. Longevity in cultural groups has been associated with a mainly vegetarian diet, where flesh protein, if consumed at all, was often from birds and ocean sources.

Other than compassionate beliefs, this could be what has drawn so many spiritual groups to abandon animal flesh, as the body would instinctively communicate it’s antagonism to this foreign molecule. Many ancient cultures also developed detox systems, such as herbal protocols, fasting or sweating, to help release cellular waste that would also draw out this foreign material. Their bodies did not have to process and cleanse the high level of environmental chemicals that we do today either.

The physical/ spiritual parallel to the need to let go of what is contrary to our true spiritual center, in terms of energetic evolution at this time, is uncanny to say the least. We cannot return to what we once were, nor live as we once did, yet need to become what we are meant to be by letting go of what warps and enthralls us into a false reality that is destroying us and our world.

Autoimmune inflammation diseases are our biggest reasons for decline in health: diabetes, MS, Alzheimer’s, PCOS, cancer, food allergies, etc. There are a lot of environmental and physiological factors that have an effect on cell degeneration and immune system overload responses, and Neu5Gc could be a very large piece of the puzzle. An overstressed immune system is a drain on our adrenal glands that in turn affects every single function in our bodies. The cascading effect of underlying autoimmune inflammation is slow to see yet highly damaging, even to brain cells.

Returning within, I look to see what is my heart and true self, and what has been pressed upon me by external influences. My body speaks that I can no longer allow that which antagonizes my body’s cellular patterns, just as I cannot hold on to behavior patterns that antagonize my heart if I am to be what I am meant to be and speak with my true voice.

From UC San Diego research:

Amount of Neu5Gc by food

Amounts of Neu5Gc, measured by how many micrograms (millionths of a gram) of the molecule are present per gram of food. Fish and shellfish produce Neu5Gc but store it in their eggs, not their flesh.