PLAYING “CHICKEN” ON THE RAILROAD TRACKS WITH CANCER!I never told you all, but I have the ability to read minds at a distance. And I can just hear some of you out there thinking, “Wait a minute Dr. Mills! I think you’re being alarmist about the need to exclude “all” animal foods because I eat some animal foods/products and I don’t have cancer!” Well, first of all, I would modify your statement to include the word “YET”. Secondly, let me point out I often have people tell me, “My grandparent ate everything under the sun and lived to be “X” years old!” That may very well be true. Anomalies like this can happen because science has shown us that we are all different and have different suites of genes that influence our health. And our differing genes may make us more or less resistant to certain diseases relative to other people who have a different genetic makeup. That is why a few people can apparently appear to do “relatively well”* on a SAD while most do not.But science has ALSO shown clearly and conclusively that “animal foods” increase chronic disease risk, promote cancer development and SHORTEN lifespan! That is simply a fact. So your grandparent might have lived to “X” years old eating unhealthy foods, but your grandparent would likely have lived to “X” + 10 to 20 ADDITIONAL years old if they had NOT eaten the unhealthy foods and instead consumed a plant-based diet! Blue Zone data from around the world confirm that this is true! Blue Zone research shows the MORE “plant-based” a population is, the longer they live with fewer chronic diseases, dementias or disabilities. My maternal grandmother lived to be 86years old and she smoked until she was 83! That does NOT mean however, that smoking is good for your health or longevity. My grandmother would likely have lived MUCH longer had she NOT smoked! My mother (her daughter) who doesn’t smoke is turning 87 this year and remains in good health (she’s planning to cook a huge Christmas dinner for the family reunion this year). So you can conceptualize these issues in the following way. You should NEVER play “chicken” on the railroad tracks with an oncoming train! That would be foolish and reckless and possibly get you killed. But if you are healthy with two good legs, you “could” do it and probably live if you only did something this unwise once or twice. But if you try this game when you are sick and have a broken leg, you’re probably going to get run over and killed by that train! Eating animal foods is the equivalent of playing chicken with your health. Depending on where you are in life and your genetic makeup, you may be able to get away with these unhealthy habits for a while. But IF YOU ALREADY HAVE CANCER, continuing to eat animal foods is like playing chicken with a freight train when you are sick and have one or BOTH legs broken! You are likely to end up dead.*[I wrote “relatively well” because our goal should not be to live to some pre-determined age and then drop dead! Life should not be a “race to the grave”. The goal should be to live as long and as healthfully as possible with the lowest risk for dementia!]