brad lemley’s natural health solutions

The 15th-Century Venetian Nobleman’s Secret to Living to 102Modern Science is Rediscovering the 500-Year-Old Key to Growing Old Gracefully

A Healthy, Long Life Starts With This…

Let’s cut to the chase.

Out of thousands of exercises, foods, drugs, herbs, and other natural lifestyle tactics, one in particular has been consistently shown to dramatically extend “health span” — that is, the number of years spent free of disease and disability.1

It’s caloric restriction (CR). This is the “secret” strategy of this month’s cover subject, 15th-century cente-narian Luigi Cornaro. It’s the linchpin of what he called la vita sobria — the temperate life.

What is CR, exactly?

Researchers use the poetic Latin phrase ad libitum — “at one’s plea-sure” — to describe how much both humans and animals typically eat when plenty of food is available.

So CR simply means eating any amount less than that.

To put it in specific number terms, the average American adult male eats an estimated 3,300 calories dai-ly. The average adult female, 2,231.

To maintain weight, that male should average 2,500 calories daily. The female, 2,000. To lose excess weight and/or significantly extend life, the totals should be even lower.

But simply cutting calories, as any-one who has tried to can attest, can be brutal. Human beings can resist hunger only so long. The resolve to resist overeating on a strictly caloric basis is a rare commodity.

So here’s the secret within the secret.

As Cornaro found out 450 years ago, it’s a hell of a lot easier to eat

continued on next page >>>

by Brad Lemley Natural Health Solutions

Early 15th-century Eu-rope was a hot mess.

The Black Death had wiped out a third of the

population. Many of the remaining French and English, using a high-tech Chinese import called gunpow-der, were blowing each other to bits in the Hundred Years’ War. Joan of Arc epitomized the parlous times — inquisitors burned the 19-year-old “heretic” at the stake in 1431.

The Dark Ages were not quite over. The Renaissance, not quite begun.

But after this steady drizzle of anguish would come a sunny island of health and happiness... in the person of one Alvise “Luigi” Cornaro.

A Venetian nobleman, he died 450 years ago this month, in May 1566.

But he left behind a priceless legacy. His four books about living a long, robust life are a gift to the world.

For back when average life expec-tancy was roughly 35, Cornaro

lived to an astounding 102. Just as remarkably, those years were full of vigor and happiness, culminating in a peace-ful death as he napped in his chair. In the third volume of his Discorsi

Della Vita Sobria (Discourses on the Temperate Life), written at age 91, he pointed out that the physicians of his day marveled at:

how full I am of cheerful-ness and health. They know, too, that all my senses are in perfect condition — as also are my memory, my heart, and my mind — and that this is equally true of even my voice and my teeth. Nor are they ignorant of the fact that I

Natural HealthBrad Lemley’s

SolutionsMAY 2016, VOLUME 2 | Issue 2

To Juice or Not To Juice?

Words of Wisdom

The Easiest Way to Get the Precise Amount of Sunlight

How to Slow Down Time When You Lack a Black Hole

Are You Making This Common Weight Loss Mistake?

A Nutritious “Meat” Even Vegetarians Can Enjoy

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WHAT’S INSIDE

Luigi Cornaro, in a rare solemn moment...

“Cornaro’s success was all the more

unlikely because at age 35, physicians

warned him that he would die in a few

months.”

2 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

constantly write, and with my own hand, eight hours a day, and always on subjects profit-able to the world; and, in ad-dition to this, that I walk and sing for many other hours.

Centuries before modern medicine, this Italian bon vivant (a wealthy patron of the arts with no training in medicine) employed a simple method to live three times longer than his compatriots, and do so in vibrant physical and mental health.

Cornaro’s success was all the more unlikely because at age 35, rav-aged by years of riot-ous living, physicians warned him that “in a few months,” he would “certainly die.”

Plagued by endless fever, debilitating stom-ach pain, gout, and “unquench-able thirst” (perhaps a manifesta-tion of diabetes), a wise physician ultimately saved him with a single piece of advice. It’s as relevant today as it was in 1499.

Moderation Is KeyCornaro was told to abandon his life of overindulgence for one of strict moderation — especially in the amount and type of food eaten each day.

A wealthy patrician, as a young man, Cornaro had followed the gentry’s custom and gorged himself daily. But seized by a burning desire to live, he followed his doctor’s warning, reducing his total daily intake to 12 ounces of food and 14 ounces of wine, divided into four meals. As he put it:

I accustomed myself to the habit of never fully satisfy-ing my appetite, either with eating or drinking — always leaving the table well able to take more. In this I acted ac-cording to the proverb: “Not to satiate one’s self with food is the science of health.”

Further, he began eating foods quite different from those of his wanton years. He discovered that his typical fare — well-aged wines, lots of fruit, salads of raw veg-etables, and tarts and pastries all tended to inflame his symptoms.

Instead, he ate egg yolks, vegetable soup, and coarse bread. And though the vegetarian brigades these days claim him as their own,

the Discourses make it clear he was fond of muscle, fat, and sinew: “Of flesh meat, I eat kid and mutton. I eat poultry of every kind; also of sea and river fish.”

He drank light wine, less than a year old, and likely below the alco-hol limit of 10 percent for modern Beaujolais. (Some modern health puritans have tried to portray his chosen beverage as “grape juice,” but there’s no evidence it was alcohol-free.)

Cornaro theorized that each person needed to experiment for himself to discover which foods, in which quantities, agreed with him or her.

But I would note that, in light of modern nutrition research, his dietary plan looks very much like a low-carb, moderate-protein, high-

less if you first decide to eat only low-carb, moderate-protein, high-fat foods — like the kind I recommend in these pages and which I described in detail in the June 2015 issue.

These foods are far better at promot-ing long-lasting satiety, the feeling of fullness, than are the carb-intensive foods Americans typically eat.2 Carbs make insulin spike and then dip, lead-ing to the roller coaster of intense hunger and extreme overeating that characterizes American food culture.

So to experience the myriad benefits of CR, the principal decision to make is not to eat less in the face of hun-ger — an impossibility for most of us — but to eat far fewer carbohydrates.

Specifically, eat less flour and sugar. And for good measure, less veg-etable oils, such as canola, corn, safflower and soy.

I won’t pretend that this makes light eating effortless. But I used to think I had a uniquely strong appetite. I felt like chewing my arm off if a meal was even an hour late. When, in my late 40s, my weight crept past 225, the situation felt hopeless.

But then I decided to get serious about almost exclusively eating meats, fish, eggs, cheese, vegetables and low-sugar fruits such as berries. Doing so, I could finally drop to — and maintain — a healthy 190 pounds on my 6-foot 4-inch frame with my discipline-me-ter set at about 4 instead of 8.

In other words, for me, the impossible became possible.

So please don’t regard Cornaro as superhuman. He was a normal human in possession of a good idea on how to live a long, healthy life. Now you possess the idea as well.

Sincerely,

Brad Lemley Editor, Natural Health Solutions

A Healthy, Long Life… cont. from Page 1

Copyright © 2016 by Brad Lemley’s Natural Health Solutions, 808 St. Paul St., Baltimore, MD 21202-2406. All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced by any means or for any reason without the consent of the publisher. The information contained herein is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed.

All material in this publication is provided for information only and may not be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action should be taken based solely on the contents of this publication; instead, readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health and well-being. The information and opinions provided in this publication are believed to be accurate and sound, based on the best judgment available to the authors, but readers who fail to consult with appropriate health authorities assume the risk of any injuries. The publisher is not responsible for errors or omissions.

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“Cornaro's four books about living a long, robust life are a gift to the

world.”

3brad lemley’s natural health solutions

Contributor ListBrad Lemley, Editor, Natural Health Solutions; Dave Asprey, founder, Bulletproof; Jasmine LeMaster, Health Researcher; Nate Rifkin, Underground Health Researcher; Mark Sisson, Founder, Mark’s Daily Apple; Todd Becker, Founder, Getting Stronger; Kris Gunnars, Chief Editor, Authority Nutrition; Andréa Albright, Founder, MyBikiniButt.com; Cecilia Wong, Founder, Cecilia Wong Skincare; Gary Watson, Founder, Wake the Fork Up; Addison Wiggin, Laissez Faire Club President; Doug Hill, Laissez Faire Club Director; Luke McGrath, Managing Editor.

fat paleo regimen — the sort that benefits pretty much everyone who applies it.

In other words, it’s close to the type of diet that has been found in clinical trials to result in weight loss, Type 2 diabetes reversal, and improved cardiovascular health.1,2

At 35, Cornaro made several other lifestyle changes, including taking care to get plenty of sleep — some-thing he had neglected during his carousing years. He also engaged in daily, light exercise, especially walk-ing and horseback riding.

He was completely cured within a year.

The Best Part About Getting HealthyAfter that redemptive year, Cornaro got on with his life. Indeed, his Dis-courses are inspiring precisely because he makes it clear that, in his view, long life as an end in itself is pointless.

Instead, establishing healthful habits allows one to forget about health and instead concentrate on art, service, family, conversation, and the various engaging activities that allow both the self and civilization to flower.

This is my favorite les-son from Cornaro’s life. After developing the habit of eating simple, nutrient-dense meals and getting enough exercise and rest, he experienced the incalcu-lable luxury of paying health no mind, and instead plunging into the rich worlds of art, beauty, friendship, service, and love.

Bottom LineThis regimen seems to require iron discipline. To most Americans, one of Cornaro’s typical meals would seem ridiculously paltry.

But you and I don’t need to live an identically abstemious life.

Numerous animal trials have estab-lished that caloric restriction can indeed extend life and health.3

It likely does this by upregulating autophagy — a fancy way of saying it accelerates the body’s natural process of removing disease-causing cellular debris. But I’m not wholly convinced Cornaro really ate as little as he

claimed. We have only his word for it, and his florid prose suggests he was capable of, shall we say, embellishment.

My guess is that he ate relatively small meals

of nutrient-dense foods — whether he consumed 12 or 24 ounces daily is less important. I also doubt he drank only wine — he likely mixed it with water, a common practice at the time. So the point is to follow

the spirit, rather than the letter, of Cornaro’s advice by making sure to:

• Leave the table when still not “full”

• Prioritize nutrient-dense ani-mal foods and fresh vegetables

• Get daily exercise...• And plenty of sleep.

A variant of CR is intermittent fast-ing (IF), which allows larger meals, but requires periodically eating no food for 16–24 hours. For details on this, see the February 2016 issue.

Are CR or IF for everyone? I don’t recommend them for children, or women of childbearing age. But it’s a complex question — with childhood obesity rampant, surely some mea-sure of CR for some kids is in order.

The truth is that most of us would do well to adopt Cornaro’s vita sobria, to whatever degree our discipline and circumstances allow. I don’t weigh my food, but I do always “leave the table well able to take more” and believe this is a ma-jor reason that, like old Luigi, I am full of “cheerfulness and health.”

Citations available here.

“Numerous animal trials have estab-lished that caloric

restriction can indeed extend life

and health.”

One of four daily Cornaro-approved meals would look like this: 1.5 ounces of vegetable soup, a 1.5 ounce lamb chop and 3.5 ounces of wine.

brad lemley’s natural health solutions4

by Mary Jane Brown, Ph.D. Authority Nutrition

Juicing is a process that extracts the juices from fresh fruits and vegeta-bles, usually stripping

away most of the solid matter, like seeds and pulp.

The resulting liquid contains most of the vitamins, minerals, and an-tioxidants naturally present in the whole fruit or vegetable.

Juicing MethodsJuicing methods vary, from squeezing fruit by hand to the more commonly used motor-driven juic-ers. The most common types of juicers are:

• Centrifugal juicers: These juicers grind fruits and vegetables into pulp through a high-speed spinning action

• Cold-press juicers: Also called masticating juicers, these crush and press fruits and vegetables much more slowly to get as much juice as possible.

Cold-press juicers don’t produce heat, so they do not cause the breakdown of beneficial enzymes and nutrients thought to happen with centrifugal juicers.

Purpose of JuicingJuicing is generally used for two different purposes:

• For cleansing or detox: Solid food is eliminated and only juice

is consumed as a way to cleanse your body of tox-ins. Juice cleanses range from three days to several weeks in length

• To supplement a normal diet: Fresh juice can be used as a handy supplement to your daily

diet, increasing nutrient intake from fruits and vegetables that you wouldn’t otherwise consume.

Juice Is an Easy Way to Get Lots of NutrientsMany people don’t get enough nutrients from their diet alone. Nutrient levels in the foods we eat are much lower than they used to be, largely due to processing meth-ods and the long time it takes to get produce from the field to the supermarket.

Polluted environments and high-stress levels can also increase our requirements for certain nutrients.

Fruits and vegetables are full of vi-tamins, minerals, antioxidants, and plant compounds that may protect against disease.

If you find it difficult then to get the recommended amount of fruits

To Juice or Not To Juice?How Juicing Stacks up Against Consuming Fruits and Vegetables Whole

“Many people don’t get enough

nutrients from their diet alone.”

I’ve done a deep dive lately into the latest research on optimal exercise, and the emerging consensus is clear. Frequent, gentle exercise has its uses, but if you are serious about getting lean and muscular, high-intensity exercise that allows plenty of time for full recovery is the way to go.

The best research summary is the book Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Train-ing, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week by John Little and Doug McGuff.

Don’t interpret the following as per-mission to exercise only once every six weeks — but I’m experimenting with dropping my weightlifting fre-quency to twice a week as a result of my research. The key is to rotate the muscles that you maximally

strain, so that, say, your triceps get a good five days at least to recover. I’ll write more on this in coming weeks, but in the meantime, I highly recom-mend this book to get the full story. Find below a choice excerpt from Little and McGuff.

— Brad

Obviously, you should not work out before recovery and full adaptation from the previous work-out takes place — but how long is this, on average? We can share with you the average length of time that we have found to be most beneficial based on our own 30-plus years of training, in addition to our experi-ence in supervising in excess of 150,000 workouts and performing informal studies on the subject.

Perhaps more significantly, we can

also share with you the findings of exercise physiology studies regarding what happens as a result of a high-intensity workout stimulus being applied to the muscles and how long the recovery and overcompensation process typically takes.

[During that recovery and overcom-pensation process], the muscle fibers build back to their pre-workout size and then, if further time is allowed, will build up to a level greater than they were before the workout.

The length of time required for the entire process to complete itself is dependent on the intensity of the workout stimulus and the cor-responding damage to the muscle fibers. Typically, it falls in the neigh-borhood of five days (on the quick side of things) to six weeks.

Words of Wisdom

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5brad lemley’s natural health solutions

and vegetables into your diet each day, juicing can be a convenient way to increase your intake.

One study found that supplement-ing mixed fruit and vegetable juice over 14 weeks im-proved participants’ nutrient levels for beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, sele-nium, and folate.1

While a review of 22 studies found that drinking juice made from fresh fruits and vegeta-bles or blended powder concentrate improved folate and antioxidant levels, including beta-carotene, vitamin C, and vitamin E.2

Whole Produce Pro-tects Against Disease, but Studies on Juice Are DisappointingThere’s plenty of evidence link-ing whole fruits and vegetables to reduced risk of disease, but studies for fruit and vegetable juices are harder to find.

One review reported that the health benefits of fruits and vegetables may be due to antioxidants, rather than fiber. If this is true, then juice may provide comparable health benefits to whole produce.3

However, there is only weak evi-dence that pure fruit and vegetable juices can help fight cancer. There is a lack of human data, and other findings are inconsistent.

Fruits and Veggies Are Best Consumed Whole

Juicing advocates often claim that drinking juice is better than eating whole fruits and vegetables.

They justify this by saying that removing the fiber makes nutrients easier to absorb. However, there isn’t any scientific research to sup-port this.

In fact, you may actually need the fiber content of the fruit or veg-etable to experience the plant’s full health benefits.4

For example, important antioxi-dants that are naturally bound to plant fibers are lost in the juicing process. These may play an impor-tant role in the health benefits of whole fruits and vegetables.5

Take-Home MessageFresh juices contain important vitamins and antioxidants that can benefit your health. However, fruits and vegetables are still healthiest and most nutritious when con-sumed whole.

[Editor’s note: As an alternative to juices, Living Well’s Spectrum Elite offers vitamins, minerals, and probi-otics in a concentrated, convenient form.]

Citations available here.

“If you find it difficult to get the recommend-

ed amount of fruits and vegetables into your diet, juicing can be a convenient way to increase your intake.”

The Easiest Way to Get the Precise Amount of Sunlightby Brad Lemley Natural Health Solutions

In the April is-sue of Natural Health Solutions, I explored the many benefits of prudent solar exposure, which range from decreased inci-dence of cancer and multiple sclerosis to im-proved mood.

But what’s prudent exposure?

A rough-and-ready guide is to get from 30 minutes to an hour of sunlight on unprotected skin between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily. But if you really want to dial in your optimal exposure, there is — you guessed it — an app for that.

Called the “dminder,” it takes multiple variables into account, including your skin tone, age, weight, amount of skin exposed, and geographic location. Then its stopwatch interface counts you up (or down) to ensure you stay in the sun for just the right amount of time to maximize the benefit.

There are other vitamin D tracker apps, but I like the fact that this one was developed in consultation with Dr. Michael Holick, author of The Vitamin D Solution: A 3-Step Strategy to Cure Our Most Common Health Problems. I’ve heard Dr. Holick speak, I’ve read his books, and I’m impressed that he’s among the few derma-tologists brave enough to buck the no-exposure-is-the-best-exposure nonsense endemic to his profession. So click here to give dminder a try!

Mary Jane Brown, Ph.D., is a regis-tered dietitian currently working in research.

6 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

by Mark Sisson Mark’s Daily Apple

Time passes slowly for children in part because everything they’re seeing, doing,

experiencing, smelling, hearing, and tasting is new and takes up a larger portion of their memory. They’ve only just arrived on this plane of existence, and their brains are working overtime to process an abundance of novelty. Each experience is fascinating.

Compare that with the average adult working a 9-to-5.

They get up at the same time every morning. They eat the same break-fast. They take the same route to work. They sit down at their desk and perform the same tasks they performed yesterday and every day prior.

Everything is routine.

The brain doesn’t have to work to process any new information or remember the specifics. It’s the same thing day in, day out. They can’t really remember what they did one, two, three days ago — not be-cause they’re going senile at age 33, but because every day is the same

and the brain literally doesn’t see the need to retain the memory of each.

This is precisely when days slip into months into years and before

you know it, you’re coming up on 40 and The Simpsons is on Season 27 and the new Star Wars movie’s been and gone and is it really 2016?

One researcher devised a cool method to test in the lab the brain’s perception of time in response to various stimuli.1 He showed people a slideshow of identical images of a

brown shoe interspersed with the occasional “oddball” image of a flower. Though the flower image spent the same amount of time on the screen as each individual shoe image, participants swore it re-mained on-screen for much longer than the others. Other researchers have confirmed the “oddball” effect; time lengthens in the presence of novelty.2

It turns out that “with repeated presentations of a stimulus, a sharpened representation or a more efficient encoding is achieved in the neural network coding for the object, affording lower metabolic costs.” In other words, doing the same routine every day barely regis-ters in the brain. You don’t notice it. You don’t remember doing it. Thus,

entire days are lost.

The takeaway, then is clear: Inject novelty into your life.

Novelty can be objec-tively exciting things

like going to a drum circle at the beach, skydiving, rock climbing, or taking a salsa class.

But small changes work, too.

Take a strange route to work. Take your bike to work. Try a new res-taurant every week instead of eating at the same diner.

Citations available here.

How to Slow Down Time When You Lack a Black HoleReverse the Feeling of Time Slipping Away With This One Simple Trick

“Other research-ers have confirmed the ‘oddball’ effect; time lengthens in the presence of

novelty.”

“Doing the same routine every day barely registers in

the brain. You don't notice it. Thus, en-tire days are lost.”

Mark Sisson is the author of the best-selling book The Primal Blueprint; publisher of Mark’s Daily Apple, the world’s most well-trafficked blog on paleo, primal, and ancestral health; and owner of Primal Nutrition Inc.

7brad lemley’s natural health solutions

by Brad Lemley Natural Health Solutions

We’ve heard it ad nauseam — to lose weight, eat more fruits and vegetables!

But I’ve always had two big problems with this blanket recommendation.

First, given how it’s phrased, it places these two types of produce on an equal footing. Yet fruits, es-pecially tropical fruits, tend to be much higher in fat-forming fruc-tose than vegetables. A healthy, weight-control-ling diet should incline more toward vegetables than fruits.

But an even larger issue is that within these categories, the recommenda-tion to eat more does not specify an optimal type of fruit or vegetable.

A new large scientific analysis tack-les that very issue.

A Large, Long Study… the Best Kind!The researchers tracked the diets of roughly 120,000 men and women who were in their 30s and 40s and who took part in the Nurses' Health Study, Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and Nurses' Health Study II.1

They followed them for 24 years, doing interviews every four years. They corrected for other variables that could affect weight, such as differences in exercise levels.

On average, the subjects gained weight over the period, but those who ate relatively larger amounts of vegetables or fruits gained less.

Specifically, increased intake of berries low-ered the weight gain by 1.11 pounds. Eating more apples or pears dropped the weight gain by 1.24 pounds.

Vegetables linked to smaller-than-average weight gain included carrots and peppers.

But increased consumption of pota-toes, corn, and peas were not linked to smaller weight gains.

A Few Surprises...The average Americans eats about 45 pounds of potatoes annually, and I doubt anyone is shocked to find that this starchy tuber — often deep-fried in soybean oil to create French fries — isn’t the best vegetable choice for those who seek to control their weight.

But the fruit “winners” were more revealing. Apples, pears, and berries are relatively low-sugar fruits with a relatively low glycemic index, yet I don’t believe many Americans put fruits like these in a special catego-ry or make a point of eating them versus higher-sugar fruits such as cantaloupe or bananas.

A simple way to keep the best

weight-loss fruits in mind is to think in terms of climate. If a fruit can be grown in the northern tier of the continental U.S., chances are it’s a better choice for weight control than one that grows only in the southern tier or the tropics.

One more surprise: Eating more fruit was associated with a slightly lower increase in weight than was eating more vegetables.

That could be an artifact of the “po-tato” effect: If you are a big vegetable eater, but (like most Americans) most of those vegetables are potatoes, you’d likely do well to eat more fruit instead.

It could also signal that fruits are often used as a substitute for worse foods (think snack foods such as candy) than are vegetables.

Bottom LineIf you seek to control your weight, lean toward green, leafy veggies that offer maximum nutrient density and

minimal caloric load.

And as for fruits, go for the colder-climate types over more tropical variet-ies. I am an especially big fan of raspberries. Not

only do they promote weight control, but they also have potent anti-cancer powers, likely due to their relatively high ellagic acid content. (More about the myriad health benefits of rasp-berries in next month’s issue.)

That’s why my go-to breakfast is an egg-greens scramble (see Bo-dacious Breakfast Greens in the February 2016 issue), followed by roughly 6 ounces of raspberries and a cup of black coffee. A wonderful way to start the day!

Citations available here.

Are You Making This Common Weight Loss Mistake?There’s a Problem With the Advice to Eat More Fruit and Vegetables…

“A healthy, weight-controlling diet

should incline more toward vegetables

than fruits.”

Toss Your Alkaline Water Down the Drain

Many people concerned about their health make sure to drink

high-pH, alkaline water. But it turns out they’re wasting their time. You might as well toss that stuff down

the drain. But if you’re interested in younger skin and more energy, there is far healthier water you can drink.

Click here to discover what it is.

“If you seek to con-trol your weight, lean toward green, leafy veggies that offer maximum nutrient density and minimal

caloric load.”

8 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

A Nutritious “Meat” Even Vegetarians Can EnjoyWhy Even Those With Moral Qualms Should Feel Comfortable Eating Oysters

by Brad Lemley Natural Health Solutions

I’ve made it abundantly clear — I favor consumption of animal-based foods.

Humans co-evolved with them. We can do without them for a time, but at least some are required for robust health.

Meats, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy foods contain vital nutrients that cannot be found in optimal quanti-ties in vegetables, fruits, and grains. These include vitamins B-12 and K-2 and the minerals zinc and selenium.

However, an estimated 5 percent of American adults — about 12 million people — are vegetarians. They often cite two main reasons for their choice: Killing sentient be-ings is morally wrong, and raising animal-based foods is environmen-tally destructive.

Which brings us to oysters.

Lovely Connecticut Blue Points.

While these tenacious sea creatures are not plants, in the realm of com-passionate eating, they are essen-tially the same thing. Oysters lack a central nervous system. There’s no evidence they are in any sense conscious or can feel pain.

They are also typically raised in oyster farms, which have a minimal impact on ecosystems. Oysters eat plank-ton, which is low on the food chain. They need no pesticides, and unlike

wild-caught fish and clams, harvest-ing them doesn’t require destructive “bycatch” of unwanted species.

Best of all, they are absolutely packed with precisely the nutrients in which vegetarians and vegans are likely to be deficient.

Oysters are high in qual-ity protein and contain abundant selenium, zinc, iron, and magnesium. In addition, they contain a range of B vitamins, especially B-12, which is absolutely vital for healthy brain function, particularly as we get older. Three ounces of oysters also provides more than a gram of heart-and-brain-healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

So my veggie brothers and sisters… eat them.

Even famed moral philosopher and bioethicist Peter Singer has decreed that, for vegetarians and vegans, “There is no good reason for avoiding eating sustainably produced oysters.”

Oysters: A Cheap Insurance PolicyIt’s easier to fold this exotic food into your quotidian diet than you might think. I bought the Blue Point oys-ters pictured to the left at my local Whole Foods in Tempe, Arizona. While at $1.69 apiece they were not exactly cheap, I consider a plate of these every couple of weeks to be a more-than-worthwhile investment in health.

If I were vegetarian, I would see the expense as cheap insurance against a dead-certain nutrient deficiency.

When I asked the gentleman be-

hind the counter if they were fresh, he replied, “They fly them to all of our locations in one day. So unless you get them from the boat, they are pretty much equally fresh in any Whole Foods, no matter how far it

is from the coast.”

They certainly tasted fresh, so I’ll take his word for it.

I like my oysters raw, but cooked ones retain a good deal of their nutrient value. So one easy way to work them into a busy day is in the form of Crown Prince Natural Smoked Oysters, which come canned in olive oil.

This brand is available at Trader Joe’s or from Amazon for about $3 a can and is so easy to toss into a bag lunch. I have a couple of cans a week.

So if you eat oysters, do you have to tear up your vegetarian card? Prob-ably, but the compensation is that you get to call yourself a “sentien-tist” — a cool, (literally) intellec-tual term coined by Peter Singer to describe “a person who thinks that creatures besides man have coherent thoughts and therefore can suffer and so should get our consideration.”

A worthwhile sentiment. While I don’t plan to become a pure sentien-tist anytime soon, even the carni-vores among us can take comfort in displacing at least some of our meaty main courses with a briny, savory serving of oysters.

Brad Lemley is a science and health writer and former senior correspondent for The Washington Post and Discover magazine.

"In the realm of compassionate

eating, oysters are essentially the same

thing as plants."