‘Win One for the Gipper’: Animal Fats Double Your Risk of Alzheimer’s

Meat Increases the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

“Extensive evidence points to the rich Western diet as the fundamental cause of Alzheimer’s disease: … Worldwide, the incidence of AD [Alzheimer’s disease] is more common among people who follow meat- and dairy-centered diets than among those people who eat a more plant-based diet.” —Dr. John McDougall, McDougall Wellness Center

Indeed, a flood of research shows that the cholesterol, fat and toxins in meat, including chicken and fish, increase your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, while the antioxidants in plant foods help prevent this deadly disease.

In the wake of former President Ronald Reagan’s death, there was a flurry of public discussion about Alzheimer’s disease and the Reagan family’s push for stem-cell research. The public would also benefit from being informed that Alzheimer’s, although not currently curable, can be prevented.

What better way to alert the public than with a billboard campaign that features a respectful image of President Reagan, calling on the public to “win one for the Gipper” by adopting a vegetarian diet?

This became a personal crusade for one of PETA’s campaign coordinators who lost his grandmother to Alzheimer’s. Our campaigner had the idea of using President Reagan’s image and petitioning Mrs. Reagan for support. Like Nancy Reagan, he wanted to end the terrible and rapidly growing plague of Alzheimer’s disease.

PETA asked the American public what it thought of the campaign, and after reviewing the evidence that meat is linked to Alzheimer’s, the majority said, “Run the billboard.”

Many of those who wanted us to run the board also wrote to us. One man from North Carolina wrote, “I just visited PETA’s Web site and saw the ‘Win One for the Gipper’ billboard and related story. I voted, ‘Yes’―I emphatically urge you to place this billboard across America. I understand that PETA may experience some resistance to the use of President Reagan’s picture and thus am taking the time to also let you know that many of us who have been affected by this horrific disease are cheering you on. … I thank you for exposing potential Alzheimer’s sufferers to this important scientific information.”

By popular demand, the billboard ran nationwide to alert people to an important way to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.