Chronic Disease: Cause, Prevention and Cure - Diabetes (Part I)

~ Courtesy of the World Preservation Foundation 

Plant-base Diets: A Solution to Our Public Health Crisis

 Joel Fuhrman MD

Director of Research for Nutritional Research Project for the National

Health Association, Board Certified Family Physician, New Jersey, USA

Type II diabetes, which accounts for over 90% of diabetes cases, is preventable and even reversible with excellent nutrition Excess body fat is the most significant cause of type II diabetes. In order to reverse the rising trends of obesity and diabetes and their associated costs, we must emphasize prevention and treatment via dietary and lifestyle modifications.

How Does Obesity Cause Diabetes?

Every cell in the human body needs glucose. Insulin promotes uptake and storage of glucose in muscle and fat cells. Type II diabetes is a disease of insulin resistance – the body is not adequately responding to the insulin being produced.

Obesity is related to the development of diabetes for several reasons. Fat cells are not merely storage houses for extra energy – they produce and secrete substances with significant biological effects, including interfering with the uptake of insulin into other cells. Fat cells release substances such as free fatty acids, hormones, and cytokines that promote insulin resistance.¹ Furthermore dietary trans fats and saturated fats interfere with insulin binding to its receptors.² When an individual is significantly overweight or obese, with more than 50 pounds of additional fat weight, the body demands huge loads of insulin from the pancreas. After years of overworking the pancreas, it loses the ability to keep up with the huge insulin demands. Eventually, with less insulin available to move glucose from the bloodstream into the cells, the glucose level in the blood starts to rise and the person is diagnosed with diabetes.

Drugs Do Little To Help, and Often Can Make Things Worse

Medication is now the accepted treatment for diabetes—even though it’s often the medication itself that is causing more weight gain, worsening symptoms, and making the individual more diabetic. Insulin and many of the oral anti-diabetes drugs promote weight gain, exacerbating the condition.³ Type II diabetic patients exposed to insulin or sulfonylureas (commonly prescribed oral anti-diabetes drugs) which push the failing pancreas to produce more insulin, advance the natural deterioration of the beta cells in the pancreas and have significantly increased incidence of cancer at multiple sites,^4,5 higher risk of heart failure and all-cause mortality.⁶

The ACCORD (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes) study was conducted to determine whether lowering glucose to near-normal levels (HbA1C <6.0%) with drugs would decrease cardiovascular risk; the study was halted when the results showed that aggressive glycemic control actually increased the risk of death from all causes and from cardiovascular disease.⁷

Clearly, relying on medication without utilizing dietary and exercise interventions is not ideal. Diabetics take medication but remain overweight and continue to consume the Western diet; they continue to damage their organs, develop complications, and die prematurely.

How Can We Prevent (and reverse) Diabetes?

The cure for type II diabetes is already known – removing the cause can reverse the disease, and the chief cause is excess weight from the Western diet and inactivity. The best and safest “medicine” for a diabetic is a high-nutrient density diet (HND diet; an eating style focused on low-calorie, nutrient-rich plant foods) and exercise.

Weight loss is effective in itself¹, but the goal of lifestyle intervention must be to improve pancreatic function and lower insulin resistance over and above what could be accomplished with weight loss alone. An HND diet can accomplish this; by emphasizing micronutrient adequacy, cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure are lowered as weight is lost and blood glucose drops. We have extensive experience treating overweight diabetics with superior nutrition and the results are impressive. The majority are able to restore their glucose levels to the normal range without any further need for medications. They have essentially become non-diabetic again.

Overview of an HND Diet for Diabetes Reversal:

• No refined carbohydrates – both sugars and starches

• Minimal grains (intact grains only) only one serving daily

• Very high fibre (over 50 grams per day)

• High viscous fiber (flax, oats, beans)

• High percentage of resistant starch

• Moderate fat from seeds and nuts

• Very low saturated fat

• Zero trans fatty acids

• Sufficient omega-3 fatty acids

• High phytochemicals and antioxidants

• Low glycemic load

• Very low sodium (less than 1,200 mg/day)

• Low caloric density per food volume

• Minimal or no animal products, used only occasionally as one ounce condiment

The HND diet consists primarily of foods that have been associated with diabetes prevention in the medical literature: its focus is on eating more vegetables, especially low-calorie, high nutrient vegetables such as green vegetables, eggplant, onion, mushrooms, tomatoes, cauliflower, spaghetti squash, zucchini squash and legumes. Animal products are significantly curtailed or eliminated as are processed foods, sweeteners, white rice, white flour, oils and caloric sweeteners. Of note:

• Pooled data from four studies determined that eating 1.35 servings (1 serving = 106 g) of green leafy vegetables vs. 0.2 servings per day provided a 14% decrease in diabetes risk⁸

• Beans are high-nutrient, high-fiber, and low-calorie. They are digested slowly which induces satiety and stabilizes blood glucose. Therefore, beans are the most appropriate source of carbohydrate for diabetics. A study on 64,000 women followed for 4 years found that high intake of legumes were associated with a 38% decreased risk of diabetes⁹

• An inverse relationship between nut consumption and diabetes was reported in the Nurses’ Health Study – 5 servings of nuts per week was associated with a 27% decrease in risk¹⁰

• Adding three servings of fresh fruit (with a focus on low sugar fruits) per day to one’s diet may decrease diabetes risk by up to 18%¹¹

Scientific support for the therapeutic use of plant-based diets for diabetes

Whole, plant foods have anti-diabetic characteristics.¹² As such, randomized trials using a plant-based diet to treat diabetes have yielded impressive results. In a 22-week study published in 2006, a low-fat plant-based diet allowed for an average decrease of 1.23 points in A1C, weight loss of 13 lbs., and 21.2% decrease in LDL cholesterol. Most importantly, 43% of the participants were able to reduce their diabetes medications. An earlier study reported a 28% decrease in fasting blood glucose, as well as reduction or discontinuation of diabetes medications.¹³ An HND diet, however, potentially has further advantages over a low-fat vegan diet, because an HND diet is based primarily on green vegetables and beans rather than grains and starches, which provides greater micronutrient and resistant starch content. Data was collected from thirteen subjects at baseline and after a median of seven months on a HND diet. Mean values are shown in the table below:¹⁴

Conclusion

The current standard of treating diabetes with medications does little to improve long-term patient outcomes, has significant drawbacks and in many cases the medications serve as subconscious permission to continue eating improperly. Evidence on nutritional interventions for diabetics from multiple investigations as well as our own data demonstrates that a plant-based micronutrient rich diet has tremendous therapeutic potential while decreasing cardiovascular risk factors. Additionally, in an earlier study an HND diet was shown to reduce LDL cholesterol by 33%.¹⁵ This approach promotes longevity and in many cases can even resolve the diabetes. If this approach was used on a large scale, for both prevention and reversal of chronic disease, rates of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer would all drop, resulting in a healthier population and a dramatic reduction in healthcare costs.

References:

1. Khaodhiar, L., S. Cummings, and C.M. Apovian, Treating diabetes and prediabetes by focusing on obesity management. Current diabetes reports, 2009. 9(5): p. 348-54.

2. Riserus, U., W.C. Willett, and F.B. Hu, Dietary fats and prevention of type 2 diabetes. Prog. Lipid Res., 2009. 48(1): p. 44-51.

3. Hermansen, K. and L.S. Mortensen, Bodyweight changes associated with antihyperglycaemic agents in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Drug safety : an international journal of medical toxicology and drug experience, 2007. 30(12): p. 1127-42.

4. Bowker, S.L., S.R. Majumdar, P. Veugelers, et al., Increased cancer-related mortality for patients with type 2 diabetes who use sulfonylureas or insulin: Response to Farooki and Schneider. Diabetes Care, 2006. 29(8): p. 1990-1.

5. Harish, K., M. Dharmalingam, and M. Himanshu, Study Protocol: insulin and its role in cancer.BMC endocrine disorders, 2007. 7: p. 10.

6. Tzoulaki, I., M. Molokhia, V. Curcin, et al., Risk of cardiovascular disease and all cause mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes prescribed oral antidiabetes drugs: retrospective cohort study using UK general practice research database. BMJ, 2009. 339: p. b4731.

7. Gerstein, H.C., M.E. Miller, R.P. Byington, et al., Effects of intensive glucose lowering in type 2 diabetes. The New England journal of medicine, 2008. 358(24): p. 2545-59.

8. Carter, P., L.J. Gray, J. Troughton, et al., Fruit and vegetable intake and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus: systematic review and metaanalysis. BMJ, 2010. 341: p. c4229.

9. Villegas, R., Y.T. Gao, G. Yang, et al., Legume and soy food intake and the incidence of type 2 diabetes in the Shanghai Women’s Health Study. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 2008. 87(1): p. 162-7.

10. Jiang, R., J.E. Manson, M.J. Stampfer, et al., Nut and peanut butter consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes in women. JAMA, 2002. 288(20): p. 2554-60.

11. Bazzano, L.A., T.Y. Li, K.J. Joshipura, et al., Intake of Fruit, Vegetables, and Fruit Juices and Risk of Diabetes in Women. Diabetes Care, 2008. 31(7): p. 1311-1317.

12. Jenkins, D.J., C.W. Kendall, A. Marchie, et al., Type 2 diabetes and the vegetarian diet. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 2003. 78(3 Suppl): p. 610S-616S.

13. Nicholson, A.S., M. Sklar, N.D. Barnard, et al., Toward improved management of NIDDM: A randomized, controlled, pilot intervention using a lowfat, vegetarian diet. Prev. Med., 1999. 29(2): p. 87-91.

14. Dunaief, D., Y. Gui-shuang, J. Fuhrman, et al., Glycemic and cardiovascular parameters improved in type 2 diabetes with the high nutrient density diet. J. Nutr., 2010. 14(6): p. 500.

15. Jenkins, D.J., C.W. Kendall, D.G. Popovich, et al., Effect of a very-high-fiber vegetable, fruit, and nut diet on serum lipids and colonic function. Metabolism., 2001. 50(4): p. 494-503.

Note: To download the full publication of "Plant-based Diets: A Solution to Our Public Health Crisis", please visit the World Preservation Foundation. 

Sustainable Eating

A great article by Bill Gee on vegetarianism. Click here for the full article.

Sustainable Eating Part 2: Vegetarian Awareness Month

There is little doubt about it that Americans are addicted to meat, and the evidence is overwhelming that a diet high in animal products is not only bad for your health but it is also bad for the environment. As a person who has not eaten meat for five years, I can tell you firsthand how difficult it is to explain to non-vegetarians the benefits of changing their diets, but getting people to actually consider changing their behavior is like trying to convince a nicotine addict to stop smoking or a alcoholic to stop drinking.

Sustainable Barbeque?
Nathan Myhrvold recently wrote an article for Bloomberg regarding Texan’s love of Barbeque. His headline says it all, “Texas’s Cult of Smoke”. At first glance you might assume that the article will be pointing out the insanity in cutting down acres of mesquite hardwood in order to feed the “eternal fire” at Smitty’s Market in Lowell Texas, but there is hardly a discouraging word in the entire article. The article even points out how bad the beans are so that customers are encouraged to eat more meat like that's a good thing!
In preparing this article, I found it extremely discouraging to not find any articles or studies that evaluated the environmental impact of the cult of barbeque beyond the benefits of propane verses charcoal. Have we become so addicted to the practice that even organizations like the Sierra Club are more content to seek a compromise with long-time barbeque fans rather than pointing out the fact that America’s barbeque and meat habit is destroying natural habitat, polluting the air, reducing the water table, and increasing our healthcare costs at the same time?

Failed Vegetarians
The reason why most people stop eating a vegetarian diet is because they simply don’t know how to eat a diet without meat in it. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve met people who have told me that they tried eating a vegetarian diet, but they got tired of eating salads all the time, and they couldn’t stand the fact that they didn’t have a lot of energy. There is a myth among meat eaters that a vegetarian diet is simply a normal diet without the meat. That instead of a 10-ounce porterhouse and a side of (mostly untouched) greens, the vegetarians will just go for the greens and leave the table hungry.
When I first began eating a mostly vegetarian diet, I cannot tell you how many people told me that my new diet would actually be BAD for my health! At the time, I was overweight, I had Stage One Hypertension, my cholesterol was slipping into the danger zone, and I was often tired, moody, and I was passing kidney stones every other month. In other words, at 35 years-old, I was falling into a high-risk group for a heart attack, stroke, colon cancer, and renal failure, yet my friends and family simply assumed that my diet had nothing to do with that!

Since changing my diet, my blood pressure is under control, my cholesterol is manageable, I have plenty of energy, I’m more productive than ever and I haven’t passed a kidney stone in four years.

Vegetarian Etiquette
A word of warning about taking the pledge: it won’t be easy. When I first made the change to my diet, I cannot tell you how many times I was hanging out with friends and finding there was very little for me to eat. There was one time when I attended a banquet where there was absolutely nothing on the menu I could eat as even the salad and the dinner rolls contained meat. At a family picnic, the only thing I could eat was an ear of corn and hamburger bun. (My family didn’t even bother packing lettuce and tomatoes for their burgers)
Today, rather than depend on my friends and family to prepare enough food for me to be satisfied, I bring my own “main course”. If I’m going to a picnic, I take along a couple of mushroom burgers. If I’m going to a dinner where I know my choices are likely to be limited, I eat before I arrive, or if the meal is “potluck”, I’m sure to bring something that I’ll be able to eat and I know others are likely to enjoy as well.

The one thing you should never do is wear your vegetarianism on your shoulder like a newfound religion. You will never be able to convince anyone to change their diets or improve their health by being an ass about it.

Cold Turkey
In conclusion, in the spirit of doing something good for yourself and the rest of the world, consider taking the pledge next month to eat a vegetarian diet. Do it for a day, or try it for the entire month. As long as you plan your meals carefully, you won’t starve. Being a vegetarian doesn’t mean you’re eating nothing but salads all day. It’ll surprise you how much good food loaded with easily digestible fats and protein is out there.
There may come a time within our lifetimes when sustainable, mostly vegetarian eating will become a necessity, so why not give it a try right now? Your body and your community may thank you for it.

Sheena Blackhall's "The Animal Refugees"

Oh dear, Leao the loyal canine in Brazil started it all. After reading his story, I couldn't help but look for more animal stories. I found this poem on the internet, written by Sheena Blackhall, about animal refugees. It's a very thought-provoking one... And once more, it's us humans who bring destruction and despair to the natural world and the world of other beings. Now we're also destroying our Earth, our only home, through our destructive habits of excessive consumerism. However, it seems that the main culprit of the most destruction -- polluting our oceans; deforesting our rainforests; impairing human health, those who live in the vicinity, through toxic gas and fumes and waste lagoons -- is the livestock industry. We're decimating biodiversity, human as well as animal. Going veg, being vegan, reducing meat consumption, is the first step we can take to protect all lives, as well as preserve our planet for posterity.

The Animal Refugees

By Sheena Blackhall

I’m the only elephant in Phnomh Penh
No more of my kind you’ll see
My wife ran off from the killing fields
She’s an animal refugee

I’m a Mekong crocodile from Vietnam
When the napalm scorched each tree
I swam to Laos at dead of night
I’m an animal refugee

I’m a slithery snake from Angkor Wat
Where the mountains churned the sea
Now tourists squat in my habitat
I’m an animal refugee

When people’s homes are ripped apart
There’s appeals on world TV
No one saves us. There’s little fuss
For an animal refugee.

Angel on Our Plate

by Farm Sanctuary

At one time or another, we all have heard or read of a compelling reason why we should stay away from eating animal flesh. In fact, many religions make reference to the abstinence from meat. Here are a few examples:

Regarding the eating of animal flesh and abstinence therefrom, know thou of a certainty that, in the beginning of creation, God determined the food of every living being, and to eat contrary to that determination is not approved.

~ The Bahá’í Faith, Selections from the Bahá’í Writings on Some Aspects of Health and Healing, Pages 7-8

If you know the animals were killed for meat, but we still eat, we’re already committing the sin of killing. If the animals are killed because of us, then the sin belongs to us, and the soul of the dead will resent us, not the killer. If we are willing to eat that meat, that shows that we are cruel and ruthless! Therefore, only a ruthless heart can eat meat or that meat eaters have a ruthless heart.

~ The Bhiksu Sangha Buddhist Association, The Book of Truth, Pages 201-202, lines 25-33

Bhagavan, having heard the Buddha said that, in the six paths, all the meat we eat are of the relatives of our own, we now know that meat eating makes us the big enemies of living beings, destroys our great merciful seeds, increases evil karmas, and is the root of great suffering.

~ Buddhism, Lankavatara Sutra (Tripitaka No. 671)

Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them.

~ Christianity, Holy Bible, 1st Corinthians 6:13

He who desires to augment his own flesh by eating the flesh of other creatures lives in misery in whatever species he may take his birth.
~ Hinduism, Mahabharata, Anu. 115.47. FS, pg. 90

Allah will not give mercy  to anyone, except those who give mercy  to other creatures. Where there is an abundance of vegetables, a host of angels will descend on that place.

~ Islam, Hadith

Those plants, I, Ahura Mazda (God), rain down upon the earth, to bring food to the faithful, and fodder to the beneficent cow; to bring food to my people that they may live on it.

~ Zoroastrianism, Avesta, Venidad Fargard 5-20

I have read all this. Some of it is pretty scary especially the excerpt from the Buddha about eating our own relatives because, for some reasons, they might have reincarnated onto this plane again in an animal form. The Buddha is certainly a much more enlightened being than me, and highly revered and respected all over the world, so I take his word for it. A good reason to be vegetarian or vegan. But nothing made a deeper impression on me than what I've read today in Dolores Cannon’s book, Convoluted Universe III. To illustrate the point, I have to excerpt a little bit. What follows is a conversation between Dolores and a form of energy that has a personality and can communicate in human language, through a person whom Dolores was regressing using hypnotherapy.

D: Is there anyone that tells you what you have to do, and where you have to go?

P: Not really. When we join and kind of blend together, it becomes, I guess, a group decision. The energies join together and you come out with a direction. Where to go. What to do.

D: Then you all work together?

P: Not necessarily, no. But the All helps the one determine what would be best for all.

D: Then eventually, you do have to go someplace and help?

P: There’s no have to. You don’t have to go. But we feel a responsibility, because we go places and raise energy in places that need it.

D: Places where the energy is too low, or ....

P: And dense, yes. Earth would be a place.

D: Have you been there before?

P: Many times. The energy is very dense. But we go and we create pockets of energy. And just by being there, it raises the frequency.

D: Do you have to be in a physical body when you’re there?

P: No, we can do it either way. If it serves the purpose, we can become a form; a human form, animal form. We can also exist there as the air.

D: So if you feel the need to go and just raise the energy of a

certain area?

P: We go, yes.

D: You said, pockets of energy? (Yes.) How do you do that?

P: Just the same bellows thing I was telling you about. Going in and coming out, in this energy shape. It’s kind of a rhythmic pulsation. And it lifts the vibration.

In order to uplift the vibration of our planet, of any planet, this energy “can become a form; a human form, animal form.” That sentence got me. According to what I’ve read, our planet is in a really critical state right now and the call has gone out throughout the universe for volunteers to come and help restore the balance and protect our planet. These volunteers, loving beings who have been living in bliss in their home planets, come to Earth in many different forms, sizes and shapes, and some of them may come in as animal forms to bless our planet with their pure and loving energy. They are what we call “guardian angels.” We are used to guardian angels as brilliant beings of light with delicate and transparent wings. That's what I thought too, that all angels look like that. Apparently not. They can be angels in disguise, wearing the skin of an animal so they can be closer to us humans so they can help us even more. And yet, we kill them and serve them up, angels on our plate, as dinner, every day, all over the world, millions and billions of them.

Why can’t they protect themselves from being killed if they are angels? Good question. I asked that question too. Based on what I've read that once they are in the human forms, they are restricted by the physical limitation, and like all of us, the true purpose of their existence has been erased from their memory; otherwise, it would be too unbearable, too painful, too miserable, for them to continue living on Earth in such a dense and restrictive form.

We can’t tell really which animals are angels incarnate who have descended to help our planet…we don’t have the wisdom or the third eye to even discern who they are. I, for one, can’t tell. When I read that part, it tore at my heart somehow: in our ignorance we eat up our guardian angels. How sad is that?

Do we really need animal flesh to sustain our physical existence? There are so much information out there and plenty of research studies that say otherwise. Check out the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. We need to inform ourselves about the best dietary choice for our health, our conscience, and for our planet…because the next time we eat animal flesh, it may be an angel that’s on our plate.

"A Vision of Vegetarianism and Peace"

I was doing a little research for an essay that I had to write and I came across this thought-provoking excerpt of Rabbi Kook's "A Vision of Vegetarianism and Peace." According to Wiki, Rabbi Kook was a renowned Torah scholar. By no means am I Jewish...nor does religious boundaries matter to me since I truly believe that all religions have their own inherent goodness; sometimes it's us humans who just mess up the teachings of the saints and ancient masters and create havoc for ourselves...But this is not the topic of today's post.

Rather than trying to paraphrase a great piece of writing. I took the liberty of posting the entire article which I've stumbled upon. Perhaps you can discover some gems of wisdom from this excerpt that may help connect the dots of your life journey, as it did mine.

Selections From

"A Vision of Vegetarianism and Peace"
By HaRav Avraham Yitzchak Kuk
As edited by his disciple, HaRav David Kohen, the Nazir of Jerusalem
Translated by Rabbi David Sears

The Just Treatment of Animals
Chapter 1
There is a fundamental part of a lofty, humane, and progressive sensibility that, according to the present state of the prevailing culture, exists today only in the pleasant dream of a few extremely idealistic souls: an innate ethical striving, a feeling for what is humane and just, to consider the rights of animals, with all that this entails.

Certain cruel philosophies, especially those that denied belief in God, according to their views on human ethics based upon reason, have advocated that man completely stifle within himself any sense of justice for animals. However, they have not succeeded, nor shall they succeed, with all their self-serving cleverness, in perverting the innate sense of justice that the Creator planted within the human soul. Although sympathy for animals is like the glow of a smoldering ember buried under a great heap of ashes, nevertheless, it is impossible for them to negate this sensitivity within every feeling heart. For as a rule, the lack of morality among all humanity consists in failing to heed the good and noble instinct not to take any form of life, whether for one's needs or physical gratification.

Our sages did not agree with these philosophical views. They tell us that the holy Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi was visited with afflictions because he told a calf being led to slaughter, that had sought refuge in the skirts of his garment, "Go! This is the purpose for which you were created." His healing, too, was brought about by a deed, when he showed mercy to some weasels (Baba Metzia 85a). They did not conduct themselves like the philosophers, who exchange darkness for light, for the sake of pragmatism. It is impossible to imagine that the Master of all that transpires, Who has mercy upon all His creatures, would establish an eternal decree such as this in the creation that He pronounced "exceedingly good," that it should be impossible for the human race to exist without violating its own moral instincts by shedding blood, be it even the blood of animals.

Man's Original Diet Was Vegetarian
Chapter 2
There can be no doubt in the mind of any intelligent, thinking person that when the Torah instructs humankind to dominate – "And have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves upon the Earth" (Genesis 1:28) – it does not mean the domination of a harsh ruler, who afflicts his people and servants merely to fulfill his personal whim and desire, according to the crookedness of his heart. It is unthinkable that the Torah would impose such a decree of servitude, sealed for all eternity, upon the world of God, Who is "good to all, and His mercy is upon all His works" (Psalms 145:9), and Who declared, "The world shall be built upon kindness" (ibid. 89:3).

Moreover, the Torah attests that all humanity once possessed this lofty moral level. Citing scriptural proofs, our Sages explain (Sanhedrin 57a) that Adam was not permitted to eat meat: "Behold, I have given you every tree... yielding seed for food" (Genesis 1:29). Eating meat was permitted to the children of Noah only after the Flood: "Like the green herb, I have given you everything" (Genesis 9:3). Is it conceivable that this moral excellence, which once existed as an inherent human characteristic, should be lost forever? Concerning these and similar matters, it states, "I shall bring knowledge from afar, and unto my Maker I shall ascribe righteousness" (Job 36:3). In the future, God shall cause us to make great spiritual strides, and thus extricate us from this complex question.

Vegetarianism and Enlightenment
Chapter 12
When humanity reaches its goal of complete happiness and spiritual liberation, when it attains that lofty peak of perfection that is the pure knowledge of God and the full manifestation of the essential holiness of life, then the age of "motivation by virtue of enlightenment" will have arrived. This is like a structure built on the foundation of "motivation by virtue of the law," which of necessity must precede [that of "motivation by virtue of enlightenment"] for all humanity.
Then human beings will recognize their companions in Creation: all the animals. And they will understand how it is fitting from the standpoint of the purest ethical standard not to resort to moral concessions, to compromise the Divine attribute of justice with that of mercy[1] [by permitting mankind's exploitation of animals]; for they will no longer need extenuating concessions, as in those matters of which the Talmud states: "The Torah speaks only of the evil inclination" (Kiddushin 31b).[2] Rather they will walk the path of absolute good. As the prophet declares: "I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; I also will banish the bow and sword, and war from the land [and I will cause them to rest in safety. I will betroth you to Me forever; and I will betroth you to Me with righteousness, with justice, with kindness, and with compassion; and I will betroth you to Me with faith, and you will know God]" (Hosea 2:20).

Shechita: Humane Slaughter
Chapter 14
The act of slaughter (shechita) must be sanctified in a unique manner – "as I have commanded you" – with a minimum of pain to the animal. Thus, the person will take to heart the fact that this is a sentient being; he is not involved with a random object that moves about like an automaton, but with a living, feeling creature. He must become attuned to its senses, even to its emotions, to the feeling it has for the life of its family members, and to its compassion for its own offspring. Thus, it is biblically forbidden to kill the mother bird with her children on the same day, or to slaughter a calf before it is eight days old; and it is a positive precept to send away the mother bird before taking her young.

Cover the Blood
Chapter 17, abridged
"If anyone of the Children of Israel or a convert who joins them traps an animal or bird that may be eaten and spills its blood, he must cover [the blood] with earth" (Leviticus 17:13).
The obligation to cover the blood teaches us to see the shedding of a [non-domestic] animal's blood as an act akin to murder; thus we should be ashamed to shed the blood of a [domestic] animal, as well. It was not deemed necessary to cover the blood of a domestic animal because it is slaughtered in an area where people are commonly found. Thus it is preferable to leave the blood of the animal in plain sight, that it may remind others that slaughtering an animal is like murder. This is not the case with [non-domestic] animals and birds that are trapped and slaughtered far from human habitation, whose blood is not seen. Here, by contrast, the obligation of covering the blood teaches that this is a shameful act.

Do Not Cook Meat and Milk Together
Chapter 20, abridged
"The first of the new produce of your land you shall bring to the house of the Lord, your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk" (Exodus 23:19).

The mother animal does not live so that a person, simply by his right of ownership, may exploit her for his own purposes; rather, her milk is intended for her own young, whom she loves. The kid, too, is entitled by its natural disposition to the pleasure of its mother's loving breast. However, the cruelty of the human heart, produced by our coarse materialism and moral weakness, distorts and perverts these principles. Thus, the tender kid, according to the assessment of man's inferior ethical sensitivity, has no right to nestle against its loving mother, nor to enjoy the light of life, but deserves only to be slaughtered in order to provide food for the bellies of gluttonous human beings, whose debased souls insist, "I will eat meat" (Deuteronomy 12:20).

According to this, what should be the purpose of the milk, if not to cook in it the slaughtered kid? Is this not a natural combination of these two essential foods, the milk and the tender kid that derives nurture from it? However, humanity, let your ears hear something behind you, the voice of God that loudly cries out: "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk." No, the purpose of the kid is not merely to be food for your sharp teeth, sharpened and polished by your lowliness and gluttony in eating meat; and certainly the milk is not intended to be a condiment for the satisfaction of your base desire.

The Law of the Treifah
Chapter 26, abridged
"People of holiness you shall be unto Me; you shall not eat the flesh of an animal that was torn (treifah) in the field..." (Exodus 22:30).
Distinctive [among the traits of Israel] is the compassion that waits to blossom into manifestation from amidst the feelings of the pure-hearted, and spread from humanity to all living creatures. This compassion is nascent within the prohibition of eating neveilah (an animal that has died as a result of sickness) or a treifah (an animal that has died as a result of bodily injury).
Just as we naturally feel greater pity for sick or injured human beings than we feel for the healthy, the unfortunate injured animal deserves our additional sympathy. Having internalized the ethical implications of the Torah's prohibition of eating the flesh of a torn animal, our hearts can fully experience the spirit of enlightenment that relates the precept of visiting the sick, prompting us to relieve their distress.

The commonality that exists between our feelings of compassion [for both animals and human beings] also expresses itself in connection with the need to guard our health, both spiritually and physically, and in not putting ourselves on the same plane as the predatory beasts. Rather, [the Torah] imposes upon us the further obligation to bring about their good, to benefit and to enlighten them. How could we consume the treifah lying in the field, which would appear like "dividing the spoil" with [the wild beasts], and constitute a tacit approval of their predatory habits?

It is true that, among the various categories of treifah discussed by the Talmudic sages, we must distinguish between a mortally injured animal in the field and a terminally ill human being. However, the suffering of both creatures calls for our compassion, which initially should be awakened on behalf of the wretched and the outcast. The law of the animal that died as a result of sickness prepares the heart to feel even greater repugnance toward exploiting the misfortune of other creatures in the event of their deaths. This sensitivity signals a sense of comradeship, sharing another's pain, and our having entered the borders of their inner world. With this, the "motivation by virtue of enlightenment" will supercede the "motivation by virtue of the law," causing us to distance ourselves from committing any evil upon these, our comrades in the universe, since we all come forth from the hand of One Creator, the Master of All His Works.

Animals During the Messianic Age
Chapter 31
At the end of days an inner thirst will prompt each person to search for someone upon whom to confer benevolence, upon whom to pour forth his overflowing spirit of kindness, but none will be found. For all humanity already will have attained happiness, living lives of delight, gratification, and prosperity in every sense – materially, ethically, and intellectually.

Then, with all its store of wisdom, its collective insight and experience, humanity will turn toward its brothers on lower levels of Creation, the mute and the downtrodden, including the animal kingdom. And they will seek means to share wisdom with them, to instruct and enlighten them according to their abilities, thus to elevate them from level to level. There is no question that humanity will take an active part in this when the time comes to accomplish this mission. Beyond all doubt, humanity will share the enlightenment of the Torah with the animal kingdom, affecting their physical development and, all the more so, their ethical and spiritual development. This state of enlightenment will reach such a lofty level that we cannot imagine it at present, due to our lowliness and lack of wisdom. All beings shall receive a new, exalted form – a new world. [This is implied by the words of our sages:] "If they so desired, the tzaddikim could create a world" (Sanhedrin 65b).

The Spiritual Perfection of Animals
Chapter 32
As a consequence of their spiritual elevation in general, the lofty level attained [by animals] in the course of their development will also affect their senses and feelings, to attune and refine them. Indeed, a higher nature comes with this. "And the oxen and the young donkeys who work the soil shall eat enriched food that was winnowed with the shovel and with the fan" (Isaiah 30:24). For according to the loftiness of their souls, the faculty of taste will be developed to a higher degree of sensitivity, as befits their spiritual stature.

With a "still, small voice" does the wisdom of Israel, the Kabbalah, speak: the level of animals in the future will partake of the level of humanity as it is today, due to the "ascent of the worlds." [3]
This is the radiant vision the prophets disclosed to us of the civilized state that will be attained by the predatory animals of today: "And a wolf shall dwell with a lamb, and a leopard shall lie with a kid, and a calf and a lion cub and a fatling together, and a small child shall lead them. And a heifer and a bear shall graze together; their young shall lie down together, and a lion, like the ox, shall eat straw. And an infant shall play over a viper's hole, and over the den of an adder shall a weaned child stretch forth his hand. They shall neither harm nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the knowledge of God shall fill the Earth as the water covers the sea" (Isaiah 11:6-9).

NOTES
[1] Bereishis Rabba 8:4.
[2] See Sefer HaIkkarim 3:15.
[3] Kabbalistic literature describes the sequential emanation of four "worlds," or levels of reality: Action, Formation, Creation, and Emanation. When the spiritual disharmony on a lower level attains tikkun, or rectification, that level enters into a state of unification and harmony with the level above itself. This process is known as aliyah, or ascent.
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