"Some of the most important hard science behind the nutritarian diet can be found in The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell."
Some of it, yes. The link I posted was just a summary page from someone eating this way. The Eat To Live guys have reviewed over 60,000 articles in the scientific literature. The book Eat To Live alone references more than a thousand. A pretty solid scientific foundation for a diet style.
make your argument for the vegan lifestyle but please don't simply point to a website (as if that is proof of anything). Meat once added to the meal is harmful, the cause of chronic disease...let's see your argument.
Well, I'll dive into this quagmire, even tho I'm new on this forum. * Been experimenting on diet since 1979. No, doesn't make me an 'authority', but I do have 30+ yrs experience in a dietary study on ONE person * Tried just about everything 'cept the "let's overdose on bacon diet". Never could quite get my stomach around that one. What I'm now into is a variation(my own spin) on work written by these two guys: "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman. The basics. Not invented by him, but refined somewhat from earlier works and his own thoughts. "Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution". Appears to(me) be a refinement of Furhman's stuff. I dunno if the two ever connected or not, but this guy is the real deal. World famous heart surgeon(Palm Springs), got tired of being one of the fat slobs he kept seeing on the slab in front of him and did something about it. BOTH books are worth a read. Note, tho, Eat to Live is earlier than Diet Evolution. Where I think many people go astray(on this board, too) is in not differentiating between eating what's good for you vs. what's bad for you. By this, I mean if you're changing diet, consider the two separately. In approaching the above diets, I focused -first- on adding into my diet what I thought might be lacking. ONLY after that, did I consider what I might wanna cut back on. Translation: Make sure you're getting the right nutrition in the right form FIRST, then start elminating the other stuff. Just cutting back on the 'crud' ain't gonna cut it, cuz your body will always be craving good nutrition. If you're not getting the right nutrition, your cravings will ramp up a LOT on the crud stuff, as your body wants correct nutrition wherever it can find it; even if that means eating a ton of crap just to get the little bit of goodness in it. So, for me, what I found out as I ate more and more 'green veggies', in as raw a form as possible was that I had fewer cravings for the more junky stuff. High carbs, lots of fish protein(I quit eating red meat/pork decades ago), and the occasional sugar highs ALL became much less of a craving for me. In addition, while I don't have scientific evidence(yet), I do feel much lighter and more energetic; kinda reminds me a bit of feeling like a kid. Time will tell on this one. I have been very careful on diet for 30+ years, but -did- notice a real change, based on the books above. I don't expect to change anyone's rabid opinions in this thread, but would like to point out these guy's work for anyone who's mind isn't totally fossilized yet... Worth a read. I got my copies el cheapo from ebay, so money ain't the issue here. Btw, I suspect my chances of croaking from ________ (fill in the blank; diabetes, colon cancer, Alzheimer's, mad cow disease, etc.) are about zero. Won't know till then, but that's my read on it now... You are what you eat. I'm convinced health & long living is about 85% diet and the rest is exercise and stress control.
Great post AMA! And, particularly thanks for the Dr. Grundy recommendation. Hadn't heard of him before. Downloaded his book and have already stayed up too late with it. He is a compelling writer. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TO681Y/ref=kcp_casc_buybook/?showKP=true
Yup; you're welcome. Also, part of what I tried to say and couldn't, as I'm new here and my posts don't clear/show up until overnight(hard to edit that way) is: * Instead of focusing so much on what NOT to eat/do, start with adding 'the right stuff' into your diet. Later, you can evaluate and decide what you might wanna cut out. Reason for this is that your nose/taste buds/digestive system is a sophisticated chemical analysis/processing system. Once it decides on sumpin' you need, nutrition-wise, it produces cravings to satisfy that need. So, if you're getting 30% reqs of substance 'X' and it comes only from potatoes in your current diet, then you'll start getting massive cravings for potatoes; mashed, fried, hashed; you name it. Only problem with that is potatoes ain't amongst the best foods for you - wrong on the glycemic angle, mushy fiber, and filling enough to stuff you before you can get the correct nutrients elsewhere. Works much better to get 100% reqs of substance 'X' from a better source... What I noticed after putting my own spin/twist on Gundry's Diet Evolution was that once I got my 'daily dose of greens', I started losing desire for some of the other foods I'd been eating. I also leaned up a bit more, which is good. Wasn't fat to begin with, either. More good goes in = less desire for crap stuff. Any rate, as mentioned, probably not gonna change hardened opinions, but for anyone open enough to get another angle on diet, this stuff is the best I know of, and I've tried damned near everything over the last 30+ years.
I started a pretty intense boot camp exercise regime for the past year (in place of running 15-20 miles a week), I really didn't notice much change in my body until this past month, when I started to focus on my diet and what I ate. The biggest change I made was to focus more on eating healthy fats -- avocados, coconut oil, nuts. Whenever I'd get a craving for a bag of chips or cake, I'd go for a tablespoon of almond butter instead. After this change, I finally started dropping fat of my midsection; I just didn't feel that hungry overall anymore. The desire for salty chips and soda somehow just didn't arise after I'd raised my fat intake, I'd actually crave just plain water instead of something fizzy or sweet. I was also surprised at how less tired I felt during the workouts. So that's my .02 on increasing fat intake -- give it a shot in helping you adjust your diet and lowering your overall intake of processed foods.
So I finished the Gundry book. Its well written and compellingly argued, but I certainly wouldn't characterize it as a refinement on Fuhrman. The level of research and data support doesn't compare IMO. Just to summarize, the similarity between the two is focus on green vegetables, especially raw leafy greens as a top food and reliance on nuts for extra calories/fat. Where they are different is that Gundry is full blown carb phobic. He makes a reasonable argument that eating large quantities of fruit triggers triglycerides as part of fattening up on late summer fruit before winter. But then without much justification (and ignoring fat and protein), he applies this same logic to all other carbs- from starchy vegetables and legumes to whole and processed grains- stating all behave just like fructose and rapidly lead to metabolic dysregulation, insulin insensitively, blood lipid problems, weight gain, heart disease and strokes . To replace the calories missing from removing carbs, he adds in proteins and fats- nuts, olive oil and other vegetable and nut oils with favorable 'green fat profiles'- meaning they either have positive ratios essential fats. He also differs from Furhman by including cheese, yogurt, meats/fish and eggs. Aside from very questionable logic leaps like stating whole grains, legumes and potatoes all behave like fructose in the body, he makes outright false claims. For example he repeatedly classifies olive oil as a green fat meaning it provides a essential fat- in fact we have zero need for monounsaturated fat. Gundry's ideas of genes response to different dietary and biological conditions are interesting- especially his idea that our genes are programmed to respond the needs and condition of the larger group- communist genes