All I can say is WOW. Just, WOW!!! Denise Minger is a school teacher that started blogging about diet. Apparently she had been vegetarian and then became a huge paleo advocate. She wrote a ridiculous blog trying to discredit Colin Campbell, of The China Study fame. This blog brought her a huge following and she became somewhat of a spokesperson for the paleo movement. One thing that has really bothered me about the celebrities of the paleo movement is that most of them have very little to no true training in nutritional science and have never treated patients. Worse yet, no matter what evidence they are presented, they deny it immediately. They simply refuse to see the other side. Now you can say I suffer the same bias, and in fact we all approach any situation with preconceived notions. I try very hard to remain objective and to believe that, while science can be judged subjectively, the findings are objective. Along comes this video. Denise gives a very good talk about how the vegan diet actually has excellent results and she suggests that maybe paleo people should acknowledge the science that a low fat vegan diet works. Her presentation has several errors and is missing a huge body of research, but I am unbelievably impressed that she is open minded enough to hear another side of the story. I also admire that she could stand in front of a group that is often fanatical, and she could admit she me have gotten things wrong, and as a group they should possibly consider the benefits of plant based diets. She does not deny ketogenic diets, and obviously still things they are good diets, but she seems to elevate the vegan diet to an equal level. I evolved to a plant based diet for myself and for my patients based on the science. Since then I have become vegan not just for the health but also because of the fact that it is far better for the environment and it alleviates the unbelievably cruel suffering of the animals. It is difficult now to not read a scientific article about meat and health without letting the ethics and environmental issues influence me. Luckily, it appears that what is good for our health is also great for the environment and alleviates unnecessary suffering. All in all, I am impressed that someone could do some research and look empirically at the data and be open enough to allow their pre-conceived notions to take a backseat to the facts. Bravo Denise. You inspire me to do the same. https://youtube/watch?v=KFfK27B_qZY
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 19:05:55 +0000