A few years ago I was at lunch with some old colleagues, and my former boss mentioned that he had gone plant-based. I asked him to tell about more about it, and he noted how he had done it for the health benefits - primarily fighting high blood pressure. And he talked about a book, "How Not To Die" by Michael Greger. The title does not actually refer to how to live forever, but rather how to live in reasonably good health until you die. Really, how to avoid dying the way you don't want to. After a few months, I bought the book and read it, and it was fairly inspirational. Dr. Greger runs a foundation that has a really good website, nutitionfacts.org, which has a wealth of data on nutrition. He and his staff read the peer-reviewed literature and try to sift out the wheat from the chaff and then present what they believe is the current best science available for nutritional issues. They are careful to check things like "who paid for this study - was it the beef industry?", and similar things that might lead to bias. Frankly, his videos are a bit offputting - I find his mannerisms irritating, but I have gotten used to them over time and always learn good stuff. I was especially impressed with the series on vitamin "D". It is actually quite a fascinating story.
He also has a cookbook - "How Not To Die Cookbook" - which is okay. I like the macaroni and "cheese" recipe in it.
One of his latest books is a massive tome I am still working my way through, the "How Not To Diet" book. Almost every sentence is footnoted with a reference to the peer-reviewed literature. I'm not kidding. It is amazing.
What does Dr. Greger reccomend?
He is very committed to a plant-based diet. He likes to use the term plant-based instead of vegan, because, as he notes, he has had students who told him they were vegan but were subsisting on beer and french fries. Vegan certainly, healthy of course not.
I checked my Kindle notes, and I didn't actually unline too much, but here is one quote that is useful, and gives the flavor of the book. This small quote has 3 footnotes.
"For adults under age sixty-five, the easiest way to get B12 is to take at least one 2,500 mcg supplement each week. If you take too much, you merely get expensive pee. Well, not all that expensive: A five-year supply of vitamin B12 can cost less than twenty dollars. If you’d rather get into the habit of taking it daily, the once-a-day dosing is 250 mcg. Note that these doses are specific to cyanocobalamin, the preferred supplemental form of vitamin B12, as there is insufficient evidence to support the efficacy of the other forms, like methylcobalamin."
There is just a huge amount of nutrition crap on the internet and in the bookstores. His stuff I feel like I can trust. It may not be right - science is not perfect - but it is the best published data that is available, and is a whole lot more likely to be correct than just about any other source. And I would include, sadly, the FDA and USDA. As Greger points out in How Not To Diet, those organizations, while very good and helpful, are also subject to political pressure and self-censorship. He cites multiple instances where they have moderated the advice they publish because they don't think people can follow the advice they would really like to give, so they water it down. Which may be true, but I'd rather get the full-strength advice and decide for myself.
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