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Because you will be depriving yourself which is not good. The body needs all types of foods. Also if you deprive yourself of a certain type of food, you are apt to go overboard when you do eat it. Been there, done that. I once deprived myself that after, I ate dozen donuts at one sitting-A STILL WANTED MORE! That is not an exaggeration! Moderation is the key.
Because you will be depriving yourself which is not good. The body needs all types of foods. Also if you deprive yourself of a certain type of food, you are apt to go overboard when you do eat it. Been there, done that. I once deprived myself that after, I ate dozen donuts at one sitting-A STILL WANTED MORE! That is not an exaggeration! Moderation is the key.
Cat
This seems to be your personal experience more than anything else. Once I stop eating certain foods, I find it much easier to avoid consuming them since the cravings pretty much all go away, thus I have no desire to eat a donut, let alone a whole box of donuts.
I see no harm done to my body from abstaining from various types of junk food, if I want something, I have it, but generally, I choose to eat clean and particularly minimize my intake of high glycemic carbs.
Its not a personal opinion, other experts, no less qualified, have questioned how he presents his information, which is to say extremely one-sided. Studies and data that supports his pro-vegan views he will post, those that dont, he ignores. Its like coming upon a traffic accident, getting the story from only one person and determining who is at fault, or going to Donald Trump's website to get even-handed coverage of the immigration issue.
Believe what you like, that is your right, but dont kid yourself that you are getting any kind of scientifically balanced view, its news for pro-vegans and little else.
When the source is strongly biased in one direction, you will hear what they want you to hear, no more. There is good reason why Greger shows up on Quackwatch. He might be a brilliant guy by all accounts but he is no less prone to profiteering and hyperbole than Dr Oz, on whose show Greger has appeared multiple times.
Its great that he and you love vegan diets so much, if they work for you, then more power to you just as long as you understand that they are not appropriate for all people and face a substantial amount of criticism as well.
Excellent post. There are many, many brilliant doctors that have their own personal views on what they think is best. For every 'expert' that has an opinion, there are just as many others who can refute the claims. Many have science, statistics, and other documentation that will back their claims, but once you look closely enough you will find many of them use the part of the data to back their claims and do not show the whole picture.
There are so many books written by experts and all of them claim their book carries all the answers. How can that be?
Just follow what works for you. Your body knows best.
Whether or not diets like McDougall's and Fuhrman's "works" depends a lot on your fitness goals. It would be fine for a runner, or someone who wants to be thin (depending on how low you go with the calories)... but not so much for building muscle. Just from my own experience, I was veg'n for 26 years and was indeed thin (so-called "skinny fat"), and I was perfectly content on such a diet. But it wasn't until a few months ago, when I started eating animal products and significantly increasing my protein, that muscles started popping out.
Popular Science had a good article on why vegan diets can be problematic, with the author making the key point that there is no one perfect diet for everyone.
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There is no one right way to eat for everyone. We are all different and what works for one person may not work for the next. I personally advocate consumption of both animals and plants and I think there is plenty of evidence that this is a reasonable way to eat. However, I often get comments from vegans who think that people should eliminate all animal foods.
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Here are 5 reasons why I think vegan (as in no animal foods at all) diets are a bad idea…
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1. Vegans are deficient in many important nutrients
Humans are omnivores. We function best eating both animals and plants.
There are some nutrients that can only be gotten from plants (like Vitamin C) and others that can only be gotten from animals. Vitamin B12 is a water soluble vitamin that is involved in the function of every cell in the body.
It is particularly important in the formation of blood and the function of the brain.
Because B12 is critical for life and isn't found in any amount in plants (except some types of algae), it is by far the most important nutrient that vegans must be concerned with.
In fact, B12 deficiency is very common in vegans, one study showing that a whopping 92% of vegans are deficient in this critical nutrient (1).
But B12 is just the tip of the iceberg… there are other lesser known nutrients that are only found in animal foods and are critical for optimal function of the body.
Here are a few examples:
Animal protein contains all the essential amino acids in the right ratios. It is important for muscle mass and bone health, to name a few. Vegans don't get any animal protein, which can have negative effects on body composition (2, 3, 4, 5).
Creatine helps form an energy reservoir in cells. Studies show that vegetarians are deficient in creatine, which has harmful effects on muscle and brain function (6, 7, 8).
Carnosine is protective against various degenerative processes in the body and may protect against aging. It is found only in animal foods (9, 10, 11).
Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) is the most active form of Omega-3 fatty acids in the body and primarily found in animal foods. The plant form of Omega-3s, ALA, is inefficiently converted to DHA in the body (12, 13, 14).
Two other nutrients that have been demonized by vegan proponents are saturated fat and cholesterol.
Cholesterol is a crucial molecule in the body and is part of every cell membrane. It is also used to make steroid hormones like testosterone. Studies show that saturated fat intake correlates with increased testosterone levels (15).
Not surprisingly, vegans and vegetarians have much lower testosterone levels than meat eaters (16, 17, 18, 19). Bottom line: Vegans are deficient in many important nutrients, including Vitamin B12 and Creatine. Studies show that vegans have much lower testosterone levels than their meat-eating counterparts.
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2. There are no studies showing that they're better than other diets.
Despite what vegan proponents often claim, there are no controlled trials showing that these diets are any better than other diets.
They often claim that low-carb, high-fat diets (the opposite of vegan diets) are dangerous and that the evidence clearly shows vegan diets to be superior.
I disagree.
This has actually been studied in a high quality randomized controlled trial (the gold standard of science).
The A to Z study compared the Atkins (low-carb, high-fat) diet to the Ornish (low-fat, near-vegan) diet (20).
This study clearly shows that the Atkins diet causes greater improvements in pretty much all health markers, although not all of them were statistically significant:
The Atkins group lost more weight, 10.4 lbs, while the Ornish group lost only 5.6 lbs.
The Atkins group had greater decreases in blood pressure.
The Atkins group had greater increases in HDL (the "good") cholesterol.
The Atkins group had greater decreases in Triglycerides. They went down by 29.3 mg/dL on Atkins, only 14.9 mg/dL on Ornish.
Then the Atkins dieters were about twice as likely to make it to the end of the study, indicating that the Atkins diet was easier to follow.
Put simply, the Atkins diet had several important advantages while the Ornish diet performed poorly for all health markers measured.
Now, there are some studies showing health benefits and lower mortality in vegetarians and vegans, such as the Seventh-Day Adventist Studies (21, 22).
The problem with these studies is that they are so-called observational studies. These types of studies can only demonstrate correlation, not causation.
The vegetarians are probably healthier because they are more health conscious overall, eat more vegetables, are less likely to smoke, more likely to exercise, etc. It has nothing to do with avoiding animal foods.
In another study of 10,000 individuals, where both the vegetarians and non-vegetarians were health conscious, there was no difference in mortality between groups (23).
One controlled trial showed that a vegan diet was more effective against diabetes than the official diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association (24).
However, a low-carb diet has also been studied for this purpose and led to much more powerful beneficial effects (25).
A vegan diet may be better than the typical low-fat diet recommended by the mainstream nutrition organizations, but pretty much any diet fits that description. Bottom line: Despite all the propaganda, there isn't any evidence that vegan diets are any better than other diets. Most of the studies are observational in nature.
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3. Proponents of vegan diets use fear mongering to promote their cause.
Some vegan proponents aren't very honest when they try to convince others of the virtues of the vegan diet.
They actively use lies and fear mongering to scare people away from fat and animal foods.
Despite all the propaganda, there really isn't any evidence that meat, eggs, or animal-derived nutrients like saturated fat and cholesterol cause harm.
People who promote vegan diets should be more honest and not use scare tactics and lies to make people feel guilty about eating animal foods, which are perfectly healthy (if unprocessed and naturally fed).
I'd also like to briefly mention The China Study… which is the holy bible of veganism and apparently "proves" that vegan diets are the way to go.
This was an observational study performed by a scientist who was madly in love with his theories. He cherry picked the data from the study to support his conclusions and ignored the data that didn't fit.
The main findings of the China study have been thoroughly debunked.
I recommend you look at these two critiques:
Also… a new study from China came out very recently, directly contradicting the findings of the China study.
According to this study, men eating red meat had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and women eating red meat had a lower risk of cancer (26). Bottom line: Vegan proponents often use fear mongering and scare tactics in order to convince people not to eat animal foods. They frequently cite The China Study as evidence, which has been thoroughly debunked.
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4. Vegan diets may work in the short term, for other reasons.
If you look at vegan message boards, you will quickly find stories of people who have seen amazing health benefits on a vegan diet.
I've got no reason to believe that these people are lying.
But it's important to keep in mind that this is anecdotal evidence, which isn't science.
You will find the same kinds of success stories for pretty much any diet.
Then you'll also find tons of people saying they got terrible results on a vegan diet.
Personally, I think that vegan diets can have health benefits for a lot of people… at least in the short term, before the nutrient deficiencies kick in (which can be partly circumvented by supplementation).
However, I don't think this has anything to do with avoiding animal foods!
Vegan diets don't just recommend that people avoid animal foods. They also recommend that people avoid added sugars, refined carbohydrates, processed vegetable oils and trans fats.
Then they suggest that people stop smoking and start exercising. There are so many confounders here that can easily explain all the beneficial effects.
These are extremely unhealthy foods, that's something the vegans and I agree on. I personally think that avoiding these foods is what is causing the apparent benefits.
I am 100% certain that a plant-based diet that includes at least a little bit of animals (the occasional whole egg or fatty fish, for example) will be much healthier in the long-term than a diet that eliminates animal foods completely. Bottom line: Vegan diets also recommend that people shun added sugar, refined carbohydrates, vegetable oils and trans fats. This is probably the reason for any health benefits, not the removal of unprocessed animal foods.
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5. There is NO health reason to completely avoid animal foods.
Humans have been eating meat for hundreds of thousands (or millions) of years.
We evolved this way.
Our bodies are perfectly capable of digesting, absorbing and making full use of the many beneficial nutrients found in animal foods.
It is true that processed meat causes harm and that it's disgusting the way "conventionally raised" animals are treated these days.
However, animals that are fed natural diets (like grass-fed cows) and given access to the outdoors are completely different.
Even though processed meat causes harm, which is supported by many studies, the same does NOT apply to natural, unprocessed meat.
Unprocessed red meat, which has been demonized in the past, really doesn't have any association with cardiovascular disease, diabetes or the risk of death (27, 28).
It has only a very weak link with an increased risk of cancer and this is probably caused by excessive cooking, not the meat itself (29, 30, 31).
Saturated fat has also never been proven to lead to heart disease. A study of almost 350 thousand individuals found literally no association between saturated fat consumption and cardiovascular disease (32, 33, 34).
Studies on eggs show no effect either. Multiple long-term studies have been conducted on egg consumption, which are very rich in cholesterol, and found no negative effects (35, 36).
The thing is that animal foods… meat, fish, eggs and dairy products for those who can tolerate them, are extremely nutritious.
They are loaded with high quality protein, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals and various lesser known nutrients that have important effects on health.
There may be ethical or religious reasons not to eat animals… I get it. But there is no scientifically valid health reason to completely eliminate animal foods.
Excellent post. There are many, many brilliant doctors that have their own personal views on what they think is best. For every 'expert' that has an opinion, there are just as many others who can refute the claims. Many have science, statistics, and other documentation that will back their claims, but once you look closely enough you will find many of them use the part of the data to back their claims and do not show the whole picture.
There are so many books written by experts and all of them claim their book carries all the answers. How can that be?
Just follow what works for you. Your body knows best.
Which is very true. No matter what you believe, you can usually find an expert that supports your views on diet. So it also puzzles me when people try to use this appeal to authority to shut down debate...."well this guy is a doctor and he knows what he's talking about, so you're wrong." Great, I can find half a dozen other doctors, with no less impressive of a resume that will claim the exact opposite and be able to make a convincing, scientifically rigorous case for why they believe the way that they do.
As you said, it comes down to the individual,simply through a process of trial and error, I think most people can gain a pretty good innate understanding of what diet works best for them individually.
Breakfast: 3 eggs, egg whites, peanut butter, banana (banana on weightlifting days only)
Snack: Chicken breasts, carrots
Lunch: Low carb tortilla with beef, spinach
Dinner: Meat (3 ground turkey patties for example), Asparagus, Brocolli
Snack: 2 tbsp peanut butter
< 50g carbs
>200 g protein
lots of fat
2000 calories
Not only did this put a dent in the wallet but I felt like crap....all the time...even with 4 servings of vegetables.
This is how I ate last week while on vacation:
Breakfast: 2 bowls of Corn Chex, Protein Bar or 2 eggs, Banana
Snack: Protein Bar
Lunch: Turkey Sandwich, Granola Bar
Snack: Lots of tortilla Chips
Dinner: Pizza or BBQ Sandwich with chips/beans or Fish with fries, a couple of chocolate chip cookies
350g carbs
I felt much better.
This week, cleaned it up a bit but still high carb....
Breakfast: 2 cups oatmeal, blueberries, 2 tbsp peanut butter
Snack: Protein Bar
Lunch: Turkey or roast beef on rye bread, peanut butter on rye, granola bar
Dinner: 1/2 plate pasta with tomato sauce, garlic bread, and a few bread sticks, half dozen chicken wings
Energy levels are even higher. I have felt great the last couple of days. I have also slept much better....6.5-7 hours per night instead of the 5.5 or less that I was averaging on the other low carb diet.
The downside is that my stomach is very slowly expanding so I need to be careful...but the difference in energy level between the low carb diet and increased carbs are night and day.
Still debating where to go from here. I need to clean it up a bit for sure....can't keep eating things like wings and breadsticks on a regular basis. Need to decrease calories a bit (and increase activity) but debating whether to leave the carbs the same or lower in proportion to the caloric decrease. My exercise routine is cardio 2-3x per week and weights 2-3x per week. Hopefully I can stick to the routine better now that I am sleeping better. I was missing too many workouts on the low carb diet.
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The move
