Tag: vegan diet

The PURE Study Myths

Dr James Muecke is the Australian of the Year in 2020 which was awarded for his work as an eye-surgeon and his work in preventing blindness.

Muecke believes that we should be eating more eggs, cheese, meat and dark chocolate to minimise diabetes, its associated blindness (diabetic retinopathy) and diabetic neuropathy. Peripheral diabetic neuropathy is nerve damage of the limbs that is caused by diabetes. 50% of adults with type 2 diabetes have peripheral neuropathy. It can result in pain, numbness and an increase in sensitivity. Diabetes account for more than 80% of amputations.

Muecke cites the PURE Study to justify his low-carbohydrate, high-fat, animal-based diet.

The PURE Study is an observational study in 27 countries that examined 225,000 people. The study period is 20 years.
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3 September 2021
Harvard Researchers Paid to Support Sugar

A recent story that has been appearing on the internet is that Harvard Researchers Paid to Support Sugar and this is the reason why sugar and carbohydrates have been exonerated in their role of causing heart disease. Fats and saturated fats have unfairly blamed for the obesity and heart disease epidemic.

The article states that, "Early warning signals of the coronary heart disease (CHD) risk of sugar (sucrose) emerged in the 1950s."

"By the 1960s, 2 prominent physiologists were championing divergent causal hypotheses of CHD: John Yudkin identified added sugars as the primary agent, while Ancel Keys identified total fat, saturated fat, and dietary cholesterol. However, by the 1980s, few scientists believed that added sugars played a significant role in CHD, and the first 1980 Dietary Guidelines for Americans [4] focused on reducing total fat, saturated fat, and dietary cholesterol for CHD prevention."
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6 March 2020
Seventh-day Adventists and Health

A strong commitment to health has been a part of Seventh Adventist’s tradition since in founding in the 1840s.

Within the Californian Seventh-day Adventist community, as the diet becomes more vegetarian, so do the health outcomes.

Californian Seventh-day Adventists are much healthier than the average American.
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31 December 2019
Are Healthy Diets More Harmful to the Environment

On December 14, 2015 an article titled Vegetarian and “Healthy” Diets Could Be More Harmful to the Environment was published on the Carnegie Mellon University website.

The article quotes Paul Fischbeck, a professor of social and decisions sciences and engineering and public policy at the institute.

He was a co-author of a paper Energy use, blue water footprint, and greenhouse gas emissions for current food consumption patterns and dietary recommendations in the US.

Professor Fischbeck is quoted in the website article, stating:

“Eating lettuce is over three times worse in greenhouse gas emissions than eating bacon. Lots of common vegetables require more resources per calorie than you would think. Eggplant, celery and cucumbers look particularly bad when compared to pork or chicken.”
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15 September 2019
Moderation is a Fatal Thing

Everything in moderation is a near unanimous response by health professional, health support organisations and media commentators to solving our health crisis.

The same argument was used in in the 1950s and 1960s to convince people to reduce smoking. After all, you would not want to deprive people of the “solace, relaxation and enjoyment to mankind” that smoking has provided for more than 300 years. These days, doctors do not suggest that people reduce smoking but to stop.

One problem is that moderation cannot be defined. One person may consider a hamburger or packet of cigarettes a week as being moderate. This can easily become two hamburgers a week or just one more cigarette.

Doing things in moderation does not change a habit. To change a habit requires consistency and commitment over a period of several weeks or months.
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5 January 2019
How do Your Genes Affect Obesity and Diabetes

The purpose of the DIETFITS Trial was "to determine the effect of a healthy low-fat (HLF) diet vs a healthy low-carbohydrate (HLC) diet on weight change and if genotype pattern or insulin secretion are related to the dietary effects on weight loss".

It a popular area of research to determine if there are genetic causes of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune disease, depression and any other illness or condition that is plaguing our society.

This area of research ignores the fact that often our genetics does not determine health outcomes. Ignoring this will not solve the problems of our society's rapidly failing health.

The conclusions of this paper are:

In the 12-month study, there was NO significant difference in weight change between a healthy low-fat diet compared with a healthy low-carbohydrate diet.

Neither of the 2 hypothesized predisposing factors [genotypes] was helpful in identifying which diet was better for whom.

Frequently the problem is not that complicated.
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7 November 2018
Foundations of Naturopathic Nutrition by Fay Paxton – a text book

Fay Paxton (PhD) is an Australian-based naturopath and nutritionist. She has taught nutrition at the Southern School of Natural Therapies and has worked as a consultant for dietary and herbal supplement manufacturers.

She is an author of a popular text book, Foundations of Naturopathic Nutrition.

Unfortunately, she is an advocate for low-carbohydrate diets and paleo diets.
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14 June 2018
CSIRO Low-Carb Diets

The CSIRO Low-Carb Diet and CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet were developed in Australia by the CSIRO.

The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet plan "is higher in protein, and lower in high Glycemic Index carbohydrates which supports weight loss, especially fat mass whilst helping with appetite control".

The CSIRO Low Carb Diet is "lower in carbohydrate and higher in healthy fats which may improve blood glucose control and possibly a reduction in need for diabetes medication".

The CSIRO Diets DO NOT improve blood glucose control and DOES NOT reduce the need for diabetes medication.
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4 October 2017
DASH Diet and Blood Pressure

The concept that diet and blood pressure are linked has been discussed since at least the 1920s. In 1926, Donaldson noted that “vegetarians, we believe, run a consistently lower blood pressure than those who use flesh foods."
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22 October 2016