The health benefits are enormous. I just finished watching Dr. Greger's most recent video titled Curing Paint Diabetic Neuropathy.
Twenty-one diabetics suffering with moderate or worse symptomatic painful neuropathy for up to ten years were placed on a whole food, plant-based diet along with a half-hour walk every day. Years and years of suffering and then, complete relief of the pain in 17 out of the 21 patients within days.
Wow. That's amazing. And this is where many of us might think, "It's too bad most doctors are in the back pocket of big pharma and only give their diabetic patients drugs instead of giving them guidance to follow a healthy diet." I think this type of thinking obscures the reality that most doctors are just as ignorant of nutrition facts and nutritionfacts.org as their patients are.
Okay. So, people want to do the right thing, want to eat the right way or, in the case of doctors, want to give the right advice, they just can't because they don't know any better.
Well, that's not a completely satisfying answer either. If a dumb ass like me can find out about the McDougall diet and Jeff Novick's nutrition guidelines, why can't a really smart physician find out about it? Why can't my really smart friends and relatives and co-workers find out about it?
This is where I think it just comes down to this issue of deferred gratification versus instant gratification.
Most of us remember when we were in high school and there were these really studious classmates who always got their homework done. They always finished their book report on time. They always made sure that they were prepared for an exam because they studied hard.
While the benefits of this behavior were not immediate, the burdens were. Instead of hanging out with friends in the afternoon or listening to music or smoking weed, they had to hit the books. Even for a studious geek, that might not have always been fun. It might have seemed like a better decision to simply study no more or less diligently than the majority of ones classmates. You know. Attempt to be kind of average, normal. Not really smart. But not stupid either.
Doing things this way would likely result in graduating from high school on time and perhaps admission to a non-elite University. And at that University one could avoid the really tough courses. You know. Avoid physical chemistry, calculus based physics, abstract mathematics and other courses requiring a lot of study time. You get a degree in 4 to 6 years and then you enter the work force and perhaps earn a decent income.
I think this is how it works in nutrition too. Your co-worker brought in donuts to celebrate some occasion or maybe just to be "generous" to her co-workers. Eating the donut might appear to bring instant gratification. But the pounds keep piling on. Where's that will power?
And then rejecting the donuts isn't really enough, is it? If you avoid the donuts and reach for a grilled cheese sandwich instead, from a health perspective, there's isn't a lot of payoff there. In order to improve ones health through proper nutrition, one must learn about the subject.
That's another area where most people are in the "mushy middle." Most people claim to be very interested in nutrition. But are they? Would they consider going to the library and reading "The China Study" from cover to cover? Or would they rather read Denise Minger's blog post criticizing it, deciding then that this book had been "debunked" and was not worth reading?
True story. Once I had a book report due in about 3 days. But I had not even started reading the book. My father and I went to the library. My father showed me a book review of the book on which I was supposed to do my book report. I read the book review and felt confident that I knew enough about the book's storyline that I could complete my book report. I did and I got an "A." I asked my father if this was cheating. He said, "No. This is just making use of the resources that are available to you." Upon reflection, I don't think he was correct.
People who say "I am willing to do the hard work in order to reap the benefits" are the people to whom this way of eating is attractive. This means that this way of eating isn't attractive to very many people.
What do you think?