HealthFreak wrote:I posted a similar question on the Health and Nutrition section of this forum. Dr Greger and Dr McDougall seem to be colleauges so I'm wondering how Dr Greger can site significant nutrition studies that show no reduction in mortality, increased dementia and increased hip fracture rates for people on vegan diets, with no explanation from Dr McDougall. I'm referring to this talk:
http://www.drgreger.org/talks/#nutritionMany people on this forum have heard it and their explanation is that the people in the study probably ate a bad vegan diet.
I would not say they ate a "bad" vegan diet but I would say that most vegans eat a very unhealthy diet. Usually it is high in fat, sat fat, hydrogenated fat, salt, sugar, refined processed carbs/grains, refined processed sugars/sweeteners, low in fiber, high in omega 6s, a poor ratio of omega 6 and 3s and on top of it all, it is drenched with oil. Sometimes it is an improvement over the typical American diet, sometimes it is not.
Vegan is a philosophy, not a set of guidelines for optimal health. Vegan does not equal healthy. Vegan equals no animal products.
When someone tells me they are a "vegan" it only tells me what they do not eat, not what they do eat. What you do eat may be more important that what you do not eat, as we know you do not have to be vegan 100% to have excellent health.
When you understand this, and when you see what most vegans eat, then there is no contradiction, as it makes sense.
Here is a newsletter I wrote reviewing the vegan data
http://www.jeffnovick.com/content/view/447/349/
In Health
Jeff
PS Hopefully data like this will be a wake-up call to many vegans/vegetarians. The numbers one reason (by far) that is cited on why people choose to become a vegan and/or vegetarian is for health reasons, yet they then go and follow an unhealthy vegan and/or vegetarian diet. Some of the problem is because of false assumptions that have proliferated through the vegan/vegetarian community about the health aspects of it, without clear and concise guidelines on how to optimize the diet. To much time has been spent on finding "substitutes" for old foods and habits and not enough on defining what an optimal diet really is and encouraging its consumption.
If you have become (or are) a vegan and/or vegetarian, that is not the "final" step to dietary excellence but what may and can be the "first" step in optimizing your diet and lifestyle.