https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-almost-everything-dean-ornish-says-about-nutrition-is-wrong/

I am a firm believer in understanding those with whom I disagree. I particularly liked this article because it includes Dr Ornish's rebuttal and a rebuttal of his rebuttal.

For me, the big key is his instance that the standard American diet that causes problems is equated to an animal based diet and that is the problem even though the evidence he puts forth from the USDA clearly shows consumption of red meat, eggs and butter are all down significantly from the 1970s. Instead, he shows they are up from the 1950's. The epidemic of obesity, diabetes and heart disease started after the low fat push in the 70's, so that should be considered the starting point.

He also points out the fat intake and animal based protein intake has increased. However, again, looking at the USDA numbers, it is turkey and chicken that have increased and ADDED fats, primarily in the salad dressing category. In other words, if they weren't pushing people away from red meat, the added fats would not be up and, in fact when you look at the change in the protein intake, it is to all low fat products, so my guess is overall fat intake is actually down based on these numbers.

In addition, he points to the success of his program, but he has never demonstrated that the diet is the point of success as it is in combination with a regimented exercise program, counseling on stress management and the smokers in his side quit vs those in the control group that did not. In addition, his diet cut all the same carbs that we would all agree are the primary culprit - refined sugar and refined grains.

The groups he talks about in interviews that do so much better before becoming "Americanized" in terms of diet, he chalks up to changes in meat consumption. However, when interviewed, those groups show little difference in the frequency of meat consumption. What they do eat more of are bread, donuts, ho-ho's, french fries, potato chips, etc. Last I checked, none of those are animal based foods.

I am currently on a keto diet for BG reasons. It clearly works for that. I think that if everyone cut out only those refined sugars, refined grains (possibly grains all together) and highly starch heavy veggies like potatoes and corn, most of our dietary caused illnesses would go away through prevention. Had I not eaten all that *cute cuddly kitten* for the first 40+ years of my life, I likely would not have become insulin resistant.

As one expert on the Keto Summit put it, one can eat X number of carbs before becoming insulin resistant. You can eat a smaller amount per day and not have issues until you are very old, or you can eat all the normal stuff in the SAD and be a diabetic 20 year old.

I also just finished the entire Great Nutrition Debate which I split up over about 4 days since it is almost 3 hours long. Again, Dr Ornish insists on saying meat is the problem but he never does any study where that is the only variable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feCpP40ZHqI

Alright. I'm done with my rant....for now.