Confused about Food Guides?

A nutritionist I know refers to herself as a dietary agnostic.  I like her terminology, because each of us needs to find out what works for ourselves.  Also, we need to find out which way of eating makes us feels better from an energy point of view, helps us get weight down and keep it off, how to prevent or reverse Type 2 diabetes, and lessen the risk of Alzheimer’s, or any other chronic disease you can think of.  This is a never ending quest! ‘New’ food guidelines are soon to be released, which unfortunately are driven by very smart people with a tremendous bias towards plants.  More unfortunately they are also encouraging no meat consumption. Their evidence for this is based on nutritional studies which are notoriously wrong; although with statistical wizardry, they can make them seem sound. I’m not against anyone who prefers to be plant based, but these people need to be carefully monitored for nutritional deficiencies as we can’t absorb a lot of the supposed nutrients in plants.  Plants are also poor sources of essential amino acids (proteins), zinc, iron, omega 3 and so on. There is actually no good evidence that meat causes more cancer, and it may indeed lower the risk of heart disease.  It is nutrient dense.  Yes, ideally these would be true grass fed ruminants, and not raised in large industrial feedlots given soy or grains that they were not designed to eat. All I ask, is that when the headlines come out against meat, people have resources they can check on their own to determine if the headlines really reveal ‘the truth’.  I ask you to become your own scientist.Resources:Please read anything written by Dr. Zoe Harcombe (Ph.d Nutritionist), who evaluates all nutritional science articles and summarizes if they are valid or not. www.zoeharcombe.com Also, Amy Berger (Tuit Nutrition), she has a Master’s degree in Nutrition and writes insightful blogs on all topics related to nutrition. www.tuitnutrition.com Dr. Aseem Malhotra (British Cardiologist). www.doctoraseem.com Dr. Jason Fung of course (IDDM web site and blog) also on Twitter. www.idmprogram.com Nina Teicholz (www.ninateicholz.com) Investigative journalist.  She has a great lecture on meat if you go to the ‘Denver Diet Doctor’ web site (Dr. J. Gerber, www.denversdietdoctor.com). I would also encourage you to go to Dr. Bret Scher’s website (www.lowcarbcardiologist.com); he has a very balanced approach to everything and a great podcast on his site where he interviews Lierre Keith, who wrote the book “The Vegetarian Myth”. Dr. Ken Berry (he wrote the book “Lies my Doctor told me”); Dr. Georgia Ede, a Harvard Psychiatrist who is against these guidelines, Dr. Ted Naiman; Dr. David Diamond; Dr. Tim Noakes; Dr. Gary Fettke -he is an orthopedic surgeon from Australia).There are many many more I could suggest to try to help you get balance in these grandiose statements from the media. Never forget, our brains are 60 percent fat, as is our nervous system.  We want to eat to protect, not harm our own amazing computer that directs everything we do and say. I remain, as my friend says, “a dietary agnostic”, but you and I need to be vigilant because nutritional science is fraught with errors.  Often guidelines are developed by scientists funded by agriculture or who are simply biased because new scientific arguments clash with books or papers they have written. Stay informed! Dr. B