Thanks
I also like Denise Minger especially her book Death by Food Pyramid. She is a former vegetarian and doesn't eat much meat now but seems to have been careful to remain a little contrarian which I like!
Actually, Denise used to be a raw-vegan. We used to be on the same raw-vegan forums, over a decade ago. She is one of a handful of people who pass my litmus test for trustworthiness. It's not necessarily that I agree with all her stances, it's that she will at least attempt to pursue the truth, even when it ends up contradicting her previously-held positions. Even better, she then cops to it and publicly retracts or corrects herself
She is bereft of the hubris, dogmatic-thinking, reductionism, motivated-reasoning and confirmation-bias that plagues the current nutrition-sphere (That includes from the majority of vegan doctors and gurus). To me this is both the gold-standard and the bare minimum we should be willing to accept.
I feel as if our understanding is evolving and what we are really talking about is real food (be it plants or plants and animals or just animals) versus highly processed food (that made in a factory and denuded of fibre with added seed oils/sugar etc.).
I wish I could share your optimism about evolving understanding. I see nothing but devolution. And while I will never suggest that refined foods are the key to health, I've seen nothing so far that convinces me of the detrimental effects of the inclusion of a certain amount of process (even ultra-processed foods.
Of course, this is for each individual to decide. i'm certainly not making any recommendations.
Or as Rob Lustig puts it Feed your gut and protect your liver.. His book Metabolical is great too.
Hmmm...That litmus-test I mentioned earlier...Lustig gets nowhere near
I do, however, give him credit for making the exception for whole fruit, to be viewed as distinct from the rest of his crusade against sugar.
I think Paleo has a great back story but we know that many of our ancestors ate varying amounts of carbohydrates though none eschewed ALL animal products. None ate ultra processed food (food you can't re create in a restaurant kitchen being the best definition of this that I've heard).
The whole Paleo backstory started out as a badly-researched idea, and depending on the day or the orator, has only declined since then. At this point, it is mere fantasy, but without the fun of the cosplay. Well, except for this guy
You are right that we did eat carbs to varying extents. We know this due to the extra amylase (as distinct from out distant ape cousins) that humans developed. in fact, so ubiquitous was starch-eating (We currently have evidence of cooked starches going back 175,000 years), that the animals that evolved alongside us also developed this increase in amylase:
https://www.futurity.org/starch-amylase-mammal-saliva-2062422-2/
And yes, you are absolutely right that there has never been any vegans within our entire history/evolution. Just as with those who pursue long-term keto or so-called carnivore diets, veganism is a human construct, made only possible by our modern world (even then, that depends on various factors).
My own veganism is not predicated on any false notions of evolution, nor even on any 100% surety of healthfulness. Up until this point, my own experience and that of others (To include long-term, older-generation and from-birth vegans) leaves me quietly confident, though I try to keep an open mind
The choice should be individual based on how well your body is suited to and tolerant of lectins/night shades and able to absorb the necessary vitamins. You can eat a high volume of food and will need to because it isn't energy dense but we're not talking about supermarket bread and pasta/rice.
There are absolutely going to be people who aren't able to tolerate certain foods, and those who have really deadly allergies to others. Ruling out extreme sensitivities, it seems like the body is capable of becoming accustomed to all manner of foods. It's unlikely we'd have survived our evolution without such abilities.
And I happen to get all my bread, pasta and rice from a supermarket. So there's that
For me I have not ethical desire to avoid decent meat and as I age I want a good variety of proteins too and seem to be weight stable on low carb.
Not going there
Finally we are talking about diabetics here and older people in the main which makes me feel that for practical purposes a low carb diet works well though I can see how a low fat, high fibre diet could do so too.
I don't think any one diet works for everybody. Even if it has the potential to do so, the menu has to be something the participant has to be at least slightly interested in following.
As for type 1 the Cyrus story involves a diagnosis of type 1 whose honeymoon period is extended by keeping big muscles and eating very high fibre foods. I am ware he eats fruits too.
Honeymoon period? Are you suggesting that at some point it's just going to stop working for him? if so, how long would you predict...and why?
As for eating fruit, here's one of Robby's WIEIAD vids. He's been eating like this for about 15 years, I believe. Of course, I can see why very few people will want to do what he is doing (and to be clear this is not what the MD program recommends), but I'm sharing for a different perspective:
