i'm a huge fan of dr. mcd!
FANTASTIC article on Vegetable Fat as Medicine.....by McDougall
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I have actually been slowly exploring this article since you posted it, but when it comes to material like this I'm not exactly a speed reader. As a vegetarian it would be very tempting to simply allow myself to take the word of a doc who happens to support ideas that are clearly pro-vegetarian, but for the sake of accuracy I'd rather explore it piece by piece, double checking all named resources and references in the process. Obviously, this can be tedious
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Unfortunately I've been working a lot of extra hours this week, and my phone keeps running out of battery while I'm trying to research during breaks lol.
Now at this point I'm pretty much convinced that I need to make some significant changes to my diet.
After skimming through this article, though at a glance the science seems to make sense, there are some "real life" realities that are holding me back from being able to just jump on it. There are a lot of very, very healthy people around the world, some of them in that centenarian study I mentioned, that consume(d) large amounts of fish, olive oil, and some of the other potential evils that seemed to form the basis of the portions of the article that make it unique compared to the standard. Obviously fish is a non-issue for me personally, so I won't put too much effort into researching it, but olive oil is not, and I'm not quite satisfied with what little research he presented in regards to it and other similar sources of fats.
Also, he mentioned problems with heating oil and then referenced China, stating that smoking caused only a small portion of their high cancer rate, and not really paying too much attention to China's pollution issues either. Having spent 3 years living in China, I am somewhat skeptical of this. Yes, it is true that people in China have a tendency to cook the food until the ceiling turns black. I doubt this fact is without health consequences, but I think he underestimates the effects of both the smoking rate and the heavy pollution. I swear I started to get the feeling that nearly every male above the age of 60, especially in the countryside where, incidentally, much of the cooking is done in an open semi-outside area not directly inside the house (indoor pollution?), smoked like a chimney and was suffering from emphysema or dying from lung cancer. Even a westerner who doesn't smoke and doesn't regularly visit Chinese homes to consume their overcooked food will, after spending a few days in a big city like Shanghai, develop something similar to smoker's cough. I can only guess that this is because of the pollution, and many of the more factory dense cities, or worse the cities near a coal plant (most of China's energy comes from coal), are much, much worse in regards to pollution than Shanghai.
Now my few issues with it so far does not necessarily discredit the rest by any means. Like I said, much of does indeed seem to make sense. However, it does give me reason to be extremely thorough as I slowly go through the article and take it piece by piece. I'll keep you updated
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Now at this point I'm pretty much convinced that I need to make some significant changes to my diet.
After skimming through this article, though at a glance the science seems to make sense, there are some "real life" realities that are holding me back from being able to just jump on it. There are a lot of very, very healthy people around the world, some of them in that centenarian study I mentioned, that consume(d) large amounts of fish, olive oil, and some of the other potential evils that seemed to form the basis of the portions of the article that make it unique compared to the standard. Obviously fish is a non-issue for me personally, so I won't put too much effort into researching it, but olive oil is not, and I'm not quite satisfied with what little research he presented in regards to it and other similar sources of fats.
Also, he mentioned problems with heating oil and then referenced China, stating that smoking caused only a small portion of their high cancer rate, and not really paying too much attention to China's pollution issues either. Having spent 3 years living in China, I am somewhat skeptical of this. Yes, it is true that people in China have a tendency to cook the food until the ceiling turns black. I doubt this fact is without health consequences, but I think he underestimates the effects of both the smoking rate and the heavy pollution. I swear I started to get the feeling that nearly every male above the age of 60, especially in the countryside where, incidentally, much of the cooking is done in an open semi-outside area not directly inside the house (indoor pollution?), smoked like a chimney and was suffering from emphysema or dying from lung cancer. Even a westerner who doesn't smoke and doesn't regularly visit Chinese homes to consume their overcooked food will, after spending a few days in a big city like Shanghai, develop something similar to smoker's cough. I can only guess that this is because of the pollution, and many of the more factory dense cities, or worse the cities near a coal plant (most of China's energy comes from coal), are much, much worse in regards to pollution than Shanghai.
Now my few issues with it so far does not necessarily discredit the rest by any means. Like I said, much of does indeed seem to make sense. However, it does give me reason to be extremely thorough as I slowly go through the article and take it piece by piece. I'll keep you updated
Quote:
Yep, I'm in. Fan of McDougall as well.Originally Posted by Photojess
i know! I was wondering if you were going to see this. hope Nomad and Lee Rogers reads it too. Wish the article title name was different...it's a little opposite the real meaning!
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