We have all heard stories about someone who tried something to improve their health and saw a magical turn-around. Usually, that something is a change in diet. When we hear these stories, we tend to get excited about a potential cure or preventative measure to help eradicate whatever diseases may be afflicting us. These can range from reversing or curing forms of cancer, reversing heart disease, diabetes, and or a whole host of maladies that doctors say can’t be cured. Sometimes, there is something to glean from these stories, and we can back them up with good science. When we can’t prove anything though, we should be skeptical.
Many times, we discover a piece of information that catches our attention. This can lead to further discovery of information that can successfully help control or cure disease. One of my favorite examples is that of Dr. Saray Stancic.
Dr. Stancic’s story
Dr. Stancic was diagnosed with the disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS). She noticed an article in a medical journal explaining how some blue-berry-eaters with MS symptoms had improvements. This led her to research further about diet and MS. Dr. Stancic discovered literature on whole-food, plant-based eating bringing great improvement and even elimination of symptoms of MS. In her case, she implemented those changes and it changed her life for the better. Dr. Stancic has helped many others suffering from MS and other diseases since then, using lifestyle medicine. Although she had to search for them, but the studies and evidence were there.
Dr. Stancic’s story is something proven and verifiable. The media often notifies us of famous personalities who make dietary changes and defeat sickness and disease through their changes. Does that mean this will work for me? Should everyone implement these changes to better his or her health? The answer is a resounding NO! If you don’t have the proper scientific evidence, you have nothing.
Mikhaila Peterson
Last year, a relative of mine pointed out what by now has become a famous story. The daughter of popular psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson, Mikhaila Peterson, suffered from a young age from juvenile idiopathic arthritis and severe depression. Although I don’t know exactly what Peterson consumed in her previous way of eating, we can presume it must have been along the lines of the Standard American Diet (SAD). She changed her eating to what is known as the carnivore diet. By changing to the carnivore diet, she eliminated all ultra-processed foods and has reaped benefits. Is this diet something healthy in the long term or did it just take care of some problems before causing others?
There are a few variations of the carnivore diet—but generally, it is exactly what it sounds like: a diet centered on animal products. An article published this past year from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies stated, “the Carnivore Diet downplays or dismisses decades of observational studies linking nutrition to health and disease outcomes, selectively ignores intervention studies that do not suit its agenda, and substitutes its own favorite form of evidence: individual success stories.”
BS Lennerz and colleagues published a study in 2021. Participants were recruited from social media communities commonly frequented by carnivore dieters. Anyone who had been on the diet for less than six months was excluded. On reviewing this study, The Campbell Institute commented, “this means the survey captured only those who were the most dedicated to the diet (just over 2,000 subjects, less than .000025% of the population); of course that group will report that the diet is tolerable—they are the ones who have already tolerated it. It remains unproven whether the diet is, or ever could be, tolerable to everyone else.”
Comparing and contrasting
Three words sum up one of the points most ignored in studies on diet: compared to what. No matter what type of diet you are analyzing, what were the group of people you are basing the data on eating before? How unhealthy were they? This makes a difference. Take someone eating the typical diet of 63% processed foods, 25% animal proteins (including dairy), and only 6% fresh vegetables and fruits. When you eliminate the processed foods, there will always be advantages. Are those advantages for the long haul? Maybe they are short-term fixes with possible long-term negative ramifications.
Let’s look at the weight loss data from this carnivore study. BMI at the time of the survey was 23.7, which was about a 3-point improvement over the baseline number. Seems good, but they also reported significant increases in serum LDL cholesterol levels. In other words, they lost weight on average but also mortgaged away their cardiovascular health. The weight loss most likely came from halting the consumption of junk food and sugared beverages.
The T. Colin Campbell Center points out the following:
- Countless large-scale observational studies consistently show that plant-predominant diets are associated with a lower incidence and mortality of numerous chronic diseases, including several cancers.
- Reasonable skeptics understand that observational studies alone are generally a weaker form of evidence—correlations do not prove causation. Correlations, regarding plant-based nutrition, are reliably backed up by a combination of other forms of evidence.
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Several intervention studies have shown that replacing animal-based foods with whole, plant-based foods can improve health outcomes, particularly in heart disease patients. On a molecular level, “[Numerous] nutritionally mediated factors independently increase cardiovascular oxidative stress and inflammation and are all independently tied to CVD development.”
- Laboratory experiments (animal studies) help to explain the association between animal protein and disease progression; these findings provide evidence of biological plausibility. For example, in rodent models, animal protein has been shown to increase the binding of a carcinogenic metabolite.
- Numerous additional studies highlight the potential benefit of shifting away from animal-based foods to prevent or treat kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, and more.
We of course wish, Mikhaila Peterson and others who suffer from any illness a better and healthier life. Individual cases do not make a long-term study. It is incredibly important to look at the data, examine the studies and see what “works” and is sustainable. It’s not the carnivore diet or any other Keto-type diet. By eating a balanced diet, which is plant-predominant, sleeping well, and staying active, we can diminish risks of chronic diseases and many autoimmune diseases by up to 80%. Do that and you will “add hours to your days, days to your years and years to your lives.”
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