Pick any topic in the area of nutrition. You will find people on either side with convincing arguments and information. Does this mean that there are no answers? Does this mean you should just ignore it all and eat whatever you want? I don't think so.
I believe that it is clear that the normal American diet is unhealth, especially in the areas of excess consumption of meat and fats. The data about heart disease is especially convincing. Heart disease is the number one killer in America, and the whole thing can be fixed by eating differently.
Many people think of nutrition as dieting. They want to eat differently, for a while, then after they lose some weight, go back to eating what they used to eat. The end result of this ought to be obvious. I have no interest in "dieting". What I am looking for is a lifestyle that I can adopt -- forever.
I don't have a weight problem. Most Americans do. The answer is simple. Eat less and get more active. It is conservation of energy. Those calories you consume have to go somewhere. You either burn them or your body stores them.
At age 72, I discovered that I had heart issues. An artery (probably the LAD) on the front of my heart was 90 percent clogged and a stent was required. I had been saying for years that just because I was active and thin, didn't mean my arteries were not clogged. I didn't know how right I was. My goal in what follows is to change my diet so that it doesn't happen all over again. If I keep eating like I have been, more crud will keep getting deposited in my arteries and this will just be a temporary fix.
For some time I have known that a vegetable diet was the smart one. Meat and dairy are the enemy. Butter, cheese, and eggs. But it doesn't stop there. My definition of junk food has now changed. Ice cream, which I am fond of, is junk food! It is basically a blend of butter and sugar with some water. And then there are cookies: when I last baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies, I put in 2 stick (1/2 pound) of butter? Hello! Can we do this and not be alarmed. I thought that being active let me get away with eating all of this stuff, but I was clearly wrong. And as I get older, I get less active despite my best efforts and intentions.
I am a big fan of Dr. Michael Greger's book, "How not to die". He clearly advocates a diet of whole plant foods, and gives plenty of good reasons and data to back it up. Clearly this boils down to a Vegan diet, but he avoids using that word, which I think is a smart choice. He also has a website: Brocolli, nuts, even peanut butter are good. Fruit every day. Fish instead of meat. (Yes, fish is meat, but you know what I mean).Tom's home page / tom@mmto.org