What advantages does a whole food plant-based diet offer?

Question

The whole food plant-based diet is all the rage now. What are the benefits of this diet, if any?

Answer 1

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this topic and episode, please show your appreciation.
Thank you for your interest in science!   -- Andrew

Comments

Whole and Grown Based Diet - the WAG Diet. - you’re welcome!

Also, hard to listen to anyone arguing that cattle farming is bad, without recognizing that mass plant farming is harmful.

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Wow this content has so many more ads than previous episodes in just the first part. Great info but tough to get through.

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​@@raquelborges1I've made 3 or 4 comments during this content, which, imo, is one of the best, ever, on this podcast, btw.., mentioning the Organic & ecosystem health/balance, issue.
To me, that's the crux of the matter, on these diet wars.
If one focuses on the WAG theme, 90% of the problems just get eviscerated.
It doesn't matter whether you're vegan or carnivore, or anything in between, if your diet is coming from a destroyed ecosystem.

So.. whole & grown ecosystem based diet  (WAGE) might work .

PS: your name _Raquel Borges,  Are you Portuguese ?

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Thank you so much, Dr. Huberman, for this outstanding episode.
One of favourites of yours, ever.
I have made a few comments prior to this, and I wanted to praise you, and Dr. Gardner, for bringing these topics front & center, namely the state of conventional Food systems&Industry.
The name Food Industry says it all, imo.
Pls, double down on these matters, and consider bringing more ppl advocating Organic foods, the health of the Ecosystems, from soil to water basins, and its effects on food & well being, on ANY of the diet types.
There's a lot of data on the impacts and
consequences of the industrial approach to food sources, on humans.
It is a true rabbit-whole, the effects of pesticides alone, for eg. , and the way mono-crops affect the whole Ecosystem.
Thank you again.

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Driving from Estepa, in the center of Andalucia, to Gibraltar seemed like a good opportunity to listen to a podcast, and since we’ve been enjoying great traditional foods in Spain but notice the growing bellies, we picked one from that “magnificent specimen”, Dr Andrew Huberman, titled “How Different Diets Impact Your Health | Dr. Christopher Gardner.”  We expected a discussion based on the neurological impacts of different diets, e.g., the effect of sugar on the hypothalamus or Ultra-Processed Food (UPF) alterations of learning, etc.; instead we heard, an apparently unprepared, Huberman consume kibble for over two hours.
      Perhaps the single point we agreed with Gardner on is that the CAFO system is horrific, not only for the cows, but as those with brains unaffected by prions will recall, with the production of meat that is far from optimal. That a shill for UPF and a member of the dietary guidelines committee that argued that there is not enough data to ban the toxic foods found in the center of our grocery stores (the outside periphery is where the meat, milk & vegetables are displayed) lambasted us with his “equipoise” experimental set ups while admitting that he’s unwilling to run the tests for any length of time, without being challenged as to the adequacy of that methodology was frustrating.
    The claim that Beyond Meat is more cardio-metabolically healthy than meat is especially galling. Without repeating the short study period critique, —TMAO decreasing on the synthetic burger and not on the meat is not necessarily such a good thing. Reduced protein synthesis is IMHO not the goal.
    There’s so much more to point out, like the corn & bean eating, chain-smoking, alcohol binging Tarahumara marathon runners… maybe it’s not the carbs but the nicotine & alcohol that’s a winning combo!

Answer 2

Hello Dr. Huberman,
I am 17 and done with school in about one year and I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart that you gave me my spark for biology and neuroscience and sportscience.
I remember about two years ago I had a teacher in biology who very openly hated teaching and basically was just the worst and during that time the last thing I would have ever dreamed of was to study biology, you can't imagine what relief it was when I didn't have to study anymore.
But then I discovered your podcast through a fortunate chain of interests that led me here and now I am deeply comitted to study biology and learn about the science of the human body.
Nothing but love❤❤

Comments

He truly is an inspiration

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Wow dude !
I want to say I am almost thrice your age, and your comment here, really inspired me.
Congrats, on your decision.
Remember what you expressed here, when you go across a harder time, during your Biology studies.
You need a great attitude and dedication!
With your attitude, you're halfway there .
Kudos!

Answer 3

I like the non-confrontational approach of Gardner and he speaks in such a soft, eloquent way. Good content!

Comments

Seriously, he's probably the most enthusiastic and wholesome nutrition expert online

Answer 4

"The whole world is done listening to people tell them that their experience isn't real." Wow! Blessings to you for that line Andrew!

Comments

Agreed! Stop telling me these are not the droids I'm looking for.

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I noticed this comment too!

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Yes, I do best on carnivore, highish fat. Maybe others don't. If my experience changes, I will adjust. People are waking up to the idea that there is nuance and unknowns in this world

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profoundly stupid for a scientist to suggest experiential anecdotes have any place in the process of uncovering objective truths

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you leave him alone

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, he just boast about all science being bullshit

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that's not objective that's just your own confirmation bias

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People's experience around food almost always is not based in reality. I've had hundreds of people that have coached. I don't know what's going on. I barely eat anything, but I can't lose weight…. But when I looked at what they were eating, they were eating a ton. Almost always they were eating well over 1000 cal per day more than they thought they were. People are largely delusional when it comes to food, so yes, I definitely consider their experience not real.

Answer 5

I highly recommend to anybody that enjoyed listening to Dr Gardner to find the episode of the Rich Roll podcast where Gardner was a guest. It was a fantastic episode.

Comments

I was looking for more materials to listen to that feature Dr. Gardner. Thank you for sharing this one!

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Will do. Thanks

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I've never seen a nutrition scientist be this enthusiastic and happy! :)

Answer 6

Christopher Gardner is one of the best nutrition scientists of our time - glad you had him on Andrew! While some of his views may not be popular they are extremely evidence based.

Comments

Unfortunately, Andrew has cultivated an audience of carnivores who think one of the most accomplished nutritional scientists of our time is a paid shill...

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I really like Dr. Gardner.
At present, there isn't lot of ppl (scientists) going against the High-Protein hype.
Personally, I weigh around 60kgs and I still do consume over 100g of protein daily, but I reckon he's got a point, on this issue. Let's not go overboard on the protein issue.

On the other hand, though :

organic food is only brought up later in the discussion..
Also, I dont think he was scientific enough, on the Raw milk study, as he seems to have neglected the effects on the microbiome&gut lining.
I'm pretty sure there would have been a LOT of pertinence, in doing the same study, but re-checking the same ppl, after continuing on the same regimen, for 6 months.

As someone that's been lactose free, and gluten free for close to 20years, I want to say that, (specially) dairy foods are way less of a problem to me, after having gone fully organic for almost 10years, now..
I reintroduced kefir, yoghurt, cheeses.. and I occasionally might eat sth with gluten in it..but the key 'variable' relies on it being ORGANIC.

So, imo, beyond the usual diet wars that keep populating our feeds...., I believe the industry, would see great value in funding, long term studies, on organic vs non-organic, instead.
Whether it is vegan, carnivore..or anything in between.
Everybody knows that fast&highly processed foods are bad.
Most ppl, seem to neglect that we are biologic beings..and share the ecosystem with other species.
How can one compare a vegan based diet to a Mediterranean..or low carb, or carnivore, etc... when almost all foods are still sourced from completely compromised ecosystems??

I hope, Simon, that you bring more attention to this matter.
I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you Andrew (and Simon) for your podcasts!

PS: Dr. Peter Cabral, over in Boston, might be an interesting guest on your podcasts.

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Exactly!

Answer 7

One of the best episodes, especially for us who are vegetarian.

Answer 8

This is probably my most favorite podcast episode. Thank you both for this valuable discussion! As a dietitian, I really value Dr. Gardner's work.

Answer 9

Andy, this episode really made me see you differently. I hope you see this comment, and get a chance to reflect.

Week after week, you carefully lay out and help people parse the data in areas with weak evidence. It's an admirable and tough task. If we waited for every good practice to be validated in a clinical trial with a hard endpoint, we'd progress so slowly it wouldn't help anybody alive today. What you do is very important.

This podcast discussed an area of lifestyle with very high levels of evidence. Leave aside the thousands of retrospective, cross-sectional and observational studies. Most of what Chris outlined were well-powered, gold-standard, highly-controlled interventional clinical trials. And yet your tone was nitpicking small issues and looking for exceptions that support your own personal behaviour. Just imagine if you held cold-plunging to the same standard you did nutrition studies today!! And yet... you have cold-plunge sponsorship, you repeatedly discuss the (fascinating, preliminary) evidence for it, and are much less critical despite a litany of issues in that literature: sample-size, poor controls, issues about practicality, short-term endpoints, and others. Heck, you often discuss intriguing rodent studies on supplements!!

What you said & did here wasn't egregiously wrong by any means. But you utterly failed to delineate for your audience the difference between areas with multiple controlled interventional in thousands of individuals to tiny rodent and pilot human studies.

Andy, you always reference Layne (appropriately!). We both know, Layne loves to say "shoot the closest alligator" or "pack the big rocks first". As a friend & colleague, here's some friendly peer review: you failed badly here to correctly calibrate your discussion to the evidence level.

Comments

Well, we are all human. I actually admire how tactical Andrew was while I was jumping out of my chair listening to Dr. Gardner. Andrew did a million times better than me, the listener. Any good podcast is an emotional conversation. For example, I saw Dr G as a not composed person at all!!!!!

Answer 10

OMG, I was in Christopher's first grad class (SFSU) before his manuscript was submitted at Cal. He helped me later in my nutrition career, never forgetting his students/colleagues running into him 20 yrs later. Such a cool dude❤

Answer 11

Andrew, you knew he wouldn’t agree with you, you had him up here from a scientific standpoint and it’s truly beautiful you did this. Your dedication to inform of us of all sides of science is so inspiring regardless of your opinion. Also I now have a dog because of how you talked about your bulldog. She’s been awesome in helping with my depression and mood.

Comments

Spot on

Answer 12

Buckwheat often causes confusion because of its name, but it isn’t a variety of wheat, nor is it even a grain. It’s actually a seed from a flowering plant, related to both rhubarb and sorrel.

Comments

I caught that right away. Why do we know who's and the guest doesn't? Maybe he meant grain types?

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says a lot of untruths going back years

Answer 13

Another awesome episode! I am such a big meat eater and hadn't been able to find anything to convince me that eating less quality meat would be beneficial for the protein I need, but this certainly has me feeling better about incorporating more veggie-based meals. ☺️

Answer 14

I felt frustration that Dr. Gardner kept referencing LDL cholesterol lowering as a reason to eat a plant based/vegan diet and as "proof" for that type of diet is healthier. He should have been called out of this biomarker as being the "bad guy" in and of itself. “Patients with heart disease, almost universally have insulin resistance. whereas high cholesterol, it seems to be a coin flip, 50-50.” Most people think of LDL as “bad” cholesterol and HDL as “good” cholesterol. Not many people know that LDL can be broken down into two types, small dense LDL that is associated with heart disease and large fluffy/buoyant LDL that is not. Most people who find their LDL goes up on a low-carb diet discover it’s the type of LDL that is not linked to heart disease. Obviously everybody is an individual and needs to discuss their risk with a doctor, but it’s worth understanding that there’s a lot more to the cholesterol picture than two types.

Answer 15

whole food plant based for 7 years, never felt better

Answer 16

Thank you for this episode. Your patience and restraint were remarkable—you remained calmer than the guest. One revelation about the twins study surprised me: it seemed to be brushed off by Dr. Gardner. He stated that those on a plant-based diet ate fewer calories simply because they chose to, and that he couldn’t force them to eat more. To me, this is a flaw in the study, as many respected scientists have pointed out.
First, this introduces another variable. Second, it’s well known that eating fewer calories is generally beneficial for health. Third, telomere length could be related to calorie restriction—some war survivors who experienced calorie restriction have been shown to live longer.

Answer 17

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Their mutual respect for each other truly showed, even when they disagreed on something. Thank you both for a great, informative episode!

Answer 18

Dr. Gardner’s work supports the idea that a well-planned plant-based diet can provide all essential amino acids necessary for health, and that shifting towards more plant-based protein sources can have positive effect

Answer 19

When you are reading this content, remember that most of the scientists from the Tobacco industry moved to the food industry. It's amazing how Andrew is calling him out, and he is deflating the questions.

Comments

Yes bc whenever mainstream science disagrees with your niche driven opinion, it is bc the main overarching body of science is conspiracy theorists, not bc the 4 snake oil hucksters selling supplements to low carb rubes are fakes lmao

Answer 20

First, this guy claims food would be better without additives and dyes; then he insists Beyond Meat is superior to meat—even though it’s loaded with additives; and finally he says the best diet is plant-based, but one that also includes meat. After openly admitting he’s funded by and receives gifts from Beyond Meat, he exemplifies a conflict-ridden, maybe even unreliable researcher. The fact that he’s a leading nutrition professor and prominent enough to be interviewed speaks volumes about how much dirt there is in the U.S. food industry.

Comments

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anthropology biology shows it had to adjust to Animal Milk prehistoric lactose intolerance

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In 1976 'Dingy' Don Kardong(who went to Stanford) came in 4th in the Montreal Olympics Marathon. Missing Bronze Medal by just a few seconds. His diet? 95% Olympia Beer, Fruit Loops, Skim milk, Hostess chocolate. HoHos. He's still living. Maybe interview him.

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wow what would have got him Gold ..