My husband’s comment is not visible after he posted his, so reposting it here.
“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!
References:
Ludwig, D. S., Willett, W. C., & Putt, M. E. Wash-in and washout effects: mitigating bias in short term dietary and other trials. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), e082963.
David S Ludwig & Mary E Putt Short-term diet trials are designed to fail, —Do ultra-processed foods cause obesity? Maybe, but we need better studies to find out.
Gary Taubes NIH Nutrition Research Takes it on the Chin, —A "top" nutrition researcher exits, followed by two damning articles challenging his studies and claiming that a flagship initiative is "designed to fail.”
Christopher MdDougall Secrets of the Tarahumara, —They run like no other people in the world, but their ways are worth imitating. If you can find them.