Interview: Vegan Activist And PCRM President Dr. Neal Barnard
Filed under: Health — @ November 2, 2010
In Episode 415 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we hear from arguably one of the biggest advocates of a plant-based diet on the planet. His name is Dr. Neal Barnard from Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and he is the author of a new book for diabetics called Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program For Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System For Reversing Diabetes Without Drugs. It was months in the making and I’m happy to have this voice of opposition clearly articulating why he believes what he believes so we know where he stands. Agree or disagree, you can’t deny he’s passionate about the plant-based diet.
Listen to Dr. Barnard talk about how he got interested in health after growing up in the cattle industry, how medical school made him change his diet to a meat-less one, why he considers a meat-based diet unhealthy, the results of the NIH study he conducted on a plant-based diet and the impact on Type 2 diabetes, why his diet tends to be a low-glycemic index nutritional approach, why eating low-fat, vegan diet without controlling the kind of carbohydrate intake can lead to higher triglycerides and increased blood sugars, the lipid changes that happened in his study (although particle size was not measured), why he’s not worried about HDL cholesterol dropping, why he didn’t measure LDL particle size in his study, whether there are any alternative hypotheses for controlling weight and diabetes, how the American Diabetes Association gives the green light to veganism for diabetes, why he doesn’t think veganism isn’t an extreme way of eating, his specific concerns over red meat and colon cancer, why he thinks even white meat isn’t any better than red meat, why he believes a plant-based diet is the way we were meant to eat, the reason why he believes meat is toxic, his concern that restaurants are hiding the carcinogenic aspects of their meats, his thoughts on local farmers who are producing grass-fed beef and why he’s not impressed with these higher-quality meats, why he believes the glycemic index from David Jenkins is vitally important to controlling diabetes, whether a person who consumes a meat-based diet can be healthy, which he thinks is worse for kids–meat or sugar, the non-meat-based fat sources he believes are healthy, a sample menu of what he eats, what he thinks will happen with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines from the USDA, how people are supposed to determine what’s right from wrong in nutrition, whether it is ludicrous to have a “one-size-fits-all” diet plan for everyone, what percentage of the population eats vegetarian/vegan, why former President Bill Clinton went vegan, whether he read Gary Taubes’ Good Calories Bad Calories, his recent CBS News slideshow =”15 Food Myths That Can Kill You,” why he chooses to be provocative and hit hard with his message, the reason why he created the Atkins Diet Alert web site and his concerns with low-carb diets, and the confusion over what is most important regarding the health markers.
Click here to listen to my conversation with Dr. Neal Barnard.
