Just wondering if you’ve read this article by Tim Ferris

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Spotting-Bad-Science-103-The-China-Study.pdf

about the China Study book, and if so, what you think of it.

While we’re on the topic, have you read the 4 hour body?

Benson

But I do believe that a 51% focus on diet and 49% focus on yoga is optimal, so my attention now turns toward increasing my intake of vegan meals. I just won’t wear the label. Hope you understand.

the china study has been widely criticized for its very selective interpretation of the evidence, and for the unfortunate mistake of confusing correlation with cause and effect.

i give you props for your interest in health and nutrition, and your emphasis on whole foods (down with processed food!). i would strongly encourage you (and everyone on the planet!) to read Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes (2007). It is an incredible book, and provides an extremely thorough review of the scientific literature on health and nutrition dating back to the 1800′s. He cites over 1100 (mostly peer reviewed) references, and what is a pretty heavy and sciencey book reads like a suspense novel. its incredible. i think you’d enjoy it.

cheers,

ben
(and ps – awesome site and lifestyle… i’ll be making the transition soon myself – yes!!!)

and not eating meat shrinks your brain. Cant win can we?

although I agree that meat isn’t healthy the way you put it, I for sure know that you are exaggerating about the pigs and other animals when it comes to their health. I know it happens, and maybe even more in the US, but we’ve had plenty of meat from our own animals, even a young cow (1 year old) which we always had outside during the day and during night it was in a stable that was big enough to contain 10 cows if they didn’t need any room. We also had pigs, and those were more ‘professionally’ raised, but those still had enough space and I know that out of 200 no more than 10 would have died over the course of 3 months. This may seem like a big number, but how many animals can you name that are born in the wild where such a high level of survival (95%) can be reached? And when those pigs went to the slaughterhouse, those were able to move by themselves. I don’t know because I never seen it, but if ever beatings (maybe) or electrocuting (I really doubt it) was used it was to get them running in the right direction instead of RUNNING the wrong way. There’s various other examples I could give and I do know the quality of the life of those animals wasn’t as good as in the wild, but you are making it sound a lot worse.

With that said I wanted to say that I still eat meat today, but that I’m going to check out and read about this MaxDiet some more and see if it is something for me.

Most vegans that I know (myself included), prepare most of the food we eat. With a bit of reading and tweaking, it’s quite easy and fun to get to a level where your diet is totally balanced, energizing and delicious, minus the animal protein. In short, from what I’ve seen over 7-8 years, unhealthy looking vegans haven’t done their homework.

I am a vegan, going on 8 years now. I am 5’7, I weigh 129 pounds and I run marathons. Within 1 week of adopting the diet, my endurance went through the roof, my skin improved and somewhat standard allergies (hayfever) that I had suffered with for years, disappeared and never came back. I also need less sleep and have loads of energy throughout the day. I get my blood tested yearly and all vitamin/nutrient levels are bang on. I never get sick.

For those that insist that buying chemical-free meats is a compromise, I would recommend reading (or re-reading) the China Study and anything by Dr. Neal Barnard. Pay special attention to the effect of animal protein itself. No matter how it’s treated, it’s the SOURCE of the protein that is important. That it’s laden with hormones and antibiotics is just the tip of a rather huge iceberg.

I am neither skinny, physically weak, pale, or unhealthy. Quite the opposite actually.

Any vegetarian/vegan you see that looks like shit probably looks that way because they believe anything they eat is healthy since they dont eat meat….things like dairy and frozen/proccessed food.

Face it, vegan rules =p

Traditional fermented soybeans might be an option if you can eat enough of it, somehow I doubt that’s on most vegans shopping list though.