Denise Minger's new book: Death By Food Pyramid

Reading The China Study a couple of years ago, I was puzzled by all the fanfare. Take thousands or correlations, pick the ones you want and make your own case. Then, be sloppy about how you characterized the foods. Put chicken potpie in the meat category and ignore the industrial inflammatory carbs that make up the bulk of the dish.

Struck by the weakness of the book - viewed by vegans and vegetarians as “authoritative” - I searched the net for detailed critiques and quickly found those by English major Denise Minger. As a physician conditioned to turning first to the basic science and medical literature, I was struck by her critical mind as it delved into the cracks in the data and uncovered The China Study’s flimsy infrastructure. 

(I then read a debate between Dr. Loren Cordain, who has studied the Paleolithic diet for over 25 years, and T. Colin Campbell, the lead author of The China Study, and found a comment by Campbell discrediting the use of randomized studies -- after all, it's easier to make a case when one ignores the science.)

Now, Denise Minger, at the encouragement of publisher Mark Sisson, has written a book skewering the Food Pyramid. Since I have yet to read the book, I share Mark's comments:

“Now, with this book, she sets her sight on the disastrous, farcical USDA Food Pyramid, exposing the twisted liaisons between government and industry that enabled it and dismantling the shoddy science and erroneous conclusions supporting it.”

If you read the book, please share your thoughts.

Dr. John

Source: Introducing Death By Food Pyramid

Patient's fatal heart attack turns doctor to Paleo diet

As I drove home I could not get one thing out of my mind.  This gentleman had been to my office to see me just the week before, and I was very encouraging to him about how things were going.  He was in his early 60’s, and suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and obstructive sleep apnea.  The thing is, they were all VERY WELL CONTROLLED! His blood pressure was perfect, his diabetes numbers mirrored that of a non-diabetic patient, and his cholesterol was well below the goals set by multiple cardiovascular studies.  In addition, his cardiologist had convinced him that his meat based diet was the culprit of his seemingly uncontrollable heart disease, and he had adapted a strict vegan diet for well over a year.  In many parts of the country that’s not too hard to believe, but to a Cajun from the land of boudin and pork cracklins, this was quite the feat! So, I asked myself…how could this skinny, well controlled hypertensive, diabetic, vegan Cajun gentleman in his early 60’s have just died from his fourth heart attack?  Something was wrong!

PaleolithicMD