A client has passed on a good nutrition round table with Gary Taubes and a few other nutrition “experts.” This is video 1 of a 5 part series.
One issue I tend to have with Taubes is that he never points out any difference between grass fed animals raised on pasture and factory farmed animals. He certainly recognizes there is a nutritional difference between the types of farming but neglects to promote one or the other. Taubes told me personally that he feels it is up to him to find out exactly “what a good diet is.” I see and understand this but I believe he can do a lot of justice to the world by really promoting sustainably farmed animals because that is part of a good diet. Enjoy the video.
Tags: gary taubes dean ornish charlie rose mehmet oz nutrition discussion whole foods saturated fats
Great post Dane. I agree with you about your gripe with Taubes. The source of food is as critical as its structure. If you look at it that way, you start to see what a really good diet looks like. It’s very simple – it has no processed foods.
A large part of the problem, I think, is the production and consumption of highly processed foods. All highly processed foods, aside from bread, are things that we never could have made in our evolutionary heritage. And bread only came about in the past 15,000 years or so.
When I see these other arguments, these “scientific” arguments, I immediately wonder, “what is at stake for these people, that they would argue at all?”
Something has to be at stake in order to even participate in an argument. Is it simple “to be right.” Or is it “to be an expert” (different from being “right”).
I know that many of these medical professionals (researchers or practitioners) are honestly hoping to help their constituents (either the public-at-large, or their patients). However, they are raised within a culture that has certain values. Most people do not attempt to look beyond the cultural values they were raised with.
I think this is true even for Gary Taubes, someone who has definitely challenged a part of the culture he comes from. However, he isn’t challenging the culture as a whole – the foundational assumption of the culture, that “progress is king.”
Sorry for the long response here…take care, and keep up the good work!
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The reason he isnt promoting it is simple. He is an intellect, and he’s not going to promote something until he sees the evidence. And I can tell you from talking with professors here that there isn’t much evidence about its benefits (besides some of the omega stuff…but if you got my text about t-nation, the study they showed had a small difference between grain and grass fed). I’m not saying the differences aren’t there, I’m saying that so far there aren’t any studies to prove or disprove. Hopefully soon though…