Philosophical Vegan Forum

Jebus wrote:

ThatNerdyScienceGirl wrote:I trust the CDC, USDA, ACC, AHA, and the Department of Health and Human Services over my own judgement as a freelance researcher.

The reason I don't always trust them is that their recommendations are often based on what they think is health wise realistically attainable for a person rather than what the research has taught them about optimal health.

This is also completely true. The guidelines are based on realistic expectations, not the ideal diet. And if you saw what dietitians see every day (people consuming nothing but soft drink and white bread - yes this was an actual patient I had) it makes sense. We are taught to use incremental change, and for someone who lives on fast food, eating chicken breast and broccoli for dinner is a HUGE win. Going vegan would just be too hard for these people.

ThatNerdyScienceGirl wrote: I am not a nutritionist nor do I have a masters or high degree in nutrition science. I am not a dietitian or a medical specialist. But as of right now, I trust the CDC, USDA, ACC, AHA, and the Department of Health and Human Services over my own judgement as a freelance researcher.

Thankyou for the welcome ^_^

What kind of freelance research do you do?

This is an old post, but I thought I'd respond since it was bumped.

ThatNerdyScienceGirl wrote:And to be honest, no, I don't like Greger. The same way I don't like AuthorityNutrition, or NaturalNews, or PETA, or any group that has legitimate reason to lie about, miscontrue, or ignore facts in order to fit their beliefs.

I don't like seeing those compared, and I hope you'll look more into the nuances between them and the motivations.

Greger changes his stance when studies come up, reincluding or excluding things from his diet based on research.
He has also made video(s) on how to prepare meat to be less carcinogenic.
Greger deals mainly with ideal or optimal nutrition, and not adequate nutrition, and has a hard time understanding how badly some people eat or want to eat (and how people value taste and convenience).

The thing I disagree with him about most is supplementation; he strongly advocates only supplementing B-12, and otherwise eating huge quantities of dark leafy green veggies. While this could work, and is probably the healthiest diet, this isn't a very practical recommendation for most people, and Greger doesn't understand that well.

His issue is practicality, and failing to give clearer advice. He just retorts with his catch phrase "Just eat your veggies" (and take B-12)
when presented with questions of adequate nutrition.

His worst single video was the one he did on artificial sweeteners. He doesn't understand the benefit of culinary sweetness in the cost-benefit analysis, so he considers any potential dangers (however remote) a reason not to eat them. His reasoning wasn't explained well in that video, but he has elsewhere.

Anyway, my point is that Greger does use research and explain his reasoning. You just have to follow his links, and if you don't like the reasons he gives for something, it's right there.


AuthorityNutrition and NaturalNews are more comparable, in that they're loaded with terrible pseudoscience (something Greger has spoken out against, even when the pseudoscience is in favor of some vegan position).

PETA is different, as a large organization with a variety of opinions and branches of outreach, and not really devoted to nutrition information. PETA is political, not a nutrition group so I'm not sure what you're reading there.

GardenFood wrote:

ThatNerdyScienceGirl wrote: I am not a nutritionist nor do I have a masters or high degree in nutrition science. I am not a dietitian or a medical specialist. But as of right now, I trust the CDC, USDA, ACC, AHA, and the Department of Health and Human Services over my own judgement as a freelance researcher.

Thankyou for the welcome ^_^

What kind of freelance research do you do?

I run a website and a YouTube channel, so I spend a lot of my waking hours just looking up scientific studies about this, that, or the other, and as a result, I have dived into many topics hoping to say something is really bad for you, and come out of it with a different opinion. The same way that I believed Pescaterianism was really healthy... then I discovered that although healthier than the American diet, that it was not as healthy as I once believed.

So as a result of my research, I write articles, and now make videos, about my findings. I have been proven wrong before and will definitely be proven wrong again.

GardenFood wrote:Hi there,

I'm vegan, for health reasons, and I agree Dr. Gregor is sometimes biased. However, considering the amount of non-vegan (carnivore) nutritionist researchers and dietitians who are completely biased towards meat eating even when the evidence is against them (like when WHO recently acknowledged that processed meat causes cancer ...), I think some vegan bias is sometimes a fresh breeze. You will always be slightly biased towards your own beliefs, however the amount of carnist people who are still speak louder than people like Dr. Gregor in their bias.

I am a dietitian myself, I see this bias in practice all the time against being a vegan/vegetarian DESPITE the fact that the DAA (in my case, as I am Australian) acknowledges vegan/vegetarian diets as healthy. So it goes both ways.

True compared to others, Dr Greger is a much better source, but I still can't trust him. But then again, I don't really trust many individuals at all. That's why I usually stick to examples, or scientific studies, or huge health organizations like the AHA, CDC, or the like, as opposed to singular people, as I have fell for liars and misinformed people before, I don't want that to happen again.