Dialogue etcetera and a related book synopsis for tomorrow Wednesday January 22
- Arthur Clark
- Jan 21, 2020
- 5 min read
Dialogue, dessert buffet, and book giftival tomorrow Wednesday January 22 at Humainologie 1514 Seventh Street SW starting at 6:00 PM. The topic is Healthy Living (assuming that topic is okay with the participants) and here's a related book synopsis. Arthur
Book: (Michael Greger) How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease (2015)
A New York Times bestseller, this book is based on numerous published studies of specific dietary practices associated with improved health outcomes. It provides detailed, evidence-based recommendations chiefly for what to include in your diet, and what to exclude from it – and cites the studies on which the author’s statements are based. In a nutshell, the recommendations are for a plant-based diet.
Online articles, books, and other sources often make conflicting recommendations for healthy eating. The author’s website https://nutritionfacts.org/ itself makes reference to recent evidence that vegetarians – while they have a somewhat lower risk of heart disease – may have a slightly higher risk of stroke https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31484644 That recent study, published in the British Medical Journal last year, illustrates that new evidence is always emerging, and that such evidence may be contrary to what you had thought, indeed contrary even to what experts such as dieticians and physicians including cardiologists and neurologists had thought. Professional expertise is important and relatively reliable, but experts often make serious errors. Use an approach that includes critical thinking as well as an open mind; make your own observations and draw your own conclusions.
In general, the evidence in favor of a vegetarian diet seems to be growing. Perhaps adding some fish to that diet is a good idea, otherwise supplementing the vegetarian diet with vitamin B12 and other nutrients in some form, while avoiding meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products – at least this provides an evidence-based working plan. Your knowledge of what your parents ate and of their health outcomes will be valuable information, along with other sources of information you use to make your decisions. As an example, if one or both of them ate a typical western diet and had heart attacks, then a more radical approach to your diet such as that recommended by Caldwell Esselstyn in Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease is probably what you should follow. Recall another of our synopses, of the book The Alzheimer’s Solution, in which the authors insist that lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of dementia include not only diet and exercise, but also good social interactions; complex cognitive activity; and enough sleep and reduction of negative stress. I am using this approach in my own life because the recommendations seem to me a good idea even if they didn’t prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
Part One of the book by Michael Greger contains fifteen chapters with titles all beginning with the words “How Not to Die from…” Chapter 1, for example is “How Not to Die from Heart Disease,” Chapter 2 is “How Not to Die from Lung Disease, and Chapter 3 is “How Not to Die from Brain Disease,” the latter with a section on stroke and another on Alzheimer’s disease. The other “How Not to Die from” chapters are on digestive cancers; infections; diabetes; high blood pressure; liver diseases; blood cancers; kidney disease; breast cancer; suicidal depression; prostate cancer; Parkinson’s disease; and iatrogenic causes.
Part Two organizes his recommendations as “Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen,” all but one of them being dietary: Beans, Berries, Other Fruits, Cruciferous Vegetables, Greens, Other Vegetables, Flaxseeds, Nuts and Seeds, Herbs and Spices, Whole Grains, Beverages, and Exercise.
In his chapter “How Not to Die from Suicidal Depression,” the author provides the World Health Organization’s (1946) definition of health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” That same chapter emphasizes the positive effects of a plant-based diet on mood and specifically on prevention of episodes of major depression. For example, the avoidance of a proinflammatory compound, arachidonic acid, which is found in chicken, eggs, beef, pork, and fish, may be a large part of the explanation for the increased tendency to depression among those who eat meat compared to those whose diet is plant-based. Another factor is reportedly the higher brain levels of monoamines (including serotonin and dopamine) in those whose diets are plant-based. Other sections of the chapter support the value of carbohydrates, saffron, and coffee (four or five cups a day, but not much more than that).
The author also emphasizes the association of exercise with good mood. Four studies are cited. The first, published 1996 in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, supports the positive effect on mood of even a single workout. A study of nearly 5,000 people published in 2003 in the journal Preventive Medicine “found that people who exercised regularly had 25 percent lower odds of a major depression diagnosis.” The author points out that this does not clarify cause and effect. Does the depression cause people to decrease their exercise or does exercise decrease the risk of depression? Two studies by Duke University researchers sought to address this. The first (published 1999 in the Archives of Internal Medicine) involved depressed men and women over 50 years of age, randomly assigned to take an antidepressant medication (Zoloft) or to begin an aerobic exercise program. “Within four months, the mood of those in the drug group improved so much they were, on average, no longer depressed. But the same powerful effect was found in the exercise group – that is, the group of people who weren’t taking any drugs. Exercise, it seemed, works about as well as medication.” The researchers followed this up with a study to exclude the possibility that it was the social interactions of those in the exercise program – not the exercise itself – that were really the cause of the improved mood. That study, published in 2007 in Psychosomatic Medicine studied one group taking antidepressants, another group taking an exercise class, and a third group who did their exercise at home. Again, the results confirmed that exercise works as well as antidepressants, even if the exercise is done at home alone.
As indicated by the above details, each chapter goes through a detailed examination of many published studies, most of which support the value of a plant-based diet; and including some that focus on other measures that influence well-being. Many related issues are touched upon, for example the point that whole foods are more effective than supplements in pill form. Moreover, just as cigarette companies tried to undermine credibility of the evidence that cigarettes cause cancer, the pharmaceutical industry (and those funded by them or affiliated with them) can be expected to have a bias against evidence that casts doubt on the efficacy of their products.
As with many of the books I’ve previously summarized, it seems impossible to do justice to this book within my two-page limit. In effect, I’ve provided just an overview and a potentially useful synopsis of one chapter. I hope this helps.
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