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YouTubeFrom cancer prevention viewpoint, prestigious organizations like AICR (American Institute for Cancer Research) and ACS (American Cancer Society) have chalked out dietary guidelines promoting plant-based food plates. See AICR & ACS Guidelines (2018, 2020). Yet, how many people follow it? How many people even know about these guidelines? Keeping these guidelines in mind, is there room for processed meat ads or alcohol ads on television? Why has USDA not adopted the vocabulary and food plates of AICR & ACS guidelines? Why do USDA guidelines lag behind IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) guidelines by many years?
Many factors are at play here. One of the factors is the 'Palatability Concern'.
- (Short Term) Meal satisfaction: Would our food plates be as tasty and flavorful without animal products?
- (Long term) Lifelong adherence: Is there evidence that those who adopt a plant-based or plant-only lifestyle stick to such food plates year after year?
The second question is an important one. In response to a medical condition, or due to sudden burst of inspiration, many people are willing to change their food habits. But are such changes sustainable? In weight loss research, study after study demonstrates that we can accomplish weight loss in many different ways in the short term, but the vast majority of people regain their weight after a few months, or after a few years. So they dive into a weight loss program. And the cycle repeats. The so called 'Yo-Yo effect.
When it comes to a plant-based, or even better, a plant-only food system, is it sustainable in the long term? An important consideration.
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Meat and dairy industry: In response to AICR / ACS / IARC recommendations, or in response to any important research paper that highlights problems with animal products, the palatability of plant-based meals is often discussed in journals like Meat Science. Such discussions are not new; they date back to many decades!
The question is: would people be willing to reduce animal product intake or forego processed animal products like hot dogs, beef jerky and chicken nuggets? Well, Dr Greger and other WFPB doctors argue that people are indeed willing to reduce or give up animal product consumption if only they were to come in touch with science!
- Research scientists: Even within scientific circles, when it comes to devising and studying a diet, scientist ofen wonder if the resulting diet would be palatable to the public! See the videos listed below to understand this phenomenon. So when they devise a diet for a study or for recommending to the general public, they may make it plant-based but not plant-only, thereby allowing some intake of animal products … even if science is pointing in the direction of plant-only food plates probably being the best! See the history of DASH Diet in the video below.
(5 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger's summary: "Dietary guidelines often patronizingly recommend what is considered acceptable or achievable, rather than what the best available balance of evidence suggests is best." Excerpts from this video:
"In their update on colorectal cancer a few years ago (2011), they [AICR / WCRF] implicated various meats including processed meat as a convincing cause of colorectal cancer, their highest level of evidence, effectively meaning beyond a reasonable doubt. More recently, processed meat was confirmed as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization. The main message was that the best prevention of colorectal cancer is the combination of higher physical activity with a fiber-rich and meat product-poor diet."
"A decrease by half a turkey sandwich worth of meat might lower the total number of colorectal cancer cases by approximately 20%."
"But consumers probably won’t even ever hear about the cancer prevention guidelines. Consumers today are overloaded with information. It is, thus, probable that the dissemination of the update on colorectal cancer will drown in this information cloud. And even if consumers do see it, the meat industry doesn’t think they’ll much care."
"… we continue to get diluted guidelines and dietary recommendations, because authorities are asking themselves: What dietary changes could be acceptable to the public rather than just telling us what the best available science says and letting us make up our own minds about feeding ourselves and our families."
(6 mins) Transcript. Companion article: How Not To Die from High Blood Pressure.
In this video, Dr Greger mentions the DASH Diet, well accepted by multiple healthcare organizations in USA as a diet that lowers blood pressure. But what's the history of the DASH Diet? An excerpt from the video:
"So, does the American Heart Association recommend a no-meat diet? No, they recommend a low-meat diet, the so-called DASH diet. Why not completely plant-based?"
"When the DASH diet was being created, were they just not aware of this landmark research, done by Harvard’s Frank Sacks? No, they were aware. The chair of the design committee that came up with the DASH diet was Frank Sacks.
"See, the DASH diet was explicitly designed with the #1 goal of capturing the blood pressure-lowering benefits of a vegetarian diet, yet contain enough animal products to make it palatable to the general population. They didn’t think the public could handle the truth."
"Now, in their defense, you can see what they were thinking. Just like drugs never work—unless you actually take them, diets never work—unless you actually eat them. So, they’re like, look, no one is going to eat strictly plant-based. So, if they soft-pedaled the message, and came up with some kind of compromise diet, then maybe, on a population scale, they’d do more good."
"Okay, tell that to the thousand American families a day that lose a loved one to high blood pressure. Maybe, it’s time to start telling the American public the truth."
Here are some examples where people adopted plant-based diets and they found so much relief that it was a no-brainer for them to continue!
(3 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger describes a study:
"Thirty-three women suffering from painful periods were placed on a vegan diet for two cycles, and experienced “significant reductions in menstrual pain duration” [from four days down to three days], and a significant reduction in “pain intensity,” as well as an improvement in symptoms of PMS, like bloating."
"This was a crossover study, so after two months eating vegan, the women were supposed to go back to their regular diets, to see if the pain would return. But, the women felt so much better that when the researchers said okay, now we need you to go back to your regular diet to test before and after, several said, no way José, and refused—even though they were required to by the study protocol."
"Doctors too often patronizingly think that patients simply won’t adhere to therapeutic diets. But, when they surveyed these women during the study, not only did they have fewer cramps, but they were losing weight, reported “increased energy,…better digestion,…better sleep.”"
"This showed that you don’t have to be in some Ornish or Esselstyn study facing certain death after a heart attack to stick to a plant-based diet. It’s well accepted by people, even when testing more benign conditions."
(5 mins) Transcript.
In the video below, Dr Greger highlights an important point. Nutrition research scientists have been able to see the big picture decades in advance. However, fine-grained studies that illuminate each and every nook and corner of this landscape may take many decades. In the absence of detailed scientific studies, should we trust these big picture research scientists? Or should we wait for scientific studies to be done? This is an interesting question.
In the video below, Dr Greger chooses an example. In 1982, a landmark report on diet, nutrition and cancer was published by the National Academy Of Sciences. This report raised concerns that processed meat may cause cancer. After 31 years, in 2015, after sufficient scientific evidence had collected, IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) — the WHO body responsible for classifying agents as carcinogens — classified processed meat as carcinogenic. In these 31 years, a large number of processed meat products were developed and sold to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
Dr Greger's video:
(6 mins) Transcript.
(4 mins) Transcript.
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