I am an open-minded skeptic and I challenge what I think I know, rather than try to confirm it. But that doesn't mean I disagree with the 'establishment' or 'mainstream' on lots of things. Only on a few things. Only where the evidence leads me.

In particular, I agree with mainstream nutrition science. And I know far more about it than I let on (even though I don't practice it). I've followed it since the 70s and have too many books. I was raised a vegetarian by an SDA mother who preached the Ellen White "health message" to us kids growing up. I remember the science even then showing SDAs living something like 9 years longer than everybody else. My great grandmother (an SDA) lived to 99. I'm a member of the CR society and used to post on that newsgroup for years. I let myself lapse in the last 15 years and let myself be convinced by passing fads, articles, and meta-analyses that meat is good for you and that keto is good for you (and I ended up with a property that had sheep on it so I learnt to farm sheep) and I sorta thought the mainstream view had moved past low-fat diets on to low-carb ones. But I dug into it today and... nope. I was just fooled by what has become popular online.

You keto diet people are going to die of heart attacks in your 50s and 60s. You will seem healthy right up until the end. Fit, lean body mass, top form. Then pop, you're dead. The science was in 50 years ago and is only more certain now. Don't be fooled by supplement salesmen or beef industry lobbyists. If you want a social media influencer, listen to nostr:npub108pv4cg5ag52nq082kd5leu9ffrn2gdg6g4xdwatn73y36uzplmq9uyev6 . Veganism is very close to the most healthy diet and he'll probably live past 100. I will still tease him about it though. Fucker... trying to outlive us... how dare he!

Vegan versus keto diets is a false dichotomy. The biggest predictor of living a long healthy and happy life isn't diet or even exercise but relationships. What makes us sick in the modern world isn't because we eat meat or don't eat the correct vegetables. We are sick because we live in a highly toxic environment AND eat highly processed garbage (not biochemically and metabolically adapted to) AND we're losing our communities.

Metabolically compromised people can benefit from a diet fine-tailored to their individual condition (paleo to keto spectrum). People with autoimmune conditions can benefit from an elimination diet of which carnivore is a good pick. I have very close examples in my life of how a vegan diet can have horrendous consequences if you have the wrong undiagnosed autoimmune condition.

The last few decades have been riddled with bad science around diet and health in general. Let's not pray on the alter of Scientism. We can't take the health and lifespan of one set of religious people living in close communities in a clean environment and jump to the conclusion that it's only the consequence of their particular diet.

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

The biggest predictor is conscienciousness (a personality trait), and the second biggest predictor is income (higher income people live longer).

I'm not sure where relationships show up in the hierarchy. But I also have heard evidence that social relationships, being part of a community that supports you, that this makes a difference.

BTW: Optimism and a positive attitude are not causal, they are caused BY being healthy (the cause goes the other way).