Dr Georgia Ede on counseling vegans and vegetarians
 

Podcast #22 on the Diet Doctor podcast, June 18th, Dr. Georgia Ede, psychiatrist, explains that in five years of finding out how nutrition affects our mental health, she was NEVER able to convince a vegan or vegetarian to incorporate animal foods, even line-of-sentience "animals" like shellfish.

She describes it as an emotional decision, so her science didn't make a dent. But they don't even supplement as all their vegan gurus instruct them about!

https://www.dietdoctor.com/diet-doc...-dr-georgia-ede

Much more about low carb and mental health at the link. It is a specialty of Dr. Ede, who is a favorite of mine :)

On a personal note, my own anxiety issues has been greatly improved since I went low carb.

I don't discuss my eating plans benefits with vegans and hard-core vegetarians and they don't discuss their eating with me. Each to their own.

Dr Ede, up until very recently, worked as a psychiatrist at Smith College. Her clients were students with mental health issues. These are no doubt the people she could not convince.

Thank you, correct. And these were people who would be somewhat buffered from malnutrition, and might last longer before health issues.

To illustrate how the thinking has swung, vegetarians were considered fanatics last century, and no one would think it a healthy diet, or much of a long-term one. The four food groups were an industry invention, but not the disaster of the food pyramid. Maybe that is what they are really fleeing back to the plate metaphor?

What makes it difficult is that there are some who do well as vegans/ vegetarians. Whether that's the result of knowing how to target supplements, genetics, or both, the cultish approach to the particular WOE with agendas beyond health makes it difficult to get any followers to admit to poor health due to their eating choices. Some with poor health would never admit or acknowledge diet as the root cause. As mentioned, if started when young, the slow deterioration of health over time doesn't always become apparent until it's too late. Denise Minger is one who has been blunt about the shortcomings and health risks (aside: haven't heard from Denise in a while, hope she's well), and there are probably more as Dr. Ede was a former vegan/ veg follower. Many come to the realization that essential nutrients come from a variety of foods from animals, and if you don't survive your diet, you won't be around to save any other life forms.

My neice recently made the switch. Tried to talk with her but it was a no go. She,s a phys ed teacher, too. I used to think to each thier own, but if a friend was mowing in shorts I would care enough to remind long pants prevent leg injuries.

The short version. As I looked at communities around the world, vegan and vegitarian is due to lack of food sources. Animal protein became scarce as human populations exploaded. Humans have hunted many species out of existance, with fisheries on the brink for the last 30 years inthe New England area. Raising meat animals is expensive. It requies a lot of land per head to graze and modern tractors and pestcides and plant breeding has pushed the production per acre. The soaring human population continues to put pressure on production of meat, and as wages dont keep up with inflation, meats become further out of reach.

Sorry this thought jumped around. It is complicated. In Daniel Booones time, their was enough wild meat to hunt with guns to feed the frontier popluation. That senerio doesnt exist anymore but in a few areas around the world.

I think vegetarianism is ridiculous. It isn't based in science at all; it's a religious tenet. I would never encourage anyone to eat that way. But I'm also curious why communities who did follow it for religious reasons also had plenty of people who lived very long lives with no evidence of significant health issues.

More than half of Hindu people in India follow strict vegetarian diets and have done for centuries--but it's only been very recently that diabetes has been on the rise there, like everywhere. There were a few generations of Seventh Day Adventists in my family and most lived into their 90s with no obesity, diabetes, heart disease or other issues. I'm sure they all ate plenty of carbs--cereal, fruit, potatoes, beans, and so on--but I don't think they ate much sugar. Not like people do in the 21st century.

My great-grandmother grew up on a farm that primarily had fruit orchards and I'm sure they ate plenty of pie. But people used to just put a sprinkle of sugar in fruit pie (or none if the fruit was really sweet), not cups and cups.

Just received Dr. Ede's most recent email with a link to her new and relevant article in Psychology Today:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...a06fc1-97647217

OMG.

Alzheimers may be preventable.

Sugar? Sugar! lots of Sugar.

Doctor and clean-living advocate John Harvey Kellogg believed that cereal grains reduce the libido and make humans more complacent (brain-fog, anyone?). If you want good little religious-follower bots, feed them animal fodder instead of animals.

Last century, Jains who emigrated to the UK began dying of pernicious anemia. Turns out, the insect content in the UK food was so low these patients were only now actually experiencing their ancestral diet -- without any animal foods.

Also, I know the vegan lifestyle, in particular, is built on lies. They will, at minimum, eat fish from humane sources and not tell anyone.

Also, for decades, I see people lying about food. Vegetarians take this to a whole new level. They can have a Meatless Monday and then call themselves, "vegetarian, really."