FOOD IS CONFUSING Alive in
Berlin 2015 Chris Castiglione

Chris Castiglione

GOT MILK?

GOT MILK?

WHY ARE YOU VEGETARIAN?

Fast Food Nation Omnivore’s Dilemma
In Defense of Food The China Study Whole Death by Food Pyramid Forks Over Knives Fed Up Food Inc. Cowspiracy Fat Sick and Nearly Dead King Corn Vegucated A JOURNEY OF LEARNING Food Rules Eating Animals Grain Brain The Fat Surprise Skinny Bitch The Ethics of What We Eat Paleo Manifesto

There’s a lot that they
agree on 20% 80% 80%

1. NUTRITION SCIENCE 2. PLANT
VS. MEAT 3. WHAT WE ALL AGREE ON

MAKING SENSE
OF NUTRITION SCIENCE

VITAMIN C

2. PEPPERS: 183.5MG 1. GUAVA:
228.3MG 3. KALE: 120MG 7. ORANGES - 53.2MG per 100 grams (about the size of 1 orange)

HOW I FEEL ABOUT NUTRITION

1. Bad politics 2. Biased
experts 3. Reductionism WHY IS NUTRITION SO CONFUSING?

1. BAD POLITICS

THE BASIC FOUR 1956 -
1992

THE FOOD PYRAMID
1992

MYPYRAMID
2005

MYPLATE
2007

2. BIAS
EXPERTS

TRUST

HARVARD MEDICAL DEGREE - COURSE
REQUIREMENTS

NO NUTRITION CLASSES ARE REQUIRED
TO GET A HARVARD MEDICAL DEGREE

STATUS OF NUTRITION EDUCATION IN
MEDICAL SCHOOLS (2004)

Anyone who is certain they
are right about everything, is most certainly wrong

3. REDUCTIONISM

If you are a REDUCTIONIST
you believe that everything in the world can be understood if you understand all its component parts.

Reductionism: The mistake of characterizing
foods by the health effects of certain nutrients

Lycopene In 1995, a report
came out that people who ate more whole tomatoes had lower risk for prostate

Lycopene Marketers rose to the
challenge. “It’s lycopene time!”

Lycopene
And the results…

Lycopene 1,361 studies later, and
there are still no significant findings on isolating lycopene. There are hundreds of thousands of chemicals in tomatoes!

PLANT VS. MEAT NUTRITION CRASH
COURSE

PLANT-BASED VS. PALEO

WHOLE FOOD PLANT-BASED

PLANT-BASED Water Plants Fruit Grains
Legumes Excluded Dairy Industrial vegetable oils Refined grains Refined sugar

1. THE CHINA STUDY EXPERIMENT

The counties with the highest
rates of some cancers were more than 100 times greater than counties with the lowest rates of cancers.

THE BODY HAS A OPTIMUM
% OF PROTEIN IT NEEDS

3 ounces of meat (21
grams) What 10% Animal Protein Looks Like: Roughly 46 grams for women, 56 for men 1 Yogurt (11 grams) 2 Glasses of Milk (5oz each)

The body has a sweet
spot for how much protein it needs

10% 12% 15% The body
has a sweet spot for how much protein it needs

2. DR. ESSELSTYN 3. DR.
ORNISH

Dr. Esselstyn (Yale) • 18
patients near-death • He put them on a plant-based diet for 5 years • They had had 49 coronary events prior to a whole-foods plant based diet • 0 events after going on the diet Dr. Ornish (Harvard) • “Lifestyle Heart Trial” • He took 28 heart disease patients and put them on a low-fat, plant-based diet • 82% of the patients in the experiment group had a regression in their heart disease within the year. The control group had a 165% rise in the frequency of chest pain

Coronary artery before and after
consuming a plant-base diet

PALEO

PALEO Animals Eggs Vegetables Fruit
Nuts and seeds Excluded Too much Dairy Industrial vegetable oils Refined grains Refined sugar

PALEO: EAT HOW HUMANS ATE
OVER 10,000 YEARS AGO

“It’s tricky to rely on
food science because the information is always changing, updating, and being debated. Instead, we need a universal paradigm to guide us. “ - Loren Cordain

PALEO (CORDAIN) PLANT (CAMPBELL)
VS

PALEO Looks to evolution for
understanding PLANT Looks to science for understanding

PALEO Cordain believes a “high
protein diet” of 20-40% protein should be the norm. He cites research showing that a lean animal protein diet reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and obesity. PLANT Campbell believes we should maintain 10% protein from calories, “mostly all from whole food plants”. He cites research showing that a whole food plant based diet reduces risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes.

PALEO More protein from animals
PLANT Less protein from animals

PALEO Cow’s milk is bad
for you PLANT Cow’s milk is bad for you

PALEO Nutrition science is confusing
“The study of human nutrition remains an immature science.” PLANT Nutrition science is confusing “Although we think we’re well informed on nutrition, we’re not. We tend to follow one faddish diet after another.”

CHINASTUDYDIET.COM

DENISE MINGER

WHAT WE ALL AGREE ON

There’s a lot that they
agree on 20% 80% 80%

Fast Food Nation Omnivore’s Dilemma
In Defense of Food The China Study Whole Death by Food Pyramid Forks Over Knives Fed Up Food Inc. Cowspiracy Fat Sick and Nearly Dead King Corn Vegucated A JOURNEY OF LEARNING Food Rules Eating Animals Grain Brain The Fat Surprise Skinny Bitch The Ethics of What We Eat Paleo Manifesto

Forks over knives: vegetables are
good of you, meat causes heart disease and cancer Fed up: sugar causes obesity and diabetes The Paleo Manifesto: we should eat meat, plants, and avoid sugar because our ancestors did The Big Fat Surprise: natural saturated fats in butter and meat are more healthy than vegetable oil and “diet” foods

Paleo Plant-based Red Meat Animal
fats Whole grains, Legumes, Potatoes Excluded Too much Dairy Industrial vegetable oils refined grains refined sugar Whole foods Plants Fruits

VEGETARIANS
LIVE 8 YEARS LONGER

There is “something” about the
vegetarian lifestyle that causes you to live longer. What is it?

You don’t need to be
a vegetarian, but you can act like a vegetarian

WHOLE

WORKSHOP

EXERCISE #1 - YOUR FOOD
PYRAMID

Write down everything you ate
today. 1. How did it make you feel afterwards? 2. Why did you eat it?

EXERCISE #2 - RISK

“The saddest aspect of life
right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom” - Isaac Asimov

What if we found out
that milk does cause cancer. 80% you will get cancer before you are 60. (hypothetically). Would you stop drinking it?

RESOURCES

Fast Food Nation Omnivore’s Dilemma
In Defense of Food The China Study Whole Death by Food Pyramid Forks Over Knives Fed Up Food Inc. Cowspiracy Fat Sick and Nearly Dead King Corn Vegucated A JOURNEY OF LEARNING Food Rules Eating Animals Grain Brain The Fat Surprise Skinny Bitch The Ethics of What We Eat Paleo Manifesto

Forks over knives Plant-based Fed
up Sugar Food Inc Industrialized farming 4 DOCUMENTARIES Cowspiracy Environmental effects of factory farming

NutritionalFacts.org

Chris Castiglione Find me: Twitter
@castig chris [at] onemonth.com www.castig.org