Steelhead,
Thanks for the info on "The China Study". I picked up a copy this past weekend. . .it's a real interesting read. I tried to make the jump to a more plant-based diet a few years ago, and failed miserably - I just love a good steak every now and then! But, I don't dispute anything I've read so far in the book. Thanks!!
You have to read The China Study carefully. While the author advocates eating all you want (while getting lots of variety) of any whole, unrefined plant-based food, and then recommends eating all the fruit, vegetables, and whole grains you want, but minimizing refined carbohydrates, added vegetable oils, and fish, and avoiding meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs, the studies in the book do demonstrate that eating five percent but no more than ten percent animal protein is fine. I quote from page 242 of the hard bound book: "What Does Minimize Mean? Should You Eliminate Meat Completely?"
"The findings from the China Study indicate that the lower the percentage of animal based foods that are consumed, the greater the health benefits -- even when that percentage declines from 10% to 0% of calories. So it's not unreasonable to assume that the optimum percentage of animal-based products is zero, at least for anyone with a predisposition for a degenerative disease."
The important point in the foregoing sentence is that the author writes "it's not unreasonable to assume". This means that this is just his guess -- the statistically significant studies show that under 10% is the goal, and 5% is optimum or less. He goes on:
"But this has not been absolutely proven. Certainly it is true that most of the health benefits are realized at very low but non-zero levels of animal-based foods." This is precisely what The China Study demonstrates: that to be healthy we need to keep animal based proteins below 10%, which means that you can have your steak from time to time, etc.
You do not need to eliminate meat completely, but if you don't then you also cannot eat all you want either -- once you introduce animal based protein and fats into your diet, then you do need to limit your calories and increase your exercise. I, therefore, recommend that if you choose to eat fish, meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, refined carbohydrates, and added vegetable oils, then you eat them sparingly, and maybe for 30 days if you are intent on losing weight and gaining muscle you eliminate everything from your diet except for fruits, vegetables, roots, legumes, mushrooms, nuts, and whole grains. After 30 days, you will want your steak, etc., but you will also notice that it really isn't as tasty as it used to be and that the taste is really in the salt, spices, and sauce -- so just eat the salt, spices, and sauce on a Portobella mushroom.
In other words, what The China Study advocates is a healthy diet and a side benefit of eating correctly is that you will also lose weight easily and enjoyably. Also, eating as recommended in The China Study results in a tremendous increase in energy without having to use stimulants such as coffee, which I found surprising.
What I noticed when I applied the dietary approach in The China Study is that I was able to stuff myself and still lose 30 pounds in a few months
without exercise; then I started exercising, erging, again while staying on the eat all you want diet, and I noticed that I stopped losing pounds as rapidly but started gaining muscle and while my weight has stablized (i.e., it is coming down slowly now) I am becoming leaner, i.e., losing inches, etc. -- I am able to wear suits that I could not wear for over 10 years, for example.
I use a Tamita Ironman scale that gives me my weight, percent body fat, percent water, muscle weight, physical rating, BMR, metabolic age, bone weight, and visceral fat in pounds. Over time I have been able to watch my weight slowly drop, but also watch my muscle pounds increase and my fat pounds decrease. This helps keep everything in perspective and I don't get discouraged if I gained a pound of muscle and lost a pound of fat, or my weight has stabilized but I am still losing fat, which is the goal for an athlete or at least it is my goal.
And if I want to eat a steak or a hamburger I do it, but not nearly as often as I did in the past, and the results have been a dramatic decrease in cholesterol, glucose intolerance, blood pressure, i.e., an overall dramatic increase in health. I am never hungry anymore and I am now able to exercise more. Of course, The China Study explains how all this works.
Erg on, eat well, live long, and prosper.
But here are a few suggestions.
I've just been pretty much letting go after I push back... 