Talks at Google
8 HN recommenders · recommended in 9 months, 2016–2022
1:21:13 · 1.4M views · Feb 11, 2016
Dr. Michael Greger presents his book How Not to Die at Google NYC, arguing that diet and lifestyle changes can prevent or reverse many of the top causes of death. He walks through evidence on whole-food plant-based eating.
Frequently recommended in threads on nutrition, cancer and veganism as a science-focused case for plant-based diets, with at least one commenter saying it made them go vegan.
11 comments from Hacker News
The simplest answer is, as much as you can, stick to a whole-foods, plant based diet. So: Whole grain bread and pasta instead of white bread and pasta. Brown rice instead of white rice. Vegetables, vegetables, vegetables, and fruit. Beans, chickpeas, split peas, and lentils. Things to avoid: Meat, fish, dairy, eggs, OIL (of any sort), junk food (of course). Whole foods mean foods where nothing bad has been added, and nothing good has been taken away. This diet is scientifically proven to reduce inflammation, and in fact, make you live longer. The closer you can get to it, the better off you'll be. The only thing to be wary of is that if you cut out animal protein entirely, you'll need a vitamin B12 supplement, unless you get your water from natural streams and eat vegetables without washing off the dirt :) (B12 comes from bacteria -- that's where grazing animals get it from). If you're interested in the science, here's a long (but good) talk by Dr. Michael Greger (creator of nutritionfacts.org) at google: this video Note that he's different from most of the diet advocates out there in that he seems to try quite hard to remain focused on the science, his website is entirely free, he's not selling supplements, and all the proceeds of his books go to charity. I'm a big fan :)
Actually, it's more likely that the issue is we're not eating a mostly whole foods, plant-based diet. It's not carbs that are the problem, but refined carbs certainly are a problem. They're not what our bodies evolved to thrive on. I highly recommend watching Dr. Greger's talk at Google[0] on the subject, or reading his book[1]. [0] this video [1] [LINK]
Yeesh. That's a great visual. I'm a sedentary software engineer... gotta make some changes. It reminds me of the cancer slides in the "How Not to Die" talk this video which is partly why I'm now vegan.
Understand your points of view. I too ate meat for a long time. I too defended that position with same ferocity you do. But I was wrong to do it. And you're wrong on too many points to discuss it at full - sorry, no space here, also have family to feed and work to do. My bookmarks folder about dangers of animal products/agriculture has hundreds of items. I'll cherrypick just few of them to get you started. You'll find several of your viewpoints discussed here: [LINK] Want to learn more? (pun intended) Movies: - I'd recommend Dominion movie again, but you won't probably see it, and even if you do, i don't think the suffering of animals/horrors of the meat production will be enough to change your opinions, so I'll talk about it from different angle. - Cowspiracy - Seaspiracy [LINK] - This man makes you think [LINK] - Dairy is scary Health: this video - Dr. Michael Greger | How Not To Die [LINK] - Foods for Protecting the Body & Mind: Dr. Neal Barnard [LINK] - What the Health! (2017) Impacts on biodiversity / climate change: [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] OK, I'll react to few of your points. > "never personally eat meat strikes me as a bit of a neurotic, narcissistic response" So avoiding killing is a neurotic, narcissistic response? Like, really? > "to avoid ice cream to spare dairy cows who are clearly, if you meet them, quite happy with their jobs" Are you sure? I've met a lot of them, when i was a child. You know that cows giving milk are mothers, forcefully impregnated/raped eve
I like this "scientific evidence based nutritionist" by the name of Michael Greger. He pushes out a lot of content, going through the paper to draw actionable conclusions. Here's what he has to say about some of the topics of the article: Salt (6 videos) — [LINK] Bacon (now a class I carcinogen, like smoking and asbestos): [LINK] MSG (no scientific evidence it hurts): [LINK] GMOs: [LINK] The Monsanto Round-up pesticide often found on "Round-up Ready" (TM) GMOs: [LINK] The article also mentioned people ove-rdiagnozing gluten intolerance. So what?! And is says: > We demonized fats. Then cholesterol. Then meat. Yes, well some of us did, because when I look around I see still loads of fat and high-cholesterol animal product consumed. Cutting out (most) animal products —the only dietary source of cholesterol— is great way to improve your health, same with cutting out processed fat (oils/butter). > If people want to avoid foods, even if there’s no reason to, is that really a problem? There's plenty reason! That's the problem, you cannot let big corps be in charge of their own regulations (and thats what the hollow-democracies allow big corps to do). Since we cannot fix those democracies, we simply: buy organic, and eat plant-based, and/or "clean", and what not. > The answer is: yes. Because it makes food scary. And being afraid of food with no real reason is unscientific — part of the dangerous trend of anti-intellectualism that we confront in many places today. Therefor I quote Dr