Yeah. People often forget that studies are statistical functions, and that means you can predict the results in a population with a given behavior, but you've taken leave of your understanding of statistics and science when you apply those generalizations to individuals. :D

It's actually reasoning. Studies (like this one) show that, as a class, vegans (most importantly, pregnant women) are more likely to have depressed B12 values - but you seem to already know and accept that. But the correlation is not 100% - not every vegan has depressed b12 values, and not every non-vegan has "normal"…

scholar.google.com and PLOS1 are our friends.

But nobody is going to do the analysis for you unless they have an agenda. I can say to you, that if you cut your sugar intake to essentially zero (sure, have a donut every now and again, or ice cream once a week, but don't eat sugar every day), and eat lots of fresh,…

It *is* a bit of a generalization. It's a very SPECIFIC generalization. We know that vegans as a class are much more likely to exhibit vitamin b12 deficiency (I'm speaking of B12 because it's one nutrient that's been studied quite a lot in re sources, effectiveness, bioavailability, etc, but it's not the *only* one)…

The antibiotics and hormones in beef have nothing at all to do with disease, and everything to do with reducing cost - that is, causing the animals to get fatter quicker and grow faster.

Here I would have to say 'the plural of anecdote is not "data"'. Fitness professionals were all about red meat in the 40s, all about pasta in the 70s, etc. Fitness professionals fall into the category of 'motivated reasoning', and my money is on low adherence for the vast majority. Their choices are irrelevant. The…

You could pare that down further to "eat fresh whole foods including lots of plants that aren't grains or starches". The concept of reducing meat consumption (by "meat" I mean animal products in general) improving health is a political stance, not a scientific one. The small amount of evidence of negative effects of…

The problem is, as this article illustrates, that "diet professionals" are often - more often than not, in fact - every bit as confused as the general population, with their own economic and political stakes in their answers. My personal pet peeve is that many "nutritionists" still put people in early Type 2 diabetes…

Your assessment of Omega 3's from fish is somewhat flawed, AFAICT, though I'd be happy to look at any studies you can provide links to. Several causal studies have shown significant reduction in MI and nonfatal MI being related to increased consumption of oily fish; it's the fish oil PILLs that are failing to show…

I think you're right. Many people will argue with you up one side and down the other, though.

I think you're characterizing it wrong. The most significant finding we've discovered about the human metabolism is how flexible it is. Food is a long vector and most foods require quite a long vector to demonstrate significant effect. If you eat a 'healthy diet' - and in this context I mean 'one low in processed…

I think the problem here is that 1) it absolutely is infuriating, and 2) you're lumping the advice you hear into an amorphous "they", which you call "health nuts". I can introduce you to large groups of people who have been preaching "make it yourself" foods for years - since I was a child in the 1970s from personal…

"...applies to *any source of information*" - FTFY :D

You're absolutely welcome - good work deserves kudos, particularly when it's so rare on this topic!

I forgot to mention one other point: We don't have a unified, over-arching definition of "health", so claims about the health of dietary choices must necessarily be ambiguous.

It's entirely possible (and has been…

Again, bravo. I have a great deal of respect for the ideas you're expressing here. If you manage to pull these goals off, you'll be among a very elite minority of media outlets. But beware - accuracy isn't always popular! :D No matter, you've got at least one supporter in those goals :D

Again, though, one size does not fit all, and many - perhaps most - people cannot get sufficient nutrition from a vegan diet. Several causal studies have shown that vegans are, on average, B vitamin deficient. Not all vegans, but enough vegans that the difference is statistically significant with a large effect size.…

Again, folks don't understand the foundational science. It is true that the B12 and EFAs in plants aren't bioaccessible to many people, but *some* people can and do metabolize them. You appear to be one of those people. Still, you're in the minority, as for most people, plant-based sources of some B vitamins and…

Can I just say this is one of the best diet articles I've seen on the internet in recent years? Bravo, Mr. Henry, Bravo.

There's another EXTREMELY significant input into the vast majority of epidemiological dietary studies. That being that we're TERRIBLE at reporting what we eat. We're actually terrible at…

While it certainly resonates with some of Objectivism's "vibe", that's all. It's not particularly at variance with much happiness advice from sources as diverse as Rand, Aristotle, and Buddha. You could have (perhaps more accurately) congratulated him on being "Aristotelian". While Mr. Manson might be an Objectivist,…

How is this different than -+ and —?