1. The document discusses the confusion surrounding nutrition science and different diets such as plant-based, Paleo, and whole foods. 2. It notes that while diets disagree on some points, they generally agree that whole, minimally processed plant foods are healthy and red meat and refined foods should be limited. 3. The document also explores reasons nutrition science is confusing, including biased experts, reductionism, and inconsistent dietary guidelines over time.

1. FOOD IS CONFUSING
Alive in Berlin 2015
Chris Castiglione

2. Chris Castiglione

3. GOT MILK?

4. GOT MILK?

8. WHY ARE YOU VEGETARIAN?

9. 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

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

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

12. MAKING SENSE
OF NUTRITION SCIENCE

13. VITAMIN C

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

15. HOW I FEEL ABOUT NUTRITION

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

17. 1. BAD POLITICS

18. THE BASIC FOUR
1956 - 1992

20. THE FOOD PYRAMID
1992

21. MYPYRAMID
2005

22. MYPLATE
2007

23. 2. BIAS
EXPERTS

24. TRUST

25. HARVARD MEDICAL DEGREE - COURSE REQUIREMENTS

26. NO NUTRITION CLASSES ARE REQUIRED
TO GET A HARVARD MEDICAL DEGREE

27. STATUS OF NUTRITION EDUCATION IN MEDICAL SCHOOLS (2004)

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

30. 3. REDUCTIONISM

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

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

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

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

36. Lycopene
And the results…

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

39. PLANT VS. MEAT
NUTRITION CRASH COURSE

42. PLANT-BASED VS. PALEO

43. WHOLE FOOD PLANT-BASED

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

45. 1. THE CHINA STUDY EXPERIMENT

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

48. THE BODY HAS A OPTIMUM % OF
PROTEIN IT NEEDS

49. 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)

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

51. 10% 12% 15%
The body has a sweet spot for how much protein it needs

52. 2. DR. ESSELSTYN
3. DR. ORNISH

53. 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

54. Coronary artery before and after consuming a plant-base diet

55. PALEO

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

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

60. “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

63. PALEO (CORDAIN) PLANT (CAMPBELL)
VS

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

65. 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.

66. PALEO
More protein from animals
PLANT
Less protein from animals

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

68. 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.”

69. CHINASTUDYDIET.COM

70. DENISE MINGER

71. WHAT WE ALL AGREE ON

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

73. 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

74. 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

75. 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

77. VEGETARIANS
LIVE 8 YEARS LONGER

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

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

81. WHOLE

82. WORKSHOP

83. EXERCISE #1 - YOUR FOOD PYRAMID

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

85. EXERCISE #2 - RISK

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

87. 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?

88. RESOURCES

89. 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

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

91. NutritionalFacts.org

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