Nutrition FAQs

Three primary factors may be frustrating your attempts at weight loss even while on a whole foods, plant-based diet: evolutionary hard-wiring, metabolic adaptations, and calorie density. Let me break them down for you. First, evolutionary hard-wiring. We evolved over millions of years...

Yes, indeed, and I cover the best ones in my book, How Not to Diet, including these broadly available and safe to consume foods that have been identified as weight-loss accelerators: Black cumin Cumin Garlic powder Green tea Ground ginger Nutritional yeast...

Vitamin B12 Supplements vs B12-Enriched Foods A regular, reliable source of vitamin B12, whether from supplements or fortified foods, is critical for anyone eating a plant-based diet. If you want to get your B12 from fortified foods rather than take supplements, you’d...

I recommend: at least 2,000 mcg (µg) cyanocobalamin once each week, ideally as a chewable, sublingual, or liquid supplement taken on an empty stomach or at least 50 mcg daily of supplemental cyanocobalamin  or a serving of B12-fortified foods three times a...

Symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency: Abdominal distention Chronic diarrhea Shortness of breath Swollen, red, painful feet Skin darkening Bilateral useless hand syndrome Numbness and tingling in the hands and feet Muscle cramps Dizziness Cognitive disturbances Difficulty walking Erectile dysfunction Fatigue Depression Psychosis...

You may have heard that vitamin B12 can cause acne, but that isn’t the whole story. B12-related acne tends to occur only when dosages exceed 5,000 to 10,000 micrograms a week, which is well in excess of the 50 daily micrograms or...

Answered by: Thea I highly recommend taking a look at Dr. Greger's two videos on colonoscopies, What to Take Before a Colonoscopy and Should We All Get Colonoscopies Starting at Age 50? The videos are very short. The videos reference the source studies, which...

Answered by: Thea I recommend you take a look at this article which explains how the Dietary Guidelines Committee got to their initial conclusion (which was later reversed). Very important details. As they say, the devil is in the details. And, as it...

Answered by: Thea I have some resources that should help you get started on being able to bolster your case. First, note the following quote from a position paper from the ADA: "It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that...

Answered by: Dr. Michael Greger A new study calculated that if half the U.S. population ate just one more serving of conventional fruits and vegetables, 20,000 cases of cancer could be prevented. At the same time the added pesticide consumption could cause up to...

Answered by: Dr. Michael Greger Fabulous question! There was a study involving four thousand participants that compared traditional Asian diets with and without occasional servings of meat. The researchers found that men who avoided meat altogether had only half the odds of...

Excellent question and one that I cover in my recent live presentation, where I offer an overview of the key ingredients for weight loss, the topic of my book How Not to Diet. To whet your appetite, here are some of the...