High Fat Low Carbohydrate Diet Analysis

The debate of a whole food plant based diet versus a high fat low carbohydrate diet between Dr. Campbell and Dr. Westman is an interesting one. Dr. Campbell argues that a whole food plant based diet is the best diet for humans and that excess protein is a cause of health risks while Dr. Westman argues that carbohydrates feed cancer cells and cause health risks.
Dr. Campbell starts off his argument stating that the RDA is 10-11% of total calories and it’s been the same RDA since 1943. He defines the RDA by saying that the RDA is not a required amount and it exceeds the requirments for 98% of individuals. He also states that excess protein causes cancer growth. He shows that casein, which is milk protein, was found to grow cancer cells. He also
Eric Westman starts off his argument by reminding people that carbohydrates are not an essential nutrient. His goal is to lower an individual’s insulin levels to allow their body to use its stored fat. He showed that low carbohydrate diets were used to treat diabetes before medications were available. He talks about how cancer growth is promoted by glucose and anaerobic respiration; this is known as the Warburg Effect. His research shows that tumor cells often lack the ability to use fatty acids or ketones as energy. Westman states that there is only 5 grams of sugar in the both stream, and that with the 100 g a day sugar recommendation that it’s amazing everyone is not diabetic. He also states that a low fat diet is known to have more saturated fat in the blood as compared to a low carbohydrate diet. Several animal studies were shown that found that a low carbohydrate diet reduced the growth of tumors. Human pilot studies were also shown and found that a low carbohydrate diet is well tolerated by cancer
Eric Westman wins this debate. Campbell came used a study that only used casein protein and assumed all other animal protein behaves the same. He also used a ton of correlational data in one section of his debate, correlation does not equal causation. Westman had plenty of hard scientific evidence and research studies. He cited several studies where a low carbohydrate diet was shown to help animals with cancer and explained why using the Warburg effect. Campbell shows that there is a correlation between protein and cancer, both in amount taken, and correlations between protein intake and cancer around the world, but never offers an explanation of how proteins are causing cancer. Campbell also didn’t address the issue of vegetables being incomplete sources for protein, or the issue that soy protein can mimic estrogen hormones, and wheat protein is poorly absorbed compared to animal foods. The evolutionary point was ignored by both parties. Humans lived off of high fat meat and fish diets for tens of thousands of years. Today’s high fat low carb societies such as the Eskimos weren’t brought up either. The whole food plant based diet seems like it would not manage satiety well either, as it is lacking protein and fat. I fact checked the two’s research, including the RDA of protein, the Warburg Effect, and the study of low carbohydrate diets on cancer patients and found them to be true. In conclusion, A high fat diet low carb diet is a better diet for humans than a whole