I didn't mean anyone was likely to tease apart various health effects in a non-professional capacity, just that it's very hard to do (including in a professional capacity, as previous errors have shown).
Indeed, and the point I was trying to make is that even if it was relatively easy to do, there's not much value to such a comparison given that it has already been observed that people can do well on both veg and non-veg diets, and can also do poorly on either. There are just too many variables involved imo, although it might be worth making a not of what those that are the most successful do and learn from them, that might be a worthwhile research study.
I'm not a low-carb or paleo aficionado myself, I think there are a lot of flaws in the thinking behind it. Though I do think reducing refined sugar is a good idea for a lot of people (it certainly helps me feel better). I try to follow a high protein, medium fat, medium carb diet generally, with a focus on healthy fats and carbs (vegetables being as healthy as carbs get imo).
Following on from what I was saying about animals not needing a chemistry degree to work out what to eat, I think the whole categorising foods by their macronutrients is a bit of a nonsense tbh, although it's currently very fashionable. I've never paid any particular attention to them and as yet I've not seen a compelling reason why I should do and what all the fuss is about. I agree that refined sugar isn't a good idea, but then I don't consider refined sugar to be a proper food. Similarly, with refined fats (ie oils, butters, and cheese), imo they are not really proper foods and should only be had in moderation.
One of the benefits of eating predominantly whole foods is that they have more of an in built self regulation system, which makes it much harder to overeat whole foods. For example, most people can eat perhaps 3 or 4 apples in one sitting and then not be able to eat any more, however they will be able to down more than 4 apples worth of "refined and processed" apple juice quite easily, with it's more concentrated sugar and minus the balancing fibre. That principle applies to other foods resulting in us over consuming processed foods which our bodies cannot deal with properly, and causes of many of the dietary problems that a lot of folks have.
I get what you mean about a lack of interest by people in what they eat. There also seems to be an extent to which many people use food to 'self-medicate' in unproductive ways too, which the food industry is all to happy to pander to. Plus a lot of people are quite pushed for time, so making changes isn't going to be their highest priority. I know I tend to go off track when busy with other stuff.
Yeah, the time thing, it's just another poor excuse I'm afraid. Health is important enough to invest ones time in, and in the long run is a time saver if you invest wisely. Unfortunately there is a widespread ignorance lack of wisdom in this area and most people don't pay enough attention to health until they get sick. imo everyone should have a good understanding of diet and nutrition and that should be the foundation upon which they build their health. The problem is, when the people we regard as authorities and rely on for health advice (ie the medics) know so little themselves about diet and nutrition, it's not surprising that so many of us regular punters struggle and fail with our diets and get it wrong so often.
I'm not familiar with the PCRM lot, but their Wikipedia entry makes me a little sceptical about them. Though lot of the info on them is quite old tbf.
lol @ "their wikipedia entry". Well hopefully you'd do a bit more than quick glance at notoriously unreliable wikipedia entries before drawing conclusions. I've been familiar with them and their work for a nearly 20 years and I'm still learning new stuff regularly from them. I have a high regard for Dr Greger, Dr McDougall and Dr Barnard. In particular, Dr Gregers' Nutritionfacts.org is a great resource imo. I've also referred to Dr Garth Davis' book "Proteinaholic", a doctor who used to recommend high protein/low carb diets to his patients, but now no longer does so.
It does take time to properly research this sort of stuff, and most people cba and would rather go for quick easy to digest little soundbites.
