TAKING NOTES: The Right Diet

“My name is David, and I’m a recovering vegetarian.” That’s how integrative neurologist David Perlmutter, MD, introduced himself at the recent Integrative Healthcare Symposium panel on “The Right Diet.”

In a raucous, entertaining discussion, Perlmutter and his fellow panelists — integrative cardiologist Stephen Sinatra, MD; self-described “Caveman Doctor” Colin Champ, MD; and vegan doctor Michael Gregor, MD — covered everything from industrial food (“When you sterilize the soil, treat the ground with Roundup, and grow a GMO crop, what in the world are we consuming?”) to the French’s predilection for drinking red wine (“The French have the highest rate of cirrhosis in the world.”). But, they focused most of their debate on the always-scintillating topics of fat and sugar.

Here are some of the greatest hits:

• Inflammation, not cholesterol, [causes] cardiovascular disease. —Stephen Sinatra, MD
• Cholesterol is found at the scene of the crime [of disease], but it’s not the perpetrator. —Stephen Sinatra, MD
• The greatest cup of coffee I’ve had … had unpasteurized cream in it. I thought I’d died and went to heaven. —Stephen Sinatra, MD
• Do NOT take a statin drug to lower your cholesterol. —Stephen Sinatra, MD
• As a neurologist, I see a lot of cholesterol-deficiency symptoms. Your brain is desperate for cholesterol. —David Perlmutter, MD
• Cholesterol is a vital component of your diet. —Colin Champ, MD
• Sixty to 70 percent of the extra-virgin olive oil that we use has been cut with soy oil, corn oil, etc. —David Perlmutter, MD
• Gary Taubes revealed that mild ketosis should be considered a normal state of human physiology. —David Perlmutter, MD
• We used insulin in the 1970s to get anorexics to eat. It’s a great appetite stimulator. —Colin Champ, MD
• I think grains are a great way to fatten up cows and to fatten up humans. —Colin Champ, MD
• Fruit represents a very significant source of sugar. You can get plenty of fiber from above-ground vegetables instead of fruit. —David Perlmutter, MD
• The more you … satisfy your sweet tooth, the more you will slip and eat [more] sugar and carbohydrates. —David Perlmutter, MD
• Kiwi fruit is low-glycemic and a perfect prebiotic for the colon. Eat fruits that bring more to the table in terms of detox. —Stephen Sinatra, MD
• One of the greatest fruits from a cardiovascular point of view is avocado. —Stephen Sinatra, MD