In his November newsletter, Dr. McDougall imagines the conversation that would take place on his first day as Obama’s surgeon general:

McDougall: … You just finished 2 years of campaigning across America. You must have noticed the condition of people, particularly those of African decent.  About four out of five African-American women are overweight or obese. One-third of blacks in America have hypertension accompanied by stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure. Black men have the highest rate of prostate cancer in the world.  Asian Americans, often in one generation, have also become Americanized in their diet and appearance.

People must learn to get the bulk of their calories from starches. Notice I did not say every patriotic American has to become a vegetarian or vegan—I am not pushing a religion, just a single big change in eating.

Obama: You are talking about a revolution.  I have promised our nation change on a historic scale.  But, this is unprecedented.

Wow, definitely dropped the ball this month, here’s McDougall’s October newsletter roundup:

McDougall says the organic food movement is “too little, too late“: “My patients are overweight and sick because they have learned to eat, from childhood, the richest diet known to humankind—a diet of animals, oils, and sugars.  Dining for a lifetime on “organically farmed” meat, poultry, fish, cheese, milk, honey, and flour would have caused them the exact same states of poor health.  Along the same lines of thought, switching my patients to conventionally grown potatoes, rice, corn, vegetables, and fruits results in profound improvements in their health in 10-days — organic varieties of these plant foods would have not made a speck of difference.”

As for this month’s recipes, I feel like someone is taunting me this month, as two of the recipes feature eggplant as the main ingredient: Szechwan Eggplant and Baked Eggplant Casserole

Congratulations Karen and Phyllis!

McDougall has a web page describing how the medical industry, once again, passes off advertising as research:

“For this study nearly 90,000 people were examined, and most of them were identified as being at increased risk for a heart attack, stroke, and/or premature death. Rather than choosing professionalism and treating the underlying causes of their health problems: their diet and lifestyle; these researchers chose commercialism; creating the most effective pharmaceutical advertising campaign ever devised.  And they have succeeded,” McDougall says.

PCRM: Red Meat Again Linked to Colorectal Cancer

A recent study from the Ontario Family Colorectal Cancer Registry, established by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, compared the diets of people who had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer to the diets of people who did not have cancer. It turned out that those who ate the most red meat had a 67 percent higher risk of colorectal cancer, regardless of any genetic factors they may have had. However, some people with specific genes had a much higher risk from meat-eating—up to four times the cancer risk—compared to people who avoid meat.

Every year, 160,000 Americans are diagnosed with colorectal cancer. About half of all cases are already incurable when they are found.

Cotterchio M, Boucher BA, Manno M, Gallinger S, Okey AB, Harper PA. Red meat intake, doneness, polymorphisms in genes that encode carcinogen-metabolizing enzymes, and colorectal cancer risk. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. 2008;17:3098-3107.

PCRM: Egg Consumption Linked to Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

In a new study including about 57,000 men and women from two large, completed randomized trials, researchers found that daily consumption of eggs increased the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes. Daily egg intake was associated with a 77 and 58 percent increased risk for women and men, respectively.

Djoussé L, Gaziano JM, Buring JE, Lee I. Egg consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes in men and women. Diabetes Care. Published online ahead of print November 18, 2008. DOI: 10.2337/dc08-1271.