By Dr. Tim Radak, RDN, MPH, public health nutritionist and plant-based researcher. This written critique accompanies Dr. Radak’s video review. Updated September 2026 with corrected citations, clarified study findings, and links to related VeganLinked deep dives.

Dr. Georgia Ede, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, recently appeared on a YouTube podcast to discuss her book Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind and the foods she believes drive brain disease. Her central message is that most of us have been misled about how to feed our brains. She describes resolving her own health symptoms by setting aside standard dietary advice in favor of an animal-protein-centered diet, one rich in cholesterol and saturated fat and low in fiber and plants, and says she is not convinced we need anything beyond meat.

As a public health nutritionist and plant-based researcher, I’d like to offer a different perspective. I’m not looking to debate. I’m offering a science-based critique to consider alongside what was said in that interview. I should also be clear that I haven’t read her book, so I’m responding to the claims she made on camera rather than to every study the book may cite. The question at the center of it is simple: with a sample size of one, does the research support her conclusions?

What Dr. Ede claimed

“There’s no science behind the dietary guidelines”

Dr. Ede argued that the standard dietary recommendations themselves contain the ingredients that drive poor mental health. She then listed a set of beliefs she says have “no science behind them whatsoever”: that a healthy diet should include whole grains, be built on grains and legumes, include more plants and less red meat, go easy on saturated fat, favor plant proteins over animal proteins, and include a wide variety of fruits and vegetables every day. In her view, these ideas come from untested theories with no logic, biology, or rationale behind them.

“Many plant foods have more risks than benefits”

She allowed that most people can be healthy while eating some plant food, but said that not all plants are equal, and that a diet based on grains, beans, nuts, and seeds rests on some of the least nutritious and riskiest plant foods. (For a closer look at lectins, oxalates, phytates, and similar compounds, see our deep dive on plant toxins and antinutrients.)

“We don’t need to eat carbohydrates”

Finally, she said the body can make glucose from fat and protein “smoothly,” so we don’t need dietary carbohydrates as a glucose source at all.

To claim there is almost no science, biology, or logic behind recommending whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds runs against decades of nutrition research. Let’s look at some of it.

Fiber, the gut, and the brain

Is fiber good for your brain?

Yes, and the evidence doesn’t rest on observational studies alone. Randomized trials and dietary interventions show beneficial effects of fiber, including through the gut–brain axis. When gut microbes ferment fiber, they produce short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate, acetate, and propionate. Butyrate is the main fuel for the cells lining the colon, and these compounds have anti-inflammatory effects and help crowd out harmful bacteria (Guan, 2021). As microbes break down plant cell walls, they also release polyphenols, including anthocyanins and other flavonoids, which have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Reviews link a healthy, fiber-fed microbiome to lower neuroinflammation and to the course of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s (Mitrea, 2022; Solanki, 2023; Czarnik, 2024; Grant, 2023; Łuszczki, 2023).

Animal foods contain no fiber at all. Plants are the only source.

Is TMAO bad for your brain?

Gut bacteria convert carnitine and choline, which are concentrated in red meat and eggs, into a compound the liver turns into trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), and TMAO has been associated with neuroinflammatory processes (Solanki, 2023; Czarnik, 2024). Whether TMAO drives disease or mainly marks it is still debated, partly because fish raises TMAO too; our cholesterol deep dive weighs that evidence.

Are AGEs in meat bad for you?

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are inflammatory compounds concentrated in animal foods, especially when they’re cooked at high heat. In a randomized crossover trial, a low-fat vegan diet cut dietary AGEs substantially compared with a Mediterranean diet (Kahleova, 2024; see also Katonova, 2022).

Does the Atkins diet raise TMAO?

It did in a head-to-head comparison. In a randomized crossover study, four weeks on the high-fat, high-saturated-fat Atkins diet nearly doubled blood TMAO compared with four weeks on the very-low-fat, plant-based Ornish diet (3.3 vs. 1.8 μM). The Atkins phase also raised the branched-chain amino acids valine and leucine, which are linked to insulin resistance (Park, 2019).

Do meat eaters have more inflammation than vegetarians?

In a Brazilian study, omnivores had a worse inflammatory profile than vegetarians, and the difference tracked with the makeup of their gut microbiota (Franco-de-Moraes, 2017). Our anti-inflammatory diet post covers these mechanisms in more depth.

Carbohydrates, blood sugar, and diabetes

Can your body make glucose without eating carbs?

Yes. The body can make glucose on its own through gluconeogenesis. Strictly speaking, though, it makes that glucose mainly from amino acids and from the glycerol portion of fat, not from fatty acids themselves. Our carbohydrates deep dive explains how that backup system works.

Do we need to eat carbs at all?

“The body can get by without dietary carbohydrate” is not the same as “the body is better off without it.” That framing ignores what comes packaged with carbohydrate-rich whole foods, and it ignores the risks of the high-protein, high-fat, meat-centered diets that replace them.

If humans store energy as fat, should we eat fat instead of carbs?

Dr. Ede contrasted how plants store energy as carbohydrate while humans store it mostly as fat, noting that the body keeps only about a day’s worth of glucose in reserve. I wasn’t sure what that comparison was meant to show. Nobody disputes that humans store energy mainly as fat, but it’s a stretch to conclude from this that we need to eat fat rather than carbohydrates.

Do all carbs spike your blood sugar?

Refined carbs certainly can. A large soda is essentially a river of sugar with no nutritional value, and it will drive a blood sugar spike and promote inflammation. Complex carbohydrates in nutrient-dense whole plant foods behave differently. Their fiber and polyphenols can slow glucose absorption while improving insulin-dependent glucose uptake (Katonova, 2022).

Can a plant-based diet reverse type 2 diabetes?

Reviews of the intervention evidence find that plant-based diets outperform non-vegetarian diets at improving glycemic control and insulin resistance, lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes and in some cases putting it into remission, improving cardiometabolic risk factors, and reducing inflammatory markers (Eichelmann, 2016; Kelly, 2020; Jardine, 2021; Del Carmen Fernández-Fígares Jiménez, 2024).

Does eating meat raise your risk of diabetes?

Protein source appears to matter. A 2024 dose-response meta-analysis of 16 prospective cohorts, covering more than 600,000 adults, found that higher animal protein intake was linked to higher type 2 diabetes risk, about 7% more for each additional 20 grams per day, while plant protein showed no increase. Swapping 20 grams of animal protein for plant protein was associated with about 20% lower risk (Fotouhi Ardakani, 2024). Our protein deep dive covers what else animal and plant proteins arrive packaged with.

Does saturated fat cause insulin resistance?

I agree that a poorly planned diet that drives excess insulin is not good. But refined carbohydrates are the concern, not whole-food carbohydrates. Meanwhile, several studies suggest saturated fat reduces insulin sensitivity when it’s incorporated into cell membranes, where it interferes with insulin signaling (Marsh, 2011).

Is sugar worse than saturated fat?

Not for the liver, according to one controlled study. In an overfeeding experiment, extra calories from saturated fat raised liver fat and insulin resistance more than the same extra calories from unsaturated fat or simple sugars (Luukkonen, 2018). We absolutely need to get a handle on both the processed food and the saturated fat we consume.

Inflammation and autoimmune disease

Can a vegan diet help rheumatoid arthritis?

Trials and dietary interventions using vegan or vegetarian diets have repeatedly reported improvements in rheumatoid arthritis (Kjeldsen-Kragh, 1991; Fujita, 1999; Hänninen, 1999; Hafström, 2001; Müller, 2001; McDougall, 2002; Barnard, 2022).

Can a plant-based diet help lupus or Sjögren’s syndrome?

Small case series have reported rapid improvement in lupus nephritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and Sjögren’s syndrome on a raw, whole-food, plant-based protocol (Goldner, 2019; Goldner, 2024). Case series sit low on the evidence ladder, but the direction is consistent with the trial evidence in rheumatoid arthritis, and it is the opposite of what we’d expect if plant foods were inherently inflammatory.

Where Dr. Ede and I agree

Is the Standard American Diet bad for your brain?

No doubt about it. The Standard American Diet is bad for brain health and contributes to just about every chronic disease. Dr. Ede is correct to connect inflammation with brain health and to highlight the benefit of antioxidants.

Are ultra-processed foods linked to dementia?

Yes. Ultra-processed foods, which are engineered to be hard to stop eating, are loaded with refined sugars, promote inflammation, and are low in nutrients. They now make up more than half of the calories Americans eat, a relatively recent phenomenon (thank you, food industry). They have been associated with depression, anxiety, cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease (Li, 2022; Gomes Gonçalves, 2023; Claudino, 2024; Dai, 2024).

So yes, a dietary approach to brain health is important. Where we part ways is on the solution. Advocating meat and dietary cholesterol while warning people away from plants is not an accurate reading of the available research.

What the longest-living people eat

If plants are so harmful, why do the Blue Zones eat mostly plants?

If plants, fruits, vegetables, and spices were as harmful as suggested, it would be hard to explain why some of the longest-living populations on the planet, the Blue Zones, eat mostly plants. The Blue Zones have faced demographic criticism in recent years, and we’ve examined that critique in detail in Are the Blue Zones debunked? and Saul Newman vs. the Blue Zones: a fact-check. For the broader diet-and-longevity evidence, see what the longest-living people actually eat.

Why do the Tsimane have so little dementia?

The Tsimane and Mosetén peoples of the Bolivian Amazon have some of the lowest rates of dementia ever recorded, around 1% of older adults (Gatz, 2023), and the Tsimane show relatively modest age-related brain shrinkage (Irimia, 2021). They eat a predominantly complex-carbohydrate diet that is low in fat and saturated fat (Kraft, 2018). Diet isn’t the only factor, since they are also very physically active and lean, but their brains are clearly not suffering from a lack of meat and cholesterol. The Tsimane also have the lowest levels of coronary artery disease ever measured, which we cover in our cholesterol deep dive, and the limits of using any traditional population as proof are laid out in the ancestral diet argument.

Meat, cancer, and heart disease

Does red meat cause colon cancer?

Leaving out the well-known disease risks of meat, particularly colorectal cancer, is a real concern (Vieira, 2017; Papadimitriou, 2021). The World Health Organization’s cancer agency classifies processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen and red meat as Group 2A, “probably carcinogenic to humans” (Bouvard, 2015). Group 1 describes the strength of the evidence rather than the size of the risk, but it should not be ignored. Our meat and colon cancer deep dive walks through the full evidence, including a recent study on vegans and bowel cancer.

Can one fatty meal trigger angina?

There is significant non-observational research on how animal products affect our nation’s top killer, cardiovascular disease. In patients with coronary artery disease, a single fatty meal triggered angina during the post-meal rise in blood fats (postprandial lipemia) over the following hours (Kuo, 1955). Postprandial lipemia can promote inflammation and injure the arterial lining.

Does cooked meat contain oxidized cholesterol?

Oxidized cholesterol forms when cholesterol-rich foods such as meat are cooked and processed. It is absorbed and shows up in circulating lipoproteins (Staprans, 2003), and oxidized lipoproteins can injure the endothelial lining and promote plaque formation.

Is saturated fat bad for your heart?

Randomized trials say yes. A 2020 Cochrane review of 15 trials found that cutting saturated fat for at least two years lowered combined cardiovascular events by about 17% (Hooper, 2020). For a full breakdown of which fats raise LDL and why, see our dietary fat deep dive.

Does meat make your blood thicker?

Meat-based diets have been associated with more viscous blood, while vegetarian diets reduced blood viscosity, likely thanks to their high antioxidant content and low saturated fat (Ernst, 1995; Naghedi-Baghdar, 2018; Sloop, 2018).

Can too much protein clog your arteries?

A 2024 study combining human feeding experiments with mouse models found that high-protein meals raised blood levels of the amino acid leucine enough to activate mTOR signaling in immune cells called macrophages, a pathway linked to arterial plaque formation (Zhang, 2024).

Can a plant-based diet reverse heart disease?

Plant-based diet interventions have been shown to lower blood pressure, relieve angina, and even reverse type 2 diabetes. The only dietary approaches I’m aware of that have been shown to reverse coronary artery disease are a whole-food vegan diet (Esselstyn, 2014) and Dean Ornish’s plant-based diet and lifestyle program (Ornish, 1998). Several case reports describe improved heart failure symptoms and reversal of angina, including one patient whose angina returned after resuming an animal-product-rich diet (Choi, 2017; Allen, 2019; Massera, 2015; Massera, 2016).

Would taking patients with cardiovascular disease and switching them to a keto or animal-dominant diet produce the same results? No trial has shown it.

Low-carb and keto diets

Does keto raise LDL cholesterol?

LDL cholesterol is a known cause of cardiovascular disease, and the evidence for that goes well beyond observational studies. A 2024 meta-analysis of low-carbohydrate diet trials found that LDL rose in people of normal weight, while it tended to fall in people with obesity (Soto-Mota, 2024). Our cholesterol deep dive explains why LDL is causal and why the “lean mass hyper-responder” story doesn’t make high LDL safe.

Are low-carb diets linked to a shorter life?

A scientific statement from the National Lipid Association Nutrition and Lifestyle Task Force reviewed this evidence (Kirkpatrick, 2019). It noted that pooled cohort studies did not find a significant increase in cardiovascular disease incidence with low-carbohydrate diets, possibly because few people stay on these diets long enough. But it also cited a meta-analysis of cohort studies linking low-carbohydrate eating to roughly 30% higher all-cause mortality. That evidence is observational, but it points in the wrong direction for anyone claiming these diets are the healthiest way to eat.

What does keto do to your gut?

A 12-week randomized trial in 53 healthy adults compared a ketogenic diet with a diet that simply cut free sugars (Hengist, 2024). Both reduced fat mass. The sugar-restriction diet lowered LDL cholesterol with minimal effect on the gut microbiome. The ketogenic diet reduced glucose tolerance, raised ApoB and C-reactive protein in the first month, and reduced beneficial Bifidobacterium in the gut. In other words, the weight loss on keto did not come with the cardiometabolic benefits you might expect from losing that much fat.

The environmental cost of what we eat

Should diet advice consider the environment?

It’s important not to advocate a diet for one disease state, such as brain health, without accounting for other diseases or the environment. Excluding the relationship between food choices and the environment is increasingly considered irresponsible (Storz, 2020) and, in my opinion, selfish. Food systems account for roughly a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, and research in this area is growing fast.

Does a vegan diet reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

Shifting from red meat to mainly plant-based proteins could cut global annual dietary emissions by 17% (Li, 2024). Even a flexitarian approach can considerably reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Humpenöder, 2024). Compared with a Mediterranean diet, a vegan diet was estimated to carry 44% less total environmental impact (Filippin, 2023). In the UK, meat-eaters’ dietary greenhouse gas emissions were roughly double those of vegans (Scarborough, 2014).

Does a vegan diet use less land and water?

Yes. A later UK analysis found vegan diets used far less land and water and caused far less biodiversity loss than high-meat diets (Scarborough, 2023).

Does beef cause rainforest loss?

The loss of South American rainforest to cattle pasture and feed crops is a major part of this story, covered in Rewilding the Plate. All of this is worth weighing before choosing a carnivore, paleo, or ketogenic diet. We have a responsibility to care for our health, and for our planet too.

For the most common counterarguments, see can livestock turn food we can’t eat into protein?, does regenerative farming work?, and do vegans kill more animals through crop deaths?

Why nutrition training matters

Should you take diet advice from doctors outside nutrition?

This is a recurring problem when experts from other fields step into nutrition, as we’ve seen with psychologist Jordan Peterson and with physicians such as Dr. Steven Gundry who are not trained in nutrition science. It underscores the value of a solid background in nutrition, or of seeking input from people who have one. Yes, as in many areas of science and medicine, there can be incorrect or biased information, and the federal dietary guidelines still have a way to go in translating and communicating the available research. But to say there is almost no science, biology, or logic behind recommending whole grains, legumes, a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, and more plants, to dismiss epidemiological studies entirely, and to advocate meat and dietary cholesterol while ignoring other diseases and environmental risks, does not seem wise. It is not a reading of all the available research. (For how the different kinds of nutrition studies fit together, see the evidence review.)

Why did Paul Saladino quit the carnivore diet?

Dr. Paul Saladino, the “Carnivore MD” and author of The Carnivore Code, left the strict version of the diet. He said on the More Plates More Dates podcast that after about two years his testosterone dropped and he developed sleep disturbances, heart palpitations, and muscle cramps, which led him to conclude that long-term ketosis wasn’t good for him. He now eats an animal-based diet that still relies heavily on meat and dairy but adds fruit and honey.

Judge for yourself

Having once eaten as an omnivore, I’ve followed where the preponderance of the research points: a whole-food, minimally processed, plant-based diet is the best bet for reducing chronic disease risk and protecting brain health, with a smaller environmental footprint as a bonus. I’ve written extensively about brain health, covering diet and other lifestyle factors, primarily for people following vegan diets. It’s still useful for any dietary pattern, and it addresses meat, cholesterol, glucose, and why some researchers call Alzheimer’s disease “type 3 diabetes”: Omega-3, diet, and lifestyle factors influencing brain health.

Many of the studies cited below are freely available online. Look them up and judge for yourself.

Further reading

Brains, meat and evolution

• Did cooked meat give us bigger brains? The brain-size argument, and what the fossil and genetic record supports
• How humans evolved to eat
• The ancestral diet argument. What the Maasai and the Inuit actually prove
• DHA and EPA. The omega-3 question most relevant to brain health
• B12. The one supplement that is genuinely non-negotiable

Is a plant-based diet actually healthy?

• The evidence review. Forty-eight studies, screened for journal quality, funding and retraction, ranked by strength of design
• The nutritional case
• Essential nutrients. The short checklist
• Protein

Carbs, fat and the usual arguments

• Carbohydrates
• Cholesterol
• Dietary fat
• Coconut oil versus animal fat
• Seed oils
• The Ken Berry fact-check. Another physician’s low-carb claims, checked against the published evidence

The land, and the long version

• The Future Is in Our Hands, and in Our Mouths
• Rewilding the plate

If you have tried before and it didn’t stick

• Why people relapse, and what actually helps

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This is health information, not medical advice. Anyone with questions about their own diet should consult a physician or registered dietitian, ideally one who practices lifestyle medicine, since that field puts the evidence first and respects a person’s values.