Deborah

Hi Mike. If I may add a bit to what Dr. Linda & Sean Carney have said about dairy, there are a number of serious concerns about consuming raw milk. Please read the following two links. https://nutritionstudies.org/is-raw-milk-better-for-you-what-about-goat-milk/ https://nutritionfacts.org/questions/raw-milk-versus-pasteurized-milk/ Let's face it Mike. Milk is for babies, literally. Milk is the food made in the body of mammalian mothers to feed their infants until the babies are mature enough to eat the diet natural to that specie. Humans consuming non-human milk is probably the least natural thing possible. The dairy industry tries hard to make us to think otherwise and they spend multiple millions of dollars every year on their advertising campaigns to maintain their image. Thankfully, we can think for ourselves. ;) If you have been consuming baby calf growth food regularly, you may go through withdrawal when you stop consuming it due to casomorphin addiction. It will pass though. Using plant-based milk products for awhile may help ease you through that. The optimal goal is a whole foods PLANT-based diet as part of a health-promoting lifestyle, including a regular vitamin B12 supplement.

Chris, did you find the numbers I posted above, about avocado, useful? The studies that have been done on avocado (as far as I know) seem to be largely paid for by the growers, so caution is warranted when the study concludes only positive results. Of what I have seen, this report makes the most sense to me. Bottom-line: "...avocados are as fattening as margarine, mayonnaise, and oil, if you’re eating the same amount of fat." https://nutritionfacts.org/video/are-avocados-fattening/

As I said, the primary point is about fat quantity. It is certainly easier to eat way too much fat when adding oil (even a little bit can add a lot of fat) because as we probably all know, only 1 tablespoon of oil adds 14 grams of fat to a meal. That almost doubles the amount of fat we consume in a whole day when we eat our day's calories from low-fat whole plant foods. So yes, while we are all agreed that eating whole plant foods is better for many reasons, even the high fat whole plant foods are very high in fat. For example, the fat in avocado is 80% of it's calories. (USDA figure) Oil is 100% fat but 80% is still very high considering that most fruits, vegetables, whole grains & legumes average around 10% fat. :-) The amount of fat in nuts varies a bit between varieties but on average, they are also approximately 80% fat. One of the negatives that oil, avocado & nuts all have in common is that they are all higher in omega 6 fatty acid than omega 3. The following figures are from registered dietitian Jeff Novick. https://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=6067&start=30 Here are some of them for your convenience. The ratios describe how much more omega 6 the food has than omega 3. English Walnuts 4:1 Macadamia 6:1 CA Avocados 15:1 Black Walnuts 16:1 (16 times more omega 6 than 3) FL Avocados 17:1 Pecans 20:1 Pistachio 37:1 Hazelnut 88:1 Cashews & pumpkin seeds 117:1 Coconut 293:1 Pine Nuts & sunflower seeds 300:1 (300 x more omega 6 than 3) Brazil Nut 1000:1 Almonds 1800:1 On the other hand, consuming a daily spoonful of ground flax seed and/or a spoonful of chia seed can improve the omega balance in our daily diet.... plus add important trace minerals, fiber & protein to our diet. Flaxseed 1:3.9 (4 times more omega 3 than 6) Chia Seed 1:3 (3 times more omega 3 than 6) As Jeff also explains in his original article at the above link, the more high fat foods we consume, the more saturated fat we consume. Most plant foods only have a little saturated fat but when our goal is to minimize our intake of it, eating even high fat plant foods may be sabotaging that effort. It is my understanding that these reasons are partly why Dr. Carney recommends a diet of low-fat whole plant foods for people needing to lose excess weight and reverse chronic disease.

Fat quantity in a meal matters more than which type of oil. With fat, less is more to the extent that we consume plenty even with just the small amounts in all whole plant foods. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9409274

Thank you Sean.