Max Lugavere | |
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 Lugavere in 2022 | |
| Born | 28 May 1982 |
| Occupation(s) | Health and wellness writer |
| Known for | Fringe dietary claims, opposition to veganism [1] |
Max Lugavere (born May 28, 1982) is an American author who has written about diet and brain health. [2] He promotes diets that contain high amounts of animal source foods and has claimed that veganism increases risk of dementia. [3] [4] Lugavere's views about supplements to "supercharge" the brain are not supported by scientific evidence. [1]
From 2005 to 2011, Lugavere was a presenter on Current TV, an independent cable network. He co-hosted the show Max and Jason: Still Up with Jason Silva, [5] where they featured a wide range of current events and stories ranging from illegal immigration to counterfeit IDs.
In 2013, Lugavere created Tribeca Enterprises' first-ever original series, Acting Disruptive, debuting on AOL. [6]
Lugavere promotes a low-carbohydrate diet of grass-fed beef, free-range chicken and pasture-raised or omega-3 enriched eggs with low-carbohydrate fibrous vegetables, extra virgin olive oil and salt. [2] [7] In May 2018, Lugavere and Paul Grewal co-authored the book Genius Foods which discusses the link between diet and brain health. [8]
In 2018, Jonathan Jarry of McGill University's Office for Science and Society analysed Lugavere's health-related claims in his book, Genius Foods, and podcast, and concluded that Lugavere lacked the credentials to accurately interpret the scientific literature used to substantiate his health claims, and acknowledged Lugavere's business ambitions. [1] Jarry noted that "Lugavere appears like a proponent of common-sense solutions to ill health—better nutrition, exercise and sleep—but it’s only when you start to trust him that he reveals himself to be a naive believer in anything that has a study behind it. His book has received endorsements from people like Dr. Oz and functional medicine proponent Mark Hyman, and this company is telling." [1]
Lugavere is the co-director of Little Empty Boxes, a documentary released in April 2024 which chronicles his mother’s struggle with dementia and also explores fringe ideas about nutrition. [4] The documentary features Mark Hyman, Nina Teicholz and Steven Gundry all of whom have been described as promoting "fad diets with dubious scientific backing" and the latter "unfounded theories against mRNA vaccines". [4] The documentary argues that breakfast cereal, refined flour and sugar are mind killers and that plant-based diets deny necessary fats that the brain needs. [9] It was negatively reviewed by critics. [4] [9] Alex Rudolph of Movie Jawn commented that the documentary lacked empathy for Lugavere's mother and concluded "I felt like I had watched somebody use their loved one's death to sell supplements". [9]
Lugavere promotes a high-fat, meat-heavy diet and has been described as spending his time on social media complaining about "vegan propaganda". [4] Lugavere has blamed plant-based and vegan diets for increasing risk of dementia and mental health problems. [3] He has argued that eggs have been "unfairly demonised" by governments, despite containing choline which he says has been linked to lower dementia risk. Lugavere also recommends regular consumption of red meat for mental health. [3]
Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated way to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight, or to prevent and treat diseases such as diabetes and obesity. As weight loss depends on calorie intake, different kinds of calorie-reduced diets, such as those emphasising particular macronutrients, have been shown to be no more effective than one another. As weight regain is common, diet success is best predicted by long-term adherence. Regardless, the outcome of a diet can vary widely depending on the individual.
In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food.
The Atkins diet is a low-carbohydrate fad diet devised by Robert Atkins in the 1970s, marketed with claims that carbohydrate restriction is crucial to weight loss and that the diet offered "a high calorie way to stay thin forever".
Low-carbohydrate diets restrict carbohydrate consumption relative to the average diet. Foods high in carbohydrates are limited, and replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of fat and protein, as well as low carbohydrate foods.
The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate dietary therapy that in conventional medicine is used mainly to treat hard-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates.
A plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of plant-based foods. Plant-based diets encompass a wide range of dietary patterns that contain low amounts of animal products and high amounts of fiber-rich plant products such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. They do not need to be vegan or vegetarian, but are defined in terms of low frequency of animal food consumption.
Neal D. Barnard is an American animal rights activist, physician and founding president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). Barnard has authored books advocating a whole food plant-based dietary eating pattern.
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A healthy diet is a diet that maintains or improves overall health. A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid, macronutrients such as protein, micronutrients such as vitamins, and adequate fibre and food energy.
A diabetic diet is a diet that is used by people with diabetes mellitus or high blood sugar to minimize symptoms and dangerous complications of long-term elevations in blood sugar.
Vegetarian Diet Pyramid is a nutrition guide that represents a traditional healthy vegetarian diet. Variations of this traditional healthy vegetarian diet exist throughout the world, particularly in parts of North America, Europe, South America and, most notably, Asia. Given these carefully defined parameters, the phrase "Traditional Vegetarian Diet" is used here to represent the healthy traditional ovo-lacto vegetarian diets of these regions and peoples. A pyramid was created by Oldways Preservation Trust in 1998 with scientific research from Cornell and Harvard University and specific reference to the healthy patterns of eating demonstrated by the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid.
Nathan Pritikin was an American inventor, engineer, nutritionist and longevity researcher. He promoted the Pritikin diet, a high-carbohydrate low-fat plant-based diet combined with regular aerobic exercise to prevent cardiovascular disease. The Pritikin diet emphasizes the consumption of legumes, whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables and non-fat dairy products with small amounts of lean meat, fowl and fish.
John A. McDougall was an American physician and author. He wrote a number of diet books advocating the consumption of a low-fat vegan diet based on starchy foods and vegetables.
Fit for Life is a diet and lifestyle book series stemming from the principles of orthopathy. It is promoted mainly by the American writers Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. The Fit for Life book series describes a fad diet which specifies eating only fruit in the morning, eating predominantly "live" and "high-water-content" food, and, if animal protein is eaten, avoiding combining it with complex carbohydrates.
The South Beach Diet is a popular fad diet developed by Arthur Agatston and promoted in his bestselling 2003 book. It emphasizes eating food with a low glycemic index, and categorizes carbohydrates and fats as "good" or "bad". Like other fad diets, it may have elements which are generally recognized as sensible, but it promises benefits not backed by supporting evidence or sound science.
Ronald M. Krauss is an American professor of pediatrics, medical researcher and low-carbohydrate diet advocate. He studies genetic, dietary, and hormonal effects on plasma lipoproteins and coronary disease risk.
Mark Adam Hyman is an American physician and author. He is the founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center. Hyman was a regular contributor to the Katie Couric Show until the show's cancellation in 2013. He writes a blog called The Doctor’s Farmacy, which examines many topics related to human health and welfare, and also offers a podcast by the same name. He is the author of several books on nutrition and longevity, including Food Fix, Eat Fat, Get Thin, and Young Forever.
As in the human practice of veganism, vegan dog foods are those formulated with the exclusion of ingredients that contain or were processed with any part of an animal, or any animal byproduct. Vegan dog food may incorporate the use of fruits, vegetables, cereals, legumes including soya, nuts, vegetable oils, as well as any other non-animal based foods.
Susan Marie Levin was an American registered dietitian, advocate of plant-based nutrition and veganism activist. She was one of the authors of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics position on vegetarian diets in 2016.
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