Michael Greger

Michael Greger
Education Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Tufts University School of Medicine

Medical career

Profession General Practitioner and Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States
Field Clinical Nutrition
Specialism Veganism/Vegetarianism
Research Public health threats from industrial agriculture
Greger in 2007

Michael Greger is an American physician, author, vegan and professional speaker. He is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine. He became vegan in 1990.[1] He is currently the Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International.

Career advocacy

Greger is licensed as a general practitioner specializing in clinical nutrition and was a founding member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. He was featured on the Healthy Living Channel promoting his latest nutrition DVDs and teaches part of T. Colin Campbell's nutrition course at Cornell University.[2]

Greger's work includes the human health implications of intensive animal agriculture and involves examining the routine use of non-therapeutic antibiotics and growth hormones in animals raised for food, and the public health threats of industrial factory farms. Greger contributes to the HSUS's efforts to shape public policy on agriculture and nutrition.

He also works on food safety issues, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease). He appeared as an expert witness testifying about mad-cow disease when cattle producers sued Oprah Winfrey for libel.[3]

Greger has lectured at universities, medical schools, and conferences including the Conference of World Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, and the International Bird Flu Summit. He has testified before Congress and appeared on shows such as The Colbert Report and The Dr. Oz Show.

NutritionFacts.org is a 501c3 nonprofit charity, for which Greger summarizes research from scientific journals in short referenced videos. It was established by Greger with help from the Jesse and Julie Rasch Foundation. [4]

Publications

He wrote the book Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, which is still in print and is also available free online.[5] The book received a favorable review in the Journal of Clinical Investigation[6] and a mixed but generally favorable one in Nature.[7] He also wrote Carbophobia: The Scary Truth Behind America's Low Carb Craze (2005) and Heart Failure: Diary of a Third-Year Medical Student (2000).[8] In 2009, he produced a video with tips for avoiding swine flu.

Greger's recent scientific publications in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, Critical Reviews in Microbiology, Family & Community Health, and the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition, and Public Health explore the public health implications of industrialized animal agriculture.

Criticism

Professor Joe Schwarcz of McGill University recommends Greger's videos but says they contain "cherry-picking of data. Of course that doesn’t mean the cherries he picks are rotten; they’re fine." and that Greger has swallowed veganism "hook, line, and sinker; not that there’s anything wrong with that."[9] Skeptic and physician Harriet A. Hall has also criticized Greger's video Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death, saying his videos are part of a genre featuring "a charismatic scientist with an agenda who makes sweeping statements that go beyond the evidence, makes unwarranted assumptions about the meaning of studies, and omits any reference to contradictory evidence".[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Interview with Dr. Michael Greger". Vegan Love Planet.
  2. ↑ "About Dr. Greger". drgreger.org.
  3. ↑ Reda, Bonnie Reda (28 February 2004). "Expert to dissect 'mad cow' disease in presentation". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY). p. B.3. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  4. ↑ Voices of the Food Revolution: Healing Your Body and Your World With Food!, John Robbins and Ocean Robbins, San Francisco: Conari Press, 2013, p. 67
  5. ↑ Greger, Michael (Nov 2006). Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching by Michael Greger. Lantern Books. ISBN 1590560981. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  6. ↑ Pekosz, Andrew (Sep 4, 2007). "Book Review. Bird flu: A virus of our own hatching". J Clin Invest 117 (9): 2350–2350. doi:10.1172/JCI33078. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  7. ↑ Oxford, John (21 December 2006). "The Next Pandemic?". Nature 444 (7122): 1007–8. doi:10.1038/4441007a. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  8. ↑ "Michael Greger, M.D". The Humane Society of the United States.
  9. ↑ Schwarcz's blog at McGill
  10. ↑ Hall's article on the Science Based Medicine site

External links