I ran across this quotation by Dr. Esselstyn and I can’t let go of it:

What I hear him doing is holding up two extremes, and asking people to chose. Do you think?

It’s the characterization of these two things as extreme that … I can’t let go of. Something that is extreme is different from the norm, an outlier, a rarity. It depends upon what you compare the item to that makes it extreme. I do think that a WFPB diet is extreme compared to the standard American diet. OK. But compared to how most humans in most parts of the world historically ate, it’s the norm. Humans survived, in fact thrived, on plants … roots, tubers, leaves, stems, fruits, nuts, and wild seeds and grains before we cultivated them.

It’s odd, isn’t it, that what was once common is now thought of as extreme.