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‘Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show’ Episode 237: Is A High-Carb, Low-Fat Mediterranean Diet Best For Heart Health?


Mediterranean diet fan Dr. Michael Ozner explains his “heart hoax” theory

Heart health is on the minds of millions of Americans who deal with chest pains, heart attacks, and clogged arteries each year. My own father had quintuple heart bypass surgery in 2008 and heart disease was one of the major contributors to the premature death of my brother Kevin at the age of 41 in October. This is serious business and there are lots of health experts out there who are sharing about how to prevent heart health calamities from happening to begin with. Although we may not agree with all the advice provided by these “experts,” there is useful information to be learned. One such expert is today’s podcast interview guest.

In Episode 237 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we hear from Dr. Michael Ozner, author of a fascinating new book entitled The Great American Heart Hoax: Lifesaving Advice Your Doctor Should Tell You About Heart Disease Prevention. He is quite a dynamic speaker and very confident about the subjects he talks about, including why CAT scans are dangerous, why traditional heart procedures are likely unnecessary, why it’s unnecessary for many people to take statin drugs to reduce cholesterol, the importance of particle size and particle number, and the importance of HDL and triglcyerides. But he also has some ideas that run contrary to livin’ la vida low-carb since he is a strong promoter of the high-carb, low-fat Mediterranean diet. Over and over again, you’ll hear Dr. Ozner push this way of eating as the superior diet for managing weight and health. This 45-minute interview gives you a lot of information to chew on–even if you disagree with some of what you hear.

There are FOUR ways you can listen to Episode 237:

1. Listen and comment about the show at iTunes:

2. Listen and comment about the show at the official web site:

3. Download the MP3 file of Episode 237 [45:59m]:

4. Calling (818) 688-2763 to listen via Podlinez

Subscribe to the RSS feed or you can click on the “Subscribe” button at iTunes. If you are having trouble, then watch this video tutorial from my producer Kevin Kennedy-Spaien.

What did you think about Dr. Michael Ozner and his belief that to cure all the health ailments in the world with a Mediterranean diet? Are you buying it? Why or why not? Share your comments in the show notes section of Episode 237. Get your copy of Dr. Ozner’s book The Great American Heart Hoax: Lifesaving Advice Your Doctor Should Tell You About Heart Disease Prevention (But Probably Never Will) and visit his DrOzner.com web site for more information on the program he is promoting for health.

PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THE MESSAGE OF THIS SHOW! If you have not already done so, please go to the iTunes page for my podcast, click on “Write a Review” and share what my podcast means to you. And if you’d like to financially support this podcast, then please consider clicking on the “Donate” button on the side panel of the podcast web site. We appreciate your generosity and support!

Don’t miss next week when I’ll be sharing two interviews with some amazing fitness experts: the great Lyle McDonald from “Body Recomposition” on Monday and strength-building coach Dr. Doug McGuff on Thursday. THANK YOU for listening to “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.”

March 19th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Category: 1
  • http://www.gloriana.nu Elizabeth

    This time, I didn’t listen to the broadcast – because this point of view sickens me. With poor, southern Italian parents, I spent much of my life on that horrid Mediterranean diet, which I found to be the surest way to constant, raging hunger that was never satisfied. (There were days I’m surprised I didn’t eat a bar of soap, I was so hungry.) I doubt it lengthens anyone’s life – but I suppose one’s life can seem longer, because the only thing of which one can think is ‘how many hours till my next meal… never mind that the little bit I eat will only make me hungrier…’

    My dad and some of his siblings had practically no appetite, and this awful way of eating did not seem to bother them. I still don’t know how some did hard manual labour without collapsing – my dad’s idea of a meal was a slice of tomato and piece of bread. He never smoked, had no ounce of flab on him, but tended to be overweight. In the end, he died of a heart attack. Obviously that is only one case – but the Mediterranean diet was our way of life because it was cheap! If a certain percentage of people are seen as having lower rates of heart attack, I’m sure that could be genetic or there could be other influences. And those eating this dreadful way may have many another health disadvantage – because they are poor or wouldn’t eat like this in the first place.

  • http://www.chipbennett.net/ Chip Bennett

    Jimmy,

    I have to take you to task for airing an interview with such an anti-low-carb, fear-mongering person.

    First, the fear mongering. Dr. Ozner claims that heart CT scans and heart-imaging diagnostic tests using radio-isotopes lights one up “like a Geiger counter” for weeks. This claim simply is not true.

    On the matter of CT scans:
    http://www.aapm.org/publicgeneral/CTScans.asp

    On the matter of radio-isotope imaging:

    Two major radio-isotopes used for such diagnostics are Thallium-201, with a half-life of 33 hours and biological half-life of 2.4 days, and Technetium-99, with a half-life of 6 hours.

    Radiological decay is considered essentially complete (that is, a “hot” material is considered “cold”) at 10 half-lives. Therefore, even if the body didn’t rid itself of the radio-isotope, Thallium would remain radioactive for only 33 days, and Technetium for only 5 days.

    Even so, the doses administered are on the order of 1200 mRem for Thallium, and 500 mRem for Technetium.

    Cancer risk from effective radiation doses is entirely undetectable below levels of 100 Rem (100,000 mRem) per year.

    Radiopharmaceuticals are entirely safe, and save orders of magnitude more lives than they put at risk for cancer (again, a risk that can only be “measured” in theoretical terms).

    (Full disclosure: I work for a major radio-pharmaceutical company.)

    Now, on to the second matter: your anti-low-carb guest.

    Jimmy, airing the low-carb antagonistic views of Dr. Ozner is completely inexcusable, when those views are not balanced by refuting medical fact.

    We get bombarded daily with the heart-unhealthy high-carb/low-fat dogma; we don’t need it here, too. (Especially when this podcast follows so closely to the low-calorie “cookie diet” crap from a couple episodes ago.)

    The minute Ozner brought of Keyes and the seven-countries study, I knew that he would have absolutely nothing positive to add to the low-carb message.

    I think you owe it to your listeners to bring back Gary Taubes to give a point-by-point refutation of this high-carb garbage espoused by Dr. Ozner.

    Chip, THANK YOU for your honest feedback about this podcast. As a regular listener and long-time supporter of the work I am doing here at my blog, you know I sometimes will interview or features points of view that are not in line with the high-fat, low-carb message. This does not mean that I myself embrace such viewpoints, but I think it gives people the opportunity to hear the contrast for themselves. That’s why I’ve featured people like Dr. Ozner, Dr. Dean Ornish, and others on my show.

    The purpose of my podcast is to get people to think about their own health through the collective prism of the knowledge they have gained from my podcasts and elsewhere. I think the vast majority of my listeners knew that most of the information Dr. Ozner shared was complete and utter nonsense, but you can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. He did have a few good points to make–thus the reason for sharing the interview.

    If I had to agree 100% with every podcast guest I feature, then you’d only get to hear about 10 episodes and that would be it. I can appreciate the sentiment of your comments, but in the spirit of expanding wisdom and breadth of knowledge it is important we hear what the “other” side is saying directly from their mouths from time to time. Dr. Ozner didn’t get away without being somewhat challenged, so take it for what it’s worth.

    THANK YOU again for being a committed listener of my podcast and enjoy the 90% of the podcasts that are in almost total agreement with our low-carb credo. :)

    –Jimmy

  • Paula

    Jimmy,
    I know it must be hard to be hospitable to your “guests” while challening their assertions, but I’d like to see you do a bit more of it. you know that Ancel Keys cherry-picked the data for the 7 countries study; why not challenge Dr. Ozner about that? You know that the heart scans advocated by Dr. Davis do not provide an amount of radiation equal to “400 to 500 consecutive chest X-rays”; why not challenge Dr. Ozner about that?

    I agree with you that you should continue to do interviews with a variety of people, even if some are not 100% Atkins followers. But I’d like to see you prepared to confront statements which are unproven or untrue.

    Paula, as soon as he said that Ancel Keys was his hero, I just about jumped out of my chair. The style of my podcast does not lend itself to berating my guests over the head like Sean Hannity does. I’m aware of the evidence being rigged by Keys and would have asked Dr. Ozner about it if he would have shut up. The thing is people like him and Ornish just getting into their talking points mode and go on and on and on. If I confront them on every single issue that was wrong, then the interview would likely end early or would last for hours. My audience is very smart and savvy, so I give them a lot of credit for being able to distinguish between the good and the not-so-good information…which I readily pointed out in my introductory comments as well as this blog post about the interview. THANKS for your feedback!

    –Jimmy

  • http://www.chipbennett.net/ Chip Bennett

    Paula hit on my frustration – though I probably didn’t elucidate it very well.

    It’s not that I don’t think alternate viewpoints should be expressed, but rather that hearing those views expressed without being challenged or refuted.

    Dr. Ozner kept talking about the “well-documented” evidence that a high-carb, low-fat diet prolongs life and prevents heart disease, while at the same time claiming that there was “no evidence” for the health benefits of a low-carb, high-fat diet.

    Letting those continual assertions remain unchallenged for the duration of the podcast caused the frustration expressed in my previous comment.

    Go back and listen to my interviews with Dean Ornish, Chip, and you’ll see that both he and Ozner use the same kind of rambling strategy. I’m aware his diet is not as “well-documented” as he thinks it is above all other healthy ways of eating like livin’ la vida low-carb, but he has his opinions and shared them. It’s our job to hear what he has to say and respond accordingly. Feel free to share what you disagreed with him about in the comments section at my podcast site and/or here at my blog. Again, thank you for your feedback.

    –Jimmy

  • http://www.chipbennett.net/ Chip Bennett

    Jimmy,

    I’ll be happy to go back and point out disagreements, just as soon as I have the time to listen to the podcast again.

    I can’t remember if I heard the Ornish podcast; I only started listening to podcasts about six months ago…

    I interviewed Ornish twice. Do a search on his name at my blog and you’ll find both.

    –Jimmy

  • Paula

    Jimmy,

    There’s a question of what you want your role to be: are you just a “presenter/entertainer” such as Jay Leno with President Obama, or are you a “web journalist”, such as Mike Wallace, Katie Couric, etc.? Seems like you’ve taken on the Jay Leno role, and that’s fine. You probably couldn’t “book” prime guests otherwise.

    But you might want to consider a more neutral approach, with fewer “heh-heh” laughs and booming voices with the guests with whom you agree; less insertion of your own weight loss history, LDL particle size, etc..; and more pointed questions about non-proven “facts.”

    Or not. It’s your blog, and a great one! If you don’t want it to be more journalistically professional, that’s your choice. I’ll continue to read it and learn from it either way, and I thank you for that.

    THANKS for your critique of my podcast format, Paula. When I set out to do this interview-based style, the last thing I wanted it to be was a robotic “here’s my question, what’s your answer” kind of show. Booooorrrrrrrinnnnng! I wouldn’t exactly describe it as a “Jay Leno” because I take the subject matter very seriously. But I want people when they listen to the podcasts to feel like they are eavesdropping in on a conversation between two friends. That’s the sentiment I’m aiming for because it makes for better listening. And including bits and pieces of my own story into the conversation makes it that much more relevant since people know me and can hear these experts chime in with their thoughts. Again, thank you for your feedback. I’m definitely not altering the style–if it ain’t broke…

    –Jimmy

  • http://www.gloriana.nu Elizabeth

    I must say that I am glad that Chip posted on this thread. I have no background in medicine (nor adulation for doctors, I must add), but I certainly have had times when I have had great benefit from conventional medical treatment. I took on low carb to lose weight, and did have certain other benefits such as massive improvements in cholesterol, but I know there are many low carbers who are quite against most medical approaches and whose focus is largely on alternative medicine, with low carb as a component.

    I was wondering why you did this particular interview – and encouraged blog readers to hear important information though the doctor is against the way that we eat. Was it primarily to place conventional medical approaches in question? I wouldn’t take this doctor’s word for what is ‘dangerous’ in heart treatment as gospel any more than I would his views on how to eat.

    Thanks Gloriana! My interview with Dr. Ozner was certainly not unique as I have often featured guests who don’t jive with the high-fat, low-carb approach that made my weight and health better. There’s more to health than just diet which is what he offered. I don’t think we’re all lemmings and just blindly follow whatever people say. God gave us minds to think about what we are doing and act accordingly. Great feedback!

    –Jimmy

  • George

    Jimmy,

    I for one appreciate your podcasts, even those that don’t toe the lowcarb line. For one thing it makes me think about confronting the errors that some of your interview guests make, particularly Dr. Ozner. I listened to both your podcasts with Dr. Ornish and appreciated the fact that you would entertain the idea of putting on guests that don’t agree with you 100% of the time. It is true that Dr. Ozner did in fact quote some old and out of date research (Keyes) but some of his information was in line with contemporary issues regarding the treatment, diagnosis of heart disease. One of my thoughts listening to the podcast and his endorsement of the “mediterranean” diet was whether or not you could get Dr. Andrew Weil as a guest. It was his appearance on the Larry King show that I caught quite accidentally that brought Gary Taubes to my attention. After Dr. Weil’s powerful endorsement of Taubes’ work, I bought GCBC and was amazed and won over by the Low Carb arguement. You have since posted that Dr. Weil has adopted more of a low carb approach and thus lost significant weight. Dr. Weils own book, “Eating Well for Optimum Health” endorses a “mediterranean” diet. To what extent has he changed or modified his view on diet? Despite his endorsement on the LK show, he still expressed some reservations about saturated fat, has that changed any? Hope you can pull this interview off. Thanks again for all your great work with the website, blog, and podcasts.

    Thanks George! Actually, I have highlighted Dr. Weil’s transformation about diet the past couple of years. I’ve tried hard to get him on my podcast–very busy man! I won’t stop trying. Thanks for listening.

    –Jimmy