‘Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show’ Episode 214: ‘Encore Week’ Podcast Interview With Dr. William Davis

4 comments to ‘Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show’ Episode 214: ‘Encore Week’ Podcast Interview With Dr. William Davis

• Peter Silverman

  January 7th, 2009 at 2:23 pm

  The interviews with Gary Taubes and William Davis made me wonder what they think about whole grain rice. When you asked Taubes in an earlier interview about why Asians were healthy and thin on their traditional diet which is mostly rice, he said it was because they didn’t used to polish the rice, which makes me think he thinks unpolished rice is good for you, and it’s the refining of carbohydrates that is bad for us not the carbs themselves. But then in this interview he criticizes whole grain diets, so I’m mixed up.

  And Davis tells people not to eat wheat or constarch, recommends slow cooked oats, but doesn’t mention rice. I’m curious there too. I couldn’t find anything about rice, pro or con, on his blog.

  Enjoyed the interviews tremendously. Listened in a small town in Mexico where the water isn’t safe to drink but the whole town has wireless internet!

  Buenos dias, Peter! I’ll ask them both your questions.

  –Jimmy

• Jimmy Moore

  January 7th, 2009 at 3:18 pm

  Here’s what Gary Taubes had to say about your questions for him, Peter:

  I think whole grain rice is far better than white polished rice, although whether it’s “good for you” is almost a metaphysical question more than a scientific one — i.e., if you replaced, say, 400 calories of your daily consumption of fish or meat or fowl everyday with whole grain rice, would you live a longer/healthier life. I very much doubt it, but it could be so. It might also depend, for instance, on whether you’re of Asian heritage and your ancestors have been eating rice for generations or of Scandinavian heritage, say, and they haven’t. Another factor to consider is your level of obesity or predisposition to fatten. If you fatten easily, than replacing white rice with whole grain rice might not provide much benefit. Getting rid of all the rice would be the solution. If you’re naturally lean, than eating whole grain rice (in my opinion) is much healthier for you than polished white rice. Regarding the Asian diet, I think, as I’ve said often, that the most important factor is the relative absence of sugar (at least until recently) in Asian diets. So the whole grain rice/polished rice factor might play a role, but I’d bet it’s not nearly as significant as the relative absence of sugar. Along these lines, you probably saw this new study concluding that physical activity is not a factor in weight loss based on a comparison of African-American women in Chicago with women in rural Nigeria.

  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28524942/from/ET/

  Physical activity in the two groups is virtually identical but the Chicago women weigh nearly 60 pounds more. So after concluding that physical activity is not a factor, and so diet must be, the researchers then speculate this way:

  “Diet is a more likely explanation than physical activity expenditure for why Chicago women weigh more than Nigerian women, Luke said. She noted the Nigerian diet is high in fiber and carbohydrates and low in fat and animal protein. By contrast, the Chicago diet is 40 percent to 45 percent fat and high in processed foods.”

  Yikes! So what about sugar and refined carbs being the culprits? No mention because the researcher either is unaware that this hypothesis exists or doesn’t care. My comment, naturally, would be that what they witnessed in their study is what has been consistently observed and discussed in the literature for 100 years, and is explained by the relative refinement of the carbs and the amount of sugar (sucrose and HFCS) consumed, not the relative presence or absence of fiber and/or fat. If you want to contact the researchers and provoke them into reading my book, I’m all for it. I don’t think i can do it myself.

• Dr. Davis

  January 8th, 2009 at 11:05 pm

  My criteria for inclusion in diet are:

  1) Does not provoke blood sugar rises to any significant degree
  2) Does not stimulate appetite
  3) Does not trigger metabolic abnormalities, such as increased triglycerides, drop in HDL, increased small LDL particles, or inflammatory responses.

  I believe that wild rice fits this bill and we do include it.

  White rice, I believe, does provoke these abnormalities. My mother was Japanese and I am therefore no stranger to eating rice daily. But I believe that white rice should be eaten sparingly. I believe that Japanese people are slender despite the inclusion of white rice due to the overall character of their diet.

  Brown rice is intermediate between white and wild. I also advise everyone to use it sparingly and only on occasion.

• Peter Silverman

  January 9th, 2009 at 2:10 pm

  Jimmy, thanks so much for getting these responses for me.

  Dr. Davis didn’t mention in his interview but he claims on his blog that Vitamin D in tablets doesn’t actually raise blood levels, only the gelcaps do. I don’t know if this is true, I haven’t seen it elsewhere, but if it is true it’s important. When i went shopping for D I noticed the tablets were cheaper than the gelcaps and bought some. I suspect a lot of people take the tablets and imagine they are getting enough of the vitamin whereas they may not be.

  I personally use the gelcaps on Dr. Davis’ suggestion and it would be a shame if so many people opt for the cheaper tablets that are not as effective. But the same goes for other supplements in tablet form, too.

  –Jimmy

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