Self-proclaimed health “expert” David Katz gets it wrong again on low-carb diets
Whenever a new study or health research is released to the public, we always get greeted by many of the same people over and over again to interpret the findings and tell us what the take-home message is. And these people are usually deeply rooted in conventional wisdom regarding a “healthy” diet–namely, strong advocates of a low-fat, high-carb, vegetarian-styled diet. While Dr. Dean Ornish certainly receives his fair share of ink blurbing his thoughts about diet studies, another name has become almost as popular–Dr. David Katz.
He’s the media darling in the world of health and does all that he can to get his name published in any article related to diet, nutrition, weight loss, and fitness. He was a part of the public lynching of the Atkins diet when Atkins Nutritionals filed for bankruptcy in 2005 by stating so arrogantly his utter disdain for livin’ la vida low-carb.
“The Atkins diet is at odds with a strong foundation of knowledge about the fundamentals of healthful eating and sustainable weight loss,” Dr. Katz asserted at the time. “But the burden of proof has always been the other way around: diets at odds with conventional dietary wisdom must prove themselves healthful. In my opinion, the Atkins diet never did, and never will, meet this test.”
His own bias against low-carb diets such as Atkins even led him to personally come after me as an amateur who does not have a right to share educated opinions on the subject of health.
“The fact that you’ve lost weight does not make you a nutrition expert,” he wrote to me in an e-mail in 2006. “I have driven over suspension bridges–doesn’t make me an engineer.”
So, what we have here is a media zealot who is quite pompous, arrogant, and willing to do anything and everything to berate healthy low-carb living at every turn. And he did it again in this Associated Press news story last week about that atrocious Harvard study on calories by Dr. Frank Sacks which neglected to include any legitimate “low-carb” diets.
David Brown responds to Dr. David Katz with the cold hard facts
One of my more educated readers, who carefully monitors the world of nutrition science, is David Brown. His blog is called the Nutrition Education Project. He e-mailed Dr. Katz directly about the statements he made in that AP story that aren’t exactly backed up by the science. Here’s that e-mail which includes all the appropriate references supporting David’s position.
Dear Dr. Katz,
Apparently, you consider saturated fat to be atherogenic. In the column “Low-carb? Low-fat? Study finds calories count more,” this is what was attributed to you.
Dr. David Katz of the Yale Prevention Research Center and author of several weight control books, said the results should not be viewed as an endorsement of fad diets that promote one nutrient over another.
The study compared high quality, heart healthy diets and “not the gimmicky popular versions,” said Katz, who had no role in the study. Some popular low-carb diets tend to be low in fiber and have a relatively high intake of saturated fat, he said.
Both experimental and observational evidence I’m familiar with do not seem to link clogged arteries to saturated fat intake when adequate supportive nutrition is included in the diet and excessive refined carbohydrate is not consumed. In fact, fructose research by Peter J. Havel, Richard J. Johnson, and several others suggests that excessive fructose consumption may be driving the obesity/heart disease/diabetes/metabolic syndrome epidemic. You may want to examine their findings.
Below is a comment at the close of the Chang article.
Other experts were bothered that the dieters couldn’t keep the weight off even with close monitoring and a support system.
“Even these highly motivated, intelligent participants who were coached by expert professionals could not achieve the weight losses needed to reverse the obesity epidemic,” Martijn Katan of Amsterdam’s Free University wrote in an accompanying editorial.
It’s likely that if the researchers (in the Sacks study) had not limited experimental parameters to a “heart healthy” diet (35% carbohydrate is not low-carb and 40% fat is not high-fat) and if they had included foods with high saturated fat content, they likely would have observed what carbohydrate restriction can accomplish.
I’m not suggesting that carbohydrate restriction is the only way to control weight. The Kitava Study hints that carbohydrates derived from grains have a different effect from carbohydrates derived from root crops and vegetables (Note that Kativans have high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol but experience no strokes or heart attacks). I suggest you familiarize yourself with current lipids research furnished by the Nutrition & Metabolism Society.
Finally, I urge you to read some of the comments submitted to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee in January, 2009.
Regards,
David Brown
Well done, David! It probably won’t change Dr. Katz mind about anything, but at least he knows that people like you and me are out here watching what he is saying and sharing publicly why he is dead wrong on so many issues related to diet and health. Keep fighting the good fight, my friend. You are doing GREAT work!
