Speaking of a good time, Christine and I want to meet up with our fellow low-carbers in the Bloomington, Indiana area on Saturday, August 7, 2010 from 1-4PM at the home of my fellow low-carb blogger and cookbook author extraordinaire Dana Carpender. We’ll also have “Healthy Low-Carb Living” blogger Amy Dungan there along with enthusiastic low-carb lovers young and old ready to rock it! It’ll be nice to mingle mingle mingle with you guys in that area and there will be plenty of low-carb snacks to go around with Dana hosting. If you’d like to RSVP for the party, send Dana an e-mail at august7@holdthetoast.com and she will send you the directions. “That Nice Boy She Married” will also be there to help make sure everybody has a great time. SEE YA THERE!

It’s been a while since Christine and I did a “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb On YouTube” video, but we kicked it back into high-gear this week by doing a series of shows we’re calling “Health Claims Gone Wild!” featuring the outrageous marketing statements food manufacturers are putting on the packaging of foods to make them appear healthy when they are anything but. So far we’ve been to three stores and found a lot of funky stuff! But we’re not even close to being finished just yet. There’ll be a blog post about it when we get done, but here’s the first episode to whet your appetite for more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc2hu_uvfeI

Oh, that series has been so much fun to do and we can’t wait to share more with you soon! Speaking of sharing more, I’ll be appearing as a guest on Kevin Brown’s “Liberation Wellness” Radio Show on Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 3:30PM EDT to talk about my recent experience testifying before the USDA about the upcoming 2010 Dietary Guidelines. Should be a great show! I’m still waiting for them to post the transcripts of the oral testimony that happened THREE WEEKS AGO! How long does it take to do that kind of transcription? Oh yeah, we are talking about the federal government here. Of course, we could put Darth Vader on it, but he’s kinda miffed about his iPhone 4 right now.

HAHAHAHAHA!!! As an iPhone 4 owner, I don’t know what all the bellyaching is about. My phone works just fine…click, click, bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…darnit, my call got dropped but I’m back. Hee hee! Just kidding. One of my favorite games on my iPhone has got to be Words With Friends. Several of my regular readers like Kim, Ken, Vesna, Becky, Christin, and others have played me in this “Scrabble”-like game and it’s a blast. If you’re good at word games and think you can take me down, then download the free version or it’s a $2.99 paid app worth getting. My username is (WHAT ELSE?!) “livinlowcarbman” and I’ve love to kick your…er, I mean, play you sometime. One of the most interesting aspects of this game is what shows up as a word in your group of letters. The other day on my very first move I got the most hilarious combination of letters that spelled a rather appropriate phrase for me.

Yes, I’m easily entertained. How else would a headline like “Finger in Butt Crack Sparks Knife Fight” amuse me so much? Strange, but true. Kinda like the same old story being used by scammers on Facebook and in e-mail to try to bilk you out of money. A hacker gets into the e-mail or Facebook account of somebody you know and tells some sob story like this one I got this week.

Hello!!! I’m writing this message with tears in eyes, regretting why i didn’t inform you about my short vacation to London,England. Unfortunately something horrible happened to me last night at the hotel park. I came across some British guys at the park, about (6ft tall) they mugged me at gun point and took all my cash, cell phone and my credit cards but luckily i still have my passport. I already canceled my cards immediately after the incident.I’ve been in contact with the Police and the US consulate but they are not helping issue and so the hotel management advised me to send messages out to family and friends, to assist by wiring money to my name since i still have my passport. I really don’t have access to money right now and i desperately need your financial help within twinkle of an eye.Am presently at an internet cafe sending messages out.If you receive this please reply back ASAP.I promise to reimbursed soon as i return home. Am anxiously waiting to hear from you cause my flight depart in few hrs but i need to settle the hotel bills and my transport to Heathrow International Airport.

This would be a sad sob story but for two things: 1) I don’t know this person well enough for her to tell me she’s taking a trip to the UK and 2) I got this EXACT SAME STORY from another one of my Facebook friends about two months ago. You’d think these hacker criminals would get a little smarter by changing up the story or something, but you’ve now been warned if you see this for yourself. BEWARE! Otherwise, I might have to send this goat to your house for you to get the message.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woobL2yAxD4

OMG! That sounds just like a man screaming. He must have heard that Germany is considering a tax on obesity. Is that the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard or what? They assume (incorrectly) that people who are fat made themselves that way by being slothful or undisciplined when that ignores the hormonal connection to this problem that you and I know about all too well. IDIOTS! They need to read this Weightology column about why it is so easy to regain weight that could provoke some actual thought on the issue rather than jumping to conclusions. Oh, and speaking of that in case you haven’t heard, Atkins/low-carb living is officially dead among men according to an AskMen survey. Just thought you guys especially would like to know that. HA!

And finally today I’ve got a humorous video with a song sung by Uncle Sam to a familiar Vietnam War-era song you’ll quickly recognize called “Buy, Buy American Pie” by The Capitol Steps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq8wbXAR4ZQ

There’s a lot of truth to that song…sad, but true. Well, that’s all the time we have for this edition of “Fun-Filled Friday” and I’m glad you came along for the ride today. Come back in a few weeks when we return from our Indiana trip and we’ll have more fun, funny, and crazy stuff to share for you to end the week. THANKS as always for reading and have a FANTASTIC weekend!

In Episode 385 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we welcome back to the podcast pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Larry McCleary (author of the 2007 book The Brain Trust Program) who became so intrigued by something the past couple of years that he describes as the brain-belly connection it quickly became apparent he needed to detail more about it in a book he recently released called Feed Your Brain Lose Your Belly (read my review). Listen to Dr. McCleary share about an update on what he’s been working on the past couple of years with childhood cancer patients, why brain problems associated with obesity piqued his interest so much so that he wanted to write a book about it, the hormone relationship to the brain-belly connection, the greater significance of the hormone insulin in these metabolic pathways, why the leptin hormone is not as important as people like Dr. Ron Rosedale think it is, the farmer’s ability to know exactly how to fatten up their livestock, why carbohydrates are so addictive, the reason hypoglycemia hits when you consume carbohydrates by themselves, a diet comparison study and the impressive results comparing various levels of macronutrients, why a “starvation” diet is actually a high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb diet when the body feeds itself, why eating a cruise ship diet makes you hungrier and hungrier (think high-insulin!), why we overeat because we’re fat and don’t get fat from overeating, why doctors fail to communicate the negative role of carbohydrate on insulin levels, how to change the mind of a skeptical medical professional, why hunger doesn’t happen in the belly but rather it’s a brain state, what foods should be consumed for good brain-belly health (HINT: don’t skimp on the fat or eat up on carbohydrates!), why farmers who were feeding cows coconut oil to fatten them up actually made them lose weight, the consequences of not feeding your brain properly, why herbs and spices are so vital to an effective meal plan for variety and their antioxidant properties, his thoughts on whether eating the taste of “sweet” (even non-caloric ones) will make them crave sweet even more, his skepticism about the use of artificial sweeteners (Splenda alone is 750 times as sweet as blood sugar), why exercise is the “new horizon” for the brain and body (although he notes diet is much more important than exercise for weight loss), the clinical trial studies he conducted on real people to prove the concepts he discussed in his book are effective, and his use of a “weight loss accelerator” supplement he developed called Vi-texxa. Dr. Larry McCleary is one of the leading health voices on behalf of high-fat, low-carb diets today and it is a true honor to share a conversation with him about the work he is doing!

There are three ways you can listen to Episode 385:

1. Listen at the new iTunes page for the podcast:

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

3. Download the MP3 file of Episode 385 [63:15m]:

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR FINANCIALLY SUPPORTING THIS PODCAST! If these twice-weekly podcast interviews from the most provocative and thought-provoking diet, fitness, and health experts have helped you in any way over the past few months and years, then help us keep it going by clicking on the DONATE button on the official podcast web site. We love making these exclusive interviews available to you at no charge so that the positive low-carb message can get out there to the people who need to hear it the most. We are so grateful for your generous donations of any amount so we can keep this going all throughout 2010 and well beyond. I have a fantastic group of fresh new expert interview guests lined up for your listening enjoyment and can’t wait for you to hear them! Go to PayPal.com and you can give your gift to the e-mail address livinlowcarbman@charter.net. Your continued financial support and listenership is essential and we THANK YOU so very much for your support!

How did you like what you heard from Dr. Larry McCleary about the brain-belly connection? Do you think there’s validity to this idea of “the other brain?” Tell us what’s on your mind in the show notes section of Episode 385. Pick up a copy of Feed Your Brain Lose Your Belly, check out his official web site at DrMcCleary.com and listen to the February 2009 podcast. Coming up next week, we’ve got two more incredible podcasts to share with you! On Monday, Dr. Kaayla “The Naughty Nutritionist” Daniel will be here to tell us why consuming soy-based foods is probably not a good idea for your healthy lifestyle. She wrote a book about it called The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food and we’ll dive deeply into this subject during this interview. Then on Thursday, Jolene Park from Healthy Discoveries talks about the educational and motivational work she does for corporations to get them to implement healthy habits that will make more productive employees. It’ll be another exciting week of podcasts! THANK YOU for listening!

Carey’s career has been marked by his propensity for dibble-dabbling in a little of this and a little of that within television circles for the past two decades. As a stand-up comedian, he got his national television debut appearing on the talent show Star Search in 1988 and then later on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1991. After appearances on an HBO young comedians special and then on Late Night with David Letterman, this sudden influx of publicity catapulted Carey to superstar status in the stand-up comedy world in 1994 when he hosted his own special on Showtime called “Drew Carey: Human Cartoon.” Over the next few years he accepted a few minor supporting acting gigs on the silver screen and television until ABC gave Carey a chance to develop his own comedy television show named after him called “The Drew Carey Show” which lasted nine seasons. He also hosted the improv comedy program called “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” from 1998 to 2006. His foray into game show hosting started with a short-lived CBS-inspired one called “Power of 10″ in 2007 until CBS offered him the gig to replace Bob Barker on “The Price Is Right” later that year where he remains host today. But just like fellow rotund actors Jason Alexander, Danny DeVito, Rosanne Barr, Jack Black and many others, Carey’s weight has been as much a part of who he is as his entertainment value. Well, that is, until now!

Carey admits his obesity has always wreaked havoc on both his personal and professional life and that the time was right for him to make permanent, healthy lifestyle changes for the sake of his weight and health. He talked quite openly about it at the CBS, Showtime and The CW TCA Party in Beverly Hills, California on Wednesday.

“It sucks being fat, you know,” Carey exclaimed.

Even worse than carrying around excessive weight, Carey has also dealt with having Type 2 diabetes which is a condition made worse by excessive consumption of carbohydrates. But after implementing a strict low-carb diet into his life, all the medications he was taking to control his blood sugar and insulin levels became unnecessary.

“I’m not diabetic anymore,” Carey revealed.

Technically, there is no cure for diabetes, but this Duke University study reveals that you can can thwart the metabolic effects of the disease through proper nutrition which includes the implementation of a reduced-carbohydrate lifestyle change. And when asked what he did to take off the weight and return his blood sugars to normal, the answer was obvious.

“No carbs,” Carey noted. “I have cheated a couple times, but basically no carbs, not even a cracker. No bread at all. No pizza, nothing. No corn, no beans, no starches of any kind. Egg whites in the morning or like, Greek yogurt, cut some fruit.”

While a low-carb diet is not necessarily “no carbs” as Carey describes (it’s more accurately described as controlled carb), he’s certainly cut out the culprit carbs that lead to weight gain and blood sugar abnormalities–namely crackers, bread, pizza, corn, beans, starchy carbs and more! Eliminating these foods from your diet is absolutely necessary for people with a sensitivity to carbohydrate like him. And he even realizes that certain high-sugar fruits like bananas are off limits and instead opts for low-glycemic ones such as blueberries and strawberries. And his dinner meals consist of grilled chicken and steamed non-starchy vegetables while his beverage choice is water alone.

“No coffee, no tea, no soda,” Carey expressed.

The final element in Drew Carey’s low-carb weight loss success story is the role of exercise which he said was a critical companion to his new and improved eating pattern. He said he engaged in “lots of cardio,” upwards of 45 minutes a day, six days a week to help him drop from a size 44 waist down to a 33-34. Ultimately he’d like to lose another 10 pounds to fit into size 32 pants to get back to where he was when he served in the United States Marine Corps prior to getting into stand-up comedy nearly a quarter century ago.

This newfound “skinny” body Carey finds himself in at the moment has him excited about staying motivated to never go back to the way he was ever again.

“I was sick of being fat on the camera. Really, I just got sick of it,” he confided. “Once I started losing weight, again, like once I started dropping a couple pant sizes, then it was easy ’cause once you see the results, then you don’t wanna stop.”

Now he’s incredibly motivated by this 80-pound low-carb weight loss success along with beating the effects of Type 2 diabetes. And if success breeds success, then we will surely see fans of Drew Carey inspired to give the healthy low-carb lifestyle a try for themselves to get their weight and health under control once and for all. Send him a congratulatory note about his amazing results thanks to livin’ la vida low-carb by writing to:

Drew Carey
c/o The Price is Right
7800 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036

OR

Drew Carey
c/o The Gersh Agency, Inc.
9465 Wilshire Blvd
6th Floor
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Bond has a personal connection to this subject since he lived in some remote African villages early on in his career where he saw firsthand how primitive tribes lived and ate for survival. This once-in-a-lifetime experience gave him ample evidence that he later used to compile much of the material contained in this book. He notes that our bodies are highly adaptable to the rigors we put them through, but they still require some elementary elements to function properly. One of the reasons Bond says we’ve gotten away from this basic nutritional concept in favor of what we have today is the onset of industrialized farming. Deadly Harvest provides all the dirty details about how and why grains (grass seeds) were introduced into our diet which began “a massive upheaval in human nutrition” that took us one step “away from our ancestral diet.” The consequences of this change are now rearing their ugly head in the weight and health of people today.

The sordid history of nutritional guidelines from government agencies is also discussed in this book and Bond explains how this came into being. It started in 1917 when food groups were first established by the USDA with recommendations to the public about what and how much to eat of each group. A couple of updates later in 1942, we find that starchy carbohydrate sources like potatoes are included amongst the “other vegetables and fruit” while eggs and beans have suddenly become part of the “meat, poultry, and fish” category. In 1956, the revisions continued in an attempt to simply things even more to create the infamous four basic food groups until 1979 when the category “fats, sweets, and alcohol” was added with the idea of “moderation” introduced regarding portion sizes and calories. Then in 1980, the USDA introduces their first-ever Dietary Guidelines for Americans which further convoluted the issue by presenting an updated version every five years since in an attempt to “educate” the public. Bond says this flip-flopping with the changes to the prescribed diet has to do with pressure from special interest. Industries directly impacted by the pronouncements from the federal government about diet will fight tooth and nail to protect their financial interests and do whatever they can to prevent any negative publicity. In the end, he says the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines are “not a gold standard–on the contrary, they are a weak and deceitful compromise between all the competing interests” which is a “major cause for concern” as we seek to educate the public about the vital importance of traditional diets on health.

The ramifications of consuming foods like bread, rice and pasta are outlined in great detail in Chapter 3, including what’s wrong with eating grain-based foods such as stunted growth, infant mortality, shorter lifespan, increased susceptibility to infectious diseases, anemia, bone and tooth decay, autism, schizophrenia, epilepsy, eczema, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, allergies, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, colon cancer, Celiac disease–the list goes on and on! Avoid grains as much as possible and returning to the foods that our early ancestors lived on for thousands of years will help prevent these diseases from taking hold. Vegetables are also discussed with a particular focus on the good kind (non-starchy) versus the most commonly consumed ones (like potatoes which aren’t really a vegetable anyway). Fruits are also far different today than they used to be with the focus on breeding them to make them look good, last longer and taste sweeter and sweeter.

The much-maligned fatty, protein-rich animal foods are somewhat defended by Bond, although he accurately notes that our ancestors didn’t just eat the parts of the muscle flesh that are commonly consumed today that comprise most of our meat-based meals. They also consumed other parts of the animal such as the brains, hearts, liver, and guts which provided healthy nutrition when consumed after a kill. Today’s diet contains little to no consumption of such alternative animal parts despite the fact that hunting for wild game is still possible today. Eggs were also on the menu of an ancestral diet when they could be harvested from just about any bird they could find. Nuts, beans, milk, butter, sugar, salt, and beverages origins in the diet are also shared with the consequences of each are expressed.

Deadly Harvest devotes a good amount of space to the anthropological science behind various diets and their impact on modern health. Carbohydrates are what drives up blood sugar levels if consumed in quantities higher than the body can use for energy. Hyperglycemia makes the pancreas work harder pumping insulin into the body to counter the “sugar rush” and then overcompensates by throwing your blood sugar into the other direction known as hypoglycemia where feelings of dizziness, headaches and cravings for more food commence within a couple of hours of consuming a high-carb meal. Insulin stability can only happen when carbohydrates are kept under control. The replacement of fat in our diet with sugar-based carbohydrates has only led to more obesity and obesity-related diseases. Fat consumed by itself does not increase insulin levels as evidenced by the fact that the Cretans “could consume a whole jigger of olive oil on an empty stomach and not get fat.”

The imbalance of essential fatty acids remedied by the consumption of meats and eggs is revealed by Bond with the problem of excessive omega-6 fats in the modern diet explained in detail. Omega-3 fats are found in greater quantity in quality meats and eggs that are raised on a farm as compared with the ones found on a grocery store shelf that were fed a grain-based diet and not allowed to roam freely as nature intended. One major problem I have with Deadly Harvest is Bond’s insistence that saturated fats are “almost certainly unhealthy.” Like many of the health journalists and nutritional health “experts” he rails against in the pages of his book, Bond also lumps together trans fats and hydrogenated fats with saturated fats in the “unhealthy” category. His recommendation that “all fats should be avoided” except for small amounts of omega-3-rich oils is just too sweeping a comment without an explanation of why they are harmful. A list of the good vs. bad kinds of fats to consume is shared on page 153, but I still think Bond is missing the boat in light of what the science is showing us regarding dietary fat consumption as part of a healthy lifestyle. He claims that our early ancestors ate very little fat in their diet which seems incredibly odd.

The “Savanna Model” of eating is shared to give people an idea about how they can eat like our early ancestors, including food lists and suggested meal options. Bond explains what kind of positive changes you will experience once you make these dietary alterations like reduced digestive problems, fat loss, normalized bowel movements, mouth hygiene improvements, and more! Regardless of your age, this is a way of eating that will change your life forever by altering the course of your diet that almost certainly would have led you down a path of disease and possibly death. He also points out that vegetarians and vegans can eat this way by avoiding the animal-based food recommendations rather than the “eat anything” besides meat diet that many of them adopt. Although he does share his concerns that vegans are severely lacking in an essential nutrient in their diet in vitamin B12 which led Bond to conclude that “veganism is not a natural human eating pattern.” Interesting.

The conclusions of Deadly Harvest are that disease control happens by eating a strict low-glycemic diet, lowering the percentage of body fat you carry around, eat a diet consisting of mostly non-starchy plant-based foods, eat a low-fat diet with ample amounts of omega-3 fats, maintain good colon health, engage in regular physical activity, get some daily sunshine, and reduce chronic stress. If you do this, then diseases like cancer, heart disease, digestive problems, allergies, autoimmune diseases, brain diseases, diabetes, and obesity can be avoided. A full list of resources and references for the book are included in the back for further investigation and research for those interested in these concepts. While disagreeing with his assertions about saturated fat, Bond most certainly gets much of the rest of his message right on which is something sorely needed with the degradation of our modern diet. Perhaps we can get him to examine the Inuit people to see how a high-fat, low-carb diet was what helped them thrive with vibrant health for generations. If the evidence is there and he seeks it out, then I have no doubt Geoff Bond will have conclusions that follow the anthropological history.

There are three ways you can listen to Episode 384:

1. Listen at the new iTunes page for the podcast:

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

3. Download the MP3 file of Episode 384 [44:54m]:

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR FINANCIALLY SUPPORTING THIS PODCAST! If these twice-weekly podcast interviews from the most provocative and thought-provoking diet, fitness, and health experts have helped you in any way over the past few months and years, then help us keep it going by clicking on the DONATE button on the official podcast web site. We love making these exclusive interviews available to you at no charge so that the positive low-carb message can get out there to the people who need to hear it the most. We are so grateful for your generous donations of any amount so we can keep this going all throughout 2010 and well beyond. I have a fantastic group of fresh new expert interview guests lined up for your listening enjoyment and can’t wait for you to hear them! Go to PayPal.com and you can give your gift to the e-mail address livinlowcarbman@charter.net. Your continued financial support and listenership is essential and we THANK YOU so very much for your support!

How did you like Annette Presley’s interview? Is she the kind of registered dietitian you think we need more of? Share your thoughts in the show notes section of Episode 384. Pick up a copy of The Liberation Diet: Setting America Free from the Bondage of Health Misinformation!, read more about her at her “Find Your Weigh” web site, and check out her column at Liberation Wellness. Don’t miss listening to my interview with the other co-author of The Liberation Diet, Kevin Brown. Coming up on Thursday we’re pleased to welcome back to the show pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Larry McCleary (listen to my February 2009 interview with him) as we discuss the details about his latest book entitled Feed Your Brain Lose Your Belly (read my review of this book). He gets into the nitty gritty of the brain-belly connection and why feeding your brain the proper nutrition will help you experience amazing weight loss success. You WON’T want to miss this conversation with one of the great low-carb nutritional health experts in the world!