http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/bogus-studies/last-gasp-of-the-dark-ages-of-nutrition/

Also see this

http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2009/02/cholesterol-presentation-between.html

for a takedown of Ancel Keys: here is the quicksand on which the whole current dietary house of cards has been constructed

Anecdotally I did this

http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/NewlyDiagnosed.htm

which led me pragmatically to a diet not dissimilar to what Eades, Mark Sissons et al. describe, on around 60g carbs I am normoglycemic with spectacular lipids, the exact opposite of my outcome on the “Heart Healthy” diet, which was the only diet I have ever found that caused me to gain weight (skinny active Type 2 for genetic reasons)

From my experience with weight and glucose control, I know this calorie in/out crap isn’t true. I have friends who can eat the equivalent of a horse (a hell of a lot of calories) every day and never gain weight. I also have friends that gain weight just looking at food. Everyone has a different metabolism. So it is not as simple as just calories in minus calories burned equal weight gained.

Low carb diets do work! I lost big weight and have kept it off for 7 years on the Atkins diet. The reason why is really simple. As Dr. Atkins said, its all about insulin. Insulin is the fat producing hormone. To produce fat you need insulin. If you control your insulin production you will control your fat production.

Insulin is dumped into your body by the pancreas when you eat carbs, not fat! Fat does not produce an insulin response! Ingesting carbohydrates causes your blood sugar to go up which in turn caused a insulin response. I measure my blood sugar many twice a day and know this is true. I know what raises my blood sugar and what doesn’t. Glucose in the blood plus insulin causes body fat to be produced by your liver. Not the fat you eat. It really has nothing to do with calories.

Good point, Fran! This study had so many flaws in logic, it wasn’t even funny. I’m honored you left a comment at my blog today. I’d love to have you on my podcast show sometime, so e-mail me.

–Jimmy

The comments here are generally great, so I don’t want to repeat what others have already written. One thing I will add to the mathematical comment above is that the statistical confidence level of the results (P>0.2 for all comparisons) is very low. It would have not been acceptable from my graduate students, so it is disappointing to see it get past the editors of NEJM.

Atkins dieters tend to learn, soon enough, to turn a deaf ear to many others – one of whom is likely to be a doctor, if they discussed it with them in the first place (most of us long term weight loss failures from the past already know doctors are worse than useless in that area.)

As one who spends time in the States as well as England, I’ve noticed that, where my friends in England have complimented my weight loss (and usually are quick to mention that they know others who had significant weight loss on Atkins), the moment one mentions low carb in the States there will be all sorts of nonsense – is it safe? are you ‘under doctor’s care’? and so forth. Of course, sometimes that is jealousy. (If “Jane” is listening to her doctor, and trying hard to pretend that she doesn’t mind being ravenous and only losing a pound a month, it’s inevitable. As well, even someone thinner than I may fear she’ll get less adulation for watching her weight than I may get for losing nearly the weight of another entire person!)

I think it is important to never forget that, in the US, medical care of all kinds is a huge money maker – and what easier way to make a fortune doing little than by manufacturing ‘needs’ that don’t exist? A US doctor can make a good deal just by having someone step on a scale each month to make sure he’s lost his one pound – as long as the doctor convinces the patient that such monitoring (and adherence to the mass produced diet which some are gullible enough to think was crafted for them) is essential to ‘safety.’ No one needs a nutritionist to follow Atkins – but nutritionists can earn substantial amounts convincing dieters that Atkins as it is in the book (Dr Atkins could not have known what his own diet was…) is not ‘safe,’ and clients need the rigid, dictated, ‘safe’ version a nutritionist crafts (which will not eliminate cravings or decrease hunger… so one also needs the pressure and anxiety of having to hand in food diaries…)

Of course, doctors who recommended Atkins (assuming that any would) in the States would also need to fear that if someone developed a condition (even if it had nothing at all to do with the low carb eating), they could be sued for ‘allowing’ this ‘unhealthy’ method. It does not matter that doctors have no way to see significant, let alone long term or permanent, weight loss in their patients – they usually are looking for ‘slow regain’ or ‘regain with a higher percentage of muscle’ or some such rot. I wouldn’t imagine anyone would be sued for pushing ADA guidelines.

Jimmy is correct, I believe – were there any long term studies of genuine Atkins, it would indeed put all other programmes to shame. And what a pleasure it is to have the one diet which addresses the problem at the source – eliminating excessive hunger and cravings. That is a blessed relief when the usual approach is “here’s a way to be constantly starved – so one needs the fear of humiliation and shame knowing one has to have ‘weigh ins’ or stupid mind games from diet clubs.”

What we have here is some slick rhetoric to turn a failure into a success. Plus, they are hoping that, in this sound bite culture, no one will analyze the details. Propaganda 101: repeat something over & over again and people will beleive it, whether it is true or not.