It’s been quite a week since learning Christine is pregnant after 16 years of trying (YAY!) and so I’m a bit behind on my blogging. That’s okay because taking care of my wife and future babies (possible multiples) is what is most important right now. That said, I’ve got a boatload of low-carb news and health headlines to share with you in this omnibus blog post today. It’s gonna be power-packed with a lot of interesting stuff, so hold on tight! Ready? Here we go.
- Oh wow, British researchers have discovered the “ultra-bad” kind of LDL cholesterol that’s “sticky” and leads to heart attacks and strokes brought on by glycation (something Dr. Greg Ellis recently shared about on my podcast). Did they recommend lowering your sugar/carbohydrate intake to stave off these dastardly small, dense LDL particles? Of course not when a money-making drug will do the trick! UGH!
- In the OMG category, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read about a commentary in a major medical journal asking “Should parents lose custody of super obese kids?” Dr. David Ludwig (who has been a guest on my podcast previously) from Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts suggested this week in The Journal of the American Medical Association that obese kids be removed from the custody of their parents so their weight problem can be resolved by a foster parent scenario. REALLY?! Yikes! So, what about parents of kids with diabetes, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, and more? Should we take away the parental rights in those situations as well in order “to protect a child?” Why single out obesity? To quote my friend Tom Naughton, “Head. Bang. On. Desk.” ARGH!
- People who get food stamps are often criticized for making poor nutritional choices with this government-funded program. But recipients in Central Wisconsin can now use their food stamps at a local farmer’s market to purchase fresh, local and healthy foods like raw cheese and milk, pastured eggs, fresh veggies and more. I surely hope this is a trend that grows and spreads across the United States to give these poor and underprivileged people an opportunity to feed themselves and their families quality real food.
- Here’s a story of a 150-pound weight loss success in one year from my old stomping grounds in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and there were several awesome points made about how he did it: you can’t just exercise and ignore nutrition, you don’t have to give up red meat because it has lots of nutrition in it, low-carb and low-fat at the same time probably isn’t a good idea and more! Sound like a healthy high-fat, low-carb lifestyle? It kinda does–but it’s not. You’re never gonna believe what the program actually is!
- This New York Times column from Tara Parker-Pope this week reports on new research suggesting we crave “fatty foods” which is what makes us become obese. Not sugar…not protein…but the macronutrient fat. I find this extremely difficult to believe since people tend to turn to carbohydrate-laden foods for comfort and to feed the desires of their palate while fat leaves you satisfied and full for much longer. Do you agree that it’s dietary fat that has “hijacked” our brains into wanting more food? What role do you think carbs play in this mechanism?
- This Daily Express (UK) column entitled “Deadly Cost Of Low-Fat Dieting” exposes one of the biggest nutritional myths of our day–namely that low-fat diets are the only way to obtain optimal weight and health. But this column notes we are “still out of balance nutritionally” because of our constant obsession over dieting. That’s what makes livin’ la vida low-carb so much better. You don’t think about food as much because you enjoy the foods you consume, they keep you satisfied longer, and the menus are luxurious and tasty. Why would you ever eat a low-fat diet again?
- Do you believe it’s time to end “the war on fat” in America? Sign this petition that will be delivered to The U.S. House of Representatives that expresses our concerns about the lack of science supporting a high-carb, low-fat diet which have led to an explosion in obesity rates and chronic disease.
- Another one for the OMG category is this new study from the UK Department of Health calling for children under 5 to exercise daily as a means for battling obesity. You heard me right…they want toddlers and BABIES to engage in DAILY exercise for THREE HOURS! As the British would say, “Have they gone completely mad?!” Wow, this is stooping to absurd levels. Again, there’s absolutely no mention of the nutritional component to obesity. And this ABC News story about another UK study pushing for pregnant women to take the popular diabetes medication Metformin to stave off childhood obesity. Completely mental!
- This Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) column “Why Low-Fat Food Won’t Keep You Slim” goes over a lot of the most common nutritional myths. While it’s a bit off in some spots (“we still need to eat carbohydrates” “saturated fat…pushes up blood cholesterol”), there are some critical points made that more people need to heed (“red meat is good for you” “coconut oil reduces insulin resistance”). Take the good with the bad in this one.
- Have you been cutting your salt intake as a means of keeping your blood pressure lowered and thus improving your heart health? Well, researchers have now discovered salt restriction is associated with an INCREASE risk of death of patients with congestive heart failure. Yep, all those advisories against consuming salt have been overblown…something I blogged about over four years ago. What other health myths are ready to bite the dust?
- I was supposed to be in West Virginia last week with Erwan Le Corre at his MovNat event there, but the baby news in my life took precedence and I had to cancel. Good thing my friend and fellow blogger Diane Sanfilippo from “Balanced Bites” was there are shares the 10 things she learned about “life, movement and being in nature.” GOOD STUFF DIANE (and I love the pics)!
- I’m already working on getting a podcast interview with UK Guardian food politics writer Felicity Lawrence about her mindboggling new book Eat Your Heart Out: Why the food business is bad for the planet and your health, but here’s an excerpt bemoaning the negative impact of sugary breakfast cereals where the box it is packaged in is more nutritious than the cereal itself!
- Just when you thought it couldn’t get any crazier from “low-carb” bread company Julian Bakery representative Heath Squier, indeed it has. Last month I shared my first n=1 experiment consuming SmartCarb breads with coconut oil and cheese and he pitched such a fit over the cheese being the culprit in my blood sugar spike that he requested a second test be done with me consuming just the breads alone. I did that test and the results were actually worse. No apology for basically calling me a liar publicly and no explanation for why my blood sugar spiked eating this so-called “low-carb” bread. My Swedish physician friend Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt from the “Diet Doctor” blog shared my blood sugar testing results with his readers and Heath chimed in with a series of comments that will leave your head shaking (like this one where he tested his blood sugar claiming “great results” with a 31-point spike in just 15 minutes). According to another commenter there named Katy, there’s a new disclaimer on the Julian Bakery web site warning people to test their blood sugar levels to see how they will respond. That never would have happened had I not released my n=1 experiment results.
- Surprise, surprise (not really)! A new study by the USDA has found that grass-fed cows are less of a threat to the environment than ones raised on factory farms. So it’s not that ALL red meat is the culprit in global warming and other environmental issues, but the grain-fed feedlot cattle that is far inferior meat to be consumed with its high omega-6 content. The distinction is never made between these two radically different kinds of meat and it makes all the difference in the world. Does this mean the USDA will start advocating for the consumption of more grass-fed meat in their future Dietary Guidelines for Americans starting in 2015? We shall see.
- Here is another ignorant health writer trying to sound intelligent just makes herself look more stupid in the process. Pat Ferguson probably means well with her nutritional advice, but she couldn’t be more wrong about Atkins if she tried describing it as “high protein” (actually, it’s high-fat and moderate in protein). Just once will these people actually pick up a copy of the book to show some semblance that they know what the heck they’re talking about?!
- Yahoo! Health has a list of the “Top 10 Scariest Food Additives” that are in many of the most common foods Americans eat. What is that “caramel coloring,” “potassium bromate” and “Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA) and Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT)” after all? You may not want to know!
- The latest obesity statistics have been released with only the state of Colorado reporting in with adult obesity rates below 20% (just barely at 19.8 percent!). Not one single state showed a decline in obesity and here was a shocking statement made in the column: “Today, the state with the lowest adult obesity rate would have had the highest rate in 1995.” WHOA! If ever there was a time for trying something different than the same old high-carb, low-fat diet advice that’s been spouted as “healthy” for decades, it’s NOW! We need to redefine what that means and it needs to happen sooner rather than later.
- Two of the world’s leading practitioners using carbohydrate-restricted diets with patients dealing with obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases were joint guests on Dr. Robert Su’s “Carbohydrates Can Kill” podcast last week. Listen to Dr. Eric Westman from Durham, North Carolina and Dr. Mary C. Vernon from Lawrence, Kansas discuss a wide variety of low-carb related health topics.
- I can’t believe this column by OB-GYN Marcelle Pick got by the editorial eye of Dr. Dean Ornish at The Huffington Post. She praises Gary Taubes and Dr. Robert Lustig for shining a light on the dangers of consuming sugar and offers up suggestions about what would be better alternatives to satisfy your desire for something sweet. The echo effect of Taubes’ “Is Sugar Toxic?” column in the New York Times earlier this year will continue to be felt in the months and years to come. Maybe it’s time for a definitive book about the toxicity of sugar…how about it, Gary?
- I’ve got my “List Of Low-Carb Doctors” blog and continue to add new names to it all the time. But for your Paleo/primal fans out there, there’s a new list for you to check out called Primal Docs created recently by a man named Chris Armstrong who changed his life with this way of eating. Now he’s trying to help others get connected with medical professionals that can assist them with their new lifestyle change without judgment or ridicule. Check ‘em out and also check my low-carb doctors list for practitioners in your area.
- Could there be anything more depressing than a group of 5-8 year old girls talking about their weight? That’s exactly what Good Morning America did last month with a group of young girls who talked about being fat and needing to go on a diet. See the unintended consequences that this obsession over BMI and low-fat diets has led us to? We should all be appalled.
- Rather than titling this column “Does Diet Soda Make You Fat?” they should instead ask “Does Aspartame-Sweetened Diet Soda Make You Fat?” I wonder what difference (if any) they would see if the diet soda consumed was sweetened with stevia, for example. Could it be that lumping all diet sodas in the same category is the same as lumping all meat together (processed, grain-fed, grass-fed) as one and the same? I’m not defending diet soda, per se, but trying to wrap my head around what exactly is causing the weight gain. Is it the aspartame or something else?
- Wouldn’t it be great if there was a Wikipedia for livin’ la vida low-carb? Ask and you shall receive: The Low Carb Wiki! And here is another site with the latest low-carb medical research on a variety of health parameters.
- A new method for testing Vitamin D will demonstrate just how deficient we really are of this essential hormone to our health. You’ll quickly realize that sunshine is not enough and you need to rely on getting more Vitamin D from quality foods like salmon, mackerel, sardines and egg yolks as well as Vitamin D3 gel caps which are dirt cheap at your local Sam’s Club or pharmacy. Christine and I take 5,000-10,000IU daily to keep our levels well over 50 ng/mL.
- A MONUMENTAL NEW STUDY of low-carb diets and their impact on cancer published in the July 1, 2011 issue of Cancer Research: “A Low Carbohydrate, High Protein Diet Slows Tumor Growth and Prevents Cancer Initiation.” Kinda obliterates the idea that ketone bodies fuel cancer.
- Did you catch the Vegetarian Summerfest 2011 last week featuring The China Study author and vegan propagandist T. Colin Campbell’s lecture “What is the Evidence for a Low Carb, Atkins Type Diet?” Oh yeah, like that’s gonna give a fair assessment! Campbell spilled the beans on what he thinks about the Atkins diet when The New Atkins For A New You was released in 2010. Nah, I don’t give a rip about what this man has to say since Denise Minger tore his work to shreds last year. Can’t wait to have her speak next year on The 5th Annual Low-Carb Cruise.
- Barf bag alert! Check out the “10 Things To Know About Carbs.” While some of this is factually correct, other parts of it–er, not so much.
- I love it when people like Jen Jacobs refuse to be discouraged just because of a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes. This artist and school teacher uses her skillful eye for artistry to express how she feels about living with diabetes. Keep on inspiring, Jen!
- You never expect them to actually admit it, but now the CEO of a major beverage manufacturer has. Indra Nooyi from PepsiCo told a group of manufacturers and retailers last month in Spain that “each and every one of us (food and beverage manufacturers) has unknowingly played a part in the obesity epidemic.” UNKNOWINGLY?! Now that seems to be far-fetched with all that we know about how sugary/carbohydrate-filled foods (most of what is produced by these big manufacturers) and their impact on weight and health. As long as the money was rolling in, nobody cared about what was happening to the consumer. This is disgusting!
- Jamestown Press columnist Donna Drago shares her “Notes from a carb-free life” as she embarks on a low-carb lifestyle. You can tell she’s a newbie who’s trying hard…maybe a little too hard. Kudos to her for being willing to give it a go. Hopefully she’ll seek out support if she gets stuck in rut on her low-carb diet. Otherwise, we may be seeing a follow-up column from her about how low-carb failed her and she’ll just return to eating a “balanced” diet with all things in “moderation.” UGH!
- Sweden’s not the only country seeing a change in dietary habits happening because of low-carb, high-fat living! Check out this story about the RISE in butter sales in Finland for the first time in over four decades. They credit “the increased appeal of low-carbohydrate diets” for the increased consumption. WOO HOO!
- And as healthy as butter is, there’s another surprising source of healthy fats that may surprise some people: LARD! A study published in the April 2011 issue of the medical journal Lipids compared the much-vilified fat to olive oil to see what impact these fats would have on triglycerides. The study found triglycerides were “significantly lower” after lard was consumed compared to olive oil–thus concluding that lard offers up better heart disease protection than olive oil. STOP THE PRESSES! This sure makes that tub of lard that was sitting in front of Gary Taubes on The Dr. Oz Show back in March all the more convincing that he was right after all. HA!
- And finally, speaking of Dr. Oz–he may pretend like he doesn’t know about me and my work at this blog, but I think he let the cat out of the bag in this San Antonio Express column on June 29, 2011 when in the first paragraph he wrote the following: “If you’re among the many Americans livin’ la vida low-carb, you may want to make a few smart tweaks to your diet.” Oh really, Dr. Oz? Livin’ la vida low-carb, eh? Oh yeah, you’re paying attention a lot more than you let on! Hi there and nice to see ya. Stick around and learn something.
Got a low-carb or health headline you think warrants my attention? Feel free to pass that along to me anytime at livinlowcarbman@charter.net. I try to keep up with most of the latest diet and health-related stuff, but I might miss some things. THANKS for reading and supporting the work I do.
