Atkins already stated that triglycerides seem to mark a halfway point between elevated blood glucose and fat storage. Now we know the mechanism. Triglycerides are how fat cells lock lipids inside themselves. They are also a transport mechanism for lipids going from the liver to the fat cells.

If you’re making triglycerides, that means whatever you’re eating is making you fatter. It also means you’re not burning off all the glucose- or fructose-forming food you eat (i.e., carbs). The weight gain is annoying, but throwing your sugar metabolism out of whack is going to kill you in the long run.

You know, the government’s been hounding alternative medicine practitioners, including Atkins, for years and years–simply for not toeing the line on mainstream medical thinking. Here Ornish is, giving people advice that is undoubtedly killing them. Why in the world does Ornish still have a medical license?

I’m not aware of any, Peter, but Dr. Dean Ornish would say his diet reverses heart disease itself…not just the risks.

–Jimmy

I don’t know a.) if he still thinks that, and b.) if it’s true. Taubes says looking at blood markers correlates poorly with who actually gets sick, and I bet he’s right since he’s read everything that’s ever been written, as far as I can tell.

There are so many different opinions about blood markers: fluffy vs. dense (I notice that 2 cardiologists you interviewed were concerned about your cholesterol even though you may be the fluffiest person on the planet), triglyceride/HDL ratio, total cholesterol/HDL. Which really correlates with who dies of heart disease? I can’t figure it out. I wish somebody smart would show which of these measures accurately predicts who gets sick and who doesn’t.

Meantime, I’ll just prefer the markers that I come out well on, and figure the ones I do poorly on aren’t reliable.

Oh, Dr. Ornish STILL thinks of HDL as “garbage trucks” and he said as much in my interviews with him. What we have here are differences philosophically in the role of lipid health on cardiovascular disease risk. One side says just look at the total and LDL cholesterol and keep those numbers in check while the more thinking side explains it is about the HDL/triglyceride ratio and the LDL particle size. The former is based on years of faulty science and indoctrination by the people who are supposed to know better while the latter is founded in solid research and backed up by those of us who are living it.

–Jimmy

http://westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/meddiet.html