Comments on: Note To Dr. Dean Ornish: We DON’T All Agree About What Is Considered Healthy

By: Carl

Carl — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:10:00 +0000

I listened to one of the podcast. I don’t think that I could stand to listen to anymore. My immediate impression was; this guy’s a nut! Not only is he a nut he’s dangerous. He is putting people on the road to a heart attack not preventing it. Diabetes is only a milestone on your trip to having heart disease and a heart attack. A diabetic has the same risk of a heart attack as someone who has already had one.

I am diabetic and have suffered with the disease for a long time. Controlling diabetes for me turned out to be very simple. No thanks to bad medical advice from my so called expert doctors and the American Diabetes Association. My doctors were specialist ( Endocrinologist ). Not one of them told me the most important thing for me to do to control diabetes was to lose weight! These doctors only want to write prescriptions. It took me years to figure out how to control my diabetes. The answer was on almost every page of Dr Robert Atkins book. I now call this book my diabetes bible. The solution is very simple and logical. Don’t put anything into your mouth that will cause your blood sugar to rise. A sugar spike is the common term for this. This sugar spike causes insulin to be dumped into your blood by the pancreas. Insulin is a very destructive powerful hormone. Insulin destroys your carder vascular system. The combination of insulin and the liver produces fat in your body. Eating fat does not make you fat. Eating fat is good for you. Eating carbohydrates makes you fat! You can not produce and store fat in your body without insulin. This is the bases of Dr Robert Atkins wonderful diet; insulin control! Eating fat does not cause a insulin response. This is why living the low carb lifestyle is not only the best way to lose weight. It is also the best treatment for diabetes. The Ornish diet will cause disease and death.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:18:00 +0000

Chris Masterjohn does a nice job of critiquing "The China Study" here: http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/China-Study.html. Be sure to read Campbell's response, and Masterjohn's rebuttal as well.

Loren Cordain also debated Campbell in written form, and pretty much handed him his head. This is a long read (ignore the editorial at the start), but worth looking at if you want to see the difference between how scientific evidence should be evaluated (Cordain) vs. hand-waving and "philosophy" (Campbell). Read "The Protein Debate" here: http://www.hacres.com/healthtipArticles2007/478_proteinDebate.pdf.

Some further commentary on Cordain/Campbell here: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/397/.

By: Didirina

Didirina — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 03:36:00 +0000

Speaking of studies, that absolutely stupid one that was done by the University of Maryland last fall has reared its ugly head again. The latest Prevention magazine has cited it in an article entitled, “The Worst Diet For Your Heart: Discover the truth about the Atkins diet” by Cynthia Sass, RD.! It’s on their website, too. And even worse, the magazine has another article in the same issue that promotes the Pritikin diet for healing diabetes! I thought Prevention was making progress here (there have been a few success stories with Atkins, and their new Flat Belly diet advocates more fat than usual), but it’s glaringly apparent that science and evidence is to be glossed over as it has been to date. In this same issue, some of the breakfast smoothies have more than 40 grams of carbs in each serving!

By: Matt Reiner

Matt Reiner — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:15:00 +0000

One of the studies folks like Ornish like to base their low-fat vegaetarian credentials on is T. Colin Campbell's "The China Study," which is still selling well on Amazon.com.

I first read this book in 2005 and, as a result, went vegetarian for two years (I did eat some seafood, however). I then began to challenge Campbell's work when I realized how much soy products disagreed with me and my difficulty keeping my weight down. The most disturbing thing I've found about this so-called "monumental" study is that carbohydrates, not animal protein, actually had a higher correlation to sickness and disease among the Chinese Campbell studied! If anyone else here has read the book, they might also notice how little of the book is dedicated to the study itself.

So as I said in my earlier post, we have plenty of studies to back us up. Now we need a stronger voice. Thank you, Jimmy, for giving us one.

By: Kevin M.

Kevin M. — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:00:00 +0000

That was great, Dave, where are the clear-thinking, common-sense people like you in the medical feild? All co- opted and compromised, apparently. Ornish is a remnant of a prior phase of American culture, kind of like Ralph Nader, that is why he won’t change his veiw and is not open to new information. He may be willing to debate with a layperson because, like most medics, he relies more on his presumed authority as a doctor than on actual evidence to support his contentions. The real question raised by low-carb and being debated here is the legitimacy, or lack thereof, of the current medical science profession. We need scientists of integrity such as Dave to speak up in support of responsible, meaningful research. But considering that we are challenging and changing the direction of the entire nutritional understanding of modern medical science, it may be understandable that it may take a few decades. It’s incomprehensible how the greatest medical science system in history allowed itself to get into such a state of error to begin with.

By: Tom Bunnell (TB)--TB

Tom Bunnell (TB)--TB — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:25:00 +0000

I believe he said that ‘they’ (Inuit) evolved to eat that way! And then he added that ‘we’ have evolved to eat the diet we have today. — namely a low-fat vegetarian diet as you stated.