Jimmy Moore's Livin' La Vida Low Carb Blog » carbohydrates

Get The Low-Carb Diabetes Cookbook The ADA Rejected

Jimmy Moore — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:38:44 +0000

It’s almost hard to believe that it has been five years since Judy Barnes Baker released her first low-carb cookbook called CARB WARS: Sugar Is The New Fat when she burst on the scene introducing some truly remarkable recipes that embrace the concept of transforming traditionally high-carb dishes into ones that can be both nourishing and blood sugar-stabilizing for her and her husband to enjoy. I’ve gotten to know Judy personally since 2007 through her blog, her lectures and attendance on the annual Low-Carb Cruise as well as through frequent e-mail and telephone exchanges over the years. Today I consider Judy a dear friend and a fellow crusader in this battle for the hearts and minds of people regarding what healthy low-carb living is real all about. And in the years that have transpired since she released CARB WARS there has been some really curious circumstances that have led to the creation of a second book of recipes. But this is no ordinary tale–it’s one of the most intriguing back stories behind a book that I’ve ever heard in my life with her sophomore release entitled Nourished: A Cookbook for Health, Weight Loss, and Metabolic Balance. I’ll share more specifics about this unbelievable story of how this book came about in just a moment. But first I want to brag on this incredible new cookbook that deserves to be in the kitchen of everyone who eats low-carb, Paleo or healthy in general!

One thing you can always be assured of with a Judy Barnes Baker book is professional brilliance in everything about it. From the cover photos featuring mouthwatering, succulent low-carb recipes as well as plenty of gorgeous photographed meal ideas sprinkled throughout the pages, it would be nearly impossible for you to say eating a healthy low-carb is “boring” as it is sometimes described by naysayers. In Nourished, you get lots of recipes but also specific menu-planning options to know which dishes are paired well together. For novice cooks who need that guidance, this is an invaluable resource and one that I’ve never seen before in any cookbook I’ve ever used.

At the beginning of Nourished, Judy presents an overview of why high-fat, low-carb diets are preferred for weight loss, controlling diabetes, and getting a handle on a whole host of common chronic health conditions like Alzheimer’s, heart disease and stroke. The one common denominator in obesity and metabolic syndrome seems to be the negative impact that comes from consuming carbohydrates which promotes fat storage and declining health. It doesn’t happen overnight so most people don’t understand the urgency in embracing the concepts of what I like to call livin’ la vida low-carb. But as an old Baptist preacher always used to say, “Payday someday.” And yet it doesn’t have to be that way which is why Judy provides a basic course in how low-carb diets work, what benefits you can expect to see, the safety of following such a plan, and why the continued “fat phobia” in our culture is not based on the science. For the uninitiated it’s an excellent introduction to the key concepts behind the low-carb lifestyle. And it’s a friendly reminder for those of us who have been eating this way for a while.

I appreciate that Judy doesn’t just have you jump into making these dishes without offering up her wise experience in working with ingredients you may not necessarily be used to using in a healthy cookbook. Saturated fat is rarely seen in recipes dedicated to being healthy and yet this is an ingredient that gives many of these recipes the flavor profile that will have you coming back to this cookbook time and time again. And for those who are concerned about the health ramifications from consuming real, whole foods like butter, coconut oil and tallow, for example, Judy makes a compelling argument for why you should be including them in your healthy diet. She also educates the reader about the various sweeteners, flours, thickeners and such that will make your low-carb cooking adventures as worry-free as possible.

So, what about all those incredible low-carb recipes? Of course, there are plenty of recipes for your regular daily meals included in the “Everyday Food” section in Part 1 with options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Part 2 offers up suggestions for “Special Occasions and Entertaining” for those times when you have guests in your home and you want to wow them with your low-carb culinary excellence. From appetizer to the main course and even dessert, Judy’s got you covered. And if you’re worried about what to do during the various holidays that take place during the year, Part 3 is just for you featuring “Seasonal and Holiday Menus.” Everything from the perfect Valentine’s Day dinner, Easter dinner, Thanksgiving, Christmas, you name it is included in this book. Take the worries out of these stressful cooking events knowing you are making delicious, homemade food that is tasty and healthy for everyone who will be consuming it. Part 4 teaches you some of the “Basic Recipes” that you will use time and time again in your kitchen for various purposes like dressings, sauces and condiments. And finally, Part 5 includes lots of ideas for “Snacks, Food for Travel, and ‘Freebies’” that answer the age-old question, “What is something quick I can eat when I’m on-the-go all the time?” Judy answers that quite thoroughly with ideas galore for you to enjoy, embrace and implement into your hectic lifestyle that nevertheless deserves to be Nourished.

In the back of the book, Judy helps you identify and source the ingredients you will need to make these recipes she has created by connecting you with web sites and brick and mortar stores that carry these specialty products. It’s all conveniently wrapped up in a 350+ page book that you will reference time and time again in the years to come! And this book is so special that it includes not just one, but three incredible forewords from some of the biggest names in low-carb research and practice: Dr. Mary Vernon is the famous low-carb physician treating mostly obese and diabetic patients with carbohydrate-restriction in Lawrence, Kansas and is educating her fellow medical professionals about the benefits of low-carb diets through Innovative Metabolic Solutions; Jackie Eberstein is a registered nurse who worked with the late, great Dr. Robert C. Atkins in his complementary medicine practice in New York City for nearly three decades and still works with The Veronica Atkins Foundation to educate people about the benefits of the Atkins Lifestyle; and Dr. Richard Feinman is a biochemistry professor at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, New York and the Founder of The Nutrition & Metabolism Society dedicated to elevating the science in the discussion of diet and health. It says a lot about the value of Nourished to have three such distinguished and credentialed experts endorse the amazing work that Judy Barnes Baker has invested into this project.

With that said, here’s the unbelievable story behind this book that you may not know about unless you’ve heard my May 2011 podcast interview with Judy about it. After writing her first low-carb cookbook CARB WARS in 2007, she was attending the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference and had a “chance” encounter with a representative from the American Diabetes Association (that ended up turning into a full-fledged opportunity to write an official ADA-recommended menu-styled cookbook for them). Judy was shocked, of course, because the ADA has never been a fan of the high-fat, low-carb nutritional approach for people with diabetes (except for the purposes of weight loss up to one year beginning in 2008). Skeptical, she agreed to write the book and submitted a thorough 32-page book proposal with 15 sample recipes that she never expected them to accept. A few months later she received news that the ADA board had approved her proposal and she began working on her book in the Fall 2008. For more than a year, Judy was faithfully submitting her recipes and nutritional information to them with very little feedback about how she was doing. In fact, the book actually became available for pre-order on the McGraw-Hill web site and she thought the book was actually going to happen.

Realizing what a golden opportunity this was to promote the low-carb message to diabetics who desperately needed to eat this way, Judy was especially careful not to be too “in your face” with her high-fat, low-carb recipes and took painstaking mindfulness and tact in creating recipes that she thought they would approve of. After months of “dead silence” after turning in the draft of her book, she realized something was wrong when they started promoting the book with a front cover that included an “austere looking plate” of bland, low-fat food that didn’t resemble any of the actual recipes she created for the book. Shortly thereafter, she received a conference call from the editors encouraging her to make “changes” that they deemed important, namely for her to lower the fat content of the recipes by choosing lean meats, whole grains, low-fat and fat-free dairy, reducing the salt content of the recipes and switching from using butter to margarine. She politely explained to them that a healthy low-carb diet for diabetics is one that is high in fat, not low-fat. They gave her an ultimatum–make the changes or it would not be published. To her credit, Judy refused to back down from her principled stance that a healthy low-carb diet is one that includes fat…so she walked away from the lucrative deal despite being told by the ADA representative she was working with that she had written “a good book.”

Though disappointed, Judy was not about to let all of her hard work go to waste and began pursuing alternative means for getting her book published under the original title The Healthy Edge: A Cookbook Based on the Latest Science of Nutrition and Metabolism. She started re-writing parts of the book where she had been careful about appeasing the ADA and made them like she wanted them to be. I’m sure that “Fat Phobia” section in the beginning of Nourished was a direct response to this rejection by the ADA of her book. But she knew she had to speak the truth about what low-carb living is all about. That’s why she teamed up with the Nutrition & Metabolism Society and Innovative Metabolic Solutions to get this book published at long last in 2012. Thanks to lots of guest contributions from her friends in the low-carb community who provided their own recipes for this book, the book is a perfect collection for anyone seeking to live optimally healthy.

Judy has a personal dream to sell 50,000 copies of this book to show the ADA how foolish they were to screw around with someone who was simply trying to do her part to truly help people with diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome by providing recipes and information that could quite possibly change their lives forever. I think this is a noble cause worth rallying behind by doing our part to help Judy reach this goal she has set. It’s time to send the ADA a message–high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb living is saving lives, normalizing blood sugars, lowering A1c levels, reducing and eliminating the dependence on insulin and diabetes medications, and giving hope to people who feel hopeless about a disease that has reached epidemic levels. You can go the route of famous people like Paula Deen who choose to keep eating carbohydrates while taking questionable prescription diabetes drugs or you can eat deliciously healthy recipes made with real butter and other fats while eschewing the blood sugar and insulin-raising effects of carbohydrates. The choice is yours!

Considering The Reliability Of The Dreamfields Pasta ‘Low-Carb’ Claim

Jimmy Moore — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:51:20 +0000

Since there are a lot of brand new people who have found my blog and are very interested in learning all the ins and outs of what low-carb living is all about as we begin 2012, I wanted to bring up a subject that rose to the forefront in 2011 thanks to a published study, a Swedish physician and an n=1 blood sugar experiment.

Dreamfields pasta has been out on the market for several years touting itself as a great-tasting “low-carb” alternative to regular. In 2009, I interviewed the president of Dreamfields Foods Mike Crowley on my podcast asking about how they can make a pasta that looks and tastes like the real thing be “low-carb.” He explained to me that it is through a technology that creates a “complex matrix” that makes the carbohydrates become “protected” and undigestible so they do not have the impact on your blood sugar that regular pasta does. It was a curious concept that nobody really ever challenged–until this January 26, 2011 study published in Diabetes Care showed there was no difference in blood sugar response between Dreamfields pasta and regular pasta.

That study led my low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) blogging friend from Sweden named Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt from the “Diet Doctor” blog (who created that “Carb Fiction” graphic above) to conduct his own blood sugar experiment to test the Dreamfields hypothesis on himself. The results were less-than-flattering and he shared all about them in a slide during his lecture on the 2011 Low-Carb Cruise (download the PowerPoint presentation here). Seeing the results that Dr. Eenfeldt saw on himself spurred me to want to test my own blood sugar results on Dreamfields in my own n=1 experiment in May 2011. I couldn’t believe it when my blood sugar tracking after consuming Dreamfields was almost identical to what it was after eating regular pasta. WHOA! This piqued my interest to test several other “low-carb” products like bread and shakes with some rather peculiar results.

A reader of my blog who found me from a nutritionist who he started seeing last year said he had an interesting take on the whole Dreamfields pasta controversy he wanted to share. He used to follow the USDA’s Food Pyramid and exercised like a madman. But his heart was full of plaque that led to 60% blockages in his arteries. He now realizes it’s all those “healthy whole grains” that he ate in “abundance” that led to this inevitability. He confided in me that he worked in the pasta industry for most of his career with experience in everything from product development to manufacturing. In other words, he knows what he’s talking about regarding pasta which used to be his “favorite food.” He decided to write a “fairly technical but easy to understand commentary” with his take on Dreamfields pasta. He says there are a few “performance problems” that are possibly taking place in the making of this “low-carb” pasta that should be of the utmost concern for people who are livin’ la vida low-carb!

Here’s this pasta insider’s take on the “low-carb” claims of Dreamfields:

A lengthy interview with Dreamfields Pasta president Mike Crowley, which is available on-line, failed to adequately answer a single one of the probing questions posed by interviewer Jimmy Moore who cited the personal findings of many “sample of one” individual users who have reported large and unexpected spikes in their blood glucose after a meal of Dreamfields pasta. Some spikes have been fully equivalent to readings obtained by these consumers after a similar serving size of regular pasta. This interviewer was a big fan of Dreamfields pasta, and Dreamfields was in fact one of his sponsors on his low carb blog and website.

Crowley only provided lengthy explanations of their testing that found glycemic index values that indicated that only 5 grams of carbohydrate were consumed by their test participants after consuming a 2 ounce portion. The subjects’ blood glucose readings, which Crowley admitted had been recorded, were not divulged, and he argued against the interviewer’s contention that it should be openly shared. He offered no sound scientific reason in explaining his stand, while at the same time downplaying any relevance or reliability of the readings reported in the “sample of one” cases. He also downplayed the statement by the interviewer that it is the actual blood glucose reading of any concerned consumer that is far more relevant than being told what that meal’s glycemic index was, or was supposed to be.

Rather than try to make sense of Crowley’s answers, what I’ll do here is explore the actual potential for the product to fail to deliver on its claims, since it seems to have done so for a great many concerned users. In brief, yes, this product might perform as promised, for some consumers, when all circumstances in its manufacture and especially in its end preparation by the consumer are perfect, but there is significant potential for the product to fail to do so, either partially or completely, and cause an unexpected spike in the consumer’s blood glucose.

The Dreamfields concept is that a “proprietary blend” of soluble fiber and supplemental protein added to the Durum semolina, the basic ingredient of all good quality pasta, forms a protective barrier around most of the carbohydrate content of the pasta. The four declared ingredients that accomplish this are inulin, wheat gluten, xanthan gum and pectin, in decreasing order of their percentages in the product. Three of these, namely inulin, xanthan gum and pectin are soluble dietary fibers, also known as resistant starches, which are all resistant to digestion by the enzymes in the stomach and the small intestine, and which are all fermented by the bacteria in the colon. The fourth, wheat gluten, merely supplements the wheat gluten that is naturally present in semolina dough and which gives cooked pasta its firmness, or al dente texture, the most basic and desirable characteristic of all good quality pasta.

Durum wheat semolina is typically comprised of 13 percent moisture and 13 percent protein, with carbohydrate comprising the great majority of the remainder. Carbohydrate is present in the form of starch granules, consisting of approximately 20% amylose and 80% amylopectin, which is the most easily digestible form of dietary starch. These granules would ordinarily swell and burst when cooked in boiling water, which would result in very starchy cooking water and soft, mushy pasta. But two proteins that naturally occur in wheat, glutenin and gliadin, combine during the moistening and mixing of pasta dough to form the more complex protein gluten. As the dough is further mixed, this gluten forms a mesh-like matrix that surrounds the individual starch granules. Gluten is a strong protein that stays intact during the cooking process. The matrix that it forms is open, like a net, allowing the starch granules to absorb the cooking water. But the strength of the gluten is what keeps the starch granules from swelling, bursting and ruining the quality of the pasta, while its openness allows the starch to be cooked. It is also this openness that leaves all of the carbohydrate naturally vulnerable to normal digestion.

The additional gluten added to Dreamfields pasta supplements the naturally occurring protein. This is a technique very commonly used to further strengthen pasta that will be used in such applications as long standing restaurant steam tables, or that will be cooked industrially for long periods at very high temperatures in cans containing such ingredients as chicken pieces or broth.

It is the other three ingredients, primarily the inulin, that implement the new concept. All are water-soluble, thus the concept is that after absorbing enough water to be dissolved, they form a protective film around the starch granules. This is very different from the strong water-resistant gluten protein matrix. It is a thin film that is water-soluble. To effectively protect any starch granule from digestion, it must completely surround that granule with a continuous film and it must adequately survive both the final cooking and digestion process. A very reasonable assumption is that the 5 grams of “unprotected” carbohydrate (starch granules) per serving represent the average probability that such a process cannot possibly be perfect and cannot protect every starch granule from digestion, as well as the fact that some percentage of the starch granules will actually be broken open during chewing and will become very digestible.

A protective film that does not completely coat enough starch granules and/or does not adequately survive the cooking and digestion processes will result in additional grams of unprotected and digestible carbohydrate, grams that the consumer is not adequately warned about. Remember, the type of starch contained in wheat pasta, most of which is amylopectin, is perhaps the most easily digested of all forms of dietary starch. For this reason, some further explanation of the problem is merited.

In a typical ingredient mixing and dough forming operation, there is tremendous competition for the strictly limited and well defined amount of water that can be added to semolina to produce a dough that is firm enough to hold its shape after it is extruded into shells, elbows, etc. The two proteins that combine to form gluten absorb as much of this water as the starch does, even though there is approximately four times as much starch as there is protein. In the Dreamfields process, extra water must be added to hydrate the added wheat gluten and to dissolve the three soluble fibers. It might even be used to dissolve these ingredients before they are mixed with the semolina (the complete details of the “patent pending” process are not provided), but total and complete dissolving and distribution are both necessary to implement the Dreamfields concept. The dissolved fiber must adequately cover and surround enough starch granules to protect all but those declared 5 grams of digestible carbs per serving. There is nothing absolute or empirical about this mixing process. It is carefully controlled and quite predictable when it is only semolina and water involved, but it becomes more a game of probabilities when additional water-hungry ingredients are present. Every pasta manufacturer is well aware of this.

Then there is the home cooking step. Since the protective soluble fiber film is water soluble, cooking in boiling water can only weaken or break down the film. Dreamfields does in fact caution against overcooking, but without any adequate discussion of its consequences to the carb-conscious consumer. Exactly when “overcooking” actually does begin will be different in each case, depending on such factors as whether cooking takes place at a fast rolling boil or a gentle boil, whether the pot is covered or uncovered, or whether the location is at higher elevation or at sea level. Furthermore, there is no way to know how rapidly total film breakdown occurs once overcooking does begin, but such breakdown is a very likely cause of the spikes in blood glucose readings seen by concerned carb-conscious users. Such breakdown is extremely likely, and to a great degree, if leftover pasta is reheated for serving at a later date!

There are still other factors that might affect the protectiveness of the protective film, such as the any damage cause by excessive chewing, the inclusion of additional fat or protein items in the meal, the quantity and pH of water or other liquids consumed with the meal, and the impact on transit time through the small intestine caused by the consumer’s past and subsequent meals, but these are far too complicated for me to speculate on their potential ability to cause additional grams of carbohydrate to be digested.

In the end, if all conditions are perfect, the glycemic index of a 2 ounce portion of Dreamfields pasta might be a significant improvement over that of a 2 ounce serving of regular pasta. But this is the very best possible outcome, and the probability is clearly there for such a meal to surprise the unsuspecting consumer to whom the difference between consuming 5 grams of digestible carbohydrate or unknowingly consuming 10, 20 or even 40 grams may cause serious health consequences! As a type 1 diabetic commented on a chat board, he is better off enjoying a 2 ounce portion of regular pasta, knowing exactly its carb content and how to adjust his medication to deal with it, than playing a dangerous game of chance with Dreamfields pasta, hoping that it will deliver on its claim. This person received many reply postings in total agreement with his statement.

The Dreamfields box should perhaps contain the admonition “If you are a diabetic, this product may be hazardous to your health – use ONLY as directed.” After all, those who are allergic to the gluten in wheat are warned that all pasta contains wheat! Those with a concern or a serious intolerance for carbohydrate should be equally warned about a product that might provide as few as 5 grams of digestible carbohydrate per serving… or just might provide as many as 40!

So there you have it! My reader added one extra comment about his column:

The only aspect that Dreamfields or the Dakota Growers, the ones who actually manufacture the pasta, might be able to critique is that they have an undisclosed “patent pending” process for making it, but I know the plant and the commercial equipment line that is used to make it, and the only place I can imagine a patent improving the reliability of the product is the method (or possibly some added apparatus) for premixing and/or pre-hydrating the sensitive items to insure that they work as effectively as possible. But this is done by many pasta plants to insure the effectiveness of such things as added neutraceuticals, calcium, protein (in the form of egg white and/or concentrated grain proteins, for industrial pasta that must be cooked for long periods at 300 F) etc. So there isn’t any space-aged technology involved. I just thought I owed you a “full disclosure” of where they may claim I “don’t know what I’m talking about.”

What do you think about all of this? Are you a happy and healthy Dreamfields pasta fan and find that it does not increase your weight or raise your blood sugar above what a typical 5-gram carbohydrate load would? Or have your eyes been opened to the possibility that this dream of having a great-tasting low-carb pasta was just pie in the sky? Tell us what YOU think about it in the comments section below!

Low-Carb Conversations Podcast (Episode 23): Joe Lindley And Pam Howell Chime In On Stephan Guyenet’s Take On Carbohydrate Hypothesis

Jimmy Moore — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 22:06:43 +0000

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In Episode 23 of “Low-Carb Conversations With Jimmy Moore & Friends,” we rock the low-carb chit-chat session this week with two wonderfully amazing guest friends. We welcome a pharmacy school student in Tennessee named Pam Howell who has dibble-dabbled in naturopathic medicine and health clubs in her history of health self-education. Also joining us is Joe Lindley from the “Stop Craving Sugar” blog who has been inspired to get the message about carbohydrate-restriction out there after being influenced by the work of Gary Taubes. We take on whether we’d eat strange animal parts, reaction to the scuffle between Gary Taubes and Stephan Guyenet, and some delicious low-carb recipes to boot! ENJOY!

Listen to Joe Lindley and Pam Howell chat up about low-carb:

Mindy starting up on The Skogg System challenge

Pam’s sugar addiction that she beat before diabetes

How she’s become a bona fide “health nut” now

Her experience in naturopathic school and health clubs

Joe’s Atkins diet experiment that really worked for him

Why he decided to create his blog to encourage others

How Gary Taubes’ “Is Sugar Toxic?” column influenced him

The enthusiasm he has for sharing about low-carb living

Jimmy’s experimentation with eating cow’s tongue

Pam choosing body parts if the nutrition warrants it

Joe’s lack of experience (or desire) to eat body parts

Mindy’s pickiness about texture issues in her meat

Joe’s theory that as meat costs increase, body parts will be consumed

Watch Gary Taubes questioning Stephan Guyenet at #AHS11

Guyenet’s “The Carbohydrate Hypothesis of Obesity: a Critical Examination”

Pam’s problem with eating more fat in her low-carb diet

Joe’s engineering take on Guyenet’s column

Why the aftermath of the stir up has been a good thing

Guyenet’s “A Roadmap to Obesity” column

Mindy’s appreciation of eating real whole foods over junk

Joe’s Low-Carb BBQ Brisket recipe

Pam’s favorite food when she’s in a pinch

Her love for QuestBars

Her homemade vinegar-based dressing recipe

There are three ways you can listen to Episode 23:

1. Listen at the 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 23 [34:43m]:

By all means, we’d love to have YOU be a part of the conversation as well, so be sure to submit your questions and comments to us ANYTIME by using any of the following ways to contact us: Twitter, Facebook, the official web site, and e-mail. We enjoy asking our panel of “friends” to chime in on your most pressing questions about low-carb diets so they can provide you with insights from their own personal experiences on the subject. So don’t be bashful–tell us what you think about the show and ask, ask, ask away about anything related to healthy low-carb living!

Today we heard from Joe Lindley and Pam Howell discussing whether they would ever eat various parts of animals that are unconventional, the dustup between Gary Taubes and Stephan Guyenet at #AHS11, Guyenet’s “The Carbohydrate Hypothesis of Obesity: a Critical Examination” column, Joe’s Low-Carb BBQ Brisket recipe, Pam’s homemade vinegar-based dressing recipe, and so much more! Tell us what you thought about what you heard in today’s conversation in the show notes section of Episode 23.

We’ve got an exciting line-up of guests coming in the next few weeks for you on the podcast:

Episode 24-September 23, 2011-Badier Velji & Sally Krumdiack
Episode 25-September 30, 2011-Caitlin Weeks & Justin Bentley
Episode 26-October 7, 2011-Nell Kauls & Tina Thomas
Episode 27-October 14, 2011-Dr. Newell Wright & Trey Potter

If you have something to share about what you heard on “Low-Carb Conversations With Jimmy Moore & Friends,” then drop us an e-mail at lowcarbconversations@gmail.com. Tell us your comments about the show, ask any questions you may have for our friends to talk about, pass along your ideas for what you’d like to hear discussed, and let us know if you’d like to join us on the panel in a future episode. We’d love to hear from you, so reach out and touch us sometime! THANKS for joining us in the conversation and we’ll talk with you about healthy low-carb living again next Friday. DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT ITUNES AND LEAVE US A RATING AND REVIEW!

Where Is The ‘Hope’ For Diabetics, Ms. Warshaw?

Jimmy Moore — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 21:31:56 +0000

One of the things I try really hard to avoid doing at my blog is making the subject of my criticisms the people and personalities involved rather than the issue at hand. But in the case of registered dietitian and self-proclaimed diabetes “expert” Hope Warshaw, I have to make an exception because she has crossed the line into causing more harm than good with her irresponsible advice for people living with Type 2 diabetes. As my buddy Steve Cooksey from the “Diabetes Warrior” blog so succinctly put it at the beginning of an April 2011 post about her, “Has any ADA Minion harmed as many people as Hope Warshaw?” The pure arrogance and condescension this woman puts on full display every time she writes or speaks about what is best for diabetics to control their disease is sickening. And when you bring up the subject of low-carbohydrate nutrition for Type 2 diabetics to naturally controlling blood sugar and insulin levels with little to no drug therapy, the woman seems to lose all sense of rationality and civility. In fact, I’d dare say she’s downright clueless for being touted as a top “educator” on behalf of the principles promoted by the American Diabetes Association–the leading advocate for diabetes education in the United States. They ought to be ashamed of themselves for associating themselves with the reckless views this lady is espousing.

The social networking sites and blogosphere lit up like a Christmas tree last week when a top diabetes magazine published a column by Warshaw about the supposed “new realities” of living with Type 2 diabetes. It appeared in the June 28, 2011 issue of Diabetes Health and was titled Type 2 Diabetes: From Old Dogmas to New Realities – Part 2. In that column, Warshaw explained that we know more about treating and controlling Type 2 diabetes now than just a decade ago and that these “new realities” have replaced the “old dogmas” about how to best deal with this disease. She focused specifically on the “two most common old dogmas” and why she believes they’re no longer relevant. The first one was about losing weight to bring blood sugar down which she says has been trumped by the use of medications from the get-go for people with diabetes. As if that were bad enough, you’re not gonna believe what the second one was. Try not to bang your head against the wall too hard as you read this:

Old Dogma: People with type 2 diabetes should follow a low carbohydrate diet.

New Reality: Nutrition recommendations for people with type 2 diabetes from the American Diabetes Association and other health authorities echo the recently unveiled U.S. 2010 Dietary Guidelines (1/31/11) for carbohydrate: about 45 to 65 percent of calories. (Americans currently eat about 45 to 50 percent of calories as carbohydrate–not a “high carb” intake.)

Countless research studies do not show long term (greater than six months to a year) benefit of low carb diets on blood glucose, weight control, or blood fats. People with type 2 diabetes, like the general public, should lighten up on added sugars and sweets (yes, they’re carbohydrate). They should eat sufficient amounts of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low fat dairy foods–all healthy sources of carbohydrate.

Bottom line: The most important new reality for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes is: Take action as early as possible after diagnosis. Don’t delay, don’t deny. Get and keep your blood glucose, blood pressure, and blood cholesterol into recommended target zones.

Ummm, really Ms. Warshaw? Has it come to this now after all we’ve learned in the past decade from people like Dr. Richard Bernstein, Gary Taubes and others about what impacts blood sugar? To paraphrase a famous line from the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign, “It’s the carbs, stupid!” Anyone who thinks Type 2 diabetics should NOT be lowering their carbohydrate intake shows an obvious ignorance about the carb connection to blood sugar. Here are some cold hard facts and stark “realities” that Hope Warshaw needs to learn if she’s going to continue spouting information for people living with Type 2 diabetes:

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines is not based on science

A diet consisting of 45% or more carbohydrate IS a “high-carb diet”

Research from Gardner, Shai, Foster and others has proven low-carb

Low-carb diets effectively control blood sugars

Encouraging carb consumption for diabetics makes the disease worse

Sugary fruits, starchy veggies, and whole grains increase blood sugars

Any food that spikes blood sugar cannot be described as “healthy”

Low-fat dairy contains more lactose that will raise blood sugars

High-carb diets demand the use of more medications and insulin

Eating carbohydrates WILL raise blood glucose levels

Eating carbohydrates WILL require medication

Reducing medication should be a sign of improvement for diabetics

Diabetes is a metabolic disease that require a metabolic response

There is no biological need for carbohydrate, especially for diabetics

Glucose can be supplied to the body through gluconeogenesis

The diabetes epidemic has been made worse by the high-carb, low-fat diet

If the low-carb diet was a diabetes drug, it’d rake in billions annually

Of course, I honestly believe Hope Warshaw knows all of this and is simply saying what needs to be said so she can keep her cushy position as a bona fide diabetes “expert.” But the gig is almost up and there will be a heavy price to pay to her reputation as Type 2 diabetics realize they have been lied to. Perhaps Warshaw honestly believes in her heart of hearts that the answer to treating diabetes is indeed more and more medication. Yet it would seem to me that if there were a way to control blood sugar levels, lower A1c numbers, and get this disease under control WITHOUT medication, why wouldn’t you shout it from the rooftops and to everyone dealing with Type 2 diabetes? It’s rather conspicuous that Warshaw would describe a low-carb diet as “old dogma” and replace it with her “new reality” recommendation of more carbohydrates which will then require more medications to cover up. Am I missing something here? Cue the Twilight Zone music and Rod Serling.

Hope Warshaw has been at this nonsensical promotion of high-carb, low-fat approach for a while and is proud of it too. She is a big believer in the carbohydrate recommendations in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines while ignoring the countless success stories of Type 2 diabetics who have cut the carbs and experienced superior blood sugar control. Wanna good laugh at just how far off the deep end Warshaw has become? Check out this classic debate she had with the legendary low-carb physician and genuine diabetes expert Dr. Richard Bernstein in September 2006 on dLife:

http://youtu.be/3PZno7Nkuuw

As I stated earlier, the blogosphere has been going berserk over Warshaw’s column with so many people chiming in about how insane it is for a diabetes leader to be telling people with Type 2 diabetes to eat MORE carbohydrates while taking higher doses of medications to cover it up. Here are just a few examples of the passionate outrage that has been floating around out there:

- Laurie Cagnassola
- Fred Hahn
- Ramona Denton
- TuDiabetes
- Diabetes Forum
- Inner Carnivore
- Tom Naughton
- April Smith

Do you think comments like any of these shared in the columns above made it through the editorial desk at Diabetes Health? Actually not at all. Well, not publicly anyway. But they did get the comments and they heard them loud and clear in many “strongly worded” responses from people in the low-carb community according to Publisher/Editor-In-Chief/Founder of the magazine named Nadia Al-Samarrie. Rather than addressing the concerns raised by low-carbers who have controlled their diabetes through a healthy high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb diet, Al-Samarrie instead simply circled the wagons around Hope Warshaw in a snippy response article published today entitled “Righteous About a Diabetes Diet” where she defended Warshaw’s promotion of more carbohydrates for people with Type 2 diabetes. UGH! Ironically, she uses her defense and promotion of Dr. Bernstein and the late, great Dr. Robert C. Atkins two decades ago as proof they do not have a bias against low-carb nutrition for people with diabetes.

While that may be true that Diabetes Health defended low-carb previously, that was then and this is now. Al-Samarrie said they ran Warshaw’s column because “we believe that people could benefit from it.” Riddle me this Batman: How will Type 2 diabetics being told to consume more than half of their calories in the form of carbohydrates which will raise their blood glucose levels to the degree that they’ll need to take medications and insulin to bring them back down again actually “benefit” from this advice, Ms. Al-Samarrie? That doesn’t make any sense at all. While I agree there is no one-size-fits-all diet for most people trying to lose weight, diabetes is a whole different creature altogether. It is by very definition a disease of carbohydrate intolerance. Thus, low-carb diets don’t just become a simple choice in order to best control diabetes. They are an absolute necessity!

Rather than calming the firestorm that began when Warshaw published her original column last week, Al-Samarrie has instead just poured a big bucket of gasoline on it with this ridiculous response. It’s unfortunate she chose to take the tone she did to some genuinely serious concerns brought up by those of us who espouse carbohydrate-restricted nutrition for best controlling diabetes. Perhaps hearing from a few more of my readers who have had experience trying the Warshaw methodology of consuming more and more carbohydrates while taking medications only to see their disease get worse and worse can share with the Diabetes Health editorial staff how livin’ la vida low-carb has changed their lives forever by bringing their blood sugar numbers and A1c levels down, lowered or eliminated their need for diabetes medications and insulin, and gave them their life back. You can contact Nadia Al-Samarrie directly at editor@diabeteshealth.com or by leaving a comment at their Contact Us page. LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD! Feel free to post your feedback for Diabetes Health in the comments section below.

If you want to support an organization that actually cares about sharing the science supporting the use of carbohydrate-restriction for people with Type 2 diabetes, then you should consider becoming a member of The Nutrition & Metabolism Society (NMS) (check out the new and improved web site which I’ll be sharing more about with you soon). For a nominal donation as little as $10 for a Consumer Membership, you can help NMS combat this kind of conventional wisdom idiocy espoused by Diabetes Health by spreading what the real scientific evidence is showing about this remarkably healthy, delicious and nutritious way of eating. If we ever hope to take on the ADA and other low-carb antagonist groups, then we need to unite our voices behind organizations who will stand up for nutritional truths. That’s what NMS is all about. THANK YOU for your support!

Four Fabulous Real Life Low-Carb Health Stories To Encourage You

Jimmy Moore — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:34:39 +0000

Low-carb carb nutrition is the Rodney Dangerfield of the diet and health world in our society–it doesn’t get any respect! Despite the plethora of scientific studies that have been published over the past few years along with ample historical evidence of vitality and strength exhibited by our early human ancestors thousands of years ago who survived and thrived on an optimal high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb nutritional approach, the modern-day apologists for healthy living in 2011 still choose to ignore this wonderful way of eating that includes delicious and nutritious sources of quality foods like beef, butter, eggs, cheese, and green leafy veggies.

Of course, these low-fat, high-carb, (mostly) vegetarian advocates usually point to the saturated fat content of the foods allowed on the low-carb lifestyle as the primary reason for opposing it (out of ignorant fears that fat and cholesterol are somehow harmful to your health) followed closely by the assertion that your body needs carbohydrates to serve as fuel for you body (when any basic biochemistry student can tell you that the body truly NEEDS fat and protein but has absolutely ZERO dietary need for carbs). We live in very strange times these days and it can sometimes feel like there are two parallel universes as my sci-fi-loving wife Christine would say–one based on the reality that high-fat, low-carb is the diet humans were likely meant to be eating and one based on fantasy where good-minded people honestly believe nutrition focused on eliminating fat, greatly reducing calories, and making grain and starchy carbohydrate consumption the basis for the majority of calories consumed is viewed as somehow “normal.” At some point in the near future these two worlds will collide, merge to become one, and reality will bring everyone back to their senses again. One can only hope.

In the meantime, real people are living their low-carb lives in spite of the opposition they have heard about low-carb diets because after trying and failing for so long on everything else, this one just plain works for them. There’s nothing that will convince people who finally discover that the low-carb way of life is the diet that they’ve been looking for their entire lives to eat any other way. The agony of being forced to think you have to suffer through the hunger pangs that are associated with a low-fat diet are gone forever when you taste the freedom that comes from the nirvana I like to call livin’ la vida low-carb. And while I began eating this way as a means for helping me lose a substantial amount of weight off of my 410-pound body in 2004, the massive improvement I experienced in my own health convinced me that this diet was so much more than a way to shed the fat off my body–it quite literally restored my health and undoubtedly saved my life!

This convenient fact about restricting carbohydrates and consuming fat for fuel is oftentimes ignored by the media reporting on low-carb diets and is never given credence by any of the “experts” who claim to know what they’re talking about regarding health and nutrition. They instead choose to stick with their template that low-carb diets are a “dangerous fad” that “eliminates all carbohydrates” from your diet. But the truth is we’re talking about eating real food that’s loaded with nutrients that can be used by the body to transform it from the inside out. Regardless of what happens to a person’s body weight, the metabolic changes that take place when carbohydrates are controlled in their diet is a sight to behold. I’ve seen so many examples of this over the years, including unbelievable improvements in my own key health markers.

Today I have four fabulous real life low-carb health stories I’ve received directly from my readers who wanted to encourage you with the changes they have seen in their own health as a result of making simple yet effective changes in their diet. Some people may say that these stories are merely anecdotal and have no bearing on how other people should be eating–but I disagree. Like me, these are people who have been frustrated by the lack of proposed solutions to their weight and health woes proposed by medical and nutritional professionals who thought they were helping.

The advice provide by these well-meaning experts, unfortunately, is based on archaic axioms about what healthy nutrition looks like. That’s why more and more people are turning to the Internet and other alternative sources of information to discover the truth for themselves so they can make the necessary changes in their lifestyle before it’s too late. Let these examples of changed lives inspire you as you continue following your own low-carb journey to better health for many more years to come!

A diabetic reader reverses fatty liver, greatly improves lipids eating very low-carb:

Hi Jimmy,

I wrote to you a couple months ago asking if you’ve read much about whether dietary fat can aggravate fatty liver disease. You wrote back and said everything you’ve read indicates that carbs cause/contribute to fatty liver. I hope this doesn’t bore you too much, but I thought I’d share what happened since:

In mid-December, I had some lab work done and the results were not good:

AST = 78
ALT = 189
Total Cholesterol = 281
HDL = 39

Because my Triglycerides were 444, they couldn’t measure LDL. An ultrasound confirmed fatty liver. I, of course, panicked and made a number of changes. I started eating a very low-carb diet, pretty close to orthodox-Paleo (with the exception of heavy cream, which I sometimes drink a cup per day or more to satisfy a life-long love of dairy); of course gluten-free and sweetener-free.

I cook with only lard, grass-fed butter, grass-fed ghee, and virgin, unprocessed coconut oil – the latter of which I also use as a snack, taking a couple tablespoons per day to satisfy a hunger pang. I eat a lot of beef but switched to grass-fed; I also eat lamb and pastured pork. I quit drinking (though ASL/ALT ratio would indicate NAFLD.) I also started a heavy regime of resistance training 3 times per week. I don’t count calories, though I’m sure I eat fewer of them.

I should mention I was also diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes six months ago and my A1c in December was 8.5. My doctor put me on the maximum possible dose of Metformin and 10mg of Glucotrol before that A1c was taken. As you can tell it did little good. He said it wasn’t working and that I’d probably end up on insulin.

I had lab work done again recently and the results are astonishing:

AST = 22
ALT = 45
Total Cholesterol = 248
HDL = 45
LDL = 179 (at least they could measure it this time!)
Triglycerides = 119

My doc says that without another ultrasound there is no way to confirm 100% that my fatty liver is gone, but those numbers are such solid evidence that there’s no reason to do another ultrasound. I quit my Metformin and cut my Glucotrol in half. My A1c is now 6.3 and my home tests indicate that once a little more time goes by it should be in the mid-5s. My home blood glucose readings continue to drop. If this trend continues I hope to be drug-free in a few more months.

My doctor, of course, took credit for the American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association diet he’d put me on. When I told him I did precisely the opposite of what the ADA and AHA say to do, he argued with me and told me my numbers will turn on me and get worse. So much for letting the results speak for themselves. He also predictably insisted I go on a statin drug, which really annoyed me. My cholesterol is down 33 points in 10 weeks and I just don’t worry much about cholesterol anyway. I’m more impressed with the change in triglycerides and liver panels. He also discounted the health affects of the 28 pounds and 4 inches off my waist I’d lost. Unbelievable. No way am I going on a statin–at least not for those numbers.

A low-carb doctor improves cholesterol ratios for his patient with dyslipidemia:

I previously told you about a patient who lost 40 pounds over the past year and I recently sent out his blood work for particle size testing.

March 2011
40-pound weight loss
Total Cholesterol = 317
LDL = 200
Total HDL = 92
Ratio TC/HDL = 3.45
Triglycerides = 84

January 2010
Total Cholesterol = 192
LDL = 106
HDL = 41
Ratio TC/HDL = 4.7
Triglycerides = 226

This is an extreme example of eating low-carb because his total cholesterol and LDL were much lower before the weight loss of 40 pounds–but the ratio was higher! The point is how to treat this and improve his health? When I met him last year he was already on Simvistatin 40mg/day.

In the old school the doctor would be upset and place the patient on statins and get the LDL down to below 100 because the patient has diabetes. And the doctor would have never been able to get this patient to lose 40 pounds anyway. He would say that the HDL is better but would only focus on the high LDL!

Again we stopped two diabetes medications and one blood pressure medication because of the weight loss attributed to his low-carb eating. I conclude that today his cholesterol profile is much better than it was last year. His ratios look much better now and the particle size is the healthy Pattern A (large, fluffy kind).

A wine-loving reader rejects suggested statin therapy after lipid numbers improve:

I’m sure you don’t remember this as it was so long ago and you communicate with so many people but I frequently forward this exchange to friends of mine when they question me about my health and my low-carb eating plan. I’m still, believe it or not (I don’t) at 208 pounds and that’s with adding water aerobics and weight training and more consistent walking of my dog in the past few months. Regardless, I follow low-carb with more of a Paleo slant to it these days and I’m 90% compliant (although I’m a wino and love my vino)! I’m sure I could probably lose the weight if I just gave up my wine. I’m hoping to increase the weight training and dial in on that so that I can still enjoy my wine and still lose weight and improve my numbers.

I just had blood work done for the first time since this test as best I can remember. Anyways, even with the wine issue the improvements are impressive:

Total Cholesterol = 270
LDL = 180
HDL = 74
Triglycerides = 80
HB1AC = 5.4
Thyroid = 3.03
Liver = Normal

Results were over the phone today so I’ve yet to look at the full test yet.

Of course, my doctor wants to put me on a statin drug but I told the nurse that I want to continue on low-carb given the impressive results (and I told her to pull my last blood test to compare) and that I’d be back in 3 months for another update. I explained to her about the lack of evidence that statins really help and that we don’t know which kind of LDL particles that I have. She had no knowledge what I was talking about regarding the different kinds of LDL–can you believe that???

My doctors are great and they work with me, listen to me and have even advised me on some things regarding low-carb so I’m not sure where the breakdown is unless they are just really clueless when it comes to cholesterol–but I plan to change that! I’ll be printing out information and, perhaps, if I can swing it, buying a copy of Gary Taubes’ Good Calories Bad Calories for them. Anyway, I’m pretty tickled and wanted to share this incredible change with you–mostly because it’s THANKS TO YOU!!

In case you don’t want to look all the way back, here’s what my numbers were in 2009:

Total Cholesterol = 322
LDL = 212
HDL = 53
Triglycerides = 285

Feel free to share this if you want. I’m just so happy to be moving in the right direction health-wise, even if my weight isn’t showing it just yet.

A low-carb Paleo reader sheds 80 pounds and is getting his health back in order:

I got my lipid profile results yesterday and wanted to share them with someone who I figured would care. After just 8 months of low-carb/Paleo and 80 pounds gone…

Total Cholesterol = 165
LDL = 106
HDL = 39
Triglycerides = 45
VLDL = 9
A1c = 5.1

My fasting glucose was 89 which was a bit higher that I would’ve liked. The lab didn’t get the order for my A1c, so they didn’t do one. Although I’m not technically diabetic, it was questionable as to if insurance would pay for that test. I’ll likely run it on my own using a home test.

These are all real people who are living the low-carb life and sharing some incredible stories of change that have been happening to their weight and health. Do you have a low-carb success story you’d like to share with my readers? I’d love to hear about it and possibly feature you in a future blog post. Send me the details about your low-carb health and weight transformation to livinlowcarbman@charter.net anytime. Your identity will be kept anonymous unless you grant me permission to publish your name and it would be my privilege to share YOUR story as a way to encourage your fellow “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” readers. Hold your head high, my friends, because low-carb is STILL changing the lives every single day!

Whole Foods Offers Customers ‘Customized Nutrition Plan’ Pushing A Vegan Agenda

Jimmy Moore — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:10:11 +0000

Last February, I shared with you about a decision made by the executives of the world’s largest health food supermarket chain Whole Foods beginning to aggressively promote a low-fat, vegetarian diet with their “Health Starts Here” campaign. Interestingly, they’re not trying to hide what they are doing either as you can see on this page of their web site outlining their “Four Pillars Of Health Eating” with the call for customers to become “Plant-Strong” by making vegetables the centerpiece of their diet. Their list of 10 Easy Steps To Make A Fresh Start heavily promotes salads, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, and “smaller portions” of lean meats while eschewing refined, processed foods. They even have an in-store “Healthy Eating Specialist” whose job is to work at an in-store kiosk/desk to be there to answer questions from customers about health and healthy eating as well as giving lectures on health and nutrition in the local community–all the while pushing the vegan lifestyle. All of this may sound pretty good to the average Whole Foods customer who tends to be more health-conscious than those people who shop at a traditional grocery store. But they are laying a trap for their customers who may not be as nutritionally savvy about what a healthy diet can actually look like. And it’s really a whole lot worse than we ever thought.

Last week when I blogged about the new vegan propaganda movie called Forks Over Knives coming in May, I received well over 100 comments mostly from vegans who wanted to defend their chosen nutritional plan although I didn’t really criticize it or the film in my post. But “Jill in Chicago” wanted to defend Whole Foods and their “Healthy Eating Specialist” position against being characterized as vegan-promoting. Here’s what she wrote:

The focus of Whole Foods’ Health Starts Here program is not to eat a vegan diet, but to eat whole, unprocessed foods. I am currently in the midst of a Health Starts Here 28-Day Health Challenge, and the Healthy Eating Specialist who is assisting the group does not discourage meat and dairy consumption. The idea is to eat less of them.

That’s all well and good and I certainly wish Jill the best as she pursues her own weight and health goals with whatever diet she is choosing to follow. To me it’s all about finding the plan that will work for you, following it exactly, and then continuing to do that for the rest of your life. But what about those people who don’t know which plan is right for them? Is there a way to get a customized nutrition plan that will help them determine what their diet should look like? Whole Foods seems to think so through their partnership with Eat Right America doing direct marketing with the customers of their stores encouraging them to take a survey to see how to eat optimally for your health. What Whole Foods customer wouldn’t be interested in something like that? One of my readers forwarded an e-mail she received from a friend of hers who wanted to pass along this “amazing offer” from Whole Foods giving away “FREE customized nutrition plans to get you started or keep you motivated on your health journey.”

Gee, how nice is that? All you gotta do is go to the “Eat Right America Challenge” web site, enter or obtain an access code, fill out a survey about your eating, exercise and lifestyle habits as well as you health and they’ll spit you out the perfect diet just for you, including a personalized 28-day nutrition and eating plan that they say “really is a great resource…to Whole Foods Market customers.” They encourage people who take this survey to come back in to visit Whole Foods after you receive your diet plan to consult with the “Health Starts Here” station to speak with the “Healthy Eating Specialist” about learning more about “your path to a healthier life.” Don’t you just love how syrupy sweet and innocent they make this all sound? It’s a lot more dastardly than these unsuspecting Whole Foods customers even know!

So what’s the real deal here? I wanted to find out and share this with you so your friends, family and co-workers don’t get suckered into thinking this is a legitimate way to know which diet is right for them (if you want to have a REAL test done to determine the correct nutritional makeup of your diet for you based on how your body metabolizes food and nutrients, then you might consider getting the FitTest done from GetYourHealthTested.com). Maybe what they conclude about the kind of diet you should be eating is right for you…maybe not. But this survey is not based on anything scientific methodology regarding your specific situation. It’s deliberately meant to mislead you into thinking what you are currently doing is causing harm to your health and that there is only one solution to preventing your health from getting worse than it is. As you can imagine, the basis for the questions asked in this survey heavily leans on conventional wisdom about the relationship of consuming animal-based fats and proteins to developing heart disease, obesity, cancer, diabetes and other chronic diseases and the supposed virtues of consuming plant-based foods as a way to obtain optimal health. Let’s take a look at what it was like for me to take this survey for myself plugging in information about my diet and lifestyle.

I began by visiting the Challenge web site where they welcomed and congratulated me for taking “the first step toward a healthier more nutritious lifestyle” through my own “Personal Nutrition Report”:

The survey started off by asking me some basic demographic information about who I am in a “detailed assessment designed to accurately predict your health future.” Eat Right America is described as “a cause, a passionate desire to enable America’s families to live a life of ‘true’ health.” They do this by promising the results of their survey will give you a “personally-designed, nutrition prescription, that can dramatically extend your life expectancy and lower your risk of life-threatening diseases.” Wow, sounds like they’ve found the Fountain Of Youth miracle cure-all for all of life’s health woes. We shall see. They then asked questions about the current state of my health and what my typical diet looks like:

Two things stood out to me about the diet portion of the survey–they put eggs in with white meat and there was no designation for “grass-fed” or “pastured” foods. So any red meat consumption listed on the survey could be grain-fed or grass-fed. It obviously didn’t matter to them whether you consumed higher-quality meats or not (an it’s only gonna get even worse in a moment, though). I made it through the 15-minute survey so I could receive my own “Nutrition Prescription customized for Jimmy Moore”–they made it just for me (yeah right!):

You get a form letter from Dr. Scott Stoll who is a member of the Whole Foods Medical Board who explains that the “solution we have created for you is easy to understand, simple and fun for you and your family to adopt, and represents a proven methodology that is guaranteed to deliver the results you desire.” WOW! What in the world could this miracle of all miracles be that will end my weight and health struggles forever? They then explain about what the “Nutrition Prescription” is all about discussing the implementation of the “Nutritarian Lifestyle” from vegan physician Dr. Joel Fuhrman juxtaposed with the typical Standard American Diet and why this new way to eat is allegedly better for you. They even show you a graph of what your current diet looks like compared with SAD:

I think it’s interesting they lump meat and dairy together in the same category and apparently list foods like bacon in the “Processed Foods” section. Do you think they put things like tofu and skim milk in with the “Processed Foods” when they are both OBVIOUSLY highly-processed? I wouldn’t bet the house on it. Continuing through my personal assessment, the news only got worse. I was chastised for consuming too much red meat, animal products, and full-fat dairy while eschewing whole grains and more vegetables. They point to my diet as the reason why my health is at great risk for disease:

For several pages, I receive a lecture on why my cholesterol is too high which puts me at risk for a heart attack (I’ve previously explained in this post that cholesterol testing is a lot more sophisticated these days than ever before and that measuring particle size is much more relevant than LDL or total cholesterol). They claim my LDL (explained as “the most accurate determinant of risk” of coronary artery disease) should be below 80 mg/dl to “maximize reversal” of heart disease, but there was nary a mention of HDL “good” cholesterol in the equation. Additionally, they use the body mass index (BMI) to determine the obesity of an individual stating that it “is a fairly reliable indicator of body fat for most people.” The say my BMI at 251 pounds on my 6’3″ body frame puts me at a “significantly increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.” Oh, now isn’t that nice? They’ve got a rude awakening coming when none of this actually happens to me as they’re trying scaremonger these poor Whole Foods customers into thinking they have to eat a vegan diet. Oh yes, that sticky little detail is coming up soon. But first they need to continue to put the fear of God in me about my current health before they swoop in to the rescue with their miracle plan to save me:

They say I’m at a “very high risk” of sudden cardiac death if I don’t “take action immediately” despite the fact that my heart scan score in 2009 showed zero calcium buildup in my arteries. My risk of stroke is also “very high” because they think blood clots will happen because of my diet. And with a fasting blood glucose score of 83, they still put me at “significant risk” for getting diabetes because I’m not eating and exercising the way they think I should be. They weren’t finished yet piling on more warnings about what my current diet is doing to my risks for developing cancer and osteoporosis (this is actually starting to get funny if they weren’t so serious about it):

So I’m at “high risk” for developing cancer because of my eating and fitness choices and they will help me “identify those choices” that will be better for me. HA! Then with my bone health, it’s the same song and dance. What I’m doing right now ain’t good enough–but there’s something better that we think (hope and pray to God) you’ll like…or something like that. What exactly are the culprits in my devastatingly, hanging-by-a-thread health right now? Let’s take a look:

My full-fat dairy loving, caffeinated tea guzzling, saturated fat-laden meat eating, and salted food consumption is what they think is killing me. Gee, if these are all of the problems with my diet right now, then why am I in the best health of my entire life? Why do I feel so good if I’m just one bunless bacon cheeseburger away from saying so long to this world? And how did eating so “unhealthy” bring my weight down by triple digits, get me off of three prescription medications for good, and have me doing things I would have never thought possible just a few years back? I, of course, know better and have all the confidence in the world about my healthy low-carb lifestyle. But what about those people who take this survey and believe it’s the gospel truth? They read this and think, “Oh my God, what can I do to stop this devastation from happening to me?” Enter the Eat Right America eating plan:

They try to convince you this is a good thing by stating at the top of the page that this is all about “Nutrition Excellence & Health” and then proceed to explain what they mean by that. To become a “Nutritarian,” all you have to do is eat lots of fruits and vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds, cut down on your animal-based food consumption opting for “healthier options in this food group” (hmmm, lemme guess–ones that are lower in saturated fat?) and eat much less of foods that are “empty of nutrients or toxic” like refined sugars, white flour, processed foods and fast food. On the final point, I think we can agree, but Dr. Fuhrman is hung up on meat being such an unhealthy part of any diet plan. He sees meat in the same vein as low-carbers look at high-fructose corn syrup. It must be avoided as much as possible except for maybe the once-in-a-while “treat.” That’s nothing more than utter nonsense and ignorance. What exactly does the Nutritarian Food Pyramid look like? Check it out for yourself:

What a bassackwards food pyramid this is! Equating eggs and meat with processed foods and sweets is being intellectually dishonest. Sure, those non-starchy vegetables are an excellent addition to any diet (including a low-carb one), but why the damnation of foods that are equal in their nutrient density to veggies such as red meat, fish, eggs, oils, and the like? There’s no explanation for this other than the insinuation that consuming these foods that contain saturated fat will lead to serious health consequences down the road. But there is no evidence supporting such a claim. Even still, here comes the kicker–”My Personalized Eating Plan” according to the great purveyors of nutritional truth and wisdom at Whole Foods:

And THERE IT IS! All of this nonsense about how horrible my health is, what the dietary “cause” of my health decline is, what a good diet should look like and all the rest was nothing more than a setup for this moment. The diet they are recommending that I begin eating immediately to overturn the issues associated with my “poor” diet is one that is 96% plants, 3% meat and dairy, and 2% processed foods/snacks. REALLY?!

While technically this isn’t a vegan diet because there are very small amounts of meat allowed on this plan, it might as well be. Meat isn’t a condiment to me–it’s the lifeblood of a healthy low-carb lifestyle change that has given me vibrant health like nothing else I’ve ever done before. I don’t need to consume 96% of my calories from plant sources which includes high-carb whole grains, beans, fruits and all the rest. I’m doing just fine livin’ la vida low-carb. Can I tell you how much this angers me that they would try to pull something so incredibly deceiving to people who will likely buy into it hook, line and sinker? This is disgusting because there is no education about the wonderful nutrients contained in meats or the health consequences for some people who consume carbohydrate-rich foods. That to me is ethically wrong to deliberately withhold information from the consumer that could help them make the most informed decision about their health.

They require a 28-day pledge to doing the following: eating at least one large salad, at least a half-cup of beans/legumes, at least three fresh fruits, at least one ounce of raw nuts/seeds, and at least one large double-sized serving of steamed green vegetables on a daily basis while avoiding the “most harmful food habits” that include eating barbequed, processed meats or commercial red meat, fried foods, full-fat dairy like cheese and butter, soft drinks of all kinds both diet and sugary, and white flour. It sure sounds a whole lot like a vegan diet to me with all of those restrictions on what can be consumed on this diet. They also say to chunk any foods that contain over 200mg sodium per serving and to use a blender to liquify your vegetables to drink. Oh, but they help you come off of your “meat habit” (as Dr. Neal Barnard described it in my podcast interview with him last year) beginning in Day 8 of this 28-Day plan:

Isn’t it interesting how they took great pains to explain that this meal plan isn’t vegan, but then pushed the need to “reduce your intake of animal foods” from your diet? If meat is part of being a “Nutritarian” as they claim, then what’s this concept of “your desire for animal foods (will) diminish over time?” Meat is most certainly NOT a condiment in a healthy diet no matter what Dr. Fuhrman and his lackeys at Whole Foods wants you to believe. Meat is where the REAL nutrition is found and you’re depriving your body of some incredible health benefits by trying to eliminate it from your diet completely. Just ask Lierre Keith or Denise Minger.

By Day 15, they encourage you to “change the focus of your meal from meat to vegetables” and they assure you will get plenty of protein by consuming greens, beans, nuts and seeds. The gradual move to eating “less meat” is in full force by week three of the plan and it reaches the climax by the time you enter the final week of the 28-Day Challenge when “you are eating much less animal foods,” oils, milk/dairy products, sugar, coffee/tea and caffeine, and a whole lot more veggies, fruit, beans, nuts and seeds. Lest you think none of this survey really has anything at all to do with Whole Foods, then you would be sorely mistaken:

Yes, you too can become a “Nutritarian” nerd by hopping in your car and driving to your nearest Whole Fools…Whole Paycheck…er, I mean Whole Foods Market to pick up these books, CDs and DVDs to provide you more vegan-based propaganda to fool you into thinking this is the best option for your health. This partnership Whole Foods has made with the vegan diet is intentional and should ostracize any customer who chooses to eat an animal-based diet. That includes virtually every Paleo and low-carb dieter on the planet. If you ask me, a company that is THIS invested in promoting a dietary agenda like this doesn’t deserve the support of people who disagree with it. They’ve drawn a line in the sand and dug in their heels on trying to make this “Nutritarian” diet the ONLY way for Whole Foods customers to get healthy. We should vote with our dollars about what we think about this and send Whole Foods executives a clear message: YOU’RE NOT PUSHING A VEGAN AGENDA DOWN OUR THROATS!