There are a lot of people who work tirelessly behind-the-scenes to promote the science supporting a high-fat, moderate protein, carbohydrate-restricted nutritional approach to improve health that has been virtually ignored by much of the mainstream health media (although I do sense this is changing a bit in the past year). While people like Dr. Oz seem to attract most of the attention of the modern American culture regarding health, there are other voices of reason and truth that deserve a chance to be heard loud and clear on the subject of diet and nutrition. One such person who fits the bill is Dr. Richard Feinman, Professor of Biochemistry at Downstate Medical Center (SUNY) in New York. He is also the Founder of The Nutrition & Metabolism Society (NMS) dedicated to pushing “the therapeutic potential of low-carbohydrate diets for the treatment of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease” because they believe it “is under-investigated and under-utilized.”
Dr. Feinman is a great friend of what we do here at “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” because he is passionate for sharing nutritional truths instead of the same old dietary dogmas that pervade American thinking regarding the role of diet in health–especially for people with Type 2 diabetes. You can catch a glimpse of what I’m talking about in this May 8, 2010 lecture from Dr. Feinman sharing about the current state of low-carb diets that is quite revealing. And don’t miss Part 1 and Part 2 of my May 2008 podcast interview with one of the great thinkers in the low-carb research community. Dr. Feinman has a unique knack for bringing about action without the need for unnecessary and ineffective antics. For example, when Diabetes Health recently published a controversial and inflammatory anti-low-carb column by an American Diabetes Association apologist named Hope Warshaw (to which the low-carb community rightfully responded quite vehemently in opposition to), he simply wrote a letter to the editor requesting a panel discussion debating the merits of low-carb diets for diabetes–and she “loved the idea” and is pursuing it to become a reality in the coming months. That’s the power of one person willing to stand up and be counted and Dr. Richard Feinman deserves to be lauded for the role he is playing to keep the conversation progressing.
To that end, I wanted to publicly thank Dr. Feinman for all of the great work he is doing. Since today is his birthday, I thought it would be a nice gesture if the members of the low-carb community would show their appreciation to him by making a contribution and becoming a member of NMS for as little as $10. They are a 501(c)3 nonprofit health organization and rely on the generosity of their members to keep their work of “providing research, information and education in the application of fundamental science to nutrition” going for many more years to come. I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the countless hours of work that Dr. Feinman has invested into making low-carb science accessible to both the medical professional and the layperson alike. He is one of the good guys in this ongoing conversation about the current state of health in the world today and I sincerely hope you can stand with him as a member of The Nutrition & Metabolism Society.
By the way, have you visited the new and improved web site for NMS yet? THANKS to many long late-night hours of design work and writing put in by Ellen Davis at “Healthy Eating Politics” over the past month, the NMS web site now looks amazing to all who visit looking for information about low-carb science, diabetes, obesity, dietary fat, cholesterol and so much more! It’s so user-friendly now that people will WANT to visit again and again to keep educating themselves about this incredible way of eating. Special thanks also goes to Jeff Marek for creating the original web site for NMS and maintaining it for the past three years on a volunteer basis. Please remember Jeff in your thoughts and prayers right now as he recovers from a recent illness. Others to thank include Amy Dungan from the “Healthy Low Carb Living” blog for her fundraising efforts and other contributing work, John Slough who had the unenviable task of updating the research sections of the web site which will include a comprehensive research library with the plethora of studies on low-carb diets for weight loss and diabetes (ETA for completion of this project is late 2011), and all the bloggers who have promoted the work of The Nutrition & Metabolism Society.
Working together as a community united by a common theme of helping people find and discover the truth about livin’ la vida low-carb is what makes us stronger than ever before. As the science continues to validate the principles of high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb living in the coming years, it is incumbent upon us all to stand firm against the low-fat lunacy that dominates our society and to help give people the very best information so they can make an informed decision about what to do about their weight and health. That’s the mission of The Nutrition & Metabolism Society and it should be the mission of anyone whose life has been changed forever because of the healthy low-carb lifestyle. Won’t you sign up for a Consumer Membership for $10 today? Thank you so much for your support of this great organization that has done so much for the low-carb cause.
