Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Dr. Michael Dansinger on Weight Loss and Diabetes

I recently listened to an interview Jimmy Moore did with Dr. Michael Dansinger available HERE    My reason for sharing this here is that Dansinger makes a point of discussing how the big secret to weight loss is ..... drumroll please ..... achieving a calorie deficit!!!   In my opinion, it will be through the likes of Dr. Dansinger that low carbohydrate approaches take their rightful place among the mainstream approaches for weight loss, healthy living and disease management.  No gimmicks.  No wild claims.  Just the facts ma'am.  And a plug for compliance/consistency being the real key in the end.

For those who don't recognize the name, Dansinger is the lead author on probably the first famous diet comparison study to compare a real LC diet with other approaches:  Comparison of the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone Diets for Weight Loss and Heart Disease Risk Reduction.  While the results were mostly a wash, this study demonstrated that LC performed similarly to other approaches for CVD markers, misperceptions being something that plagues LC diets to this day.   

Since then, Dansinger has been tapped to head up the Diabetes Community over at WebMD.  He is also a consultant on The Biggest Loser.  He discusses REVERSING diabetes on his WebMD blog and in that podcast.  I like this and don't get hung up on his semantics:  using remission v. cure.  It's a cautionary use of the word that is appropriate:  return to former habits, diabetes comes back, the underlying genetics, propensity towards metabolic disturbances and perhaps damage remain.   

Apparently many on TBL employ a low fat version of Atkins.  I swear I heard Jimmy Moore gasp in that interview at that!!  But here is a mainstream doctor with a lot of cred saying this and treating people with this approach with considerable success.  He also discusses using moderate low carb (80g range) in treating diabetes, doesn't shun fruits, etc.

Kudos Doc!

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