Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Quick Survey -- For the UK folks, and others

Hi!

Quick survey ... mostly for the UK folks but if you live in the US, Australia, Canada, etc. where some version of our American My Plate/Food Pyramid is recommended you can participate too (just identify please ;-) )

Your government counsels limiting fats in general and saturated fats in particular.  Can you list 3-5 foods that you would limit in order to limit sat fats?  In other words, what foods does your government suggest be limited in order to lower sat fat consumption.

Thanks!

Monday, December 16, 2013

Nutrient Fates after Absorption

Random Bump

This held the top spot in terms of readership here at the Asylum for quite some time.  Always worthy of a bump.


Original post:  7/15/10

Nutrient effects: post-absorptive interactions BY ERIC JEQUIER   (1995)
After a meal, the metabolic fuel selection at the whole-body level depends on the plasma concentrations of nutrients such as glucose, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) , amino acids, and on hormonal responses. Over the last 10 years, there has been great interest in studying the metabolic effects following the ingestion or the intravenous (i.v.) infusion of the three macronutrients, carbohydrate (CHO), fat, and protein (or amino acids for i.v. infusion). The aim of the present brief review  {I'm thinking it's not so brief!}  is to summarize the main mechanisms which determine the post-absorptive interactions between the nutrients.
This is an older paper, but still recent enough to provide some good info on the basics.  I'm going to do something a bit different with this one and I otherwise would be quoting huge chunks.  So I'll do bullet point summaries with select summary quotes from the paper in italics.

Read more »

Saturday, December 14, 2013

The NBA and Dr. Cate ... Who knew? I'm a Paleo Low Carber!!

I have decided to adopt the paleo template.  As anyone who reads this blog knows, just about any diet that doesn't involve dining with Marie (Callender), Debbie (comma Little), Ronald (McDonald) and Wendy can and will be *fit* into the paleo template!  Let's see there's:
  • WAPF:  Eh, nevermind the sprouted grains and dairy of all manner, we're all on the same team.
  • Vegan:  Well ... it is real food.  We can always try to convert them.
  • Atkins:  What's a Quest Bar between friends?  Swap the Splenda for Stevia and we've got a deal.
  • Zone:  The cause of every eating disorder including potentially Evander Holyfield according to the paleorati, but Sears cites Eaton so there's that.
  • Mediterranean:  Well that's just really paleo low carb right?
  • The Tequila Diet:  It IS paleo.  STFU!
  • Perfect Health Diet:  Grok sooooo ate white rice and coconut oil!
  • Carb Nite?:  Shhhhhhh he didn't really mean to front load junk food during your back loading.  
  • Gluten Free?:  Well that's paleo
  • Sugar Free?:  Well that's paleo
  • Wheat Belly?:  He's not paleo but he's still recovering from Grain Brain
Read more »

Friday, December 13, 2013

The NEAT part about Moving More

Random Bump!



Original publish date:  4/21/12

In writing up a post on metabolic rate and weight loss, I couldn't help but come across a ton of stuff I had in my draft bin and hard drive vis a vis exercise, lean body mass and metabolic rate.  This got me thinking about the usefulness of ELMM = Eat Less Move More as a strategy to flip the CICO balance along with other things we can do.  

Read more »

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

If your guru's ideas have an expiration date, maybe it's time to find one whose ideas have a longer shelf life.

Have you just stumbled upon an old book, blog post, interview, etc. from your favorite guru only to have someone exclaim how old that is and how your guru's opinions have changed?  It might be time for a new guru.

Quick background here.  First, no I haven't dropped the Paleo ApprovED issue, but there are some things related and lots of stuff unrelated going on that have eaten up time and energy to blog on the subject.  It is a sensitive issue and needs more "care" than your run of the mill blogging.  It is also rather stressful and defeats one of the purposes of this blog as an outlet for my sarcastic side -- for which a post such as this is perfectamundo!    So that said, as I was looking for a post on Robb Wolf's blog (this one) my search also popped up the following post:

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Monday, December 9, 2013

Twenty tips for interpreting scientific claims

It's not often I share journal articles without comment here anymore, but I just wanted to share this with my readers.

Twenty tips for interpreting scientific claims  from Nature.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

A hypothetical.

I don't often appeal to emotion here.  I'm not sure this hypothetical technically qualifies as such but here goes anyway.

The Hypothetical:


Imagine if you will your daughter or sister ... feel free to substitute any young woman ever, that you have been close to and cared for in what one might describe as a protective way.   She's off to college soon.  You worry that if she gets in trouble, and struggles a bit, that she'll have a good support system so far away from home, friends and family.  No matter how strong those bonds, you recognize that at that age, some may even disregard those closest to them from "their past".  Also, you recognize that at that age, being out from under a parent's ever watchful eye, they may act out of a little rebellion.

Read more »

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

DIets and Disorders

This is going to be a quick post.  Nothing groundbreaking here, but there are some I-don't-care-what-the-Latin-phrase-is debate tactics that creep into too many of the discussions on eating disorders from all sides.   One such tactic is to accuse me, and others, of blaming the paleo diet or saying it causes eating disorders.  I didn't do that.  

A scenario:

You look in the mirror one day and don't like what you see.  Where did this gut come from?  Step on the scale, 10 lbs since a year ago!  Yikes!!  New Year's Resolution:  Lose 10 lbs.    The approach you choose is a standard one:  Establish a calorie deficit of 500-1000 cal/day , mostly calorie counting but adding a 40 min-1 hr walk 5 days a week.  Before you know it the pants are less snug, the belt tightened not just one but two notches.  Feeling good ... looking good!  Goal reached.  Hey, maybe I'll look and feel even better if I lose 5 more pounds!  Step on scale after a week.  No loss.  Another week.  No loss.  Still one more week.  No loss.   
Read more »

Saturday, November 30, 2013

The War on Moderation

It hasn't been that long, but a timely bump ...

While I have your attention, the Hartwigs have a seriously warped view about food.  You see, when someone creates a product they can sell on their site by dubbing it Whole30 Approved, the usual rules go out the window.
In addition, no Paleo-ifying dessert or junk food choices. Trying to shove your old, unhealthy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold will ruin your program faster than you can say, “Paleo pizza.”  This means no desserts or junk food made with “approved” ingredients—no coconut-flour pancakes, almond-flour muffins, flourless brownies, or coconut milk ice cream. Don’t try to replicate junk food during your 30 days! That misses the point of the Whole30 entirely.
Unless we can make money selling it as W30 compliant.  Boggles the mind.



Original Publish Date:  8/14/13

Recently in a Facebook Ad, the Whole9/Whole30 couple, Dallas and Melissa Hartwig, linked to the following post:  PLEASE STOP SAYING EVERYTHING IN MODERATION (all caps preserved).  Because of a ton of information and thoughts on this topic and recent Facebook posts from Melissa, I read that piece and just couldn't help but comment.  
NO food can possibly be as unhealthy as perpetuating this EATING DISORDER. This article reads like some sick mix of pro-ana and religious cult.
Reading that on Beth/Weight Maven's blog , I must admit it sounds rather hyperbolic.  So I'd like to flesh out the context.  For starters, the Whole30 is a program of 30 days of uber strict "clean paleo" eating:  no grains, legumes, dairy, sugar/sweeteners.  They wrote a book about it, It Starts With Food (which I personally can't recommend more strongly against).  In Chapter 1 [Kindle locations 151-154]  of that book they write:
Read more »

Friday, November 29, 2013

Gary Taubes' Diet Doctor

Since it's the day after turkey day ...
And since I thought I'd lighten up the mood a bit ...

Flashback!  Remember when Gary Taubes had his cholesterol test done by a quack diet doc?!    Enjoy!!

Turns out now he's selling alpha-keto glutarate anti-binge packs.  Very interesting the company some keep ...

Read more »

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope all of my readers have a wonderful day today.   I'm uncharacteristically not too busy, as I am not hosting for a rare change.  But I have stumbled upon a bit of bad timing with my last post.  It requires followup and that will be forthcoming sometime this weekend.  But not today.  

Enjoy your self.  Enjoy your family, your friends, your pets, whatever.  The only thing I plan to do today regarding food is to make sure my stuffed mushrooms and shrimp-deviled eggs are perfectly delish, and that I leave room for my sister's amazing, once-a-year-at-T'giving, pecan pie.  I hope you will do similar whatever and whomever you are.

Be HAPPY.  Be THANKFUL!

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Paleo™ ApprovED ... Enough.

11/29:  Another minor update.  There has been a ton of feedback both here and on Facebook and I'm personally quite touched that the overwhelming response has been positive.  These subjects are never easy to broach.  I will be posting an update as I have had many questions as to why I removed the picture that I did and inserted my sarcastic graphic in its place.  That too is a serious and extremely tenuous/touchy issue to address, but it really needs to be as it goes to the heart of this issue.  

In any case, just so everyone is aware, yesterday the MDA post was updated as follows:


This response is disheartening to say the least.  I think that most would agree that most if not all comments were respectful.  One of the last comments that was allowed was from one guy berating another for saying that she looked better before.  I don't see that as being any less appropriate than comments congratulating her for her after appearance.   Mark could have just closed the comments, but instead he (or whomever really runs that place in his name) attributed the term *trolling* to those who expressed concern.  No, name withheld here should not have to defend herself because someone over at MDA should have had the good sense not to publish this at all.  This is yet another characteristic of this community that is troubling.  I read many expressions of concern for this young lady's well being, concerns I share, and Mark's comments here will only serve to deepen her denial.  Shame on you Mark Sisson.  Shame.

____________________________________________


11/28:  I hope all of my readers have a wonderful day today.   I'm uncharacteristically not too busy, as I am not hosting for a rare change.  But I have stumbled upon a bit of bad timing with my last post.  It requires followup and that will be forthcoming sometime this weekend.  But not today.  

Enjoy your self.  Enjoy your family, your friends, your pets, whatever.  The only thing I plan to do today regarding food is to make sure my stuffed mushrooms and shrimp-deviled eggs are perfectly delish, and that I leave room for my sister's amazing, once-a-year-at-T'giving, pecan pie.  I hope you will do similar whatever and whomever you are.

Be HAPPY.  Be THANKFUL!

____________________________________________

Minor Update 11/28:  You may also wish to read:  When Orthorexia Goes Bad  It fleshes out some background and some additional thoughts on ED in general.



Original post ...

Blogstress note
:  I had not intended to spend time on this until after my "desk clears" of projects in the works and my real life job.   I had to make an exception, as I am genuinely angry, and this is where I can express that anger.  This will read a bit disjointed, but I ask that you give this a full read before responding and bear with this aspect of it.  It's not my most concise or well written effort, for which I apologize but ... time ... or lack thereof is my excuse.  Some of this was written a while ago, the rest yesterday and today.  It got too long so I am publishing it up blemishes and all while it is timely, and hope to post a Part II shortly.



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Thursday, November 21, 2013

My review of Sally Fallon Morell's review of Robb Wolf's book and the "Original Human Diet"

Around a month or so ago Sally Fallon Morell, President o the Weston A. Price Foundation, reviewed Robb Wolf's book and gave it a "Thumbs Down".  What's up with her?  Wasn't the response to her President's Message from this past June enough to put her in her place?   I had parts of a post together at that time, but since the full letter wasn't publicly available at the time, and who knows what else was going on, I never published it.  I was going to augment that and include with this, but perhaps another time ... it got too long and convoluted.  Some day ... I make no promises though.  In any case, my link here is now to the full letter for anyone interested, but to sum up she wanted to clear up some myths about WAPF:
  • It's not high protein, most do best on 10-15% protein and WAPF diet is small amounts of fatty animal protein, including organ meats, with each meal ... emphasis on fat, while high lean protein depletes Vitamin A.
  • It's not low carb.  Some of Dr. Price's studied cultures ate quite high carb diets.
  • It's not paleo. 

Read more »

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

All I Want for Christmas ...

A short break to share some things I've been doing "just for fun".  Some people collect classic works of art.  Some literature.  One thing this blog gig has done to me is it has turned me into a collector of old scientific literature!  Thank you Gary Taubes.  Seriously!

Maybe it's my training, but I am a reference hawk.  When I read "new" things, use of quotes to denote that these things are not necessarily new, just new to me, I like to track down sources before proceeding.  This is, after all, the purpose of referencing. 
In 1965, the American Physiological Society published an eight-hundred-page Handbook of Physiology dedicated to the latest research on adipose-tissue metabolism. As this volume documented, several fundamental facts about the relationship between fat and carbohydrate metabolism had become clear. First, the body will burn carbohydrates for fuel, as long as blood sugar is elevated and the reserve supply of carbohydrates stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles is not being depleted. As these carbohydrate reserves begin to be tapped, however, or if there’s a sudden demand for more energy, then the flow of fatty acids from the fat tissue into the circulation accelerates to take up the slack. Meanwhile, a significant portion of the carbohydrates we consume and all of the fat will be stored as fat in our fat cells before being used for fuel. It’s this stored fat, in the form of fatty acids, that will then provide from 50 to 70 percent of all the energy we expend over the course of a day. “Adipose tissue is no longer considered a static tissue,” wrote the Swiss physiologist Albert Renold, who coedited the Handbook of Physiology; “it is recognized as what it is: the major site of active regulation of energy storage and mobilization, one of the primary control mechanisms responsible for the survival of any given organism.” Since the excessive accumulation of fat in the fat tissue is the problem in obesity, we need to understand this primary control mechanism.
Gary Taubes in Good Calories, Bad Calories 
Kindle Locations 7836-7847

Read more »

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Just a quick post ...

I don't usually fall off the blogging planet with no new real content here for two weeks without some sort of notice.  Sorry about that!  I've been about social media somewhat, but far less of that too.  Here's why:

1.  I have a project in the works that requires my dedication and is actually working off of recent discussions here on sugar/food addiction.  So ... sorry ... but that is going to get dropped like a hot potato, which was not my intent at all, it's just how this unfolded.  It will be a while before anything on that becomes public I presume.

2.  I went away for a short getaway.

3.  I have been sick this past week like I don't remember ever being ... or it's just been that long!  On my way home from work on Wednesday, after maxing my limit on hot tea therapy for a nagging cough and having chills, I actually had to stop to get soup at a pizza place and stop twice on the rest of the ride home to have some more!  I have been in bed/on couch most of the past 2+ days ... sleeping most of the time.  

4.  Feeling a bit better yesterday I did try to finish up the blog post I started earlier in the week ... it's a mess b/c I should have finished off the old one I never published and written on the related topic in a new post.  Too late now.  Maybe that gets finished today, maybe next week.  Who knows.  Maybe I turn it back into two posts after all ;-)

So ...

Yes, I will be blogging.  Just less frequently, I presume, for the near future.   In the meantime, if you've stumbled on this blog or even if you've been around a while, if there's a topic you are interested in but can't seem to find if I've written on it, please do ask in the comments here and I'll do my best to direct you to content.  

Thanks for your patience!

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Friday, November 1, 2013

Sugar Addiction and Prelude to a Review of The 21 Day Sugar Detox

With apologies in advance for some tangent going ons ...

As a popular paleo (for marketing purposes anyway) author released a paperback version of her 21 Day Sugar Detox this week -- yes, I'm talking about a $400-will-buy-you-a-certificate-that-says-so "holistic nutritionist" aka Certified Nutritional Consultant courtesy of 501c3 Bauman "college" -- I thought this journal article might be of enough interest to the inmates here to warrant a post.

The plausibility of sugar addiction and its role in obesity and eating disorders

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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The real diet of William Banting that "cured" his obesity

I just bit the big financial bullet and, upon discovering that it is available in Kindle form, purchased William Banting's Letter on Corpulence on Amazon.com (it's only $2.99, or you can read it online at Eades' site which I found later, it's also available in full text here - ht C.Grashow).  I do not think there's a low carb diet book and/or author that hasn't at least referred to Banting's weight loss as the quintessential example of low carb in all it's glorious action.
"I am now nearly 66 years of age, about 5 feet 5 inches in stature, and, in August last (1862), weighed 202 lbs., which I think it right to name, because the article in the Cornhill Magazine presumes that a certain stature and age should bear ordinarily a certain weight, and I am quite of that opinion. I now weigh 167 lbs., showing a diminution of something like 1 lb. per week since August, and having now very nearly attained the happy medium, I have perfect confidence that a few more weeks will fully accomplish the object.
Few men have led a more active life - bodily or mentally - from a constitutional anxiety for regularity, precision, and order, during fifty years' business career, from which I have now retired, so that my corpulence and subsequent obesity was not through neglect of necessary bodily activity, nor from excessive eating, drinking, or self-indulgence of any kind, except that I partook of the simple aliments of bread, milk, butter, beer, sugar, and potatoes more freely than my aged nature required, and hence, as I believe, the generation of the parasite, detrimental to comfort if not really to health."
And so: 
The items from which I was advised to abstain as much as possible were: Bread, butter, milk, sugar, beer, and potatoes, which had been the main (and, I thought, innocent) elements of my existence, or at all events they had for many years been adopted freely.  {KL#108-110}
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Sunday, October 27, 2013

Agents of Health & Death

Now that I've got your attention ...

Another day, I'll have a few more words to say about the recent editorial in the British Medical Journal "exonerating" saturated fat, but for now, one of the things that stuck out at me was the following (I broke the paragraph up a bit):
Indeed, recent prospective cohort studies have not supported any significant association between saturated fat intake and cardiovascular risk. Instead, saturated fat has been found to be protective.
Read more »

Friday, October 25, 2013

Does Elevated Glucose Cause Dementia?





Does elevated glucose cause dementia?  Even in non-diabetics?

This would seem to be the initial conclusion based on a recent study published in the NEJM:

Glucose levels and risk of dementia.  



Read more »

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Revelations from Gedankenexperiments vs. Wirklichenlebenexperiment

Traffic Bump!

Occasionally I see traffic to old posts whilst perusing stats.  I saw this was getting a few hits and decided to bump it.  Especially since the fervor for finding the single bogeyman dietary agent of all doom seems to be hitting a fever pitch lately.  Even Dr Oz is getting on board, and as the Judith Mazel of the low carb world tells us:
Dr Oz is one of the most well respected conventional doctors—and he has major influence because he is educating millions of people every single day on his show.
{you can stop laughing now ...}
Read more »

Monday, October 21, 2013

Insulin Secretion in the Progression of Type 2 Diabetes ~ First/Early Phase

Another one that fell through the cracks in the draft bin.   A continuation of the posts discussing:  Î²-Cell dysfunction vs insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes: the eternal “chicken and egg” question.   The primary post on this article here.  There may be some repetition from other posts that have been published in the interim, but what the heck, I'm publishing it up.

I've screenshot and C&P'd the relevant section that I'll be discussing in this post.  If it is difficult to read, etc., you can of course go to the original paper.

The main point of this section is to highlight the loss of first phase insulin secretion that precedes frank diabetes.  In Figure 2 we see that the (yellow) NGT response is a spike in insulin production within the first few minutes.  
In nondiabetic individuals, approximately 50% of the total daily insulin is secreted during basal periods, suppressing lipolysis, proteolysis, and glycogenolysis. The remainder of insulin secretion is postprandial.  In response to a meal, there is a rapid and sizable release of preformed insulin from storage granules within the beta cell.  This "first phase" of insulin secretion promotes peripheral utilization of the prandial nutrient load, suppresses hepatic glucose production, and limits postprandial glucose elevation. First-phase insulin secretion begins within 2 minutes of nutrient ingestion and continues for 10 to 15 minutes. The second phase of prandial insulin secretion follows, and is sustained until normoglycemia is restored....
... First-phase insulin secretion is often represented in clinical studies by the acute insulin response to an intravenous glucose bolus ...  it demonstrates the sensitivity to and insulin response of the beta cell specifically to the glucose stimulus. It is this loss of beta-cell glucose sensitivity and responsiveness that declines early in the development of type 2 diabetes, even while responses to amino acid and other stimuli are preserved
source (free membership may be required to view)
This paper discusses a perfused cat pancreas, but it sums up the insulin response to acute stimuli:  
  • Insulin secretion is biphasic in response to either glucose or amino acid stimuli.
  • Glucose caused a much more pronounced first phase release than did a complete amino acid mixture; whereas glucose and the amino acid mixture stimulated late second phase insulin secretion equipotently.

And another repeat of the graphic of glucose, insulin and proinsulin secretion following OGTT from this post and paper.  The "early" insulin release is shown to be the first to go here as well.  I discussed the relationship of and a clarification about "first phase" insulin response and the physiological relevance here.  This is shown in the diagram below right and a quote from the paper discussed in that post:

An increasing body of evidence indicates that the early insulin response following glucose ingestion plays a critical role in the maintenance of postprandial glucose homeostasis. The early surge in insulin concentration is capable of limiting the initial glucose excursion mainly through the prompt inhibition of endogenous glucose production, with the insulin mediated curtailment of glucagon secretion being particularly relevant.
Lastly, let's talk a bit about fatty acids. About a year ago I discussed this paper regarding how chronic exposure of beta cells to fatty acids (I use the acronym NEFA) essentially depletes the insulin content and/or production capability of the cells. The bottom line of that paper was while NEFA are involved in GSIS and contribute to this acute insulin secretion, they are also responsible for basal insulin release. Glucose stimulates both insulin secretion and transcription of proinsulin from which more insulin can be made, while NEFA stimulate secretion but not the refilling of the well. From the paper:
If this is so, the insulin content of the β-cell cannot be rapidly replenished after acute stimulation of insulin release by FFA. Under normal circumstances, only a small proportion of the β-cell’s insulin intracellular store is released after an acute stimulation by a secretagogue, so that short-term FFA-induced insulin release would have little adverse effect on the β-cell’s secretory capacity. However, chronic exposure to FFA could severely deplete the internal insulin stores since there is apparently no biosynthetic backup to compensate for FFA-induced insulin hypersecretion.
This may be one reason why low carb diets don't appear to improve insulin secretion similarly to interventions like the "crash diet".   I blogged about this study a while back demonstrating that NEFA release from adipocytes is not appropriately suppressed with a low carb diet.

In summary, while this is by no means comprehensive, I'd like to revisit in the near future, the dietary causes, if any, and the scientific evidence of same, in the development and/or progression of type 2 diabetes and wanted to publish this up as background.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Paleo Water III (and final)

I want to begin this post by apologizing to Tyler LeBaron for dragging him inadvertently into this "controversy" of sorts.  As I understand it, Tyler has done the chemical analyses on the water produced by the Alkaway filter, and can attest to its chemical properties, but has no other connection to this company.  After trading comments in my last post, we decided that speaking on the phone might be a more efficient way to discuss the science and misunderstandings.  From his point of view it seemed like I was dissing hydrogen water and the science there.  From mine, largely based on the electrolysis video, I thought he was misrepresenting the science.  As it turns out, neither of those impressions are true.  I also admit to baiting Ian in the comments about ORP and such, and this unfortunately snared Tyler.  As always, my comments are open to Tyler to expand/clarify/etc. whatever I've written here.   I hope this clears things up a bit anyway.  I had considered editing an update into the last post, but then deleting/editing/etc. would leave the discussion disjointed, thus I think this is the best option.
Read more »

Thursday, October 17, 2013

The LC Dogma Duping of Robb Wolf ...

What duping?  Was he was duped, or does he dupe people?  

Roughly 10 months ago, Robb Wolf posted the first installment on his "current" views about carbohydrates in the diet:  Low Carb And Paleo: My Thoughts Part 1.  In it, Robb describes his changing views on dietary composition and body composition through his personal prism of going from highly active, running a gym, etc. to a more sedentary lifestyle involving lots of writing time.  As he relates:
I had a tough time remaining lean. I’d cut carbs…but to no effect on body composition. Slowly I realized, both by experimentation and by really looking at the literature: CALORIES MATTERED MORE THAN CARBS FOR BODY-COMP.
I have to say this was a pretty big shake-up for me. I’d assumed one could eat as much fat as one desired and STILL get leaner.
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Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Perfect Health Diet Macronutrient Ratios ~ Part I: Breast Milk

If this post seems a bit out of the blue, it's because it was written a while ago and I'm currently going through the draft bin attempting to publish up some of that mostly done stuff.


First, it is important to note that there are actually three versions of The Perfect Health Diet book (perhaps four, I am unsure if the Kindle version was updated from the first print version, but I'll refer to the self-published Kindle version as v.2).  I mention this because the first ebook was published in 2010 as was the self-published paperback and the latest version was completed late in 2012.  While there are some minor changes, the core of the basis for the PHD has not changed much, if at all and if there were major changes I would expect Paul to highlight them in his various appearances.  So, in v.1 and v.2  the rationale behind the macronutrient content was put forth in a very straightforward manner in a section entitled:

Four Reasons to Believe in a 20-65-15 Macronutrient Ratio (Carb-Fat-Protein)
  1. This was the composition of the Paleolithic Diet
  2. This is the composition of breast milk (adjusted for adult brain size) 
  3. This is the composition of the human body - Eat what you are.
  4. Omnivorous animals prefer to eat this diet
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Monday, October 14, 2013

Disgusted with Diet Doctor

The Swedish Diet Doc (does he have any patients?) has been on a roll of late, and it's reached a point where I just have to comment.

For starters, although it would be impossible for every bariatric doc or even a small minority of them to be real-life examples (in the been there, done that department) to be able to promote what has worked for them, at least one might expect that such a doctor wouldn't hold such disdain for them.  When you think about it, medicine is one of those professions where the experts rarely have first-hand knowledge of the fields in which they are often doling out the most personal of advices.  But if you don't like "fat people" then why are you making a living off of "treating" them and dissing them behind their backs (and to their faces)?  

Diet Doc even has a label:  Why Americans are Obese.  Sounds OK though.  Yeah, obese is the technical term.  But here is one of the posts on that label: http://www.dietdoctor.com/why-americans-are-fat-part-2.  Note that I didn't change the bare URL which belies the original title of the post, and many others, before someone informed the doc that calling people fat might be insulting and not appropriate for a person of his stature to be doing.
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Saturday, October 12, 2013

Paleo Water Update

Wasn't sure where to discuss this, but I figured it might as well be on the blog.  A week or so ago, I blogged on Paleo Water.  James Fell also blogged on this atrocity that popped up in ads on Jimmy Moore's Livin la Vida Low Carb blog.  His post:  Paleo has jumped the shark.  

At that time, the Paleo Water page was green and looked like a spoof.  There was a caveman top left, Jimmy Moore's eight year old "thinker pose" photo on top right with “As recommended by Jimmy Moore of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” .  It then listed, along with alkalinity, all the ways paleo water was more like the water our paleolithic ancestors drank.  Free of bacteria and parasites, the water was touted as "as close as scientifically possible to the water our genetic blueprint demands – but no longer receives".  
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Friday, October 11, 2013

Celebrity Diabetes ~ Tom Hanks now

Before Paula Deen got in hot water over racial issues, she was the subject of controversy a few years back with her belated disclosure that she had Type 2 diabetes, and then became a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk's Victoza.  The "mainstream" balked, including rebukes from fellow celebrity chefs for using so much butter in her cooking while hiding the effect it had on her health.  When the news hit the LC community, it of course went nuts.  I discussed this pretty thoroughly HERE.  A quick summary might be that the low carbers didn't like that people blamed the fat in her foods and finger pointed at the carbs (ignoring sedentary lifestyle entirely).  Further, they didn't like that she was dieting per mainstream guidelines and using Victoza rather going on a LC diet.   Stress certainly has taken a toll on Deen, but she seems to have maintained her weight loss, perhaps even losing a few more pounds.  It would be interesting to get an update on her condition, but somehow I doubt we will.
Read more »

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Low Carb Circus Acts ...

In the Center Ring:


Jimmy Moore was on the Christian Broadcast Network's 700 Club yesterday.  I was going to leave this just for the social media stuff, but the appearance was quite disturbing in a few ways so I thought I'd share a few thoughts on that.  

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Sunday, October 6, 2013

Ketogenic Triathlete?

I noticed a little traffic blip to my posts here on SuperStarch scamming which reminded me that AHS13 panel member on keto diets for athletes, and woo woo peddler, Ben Greenfield, would have completed his ketogenic diet fueled triathlon by now.   He has.  And for $9.99 you can get the full scoop on how it went.  No thanks.  Still, from reading the comments, one can surmise how he fared.

First, let me say this.  My hat goes off to anyone that can complete one of these races in any amount of time, etc. and all that jazz.  But at Ben's level, people don't generally compete in these things for recreation, there's money at stake -- whether it be endorsements/sponsorships or less directly involved in promoting his business.   So this was yet another publicity stunt, which is fine, but it doesn't seem to have been a success from any other viewpoint.  

I'm not a fan of his delivery, but Durian Rider is in fine form there in comments laughing at Ben.  
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The LoBAG Diets for treatment of Type II Diabetes and IGF-I: Updated & Expanded


Bump ...

Does dietary protein raise blood glucose?  Not in normal or Type 2 diabetics it doesn't.  This will be the topic of a post today or tomorrow.  There is a disturbing, in my opinion, trend in the low carb community to now demonize protein.  Your usual Atkins style diet is no longer "good enough" or "well formulated" enough for most.  This keto kraze has gotten really krazy!

As far as I'm concerned, the danger of people like Jimmy Moore is no better epitomized than by this trend.  You have lots of people regurgitating his claims that his liver makes too much glucose out of protein and this is implicated in his weight issues.  Nevermind all of the evidence to the contrary.  Leaving weight loss aside, yes, this is anecdotal, but we have no other "evidence" to go by!  Long term low carbers seem to have worsening glucose tolerance over time.  Almost to a one, and these are people who were not diabetic or in some cases even IR (by HOMA) at baseline.  
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Thursday, October 3, 2013

The Cause of Hyperglycemia in Type 2 Diabetes

I will forever be grateful to (former?) blogger LynMarie Daye of Adipo Insights blog for bringing the following paper to my attention:


If you're a regular reader and you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for?  If you're a new reader it's a must (unless of course you're just here for the gossip you claim is boring and inappropriate - grin).   The article is quite long, but it is written in very understandable fashion.  A lot of info, so perhaps best digested in small segments, but well worth the effort. 

The article begins with a history lesson about a physiology professor named Sir Edward Schafer, who "appears to have named insulin and described its actions" in a book published in 1916 entitled The Endocrine Organs.  Schafer, described a substance with dual and simultaneous functions: 
  • Autacoid:  excitatory or stimulatory, e.g. glucose transport, lipid synthesis 
  • Chalone:  inhibitory, e.g. inhibiting lipolysis, gluconeogenesis, ketogenesis
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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Paleo Water?!

A quickie here, but I know many of my readers don't do the whole social media thing and this is just too something for words (can't even think of a good adjective there!)  

I try and read Jimmy's stuff in a reader to avoid the ads, but there it was ... screenshot right.

So I couldn't resist clicking ... and no, it's not April Fool's Day and no it's not a spoof!  Awww shucks ... you go to the link today and the paleo header is not displaying at the moment :(  It was a Geico-style cave man juxtaposed with Jimmy Moore's "The Thinker" and the LLVLC promo.  Hope they bring it back!!
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Saturday, September 28, 2013

Low HbA1c is as bad or worse than high HbA1c in non-diabetics


This study looked at roughly 14,000 NHANES III participants that were not diabetic.  I think this is an important distinction because it looks at differences in normal range, "free", if you will, of what the frank hyperglycemia associated with metabolic dysfunction might do to mean and/or median values.  Here is the hazard ratio plot:  
Adjusted hazard ratios for the association between HbA1c and all-cause mortality among participants without diabetes using a quadratic spline with knots at the 2.5, 10, 50, 90, and 97.5 percentiles. Adjusted for age, race-ethnicity, sex, lifestyle factors (education, income, current smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, body mass index, and aspirin use), cardiovascular factors (systolic blood pressure, antihypertensive medication use, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, log triglycerides, elevated C-reactive protein, and history of CVD), metabolic factors (prior diagnosis of thyroid disease, thyroid-stimulating hormone, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and albuminuria), red blood cell indices (hemoglobin, red blood cell distribution width, mean cell volume, and serum folate), iron storage indices (serum albumin, ferritin, and transferrin saturation), and liver function indices (hepatitis C seropositivity, AST, and ALT). Knots were placed at 4.3%, 4.7%, 5.3%, 5.9%, and 6.2%, representing HbA1c levels at the 2.5, 10, 50, 90, and 97.5 percentiles; shaded area represents 95% CI.
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Sunday, September 22, 2013

A tale of two "Wheat Bellies"

Before Dr. William Davis' name became synonymous with the elusive* Wheat Belly, he was well known for his subscription Track Your Plaque website.   This website currently charges $90 (all prices rounded) for the first year with yearly renewals at $72, for the basic membership ... more for shorter "contracts".  That's just the membership fee, that basically affords you discounts on various TYP products such as your Basic Membership Kit for $70 (reg. $110) or a Supplement Kit for $175 (reg. $215) or the testing kit for a cool $530 (reg. $570).   In the marketplace you can purchase all manner of testing supplies, etc.  

Now Davis is a huge backer of Jimmy Moore's Cholesterol Clarity book.  He contributed to it as an expert, provided an Editorial Review for Amazon.com and, as if that weren't enough, offered up a glowing 5 Star review on same, entitled Cholesterol bashing at its finest.  In it he writes:
Widely-held beliefs, many of them propagated by "official" agencies like the FDA, USDA, American Heart Association, Academy of Dietetics and Nutrition, American Diabetes Association, etc., are crumbling under the scrutiny of informed people uninfluenced by the pharmaceutical industry, agribusiness, or the excessive profiteering ways of modern "healthcare."
Uninfluenced by them, but influenced by profiteers and profiteers in their own right nonetheless.
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Saturday, September 21, 2013

Where do triglycerides come from? Part I (Updated)

This post contains sufficient updates from the original (dated 5/11/11) that I consider it more of a fully updated version vs. a bump.   This began with my intent to link to this post in an upcoming discussion of triglycerides, when I noticed that Dr. Ronald Krauss was amongst the authors.   This study originally caught my eye because of   Marc Hellerstein's name, he of DNL not a major pathway in humans fame, that I've blogged on previously.

Now I have excerpted copiously from the discussion because the authors make several points relevant to the discussion of what comprises a healthy lipid profile.  As part of updating, I am breaking those excerpts up a bit more and adding some/more emphasis and additional commentary.

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Friday, September 20, 2013

The Vascular Functions of Insulin

Random Replay

Was having a discussion on FB about insulin this morning and while going through some blog posts this one popped up.  I find reading some old stuff interesting at times ... this is over 3 years old.  

If someone goes on a low carb diet and this manages their hyperglycemia, this is a classic example of treating symptoms while not addressing the cause of the problem which is pancreatic beta cell dysfunction, and in the case of the T2, coupled with hepatic insulin resistance.  

What low carb doesn't do is restore normal insulin secretion and signaling, and insulin plays many roles in the body beyond glucose transport.  For one, it also assists amino acid transport (and protein synthesis) which is why the IR often have elevated circulating levels of the most insulinogenic (e.g. insulin requiring) amino acids, the BCAAs.  

This post is a flashback of some of the other things insulin does.  Further it discusses the role of NEFA in all of this ... the forgotten biomarker I think most low carbers with whacky lipids should have measured as they are likely elevated.  
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Thursday, September 19, 2013

Jimmy Moore's Cholesterol Clarity ~ Ongoing Review and Information ~ Most Recent Update 9/19/13

The original opening to this post can be read by scrolling to the end or using your browser search function to find ##### .

The intent of a single post is that for as long as this content is relevant, I will add new information to this post and "bump" it to the top of the feed.  If it grows to be unmanageable, I'll have sections with search strings for easy navigation.  For now, each update will get popped to the top of the feed reader.  New "entries" will be at the top, and will be separated from prior content with "▼▼ Content added XX/XX/XX ▼▼".    Different topics within each update will be separated by ***** and a horizontal line ... like this:


***** ▼▼ Content added 9/19/13 ▼▼ 

Interpreting Cholesterol Panels?

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Monday, September 16, 2013

When Size Matters (and when it doesn't) ...

Off the bat notice:  This will not be one of my usual referenced posts.  It's off the top of my head but based on research and the statements of others made in the past.  So if I get something wrong please let me know, if you want links and references, please ask and as soon as time permits I will get to them.  I am very busy with other matters besides this blog at the moment so please be patient.  Thanks!  

I think it is fair to say that Dr. Dayspring is "the particle number guy".  For good reason.  Of the various lipoprotein biomarker predictors these days, apoB and LDL-P seem to be the leaders of the pack.  But what of LDL-C?   For all the caution expressed by those clinging to TWICHOO about not throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater, these same people seem more than willing to throw out the bathtub, fixtures and attached plumbing!
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Saturday, September 14, 2013

Today is a very special day ...

... no longer does the name Gary Taubes hold a position in the five most popular posts of all time here.  

I think that's a good thing.  His ill-conceived hypothesis that is unsupported by a plethora of solid scientific evidence is no longer a hot topic in the carb-wars on the internet.  I see that as a good thing, because despite convincing some hedge fund guys to fund NuSI, it never was much of a hot topic in the real world.  

My work here is done.
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11 Unexpected Health Hazards Of The Atkins Diet Besides Weight Gain

Random Repost


Well, I don't know how many of my regular blog readers follow that Twitter update over there on the sidebar, or check me out on Facebook, but the past day or so has been quite interesting!  Apparently Jimmy Moore is very upset that anyone would dare to post anything other than a stevia coated endorsement of Cholesterol Clarity and he's marshaled the troops!   On Friday, within a matter of hours the number of reviews almost doubled because he was very upset that there were negative reviews there!  I guess sales aren't so hot so he needed his friends to post even more 5-star platitudes to drown out the few negatives.  More on that at some point....  But one of his fans seemed especially bothered that I might give the book a mere 2 stars (one more than the book itself deserves).  This would be Dr. Bill Wilson of The CARB Syndrome Project!  Most folks probably haven't heard of him, and they are probably better off keeping it that way.  Basically he believes that carbs scramble and fry your brains and I have now been diagnosed as being in the latter stages.  He wrote a post all about it.  He emailed me the link.  He linked to it in comments here.  He posted it on Facebook.  

In his keen diagnosis, and he reminds us he's been a doctor for 35 years now, Dr. Wilson cites (without linked attribution) two comments of mine, one of which came verbatim from this post, the other probably from a comment, but I mention insomnia here.  I've kept the post as is, but bolded in red the symptoms he cites.  Perhaps the good doctor should address Diane Sanfilippo, or any one of the other various and sundry low carb and/or paleo zombies out there suffering from insomnia and the ensuing fatigue ... due to their sugar detoxes!    Yes, doctor,  “I was fatigued from time to time from sleep deprivation as I had raging insomnia” ... WHEN I WAS LOW CARB.  Checking those off your list.  You're barking up the wrong tree for sure looking at me.
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Thursday, September 5, 2013

Heat, Entropy & Thermogenesis

A summary post of ideas here, that I've likely stated elsewhere on the blog but wanted to gather in one place.  

Last week on Facebook, to the detriment of his credentials and credibility, Jason Boehm posted and deleted a post about calories and the Second Law of Thermo.  I queried what it had to do with the original point which was more of a 500 cals spinach vs. 500 cals Coke type nonsense, so he did address that in a second FB post that stands (minus lots of relevant input from people he deleted, labeled hateful and pretty much had a kitten over ... nobody called him a moron BTW, that's a clever tactic of those that can't hold up their end of an intellectual debate on the science ... can't leave the self-incriminating evidence).   But I digress.
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Monday, September 2, 2013

JimKKKins: The Saga of Jimmy Moore and David Duke

Random Replay:


I had just recently updated this post to put the summary and links but didn't think it was necessary to bump.  As far as I was concerned, this whole sad saga was in the past, and the members of the paleo and low carb communities spoke with their actions, for better or worse.  Newbies will find it pinned on the sidebar as the most popular post here ... not exactly sure what that means in the end.  I still can't for the life of me figure out why people continue to promote this guy, but to each their own.    Just they can't say they didn't know ... and Jimmy can't claim to be wrongfully accused ... and I still think the Paleo community could learn a thing or two from the Paula Deen story ... 

But then this past week,  Jimmy Moore is at it again bringing up this issue.  Why I have no idea, because one would think he would rather this faded away into the archives.  But in a really strange turn of events, Joe Salama of The Paleo Movement interviewed Jimmy Moore and Jack Kruse:  Jimmy Moore and Jack Kruse discuss controversy within the Paleo community.  
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Monday, August 26, 2013

Will NuSI clear the bar?

Gary Taubes is out with a new article in Scientific American ... rehashing the same old same old, and essentially getting paid to write a press release for NuSI.  

What Makes You Fat: Too Many Calories, or the Wrong Carbohydrates?

Rigorously controlled studies may soon give us a definitive answer about what causes obesity—excessive calories or the wrong carbohydrates

We get the rehashing of how WWII stopped Bergmann and Bauer's Lipophilia Hypothesis from becoming the working hypothesis for obesity, and yet another primer on calories vs. carbohydrates.  We again are asked to ignore the obvious -- that Americans are definitely eating more, on average, with no concurrent need for those calories, and likely moving a bit less as well.   The obesity epidemic that supposedly was instigated by the low fat craze is blamed on the fact that much of our additional caloric load is in the form of carbohydrates.  This is not supported by one of Gary Taubes' own paradoxical cultures, the Pima, who did not eat a low carb diet prior to the 1900's, let alone billions of humans all over the globe.   Or .... despite the "modern paleo's" insistence, the paleolithic diet in the literature -- both cited for the basis of the diet and that used in clinical trials.  
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Friday, August 23, 2013

Aug. 22 Over the Hump Bump: Paleo Summit Flashback

I changed the title of this post entirely for obvious reasons.  

So, in T-minus 4 days the world will finally achieve Cholesterol Clarity!  Thanks to NYT Bestselling (hopeful is he) author Jimmy Moore.   The banner states that:


So I looked at the list of experts and recalled this post highlighting how one of them, Dr. Cate Shanahan, blamed carbs for being turned into LDL and then make us fat.  You can browser search to "Skip to here!" and skip the intro stuff.   You might also be interested in my notes from the full presentation, HERE.  I've also had a chance to see what she says about LDL in her book Deep Nutrition, a whole 'nother theory there, and her interview with Jimmy for the book was quite enlightening.  Beware the shaman lab tech and doctor trying to read your bloodwork tea leaves!  If you don't get hungry between meals you are a healthy fat burner ... don't worry, be happy.  
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Thursday, August 22, 2013

The Grand Carbohydrate-Cholesterol Switcheroo ~ Are We Repeating History?

In Deep Nutrition, one of the World's best health experts* Dr. Cate Shanahan writes this of cholesterol:
Genetic Experimentation—On You
You may have noticed the various cut-off levels over the years to identify people at “high risk” of a heart attack.  Years ago, if your total cholesterol was 300 or less, your doctor would have said you were fine. Soon, that number was lowered to 200.  Now people also watch their LDL, “safe” levels of which have been lowered from 200 to 160, to 130, to 100, and now 80.  Currently, the average person’s LDL level is still about what it’s always been, around 120–130. The controversial 2001 revision of the cholesterol guidelines means nearly half of the US population can now be labeled “high risk.”  And drug companies are raking it in.
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Monday, August 19, 2013

When Orthorexia Goes Bad

Orthorexia.  

According to the National Eating Disorders Association  {all emphasis mine}
Those who have an “unhealthy obsession” with otherwise healthy eating may be suffering from “orthorexia nervosa,” a term which literally means “fixation on righteous eating.”   Orthorexia starts out as an innocent attempt to eat more healthfully, but orthorexics become fixated on food quality and purity.   They become consumed with what and how much to eat, and how to deal with “slip-ups.” An iron-clad will is needed to maintain this rigid eating style. Every day is a chance to eat right, be “good,” rise above others in dietary prowess, and self-punish if temptation wins (usually through stricter eating, fasts and exercise). Self-esteem becomes wrapped up in the purity of orthorexics’ diet and they sometimes feel superior to others, especially in regard to food intake.
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Sunday, August 18, 2013

80/20 IS Moderation Folks!


I'll have another followup post to the War on Moderation, but just some random thoughts in response to some of the reaction to the first one.   Most of the knee-jerk reactions come down to:
  • I can't eat X because I have Y-syndrome so I can't eat everything in moderation.
  • Oh you're just using this as an excuse to eat crap
  • OK so just go stuff yourself with SAD Cheetos and Twinkies.
On Facebook, the following caught my eye
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Friday, August 16, 2013

A note about comments ...

Last week, or so, there was an issue with a comment that had never shown in my moderation queue jumping back and forth.  It said awaiting moderation when I viewed the post here, then I saw it in Pending, then I'd approve it.  All was well then it jumped back.  Then I whitelisted the ID ... In the end I think it eventually "stuck" ... I think.

For most of the time I've been using Disqus, using the Disqus dashboard has been a mixed blessing.  While new comment notifications appear (sweet!) when I am reading comments on the blog, they do not appear "real time" on the dashboard (not so sweet!)    Therefore I'm left to have to refresh the dashboard from time to time.  Which is OK, but it does not alway refresh properly.

And then there's Feedly which I am using to replace my sorely missed Google Reader.  Perhaps it's time to look for other options there.  I don't like it all that much on its own, but its interaction with Disqus is rather spotty.  I won't see comments sometimes for like 12 hours!  Not good.

Which leaves me with email notifications or Blogger's dashboard.  I do try to check the email and I have notices pop-up, but I have enough clutter in the email as it is so I'd prefer not to go that route.  I used it for a while where you could moderate by email by replying "Approve" and all that.  Eh ... it's glitchy as well.

So I guess this is a long winded way of letting you know that managing Disqus comments has been frustrating to say the least of late and I've probably missed out on replying to more than a few.  Maybe Disqus expanded too quickly.  Maybe they'll work out the bugs.  I hope so, but Disqus has rendered the Blogger feed (preferable for the "latest comments" widget) useless from Anonymous spam.  I think I'll stick with Disqus as on the balance it is preferable to shutting down the doors when a bout of Razwell virus hits, and other plusses.  But it would be nice if it weren't so glitchy ...

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Bump: The Diabetes "Crash" Cure & Pancreatic Fat

Today's 8/15/13 bump was inspired by a comment by Tsimblist (thanks!) alerting me to this paper:  Type 2 Diabetes Etiology and reversibility
Reversal of type 2 diabetes to normal metabolic control by either bariatric surgery or hypocaloric diet allows for the time sequence of underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms to be observed. In reverse order, the same mechanisms are likely to determine the events leading to the onset of hyperglycemia and permit insight into the etiology of type 2 diabetes. Within 7 days of instituting a substantial negative calorie balance by either dietary intervention or bariatric surgery, fasting plasma glucose levels can normalize. This rapid change relates to a substantial fall in liver fat content and return of normal hepatic insulin sensitivity. Over 8 weeks, first phase and maximal rates of insulin secretion steadily return to normal, and this change is in step with steadily decreasing pancreatic fat content.
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Sunday, August 11, 2013

Alternative Medical Ethics?

Disclaimers:

1.  I want to make it clear up front that I am not making light of those who have health conditions for which they cannot find solutions, be it through the medical establishment or alternatives.  This post is not about that, except to highlight how unfortunately such circumstances can make people susceptible to being taken advantage of.

2.  I'm not saying mainstream medicine has all the answers or the only answers, and I'm not saying that all treatments that would fall under the umbrella of "alternative" are ineffective or woo woo.

So, with that said, I laid out a scenario in my Medical Ethics post to highlight some practices in the alternative medicine realm that would be questionable (and in some cases illegal) were they engaged in in a traditional practice.
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Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Robb Wolf: On Fruit

Fruity? 
Notice that I did not mention fruit. Most folks are battling some kind of metabolic derangement, aka obesity, diabetes, fertility issues, depression, etc. This with a mixed bag of autoimmunity and systemic inflammation. Until you are lean and healthy, you don’t get much fruit. There is no nutrient in fruit that is not available in veggies, and fruit may have too many carbs for you. When we start talking about what constitutes “health,” we will see where on that spectrum you are. For now, just keep things simple and you will reap the greatest rewards.  
~ Robb Wolf, p. 214 The Paleo Solution


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Monday, August 5, 2013

Calories, Starvation, and Bygone Gurus

As I am spending more time working on my upcoming book, Calorie Clarity: Entropic Thoughts on a Hot Topic,  I have had a bit less time for blogging of late.  I don't know what it is about this calorie debate, but just when you think the latest scheme to convince you that calories don't count has been beaten back, another huckster comes flying down the poop slide regurgitating the crap they swallowed on the way down.  Apologies to those who have eaten recently.  I use the term huckster because my name was used in vain in an exchange with one of the best hucksters in the low carb sphere, Dr. Mike Eades.

Who?  If you're asking that question, congratulations, you've either forgotten everything you've ever read on his blog or never read it at all.  Either of which would be a good thing.   Eades imagines himself a scientist in a doctor's coat and apparently still tweets his pearls of critical thinking wisdom.  Yeah, I'm being snarky because, well, it's a goose gander thing ... or is there a black swan needing some love somewhere?    Now a little while ago now, Tim Noakes gave leave of his own critical thinking skills and jumped on the LC "science" wagon.  A couple of days ago, Noakes tweeted a link to a 2007 post by Dr. Eades hailing it as an example of "supreme logic" in the (for some reason ongoing) debate over calories.
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Thursday, August 1, 2013

Aug. 1 Over the Hump Bump: Baby Your Pancreas? Part II: Go all Jillian Michaels on your Liver?

On Facebook today, Mark Hyman MD (functional medicine doc) posted:
There are no essential carbohydrates. There are essentials fats and essentials proteins, but if you never had any carbohydrates again, you would survive.
The Teaspoon Party
This was brought to my attention but also reminded me that Richard Feinman is at it again with a recent blog post on this no essential dietary carb canard, couched in a history lesson of sorts:  Revolutions. Political and Scientific.  He discusses Claude Bernard finding sugar in a dog that hadn't been fed any carbohydrate.  The question is why ... again ... why ... now?   This idea has earned him an honored place in the group at right.


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Aug. 1 Over the Hump Bump: Baby your Pancreas? Part I: The Tired Pancreas

Another two-fer for the Thursday post bumps again this week.  More explanation for why this set in the next bump.



Original Publish Date:  7/26/11

In the comments on a recent post on beta cell lipotoxicity, Ned Kock (of Health Correlator blog) posted a link to a post he made a while back entitled:  Lipotoxicity or tired pancreas? Abnormal fat metabolism as a possible precondition for type 2 diabetes.  This article deals with the concept of the "tired pancreas" in the development of diabetes.  It seems that (and hopefully he corrects me if I'm wrong here) Ned and I agree that this is not a likely explanation for diabetes.   Ned summarizes the progression of obesity induced T2 diabetes from Unger & Zhou, 2001.  It is worth mentioning that Unger is often summarily dismissed from the "scientific discussion roundtable" by low carbers because of the unfortunately titled "Gluttony and Sloth" paper, that, even more unfortunately also included a biblical verse.   Unger's hypothesis is very leptin-centric, but not at all incompatible with other lipotoxicity based theories.  Basically, lipotoxicity is the result of dysfunctional adipocytes leading to excessive "spill-over" of fatty acids into circulation and accumulation in ectopic tissues.   Unger & Zhou identify dysfunction in leptin secretion and/or signaling as the initiating factor in this process.  One thing that doesn't quite add up for me here is that I keep finding citations indicating leptin action increases free fatty acids which would seem counterintuitive.  In any case ...
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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Open scientific discourse ...

I'd like to respond to this e-mail and clarify your understanding of the science, but I'd like to do it privately to you. If you promise that's the case, then I will respond. If you then argue persuasively that there is a good reason why your readers would benefit from reading my e-mail, I will agree but I reserve the right to decide what's persuasive or not and what's a good reason.
Memories .... 

Sunday, July 28, 2013

The poor, misunderstood kilowatt•hour

I probably won't be around much longer.

You see Con Ed (my electricity provider) contacted me and said that because my usage this past year exceeded what my level payments cover, they will need to recalculate that payment.   Which got me thinking CON Edison.  Hmmmmm sounds conspiratorial.  So I investigated.

Well, they are pushing all manner of energy saving schemes!  How can I cut my bill?  And then I look at my bill.  My home intakes kilowatt•hours (kwh) ... but how can I know what to do to reduce that intake when I use:
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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Examine.com Supplement Goals Reference Guide

I am very pleased to introduce my readers to a new product from the folks at Examine.com, their Supplement Goals Reference Guide.  

Yes, this is something new for me.  I am actually promoting something here, and before you think I've gone off and gone into the supplement business, please read on!

You see, the folks at Examine.com have spent the past two plus years amassing an impressive data base of supplements, how they work, if they work, and the peer-review studies on their utility.  All presented in an unbiased fashion because they don't sell supplements!
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