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
  

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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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Quantum Bullshit

I don't follow Jack Kruse's antics much any more.  Every now and then, however, he comes up in a social media or email note.  He's still at it -- though there is no longer an answer at his practice phone number, so hopefully that means he's no longer actively performing neurosurgery.  From a Krusite on FB:  

Humans are designed to eat an electron dense diet because they have a shortened gut and expanded brain that steepens their energy needs and restricts their sleep needs to 7.5- 8.5 hours. This implies that humans must have evolved around a diet high in electron density from food and their environment.

It is hard to believe Jack has been talking this electron nonsense for going on two years now.  I suppose this is what happens in a community that fails to police itself when it comes to science ... but I digress.

In any case, I have apparently missed the first however many incoherences Jack has created in his EMF series but since he's still on the radar screen, I thought I'd bump this post up.

Folks, all of your food macros contain electrons.  The macros are all converted to acetyl CoA that feeds into Krebs, or they can feed in at various parts along the way and "participate" in the exact same redox reactions in your mitochondria.  The very same.  If there is anyone who has specific questions about Kruse's latest Quantum Bullshit, feel free to ask in comments, but please provide me a Readers' Digest version and/or a short quote.  I simply cannot read this man's blogs.  

---

Original Publish Date:  3/5/12

Being a science geek, I have no clue what the average Joe really thinks when they hear the term "quantum" thrown around.  I imagine that most folks' eyes glaze over other than to think that it must be something really complicated and all that.   And like Entropy dude's blog, one can't possibly be able to understand all those Σ's and such.  I contend that when talking human physiology and metabolism, use of the word quantum is ... well ... an alert that a load of steamin' pre-coprolites is on its way.  

This may not be the most technically accurate definition of what is meant by quantum phenomenon, but it's certainly a workable one for most people.  All atoms have electrons orbiting their nuclei and these electrons can only occupy certain orbits or energy levels.  The closer to the nucleus an electron is, the lower its energy state.  In their "ground state",  electrons will be in the lowest energy level "shells" possible, only occupying a higher level when all lower ones are filled.  Under certain conditions, electrons can be excited and they "jump" up to the next shell.  All good excitement must come to an end, and in short order the electrons fall back down to the energy level from whence they came emitting a photon.    The whole area of quantum mechanics deals with describing these phenomena.  At this level, electrons sometimes behave like particles, and sometimes like waves, and discussions of the wave-particle duality is something used to torture science students through the ages.   But the good news for you and me is that none of this matters to the basics of human metabolism.  

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Quotations: Lustig on Fructose and Glucose in Nature

Glucose

Despite its absolute necessity for life (see chapter 10), dietary glucose isn’t perfect. When it exists in nature without fructose, it’s called “starch,” and it truly does supply “empty calories,” energy for either storage or burning.

Fructose

Fructose is never found alone in nature. Rather, it is always partnered with its more benign sister molecule, glucose.

Robert Lustig,   Fat Chance

p.154, 156

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Bad What?: Science? -- Reporting? -- Blogging/Sharing?

Confession time.  I found out about that recent LC v. LF diet study from Andreas Eenfeldt's blog.  Andreas seems woefully misguided into thinking that obese Americans got that way listening to US Government guidelines and eating a low fat diet.  Any and every study that shows some advantage for LC is rapidly added to his list demonstrating that LCHF is superior and LF diets are nothing short of criminal at this point.  I'll have some personal things to say about all of this at the end of the post.  Gossip Mongers can skip to there if you like ;-) (scroll down to line, or browser search on "And so now")

In any case, in a blog post entitled New Study: High Fat Food is Good for Diabetics, Andreas cites this "news" article:  High-fat diet lowered blood sugar and improved blood lipids in diabetics.  Another low carb advocate, Dr. Eades, also tweeted the following:  RCT shows better glycemic control & improved lipid labs seen in diabetics on #lowcarb as compared to lowfat diets.  The tweet links to this report:  Questioning Carbohydrate Restriction in Diabetes Management.

Now this was an RCT = Randomized Controlled Trial.  The type of study generally considered to be the gold standard of trials, but we've discussed here before how not all RCT's are created equal, and as serendipity would have it, Andreas was one I called out in:  A Matter of Control.  In his short blog post, Andreas calls the current study at hand "a new high-quality Swedish study".  Does the study itself deserve that label?  After looking at it more closely the past few days, no.  If for no other reason, because the study participants didn't report eating the diets as prescribed.  The intended control is also limited to caloric intake.  I contend that when one is comparing diets of different macronutrient composition, one of the three must be controlled for -- e.g. held constant -- varying the other two, or the results will forever be tainted.  

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Leptin Man's TEDx Nashville Talk

Can't seem to imbed yet:  LINK

I haven't seen the whole thing yet so won't comment.  But thought I'd let my readers know the MRSA talk is up.

Edit - Classic Kruse-ism at the end:

Ideation without execution leads to deletion.

Live Blogging from the Paleo Summit XI: Dr. Cate Shanahan

Link:  "Dr. Cate" Shanahan

Title:  The Paleo Diet vs. Top-Selling Drugs: Who Wins?

Ratings:

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼  Entertainment Value

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼  Content

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼  Informational Accuracy

☼ ☼ ☼  ☼ ☼ Overall

Summary:

Basically, just eat a low carb paleo diet folks and you won't get osteoporosis, schizophrenia and need cholesterol lowering drugs.  While Dr. Cate spends quite a bit of time discussing how diet can cure/prevent diseases, she goes into scant little detail as to what exactly she means by such a diet.  Shanahan's science is very poor.  If I were a parent I think I'd go nuts just worrying over my kid turning into a schizophrenic any day now after listening to Shanahan.  Just go paleo folks and skip all your meds.  Look, I'm on board with America being a WAY overmedicated society where doctors don't tend to pay enough attention to the role of diet and nutrition in our health.  But after listening to Cate for almost an hour, I'm seriously considering a trip to the walk-in this morning for some pills ... any pills!

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Live Blogging from the Paleo Summit III: Leptin Man!

Link:  Dr. Jack Kruse ... Neuuurosurgeon!
Title:  Leptin Circadian Cycles

Ratings:

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼  Entertainment Value

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼  Content

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼  Informational Accuracy

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼  Overall

Summary:

Everything you'd expect in thirty minutes with Dr. Jack Kruse, or Leptin Man as we call him in these parts.  Ah what the heck, it's my blog.  Can we put up that slide Jeeves?   Thanks.  OK.  What you won't get is what's billed.  Leptin circadian cycles account for a couple minutes at most of the talk, and although Croxton promises us that Jack "shares how he lost 133 pounds in a single year by correcting the 'biological mismatches' that were once prevalent in his life" there's nothing about the Leptin Reset that comes out of Jack's mouth in this talk.   Aside from using the words like evolutionary a few times, and exclaiming that paleo fixes all (no grains, limited dairy), this wasn't really a paleo "talk".  The only unifying theme was that there was no unifying theme.  Oh ... and leptin!

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Physician Phollies ~ III: Dr. Jack "Leptin Man" Kruse

In  light of recent posts by Melissa McEwen (Hunt Gather Love blog) and Danny Roddy, I decided to dust this one off that got lost in the draft bin.  Melissa's post especially got me to go get this out of storage -- she cites a few quotes from Jack that are rather mind-boggling.  Folks over at PaleoHacks are well familiar with Quiltisms on all manner of things.     It seems that the selection of speakers for AHS12 has caused a bit of consternation in the paleo world, and for good reason, IMO.  I had considered entering a talk on eating disorders but figured it would be dead on arrival when I heard that some presenters from last year were rebuked.  So didn't waste my time.  I'm glad to see that others are speaking up -- hopefully more will -- about this disturbing trend in the paleo community.  Especially, as Melissa put it in her comments, how Jimmy Moore has now become some paleo guru kingmaker.  This as the man has now announced that he's pushing 300 lbs despite going paleo after AHS11.  As the collective communities bemoan how the media is portraying paleo, they need to rethink who it is they support in this community.  Over on PaleoHacks Sean Croxton seemed a bit ruffled that his Paleo Summit has been met with negativity.  Jack Kruse on the docket will, no doubt, add to the behind-the-scenes groaning.  I would like to see the ancestral movement stem this tide as a return to a real foods diet will be the solution for most.  Such a diet can more than be supported by science.  But it has to be science, not the krispie sort.

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Physician Phollies ~ II: Dr. William "Wheat Belly" Davis

Next up in our "how can he/she even say that?" series of blatantly erroneous things said by practicing physicians in furtherance of the carbophobic agenda ...

I bring you, an Asylum favorite, Dr. William "Wheat Belly" Davis.  In the most recent post on his WB blog, Wheat Belly trips over himself trying to implicate wheat, specifically, in the diabetes epidemic.  

But can we blame diabetes on wheat?
Yes, absolutely, as much as you can blame poor oral hygience for toothlessness in West Virginia.

Wow!  Gratuitous slam on WVa's aside, Dr. Wee Bee goes on  to list all the ways wheat causes diabetes:

–Any food that increases blood sugar to high levels (i.e., high glycemic index) also increases insulin to high levels. Repetitive high insulin leads to insulin resistance, which leads to visceral fat deposition, more insulin resistance, inflammation, etc., eventuating in diabetes.
–High blood sugar, such as that resulting from eating two slices of whole wheat bread, is toxic to pancreatic beta cells, the cells that produce insulin: glucotoxicity.
–Triglyceride-containing lipoproteins, such as chylomicrons and its remnants, are toxic to pancreatic beta cells: lipotoxicity.

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Physician Phollies ~ I: Dr. Cate Shanahan

As often happens with me, certain potential themes for blog series float through my head.  A stream of thought that connects things I see, read and hear about the web.  One of those themes lately has to do with the quality of information coming from a number of bloggers and otherwise-advocates of low carbing who are by all accounts actively practicing physicians.  Many of these physicians routinely chastise, mock and otherwise scorn their fellow practitioners in the course of promoting their views.

This series will highlight the more ridiculous claims made by these doctors,  but not so much on the minutia of their entire pro-low carb message.  In other words, a bit less about the overarching erroneous themes, and a bit more about individual "schtick" or just what I would call absurd random statments they make.  And I guess with each installment of this series, I would ask:

Why would (s)he even say that?

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