Comments on: Last gasp of the dark ages of nutrition http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/bogus-studies/last-gasp-of-the-dark-ages-of-nutrition/ A critical look at nutritional science and anything else that strikes my fancy. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:38:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Carla Bledsoe http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/bogus-studies/last-gasp-of-the-dark-ages-of-nutrition/#comment-242021 Carla Bledsoe Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:28:15 +0000 http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=2675#comment-242021 I don't know if you would consider this comment to be relative or not, but here goes. Poor people have always been fed the highest carb cheapest foods available. I've read that the people of Egypt along the Nile started the agriculture revolution by farming grain crops. In my opinion they weren't growing the crops for the grain but for the straw to make brick to build with. The grain was a byproduct that was a cheap way to feed the slave labor. And since people tend to stick with the foods they grew up eating the slaves continued to eat grain (bread, gruel, and all variations) after they were freed. Even now it is cheaper to go to the store and buy a bag of flour to make bread than it is to buy hamburger. Cheap hot dogs cost less than the flour but nutrtionally you probably aren't coming aut ahead by much. With the economy the way it is you are better off trying to tell people how to eat high protein on a budget than trying to tell them how bad the carbs are for them. As far as that goes, a more positive and less condeming approach is always best when trying to convince someone to do something they are unsure of. I have had to learn this the hard way since I tend to use a hammer to kill a fly! I don’t know if you would consider this comment to be relative or not, but here goes. Poor people have always been fed the highest carb cheapest foods available. I’ve read that the people of Egypt along the Nile started the agriculture revolution by farming grain crops. In my opinion they weren’t growing the crops for the grain but for the straw to make brick to build with. The grain was a byproduct that was a cheap way to feed the slave labor. And since people tend to stick with the foods they grew up eating the slaves continued to eat grain (bread, gruel, and all variations) after they were freed.
Even now it is cheaper to go to the store and buy a bag of flour to make bread than it is to buy hamburger. Cheap hot dogs cost less than the flour but nutrtionally you probably aren’t coming aut ahead by much.
With the economy the way it is you are better off trying to tell people how to eat high protein on a budget than trying to tell them how bad the carbs are for them. As far as that goes, a more positive and less condeming approach is always best when trying to convince someone to do something they are unsure of. I have had to learn this the hard way since I tend to use a hammer to kill a fly!

]]> By: Michael http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/bogus-studies/last-gasp-of-the-dark-ages-of-nutrition/#comment-241977 Michael Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:18:16 +0000 http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=2675#comment-241977 Hi Dr. Eades, I am driving myself slightly bonkers. I am [b]sure[/b] that I read an analysis on this paper carefully breaking down the results of this trial, particularly their Figs 3 and 4, which I didn't have time to read at the time and put aside and unfortunately forgot about. I just remembered it today, and thought it was on your blog. Am I mistaken? Also, didn't you do an(other) analysis on the lipid results for a similar trial at one point? Similar story ... Sorry to ask you to be my human Google ;) . Thanks! Hi Dr. Eades,

I am driving myself slightly bonkers. I am [b]sure[/b] that I read an analysis on this paper carefully breaking down the results of this trial, particularly their Figs 3 and 4, which I didn’t have time to read at the time and put aside and unfortunately forgot about. I just remembered it today, and thought it was on your blog. Am I mistaken?

Also, didn’t you do an(other) analysis on the lipid results for a similar trial at one point? Similar story …

Sorry to ask you to be my human Google ;) . Thanks!

]]> By: Anthony http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/bogus-studies/last-gasp-of-the-dark-ages-of-nutrition/#comment-236262 Anthony Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:33:11 +0000 http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=2675#comment-236262 Mike, if you wrote a book reflecting the way you write here on the blog, it would be huge! <em>And you and maybe three or four others would read it. Or at least that's how publishers see the situation. It's difficult to sell a book about serious nutritional issues to a publisher because most publishers think general readers are stupid.</em> Mike, if you wrote a book reflecting the way you write here on the blog, it would be huge!

And you and maybe three or four others would read it. Or at least that’s how publishers see the situation. It’s difficult to sell a book about serious nutritional issues to a publisher because most publishers think general readers are stupid.

]]> By: Meg http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/bogus-studies/last-gasp-of-the-dark-ages-of-nutrition/#comment-209351 Meg Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:09:24 +0000 http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=2675#comment-209351 By the way, all this does help explain how my mother got into such terrible health by her early 60's (lifeong messages that carbs are good, fats are bad) but also why she is remarkably slim, strong, erect-standing, and how the heck she managed to clear her clogged arteries despite continuing to smoke, even with poorly managed diabetes and CHF. They wanted her on statins, Vioxx for her arthritis (luckily we researched that one after the cardiologist declared it safe, and politely refused), etc etc. Instead of accepting standard medical advice out-of-hand, she takes Bromelain and Co-Enzyme Q-10, and amazed cardiologists when she reduced her arterial plaque buildup from 50% to less than 20% in the space of months, despite smoking and still eating the occasional junky sweet roll, and practically living on cheap high-fat hamburger meat and fatty sausage. I still wish she would quit smoking and give up the sweets, but she's doing amazingly better than docs would believe based on her dismissing their drugs and dietary advice, and taking "weird" supplements instead. By the way, all this does help explain how my mother got into such terrible health by her early 60′s (lifeong messages that carbs are good, fats are bad) but also why she is remarkably slim, strong, erect-standing, and how the heck she managed to clear her clogged arteries despite continuing to smoke, even with poorly managed diabetes and CHF. They wanted her on statins, Vioxx for her arthritis (luckily we researched that one after the cardiologist declared it safe, and politely refused), etc etc. Instead of accepting standard medical advice out-of-hand, she takes Bromelain and Co-Enzyme Q-10, and amazed cardiologists when she reduced her arterial plaque buildup from 50% to less than 20% in the space of months, despite smoking and still eating the occasional junky sweet roll, and practically living on cheap high-fat hamburger meat and fatty sausage. I still wish she would quit smoking and give up the sweets, but she’s doing amazingly better than docs would believe based on her dismissing their drugs and dietary advice, and taking “weird” supplements instead.

]]> By: Meg http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/bogus-studies/last-gasp-of-the-dark-ages-of-nutrition/#comment-209347 Meg Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:17:30 +0000 http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=2675#comment-209347 I would like to reply to the Russian native who commented on how Russians eat so much meat and potatoes, fried foods and vodka, and yet are not fat... My personal hypothesis to this is, if you put those same Russians in houses, apartments, and offices where it's still kept at 70 to 72 degrees F or warmer all through the winter... and they never walk miles through the cold daily to get from place to place, but instead sit in a heated vehicle, whether car or bus or train... they too would become obese. The more cold a person is exposed to, the more calories he or she burns to exist and stay warm. That's why comparisons used to be made between a pound of wool on the back being worth a pound of butter, or some such. And typically, people whose ancestors adapted to extreme cold (and ate a traditional diet high in calories and fat in order to deal effectively with that cold) are the ones who balloon into the most extreme cases of obesity when they are plunged into year-round tropical temperature control, especially when physical activities are reduced to American levels. The Inuit, the Quebecois, and many other people whose ancestors adapted very well to cold climate living, can be seen as disproportionately obese compared to other Americans, when they live the typical American life. That's my suspicion as to why cold-climate people such as German and Russian Europeans, often bemoan "ballooning up" if they come to live in America for a long period of time, even if they don't live on junk or fast food. There is simply too much heated indoor environments and too little provisions in cities for walking or bicycling. Many places, you must drive even if the place you want to get to is but a mile away, and many Americans are accustomed to thinking of a mile as a long distance to have to walk. I would like to reply to the Russian native who commented on how Russians eat so much meat and potatoes, fried foods and vodka, and yet are not fat… My personal hypothesis to this is, if you put those same Russians in houses, apartments, and offices where it’s still kept at 70 to 72 degrees F or warmer all through the winter… and they never walk miles through the cold daily to get from place to place, but instead sit in a heated vehicle, whether car or bus or train… they too would become obese.

The more cold a person is exposed to, the more calories he or she burns to exist and stay warm. That’s why comparisons used to be made between a pound of wool on the back being worth a pound of butter, or some such. And typically, people whose ancestors adapted to extreme cold (and ate a traditional diet high in calories and fat in order to deal effectively with that cold) are the ones who balloon into the most extreme cases of obesity when they are plunged into year-round tropical temperature control, especially when physical activities are reduced to American levels. The Inuit, the Quebecois, and many other people whose ancestors adapted very well to cold climate living, can be seen as disproportionately obese compared to other Americans, when they live the typical American life.

That’s my suspicion as to why cold-climate people such as German and Russian Europeans, often bemoan “ballooning up” if they come to live in America for a long period of time, even if they don’t live on junk or fast food. There is simply too much heated indoor environments and too little provisions in cities for walking or bicycling. Many places, you must drive even if the place you want to get to is but a mile away, and many Americans are accustomed to thinking of a mile as a long distance to have to walk.

]]> By: JenJen http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/bogus-studies/last-gasp-of-the-dark-ages-of-nutrition/#comment-207456 JenJen Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:13:40 +0000 http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=2675#comment-207456 They are trying to say that meat is unhealthy and bad for the environment: http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/med_diet_meat_mortality.html They are trying to say that meat is unhealthy and bad for the environment:
http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/med_diet_meat_mortality.html

]]> By: Alicia http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/bogus-studies/last-gasp-of-the-dark-ages-of-nutrition/#comment-206974 Alicia Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:33:51 +0000 http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=2675#comment-206974 Sometimes the "a calorie is a calorie" thing is just the first half of a two-part argument. As in "A calorie is just a calorie, and each gram of fat has more than twice the calories of a gram of protein or carbohydrate, so avoiding fat will help keep your calories low." Sigh. Anyway, I appreciate the post and your logic about why these studies are flawed. Sometimes the “a calorie is a calorie” thing is just the first half of a two-part argument. As in “A calorie is just a calorie, and each gram of fat has more than twice the calories of a gram of protein or carbohydrate, so avoiding fat will help keep your calories low.” Sigh.

Anyway, I appreciate the post and your logic about why these studies are flawed.

]]> By: Pam Maltzman http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/bogus-studies/last-gasp-of-the-dark-ages-of-nutrition/#comment-206653 Pam Maltzman Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:25:24 +0000 http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=2675#comment-206653 Regarding gastric bypass, Dr. Eades, tonight I transcribed a report for a woman who had gastric bypass and then about six more abdominal surgeries. At this point she no longer even has a stomach! Yikes. Regarding gastric bypass, Dr. Eades, tonight I transcribed a report for a woman who had gastric bypass and then about six more abdominal surgeries. At this point she no longer even has a stomach! Yikes.

]]> By: Andrea http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/bogus-studies/last-gasp-of-the-dark-ages-of-nutrition/#comment-206482 Andrea Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:22:16 +0000 http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=2675#comment-206482 The whole gastric bypass thing baffles me. Why not just eat as if you had had the operation - wouldn't the results be the same? Actually, that has possibilities: how about a study where one group has the bypass, and the other a placebo operation? Double blind, of course....I bet both groups would show similar rates of weight loss, but the control group would have fewer surgical complications. <em>There actually has been such a study. And the finding was that subjects who ate the same as those who underwent the bypass had the same results as those who underwent the bypass.</em> The whole gastric bypass thing baffles me. Why not just eat as if you had had the operation – wouldn’t the results be the same?

Actually, that has possibilities: how about a study where one group has the bypass, and the other a placebo operation? Double blind, of course….I bet both groups would show similar rates of weight loss, but the control group would have fewer surgical complications.

There actually has been such a study. And the finding was that subjects who ate the same as those who underwent the bypass had the same results as those who underwent the bypass.

]]> By: nonegiven http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/bogus-studies/last-gasp-of-the-dark-ages-of-nutrition/#comment-206463 nonegiven Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:01:57 +0000 http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=2675#comment-206463 My guess is some of the carbs in vinegar have been converted to acetic acid? The same way some of the carbs in yogurt is converted to lactic acid. How many calories does acetic acid have? <em>I don't think very many, but I haven't checked. </em> My guess is some of the carbs in vinegar have been converted to acetic acid? The same way some of the carbs in yogurt is converted to lactic acid. How many calories does acetic acid have?

I don’t think very many, but I haven’t checked.

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