“I eat more saturated fat and red meat in one day than most dieters eat in a week and I’m still losing weight (down to 245 from 315). I would also put my blood tests up against anyone.”

Congratulations on the weight loss; however, your weight is simply one of MANY measures of health status, albeit an important one. Don’t forget to factor in other important factors like your age, body fat percentage, and other health problems.

What is putting your “blood tests up against anyone” designed to illustrate and/or prove?

“At least the Times came through in the very last line with the statement that these kind of studies can’t prove causality, but it was in the very last line, which proves of how little importance the writer deemed this statement.”

Or rather, how MUCH importance he attributed to it. It’s common for a writer, knowing that readers often remember for a longer time the LAST thing they read, to leave the reader with that closing statement.

“I think you’re getting causes and effects confused. Does being sedentary (a cause) lead to obesity (an effect) or does obesity (a cause) lead to a sedentary existence (an effect)? In other words, does being sedentary come from within or without?”

Far from getting them confused, I recognise both – yes being obese of course makes it harder, and riskier to exercise and of course many obese/overweight people are self conscious enough to rule out any form of exercise in public – come to think of it, the only time I go for a run is at night! Equally taking the step to a more active life helps a great deal with weight loss and maintenance of that loss.

“I’m of the opinion that the obese state drives people to eat more, move less, and drop their metabolic rates under certain circumstances. If they simply crank up the level of their activity, then they compensate by increasing food intake. If they eat less, they simply lower their metabolic rates to compensate. They can eat less for a while, and I mean less enough to overcome the drop in metabolic rate, but ultimately hunger prevails and they’re back to eating their previous diet. To fix the problem, obese people need to change their underlying metabolic milieu, which they typically can by going on a low-carb diet.”

Again you obviously won’t get any argument from me about the macro nutrient ratio of what should make up their diet, but what makes people over eat (beyond the blood sugar roller coaster) could easily make a up a book in itself – I guess that is the reason low carb authors usually refrain from muddying the waters with discussions of emotional/self destructive/self esteem/stress/boredom … (the long list goes on) … related eating. As you have pointed out before, those that do over eat after exercise are not just doing so due to some metabolic cause – their ignorance about the degree of calorie deficit they think they have created is in itself a common cause … but at least an easily rectified one! As I said at the outset of our exercise debate, if anything I tend to eat less if I push myself hard enough – but as I said, that maybe more down to the associated boredom and stress relief factors rather than the metabolic changes wrought by the physical exercise itself.

“There are two caloric effects: the caloric effect we typically think of, i.e., the energy content of the food and the endocrine effect of any given calories, i.e., what those calories do to the insulin/glucagon ratio and other metabolic hormones. Carb calories exert the typical caloric effect and a huge endocrine effect. Protein and fat exert caloric effects, but few endocrine effects. With the correct endocrine effects from consuming the right kind of calories, most people will spontaneously increase their levels of activity”.

Hmmm, yes to the endocrine/ insulin glucagon points (of course) – but I question the increase in activity – at least beyond the short term. We are all creatures of habit – and it is very easy to slip back to old behaviours. Since I now regard myself as an old hand at low carb (coming up on four years) I spend a bit of my time helping newcomers. I guess two of the most recurring pieces of advice relate to making changes beyond ‘simple’ macro nutrient control. First low carb won’t of itself change any of those emotional issues 90+ % obese/overweight people have with food (while I believe food is to be enjoyed, the whole concept of “comfort food” is a dangerous one for many people) What low carb does (and low fat doesn’t) is give people some breathing space without physical hunger – which is a golden chance to deal with those other problems. Second is taking up some form of regular organised exercise or more active life generally to make use of that initial burst of energy (physical and mental). My personal experience, and that I observe in many others is if you don’t do this early on then you will quickly forget how much things have changed, and while reverting to old habits may not lose you all the benefits of your new low carb life it will make maintaining any weight loss, and reaping the full health rewards much more difficult.

Cheers,

Malcolm

Hi Malcolm–

MRE

in one popular-science journal i have read there was an article about this study: http://press.psprings.co.uk/gut/september/gt128587.pdf
It looks perfect for fat-causes-cancer supporters. It is about vitamin C, which inhibits conversion of amines to nitrosamines in stomach. When lipids are added with vitamin C, conversion is not inhibited, but promoted further. Study was done in vitro. I have no scientific background to judge it. However, based on this one of the readers sugested that – instead of throwing fat out completly – we should eating veggies in one meal and meat in another.

Hi Martin–

MRE

I agree, but think it’s also the protein….like I mentioned before, people being told to not eat too much protein or their blood sugar will go up! Add to that the fat, which is just completely wrong!!

You know the old saying: the masses are asses. And never more so than when it comes to nutritional information.

MRE

I’ve seen a lot of posts where people are trying to restrict their protein intake, either for blood sugar issues (none T1 that I know of), or because they believe too much protein is “hard on the kidneys and liver” and make them “work harder”!! Personally I think the RDA is way too low and many people have only the RDA or a little bit more!!

On my team (SparkPeople.com, a free support site) I have several women who have increased their protein intake and now regulate their sugars better.

I’m glad I could help.

MRE

I am not familiar with Mary Young but she is misguiding this country. We will never be able to stop health problems associated with incorect information about food with people like her.

Sorry for such a long vent,
Mary

No problem. Vent away.

MRE

Secondly: I can’t begin to tell you how many people I know who are type II’s that have or have had cancer of some sort. Most of those, surprise surprise, are type II’s who inject insulin.

IIRC from my days in research, isn’t insulin angiogenic? Doesn’t a cancer firstly need a blood supply established? Then it needs food. Like glucose. So people with hyperinsulinemia would naturally be at risk and people who God forbid had hyperinsulinemia AND hyperglycemia would essentially be doomed. (statistically…)

Now, having agreed with you, is there any research purporting beta cell damage or protection from a diet high in sat fat (but low in carbs?). I”m thinking probably not just because nobody DOES research that’s high in fat but low in carbs. Any thoughts on this?

Hi Beth–

MRE