John McCrae, M.D. (1872-1918)

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 WWI, The Great War, the war to end all wars, was formally ended with the German signing of the Armistice. We commemorate this day – formerly called Armistice Day – each November 11.

No one who wasn’t there or who isn’t a student of WWI can possible imagine the carnage, the vast populations of young English, German, French, Canadian, Australian and American males who perished in a conflict many feel was bungled by the generals on all sides. All who survived it couldn’t imagine there ever being another war like it. Little did they know.

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An annoying comment I hear all the time whenever I talk about how Ancel Keys set the country on the disastrous nutritional course it has been on for the last 40 years runs something like this: ‘I dunno. Key’s must have been doing something right because he lived to be 100.’

First, the fact that Key’s himself lived to be 100 doesn’t mean squat. Everyone has a relative somewhere that defied the odds. I would bet that just about anyone can name someone who smoked, drank and was obese who lived to a ripe old age. Winston Churchill, for one, comes to mind. Smoked, loved his booze, was obviously obese, and lived to be 90. It’s not the individuals that matter in terms of health and longevity, but populations as a whole. And since the US (and now the world, it seems) has been following the wisdom of Ancel Keys, look what has happened. Obesity and diabetes are at epidemic levels. So, while Ancel himself lived a long life, I’m not so sure a lot of his victims will.

But, since people obnoxiously continue to point out that Keys made it to triple digits by allegedly following his own recommendations, let’s look at another individual (which, again, mean nothing in scientific terms) for comparison’s sake.

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Finally the New York Times comes up with a halfway decent review of Gary Taubes’ book Good Calories, Bad Calories. In yesterday’s Science section John Tierney (obviously not a member of the Kolata/Brody/Burros coven) takes a serious look at Gary’s book and what it has to say about the mainstream medical/nutritional establishment’s recommendation to follow a low-fat diet.

Gary Taubes spends many pages in detailed analysis of how the mainstream went wrong in promulgating these incorrect recommendations for so many years despite the mountains of contradictory evidence. John Tierney brilliantly sums up the same situation in just a few paragraphs using a TV show most of us are familiar with as an example: Read more »

In the early part of the 20th century an entrepreneur name Charles A. Tyrrell developed and promoted an enema device called the J.B. L. Cascade (the J.B.L. stood for Joy, Beauty and Life). Mr. Tyrrell (later Dr. Tyrrell; he got a medical degree at age 57) found a ready market for his device – at that time a canvas-covered, rubberized-bag – because of the misbegotten doctrine of autointoxication that was prevalent during the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries.

During those years many health practitioners believed that the contents of the colon were highly toxic and could seep through the wall of the colon and cause self-poisoning or autointoxication. It’s kind of easy to see how this notion would arise since the contents of the colon are malodorous and not particularly attractive. No one with a properly functioning brain would want his/her colon contents running wild throughout the body. And the idea that many reasonable people held at that time was that constipation or even mild constipation allowed the ‘putrifying’ feces within the colon (and even the contents of the small intestine) to make its way from the colon into the blood and thence throughout the body.

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In going through the huge pile of mail confronting me when we got home from Europe, I found a prepublication copy of Gary Taubes’ new book Good Calories, Bad Calories.

I’ve read the book in manuscript form when it was 800 plus pages, again when it was cut down to 700 or so pages, and now I’m going through it again at its new, svelte 600 or so pages. It is a remarkable book, and one that, I believe, will initiate a sea change in the way everyone looks at nutrition. Unless I miss my guess, Taubes will be on every talk show known to man, and his book will be reviewed everywhere, and talked about by everyone. Just think of the satisfaction you will have (those of you who are long-term low-carbers) in just a couple of months when you can go around with big smiles on your faces telling everyone I told you so.

Here is a review from Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Rhodes that I cribbed from Amazon.com: Read more »