Nutrition & Metabolism meeting
MD and I just got back from the Nutrition & Metabolism meeting in Phoenix. I’ve been dilatory in posting and in putting up comments because the meeting and the pre- and post-meeting socializing (most of which was discussion of one another’s work and the status of the low-carb diet in academia) took up all of my non-sleeping time. And all the pre- and post-meeting socializing included both film and podcast interviews.
The Nutrition & Metabolism meeting is held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Physicians (ASBP). We skipped the ASBP meeting because we couldn’t take the time away from the book project we’re working on. As a result we missed a terrific presentation by Robert Wolfe, formerly of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, now at my alma mater, the University of Arkansas. Dr. Wolfe has done much of the work on protein metabolism and has shown in a number of papers that good things happen when protein is substituted for carbohydrate in the diet. When MD and I got there, Dr. Wolfe was in the hall trying to escape from a barrage of questioners. I listened in and learned, among other things, that his work with glucogenogenesis has shown that the newly minted glucose (made from protein) goes first into glycogen and from there into the circulation. I always thought it went directly into the blood stream from the liver, but work with carbon 13 tracing shows that it goes into glycogen first.
Before I had to get suited up for the first interview, Richard Feinman and I were able to slip off and have a cup of coffee.
And a joke or two. Richard has a great dry sense of humor. That’s probably why Anthony Colpo doesn’t like him.
Putting on my game face for the film interview. Note the lack of socks. The producer promised me I would be shown from the waist up only.
Doing a podcast interview with Jimmy Moore.
A dinner conversation with Gary Taubes, Mary Vernon and a tired Nicolai Worm, who had just flown in from Germany.
There were a number of informative presentations during the course of the meeting, a number of which I plan on posting about as time allows (the book deadline draws near). Casual conversations during the breaks, however, were often more enlightening. One of the commonest conversational subjects was how so many incredibly smart people could fail to see the obvious and ignore or even bash carb-restricted diets when so much data is out there showing their superiority. During one of these discussions, one of the scientists at the table (one who does not want to have this statement attributed to him/her, so I won’t) said:
It’s really pretty easy to see why if you understand academia. If, as an academic, you go down the low-carb rabbit hole, your chances of survival in that dog-eat-dog world are about 5 percent. If you follow the herd and pooh pooh low-carb diets, your chances of survival are about 95 percent. The smartest of the academics figure this out quickly and follow the path that leads them to survival and promotion.
It’s a sad commentary, but I’m not all that sure that I wouldn’t have done the same thing (gone with the 95 percent chance of survival) had I gone the academic route instead of the clinical practice route. It would have been a difficult call.
MD and me with Gary Taubes and Nicolai Worm
Gary Taubes gave two good talks. The first was the same one you can find all over the internet (I posted on it earlier). The second was a presentation on the history of the idea that cholesterol and saturated fat are risk factors for heart disease. This was Gary’s first go at this presentation, and it was beyond excellent. I thought the first presentation was good, but the second was exceptional. It’s difficult to believe what a bunch of chicanery and smoke and mirrors went into this idea that is accepted by virtually the entire mainstream right now. Simply mind boggling. All of this information is in Gary’s book (which I’ve read three times in its various iterations), but it’s even more unbelievable seeing it presented in slide form. I don’t think anyone made a video of the presentation, but I’ll check and let everyone know. If so, it’s not to be missed.
Mary Vernon, MD and me.
Mary also gave a wonderful presentation. She stated it better than I’ve ever heard it stated when she told the group of physicians about the power of a low-carb diet, and how they needed to carefully monitor their patient’s medications. She said:
Nothing in your medical training will have prepared you for how quickly this is going to work.
Mary is an absolute ball of fire. I don’t know where she gets the energy. If you ever have a chance to meet her or hear her speak, take it. I think MD talked Mary in to coming to her (MD’s) big performance of the Carmina Burana at the end of May.
The last lunch. Gary Taubes, Richard Feinman, me, and Jay Wortman. I’m holding a copy of Jay’s video My Big Fat Diet made with the First Nation people in Alert Bay. Jay is going to let me know how readers can obtain the video. As soon as I hear from him, I’ll pass the info along. He showed the entire video as part of his lecture at the meeting. And, lest I forget, the object in front of Richard Feinman is his award as the Nutrition & Metabolism honoree of the year.
For those of you waiting for comments that you’ve written, I’ll get to them as soon as I go through the giant pile of mail that awaits me.
I definitely would like to see Gary Taubes’ presentation on the history of the idea that cholesterol and saturated fat are risk factors for heart disease on video.
I would like to report one observation I made with regards to the role of exercise in a low carb lifestyle. For months, I’ve been eating less than 20 gm of carbs a day (primarily in the form of nuts and veggies), and my weight has remained stable and my ketostix tests showing mild ketosis. Recently I decided to hire a personal trainer and start working out heavily in the gym. Now, I get large amounts of ketones in my urine even though my diet hasn’t changed (my wife prepares our low carb meals). I wonder if anyone has done a good study measuring the effect of heavy exercise on fat metabolism in the absence of significant carbohydrate intake. I know that Taubes has said that there is no evidence that exercise makes you lose weight, but I’m still curious about it.
Hi Doc–
Gary Taubes has been terribly misunderstood about his writings on the role of exercise in weight loss. The common prescription given by many physicians, nutritionists and dietitians to people seeking to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more. Often people are told to ‘just get out and move a little. Take a walk. Climb the stairs instead of taking the escalator.’ Stuff like that. The medical literature is pretty clear that these types of exercise don’t help people lose weight – the body simply compensates for them. That’s what Gary has been saying, i.e., the average recommendations to ‘move more’ are pretty much worthless.
He would be the first to acknowledge that an intensive exercise program coupled with a low-carb diet would accelerate weight loss. I’m sure that your heavy workout is burning fat, as evidenced by your increase in ketosis.
Best–
MRE
Dr. Mike,
I am a firm believer in low carb living and have been doing this for about four years now. Initially I lost weight very quickly (a total of about 28 pounds), while eating large quantities of low carb food. Over the years it has become very difficult to even maintain my weight loss. Although I’m not great at tracking my food intake, I do believe I am eating smaller quantities now than when I first started the low carb diet. Intermittent fasting lead to some weight loss for me (I was definitely not eating a day’s worth of calories in my food window), but I found that difficult to maintain. I also exercise quite a bit (over an hour a day, every day). I run marathons and ultra marathons, as well.
My question is…does your body adjust to the low carb diet after some period of time? Does excessive exercise make this worse? I’m not going to give up the low carb diet, as I believe it is the best for my health. Here’s some stats on me: female, age 42, 5’8″, 175, blood glucose and blood lipid levels are excellent. I do have a family history of diabetes (both type I and type II) and obesity. I’d love to hear your thoughts, but I know you can’t really offer medical advice over the internet.
Thanks,
RK
Hi RK–
I’m going to do my very next post in the next day or two on this very subject. It should answer all your questions.
Cheers–
Mark Levin: “It appears that fructose and galactose have approximately ten times the glycation activity of glucose, the primary body fuel[6].”
That study is based on refined purified fructose. It is illogical to assume that the same would happen with, say, fresh fruit or unheated (comb) honey. I think the problem with all of these sugars comes from the extensive refining and heating they undergo. Their lack of nutrients is causing the glycation. I bet if you put protein in raw honey or fruit juice, it would not hardly any glycation. This is the problem with a lot of low-carb proponents, IMO. They talk about a study using refined sugars, as if it implies something for fresh, raw, natural, unrefined sugars. Let’s see some studies using unheated honey and raw fruit juice. I bet they don’t cause even one percent as much glycation as the refined processed sugars do.
Also, the term glycation is a misnomer, because a lot of the protein damage blamed on sugar actually comes from lipids. Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs) are coming to be known as Advanced Lipoxidation End products (ALEs), too, meaning that the damage comes from the oxidation of PUFAs (which are abundant in modern diets, and build up in the body with age).
http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/full/271/17/9982
Hi Bruce–
I disagree about the idea that the lack of nutrients in refined sugars as the driving force for glycation. Plain old glucose – blood sugar – causes plenty of glycation, and it is just a sugar. I suspect that protein incubated in a solution with fresh honey would glycate just as readily as with a comparable mixture of refined fructose and glucose.
Best–
Ok, here you hve it. My, forgive me, ex-wife and I used the Hp/Lc way of eating in 1996. We both ate that way for over nine3 months. Exercised and followed your plan to a tee. She lost almost 60 pounds and me 48 and felt great. Then for some reason we stopped. Didn’t take long to put the weight back on. Anyway, now in 2008 I’ve been diagnosed with diabetes. I wanted to start using your plan again simply because I know people who were on the pill and just a few weeks later they were off. I’ve always been skeptical of the medical proffession believing that a majority of doctors only want to treat systems not cure them. Being 58 years old I’ve read many reports of things that could make and keep you healthy. AMA always turns against these studies. Why? If we were all healthy we wouldn’t need them nearly as much as we do now. What would that cause? Lost of income and devistate the drug companies. I’m not totally anti-doctor. When I had my accident, if it wasn’t for the quick thinking of a doctor I would have lost my leg. Now to the point. I started on your plan. I told my daughter, which had tried your way once, she said she felt awful, probably because of a carb crash. Anyway, she turned totally against lc way of life. She has done nothing but research the internet for the negative. She even found one nutritionist that said the lc is absolutely the most dangerous diet a diabetic can do. She sent me all kinds of sites to go to to prove you wrong. That there is proof you are wrong. That being on your diet long term causes premature death. I have one web site, it,s in my e-mail. Oh, his name is Ornish. According to my daughter, he claims to have the ONLY studies that prove the lc is not good for you.. I tried to tell her her that thousands of people have been using your way for years and that you have thousands of case studies and years of research and refinement. But, the biggest problem with her, she absolutely trusts the AMA and I guess she absolutely refuses to search for the possitives. I read about the guy who theorized about the tetonic plates. How true in this case that so many would not see the light. Simple answers: being backed by drug companies, no need for their services, lost wages. Thank you DR. Eades and your wife for doing what you do so well. HeeHee. I hope this isn’t too long to make it to you. Barry Bennett
Hi Barry–
No, it’s not too long. It’s just sad. I’ve discovered that there is no way to make someone who is hellbent on another way of eating to change. These people have to come to it themselves. I wish your daughter well.
Best–
Very interesting and thank you for sharing.
PS I find it a little amusing that there is a platter of what appears to be bagels or some kind of rolls, in front of what might as well be the mount rushmore of the low carb world (you, taubes, feinman).
Notice that the bread is still in the platter and not in us.
Cheers–
MRE
Dr. Eades, this is off the subject but I have come across some information concerning an Italian oncologist named Dr. Simoncini. He says that cancer is caused by a fungus and has treated tumors by flushing them with sodium bicarbonate . Have you heard of this and if so, what is your opinion?
Hi Patty–
I have never heard of Dr. Simoncini or his methods, so I can’t give an intelligent answer. Maybe other readers can shed some light.
Best–
MRE
Dr. Eades, I look forward to what Gary Taubes says about the “Prevention” article. I read it on a low carb site where I am a regular poster. As a matter of fact, I stopped reading the magazine after I became aware of their lack of low carb knowledge. Prevention magazine is a bit anti-low carb and I was surprised that this article was even considered by the editors. I would like to hear what Gary’s experience was with this periodical.
Low-carb IFing and loving it,
Mary
Hi Mary–
I’ll ask him next time I talk to him.
Best–
MRE
Nice to meet you. I claim to be kadu.
I serve as a reference very interestingly.The article was very informative.
I am fortunate when I link.
http://daily-health-idea.blogspot.com/
Dr. Eades,
Have you stopped blogging or is my browser not refreshing? Haven’t seen anything for a while. Miss your commentary.
If you have a moment, check out my post today “washboard abs on a high fat diet, no cardio and no ab routines.” http://www.marksdailyapple.com/high-fat-diet-no-cardio-washboard-abs/#comments
Hey Mark–
I’m back at it. Thanks for continuing to check.
Best–
MRE
Any comments on this study? Sorry, it has nothing to do with the current topic.
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/66/5/1264
I’m quite familiar with this study. I find it interesting, but without knowing what’s happening to glucagon (insulin’s opposing hormone) at the same time, it’s pretty much worthless.
“I listened in and learned, among other things, that his work with glucogenogenesis has shown that the newly minted glucose (made from protein) goes first into glycogen and from there into the circulation. I always thought it went directly into the blood stream from the liver, but work with carbon 13 tracing shows that it goes into glycogen first.”
I’m intrigued by this. What is the significance of it?
Thanks,
Pat
No real significance other than the conversion has an extra step that most people didn’t think was there.
Dr. Eades,
I’ve been reading your blog with great interest (in addition to following the writing of Mr. Taubes) and based on my personal experience, the low-carb lifestyle or diet works great for me. I am planning on reading through your books and Mr. taubes ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’ book as well to gain more scientific insight into why low-carb works and the general effect of carbs on the body. I have a few questions that I was hoping you shed some light on:
1) Is it possible that the low-carb diet (or any diet that is being peddled these days) works for some people are not for others due to genetics? I see the arguments that go on about high-carb vs. low-carb, high-fat vs. low-fat, etc., and wonder if there needs to be any arguments at all because maybe one diet works for one person while another wouldn’t, so why argue? All it takes is a bit of self-experimentation to find out what works for your body type.
2) I workout hard with weights 5 days a week doing circuit training and my concern is that carbs are considered fuel for the body and if I go low-carb where will my body draw fuel from? I assume my fat reserves? What about when I need to replenish my glyocen stores? Is that when I should increase my carb intake?
Thanks for all of the hard work you pour into the research and science behind what you write about. It’s very refreshing to constantly learn new things.
Thanks,
Jeff
I would think that any diet would work slightly differently within a population of people based on genetic differences. But I don’t think these differences would be great enough to, say, mean that a low-carb diet wouldn’t work for some people. I think it works for all, maybe a little better for some than for others, but still probably the best diet for all.
Studies have shown that after a period of low-carb adaptation the enzyme responsible for making glycogen in markedly more active, squeezing glycogen out of whatever sources are available, including the glycerol left over from fat breakdown. People are more insulin sensitive after an intense workout, so, if you are going to consume carbs, that’s the time to do it. It will pretty much convert to glycogen as long as you don’t over do it and consume so much that your glycogen stores are filled and there is still sugar left over.
Cheers–
MRE