Is the mainstream starting to turn?
A couple of months ago I posted several times on an Israeli study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (full-text here) showing that low-carb diets brought about more weight loss and better lipid profiles than low-fat diets. (See the various posts here, here and here) Based upon how the press reported this study, I figured that it would drift into the haze of history and never be mentioned again. After all, this wasn’t a particularly good study – there are many others better done that show an even greater effect. And they were all forgotten. None made any impact on the mainstream docs. Why should this one be different?
Imagine my surprise today when I got my emailed weekly version of Medscape Internal Medicine and found not just a lukewarm recommendation for the low-carb diet, but an enthusiastic one.
Medscape is a subscription service available only to physicians and is as mainstream as it gets. The lead article in this weeks issue is not really an article, but a video lecture. One Dr. Sandra Fryhofer lectures the mainstream docs subscribing to Medscape on what the above study shows. She points out the weaknesses of the low-fat diet and is positively enthusiastic about the low-carb diet. She does issue a disclaimer, i.e., that the study was partially funded by the Atkins Foundation, but that’s about all.
She does get into the energy balance equation and the idea that it’s impossible to lose weight without exercise, but aside from that and he kind of condescending manner, the video is a real endorsement for the low-carb diet. And – and I still can’t believe this – it’s being beamed out to mainstream physicians everywhere.
Since Medscape is a subscription service (it’s free, but you have to prove you’re a licensed physician to get the service), I figured they wouldn’t look kindly on my posting my username and password on this blog so that readers could see the video for themselves. But I desperately wanted you all to see it. So, I worked all afternoon trying to copy the video from the Medscape site and convert it to a form that I could post here. After about four hours of trolling sites telling me how to do it in language I didn’t understand, I decided to see if I could somehow upload it onto YouTube. Another zero there. Finally, I called our youngest kid (he of the roughly sutured head) who is sort of a computer whiz and asked him if he could get ‘er done. He fiddled with it for a while then put out the call to all his buddies for help. A few moments ago I got an email from him telling me that his girlfriend found it already up on YouTube. So, had I looked there first, I might have saved myself a lot of wasted effort.
Take a look and see if you don’t think Dr. Fryhofer is pretty enthusiastic about the low-carb diet. I still can’t figure why this particular study would have rung her chimes, but I’m glad it did. You can use this video as part of your armamentarium when you try to persuade your own doc why you want to go on a low-carb diet.
Enjoy. Maybe the tide is starting to turn.
here’s a video that might be of interest: “Dr. Beatrice Golomb, UCSD Department of Medicine discusses her work with cholesterol drugs effects on other aspects of health and well-being…”
It’s from around the year 2002, but at roughly minute 10 she talks briefly about carbs being bad, and TG, and LDL particle size. The video is about an hour, and seemingly is one of the efforts that doctors do to get trial volunteers. I wish she had a more recent one out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG-IARKXS4Q&feature=related
In my opinion, a slight nod to reducing high-glycemic carbs can’t overcome 59 minutes of pro-statin/the lipid hypothesis is right blarney.
Medscape, bless them, will allow you to sign up for their newsletters as a student – and what’s more, as a student in a particular specialty – without any corroborating evidence at all. I get their endocrinology, nursing and med student newsletters. Whilst I have no plans to become any of these things, I’m completely comfortable about admitting to a student’s interest in all of them! Plus, I’ve never had spam as a result of the Medscape account.
This is great news!!! I have just started the paleo diet and it seems to be working really well. I am feel the tides are slowly changing also. Although the mediterranean diet did well too but thats ok because I have lots of olive oil, nuts, fish etc.
“Sounds to me as though your carbs would be low enough.”
Just a passing comment. Both from my own experience and from, for instance, the Israeli study, it appears that the low-carb approach is a very forgiving diet.
I myself lost about 35 pounds in a few months earlier this year by just cutting the high-carb ingredients (pasta, rice, etc.) from dinner every day and laying off snacks and sweets. This largely happened during a period when my exercise habits went south (I got started again towards the end of the period).
As you have also pointed out, the Israeli diet wasn’t terribly strict at all with regards to carbs. And still it works. That’s perhaps the greatest advantage of the low-carb approach: It seems pretty damn robust.
Also, an aside directed to the commenter above describing the whole low-carb vs. low-calory back and forth as a “war”: That kind of attitude and prestige-laden thinking is what got us in this spot in the first place. Let’s all just try to relax, read the data, and draw appropriate conclusions.
“Get plenty of L-leucine and consume a lot of calories. And do resistance training. I have a friend who is underweight (6′ tall and about 125 lbs) who started this regimen, and he has gained 10 lbs over the past two months.”
Dr. Mike, please post more about this! Also, what about minimum protein requirements to build muscle? I’m sure it isn’t as high as what bodybuilders typically consume (2 grams of protein per lb of weight).
I’m glad you pointed out the l-luecine as it is a ketogenic amino, something I learned a lot about when I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t in ketosis after 5 days. I was taking 2 grams of l-arginine (for NO), 2 grams of l-glutamine (for increased HGH production), and 4 grams of beta-alanine, all glucogenic aminos! I stopped taking these and sure enough, my urine had ketones in it two days later.
Excellent post and nice explanation of the main sources that gave me the confidence to go down this dietary route.
Thanks,
Darwin
[...] disease. I will be discussing this in the future, but there are is an emerging consensus that low carb diets can lead to better cholesterol profiles. People, put down the processed [...]
[...] disease. I will be discussing this in the future, but there are is an emerging consensus that low carb diets can lead to better cholesterol profiles. People, put down the processed [...]