Comments on: More saturated fat nonsense

By: imsovain

imsovain — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 20:47:46 +0000

Came across a blog post by Fred Hahn that said that he went on a an all meat/fat diet.

http://slowburn.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/06/me_and_my_stres.html

He also said he talked to you about it. Did you give Fred any advice about such a diet besides the book recommendation?

Hi Imsovain–

I did talk to Fred about an all meat diet as recommended by Blake Donaldson, M.D. in his book Strong Medicine (from my collection of old diet books) written forty of fifty years ago. I didn’t really give any advice aside what was in the book.

Best–

MRE

By: lyndsey

lyndsey — Wed, 03 May 2006 11:16:16 +0000

The “beady-eye vegetarian” thing is amusing, I’ve never heard it before. I frequently eat the flesh of animals I find “cute” with no problem. (IE: ducks and cows.)

“And avoid fats from animal sources, except for fish.”

ARGH WHY WHY WHY WHY *bangs head on desk*

According to her article, I should have dropped dead by now. I pretty much only eat fat. Saturated, of course.

Anyway. Keep up the good work, Doctor.

By: Esther Hoff

Esther Hoff — Tue, 02 May 2006 21:22:18 +0000

“(A beady-eye vegetarian is one who will eat animals with beady eyes, i.e., chicken and/or fish, but avoids animals with non-beady, more human shaped eyes.)”

LOL! I’ve never heard that description before but it is priceless! I’ll have to remember that one.

By: Fran McCullough

Fran McCullough — Tue, 02 May 2006 18:58:33 +0000

I can testify that this budding Jane Brody doesn’t like being contacted. I’ve several times sent her information about fats to correct something she’d said but have never gotten back so much as an acknowledgment. Sometimes she’ll acknowledge that there are two schools of thought on a subject – which is why I wrote her – but she’s gun shy on fats.

By: Michael R. Eades, MD

Michael R. Eades, MD — Tue, 02 May 2006 15:52:15 +0000

It would indeed be wonderful to woo her over to the low-carb way of thinking (and based on her pictures I found online, it would do her some good), but it would be difficult to do for a couple of reasons.

First, in my research into who she is I found that her “love of animals almost led her to turn her back on journalism and become a veterinarian.” Makes me wonder if she isn’t a vegetarian, at least a beady-eye vegetarian. (A beady-eye vegetarian is one who will eat animals with beady eyes, i.e., chicken and/or fish, but avoids animals with non-beady, more human shaped eyes.) I know that all animal lovers are not vegetarians, but something tells me she is. Those folks are hard to convert, even if they need converting.

Second, in her profile that I was able to track down, it points out that Ms. Parker-Pope dislikes being contacted unless it is in reference to a call she has first placed herself.

By: Rick Mavroudis

Rick Mavroudis — Tue, 02 May 2006 13:51:42 +0000

Dr. Mike, instead of (justly) railing against this writer, wouldn’t it be an enormous coup d’etat to get her over to the low-carb way of thinking? Or at the very least, to have her begin to mention some of the lastest studies that justify it. I wouldn’t even mention it except for the circulation of the WSJ, making it a particularly worthwhile effort. Or am I just being naive?

By: Dan Cunningham

Dan Cunningham — Tue, 02 May 2006 09:21:47 +0000

Dr. Mike, if she was a low-carb zealot, then she would most likely be writing based on experience rather than dogma, which in my opinion, is much more valuable.

You become a low-carb zealot by watching it happen, and by experiencing exceptional health improvements after going against that which has been beaten into your brain for the last 30 years. You become a low-carb zealot after eating this way and feeling great.

If she could defend her position by saying “after battling my weight for X years, I finally followed a strict low-XXX diet and lost X pounds. Since then I’ve kept it off for X years by staying on my plan and have had these health improvements…” Of course, it’s hard to make that claim if you try to follow a low-fat diet.

By: A.K. Reinert

A.K. Reinert — Tue, 02 May 2006 00:53:17 +0000

“On the large scale, history shows that an uncritical and misinformed populace is a breeding ground for all manner of intolerant beliefs and practices. The discovery that truth has to fight for its survival is not a pleasant one, but is an essential realization in maintaining civilization. And in a society as open and susceptible to fraud as ours is, truth needs all the help it can get.” — Anthony Garrett

By: Michael R. Eades, MD

Michael R. Eades, MD — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:15:31 +0000

I am certainly not saying that only physicians can comment accurately about nutrition. William F. Buckley once famously said that he would rather be governed by 100 names pulled at random from the Boston telephone book than by the faculty of Harvard. I feel the same about physicians and nutrition: I would rather get my nutritional advice from 100 people gathered at random than from a consensus of all the physicians at any medical school.

But, that doesn’t mean I think it’s just peachy keen for someone who has zero nutritional background to be answering nutritional questions at a major newspaper. I don’t know how I would feel about it if Ms. Parker-Pope were a low-carb zealot, but she’s not, so I guess I’ll never find out.

You make a valid point, however. The truth is the truth, no matter who utters it.

By: Connie

Connie — Mon, 01 May 2006 15:41:28 +0000

Dr Mike I appreciate your comments on this writer, but are you saying a question on sat fats is a medical question? You I trust, but that’s the exception, not the rule, even among bariatric MDs.

In my personal experience, MDs treat illness and injury only with meds and surgery, and refer out for diet and exercise experts.

To say MDs are the ones to ask about nutrition? Aren’t MDs as a group, no more qualified than that writer, and they read the same things she does?