Please let me know if you happen to fix it because I would like to know the info.

Thanks… GREAT web site by the way. I just discovered it yesterday and I stayed up until 3am consuming information and I’m starting up again today.

Your posts are quite long (not a complaint) which I usually wouldn’t read since I have a somewhat short attention span, but selecting the text and choosing Safari>Services>Speech>Start Speaking Text in Mac OSX Tiger (using the new Alex voice, which is much better than the old ones… you choose it in your system preferences) allows me to hear it read to me. That makes it so I can be cleaning or relaxing while it’s read to me.

I would like to see single paragraph summaries of these long posts just so I have a better idea of which ones I’d like to read/hear and which ones I might want to skip and I could still benefit a little from the ones I skip by having a general idea of the points raised in the post.

Thanks again for all the great information.

Hi Ben–

MRE

I was looking for info on Krill oil and arthritis and came across your articles on NSAIDS and then continued to read the one about weight. Both were fascinating.

I too have begun to take a mixture of krill oil, fish oil and hempseed oil and I have managed to get off my NSAIDS and put my CRP levels into the normal (remission) range for my long standing rheumatoid arthritis.

As you were talking about diet, this may interest you. Over the last 3 months I have been on the Shangri-la diet. This involves taking 2-3 tablespoons of (tasteless) oil a day with a one hour window both before and after the oil in which you consume nothing but water. An example of a tasteless oil is canola oil or extra light tasting olive oil. So far I have lost 16 lbs and part of this time I was also on prednisone (renowned for making people gain weight rather than lose), so I am very pleased with my weightloss so far. I have another 40 lbs to lose until I’m completely satisfied .

This diet works as an appetite suppressant, thus breaking the ‘always thinking about food’ and ‘never feeling full’ cycle so many of us who are overweight are caught up in.

So, the theory behind the diet, in a nutshell, is to break the link between flavour and calories (see http://www.sethroberts.net for the reasons why). Seth’s theory, like yours, is simply that the methods for weightloss espoused by almost all health professionals – eat less, exercise more – is simply the wrong advice.
It works like a charm for me, and many hundreds of other people. It’s worth having a look at the forums too http://boards.sethroberts.net/. Interesting stuff!

Hi Ruth–

Thanks for the comment. I am familiar with the Shangri-la Diet. I’m glad it’s working for you.

Best–

MRE

Thanks for some great books.

Thanks for the kind words. I’m glad you enjoyed PP. Let me know what you think of the LifePlan when you get it read. Don’t spend much time on the exercise chapter–we wrote that before we had our brain transplant.

Cheers–

MRE

I know that my case may fall in the anecdotal real but sometimes I wonder if there are other rather subtle factors that conspire against us depending on where we live. I couldn’t say that it is more exposure to, say low-carb products as I don’t and never did rely on those for anything. If I had a scale to measure it, I would say that the only factor that I can certainly say has increased several fold is stress. That of course, made me remember your blog entry on the mice that while under stress always chose the equivalent of comfort food (mixture of fat and sugar). So, to add to your analysis and brilliant dissection of the article, maybe it would be fair to add ‘stress’ to yet another reason behind obesity.

Hi Gabe–

I guess I do know one, come to think of it.

I totally agree with you on the stress issue. I firmly believe that stress is a major driving force behind the obesity epidemic. Also a cause for not sleeping well at night.

MRE

As noted by someone else, sleep problems may not lead to obesity but may be just another outcome of the obese state. After all, sleep apnea is an affliction that is very often corrected by losing weight but I’m not sure that treatments for sleep apnea (or surgical intervention) actually induces weight loss as a result.

Interestingly enough, nutrition per se is not included in those factors. The problem may be that the word ‘nutrition’ may be understood by researchers just as the balance between calories in and calories out or in the silliest way, just as the mere balance of the Big Two. In my mind, nutrition is at the core of the obesity epidemic, not only due to the physiology but also the economics behind the problem.

On a separate note, I’m not sure if there are studies available, but I would like to know if people outside the US that have adopted something like Protein Power, for example, and have controlled their metabolic problems have found it more difficult to succeed once they come to live here… Do you know anything about it? I’d appreciate any insight.

Hi Gabe–

Thanks for the, as always, interesting comment. I know a lot of people in other countries who are on Protein Power style diets, but I don’t know anyone who has been on such a program somewhere else, then moved here.

Best–

MRE

Aside from the science issues here, it’s interesting to see how economics and the dynamics of scientific careers so sharply skew the path of research. Okay, science has never been ‘pure’ in its search for ‘truth.’ There were egos and politics involved since Galileo and Jenner and Lister.

But it sure seems WAY worse now. Unless there’s a grant or a drug at the end of it, researchers won’t even LOOK that way. And you’re a crackpot if you do.

How true, how true.

Best–

MRE

Correl.btwn Fat Consumption and Cardio Death Rate
Fat
Year Intake CHD Rate
1910 18 % cal diet 49 deaths/100,000
1915 19 50
1920 20 55
1925 20 55
1930 21 60
1935 22 64
1940 22 71
1945 24 71
1950 25 72
1955 28 75
1960 29 71
1965 32 69
1970 34 64
1975 44 59
1980 47 51

Correl btwn Fat Intake + Cardio Death Rate = 2.7%

Correlations between Obesity/Overweight, Sweetener Production and Grain Consumption

Grain Sweetener Overweight +
Year Consumption Production Obesity %
1975 114 113 47.5
1980 117 120 49
1985 125 127 54
1990 140 132 56.5
1994 144 141.6 60
1995 142 144 61
1996 149 145 61.8
1997 150 146 62.6

Correl btwn Grain Consumption + Sweetener Prod = 96.9%

Correl btwn Grain Consumption + Total Overwt = 98.0%

Correl btwn Sweetener Prod + Total Overwt = 99.4%

Based on charts supplied by USDA Economic Research Service + HHS Nation Center for Health Statistics

Hi Mark–

Thanks for the stats. I agree with you and them.

Best–

MRE

I think you’re right. In my case, I needed 9 hours sleep on a high carb diet. Now on low-carb, with exercise, I do just fine on 7 1/2 hours a night. My energy throughout the day is also more stable.

–Iatrogenesis, the causation of a state of ill health brought on by medical treatment, is indeed a cause of weight gain. Multiple drugs commonly given for a host of medical disorders have weight gain as a side effect. Antihistamines, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, blood pressure medicines, diabetic medicines, steroid hormones, mood elevators, birth control pills–all have been shown to cause weight gain to varying degrees.–

This was a significant factor for me. I feel 100% better when on medication, but it is FACT that I went from merely “overweight” to clinically “obese” due to an anti-depressant. I have managed to lose the weight while on it, but it is slow going.

With the advent of better medications and more people getting diagnosed, there would be a rise in obesity. I’ve had depression since I was 10, but wasn’t actually diagnosed until I was 29! There’s more awareness of depression these days, and less of a social stigma, hense more people taking those medications.

Hi Mark–

The authors of the paper had the following throw away sentence playing down any effect of HFCS:

“Regarding HFCS, the leading source (in the Untied States) is sweetened beverages and three out of four studies conducted in children have found no association between soft drink consumption and BMI when controlling for total energy intake, raising the issue that there is no independent effect of HFCS calories on body weight, other than its pleasant taste possibly leading to the potential increase in total caloric intake as would any food.”

The HFCS folks are fighting back. See the New York Times piece from a few days ago:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/business/yourmoney/02syrup.html?ex=1152936000&en=177f8aaf8fef5463&ei=5070

Thanks for writing

MRE