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Archive for December, 2010

Just in time for New Year’s

Posted in Psychology on December 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

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Wheat, grains & industrial food

Posted in Ancestral health, Food industry, Nutrition on December 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

More good stuff from JP at Primal Journal (emphasis his):

If wheat really was to blame for all the problems we have in our society, then we would probably have witnessed the end of civilization a great while ago. …

I will never recommend eating wheat because it’s potentially dangerous. More importantly, it takes the place of more valuable and important foods in our diet such as meat, veggies and fruits. We now have the choice of eating better foods, so we might as well do it. …

I suggest that the industrialization of foods – especially of wheat, soy and sugar – made us unhealthy. The original food items were probably not as bad as we think until we started to heavily and industrially transform them into cakes, frozen dinners, margarine, disgusting and tasteless oils, twinkies, meat-looking substances, pasta and bread.

Word!

While I’m at it, this is an opportunity to link to one of the best moderate positions on grains I’ve read: Darya Pino’s Intact Grains vs. Whole Grains (a must-read if you haven’t):

Though I eat relatively few grains compared to most Americans, I cringe when I see the shining example of low-carb living, The Atkins Diet website, with images of fake pancakes and pasta plastered all over it. If that is what low-carb is, I want nothing to do with it.

Processed food is still processed food, whether the carbohydrates have been synthetically removed or not. Stick to eating real food and you’ll never have to worry about carbs.

Your mileage re wheat and other grains may vary, but if you’re not going to avoid them and you’re not gonna go all Weston Price on them, then sticking with real, whole grains is your best bet.

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Coming soon: Perfect Health Diet

Posted in Ancestral health, Diet on December 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

I’m probably not going to get to this over the next couple days (lots to do, people to see, places to go … ho ho ho!), so thought I’d tease it now. I’m planning to do a pretty big write-up of the Perfect Health Diet.

Here’s a spoiler: I like it. A lot!

The interesting thing (to me at least) is that I almost had written PHD off … because one of the very first blog posts I read there ticked me off. I thought it painted a paleo/primal diet as “zero-carb” … which it isn’t, and IMO essentially set up something of a straw man re the question of carbs. In a bit of a fit of pique, I unsubbed from the blog. Fortunately, I got pointed there again from one of my other regular reads, and got past my not-so-great first impression.

So stay tuned, will have more after the holiday break.

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LA Times: A reversal on carbs

Posted in Low carb, Macronutrients on December 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

At the risk of piling on (this has been all over Twitter and the blogosphere), I think it’s worth commenting on yesterday’s article in the LA Times that points “accusingly at sugar and refined grains” saying that “cutting carbohydrates is the key to reversing obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.”

I don’t think the story is as remarkable for what it says, although it’s pretty impressive to have Dr. Walter Willett, the chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health say:

Fat is not the problem. … If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases.

No, while I think that’s certainly amazing, what I find remarkable is that this story actually appeared in the national mainstream media (the LA Times is in the top 5 for circulation). It feels like an important sequel to Gary Taubes’ What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie? for the NY Times in 2002.

But there’s something else.

Living in a paradigm shift?

I realize that nutrition science is young and also a wicked problem. That said, I’m not at all surprised by the news re carbs: it’s stuff that folks like Taubes and Lustig and others in the low-carb and paleo/primal camps have been saying for years.

But for some reason, seeing this article was a bit of an emperor’s new clothes moment for me. I mean, what if? What if fat isn’t the villain and refined carbs — the kind of stuff that has made up a huge percentage of the standard American diet — is?

For one, couldn’t it mean that for the last half-century or so, the US has been undergoing a pretty damn scary public health experiment? Maybe it’s me, but it …

Just. Boggles. The. Mind.

If I wasn’t so old (and if it wasn’t apparently a waste of time), I’d so consider getting a PhD and making this my dissertation. What I’d probably look at specifically is to what extent we owe this scary state of affairs to the fact that two doctors — Ancel Keys and Robert Atkins — were both pretty much asswipes.

But for now, I’m just going to continue to try and undo the damage of decades of listening to what is looking like the worst possible advice when it came to food and weight.

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Dan Ariely on temptations & self-control

Posted in Psychology on December 20, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Here’s a nice little video to watch as the hard-core holiday temptations are really kicking in:

Dan says:

One of the challenges of human life is what’s good for us in the long term often doesn’t seem good for us right now. Dieting, for example, is not so much fun now, but good for the future; the same goes for saving money or submitting to preventive medical tests. When we face such tradeoffs, we often focus on the short term rather than our long-terms goals, and in the process we get ourselves into trouble.

But wait! There is hope. By understanding where we fall short, there are methods we can use to overcome our natural (and less than desirable) inclinations.

I managed to lose some weight over Thanksgiving. Xmas/New Year’s may be a little harder, but I’m going to give it a good ol’ college try!

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Nutrition science vs food

Posted in Nutrition, Research on December 18, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Great post by JP over at Primal Journal on why nutrition science sucks:

The pillars of nutrition science are weak because of the approach used. Population studies are irrevelant in most cases and, yet, they are very popular. …

Most studies are short term studies. Also, using questionnaire as a way to gauge food intake and choices has been done extensively. We all know how unreliable these questionnaires are : People lie in these questionnaires. …

The biggest problem in my opinion is the lack possible comparison between diets. … Another problem we face is the lack of multidisciplinary knowledge amongst nutrition experts.

Lots of good points — be sure to check out the whole post. I particularly liked his bottom line (emphasis mine):

Modern nutrition science sucks because too many variables are into play with no mean of knowing what’s really harmful or not. People are getting fat and most of their focus is nutrition since it’s so popular in the media. However, making people healthier require people with multidisciplinary knowledge and unbiased information. Both are not too present and this is why -not carbs, not fruits, not tubers, not fat, etc.- people are not getting healthier. As a side note, question the claims of all medias. If you want to eat an healthy diet, eat foods you can pick in the nature.

I’m convinced that nearly all diets — low-carb, low-fat, and everything in between — work because they largely remove industrial food. The rest (like the Twinkie diet) work by reducing calories in the short term.

When in doubt, go with real food!

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Lies, Damned Lies, & Statistics: The Biggest Loser

Posted in Weight loss on December 17, 2010 | 5 Comments »

Each time it’s on, I get hooked watching The Biggest Loser on NBC. It’s kind of a guilty pleasure: it’s a bit of a train-wreck (it’s a pretty abusive way to lose weight IMO — reminds me of exercise bulimia), but the personal stories always grab me. Who doesn’t like to see the 400-lb, laid-off dad with two kids wind up losing tons of weight, get a car, and $250K?

But as I watched the finale earlier this week, I was struck by the thought that this season’s contestants didn’t seem to be as ripped as in past seasons. A few days later, I was home nursing a mouth full of novocaine, and came across a Biggest Loser recap. I decided to see how this past season compared to past seasons. So off I went to the Biggest Loser entry on Wikipedia and fired up Excel.

(more…)

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