Last Friday I received an email from Jonathan Bailor promoting a new initiative called Slim is Simple. According to Bailor, SIS is:
an angel funded non-profit ancestral nutrition education organization [that] will provide compelling multimedia resources — free of charge — that the educational and health communities can leverage to share the simple, fun, and proven ancestral nutrition science necessary to stem the obesity, diabetes, and heart disease epidemics.
The email also promoted the initiative’s “first full-length animated ancestral educational” video (embedded below):
Courtesy of my Google Reader feed, I see that the video has been enthusiastically received by some of the paleosphere and/or the LC crowd:
- Paleoista: “I thought it was fantastic. It does a great job at appealing to the masses.”
- DietDoctor: “Here’s a nice new video called ‘Slim is Simple’ on how to get thin and stay thin.”
- Fat Head: “Last January I reviewed Jonathan Bailor’s excellent book The Smarter Science of Slim, which is very well written and packed with references to research. “
- That Paleo Guy: “I could just about retire the blog after watching this video clip.”
Call me ornery, crotchedy, or just in need of some sunshine, but I’m not quite as enthusiastic.
As it turns out, I’m not the only one. Over at the Carb-Sane Asylum, Evelyn is skeptical about both the SIS mission and its science:
And so now we are to have bad science repackaged as ancestral nutrition and a non-profit launched to spread his word.
Ouch!
As I don’t have the science background Evelyn does, I’ll let her have at that aspect in her blog. My issues with SIS are different: chiefly that for me, slim is anything BUT simple. And I doubt I’m alone.
I’ll grant that the Slim is Simple approach is not bad in and of itself. One certainly would be well served by getting off a processed food oriented diet and onto a more ancestrally oriented approach. And it’s great that the plan is to make this information freely available … even if it’s a loss leader for the complementary book.
But an ancestrally oriented approach, while “simple” in terms of prescription, is not necessarily “simple” in terms of practice. Don’t agree? Please see my “paleo is not a panacea” posts here, here, and here, browse the cheating or binge eating posts over at PaleoHacks, or look at case studies like the one Julianne recently posted.
For some of us, simple is NOT simple.
Which one do you feed?
I was going to save this one for a Quote of the Day, but it seems very relevant here. I’m sure you’ve all heard the story about the two wolves and the one you feed. But just today I heard an interesting spin on this which adds:
You might heard the story ends like this: The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
In the Cherokee world, however, the story ends this way:
The old Cherokee simply replied, “If you feed them right, they both win.” and the story goes on:
“You see, if I only choose to feed the white wolf, the black one will be hiding around every corner waiting for me to become distracted or weak and jump to get the attention he craves. He will always be angry and always fighting the white wolf. But if I acknowledge him, he is happy and the white wolf is happy and we all win.
Hmmmmmm!
Anything but simple?
Anyways, this is not an argument for figuring out how to have your cake and weight loss too. Or maybe it is? But it’s just my two cents that for some of us, slim is anything but simple.
A slick YouTube video and related educational material may well be the solution if/when the problem is lack of information. But for too many of us, it’s not the lack of info that is the challenge. For some of us, slim is a challenge because:
- we’re emotional eaters or suffer from other eating disorders
- we’ve got other hormone issues, like excess cortisol as a result of stress-filled lives that aren’t quite so easy to resolve
- we’re menopausal and dealing with the implications
- we don’t have the time, energy, or resources to prepare “simple” meals
- unlike our ancestors (or even our grandparents), we’re surrounded by cheap, hyperpalatable processed food as well as sophisticated marketing campaigns that are around 24×7
I’m sure there are more that I could add to the list, and for some folks, they’d probably suggest I add an “all of the above” option!
And while I’m being crotchedy … I would certainly be the last person to say that someone needs a PhD in nutrition or an MD to be a legitimate weight loss voice on the blogosphere, but honestly? I’m kinda annoyed that a guy who has apparently never had a weight issue and is still working a day job at Microsoft (and using their resources — or at least email account — to promote SIS) is hoping I’ll help him promote the idea that “slim is simple.”
[And as a former math major familiar with the idea of “lies, damned lies, and statistics” (often attributed to Mark Twain), I found the whole “3 million calories” factoid (~2:30) irritating. But that’s just me.]
So while the concept is simple (eat more like your ancestors) I’d say that putting that concept into practice may or may not be simple. And frankly, I don’t think that public health well served by putting out a message that “slim is simple” … I don’t see how that doesn’t fuel the weight stigma fire that it’s just all about personal responsibility.
I’ve not given up on being slim. But if I get there, I will argue that it was anything BUT simple!
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our modern culture -- especially diet. Beth writes about ancestral health, health policy, & mindfulness. And cats! 
I’m ignoring SIS until I can figure out what a “clog” is.
LOL! I actually didn’t mind the sink metaphor too much ;).
Clogs are shoes. Wooden shoes. I thought the video made that clear, just like everything else. …right?
LOL!!
I just read Bailor’s book. It’s basically a heuristic-based ad libitum strategy, which means it’ll probably have the same success rate as low carb. Some people will find it works great, and some people will have a hard time following the heuristics for whatever reason.
I don’t think these heuristics are “simple” at all (just look at all the explaining he has to do around the usage of low-fat dairy products). This is basically just a marketing strategy.
I guess that’s what those who seem so blown away by his message are impressed with, the fact that he makes it *seem* simple… because the content of Bailor’s actual diet wouldn’t appeal to most of them.
I don’t think, for example, that That Paleo Guy would actually get behind a diet that eschews all starchy vegetables.
http://thatpaleoguy.com/2010/08/08/mid-winter-blues/
It’s nice that Bailor’s found a way to turn one version of Paleo into an attractive message for the masses, but it would be nicer if the payload of that message were something a little more powerful.
I think there’s a “preaching to the choir” aspect of Bailor’s message that appeals to folks. But at some point, someone needs to start addressing why some folks aren’t able to be compliant with these approaches!
Nicely done, Beth
Thanks David!
One of the dumbest videos and taglines I’ve seen in awhile. Why not just support NuSci if you are a fan of low carb?
Because it doesn’t help you sell your books and quit your day job at the Borg?
I got this email for my blog as well, and I agree with your comments. Slim is NOT simple. I am one of those people who can’t keep compliance with paleo. I was actually losing my health trying. I haven’t found the solution yet for my weight, but I am at least sleeping all night, have lost my heartburn, and feel 90% better than I did on paleo by following a different eating plan.
I agree 100% that someone needs to look into why not everyone can stay complaint. And I haven’t actually written a food-related blog for close on a year because I’ve been trying to decide how to handle the change of focus in my eating habits and I am not looking forward to backlash.
I deleted the email because I didn’t want to give it any sort of traffic while I am dealing with my own philosophy shift. But I am glad someone has said pretty much everything I wanted to say for me. :)
Thanks so much for the comment! I probably wouldn’t have gone there if it was just another “eat real food” approach (which I agree with). But “slim is simple” completely discounts my life experience. You don’t want to do that to a blogger ;).
I wish Bailor (and all those fit young dudes downing sweet potatoes) could experience a year of hypothyroid or menopause. Just sayin’.
Word!
Awesome post…here’s what I am finding. Eating as he preaches it, but adding foods like bread and cheese and the occasional “sweet”, which is how my grandmother and great grandmother (both of whom never had a weight problem) ate/eat. (Grandma is 95 and still alive and kicking with a “healthy” appetite and GreatGMA lived well into her 90s, too, and she ate Oreos! Albeit, it would be interesting to compare the nutritional facts/ingredients of Oreos then and now). I very much agree that the processed food/beverage “industry” has pretty much ruined food, but having a homemade chocolate chip cookie or a hunk of cheese and bread once in a while is not going to clog my sink!
Yes! I think for a lot of us the challenge is not “I don’t know what I should eat” but “how do I navigate a very rocky food landscape?” It seems a no brainer to me that we’re evolutionarily wired to eat food when it’s available! My grandma or great grandma didn’t have to deal with a 24-hour Sheetz (a crack den for some of us) every few miles ;).
Can anyone explain to me what “aggressive” food is supposed to be?
Apart from sharks, wild pig, and the unappetizing barracuda (or snoek)?
Evelyn has a comment on her blog about this. Not exactly a scientific term ;).
The unchallenged assumption is that we all want to be slim. IBTP for this damaging, dangerous, and profitable idea.
Very good point!
I actually had to stop watching when he got to that ridiculous bit about how we’d all weigh 1000 lbs. One of my pet peeves is when people do calorie math completely wrong, without taking into account that “more” or “fewer” calories is in relation to maintenance and that maintenance changes as weight changes, and then use their absurd results of their absurd calorie math to say that therefore calorie theory is 100% wrong and calories don’t count and the real magic is low carbs/no grains/no ~neolithic~ foods/whatever.
I’m with you! That 3 million calories/1000 lbs bit was just unnecessary hyperbole IMO.
Off the record…
I happen to greatly appreciate “ornery” and “crotchedy” (aka authentic and honest)—any day—but most especially when they serve as lovely counterpoints to smug and simpletonian.
And for the record…
Wow. Beautiful sharing from your lived experiences, from both your mind and your heart.
Your observation about “fuel[ing] the weight stigma fire” is critical (in the best sense!) because it underscores the hidden costs (e.g. oppression and social domination) of a supposedly “nonprofit” and “free” offering—a priceless gift of personal healing and redemption (“angel funded”!!!) for the unsaved masses.
Also, thank you so much, Beth, for including the highly apropos wisdom of the wolves/Cherokee story.
I’m with you Beth. Slim is anything but simple. Plus why do some people persist in promoting the idea that there is ONE answer that works for EVERYONE? On a related note, I was watching the whole media frenzy over Chris Christie’s imminent death by fatness and it really highlighted the weight stigma issue. I’m not a big fan of Christie’s politics, but I almost stroked out when one commentator said that Christie’s weight was an issue for his political future because it showed his lack of discipline. OMG.
When I first heard about it, I was really looking forward to reading Bailor’s book because it was supposed to be so thoroughly researched, and chock full of citations to medical journal articles. I downloaded the sample to the Kindle app, and came across the same crapola argument about how the calories in - calories out concept CLEARLY isn’t true because if it were, by cutting 100 calories we’d eventually wither away to nothingness. Um … hello … are we not all familiar with the concept of different metabolic requirements at different weights? I’m not about to make the argument that weight loss is only about calories, but I figured if he couldn’t do better than that, how could I possibly begin to place any trust whatsoever in his selection of medical journal articles, or his analysis and synthesis of them? My only question was, how did he manage to get so many endorsements for his book?!?