The Hippest, Hottest Low-Carb Health Headlines

It’s been an exciting day today moving to a brand new blog here at WordPress and I couldn’t be happier. In fact, my new blog here was honored as #24 on their prestigious “Growing Blogs” list for August 5, 2008. SWEET! I expect the growth to continue as word gets out about where I’m blogging now.

While not all of the “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” blog fans have found my new home on the web yet, I’m sure in due course everyone will make their way over here. The work of spreading the positive message of the healthy low-carb lifestyle must go on and I fully intend on doing that at my new and improved blog. And the health headlines have been piling up, so it’s time to do something about that and share them with you today.

Here are some of the hippest, hottest low-carb health headlines of the day. ENJOY!

EXPRESS YOUR OPINIONS IN SURVEY ABOUT NEW SWEETENER

I recently shared with you about an exciting new stevia-based sweetener called Truvia. It should not be surprising to know that other companies are interested in getting their piece of the sugar-free, low-carb market with their own stevia alternatives to sugar. Take this survey and make your voice heard on the marketing of this new sweetener.

FATTY MEALS “FOG THE BRAIN”? RIIIIIIIIGGGGHT!

Did you see this silly Canadian study that came out last month in Nutrition Research that claimed Type 2 diabetics who eat fatty meals will “cloud their brain?” Hmmmm…would it be the fat in the foods they eat or could it quite possibly be the CARBOHYDRATES?! Nah, it couldn’t have ANYTHING to do with that at all, could it? Wanna see this “fatty” meal? A Danish, cheddar cheese and yogurt with whipped cream–sound pretty high-carb to me! This is proof yet again you can’t always believe the headlines.

STATIN DRUGS FOR CHILDREN?! THEY CAN’T BE SERIOUS!

File this one under the category of the inmates running the asylum! Holy cow, what in the world is the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) thinking? Their new official policy statement is supposed to show their increasing concern for elevated cholesterol levels, but are dangerous statin drugs like Crestor and Liptor the answer? What about natural dietary changes that call for the consumption of less carbs while increasing their consumption of healthy fats to bring down triglycerides, increase HDL cholesterol and replace the number of harmful small LDL particle size with the protective large, fluffy kind? Are we so desperate to artificially lower cholesterol levels that we would put an 8-year old kid on a prescription medication with questionable side effects? What has this world come to?!

LOW-FAT FOODS MADE US FAT BECAUSE THEY’RE HIGH-CARB

Finally, we get some semblance of sanity in the media with this story about how and why low-fat foods have gotten us into this obesity and diabetes epidemic in the first place. And it stands to reason–when you remove the fat from the products, you have to replace it with something and that usually means more sugar/high fructose corn syrup. As you and I both know, that hardly makes the food “healthy.” And while low-fat diet proponents like Dean Ornish decry these products, the perception still remains these low-fat and fat-free products are somehow better for you because they lack fat. How about keeping the fat in them, removing the sugar, white flour, and other high-glycemic load carbohydrates instead? DUH!

DISEASE PROOF LIKES JONNY BOWDEN, CALLS THIS BLOG “KOOKY”

It is incredible how much hatred there is out there for what I’m doing at this blog, but for some reason people feel threatened by what I write about. One of the most outspoken Internet sites against healthy low-carb living is the “Disease Proof” blog featuring the low-fat, vegetarian message espoused by Eat To Live author Dr. Joel Fuhrman and his blogging sidekick Gerald “Gerry” Pugliese. If you’ve never read this site before, then take a look at what they believe. In light of this, it should come as no surprise that Gerry would describe my blog as “kooky” in his column praising Dr. Jonny Bowden. What’s the purpose of calling out my blog like that, Gerry? We have a similar purpose in mind–helping people lose weight and get healthy–so why can’t you help yourself in continually lambasting the work I do?

READER’S DIGEST NEEDS SOME HELP WITH THEIR ATKINS “TRUTH”

You would think with all the tens of millions of copies of Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution that have been sold over the years that members of the health media would at least take a cursory look at the book before writing about the Atkins diet. But that must be expecting too much from them since NONE have apparently read the book at all. In this Reader’s Digest piece on the Atkins diet, they erroneously describe it as “high-protein.” But actually it’s more accurate to call it HIGH-FAT which makes it so healthy for you. Additionally, they claim in the story that Atkins “hasn’t been rigorously studied”–WHAT?! Where have these people been? There are over 100 studies about the health and weight loss benefits of the Atkins diet. Making ridiculous statements like this forces me to question the totality of the information found in the column. That’s too bad.

SPARK OF REASON BLOG WHETS YOUR “APPETITE” FOR LOW-CARBING

If you haven’t read this very well-detailed blog post from my blogging friend Dave Dixon at the “Spark of Reason” blog yet, then this is a MUST-READ! There are so many nuggets of truth and wisdom in this post, it’ll take you days, maybe weeks to absorb it all! Dave is one smart fella who is livin’ la vida low-carb.

TIME MAGAZINE QUESTIONS WHETHER FAT OR CARB CALORIES ARE WORSE

You know the penetration of the high-fat, low-carb message promoted by the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins and most recently by Gary Taubes in his September 2007 release Good Calories, Bad Calories has taken hold when Time magazine asks a very smart question about the quality of calories. KUDOS to them for at least asking the question. Unfortunately, their conclusions about fat and carbohydrate calories being equally harmful to weight gain totally misses the mark. Oh well, I knew it was too good to be true. But we’re getting closer to having the low-carb message out there prominently in the mainstream. And that’s a good thing!

STUDY LINKS VITAMINS WITH STOPPING WEIGHT GAIN

Now this is good news for those of us who take vitamins as part of our health and weight loss routine. According to a study published in the July 2008 issue of the International Journal of Obesity, weight gain was halted in obesity-prone mice who took folic acid, vitamin B-12, choline and betaine supplements. Curious, huh? While we all prefer to see weight loss when we have some extra pounds to shed, it’s nice to stop the bleeding by preventing the rise in body weight. The researchers says they think the mechanism is the fact that the “supplements had managed to suppress the activity of key genes related to obesity.” Vitamin supplements anyone?

DEATH PENALTY INMATE CLAIMS HE’S TOO FAT FOR LETHAL INJECTION

In this wild and wacky litigious society we live in, leave it to a death row inmate on his way to losing his life for the crimes he committed to come up with an excuse to use his obesity as a legal loophole to get out of the lethal injection that’s coming to him. Only in America! That’s exactly the argument that Richard Cooey and his attorney is hoping a judge will buy to help prevent his execution. Hopefully this is thrown out of court as frivolous because don’t you know death row will become fat row in the future if overweight or obese inmates are given a pass. Of course, electrocution works regardless of your weight!

DEAN ORNISH STILL CLAIMING IT’S “THE END OF THE DIET WARS”

For all his fawning about how the low-fat vs. low-carb debate is over, the fact of the matter is it is even more intense now than ever because of people like Dr. Dean Ornish. The man just can’t help himself apparently by constantly contradicting himself over and over again. His latest scheme is to claim the “end of the diet wars” is here, but then he turns right around the blasts livin’ la vida low-carb in the same breath. What dignity is gained from doing something like that?

After New York Times science blogger John Tierney featured some comments from his Times colleague Gary Taubes regarding that recent study comparing diets, Ornish contacted Tierney for his chance to rebut what Taubes had written. It was vintage Ornish and we really shouldn’t expect anything less than this. But I keep holding out hope that one day he’s gonna mean what he says about trying to find a consensus. In the meantime, I’ll keep challenging him to do that like I did in the comment section to this post with the following:

No, John, there is not “an emerging consensus on diet” as Dr. Ornish would so desperately have us believe with his “the diet wars are almost over” talk. That’s the kind of thing he said to me in my podcast interview with him earlier this year.

But it hasn’t gone without trying on my part. I issued this public challenge to Dr. Ornish as well as supporters of a controlled-carb nutritional approach to find those areas of common ground and rally around those in an effort to help the general public identify those key components that will help them with their weight and health goals. Unfortunately, Dean Ornish wasn’t interested in doing that and instead chose to continue with his sensationalist claims about a healthy high-fat, low-carb diet. It’s too bad he can’t see the forest for the trees.

Instead, Dr. Ornish implores a debate tactic against his opposition by claiming “we all agree” about what is considered a healthy diet. The reality is that we DON’T all agree on EVERYTHING despite the best efforts of Dr. Ornish. If we have such an “emerging consensus” then why don’t we hear people like Dean Ornish and other low-fat supporters joining in efforts like mine to stand together on those areas where we agree? Dr. Ornish has ignored my requests to do so.

Since we all agree, Dr. Ornish, why don’t you make it public record right here, right now that a high-fat, low-carb diet is healthy? After all, we all agree on what constitutes a healthy diet and health plan, so supporting such a position shouldn’t be difficult in the least. I issued this challenge to you over four months ago and still no response. What happened to this talk of “more areas of agreement than disagreement,” Dr. Ornish?

The floor is still open to you now. If you truly want to mend the fences you have destroyed by needlessly attacking the healthy Atkins low diet (which helped me lose 180 pounds in 2004) over the years, then NOW is the PERFECT chance for you to do it. Reach across the aisle to your low-carb counterparts like me and others and tell us where we have common ground with you since we all agree total carbohydrate restriction and increased fat intake is an essential to a healthy lifestyle. You wanted the opportunity, so here it is.

Will you step up to the plate, Dr. Ornish?

AMERICANS CLUELESS ABOUT WHAT “GOOD FATS” ARE (SO IS THE AHA!)

I really wish health organizations like the American Heart Association could just once see how utterly ridiculous and arrogant they look to thinking Americans like you and me. While they bemoan the fact that many people in the United States are unaware of what the “good fats” are now that these have become more widely accepted in the era of low-carb we are in, they simply overlook the role they played in continuing this “fat-phobia” that dominates our society to this day. With campaigns like “The Bad Fats Brothers” having cartoon characters tell us how bad trans fat and saturated fat is (trans fat is bad news, but saturated fat not so much), Americans are rightfully confused and this “Better Fats Sisters” follow-up campaign only further muddies the waters between fact and fiction. We deserve MUCH better from those who purport to be promoting health in America.

LEAN PLATE HEALTH COLUMNIST SALLY SQUIRES CALLS IT QUITS

As much as they will deny it publicly, members of the mainstream health media have an enormous impact on the way people eat and their perception of what a healthy lifestyle is. Such is the case with long-time Washington Post columnist and Lean Plate Club founder Sally Squires. I have been critical of her in the past for calling weight loss bloggers like me “amateurs” for not having a journalism degree, giving out suspicious health advice, and dismissing eggs as a health food. Sally has her opinions and has been eager to share them with her readers since 2001. But now she’s hanging it up to move on to other endeavors. Best wishes to you, Sally. Although we disagree on what a healthy diet is, I admire your passion for helping others lose weight and be healthy.

OBAMA “TOO FIT” TO BE PRESIDENT? WHAT THE?!

Although I am not a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama for President of the United States, I was disappointed in The Wall Street Journal for writing this column about how he is unable to relate to the common citizen because he is too thin. Say what?! The claim is that Obama is so thin he couldn’t possibly relate to two out of every three Americans who would call him their president. When did we become so shallow with politics that something like this would even be brought up? Obama has his faults as does McCain and the others running this year. But being “too skinny” should not be held against him. The guy can’t help it if he’s got good genes and works out consistently. Regardless of who you are voting for in November, I would hope that looks and appearances play a lesser role than experience, ideas, and policy decisions do. God help us if they don’t!

ASKMEN.COM WEIGHS IN ON LOW-CARB DIETING

Whenever a health magazine or web site starts describing livin’ la vida low-carb, I’ve learned to slowly gaze through the information provided to see if something looks out of place…and usually I’ll find a few things that do! Such is the case with this AskMen.com column on low-carb dieting. They mention that low-carb weight loss is generally all water weight initially which is true in part. But what people who make this claim fail to mention is that water weight loss is only temporal–the continued weight loss that happens on low-fat is fat loss. They also claim that the reason you lose weight on low-carb are the limited food choices. HUH?! Who wouldn’t want to eat delicious steak, meats, luxurious cheeses, green leafy veggies, fresh veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, and tomatoes, almonds, seeds, eggs…need I go on? And if you need some excitement with recipes, just see what Dana Carpender is cooking! Most of what was mentioned in the article only happens in Induction. Finally, weight training requires you to “carb up” once a week even on a low-carb diet, something Eric Morrison recently shared on my podcast show. I still don’t know about that one.

SEATTLE SUTTON TELLS PEOPLE TO QUESTION ATKINS STUDY

Remember that New England Journal of Medicine study from a couple of weeks ago? I blogged about how I was somewhat disappointed by it because it didn’t really measure a true Atkins-styled low-carb diet (20g of carbohydrate with 60-70% of calories from fat) with an Ornish low-fat diet (10% of calories from fat). Nevertheless, leave it to Seattle Sutton, who has her own high-carb, low-fat weight loss company, to express how “disturbed” she is that this study was funded by the Atkins Foundation. WHAT?! The study participants didn’t even stay on ANYTHING CLOSE to the Atkins diet and yet Ms. Sutton is claiming the study spread “misinformation” somehow? Sounds like a lot of sour grapes if you ask me, something I saw when I first blogged about them in 2005 and then in this official response to my blog post. Why is there such vile hatred for Atkins…STILL?!

That’s all I have for you for now. But feel free to pass along anything good you see about healthy low-carb living. My e-mail address is livinlowcarbman@charter.net. THANKS for reading!