Happy Holidays

All Things NOT Being Equal. . .

I'm a bit of a news junky - I often have the 'news' on the TeeVee in the background while  I'm puttering around doing housework and the like. . . In any case, I heard in passing early last week that there was a new study out showing that reducing carbohydrates (ie a low carb/high fat diet) trumped reducing fat (ie a high carb/low fat diet) in both weight loss and in improving blood lipid profiles that (supposedly) are markers for cardiovascular health.  At the time, I thought - meh, nice to know that the "establishment" is catching up with "us", us being all the people that have been practicing low carb/high fat diets for many years.  That is, I thought 'meh' until the next time this study was mentioned on the TeeVee, and then I got pissed. . .

 

As I passed through the room on Sunday, the news was on and I realized they were discussing the study again; interviewing a doctor, who on this station is the in-house medical expert. . . His take on this new study?  "Everything in moderation".  Yep, that was his final word regarding this study - everything in moderation. . .  Jebus wept!!!  This type of message is why I see people at my workplace struggling to lose weight on Weight Watchers, or eating a precisely measured number of jelly beans in the afternoon while taking daily medication for their diabetes, or coming back from the cafeteria with a mound of iceburg lettuce garnished with a few baby carrots and cherry tomatoes and covered in low fat dressing, and then snacking all afternoon.  And this type of thinking is why every. damn. time. there is a catered meeting at work, the breakfast menu consists of an assortment of muffins, pastries and low fat yogurt, and the lunch menu consists of sandwiches, bags of chips and an assortment of cookies (in all honesty, the rare 'high-brow' meetings do include some actual edible foods, which most of my coworkers view as a 'naughty' treat they've earned by attending these marathon meetings).    People listen to the messages coming from mainstream doctors, medical 'authorities' and nutritionists and they really try to do the 'right thing' - but the mainstream medical establishment WILL NOT admit that they let us down in recommending low fat diets for the past several decades - can they not SEE how these recommendations have worked for the general public!?!

 

And then I got pissed all over again when I tried to look up the study.  First, there's nary a print article to be found. . . I found one article in Men's Journal, and that was at least helpful in finding out the name of the lead researcher, Lydia Bazzano (although MJ misspelled her last name, d'oh).  Then, when I tracked down a brief article from Tulane University discussing the study, I wondered why these researchers tried to sabotage their own study. . . It started out with some promising commentary; Dr. Bazzano notes "we found those on a low-carb diet had significantly greater decreases in estimated 10-year risk for heart disease after six and 12 months than the low-fat group.”  The article then goes on to say "While the low-carb dieters got 41 percent of their calories from fat, most were healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats like olive or canola oil. The group only got 13 percent of calories from saturated fats like butter."  Canola oil?  CANOLA OIL?!?  And a quote from Dr. Bazzano ends the article - "It’s not a license to go back to the butter, but it does show that even high-fat diets – if they are high in the right fats – can be healthy and help you lose weight". 

Hint, there is no canola plant; canola oil is typically produced by heating and crushing rape seed, then refining the resulting wax with high heat, hexane, and organic acids, followed by bleaching and deodorization.  The omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is about 2:1.  Dr. Bazzano et al. appear to have been buying in to the fear mongering surrounding saturated fats before they even started the study - one wonders what the results of the study would have been if they hadn't used freakin' highly processed vegetable oil as a primary source of dietary fat?  This is NOT how people In The Real World are typically implementing a LCHF diet!  Geez louise.

 

In any case, this is not really News, with a capital N. . . There have been a number of low carb/high fat vs high carb/low fat comparison trials over the years - below is a presentation by Dr. Jason Fong extensively discussing this research.  The video runs long, about an hour and 20 minutes, but it's well worth your time.  The video is Part 3 of a six part video series titled "The Aetiology of Obesity" - maybe you can fire up your favorite mobile device and listen to this, and the other five installments, as you putter around the house - it certainly would be more educational than listening to the news, am I right?