The low fat diet is the worst dietary advice in the last 50 years
Next time an “expert” nutritionalist or dietitian tells you to do a low fat diet because fat has more calories per gram than carbs or protein, just punch them in the nose. The advice is completely discredited and has directly caused a huge and expensive health crisis.
This is from Dwight C. Lundell M.D at spacedoc.net-
Does the thought of a steak, bacon and eggs, or real milk make you cringe thinking you’re instantly clogging up your arteries? How many times have you seen physicians and nutritionists write “artery clogging saturated fats”? For the last 40 years the dietary instructions from governments and other authoritative bodies have told us to avoid all animal fats.
Americans took the message seriously and complied. Average fat consumption decreased, average blood cholesterol levels decreased but their rate of heart disease has continued to rise; the cost of its treatment has continued to rise. Now, in 2011 we have 24 MILLION people diagnosed with diabetes and another 65 million with pre-diabetes and an epidemic of obesity now afflicting over 65% of the population…
Besides Wall Street bankers, and endocrinologists, I can’t think of any professionals that get away with being complete idiots as much as nutritionalists or dietitians.
Share on FacebookA Picture is Worth a Thousand Studies
This pic came from a series on Jimmy Moore’s site.
It would be safe to say that there are thousands of technical papers published each year trying to explain the epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes since 1980. Blogs can’t agree. Experts can’t agree. Why don’t they just look at charts like this one? [Note: I don't know where Moore got it, but I have seen similar before so I take this as accurate enough.]
What Happened in 1980?
That was about when so-called conventional wisdom decided that fat makes people fat, and that humans should eat low fat. It was everywhere. Books, medical folks, dietitians, and advertising all went low fat crazy. It’s still going on. Just go to the grocery store and look.
Food companies worked hard to take out the fat, and often replaced it with something else that was not on the radar-sugar! Sugar consumption went way up, so did weight. Now people are trying to figure out how the diabetes crisis happened, but the answer is right in front of them and they can’t see it.
Yeah, But All Carbs are Not Sugar
A reasonable person might say, “Yeah but, sugar got added to food and not all carbs are sugar. Sugar is the problem, not all carbs.”
There is some truth to that. Maybe if everyone would have had a baked potato and butter for breakfast instead of Capt’n Crunch and orange juice, we wouldn’t see a chart like the above. But, that is not what happened, and what happened is what we need to focus on, and then deal with it.
The chart won’t go the other way until the mistakes of the low fat craze are addressed and reversed.
From Scientific American (last year)-
Eat less saturated fat: that has been the take-home message from the U.S. government for the past 30 years. But while Americans have dutifully reduced the percentage of daily calories from saturated fat since 1970, the obesity rate during that time has more than doubled, diabetes has tripled, and heart disease is still the country’s biggest killer. Now a spate of new research, including a meta-analysis of nearly two dozen studies, suggests a reason why: investigators may have picked the wrong culprit. Processed carbohydrates, which many Americans eat today in place of fat, may increase the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease more than fat does—a finding that has serious implications for new dietary guidelines expected this year…
Another one from Jimmy Moore’s collection.
Share on FacebookDon’t Be Dogmatic, Don’t Be Stupid Either
Ugh.
Will the stupid “reward theory” stuff started by Stephen Guyenet ever go away? If you haven’t read it, don’t bother. It’s just making the rounds on blogs and wasting everyone’s time. The short version is ever since the Ancestral Health Symposium 1 back in August, Guyenet has been promoting a ridiculous and insulting alternative to Gary Taubes’ insulin explanation for obesity in “Why We Get Fat.” Yeah, right. All of a sudden, people are too stupid to understand that cookies are addicting and this explains the type 2 diabetes and obesity epidemics that started about 1980, (just when the so-called food authorities decided to start selling the “low fat” idea..and sugar consumption went up)? This theory is worthless. Maybe Taubes theory needs some work, but “food reward” is not the right explanation.
[rant off]
Even with this stupid theory in the way, it’s still prompted a few things worth reading, like one from Kurt Harris that expands on what he says are carbs that are not so bad. Low carbers are understandably frustrated with most diet advice, because most diet advice is terrible. People can turn things around with low carb, and it becomes easy to just say that “carbs=bad, I give them up forever.”
Humans are omnivores, which means we can eat animal products and plant products. The real question becomes how much of each and what to pick?
According to Harris-
…I also have come to see most starchy plant organs as perfectly legitimate fuel sources.
Low carb plans have helped people lose fat by reducing food reward from white flour and excess sugar and maybe linoleic acid. This is by accident as it happens that most of the “carbs” in our diet are coming in the form of manufactured and processed items that are simply not real food. Low carb does not work for most people via effects on blood sugar or insulin “locking away” fat. Insulin is necessary to store fat, but is not the main hormone regulating fat storage. That would be leptin…
…My list is white potatoes, sweet potatoes, white rice and bananas…
It’s important to not be dogmatic. If you think full-on “zero-carb” is not the only answer, Harris’ list of safe starches is good. It’s not as bad as refined sugar and so-called “healthy whole grains” that are really wheat/gluten that cause inflammation and health problems.
As far as the insulin vs leptin vs “food reward” thing, time will tell. The real answer is going to be Taubes’ insulin theory and/or the leptin thing. The food reward stuff just needs to go away. it doesn’t not explain what has happened since 1980 or why.
Share on FacebookTop Ten Supplements for Paleo Folks
This is a good entry on Jack Kruse’s blog-
What are the Top Ten Paleo Supplements?
When a person decides to become optimal and eats a paleo/primal diet there are many changes that occur to one’s RNA/DNA and to our epigenetic switches. Many of these bio-machinations will take months to give the full hormonal response but there are some potential issues that can exist when a person implements a change to their life. One of the big issues is to initially delineate is what kind of paleo diet are you instituting? Many people eat a lot of grass fed skeletal meat and avoid all offal at first. Others cut their carbs while others carb load based upon their activity levels. Others use a high protein approach to control hunger while others use a low protein approach if they are running a vegetarian regime. This blog will attempt to discuss what someone might consider to supplement if they are eating a standard paleo diet as outlined in “The Paleo Solution or in Primal Blueprint…
[The List]
1. DHA/EPA.
2. A multivitamin.
3. Vitamin D3.
4. Vitamin K2.
5. PQQ.
6. Co Enzyme Q10.
7. Minerals Selenium, Iodine, and Iron.
8. Magnesium.
9. B Vitamin Complex with Vitamin C added.
10. DHEA/MELATONIN…”
Read the full story to get explanations of each…
NOTE: This list is pretty close to what my own dr prescribed in 2007, including the DHEA and melatonin. It’s just amazing to me how many writers and/or doctors ignore melatonin. If they don’t know about it, find a new source.
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