Scientific American on Side

It looks like our work may be close to done. A front-page article in today's online edition supports the low-carb message and blames high carb diets for 'obesity, heart disease, and other health problems faced by many Americans.'

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=mummy-says-john-horgan-is-wrong-abo-2011-05-19

This is a remarkable turn of events. Let's hope SciAm's imprimatur is the beginning of the end for the high-fat myth.

Scrambled Eggs a la Carnivore for Two

Take no prisoners.

Start by putting half a stick (60g) of butter in a frying pan at low/medium low--just enough to bubble but not brown.

Warm a quarter cup of small chunks of cooked meat and a couple tablespoons of spicy salsa in the microwave.

Put six eggs and a quarter cup of cream in a mixing bowl and whisk to a froth. Put it in the pan and scramble slowly. When the eggs start to cook, add the meat. 

If the eggs brown, the pan was too hot; start again. You want to poach the eggs, not fry them.

Serves two and costs less than one Starbucks coffee.

Stop Selling Low Carb

Has it really been more than a month? I've been busier than it feels.

In any case, I've come to the conclusion that we should stop doing missionary work pushing a low carb diet. I know, it's hard not to try to save the world, but in this case it's counter-productive.

First, you're pushing a rock uphill against a trillion-dollar carb industry and government "health" organizations that can't admit that, since 1970, their advice has been killing people.

More important is a simple market fact: The more demand there is for high-carb, low-fat foods, the less demand there is for our kind of food.

Low demand means low prices--an equation I see every week in my grocery bill. It was really evident when we started this carnivorous experiment--it cut more than 50% from our grocery bill, which was already low-carb. And the downward curve continues, not because our diet is changing, but because prices are. The prices of eggs, common cheeses, butter, frozen or smoked fish, and not-lean meat are all creeping downward.

So Give It Up. When the conversation turns to diet, smile knowingly and be a good listener. When pressed about your carnivorous choices, say it's a choice you've made, just as others choose to be vegetarians (or vegans--is there a difference?).  Let your good health and high IQ speak for themselves.

Three Whole-Grain Portions Daily May Lower Cardiovascular Risk

Yeah--Right!
    This one's a beaut.

" Daily consumption of 3 portions of whole-grain foods (WGF) is linked to lower cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in healthy, middle-aged people mainly by lowering blood pressure (BP), according to the results of a randomized controlled dietary trial reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. (Am J Clin Nutr. 2010;92:733-740)


Given the role that fiber plays in slowing down the digestion of carbohydrates, everything these folk found can be explained by lowered blood glucose levels. Here's where it gets really entertaining:


"Although the mechanisms by which WGFs decrease BP remain unclear, our findings have important public health implications and provide a sound scientific basis for advising the daily consumption of 3 servings of WGF to combat CVD."


In fact, what they found was a statistical clue to do some science. They admit that the science eludes them and they can't figure out why WGF loading would lower BP.  Nor do they seem disposed to look for the science or consider the possibility that their assumptions are flawed.
    Another indicator of the shortage of three-digit IQs in the nutritional sciences.

Eating Animals is Cheap

For the last two years I've been slowly cutting out everything but animal products. I'd been on a 25 gm or less track for ten years; then one thing at a time, the rest came off. Now it's meat, fish, eggs, cheese, period. Cream in my coffee, the odd garnish, but that's it.

    I'm in better shape than I've been since I was a lot younger. I'm wearing clothes I haven't been able to get into for over twenty years. 

    But the real bonus: a radically shrunken grocery bill. Part of it is reduced volume and no packaged goods. The rest is the "lean" craze that results in "not lean" being really cheap. A well-marbled steak that makes a big meal is only about $6 at the local grocer. I get lots of real butter (a third of a stick is fundamental to a lot of recipes), eggs to gently cook in it, cheeses of all kinds (the only expensive part of the diet),  a variety of fish fillets, and meat of every description. I eat chewy, greasy, buttery, delicious, for about $10 a day.

    And my blood glucose is so low that my doctor can't figure out why I'm not dead. Icing on the cake!

The Health Canada HiCarb Guide to Correct Living

I thought I'd see if Health Canada had learned anything over the years so I engaged archive.org's WayBack Machine to look at the Canada Food Guide.
    It turns out that since 1998 they've had only two versions of the Guide. Somewhere around 2002, they started an intensive study into the latest medical knowledge and by 2007 they made an evidence-based decision that they had been right all along except for total quantity and grains. They changed the Guide to what it still is today, leaving three of the food groups unchanged but reducing total intake by reducing grain servings per adult from 12 down to 8.
    This is not a trivial change. The Guide still recommends a hyperglycemic, pancreas-destroying, diabetigenic carb load, but it takes about 60 grams of carbs out of what was a 350 gram diet before dessert and drinks. Grains are where most of the starches and sugars come from, so any cut is significant. On the other hand, they count beans and peas as vegetables, so no cheering yet.
    It's interesting that their reduction is twice the total in a low-carb diet.

Sugar, Soft Drinks and Blood Pressure, Oh My!

Another study uncovering the obvious:

A study out of Louisiana State University finds that reducing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is independently associated with a reduction in blood pressure. The relationships persisted after controlling for weight-change and body-mass index.
     Dr. Liwei Chen et al. also found that caffeine and sugar-free drinks had no effect on blood pressure.
    "Our study has important public-health implications," observe Chen et al. "For example, it has been estimated that a 3-mm-Hg reduction in systolic BP should reduce stroke mortality by 8% and coronary heart disease mortality by 5%. Such reductions in systolic BP would be anticipated by reducing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption by an average of two servings per day."

Ref: Chen L, Caballero B, Mitchell DC, et al. Reducing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with reduced blood pressure. A prospective study among United States adults. Circulation 2010; DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.911164. Available at: http://http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/121/22/2398