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.

Tubers rescued after falling in B.C. river

I was disappointed to read that this headline wasn't about a wayward truckload of potatoes.

Put whipped cream on top of pinapple cream cheese and freeze. Eat right out of the freezer. Amazing treat. No carbs.

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.

The Amazing Dr. Tai

If this weren't so sad it would be funny. Check out this American Diabetes Association journal article:
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/17/2/152.abstract.
    On the way to "a mathematical model for the determination of total areas under curves," Dr. Tai believes he's invented what is actually a centuries-old numerical integration technique--freshman mathematics material. What's sad is that none of the journal's reviewers or editors caught it.
    It says something about the education needed to get into medicine. The lack of fundamental math skills also explains why they're so bad at interpreting statistical data. It also helps explain why they don't get the simple math of (Glucose-in-blood ~ Carbohydrates-ingested).

Dr. Tai and "The Tai Model" get this month's Delusional award.

Now They're Going After Eggs

At a loss for something to do, JD Spence, DJ Jenkins, and J Davignon, have published a study in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology whose attention-getter is that there's more cholesterol in an egg than in the KFC Double-Down. Of course, they didn't need a study for that; all they had to do was read the label but, what the hey, you have to justify your existence one way or another.
    Also featured is their not-surprising discovery that, of the victims who became diabetic during the study, eating eggs doubled their cardiovascular risk. In other words, if you're eating a carb-soaked, diabetigenic diet mixed with enough fat to get you up in the morning, you're going to die.

See the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, November 2010, Volume26,Issue 9,e336-e339.

Double Down Comes to Canada

KFC has decided to try the DD in Canada. First chance to try it is Oct 18.
    In case you haven't seen the data, this puppy is Ultra Low Carb. The grilled version has only 3 grams of proto-glucose. On a percentage basis, that's a bit over 1% carb.
    Bring along a fellow carnivore and a knife; weighing in at 240 grams of meat and cheese, it's two good and greasy meals.

Another useless study

This time it's about reducing hypertension.
    Steven Chen from John Hopkins and a bunch of others put together a study not to figure out what kind of diet reduces hypertension, but looking for evidence to support the American Heart Association's sweetheart DASH diet.
    They had 459 subjects try one of three high-carb diets for 8 weeks (those numbers guarantee that chance has a big influence on the results). To no one's surprise, the DASH diet came in slightly ahead of the others. No one said anything about it being the best of a bad lot.
    Now the AHA can add another notch to DASH's headboard and heave a sigh of relief that the low-carb camel's nose remains outside the tent.
    Ref: Circulation online 31 August 2010

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!