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Blog Lineup Change

Bye-bye, Fathead. I've enjoyed the blog, but can't endorse the high-fat, high-carb Perfect Health Diet that somehow makes so much sense to some otherwise bright people. An astrophysicist makes some rookie mistakes on a LC diet, misdiagnoses them, makes up "glucose deficiency," and creates a diet that's been shown in intervention studies to increase small LDL, which can lead to heart disease. A computer programmer believes in the diet and doesn't seem eager to refute it because, perhaps, scientists are freakin' liars and while he's good at spotting logical inconsistencies, lacks some intermediate knowledge of human biology. To Tom's credit, he says it's not the right diet for everyone, but given the truckload of food that has to be prepared and eaten, impracticality of following it while traveling (or even not traveling), and unsuitability for FODMAPs sufferers, diabetics and anyone prone to heart disease (i.e., much of the population), I'm not sure who it's right for.

Hello, Hyperlipid. Much of what you say is over my head, but I'm learning. Anecdotes and n=1 experiments are good most of the time, but they've also given us the Twinkie diet (remember the nutritionist who lost weight on a calorie-restricted Twinkie diet?) and claims of LC diets ruining metabolism and blowing up people's previously healthy thyroids. Many people claimed to see the sun careening towards the earth on a day in 1917; do we re-write the laws of physics for this? Finding a balance between cases and textbooks is hard, but Peter has a good deal of both kinds of knowledge and admits what he doesn't know.

Comments

Gwen said…
YOU sound worth following, based on this post alone. Impressive!
Lori Miller said…
Wow, thanks!
sort of fun watching Tom tip-toe around his fan base. I am bored with it, but never bored with Peter.
horfilmania said…
Lori, I've done the same, although Peter has always been on my blog list. Anytime someone goes off the rails according to me, they are dropped and I no longer frequent their blogs. No sense going there to get pissed off. Besides everyone is entitled to their opinion on their blog, however I just don't want to read about stuff that I consider idiocy.
Hi Lori

After reading your post I went over to the Fathead blog. Another individual selling the RS way to enlightenment, for most if not all. I can see your point. Tom’s changed his mind of what constitutes the ‘Perfect Health Diet’ and carbs are back on the menu. If safe starches don’t work for you, it’s because you are doing it wrong, or you have the wrong gut bacteria, is the general idea. Total hogwash in my opinion. At first I thought Tom was playing the devils advocate to get the kettle whistling on his blog, but no, he actually believes this (this week). RN has been pushing RS for a while, and then we hear a book is on the way. Tom’s a convert, and low and behold he is working on a ‘Perfect Health Diet’ book for kids. The lunatic EK has been pimping a book ‘Restriction Addiction’ although that much talked about project appears to have gone on the back burner. How long before Jimmy is telling us the keto diet very near killed him, and get those carbs and RS down ya neck with every meal. Obviously another book will be on the way ‘The Keto Killers’

Welcome to the crazy world of Paleo and Low Carb. We get enough nonsense from big pharma and junk food and the likes of the NHS, ADA, and most dietitians etc. etc. now we have so called diet gurus talking nonsense, anything that rings the cash register. A sad state of affairs in my opinion. Just as saturated fats from healthy sources are getting the thumbs up, and sugar and highly refined starches are getting the thumbs down, these ‘gurus’ want to add more confusion to the confused. For years I have wondered, why do people with no reported serious health issues such as diabetes, heart disease, thyroid problems etc. etc. spend a huge chunk of their lives discussing diet. It’s a mystery to me, or could the motivation be money.

Kind regards Eddie
tess said…
couldn't agree more! essentially-healthy people without technical training DO jump to incorrect conclusions about diet and physiology, and extrapolate inappropriately from themselves to the rest of the population. ... of course, even WITH medical training some people also do this, but treating patients and running clinical trials with real live humans gives them a bit more insight. ;-)

I recently read Rosedale's book, and found it interesting and helpful. (his website reads like a bad-hair-day, though.) just like Harris -- their composed writings are much better than their talks and blog-COMMENTS. I also get a great deal out of Feinman's blog, but Peter's the king (though he loses me in the protons series).
Lori Miller said…
There's probably less of a fan base to tiptoe around now.
Lori Miller said…
I made some critical comments of the PHD on Tom's blog, as did many others pointing out flaws in Jaminet's reasoning, but after awhile, it would have been trolling.
Lori Miller said…
Yup, they're just adding confusion to the confused. But within their lifetimes, I think, they'll get the discredit they deserve.
Lori Miller said…
Totally agree about jumping to conclusions. What gets me is how some people with a problem will make suggestions to those of us who've fixed them. I've cured my GERD and don't need to eat bananas (suggested by someone whose husband still suffers from GERD). Some guy was out late at night looking for a sugar fix, but wanted to help me with his vegan diet. Likewise, my dental hygienist, even though she's had a better view of my decay-free teeth than anyone.

I'll have to check out Rosedale's book.
Galina L. said…
Tom's movie, probably, is the best tool to convince family members and friends who may be annoyed with your explanations, to give a LC diet a try, and healthy kids don't need a LC diet. I also enjoy his farm updates.
My guess many healthy people who discuss diets on blogs are doing it as a hobby which motivates them to stay away from industrial foods. The pressure from the environment could be significant, especially at work.
Galina L. said…
I also don't see the point in trolling Tom's blog, his movie is still a good motivational tool for the people who you want to convince to give a LC diet to try, but don't want to bore with your own explanations. I guess, healthy children don't need a LC diet book, and PHD diet for them would be just fine.

Why so many healthy people are interested in diets I don't know. May be they motivate themselves with such discussions to stay away from the industrial foods and often don't know where to stop and start doing stupid things like taking statines like Charles.
Lori Miller said…
The movie's great and so are his videos. What gets me is that recently he and his daughters made a video about why the combination of fat plus sugar or starch can make you fat. And even if I can eat cold potato salad, I'd rather have a hot, juice burger. Without the cold french fries.
Lori Miller said…
Different people get different things out of that movie. A friend said her favorite part was when Tom stood outside McDonald's and "nobody made him eat the bad food." But her grandson said, "You mean I can have fast food!" :(

I agree that it's good to have a support group when you're surrounded by carbivores. Many professionals think they're really helping people by writing about low-fat diets. But mostly healthy people from outside the system who are smart enough to understand raw data, studies, biochemistry, etc. recommending low-fat or high-carb diets in 2014? You do have to wonder what their motivation is. I think Tom was overly swayed by anecdotes.
Galina L. said…
May be healthy children are the ones who can eat fat/starches combination without developing any problems with their weight. It is how I fed my son when he was little. It was the way to avoid snacking between meals.
For the adults I don't see how they can not reduce fat while increasing starches unless it is some odd thing like mix of powdered potato starch in a liquid.
Galina L. said…
My guess Tom is also inspired by the Weston Price Foundation ides, most probably always has been, and that recent safe starches bent sort-of almost (the bread making is so far out) eliminates previous contradiction between LCarbing and the principles of WPF his family practices. His wife and children don't need carbs restrictions.
Lori Miller said…
If I had no particular reason to restrict carbs, I'd be face down in the gluten-free brownies.
Lori Miller said…
IIRC, one of his daughters had a very high blood sugar reading after eating some potatoes or somesuch. This was before resistant starch, back when people were testing their post-meal blood sugars on Dr. Davis's suggestion.
Galina L. said…
The only answer to the general confusion is having no guru and relying mostly on own body feed-back. I enjoy Wooo's blog, but she is not my guru, and I am sure she doesn't want to be the one. She sees no harm in eating wheat wraps as long as that stuff is low in carbs, not ok with me at all. I hang around with the LC people now because in the past "keeping open minds" used to cause unnecessary diet derailments. We are social creatures even thous who claim to be total introverts. How many times some study was discussed which said that LCarbing was no better than a Mediterranean diet or whatever, while I knew from my experience that it was nonsense because I tried several diets during my life-time? You can find debunking of everything on the web, and own experience is all what is left.
I am not a JM fan, he is a very money-oriented person by the necessity, and I don't like his style of thinking. There are sophisticated religious people, but Jimmy is not one of them.
Lori Miller said…
As the saying goes, if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

I like Jimmy Moore. He's a good interviewer, a positive person and his site has a huge repository of information from hundreds of researchers and clinicians, including a few LC antis.
valerie said…
"reads like a bad hair day"

Haha, never heard that one. Made me laugh out loud (and leave a comment!).
Thanks Tess.
Galina L. said…
I liked it too
tess said…
[deep curtsey] thank you both! i started with "trainwreck" but wanted something a little closer to home.... ;-)
Lori Miller said…
Thank goodness for editors.

Unfortunately, some total frauds (like Ancel Keys and T. Colin Campbell) are terrific communicators. Some people might pooh-pooh Dr. Davis, but he's moved a mountain in getting a lot of medically ignorant people to improve their health--it had much to do with the delivery of the message.

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