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Celebrity Endorsements

"I am not a role model." -Charles Barkley

 Possibly the wisest words any celebrity ever said:


And so it is with all entertainers flogging drugs, diet and fitness programs: they aren't paid to actually know how any of these work. An entertainer may not know any more than you do about diabetes, losing weight or getting in shape. What these entertainers have that you might not is stage training, the gift of gab, and a contract to shill for a drug company, weight loss program, or food manufacturer. I'm not accusing anyone of lying, but do you really think someone like Paula Deen, as spokeswoman for Novo Nordisk, is going to tell you how to keep your blood sugars under control without drugs? (Novo Nordisk is a major insulin manufacturer and sponsors flawed research supposedly showing that low-carb diets aren't any more effective than high-carb diets for controlling diabetes. See this.) Are some doctors paid shills, too? Oh yes.

In fairness, a lot of people are promoting books and products of various degrees of quality. The question is whether the promoters know what they're talking about, whether the product or system works, and whether they have an incentive to lie. The only way to figure this out is to do your own research: learn about digestion, insulin and fat storage and the kinds of diets human evolved on--it's the only way to begin to tell who's blowing smoke. (An excellent, accessible book on these subjects is Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes.) Dr. Michael Eades covers these three subjects (below).



Finally, find a system to lose weight or cure or control your illness, and track the results in writing.

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