This particular conference in Phoenix beginning on Tuesday is where all of the nation's top bariatrics physicians come together to talk about and exchange ideas about how to deal with the ever-increasing problem of obesity and to find out what is working and what is not. Yes, many bariatric physicians seem to get a bad rap for their seeming quick embracing of weight loss surgery, but a lot of the ones I interviewed for my podcast show last year looked at natural dietary ways of dealing with it first before even contemplating going under the knife with their patients. Most of these doctors are fully dedicated to helping their patients find the proven and effective plan that works best for them and they come to conferences like these to hear seminars from other experts in the field to learn how to be even better at what they do.
As an added bonus set of sessions presented by the Nutrition & Metabolism Society, the weekend part of the conference is almost entirely dedicated to the truth from the research community about saturated fat, carbohydrate restrictions, and heart disease. The very latest cutting edge evidence will be presented, including examining whether there is a real connection between saturated fat and heart disease, seeking to understand what role carbohydrates play in cardiovascular risks, and comparing whether carbohydrate restriction or saturated fat restriction is preferred when attempting to prevent and treat heart disease. What a fascinating set of topics that correlates perfectly with what I do here on a daily basis and one I will be taking copious notes, I can assure you.
The highlight of the conference taking place at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort in Phoenix is hearing from bestselling author of Good Calories, Bad CaloriesGary Taubes as he presents two lectures--"The Real Cause Of Obesity" on Saturday and "History of Dietary Saturated Fat-Restriction Recommendations" on Sunday. I'll be right there listening in to what he has to say as well as conducting my own interview with Taubes who has generously agreed to appear on my podcast show, too. WOO HOO!
Other notables presenting information at this event who I am hoping to meet and interview while I am there include Dr. Eric Westman from Duke University, Dr. Richard Feinman from SUNY Downstate, Dr. Jeff Volek from the University of Connecticut, Dr. J. Bruce German and Dr. Steven Phinney (who I've been trying to interview for the past three years) from the University of California-Davis, Dr. Mary C. Vernon from the University of Kansas, Dr. Donald Layman from from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Dr. Jay Wortman who constructed the diet used by the First Nations people on the hit CBC-TV documentary "My Big Fat Diet."
It will be a true honor being in the midst of these true greats who are working tirelessly behind the scenes researching the validity of the low-carbohydrate dietary approach. I consider these men and women the REAL heroes of this way of eating because they have sometimes put their own personal careers and reputations on the line in an effort to share the truth that the data shows them about livin' la vida low-carb. We all owe them a great debt of gratitude for the work they are doing to educate the public about the healthy low-carb lifestyle.
I'm also excited about meeting some other wonderful people in the world of low-carb living who will be in attendance at this conference, including Protein Power authors Drs. Mike and Mary Dan Eades, Jackie Eberstein from Controlled Carbohydrate Nutrition (and who worked with Dr. Robert C. Atkins for three decades), University of Connecticut researcher Cassandra Forsythe, About.com Low-Carb Diets blogger Laura Dolson, Colette Heimowitz from Atkins Nutritionals, and many more! Christine and I can't wait to get on that plane on Thursday and spend a few days in the "valley of the sun" to get educated, encouraged and inspired anew about the healthy low-carb lifestyle. When I get back, hopefully I'll have TONS of podcasts, blog post ideas and even a YouTube video or two to share with you about this incredible conference.
If you have any questions you would like for me to ask any of the people I mentioned in this blog post during my interviews, then please e-mail those to me no later than Tuesday, April 8, 2008. I will do my best to ask the experts about what's on your mind and get the answer directly from the horse's mouth. :) THANKS for supporting the work I am doing here at the "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" blog. I appreciate you guys!
By the way, if you live in the Phoenix, AZ area, then we'd love to meet you while we are there. E-mail me and maybe we can meet at the hotel to chat or have dinner with you. It would be such a privilege to come face-to-face with the people who enthusiastically support me in the work I am doing. THANK YOU!
Sometimes there's just so much "stuff" out there about livin' la vida low-carb that I want to tell you about, it's hard to get it all into individual blog posts. That's why on occasion I will compile all these little tidbits of information for you together in one big blog post because they're all worthy of being mentioned since I haven't had time to get to them yet. WELL NOW I'M MAKING TIME! :D
So, here goes on the low-carb stuff that's caught my eye lately:
GROCERY STUDY SHOWS HIGH-CARB FOOD SALES SHRINKING
One of my readers who works at a trade association that serves the supermarket industry shared a very interesting tidbit of information with me from a September 2007 Grocery SuperStudy from Willard Bishop. And it's quite interesting news for those of us who have dedicated ourselves to low-carb living: while "low-carb" (as a marketing label) is for all intents and purposes dead within the mainstream food industry right now (not surprising since most of the crap they put out a few years back as "low-carb" was anything but), there's another new victim that nobody is talking about--the "center store" foods.
You know what that is--high-carb, packaged, processed foods that appear in the center aisles. In other words, everywhere that people who are livin' la vida low-carb DON'T shop! HA! How about that?! According to this survey, this area of supermarkets is shrinking rapidly which makes the hottest new trend in grocery markets for 2008 the up-and-coming Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores which don't have hardly anything in their center store. Although they are based mainly in the Southwest, they have created the template for the next wave in grocery shopping for healthy living.
Here's an interesting quote from the Willard Bishop analysis:
"Center store generates 72% of total store sales and all of the true profit contribution (because the perimeter nets out at a loss). But, 29% of the center store categories lose money today (retailer activity-based costs are greater than gross profits collected including trade spending). And, 58% of the SKUs in the center store generate 95% of the sales.
This means that the final 5% of sales comes from 42% of the 60,000-plus SKUs. More than 40% of center store SKUs sell fewer than three units per store per week. Even though food retailers are challenged to earn a positive true profit contribution on the perimeter, it's an area of the store that they'll continue to focus on to differentiate and elevate their overall value proposition."
Did you get all that? The take-home message is that the vast majority of that stuff you see in the center aisles AIN'T SELLING more than 3 units a week. So if there are 48 packages of some favorite high-carb junk food sitting there the next time you go grocery shopping, keep in mind it may take FOUR MONTHS for that to sell through. Now you know why the food manufacturers load all that stuff up with preservatives. EWWW!
FEDERAL LAWMAKERS WANT TO BAN JUNK FOOD IN SCHOOLS
What we see in this New York Times column where members of the United States Senate are proposing a national ban on selling candy, sugary soda and other junk foods in schools is nothing new. Last year I blogged about former President Bill Clinton and the American Heart Association suggesting schools voluntarily implement such bans and this study show that sugar-free schools can actually reduce obesity rates. But why am I opposed to such measures that would make school lunches "healthier?" Two things.
First, what is gonna be the definition of the word "healthy?" If by healthy they mean they're gonna cut out the excess sugar, starchy carbohydrates and other such junk foods and replace them with fresh low-glycemic fruits and green leafy vegetables instead, then I'm all for it. But likely these meals will be low in fat and sodium while still including lots of sugar (which is fat-free!) and other such carbs which for all intents and purposes will defeat the purpose of banning the junk food.
Second, what business is it of the federal government to dictate to local school districts what they should be serving children for lunches? While too often national lawmakers just like to throw our money at a problem and hope it goes away, the real solutions are never even considered. If the school lunches at a local school are horrendous, then the parents of the kids attending that school should complain to the school and/or school board to demand better choices. And the worst case scenario, parents should pack their children a healthy lunch if the school refuses to offer better choices.
This is not an area where the federal government has any busy sticking its nose into. However, I do see it as rather hypocritical of these lawmakers to still allow the sale of Girl Scout cookies in schools even if this ban were to go into effect. And we wonder why our kids keep getting fatter and fatter while getting confused about what is good for them? Sheeeez!
FRED THOMPSON: GOVERNMENT IS NOT YOUR NUTRITIONIST
Speaking of government, I couldn't help but notice this CNN.com article about something one of the presidential candidates said while he was here in my hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina recently. Although I still don't have ANY idea whatsoever about who I am going to vote for in next month's primary election, it was quite refreshing to hear that former Sen. Fred Thompson wants good nutrition and healthy living to happen within the family unit and not from the government.
Here's what he said:
"We shouldn’t be looking at the federal government in Washington first and working our way down, it ought to be just the other way around. With that, or whether you're talking about education, there's some things the federal government can't do."
Amen to that, brother! With our government telling us through the USDA and FDA over the past few decades that fat and cholesterol is gonna kill us while we should eat a diet consisting primarily of carbohydrates to be healthy, it's about time somebody on the national level is saying enough is enough. It is each the responsibility of each of us to take care of our own families and to get the government out of our refrigerators!
DR. JOHN BRIFFA CALLS OUT RESEARCHERS ON CHOLESTEROL
Three months ago, I had the privilege of interviewing a bona fide health expert from the UK named Dr. John Briffa. As an unapologetic supporter of solid nutritional science, Dr. Briffa has been disappointed by the obvious omission of data supporting livin' la vida low-carb over the past few years by researchers. And he let them know it in this blog post about the very latest studies showing the cholesterol hypothesis is a load of crap!
There's so much common sense in what Dr. Briffa wrote in this piece that I urge you to read it for yourself. He makes some excellent points about statin drugs, why cholesterol-lowering drug treatments work to possibly produce a lowered risk of a cardiac event, who the researchers are conducting these so-called studies, and what role the pharmaceutical industry plays in disease treatment. DON'T MISS THIS COLUMN!
EATING SATURATED FAT WILL GIVE YOU DIABETES?
One of the more preposterous statements I have seen in the nearly three years I have been blogging about diet and health has got to be what I read in this Diet Detective column by my fellow contributing writer Dr. Judith Wurtman, PhD, author of The Serotonin Power Diet (which I will be reviewing here soon). She claims that a study published in the October 2007 issue of Nature Medicine found that eating too much fat causes it to store in the liver which then creates a chemical that causes insulin resistance--a precursor to diabetes.
I looked for this study Dr. Wurtman cited and couldn't find it, so I wrote to her asking for the link. She responded back that she would locate it for me, but I never heard from her again. The whole concept that the consumption of saturated fat could even remotely lead to insulin resistance and then diabetes doesn't even make sense to me. Excessive carbohydrate consumption is documented to be most responsible for the development of insulin resistance, not saturated fat.
Since I had my doubts and wanted to see what some medical professionals had to say about this theory put forth by Dr. Wurtman, I sent a link of this column to several of my low-carb research friends for assistance. All of them were perplexed by what she had written and had never heard of any such research supporting this. But Dr. Mary C. Vernon summarized what she thought about this in her typical fashion:
This is actually a fairly widespread misunderstanding, that is, many people believe the data says that fat causes insulin resistance. Three thoughts come to mind:
1) This mis-interpretation occurs, I think, because the research is misleading in that carbohydrate is rarely analyzed or decreased enough.
2) Because the close relationship between available fuel sources (fats, carbohydrate and amino acids) makes it difficult to define a starting point. In modern-day vernacular--which came first, the chicken or the egg?
3) Clearly, each individual is born with a certain level of "insulin resistance." Some of this may actually be influenced by the intrauterine environment as well as by the gene set. I think one can actually see this, in a simplistic way, as the amount of insuln secretion generated by a carbohydrate load.
Add the long-term outcome of high insulin spikes to fat accumulation and "bulked up" fat cells, and insulin resistance increases. The dietary carbohydrate pushes the insulin levels up, but the fat cells' semipermeable membrane now has increased intracellular fat content and "leaks." (Dr. Sam Kline says fat cells don't like to be bigger than one micron).
Now the fat stores have entered the metabolic conversation and the blood sugar swings (pre and post prandially) get wider and wider. With high insulin levels chronically, fat transports into the mitochondria is damped down (via malonyl CoA's feedback on CPT) and fat burning decreases. All of this is interpreted clinically as "increasing insulin resistance."
IF YOU DON"T DROP THE INSULIN LEVELS LOW ENOUGH BY HOLDING DIETARY CARBOHYDRATE DOWN, THEN YOU WILL NEVER SEE THE PROCESS STOP. Even though this is a logarithmic relationship, it behaves in patients as if it were an off-on switch. Even as few as 5 grams of carbohydrate can change some individuals with vigorous insulin response from fat-burning to fat storing.
As always, Dr. Vernon delivers wisdom that puts things back into the proper perspective. I'm sure Dr. Wurtman means well with her conclusions, but it seems there's a lot of assuming it is the saturated fat that is the culprit and not the carbohydrates. This is a DAILY battle within the realm of low-carb and science.
JONNY BOWDEN LETS THE BEVERAGE ASSOCIATION HAVE IT
Leave it to Dr. Jonny Bowden to cut right to the heart of the matter in a letter to the American Beverage Association who had responded to a column he wrote about sodas and obesity. You'll see a brilliant response on his blog to the claims made by the Senior Vice-President of Science Policy for that group named Maureen L. Storey, PhD. Dr. Storey states there is no link between soda consumption and heart disease and that sugar substitutes like aspartame are completely safe and acceptable for human consumption.
Dr. Bowden took great pleasure in answering each of the points made by Dr. Storey by exposing the error in her analysis of the points she made. There were four major points he made backed up by evidence to prove each one, but I absolutely loved the way Dr. Bowden ended his letter to Dr. Storey:
"I understand your need to put a favorable spin on this, just as the sugar industry puts a favorable spin on sugar. But might I remind you of the words of Upton Sinclair: 'It is difficult to get a man to understand something, if his salary depends upon him not understanding it.'"
OUCH! That quote could certainly zing a lot of people involved in the diet and health industry, wouldn't it? :D
MICHIGAN MAN FOLLOWS ATKINS, DOESN'T COUNT CALORIES
I just about flipped when I saw this Grand Rapids Press story about a man named Steve Cormier. It seems 52-year old man was able to lose weight and get healthy by livin' la vida low-carb. And he's STILL doing it to this day by paying attention to his carbohydrate intake and being ever mindful of what he's putting in his mouth. My favorite quote was this:
"I don't care about calories at all."
Now THAT is the sign of someone who is on the Atkins diet by the book. If you are working the plan as the late great Dr. Robert C. Atkins outlined in Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, then you don't have to count calories. I'm coming up on four years of eating this way and I have yet to count the first calorie I put in my mouth. Instead, I keep my carbs reduced to the level I need to keep my weight in check and the calories manage themselves. WAY TO GO, Steve! Keep it up, my friend!
A QUICK & EASY LOW-CARB CHEESECAKE RECIPE
You know how much I enjoy recipes, so I couldn't resist sharing this one from Quad-Cities Online with you. Submitted by Laura Carson from Moline, Illinois, this is a rather simple-to-make low-carb cheesecake that could be an awesome addition to your holiday festivities. Here are the ingredients you will need to make this recipe:
CLICK HERE for the instructions about how to make this cheesecake--livin' la vida low-carb styled, baby!
YOUTUBE VIEWER THINKING TOO MUCH ABOUT WEIGHT LOSS
I've really enjoyed expanding the horizons of the "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" brand to other places on the Internet, not the least of which is YouTube. The "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb On YouTube" segments I do with my wife Christine are a load of fun and it is something we look forward to doing each and every week. One neat thing is it has attracted a new audience of people looking for answers to their dieting questions.
Here's an example of one I recently received:
I know you probably get thousands of messages daily. I always said that I was going to write you asking you some questions that I'm curious about.
The first question is, knowing that fat is equivalent to 9 calories per gram, many of the low carb foods are loaded with calories. That said, I am 6'3" 340lbs (Was 385), and with approximately 30 minutes of working out on a cardio machine, I lose 462 calories. How much of that is 'fat' being burned?
I know that with certain heart rate percentages, you burn fat/carbs, but I'm assuming I'm burning 100% fat, since I probably have very little to no carbs at all.
So if I'm losing 462 calories and 1 gram of fat is 9 calories and 1 pound of fat is 453 grams it would take (9*453 calories) to burn 1 pound of fat. This seems impossible to do. Assuming my BMR is around 4500 calories a day...I probably eat less than that...but still...it just doesn't seem right...Can I get some input?
Hopefully you understand this.
Is your head spinning too? Mine sure did after I read this e-mail about ten times in a row. Finally, I just stepped back, took several deep breaths, and realized EXACTLY what this person needed to hear. This was my response:
Hey there and thanks so much for writing. I'd be delighted to answer your questions:
Just so you know, I don't count calories. Never have since I started livin' la vida low-carb. You don't have to worry about fat having more calories than carbs and protein because it's not about the calories. Your body functions differently when you reduce the carbohydrate in your diet because you are using dietary fat as well as stored fat as fuel for your body.
So, when you workout for 30 minutes and burn 462 calories, it depends on whether you are burning carbs (a low-fat diet) or fat (a low-carb diet) for fuel. It takes about 20 minutes of exercise to burn off all the excess carb stores when you are eating a high-carb, low-fat diet, but you start shedding STORED FAT right away on a high-fat, low-carb diet. WOO HOO! Isn't that cool?
There are obvious benefits to the amount of intensity of your workouts, so having small spurts of all-out, give-it-everything-you-got effort to burn even more calories and, thus, stored fat.
Don't obsess over the calories you put IN your mouth when you are eating low-carb. When I started at 410 pounds, I was eating about 3,000-4,000 calories a day while keeping my carbs down to around 20-30g carbs during my ongoing weight loss. Today, I STILL eat about 2,500-3,000 calories and maintain my weight just fine.
It's unproductive to think about this too much...just eat your fat for fuel, keep carbs to a minimum, ENJOY the foods you get to eat, and simply live your life confident you will shed the pounds and get healthier than you ever have before. It's NOT impossible because I did it. And so can you!
Sometimes we can think so much about all of this that it can frustrate you into overeating carbs to reduce the stress! UGH! I don't waste any brain cells on needless over-analyzing my diet like that. NEVERMORE!
Have you seen something about low-carb in the news that you feel is worthy of my attention? Feel free to e-mail me a link to the story anytime at livinlowcarbman@charter.net. I do a lot of research, but that doesn't mean I see everything. THANKS for your support for the work I do here and keep on livin' la vida low-carb!
Dr. Jeff Volek says controlling insulin is vital to blood lipids
A little over two years ago, I shared with you this study on the connection between metabolic syndrome and livin' la vida low-carb. The researchers were Dr. Jeff Volek from the University of Connecticut and Dr. Richard Feinman from SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY and they were absolutely fascinated by the rather obvious intertwining of a natural dietary approach like low-carb improving virtually every single area of metabolic syndrome (a precursor to diabetes, heart disease and stroke), including obesity, high triglycerides, low HDL "good" cholesterol, high blood sugar, hypertension and insulin resistance.
Now there is brand new research from these same two researchers with something quite startling regarding a comparison between a low-fat and a low-carb diet as it relates to inflammation and saturated fat in the bloodstream.
Lead researcher Dr. Jeff S. Volek, PhD, RD from the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Connecticut and his team of outstanding researchers (including Dr. Feinman, Dr. Stephen Phinney, and the soon-to-be Dr. Cassandra Forsythe, among others) tested the various components of metabolic syndrome comparing a carbohydrate-restricted diet with a low-fat diet in overweight men and women over a 12-week period. The study participants were split into one of two groups:
VLCKD (very low-carb ketogenic diet)--1504 calories Fat/Protein/Carbohydrate ratio of 59/28/12
OR
LFD (low-fat diet)--1478 calories Fat/Protein/Carbohydrate ration of 24/20/56
What did Dr. Volek and his team of researchers find?
Total saturated fatty acids in the blood actually DECREASED in the VLCKD group while the anti-inflammatory markers also "significantly decreased." Meanwhile, the LFD group, which consumed two-thirds less saturated fat than the VLCKD group, saw an INCREASE in total saturated fat in the bloodstream despite reducing fat intake.
This was totally unexpected as the conventional wisdom regarding saturated fat consumption is that it causes an increase in inflammation which leads to a worsening of the metabolic syndrome conditions and overall health. But that's not what happened.
"A very low carbohydrate diet resulted in profound alterations in fatty acid composition and reduced inflammation compared to a low fat diet," the researchers concluded.
So what are we to make of this research in light of all we've ever been told about saturated fat? Doctors and nutritionists have long told their patients with metabolic syndrome symptoms to eat a low-fat diet and now science like this one is showing the shortsightedness of this unproven recommendation. Livin' la vida low-carb is making great strides behind-the-scenes because it is an excellent way to reduce triglycerides and other essential health markers related to inflammation.
Dr. Volek says this new study shows how a controlled-carbohydrate nutritional approach is "adding to the evolving picture of improvement in general health beyond simple weight loss in keeping blood glucose and insulin under control." And he believes this hyperinsulinemia is the root cause behind obesity, diabetes, and a whole host of other preventable diseases that all improve with the use of a low-carb diet.
Interestingly, the Volek study in Lipids is only a small portion of a much larger study currently under peer review. The full study shows even more improvements in blood lipids (cholesterol) with the stunning conclusion that "lowering total and saturated fat only had a small effect on circulating inflammatory markers whereas reducing carbohydrate led to considerably greater reductions in a number of pro-inflammatory" markers. Dr. Volek says this puts the onus of health risks back on the consumption of carbohydrates.
"These data implicate dietary carbohydrate rather than fat as a more significant nutritional factor contributing to inflammatory processes," he stated.
Meanwhile, Richard Feinman, PhD from the biochemistry department at SUNY Downstate Medical Center says this new research demonstrably shows why carb-restricted diets work so remarkably well.
"The real importance of diets that lower carbohydrate content is that they are grounded in mechanism: carbohydrates stimulate insulin secretion which biases fat metabolism towards storage rather than oxidation," Dr. Feinman explained. "The inflammation results open a new aspect of the problem. From a practical standpoint, continued demonstrations that carbohydrate restriction is more beneficial than low fat could be good news to those wishing to forestall or manage the diseases associated with metabolic syndrome."
Most damning against the low-fat diet hypothesis is the fact that although there was a three-fold higher saturated fat consumption by the VLCKD group, it was the LFD group that experienced higher saturated fat in the blood. Counterintuitive? You betcha!
"This clearly shows the limitations of the idea that ‘you are what you eat,'" Dr. Volek explained. "Metabolism plays a big role. You are what your body does with what you eat."
I like that--YOU ARE WHAT YOUR BODY DOES WITH WHAT YOU EAT! And that's why I'm livin' la vida low-carb because I have all the confidence in the world with what my body will do with the low-carb foods I consume. Controlled blood sugar and insulin levels, reduced triglycerides, lower blood pressure, increased HDL "good" cholesterol, and so much more than I could have ever expected from a high-fat, low-carb diet. It's hard not to appreciate something like this when your life has been so radically changed for the better. Now the research is showing us why.
Dr. Feinman succinctly repeated and summarized what I blogged about in this previous post regarding saturated fat consumption on the low-carb lifestyle in the following statement about this new study.
"I think even if you allow for tremendous error, it says that if carbs are low, saturated fat doesn't have much effect on the plasma composition," he remarked.
And that is why I don't worry about how much saturated fat I consume as long as my carbs are reduced. Now we have the science to back us up!
You can share your appreciation to Dr. Jeff Volek for his fantastic research by e-mailing him at jeff.volek@uconn.edu as well as Dr. Richard Feinman at rfeinman@downstate.edu.
7 Red-Hot Reads To Awaken The Low-Carb Fire That Burns Within
Seven super sizzling columns to light up your low-carb fire again
There's so much positive news I've seen about livin' la vida low-carb lately in the blogosphere and even in the mainstream news lately that I can barely get to it all. So rather than hoarding all of it to myself and trying to blog about it when I can, I thought I'd share the following columns and posts with you today. These will absolutely get your fire lit again for low-carb living if you feel it has fizzled a bit. I have no doubt you're gonna LOVE these! ENJOY!
I just love Muata, the author of the blog Mr. Low Body Fat. This is the incredible transformational story of a man who took up the challenge of not just losing weight but quite literally changing his life forever. In the process he lost over 100 pounds and went from a chunky man into one with a six-pack. I have nothing but deep respect for what he has accomplished and I HIGHLY recommend you read his blog!
He wrote a column designed specifically for men who want or need to shed triple digits. Since that is something I have a little bit of experience with (*smile*), I was intrigued by what Muata had to say. And I was NOT disappointed. In fact, much of it echoed many of the same themes I have blogged about here--setting many small goals along the way, making the way you eat a long-term permanent and healthy lifestyle change, don't worry about loose skin following weight loss, and so much more! Whether you've got more than 100 pounds to lose or not, you'll learn a lot from Muata's experience.
One of my readers was so excited when she saw this column because she felt it was about time the low-carb message reached such a major media outlet as MSN. Of course, when I clicked on the link and saw the authors were University of Connecticut low-carb researcher Dr. Jeff Volek and Men's Health Features editor Adam Campbell, authors of the fabulous new low-carb fitness book Men's Health TNT Diet, a great big smile came on my face. I knew the column was gonna be outstanding. And it is!
Get a load of the five reasons you're not losing weight: You're Following Bad Advice, You Eat Fat-Free Foods, You (Still) Don't Eat Breakfast, You're Eating Too Much Sugar, and You Don't Lift Weights. This is one column you'll probably want to print out, tape up to the wall, and read often. Volek and Campbell are 100% right with what they share in this article and I think you'll agree with much of what they say.
Do you read Lou Schuler's Male Pattern Fitness Blog? Well, why the heck not? Lou is one of the minority of voices out there who espouses the basic principles of livin' la vida low-carb in a very entertaining and "daily news" type of format. He's like a talk show host going over the health news of the day and adding in his own one-of-a-kind commentary.
This post he wrote about saturated fat is absolutely, positively fabulous! As a former writer for Men's Health magazine, Lou is stunned that they would even dare run a positive story on the role of saturated fat in a healthy diet (which I'll be highlighting next). As a low-carber, he realizes the paradigm shift is happening right before our eyes and is excited about the prospects for the future.
Here's that Men's Health column that has Lou Schuler all excited. It was written by Nina Teicholz and is quite a detailed look at how saturated fat became so vilified in the United States and around the world. The story is especially damning of Ancel Keys for starting this anti-saturated fat movement without having any real evidence to back up his claims that it is unhealthy.
A brand new 12-week study cited in the story conducted by Dr. Volek on the impact of saturated fat on overweight men and women was astonishing (although not to people who understand how low-carb diets work)! The low-carbers ate 36g saturated fat a day--THREE TIMES the amount of the low-fat dieters--but they saw their small, dense LDL cholesterol particles (the VERY dangerous ones for heart health) DECREASE, their triglycerides drop by MORE THAN HALF, and their HDL/LDL ratio improved more than those on the low-fat diet. Print this one out, too, and wave it at those people who tell you that saturated fat you're eating on your low-carb lifestyle will kill you. WRONG!
One more post from Lou Schuler's blog was worth mentioning. He looks at the ongoing debate between low-fat and low-carb diet advocates and wonders if there is any room for common ground. In fact, Lou cites this blog post I wrote following my interview with Dr. Dean Ornish last year (and was aired on my podcast show recently) outlining 20 shared beliefs between the two sides.
You gotta love the way Lou just tells it like it is:
"Cut the crap out of your diet, exercise, and you'll probably hit a good, healthy weight relative to your genetics. If you need more intervention than that, go with more protein and less carbohydrate. The first data set I used, the one about total calories produced in the U.S., showed that about 13 percent of the calories we have access to come from protein. About 51 percent come from carbohydrates. If you double the protein and cut the carbs in half, good things will happen. If that's still not enough, go low-carb."
We go back to Men's Health Magazine again for a joint column from Dr. Volek and Adam Campbell to see further evidence why saturated fat is not the great evil it has been made out to be. If you're looking for the VERY LATEST research on why saturated fat is GOOD FOR YOU, then READ THIS ARTICLE!!!
Finally, we head north to our friends in Canada for a superb story written by Mike Sornberger from The Ottawa Citizen about the continuing importance of livin' la vida low-carb STILL happening in the year 2007 despite the fact that the "low-carb diet craze" is long gone. The article quotes Stanford University professor Dr. Christopher Garder who authored this JAMA study that found Atkins was best among the diets earlier this year and is in general very favorable coverage for low-carb living that you should find interesting. It describes the unique role of insulin in weight gain and health decline--something New York Times science journalist Gary Taubes who wrote the 2007 blockbuster health book Good Calories, Bad Calories has repeated quite often based on his own look at the research.
Those will keep you busy a while, so check 'em out and tell me what you think. The low-carb lifestyle is DEFINITELY seeing a comeback and it's good to know these kind of stories are getting out there in the mainstream. Regardless of what the negative naysayers toward livin' la vida low-carb have to say about our healthy way of eating, this is our chosen method for not just losing weight but also maintaining our weight and health for the rest of our long and prosperous life! And we wouldn't have it any other way.
Have you seen some positive news in the media about low-carb that I may have missed? If so, then feel free to e-mail me a link to the story anytime at livinlowcarbman@charter.net. Mark my words, you're gonna see a dramatic change in the coverage towards livin' la vida low-carb real soon as a whole lot more research keeps confirming what we already know--this way of eating optimal for shedding the pounds and improving your health.
In late August, I was privileged to conduct an interview with a cardiologist named Dr. William Davis who utilizes a rather unconventional approach for examining heart health by measuring the amount of plaque build-up in the arteries called a heart scan. It is cutting-edge technology that would be a more widely accepted way to manage heart health if there was money involved in it. This is the uphill battle that Dr. Davis is attempting to counteract with his "Heart Scan Blog" which I fell in love with after Dr. Davis wrote a blog post entitled "The Ornish Diet Made Me Fat"--I WAS HOOKED! :)
Not long after my interview with Dr. Davis, he approached me about returning the favor--doing an interview with me--because he was especially interested in learning more about why I support saturated fat consumption as part of a healthy lifestyle. It's too important a subject to be swept under the rug and I was appreciative of the opportunity to articulate my argument to a man with an open mind willing to be convinced he may be wrong.
Before his interview with me, Dr. Davis contended that he has "had a hard time dismissing the ill-effects of saturated fat."
"After all, we've all been taught--drilled--with the idea that saturated fats cause LDL cholesterol to go higher, cause arterial constriction, growth of atherosclerotic plaque, inflammation, even cancer," Dr. Davis contended.
But...
"...there does indeed seem to be a growing sentiment that this long-held dogma may not be true," he concluded following his interview with me.
Here's just a few snippets from the interview:
"My thinking on saturated fat has evolved since I started eating this way nearly four years ago. Like most people, I was terrified to eat ANY fat at all because of the abject fear that people like Dr. Dean Ornish and other so-called health "experts" instilled in me about how dangerously unhealthy it is to consume it. This fat phobia is arguably the single biggest contributor to the ongoing obesity crisis our world faces today." ********** "To me, as a simple layperson with no medical background, it's all a matter of who you believe. Do we continue to buy into the low-fat propaganda machine and assume that what they are telling us about saturated fat is true? Or do we instead start paying closer attention to the latest research that is coming out about saturated fat that doesn't exactly line up with the edicts of the last three decades? The choice for me is a simple one." ********** "As for consuming the highly-touted 'healthy whole grain' cereals that you mentioned, what a travesty that would be for people trying to manage their weight and health. While the cereal manufacturers have had a heyday in their marketing efforts promoting their whole grain content, it's all just a big fat ruse on the public trying to convince them that these cereals are somehow healthy for their bodies. Sure, they're better than the sugary cereals, but all those grains are metabolized as sugar inside the body, so you might as well be eating Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops! ********** "There's a balance that people need to find for themselves and it's different for all of us. I am one of the unlucky people who has to keep his carbohydrate intake below 50g daily or I gain. It's just a fact of life that I've come to grips with and realize is a necessity in order to manage my weight for the rest of my life. But I wouldn't have it any other way!" ********** "My philosophy is simple: Find the diet plan that will work for YOU, read and research everything you can about that chosen plan, follow that plan exactly as prescribed by the author of that book, and then KEEP doing that plan for the rest of your life. If you do that, then there's no reason why you can't succeed just like I did."
There's much more in the FULL INTERVIEW, so be sure to check it out and leave a comment at Dr. Davis' blog! Special THANK YOU to Dr. William Davis for sharing my story with his readers and I hope we all continue to learn from one another about how to be as healthy as we can possibly be.
He and I both agree the current path is too tied up in the financial interests of the parties involved to give a rat's rear end about the people who are suffering from heart health problems. That's a bigger problem that needs to be confronted, exposed, and addressed to end this pandemic of cardiovascular disease that grips our nation.
Dr. Davis indicated that as a result of his interview with me, he's going to "rethink all the old observations" about saturated fat he once thought were the gospel truth.
"I am impressed with your knowledge on this topic," he remarked. "You've made a powerfully convincing argument for the misguidance of the saturated fat dogma. Thanks for teaching me a few things, Jimmy!"
It's my pleasure, Dr. Davis, and I encourage you to keep fighting the good fight against those who try to take advantage of making heart disease a multi-billion dollar moneymaker rather than trying to prevent it in the first place. Your efforts will not be in vain for those who find out the truth before it is too late for them.
For more information about the inexpensive heart scan test that Dr. Davis advocates to measure the plaque in your arteries, pick up a copy of his book Track Your Plaque.
The creation of the "Bad Fat Brothers" shows the AHA hitting a new low
The low-fat apologists have never been shy or coy about espousing their beliefs about healthy nutrition on the public. They speak boldly and proudly about the alleged "dangers" of consuming fat, especially saturated fat and trans fat. But now the American Heart Association (AHA) has gone too far with their latest propaganda campaign centered around two cartoon characters named "Sat" and "Trans"--aka the "Bad Fat Brothers."
In Episode 93 of "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore," we shine a light on this new public awareness campaign endorsed and paid for by the AHA that is trying to bamboozle people into thinking consuming saturated fat and trans fat is unhealthy. I could not disagree more and explain why citing evidence to the contrary in this podcast.
Click on the "LISTEN NOW" link below or download it to your iPod:
"The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore" Episode 93 [12:18m]: LISTEN NOW | Download
Have you heard "Sat" and "Trans" on the radio talking about all the foods they like people to consume so they can "break your heart?" Those spots are already running nationwide with this web site advertised at the end of the radio ad. And there's even a video on YouTube with these two goofball characters spreading their lies about fat consumption. Watch it for yourself and try not to gag too much:
NOTE: Leave a comment at YouTube about this video by clicking here!
Get full on some guaranteed low-carb podcasting when you want it by:
Do you agree with me that this latest campaign from the AHA is a bit of desperation on their part to try to malign saturated fat at a time when the evidence out of the scientific community is actually praising it? How effective do you think the "Bad Fat Brothers" will be at convincing people to stop eating the foods that contain saturated and trans fat in them? You know you have an opinion, so share it so we can all talk about it together!
Gary Taubes spreads carbohydrate-restriction message on ExtraTV
In an extended version of "Gary Taubes Week" here at the "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" blog, I have a couple of video segments to share with you featuring the embattled Good Calories, Bad Calories author defending livin' la vida low-carb as a means for reducing weight and health risks.
First, he appeared on ExtraTV program on Monday discussing his new book and what they call the "explosive" message contained therein by such a "controversial" author. Apparently, the producers at the show think that a low-carb diet promoted by anyone other than that quack fad diet guru Dr. Atkins merits that kind of hyperbolic expression to describe it.
What REALLY raised their ire? It was this statement.
"Seventy-percent of cancers are caused by diet," Taubes said.
This allegedly is "raising eyebrows" among the so-called health "experts." But I don't know why they got all in a tizzy over this statement because we JUST had some pretty incredible news out of Germany and the Wurzburg Cancer Trial which found a low-carb diet is a highly effective way to manage and even cure cancers of all kinds, especially when every other treatment option has failed. Gary Taubes is simply stating what science is already showing us.
The ExtraTV feature also highlights his support for dietary fat of all kinds in the fight against obesity while simultaneously shunning the carbohydrates, which he says are "the likely causes of cancer, Alzheimer's disease and the other chronic diseases of civilization."
Again, the evidence is there for these conditions as well regarding the blood sugar connection to Alzheimer's disease (be sure to read my interview with noted neurologist Dr. Larry McCleary for even more on this) as well as many other diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome, among many others.
Yes, it took five years and over 600 interviews to make Good Calories, Bad Calories come to fruition, but it is here now and all the evidence is there in black and white for anyone to read.
Get a load of all the comments posted beneath the ExtraTV article and you'll see many of them deriding Taubes for supporting such an "extreme" diet. Of course, yours truly posted a video response in SUPPORT for him and I encourage you to do the same.
Second, I was browsing around YouTube and found a rather interesting discussion between Gary Taubes, Dr. Dean Ornish, and Dr. Barbara Howard (from the American Heart Association) and moderated by Dr. Mehmet Oz (guest hosting for Charlie Rose) surrounding Taubes' original article that set off the firestorm of controversy. It's a rather lengthy video (about 50 minutes long), but chock full of some truly amazing points by Taubes.
It reminded me of those Sunday morning news shows where you have all these liberal guests and the one token conservative guest left to defend his position against the firebreathing opposition. But I'll give Taubes credit, he came off looking very well-versed and confident in his position in support of low-carb living against the "cut your fats if you wanna save your health" Ornish position and the "oh, just eat in moderation and exercise" Howard position. You can almost see Taubes rolling his eyes at some of the jibberish these two low-carb establishment apologists were spouting.
Here's the video (FYI: the sound and audio are a little off):
About halfway through, you can see Dr. Ornish get visibly upset with Taubes which was great to see. And Ornish didn't really say anything different than what he told me about a year ago in my interview with him. Plus, if you look carefully, you'll notice that Dr. Ornish is the ONLY member of the panel with a computer screen in front of him. Taubes, Howard, and Oz all spoke without the use of notes or prompts, but Ornish did not. Interesting.
We knew Gary Taubes was going to be sacrificed to the lambs when he released his book and they're trying their best to discredit him. But the evidence is the truth and truth cannot be refuted no matter how hard you try. Keep on supporting Good Calories, Bad Calories which has broken into the Top 50 overall at Amazon this week and will continue to climb the bestseller charts as more and more people hear about this remarkable book.
Incidentally, over the weekend I sent out an invitation to quite a few people in the world of diet, health, and nutrition from all vantage points requesting a comment or blurb reaction to the new Taubes book. Interesting, most responded that they had not read the book or even heard about it. Even Dr. Ornish responded with the following:
"Thanks, I'll take a look. What are your impressions of the new book?"
I wrote him back and said I would reserve my comments until I heard from him and that I wanted his honest feedback. Based on his interactions with Taubes on the Charlie Rose program, I can only imagine. It is amazing he has YET to respond, though. But I'll let you know if he does and publish his comments here.
One other notable response I received was from Dr. Christopher Gardner, author of the infamous JAMA study in March this year that found the Atkins diet outperformed all other diets for weight loss and health improvements. As you can read in the follow-up response I received from Dr. Gardner, he's not exactly a low-carb supporter and that was reflected in this e-mail I received back from him for a comment on the Taubes book:
"I haven't read it yet, although I was sent a free copy. After seeing his recent article in the New York Times magazine I'm not very interested in reading his book. I'm not impressed. But if I do get to it I'll keep your invitation in mind."
Well, alrighty then! Although Ornish and Gardner aren't too thrilled with Good Calories, Bad Calories, there are MANY others in the field of health and nutrition who ARE and I'll be bringing you those reactions in the coming days and weeks. Feel free to share your thoughts about the book in the comments section below.
10-2-07 UPDATE: There was an EXCELLENT article about Taubes and his new book in Reuters today that you should really check out. Once again, Gary Taubes holds his own and shares why he wrote this book. Here's an excerpt:
"Science doesn't work without extreme skepticism and without challenges to the conventional wisdom. [Good Calories, Bad Calories is] a plea to take this hypothesis seriously, because it has the advantage of explaining the observations, which the current dogma cannot do. I thought if one in 10 [doctors, researchers and public health officials read the book], then that 10 percent is likely to start a debate that is likely to spread from there."
Here's hoping that conversation begins in earnest sooner rather than later!
It's time yet again for another thrilled-packed episode of the hottest thing to hit YouTube...okay, maybe not. But my wife Christine and I would like to think we're having enough fun talking about low-carb living to justify making more and more "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb On YouTube" videos--and so we are.
In Episode 5 we got into the most controversial part of low-carb diets in the eyes of those so-called health and nutrition experts who think it is so dangerous and unhealthy. That's right, we talk about FAT--dum, dum, dummmmmmmmmm! And even SATURATED FAT! Double dum, dum dummmmmmmm!
But you know how I feel about fat and that it alone has nothing at all to do with making you fat or clogging your arteries. Instead it is the SUGAR and the carbohydrates you consume that TURN TO SUGAR in your body that is "gumming up" your arteries as my friend and Protein Power co-author Dr. Mike Eades would say.
If you're interested in more about this subject, check out these blog posts:
There's MUCH MUCH more where that came from, but it'll get you started off the right way in understanding why fat is indeed a part of a happy and healthy lifestyle. Read Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution and the upcoming Gary Taubes book Good Calories, Bad Calories for even more evidence in support for fat consumption.
Okay, enough of that, it's time to show you our latest video. ENJOY!
I LOVE my coconut oil (my favorite brand is Nutiva) and butter--both of which are recommended by Dr. Jonny Bowden as one of the 150 Healthiest Foods On Earth (EXCELLENT BOOK, by the way!). Hopefully people will understand that fat is not the big health threat that our fat-phobic society thinks it is. It's just not as long as you keep your carbohydrates reduced.
Leave a comment for Episode 5 and talk about how fat is an important part of your low-carb lifestyle experience. These videos on YouTube are being watched by people who have never been exposed to the positive message of livin' la vida low-carb before, so help me educate them on why this way of eating is so healthy for them.
See all of our other YouTube videos and comment on them, too:
- Promo video--A half-minute promotion of the new video series - Episode 1--Introduction of Jimmy & Christine Moore - Episode 2--What kind of fruits can you have on a low-carb diet? - Episode 3--What kind of veggies can you have on a low-carb diet? - Episode 4--What does a low-carber do for something sweet?
Please sign up and subscribe to our YouTube videos and tell your friends and family members about them. We have a great time sharing what this low-carb way of life is all about and have been encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive feedback we have been receiving about the series. Keep encouraging us and we'll keep pumping them out!
Dr. William Davis says modern-day heart care "tragically off track"
Heart health in the United States and around the world is that much more pronounced nowadays in light of the fact that obesity rates and and so-called "high" cholesterol have risen to the level of being labeled diseases that require a pharmaceutical response. But there's at least one cardiologist in America who believes all the current treatments being used against coronary heart disease risks fall well short of the mark in actually doing anything about artery blockages that lead to a heart attack or stroke.
His name is Dr. William Davis and this heart doctor from Milwaukee, Wisconsin believes heart health is nothing more than a money-making venture for hospitals while patients experience no actual improvements in their risks of having a cardiovascular event while following the recommended high-carb, low-fat diet and popping expensive and dangerous statin drugs. Those are just a few of the topics he and I discussed in my interview with him which I will share with you today.
Fans of livin' la vida low-carb are gonna LOVE Dr. Davis! ENJOY!
1. Today we have with us Dr. William Davis, an unconventional cardiologist who also serves as the medical director of Milwaukee Heart Scan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dr. Davis is an outspoken opponent of the traditional methods and treatments espoused by the medical and pharmaceutical industries for dealing with heart disease. Before we get into the details of what you believe about that, Dr. Davis, tell us a little bit about why you got interested in the subject of heart disease in the first place. Does heart disease run in your own family?
I came to the world of heart disease by the usual misguided route: When I was young, I found it exciting because of the opportunity for procedures to “fix” this disease.
After about 10 years of a cardiology practice heavily focused on angioplasty, stents, and the like, I began to recognize that this was a treadmill of futility.
I was just toying with these notions when my real epiphany came—-my mother died of a heart attack at age 62. Here I was, an interventional cardiologist employing all the newest techniques and my own mother dies of the disease I thought I understood.
That was the moment when it struck me: The world of conventional heart care was terribly and tragically off track.
2. Much of what we have been taught about heart disease focuses on dietary fat consumption, excess body fat, LDL/total cholesterol, and too much stress. But most of these “scams” as you describe them are not based on the science behind heart disease. How did such dogmatic axioms become so ingrained in our culture as undeniable truths?
The limited understanding of issues like cholesterol in the 1960s and 1970s has become deeply ingrained into the practicing cardiologist of this century. Unfortunately, it means that your practicing family practitioner, internist, or cardiologist is still performing a test that was outdated over a decade ago—-the cholesterol panel.
Today, there are more insightful and sophisticated tests that uncover the causes of heart disease far more effectively than cholesterol testing.
There’s also an economically perverse equation at work: If your heart disease is prevented, there’s virtually no profit in it. But if you are allowed to have a heart attack, there’s a bonanza of thousands of dollars of procedures that follow. This is a situation aided and abetted by hospitals, cardiologists, and the vast infrastructure of corporations that support the procedural cardiovascular care system. It is a system that generates tens of billions of dollars each and every year and sports a growth rate that is the envy of Wall Street.
3. You wrote two books about this subject--Track Your Plaque (2004) and What Does My Heart Scan Show? (2007)--to help dispel many of these so-called truths about heart disease and to help better prepare people about how they can detect and even prevent the risk of developing heart disease. And yet 9 out of every 10 cases of heart disease go undetected until a heart attack occurs. That’s why you developed a simple 3-step program has helped many patients see how much plaque is built up, find out why it is happening, and to give them complete control over the problem. Discuss how you came up with this novel concept for treating heart disease when most other cardiologists and physicians look at LDL cholesterol. Why is that such a poor way to gauge heart disease risk?
It's no secret: LDL cholesterol has proven a miserable failure as a detector of coronary heart disease.
Abundant clinical trial experience has borne this fact out: LDL cholesterol of the average American: 132 mg/dl; average LDL cholesterol of someone suffering a heart attack: 134 mg/dl—they’re virtually indistinguishable.
So, if your LDL cholesterol is, say, 141, will you die tomorrow? Will you require a heart bypass operation to restore flow to your blocked coronary arteries 2 years from now? Or, will you be dancing on the graves of all your friends and neighbors 50 years from now, never having experienced a stitch of heart disease? Cholesterol won’t tell you.
Cholesterol is a predictor on a statistical basis, but fails miserably when applied to a specific individual. This led me to search for better tools to identify the person with heart disease risk.
The best test for heart disease is a test that measures the disease itself, not some risk for the disease. That’s how I stumbled on heart scans as a method of detecting early coronary heart disease. Heart scans are measure of the disease itself-—atherosclerotic plaque-—not some risk factor that might predict its development.
4. I recently highlighted a rather humorous post you wrote on “The Heart Scan Blog” about your experience on a low-fat diet as prescribed by Dr. Dean Ornish for “reversing heart disease.” What’s wrong with the low-fat , low-salt, low-cholesterol (DASH) diet recommendation that Dr. Ornish and virtually every other medical professional prescribes to people who are developing or already have heart disease?
The misguided advice offered to most people is that a low-fat diet reduces cholesterol and heart disease. This is simply untrue for the majority of people.
In fact, the opposite is true: a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet filled with wheat products like whole grain bread, wheat crackers, pretzels, fiber breakfast cereals, and wheat pasta raise cholesterol. Corn starch-containing products, white rice, potatoes, and processed carbohydrates are similarly to blame.
They raise small LDL cholesterol particles, the worst form of cholesterol of all. While large cholesterol particles are rather harmless, the small cholesterol particles are the ones behind heart disease in over 70% of cases. And it's small LDL cholesterol that is hugely magnified by high-fiber, high-carbohydrate diets.
5. One of my readers sent me an e-mail with concerns about the diet you recommend in “Track Your Plaque” because it is basically a lower-fat approach (albeit, not as low-fat as Dr. Ornish recommends). Your diet calls for 24 percent fat coming from unsaturated fat sources in conjunction with a high-fiber (35g daily) intake. What are your thoughts about a higher fat diet and more specifically one that includes saturated fat?
The Track Your Plaque book was written in 2003 before its publication in 2004. Much has happened in the few short years since its release.
Among the changes to the somewhat low-fat approach articulated in the book is diet that has proven more effective in correcting the causes of heart disease: a diet higher and richer in healthy fats like those from fish, raw nuts, olive oil, canola oil, flaxseed and grapeseed oils, and wild game. These changes, along with a reduction in carbohydrate content, suggest that a diet that is at least 30% fat (calorie percent) is probably more towards the ideal.
However, I do believe that saturated fat remains an issue. Saturated fat really became an issue when humans began to fry their foods and add animal fats like butter and shortening. It became an even bigger issue when the “factory farm” phenomenon seized control of American farming away from the traditional family farm, introducing economies of scale like corn feeding of livestock that transformed beef, pork, and chicken into high saturated fat foods.
The trend to reject saturated fat is really a trend towards rejecting the factory farm movement driven by enormous multi-national corporations intent on supporting the fast food and processed food industries.
6. I lost nearly 200 pounds on the Atkins diet back in 2004 and have been able to maintain that weight loss ever since by continuing to implement the principles I learned from the late great Dr. Robert C. Atkins. And yet you do not recommend this particular way of eating over the long-term as a way to improve health. What specifically is unhealthy about eating an Atkins-styled diet beyond weight loss and is there a better way of eating that you believe is both heart healthy and bring about weight control?
Interestingly, before Dr. Atkins died, he articulated a diet that was more balanced in monounsaturated fats, less rich in saturated fats, included more vegetables, fruits, nuts, and other healthy foods.
We need to remember that the “Induction phase” of the Atkins’ diet that permitted indiscriminate and unlimited intake of meat, cheese, and other saturated fat-rich foods was simply that—-the induction into the world that allowed you to be divorced from the addictive property of refined carbohydrates.
In we were to follow the Induction phase of the Atkins’ diet indefinitely, we would experience increased bladder infections, kidney stones, rashes, osteoporosis, cancer (liver, colon, prostate, breast), diverticulosis, and other chronic conditions. The induction phase is a useful tool to make the break from carbohydrate-addicted physiology, but not a recipe for long-term health.
7. For people interested in having their plaque measured by a heart specialist like yourself, the Heart Scan Resource Center at TrackYourPlaque.com is an excellent resource for finding a recommended center where this can be conducted. Walk us through what that process is like. What exactly happens when a patient comes into your office for this test? How soon will they know the results of their scan and can begin working on correcting any abnormalities?
Actually, heart scans are performed at heart scan centers. I do not own a heart scan device. Thus, I have no vested interest in having people undergo heart scans.
Heart scans are, nonetheless, a valuable tool for detection and quantification of coronary atherosclerotic plaque, the material that constitutes coronary artery disease and the stuff that causes heart attacks.
Heart scans are ridiculously easy tests. Some EKG leads are applied, hold your breath—-you’re done. No IV, no poking or prodding, no pain. The paperwork truly takes more time than the scan itself.
You walk away from the scan center with a score, a calcium score that reflects the total amount of atherosclerotic plaque in your heart’s arteries. Because calcium occupies 20% of the volume of atherosclerotic plaque in your arteries, measuring calcium is a useful and practical method of indirectly measuring the total amount of plaque in your heart arteries.
Once you have a heart scan score—a precise measure of atherosclerotic plaque in your coronary arteries—you have a starting place to seize control and stop the increase in your score, perhaps even reduce it.
8. Just so we're perfectly clear about what you are saying, am I right in assuming you believe people should people stop worrying about their cholesterol numbers because they really don’t have a bearing on heart disease? How about those who are taking cholesterol-lowering statin medications like Lipitor, Zocor, and Crestor, among many others to lower their “high” cholesterol? Is there a reason for them to remain on those drugs in light of what we now know about heart disease?
The cholesterol reducing drugs do have role—-unfortunately, the majority of people are put on these drugs for the wrong reasons.
Let me explain. Someone will come in because of a reportedly high cholesterol. We do more testing and discover that the majority, say, 90%, of the cholesterol particles are small. This pattern is very likely to contribute to formation of plaque in the arteries. It also responds exceedingly well to a reduced carbohydrate diet. Many, many times, a person with this pattern will follow a diet that slashes carbohydrate content and cholesterol levels drop like a stone. In this instance, statin cholesterol drugs may be entirely unnecessary.
Another exception: A person with a high cholesterol that is not truly high. When you are provided an LDL cholesterol from your doctor’s office, it has not been measured, it has been estimated. The crude estimation is based on a calculation called the “Friedwald equation,” an equation derived in the 1960s when new technology for testing was not yet available.
It sounds ridiculously simple, but simply measuring cholesterol can provide insights that can often suggest that a statin cholesterol drug is not necessary. The more sophisticated testing is called “lipoprotein testing.”
9. Cardiac care is “big business” with nearly $60 BILLION dollars annually spent by Americans on heart health-related expenses. In fact, half of the profits generated from most hospitals comes from cardiac care alone--a staggering number which should be a real wake-up call to people who are concerned about health insurance and healthcare costs. Who or what do you believe is driving this heart disease “business” and are they intentionally trying to make people sick to continue the big payday?
Performing heart procedures pays big money. Prevention of heart disease does not.
That simple perversion of the healthcare equation explains a lot. Physicians and hospitals are not in business to provide health. They operate businesses that are meant to profit from treatment of disease. Wiping out a disease is not part of the picture.
Put in a stent and reap about $2000 to the cardiologist, $25000 or more to the hospital. Perform a heart bypass operation, and the physician gets at least $5000, the hospital $70-100 thousand.
Prevent a heart attack and you get paid . . . maybe a couple of hundred dollars for several hours work. Which do you think most physicians choose? Which do you think hospitals promote in endless TV commercials and billboards? What about the stent industry, manufacturers of implantable defibrillators, operating room equipment, and on and on.
Heart disease is big business. In fact, it is the biggest business every conceived in health. Why try to change it?
I try to change it because there is a far better way, a way not built on profit, but on returning control of health and life back to the individual. I see what I do as self-empowerment of the individual, taking control over health and away from hospitals and physicians and back to the human being whose life is at stake.
10. THANK YOU again, Dr. Davis, for joining us here today at the “Livin' La Vida Low-Carb” blog to talk about one of the most important health issues of our lifetime. I’m anxious to have one of these screenings myself in the near future and encourage my readers to do the same. Do you have any words of encouragement and hope to share before we end this interview today?
We are just beginning to enter an age of taking back control of health from hospitals and physicians and returning it to the individual. The biggest chunk of this phenomenon is heart disease.
I believe that the tools necessary to seize control of coronary heart disease are already available to the vast majority of people. It involves heart scans, testing that effectively uncovers the underlying causes of heart disease (including the rejection of the cholesterol testing scam), and following a program that truly corrects the causes.
I endorse web sites like Livin' La Vida Low-Carb because they shed light on the enormous sea of misinformation being fed the American public. Your 200-pound weight loss itself speaks volumes about the useless detour the American diet has followed. There are far better answers than the ones being provided by organizations like the American Heart Association, the USDA, the Surgeon General’s office, and other official organizations. We need to turn to the real world wisdom provided by the national experiment in health and diet provided by people like Jimmy Moore.
In fact, I tell my patients that if they want heart disease, they should follow the American Heart Association diet. On the other hand, if they want to substantially reduce, perhaps eliminate, risk of heart disease in their lifetimes, they need to follow a diet that eliminates the distortions of convention habits and wisdom.
Be sure to visit "The Heart Scan Blog" often for more from Dr. William Davis. And you can e-mail him to thank him for the work he is doing on behalf of heart health at heartprotection@aol.com.
I think I love this guy (in a brotherly kind of way, of course!) because he just makes sense. And he should know what he's talking about since he has appeared on magazine covers, on television shows, and headed up an anti-obesity campaign in Houston, Texas. As a world-class bodybuilder, Labrada has seen all the good and the bad when it comes to health and he shares it in this engaging book.
With a natural wit and ability to connect with his reader, Labrada goes through step-by-step what YOU need to do to overcome the mental obstacles that stand in the way of your eventual success, provides examples of people who have been successful to serve as inspiration for your new journey, arm you with ample motivation for getting the job done, providing specifics about the kind of diet you should be eating to attain optimal results, and, of course, give you specific direction about how to workout your body to look and feel better than you ever imagined.
Sounds awesome, doesn't it? But aren't books like The Lean Body Promise just a bunch of marketing hype from people who have never had to deal with being overweight and out of shape? While that's probably true about many such programs, you can sense Labrada takes a personal interest in seeing real success from average everyday people like you and me. I think he really does care about YOUR success and will celebrate with you once you reach your goals.
The chapters in this book zoom by quickly thanks to Labrada's unique conversational style and the very clean formatting. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have his smiling picture looking at you from time to time to encourage you to implement his strategies into your life to change it for the better. It's like he's watching you as your own personal weight and fitness coach!
Easy-to-digest sections in each chapter are followed up by "The Skinny So Far..." to recap the primary points Labrada wanted you to remember. This is an extremely helpful way to reinforce the lessons you have learned so that you'll be well on your way to having that "lean body" he promises in just three months! YOU CAN DO IT!
As someone who has lost nearly 200 pounds on the low-carb lifestyle, I did have a few concerns about Labrada's views about diet in The Lean Body Promise. It wasn't all bad, especially his disdain for sugar and simple carbs, processed foods, trans fats, junk foods, and even those packaged low-fat foods. We totally agree that these are NOT good for you no matter how you slice it.
Where we part company is on the subjects of saturated fat and complex carbs.
Tons of research has come out and will be coming out very soon (remember the names Dr. Jeff Volek and Dr. Stephen Phinney) showing the minimized impact of saturated fat on the body when carbohydrate-restriction is in place. On a low-carb diet, such as Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution (the one I followed), consumption of red meat, egg yolks, bacon, butter, and the like are all extremely healthy for you because the atherogenic impact is minimized.
Actually, what Volek and Phinney have found is those who eat a high-carb diet that is lower in saturated fat content actually have more saturated fat in their blood than those who eat a low-carb diet that is higher in saturated fat content. This is a revolutionary new discovery that's gonna turn everything we've ever known about fat and heart health on its head. It's something the late great Dr. Robert C. Atkins talked about frequently and now the science is catching up to him.
As for the subject of complex carbohydrates, Labrada claims these are not as bad for you as simple carbs because they take more time to be digested and broken down which slows their impact on your blood sugar. While that's true, these carbs are still metabolized in the body as sugar. Even the supposedly "healthy" whole grain foods like oatmeal, brown rice, beans, corn, rice cakes, peas, and whole-grain breads and pastas should be avoided as much as possible to limit insulin spikes.
Despite our differences on these issues, I am still glad to know there are people like Lee Labrada out there trumpeting the cause of improving health and helping people realize they CAN change their diet for the better. The Lean Body Promise is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn more about how to whip their body into shape, shed the pounds, burn the body fat, and get healthier than they've ever been in their entire life.
That's a promise this former Mr. Universe says you can take to the bank!
(2004) and 
