I listen to audiobooks and podcasts when Sophie takes me for walks, and after finishing Taubes' The Case Against Sugar I checked out Nina Teicholz's The Big Fat Surprise. You can get your own copy at the link below if your library doesn't have it.
What is remarkable to me is how easy it is to find the actual peer-reviewed articles about the studies that she discusses in the book. For instance, it's not hard to trace the fact that Dr. Ornish's recommendations are based on a small group of people (no more than 21, and the numbers fluctuate depending on his own reporting). In addition, those people also quit smoking, added exercise, and made other lifestyle changes in addition to going LFHC (low fat high carb) and plant focused.
On my own, I've done a bit of investigation into the celebrity diet docs pushing the low-fat high-carb vegan way of eating. Neil Barnard is a nueroscientist, yet his food work focuses on diabetes. Esselstyn is a retired surgeon and olympic athlete married to one of the daughters of a founder of the Cleveland Clinic, where he operated (not where he actually practiced nutritional medicine or cardiology). Dr. McDougall got into the nutrition game in part because of his early stroke as a teenager. My point here is that in none of these cases do we really find sound science that shows that a low-fat high-carb diet actually improves the body's condition. While I enjoyed eating that way, my goals were not political or ethical for the most part. Instead, my goals for eating that way were to ensure that I don't (as they indicate in the documentary with the title Forks over Knives) dig my grave with my silverware. When we stop and consider the specialties and the board certifications of the celebrity doctors, though, they often don't back up, from a medical or scientific angle, the diets they promote. And I sense that The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, PCRM, is probably a pretty powerful lobbying group. That's not to say that the folks on the other side aren't biased--they are. But when I am finding peer-reviewed research that explains why I couldn't get my HDL over 57 on a vegan diet loaded with carbs, I find that more compelling than anything a documentary with David Avocado Wolfe in it might be. The bottom line, though, is that my body certainly seems to be responding well to a lower carb way of eating. I am doing some reasonable calorie restriction, but I have it set to a deficit of 1/2 pound a week. But I'm averaging 1.5 pounds lost per week--even when I go over my allotted calories (which is easy to do by a smidgen here or there). And midpoint from one weigh in to the next, we had an anniversary dinner that ended with a spudnut topped with ice cream and chocolate sauce. And I still lost 1.3 pounds in that week. Eating LFHC and mostly vegan I agonized over when I'd get to eat again and even with the same amount of calories and working out more than I am now wasn't losing weight. In fact, my weight was creeping up. So, as long as I feel this good I'm going to keep on keeping on. Note: I did add a magnesium/potassium supplement to our vitamins last week, as well as a daily spirulina capsule to help with electrolyte balance and ward off restless leg syndrome.
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The Two Fat SistersRenee and Angel welcome you to their blog. Hopefully we can change our name some time. In the meantime, watch as we try to get there. Archives
March 2018
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