Now we’re about to set sail on this year’s Low-Carb Cruise in the Carribbean. Ports include Belize, Isla Roatan (Honduras) and Cozumel. There’s plenty of cool speakers lined up, like Robb Wolf, Dr Jay Wortman and Jonathan Bailor. Should be fun!
Hopefully I’ll get the internet to work on the ship, otherwise you’ll hear from me in a week.
The obesity conference in San Diego is over. Highlights included plenty of interesting lectures, dinners with Jimmy Moore (thinner than ever after a year of measuring his ketone levels) and Dr Jeffry Gerber, drinks and NuSI-talk with Gary Taubes (exciting news coming up) and discussions with the insanely impressive Dr Peter Attia (who recently recieved a standing ovation at TEDMED – video to be posted). And one more thing… surfing in the Pacific Ocean with ASBP president-elect Dr Eric Westman.
In less than one week it’s time for this year’s low-carb cruise in the Carribean, so it was hardly worth flying home to Sweden before that. To spend the time in between I checked into a small hotel on Pacific Beach, San Diego, where I’m writing this (by the arrow above). Life’s not too bad.
Not many things impress me more than a scientist who dares to change his opinion. An excellent example is the influential Danish scientist Arne Astrup.
After earlier believing that fat was bad and carbs (even high-GI carbs) were good Astrup has now changed his mind. One of the reasons is the large DIOGENES study that he published in The New England Journal of Medicine recently.
The study proved that a diet with more protein, less carbs and a lower GI is better for maintaining a weight loss. Advice similar to the official guidelines (with more carbs) made participants regain the most weight.
Astrup used to be critical of Gary Taubes (who has long maintained that too much carbs is the villain behind the obesity epidemic). But now he did not mind admitting that he had changed his mind. I was there when they met at the ASBP obesity conference in San Diego yesterday. Astrup said “I was wrong, you were right” to Taubes, regarding carbs and obesity. He didn’t mind me quoting him on that either.
To clarify, Astrup does not believe that a strict low-carb diet is a good idea for the entire population. A little less carbs with a lower GI, and a bit more protein would be sufficient he believes. But Astrup had nothing against stricter low-carb diets for treating obesity etc.
I thought that Astrup would still be afraid of natural saturated fat, but he has updated his position here as well. After all the recent studies showing that refined carbs are worse for the heart than saturated fat, and now even that polyunsaturated omega-6 fat is worse, Astrup believes that focusing on saturated fat is wrong.
If there’s any benefit in replacing saturated fat with monounsaturated or omega-3 fat it’s hardly of any major importance. There are much more important things to focus on, such as eating less refined carbs (sugar and white flour), enough protein and avoiding trans fats. Natural saturated fat is nothing to be afraid of.
When people like Astrup manage to update their opinions there’s plenty of hope for the future. Let’s hope more and more experts will follow in his footsteps.
I’m just about to board the flight to the ASBP obesity conference in San Diego. After that it’s time for the annual low carb cruise in the West Indies. Reports are coming up!
Is there such a thing as good sugar? Agave nectar (syrup) is called “Good Sugar”.
What is agave nectar? It is sugar from the Mexican agave plant. It is particularly rich in fructose, the very sweet substance that separates sugar from starch. The very substance that in larger amounts taxes the liver and gives sugar it’s special ability to cause adverse health effects.
If anything, agave nectar is extra dangerous sugar. Continue Reading →
Here’s a photo from a symposium for dietitians. It is not a joke.
This is why you can’t trust weight loss advice from a dietitian. He or she may have been trained by The Coca Cola Company. The largest professional association of dietitians in America have sold out to the junk food industry, as previously reported.
If you ask a dietitian for weight loss advice you’ll probably just be told to eat less calories. You can keep eating junk food once in a while and even drink soda, as long as you count the calories. This is exactly what the Coca Cola Company wants you to believe.
The truth is that this advice only suits masochists who enjoy being hungry forever. If you want to lose weight without hunger there is a better way to do it.
Is Your Dietitian Educated by The Coca Cola Company?
How American Dietitians Sold Out to Coca Cola and Pepsi
PS: There are of course plenty of smart dietitians too. The photo above is from the Facebook page of Dietitians for Professional Integrity. If you’re a dietitian and want to feel proud of your profession I recommend you support them.
Both pictures contain 30 grams of carbs – a daily intake while eating moderately strict LCHF. Which would you choose?
In other words: avoid the major sources of carbs (sweets, bread, pasta, rice and potatoes). Then you can enjoy plenty of other good food and still get a good effect on your weight and health.
Pictures from this Swedish blog
Really carb-sensitive people and those who want the maximum effect of LCHF can benefit from keeping the carb intake below 20 grams a day (maybe even lower). They need to be careful not to eat too much carrots, nuts or berries.
Read more: LCHF for beginners
Parkinson’s disease is a common cause of debilitating complaints in predominantly older people. They experience successively increasing problems with stiffness and tremor. Two celebrities affected by the disease are Muhammed Ali and Michael J. Fox.
The cause is death of neurons in the brain that govern motor control. The treatment is providing dopamine supplements in various ways, which increases the activity in the remaining nerve cells. It’s effective as long as sufficient nerve cells remain (in early stages of the disease), but in the long run it’s less successful.
Now there may be a new addition to the arsenal of treatment. This is another application for Vitamin D, in which many people are deficient.
A new study tested supplementation of 1200 IU daily (as compared with placebo) over a year’s time, to patients with Parkinson’s. Only the control group experienced the typical successive worsening of symptoms, while the Vitamin D group did not.
The discovery is exciting but it isn’t necessarily Parkinson’s disease in itself that is being stopped. Vitamin D supplementation has been shown before to improve muscle strength in elderly people [1 2], as well as reducing the risk of falling [1 2 3 4]. In younger subjects it may improve athletic performance. All of these effects may be connected to an observed increase in the testosterone levels in the bodies of Vitamin D-deficient people given supplements.
Thus, Vitamin D supplements have been shown to have a positive effect on muscle strength and balance in the elderly. It may be this effect that we see in the study on Parkinson’s disease. Or there may be an additional positive effect.
Either way, it appears wise for elderly people who want to improve their mobility to avoid Vitamin D deficiency. Whether they have Parkinsson’s disease or not.
Do you know someone who could benefit from knowing this?
Obesity treatment?
Here is yet another example of how prejudiced a physician can behave as a result of a calorie fixation. And how little it helps people with problems:
Worried patient was told “no fat people in Auschwitz” (Google translated from Swedish)
In summary a patient asked her doctor about possible medical causes for her weight gain. The doctor told her not to worry about such things. Weight gain was just a matter of how much food she ate. Then the doctor asked her if she had seen pictures from the concentration camp Auschwitz, and if she had seen any fat prisoners there.
I wonder if the doctor have said the same thing if the patient had become overweight due to a more obvious medical problem, for example cortisone treatment?
The sensible way to lose weight is to try to correct the causes of becoming overweight. Not to ignore the causes and count calories while desperately trying to ignore one’s hunger.
In other words: there’s a more natural, pleasant and smarter way to lose weight than playing concentration camp. Fortunately more and more people have realized that.
Have you ever met a similarly prejudiced doctor?
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