Then you'll enjoy these peat pellets. Even taste better than rice cakes.
Posted on 12/09/2003 6:41:38 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Animal-rights activists claim that low-carb, meat-heavy diets are killing people. Are they raising legitimate health concerns -- or are they just rabid anti-carnivores?
Dec. 8, 2003 | For all the deals with the devil made in Washington, it's not often they're owned up to at the National Press Club, before a roomful of reporters, armed with notepads, tape recorders and TV cameras.
But Jody Gorran, a businessman from Delray Beach, Fla., announced at a press conference on Nov. 20, 2003, "I made a Faustian bargain with the devil."
The trim 53-year-old's dark deal: "I traded a 32-inch waist for heart disease, and the devil was the Atkins diet."
Gorran testified that he had a heart scan six months before going on Atkins that showed no problems. But after two and a half years of losing weight and keeping it off on the high-protein, low-carb diet, while boasting about its incredible benefits to everyone he knew -- eat fat, while you lose the fat! -- he developed heart disease. Suffering from severe artery blockage, he underwent angioplasty to place a stent in his coronary artery.
Gorran shared the podium at the press conference with other self-proclaimed victims of the diet and their aggrieved family members: a 51-year-old hairstylist whose cholesterol went from 160 to 258, suffered kidney stones and had to have surgery to remove her gall bladder; the parents of an overweight 16-year-old from Sturgeon, Mo., who dropped dead from cardio-respiratory arrest at school while suffering from low levels of calcium and potassium in the first days of the diet; the sister of a 41-year-old man from Yardville, N.J., who also died of a heart attack while low carbing.
The master of ceremonies at this media circus of misery was Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a nonprofit that promotes the health benefits of vegetarian and vegan diets, and advocates against the use of animals in medical testing and in the training of medical students. As an advocate of "plant-based" diets, Barnard has written several books, including most recently "Breaking the Food Seduction" (St. Martin's, 2003), in which Chapter 4, "Opiates on a Cracker: The Cheese Seduction," asks, "Is cheese a drug?" Oozing with recipes for oven-barbequed tofu steaks and tempeh tostadas, the book also advises dieters how to best fend off "party platters and other torture devices."
Barnard may have considered Atkins, an eat-the-hamburger, not-the-bun approach to weight loss, a bad idea long before his group set up an online registry to record consumer complaints about it. But for vegans and animal-rights activists, for whom meat is as bad ideologically as they believe it is physically, the ever-rising profile of low-carb diets is a major public-relations setback. There may be no consensus on the healthiness of low-carb diets, but there is no denying their increasing popularity.
Meat is back! The magic words "low-carb" are popping up in beer commercials and Weight Watchers products. So clearly, something needed to be done. After a year of soliciting reports from low-carb dieters suffering from everything from gout to bad breath, PCRM collected 188 responses to its informal online survey, and decided to call the press conference to highlight the most heinous among them.
While stressing that the self-reported responses of a self-selected audience on a Web quiz do not constitute a scientific study, Barnard believes that his group has now amassed enough preliminary evidence to justify calling for further research by the feds. "We are asking the CDC [Centers for Disease Control] to go from indictment to conviction," he said at the press conference. "We are calling on the CDC to try to lure Americans away from its honeymoon with the diet that has made its reputation from the fact that it's so counterintuitive -- eat the worst possible food, and lose weight."
As news outlets gobbled up the story -- "Low-Carb, High-Protein Diets Can Be Deadly" and "Doctors Blast Atkins Diet" -- the "Atkins machine," as Barnard refers to the company that's sold millions of diet books, nutritional supplements and low-carb food products to the protein-hungry masses, blasted back. Atkins Health and Medical Information Services issued a statement defending the safety of its diet, and accusing PCRM of seeking to "further its own vegan political and philosophical agenda," while exploiting the "obesity and diabetes crisis in this country."
Was Barnard's press conference less about concern for the health and nutrition of overweight Americans looking to shed those extra 10 or 50 or 150 pounds, than it was about the concern for the beef and pork likely to be consumed by their hungry mouths on a high-protein diet? Had Jody Gorran, the Floridian who'd become convinced that the miracle diet he'd talked up to his family and friends had given him heart disease, just traded one deal with the devil for another? The plot thickens the closer you look -- the only thing for sure is that low-carb diets are becoming a major player in the fight for hearts and minds in a culture-wide struggle over the propriety of eating meat.
"All of us at Atkins are deeply disturbed by PCRM's shameless exploitation of people who have struggled through personal tragedies," the Atkins press release said. "There is no logic and no science to support any association between these individuals and the ANA [Atkins Nutritional Approach], no more and no less than there is logic or science to support an association between the thousands of people who die from heart disease or kidney failure while following a low-fat diet."
In other words: With millions of people on a diet, some of them are going to get sick, and even die, especially if they're already likely to be suffering from the health risks associated with obesity. Should the Atkins diet be made to answer for the sins of the obesity epidemic, when all they're trying to do is help free people from the prison of their extra layers of fat? In short: Don't look at us.
Dr. Stuart Trager, chair of the Atkins Physicians Council, went further, criticizing the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in an "open letter" for eschewing the scientific method, and instead going straight to the TV cameras with its anecdotal evidence that low-carb dieting can kill: "This group of radical vegans and animal rights advocates abusing their medical degrees and masquerading as concerned and 'responsible' physicians must be held to the same standards that all scientists must adhere to, and to cease this practice of sensationalism."
In his letter, Trager cited the research of Dr. Eric Westman at Duke University, which unexpectedly found that cholesterol levels fell on the first six months on the diet, as one example of credible scientific work on the Atkins plan. But Trager conveniently failed to mention that Westman himself had said in a statement upon the publication of his research: "While we're impressed with the weight loss of this diet, we still are not sure about the safety of it. More studies need to be done in order to be confident about the long-term safety of this type of diet."
In turn, Barnard questioned the august credibility of a group of doctors paid to defend a lucrative diet plan. "I understand that they have to say that it's safe because they have a $100 million empire based on that, but the only credible response is to investigate," he said in an interview, adding: "What credibility do the Atkins doctors have? They are paid to do research to sell books. If somebody paid by Atkins wants to questions anyone's credibility, first they should question their own."
But pro-Atkins advocates aren't the only critics of the PCRM press conference. There are others who question the wisdom of taking nutritional warnings about the dangers of eating meat from a press conference set up by a group that works against animal testing.
"They are committed advocates against use of animals in any way, shape, form or manner, so they're not objective," says Robert Baratz, an internist in private practice in Boston, who is president of the National Council Against Health Fraud, a nonprofit that fights medical quackery. "And they are strongly allied with, if not a front organization for, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), but they don't let it be known that that's the case, and that's deceptive."
Jeff Kerr, general counsel for PETA, says that his organization has made some donations to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in the past to support "areas of mutual interest," and Barnard, who writes the "Dr. in the House" column for PETA's Animal Times magazine, has served as a medical advisor to the group. "But to suggest that there is anything else there is simply ludicrous."
Barnard says his group has a team of doctors and registered dieticians on staff, as well as about 5,000 doctors as members, and more than 100,000 other "supporting" members. And while he may agree with many of PETA's stances, he denies that he's the lab coat and stethoscope puppet for its animal-rights ideology: "I think that PETA has done a great job in many ways of encouraging people toward healthier diets," he says. "Your coronary arteries don't care why you stop eating meat. Having said that, we're not a front for them, or they for us."
The organization that has gone the furthest toward trying to smear PCRM as a bunch of unscientific PETA-sympathizers is the Center for Consumer Freedom, made up of paid flacks for the restaurant industry. The organization's strongly worded accusations about the group Barnard leads are one of the first things to come up after even the most cursory Google search.
But the Center for Consumer Freedom, which has received funding from Tyson Foods and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association among others, is hardly in a position to accuse other organizations of being front groups, says Laura Miller, associate editor of Prwatch.org, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy, which has done investigative work on the organization and its founder.
"They're an interesting group because they illustrate how corporate money is funneled into these front groups that help confuse issues. They're hired P.R. hacks basically working for the industry to promote the industry's viewpoint. Their job is really to attack any organization or anyone who says that maybe Americans shouldn't eat so much meat."
So, if you can't trust the critics of a meat-happy diet, because they're vegetarians opposed to animal testing, and you can't trust the biggest critics of the vegetarians because they're funded by the meat industry, and you can't trust the doctors who are paid to defend a diet, then who should you listen to in this rancorous debate?
The Atkins camp has long viewed mainstream nutritionist putdowns of its diet with suspicion, but some specialists without any direct ties to the health industry or the "plant-based diet" promoters, are adamant that the Atkins diet simply isn't well-balanced.
Dr. Jeanne Goldberg, director of the Center on Nutrition Communication at Tufts University, a dietician with a Ph.D. in nutrition, suggests taking a look at the current issue of the Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter, which tries to answer the question: "Is it possible to follow the Atkins diet healthfully?"
"The short answer is no," Goldberg observes. "It is virtually impossible to get adequate amounts of a number of essential nutrients. It contains three times the saturated fat as someone consuming an 1,800-calorie diet should. It's pretty tricky to get adequate amounts of calcium on it."
And while she dismisses "many of the arguments that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine makes" as "not grounded in good science," she is unflinching in her impatience for those who tout the health benefits of Atkins: "Here's my take on it: It's not a balanced diet. A diet which tells you that you really can't eat all fruits and very few vegetables is not a healthful diet."
That's not to say that you can't lose weight on the diet, as millions have done and continue to do. "What the data show so far is that people can lose weight on anything from the most sensible balanced diet to the Atkins diet," she says. "The problem comes in terms of maintenance. The Atkins diet as a maintenance diet is really a poor idea, because it is high in saturated fat and low in other essential nutrients. It isn't about losing weight. It's about keeping it off."
Well I hope they mean you look younger ;)
She may or may not be correct.
What's certain is that she isn't describing Atkins.
Dan
I don't think they've read Atkins.
Then you'll enjoy these peat pellets. Even taste better than rice cakes.
Hey! My grandpa also got cancer and died! He ALSO drank water! Every day for 83 years!
Folks, we have a trend developing. As a matter of fact, I'll bet EVERY person who has had cancer has, at one point or another, drank water. That's it. I'll never allow my kids to drink water again.
How so?
LOL. NOBODY is going to be killed by ANY diet in the first days. What a crock.
Why do so many vegans seem so frail?
Dear John,
My family just made the vegan switch. We are confident in our decision, but have one question. All the vegans we have personally known have in common a thin, frail look and a pallid complexion....not exactly the picture of health. Is this "look" normal or simply the result of an improperly planned diet? How can we avoid this for ourselves, and especially for our kids? I appreciate your time in responding to my question.
Tammy
Dear Tammy,
I know what you mean. For one thing, vegans, as a rule, are much leaner than others in our society. Against the backdrop of what passes for normal in our culture, vegans can seem downright skinny.
I remember going to Europe when I was nineteen. I was used to seeing American cars, and by comparison, most of the automobiles in Europe seemed really small and frail. In Italy there might have been one or two people driving Ferraris, but almost everyone drove tiny little Fiats that you never saw in this country. In Germany, there might have been a few Mercedes or BMWs, but Volkswagen Beetles were huge compared to what most people drove. In France, you saw mainly two-cylinder Citroens that looked tiny compared to any American car. Coming from the States, I was shocked at how small the cars appeared.
Over the months, though, I got quite used to the size of European cars, and came to see them as normal. Then, when I would occasionally see an American car, it looked gargantuan, and even grotesque. And when I returned to this country, it took me a long time not to see almost all U.S. cars as abnormally large.
So much depends on what you have come to think of as normal. So much depends on your point of reference.
The data are quite convincing, though, that people who over the years keep their weight fairly steady at ten to twenty pounds under what is average in the United States typically live much longer and healthier lives than those whose weights are "normal" in this society.
I remember many years ago meeting a man who was very thin. I didn't say anything, but inwardly, I thought, "Oh my, this man is so skinny, he must be unhealthy." Later, when I learned who he was, I felt utterly chagrined. He happened to be the reigning world champion in the marathon run! How wrong I had been!
Of course, sometimes we meet people who are very thin, and they aren't healthy. Of the people who are very thin in our society, a substantial number are not well. People who have cancer and undergo chemotherapy often lose a lot of weight. People living with AIDS and other wasting diseases often become emaciated. And though it is not widely recognized, we have a real problem in this society with hunger. Some people, many of them homeless, become exceedingly thin and vulnerable to disease because they aren't eating enough food. Severe alcoholics and heroin addicts are also very often underweight.
People who are very thin for any of these reasons, of course, are far from healthy. Since many of the really thin people we encounter in this society are underweight for these kinds of reasons, we may have come to associate low weight with a lack of health. Thus, we may tend to assume that any very lean person we meet is unwell. There are few vegans in this society, and we simply aren't used to seeing people who are much thinner than the average in our culture, and who are also vibrantly healthy.
A few weeks ago, I gave a lecture, and afterwards a young man, obviously a football player type, came up to me and said that what I said made a lot of sense, but I seemed to be quite thin. I could feel how he had me stereotyped, and that he was assuming that because I am lean therefore I am weak. I asked him how much he weighed, and how much he could bench press. He said he weighed 200 pounds, and could bench press his weight. "That's good," I said, knowing that few men are strong enough to be able to bench press their weight. Then I continued: "I weigh 160 pounds, and I can also bench press your weight." His jaw dropped. "Really?" he asked. "Really," I said.
Of course, just because a person is eating a vegan diet will not assure they are healthy. As you point out, there are people who are eating vegan diets that aren't healthy. In some cases, they aren't getting enough Omega-3 fatty acids or vitamin B-12. In some cases they aren't eating enough healthy fats. In some cases, they are still eating too much junk food.
As well, some people adopt a vegan diet because they are unhealthy, and are looking for help. For them, even if their vegan diet is to be part of their healing process, it may take time for the benefits to manifest.
And most importantly, diet is only one of the factors that influence overall health. If you don't exercise, your muscles won't develop. Even the healthiest diet can only do so much if your idea of exercise is pushing the TV remote control button, if your inevitable response to life's difficulties is to wallow in self-pity, if your relationships are depreciating and invalidating, and if your job or living situation exposes you to environmental toxins. Vegans who don't take care of themselves will be nearly as unhealthy as meat-eaters who don't.
On the other hand, vegans who do take care of themselves can be magnificently healthy. One need only look at the many remarkable vegan athletes to dispel the idea that vegans are all frail and pallid. To name just a few, there's Ridgely Abele, winner of eight national championships in karate; and Ruth Heidrich, six-time Ironwoman and USA track and field Master's champion; and Cheryl Marek and Estelle Gray, world record holders in cross-country tandem cycling.
How can you and your kids avoid the "look" you described? Make sure you all get plenty of exercise and fresh air. Keep your lines of communication open and alive. Support each other's dreams and passions. Celebrate your differences. Laugh lots and cry when necessary. Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty. And look for the good in yourselves and in everyone you meet.
If you bring your love to everyone you meet, and everything you do, you will never look frail and pallid. You will be radiant with passion and purpose. And there will never be an end to the rippling effects your love has on the world.
Thanks so much for your question.
Your friend,
John
Bottled or tap?
Sounds like Dr. Bernstein. I had a friend who put her husband on the diet for about 6 months. He went from 4 shots a day to just one little one. My son has just been diagnosed with Type I diabetes. I'm trying to learn and be a good mama and do everything the doctor says. The boy should be getting a pump in Feb. I'm going to wait a few years, then have him do his own research and decide if he's ready to make the effort to try a very low carb diet. This is not the kind of thing I think I should force on a kid.
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