Egg on Their Faces - Government dietary advice often proves disastrous.

City Journal ^ | Summer 2010 | Steven Malanga

[muawiyah]

It's the carbs ~ trust.

Many more Americans are the descendants of herdsmen and subarctic fishermen and hunters than is generally realized.

We are CARINVORES and require vegetative matter solely for the salubrious effect of fiber ~ probably once a year or so.

[A_perfect_lady]

When I live on meat, fish, and eggs (and cheese, I confess) my weight goes down and I feel good. But man, do I get bored with that diet. I love bread, potatoes, cereal, and rice almost as much as I love chocolate. It’s hard.

[muawiyah]

I think chocolate qualifies as a highly refined chemical without any biological system remains so it’s OK to eat with the meat or fish, but I’d hold off mixing it with cheese.

[SupplySider]

It ain’t the carbs. It’s the processed foods that are the basis of the US diet. High sugar, high fructose corn syrup in every damn thing, and highly refined flours are not good for you and not what our forefathers ate.

Personally, I don’t eat meat, but there is a big difference between 4 oz of meat a day and the tons of meat, cheese, and dairy that so many people eat daily. Keeping it down to 8 oz a week, would be even better.

I agree. I'd add that processed carb food don't taste good, so they dose it with corn syrup, varieties of MSG, and hydrogenated soy oil.

Thank you big government with your vote-buying subsidies and tariffs, for putting chemicalized corn and soy at the center of our diet.

I don't eat meat, either, but think it's perfectly healthy in reasonable amounts in a balanced diet. Just not processed and consumed by cubicle workers in caveman portion sizes.

[Uri’el-2012]

Ron Rosedale M.D.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks neverdem.

Researchers have started asking hard questions about fat consumption and heart disease, and the answers are startling. In an analysis of the daily food intake of some 350,000 people published in the March issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute found no link between the amount of saturated fat that a person consumed and the risk of heart disease. One reason, the researchers speculate, is that saturated fat raises levels of so-called good, or HDL, cholesterol, which may offset an accompanying rise in general cholesterol. A few weeks later, researchers at Harvard released their own analysis of data from 20 studies around the world, concluding that those who eat four ounces of fresh (not processed) red meat every day face no increased risk of heart disease.

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"Party while you can, rock 'til you drop!"

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[TheOldLady]

I tried the low-fat diet. Two years later, a trip to the doctor showed my cholesterol was 300, my triglycerides were on the moon, FBS 117, and my blood pressure was hypertensive.

I switched to Atkins low carb, HIGH FAT, and six months later at my next physical, cholesterol was 169, triglycerides normal, FBS 87, and blood pressure 115/60. I stopped gaining weight, and with a bit of added exercise, actually lost a bit.

My weight problem is another issue, but it won’t be what kills me if I stay on low carb.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) The only way I’ve ever lost weight was exercise — except the time I tried an untutored version of a low-carb diet. I dropped about 35 pounds in a period of four months, perhaps less. And then, without my having made any changes, it all went back on over a period of about three months, along with some new pounds I’d not had before. It was just lovely. :’) But yeah, research has shown that we are *not* what we eat when it comes to fat. :’)

[TheOldLady]

Just join a low-carb forum. They’ll endlessly discuss what your problem is and what you did wrong. Be prepared to list everything you’ve eaten and all the diets you’ve tried for the past ten years (I hope you were keeping a diet diary — Fitday is a good one, and you can provide a link so that everyone can see everything you ate and how much you exercised — oh wait, you didn’t exercise...). The number of theories about why you gained back the weight will be proportional to the number of pounds that you put back on in a 10:1 ratio. But you’re smart, so I’m sure that you’ll sort it out.

;-)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks TOL!