What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?

The New York Times Magazine ^ | 07/07/2002 | GARY TAUBES

[Dana113]

If I might enquire further, what sources of food are you getting your fat from? I like nuts and olive oil for my fat sources but I have to admit, I do not know what the Atkins diet suggests for fat sources.

I would disagree that all 3 macronutrients are equally important [see article below]. A person HAS TO HAVE fat and protein to survive, they do not have to have carbs. Nor do they have the same metabolic effect on the body. Carbs convert to glucose and as long as you are burning glucose you are not burning fat, which can lead to high cholesterol levels. Excess carbs are always converted to fat [not so with fat], hence the obesity epidemic we see. Excess protein can also be converted to fat, but it takes a greater level and it is not dangerous. [unless one has diseased kidneys or liver]

I get my fat from all natural sources, such as beef, chicken, cheeses, olives, butter, avacados and nuts. I don't ever touch transfats that are in crackers, margarine, etc because it is very fattening and has been linked to cancer. The majority of my fat, though, comes from cream cheese [4 oz a day usually] and beef.

[Dana113]

Eat Fat And Grow Slim by Richard MacKarness, M.B., B.S (1958)

---

Foreword
by Sir Heneage Ogilvie, KBE, DM, M CH, FRCS

Consultant Surgeon, Guy's Hospital
Editor of 'The Practitioner'
Late: Vice-President of the Royal College of Surgeons

THE STATISTICIAN looks on nutrition as a mater of calories, and on obesity as a question of upset caloric equilibrium. A calorie is a unit of heat, a unit of potential energy, but not a unit of nutrition. Prison governors, school superintendents, dictators whether of a nation or of a small community, talk in calories to prove that they are feeding their charges or their victims adequately. Fellows of the Royal Society, and doctors with political leanings, talk in calories as if the human body were a machine requiring a certain amount of fuel to enable it to do a certain amount of work.

A motor-car needs calories, and we give it calories in the form of petrol. If we give it good petrol it will do good work for quite a long time. But even a Rolls-Royce cannot find its own fuel. It cannot separate motor spirit and lubricating oil from the crude mixture brought by a tanker from the wells of Kuwait. It cannot clean its own pipes, clear its own choked jets, grind its own valves, re-line its own bearings when they are worn, and replace defective parts as they need renewal. The body can do all these things. but the body is not a machine, and to do them it needs food not fuel.

There are three kinds of food: fats, proteins and carbohydrates. All of these provide calories; the fats 9.3 calories per gramme, the proteins and the carbohydrates 4.1 each. But the carbohydrates provide calories and nothing else.

They have none of the essential elements to build up or to repair the tissues of the body. A man given carbohydrates alone, however liberally, would starve to death on calories, While he was dying he would break down his own proteins to provide materials for the repair of his key organs. He would use what calories were needed to provide energy, and he would lay down the carbohydrate surplus to his caloric requirements as fat.

Proteins are the essential food of the body. They provide not merely carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, calcium and iron, chlorine and iodine, but those trace elements such as boron, manganese, zinc, copper, and cobalt that are essential to life. They provide many prefabricated molecules that the body is unable to build up from simple elements.

Fat is the caloric reserve material of nature. The whale stores fat in his subcutaneous layers against the rigours of life at the Pole, the camel stores it in his hump against hard times in the desert, the African sheep stores it in his tail and his buttocks against the day when even the parched grass shall have withered away. But fats are more than stores of reserve caloric material. They are heat insulators, they are fillers of dead spaces, and they are facilitators of movement in rigid compartments such as the orbit, the pelvis, and the capsules of joints. They are also essential building materials. Animal fats contain three groups of substances: the neutral fats which are chiefly energy providers, the lipids containing phosphorus that enter into most tissues and bulk largely in the brain and the central nervous system, and the sterols that are the basis of most hormones.

The body must have proteins and animal fats. It has no need for carbohydrates, and, given the two essential foodstuffs, it can get all the calories it needs from them.

The expert on nutrition is not the nutrition expert, but the man who has studied nutrition by the ultimate method of research, the struggle for survival. The Eskimo, living on the ice floes of the North Pole, the Red Indian travelling hard and far over wild lands in hunting or war, the trapper in the Canadian forests, the game hunters in Africa-these men must find food that gives the greatest nutritive value in the smallest bulk. If they cannot find such a diet, their journeys will be limited both in time and in distance, and they will fail in their task All these men have found that a diet of meat and animal fat alone, with no carbohydrates, with no fruit or vegetables, with no vitamins other than those they get in meat, not merely provides them with all the energy they need, but keeps them in perfect health for months at a time. Seal meat and blubber for the Eskimo, pemmican for the Indian and the trapper, biltong for the hunter, have proved to be the perfect diet both in quality and in bulk.

Dr. Mackarness's book is timely. It brings the important research work of Kekwick and Pawan into the sphere of everyday medicine, and it shines the torch of common sense into a corner that was becoming obscured with the dust of statistics and the cobwebs of scientific dogma. It bears a message of hope and good cheer to the plump.

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[Dana113]

LOL - you're picking up where you left off last night - I'm not advocating a high-carb diet, but a high protein one!

Oh God, don't do that!!!!! You will bring the anti-protein fanatics out of the woodwork!! lol Go back to bed.

[Senator Pardek]

Back to bed? I haven't slept due to all the ephedra in my syestem!

[Dana113]

Stop already! I gained 10 pounds reading these long conjectures! I have a good friend that swore by the Adkins diet and his bad cholesterol went through the roof and now he's got heart problems. He now swears at the Adkins diet. Eat right, exercise and then die!

Paulus, about the only time that happens is in the first few months when the body starts burning its stored fat for the first time. It churns up an enormous amount of fat into the system and stays there until the body starts burning it all off. Cholesterol readings can be high intially. After 6 weeks to 3 months when the fat is burned off, they plummet though. Studies show that this diet reduces cholesterol much better than a low fat diet and also increases HDL, which is something a low fat cannot do. Low fat also results in HIGH triglycerides, one of the worst signs for coronary heart disease.

Atkins recommends getting your cholesterol checked BEFORE and at 6 months. 9 times out of 10 the cholesterol is way down, HDL is up, and triglycerides are up. Mine went from 318 to 221 and my triglycerides went from 495 to 66. My risk of heart disease has fallen dramatically and my doctor is thrilled with results.

[Dana113]

Back to bed? I haven't slept due to all the ephedra in my syestem!

OMG!!!! You are horrid! lol

[Nov3]

Sure, his diet works, if you can "stomach" shoving fat down your gullet all day, but how healthy is that?

Wake Up and stop listening to McGovern's select comittee and peta. I don't shovel fat. I eat real food.

[KirkandBurke]

The real way to control your weight, is to find out how your body works. Metabolisms vary per individual. Seek your own equilibrium. It take work, but it's worth it.

BTW, moderate excercise is for the geriatric. Work up to it, but exercise vigorously. Push yourself to your limits. LIVE. Moderates have no soul.

[Zon]

If the members of the American medical establishment were to have a collective find-yourself-standing-naked-in-Times-Square-type nightmare, this might be it. They spend 30 years ridiculing Robert Atkins, author of the phenomenally-best-selling ''Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution'' and ''Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution,'' accusing the Manhattan doctor of quackery and fraud, only to discover that the unrepentant Atkins was right all along. Or maybe it's this: they find that their very own dietary recommendations -- eat less fat and more carbohydrates -- are the cause of the rampaging epidemic of obesity in America. Or, just possibly this: they find out both of the above are true.

...

This is the state of mind I imagine that mainstream nutritionists, researchers and physicians must inevitably take to the fat-versus-carbohydrate controversy. They may come around, but the evidence will have to be exceptionally compelling. Although this kind of conversion may be happening at the moment to John Farquhar, who is a professor of health research and policy at Stanford University and has worked in this field for more than 40 years. When I interviewed Farquhar in April, he explained why low-fat diets might lead to weight gain and low-carbohydrate diets might lead to weight loss, but he made me promise not to say he believed they did. He attributed the cause of the obesity epidemic to the ''force-feeding of a nation.'' Three weeks later, after reading an article on Endocrinology 101 by David Ludwig in the Journal of the American Medical Association, he sent me an e-mail message asking the not-entirely-rhetorical question, ''Can we get the low-fat proponents to apologize?''

Nine times out of then the market gets it right only to have government come along years or decades later and, because of market force backlash against a government that facilitated the problem in the first place, we get politicians and bureaucrats jumping in to save the day. Except they never mention that they are part of the problem and that it was the market that exposed the government fraud. The government always points its finger at the market makers.

That's how this came about:

"Politicians and bureaucrats create and implement roughly 3,000 new laws and regulations each year. That number increases on average from one year to the next. Each year they tell us that the new laws are "must-have laws" that people and society can't prosper without. They do that, so they imply, to keep people from running society headlong into destruction. To that end lawyers are their greatest champions.

Yet how is it that citizens and the society they make up has managed to not only survive but increase prosperity when they didn't have this year's 3,000 new laws last year or for decades before. Likewise, how did citizens increase prosperity for decades prior to last year's 3,000 new must-have laws? And they do that despite a mountain of laws that they've already been saddled/burdened with. Thirty new laws a year is probably overkill. But 3,000 is insane."

Many of those laws and regulations are collusion with market makers. In other words, political entrepreneurs (not market entrepreneurs) seeking to gain unfair advantage. But they couldn't do that if the politicians weren't putting up for sale access to government power in the first place.

Proposed laws and regulations 3,001 - 3,517: Entry the food police to write the script...

It is also undeniable, note students of Endocrinology 101, that mankind never evolved to eat a diet high in starches or sugars. ''Grain products and concentrated sugars were essentially absent from human nutrition until the invention of agriculture,'' Ludwig says, ''which was only 10,000 years ago.'' This is discussed frequently in the anthropology texts but is mostly absent from the obesity literature, with the prominent exception of the low-carbohydrate-diet books.

Also, man has always been a carnivore. Those espousing the vegetarian mantra have no rational explanation to combat the nature of man.

[Zon]

You're right about aerobic fitness and dead wrong about low carb/high protein diet. Caffeine-alcohol-sugar free diet; low carbohydrate intake; high protein intake (read meat, milk, cheese, eggs and most dairy products are good), gallon of water evenly spaced over the day; aerobic fitness of at least twenty minutes each day.

[proudofthesouth]

'Cuse me, but I once went on a low carb diet. During this time I caught a virus that was making the rounds and wound up having to see my Doctor because of it. I happened to mention the diet that I was on to my Doctor and he told me to immediately stop the diet because a low carb diet can cause kidney failure. The one way I have found to loose weight is to cut back on sugar and fat. Not eliminate them completely. Just reduce them in my diet - especially sugar.

[Senator Pardek]

and dead wrong about low carb/high protein diet.

LOL - that's what I've been advocating! Some muckety-muck claimed I was pro high-carb, and I never said such a thing!

[Nov3]

Weight loss is tied to activity, and not diet change!

That is BS. I have friends who laughed at me when I started losing weight on Atkins. They said it wouldn't work and I should exercise for hours like they were doing to lose weight. I now wear the same size pants I did when I was 20 (I am 40) and they are still fat.......Some of them are asking about Atkins now.

[Arioch7]

You use good fat sources. I will say that the cultural samples provided in the report are accurate, I might also say that the climates they live in are conducive to thier diets.

I can show MANY more cultures that are more healthy and productive then the ones named in the articles. Asian cultures come to mind.

Carbohydrates are NOT devoid of nutrients. I have alreadt posted that they are the MAIN source of energy for the brain. None of the other macro nutrients provide this energy for the brain, which might explain why the cultures you mentioned are all dying and almost extinct and the cultures I mentioned are thriving. I know its reaching on my part but it is true.

I have NEVER met anyone on the atkins diet that convinces me. I can read all day on the internet and I have plenty of people telling me in person how great it is. However, they are NEVER what I would consider healthy or fit. I said that form follows function. I follow fighters, bodybuiders, martial artists, and athletes. NEVER has anyone on the atkins diet surpassed them. I know that this is anecdotal to someone on the internet but I have SEEN it.

I might also mention that virtually ALL of the Special Forces people I have known have been partial to my view, as well as all military personnel. I know ONE bodybuilder on the atkins diet and he is doing fine now but I will let you know how it turns out.

Senator Parduk has stated that NO pro athlete uses this diet and was met with scorn. The fact is that pro athletes are the pinnacle of fitness and should be emulated.

Studies from partisan scientists are interesting but biased.

Show me an example of the Atkins diet that makes me proud and I will re-evaluate my beliefs.

[Zon]

One of the best things about this article is that it leaves those who are poised to sue the food industry for wrecking everyone's health and causing diabetes, cancer, etc., now faced with the FACT that the gubmint itself has set out the high-carb guidelines that are probably causing the obesity epidemic.

I thought it worth repeating. You might also want to read post 269...

The liberal idiots

Having read post 269, we don't here "conservative idiots" in government pointing out the 3,000-laws-a-year fraud. All the problems of government are not caused by liberals. Saying or implying that it's all liberals fault is not only false it degrades the argument against smaller government. I'm surprised more people don't comprehend that. Actually, the people that aren't into discussing politics do understand it when given unbiased account of government. The 3,000 law argument hits home more with them because they're not hung up on politics. It's as if they inherently know that politics is the problem and not the solution.

[streetpreacher]

I am illiterate when it comes to health. Both my wife and I are wanting to change our lifestyle, lose weight, exercise (I'm more in need of toning up rather than trimming down). I'm getting a lot of conflicting messages here, but what I take away from it is this: I should eat a high protein diet with lots of veggies, low on fruit, rarely eat starches and eliminate all the junk in addition to exercising (weight training, etc.). Would this be the moderate approach?

[redhead]

Ka-PING! Check THIS one out! Same title, different article...

[Zon]

Some muckety-muck claimed I was pro high-carb, and I never said such a thing!

Actually, it was the following comment from post #7 of yours that I mostly responded to:

I gotta laugh at these hucksters like Atkins.7

Atkins advocates a low-carb/high-protein diet. You think he is a huckster for doing that. That's the logical connection.

[Senator Pardek]

Wrong - Atkins claims one can eat cheese all day long - that's not high protein - it's high fat. Big difference.

[Nov3]

Carbs are the bodies primary source for energy, that statement is scientifically accurate and no amount of debate can make it false.

Actually it is completely and totally false. You would die if you totally eliminated protein or fat from your diet. You would be healthier if you totally eliminated carbs from the typical American diet.