Another Quote to live by?

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority,

it is time to pause and reflect"                            -Mark Twain

At the time of publication of this blog post, this Mark Twain quote comes from Larry Istrain's blog.  As much as I admire Twain, some of his "isms" are not, in my opinion, good advice ... or at least not in the way many people take them to heart.  The implication, to me, of the above quote is that there is something inherently wrong with being on the side of the majority, and something inherently noble about dissent ... part of some rebellion ... dare I say a would-be paradigm changer.  

While I believe Twain is more likely cautioning against falling into the trap of group-think.  Unfortunately, many voices in the greater low carb community are oblivious to the fact that they represent the "majority" in their own circles, and have fallen prey to just the sort of group-think they decry.  Worse yet, the few that will challenge their beliefs are either shouted down routinely (and often viciously) or simply outright censored.  If you think the comments on most blogs are representative of the opinions of all who have employed a VLC approach in some manner (past or present, chronic or intermittent) or who employ more moderate carbohydrate restriction, you are sadly mistaken.

Even if they are not shouted down, try this experiment.  Go onto any low carb discussion board and present the scenario that you are eating VLC <20g/day, high fat diet for 6 months and have lost 40 lbs (crediting Gary Taubes for your success will get you in good from the get go) but are still 30 lbs from any reasonable goal, more like 40 or 50 lbs overweight.  Also state that you fall off the wagon periodically and have difficulty getting back on and will gain 10 pounds in a few days of this, and it takes you like 6 weeks of VLC to lose the weight again.  Ask for suggestions.  Then sign up for another ID and suggest any sort of more moderate approach -- e.g. a cheat day, more moderate carb consumption like ~75g/day vs. <20g -- or you can suggest, counting calories or choosing leaner proteins.    Watch the pile on.   It's one of the reasons I had seriously cut down on participation at Jimmy's long before he kicked my butt off his forum.   Someone would plateau out and you would get the "eat more fat" advice, etc.  It got to where folks would get pissed at me for even suggesting that someone was eating too many calories, etc.  "because Gary Taubes tells us ...".  

The same would happen with folks who were desperate to make LC their lifestyle but repeatedly fell off the wagon and regained etc. ... and especially those who experienced adverse side effects.  Gawd forbid suggesting a more moderate approach -- like one cheat meal per week, or more moderate carb consumption.   Heck, correcting the most innocuous of errors would get nasty replies.  For example folks often claim that low fat dairy has more sugar in it or added sugars.  I would correct that by saying it doesn't, it just may have a slight bit more by weight if we're talking cheese, but it's not added sugar.  The nasty responses about how folks wouldn't even consider bringing a reduced fat item into their house were mind boggling at times.  I could understand it perhaps in 2009 when the KimKins scandal was fresh ... but now it is just absurd.  There are many at Jimmy's coming up on three years since I "met" them who are still weighing about the same (those still around) as they did back in 2009.  The community and friendships are compelling, but at some point you gotta try something else if it's not working!


In any case, one person's minority view is another's majority view.  Sure, we should always take stock and make sure we haven't fallen prey to group think and *popular* opinion.  But we shouldn't be contrarian for contrarian's sake.  Sometimes the majority ... especially an overwhelming one ... is right after all, and no matter how vocal your minority group is, it will remain a fringe group.  I see this as a critical tactical error of the Insurgency.  There is no way that extreme low carb is going to sell as *the* healthiest human diet or that the human population on earth could be sustained by such a diet were it ever to be accepted as such.  Rather than work within the system to get the no-brainer basics accepted -- like it won't piss your bones down the loo or clog your arteries or rot your kidneys -- various people have chosen to construct elaborate hypotheses and seek to bring down the establishment and not caring how many good people and ideas the bring down with it.  I can only think these people have convinced themselves thoroughly that they are right beyond question.  But their actions -- censorship and not addressing the criticisms (as opposed to the source) -- would seem to indicate otherwise.