A Man in the Wilderness ... A Lonely Soldier off to War (on Insulin)

One of my very first albums ... yes ... vinyl albums ... was Grand Illusion by Styx.  I've probably listened to that album all the way through more times than any other, although  Billy Joel's The Stranger might give that a run for the money.  Anyway, I was in the mood for a little self-torture the other day and decided to listen to/read some more recent Gary Taubes interviews.   I couldn't help but have this song pop into my head.   Not a song many are likely familiar with, but soooo apropos!   (Hee hee ... wasn't Tommy Shaw perty?)

Here we are, knee deep in election season 2012, and so we're used to hearing talking points.  Surely those fighting the mainstream don't fall into such traps or try to pull the set-ups on their audiences?  Well, whether this was or not, the motivation behind "the petition" is becoming ever more clear.  Gary needs something *new* to talk about, as apparently a new printing of Why We Get Fat (a "Trade Paperback" version) hits the dust bins shelves.    I submit as evidence, three recent interviews with Gary Taubes*:

1.  Gary Taubes on Dieting:  This is a print interview with Sophie Roell in a "Fivebooks Interview" on TheBrowser.com.  I'll highlight the following exchange:

Q:  Your articles have won awards, your books are very popular. Are you making headway or do you still feel like a voice in the wilderness?

Taubes:  In the past four years, I’ve probably increased the awareness of these issues and ideas, both inside and outside the public health community, a thousand fold. But that means it’s gone from one millionth of the population and the relevant research community caring and understanding these arguments to maybe to one thousandth. I’m actually putting together a non-profit to raise money for research, because there are experiments that I think need to be done that the NIH [National Institutes of Health] is never going to pay for. So we’ll pay for it ourselves. We’re making progress, but the problem is that there’s just so far to go. For example, I’m writing a letter to the New York Times in response to the Tara Parker Pope piece, hoping that we can get several hundred physicians to co-sign it. 200 have so far, after 18 hours up. 

2.  Gary Taubes on the Patt Morrison show 98.3 SoCal Public Radio on 1/11/12 

Host (around the the 6:15 mark):  {paraphrase}  I've read your book, and it's very persuasive.  As a T1 diabetic I know a bit about insulin, but  {direct quote as best as I can transcribe in haste} "I kept saying to myself as I read, well if he's right, how come he's this lone voice in the wilderness, why hasn't the medical establishment embraced this and why didn't they embrace it long ago?"

Taubes:  "Well first of all I'm not a lone voice in the wilderness anymore.  Actually I just wrote a letter in response to a NYT mag article by Tara Parker-Pope (Host:  Yeah I saw that) .... yada yada ... 300 signatures ... yada yada ...

3.  Gary Taubes interviewed by Lew Rockwell on 1/11/12        

Rockwell:  Aren't we making progress on this, I mean it used to be that you were definitely voices crying in the wilderness but hasn't there been a huge advance in people actually looking at the facts and coming to a different conclusion than the Department of Agriculture. 

Taubes:  There's definitely been an advance but conventional wisdom stills holds very fast, the latest USDA dietary guidelines were once again low fat, low saturated fat.  Umm people are beginning to get this idea that they should go after sugar.  That its OK to say that sugar is deleterious, and there's at least one group in the United States  that's doing research supporting this hypothesis that sugar causes insulin resistance and so heart disease.  Umm so there's work being done, but it's being done because a lot people like me are pushing it and the internet allows these ideas to spread in ways that weren't possible thirty or forty years ago.  So the internet is creating a network of individuals who believe this ...  Doctors are embracing it now again it's probably a small percentage of the doctors in the world but I recently, last week I wrote a letter to nyt mag in response to an article that Tara Parker-Pope had written  ...  I posted that letter on a petition website and we got roughly 300 physicians and PhD's to cosign it  so that's something that wouldn't have been possible ten years ago.

 Ah yes ... Sing along now!

Another year has passed me by
Still I look at myself and cry
What kind of man have I become?

All of the years I've spent in search of myself
And I'm still in the dark
'Cause I can't seem to find the light alone

Sometimes I feel like a man in the wilderness

I'm going to address some of Taubes' new sugar schtick in another post, and his imagined role in pushing research in that area.  But I will say here, that listening to this man, it appears that his ego knows no bounds.   So ... what are the chances that three interviewers use the same phrase?  Not saying it's not possible, but it seems rather contrived to me.   I've not heard ... was this supposed "Letter to the Editor of the NYT" ever actually submitted ?  Will it be??  

The petition was a publicity stunt.  Did you know that WWGF was out in paperback on 12/27/11??  What?  No Jimmy Moore podcast or blog post heralding the release??  Surely there was an announcement on Gary Taubes' blog?  Very oddly ... no.  At right is a screenshot taken today of his blog homepage.  You will note that while he lists 2011 as the publish date (although late in the year, the hardcover was released in 2010), the original cover is featured there.  Nothing about "now available in paperback" ... nothing!?!?  I'm usually pretty up on these things.  Did I miss the grand announcement?  Even Eades promoted the paperback version of their 6 Week Cure when it came out on paperback.  From the publisher website, below are the two paperback covers:

 

Why he's a NYT Bestseller on one (one week at #10) and a "National Bestseller" on the other is curious.  But in any case, the Trade Paperback can be viewed in large size at the link.  I can finally make out what the quote is on the bottom:

"Taubes stands the received wisdom about diet and exercise on its head" - The New York Times

He does sure stand something on its head .....   According to Knopf, the paperbacks were released on 12/27/11.  Which would explain the interviews (and why Lew Rockwell congratulated him on his "new" book).   So, was the publicity stunt petition just for the paperback release of his book?  I don't think so.  It gave him some supposed "cred" to discuss how his message is somehow catching on, but he doesn't mention either of his books in the petition.  No, for the motivation behind the petition, we need the next line in the Styx song:

I'm a lonely soldier off to war

What the heck is old CarbSane talking about now??  Soldier off to war?  What war? 

The War on Insulin 

That's what war.  Yes folks, Gary Taubes has declared war on a hormone without which life cannot be sustained for very long.  I discovered this little known connection to this underground war (Lew Rockwell should be outraged!!) by looking into that unheralded second sponsor of Gary's petition.  One Peter Attia MD.  A few clicks and up turns his website:  www.waroninsulin.com.  The actual title of the blog is "THE WAR ON INSULIN and the defense of fat.  I cannot think of anything more bizarre than an MD titling a website/blog in this manner.  Dr. Attia, please defend fat and leave insulin alone.  It hasn't done anything to you except help you build that physique of yours.  Attia puts a more photogenic face to the movement, a fit physique, and those two authoritative letters "MD".  Here's the usual BS intro on his website:

I’m Peter Attia, and I’m about to challenge everything you think you know about nutrition, and how it impacts your health and performance. If you’re interested in losing weight, increasing your endurance, increasing your mental acuity, getting rid of your blood pressure and diabetes medicine, or just learning why almost everything the “experts” tell you is wrong, you’ve come to the right place.

My mission is to demonstrate that insulin — not calories -- is at the heart of the most pervasive chronic diseases: obesity, heart disease, and even cancer. Suppressing the secretion of insulin is the key to running your body on your own fat, which leads not only to weight loss, but also to what I call “chronic health” and peak performance.

Okey dokey.  Attia has his own weight loss success story.  From an athlete with a little pudge over what appears to be a solid foundation, to quite a bit more lean.  Great!  He'd been truly low carb for four months before launching this new endeavor of his.  He speaks in his About of spending the past two years reading everything he can about nutritional "science", then mentioning his good friend Gary Taubes.  That's your problem Dr. Attia, if you're reading Gary's work, you haven't read anything that resembles true science or the state of our knowledge more recent than the 80's.  Attia appears to be Richard Nikoley with an MD and a better body (no offense intended to Nikoley, I'm sure he'd agree) -- another self-experimenter!  Don't get me wrong, self-experimentation is great ... if only some would do it in more honest fashion ... but it remains useful mostly to you, and sharing it is great so long as you realize that it only might work for others.

Attia writes on his About Me page:  

Perhaps the single greatest misconception is that “calories in” less “calories out” determines weight, without regard for what those calories are. I believe the theory that what you eat matters – less because of the absolute value of the caloric energy of the food you ingest – but more because of the influence the types of those calories exert on your body’s ability to regulate (i.e., store and burn) fat.

Keep making this case, because in the coming weeks, a pesky blogger is going to lay out the case that if you are successful in lowering basal insulin levels through diet, the result is more fat storage and less lean mass.   He believes things have reached critical mass.  I'd say so Peter, because the wheels are coming off the bus.  You are late to the party!  But, "Yudkin, Cleve [sic], and Atkins were essentially voices alone."  What? No wilderness??  Attia speaks to the tools available now ... the internet ... petitions.  I have an idea, rename your website:  Occupy ELMM Street!!  Very in these days I hear. 

As to our MD ... Also on the About Me page, we learn that Attia never finished his residency.   In his words:

During the fifth year of my residency I became a bit frustrated with certain aspects of medicine and health care, in general. In particular, I grew tired of the notion that we (doctors) did little to keep patients healthy, and were basically the last line of defense against, well, death, once patients become ill. The concept of “preventative medicine” received some lip service, but didn’t really have any chops as far as I could tell. In addition to this frustration (and others), I really missed quantitative and analytical problem solving.

I left residency to join the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, which was certainly the most stimulating experience of my professional life. During my time at McKinsey I split my time between working on healthcare problems (ranging from problems for health insurance “payers” to those of large hospital systems “providers” to those of medical device companies) and financial system problems (specifically, credit risk modeling and Basel II compliance for large banks).

But what does this have to do with Taubes, his name is only on the petition after all.  Ahh, but it's more than that.  Again thanks to old Ted Hutchinson, one learns of an outfit called JumpStartMD.  In September last year, Taubes & Attia were invited to give a lecture by this organization.

We are very interested in the work that Gary Taubes and Dr. Peter Attia have been doing as part of their “War on Insulin.” They are challenging the conventional wisdom that “a calorie is a calorie” or that consumption of fats is the root of all cardiovascular disease. We think what they have to say is important, and we’ve invited them to share their ideas with you.

We're at WAR!!!  Well, at least we know there are still sponsors left to bring you Jimmy Moore's podcasts once he pisses off the last of his non-real food candy cigarette sponsors.   Before I get to that presentation, I find this very interesting.  What is JumpStartMD?  It's a weight loss company touting their own brand of sustainable weight loss.  Sounds great.  Are they promoting a Taubes/Atkins/Westman style plan?  Well, see for yourself.  

The only way to change your life is to change your lifestyle. There’s no magic milkshake, no supernutrient, no secret pill. We agree with the National Institutes of Health and The American Dietetic Association that a weight loss approach combining diet, physical activity, and behavior therapy is most effective.

Yikes!  The NIH and ADA (not the diabetes one).  Do go click on the Sample Menu

We love food, too.  That’s why our meal strategies are based on delicious, whole, fresh foods.  Research shows that a diet which provides 500 to 1000 calories less than you burn each day achieves weight loss of two to five pounds per week.

Sounds awfully CICOnic to me, even if the math is a bit different from that you'll hear at a Weight Watchers meeting.  Let's check out that sample menu, shall we?  This is LOW carb alright.  It's also low calorie, and low fat.  Egg white scramble??  Fish two times in one day??  Where's the prime rib drenched in buttery jus and 3 eggs with real bacon.  What's with this one hard boiled egg with turkey bacon crap?  Sounds like KimKins.  I'd be soooooo huuuungreeeeeey!!!   Don't these people know fat is good for you?  That fat has no impact on body mass and that fat calories don't count because they don't raise insulin?  It's 2012 you idiots, and Gary & Peter lectured you four months ago.  Why are you still promoting this CICO stuff? 

How many calories per day can I eat?  We will help you design a customized meal plan that provides 500 to 1000 calories less than you burn each day. This type of plan follows the guidelines of the National Institutes of Health for the treatment of overweight and obese adults. (Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults: Evidence Report, 1998). 

Will I need to do rigorous exercise? No. To prevent you from becoming too hungry, we recommend moderate exercise once you have settled into the program. If you are completely sedentary when starting the program, this exercise is introduced gradually. Over time, we will increase the amount of exercise and introduce resistance training.

Phew!  At least they got the memo that exercise makes you hungry!  But crap,

Physical activity is a crucial component of any successful long-term weight loss strategy. 

It sounds to me that this organization, where Gary and Peter enthusiastically gave their presentations, is saying much the same thing as that pain in the arse blogger. 

So, below are the links to the videos from the JumpStartMD lectures:

Gary Taubes Part I , Part II ,  Part III      Peter Attia, MD  Part I , Part II , Part III

Although "Dr. Peter Attia is a Renaissance man and “self-experimenter” who has spent the last 2 years examining the role of nutrition as it relates to all aspects of personal performance",  we must remember that he, himself, tells us he had NO background or expertise in the area of nutrition related to his actual education and experience as a physician.  He's learned everything he knows, apparently, from spending two years reading Gary Taubes' Good Calories Bad Calories ... including that so much of this hasn't been tested, when it actually has.

So ... What's with keeping this under wraps?  Is it because they plan a stealth attack of sorts?  What will we call it?  Schlock and Flaw?   

One last thing ... If I hear one more of these doctors come out with the same stupid story about how they learned that carbs stimulated insulin in biochemistry and they got their old textbooks out and "it says right there" that insulin is the "fat storage hormone" or some such, and yet when they get to nutrition they learn CICO regulates fat, so everybody else is a moron ... I'm going to go nuts!   Perhaps this War on Insulin is further along than we know, because there have been boot camps teaching the talking points all along.  "Low fat made me fat", "obesity is a disorder of fat accumulation", etc. etc.   To what end? .....  

OK, one more last thing ... I promise.  Dr. Attia if you really went from eating 25% carb to a fully ketogenic diet his intake really went up from roughly 3050 cal/day to around 4500 cal/day (and he said in this lecture that "now", being Sept 2011 it was over 5000 cal/day) ... there's something wrong, or this might just not be such a healthy diet for the long haul.  You claim your resting metabolic rate went up ... but despite your DEXA tests, you make no mention of actually measuring your RMR.  As you yourself stated, CICO must hold, so have it checked to confirm your guess.  If it's about the same, then you have a fat malabsorption problem.  If it is, then please check your liver regularly.   Bragging like this over eating so much and getting leaner may be premature ... How on earth can you even eat that much?  Inhaling food?  A whopping 450g/day fat??  C'mon.  Why isn't Jimmy Moore a toothpick by now?

And now, I leave you with a few more lines from our song:

Sometimes it makes no sense
Sometimes it makes no sense at all
Makes no sense at all, at all

---

* A special thanks to Taubes' biggest fan boy Ted Hutchinson who finds these remote interviews and alerts Jimmy's readership regularly.