Hypocritical Low Carb Living: So much for clinical experiences & anecdotes

Apparently hypocrisy is ketogenic or something like that, because it is coursing through the veins of the low carb community these days.  You see, hidden beneath the bellyaching title and opening of the blog post, What’s With The Antagonism About Low-Carb From The Paleo Community Lately?, lay another one of Jimmy's "data dump" posts having the LC "experts" weigh in on the issue of low carb and thyroid function.  As yet another fairly well known low carber jumps the Carnival ship, things are getting more and more desperate in LLVLClue-landia.

Look, for years we've been told that so what if Gary Taubes isn't 100% correct, at least he's more correct than Ornish and look at how many people have lost a zillion pounds going low carb.   When the science fails to support the more outlandish claims made by Dr. Eades, we're always admonished that at least he's drawing on all of those clinical experiences with all of his patients he's treated all these years.  Ditto Andreas Eenfeldt, William Davis, Mary Vernon, Eric Westman, and now I suppose we have to add some new names to the list like Cate Shanahan and Jack Kruse.  If I've left anyone out I do apologize.  But you see, these folks rely heavily on their anonymous patients' results to support their theses, and to some extent you have to give them that.   While I'm sympathetic to the "what do a bunch of thin scientist types with Hahvahd educations know anyway" gripe, at some point, all of these anecdotes need be backed up with some degree of accountability.  For all the brew ha ha over my former anonymity, the comments sections of low carb blogs are filled with success stories of the unknown who won't even post pictures of themselves.   I'm all for anyone remaining anonymous for their own reasons, but you have to be consistent.  Because what we see time and again, is that low carb weight loss "success stories" often fall far short of the bar these same people raise for others to clear if they achieved their success by other means.  

Somehow, if you don't worship at the altar of Taubes, you are not allowed your own anecdotal experience.  If you feel like crap and have drawn out LC flu, there's something you're doing wrong (FWIW, I never experienced this).  There's an excuse for everything, including that somehow if you can't reach a reasonable goal, it wasn't reasonable to begin with or your metabolism is hopelessly farkled from carb-induced mitochondrial mahem.  For my own experiences, I plateaued out at too high a weight for me.  It's amusing to read my critics, because back in the day of participating on Jimmy's forum I was told left and right that I should ignore the scale because it was how I felt and looked that mattered.  I've never pretended to be "skinny", but I'm definitely a BMI outlier as I do not know anyone else who can wear size 10 Lee jeans at 200 lbs.  That is what it is, but now folks are calling me fat.  So be it ... I suppose we'll see what the reaction is when folks meet me in person at AHS in August.   But the hypocrisy of folks' opinions of what I write about here vis a vis the science is always amusing.  As if my weight or anyones has anything to do with how insulin really works in the human body.  But I digress ....

In any case, I have low carbed three times in my life and my experiences the first two times were that the rebound was lightyears worse than it had ever been for this perennial yo-yo dieter.  I also noticed that long stints on LC seemed to tank my metabolic rate.  Back in 2009 I tracked calories for a while to see what was going on, and while I seemingly could go up to around 1800/day for a bit, I didn't lose unless I went under 1200/day.  That is what it is.  But eh ... who am I, right?  There's all these anonymous ladies out there eating 2000 cal/day, even 3000 cal/day and effortlessly maintaining lying around on their size 2 butts all day long.  Fine if true, but that applies to me just how exactly?    

And so now we get around to Cheeseslave's reasons for ditching low carb ( “Why I Ditched Low-Carb”), notably some thyroid issues.  I've noticed a huge number of hypothyroids populating LC forums.  I don't know if this is because LC attracts them, or it exacerbates things, but having to up meds on low carb is not at all an uncommon report on such venues.  I suppose these folks are lying or something despite being die hard low carbers?  Jimmy next cites Chris Kresser:  

Kresser noted that many low-carb Paleo dieters in his practice are “suffering from the classic hypothyroid symptoms.” And by adding carbohydrates back into their diet again they seem to anecdotally get better. He concluded that “the low-carb diet contributing to hypothyroid and increasing carbohydrate intake improving thyroid function is definitely real.”

 So ... Kresser sees this in his practice, and what are we to conclude?  Kresser is just flinging anecdotes around.  This isn't anything like Mary Vernon's tall tales of amazing successes.  No, now folks, the low carbers are out for blood in terms of cold hard evidence.  Forget that there is no evidence to support the vast majority of claims made by Jimmy Moore's podcast guests .... now we need the evidence!!  To be fair, I've looked into the peer review literature on this and not found much of anything concrete, but there are enough reports by people who have nothing to gain by sharing their experiences to perk my former bunny ears.   

So Jimmy goes to the "experts" to get to the bottom of this.  Dr. Cate Shanahan is first up.  Sorry, but the more I read from this lady, the less I can take seriously anything she says.  I was saddened to learn that it was at Paul Jaminet's invitation that she'll be sitting on the panel passing judgment on the beleaguered starch molecule at AHS12.  According to Dr. Cate, we all just need to ease into LC more slowly.  Based on what evidence I ask?  Dr. Cate's T.R.I.M. program is nothing more than a CRD in LC disguise.     Next up we have the new leader of the Insurgency, Peter Attia never practiced as an MD past residency.  Now he wants to see the scientific proof!  Where's the proof we need a war on insulin first?!  How about the scientific proof that eating carbs causes insulin resistance ... or obesity for that matter.  I just love how all of a sudden these folks get keen on wanting 100% proof when they're out there touting LC as the healthiest diet ever imagined.    Ditto Dr. Eenfeldt -- proof dammit, we want proof!!  The list goes on, and on.  Look ... I'm very interested in seeing studies that demonstrate this, but I also wonder just when personal experiences have been rendered moot by these hucksters.  Are we not bombarded mercilessly with their success stories and tales of amazing health turnarounds?  If someone does not experience the parting of the seas and all that, is there experience not worth mentioning?  Apparently not.  We don't really want to know of any potential downsides or that this way of eating might not be optimal or even workable for many people.   I gotta say that there's definitely something that thins the skins of low carbers.  

We learn that Feinman isn't interested in eating more carbs.  Fine, it's working so wonderfully for you.  Durianrider laughs off his critics while Jimmy has to censor and ban his.  Jackie Eberstein -- who worked for the late, great Dr. Atkins -- has only seen patients get better.  Perhaps that's because, as with all diets, early on they do, and those who don't never come back.  At least Ben Greenfield cites some studies, but just when you think you might get a science backed argument, enter stage left Nora Gedgaudas.  She has bushy eyebrows so there's that!  Denver's diet doctor places the blame on low carbers being fatter to begin with so that paleo types don't see improvements.  Does that tell you something folks?  How about if you get to near-normal body weight perhaps it's no longer a good idea to remain in starvation metabolism?  Maybe??  Next up is "Everyone's a diabetic" Rosedale.   When the man can justify his leptin spiking nonsense, he'll have a credible leg to stand on.  Not likely.  But Rosedale actually prides his VLC diet for reducing thyroid activity and lowering body temperature.  So he's making the case, but like his sometimes buddy Leptin Man, he's saying it's a desired outcome.  Freezing your ass off is a good thing folks!!  From Dr. Judy Tsafir we get:

I don’t really get it. It seems very clear to me that most peoples’ health is vastly improved by a moderately low to very low carb diet. I am of the mind set that the specific source of the carbs matters. For people who have been formerly obese, their metabolism is often significantly damaged, and they could never eat upwards of 300g of carbs a day without gaining weight and having a recurrence of metabolic syndrome.

Based on what studies?  What evidence.  Science!!  Oh wait ... low carb doctors don't need no stinkin' science.  Robb Wolf thinks folks are just trying to muddy the waters here.  Yeah, please do tell us about your testosterone levels Robb.  I don't get Dr. BG at all as she experienced some bad stuff on VLC yet that doesn't mean everyone should eat carbs willy nilly.  Sheez ... who says that?  Long before I was kicked off of Jimmy's forum I was tiring of folks looking for assistance with their less than stellar experiences eating LC for the long term when the only advice was keep doing more of what's not working for you.  The oddest thing of all is that Atkins himself cautioned about the thyroid function -- perhaps that's why induction was really intended to be only two weeks?  At least we get some voice of reason from Dr. Emily Deans there ... no doubt ignored and lost in the swamp of long winded low carbers, and I'm liking this Diane Sanfilippo more and more since first hearing her at Paleo Summit.  Realistic, practical, non-dogmatic.  Low carb needs more like her!  Especially that common sense -- if it's not working for you, try something different!

Uggh ... and then we get to Adam Kosloff.  Adam is a nice guy (EDIT 2013:  No he's actually one of the slimiest jerks around) who I've had some email exchanges with after he sent me his Beyond Caloriegate ebook.  I don't get the point of that book -- Spoiler!  You don't ever learn what's in the black box! -- and more importantly I don't get his purpose in all of this.  He doesn't have the background, his low carb status is ??, and he seems more to be cheerleading a movement than anything.  Between the Kumbaya! chants, he pretty much writes off anyone who believes in basic laws of nature and that calories count.  Sigh.  Adam, we're long past the point of folks making stuff up.  Atkins started it all with his version of energy balance in 1972 -- something folks like to forget but that's what he said in his original book -- you pee out inordinate amounts of calories in ketosis.  That was it.  Period.   Of course this never stood the test of time so his heirs have woven ever more "sciencey" and elaborate theories, TWICHOO being the most popular, but so much of it is hooey.  Adam is worrying about the Titanic going down and folks rearranging the deck chairs.  I say jump into the nearest lifeboat -- which "going paleo" seems to be for many low carbers -- unless you think you can undo the damage of the iceberg that is scientific reality!

Jimmy ends his post saying "your comments are welcomed and encouraged".  That is, if you haven't been banned.  Oh ... and don't share anything that can be construed as a negative experience on low carb.  That's just anecdotal y'know y'all baybeeee.