Rambling my way to a Mission Statement

Last week I was asked or told a few times that the purpose of this blog is unclear.  I suppose that's fair, but then again, how many people sit down and write a mission statement when they start blogging?  I dunno how many people in my audience here have ever blogged, but it's certainly a different animal than anything I've done in my life.  It is easy to get tugged in one direction or another based on how the audience reacts to what I write and my choice of topics.  It's difficult, sometimes, to stay on "message" when I've never had a specific message other than this.   I really did start this blog to sort through the peer review literature and what it says about the long term healthfulness of a VLC diet.   I've attracted a considerable readership of the science, but also of ex-low carbers and/or VLC'ers who have moderated their approach over the years.  Most if not all of these have improved their position -- be it weight or health -- often after languishing stalls and declining health on low carb.  When I juxtapose that with the messages coming from LC gurus and weight loss "success" stories, especially in light of the dwindling success of so many, I can't help but blog on some of these personalities.

I'm asked from time to time to define myself.  I'm glad I never really defined myself as a low carber per se, because I think defining oneself with one philosophy prevents a person from finding solutions for themselves.  There can be no two more sad examples of that in the LC community than the couple that donned their "Hater" tee-shirts recently.   One says he's all about everyone finding what works for them and sticking to it to make permanent lifestyle changes.  The other says she's just trying to help people and sharing information with them that there are other options out there.   Then they take umbrage when someone points out that what they're advocating and extolling is not working for them.  The guffawing at my expense takes them not one step closer to personal success.  One thing I do hope to provide here at the Asylum is a refuge from the echo chamber and sound information on nutrition.  I believe both of these two could benefit from an imposed visit to the Rubber Room (and I'm being lighthearted here, not malicious), because clearly LC is NOT working for either of them.

I have no formal nutrition training, but sometimes I think that may be a good thing, and here's why.  See, I learned how the human body works through my formal education and textbooks that were largely free from philosophical bents and even politics at the time.  My how textbooks have changed, as has education.   Just the biochemistry and the physiology and none of the hype.  And where things were not known, textbooks said flat-out Theory A is prevailing, there are Theories B & C out there, and here are the evidences supporting/refuting the theories.   When you start with a firm foundation in these basics, it makes all of these nutritional (and fitness) philosophies seem all the more lacking in fact-based foundation.  I've known which foods provide what macronutrients since as long as I can remember thinking about food, and my plate growing up was like 1/2 low starch veggies, 1/4 starch from potatoes, corn or rice,  and 1/4 protein.   I'm with probably every reader here that no diet should be based on pulverized grain, whole or otherwise.  But that's not changed things in the West.  Wonder Bread, Coke, pizza, Twinkies, hot dogs, bacon, Oreos and Tootsie Rolls were all around when I was a kid.   Far more than the food has changed, and in some ways it's fair to say the food has changed the least if you really think about it.

When I was in high school, a friend of mine went on the Beverly Hills Diet and explained to me what she had learned in the book.   Worse than some of the lettered gurus, the author Judith Mazel had no relevant background or training.  This diet instructed you to eat certain fruits containing certain enzymes.  My friend dutifully abided and lost like 8 pounds before she developed a pukie revulsion to papaya.   I tried to tell her that the diet was bunk, and remember being surprised anyone would fall for it, but she (and many others) did anyway.  As my link states:

The diet is based on a theory that the body needs the enzymes found in certain foods in order to digest the food properly. The author believes that when food isn’t digested, it turns to body fat. A strange belief because the body cannot metabolize the food until it has first been digested!

Bingo!   Mazel lost weight on her diet and by all accounts remained slim.  My friend?  Well she gained back the weight, went on a cookie binge too, and ended the summer weighing, as so many of us do after trying restrictive regimes, weighing more than when she started.

Now Mazel was not the first, nor, sadly has she been the last to confuse digestion with metabolism, especially since there are lipases involved in both.  But she's the perfect example, and the collective community is chock-full of Mazels, only some of them even claim science cred.   At the end of the day, the low carb advocates are still selling fast, effortless, weight loss with a new twist.  Go to the Atkins site and you'll see some usual suspects in outdated "success stories".   Any weight loss plan that is tried by a lot of people is bound to have some success stories, and that includes the "failed" calorie counting -- which, BTW, has more by a mile than all the low carb and paleo plans combined even if we add in the semi-LC Zone & South Beach diets.    Only it seems that the "new" diets these days are coming from the low carb community with their ever evolving science.  You see CW is pretty solid.  It's hard to repackage that, so you'll notice that from Jenny to Nutrisystem to WW to all the rest, the focus is on what they can provide to increase your chances for long-term compliance.  Sure, you get the jump-start plans and all that, and there will always be new quick loss plans, potions and gizmos.  But the "new" stuff is coming from low carbers these days ... especially on the internet.

In this regard, I -- we -- are bombarded with a never-ceasing flow of bad science to justify carbohydrate restriction -- the more the better, for one and all -- as the "new paradigm" or "null hypothesis" to justify it.    Just when you think the sufficient case has been made against some theory that any objectively thinking person would accept, along comes another doctor or such to re-package it and throw it out there again.   And it seems every time they do, the theories become even more inaccurate as they are scienced-up in a smarter way or by someone smarter than the last guy (or gal) with more letters after their name, etc.    It matters not that the person is a charismatic nice guy or a dour, arrogant asshat.  If the science is wrong, it's wrong.  In Nutritional Idiotosis I discussed how the low carb diet really hasn't changed, but the "science" has.   Atkins himself repackaged the diet twice (more?), and then Westman, Volek & Phinney repackaged it again in his name.  There are Atkins spin-offs like the Silver Cloud diet which is essentially that fat fast, and the knock-offs like Protein Power.  And what folks have realized is that for most people, the effective form of LC for weight loss is the VLC <50g or even <20g carb diet.  So W,V&P discussed how some would need to remain at that level for life in TNA  Thanks to a reader, I now have a copy of V&P's Art & Science book.  Haven't had time to read it yet, but these are the folks behind nutritional ketosis.  Sisson put enchanting tales of Grok and evolution behind the same old same old, the list could go on and on.  I will mention Bailor's Smarter Science of Slim because it's even getting into official curriculum!  Yikes!!  The bottom line is the diet has remained substantially the same (purified of crapola, but foundationally the same) for four decades and counting -- it's the explanations for why it works that keep evolving, much faster than humans for sure!

The problem for many behind certain "movements" is that they've hitched their livelihood to a particular philosophy and the science that purportedly backs it.  That some of these folks have MD's or biology degrees doesn't make their science any more right by default.  I catch a lot of flack for pointing out monetary motives or motives in general here, and I wonder just when it was that consumers have collectively given up being discerning.  I'd like to think there are still a few people out there who don't pick up the phone and buy every latest fat-melting pill you see advertised.  The maker of miracumelt says you can eat all day and lose weight while you sleep with this pill!  Perhaps they trot out an MD or someone just dressed in a doctor's coat.  You see that selling tactic coming at you from a mile away!  Right?  Next doc tells you how the pill was formulated based on the main ingredient having been proven effective in clinical trials.  Would you accept that, or investigate further?  Not all clinical trials are created equally and even if Compound M was found effective for weight loss in a double-blind RCT, when you investigate you see that subjects lost an average of 5 lbs in 3 months taking 100 mg/day -- this product costs $45 for a 30 day supply of 10,000 microgram pills.   That means it would cost you a whopping $1350 to reproduce the effective dose from that study.

The point being many of us will just try some of these things here and there, but most don't even have the time or background to evaluate claims so it's either "what have I got to lose?" or "pass".   If the former, there's usually some investment involved, be it time in implementation and/or money.  I hear all the time, how I won't know if XYZ works unless I try it, and somehow that XYZ worked for them validates the claims being made by some guru.  While it is true I'll never know if something will work for me unless I try it, that is not a reason to just try anything.  Obesity and ill health breeds desperation.  We would all roundly condemn Company X selling expensive treatment Y that is based on dubious claims, to a dying cancer patient.  Most obese are not dying imminently, but are convinced they probably will soon, so any manner of treatments and diets and pills is better than trying nothing ... right?  So while I understand their predicaments, it does not excuse any of those I've criticized here from their behavior.   True honesty in the low carb community would ruin livelihoods.  Plain and simple.  So the alternative is to hedge and live on the outskirts.

Continuing on a bit more about me ... One of the criticisms of various "gurus" is that many have not "been there".  Well I have, and I bring that to the table.  Many of the various "gurus" don't know or understand the science they convey.  Well I do, and I bring that to the table.  I don't have a "brand" or adhere or advocate a particular dietary philosophy, though I still would be considered mostly a real foodie who recognizes the value of carbohydrate restriction for weight loss and managing diseases like diabetes.  When you read science here, it will be the truth -- to the best science can know it, and subject to change if new evidence comes down the pike.   It will not be skewed and packaged and repackaged to further some movement, agenda or franchise.   Whether a study is good or bad will not hinge on the outcomes but rather study design and reporting.  

I suppose it's fair enough to say I'm all about debunking and tearing people down rather than helping people.  On the surface I can see how it could seem that way.  But it would not be so were it not for the constant stream of scientifically mangled arguments, advocates who lack credibility, and especially a community of practitioners of a lifestyle ... and I'm talking low carb here ... who as a group are not reaping the promised rewards of their self-declared healthy superior lifestyle/diet.   I've been called all manner of despicable names in the past couple of months because I call it as I see it and expose the truth behind so many of these scams.  Scammers don't like to be exposed, and I'm willing to bet most don't even consider themselves scammers -- they are "helping people" -- but a scam is a scam.

So, what is the Mission Statement of The Carb Sane-Asylum, 2012?  

1. For starters, though nobody noticed, I changed the name of the place ever so slightly recently from "My" to "The".  I want this blog to be a place where recovering carbophobes"can come to seek refuge, shoot the breeze and share stories with others who have been-there-done-that, and work towards their own personal solutions.  So, "the" rather than "my" because I'm hopeful we can expand a community here where people can explore options other than the swirling flush to a 90% fat diet or bust approach.    Which is not to say my story is relegated to the dust-bin, but that I want this blog to be more than just about me ... as I think it really has been for quite some time!  I never intended this main blog to be about my story.  It is relevant, but as I've always said -- this is important! -- I could weigh 100 lbs or 400 lbs, that doesn't change the science I present here.  In that vein ...
2. I will continue to provide my readers with the straight talk on current developments in the science of diet and nutrition both for weight management and health.  The focus will be on the role of carbohydrate in the diet, but not the full scope by any means.  I will continue to bring you summaries of recently released studies with critical analysis as well as reviews of older peer review literature.  PR is not perfect, but it really is the best that we've got.  I'll do my best to synthesize it down for lay people, but this is difficult to do with such a wide audience.   So if I talk over your head, but you want to learn more?  Comment and ask!  I hate the phrase "dumbed down" ... I prefer simplify, as I would hope a financial advisor or tech salesman would speak to me in simplified terms but not as if I'm stupid (trust me, as a blonde woman this is a peeve of mine!  LOL).  I firmly believe lots of this stuff is overly complicated specifically to deceive, so if something I say here goes over your head, ask and I shall simplify further ... I know I can explain just about anything to anyone when it comes to this stuff, it's just impossible to do so on a broad basis without sounding pedantic to some, condescending to others.  But I know, if you give me the chance, I can explain all that "sciencey stuff" in language you can understand without mangling it to such a degree that I've changed the meaning.   Repackaging a message for buy-in by the masses is the true definition of "dumbing down" and it helps nobody to be spoon-fed misinformation in the name of science.  If commenting publicly intimidates you, shoot me an email.  I subscribe to that old adage that the only stupid question is the one you don't ask.   Now, in the process of distributing information ...
3. I will continue to debunk and expose where needed.   The veracity, credibility and integrity of all of your information sources are not only "fair game", it is paramount these be addressed.   Where the information source is an "expert", I will continue to address science first, but cannot ignore the factors that may go into why they misrepresent or cling to refuted ideology.  Follow the money seems to ring true with these folks when they are pointing fingers at Big This-or-That, not realizing three are pointing back at them.  When the source is a "success story", then their personal story is really all that matters, so I will expose fraud when I see it.  Sorry, but when all you bring to the table is your personal story, then that's where the spotlight must be shone.

I hope in the coming days to do a little house cleaning here and revamping.  I don't know ... these are really busy times and I have some very important decisions to make in the next week or so.  My husband will be leaving his current place of employment and starting a new job.  We have many loose ends, not the least of which is a house we have been unable to sell or keep up well this past year, that need to be "tied" in coming weeks.   Thanks for your continued support and readership!