The Carb-Sane Asylum

I didn't link to the source of the following meme because I "swiped" it from a friend on a private FB page.  However.  Jimmy Moore is digging in his heels with his latest and repeating his deceitful behavior that began when he posted a bunch of screenshots of correspondence he claimed was directly with him.  His intent is clear.  To try and attach to people such as myself, nasty comments and/or play the martyr for suffering such supposed abuse.   The only screenshot with any connection to me or this blog was one of a comment Dr. Kurt Harris left here, he presented it as a comment he'd received, and did not link to the source.  Bad form, but nothing new for JimmyKKKins.   If he wants to link to where I have called him a neo-Nazi, I want to see it.  Near as I can tell, ItstheWooo is the only blogger saying that.   Now here is my challenge to Jimmy Moore.  Post a link or divulge the source of the following meme or remove the insinuation on your blog that so

It happens quite often around here.  I post something about what Gerald or Geraldine Guru says about fill in nutrition topic du jour , and more often than not I get at least one comment notifying me that Gerry has changed his/her stance on said topic.  I'm then told that it is the mark of a thoughtful and serious person, as they have changed their position based on new information .  If this were the case, I would agree.  But more often than not, this is not new information ... outside of their world.   The sad reality in this greater community is that the demographic most influenced by Gary Taubes was not scientists (thankfully) or the medical community (sadly, some have been), but the guru community.  They picked up and ran (and boy did they run!) with TWICHOO.  And make no mistake, many in the paleo/primal community were heavily influenced by this and seemingly did not engage in any independent, critical thinking, let alone research of their own prior to writing their own

Alternate Title:  Picture Worth More Than 1000 Words.  In speeches and interviews lately, Jimmy Moore has become fond of mentioning a few things (well, in addition to name dropping Robb Wolf) Nutritional Ketosis as being somehow unique from run-of-the-mill, what, biochemical ketosis.  NK requires blood ketone testing as this is more accurate.  And, Ketosis is evidence of burning body fat which he wasn't doing prior to this experiment. Ketones and blood glucose being reciprocal Tis true that measuring blood ketone levels is more accurate than urine ketones.  For one thing, urine levels vary widely with fluid intake, frequency of urination, etc.  Urine ketones are also "spill-over".  This is why nobody is ever busted for DUI on the basis of a urine test.  But just because urine levels are not necessarily representative of one's ketogenic production doesn't mean a person is, or is not, in NuttyK.  But let's presume that to be truly NuttyK one must also b

The recent buzz about hyperinsulinemia being at the root of obesity (whatever the mechanism) has had me thinking again about the insulin lowering drugs.   Studies in this regard were referenced in the recent article in Cell from Dr. James Johnson's research group at UBC.   If this is really all there is to it, why not just treat obesity with such drugs?  Or at least give them to the reduced-obese so they won't regain the weight, and/or the so-called pre-obese who start gaining at some point in life before they become obese.  This is really the bottom line of studies like the recent one from UBC.  Because if all we need to do is suppress the hyperinsulinemia (however it is caused) to prevent obesity it would be done.  There is a relatively rare condition, called by many names, but most descriptively neo-natal or infant hyperinsulinism.  These children must be treated ASAP to avoid the consequences of hypoglycemic episodes.  I surmise the drugs octreotide and diazoxide were d

I'm working on a post about hyperinsulinemia and obesity in humans.  It may well turn into several posts.  But in one study I will be discussing they identified hypersecreters according to something called the corrected insulin response, CIR.  Sometimes this is further "standardized" as the CIRgp which is evaluated at the peak glucose reading.  The CIR is value calculated following a standard OGTT.  If you have data from your OGTT, you can calculate your own and determine how you rank. The CIR was developed by Sluiter and colleagues as outlined in:   Glucose Tolerance and Insulin Release, A Mathematical Approach I. Assay of the Beta-cell Response After Oral Glucose Loading .   From the dose-response relations between glucose and insulin after oral glucose loading, a reproducible parameter for beta-cell response was deduced. The main advantage of this parameter lies in its independence from the initial or reached glucose level. Units:  glucose in mg/dL , ins

Hey all, just your friendly "community" consumer advocate here letting you know a few things about Jimmy Moore's latest venture.   A little while back he announced  three new things coming to LLVLC. Jimmy wrote: It’s one thing to read a book about low-carb and I highly encourage you to do that. But sometimes people have difficulty interpreting what they read on the pages of a book into what that should look like on their plate. That’s why I’ve created the “Livin’ Low Carb Meal Plan” set to release to the public on Monday, December 17, 2012. You’ll get meal plans, shopping lists, recipes and so much more to help you stay on the straight and narrow on your low-carb diet. Many people get into a rut with their low-carb meals, so I hope you take advantage of this new service designed to help you keep this from happening. {emphasis mine}

... but it was my new-found energy and activity level that drove my leanness, not an inability to store fat in the absence of significant insulin. I think this is one of the most damaging messages that comes out of the LC camp to this day, I was duped by this , so I’m not going to do what a lot of other recovered LC writers do and make folks out to be idiots for still believing this…but, it is time to face facts . In every damn study it is clear that for fat loss we’d like adequate protein, and a calorie restriction scenario. Robb Wolf, Dec. 2012

Around a month ago, I was alerted to Jeff Volek's involvement with a company called UCAN that markets sports drinks containing SuperStarch.    I blogged on this here .  The SS is touted as being made by a "patent pending" heat/moisture process.  So a little digging was done by Lerner and then I followed the trail, and lo and behold, Volek himself is not on the patent app for SS -- that is the Scottish company that developed it.  No, Volek's patent is (links in comments on that post):    "The present invention is directed to a method of controlling serum insulin levels in an individual, the method comprising the step of administering to the individual a food composition comprising heat and moisture treated starch (HMT starch)." Now I questioned this in the comments.  What would the meaning be of such a permit?  Nobody else could administer UCAN to fat-adapted ultra-marathon runners?  It makes no sense.

Unless you've been living under the internet equivalent of a rock in this community, no doubt you've heard there was a paper published in Cell and Metabolism entitled  Hyperinsulinemia Drives Diet-Induced Obesity Independently of Brain Insulin Production .  It's a TWICHOOB's dream title ... until you actually read the paper, or even the abstract and freely available charts and diagrams.  Too bad most did not.  My link is to the full text I'm sharing with my readers through Google docs.   But you actually don't need to read this whole paper get the basic gist of what the study entailed and the results.  However, before we even do that, consider this.  How do you induce obesity in a C57Bl6/J mouse?  You feed it a high fat diet, HFD.    And as the graphic clearly shows, the researchers believe the results of their study warrant a change in the chain of

UPDATE 9/14/13:  I am in the process of deciding exactly how to deal with one Dr. William L. Wilson, discoverer of the imaginary CARB Syndrome.    This appears to have been the only post of mine he links to in his unsolicited diagnosis of yours truly with this made up mental illness.   Further he offered treatment in the the form of his Carb-22 supplement.   My purpose for this update is that some have -- rightfully, IMO -- taken him to task for making this bizarre diagnosis on the internet, of someone he has not only not met in person, but apparently knows very little accurate information about based on skimming a few blog posts.  After the fact he emailed me a link to the post, and posted one on another post on this blog.  He is busy answering many challenges to his post on his FB page at the moment.   Rather than re-evaluate the prudence of his actions, he seems to be digging a hole.  One way he is doing that is claiming I am some public figure and it's fair game for

I'm hoping to get to my analysis/comments of the hyperinsulinemia paper in Cell , that's causing all the buzz on the internet lately, published up by tomorrow.  Such posts require more attention to detail and seriousness than posts such as this one.  But it's a nice little break from my real life grind at the moment to bring you a little commentary such as this post. The LC position on insulin is getting to be downright ridiculous.  But the title of the paper, "Hyperinsulinemia Drives Diet-Induced Obesity Independently of Brain Insulin Production" can be quickly read as "Insulin causes obesity", which led two LC docs to jump right in.  First, Eades tweeted :  Dec Michael Eades, M.D.  ‏ @ DrEades Hilarious. Researchers @ UBC stumble onto the fact that insulin stores fat. As if they're the 1st to notice this.  http:// bit.ly/121FvTM  

INTERVIEWER Marc Hellerstein thought that the obesity epidemic was caused by people being sedentary? TAUBES He believed that the key is whether you’re sedentary compared to how you used to be. When I told him about the Pima and the Sioux Indians and this 1981 study of obesity in oil field workers, he had an excuse for everything. So the Pima and the Sioux Indians, they lived on reservations, so they could be obese because they were relatively sedentary, at least more sedentary than they used to be. And the oil field workers, well, they're Mexican-American, so they have some kind of "thrifty" gene going. You know this is what pathological science is: a field in which you can find a reason to explain away all negative evidence. In pathological science, it’s no longer possible to refute the hypothesis. Remember, science is about trying to test your hypothesis and refute it, but in a field like this, if you test it and come up with a counter-example, the counter-exampl

I can't help but weigh in on this this morning.  It seems a vegan  has come out with a new one:  Low Carb Guru of the Month.    Yes, I'm aware that posting about this here puts me at risk for promoting such activity, but I'm going to take that risk.  Why?  Because Jimmy Moore has sought fit to respond and there are several things about this response that are worthy of being "called out".

from this study , image from this post It occurred to me as I was thinking again about LIRKO, that this little mouse not only countered TWICHOO 1.0, but it pretty much puts the lid on TWICHOO X.0.  This profoundly hyperglycemic and hyperinsulinemic liver insulin-receptor knockout mouse, is not fat.  Though not statistically significant, the trend is to eat a tad less, be a tad smaller, and pack on fewer fat grams  than controls.  But let's just call it a wash. For any newer readers, TWICHOO stands for Taubes Wrong Insulin-Carbohydrate Hypothesis Of Obesity.  Version 1.0 was that which was put forth in Good Calories Bad Calories .  In this version, Taubes put forth four ways by which the carbohydrate could promote obesity: 1.  Carbohydrates stimulate insulin which stimulates fat storage and/or traps fats in our fat cells so fat accumulates. This was pretty much the "lead singer" of his Barbershop Quartet singing the TWICHOO jingle.  Carbs stimulating insulin

In a review of a diet book, One final thought: What about exercise? Strikingly silent on the subject, don’t you think? Shamblin openly and proudly shuns exercise in the Weigh Down Diet approach and Hawks makes no mention of the role of exercise in discussing “intuitive eating.” If you’re going to be serious about losing weight and keep it off, then you have to talk about exercise. It has been an instrumental part of my success on the low-carb lifestyle. That’s why I devote an entire chapter to it in my book. ~Jimmy Moore, November 2005  

Just some notes on the non-Taubes/Attia portions of John Stossel's Food Bunk program.  I managed to catch and tape a rerun of it and watched in the background the other day. It still may be rerun (or watch online?) for anyone interested on FNC or FBC. It was on food freedom, government regulations, laws/bans and all that.  It began with Joel Salatin v. Felix Ortiz a NYC Councilman responsible for transfat ban, posting calorie counts, etc. Salatin came off rather well here in my opinion. Stossel shows video of a raid on a food coop. Scary. Ortiz was challenged on juices -- if you limit soda sizes, how about juice? His answer was more like "I ate my orange today" which disturbs me in spite of my recent defense of OJ.  So many of the politicians and folks like Lustig and Diet Doc Eenfeldt are all in for banning and regulating and taxing their pet dietary peeves.  They believe butter cannot be fattening, so Denmark's misguided butter tax was foolhardy, but te

So a recent research paper has been making the rounds.  It has a "red meat" title for the die hard TWICHOOB:   Hyperinsulinemia Drives Diet-Induced Obesity Independently of Brain Insulin Production .  This paper was brought up in my comments section as well.   Every time this happens I really do feel like I'm in some sort of nutritional remake Groundhog Day.    I'm a bit backlogged at the moment, but luckily Stephan Guyenet has weighed in with his analysis and included some additional studies in support of his position.   Whenever I think hyperinsulinemia causes obesity,  I'm reminded of the LIRKO mouse.  LIRKO is normal except its liver lacks insulin receptors.  The result is a mouse with raging hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia throughout much of its young life until its liver poops out.  I blogged on this mouse here:   Bloggo Science ~ LIRKO Wars Edition .  (Incidentally that post links to an older post by Stephan on the role of hyperinsulinemia  here

Gary Taubes and Peter Attia were among the guests on a John Stossel program entitled Food Bunk a little while ago.  You may still be able to catch reruns if you so desire.   Long story short, Stossel discusses the role of government in regulating and recommending foods and nutrition.  It's worth a watch if you can find it, more for some of the other guests and information.  But thanks to Eenfeldt, I was made aware of the 8-minute appearance of the Lipidic Duo of Taubes and Attia, speaking of course on how our government is/was wrong about fats and the nutritional guidelines.   (I've decided I need a new Lego superhero look for Attia, the old one just had too much hair, please excuse the coloring on the face/head there, it was a quick job.)

... yet another reason to migrate to WordPress after Christmas.  If you see more than the usual (e.g. generally none!)  posts removed by Admin around here it's because it is easier to do so than deleting spam in the Dashboard.  Carry on!

The way I see it is that the establishment has an immune system to protect itself from challenges. Every science needs that kind of immune system to protect itself from quacks and easy-to-swallow but erroneous ideas that might infect the good science in the field. My question is whether I can infect enough people, enough serious scientists, that I can pose a threat to this immune system, that I could compromise the immune system of the establishment and make them take this idea seriously. Because some times these immune systems work against challenges that are legitimate. I honestly don't know if I can. It's going to be an interesting year. I hope I don't become one of those bitter old men who, when I fail to do so, who can't let it go. ~ Gary Taubes, January 2008 Interview with Seth Roberts

I'm laughing because I've been in a nostalgic mood "in real life" all day today.  You see, a fast food restaurant, local and national icon, was closed when I drove past it today.   I've known for some time changes were to come, but this finality was a sudden twist.  The innards were up for auction, a food truck in the parking lot bearing franchise name still selling but nobody seemed to be buying ...  I had my first date there at 14 or 15, unbeknownst to my parents, a double date set up by my equally "uncool" friend CJ who met "cool" guys at Jewish religious retreats.  I remember parts of it like it was yesterday.  The outfit I wore ... my hair painstakingly symmetrical in the Dorothy Hamill do.  I even recall the makeup I wore purchased from my school chum since grammar school Marjory, who had become an Avon "lady".  No ... I so do NOT pine for those days, but I imagine I feel a little like the Jersey Shore folks who saw their

link, click to enlarge This will be a relatively short post, but due to my recent offering, I re-read some of the original Shai et.al LF v. Mediterranean v. LC diet comparison study and had some commentary to add.  First, leaving aside reasons for withdrawal, there was a significant difference in compliance/completion between the three groups -- roughly 90% of LF, 85% of MDTN and 78% of LC subjects that completed the 2-year intervention.  

Well, the pudgy mirdled one , diet book author and former diet doctor Mike Eades has taken a break from changing the world ** with his Sous Vide * to compose his ninth blog post of the year!   Last we heard from him here at The Asylum , he and his wife had resolved to -- yet again! -- diet in 2012 .  You'll see why all of those links are relevant as we get into discussing his latest:   Are carbohydrates fattening? His post refers to the 6 year follow-up (4 years after the initial 2 year study) from the famous diet comparison study from Shai et.al .  I discussed this study back in my more gregarious days (grin) in Gary Taube$, Shai-ster?    This study was done in a workplace setting in Israel, where through the cafeteria, they were able to assist participants in complying with the diet by offering choices labeled as appropriate for their assigned diet plan.   In this 2-year trial, we randomly assigned 322 moderately obese subjects (mean age, 52 years; mean body-mass index..