Low Carb Circus Acts ...

In the Center Ring:

Jimmy Moore was on the Christian Broadcast Network's 700 Club yesterday.  I was going to leave this just for the social media stuff, but the appearance was quite disturbing in a few ways so I thought I'd share a few thoughts on that.  

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The YouTube is of only the segment.  The full thing is HERE with Jimmy featured in the initial "on tonight's show" segment and Pat introducing the segment at the 5:35 mark.  Robertson's post-segment commentary is quite hilarious (11:20) as he basically disses the diet with the old canard that fat doesn't burn well w/o carb and leads to "clinkers" -- I'm sure he didn't mean it this way, but it is funny that a UK friend pointed out that "clinkers" have a funny meaning in his country (see Urban Dictionary).  But even worse, he closes his commentary by saying that the Atkins diet "violates the principles that God set down".  WOW!  He was also having none of it when the co-host tried to mention how there are some "good carbs" ... no Atkins2013 is pretty much fat with a little protein.  

Jimmy likes to compile pictures from time to time for blog posts.  I have one for you.  A screenshot of his blog post.

I am very uneasy with mixing diet and religion in this way.  And Jimmy Moore pretty infamously hides behind his religion to deflect criticism.  It's pretty appalling really.  He lies yet again -- as if it really matters anymore? -- on the program, and I think it is utterly irresponsible of the program to allow him to present himself as healthy on his diet.  But the praying over one's diet and God speaking to Jimmy to cut the carbs?   OK ... so fine.   If THIS is your angle, what the heck is going on with that screenshot??  You cannot have it both ways.  You just can't.   

Speaking of God's principles, it is rather ironic that they highlighted Westman's plan of limiting carbs to 20g/day.  They then show a cupcake -- too many!  But it's not just the sweets!  It's bread.  

OK.  Now, leaving Jimmy Moore's sideshow performance out of this, Dr. Westman lost any respect I have left for him with his appearance here.  He is, after all, the doctor.  Do we have him "on the record" stating that Jimmy Moore is in good health and that his diet is healthy for him?  Not that I'm aware.  But he makes some extremely irresponsible statements and/or is cited in association with other misleading statements.  We have:

"I separate out fruits and vegetables, I'll never say them in the same sentence.  Fruits basically are high in sugar.  Vegetables have much less sugar.  So we want people to have vegetables.  Fruits are an every now and then treat ... like candy or something that you wouldn't have every day."   ~ Dr. Eric Westman

Yes, the banana is just like candy.  And too many carbs apparently.    I don't want to hear one more time from these shillin' paleo types that their diets are about just eating real whole foods.  No they are not when they embrace this kind of crap.  

"The key to giving up carbs is replacing them with some protein and a lot of fat."  ~ Lorie Johnson, CBN Medical Correspondent

 Actually, this is not what has ever been prescribed.  There is no "replace" there.  Jimmy Moore didn't lose weight by replacing several liters of Coke a day with butter.  In a peer reviewed journal article entitled   Low-carbohydrate nutrition and metabolism, Westman (along with The New Atkins co-authors Volek & Phinney as well as Feinman, Mavropoulos, Vernon, Wortman and Yancy) wrote:

"Because an instruction only to restrict carbohydrate intake could theoretically create a diet containing any level of daily energy intake from protein and fat, confusion exists among researchers and the lay public about what constitutes an LCD.  As early as 1980, LaRosa found that subjects following an LCD do not necessarily replace the carbohydrate with either protein or fat, but that they, rather, reduce starch and sugar intake.  Under such conditions, even though the absolute amounts of fat and protein do not increase, the percentage of fat and protein will increase. Recent research reviewed below has determined that the reduction in calorie intake is a result of appetite and hunger reduction. In this way, LCDs are also low-calorie diets that include an increase in the percentage of calories from fat and protein but not necessarily an increase in absolute amounts of fat and protein."

Of course this sort of straight talk didn't make it into TNA, nor did this publication make their reference list.    So Johnson goes on to elaborate about MUFA and saturated fats ... where Westman is spliced in.  Sat fat raises good cholesterol.  Well, so does alcohol ... 

"When his patients follow Jimmy's diet they lose weight and don't need their medicine anymore."  ~ Lorie Johnson

Really?  Jimmy Moore -- as stated on his own blog -- didn't cease all medications until around 8 months after losing his weight.  He is actually still taking medication, in the form of berberine.  Don't be fooled, this non-pharmaceutical supplement is a highly effective compound similar in efficacy to metformin, that also has cholesterol lowering properties.  Further, Jimmy would be on statins according to accepted clinical guidelines, so it is no "brag" to say he is off them if that just means one refuses indicated meds.  Johnson overstates the efficacy of Westman's diet, because despite the exaggerated statistics, many diabetics are not able to abandon their medications following 4 months or 6 months on his diet.  Of the 19 completers in the 4 month study taking diabetes meds at baseline, 12 (63%) were still taking some at 4 months (with no change in metformin requirements being the predominant outcome).  In the 6 month study we are only given med information on those taking insulin at baseline, of which only 2 of 8 "didn't need their medicine anymore" following the diet.  

Of course during the five or so hours that Jimmy and wife spent with Johnson, it never came up that he is following an extreme version of Atkins?  That he is not following Westman's diet anyway?   Westman has been corresponding with Jimmy.  He co-authored his book.  He is not excused for lending the credibility of his MD and his employer Duke to either Jimmy Moore's "medical advice" or The 700 Club.   Speaking of medical advice ...

The most irresponsible part of this piece is depicted at right.  This is the biggest, skirting on criminal, issue with Cholesterol Clarity.  At the very least it is supremely irresponsible.  Those who are unlucky to have familial hypercholesterolemia have "large fluffy" LDL.  They also get athersclerosis, and tend to die very young from it.   As discussed in my review,  it is particle number and not size that matters.  Also elaborated upon here:  When Size Matters (and when it doesn't) ...   It is utterly irresponsible to describe LDL as "good" and these folks should know better when they rant and rave about "healthy whole grains".  Same idea, but far worse given the obvious about FH.

In the Small Tent:

I decided not to devote an entire post to Scam the Fat-people's Smash the Fat's Sam Feltham and his latest publicity stunt.  It was just too pathetic with a pre-destined outcome.  I discussed his Jokesperiment where he "proved" calories are bogus in some detail.  Well, he repeated this ... with one less calorie per day -- LOL! ... over the past three weeks eating a crap diet.  He has improved his scientific method slightly and will apparently have body composition measured, but it's really silly at this point. 

Here is his latest stunt wrap-up on Facebook.  Of course, he still hasn't addressed the issue of what his actual weight maintaining caloric-intake would be prior to an overfeed.  He also mentions lifting more over the summer.  Sam has conveniently never addressed the issue of his entire calorie surplus in the last experiment consisting of notoriously malabsorbed nuts.  He couldn't even be bothered to match protein intake to his previous experiment just for those science types that acknowledge the importance of this factor.  Since he is generally a low carb guy, he likely added the usual water weight first, and ... well ... it's just not worth the time.  He is currently "rehabbing" with bacon and eggs.  Now what would be interesting is if he kept the calories at these overfeed levels on a diet of bacon and eggs with lots of butter and cream and such.  Nah ... he knows if he did he wouldn't lose the weight.    

Since he chose high MUFA (and PUFA) nuts for his extreme fat binge, one wonders if Sam Feltham is not a closeted sat-fat-a-phobe!!

screenshot from FB as his
webpage is not loading for me

This last experiment seems to have demonstrated that if you chow down on junky refined carbs, you gain weight.  Imagine that.  Rewrite all the government and medical establishment literature advising us all to do just that!  STAT!!  The diet also caused his pecs to migrate south.   Odd phenom that.   

Of course when you up up up the carbs and eat mostly low fat versions of some things (what junk food eater doesn't eat the real Kozy pudding?) you can claim that 140g of fat is a "low fat" diet ...

link, click to view fullsize

UPDATE 10/13/13:  For whatever reason, Sam played with the distance/angle etc. so that his before picture this go round makes him look smaller-than-life.  He "grows" ... see for yourself!  

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Which reminds me of the most interesting part of all of the carb bashing and finger pointing.  Inflammation causes heart disease, and carbs cause inflammation, right?  

"Inflammation" screenshots from CBN program
Nutrition info from nutritiondata.com for 1 large donut and 1 oz. plain potato chips.

Notice anything?