The Carb-Sane Asylum

image link UPDATE 8//23/2021 The company class action law suit regarding scientific claims made about this product. UCAN Class Action Suit I wonder if Peter Attia will get any payout?  LOL ORIGINAL CONTENT published 11/19/2012    How on earth did SuperStarch fly under my radar?   Thanks to Lerner, I was made aware of the connection between Jeff Volek -- of nutty ketosis and Atkins Nutritionals fame -- and the UCAN Company marketing a new type of sports drink containing SuperStarch (TM and all that near as I can tell, though the term is not unique to the company).    When I think of SuperStarch, the image of Molly Shannon's Mary Katherine Gallagher character from SNL just popped into my mind complete with her "superstar" exclamation.  Suparstarch(aching?)  Methinks so! The bottom line of what I'll abbreviate as SS, is that it is supposedly better for performance -- presumably specifically in endurance activities -- because it effectively ...

This post was prompted by yet another discussion on Facebook involving cravings and hunger and the supposed magic of keto/LC in fixing this aspect.   As the thought process goes:  it's not about calories (even if they count), it's about how the food impacts us that causes us to eat too much (or just enough).   A hat-tip to Melanie (Mac Smiley) who sent me this study almost three years ago!  TL,DR Summary:   Same people, different days, same shake, different labels.  Hormonal response differed based on expectations.

I couldn't help but snap a picture of this at the playground yesterday.  Asylum regulars will recognize the true cause of the obesity epidemic in this picture. 

W ith publication of the results of the second of the "Original 3" NuSI funded studies, I'm finally getting around to publishing up this post (and perhaps a second one shortly) regarding the Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI), founded in 2012 by Peter Attia, MD and "science journalist" Gary Taubes. Bottom line ... for NuSI, it was "all over but the crying" a couple of years ago now. 

I am unsure why, but I am experiencing some problems with notifications, reading and posting responses to comments.  This morning I posted one reply (I think, no notice it didn't go through) and then was unable to respond to another (kept getting some verification notice).   In addition, I have been mostly on my phone as my computer screen cracked rendering it unusable until I managed to disable the touch screen.  With that successfully disabled, it's a crapshoot if the unit turns on for limited use.   I'm hoping Tuesday for my replacement. I would *REALLY* love returning to more regular blogging in 2018.  

I have much to be thankful for this year, and this is a day for celebration.    Wishing you all the best day, I'm thankful for all who read here!   I'll be making an apple pie (crust from scratch too!) and there's a slice with my name on it ... it will be worth every calorie!  Also my sister makes the BEST pecan pie only once a year on Thanksgiving, so you better believe I'm having a slice of that too!  I hope you all enjoy the special foods at your celebrations, but more importantly the family and friends you celebrate with.   Have a great day!

... an acronym most closely associated with Sean Croxton.   [ Or as I call him in my head:  Sean Ton of Crocks, because Croxton is the king of the alt func med summit marketeering spree].  But now it looks like Croxton is in the processed convenience food biz, releasing a J.E.R.F. bar!   screenshot of today's JERFbar.com home banner One of the things that most annoys me about Noakes and his "Real Meal" revolution.  Many in paleo talk about eating "real food", and many exclude from this definition foods that aren't part of their restrictive food paradigms.  You know, such UNreal aka fake foods like whole grains and legumes for the low carbers,  soy and veggie oils for the "ancestrals", maybe dairy for the vegans, regular sugar for just about everyone.    "Real food" is a foolish label.   If what you mean by *real* is "whole" foods, then concoctions don't fly, no matter how "clean" the ingredients list ...

Bump Again! I've bumped this before.  I'm still alive and working on blogging, finishing off an installment about the Sugar Slammers. I think this post is worth a read or re-read.  The Laura and John Arnold Foundation funds several non-profits all engaging in targeting sugar as the ultimate cause of everything. Such funds are obscured as donations to universities.  Additionally other non-profits with clear agendas present themselves as taking no industry funding.  It's a dense mess. ORIGINAL CONTENT PUBLISHED MARCH 16, 2015 I'm working on another post regarding conflicts of interest and such, and this came up on the background gathering.  A number of journals are adopting "noble" policies of no longer accepting industry funded studies. Mind you, many of these same journals appear to have no qualms publishing the works of individuals with clear biases and conflicts. I think this hard line on industry funding is wrong-headed.  Not that I'm...

BUMP - and due to time constraints but lots of comments already here, I've changed my mind on starting a Fat Summit thread and retitled this one.  I hope to put a "best of" video together in response to this tentatively titled The Fact Summit.  Thanks for all your participation! EDIT:  As of 2/16/16 we're at over 1200 comments (fun times!!) and for me, Disqus is slow to load in blogger.  To engage, you may wish to read/comment using this link   which goes directly to disqus. Lent begins on February 10th this year, so I have decided to engage in a 40 day fast beginning today, January 15th.   The fast officially ends on Valentine's Day at which point I will return to eating like 99% of humans on the planet. What will I be consuming during this fast?  Well I wouldn't want to kill my gut flora or get my electrolytes outta whack, so I have decided to include 1 cup (which might be two if my body tells me it needs it) of The Faker Foodie's organic, ...

... it's called that for a reason.   This post was prompted by the discussions in this seemingly non-monumental post -- Are the Dietary Guidelines REALLY So Radical? -- that erupted to over 750 comments. The discussion somewhat culminated in this comment , and there are a few posts forthcoming that require this "backgrounder" on thoughts . I like to blog about science.  I like to deal in science.  I consider myself a scientist in much the same way that formerly practicing MDs still consider themselves doctors.   I used to conduct primary research.  The kind that some of today's "scientists" have never even done outside of the classroom environment , if that   (I refer to the likes of Gary Taubes, Zoe Harcombe and James DiNicolantonio to name a few) .  I studied science (a few disciplines, and some engineering too), and I had a career in scientific research (again a few differing fields and applications).  I "can't help myself" ...

... without saying a word: source  , simplified and adapted from  full table Discuss.

When Elizabeth Licorish was 9 years old, she read a skating reference book that revealed that 12 year old Tara Lipinski trained five hours each day, enjoyed a diet rich in spaghetti and marinara sauce, stood 4 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 68 pounds. When she put the book down, did she .... (a) Hop on a bathroom scale (b) Ask Mom to make more pasta with marinara (c)  Request a longer training schedule. The answer to this is the subject of this post.  Apologies for the somewhat longer than intended delay in publishing.  Part I of sorts:   Women, Athletes & Calories -- Does Tara Lipinski Eat Enough? This post was inspired by a reaction piece in Philly Voice by freelance journalist Elizabeth Licorish entitled:   Dear female athletes: Please don’t follow Tara Lipinski’s 1,200-calorie diet.    In Part I, I tried to limit commentary mostly to answering the question in my title, though I did touch on other topics.  I'm h...

After a fair amount of deliberation, I have decided to temporarily close comments on the Malcolm Kendrick post.   This past Spring marked 5 years of blogging here at The Asylum, a milestone I had intended to acknowledge and perhaps even celebrate.  In that time I've published over 1100 posts, and of the 600 in my draft bin, at least 200 of them are blog-worthy, complete or near complete, posts.  Of those, perhaps a third are "vents" I thought the better of publishing up, another third I just felt had passed their "blog on by" date, and the remaining third are "deep science" I never got to spend the time on to articulate fully.  I have a fascinating -- to me anyway -- series in mind discussing intracellular lipid trafficking and lipid droplet organelles that just never gets the attention it deserves.  

Sometime in June of 2010 , I wrote the following words about Gary Taubes: I'm left to conclude this man is totally bereft of intellectual honesty. Supporters of Taubes jumped at this and claimed I had called the man a liar.  A willful fraud.  But at that time I had never used those words.  I don't believe I flat out accused him of lying until December of 2010 in response to his defense of his then new book Why We Get Fat .  I still try to avoid those words, if only because of the flack I receive when I do.  And yet, the qualifier "intellectual" has been bothering me a lot lately.   Intellectual Dishonesty :   " When one avoids an honest, deliberate and comprehensive approach to a matter because it may introduce an adverse effect on personally and professionally held views and beliefs."

I posted something like this on my Facebook page a while back.  Rather than find it, I've decided to recreate it here. Let's say that I take home $4000 per month.  Let's say my "basic" living expenses for home and car including all operating costs, insurances and whatnot are $2500 leaving me $1500 to live on.  Of that I spend $600 on food and clothing, $600 on entertainment and save $300.    My entertainment budget is currently 15% of my take home income. At my annual visit to the financial planner tax person, I'm told that I really ought to cut back on my entertainment expenses so that I can put away more for retirement.  A somewhat dramatic one-third cut from current entertainment expenses is suggested.  This would amount to 5% of my current income and bring entertainment down to 10% of the total.    Then I had a brilliant idea, I would buy a new car and move to a more expensive home in a more expensive neighborhood so that my...

Just a quick note to commenters here.  I was traveling for the past several days and unfortunately don't always catch every comment that goes to moderation.  Most comments are automatically posted, but some -- even w/o links -- get held up even when I whitelist someone.  I just approved roughly a dozen, which is all of the comments in the "Pending' folder.  Sorry!  I try to keep the flow going here and greatly appreciate interaction.

In my former home, we had a large "country kitchen" and baseboard heating.  For those not familiar with baseboard heating, hot water is passed through a pipe and at various locations these pipes go through elements like the one shown.  Eventually the water goes back to the furnace and round and round it goes.   There's always some loss of energy for the parts of the pipes that don't go through elements, so the shorter the loop the more efficient.  In most floor plans, this means a single loop around the outside walls of the house.  

I've done a couple of background posts on this topic, and I've decided to dub it BabyGate. In doing so, I now have the freedom to launch another unending series of related posts. (Read: I might actually get to posting what I want to in some timely fashion!)  Background posts:   Mammalian Infant Food Macronutrients ~ Especially Human Common Themes: The Chef Evans & Prof. Noakes Controversies, and Robb Wolf vs. North Carolina   (use your browser to search on Tim Noakes for background on this specific situation) Today's Focus:   Tim Noakes, outspoken advocate of Banting (sic) #LCHF diet -- apparently for all! -- has been called to a hearing by the HPCSA.  The issue is a complaint filed by the dietetics board in South Africa alleging inappropriate conduct on social media for tweeting advice to a mother to wean her baby onto a low carb, high fat diet or "real foods".  According to this report : "By implication I was saying that the child...

There have been two major stories in the IHC-News of late, a mega-Facebook thread that has raised the issue of PUFA in baby formulas, a minor altercation between moi and Matt Stone on Facebook about a study on "autistic rats", and quite a few conversations on this blog involving PUFA of late that has prompted this post.  It is a prelude to at least two posts on the issue to come:  (1) The Pete Evans / Paleo Way / WAPF-inspired / Nora Gedgaudas defended liver-based baby formula controversy, and (2) Tim Noakes' recommendations of "LCHF" for babies.

Note:  This post is rough.  It grew out of another post because I know I've addressed some of these issues before but can't really find a post to link to.  So I made this and will add, tweak, etc. as need or desire arises.