The Carb-Sane Asylum

My greatest criticism of Taubes is that despite several years of "exhaustive" research, and a deluge of references in his book, the bulk of his "Adiposity 101" is either unreferenced, or based on decades old physiology texts and papers. In this lecture (Slide 48 at around 46 min in) is his discussion of glycerol-3-P.  Taubes is a master of stating facts ... in a misleading way that (1) leads the listener/reader to incorrect conclusions, and (2) enables Taubes to use the "I never said that" out when challenged. He first quotes a 1970's text on the Fatty Acid Cycle and shows an updated text of similar.  In both he highlights the need for glycerol-3-P to esterify FFA's to triglycerides.  This is true.   However on Slide 48 he presents a bunch of cobbled together "facts" that are either not considered settled science or are taken out of context.  And I note that while he now (2009) lists glyceroneogenesis on his slide, the word ...

Here is the Heart Rhythm Society's Definition: Sudden cardiac death (SCD), also called cardiac arrest, is used to describe a situation in which the heart abruptly and without warning stops working, so no blood can be pumped to the rest of the body. It is responsible for half of all heart disease deaths. Sudden cardiac death occurs when the heart’s electrical system malfunctions. It is not a heart attack (also known as a myocardial infarcation). A heart attack is when a blockage in a blood vessel interrupts the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart, causing heart muscle to die. So if the heart can be compared to a house, SCD occurs when there is an electrical problem and a heart attack – when the problem is the plumbing. Later in that summary it is stated that 75% showed evidence of prior heart attack, and 80% evidence of CVD.  So that leaves 25% with no evidence of prior heart attack and 20% with no CVD. So I do a little math: *  SCD deaths occurring in people with no pr...

This study is cited in the Westman, et.al.'s LC Nutrition & Metabolism Effect of a Low-Carbohydrate Diet on Appetite, Blood Glucose Levels, and Insulin Resistance in Obese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes (The full text is not supposed to be free, but through this link I was able to access it as a "patient", if it doesn't work for you, ask in the comments and I'll be glad to email you the PDF I saved) Although this is a relatively short and small study, it demonstrates what many in the LC community are strangely averse to acknowledging -- that LC leads to a spontaneous caloric restriction in most low carbers.  These folks restricted their caloric intake by an average of just over 1000 cal/day (median around 750).  Here are the dietary differences: Before:  Carb intake ranged from 182g/day to a whopping 552g/day and averaged just over 300g/day.   After:  Carb intake ranged in a ketogenic range of 14-32g and averaged 21g/day -- VLC The difference, an avera...

Westman, Volek and Phinney were among the contributers (and Westman headlined) the following, partially Atkins Foundation funded, review: Low-carbohydrate Nutrition and Metabolism I can't recommend reading this highly enough. I've listed the references in a separate post , numbered (the formatting farkled the last few but I'll let you count ;) ) For a non-gimmicky discussion of how low carb diets REALLY work for weight loss, this is where it's at!

Paleolithic nutrition revisited: A twelve-year retrospective on its nature and implications

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