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 ...

BUMP! In addition to blogging on several topics raised during Stephan Guyenet and Gary Taubes recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast , I've decided to bump some of the past content on this blog relevant to some topics discussed and/or research studies mentioned.  I'll include a little commentary with each. At around the 12 minute mark, Stephan makes a great opening play, and then gets distracted or flustered into fumbling the football.  Stephan asks what it is about the food environment, etc. that causes obesity, and distills it down to the simplest of questions (paraphrase): Q:  What is the most fattening diet on the planet? A:  Human junk food. Nail.  Head.  Boom.  He then calls out some numbers from the research summary he posted on his blog in advance of the podcast .   The study I discuss in this blog post is the one included in "#52" that he's discussing in the podcast.    Joe seemed perplexed by thi...

Bumping Again! New Article in BMJ:   Analysis: Beating type 2 diabetes into remission * The original posting of this was shortly after the first papers published on the success of a very low calorie diet -- essentially a 6-800 calorie protein-sparing-modified-fast, protein shakes + non-starchy veggies -- in curing diabetes in relatively short order.  You may also be interested in the following posts: The Diabetes "Crash" Cure Revisited  (a follow-up to this one) Diabetes "Crash" Cures: VLCal vs. VLCarb Check Featured Comment (if any) for further updates from me. *In light of commentary below, I'll add that I am not a fan of using the term remission here.  Cancer does seem to strike at random most times and recurrence seems to be equally random.  At best we have few if any ways to predict who will see cancer return etc.  But Type 2 diabetes doesn't work that way in most.  The source of the beta cell dysfunction is pretty well k...

Hey all!  Last week I had the pleasure of being a guest on two podcasts.  Will let you know about the second one when it comes out, but for now, I was on the Revolutionary You podcast with Jason Leenaarts.  We chatted about all things carbohydrates and a bit of other stuff.   I met Jason through the fitness peeps I hang out with on Facebook, and actually had a chance to meet him in person at his studio in the Cleveland area a few weeks back.   Just a heads up that the part about medium chain fatty acids was edited together nicely by Jason, but sounds a bit choppy because my headset cut out in the middle of the first response.  So I wasn't sure exactly where it happened, tried to repeat some of it, and got my words mixed up.  When you consume a fat like coconut oil, with a lot of medium chain fatty acids, those dietary fats are preferentially burned as they are not usually incorporated into chylomicrons   (12C lauric is somewhat of a...

A bit of a random thought post ... one I meant to make at the time, but got distracted.  I've talked a lot about the USDA Food Pyramid, and less so about My Plate, both of which are intended to "translate" dietary recommendations to a visual form.  In this regard, My Plate is a great improvement, but still lacking.   I don't wish to rehash the whole guidelines again in this post, but I believe if certain foods were "properly" classified -- e.g.  potatoes and corn grouped with the grains/starches -- the recommendations are hardly radical.  If Americans actually followed them as intended, we wouldn't be in this pickle, but we don't, and we are. Here is the original food pyramid

Dateline:  March 26, 2016 Helloooo Inmates!! A quick update, but first a sincere thank you to each and every one who participated in my 40 Day Lenten Lentil Fast post.  As of this morning -- two months after publication -- we stand at just over 2700 comments.  No that's not a typo.  Who knew all I had to do was stop blogging?    It fills my heart to have such great interaction here at any time.  It especially filled it these past two months, months that have been more tumultuous than time-constrained, and some of the most difficult of my life.  So THANK YOU, and especially for much needed laughter along the way!  What more is there to say? I may or may not elaborate further on some unintended blog-related whys for the unplanned hiatus, but surely one of them has to be that old saying "the more things change, the more they stay the same".    While there are many examples of low carb antics I could use, there seems to be somet...

Background Posts and other BabyGate Files: 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 Pete Evans for background on this specific situation) The Obesity Paradox (relevant to energy deficiency of the formula) The BabyGate Files: Tim Noakes Blames Gerber for Baby Cereals The BabyGate Files:  Tim Noakes Just WRONG on Protein   (discusses "early protein hypothesis" link to increased adiposity later in childhood.) A Quick Recap on Chef Pete Evans enlarge to read about the major issues involved Chef Pete Evans teamed up with Charlotte Carr (minor Australian celebrity "mommy blogger" married to another minor Australian celebrity) and some nutritionists an naturopaths to concoct a recipe book of baby foods:   Bubba Yum Yum The Paleo Way: For New Mums, Babies & Toddlers. Thankfully, it appears that if this e...

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.

New Study!!! Metabolic and physiologic effects from consuming a hunter-gatherer (Paleolithic)-type diet in type 2 diabetes U Masharani, P Sherchan, M Schloetter, S Stratford, A Xiao, A Sebastian, M Nolte Kennedy and L Frassetto Why Frassetto Paleo? The first thing I do when I see a new paleo diet study is try to find out WHAT the diet actually was.  So even before I got the full text, I saw the "group" author and the description of the ramped up diets and knew it was her brand of paleo.  Here's a summary from  this post , which has links to individual posts I've done on the other various studies.  

I'm way behind the ball with this announcement, as the airing of the podcast came at a bad time with my current family member situation. I was on  Kill The Guru (Lucky) Episode 13 .   We taped in late August and was "aired" last week.  Hope you enjoy! The entire interview ended up being something like 150 minutes though we had a couple of interruptions.  Still, way too long for a usual podcast so there are some big chunks that were left on the cutting room floor.  As it is the podcast is around 80 min long!  We talked carbs/insulin/Taubes, ancestral diets, low carb rebound, sugar addiction, etc.  I've made a lot of friends in the UK training realm over the past year or so and the carbophobia is quite a bit more extensive there than here in the US (as we discuss). James Kahan has been gracious enough to provide me with the uncut stuff with permission to share at will.  So I will likely do so as "out takes" as time goes by on my Y...

In advance of my next installment of Nina Tei¢holz, Shai'ster, wherein I will discuss her claims that the Shai/DIRECT study was "rigorously controlled", I thought I'd give this post a bump. Original publish date Dec. 10, 2011 Control. It seems to me that many people misinterpret -- at least in their minds -- the meaning of this word when it is used in the scientific context.   While most of those no doubt understand the concept, after hearing the term enough, it just seems it comes to mean something else to them after a while.  I submit as evidence, statements made by two popular bloggers.   First up, J. Stanton at gnolls.org with  How “Heart-Healthy Whole Grains” Make Us Fat .  Wait!!  Did you click that link already?  I forgot to caution you that the post you are about to read contains science, so you might want to proceed with caution.  < / sarcasm > .  Anyway, the study he discusses in that post is:   High G...

From Discovering Nutrition Insel, Turner & Ross,  copyright 2010 20

This post updated slightly 6/22/2012.   Original publication date 1/23/11 In the comments at Jimmy's blog on my interview podcast, several comments either directly or by inference say I failed to make my case against Taubes.  Well, I think I did pretty much get to what I consider the four prongs of Taubes carb/insulin hypothesis, but I've decided to try and summarize this in a blog post.  Another common comment is that I'm somehow nit-picking at minutia, basically if folks lose weight on low carb, it doesn't matter the details of why.  To those, if they are reading this, I would say that any objective view of my arguments would lead to the conclusion that these are NOT minor details, they are the sum total of Taubes' evidence in support of his hypothesis.  Not only has he NEVER debunked the calorie-based theories on obesity, but almost all evidence in support of his "alternate" theory HAS been.   I will not be referencing this post, it's all...

I've been discussing lately the entangled web of relationships and referencing in this community, and I have decided that henceforth I'm going to call it on this blog what I've called it in my head for a very long time:  The Incestral Health Community.   This is because everyone has ties to everyone else (or enough) and apparently nobody feels even the slightest bit interested in vetting one another, let alone any professional obligation to do so before slapping the affiliate logo on their website or inviting fellow IHC members to speak at their events.   I've also been highlighting credentials of late, and will continue to do so when I feel that it is pertinent.  I want to make sure that everyone reading here understands that I am not passing judgment on anyone's academic record, highest degree held, etc.  Fer crying out loud, two of the smartest women I've had the privilege of knowing both dropped out of high school in the 9th grade.  And sadly, the...

... 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

Remember "safe starches"?   This whole SuperStarch thing reminded me of that for some reason.  It was just a little over a year ago that Jimmy Moore sent out the email to all of the experts he considers experts to inquire over the safety of consuming starches.  It mattered not the quality of the response, he published them all up .  This post put the pry bar in whatever cracks there were in the community along carbohydrate lines and was the source of much of the antagonism Jimmy decries.  Some responses of interest: Jeff Volek : Claiming you need carbs to prevent scurvy is a red flag this guy is a nut job. Tell him to eat a red pepper. There is no evidence what so ever the human body has any dietary requirement for the nutrient class of carbohydrate (i.e., there is no defined condition associated with not consuming carbs). This comment just demonstrated that UCAN be an asshat in LLVLC-land so long as it's not against a low carber.   Next up, the othe...

A while back I asked if anyone had any evidence that insulin blocks leptin action in the brain.  There were many responses both here and on Twitter -- thanks!! -- one of which referenced the following study:   Suppression of insulin secretion is associated with weight loss and altered macronutrient intake and preference in a subset of obese adults ,  PA Velasquez-Mieyer ,   PA Cowan ,   KL Arheart ,   CK Buffington ,   KA Spencer ,   BE Connelly ,   GW Cowan ,   and  RH Lustig.  If you're the person pointed me to this, I apologize for not naming you.  Ahhhh Robert Lustig.  Haven't spent much time on him here, but as he muscles his way into the (misguided) War on Insulin, this too shall change.   I will have much more to say about that study on the whole at some future date.  They gave some people an insulin-lowering drug (a drug that does more than just suppress secretion) and some lost "significant" ...

Link:  Mark Sisson Ratings: ☼ ☼ ☼  ☼ ☼   Entertainment Value ☼ ☼ ☼  ☼ ☼   Content ☼ ☼ ☼  ☼ ☼  Informational Accuracy ☼ ☼ ☼  ☼ ☼  Overall Summary: It is fair to say that of all the paleo/LC folks with whom I have disagreements with on the substance of their message, Mark Sisson is probably the most enjoyable personality to listen to.  If you know nothing about paleo/primal, this is a good overview of the basics.  If you're familiar with Primal Blueprint at all, there's nothing new here.  The interview is more notable for what it is missing -- any major emphasis on excessive carbohydrate consumption (no carbohydrate curve), minimal mentions of insulin and no mention of fat being locked away.  Not too many overt factual errors or misrepresentations of the science.  Most of all this interview and other recent ones demonstrate Mark's ability to adjust his marketing pitch to the tune of what's going ...

I get a fair amount of traffic here from time to time due to my posts about Zoe Harcombe and the Harcombe Diet.  Zoe's dietary philosophy boils down to parroted Taubesian Pseudophysiology, but one of the things she advocates, that I've discussed here before, is the strategy of separating carbs and fats and having them at different meals.  She makes a lot of comments about how calories don't count and all that too ... so the Google searches on her name and/or CICO or the separating carbs & fats thing tend to land folks here at the Asylum.  As a result, apparently just enough folks know enough about my stance on carbs & fats to misrepresent my position in discussions about the web.  More than once I've been described as subscribing to "that old food combining nonsense" or things along that line.  I've long since passed the point where I could answer to these various misconceptions everywhere they are found, but in this case, it's happened enoug...

Reader Josh brings this study to our attention : High saturated fat and low starch and fibre are associated with hyperinsulinaemia in a non-diabetic population Huh?  They compared dietary intake (24 hour recall) for 1069 non-diabetics (assessed by administering a glucose tolerance test) with fasting insulin levels.   Subjects were seen for up to three visits from 1984 to 1992. A 24-h diet recall and fasting insulin concentrations were collected at all visits.... ... High total and saturated fat intake were associated with higher fasting insulin concentrations after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, body mass index, waist circumference, total energy intake and physical activity. Dietary fibre and starch intake were inversely associated with fasting insulin concentrations.... ... Associations were similar in men and women and for active and inactive subjects, though associations of fibre and starch intake with insulin concentrations we...