The Carb-Sane Asylum

Hello World .. and anyone still reading this blog!! Yes, it's been forever.  I've been generally pretty well.  Knocking about on social media (Facebook and some Twitter) ... occasionally getting the urge to blog, write something, get to 80% then lose the mojo.   What has turned into a long hiatus wasn't planned, but it happened due to running out of steam and still seeing the same old, same old.  I may or may not discuss more at some point, but if I don't just jump back in and blog, I probably never will again! And so, with that said ... 𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘 The following editorial in JAMA has been making the rounds on my Facebook feed, and I have a bit of a different take and reaction to it ... one that comes from roughly a decade now of delving into dietary recommendations wars from where I "stand". The Editorial:   Backlash Over Meat Dietary Recommendations Raises Questions About Corporate Ties to Nutrition Scienti...

[no I'm not retiring the blog] TLDR:  Rather than dragging things on by dismissing more black swans, Gary Taubes could eat crow and go quietly into the night. After a long hiatus from any meaningful new content, and monumental blows to TWICHOO (Taubes Wrong Insulin Carbohydrate Hypothesis Of Obesity -- c'mon, it has a much better ring to it than the Ludwigian version), , Gary Taubes has gotten back to blogging a bit.* He has apparently been reading (in fits and starts, in other words, probably not really reading) obscure books about obscure cultures from long, long ago.  Mind you, that in five years plus of arduous and comprehensive research put forth in Good Calories, Bad Calories , there was no mention of the Yahgan people he's about to discuss.   One wonders why not.  Heck, this is right in his time period of excellence for nutritional research and reporting!  ( Uttermost Parts of the Earth , this is to a 2007 version of a book Taubes...

S ummary: A white paper has been published by the True Health Initiative attempting to set some things straight vis a vis Ancel Keys and his Seven Countries Study Such discussions will always involve the erroneous conflation of that 1970s study and Keys' 1953 "Six Countries Plot" ANCEL KEYS DID NOT CHERRY PICK.   In 1953, it was "possible to get fully comparable dietary and vital statistics data from 6 countries" from 1948-9.   Yerushalmy originally put forth data from 12 and then 22 countries.   These data were from different sources and for different classifications of disease vs. that used by Keys. NEITHER set of data used by Y&H even existed in 1953, so it could not have even been available to Keys. Zoe Harcombe is a terrible researcher at best.  Some institutions will give a PhD to pretty much anyone these days.

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...

I recently stumbled across this video.   It's a tough watch, but *this* epitomizes ALL that is wrong with the low carb weight loss industry.     For starters, diet really is religion for these folks as this get-together, marketing stunt for Dr. Eric Westman's HEAL Clinics/care, was held in a church.  There was prayer, there were references to God, and a collection, and paying it forward.   If you can't stomach too much of it (I don't blame you), I'll list a few time-stamps.  If anyone cares to give time stamps for various gems and ridiculous claims, please do so in comments! 11:35 Prayer ... 17:25 Melanie Miller takes the stage ... 17:33 Introduces Dr. Mark Cucuzzella ... 20:36 Dr. Mark speaks, thanks Jimmy Moore, talks about the movement, calls obese people in audience paradoxes! ... 23:30 Dr. Mark shares analogy that losing weight is like holding a beachball under water, don't try to hold it too far down!  ... 30:00 Success Story parade up on...

BUMP! In working on a follow-up to  The Slimey Truth About Sugar Slammers ~ Links & Background , I've received a few tweets that reminded me of this post from almost exactly a year ago.   Eventually we got answers to the questions below, and those will be discussed in the follow-up.  People are going bonkers over a pittance split between three scientists 50 years ago who published an article in a *professional* *peer-review* journal.  This was done at a time when such journals would publish articles countering and debating the findings of previous articles.  So in the intervening years it is the sugar industry that is solely responsible for confusing people?  I am not carrying water for that or any industry here, but I don't think so! This article came before some answers were unearthed by yours truly in  Nina Teicholz, The BMJ, The Nutrition Coalition and nutrition science's George Soros: The Laura and John Arnold Foundation .  Spe...

This was initially going to be a monster post, but I'm still struggling to organize it all!  The things uncovered at every turn last week and continuing through this one are astounding, and the hypocrisy of those touting this as some "smoking gun" of great importance is seemingly boundless.  This was all still swirling in my head when I went on Angelo Coppola's Latest in Paleo podcast ... in retrospect not a good idea when I'm wound up! I decided to break this in two to publish something up.  This installment will be linking to background to get something that blogging rock rolling on this.  Unless you've been living under a rock, this happened in the JAMA Internal Medicine : Sugar Industry and Coronary Heart Disease Research A Historical Analysis of Internal Industry Documents Cristin E. Kearns, DDS, MBA 1,2 ; Laura A. Schmidt, PhD , MSW, MPH 1,3,4 ; Stanton A. Glantz, PhD 1,5,6,7,8

Last Friday (Sept. 16, 2016 for those who may stumble upon this in the future), I had the pleasure of being a guest on  Angelo Coppola's Latest in Paleo podcast .    I had/have a post on the main topic discussed -- the *SMOKING GUN* that the sugar industry funded a study 50 years ago, and *O*M*G* -- in the works, and was not even half done by the time recording came around.  I was also trying to get in the last bit of summer.   This link  will go live when that post is finally published (hopefully later today or tonight):   The Slimey Truth About Sugar Slammers I have not had a chance to listen yet, so hopefully this isn't even necessary.  But, due to my passion on the topic and being mid blogging swirl, I'm sure I was quite animated at times.  It was a new format for Angelo's podcast, and for me as a guest as well.   I may well have talked over the other guest, Meredith Rhodes (a.k.a The Forward Health Coach; Forward Health C...

It seems crusading editor Fiona Godlee's BMJ is out front again with another sensationalism-over-science "study": Re-evaluation of the traditional diet-heart hypothesis: analysis of recovered data from Minnesota Coronary Experiment (1968-73) . This is spawning the predictable press coverage, such as   This study 40 years ago could have reshaped the American diet. But it was never fully published. Firstly, the idea that any single RCT would change history -- given that the likes of Nina Teicholz, Zoe Harcombe and others have drilled into us the fact that RCTs in this area were scarce (and will remain so) -- truly does border on the pathological at this point.    An appropriate RCT, of adequate size and duration, conducted with suitable compliance and verification, could conceivably turn any number of hypotheses on their heads.   But such a trial would be next-to-impossible.  Besides, even if this RCT-to-end-all-RCTs-&-nutritional-unknowns were t...

An interesting exchange including yours truly occurred on Twitter this past week.   It was between a writer at National Review Online, Julie Kelly, and myself.  Subject:   Down with Dissenters! Elite Food Activists Disinvite a Meat Advocate from a Food-Policy Conference  and Nina Teicholz, the disinvitee.

Bump! Over on Twitter I was made aware that Dr. David Ludwig is coming out with a new book in January (HT Steven Snyder @NoGimmicksNutri) mentioned in this Time piece:   You Asked: Should I Count Calories?    The book is to be called Always Hungry   (affiliate link if you're going to buy it anyway!)   This is a similar title to the NYT editorial Ludwig co-wrote with NuSI's VP of Research last year, discussed in this post.  I also have a friend who attended an obesity conference recently at which Ludwig presented much of the same ideas.  It is repackaged TWICHOO (Taubes Wrong Insulin-Carbohydrate Hypothesis Of Obesity) , and what is most galling about all of this is that much of Ludwig's own research counters this ... Yet he perpetuates it?  From the article:

Politics swirled this week, and as a scientist I wept.    Much more to come here, check out recent posts if you missed them!   As billionaire pescatarians Laura and John Arnold   bankroll meat industry spokesperson  Nina Teicholz via their lobbying 501(c)s Action Now Initiative & Nutrition Coalition  it is easy to lose sight of the actual nutrition surveys and science we are talking about. The hand-wringing, panty bunching, and other various "ings" going on over the impending issue of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines is almost assuredly not about the scientific rigor of the process or the guidelines themselves.  Are they perfect?  No.  Are they really all that radical or far off from what would be healthful eating, on a population-wide basis, for the United States of America?  Again, no.   Setting aside the particular foods themselves for the time being, the main argument is that this grand low-fat experiment has been a g...

source:   Politico I have had several conversations since I wrote  Nina Teicholz Reports in the British Medical Journal ~ The Conflicts & Funding  and a petition to editors at The BMJ .  I have some of my answers, most of which were not provided to me in the interests of the same transparency demanded of others by the players themselves -- Nina Teicholz, The BMJ  and The Laura and John Arnold Foundation.  Details to follow.  First, some personal notes, an apology, and why the George Soros nod.  Then the goods insofar as I have them.

IMPORTANT UPDATE 10/8/2015:   http://carbsanity.blogspot.com/2015/10/nina-teicholz-bmj-nutrition-coalition.html Dear Readers,  Won't you please join me in calling for The BMJ to retract The scientific report guiding the US dietary guidelines: it scientific? by Nina Teicholz. This petition is based heavily on concerns raised in my recent post:   Nina Teicholz Reports in the British Medical Journal ~ The Conflicts & Funding . Also, I would greatly appreciate your sharing this petition in any way you feel is appropriate.  Here is a short link: http://tinyurl.com/BMJTeicholzPetition If you have any reservations about signing yourself, consider contacting Editor in chief Fiona Godlee and/or Head of investigations and features Rebecca Coombes directly.  Thank You! Call for The BMJ to retract Teicholz article on Dietary Guidelines Committee and Science

Just a listing of all posts with significant content related directly to her writing or other statements.  It is my hope that I can add small descriptions of each post, but I wanted to put relevant links in one place so as to be able to link to it in the Change.org petition I am setting up for the recent BMJ article.   Ladies and Gentlemen I present .... The new Gary Taubes. Nina Teicholz  Book Review ~ Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz No Big Surprise ... A Compendium of Errata Etc. from The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz Quotable Quotes: Tei¢holz and Taube$ Nina Tei¢holz, Shai'ster Series:   Posts discussing Teicholz's downplaying of other research while holding the 2008 Israeli DIRECT study led by Shai as a definitive work establishing the superiority of high fat diets. Part I: The Diets of Shai et.al. and Extrapolating from Weight Loss Studies Part II: Applicability of RCTs to the General Population Part III: Well Implemented Cl...

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...

 {If you came here from social media looking for the PaleoFX [ ... excuse me ... Paleo f(x) ]  related content, do a quick browser search on "Deer Play" to skip on down.} Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam Where the deer and the antelope play Where seldom is heard a discouraging word And the skies are not cloudy all day Home, home on the range Where the deer and the antelope play Where seldom is heard a discouraging word And the skies are not cloudy all day ..... I want to thank Nina Teicholz.  This is a serious thank you, although I doubt she'd take it that way.  But for her  referencing shenanigans , I would have never had the slightest inclination to read W.W. Newcomb Jr.'s  The Indians of Texas: From Prehistoric to Modern Times .   I'm not going to describe this dense book as a page turner, and Newcomb's language is of an era when his chapter titles were acceptable.  But none the less it's been quite informational...

For some reason, Nina Teicholz is on a social media publicity blitz for an article I refer to as Hite & Economists.