Newspaper reporters can be notoriously cynical. It's an occupational hazard that comes from covering the seamy side of life, often because they start out on the police beat where they see people at their worst. I was fortunate to start my journalistic career in...
Food Science Cynicism
1/24/08 11:17pm
Reading Taubes Good Calories, Bad Calories has really shaken my world. I have read an enormous amout about diet, carbs and heart disease over the last five years. So I already knew that good science had gone AWOL in several places. But Taubes ties the strands together in such a way that it has crashed my belief in the way we do public science.
Bad science in the drivers seat for more than 45 years. Good scientists having their careers ruined for advancing well-grounded but unpopular positions. The press and all the public and professional organizations falling in line. This isn't supposed to happen in America. I mean, the big fat lie appears to have killed more people than Lysenko ever did.
Part of the fallout for me personally is a huge diminuation of my trust. Now, I read official warnings or assurances on, say, autism and vaccines, or mercury in dental fillings, or second hand smoke. I think, "Heck, the press, the government, the medical establishment—these are the same clowns that have lied to me repeatedly about nutrition and diabetes. Why would I trust them again?"
1/26/08 6:12am
Unless you classify fish and other creatures from the sea as 'meat', it is easy to avoid meat on any diet.
Further, chia seeds, which I know you are familiar with, seem to be the most perfect food in the world.
Thus if one eats them regularly, as I do, I doubt we need worry about nutritional deficiencies on an all plant diet.
I eat mostly plants, including fruit vegetables, tofu and chia seeds but I also eat quite a bit of fish and seafood plus some egg whites. I'm healthier than in the past several years and seem to be growing younger daily in terms of strength and stamina.
On the other hand, on the rare occassions when I eat poultry or meat I don't worry either. I just find it easier to maintain acceptable numbers (ie: normal range), health and energy without much of those.
And there are plants and plant derived products that I avoid - especially sugar and many grains such as wheat, rice, etc that are so high in carbs.
1/26/08 11:01am
I think some of the food advice we have received is potentially deadly. Minimed, makers of insulin pumps, used to tell people like me to feel free to have giant carb loads of pancakes and syrup and take giant insulin loads as well. I tried this carefully a few times until I found out that there is no way get the insulin action to match such a huge carb load, and I would have huge reactions. I believe this advice is a total fiction and very dangerous, driven by marketers and not people with brains. As patients, we are left on our own to discover by trial and error what works, and what is plan stupid advice.
1/26/08 11:19pm
38 years ago I lived in a small Alaskan village, was married to an Eskimo and ate only what ever meat he shot or fish I caught (before the ice got too deep to fish) or dried fish. We had fried fish, mostly boiled fish, pounded dryed fish dipped in seal oil. Some seal meat, a bit of bird and finally a moose was shared out by several famlies. The store had only flour and pilot bread which I didn't buy because of wheat alergies. We would visit friends and eat their boiled meat, or raw frozen fish. It was still a festive party even if I had the same food at home. Once someone came to town with a bit if whale blubber. I had a 7, 6 and 4 year old children and I was nursing a baby. We all did just fine until we moved back to a city and store bought food. Then we all got sick, which was the usual consequence of canned stew. Friends gave us native foods but we did have a "transition" period. I imagin that people are still living like this, or mostly like this, in many of the small northern villages. I have lived for months at a time on only meat and the thought of being over weight never crossed my mind.
Yes, this is extream but not all that unusual and not unhealthful.There seemed to be quite a few elderly people living there both on their own and in the care of famlies.
2/ 5/08 9:09pm
When I was diagnosed as a type II diabetic 7 years ago (A1C=13.3) I saw a University Human Nutritionist (PhD) and asked them to design a diet for me. She prescribed 15 servings of carbohydrates daily and reduce fat. At that time I was married to my glucometer and quickly determined that it was very difficult to keep my blood glucose concentration down. With frustration I read one of Akins books. Again relegiously checking my blood glucose concentration I soon recognized that high protein and fat were tools I could use to reduce my A1C (6.1 with exercise). My Doc is a little concerned that my BUN is always slightly elevated but how can you avoid it, however my triglycerides, LDL and total cholesterol plummeted all in normal ranges. It takes science a long time to break away from the dogma that everyone believes.
2/ 5/08 9:38pm
Dear Mark,
Isn't it a shame that we had to learn this with help from almost no one in the medical profession! It's worse, of course, for those of us who believe in our professionals too much. A diet like your Ph.D. nutritionist prescribed for you would have been a long, slow death sentence.
Best regards,
David
2/11/08 2:09pm
Newbie here!! Saw a brief mention of Lantus & low potassium. I am a daily exerciser, both treadmill & weights, 67 yrs. old. Also LC., but have noticed when I get to the point of weight loss (slow), I tend to get muscle spasms, neck, shoulders, sides, feet, just about anywhere. Am on Lantus, metforim, glyberzide...type 2. Used to have the same thing when I was young & would do the quick weight loss diets. Had to change drs. when I went on Medicare & they do not seem very informed, so want to have my ducks in a row when I go back, so I can ask for the correct tests. Switched from sea salt to light salt with pottasium...anything else? Just love you-all!!
2/13/08 7:59pm
Dear Lanie,
Potassium is problematical for people with diabetes because of we may already have kidney problems. A friend of mine has developed a salt substitute that uses some potassium instead of sodium, but I am reluctant to write about it. On one hand, most of us don't get enough potassium, but many people with diabetes need to avoid it. So, this is an issue to discuss with a doctor.
I can say that the Lantus and the glyburide both lead to weight GAIN. That does make it hard to lose weight!
David
12/ 8/09 8:46am
"Always remember that we are the real experts on controlling our diabetes. Whatever works for us is the correct science."
Horrible last sentence. 1) It is false that everyone with diabetes is an expert on handling it. Obviously, some people need instruction and some respond to the advice of experts other than themselves. 2) "Correct science" is not simply "what works" for concerned individuals. For example: Newtonian physics can put a man on the moon - it works, but it was shown to be inadequate and ultimately incorrect upon the rise of general and special relativity.
A bit more sophisitication and appropriate qualifications would have ended this article much better instead of this imprecise statement of relativism in science and medicine.
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I just finished "In Defense of Food" tonight. With the exception, of the "eat mostly plants" advise, the book is terrific. I found it interesting that Pollan had to violate the very premise of his book in order to defend his advise to eat mostly plants. Instead of using "traditional diets" arguments, he supported the plant eating advise using "nutriutionism".
As a type II diabetic for nearly 20 years, I've learned the only healthful "eat food" policy that works for me:
"eat mostly animals that eats mostly plants" - supported by the Hunter/Gatherer Tradition, the oldest of them all.
Dear Barry,
Thank you very much for your comment. I really like you policy of eating only animals that eat plants. Well said! It is a policy that I absolutely follow myself.
Best regards,
David
If you eat animals that eat plants does that mean that you try to choose only organic meats? I have been reading that most meats that are not fed organic food or the ones that aren't "range" animals, are being fed some reprocessed animal products. I hate the thought of that so I have been buying organic beef, chicken, dairy and eggs.
I do some of that also to avoid the hormones etc. What are you thoughts on this and do you try to encourage organic and/or locally grown items?
Joanne Rinker MS, RD, CDE, LDN
jrinker@fit4d.com
www.fit4d.com
Dear Joanne,
Yes, that's right. I eat only organic meats. Also organic produce.
Best regards,
David