The War Between Fat And Carbs Heats Up

Six years ago (see note below), Gary Taubes, science writer for the New York Times, published a piece entitled “What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?”.

Upon publication of this article, Hell’s mouth opened. Fire rained at the thought the Gray Lady would publish nonsense to the effect that eating pigs and cows, dripping with greasy grease, was HEALTHY. It was to most of the intelligentsia as sickeningly taboo as incest or republicanism.

In the NYTs, Taubes wrote that it appeared that Robert Atkins, M.D., might be on to something with his diet books that advocated avoiding simple carbohydrates, and consuming primarily fat and protein. Specifically, Atkins maintained that 1) dietary fat is not bad in almost any sense; 2) the best diet was one that eschewed simple carbs, and relied primarily on fat and protein (with reasonably generous amounts of complex carbs, like veggies, allowed); and 3) this diet would prevent most of the ‘lifestyle’ ills of modern society arising from obesity, like Type II diabetes and heart disease. Oh, and if you do it right, it might kill cancer.

Well, the latest Boston NanoSig announcement says the topic for the next meeting is Taubes’ new book “Good Carbs, Bad Carbs”. The main guy there, Fred Hapgood, Ph.D., has just discovered the ancient Atkins knowledge, repackaged by Taubes. He is sufficiently enamored to make it the topic of monthly discussion for this large-brained-group get-together. It turns out the good Doctor has lost more than 5 pounds just by thinking about the book while eating!

Now, frankly, this amazed me. The Carb Wars raged for over twenty years, and I hadn’t heard there was a cease-fire. I mean, starlets have been low carb forever, but anyone that gets donation solicitations from the AMA or PETA hates the carrion eaters. So it surprised me that Dr. Fred thought this so cool and new as to call a meeting of his MIT cabal to earnestly discuss the topic (and he assured everyone that he would bring his copy of the book for the gathered to gaze upon!). I mean usually the topic is something that would make a thrill run up Ray Kurzweil’s leg, not a ‘how to lose weight quick” book.

Anyhow, I thought I’d share this here, and make a comment and tell a story.

The Comment: Kurzweil is famously a diabetic. I haven’t read his personal story of his self-directed cure, but I’m pretty sure he could have done it with ‘Atkins’. However, Ray got a book out it, and he couldn’t get a book out of just saying “Do Atkins, cure diabetes”. My personal experience with low carb is that a) you lose a ton of weight, b) it stabilizes cholesterol to perfect levels and ratios, c) it dramatically drops blood sugar levels, and d) it reduces triglycerides to near zero (and triglycerides are the best marker for the ‘metabolic syndrome’ diseases).

Compelling Personal Story: I have an older fishing chum (call him Bob) that has diabetes. Being very fond of him and his boat, some years ago I broached Atkins with him as a possible help in managing the disease. He’s a very analytical guy, so he read and studied, got interested, then approached his doctor with the idea of testing it out.

Bob’s doctor was blunt: “If you try that diet, it will kill you, and if it doesn’t, I will”.

Unfazed, Bob went on the diet. He lost a lot of weight. His blood chemistry sought perfection. His insulin usage had to be drastically reduced.

As a diabetic, Bob was under doctor’s orders, and received a monthly mailed reminder to attend a nutritional meeting with a registered nurse who indoctrinated the sufferers in the way to eat. Bob was quite rotund, but he was by no means large compared to the beach-balls joining him at these monthly soirées. And as each month passed, he deflated and the rest kept inflating.

A note on fat diabetics. If you are diabetic, your cells lose the ability to absorb sugar, so the sugar is trapped in your blood. Hence, blood sugar rises and wreaks havoc. Insulin triggers the sugar in your blood to essentially convert to and precipitate as fat. That’s why type II diabetics on insulin get so fat.

Back to Bob’s odyssey and the story of Nutritional Registered Nurse Ratchet. At the end of one meeting, Bob approached little Nurse Ratchet (she was 5’ 2’’, did aerobics 2 or more hours a day, and lived on yogurt and sprouts) and said, “Hey, this Atkins thing is working pretty well for me – look” and showed-off his relatively svelte frame. “Maybe you should talk about it with the group?”

Little Nurse told him eating all that fat and protein would kill him, he must immediately stop that diet, and he must not bring the subject up again. He demurred, shook his head and walked away.

Bob was banished from the meetings. He never received another notice and they changed the meeting place each month.

Bob was at his doctor, who was ecstatic with his weight loss, improved blood chemistry, and drastic reduction in blood sugar medication. Bob said “Think maybe it was Atkins?” The doctor’s smile turned to a grimace, and he hissed, “Just keep doing what you’re doing”.

True story. In fact, they’re common.

RedQ

Note: This was written in 2008. I referenced it in the post Ketogenic Life Extension, so included it here. The image at the top of the post is from the recent book A Big Fat Surprise, a much heralded work that updates Taube and Atkins.

This one of my first posts here and is discussed in Intro to RedQ in the Introduceyourself sub-forum.