Interesting Information: March 27, 2011
“A reversal on carbs”
“A growing number of top nutritional scientists blame excessive carbohydrates–not fat–for America’s ills.”
Walter Willet, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health: ” `If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases.’ “
Dr. Edward Saltzman, associate professor of nutrition and medicine at Tufts University: “`Now a growing and convincing body of science is pointing the finger at carbs, especially those containing refined flour and sugar.'”
Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health: “`The overemphasis on reducing fat caused the consumption of carbohydrates and sugar in our diets to soar. That shift may be linked to the biggest health problems in America today.’ “
Dr. Stephen Phinney, nutritional biochemist and emeritus professor of University of California, Davis, who has studied carbohydrates for 30 years: ” `However, over time, as our bodies get tired of processing high load of carbs, which evolution didn’t prepare us for…how the body responds to insulin can change.’ ” Phinney did a 12-week study in 2008 that compared low-fat and low-carb diets. The low-carb diet lowered triglyceride levels by 50 percent though participants ate 36 grams of saturated fat a day. (History and evolution show that grain agriculture–in a 24-hour day of human existence–comes in at 23 hours and 53 minutes.)
Dr. Eric Westman, director of the Lifestyle Medicine Clinic at Duke University Medical Center: “`At my obesity clinic, my default diet for treating obesity, Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome is a low-carb diet.’ “
Naysayers: Dr. Joanne Slavin, a member of the advisory committee for the failed USDA low-fat diet regime, and Dr. Ronald Krauss, senior scientist at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute and founder and past chair of the American Heart Assn.’s Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism, a believer in the calorie in/calorie out paradigm–which cannot demonstrate success in weight loss because it doesn’t work. (See Gary Taubes WHY WE GET FAT.)
Here’s the whole article: Marni Jameson, “A reversal on carbs,” LA Times, December 20, 2010, http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/20/health/la-he-carbs-20101220
Louisa Enright's Blog 
I’ve been trying to slog through “Good Calories, Bad Calories” for months, but the writing is just so in depth (that is my kind way of saying tangential) that I eventually forget what his point was in the first place (and then I fall asleep). So despite reading a few pages at a time for months, I am only about halfway through it. I agree with a lot of it, but sometimes the leaps he makes annoy me. Also, maybe he does this later, but so much of what is going on with the carb thing is a direct result of what Pollan has documented elsewhere regarding corn production, profits, and refined foods, that I wish he would like the two ideas together.
I think I am going to try “Why We Get Fat” instead. I heard that it’s not as dense a read.
Yes, he says he wrote EAT FAT for a mainstream audience. Let me know what you think. I’m intrigued with what kind of research has–or has not–been done on thin people with the hormonal disorder. What kind of health do they actually have????