There's No Fat in Sugar

We have an obesity epidemic in this country because our government, dietitians and doctors continue to give people the wrong information. Take for example an article on the Pima Indians from the NIH.

"Thirty years of research show that exercising and eating lower fat, fiber-rich foods can at least delay diabetes. "If you delay it long enough," adds Dr. Knowler, "It's almost as good as preventing it...

[NIH doctors] also discovered that high levels of insulin in the blood, or hyper-insulinemia, is another strong risk factor.

Studying this clue, researchers working with patients found that high levels of insulin were linked to insulin resistance. Normally, the pancreas releases insulin to regulate the amount of sugar or glucose in the blood. People who have non-insulin-dependent or Type II diabetes (hereafter referred to simply as "diabetes") produce insulin, but their bodies don't respond to it effectively. NIH researchers have made it clear that people with insulin resistance are those most likely to get diabetes...

The second strategy is to encourage those who are at high risk to change behaviors that can lead to diabetes, such as eating a high fat diet, being physically inactive, and being overweight.

The NIH has begun a major nation-wide program to prevent diabetes in people who increase exercise and eat lower fat foods." [emphasis mine]

Now let me explain something to you that even a five year old should be able to understand. We have three basic nutrients, fat, carbohydrates and protein. Carbohydrates break down in the blood into sugar. This causes you to secrete insulin, sometimes it makes people insulin resistant, some think quite possibly because of exposure to sugar and/or refined carbohydrates.

Once you are insulin resistant, simply cutting out the sugar and simple carbohydrates doesn't stop you from being insulin resistant. If you continue to eat carbohydrates, depending on genetics, you may become type 2 diabetic. If you don't eat carbohydrates, and restrict them severely, you will not. It's not possible (to my knowledge) to become diabetic if you are not eating carbs, because you don't have an increase in blood sugar if you're not consuming carbohydrates and therefore very little insulin is secreted. Some people can eat more carbs than others and be okay. Some have to cut out all carbohydrates, as in the case Taubes mentions in his book about the du Pont executive who couldn't even eat an apple. Some have said their insulin resistance improves after months of being on a low carb diet, and they can then have some carbs without having problems.

So you tell me why in the hell they are advocating that people who are already insulin resistant eat more carbohydrates? Because that's what they're doing. By lowering fat you raise carbohydrate consumption. Protein intake cannot increase very much, you can't tolerate too much of it (unless you're body building and breaking down muscle).

Why do they blame fat? I think it's because of the mistaken notion that since the Pima were agriculturalists that meant they didn't eat meat and that they only ate carbs. There isn't a single documented case of a native society being completely vegetarian, that I know of anyway. They usually tend to eat whatever they can get their hands on.

"A dietary change common to all these cases [of Native American cultures] has been the increased consumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates ... Since the key diagnostic feature of diabetes is high blood sugar, often accompanied by sugar in the urine, diabetes is frequently spoken of as "sugar diabetes" and "I've got sugar" or "I've got high sugar"... All carbohydrates cause a rise in blood glucose, and the glycemic index, a meaure of the impact of food or a meal on the rise in blood glucose, has a significant but transitory effect on both insulin production and glucose homeostasis." --from the Encyclopedia of medical anthropology by Carol R Ember, p 342

Since the Pima didn't grow sugar or refine grain to within an inch of it's life, I'm going to go with door number 1. And that is, the Pima are overweight or obese and diabetic because they consume carbohydrates typically found in the western diet. They may have consumed carbohydrates before contact with Europeans, but they were not the same kind of carbohydrates. Also, because they live in a rather inhospitable place, they may have not gotten enough calories, and this functions in much the same way as carbohydrate restriction if Ancel Key's studies on starvation are worth anything.

It's sad that all of the Native Americans' ancestors were screwed over by the Europeans. But what's even sadder, is that they are continuing to be screwed over even today, just like every other overweight or obese person in this country who has been told that they're fat because they eat too much. They will continue to get type 2 diabetes, will continue to have legs amputated and will continue to die prematurely as long as the lie that fat is the problem is perpetuated.

Expert and No-so Expert Journalism: Diet Myths

If you're going to be a journalist, I suggest that when an "expert" tells you something, that you get a second opinion on the matter from someone who disagrees with them. Or better yet, or in addition to, that you go and do some research yourself on the matter. Of course that requires having some critical thinking skills and being able to read on a post-baccalaureate level.

I'll give you an example of bad research, or just parroting whatever the nutrition "expert" tells you. In an article from yesterday in the Midland Daily News out of Michigan, they tell you that February is American Heart Month and talk to a Registered Dietitian from their local medical center to find out what you can do for a healthier heart.

I have yet to meet or read a Registered Dietitian that gives advice based on the latest metabolic research rather than the out-dated and plain wrong advice given by our government, the American Medical Association and the American Heart Association.

The first mistake that Registered Dietitian Sherry Elford makes is that we should avoid saturated fat. This is pretty typical, because since Ancel Keys decided that Saturated Fat was bad for us, it has become gospel to Dietitians and Doctors as much as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are gospel to the Christians in this world. Now, if you're read Taubes, you'll know that there's not a shred of scientific evidence that Saturated Fat or Cholesterol has anything to do with heart disease. Heart disease has to do with inflammation which is probably caused by excess consumption of carbohydrates.

The next mistake made is that she says that "sodium raises bad cholesterol and plaque buildup in arteries increases." I'm assuming she means that cholesterol causes plaques in artery walls, which is wrong (and not that sodium does, which would also be wrong). However, her first premise, that sodium raises bad cholesterol is wrong. It doesn't. However it can LOWER good cholesterol. A five minute search on Science Direct found a study of sixty five men whose HDL cholesterol (the supposed "good" cholesterol) decreased with sodium restriction and had no statistical effect on overall cholesterol. Why aren't these "journalists" and "registered dietitians" doing their job by doing research? I'm not even a scientist and I can find this stuff!

"Short term dietary sodium restriction decreases HDL cholesterol, apolipoprotein A-I and high molecular weight adiponectin in healthy young men: Relationships with renal hemodynamics and RAAS activation" in Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases

On top of that, there is another study that showed that salt restriction may increase insulin resistance and lowers cholesterol as well.

"As a result, insulin C-peptide increased by 40% (p = 0.0001) whereas glucose rose by 6% (p = 0.02). Total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol concentration were reduced by 6% (p = 0.001), 12% (p = 0.008) and 11% (p = 0.004) respectively. HbAlc, serum triglycerides, total/HDL-cholesterol ratio, urine catecholamines and VMA were unchanged during the trial. It is concluded that salt restriction may increase insulin resistance in hypertensive patients."

"Salt restriction and increased insulin production in hypertensive patients" from the Scandanavian Journal of Clinical & Laboratory Investigation, 1994, Vol 54, No 5, pages 405-409

And another study that said pretty much the same thing. And another. In case you aren't paying attention, insulin resistance is very bad. It's a precursor to diabetes. It's associated with weight gain. And these "nutritionists" are advocating something that may cause it.

Also, let me say that lowering choleterol is bad, despite whatever dogma you may have been indoctrinated with. Cholesterol is a vital substance required for life. It's essential for the structural integrity of cellular membrane walls and your brain uses it in your neural synapses. Without it, you wouldn't be alive. Cholesterol is found in arteriosclerotic plaques probably because it's trying to repair the damage.

Lastly, Ms. Elford "recommends soy foods." Elford fails to mention that soy may inhibit thyroid function, which is a very important part of your metabolism. Soy also contains phytoestrogens, which mimic estrogen. Now, whether or not this is harmful remains to be seen. I don't think that some *unprocessed* soy in small quantities would be harmful. However, the American public is getting much more than a small quantity of unprocessed soy. They put soybean oil (sometimes soy flour) in bread (even "healthy" looking bread), in some cereal, in crackers, they put it in just about anything that it will go in. You don't have to look far to find something with soy in it. About the only way to avoid all this soy is to make your own food from scratch and/or eat low carb. The soybean manufacturers must do something with all the soybean they grow. After all most Americans don't eat very much tofu.

The thing is, these people recommend to you a course of action to take, and it could be at the expense of your health. The Buddha said, believe nothing, even if I have said it. That goes here too. It's up to everyone to investigate what they should be eating, what will be healthiest, because most of the journalists aren't going to do it, and the nutrition "experts" certainly aren't going to do it.