Fats? Carbohydrates? Protein? It’s hard to tell what I’m supposed to eat anymore, because the recommendations seem to change every few years. Jerome Groopman does an excellent job of reconciling the confusion…or, at least, politely explaining that none of the answers are definitive, yet.
Science is an accretion of provisional certainties. Current research includes much that is genuinely promising—several groups have identified genes that predispose some people to obesity, and are studying how targeted diets and exercise can attenuate these effects—but the more one pays attention to the latest news from the labs the harder it becomes to separate signal from noise. Amid the constant back-and-forth of various hypotheses, orthodoxies, and fads, it’s more important to pay attention to the gradual advances, such as our understanding of calories and vitamins or the consensus among studies showing that trans fats exacerbate cardiovascular disease. What this means for most of us is that common sense should prevail. Eat and exercise in moderation; maintain a diet consisting of balanced amounts of protein, fat, and carbohydrates; make sure you get plenty of fruit and vegetables. And enjoy an occasional slice of chocolate cake.
I would add, though, that there won’t necessarily ever be an answer. Your physiological response to food is a product of your genetics, your fetal environment, your early childhood exposure, and your overall nutritional history, which means that everyone will have a unique set of needs and reactions. But moderation and a balanced diet sounds like a safe approach — just pay attention to what your body is telling you. If you feel dizzy and hyper and experience stomach distress when you eat that slice of chocolate cake, stop eating it.
The big issue is that the food industry is allowed input into national policies. When the science recommended cutting down on meat and dairy, the meat and dairy objected and the food pyramid/plate/whatever got changed.
“just pay attention to what your body is telling you. If you feel dizzy and hyper and experience stomach distress when you eat that slice of chocolate cake, stop eating it.”
That’s my approach. When I feel dizzy and hyper- properly so- I put the cork back in the whisky bottle. If I can find the cork. And the bottle.
I was recently diagnosed as pre-diabetic and on my way to diabetes. I did a lot of studying online, finding out about the disease. My most important find was Dr. Jason Fung, author of The Obesity Code. His website is http://www.intensivedietarymanagement.com. He explains everything so clearly. His basic premise is that high blood sugar is a symptom, not a disease. Using medication to bring down blood sugar is like using aspirin to bring down a fever, without looking at what is causing the fever (e.g. an infection) and treating the cause instead of the symptom. Your fever may go down but your infection is festering worse and worse. His work, based on people such as Gary Taubes and within his own medical clinic, is that it’s the high carbohydrate diet that is responsible. I’ve taken his advice, went on a low-carb, high-fat diet, with intermittent fasting and found immediate and substantial results. I’m down to a med, from the 4 meds I was taking (statin, omeprezole, metoprolol are now gone). And I’m hoping that goes soon, as soon as I lose a few more pounds. I’m down to being overweight from previously being obese on the BMI chart. My blood sugar is down to a normal level. I feel tons better. Though I’ve had to go clothes shopping a few times in the last few months. The more I read online (check out http://www.dietdoctor.com) and people’s success stories, I think it’s criminal that the establishment recommends a high carb, low fat diet, continuous eating through the day for people with diabetes.
Mark Bitman’s simple rubric goes something like this: Eat real food, mostly plants.
He also recommends cooking your own food rather than eating manufactured or restaurant food. All very sensible, practical, and not overly restrictive.
Furthermore, the referenced article goes too easy on Ancel Keys, in my opinion. The many problems with his studies are detailed here and other sources if you google Ancel Keys.:
https://thewire.in/119934/saturated-fats-carbs-keys/
I also went on a low carb (under 20 net [not counting fiber]) a day diet, with high fat. Never felt better. Resting blood sugar is down, BP is down, I’ve lost tons of body fat, vision is better, my allergies are literally gone (wtf), my neck and back pain are gone, etc. It’s a miracle cure… But it makes sense. Our bodies have essential amino acids and essential fatty acids, there are quite literally NO essential carbs.
These types of stories always bring out people telling about what diets they use. Which is interesting to me, because they all seem to be different diets.
I sometimes wonder if this is more akin to fashion than science (with at least our level of understanding). There are some general principles, but for the most part it is what suits you the best instead of hard and fast rules.
I would put my recent well feeling to two facts: 1) changed the time I took my meds to be the best time, rather than all at once in the morning, and: 2) finally getting adjusted to not have to get up in the middle of the night and take care of the Redhead before getting back to bed, so I am sleeping 7-8 hours at night.
The quality of health information available to the layperson (except, perhaps, in consultations with pros) ranks from mediocre to (pardon the heavily-abused term) toxic.
Obligatory personal anecdote: I had thought I’d found a reliable Web source at the Mayo Clinic, but when I developed symptoms and later got an unambiguous diagnosis from a specialist, my (quite widespread, and mostly treatable) condition didn’t even turn up in their look-for list.
Anybody have recommendations for better?
@7:
What’s amazing to me, having browsed the literature on several occasions out of sheer curiosity, is how little difference there seems to be between various fad diets (low carb, low fat, paleo, whatever) in terms of results. Either it’s really hard to design the studies properly, or what you eat doesn’t seem to matter very much compared to how much you eat, other lifestyle factors, and genetics.
Of course, some people swear by this diet or that diet, and if it works for them, so much the better. Then again, some people swear that crystals cure cancer, so personal testimony doesn’t tell us much. That never stops people from telling us anyway, godbless’em.
We didn’t have reliable food supplies until a hundred years ago or so, much less overabundant food production.
robertbaden #11
Who is ?
It is possible that for many people anything that makes them pay attention to what they eat and avoid mindless binging or snacking is going to bring noticeable improvement.