I was obese for several years before I began eating low-carb high-fat in March 2011, with a body mass index hovering in the neighborhood of 33 - 34. That's not a great neighborhood to hover in. A person with a BMI of 30 or greater is considered obese. Most of my extra weight was around my middle, too, which is the worst place for it. I have managed to keep my BMI under the obesity line for the past four years. Just barely, at some points, but I've done it. For the past four years, I've been … [Read more...]
The world goes paleo
Saturday Short Takes My focus this week is on the Paleo Diet, which gets a lot of press all over the world, pro and con. The basic premise of paleo eating is that the 10,000 years of the agricultural era has been too short a span for evolution to adapt us to farmed foodstuffs. So the paleo dieter avoids grains, dairy, and legumes. Cutting grains generally means cutting carbs, whether or not cutting carbs is the stated goal. Therefore, I view paleo as in the family of LCHF diets. Frequently, … [Read more...]
An about-face on fat in the diet
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, which calls itself the "world's largest organization of food and nutrition professionals" and probably is, recently broke ranks with the anti-fat brigade, urging that the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans "deemphasize saturated fat from nutrients of concern, given the lack of evidence connecting it with cardiovascular disease" (Press Release). The wording is awkward. I think what the Academy means to say is that we should stop bad-mouthing saturated … [Read more...]
Obesity, exercise, and magic bullets
Saturday Short Takes Here's a selection of web articles on weight loss and related topics that caught my eye this week. 1. Looking for Magic Bullets to Fire at Obesity According to an article on the MedicalXpress site, "a number of magic bullets" are needed to fight obesity. It's more like magic shotgun shells. After recounting the usual statistics about the extent of the obesity epidemic and its human and financial costs (in this case, with a UK focus), the article moves on to the "bullets." … [Read more...]
Goodbye to bread!
Saturday Short Takes Google Alerts has brought me a diversified set of low-carb stories from around the world. Let's take a look! 1. Goodbye to Bread First up is Kim Poindexter writing in the Tahlequah Daily Press, who testifies that "Low-carb diets work, but say ‘bye to bread." Kim was told by her doctor that she had Type-2 Diabetes and needed to lose weight. So she went on a low-carb diet and has so far lost 32 pounds. She notes that although she practices yoga, swims, and lifts weights, … [Read more...]
Busting the myth that you must exercise to lose weight
From my personal experience, as well as my reading, I know that it simply isn't necessary to exercise to lose weight. I've lost plenty of pounds following my low carb, high fat (LCHF) way of eating without resorting to what Mark Twain called the "loathsome" practice of exercise. I wrote a blog post about it a few years ago, featuring Mr. Twain, which is one of my personal favorites even though no one else ever cared for it. Maybe readers thought I was advocating a sedentary lifestyle. In fact, … [Read more...]
Red meat and colon cancer: what’s the real risk?
Life is full of risks -- some real and some statistical. Most of the risks claimed by observational studies fall into the statistical category. By "statistical," I mean "imaginary." For instance, a study published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine (online) entitled "Vegetarian Dietary Patterns and the Risk of Colorectal Cancers" suggests that eating a vegetarian diet will reduce a person's risk of getting colon cancer by over 20% . Or to put it the other way around, regularly eating red meat … [Read more...]
Sugar is never free
I don't eat much sugar anymore, and I especially don't drink sugar, but I don't really see it as the root of all dietary evil, either. Just the root of some dietary evil. Perhaps most. Let's face it. Except for all its calories, sugar is an empty sort of carbohydrate. So I was happy to see The World Health Organization (WHO) take a stand against gorging ourselves to death on sweets. Granted, the stand is more belated than bold, but we have to take what we can get from main-stream health … [Read more...]
Fat governors, fat taxes, and me
I've had trouble deciding on the topic for this blog post. This is a sure sign that someone is taking his blogging too seriously. When I started out, any post with the words "low carb" in it was good enough. Good enough for me, anyway, if not my readers. But in the early days, I didn't have any readers. (The way this post is going, that could come to pass again.) Enough stalling. Let's get down to picking a topic. What has been the big food, diet, weight or nutrition news of the last few … [Read more...]
Study findings undercut soda taxes as a way of curbing obesity
At the risk of being mistaken for a tool of soft-drink industry, or worse yet, a Libertarian, I am jumping once again into the debate over government action to curb our consumption of sugary beverages. (Well, someone's consumption; I don't touch the stuff anymore. I don't believe anyone should.) I stated my position a month ago, in response to calls by New York City officials for a ban on the use of food stamps to purchase soda-pop. Another East Coast official, Mayor Michael Nutter … [Read more...]