A couple new studies find that a ketogenic diet promotes a longer, healthier lifespan. That's great, but the results have only been confirmed for lab mice. I've written about mouse-based dietary studies a few times over the years. None have impressed me much. Some have seemed quite odd. For instance, way back in 2011, I wrote a post entitled "Eating fish makes mice fat, study claims." Scientists fed some little rodents farmed raised salmon, and some the same diet without salmon, and found the … [Read more...]
This week’s nuggets: July 18-22, 2017
Discussed on the podcast this week were the role of sardines in an LCHF diet, the connection of sugar consumption to markers of obesity, and a comparison of low-carb and low-fat diet-results in an interesting new study. Subscribe to the Low Carb Nugget through any of the following services: Apple Podcasts Google Play Music Stitcher TuneIn (With the Amazon Echo, use the command, “Alexa, play The Low Carb Nugget Podcast on TuneIn.”) … [Read more...]
Book collects the evidence behind ketogenic diets
If you're into the science of low-carbohydrate eating, and haven't already done so, you may want to pick up a copy of A. Simmonds' Principia Ketogenica: Low Carbohydrate And Ketogenic Diets - Compendium Of Science Literature On The Benefits. The Kindle version linked to here is currently selling for 99 cents. I'm not sure how long it will be available at that price. It's a fantastic deal -- over 300 pages of hardcore nutrition science for less than a buck! (Update: the price has gone up, but … [Read more...]
Reduced carb diet is the best for your genes
What is the healthiest diet? A study at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Feed your genes - NTNU) examined molecular evidence to try to answer the question. The result, according to the Norwegian biologists, is that the best diet for your genes is one-third protein, one-third fat and one-third carbohydrates. It's not exactly a low-carb diet, but it is reduced carb. Indeed, such an evenly balanced diet would represent a 50% or greater reduction in carb intake for the average … [Read more...]
Reviewing some good and bad advice for spotting bogus diets
Is a diet "bogus" because it bans "fat, sugar or carbs"? Yes claims an article at USA Weekend: Five ways to spot a bogus diet. I'll get to the other signs of dietary bogusosity in a minute. Let us first examine the assertion that banning or limiting particular foods or nutrients from your diet is "both nutritionally deficient and not sustainable." Sure, banning all fat would create a diet that is seriously deficient and unsustainable; in fact, it would kill you. Therefore, no one ever … [Read more...]
Have we been “brainwashed against carbs”?!
“We are brainwashed against carbs. But it is the wrong message" -- Frances Largeman-Roth, RD, coauthor of The Carb Lovers Diet and senior food and nutrition editor of Health Magazine, quoted in Diet Review: The Carb Lovers Diet and Resistant Starch Foods. WebMD. Before I discuss this brainwashing claim, let me explain the context. Most mornings, I get up early, brew coffee, eat breakfast and turn on the TV to catch the local news and weather. The best local TV news happens to be on an … [Read more...]
What is a low carb diet?
When I say that I follow a low carbohydrate way of eating, what do I mean? When you say it, what do you mean? I suspect we might all mean something a little different -- or even a lot different -- if we were to get down to specific foods we include or avoid, or to the number of grams of carbs we consume per day. The title of my blog -- "Life After Carbs" -- implies that I don't eat any carbs at all, but of course that's not true. The title ought to be interpreted as meaning, "Life after … [Read more...]
Health science short-takes
Even in mid-summer, science marches on. Here are a few diet/science related stories that caught my eye this morning. Healthy Lifestyle Makes Women Less Likely to Die Suddenly | Medpagetoday.com The focus of the study being reported on here is how to prevent sudden cardiac death (SCD) in women. The study (published in the July 6 issue of JAMA) followed over 80,000 women, mostly white professionals, aged 30 to 55 at the start, from 1984 to 2010. The participants completed lifestyle … [Read more...]
A calorie is a calorie, baloney is baloney
Here we go again. The "Calories-In, Calories Out" crowd have some new heroes from down-under. They may be reluctant heroes, though. In a study presented at the American Diabetes Association's 71st Scientific Sessions this week in San Diego, New Zealand researchers compare the effectiveness of a low-fat, high-protein diet to a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet followed by groups of over-weight people with type-2 diabetes for two years. Both groups exhibited similar decreases in weight (-4.4 … [Read more...]
Major review says it’s time to embrace low-carb diets
An invited, extensive review of experimental studies published in the June 2011 issue of the journal Nutrition in Clinical Practice (vol. 26, no. 3) argues that it is "time to embrace" low-carb diets "as a viable option" in the battle against diabetes, heart disease and obesity, and concludes that "the shift in metabolism that occurs on a LC [low-carbohydrate] diet heralds a shift in our current dietary paradigm." An abstract of the review is freely available online. The following account is … [Read more...]