Thursday, September 24, 2009

Another Link Fest

Time for another link fest. Information on the advantages of a low-carb, high-fat diet has been coming in so fast and furiously that I can hardly keep up. Here are links to the best of the latest.

Dr. Michael Eades continues to astound me with a steady stream of posts, twits, and books which support his low-carb thesis. His explanations are easy to understand without sacrificing thoroughness or the science. He has recently posted two blog entries (
Part I and Part II) on the evolution of humans as meat-eaters. The main reason I have switched to low-carb eating myself is the realization that we evolved eating meat and that grains and all the other modern fruits and vegetables, not to mention "frankenfoods," are a recent addition to our diets. Dr. Eades posits that we didn't just evolve eating meat, we evolved because we ate meat. It was the addition of more and more highly-nutrient-dense meat and other protein foods that allowed our brains to grow so much larger than other primates'. But read his posts for the whole explanation.

Dr. Eades and his wife, Dr. Mary Dan Eades, have just come out with a new book, The 6-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle, which I recommend to everyone not just those of us of a certain age or of a certain weight. Even if you have read their previous books, Protein Power and Protein Power Life-Plan, this book will add new insights as to how our bodies store fat and tells you how to get rid of the most dangerous kind of fat for our health, visceral fat, fat that surrounds our internal organs. You can be of relatively normal weight and still have visceral fat. I know that from my own experience. And you can have fatty liver disease without touching a drop of alcohol. And what do you suppose works like a charm to eliminate these harmful fats? Saturated fat!


The battle to get saturated fats and cholesterol recognized as healthy and not harmful continues. Here is a wonderful post from a blogger in Portugal (don't worry it's in English) on the correlation between low cholesterol levels and overall mortality. It's rather technical, full of graphs and citations, but is at times humorous. His conclusion is simply that "high" cholesterol is good!

It is quite fascinating to notice that high t-C [total cholesterol], rather than being a malignant condition that would predict a short life expectancy, is actually associated with higher longevity, and not only with longevity but also with a healthy life, which is what we all want, isn’t it?

4 comments:

  1. I just finished reading The Queen of Fats and can loan it to you.
    http://www.amazon.com/Queen-Fats-Omega-3s-Removed-California/dp/0520253809/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253837673&sr=8-1

    It was a fascinating piece of detective work.

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  2. Grandma Ann, I'm the cholesterol bloguer in Portugal! You may also enjoy this recent article by Dr. Hyman: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/why-cholesterol-may-not-b_b_290687.html

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  3. Thank you both for your comments and the links. I'm afraid a proper reply would require a post in itself in both cases.

    badmom- I have been meaning to write a post about the need for balances and the omega-3/omega-6 balance is one of them. I also want to post about my exasperation with health journalists and writers who are not scientists or doctors themselves. Invariably, they don't research their topic well enough and almost always include references to the ideas and beliefs, often times mistaken, that are currently prevalent without questioning them (Gary Taubes being the main exception). Joel Kaufmann, a commenter at Amazon, has a lengthy review listing all the errors he found in Allport's book. Click on the comments to his review to see the list some of which are picky, I agree, but some are major.

    O Primitivo- Dr. Hyman recommends keeping your LDL below 80! Surely, that runs counter to what you were saying in your blog post. Or did I misunderstand you? BTW, I plan to spend more time exploring your blog. You have some interesting stuff there.

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  4. Yes, I'm aware of that, he is also saying "saturated fats promote abnormal cholesterol". Unfortunatelly people worry too much about useless lipids parameters and, at the same time, loose focus on the essential: maintaing glucose metabolic normality, paleo/low-carb, exercise, sun exposure, good sleep, etc. By the way, I believe LDL by itself, without considering its subfractions, is a completely useless cardiovascular risk preditor. If it was good, people with CHD would be hospitalized with higher LDL and also higher TC. But they are not: their LDL is lower, as well as their TC! Compare this: http://download.journals.elsevierhealth.com/pdfs/journals/0002-8703/PIIS0002870308007175.pdf and http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/294/14/1773.pdf My blog has some useful links, but the text is Portuguese! Regards.

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