Posted on 01/02/2011 3:16:05 PM PST by neverdem
Another year ends, and still the war drags on. In the final salvo of 2010, the combatants are lobbing fruit.
Not literally, of course, though they might like to: The long war of the weight-loss diets has aroused passions just about as overheated as those of any military conflict.
How is a person best advised to lose extra weight and retreat from diabetes and heart disease? Count calories, cut fat and fill up on fruits and vegetables? Or turn instead to a high-protein, high-fat...
--snip--
In the opposite corner we have Gary Taubes, the science journalist who has thrown in his lot with the high-fat, high-protein crowd, arguing in his new book that the overweight should just put down their apples and walk away: “If we’re predisposed to put on fat, it’s a good bet that most fruit will make the problem worse, not better.”
But those who are curious about the science behind it all could do worse than to pick up Mr. Taubes’s book “Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It.”
--snip--
And the only one of these hormones under even a smidgen of voluntary control is insulin. At this point Mr. Taubes merges onto the narrative highway traveled by all low-carb advocates: The body’s insulin levels are largely determined by ingested carbohydrates, and for some people the high-carb foods that stimulate insulin secretion and cravings for more high-carb foods are, in this worldview, just so much poison.
So that apple — a filling package of fiber and vitamins to the Weight Watchers folks — is just a serving of fructose to Mr. Taubes. Fructose is the problematic sugar our bodies turn to fat the most readily, and if you are programmed to be fat, an apple will make you that much fatter...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Wait a sec... so you mean to say that a diet plan for YOU might be the opposite of a diet plan for ME?
You mean people are different?
Isn’t that awful? How un-PC!
/sarc
Atkins is high protein, high fat. It works.
You know what’s really interesting? I was put on a medication this year that is one of the ingredients of a diet pill that the FDA just said no to. (I was put on it for something other than weight loss). I have lost about 45 lbs since April WITHOUT dieting. I have not tried to lose weight at all. I simply am not very hungry.
Now, I’m not suggesting pills for everyone who needs to lose a little weight (even for me). However, if you are morbidly obese, what is worse? A pill that might have some bad side effects, or being morbidly obese? Give people the information and let them make their own decisions. Sometimes I think the govt WANTS us to be fat and unhealthy.
8 Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds
By Madison Park, CNN reporter
(CNN) — Twinkies. Nutty bars. Powdered donuts. For 10 weeks, Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate one of these sugary cakelets every three hours, instead of meals. To add variety in his steady stream of Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, Haub munched on Doritos chips, sugary cereals and Oreos, too.
His premise: That in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most — not the nutritional value of the food. The premise held up: On his “convenience store diet,” he shed 27 pounds in two months.
For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haub’s pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned. His body mass index went from 28.8, considered overweight, to 24.9, which is normal. He now weighs 174 pounds.
But you might expect other indicators of health would have suffered. Not so. Haub’s “bad” cholesterol, or LDL, dropped 20 percent and his “good” cholesterol, or HDL, increased by 20 percent. He reduced the level of triglycerides, which are a form of fat, by 39 percent. “That’s where the head scratching comes,” Haub said. “What does that mean? Does that mean I’m healthier?
Or does it mean how we define health from a biology standpoint, that we’re missing something?” Despite his temporary success, Haub does not recommend replicating his snack-centric diet. “I’m not geared to say this is a good thing to do,” he said. “I’m stuck in the middle. I guess that’s the frustrating part. I can’t give a concrete answer. There’s not enough information to do that.”
Two-thirds of his total intake came from junk food. He also took a multivitamin pill and drank a protein shake daily. And he ate vegetables, typically a can of green beans or three to four celery stalks.
Families who live in food deserts have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables, so they often rely on the kind of food Haub was eating.
“These foods are consumed by lots of people,” he said. “It may be an issue of portion size and moderation rather than total removal. I just think it’s unrealistic to expect people to totally drop these foods for vegetables and fruits. It may be healthy, but not realistic.”
Haub’s body fat dropped from 33.4 to 24.9 percent. This posed the question: What matters more for weight loss, the quantity or quality of calories? His success is probably a result of caloric reduction, said Dawn Jackson Blatner, a dietitian based in Atlanta, Georgia. “It’s a great reminder for weight loss that calories count,” she said. “Is that the bottom line to being healthy? That’s another story.”
Blatner, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, said she’s not surprised to hear Haub’s health markers improved even when he loaded up on processed snack cakes. Being overweight is the central problem that leads to complications like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, she said. How well are you managing your diabetes? “When you lose weight, regardless of how you’re doing it — even if it’s with packaged foods, generally you will see these markers improve when weight loss has improved,” she said. Before jumping on the Ding Dong bandwagon, Blatner warned of health concerns.
“There are things we can’t measure,” said Blatner, questioning how the lack of fruits and vegetables could affect long-term health. “How much does that affect the risk for cancer? We can’t measure how diet changes affect our health.” I was eating healthier, but I wasn’t healthy. I was eating too much. —Professor Mark Haub
Haub’s sample day
Espresso, Double: 6 calories; 0 grams of fat
Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat
Centrum Advanced Formula From A To Zinc: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat
Little Debbie Star Crunch: 150 calories; 6 grams of fat
Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat
Diet Mountain Dew: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat
Doritos Cool Ranch: 75 calories; 4 grams of fat
Kellogg’s Corn Pops: 220 calories; 0 grams of fat
whole milk: 150 calories; 8 grams of fat
baby carrots: 18 calories; 0 grams of fat
Duncan Hines Family Style Brownie Chewy Fudge: 270 calories; 14 grams of fat
Little Debbie Zebra Cake: 160 calories; 8 grams of fat
Muscle Milk Protein Shake: 240 calories; 9 grams of fat
Totals: 1,589 calories and 59 grams of fat
On August 25, Haub, 41, started his cake diet focusing on portion control. “I’m eating to the point of need and pushing the plate or wrapper away,” he said.
He intended the trial to last a month as a teaching tool for his class. As he lost weight, Haub continued the diet until he reached a normal body mass index.
Before his Twinkie diet, he tried to eat a healthy diet that included whole grains, dietary fiber, berries and bananas, vegetables and occasional treats like pizza. “There seems to be a disconnect between eating healthy and being healthy,” Haub said. “It may not be the same. I was eating healthier, but I wasn’t healthy. I was eating too much.” He maintained the same level of moderate physical activity as before going on the diet. (Haub does not have any ties to the snack cake companies.)
To avoid setting a bad example for his kids, Haub ate vegetables in front of his family. Away from the dinner table, he usually unwrapped his meals. Study: U.S. obesity rate will hit 42 percent Haub monitored his body composition, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose, and updated his progress on his Facebook page, Professor Haub’s diet experiment. To curb calories, he avoided meat, whole grains and fruits. Once he started adding meat into the diet four weeks ago, his cholesterol level increased. Haub plans to add about 300 calories to his daily intake now that he’s done with the diet. But he’s not ditching snack cakes altogether.
Despite his weight loss, Haub feels ambivalence. “I wish I could say the outcomes are unhealthy. I wish I could say it’s healthy. I’m not confident enough in doing that. That frustrates a lot of people. One side says it’s irresponsible. It is unhealthy, but the data doesn’t say that.”
They want us dependent on them. Thats true.
Can you PM the name of that diet pill? lol
Peter D’Adamo has segregated us into blood types and each blood type has a specific diet.
Atkins will only work on blood type O. But 50 % of the population is blood type O. So it looks like it works.
But blood type A is the opposite. Blood type A will feel absolutely terrible on Atkins. It is the worst set of foods that an A can have.
Here's what he says in a nutshell, but you should read it for yourself.
A: be a vegetarian.
O: eat everything God made and nothing that man made.
B: eat all the stinky cheeses you can find, but no pork, chicken, wheat or uncultured dairy.
AB: a varied diet in moderation.
American blood types: O 50%, A 40%, B 9% and AB 1%.
In India the B's are around 40%.
“Sometimes I think the govt WANTS us to be fat and unhealthy.”
Government just wants to grow, like all cancers. Regulating the unknown (such as effects of foods on obesity) allows maximal opportunities for agency growth.
And yopu thought they were concerned with your health, didn’t you?
Root cause of most obesity is an overabundance of food and lack of physical activity. That's a nasty combination that has produced a nation of fatties.
For the majority of human civilization, food was scarce and the average human engaged in an enormous amount of physical activity (compared to today).
This is how our bodies are wired and it will take many generations to adjust for it as our technological progress has greatly outpaced our evolutionary cycle.
Interesting.
I agree. Even as a young girl, my family dubbed me the carnivore. I thought inventing steak-flavored gum would be a good idea. LOL!
I’ve never been overweight my whole life and have low cholesterol and BP. Carbs just simply never appealed to me that much. It’s what works for me, though I realize everyone is very different in their dietary needs.
He screwed up the test!!!
“Root cause of most obesity is an overabundance of food and lack of physical activity.”
The simplistic view you share with Michelle Soetoro, and one that, for many, erroneously assigns cause and effect to an observed correlation — beware that fallacy.
Per the article, which I assume you didn’t bother to read, different people have different metabolisms. Think about it. During lean times folks programmed to get fat easily are likely to be those most genetically fit. During times of plenty, like what we had before Soetoro became pResident, folks programmed to stay lean are likely to be those most genetically fit.
The human population appears to have evolved with a diversity that ensures survival in good times and bad.
I am A-, lost 15 pounds in 3 months and kept it off another 8 so far on Atkins. My wife is O, couldn’t lose more than 2 pounds on Atkins, and it wasn’t for lack of trying on her part.
Well that's pretty much what I'm saying. People's bodies are wired to gain weight very quickly and that's the problem. That's because we have an overabundance of food and our need to be physically active has greatly diminished.
Topomax?
I notice he took a protein shake and a vitamin pill. He wasn’t living on pure junk.
So much for that! LOL
I am blood type A and lost over 100 pounds on Atkins. Wasn’t hungry and was able to eat pizza and drink beet on the weekends, too. Miller Lite of course! But only 13, so as not to exceed my carb tolerance level.
I think there is bacon flavored gum. ;)
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