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Is sugar toxic and the cause of the obesity epidemic? Here’s a great new video called Toxic Sugar. It’s a recent segment from the major Australian science program Catalyst, on ABC. It’s arguably the best 18-minute introduction ever made on the true causes of the obesity epidemic. The program features the #1 enemy of the sugar industry: professor Robert Lustig. Also appearing: science writer Gary Taubes and obesity expert professor Michael Crowley. See it and then tell your friends. This needs to be seen by a lot of people

Note: USC researcher Kathleen Page, MD, is an SC CTSI KL2 Alumnae. As part of the program, she recieved support and acquired skills needed to secure a subsequent K23 Career Training Award to continue this research. Feeling hungry after drinking something sweet? It could have something to do with the type of sugar you consumed, according to research at Yale University led by SC CTSI K Scholar Kathleen Page, principal investigator and assistant professor of medicine at the USC Keck School of Medicine.  Kathleen Page The research determined that fructose and glucose, the two forms of simple sugars, are processed differently in the...

A CALORIE is a calorie. This truism has been the foundation of nutritional wisdom and our beliefs about obesity since the 1960s. What it means is that a calorie of protein will generate the same energy when metabolized in a living organism as a calorie of fat or carbohydrate. When talking about obesity or why we get fat, evoking the phrase “a calorie is a calorie” is almost invariably used to imply that what we eat is relatively unimportant. We get fat because we take in more calories than we expend; we get lean if we do the opposite. Anyone...

"I've been preaching this since long before Gary Taubes' books came out. That's because I have a colleague who studies the physiology of insulin. From what I know, Taubes is right. A quote re Dietary Incorrectness at Powerline:...Taubes disputes the connection between dietary fat and high cholesterol. He challenges the thesis that dietary fat is detrimental to our health. He rejects a balanced diet. He advocates a high-fat diet. He opposes dieting. He doesn’t object to exercise, but he asserts that it makes you hungry. It’s almost funny. He is the dietary equivalent of politically incorrect.

I had a bit an epiphany yesterday, but it seems so contray to what I've been told about eating all my life, I'm having a hard time believing my analysis is corret. I've been working on changing my diet. One of the things I ran across was the fact that eating carbohydrates spikes your blood sugar. Then I heard someone make the comment (and it was almost a throw-away side comment) "of course, carbohydrates are just complex forms of sugar." Really? The following lines are pulled from here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/161547.php, my insertions are in brackets [my comment]. Saccharides, or carbohydrates, are...

SACRAMENTO, CA, September 1, 2011--AB 499, the bill that permits 12 year old children to give consent without their parents' knowledge for vaccines or other medication to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, passed the CA Senate yesterday on a 22-17 vote. The Governor could take action on the bill any time between September 9 and October 9. Ask the governor to veto AB 499. (See how senators voted) This bill is one of the most egregious violations of parental rights, next to the right to provide abortions for minors without parent knowledge. If it passes, parents will have no right to...

I'm sitting in a comfortable chair, in a tastefully lit, cheerfully decorated drug den, watching a steady line of people approach their dealer. After scoring, they shuffle off to their tables to quietly indulge in what for some could become (if it hasn't already) an addiction that screws up their lives. It's likely you have friends and family members who are suffering from this dependence—and you may be on the same path yourself. But this addiction is not usually apparent to the casual observer. It has no use for the drama and the carnage you associate with cocaine and alcohol....

A study published in the journal Epilepsia has determined that individuals with a specific form of epilepsy may benefit the most from a meat-rich diet. Researchers found that the majority of children with myoclonic-astatic epilepsy who switched from a modified Atkins diet to a ketogenic diet reduced their seizures by at least 10 percent. The ketogenic diet is similar to the Atkins regimen. Both consist primarily of protein-heavy meals, eaten with little or no carbohydrates. The ketogenic diet simply has more restrictions on the types of fats, proteins and fluids that an individual may consume. The study's authors concluded that...

This blog has long contended that the Communist Party USA and other Marxist groups have heavily infiltrated the Democratic Party. This has enabled the Communist Party to both influence Democratic Party policy and to choose and promote Democratic candidates at all levels. Writing on the Party website Political Affairs, comrade C.J. Atkins admits that Communists indeed do work inside the Democratic Party, including on state level policy committees. Comrade Atkins also admits that Party members work in in Democratic-aligned organizations including Organize for America, Progressive Democrats of America, the Campaign for America’s Future or the New York Working Families Party....

I know a lot of you guys do lo-carb diets and as I know people I assume a lot of you drink (in moderation, of course) I am wondering if you can answer my questions regarding drinking on a lo-carb diet. Is it true that hard liquer is the best choice when on a lo-carb diet? I am avoiding beer (cries)...I've been drinking rum and diet(cries) coke. Your knowledge and experience is appreciated.

The fascination with low-carb versus low-fat diet continues; the latest news comes from a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine released today that found that people on both diets lost about the same amount of weight over two years. However, the low-carb group had an edge in raising HDL (good) cholesterol and lowering diastolic blood pressure The study looked at 153 people who were randomly assigned to a low-carb diet, and 154 to a low-fat diet. The low-carb group limited carbohydrate intake to 20 grams per day for the first 12 weeks, then gradually increased fruits, vegetables, whole grains...

The South Beach Diet produces rapid weight loss without counting carbs, fats, or calories. It started out simply enough. Arthur Agatston, MD, a cardiologist, decided to develop an eating plan that would improve the cholesterol and insulin levels of his patients with heart disease. Now, the South Beach diet has grown into something much bigger. That's because the plan Agatston created not only improves cholesterol and insulin levels, but it also has helped many people lose weight. "We've had people lose anywhere from five to 100 pounds on the diet," says Agatston, who is director of the Mount Sinai Cardiac...

<p>The Atkins low-carb, high-fat diet is supposed to be simple, but it's raising complex medical and nutrition questions. Now two new studies show that those who follow the diet can lose significant amounts of weight, but other research is raising concerns about the safety of the program, linking it to an increased risk of kidney stones and bone loss.</p>

<p>With courage and care Dr. Ravnskov exposes the lack of experimental evidence for the diet-heart theory, which claims that eating less fat and cholesterol will prevent atheroslcerosis (hardening of the arteries) and myocardial infarctions (heart attacks). By examining original peer-reviewed literature, the author finds no support for the diet-heart theory. He gives examples of scientific fraud among efforts to support the theory, including the deliberate selective omission of data points, and the deliberate assignment of subjects in a clinical trial to treatment or to control groups by physicians with the subject's medical records in hand. He shows how the abstract or conclusions of a number of papers are at odds with the actual data in the papers. He demonstrates how the use of one statistical method in preference to another can give a false impression that there is an effect, where there is, in fact, none. He shows how the reporting of differences in fatality rates by per cent reduction (say, a 50% reduction in relative risk) is actually misleading when the actual death rates are quite small in both the treatment and control groups of subjects in diet or drug studies. For example, a treatment that changes the absolute survival rate over a multi-year period from 99.0% to 99.5% represents a 50% reduction in relative risk, from 1% to 0.5% absolute. This is often described in papers as a 50% reduction in death rate. However, when the difference is barely significant statistically, as was often the case, Ravnskov points out that there is no real reason to recommend adoption of the treatment, especially if there are serious side-effects.</p>

Eat less saturated fat: that has been the take-home message from the U.S. government for the past 30 years. But while Americans have dutifully reduced the percentage of daily calories from saturated fat since 1970, the obesity rate during that time has more than doubled, diabetes has tripled, and heart disease is still the country’s biggest killer. Now a spate of new research, including a meta-analysis of nearly two dozen studies, suggests a reason why: investigators may have picked the wrong culprit. Processed carbohydrates, which many Americans eat today in place of fat, may increase the risk of obesity, diabetes...

New research reports that eating protein in the morning helps manage hungerPark Ridge, Ill. (April 6, 2010) – A new study demonstrates that eating protein-rich eggs for breakfast reduces hunger and decreases calorie consumption at lunch and throughout the day. The study, published in the February issue of Nutrition Research, found that men who consumed an egg-based breakfast ate significantly fewer calories when offered an unlimited lunch buffet compared to when they ate a carbohydrate-rich bagel breakfast of equal calories.(1) This study supports previous research which revealed that eating eggs for breakfast as part of a reduced-calorie diet helped overweight...

The world's most famous diet is back.  And this time around, it's easier to swallow.  The Atkins Diet, the original low-carbohydrate regimen launched by Dr. Robert Atkins in the '70s, has been reworked in a new book that promises it's healthier and more effective than ever.   "The New Atkins for a New You: The Ultimate Diet for Shedding Weight and Feeling Great," penned by Dr. Eric Westman, Dr. Stephen Phinney and Dr. Jeff Volek, adapts the infamous plan for the 21st century.  "The best way to describe this book is that it makes it easier to do the Atkins Diet...

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Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease1,2,3,4,5Patty W Siri-Tarino, Qi Sun, Frank B Hu and Ronald M Krauss1 From the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute Oakland CA (PWS-TRMK)the Departments of Nutrition (QSFBH)Epidemiology (FBH) Harvard School of Public Health Boston MA. 2 PWS-T and QS contributed equally to this work. 3 The contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the National Center for Research Resources (http://www.ncrr.nih.gov) or the National Institutes of Health. 4 Supported by the National Dairy Council (PWS-T and...

Atkins, 61, becomes the first of the Charles Manson followers on life sentences to die while in California prisons. She died Thursday night as the longest-serving female inmate in the state. Atkins was convicted in the 1969 murders at the home of actress Sharon Tate in Benedict Canyon and the Loz Feliz home of Rosemary and Leno LaBianca. Atkins, raised in San Gabriel, killed Tate while the pregnant 26-year-old actress was tied with a rope tossed over a ceiling beam. "I was stoned, man, stoned on acid," Atkins testified during the penalty phase of her trial. "I don't know how...