Blame Hitler for Obesity

I hate listening to radio interviews because they are so slow compared to how fast I can read. It's better if something is on television so I can see and hear (although I often read with the TV on, because even TV is too slow) but radio really sucks for me. Like life at sloth speed. It makes me twitch.

That being said, I'm glad I sucked it up and plowed through these two radio interviews with Gary Taubes.

The first, explains why obesity is Hitler's fault. The second, explains why I shouldn't eat after a workout. I'd previously been advised to eat a sweet potato after the metabolic conditioning workouts, I think I'm going to pass based on this interview as it seems to defeat the goal.

Food Pyramid Not Supported by Science

I swear, I'm going to take a nap after this, but this is an interesting study. Critical of mainstream nutritional thought which always gets my attention.

Here's the abstract from the The International Journal of Applied and Basic Nutritional Sciences.

"Concerns that were raised with the first dietary recommendations 30 y ago have yet to be adequately addressed. The initial Dietary Goals for Americans (1977) proposed increases in carbohydrate intake and decreases in fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and salt consumption that are carried further in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) Report. Important aspects of these recommendations remain unproven, yet a dietary shift in this direction has already taken place even as overweight/obesity and diabetes have increased.

Although appealing to an evidence-based methodology, the DGAC Report demonstrates several critical weaknesses, including use of an incomplete body of relevant science; inaccurately representing, interpreting, or summarizing the literature; and drawing conclusions and/or making recommendations that do not reflect the limitations or controversies in the science.

An objective assessment of evidence in the DGAC Report does not suggest a conclusive proscription against low-carbohydrate diets. The DGAC Report does not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that increases in whole grain and fiber and decreases in dietary saturated fat, salt, and animal protein will lead to positive health outcomes.

Lack of supporting evidence limits the value of the proposed recommendations as guidance for consumers or as the basis for public health policy. It is time to reexamine how US dietary guidelines are created and ask whether the current process is still appropriate for our needs."

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

We wonder why people are fatter than ever? Because they keep listening to the experts who tell them to eat carbs and cut fat.

Then doctors smack the obese around with the old 'personal responsibility' stick to their face during appointments and on their blogs, as the general public cheers them on.

When history looks back on this time period, it will not have good things to say about how medicine interpreted or implemented nutritional science. Nor about how the obese were treated.

Fat Head Phenotypes

This week can't die fast enough. I've been doing my best to keep myself busy and distracted. Fatigue helps and since I'm not getting much sleep, I'm pretty much in a fog all the time.

Tomorrow is Friday, I am contemplating throwing a party unlike any other to celebrate. Tonight should be my first Zumba class. *excitement*

Anyway, I now have living with me a relative of the ectomorph persuasion. Ectomorphs are stick people. The human version of those walking stick bugs. Thin doesn't begin to cover it.

Of course my relative, who I'll call Slim, is self-conscious. No one wants their weight to be the first thing people notice. Slim has worked hard to gain weight, stuffing himself full of junk food for the last several years, in an effort to gain weight. All to no avail.

I have often lectured Slim about the long term health effects of a fried food diet and he, being 20ish, could not care less.

This week, I trapped him in my family room and made him watch Fat Head, a documentary that follows a man who eats fast food for a month and loses weight as well as improves his cholesterol. This was mostly an educational exercise to expose Slim to nutritional ideas most people don't know exist. Plus, it is always helpful to understand exactly how political food is in this country.

Now Slim is confused. He eats fat and doesn't get fat. He eats sugar and doesn't get fat. He combines the two and doesn't get fat. He is impervious to fat (someone really ought to study his DNA). What gives? No one knows.

Right now, obesity science is rigidly black and white, constrained by its own prejudices. There are even 'camps' that voluntarily segregate themselves so they don't get each others' cooties. It stopped being about objective science a long time ago.

Frankly, as I told Slim, I believe there are distinct metabolic phenotypes that respond variably to different diets. Documentaries such as Fat Head or Super Size Me are not the end of the story, they are just anecdotes that point to a bigger problem...

The continued scientific myopia that there is only one way to get fat and only one way to get thin which is all fully supported by institutional fat prejudice and discrimination.

We will not even begin to touch the so-called obesity epidemic until this paradigm changes.

As for Slim, I don't know what he'll do but I hope he'll back off the processed foods because even thin people can have high blood pressure, heart attacks and cancer. Thin doesn't protect you if all you eat is mass produced chemical laden food deep fried in dirty week old oil.

And I talk to him a lot about accepting himself as he is. We do share that inability to make our bodies do what we want. Like Slim, I don't have a lot of control over my weight and the control I can exert requires such superhuman precision, I am always this " close to screwing up. At some point, I just decided that it's not my fault I'm fat --I did all the right things all along, I can't help what prednisone and medical science did to me-- and to love myself no matter what.

Everyone else can Suck It. If Slim can find his inner 'Suck It' place, he'll be fine.

A Note for Megan Carter's Doctor

Megan Carter was one of the dancers auditioning last night for this season's So You Think You Can Dance and she was fat.

Quite overweight.

Yet an exquisite dancer. Clearly the mistress of her body.

Beautiful too.

But fat.

And she was cut from the auditions, partly because she was fat.

Here's the thing that upset me. It's probably not her fault. It's very likely her doctors have missed PCOS or don't understand how to properly counsel someone with insulin resistance.

Sure, she may eat crap, but so do many of her dancing peers who are thin. The problem isn't what she eats, it's that she has incredible strength and physicality, something that takes years of training hours to develop and yet her body retains its fat. That is not normal.

I have been a dancer. Nowhere near as talented as Megan, but I performed in an actual troupe at one point. You can't dance and not be fit. The strength required is immense. The calorie expenditure is insane. I remember 3 hour rehearsal sessions that were the physical equivalent of doing the polka full bore and non-stop. I loved it. Too bad prednisone and subsequent adrenal suppression made it impossible for me to continue.

Anyway, the point is, the strength and endurance required to do what Megan Carter does is akin to that of a professional athlete. There is no way she's that active and overeating any more than her thinner peers. There is something going on physiologically, something her doctors probably don't have the education to address.

A few weeks ago I 'spoke' with a woman on a message board about how to eat for PCOS. Her doctor had snidely told her it didn't matter what she ate, as long as she didn't overeat. They even suggested she could eat Snickers bars all day so long as she stayed below a certain total calorie threshold.

Utter bullshit. Of the worst kind. This kind of 'medical care' kills people. Sugar makes PCOS lethal. Restricted calories comprised of pure sugar won't produce weight loss. This is the kind of crap obese people run into repeatedly when they turn to medicine for help and I have no doubt that Megan Carter has experienced the same kind of 'care.'

So if you are Megan Carter's doctor, please check this lovely young lady for PCOS and figure out how to explain a low carb diet or find a nutritionist who can.

If you are Megan Carter googling yourself, you are a beautiful dancer as you are, however, should you ever want to lose weight, check out insulin resistance, PCOS and low carb eating.

Doctors Blame Fat People

I had a recent run-in with a doctor who was desperate to find something wrong with the way I ate.

So they launched into an attack on the ground turkey that is a mainstay of my low carb diet. Okay. Fine. Well, what am I supposed to eat exactly? I try to avoid a lot of red meat. Chicken is dry and gets boring, but ground turkey is cheap and versatile. I use it a lot.

Let's get this straight.

The doc was a specialist.

Who agreed with low carb eating for my situation.

But was seriously admonishing me for eating ground turkey.

Why?

Because it had too much fat. Ergo I was fat because I ate ground turkey. I sh*t you not, this was the logic.

The medical student cowering in the corner, bravely cleared their throat and said, "Actually, no. It's 97% lean."

"It is?" said the doc, taken aback. I'm sure the med student had been marked down -500 points at this point. Poor student. I hope they didn't beat him.

"Yeah," the medical student and I both chimed in together.

"Well," the doc shook his shoulders, irritated, "You don't know what is in it so you shouldn't eat it."

And that was that. Patient schooled...or was I? Either way, I'm still eating ground turkey. The specialist can Suck. It. I mean, seriously, you're going to criticize me for that?

It amazes me how often my food choices are attacked or questioned in a medical setting. Doctors like to make weight solely a personal responsibility issue and negative fat bias is pervasive. I'm fat therefore it must be my fault, end of discussion.

It never has anything to do with all the prednisone or the PCOS and that medicine doesn't know how to deal with either those issues really well in my case.

No, it can't be the science that is flawed. It has to be the fatty's fault.

I've been told I ate too much.

That I don't know how to count calories (ah, yes, the 'you're too dumb to lose weight' argument) and that food labels are wrong so even if I could count, I'm still wrong. Man, us fat people just can't do anything right, can we?

I've been asked if I drink juice after sharing I follow a low carb diet.

I've been told to join TOPs and Overeater's Anonymous.

I even had a doctor who related obesity back to a history of abuse which led to emotional eating. This theory was applied broadly to every patient according to the clinic (so why a diet and not therapy????).

Rarely have I experienced relevant, quality health care when it comes to my weight. I can count those doctors on less than one hand. Which is saying something considering how often I see doctors.

It also reminds me of this post over on Dr. Grumpy's blog where a doctor, flummoxed by a patient who isn't losing weight, demands they write down everything that goes in their mouth. Because they must be doing something wrong.

I commented on that post that I believed, a 100 years from now, future scientists will not look back kindly on the so-called 'science' of weight loss and obesity doctors espouse today. I'm willing to bet the only ones who will stand the test of time are those who are low carb literate.

Fortunately, I'm pretty sure it won't take 100 years to debunk the idea that ground turkey causes obesity. If it does, there's really no hope for any of us.