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Large-Scale Dietary Study: Fats Good, Carbs Bad (cbsnews.com)

An anonymous reader quotes CBS: New research suggests that it's not the fat in your diet that's raising your risk of premature death, it's too many carbohydrates -- especially the refined, processed kinds of carbs -- that may be the real killer... People with a high fat intake -- about 35 percent of their daily diet -- had a 23 percent lower risk of early death and 18 percent lower risk of stroke compared to people who ate less fat, said lead author Mahshid Dehghan. She's an investigator with the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University in Ontario... At the same time, high-carb diets -- containing an average 77 percent carbohydrates -- were associated with a 28 percent increased risk of death versus low-carb diets, Dehghan said...

For this study, Dehghan and her colleagues tracked the diet and health of more than 135,000 people, aged 35 to 70, from 18 countries around the world, to gain a global perspective on the health effects of diet. Participants provided detailed information on their social and economic status, lifestyle, medical history and current health. They also completed a questionnaire on their regular diet, which researchers used to calculate their average daily calories from fats, carbohydrates and proteins. The research team then tracked the participants' health for about seven years on average, with follow-up visits at least every three years.

477 comments

  1. Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've known for a long time from personal experience that sugar is a very, very bad thing. The best thing you can do in your diet is severely restrict the amount of sugar you consume. And then go from there, but start with that.

    1. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I've known for a long time from personal experience that sugar is a very, very bad thing.

      It's been known for quite some time. Sugar is delicious poison. But the financial incentives were too strong and the US recommended carbs and lots of them. I'm sure even some of them believed what they were saying, as "it's difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it."

    2. Re:Makes sense. by king+neckbeard · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Oh, quit with the "poison" nonsense. Sugar is our primary cellular fuel. The issue is the quantity, the level of refinement, and the relative difficulty in obtaining food not saturated in it.

      This whole epidemic is the result of trying to simplify the complexities of nutrition into a short sentence like "fats good, carbs bad." There's no need to repeat that mistake.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    3. Re:Makes sense. by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Funny

      This is why I stopped drinking Pepsi and started drinking gravy instead.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    4. Re:Makes sense. by ark1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There are fairly significant limitations in this study:

      "The researchers noted that their study did not look at the specific types of food from which nutrients were derived. And, that, said Bethany O'Dea, constitutes a "major flaw from a nutrition standpoint." O'Dea is a cardiothoracic dietitian with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "For example, eating a healthy carb like an apple is more nutrient dense and better for you than eating a bag of processed potato chips," O'Dea said. "Furthermore, the study did not take trans fats into account, which hold heavy evidence of being unhealthy and contributing to cardiovascular disease," she pointed out."

    5. Re:Makes sense. by jedidiah · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Get over yourself. When people talk about sugar, NOBODY is talking about naturally occurring fructose or lactose.

      They are talking about the highly refined white stuff that looks a bit like a narcotic.

      Also, most of our "cellular fuel" isn't consumed in the form of simple sugars.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    6. Re:Makes sense. by Wycliffe · · Score: 5, Informative

      Oh, quit with the "poison" nonsense. Sugar is our primary cellular fuel.

      Sugar is not our primary fuel. Glucose is our primary fuel. Sugar is 50% glucose and 50% fructose. High fructose corn syrup can be as high as 80% fructose. Fructose is not the same as glucose. Fructose is processed by the liver the same way as alcohol and other poisons. The only difference between fructose and alcohol is that fructose doesn't cause you to get drunk. Very few people would dream of giving their 8 year old multiple glasses of alcohol a day but millions of people give their 8 year olds multiple glasses of HFCS every day.

    7. Re:Makes sense. by Archtech · · Score: 5, Informative

      Oh, quit with the "poison" nonsense. Sugar is our primary cellular fuel. The issue is the quantity, the level of refinement, and the relative difficulty in obtaining food not saturated in it.

      That turns out not to be the case. It is well known, and has repeatedly been demonstrated, that the body's cells run equally well on fat. See, for example, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... For further copious details, including case studies, see Gary Taubes' excellent summary "Good Calories, Bad Calories" (published in the UK as "The Diet Dilemma" for reasons unknown to all but the publisher).

      The only cells that appear to need glucose are those of the brain. However, it is easy to get the wrong idea even here. After a few days' fasting, the brain starts to use ketones which are produced as a by-product of metabolozing fat for fuel. A rather small minimum amount of glucose still seems necessary, but the liver manufactures this through gluconeogenesis. Indeed, the paper cited above clearly implies that the body can manufacture everything it needs for full health in the absence of any food intake at all, provided fat reserves are adequate. If the only source of protein were the body's own muscles, etc., no fast could possibly extend longer than a few months at most.

      The only reason why we have all been told that glucose is the body's normal fuel source is that we live in a grain- and sugar-fed society. Hunter-gatherers obtain much less glucose and regularly fast for varying periods. As long as one does not eat carbohydrates, fasting does not cause hunger. For instance, as I write this I have eaten no solid food (only some coffee with cream and soup) for over 40 hours. I feel great, and have absolutely no desire for food.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    8. Re:Makes sense. by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Also, most of our "cellular fuel" isn't consumed in the form of simple sugars.

      Correct. We mostly burn ribose (long term) and glycogen (short term), which sugars can be converted to (along with by-products) through multi-step processes.

    9. Re:Makes sense. by king+neckbeard · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I've seen people posting that fruit is poison. Now, are all discussions to that extreme? No, but when you hyperbolic ally refer to sugar as "poison," you are contributing to that kind of ridiculous mindset.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    10. Re:Makes sense. by garethjrowlands · · Score: 1

      I'd mod you up if I had mod points.

      When I first heard of high fructose corn syrup, I thought it would have much more fructose in it than sucrose does. But, according to wikipedia, it's a bit more complicated than that. For example, the typical proportion of fructose in HFCS in soft drinks is "only" 65%, which is "only" 15% more than sucrose. I'm not saying that 15% more than sucrose doesn't matter, of course, I'm just saying that the amount of fructose in HFCS varies.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    11. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you go to Hollywood Upstairs Medical College, too?

    12. Re:Makes sense. by Archtech · · Score: 5, Interesting

      TFA says:

      "All foods contain three major macronutrients essential for life -- fat, carbohydrate and protein".

      That, too, turns out not to be the case. Protein and fat are necessary for life, but carbohydrate isn't. You will not be able to find any requirement for carbohydrate itself, nor for anything that comes with it. But if you examine carefully the constituents of a nice piece of fatty meat, you might be surprised to find how very nourishing it is. Vitamins A, D, E, K2 and the whole range of B vitamins are there, plus most of the essential minerals - and, what's more, in the appropriate proportions. That's not surprising, as the meat came from an animal that was in good health (until it was slaughtered).

      And by the way, the proportions of saturated and unsaturated fats in red meat are almost exactly the same as in olive oil.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    13. Re:Makes sense. by garethjrowlands · · Score: 1

      I'm not so sure the parent poster means that we need to eat sugar, merely that it's the main energy source in our blood. The second paragraph of the paper you quoted implies as much:

      > Blood glucose concentrations around 30 mg/100 ml were recorded consistently during the last 8 months, although the patient was ambulant and attending as an out-patient.

      If I understand the paper correctly, that patient ate no sugar (or indeed, anything else) and yet they maintained sugar in their blood. Clearly, their body had manufactured it from other things.

      It's possible that you're actually in some agreement than the parent poster. You both think it's a bad idea to eat lots of refined sugar, don't you? I speculate that they think it's fine to eat apples - certainly I do. What about you?

    14. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was going to tell you that you're flat out wrong in your interpretation of the results of the study before realizing that you never read it and that you're 'king' in your own mind. so just gth.

      living on buttered greens with eggs and meat thrown in, without bread, rice, noodles, and other industrial 'war' foods, i've never been better, never had more energy, mental and emotional ease and never a bigger chip on my shoulder for being thusly nutritionally advantaged to a degree you can not possibly fathom from your futile, kingly 'slap them with science' persona.

    15. Re:Makes sense. by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

      I think these days very few of us give our kids multiple glasses of HFCS today. Back in the day we'd drink big jugs of coke like it was going out of style, but the word is out there that this stuff is bad for you in quantity. Like alcohol, moderation is required when complete abstinence isn't desirable.

      Honestly the looks you get if you give your kid a can of coke for lunch at school puts you somewhere between terrorist and pedophile, and given the general idiocy of our education system, the teacher is likely to blame any and all issues on that can of coke. You have to be a glutton for punishment to keep doing it.

    16. Re:Makes sense. by shaitand · · Score: 1

      Strictly speaking this is true but hormonally speaking it is better to have periodic higher carbohydrate intake. The anabolic diet is a good example, low to no carbs and red meat through the week then swap things with lower fat and higher carb levels on the weekend.

    17. Re:Makes sense. by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually this is not quite true. The fructose from high fructose corn syrup does get processed in the liver but that is due to the concentration levels. The fructose from fruit is not normally processed that way. when you eat fruit it takes time for your body to break it down and get to the sugars in it. This causes the amount in your bloodstream to be lower at any given time and a different chemical pathway is used. When you have purified sugars your blood sugar level spikes to dangerous levels and while cells can rapidly pull glucose out of your blood they can't handle all the fructose and so your liver gets handed the job.

      Also just to be pure 100% fruit juice is JUST AS BAD as soda in terms of the sugars. It makes the sugars extremely available to your body and causes your blood sugar levels to spike. It is far better to eat the fruit than to drink the fruit and this includes smoothies. In general you want to avoid drinking your calories.

      --
      Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
    18. Re:Makes sense. by Archtech · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "For example, eating a healthy carb like an apple is more nutrient dense and better for you than eating a bag of processed potato chips," O'Dea said.

      It depends very much on what you understand by "nutrient dense". A bag of potato crisps/chips has a lot more calories than an average apple - and weighs a lot less - so it is much more "calorie dense". Those calories come about equally from carbs and fat in the chips, from sugar only in the apple (mostly fructose, with varying admixtures of glucose and sucrose), making the chips again slightly better.

      The apple contains about twice as much fibre, but has no protein or fat whereas the chips contain both. The bag of crisps will typically have slightly more Vitamin C than an apple, and also provides some iron and calcium - and of course a good shot of sodium - whereas the apple lacks those but does offer some potassium and a little Vitamin B6.

      So on the basis of facts it's not quite clear which is "better for you". But notice how the dietitian simply declares that the apple is better for you, rather as a priest might pass down dogma to his congregation.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    19. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      gut bacteria need the sugars for their and my/your well being;

      thus the recommendation is 60%/fat, 20%/carb 20%/prot
      with fats == 9cal/gram, prot and carbs 4 cal/gram, veggie fiber 3 cal/gram
      that's about 100g carbs, 100g prot and 130g fat for my 2kcal daily macro intake.
      that's a 1/3 rd pack of unsalted butter for all the fat. add a chicken breast and any amount of veggies and i'm set.

      anyway.. sugars.. buttered onions/tomatos/peppers w egg in the am? .. are needed by my gut and sometimes there's room for a beer at night. wondering what you do for that all liquid thing!! i drop off after no more than 20hrs without eating (can sleep, but no longer get tired) and want some volume instead of just cream.

    20. Re:Makes sense. by lowflying · · Score: 1

      The dose makes the poison.

      Try buying something as simple and straightforward as vinegar and oil salad dressing, that doesn't have added sugar. It is hard not to overdose if you use processed foods in the US.

    21. Re:Makes sense. by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      No, the whole epidemic is because the sugar industry poisoned the well through manipulates studies and manipulation of governments to grossly exagerrate the risks of data so they could push more of their product. Frankly if any industry should be tried for crimes against humanity, it should be the sugar industry. The numbers of deaths due to over-ingestion of sigar-loades foods dwarfs tobacco.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    22. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Bananas are nazis.

    23. Re:Makes sense. by king+neckbeard · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I also have neckbeard in my name, so perhaps you should not take my /. handle so seriously, you silly coward. I also likely eat more greens than you (lacto-ovo-vegetarian out of personal preference), and my health is excellent by every measurement, to the extent that people tend to think I'm considerably younger than I actually am.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    24. Re:Makes sense. by avandesande · · Score: 3, Informative

      Too much water is poisonous too. Until very recently, fruit(even whole grains quickly spoil) was available to us only during very limited times of the year. From a survival perspective it makes complete sense for our body to turn episodic food sources directly into fat.

      Eating 6 or so oranges sounds kind of gross and gluttonous but that's exactly what you are doing when you drink a restaurant sized glass of orange juice, and the majority of people in the USA don't think twice about this.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    25. Re:Makes sense. by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The presence of trans fats in the study would seem to strengthen their main result: even during the study period, where people were exposed to quite a bit of trans fat, eating more fat came out as being good for you. If trans fat is harmful, which seems likely, it suggests that eating a decent amount of fat today would be even better for you.

      Those don't really seem like significant limitations at all. The two you mentioned have fairly minor bearing on the main conclusion.

    26. Re:Makes sense. by Archtech · · Score: 1

      I'm not so sure the parent poster means that we need to eat sugar, merely that it's the main energy source in our blood.

      Glucose is the main energy source in your blood if and only if you eat enough carbohydrates to provide that sugar. If you don't - either because you are fasting or because you eat mostly protein and fat (as in meat, fish, eggs, cheese, etc.) - your blood will circulate ample triglycerides, and instead of glucose your cells will absorb fatty acids that are unpackaged from those triglycerides. The cells burn fatty acids just as satisfactorily as they burn glucose - in fact there is some evidence that the results can even be slightly better. In the long run, it is far better to rely on fat for energy rather than glucose, because glucose is actually poisonous. In extreme quantities it causes the terrible damage of diabetes, but even in lesser amounts it still causes harm. People don't tend to realise this, because the harm is very gradual. Most of us can eat anything in our teens and stay slim and vigorous. That gets harder in the 20s, in the 30s you may start on a paunch, and by the 40s and 50s the fat really piles on.

      Now the brain is a slight exception, in that it requires some glucose. Not the 200-300 g per day sometimes quoted, but - if you aren't eating carbs - perhaps about 50 g per day. That is provided by gluconeogenesis, which converts protein to glucose. (Fat can also be converted to glucose - indeed it is now known that the body can convert all three main energy sources - fats, proteins and sugars - to one another if necessary).

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    27. Re:Makes sense. by TWX · · Score: 1

      One requires oxygen to survive. Too much oxygen is toxic and may be fatal.

      One requires sugar to survive. Too much sugar is toxic and may be fatal.

      Granted, the mechanisms and time-scales of these process are different. Too much oxygen will cause harm or death sooner than too much sugar will, but the deleterious effects are known.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    28. Re:Makes sense. by pots · · Score: 1

      They most certainly are talking about naturally occurring fructose. Many of the people repeating the "sugar is poison" line are still getting it from Robert "Sugar is Poison" Lustig, and he's specifically talking about fructose when he says that. He makes the claim that it's not so bad when the fructose is paired with a large quantity of fiber, as it is in most whole fruits (but not fruit juices), but this isn't limited to just highly refined sugar, or white sugar, or unnatural sugar. It's all fructose.

    29. Re:Makes sense. by pots · · Score: 5, Informative

      Sugar is not our primary fuel. Glucose is our primary fuel. Sugar is 50% glucose and 50% fructose.

      You two are talking past each other. Sucrose, glucose, and fructose are all sugars.

    30. Re:Makes sense. by alexo · · Score: 2

      Get over yourself. When people talk about sugar, NOBODY is talking about naturally occurring fructose or lactose.

      Actually, they do.
      Your body does not directly burn fructose, natural or otherwise (unless you're a plant). In humans, it is mostly metabolized in the liver.

    31. Re:Makes sense. by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 2

      Oh, quit with the "poison" nonsense. Sugar is our primary cellular fuel.

      Sugar is not our primary fuel. Glucose is our primary fuel. Sugar is 50% glucose and 50% fructose. High fructose corn syrup can be as high as 80% fructose. Fructose is not the same as glucose. Fructose is processed by the liver the same way as alcohol and other poisons. The only difference between fructose and alcohol is that fructose doesn't cause you to get drunk. Very few people would dream of giving their 8 year old multiple glasses of alcohol a day but millions of people give their 8 year olds multiple glasses of HFCS every day.

      Maybe someone who knows more about this topic can answer why we don't have high glucose sugar? That wouldn't be as unhealthy it seems yet it would still taste sweet. It seems better than the various artificial sweeteners at least.

    32. Re:Makes sense. by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Informative

      Alle Dinge sind Gift, und nichts ist ohne Gift, allein die Dosis macht dass ein Ding kein Gift ist.

      All things are poison, and nothing is without poison, the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.

      Paracelsus
      in 1538

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    33. Re: Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your handle is accurate.

    34. Re:Makes sense. by radarskiy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There is an additional difference in that sucrose has the glucose and fructose bonded together, while HFCS has free fructose and glucose. Therefore sucrose is inherently slower to digest and the spike in absorption is flattened out.

    35. Re: Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Spoken from a position of privilege. You think low-income, working class parents aren't giving their kids lots of HFC juice drinks?

    36. Re:Makes sense. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Very few people would dream of giving their 8 year old multiple glasses of alcohol a day but millions of people give their 8 year olds multiple glasses of HFCS every day.

      This is a silly argument. No one has an issue with giving kids multiple glasses of alcohol more due to the affects on the brain and that truly bizarre stigmatisation of alcohol depending on which arbitrary age category you fall into.

      It has nothing to do with nutrition at all.

    37. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. That's why I only drink natural fruit juice with no sugar added. I drink about a gallon of the stuff a day, so I must be really healthy, right?

    38. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gravy is just stock mixed with the "refined, processed kinds of carbs" (flour.) Some add a fat like butter or lard but it's not required.

    39. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, you realize glucose is sugar, right? "Sugar is 50% glucose and 50% fructose." No, they are both type of sugar.

    40. Re: Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      String them up. Hang a bunch of bananas from a noose outside your house as a warning to all the other Nazis. You can also do this at a college campus to keep them from protesting there.

    41. Re: Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You sound like a moron, trying to distinguish all those sugars from "sugar".

    42. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also have neckbeard in my name, so perhaps you should not take my /. handle so seriously, you silly coward. I also likely eat more greens than you (lacto-ovo-vegetarian out of personal preference), and my health is excellent by every measurement, to the extent that people tend to think I'm considerably younger than I actually am.

      Typical neckbeard

    43. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      One requires sugar to survive.

      This is not actually true. Most of your body can happily run on fat, for the portion that cant (~50g/day needed) your body can synthesize carbs from protein.

    44. Re: Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not applicable to certain plants.

    45. Re:Makes sense. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

      The only difference between fructose and alcohol is that fructose doesn't cause you to get drunk.

      This is why we should ban fructose. It's useless.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    46. Re: Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not drinking sugary drinks is a privilege? Get the fuck outta here.

    47. Re:Makes sense. by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      sugar

      Where, other than you addled brain, did you get the idea that when they said 'carbs' they meant ONLY 'SUGAR'? They didn't. You, and way too many other humans on this gods-be-damned planet, are getting DUMBER by the day. They meant ALL CARBS FROM ALL SOURCES. Fucking get it right.

    48. Re:Makes sense. by Solandri · · Score: 2

      The most commonly consumed forms of HFCS are 45% fructose (used in foods) and 55% fructose (used in soft drinks). The forms of HFCS with fructose levels as high as 80%-90% are used almost exclusively to mix with 45% fructose HFCS to bring it up to 55% fructose for use in soft drinks (fructose tastes sweeter than glucose). Which isn't that far off from the concentrations of fructose/glucose produced (50%/50%) from the breakdown of sucrose (table sugar). HFCS is only called "high fructose" to distinguish it from regular corn syrup which is almost pure glucose. Not because it's unnaturally high in fructose compared to other food sources.

      Here's a list of the fructose vs glucose levels of different fruits. Pears, mangoes, and apples are 70%+ fructose. Other fruits are mostly around 50%+ fructose (hence why it's sometimes called fruit sugar). If fructose were really as bad as you're implying, these fruits would be considered poisonous. Glucose can be used directly in aerobic cellular respiration, but fructose needs to be converted by the liver into glucose and glycogen before it can be used in cellular respiration. Fructose is not poisonous like alcohol as you're implying. Alcohol interferes with certain neurotransmitters, which results in drunkenness in low concentrations, and death in high concentrations. There's debate over the effects of dumping a large quantity of fructose into the bloodstream and forcing the liver to process it all, but again that gets us back to pears, mangoes, and apples doing the same thing.

      And to be pedantic, sucrose, fructose, and glucose (and lactose) are all "sugars".

    49. Re:Makes sense. by butchersong · · Score: 1

      Honestly some of the new apple varieties are giant sugar bombs so I could see an argument for this. When you increase the size of the apple and the sweetness of the flesh you end up with less fiber (skin to flesh ratio) and at a certain point you've crossed the line into unhealthy. There was a study some time back I think in Australia or thereabouts that showed an increase in cardiovascular disease among those eating an apple a day. It's tough to find with all the pop sci articles on "an apple a day" but I do recall reading it. I'm sure if they'd controlled for the type of apple that wouldn't have been the case.

    50. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not really. Sucrose is cleaved by sucrase in the small intestine almost immediately upon ingestion, like within 5 minutes.

      Studies show no difference in the absorption rate of sucrose vs. HFCS.

    51. Re: Makes sense. by butchersong · · Score: 2

      It correlates to intelligence -which correlates to privilege.

    52. Re:Makes sense. by WolphFang · · Score: 3, Informative

      I can tell you from direct experience that eating high-carb caused by A1C to skyrocket and my my liver enzymes and cholesterol levels to go off the chart... Then the gradual but sure weight gain. Switched to "ketogenic" and intake is mostly fat, with moderate protein, and carbs 20g on a daily average and I've went from 270 lbs (42in waist) to just under 210 lbs (38in waist), my A1C reads "ideal" instead of diabetic, and I don't have issues with high and low blood sugar episodes and don't feel like I'm going to feint from long periods of not eating. And my Dr doesn't look like he's about to fall out when reading my cholesterol level test. My joints also hurt less. This is over 9 months. Note, when it comes to "low-carb" foods sold in the store, the manufacturers have taken to making them high-protein, with a reduction in fat, which, when you get too much protein (or in the case of Atkins, putting pasta in them!), I understand that your body turns excess protein into sugar when not needed, so too much protein can also contribute, though not as badly, to the general carbohydrate overdose that is deployed in our generally available food stuffs.

      --
      leather-dog muksihs
      Blog: @muksihs
    53. Re:Makes sense. by Khashishi · · Score: 3, Informative

      Glucose (dextrose) is roughly half as sweet as fructose. People use HFCS because it's sweeter than normal syrup.

    54. Re:Makes sense. by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying that sugar can't be harmful, I'm saying that when you scream SUGAR IS A POISON, you are hurting the discussion on proper nutrition. If he said "poisonous levels of sugar," I'd probably have far fewer objections.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    55. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > This is why we should ban fructose. It's useless.

      So is alcohol, but we tried banning that and it didn't go very well.

      But why not? Get all that fruit and juice out of the produce section, so we can move on to the next health scare bogeyman...

    56. Re: Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a fucking retard. Every energy source becomes a sugar as it is metabolites.

    57. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      During bulk manufacture it's easier to pour in 50 gallons of fluid than it is to mix in 400 lbs of white sugar, and the corn syrup is cheaper.

      Corn syrup in america is literally dirt cheap. The government has historically promised subsidies to corn farmers in Iowa to secure elections, and those subsidies basically meant the farmers were getting paid to grow corn (or in some cases, getting paid not to grow anything). It is cheaper and less expensive to process the corn into HFCS than it is to process cane sugar.

    58. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are talking about the highly refined white stuff that looks a bit like a narcotic.

      Not exactly. That white sugar is not worst.
      High fructose corn syrup - added to almost every food
      isomalt
      dextrose
      maltodextrin
      and all other a bit cheaper sugar "replacements".
      all have very high glicemic index. This is destroying your "hunger detectors' and destroy your insuline production ballance. You eat that junk food, there is high production of insuline, sugar level in blood goes low and after short time you are hungry again ...
      Rinse, repeat get obese

    59. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lustig should know a lot about fructose with all the cherry-picking he does...

    60. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's called dextrose. dextrose=glucose. also known as corn sugar or brewers sugar.

    61. Re:Makes sense. by kenwd0elq · · Score: 1

      Goldilocks Principle; Too much of anything is bad. Too LITTLE of anything is bad. The key is to know how much is "Just Right" for every substance.

    62. Re:Makes sense. by danbert8 · · Score: 1

      Carbohydrates are necessary for life, but you can get the nutrients second hand with your fat and protein by eating meat and dairy...

      --
      Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
    63. Re:Makes sense. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      I always wonder about comments like this. Have you ever been on a high-protein, low-carb diet? Ketosis doesn't feel good, and one of the byproducts is acetone. Have you ever urinated with the smell of acetone coming out of your body?

      It gets even worse if you exercise. Have you ever been on a low carb, high-protein diet and tried to run five miles? It feels awful. Fat helps a little bit, but your body really wants some carbohydrates.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    64. Re:Makes sense. by zieroh · · Score: 1

      I've seen people posting that fruit is poison.

      What do the random burblings of the internet have to do with the objective facts about sugar?

      --
      People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
    65. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I switched from soda to beer. Not only does beer not make my ask thirsty, it makes me not as hungry, especially room-temp dark beer.

    66. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everything can be poison in the right dosages. Thus, we are talking about the dosages. Generally consuming refined sugar is bad for you. Here and there is not.

    67. Re:Makes sense. by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      Except you just said that the brain needs glucose, and if the body has access to fat, carbs, and protein, it goes with carbs.

      You cite that the brain needs glucose, but then call it outright poisonous, despite the fact that it's in the blood of 99.9% of the population 99.9% of the time, and we evolved from primates with largely fruit-based diets. It is, at worst, the second best dietary source of energy, but for anyone not in a keto circlejerk, it's the best.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    68. Re:Makes sense. by HiThere · · Score: 1

      "Go on from there" is a bit vague. If you'd said "then go on to limit starches" you'd have a good point, but one that needs careful elaboration.

      I find, personally, that essentially eliminating sugar and replacing starches with a mix of wheat germ and wheat bran (gluten optional) works well.

      OTOH, I also limit saturated fats. I'm not sure this is necessary, but it seems to help. FWIW, I didn't start experimenting with this diet until after I was diagnosed with diabetes (non-insulin dependent), and if I hadn't had *strong* motivation I probably couldn't have switched to it, however since switching it's been little problem. (Less problem than my wife's almost no salt diet.)

      All that said, it's still true that I can't get my glucose level down where I want it. My doctor is satisfied, but I'm not. I want to get it down to the point where there is evidence that the pancreas starts regenerating (averaging below 100 with spikes below 125).

      Making this kind of diet acceptable depends heavily on creative use of spices and ... strangely ... dill pickles. (I wonder how important the salt is?) Currently I'm experimenting with marinated cucumbers.

      But while I trust the results of the experiment as reported in the summary, I think that I could design an experiment describable in the exact same terms that would show the opposite results. There's LOTS of variables.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    69. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Our body converts fats into sugar, even proteins into sugar. Our body runs on sugar, glucose to be more precise.

    70. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Glucose is a sugar. ~25-50% of fructose is converted into glucose by the liver. So yes, the body runs on "sugar".

    71. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In my own anecdotal experience drinking lots of beer does indeed make me less hungry. I ended up losing weight on a high calorie diet of mostly beer. Some days I wouldn't even think about eating.

      This has not been good for my health though going from slightly overweight to practically malnourished and underweight.

    72. Re:Makes sense. by HiThere · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Why not? Sugar is a poison, even the simple ones. But so is oxygen.

      Also, to bring up a car analogy, if your gas measure is too rich in your carburetor you'll foul your cylinders.

      As with everything, it's pretty much a matter of proportions and quantity. A tiny bit of sugar is no problem. Too much and things start to go to hell. But the same is true of proteins (kidney problems) and fats (triglyceride levels). The body is designed to cope with these things, and with large variations in the food supply, but coping generally comes at a cost, and the cost is measured in life expectancy.

      In my case I OD'ed on sugars and carbs for decades before it caught up with me, so for me it's important that I *really* limit the proportion of sugars and carbs (except fiber) in my diet. I tried the Atkins diet for 6 months, and while it helped me lose a bit of weight it sent my triglycerides through the roof. Strangely, that's when I was diagnosed with diabetes. I've modified my diet now to something where sugar is essentially absent, non-fiber cars are *strongly* limited, and fats, especially saturated fats, are limited. Limiting fats has as an immediate result also limiting animal protein. (I suppose I could eat lots of rabbit or some such, but that's too much bother.) My triglycerides are back under control. Cholesterol was never a problem (my body chemistry generates low cholesterol as the problem). Etc.

      If you do this right you can even have breads, though you need to cook them yourself, as no commercial version is low in starches. My preferred mix is to replace flour with a combination of wheat bran, wheat germ, and wheat gluten....all essentially free of starch. You make things interesting by using different mixes of spices with each batch. Cocoa is good, but I prefer either pumpkin pie spice or curry. If you want to make yeast bread you need to pick ingredients that don't bother the yeast. With tomato sauce you need to add a bit of xanthan gum to avoid having bubbles that are so sharp you cut your mouth when you eat the bread. Some people like to add nut flours, but I prefer peanut butter.

      But note that this is necessary because I was an ice cream junkie for a long time. And cookies. Etc. If you have a different dietary history, you'll need a different correction, and it's easier if you can do it before you have a breakdown...of course, after the breakdown motivation is stronger.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    73. Re:Makes sense. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 2

      I've posted this before, but seems like a good time for it again - very technical, but also very interesting.

      90 minute lecture, Sugar: The Bitter Truth by Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin. Series: UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public [7/2009]

      Describes in detail how fructose is metabolized by the liver like alcohol and its affects on blood lipids.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    74. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm truly curious here. You say smoothies are just as bad as juice. Can you explain the difference in eating a banana and a handful of blueberries compared to blending the same banana and blueberries and drinking it?

    75. Re:Makes sense. by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Except that most cells in your body can run on glucose, but not on fructose.

    76. Re:Makes sense. by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      It's a lot easier to consume 100 grams of sugar from soft drinks than it is to eat the same amount from pears or mangoes.

    77. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Why not? Sugar is a poison, even the simple ones.

      This is pure hyperbole from the "Sugar Busters" types. The definition of a poison is: "a substance that through its chemical action usually kills, injures, or impairs an organism"

      Sugar doesn't do this any more than any other source of calories - the negative effects are from overconsumption, not the chemical properties of sugar itself.

      "...nutritionists argue that the claim that sugar is toxic to the body is complete nonsense and that, although sugar has no nutritional value and counts as 'empty calories', it is in no way toxic."

    78. Re:Makes sense. by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Glucose is poisonous in high concentrations. Since there's only 5 grams of glucose in your blood, and there's 15 grams of glucose in a soft drink, and the glucose from a drink quickly enters the bloodstream, it's very easy to get a high concentration of glucose in the blood where it will have damaging effects.

      Your brain only *needs* about 25 grams of glucose in a day.

    79. Re:Makes sense. by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Have you ever been on a low carb, high-protein diet and tried to run five miles?

      You shouldn't be on a high protein diet. Protein is a lousy fuel. Try a low carb, high fat diet instead, and give your muscles about 3 weeks to adapt. Plenty of high performance athletes do very well on a low carb diet, especially on endurance type events where a carb-burning athlete would deplete their glycogen stores.

    80. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Alle Dinge sind Gift, und nichts ist ohne Gift, allein die Dosis macht dass ein Ding kein Gift ist.

      All things are poison, and nothing is without poison, the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.

      Paracelsus
      in 1538

      And if you believe in homeopathy, it's also the concentration ;^)

    81. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Exactly. That's why I only drink natural fruit juice with no sugar added. I drink about a gallon of the stuff a day, so I must be really healthy, right?

      At least that is easier on your liver than drinking alcohol... Barely...

    82. Re:Makes sense. by rogoshen1 · · Score: 2

      Someone doesn't have to be part of a 'keto circle jerk' to be wary of sugar and excess carbs. Surely there's a reason the body tries so very hard to maintain a low level of blood glucose (several teaspoons-- or table spoons? either way, ridiculously small amount). Maybe because it IS toxic at higher concentrations? But that is precisely why insulin is released -- to drive down that blood glucose level.

      Given that mechanism though, does it make sense why a diet that includes 64+ ounce sodas laden with sugar might be a health risk?

      But frankly, the fatter (metabolically deranged) someone is, the better they'll do on a low carb diet (and i'd wager it's the only thing that will truly help them long term).

      But as for '..largely fruit based diets'.. think about that statement please. Fruit is NOT available year round naturally. What did early humans eat, in the 10 months out of the year that fruit wouldn't have been plentiful? Hominids were all over the god-damn place well, well before agriculture and food preservation were developed.

      Our ancestor's diet was probably meat, nuts, tubers, fruit/berries/veggies (in that order).

    83. Re:Makes sense. by Translation+Error · · Score: 1

      It took me quite a while to figure out what you meant by 'hyperbolic ally' in that sentence!

      --
      When someone says, "Any fool can see ..." they're usually exactly right.
    84. Re:Makes sense. by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Humans do not have to consume sugar to survive. The body can break down starch (not a sugar) into sugar.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    85. Re:Makes sense. by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Table sugar, or any of a number of equivalent names (properly sucrose), is the combination you cite. This is a technical forum, and so if you use the word "sugar" it will be properly understood to refer to a class of chemicals, not just sucrose.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    86. Re:Makes sense. by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      You do have to be part of the keto circle jerk to say "glucose is actually poisonous."

      I agree 100% that our diets are generally too rich in carbs, and especially refined sugar. I'm not debating that. I'm debating the ketosis cult who thinks that running in emergency mode 100% of the time is the only sane option. But in TFA, it says:

      the best diets will include a balance of carbohydrates and fats, approximately 50 to 55 percent carbohydrates and around 35 percent total fat, including both saturated and unsaturated fats.

      That still leaves carbs as the primary energy source by a comfortable margin.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    87. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you are on a carb restricted diet you are running on ketone bodies. They are a more efficient fuel for neural and muscle cells to boot. But the transport mechanism doesn't allow as fast a utilization by muscle cells so some blood sugar is always required, more if your are more active.

    88. Re:Makes sense. by Tjp($)pjT · · Score: 1

      You can make carbs from the fats and proteins. Also w/o carbs you run on ketone bodies.

      --
      - Tjp

      I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!

    89. Re: Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are issues with the processing chemicals in your chips that may reduce absorption ability of those said nutrients both in the sort term and long term and may contribute to chronic inflamation and other health issues. This may render the chips unhealthy overall. Macro nutrients in 'natural foods' are accompanied by important mocronutrients general missing in processed foods. When they are there (I'm processed foods), they are placed there artificially and again may be missing all important synergenic ingredients

    90. Re:Makes sense. by Tjp($)pjT · · Score: 1

      Gravy can also be made with different thickening agents, like whole egg, cream cheese, cauliflower, and tofu. refined carbs aren't needed. A half cup of cauliflower puree has about 2 grams of carbs ... just puree the gravy until there are no visible particles of cauliflower. I usually use a half-cup of poached cauliflower and a whole egg blended for 3-5 minutes into 2 cups of stock. Then heat in a double boiler if I have the time, otherwise stir microwave stir microwave until it thickens. Depending on your eggs maybe add another egg yolk.

      --
      - Tjp

      I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!

    91. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that you Milkshake?

    92. Re:Makes sense. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Try a low carb, high fat diet instead, and give your muscles about 3 weeks to adapt.

      Tried it. Fat helps, but at some point, your body really really wants carbs.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    93. Re:Makes sense. by Archtech · · Score: 1

      I always wonder about comments like this. Have you ever been on a high-protein, low-carb diet?

      No. That would be a bad idea. The right amount of protein is about 1 gram per kilogram of body weight per day. Say 100 grams for a fairly big person, equivalent to maybe 1/2 - 2/3 lb of meat. Or about 20% of your daily calories, assuming you're in calorie balance. Relying too much on protein is known to cause "rabbit starvation". The answer is to eat 20% of your calories as protein, and most of the rest as fat. Eggs, cheese, and most meat gives you that kind of proportion automatically.

      Ketosis doesn't feel good, and one of the byproducts is acetone. Have you ever urinated with the smell of acetone coming out of your body?

      I've been in ketosis for about 48 hours right now, and I feel great. It's really nice, from time to time, just to take your digestive system offline and give it a complete rest for a day or two. You don't feel hungry, or full, or bloated, or any of that. It almost feels as if you don't have any guts to bother you. Concentration is easier, and you have more energy. (After all, fat has more than twice as much energy per gram as glucose).

      As for the smell, have you ever eaten asparagus? It's like that, but a slightly different smell.

      It gets even worse if you exercise. Have you ever been on a low carb, high-protein diet and tried to run five miles? It feels awful. Fat helps a little bit, but your body really wants some carbohydrates.

      I haven't tried to exercise (much) on a low-carb high-fat diet - the most I did was a couple of 30-mile walks at about 4.5 mph. I noticed that I felt rather sluggish and heavy after a while, but I also noticed that I could keep going almost indefinitely.

      I have read that some athletes do very well on LCHF, but it can take weeks or months to get the body used to it. That makes sense, when you think that you have spent decades consuming far too much carbohydrate, so your body has become reliant on it. As I see it, though, it is the glucose that is "emergency" fuel and fat that the body evolved to rely on most of the time.

      As for wanting carbs, there is a huge difference between real need and appetite. The "food-like products" industry has put centuries and many billions of dollars into designing foods that are exceptionally attractive. But once you break the habit, your tastes change. When I was a teenager I used to take 4-5 spoonsful of sugar in every cup of tea or coffee! Then I gave that up, and soon the milk I used seemed quite sweet enough.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    94. Re:Makes sense. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      When I was a teenager I used to take 4-5 spoonsful of sugar in every cup of tea or coffee!

      No wonder you feel good in ketosis, compared to what you were doing to yourself before, your current diet is amazing.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    95. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Evidence for the need to deliver them carefully.

    96. Re:Makes sense. by G00F · · Score: 1

      The body does not turn protein into sugar, just some parts of your body can use protein as energy in the absence of sugar, glucose. (oversimplified)

      --
      The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive
    97. Re:Makes sense. by G00F · · Score: 2

      Ah, well lack of vitamin C leads to Scurvy. So there are reasons for some plants. (Carnivores get their rounded diet by eating the whole animal not just the meat, the digestive tract)

      --
      The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive
    98. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What soup do you put in your coffee?

    99. Re:Makes sense. by redfood · · Score: 1

      Glucose (dextrose) is roughly half as sweet as fructose. People use HFCS because it's sweeter than normal syrup.

      The main reason people in the US use HFCS is because corn production is heavily subsidized and that makes sweetening food with corn syrup cheaper than using sugar.

      There is a reason that Mexican Coke is yummier ... its not local taste preferences, it is economic protectionism.

    100. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We used to live where food was plentiful.
      Just because our diet diversified as we migrated to colder regions does not mean we didn't start out as fruit eaters, and acquiring new digestive abilities does not disable the old ones, so we can cope with high levels of fruit (I eat heaps of it).
      Our teeth are fruit-teeth (definitely NOT carnivore NOR herbivore).
      When we are growing at the fastest we ever grow in our lives, we are doing it on breast-milk, which is only ~1% protein, and that and the length of our gut makes it obvious that meat was the smallest portion of our diet, but it was definitely there.
      As for tubers, we don't cope with starch well.
      The order is more Fruit, veg, nuts, meat.
      Something else to consider...
      What we DIDN'T DO, was eat the complex mixtures of things that we eat today. Gorging at that fruit tree, then having to wander over to where something else tasty grew meant that our digestion was generally only coping with simple things.

    101. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The body does not turn protein into sugar, just some parts of your body can use protein as energy in the absence of sugar, glucose. (oversimplified)

      Proteins are broken down into constituent amino acids, some of which are glucogenic. These are converted into glucose - Google gluconeogenesis.

    102. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just to add to your comment, I was able to bring my diabetic 13mmol fasting blood sugar reading to a completely normal 5mmol in 5 days after switching to a low carb (about 40net carbs/day) diet. My cholesterol and triglycerides all went from a level of "holy shit!!!" to "perfectly normal" after 3 months of this not-quite-keto diet.

      I went from 210lbs wearing size 38 jeans to 165lbs where a size 34 is a bit lose.

      I'm back up to about 100 net carbs per day while keeping my blood sugars all in non-diabetic range.

    103. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't want to discount what you are saying. Ketones and free fats are a "cleaner" source of energy for the body than sugars (whatever the definition of "cleaner" is). I am fully in support of a higher fat, lower sugar lifestyle (helped me get my diabetes in order, helped me lose 45lbs of fat in 9months).

      However, sugars are the 'primary' source of energy for the body, because they are the first energy source chosen if the body is given the ability to choose. EG when you eat that potato chip, the carbs in it will be burned by your body before the fats.

      Primary means chosen first, it doesn't mean best.

    104. Re:Makes sense. by rogoshen1 · · Score: 1

      Mmm, clearly not an evolutionary anthropologist, so bear with me..

      But we evolved bipedalism, complex-vocalization, huge brains. Developed complex social structures etc etc

      All of those point towards hunting, don't they?

      But your example about breastmilk though is just nuts.

      Infants consume milk because we're mammals. It's part of the definition of 'mammal'.
      It's very very very high in cholesterol. Which coincidentally is largely what the brain is made of.

      Ergo, we ate a plant based diet. because as we all know, plants are very high in cholesterol. Rather than meat and fat which is made of ??

      Gut length... look at other apex predators... they also typically have small stomachs. It's the herbivores that require longer digestive tracts to fully extract nutrients from food sources that are not as nutrient dense as meat.

    105. Re: Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This! We need more of the old apple varieties. You know the ones that nobody would ever buy in a store because they're either small or ugly or whatnot. But man are they tasty. And not just sweet (or just red, like red delicious which is definitely NOT deliciousness at all)

    106. Re:Makes sense. by Wycliffe · · Score: 1

      Sugar is not our primary fuel. Glucose is our primary fuel. Sugar is 50% glucose and 50% fructose.

      You two are talking past each other. Sucrose, glucose, and fructose are all sugars.

      When most laymen talk of sugar they are talking about table sugar (also commonly known as cane sugar) which is 50/50 bonded.

    107. Re:Makes sense. by Wycliffe · · Score: 1

      I think these days very few of us give our kids multiple glasses of HFCS today. Back in the day we'd drink big jugs of coke like it was going out of style, but the word is out there that this stuff is bad for you in quantity. Like alcohol, moderation is required when complete abstinence isn't desirable.

      Honestly the looks you get if you give your kid a can of coke for lunch at school puts you somewhere between terrorist and pedophile, and given the general idiocy of our education system, the teacher is likely to blame any and all issues on that can of coke. You have to be a glutton for punishment to keep doing it.

      I can count on one hand the number of birthday parties, pizza parties, or any other kind of party where name brand soda wasn't the primary non-alcoholic beverage. Yeah, it's frowned upon in school lunches but that's really about it. Every special occasion, potluck, or get together, soda is usually the only beverage served. Also every restaurant, soda is the main drink. Most restaurants would go out of business if people stopped ordering soda and/or alcohol as that is where their profit is. Look around a restaurant next time you go to one and see how many tables you can find that are drinking something other than soda. Almost zero.

    108. Re: Makes sense. by Wycliffe · · Score: 1

      You sound like a moron, trying to distinguish all those sugars from "sugar".

      Actually it is you that sounds like a moron lumping all the sugars together into a single "sugar". There are plenty of reasons to know the difference between the different types of sugar. Fructose is a type of sugar. Lactose is another type of sugar. Some people are lactose intolerant and can't process lactose. Some people also can't process fructose. Table sugar is usually cane sugar which is sucrose which is 50% glucose and 50% fructose. Alcohol is also a type of sugar. There are other sugars as well. They are not all the same. Glucose is what your cells use. You can't be intolerant to glucose. The LD50 of glucose is 30g/kg while the LD50 of fructose is only 1g/kg. Putting glucose in an IV is a common medical procedure while putting fructose, sucrose, or any other sugar in an IV would likely kill you.

    109. Re: Makes sense. by kaybee · · Score: 1

      http://www.mensfitness.com/training/endurance/zach-bitter-100-mile-american-record-holder-he-also-eats-almost-no-carbs

    110. Re: Makes sense. by kaybee · · Score: 1

      I've done Keto for years and it feels great. It can take months of serious commitment to get used to it though.

    111. Re: Makes sense. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      That's a cool data point. He eats carbs, though.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    112. Re: Makes sense. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Well I'm going to keep on it for another month at least, because it works (ie, I am losing weight). Obviously that's not a long term solution though (because at some point I won't want to lose wight).

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    113. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quite funny, but gravy is still loaded with carbs too (from the flour for example)

    114. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eh what?... Do you know what ketosis is?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Most cells in the body can use both glucose and ketone bodies for fuel, and during ketosis, free fatty acids and glucose synthesis (gluconeogenesis) fuel the remainder

      This is the mode your body enters if you stop eating carbohydrates..

    115. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Refined sugar has never been a requirement for proper nutrition.. Sure it's been a part of making things taste better, but never of proper nutrition.
      All sugar's are carbohydrates but not all carbohydrates is a sugar.

      Refined sugar by itself is a poison, and the amounts we get today are so much higher than any hunter/gatherer could have ever collected or ingested from natural sources except for maybe honey.

      Did you know that before humans started farming we had almost perfect teeth? And for every advancement in sugar-refinement we have made, and had included in the diet for the majority, our teeth's have just become worse and worse..

      How sugar messes with our hormones.
      https://www.floliving.com/suga...

      How sugar effects the brain..
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Too Much Sugar Turns Off Gene That Controls Effects Of Sex Steroids
      https://www.sciencedaily.com/r...

      This is a quite interesting watch about fructose and the difference in ingesting it as a fruit and as juice..
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Sure, most people can eat sugar in moderation and be perfectly healthy.. The things i talk about is the amount of sugar we get from all sources of food we have.. Just look at the ingredients for the stuff you buy...

      * disclaimer.. i took the first hit on google when i was looking for source material.. I do know there are better sources for the above information but that you have to look up yourself.

    116. Re:Makes sense. by Archtech · · Score: 0

      "None of the long term practitioners of an all-meat Zero Carb diet that I have interviewed take any supplemental vitamin C. None of these individuals have experienced any symptoms of vitamin C deficiency, even after 2-18 years of eating this way. If you wish to read the dietary details of some of these individuals, please see my page with links to all of the Zero Carb Interviews that I have published to date.

      "There appears to be an alternative biochemical pathway for preventing scurvy that occurs when one is eating a fat-burning ketogenic diet, as opposed to a sugar-burning glucogenic diet".

      https://zerocarbzen.com/vitami...

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    117. Re:Makes sense. by Archtech · · Score: 1

      No wonder you feel good in ketosis, compared to what you were doing to yourself before, your current diet is amazing.

      It has been about 50 years since I took sugar in my hot drinks.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    118. Re:Makes sense. by Archtech · · Score: 1

      Primary means chosen first, it doesn't mean best.

      Actually, of course, it can mean either (or both). The Concise Oxford English Dictionary says:

      primary
      n adjective
      1 of chief importance; principal.
      2 earliest in time or order. Ø(Primary) Geology former term for Palaeozoic.
      3 not caused by or based on anything else.
      4 chiefly British relating to or denoting education for children between the ages of about five and eleven.
      5 of or denoting the input side of a transformer or other inductive device.
      6 Chemistry (of an organic compound) having its functional group on a carbon atom bonded to no more than one other carbon atom. Øderived from ammonia by replacement of one hydrogen atom by an organic group.
      n noun (plural primaries)
      1 (in the US) a preliminary election to appoint delegates to a party conference or to select the candidates for a principal, especially presidential, election.
      2 Astronomy the body orbited by a smaller body.

      ORIGIN
              Middle English: from Latin primarius, from primus 'first'.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    119. Re: Makes sense. by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      at some point I won't want to lose wight

      Long term keto-diet people stop losing body fat after a while and overall body weight roughly maintains if they keep the diet up. Have you seen anyone continuously losing weight , shrinking to zero weight eventually on a keto diet ? Or asymptotically reducing less and less weight progressively converging at a very low weight ? Appears unexpected and even unsupported by casual observation.

      Actually, after losing the desired amount of weight , even adding back a few carbs is frequently observed to add either zero or very small amount of body fat. This is one common strategy in atkins diet, but even people with keto diet do that.

      not a long term solution though

      Keto is not even necessary to begin with. Without going full keto, if you just increase your dietary fat / carbohydrate ratio gradually until you feel good, that is also known to reduce body fat. Worked for me to achieve a lower body fat, better overall health.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    120. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do potato chips really contain calcium? And the vitamin C is interesting. Doesn't vitamin C degrade when heat is applied? Aren't potato chips deep fried? Overall I think a dietitian recommends the apple vs potato chips because overall the calories are lower, the apple fills you up more.

    121. Re:Makes sense. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      ok, so you've been on your diet for 48 hours now? What do you do, a 'no carb cleans' every few months or something?
      How is your vegetable intake?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    122. Re: Makes sense. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Have you seen anyone continuously losing weight , shrinking to zero weight eventually on a keto diet ?

      No, but I've seen them become so unhealthy they end up in fainting spells, then go to a doctor who tells them to eat some carbs.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    123. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trans fats are well known as bad, and are being phased out of the food supply in the US

    124. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Alle Dinge sind Gift, und nichts ist ohne Gift, allein die Dosis macht dass ein Ding kein Gift ist.

      All things are poison, and nothing is without poison, the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.

      Paracelsus
      in 1538

      First sensible comment. Wish I had mod points...

    125. Re: Makes sense. by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      I was answering about your claim of eventually stopping wanting to lose weight. Unhealthy is a different beast altogether and to be avoided from day one, regardless of weight.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    126. Re:Makes sense. by next_ghost · · Score: 1

      The body can convert both ways between fat and sugar. It can also break down proteins into sugar (one-way). From a nutritional perspective, starch is sugar.

    127. Re:Makes sense. by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 1

      It looks like somehow my reply was eaten.

      The problem is mostly a problem of surface area. When you use a blender you break up the fruit much more finely and so you also process it faster and get a larger sugar hit. Smoothies are better than not eating fruit at all but worse than just eating the fruit in terms of the sugar hit. Of course this only applies if the smoothie is made without adding sugar to it. If you blend it up yourself and don't add sweeteners a smoothie can be okay but not great.

      --
      Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
    128. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've stopped paying attention to food/dietary studies years ago. They are worthless horseshit.

    129. Re:Makes sense. by Khashishi · · Score: 1

      True but high fructose corn syrup is processed with some enzymes to make it higher in fructose than normal corn syrup.

    130. Re: Makes sense. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      oh yeah, but there are a zillion good ways to lose weight, all centered around restricting calories in some way. A healthy way to lose weight is different than a healthy way to eat permanently.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    131. Re:Makes sense. by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Fat good, sugar bad is the only thing this, and similar studies found. Carbs aren't bad. Sugar is, but sugar is a carb, so carbs gets a bad name.

    132. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My direct experience is that by going to almost no meat or dairy, and getting > 80% of my calories from starchy carbohydrates (rice, potatoes, beans), and most of the rest from various fruits & vegetables, my A1C plunged from 167 mg/dL to 137 mg/dL, and that's with no dietary changes during the first 30 days of the 90 days that an A1C covers. After two months of that change in diet I've dropped ten pounds (from 209 to 199). My blood pressure is also down about ten points, but I have not yet had my triglycerides or cholesterol checked (they were fine before the change). So, for myself, high-carb has not been an issue (granted, it's only been two months) but the average of my waking glucose tests, as well as my A1C, is going down, and I'm eating meals with 100-200g of carbs in them. The important part is giving up the refined carbs of chips, pie, cake, and cookies; and that really has not been a big deal.

    133. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One requires sugar to survive.

      This is not actually true. Most of your body can happily run on fat, for the portion that cant (~50g/day needed) your body can synthesize carbs from protein.

      That isn't true exactly. There is so much bullshit around nutrition with oversimplifications being the main issue, with drawing wrong conclusions from such simplifications being the other like lipogenesis from excess carbs being good example; humans have the pathway but unlike ruminants and the like don't use it, last I checked most (98% ish iirc) of our body fat is dietary and stored due to excess carb ratios meaning we never switch to "rest mode" and burn fats ever even when at rest. Surprisingly ALL the nutritionalists I've met are not that clued up and none had a life science degree background so most my peers where more qualified than them despite being in none nutrition fields. Nutritionalists should be much more qualified IMO. We're hardwired to store fats obviously because our adipose storage is not just an energy reserve but a fat soluble vitamin storage system. You can live an astonishingly long time without macronutrients albeit with muscle atrophy but micronutrients (vit and minerals) will make you sick and die much sooner

      A VERY heavy ketogenic diet like fat exclusive energy sources (or starvation process) will lead to a state where body/brain will NOT happily run (source BSC biochem hon). The brain fog is the leats of your worries in that state, muscle wasting to scavenge amino acids to feed krebs and so on become issues alongside the serious health effects that raise cortisol throug hthe roof and put stress on the body in a massive way usually only type 1 diabetics who've gone hypo normally encounter. Muscle tissue etc actually prefer to use fats at rest but they cannot cross the blood brain barrier thus ketogenesis because ketobodies can cross it. Been a long time since I studied thus looked at in detail and a few things changed since then but iirc ketobodies are only a 3rd as efficient as glucose, coupled with issues with high ketone levels. Obviously any carbs (or aminoacids in their absence/over abundance) are converted to that at some point being what is needed in Krebs cycle, glycogen also being a glucose polymer, insoluble but no conversion required to feed into krebs so can be used aerobically where fats/triglycerides as an energy source cannot efficiently. FWIW I do eat a sugar free diet mostly with no refined sugar, the so called sugar free diets are actually high in complex AND simple carbs but the ratio is less relative to fats and whole protein ; aa's have much higher gi even if in the same balance as the whole form which is obvious really. Coupled with fibre which slows the uptake of the carbs it spikes the blood sugar less. Stats wise the diets are still significantly high in sugar but those factors mean it is more suited to the biochemistry of how the body works thus not only will you burn more fats but you'll eat less as get less hunger signalling going on due to bloodsugar spikes and troughs. High carb and then AA compared to whole protein and fats ratios esp with low fibre causes ravenous appetite several times a day, with the alternative you can easily feel more sated for much longer due to body not signalling to eat unnecessarily.

    134. Re:Makes sense. by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

      With tomato sauce you need to add a bit of xanthan gum to avoid having bubbles that are so sharp you cut your mouth when you eat the bread.

      That has got to be one of the most metal bread recipes I've ever heard of.

    135. Re: Makes sense. by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      While losing weight, one's weight will keep varying. So the diet will have to be parameterized according to one's current weight. So the diet f is determined by f(x, y, z) where say x is your current weight, y is your state as in injured/infected etc, and various other parameters.

      If f is correct and healthy for all parameter values, by definition it has to be correct after "losing weight" too. If f is not correct and healthy for all parameter values, it is dangerous during a reducing weight scenario too.

      It could be correct and healthy only for higher values of x , but that stinks of an incorrectly parametrized function.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    136. Re: Makes sense. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      I have no idea what you are saying. You didn't even define all the parameters in the function.

      There are definitely two types of diet:
      1) What you eat when you are trying to lose weight
      2) What you eat when you are not trying to lose weight.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    137. Re: Makes sense. by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      I didn't define f itself, so why are you surprised I didn't define the parameters of f? The parameters I did mention were examples. When talking about functions in general, one cannot possibly discuss parameters in concrete because then it would necessarily be talking about specific functions - the ones that work with that set of parameters.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    138. Re: Makes sense. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Did your comment even have a point?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    139. Re: Makes sense. by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      A healthy way to lose weight is different than a healthy way to eat permanently

      This is not true, if the way is defined as a function of your parameters e.g. weight, state, age etc. Then, the "way" will remain the same whether during or after the project of losing weight is complete.

      The "way" must be defined as a function of parameters , or at least, work for multiple weights of the same person, because during the project of weight loss the weight must change if the project is anywhere close to success.

      Now given that the "way" has worked for the full duration of weight loss project, it is but natural for it to work at the end state i.e. after having lost the weight.

      Here, "work" is defined such as to not make the subject unhealthy, and if already unhealthy move the subject towards better health. Why?

      1. That is the principle by which it brought the subject to a better weight in the first place.

      2. If these 2 conditions were not met, it wouldn't be a good diet even during the weight loss project.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    140. Re: Makes sense. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      It's a disjoint function. The goal during weight loss is different than the goal during maintenance.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    141. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope it's easy to buy vinegar that has only vinegar in it. I have both kinds, in France. (the sugary one is cheapo balsamic vinegar. high content from raisin).

      I like to eat mayonnaise. There's no sugar in that! or so I thought : the very cheap one I buy has "dextrose" (and starch). Not too bad : 2 grams sugar per 100 grams of product.
      The really cheap mustard (in glass jar as well) doesn't have any sugar in it. Well, 2.3 grams per 100 grams which I suppose is naturally occurring.

      Those are processed foods ; they're not "salad dressings" though. Have one plastic bottle which may qualify as salad dressing, it does have "dextrose" again, ends up at 3.7 grams per 100mL.

      Next time I want something simple and straightforward such as oil and vinegar, I think I will use.. oil and vinegar!

    142. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You cite that the brain needs glucose,

      It doesn't. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4915800

      but then call it outright poisonous,

      It is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycosylation

      despite the fact that it's in the blood of 99.9% of the population 99.9% of the time,

      Glucose is present in 100% of all living humans 100% of the time. Your liver can produce it if you need more, and your pancreas produces insulin to store excess. It's a fantastic feedback system in healthy humans, and why diabetics left untreated tend to die. Claiming only 99.9% have blood glucose is just as silly as saying only 99.9% of humans need water, or to breathe. 100% or die, it's that simple.

      It is, at worst, the second best dietary source of energy, but for anyone not in a keto circlejerk, it's the best.

      In my opinion it can be far worse than a source of energy, it is highly inflammatory.

      You could do some research on which diseases are now believed to be caused or accelerated by inflammation, and what causes inflammation, including what types of metabolic processes have byproducts that may affect it. But I don't think you will. Labeling something a "circlejerk" lets you avoid the cognitive dissonance of learning about something new, complicated, and difficult.

      Here is a basic starter anyway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflammation

    143. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >> You cite that the brain needs glucose,
      > It doesn't.

      Yes, it does. The brain's glucose requirements can be reduced by using ketones for fuel, but not completely eliminated.

      The body will break down its own muscle proteins to keep providing the brain with glucose.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation_response#Timeline

    144. Re:Makes sense. by Archtech · · Score: 1

      Wish I could mod you up. Excellent post, very clearly explained. Thanks!

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    145. Re:Makes sense. by SandWyrm · · Score: 1

      The apple contains, within its fiber, the things you need to digest its fructose. Thus the fructose does not have to be stored away in your liver.

      Fructose in processed foods does not come with the fiber required for its digestion. When this happens, its damaging effect on the liver is very similar to that of alcohol.

      That is why the apple is healthier.

    146. Re:Makes sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huh? The liver metabolizes fructose, it doesn't store it. It stores glycogen, and when its stores are full it metabolizes excess fructose into tryglycerides. Unless I'm mistaken?

    147. Re:Makes sense. by PlaynBass · · Score: 1

      My food motto is simple:

      The short version: Buy good fresh food and eat it. Better still, grow your own food and share/exchange your garden harvest with your neighbors.

      The gritty details:

      If you only eat whole fresh vegetables, fruits, and meats, you won't need to eat as much.

      Stay away from all processed white foods: Fats, Sugars, Flours.

      If it tastes or looks like hospital food, don't eat it.

      Do not eat anything with an unpronounceable word in the ingredient list.

      High Fructose Corn Syrup causes increased stress on your pancreas. Don't eat anything that uses it.

      Diet drinks only cause you to eat more. Stop drinking all sweetened drinks. Drink water instead. a splash of a pure, unsweetened fruit juice will give plain water plenty of flavor. Don't substitute fruit juices for water.

      If you want a sweeter taste, add some blueberries or other fruit instead of sugar.

      Avoid eating at restaurants that don't cook food from scratch. Make eating out a real, memorable treat, not a convenience.

      --
      PlaynBass
    148. Re:Makes sense. by PlaynBass · · Score: 1

      Oh, make sure you eat plenty of high fiber whole foods: it's what the biota in your intestines eat, and they are what power and protect your digestive system.

      Don't eat food-like food substitutes that use a lot of chemicals to provide the flavor. If it says enriched or bleached, it's poison to your body & the food company has robbed you of good nutrition in order to make the food cheaper.

      --
      PlaynBass
    149. Re: Makes sense. by PlaynBass · · Score: 1
      Fruit juices do not have the fiber of the whole fruit. They should not replace water as a primary drink for kids or adults. Plain water is best to drink to keep enough hydration, but drinking too much water can dilute the body's electrolyte balance.

      A splash of a pure, unsweetened fruit juice can provide plenty of flavor to a glass of water and does not overload the body with sugars. If you want to make your oatmeal sweeter, add some whole fruit, not refined sugar.

      --
      PlaynBass
    150. Re:Makes sense. by eneville · · Score: 1

      If you're an endurance athlete then complex carbs only go so far, literally measured in hours of effort. If you're performing for four hours or so, you'll need to start consuming sugar, or else break for a meal, or consider stopping. Simple carbs have a short burn, you can sort of notice the blood sugar level drop.

    151. Re:Makes sense. by G00F · · Score: 1

      Interesting, I do recall about all meat diet studies starting back in the 30's but, I'll have to go back and look. Not to mention read up on how the body copes and such w/ other nutients being low.

      Thanks!

      --
      The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive
  2. No shit by barrywalker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Anybody with an IQ over room temperature has known this for years. Funny that the obesity epidemic started in earnest right around the time they started taking fat out of everything and replacing it with sugar.

    1. Re:No shit by dfghjk · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Anybody with an IQ over room temperature has known this for years."

      While that may be true, other threads in Slashdot, even recently, have been dominated by the "a calorie is a calorie" experts. You know the ones that have yet to experience puberty, much less a weight problem. I know expressing contempt for the issue makes you feel smart but it makes you look stupid.

      Until someone experiences what another does every day due to long term diet problems, they will insist it doesn't exist. As the experts have told us, fat people are fat because they are inferior people, because they want to be. We all know from these same experts that sugar is perfectly good, it's HFCS that's bad. These experts will spew their "knowledge" here as well, kids just don't get up this early.

    2. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anybody with an IQ over room temperature has known this for years. Funny that the obesity epidemic started in earnest right around the time they started taking fat out of everything and replacing it with sugar.

      Yes, everyone should have known this for years. But if you really want to grasp the real issue, get the stupid ignorant masses to understand that unhealthy addictive food maintains a cheap price because governments need to manufacture death. They also cater to to Medical Industrial Complex who rakes in trillions treating all of the related diseases caused by subsidizing dangerous food.

      A healthy person doesn't die quick enough, or create enough revenue during the dying process. Governments don't like that shit. Current policy and deadly products that are 100% legal validate this fact.

    3. Re:No shit by ravenshrike · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't know about sugar being good, but I know I dropped 15 lbs switching to Mt Dew Throwback from normal Mt Dew without a change in consumption or activity.

    4. Re:No shit by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      around the time they started taking fat out of everything and replacing it with sugar.

      That would be around the time of the Neolithic Revolution, right?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    5. Re:No shit by alvinrod · · Score: 0
      Yes there are medical conditions that can lead to problems with certain diets (here's a guy who only eats raw meat due to some medical condition), and there's almost certainly some genetic factors that can contribute to how the human body processes certain foods or Samoans and other Pacific islanders wouldn't have an even bigger problem with the modern western diet than most westerners do. However, you can't look at the obesity figures for the U.S. and tell me that every single one of them has some condition that's responsible for their weight and not the sheer number of calories they're consuming. A calorie may not always be the same as any other, but when you're consuming four or five thousand every day, it doesn't matter all that much.

      I know expressing contempt for the issue makes you feel smart but it makes you look stupid.

      Given the rest of your post, the same could be said for you as well.

    6. Re:No shit by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Anybody with an IQ over room temperature has known this for years. Funny that the obesity epidemic started in earnest right around the time they started taking fat out of everything and replacing it with sugar.

      Exactly. While there are likely other factors involved too, The demonization of fat and protein in favor of carbohydrates does correlate pretty well with obesity becoming the new norm.

      At least in my own experience, I have never been able to regulate my weight on a high carbohydrate diet. I would be perpetually hungry. Volume intake was way off. On a diet higher in protein and fat, I eat less, I am not hungry again until the next meal, instead of two hours after the last one. I have a lot less flatulence, and simply feel better.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    7. Re:No shit by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      > While that may be true, other threads in Slashdot, even recently, have been dominated by the "a calorie is a calorie" experts.

      Carbs mess up some people's sense of saeity.

      Knowing what to do was always easy. Actually doing it has always been hard.

      Sabotaging yourself with your diet makes it harder. It doesn't change the math.

      Different people have different triggers. Some of us have no problems self-regulating with a higher carb diet. Most people don't.

      It turns out that the old "Eat a little bit of everything and not too much of anything in particular" was the least harmful approach for the largest number of people.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    8. Re:No shit by Mitreya · · Score: 1

      Anybody with an IQ over room temperature has known this for years.

      In Canada, that actually includes quite a few people!
      Normal room temperature there would be about 20 Celsius

    9. Re:No shit by bferrell · · Score: 1

      No, actually just after Eisenhower had a heart attack in 1957 is when this began

    10. Re:No shit by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      "Anybody with an IQ over room temperature has known this for years."

      While that may be true, other threads in Slashdot, even recently, have been dominated by the "a calorie is a calorie" experts.

      Well, so much for the experts. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie is true as far as measuring different things energy via combustion, but if a calorie was a calorie regarding nutrition, we would be able to eat 3000 calories of wood pulp or 3000 calories of fuel oil and it would be the same thing as eating steak or kale.

      But it isn't. One of the important things to remember is that the body is not a test cell where 1100 of the amount of energy required to warm one gram of air-free water from 0 to 100 C at standard atmospheric pressure equals 1 calorie, and you combust the test material to see it's energy content. Different foods have different properties for different animals. Cats are frank carnivores, Horses are frank herbivores, and humans are omnivores. Trying to sustain a horse on hot dogs won't work, no matter how many calories are in them.

      Any "expert" who claims that all food calories are the same, no matter the source, is a piss poor excuse for an expert

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    11. Re:No shit by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 1

      Mt. Dew throwback also has like 20 less calories.

    12. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When science agrees with you: "That's obvious! Why did this get funded?"
      When science disagrees with you: "That study is flawed, and the author is pushing an agenda for profit!"

      When you see someone disagreeing with the accepted scientific consensus: "That guy's a moron who should be shunned till he listens to reason."
      When you disagree with the accepted scientific consensus: "I'm obviously smarter than all those 'scientists'."

    13. Re:No shit by Archtech · · Score: 5, Interesting

      around the time they started taking fat out of everything and replacing it with sugar.

      That would be around the time of the Neolithic Revolution, right?

      As a matter of fact, no. I think it was Dr John Yudkin, in his fine book "Pure, White and Deadly" who pointed out that in Elizabethan England refined sugar was about as expensive as cocaine is today. It was definitely a drug for the wealthy.

      Everything changed when the New World was discovered and exploited. It was found that the West Indies provided ideal conditions for growing sugar cane in vast amounts. Then the only problem was finding human workers who could survive the conditions - Europeans died (in the classic phrase) "like flies". Eventually it was discovered that West Africans tended to do much better, and could indeed provide many years of labour before dying. That kicked the slave trade into high gear, which in turn flooded Western markets with cheap sugar. Ironically, the horrible treatment of slaves led - as one of its by-products - to the sickness, suffering and premature death of millions who consumed the "product". And manufacturers like Messrs Tate & Lyle, who now appear in the light of mass murderers, became extremely rich.

      There was one serious problem with slavery. It seems incompatible with Christianity (at least with the New Testament). An ingenious way around this objection was soon found: to claim, with all kinds of spurious arguments, that black people were not fully human. Thus the demand for sugar led to slavery, which led to racism as we know it.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    14. Re:No shit by ranton · · Score: 1

      While that may be true, other threads in Slashdot, even recently, have been dominated by the "a calorie is a calorie" experts.

      Most people who believe this still feel a generally balanced diet is part of a healthy lifestyle. They don't really believe 10 bags of skittles is a good daily diet, but they will claim that a diet of 50% carbs can be just as healthy as one of 15% carbs. It isn't until you go to significant extremes (like the 77% in this study) where you get into trouble. I'm willing to bet those with a 77% daily fat intake would also have health problems. I'm not completely on the "a calorie is a calorie" bandwagon, but I believe they are more correct than those who target 50-100 grams of daily carbohydrates.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    15. Re:No shit by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      Troll misses obvious problem of mutually contradictory scientific conclusions.

      It's like the weather in some places. If you don't like it, don't worry. It will change in a few minutes.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    16. Re:No shit by jon3k · · Score: 0

      "a calorie is a calorie"

      Yes, "Calories In, Calories Out" dictates your weight. If you consume less than your BMR you lose weight, and vice versa. This has been proven time and time again.

      But that doesn't make it healthy. If you want to actually be healthy and control your weight you need to consume good calories in reasonable amounts. This is REALLY well established science.

      Also HFCS(55) isn't really any worse than sugar, they're almost identically chemically. HFCS55 (the most common form) is 55% fructose and 42% glucose. I think the remainder is galactose. Sugar is about 50/50.

    17. Re:No shit by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      BS. It isn't the same. The eating experience is more than just calorie counting. The fact that you feel sated earlier or not is important. People typically don't weigh their food and calorie count when they are eating. They just eat until they feel they're full enough. The taste is important and sucrose isn't the same in terms of taste as HFCS even if it had the same percentage of the broken down byproducts which it typically does not.

    18. Re:No shit by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      What's insane is that while this has become common knowledge, the supermarket shelves are still filled with products based on the 80s idea of low-fat and high-carbs.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    19. Re:No shit by atheos · · Score: 4, Insightful

      imagine how much you'd lose dropping Mt Dew altogether

    20. Re:No shit by Archtech · · Score: 1

      A calorie is a calorie is a calorie is true as far as measuring different things energy via combustion, but if a calorie was a calorie regarding nutrition, we would be able to eat 3000 calories of wood pulp or 3000 calories of fuel oil and it would be the same thing as eating steak or kale.

      Exactly. But it's more than that. The biochemist Richard David Feinman points out in his book "The World Turned Upside Down: The Second Low-Carbohydrate Revolution" that the well-known process of gloconeogenesis kills "a calorie is a calorie" stone dead.

      Gluconeogenesis is the body's way of converting protein to carbohydrate (glucose). If the "calorie is a calorie" theory were correct, since the energy obtained from 1 gram of protein is the same as the energy obtained from 1 gram of carbohydrate, gluconeogenesis would not cost any energy. But in fact it is significantly endergonic: it does consume energy. This is a sufficient existence proof that a calorie is NOT always a calorie. It depends entirely on what reactions the body performs on it.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    21. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A calorie is a calorie, in terms of weight (which is a function of total system energy) gain or loss. I say this as someone who's been >300 lbs and is finally maintaining a very healthy 170 lbs. I maintain that weight with ~3,300 kcals/day intake including 48% mostly unrefined carbohydrates. It works for my activity levels and helps me build strength and performance.

      Being overweight -IS- a choice. We know exactly how to solve it: improved diet and exercise. It's how I solved it after decades of not choosing to solve it. You aren't an inferior person because you're overweight, but you absolutely -ARE- choosing to be overweight. Or, more precisely, you are making choices which accumulate into a lifestyle that results in your being overweight.

      -HOWEVER- while a calorie is a calorie for the purposes of weight, all calories are NOT created equally for the purposes of athletic performance, health, and sustainable eating habits. Replacing higher density, more refined foods with simpler, more natural foods will have a net positive on your overall well-being that goes beyond just weight. You can lose weight eating nothing but Twinkies. You will not be healthy doing that, nor is that sustainable.

    22. Re:No shit by pastafazou · · Score: 1

      1lb = 3500 calories.
      15lb = 52,500 calories
      52,500 calories = 2,625 cans of Mt. Dew Throwback instead of regular Mt. Dew.
      So yes, if the user was consuming 7 cans of Mountain Dew a day, and switched to Throwback, he could expect to lose 15lbs after a year based on only the caloric math. I'm guessing that this isn't the case. And given the fact that our body CAN'T burn fat when it's pumping out insulin, and given the fact that our body pumps out insulin in response to consumption of carbohydrates, especially sugar, which signals our body to STORE those carbs as either glycogen (if there's room) or FAT, It's probably got nothing to do with the calories and everything to do with the sugar content.

    23. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The fact that people are choosing not to count the calories in/calories out does not alter the fact that calories in/calories out is what determines their weight. You're making a sociological argument in an attempt to counter a physics argument. If you net extra energy from a system, that system has less energy. You can't counter that by saying "but people eat differently!"

    24. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also HFCS(55) isn't really any worse than sugar, they're almost identically chemically. HFCS55 (the most common form) is 55% fructose and 42% glucose. I think the remainder is galactose.

      Well, that explains my increasing size and insatiable hunger. That said, it's a bit annoying that every time I go out to eat there's a tiny metal man flying around warning people of my impending arrival...

    25. Re:No shit by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      I would think that a little less cynical interpretation of the government's role is in order. I think the biggest problem is government corn subsidies. Sugar (or HFCS) is cheaper than air and it gets pumped into everything because it makes everything taste better, so it sells more. As we become accustomed to sweeter and sweeter foods (not to mention the fact that fruits and even many vegetables are being bred for higher and higher sugar content), we undergo the same kinds of problems people have when they develop tolerance for alcohol or drugs, except that our pancreases and other organs don't adapt as well as our senses of taste, so we end up being obese and diabetic, etc.

      I'm overweight, and I try to eat well, but eating well takes more work and costs more, and I know there are a lot of things I do out of convenience or cost that make for a worse diet. No, I don't eat fast food normally... maybe once a week, often less, but the difference in cost between eating healthy food and eating stuff that's not good for you is very significant, if you want to have any satiety and variety in your diet.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    26. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Anybody with an IQ over room temperature has known this for years."

      While that may be true, other threads in Slashdot, even recently, have been dominated by the "a calorie is a calorie" experts.

      A good diet is not binary, it can be considered a spectrum to a certain extent. If all you do is sit at a desk all day, and then sit in a car for your commute, then if you're taking in 3000+ calories a day you're going to get fat regardless of whether they're "good" or "bad" calories.

      The first step is to match your intake to your activity level. Once you're in a reasonable range of matching in and out, you can start working on refining things.

    27. Re:No shit by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 1

      So, you're saying that we could have cocaine as cheap as sugar if we industrialized its production?

    28. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anybody with an IQ over room temperature

      Anyone with IQ over 20 (Celcius) or 393 (Kelvin)? Those are very different statements...

    29. Re:No shit by cordovaCon83 · · Score: 1

      Then we could all enjoy a stim-fast diet!

    30. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's 2625 cans of Dew!!!

    31. Re:No shit by ravenshrike · · Score: 1

      Try 15 lbs in 4 months at 3 cans a day.

    32. Re:No shit by thegarbz · · Score: 0

      While that may be true, other threads in Slashdot, even recently, have been dominated by the "a calorie is a calorie" experts. You know the ones that have yet to experience puberty, much less a weight problem. I know expressing contempt for the issue makes you feel smart but it makes you look stupid.

      Ironically you've fallen into the same trap. The calorie is a calorie experts are always advocating that one way of losing weight is to eat less. Do you have a justifiable defence against this strategy? Portion control and not stuffing your face 3 times a day until you can't walk anymore is just as effective as any other diet that tricks bodies into burning calories in different ways.

      Those people who "haven't hit puberty yet" are also the health associations of governments who spend their efforts to dumb down diets into simple calorie calculators like those published by the NHS "In association with The British Dietetic Association".

      So maybe a less "mightier than thou" attitude is in order given the published materials on the matter.

    33. Re:No shit by alexo · · Score: 1

      In science mostly the Kelvin scale is used, which suggests that no scientist even approaches room-temperature IQ.

    34. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who the hell would want to eat 13 lbs of kale?

    35. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had to laugh when I saw that reply was by "cheesybagel".

    36. Re:No shit by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      I don't know if that's a good argument. It's a bit like saying that a certain amount of one fuel (say coal) obviously doesn't contain the same amount of energy as some quantity of another fuel (say oil) simply because converting between them uses some energy to do so. If that weren't the case, you'd have the body undertaking metabolic processes that have no energy cost whatsoever, essentially a perfect engine. I think it's far more reasonable to say that just because you have two quantities of fuel that contain the same amount of potential energy, you may not have equally good ways of extracting that potential energy and putting it to use.

      Even if your body is capable of extracting more from certain types of fuels, you're still going to need to limit the amount of input or the excess is going to get stored and you'll gain weight. If your an average adult eating 1600 calories per day and are relatively active and still putting on massive amounts of weight, something is clearly wrong with that picture and its pretty important to figure out what that is. The number of conditions that cause issues such as that do not occur at the rates necessary for us to see such widespread obesity in the population. For most people, the more likely explanation is that they're consuming far more than they'll admit.

      And if there are certain foods that are exacerbating the problem, then it's necessary to remove them from the diet.

    37. Re:No shit by blindseer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Imagine the mess if he kept dropping the Mt Dew?

      I dropped a Mt Dew on the kitchen floor before and it just splattered everywhere. I cleaned it up as best I could but I still come across sticky spots here and there weeks later.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    38. Re:No shit by null+etc. · · Score: 1

      Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

    39. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try 15 lbs in 4 months at 3 cans a day.

      Yes, even more impossible than the math above. If you read that post, even given the best case scenario, it is impossible for that little of a calorie cut to cause that large of a weight change in less than a year. Best case, which everyone knows isn't possible that didn't happen. In that context your reply just means that you are extra wrong about cause and effect here.

    40. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been on a high carb diet most of my life eating only around 500g of meat a week. besides body weight control, a lot of hydrocarbons is a brain boost. If I were to increase my fat intake I would plaque up my arteries and gain weight (It has happened occasionally). Poor people eat a carbohydrate rich diet because they are poor! Poor people die earlier because they can't afford medical treatment and a varied diet. This study is nonsense!

    41. Re:No shit by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      I would think that a little less cynical interpretation of the government's role is in order.

      If the "carbs are good" mantra was the result of corporate influence over government departments, and corporate influence over government departments has continued to grow since then, then problem is even worse now.

      There was no cleansing event that made these departments any better than they were. We must conclude that they are probably worse now, and any claim to the contrary is exceptional and thus requires exceptional evidence.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    42. Re:No shit by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      AFAIK, when determining the number of calories of a food item, formulas are used to subtract the caloric values of waste products.
      Essentially it would be : burn food, get a number, burn shit, get a number, the difference is the number of food calories. Indigestible products are zero calorie, because what you eat is essentially the same as what you shit.

      Approximations are used to get an estimate. I think the formula is : 4 per gram of protein/carb, 9 per gram of fat, dietary fibers don't count. It is not perfect but making it so that all food calories are the same is the goal.

    43. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On the contrary, the Southern Baptists were specifically formed to defend the Biblical right to slavery, and Jesus never anywhere says not to have slaves. Paul also tells slaves to obey their masters "as they were Christ Himself."

    44. Re:No shit by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      I don't think the mantra is "carbs are good", but "carbs are cheap".

      The government's influence is clearly negative, probably as the result of great cynicism and/or greed, and is definitely causing great harm to citizens. However, I take exception to the idea that they are harming our health on purpose. I think they are harming our health because of indifference, bureaucratic inertia, and influence by corporations who value profits over everything. Since the results are the same, maybe the motives don't matter, but Hanlon's Razor almost certainly applies.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    45. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except when it comes to losing weight, a calorie is a calorie. No two ways about it. I've lost well north of 100lbs and while that doesn't necessarily make me an expert, I do know that my own data suggests calories from fat contribute to weight problems just as much as calories from carbs.

      Do they have different effects on metabolic response? Hunger? Mental health? Yeah, probably. I know that foregoing carbs entirely had a very draining effect on my energy level and ability to think clearly. My metabolism is too fucked up from a dead thyroid for food choices to have much impact, though, and my hunger remains pretty much insatiable without appetite suppressing stimulants to keep it in line. But the point is, weight loss is a function of caloric intake vs expenditure, and that's that. One of the reason all the fad diets are so popular is that they try to skirt that issue by changing up what you eat instead of how much, and consequently they don't really help much.

    46. Re:No shit by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 1

      A dismissive, snide tone isn't really a valid argument. I know modern "you go girl" TV has made people think it is, but it's not.

      A calorie is mostly, almost completely, a calorie. This study doesn't invalidate that. It's sort of a hierarchy. First worry about your caloric intake and expenditure, then worry about calorie composition. Be reasonable about the makeup of your diet, don't eat 80% fat and 20% protein, nor should you eat 75% carbs, 15% fat, and 10% protein. Finally, worry about your daily activity.

      That's it. I know these facts may not make you feel good, but that's really all there is to it.

    47. Re:No shit by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 1

      I find these arguments fascinating. So what people will do now is refute you with """science""", heavy quotes intended. See, diets don't work, science has proved it!

      What these people don't understand is that diets (not fad diets, 'diets' as in controlled eating) do 100% work for any given individual. A comatose person will lose weight if you limit their calories. Absolutely anyone, I don't care about your thyroid, your "metabolism", or your "health conditions". Anyone.

      The piece they're missing is the difference between an epidemiological view/study and an individual one. Epidemiologically diets don't work because people are people. Most people who've already gotten fat don't have the will to take it off. It's definitely difficult and taken as a whole most people are incapable of difficult things.

      So look at 10 million fat people and yes, probably most of them will yoyo diet, if that. But take any one of them and control their food intake and they will lose weight. Diets work, they just aren't an epidemiological solution.

    48. Re:No shit by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      "carbs are cheap" was never the mantra. It is merely the underlying fact that motivated the dishonest "carbs are good" mantra.

      That official food pyramid is still there with the largest section still being carbs,

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    49. Re:No shit by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      The calorie is a calorie experts are always advocating that one way of losing weight is to eat less

      And you can beat the Yankees by scoring more points than them.

      The question is now what, but how ? In order to successfully eat less, you have to reduce your appetite. Many people have success with low carb diets, because they reduce their appetite.

    50. Re:No shit by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      > There was one serious problem with slavery. It seems incompatible with Christianity (at least with the New Testament).

      Depends who you read. Methinks you need to do more studying: Christian views on slavery

      Specifically,

      1. Jesus _never_ says nor writes anything about slavery however as as Essene/Nazirene he was strictly against such barbaric concepts -- it was a total and complete perversion of the law. Lev 19:18 "but love your neighbor as yourself."

      2. If you are talking about that dumb Jew, Paul the Corruptor (*), he specifically says in Ephesians 6:5 (KJV)

      Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;

      So much for him understanding the Year of the Jubilee

      --
      (*) Paul the Corrupter was just another dumb Pharisee who was completely ignorant about male horses and their long manes let alone lion's manes (1 Corinthians 11:14) Oh wait, he knew about lions so WTF was his excuse in-spite of being allegedly thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors and not nothing the _first_ thing about the Nazirene Vow ???

    51. Re:No shit by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Who the hell would want to eat 13 lbs of kale?

      No kidding! Who owuld want to eat any kale at all?

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    52. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The question is now what, but how ? In order to successfully eat less, you have to reduce your appetite.

      Excuse me, but no, you don't. You just have to control your eating. That's what "diet" means, not "eat less and not be hungry."

    53. Re:No shit by rogoshen1 · · Score: 1

      it would be absolutely fantastic for them to try what they're suggesting.. One month,with nothing but 3k calories per day of mountain dew, and whatever non-caloric vitamin supplements they wish.

      if it's as simple as they claim, they'll lose/gain a uniform amount of weight based on their TDEE. This might work for the very young; the CICO equation will be mostly accurate. (insulin sensitivy/resistance is still probably working well)

      Already obese, or older than late 20's or so? Nope, they'll get fat(ter), with zero energy and motivation for anything physical.

    54. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Ketogenic diet advocates upwards of 90% fat intake. I'm an endurance athlete and have noticed my performance over the last 2.5 years to be much better than the previous years. According to my doctor all of my numbers are now in the high level competitive athlete range. The only change I did in my diet was remove as much carbs as possible and increased fat intake. I keep my carbs under 50g/day. I have never felt better. Your 'belief' is not founded in anything but your own opinion.

    55. Re:No shit by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      I think we are talking past each other a bit. I think your assessment is accurate.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    56. Re:No shit by thegarbz · · Score: 0

      In order to successfully eat less, you have to reduce your appetite.

      Or just employ the fact that the body is not a simple instant responding machine. Note my comment about stuffing your face until you can't walk? Well if you're still eating when you stop feeling hungry then you have way over eaten. The suppression of hunger takes a good half an hour +, unless it is you hit one of the other biological indicators, such as that you have a full stomach.

      You don't need to reduce appetite, just eat slower. Realise that by the time you have a 500mL coke (Large size at McDonalds in Europe) and sit for 10 min you'll no longer have a desire to eat. You don't need the 950mL coke (Large size at McDonalds in the USA) and then grasp your stomach in satisfaction.

      Don't stop eating fast food, stop eating food fast and you'll find your serving sizes instinctively reduce and you end up no hungrier than if you dove head first and open mouthed into a supersized bucket of gravy.

      Try eating a really high-end Japanese meal once. The kind that comes in 8+ courses, each bite sized but takes 2 hours to eat because it gets served slowly with breaks in it. You'll leave just as satisfied as if you ate half a cow and will have consumed considerably less.

    57. Re:No shit by Tjp($)pjT · · Score: 1

      The obesity kicked in big time when the grain councils in the US backed creation of the old food pyramid where 300 grams of carbohydrates in the form of grains was recommended daily. You'd have to eat a 600 gram (over one pound) loaf of bread to get that many carbs. And that neglects the carbs from other items on the food pyramid like fruits. 6-11 servings daily of pasta, rice and grains was recommended. And schools followed this recommendation. Add the 2-4 servings of fruits, and 2-5 servings of vegetables and you're really carbo-loading your diet. It is a wonder Americans survived at all. This might be appropriate if you'e walking everywhere you go and are in an agricultural community farming daily. But for car-obsessed desk bound workers this is a slow death sentence.

      --
      - Tjp

      I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!

    58. Re:No shit by ranton · · Score: 1

      The Ketogenic diet advocates upwards of 90% fat intake. I'm an endurance athlete and have noticed my performance over the last 2.5 years to be much better than the previous years. According to my doctor all of my numbers are now in the high level competitive athlete range. The only change I did in my diet was remove as much carbs as possible and increased fat intake. I keep my carbs under 50g/day. I have never felt better. Your 'belief' is not founded in anything but your own opinion.

      And your anecdote about your use of the Ketogenic diet is no more scientific than my poor experience using various low-carb diets in my early 20's. The only difference is what the scientific community thinks of these low carb diets (and expecially extreme ones such as the Ketogenic diet). Your diet is known to cause complications and is generally only recommended as part of therapy for conditions such as epilepsy. Regardless of how you "feel" it is not something you should keep up long term. You may not ever have adverse effects, just like some smokers live to be 100, but that doesn't make it safe. The general consensus seems to be the diet should only be used for short periods because of potential damage to the heart, kidney, and liver. Just feeling like a professional athlete does not mean your heart is healthy, and plenty of organ damage cannot be identified without opening you up (so even a positive physical won't identify all damage).

      There has never been a fad diet (like Atkins or Ketogenic) which has gone through enough thorough clinical trials for an overwhelming number of doctors and nutritionists to claim it is healthier than a balanced diet. Sure they are healthier than an average American diet, which is why people are usually able to lose weight and become healthier on them (for a short time that is). But there is still no strong evidence they are healthier than a good balanced diet.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    59. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Imagine that he was only 15 lbs overweight. Or are you just making an assumption that he is obese?

      Oh, and for all you motherfuckers that don't know how to convert to that silly metric system, 15 lbs = 680.389 decagrams (not such a nice round number, is it?), so don't fucking start crying about it here.

    60. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But then you wouldn't lose anything because it'll all stay stuck to the floor. Awesome! I don't live in a region with mountains, would pasture dew work just as well?

    61. Re:No shit by sdguero · · Score: 1

      It's 95 in my room right now so...

    62. Re:No shit by jon3k · · Score: 1

      That has absolutely zero to do with my post. How much you want a calorie or how sated you are by certain calories doesn't change the fact that eating a caloric deficit will cause you to lose weight. You're talking about a psychological desire I'm talking about thermodynamics.

    63. Re:No shit by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      good balanced diet

      That is the whole problem scientists are trying to solve. Determining what exactly does it mean? Is it the same for everyone? Are there multiple perfect balanced diets for the same person? If they are different for different people, how to figure out what it is for you?

      If these problems are solved, your statements would be quite correct. But they are not, so your statements are claiming a fact on a variable without defining it.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    64. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A calorie IS a calorie assuming you eat the same amount of calories from both types of food. If you trade 500 fat calories for 750 carb calories, yes, you will gain more weight/lose less weight.

      This isn't really up for debate. This is settled science.

    65. Re:No shit by Reziac · · Score: 1

      Actually, it probably started when lard was replaced by soybean oil in the 1960s. Soy contains high levels of phytoestrogen, which is a thyroid inhibitor -- the effect is only about 5%, but that's enough to cause carb cravings (to alleviate the hypothyroid brain's glucose starvation), and a natural shift toward eating more sugar. Our dietary habits are more instinct-driven than we'd like to believe... and the market supplies what people prefer.

      Flaxseed meal has 3x as much phytoestrogen as soy. Take note of the "healthy" breakfast cereals loaded with it, and the recent plague of obese grade-schoolers (even when they have reasonably normal-weight parents).

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    66. Re:No shit by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      As a matter of fact, no. I think it was Dr John Yudkin, in his fine book "Pure, White and Deadly" who pointed out that in Elizabethan England refined sugar was about as expensive as cocaine is today.

      Sadly, your organism appears to care comparatively little if you ingest sucrose or starch. The deleterious effects of the massive shift of food intake to saccharides were documented in the archeological record of Jarmo and other early sites.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    67. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eventually it was discovered that West Africans tended to do much better, and could indeed provide many years of labour before dying.

      Not "many years", the average life expectancy of a slave in the Caribbean on a sugar plantation was 6.5 years.

      This is why around 95% of the Atlantic slave trade was destined for the sugar plantations: the high death rate.

    68. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I prefer the Jenny Crank diet but to each his own :D

    69. Re:No shit by Mr.CRC · · Score: 1

      "Your diet is known to cause complications"

      Known by whom? By the same medical scientists who failed to falsify their own bullshit (partly due to the corrupting influence of the regulatory state coupling to both science and corporate interests) about low fat diets being the way to loose weight for several decades?

      I seem to recall finding the exact opposite when I was experimenting with ketogenic diets and did my homework to make sure I had a reasonable understanding of the potential pros/cons.

      If I wasn't just plain addicted to carbs., I'd probably eat a borderline ketogenic diet all the time.

      If you have some solid references which indicate that there is a serious risk of complications from keto diets, for people with reasonable health, please do help us educate ourselves by providing the links.

    70. Re:No shit by beastofburdon · · Score: 0

      Not me.

    71. Re:No shit by beastofburdon · · Score: 0

      Worse still, they will always feel like they are starving.

    72. Re:No shit by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Not me.

      Kale is one of thise things that somehow become popular via advertisement, Once upon a time, it was mostly used as decorations around salad bars, mostly because it looked kind of cool, but tasted like old socks. But fads is fads.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    73. Re:No shit by beastofburdon · · Score: 0

      I would put spinach in that category too. In the early 1900's they found out that it had a lot of iron in it so the government started pushing it. Later on they found out that it also has a protein in it that prevents your body from absorbing that iron, and worse other iron that was eaten with it. The sad thing is that it is still promoted as a rich source of iron giving it the label of a health food when it really isn't.

    74. Re:No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait, are you saying Popeye relied on the placebo effect??

    75. Re:No shit by beastofburdon · · Score: 0

      No, he was a mutant. Did you ever look at his arms? That shit ain't normal.

  3. Large-Scale Dietary Study: Fats Good, Carbs Bad! by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Until next week!

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  4. Not that simple... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For a research that spanned 135,000 people and however many years, that sure is simplified pizza information. Sure, carbs are bad, fats less bad, but too much of everything is also bad, fats or other . Also, a little bit of carbs, like a slice of pizza or 2 or 8, is really good right before your heavy-lifting regime.

    1. Re:Not that simple... by beelsebob · · Score: 5, Informative

      Not just fats less bad - fats good (up to a point). The study found that your risk of early death goes down the more fat you eat, right up to 2.5 times the current recommended fat intake.

    2. Re:Not that simple... by fatwilbur · · Score: 1
      Interesting fact: Test have shown a clear correlation between calorie restricted diets and achieving maximum lifespan in an organism. The effect is pronounced, and it is one of the only known factors.

      "Maximum life span" here means the mean life span of the most long-lived 10% of a given cohort. Caloric restriction has not yet been shown to break mammalian world records for longevity. Rats, mice, and hamsters experience maximum life-span extension from a diet that contains all of the nutrients but only 40–60% of the calories that the animals consume when they can eat as much as they want. Mean life span is increased 65% and maximum life span is increased 50%, when caloric restriction is begun just before puberty. For fruit flies the life extending benefits of calorie restriction are gained immediately at any age upon beginning calorie restriction and ended immediately at any age upon resuming full feeding

      Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    3. Re:Not that simple... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      An interesting thing about fats is that in nature they appear in greatest quantity completely absent from carbohydrates. A few select plant seeds have significant fat and carbs together, but even peanuts have nearly twice as much fat as nonfiber carbs. Most fat appears in meat, which is carb free. Fat tends to improve the flavor of foods and sweets where starch is present, but is innocuous in sweets without starch. So if your carb consumption to fat consumption ratio is high, chances are that your diet is mostly sugar, which is largely empty, and vitaminless, calories. We know that vitamins are necessary for health.

      Therefore, the study doesn't necessarily mean that starchy carbs are unhealthy. The perspective is wrong. The study categorized people's specific diets according to the carbs and fats, found that some people died and had strokes, and found that a fraction more of those died than those that had a low carb diet. But low carb is a significant commitment. It's not something you do if you don't care about your body. And if you don't care about your body, chances are that you do other things that are more harmful than eating pasta. Things that are far more likely to cause early death or stroke. Things like drinking heavily and taking narcotics, the kinds of things you might be reluctant to put on a questionaire.

      It would be interesting if they could introduce a daily multivitamin into the study, to see if the results were different. If the gap closes, the problem was the empty vitaminless calories in the sugar diet; if it doesn't, the the problem was elsewhere. The difficulty is that people might report that they had taken the vitamin every day when they hadn't.

  5. What about steak slathered in ketchup? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it ok to shovel that down your fat pie hole?

    1. Re:What about steak slathered in ketchup? by Archtech · · Score: 2

      Is it ok to shovel that down your fat pie hole?

      The steak is good, although fatter cuts of meat are preferable. It has often been observed that carnivores, when they have killed, begin by eagerly devouring the liver, intestines and other fatty parts of their prey and often leave when sated, abandoning the muscle meat - what we call "steak" and the like - to scavengers. Likewise the Inuit, Masai and other carnivorous humans have always tended to prefer fatty meat and organs.

      Needless to say, you should avoid ketchup because it is about half sugar - like most manufactured condiments. By all means eat tomatoes with your meat, though!

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    2. Re:What about steak slathered in ketchup? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not the fat in organ meat that make them healthy, it's the other nutrients that are lacking in the muscle. For example, the liver is a very good source of vitamin C while muscle meat has no vitamin C.

    3. Re:What about steak slathered in ketchup? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey moron, the reason animals and foragers eat the fatter parts is because they 1) typically burn a lot of calories in their daily activities, and 2) don't have reliable food sources, so they maximize the calories consumed in a single bellyful. They want to get fat in order to tide them over during lean times.

      Do you really think that makes sense for a creature that is regularly stuffing 3+ meals a day into his gullet while sitting still and staring at a computer monitor for most of his waking hours?

      And oh, for anyone spewing paleo nonsense championing high fat consumption, for most of their evolution, humans were the scavengers, so other than marrow and perhaps grain, that lean muscle meat and not fatty organ meat would be exactly what they were eating.

  6. Obviously less processed == better all around by adosch · · Score: 1

    I think this is a HUGE misnomer in forever it seems like when it comes to diets --- but really we should call them 'lifestyle eating habits'. I'd say buy and large, most people eat like complete assholes because it's convenient. What's easier going to a restaurant or cooking yourself a healthy meal? I'd even go a step further, what's cheaper? A restaurant or buying your healthy meal at a grocery store? It's not a trick question, anyone who has, leads or carries out any sort of modesty and good eating habits will tell you it's expensive to keep up with buying raw fruits and vegetables (organic to boot) and stay on budget with it. (that's if you don't have a community garden, access to a farmers market that's reasonable or something of your own to offset it a bit)

    A lot of daily diets leads to common sense IMHO. I can't speak for other countries, but in the US, I know any health class I took in grade/high school and undergrad taught me any raw vegetables, grains and fruits that are high in fiber carry out cholesterol out of the body. So you balance it --- that doesn't mean you eat the shit out of foods that are highly set in saturated/trans (e.g. processed foods most of the time) because you ate a single carrot stick. It's all in moderation and balance. These studies seem obvious over the general haul of health education any common person has --- it's too bad most don't follow it.

    Eat to live. Not live to eat.

    1. Re:Obviously less processed == better all around by arth1 · · Score: 1

      What's easier going to a restaurant or cooking yourself a healthy meal?

      If you know how to cook, the former. Driving to and from a restaurant easily takes more time and concentration than cooking a meal.

      The problem is that a growing number of people can't cook, and at most manage to cobble together something from pre-processed packaged food, which isn't cooking. When faced with actual cooking, they spend way too much time and effort, because they have no clue what they're doing, and which steps can be done in parallel or prepared in advance.

    2. Re:Obviously less processed == better all around by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Convenience and healthy are not mutually exclusive.

      Nor does home-cooked necessarily mean healthy.

  7. I feel better by HangingChad · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When I switched to keto I felt much better. My blood pressure dropped along with my weight. I also don't get as hungry between meals, even when it's a long time in between.

    After a year I've started to add back in some carbs but not refined sugars. I have fruit, like blueberries, a couple times a week, maybe lentils. I try to keep my total carbs below 100 grams on any one day.

    Not every diet works for every person. The key is finding the one that's the best match for your metabolism. I had one funny issue, Splenda was causing me problems. When I cut that out, it made a world of difference. What works is what works for you.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
    1. Re:I feel better by froggyjojodaddy · · Score: 2

      TL;DR: Cutting out carbs helped me lose 55lbs in less than 12 months and I feel great. I'm 5'9" and 40 years old. I've had a similar experience when I decided I needed to lose weight and become more healthy. I tried a couple of diets and exercise regimes but the one that really worked for me was Atkins. I'm not endorsing Atkins, I didn't buy any of their specific branded stuff, but I followed their philosophy of zero carbs (to begin) and fat-is-not bad. I started off close to 220lbs in Sep 2016 and as of today (30th Aug 2017), I'm down to 165lbs. I reached my initial goal weight of 170lbs way back around Feb/Mar 2017 so I've spent the last few months maintaining and increasing my fitness level. The first few weeks was extremely tough, I ain't gonna lie. Not eating anything with sugar, bread, carbs was so hard because I enjoy eating certain foods - I have a particular weakness for breaded fish, chips, and baked beans and apple pie with custard.... I found using the MyFitnessPal app and logging my foods made it much easier to stick to my diet. I started favoring foods with a barcode just so I could scan them. My grocery store has little barcodes on veggies so I could even monitor those portions. The first few weeks, I ate steak, chicken, and unbreaded baked fish. No fruits at all and no milk. Only plain water. Some veggies like green pepper, onion, spinach. I also had a vega-all-in-one shake once a day (lunch or dinner in replacement of a meal). Man, that was hard on my stomach. I went from being a twice a day regular person to going once every 3 days. I was constipated so added metamucil to my daily diet. That helped a LOT. The results though were amazing. I was going to the gym once or twice a week initially but cutting out sugars/carbs made me shed pounds like crazy. I think I dropped almost a pound a day for the first 10-12 days. I plateau'd around 190lbs and that's when I upped my gym game. Started going a full 5 days a week and would burn 600-700 calories each session before I left. Used a Fitbit Charge HR to track calorie burn. Broke through 190lbs a few weeks later and started dropping maybe 0.2 to 0.4 lbs a day until I hit 170lb. I tried experimenting with my diet to see how how much weight I could lose and the lowest I got was 158lbs. I've started adding some treats/carbs back in my diet, namely - Rhubarb pie with custard - Some fruits (kiwi, strawberries mainly) - Once a month I'll have some fish, chips, and baked beans - Coke zero (technically no carb but I still consider it a treat) If I go a long time with no carbs or treats, I don't miss them. I think it's biologically changed my taste buds and body. Even milk, which I used to LOVE, has no temptation.

    2. Re:I feel better by ArhcAngel · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I was introduced to the ketogenic diet in March. I was intrigued and thought WTH. If it can help me lose weight then great! What I experienced was SOO much more. I've suffered from adult depression for over 30 years and taken different medications over the years. None of which even remotely helped. A week in ketosis and I threw away my current meds and never looked back. Three months in and I'd lost over 30lbs. as well.

      If you look back at the start of the low fat movement you will find money. Always follow the money. At the time people were starting to use coconut oil more and soybean farmers got scared. Grease the right palm and viola...saturated fats are the cause of heart disease. This has since been completely debunked scientifically. But experts in the field have been beating the drum for so long they are having a hard time accepting that they have been wrong so their cognitive dissonance kicks in and they dig their heels in when presented with evidence.

      --
      "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
    3. Re:I feel better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I cut carbs and refined sugars and have lost 30 pounds so far. In a few pounds I will be down to a healthy weight.

      I walk about ten miles a week (back and forth to work basically).

      I still eat meat and in place of bread I have a salad. I'm slowly adding in fruit. I still eat some carbs, just way, way less than what I had before.

      You'll never catch me with a Pepsi or at a fast food place again. My dentist will probably love me now too.

    4. Re:I feel better by swillden · · Score: 1

      I was introduced to the ketogenic diet in March. I was intrigued and thought WTH. If it can help me lose weight then great! What I experienced was SOO much more. I've suffered from adult depression for over 30 years and taken different medications over the years.

      There's a growing body of evidence that ketogenic diets help with all sorts of mental illnesses, including those that are much more severe than depression.

      If you look back at the start of the low fat movement you will find money. Always follow the money.

      This, on the other hand, is utterly useless advice. The problem with the "follow the money" argument is that it can almost always be used to support any side of any argument, depending on how deep you're willing look for the "nefarious manipulation". I mean, I could argue right now that meat producers are getting really worried about vegetarianism and veganism trends, so maybe they're greasing palms to produce all these anti-carb studies. If your response to that claim is "Nuh uh, because ketosis works for me", then you've completely abandoned science and are just following anecdotal evidence, at the mercy of all of your own cognitive biases.

      Grease the right palm and viola...saturated fats are the cause of heart disease.

      There's absolutely no evidence that any palm-greasing went on.

      This has since been completely debunked scientifically.

      Your wording makes a much stronger claim than is warranted by the science. What actually has been found in meta-analyses is that there is no evidence that saturated fats increase the risk of heart disease, but the meta-analyses have their own caveats and warnings.

      I think a much better approach than attempting to "follow the money", since those paths lead in all directions, is to assume that scientists are working in good faith and providing their best current understanding. Accept that current knowledge is always wrong to some degree, and be conservative about taking radical action based on new studies.

      For example, it's entirely possible that some seriously negative effects of a ketogenic diet may be discovered in a few years. That will provoke howls of outrage and complaints about how science is crap, scientists just produce whatever results they're paid for, etc. In the meantime the best thing most of us can do is to maintain a balanced diet, avoiding too much of anything, keeping our caloric intake sufficiently restricted and our activity levels high enough to maintain a reasonable level of fitness.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    5. Re:I feel better by Phylarr · · Score: 1

      I had one funny issue, Splenda was causing me problems. When I cut that out, it made a world of difference.

      Can you expand on what your issue was with Splenda?

      --
      "Choosing to refrain from producing another person demonstrates a profound love for all life" [vhemt.org]
    6. Re:I feel better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > I try to keep my total carbs below 100 grams on any one day.

      Try ? Holy fuck, I keep it below 30. 100 would be poison for me.

    7. Re:I feel better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is your enter key broken?

    8. Re:I feel better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > I've suffered from adult depression for over 30 years and taken different medications over the years.

      Did you ever get tested for diabetes? Hyperglycaemia (extremely high blood sugar) is known to cause depression like symptoms

      It's too late to get tested now as your ketogenic diet will hide diabetes from normal tests

    9. Re:I feel better by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      In the meantime the best thing most of us can do is to maintain a balanced diet

      But "balanced diet" is undefined "in the meantime". Because it is the meantime before balanced diet is defined. This study is one small part of scientifically, quantitatively define the "balanced diet". So this statement practically means nothing. It is even non-falsifiable to some extent.

      avoiding too much of anything

      Too much of polonium is 28 nanograms. Too much of water is 28 kilograms in half an hour. Until "too much" is defined, we cannot really avoid too much of anything. E.g. if you get 25% calories from fat and 100 years later it turns out that ideal was 0.025% of calories from fat, you ended up getting "too much" of fat. If 100 years later it turns out that ideal calories from fat is 89%, you ended up getting too little of fat.

      So again, not really verifiably doable without a reasonable guess of the "ideal". Which is impossible "in the meantime".

      keeping our caloric intake sufficiently restricted

      Again indefinite. The logical extreme conclusion is zero calories, but even less rigorous science can quite conclusively prove that zero calories is a horrible choice. Until we get the minimum number of calories scientifically determined, this statement practically means nothing.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    10. Re:I feel better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see you have a fondness for arguing reductio ad absurdum. I can only recommend you look into thr accumulated practical knowledge in nutrition and fitness. The answers to your points are empirical.

    11. Re:I feel better by swillden · · Score: 1

      In the meantime the best thing most of us can do is to maintain a balanced diet

      But "balanced diet" is undefined "in the meantime"

      Just follow inherited cultural wisdom rather than doing anything radical. People have been eating for a rather long time; just stick with the tried and true while the science settles down.

      Really, it's not that hard.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    12. Re:I feel better by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Which culture's wisdom ?

      People have been eating for a rather long time - it takes anthropologists to determine what have people been eating a rather long time ago. Who have determined certain things. One thing they haven't determined is that "it's not that hard". Since you have determined so, why don't you say anything concrete rather than statements I demonstrated to be meaningless , unverifiable, non-falsifiable etc. ?

      Even a hundred years ago, people engaged in much more physical activity and very different lifestyle than today. Learning from people from "a rather long time" ago could be answering the wrong question.

      doing anything radical

      Many cultures have radical diets. Alaskan Eskimos, Congolese pygmies, and the Maasai of Tanzania and Kenya have a radical meat diet. Indians have a radical vegetarian diet with 80% carbohydrate being very common. Americans have a radical corporate-serving diet.

      Whatever your "not that hard" solution is, it will have to reject at least one inherited cultural wisdom.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    13. Re:I feel better by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      I see you have an inability in noticing the contradictions within the accumulated practical knowledge in nutrition and fitness. Say something concrete, make a falsifiable claim and someone might be able to answer.

      Signing in might help too.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    14. Re:I feel better by Jaime2 · · Score: 1

      I'm glad you are healthier. However, your results are pretty typical for a person your size sticking to any diet and excercise program, so don't read too much into your low carb choices. I too am 5'9" and went from 252lbs down to 149lbs in seven months by calorie restriction and moderate exercise. I never felt terribly hungry. I cut out all caloric drinks day one and cooked all of my own evening meals. My lunches would make the people in this discussion cringe - the first month, I walked a mile and a half to a pizza shop, ate a slice and walked back. The next few months, I walked to a McDonald's two miles away, ordered a hamburger, small fry, and a small diet coke, then walked back. After that, I switched to sandwiches and eventually cut out lunch entirely and instead snacked on about three quarters of a pound of carrots throughout the work day.

    15. Re:I feel better by swillden · · Score: 1

      Which culture's wisdom?

      Pick one you think works for you.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    16. Re:I feel better by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Again a non -verifiable, non falsifiable claim, with circular logic. If it "works" for me, by definition it works for me. But the whole question is to determine what works for me. Short term, long term, about different parameters of health, etc.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    17. Re:I feel better by swillden · · Score: 1

      Again a non -verifiable, non falsifiable claim, with circular logic. If it "works" for me, by definition it works for me. But the whole question is to determine what works for me. Short term, long term, about different parameters of health, etc.

      Your fundamental problem here is that you're looking for something that doesn't yet exist. You'd like to do what's optimal, but we simply do not yet know that, so you have to settle for something sub-optimal, but proven over time to be reasonably good. Sorry, you were born a century or so too early.

      This is very much a case of perfect being the enemy of good... and people seeking perfect optimality based on incomplete theories do radical things that aren't only imperfect, but actually bad.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    18. Re:I feel better by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Your fundamental problem here is that you're looking for something that doesn't yet exist

      You are the one who said "it's not that hard", not me. Which is why I have been repeating this claim of yours. If it is not hard, prove that you, or multiple other people know the answer. If the answer does not yet exist, stop claiming it is not hard.

      Any definition of "hard" that a reasonable person can agree with will include what no one has yet been able to do.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    19. Re:I feel better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Once you get your essential nutrients, it's basically about calories - from any source.

      Pretty much if you follow the advice "eat real food, mostly plants, not too much" you can't go wrong unless you have food allergies or celiac disease or something like that.

      Read the late Dr. Saltman's UCSD nutrition book, which explains why there really aren't any "bad" foods.

    20. Re:I feel better by swillden · · Score: 1

      Your fundamental problem here is that you're looking for something that doesn't yet exist

      You are the one who said "it's not that hard", not me.

      It's not. Choose something that's been working... which something doesn't much matter. Wait a few decades for science to actually figure out better answers.

      It's easy.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    21. Re:I feel better by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      It's not what? You're not the one who said "it's not that hard" ? Or are you now saying that it is not "not that hard ".

      Unless you define "working" , you can't choose something that has been working.

      If working is defined to be the diet to avoid metabolic syndrome, nothing has been working in the developed world. In rest of the world, lifestyle is not comparable so can't conclude anything. You have rejected science until it is "settled" (btw that is never) so anthropology as a solution to what prehistoric man ate is also ruled out.

      If you now say it is not hard, then, yeah, solving NP hard problems in polynomial time is easy. Just do something else until someone solves it for you.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    22. Re:I feel better by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      And you're so sure that you didn't even define "go wrong", or define " real food ", or define " essential nutrients ", or even present any evidence for your claims.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    23. Re:I feel better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're overcomplicating this. That isn't scientific advice, it's just common-sense guidelines.

      "Go wrong" is subjective but presumably it means you don't overeat or poison yourself. And before you nitpick, "overeat" means take in more calories than you burn, and "poison" means cause yourself illness or injury via the alimentary conduit.

      "Real food" is food other than what Michael Pollan describes as "edible food-like substances," i.e. processed junk that has little nutritional value. "Real food" on its face is the stuff your grandparents used to cook with - meat, vegetables, flour, sugar, butter, milk, spices.

      Essential nutrients are well-known to science. They're what goes in the back for intravenous feeding to make sure you don't die. If you're deficient in an essential nutrient it causes illness.

      Now, as my mother would say, "shut up and eat!"

    24. Re:I feel better by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      That isn't scientific advice, it's just common-sense guidelines.

      When the subject is about science, why is the discussion not scientific ? Who asked for common-sense guidelines ? Even the original post that I was replying to (https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11051407&cid=55110321), was pretending to sciency all the way till near the end.

      Where it degenerated into anti-science, non-falsifiable claims, begging the question and assorted logical fallacies. Which gives me an impression that the preceding sciency-ness might have been a false pretense, though I can't be sure.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    25. Re:I feel better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Take it or leave it, chum.

      It sounds like you're more interested in arguing than in gleaning what useful insight you can find in the discussion.

      Since you already know better than everyone else, why are you wasting your time here?

  8. Re:In other news.... by arth1 · · Score: 1

    The longer you live, the more likely you will die.

    No, I think the likelihood of dying is unity no matter how long you have lived.

  9. Apparently... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... we knew this, but *cough* certain industry interests *cough* managed to "de-emphasise" the carbs and scapegoat the fats. Thanks, science!

    And yes, "science" needs to learn how to deal with this sort of crap, for this failure to convince they're not making shit up is at the root of "alternative science" movements like anti-vaxxers and creationism. Because "science is just a theory", right? Well, apparently it is. Science, figure out thyself.

    Tangentially: Me, I gave up a long time ago on the "be scared of fat" meme, and just ate whatever I felt like, in moderation, as long as it was honest food. That and a few more tricks got rid of the beer belly and got me on to a decent weight with decent health.

    1. Re: Apparently... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your body needs fat. The most important fat is internal, around your organs. Not all fats are created equal, though, you really do want to ingest saturated fats more minimally. You have to apply the same logic to carbs though: if they are causing you to gain weight, it means your consumption of them vs. your activity level is out of balance, not that they are 'evil' for you see, carbs are energy (fat can be too to an extent, but carbs are better and what your body naturally utilizes). In other words, I'm guessing in your case you are fairly sedentary. Cutting carbs, sugar, and salt is probably a good idea. There is no panacea though - if your physical needs change, your diet should, too. You don't need 'tricks', just to be using your body the way it was intended, bearing in mind that for you that will probably differ, even if only slightly, from others.

    2. Re: Apparently... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you eat NO protein you die within a year or so...
      If you eat NO fat you die you die within a year or so...
      But,
      If you eat NO carbs, nothing really bad happens to you.

    3. Re:Apparently... by pastafazou · · Score: 1

      This is what happens to "Science" when government gets involved.

    4. Re: Apparently... by pastafazou · · Score: 1

      " if they are causing you to gain weight, it means your consumption of them vs. your activity level is out of balance"

      This is total and complete horseshit based on false assumptions. Your weight is NOT EQUAL TO Calories in - Calories out. Your weight is REGULATED by hormones. Your body will reduce your metabolic rate to compensate for reduced calories or increased activity. This is why almost every "diet" starts off with successful weight loss, but over time almost all of that weight is regained. https://intensivedietarymanage...

  10. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That is not true. You are more likely to die as a small child (poor country or a swimming pool nearby helps), then again as a teen (especially if you have a car) and after that again when you get old. But for example when you are 30 you are less likely to die that you were when you were 18.

  11. This is why average people no longer trust science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is a good example of why average people, who maybe only have a rudimentary background in science, no longer trust it or what scientists are claiming.

    There have just been too many situations like this where scientists say one thing, as if they're 100% sure they're right, and then sometime latter they have to backtrack on their claims. Sometimes it even turns out that the exact opposite of what they're saying is actually true!

    The problem isn't that scientists are retracting their incorrect claims. That's exactly what they should be doing, and it's what science as a practice requires be done. The problem is that they should not be making claims that they can't substantiate, and they surely shouldn't be making claims that they'll need to retract just a few years later, especially if any sort of political policy will be based on their claims.

    Nutrition science and climate science have shown themselves to be two fields where claims are made too easily, and what is claimed either ends up being obviously wrong, or the predictions being made do not come to pass.

    Scientists in other fields, especially ones that have a much better track record of consistently being right, should try to publicly separate themselves from scientific fields like nutrition science and climate science. Greater denouncing of scientific fields and scientists with poor track records may be the only way to maintain, never mind restore, any trust that the public at large may have in science.

  12. 100+ year olds in Japan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I didn't read TFA, but do they have an explanation for the old rice-eating Japanese?

    1. Re:100+ year olds in Japan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      its not supplemented with 1000lbs of shit on their rice, and its followed with a large dose of fish

    2. Re:100+ year olds in Japan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they have much more effective health care system than Americans

    3. Re:100+ year olds in Japan? by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      They have a high compliance culture. We have a long history of rebellion and insurrection whereas they're more used to getting their heads lopped off at the slightest infraction.

      The Japanese are very good at doing what they're told.

      They outdo even the Scandanavian Socialist Utopias when it comes to the relevant "health care statistics".

      That said, even they are beginning to succomb to the McJuggernaut.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    4. Re:100+ year olds in Japan? by GLMDesigns · · Score: 2

      stop being retarded. There was no "healthcare system" in Japan until the 1960s so that doesn't account for 100+ year olds.

      One key aspect of physical health is activity. Look how few people walk. There are many people who consider 10,000 steps a day to be "wow". For these people diet is not going to make it. 10,000 steps a day should be a drop-dead minimum (pun not intended).

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    5. Re:100+ year olds in Japan? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I didn't read TFA, but do they have an explanation for the old rice-eating Japanese?

      For one, they're not eating processed and refined rice. For another, it is supplemented by a lot of vegetables, legumes especially soya. They're also not eating a lot of meat and what they do eat is mainly fish.

      Yes, they eat rice, but they also eat a lot of vegetables, getting a lot of exercise. That's the key.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    6. Re:100+ year olds in Japan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not only rice, and not only fish. It's pasta too, for example. The Italians have just been named the healthiest people in the world by Bloomberg ( https://www.weforum.org/agenda... ) and the slimmest among western countries by the OECD ( https://www.oecd.org/health/ob... ), besides notoriously having an extremely high life expectancy.

      Carbs-eaters seem to have health statistics on their side. Probably the research paper should have specified which kind of carbs are supposedly bad (sugar?), instead of being so generic.

    7. Re:100+ year olds in Japan? by avandesande · · Score: 1

      Asians have been exposed to hazardous diets and toxins longer than Europeans, a good example is they are significantly less effected by ill effects from tobacco. So perhaps they are better able to adjust to a starchy diet.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    8. Re:100+ year olds in Japan? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Probably the carbs talked about are mostly refined sugar. That one is a lot worse than fat. Rice and other grains behave differently. "No carb" is nonsense.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  13. Mm . . No. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sorry, millennial poster, but it isnt that simple. Depends on the fat and the carbs. Your body needs fat, carbs, salt, sugar, protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber. It requires them just to function, let alone for intense activity, and some of them need to be raw and solid, not refined ir liquified. Healthy fat should still be used minimally, as should natural salt and sugar. Items like yams are one of the best carbs we can eat, but whole grains are excellent, too. Things like activity level and personal biology also have a whole lot to do with things. I know millennials love magic formulas because you hate effort and doing your own thinking, but sadly, magic formulas do not exist, not for you, not for anyone. Go ahead and starve yourself though, see how far you get.

    1. Re:Mm . . No. by pastafazou · · Score: 1

      Wrong. Just wrong.

  14. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hmm, statistically i'd say the likelihood is 100% considering 100% of all humans born 200 years ago have all died and considering that proportion is 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% that have ever lived.

  15. Earlier than that by cirby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The obesity epidemic really started when the government told us to start taking fat out of the diet and replace it with bread.

    I was in high school and college when this really started to kick off (late 1970s), and the comment was "don't eat meat and butter, eat bread and rice. It's good for you."

    When the Food Pyramid hit, the diagrams always had a small chunk for meat and fish, with the entire base was made up of bread and rice and potatoes, and a tiny part at the top for sweets and fats. It was usually something like "2-3 servings of meat, fish, and nuts, 6-11 servings of bread, cereal, rice."

    That's the problem, not sugar. While people say "sugar is poison," plain old carbs aren't much different, especially in those proportions.

    1. Re:Earlier than that by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

      When the Food Pyramid hit, the diagrams always had a small chunk for meat and fish, with the entire base was made up of bread and rice and potatoes,

      Well, the longest lived communities in the world have one thing in common. They DO eat very little meat and fish (and most of their meat IS fish). The main difference between their diet and the Food Pyramid is instead of eating grains they eat vegetables.

      Too many calories from grains is not a good thing. The more refined the worse they are for you.

      The one thing that has remained constant in our understanding of a healthy diet in between all the different health fads is that vegetables are good. Whether you're doing low sugar, low fat, low calorie, low gluten, low processed, low anything...

      Eat vegetables.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Earlier than that by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      > Well, the longest lived communities in the world have one thing in common. They DO eat very little meat and fish

      Completely untrue.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    3. Re:Earlier than that by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      That's the problem, not sugar. While people say "sugar is poison," plain old carbs aren't much different, especially in those proportions.

      I'm diabetic (Type 3 - pancreas removed last year). The only difference between sugar carbs and starchy carbs for me is that the sugar is processed faster by my digestion, so it causes quicker blood sugar spikes. Not higher spikes, just quicker.

      It should also be noted that I've been told to eat more fats, since that slows the uptake of carbs.....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    4. Re:Earlier than that by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      I have induced type 2 diabetes from the drugs I am currently taking.

      ANY carb will trash my blood sugar. it doesn't matter if it's a good carb or not. Strangely enough I have found that carbs spiked with some fat work out the best.

      This leads to some interesting "counter intuitive" results. (Junk food for breakfast)

      The whole sugar+fat thing probably clears itself out faster in my case too.

      I eat more fats simply because I have to avoid carbs and I need to eat something. I also have to mind my protein intake because it's too easy to OD on those while avoiding carbs.

      The end result is a slightly calorie restricted diet but the calorie restriction is entirely a side effect.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    5. Re:Earlier than that by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 3, Informative

      > Well, the longest lived communities in the world have one thing in common. They DO eat very little meat and fish

      Completely untrue.

      It's very true! Sardinia, Okinawa, and Icaria in Greece are the three places with the longest life spans. All three locations have a legume based diet and traditionally eat almost no meat other than occasional fish. Importantly, they also don't eat any refined grains either.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    6. Re:Earlier than that by ranton · · Score: 2

      The one thing that has remained constant in our understanding of a healthy diet in between all the different health fads is that vegetables are good. Whether you're doing low sugar, low fat, low calorie, low gluten, low processed, low anything... Eat vegetables.

      Well, one thing that has changed over time is how starchy vegetables are treated. I grew up with a diet where corn and potatoes where my primary source of vegetables. Later I thought green leafy vegetables were the only healthy options and shunned starchy vegetables. Now that I have educated myself I feel you want all kinds of vegetables, but you shouldn't just stick to one type exclusively.

      Vegetables being an important part of your diet has always held constant, but what types of vegetables you should eat has been in flux (at least in popular culture, maybe not by true nutritionists). I still cannot convince my wife that potatoes shouldn't be treated the same as white bread.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    7. Re:Earlier than that by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, one thing that has changed over time is how starchy vegetables are treated. I grew up with a diet where corn and potatoes where my primary source of vegetables.

      Corn isn't a vegetable, it's a grain. Corn is basically just sugar, not much nutrition there (our obesity levels actually can be measured against subsidies for corn in the US making both corn syrup and animal feed cheaper- if we have to subsidise farming- subsidizing corn is about the worst thing we can do).

      Potatoes shouldn't be overdone because they have a lot of starch, but they are better than white bread, especially if you eat the skin, which does have some nutrients.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    8. Re:Earlier than that by ranton · · Score: 2

      Corn isn't a vegetable, it's a grain.

      Corn, as we eat it anyway, is a vegetable, grain, and fruit. Certain ways we eat it, such as corn syrup, it is just a sugar. But you can make glucose syrup from potatoes and any other source of starch, corn is just a very efficient source.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    9. Re:Earlier than that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and here i am Type 1 sitting at my desk eating a cooking while reading a story about carbs being bad...

    10. Re:Earlier than that by geekmux · · Score: 1

      (our obesity levels actually can be measured against subsidies for corn in the US making both corn syrup and animal feed cheaper- if we have to subsidise farming- subsidizing corn is about the worst thing we can do).

      The US Government currently subsidizes the shit out of corn, which will never stop, as it directly benefits their responsibility of resource management via population control (obesity and other diseases create death.) This activity also feeds the US Medical Industrial Complex, who makes trillions from a society riddled with massively profitable disease, perpetually treating and never curing.

      No matter how fucked up those facts may seem from a moral perspective, subsidizing corn is viewed as the best thing they can do.

    11. Re:Earlier than that by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Indeed. The two places in the world where people live the longest are Sardinia and Okinawa. The former having a food culture rich in goat and fish (the name "Sardinia" and "sardine" are related) , and the latter having a varied food culture including both fish and meats.

    12. Re:Earlier than that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is nutrition in corn, but you have to use the nixtamalization process on it in order for humans to be able metabolize it. The Native Americans did this.

      Nixtamalization typically refers to a process for the preparation of maize (corn), or other grain, in which the corn is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater, washed, and then hulled. This process, originating in Mexico, is famously known to remove up to 97-100% of aflatoxins from mycotoxin contaminated corn.[1] The term can also refer to the removal via an alkali process of the pericarp from other grains such as sorghum.

      Nixtamalized maize has several benefits over unprocessed grain: it is more easily ground; its nutritional value is increased; flavor and aroma are improved; and mycotoxins are reduced. Lime and ash are highly alkaline: the alkalinity helps the dissolution of hemicellulose, the major glue-like component of the maize cell walls, and loosens the hulls from the kernels and softens the maize.

    13. Re:Earlier than that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The obesity epidemic really started when the government told us to start taking fat out of the diet and replace it with bread.

      And what fats they did tell us to eat were the worst kinds of trans fats (margarine for instance).

      The problem is we've all been hoodwinked to eat the shit the agrifood industry can make most cheaply -- which is why that High Fructose Corn Syrup shit is pretty much everywhere.

      The problem is, starting in America and spiraling outward due to their influence, things which are heavily processed and terrible for you have been portrayed as being just as good for you. Much of what Americans consider "cheese" isn't legally called cheese anywhere else in the world, it's just long polymers of nasty crud. HFCS is crap which is added to all foods/animal feed to prop up the corn growers. Same with antibiotics.

      Our concept of food has been turned on its head because it's been written by industry groups who want to portray their refined foods and other shit as being "just as good" as the stuff which is naturally occurring.

      Sorry, but the government tells us this shit because industry lobby groups who manipulate their science or outright lie to us have paid them to do so. But as it turns out, most of the "studies" which told us this information are complete and utter bullshit.

      This study sounds way over simplified, because it's utterly failing to differentiate between types of fats, types of carbohydrates, and pretty much everything else.

      And once again we're treating all carbs as identical without contemplating things like the glycemic index ... which allows companies selling refined whit flour to pretend it's nutritionally equivalent to eating lentils.

      "Plain old carbs" is an utterly meaningless term. The type of carbs makes a massive difference in how your body processes it.

    14. Re:Earlier than that by WolphFang · · Score: 1

      You can get corn this way, especially good for corn bread, at the store. It's called "Masa Flour"

      --
      leather-dog muksihs
      Blog: @muksihs
    15. Re:Earlier than that by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      Actually, the problem is a society that treats USDA recommendations as if they come from a neutral, disinterested source - when in fact they are deeply politicized and heavily guided by lobbyists.

      Face it: the Federal government is not there for your personal benefit.

      Theoretically? Sure, that was the intent. And there are certainly thousands of people who work for government who try to serve the public the best that they possibly can...unfortunately, the hierarchy of the Fed is now enormous, and "goodwill" is not the thing that floats a person to a policy-setting level. That, unfortunately, is a sort of 'sociopathic narcissism'* that requires oodles of cash and connections, meaning the people who get to those levels are almost invariably TERRIBLE human beings. And - no matter the goodwill and intent of their tens of thousands of underlings - they TRULY don't give the faintest shit about you or your family's well being.

      *credit to WKUK

      --
      -Styopa
    16. Re:Earlier than that by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

      I do not know specifically about people from Okinawa, but the life expectancy for people of Japaneses descent living in the United States is higher than the life expectancy for the people of Japan.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    17. Re:Earlier than that by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      3 times as many people in Okinawa live to be over 100 years old than in the rest of Japan.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    18. Re:Earlier than that by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      This leads to some interesting "counter intuitive" results. (Junk food for breakfast)

      How do you define "junk food?"

      I was diagnosed a type-2 diabetic ~6 years ago. My diet at the time included what I now understand to be insane amounts of carbohydrates. Most of my meals were almost pure pasta (Spaghetti, Hamburger Helper, Lasagna, ...) and the rest also contained at least food-pyramid levels of carbohydrates. I was never a big sweet eater, with my only real constant sugar sin being what I put in my coffee and the Little Debbie pastry I have for breakfast.

      When I cut nearly all those carbs out of my diet my blood sugar levels were pretty crazy, but I was determined to END my insulin resistance, not just manage it like every physician was telling me to do. What the physicians were telling me just didnt seem logical. My body moved into an insulin resistance mode to defend itself from all the insulin my body was producing, which itself was being produced to defend itself against all the blood sugar being produced from the carbohydrate consumption.

      I got the carbs down, to get the blood sugar down, to get the insulin levels down, to slowly end the resistance. It worked. The physicians are astray from the solution, at least for me.

      Anyways, do you consider the Little Debbie I eat for breakfast "junk food?"

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    19. Re:Earlier than that by cirby · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sorry, but not really true.

      The "Mediterranean people don't eat meat" thing started when an American researcher decided to prove vegetarianism is better for you than eating meat. So he went there to do a health study, since they were known at the time to have long, healthy lives.

      He chose to do his study during Lent. Which, especially at the time, meant the Catholics (almost all of the study subjects) were "giving up meat for Lent."

      So that study was bogus, and he KNEW it. ...and, by the way, he later went on to be very influential in Washington, and was behind the whole movement that later pushed the Food Pyramid and other bad ideas.

      On a similar note, the actual Okinawan diet (that people live a long time on) is very meat-heavy, and the trendy "Okinawan diet" doesn't have much to do with it other than the way they cook things. The actual Okinawan diet "starts with pig and ends with pig."

    20. Re:Earlier than that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The traditional Okinawan diet is only like 6% legumes, with substantial amounts of white (processed) rice and a shit ton of sweet potatoes (like 67% of their calories!), which are loaded with sugar compared to other starch sources.

      So it doesn't really support either position well.

    21. Re:Earlier than that by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but not really true.

      The "Mediterranean people don't eat meat" thing started when an American researcher decided to prove vegetarianism is better for you than eating meat. So he went there to do a health study, since they were known at the time to have long, healthy lives.

      Completely different study. This has nothing to do with Mediterranean people as a whole- and more to do with specific regions that have longer lifespans and doing long term studies on what they ate.

      On a similar note, the actual Okinawan diet (that people live a long time on) is very meat-heavy, and the trendy "Okinawan diet" doesn't have much to do with it other than the way they cook things. The actual Okinawan diet "starts with pig and ends with pig."

      Interesting "alternate fact".

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    22. Re:Earlier than that by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

      So, 3 people in Okinawa lived to be over 100 years old and only 1 did in the rest of Japan? Your statement "3 times as many people in Okinawa live to be over 100 years old than in the rest of Japan." carries no useful information. What is the life expectancy for Okinawa vs the rest of Japan vs people of Okinawan descent living in the U.S.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    23. Re:Earlier than that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, the food pyramid (old and new) was made/chosen by General Mills. Just throwing that out there.

  16. Interesting study, but flawed by TimothyHollins · · Score: 1

    It does not say fat == good. The study says that it's better to be on the upper normalized end (quintile 5) when compared to quintile 1 of the fat intake distribution. The study does in no way advocate switching to an all-fat diet to live forever, nor does it suggest that you should eat at McDonalds every day (though TFS seems to do this). It should also be noted that this has been known for a long time. Fat is a slow energy source and has always been considered healthy when consumed within reason. The quick energy sources (such as refined sugars and other carbs) have also been considered health risks in larger doses for a long time.

    The study is also facing a major hurdle that I do not see controlled for anywhere - 18 countries are included (from NA an EU). This means that different fat diets can mean different things (i.e. a high fat intake in the US is not necessarily the same proxy as a high fat intake in Norway, nor are the needs necessarily the same in those countries). It would be much better to check these things in regional studies (though it can be damned hard to get the numbers high enough for any kind of power), and to keep cultural backgrounds separate (as those would likely affect the diet).

    That said, it's a good story and it certainly casts the dietary effects on lifestyle in a different light (it's unlikely that the reality is completely opposite of this study even though there definitely are flaws). I would however be very skeptical of the bad fats results since that one has previously shown to have a potent non-linear relationship to health (up to a certain point it's fine, after that it quickly tapers off into *calamity* territory). Or, as stated in the study

    The uncertainty regarding the effect of saturated fatty acids on clinical outcomes in part might be due to the fact that most observational cohort studies have been done in high-income countries where saturated fatty acid intake is within a limited range (about 7–15% of energy)

    Other than that, very interesting.
    And remember, it's energy in - energy out that matters.

    1. Re:Interesting study, but flawed by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      "nor does it suggest that you should eat at McDonalds every day"

      Based on the numbers presented in the article it would be fun to see what kinds of eating habits actually conform better to the stated "ideal". I'm betting it won't be any of the currently trendy "healthy" diets.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  17. Happiness by andyring · · Score: 2

    I'll eat whatever I want. And I'll die happy.

    1. Re:Happiness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      LOL. Well, I've been a nut eater for about the last five years. It's been my main source of both protein and fat. The nice part about nuts is that they clean your teeth. On top of that, the slightly coat your teeth with fat, which bacteria cannot utilize, so there's less bad breath and tartar build-up, etc.

    2. Re:Happiness by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I'll eat whatever I want. And I'll die happy.

      That's a nice sounding theory and a lot of people subscribe to it; however, if you eat unhealthy, not only will you more than likely die at a younger age, you'll probably also have more health problems that will affect your quality of life.

      Absolutely, eat what you want, it's your life and your body; long-term though eating "yummier" food doesn't necessarily equate to more happiness. It makes you happier in the moment you eat it, but if you have more medical problems and lower life quality overall- it might be making you less happy long term.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    3. Re:Happiness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too bad, eating high in sugar leads to depression.

    4. Re:Happiness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll eat whatever I want. And I'll die happy.

      You'll die early, but not before they medically extract every last dollar you have treating the disease riddling your body.

      Smile, and remember greed always comes first.

    5. Re:Happiness by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I'll eat whatever I want. And I'll die happy.

      Most fat people with this excuse say it because they've never actually eaten something nice. Fortunately they don't have this misconception for long.... one way or the other.

    6. Re:Happiness by antdude · · Score: 1

      Even if you have to suffer in pain and stuff? :(

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  18. Impossible to avoid carbs in the US by davide+marney · · Score: 2

    America's entire food supply is simply awash in carbohydrates, especially sugars and refined grains. I walk into a grocery store, run my eyes across the shelves, and mentally tick off the items I can consume: no, no, hell no, no, maybe, no, no, ok, no, no, are you kidding, no, and no. And restaurant food? Don't make me laugh. Carbs piled on top of carbs on a bed of sugared fat topped with sugar sauce.

    --
    "We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
    1. Re:Impossible to avoid carbs in the US by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 1

      Makes you eat a lot of fresher foods being on a low carb diet. Restaurants are a constant, "Can I get this without this, or can I sub something else for this," and usually they're very cool about it. Surprisingly McDonald's is easy to eat at, you just tell them no bun or biscuit and you're good to go. Ask for extra lettuce and you just snuck yourself a salad.

    2. Re:Impossible to avoid carbs in the US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      America's entire food supply is simply awash in carbohydrates...

      Yes, but you aren't forced to eat anything you don't want to. For example, when travelling, a baconator at wendy's is quite good (ketogenically speaking, no comment about the quality otherwise) as long as you skip the bread.

      At the grocery store we now ignore about 90% of the floor space, pretty much anything in a box, etc. Fresh food is cheaper, tastes better, and often has better nutrition content too. It's far cheaper to make your own double bacon cheeseburger at home with better ingredients, and most importantly, you don't even have to buy any bread.

    3. Re:Impossible to avoid carbs in the US by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      Which grocery store you are walking into matters.

      The grocery stores in the downtown district near me have what I consider to be an atrocious selection of "name brand" carb-heavy crap. Isle after isle of it. Of note is that this is where the poor people shop. Suburban grocery stores (with more middle and upper class customers) stock a lot more variety with much less shelf space dedicated to those "name brands.", and even have significantly larger produce and deli sections.

      I dont know why this is exactly, but my theory is that at least in part that urban people are more susceptible to advertising, driving up the demand for "name brand" items in those areas for whatever reason (possibly higher unemployment rates means higher advertising consumption.)

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    4. Re:Impossible to avoid carbs in the US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you a mentally challenged person? Grocery stores have vegetable and meat sections. No carbs in the steaks, very few in the carrots. What "shelf" are you looking at that you think you can't find carb free stuff in a grocery store? Are you complaining that you can't buy hot pockets? "In America" exactly what does a grocery store in France have that a grocery store in America doesn't? Some nicer cheese?

    5. Re:Impossible to avoid carbs in the US by djinn6 · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't consider any grocery store that did not have fresh produce and meat to be a grocery store. As such, every grocery store I ever visited have had a good selection of low-carb foods.

  19. Funny how our civilization kills us by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    You know what made us "civilized"? What allowed us to become what we are today? Cooking. No, really. Cooking. When we learned to process food so we have to spend less energy on digesting because we "outsourced" this problem to food preparation. That allowed us to gain more nutrition from our food. Without, we'd do what our distant cousins do, spend most of our time finding food and eating it. Simply to stay alive.

    This frees up a lot of time. Just ponder how much time you actually spend eating. Probably less than an hour per day.

    The problem here is that we still want to eat more than that. And provided food, which is really not the problem in the modern world, we will stuff our face.

    Now, I don't say we should eat only raw stuff. That's certainly not going to be too healthy either. But if we manage to stay away from overprocessed, overrefined food, it would be a good start.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:Funny how our civilization kills us by Woeful+Countenance · · Score: 1

      You know what made us "civilized"? What allowed us to become what we are today? Cooking

      Cooking long preceded what's usually defined as the beginning of civilization. As I understand the current thinking, cooking made possible the development of larger brains, beginning around two million years ago.

      Civilization is more associated with the change from hunter-gatherer societies to agriculture, which brought a whole basket of problems: more population density, more disease, social stratification, centralized government, worse nutrition, and even smaller brains (judging by cranial capacity). "This reduction in brain size however does not mean that modern humans are less intelligent. Human brains have evolved to work more efficiently and utilize less energy." Yes, I'm sure that's true. Humans 20,000 years ago didn't even have IQ tests! How smart could they be?

  20. Maybe by jon3k · · Score: 1

    Maybe it's not as simple as which macronutrient you eat? Maybe it has to do with the fact that people eating 77% (!!!) of their diet from carbs aren't eating whole grans. It's 64oz Thirst Busterz filled with Coca Cola. With that said, I think 30% fat is good amount of fat to have in your diet along with 20% protein and 50% carbs. Seems reasonable from my experience.

  21. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The key is to live to be 100.

    Very few people die over the age of 100.

  22. peastant food by avandesande · · Score: 1

    Carbohydrates are peasant food.

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  23. Re:Large-Scale Dietary Study: Fats Good, Carbs Bad by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    sciences-biggest-failure-everything-about-diet-and-fitness ...https://science.slashdot.org/story/15/02/03/0016243/sciences-biggest-failure-everything-about-diet-and-fitness

  24. Bacon? by rjzak · · Score: 4, Funny

    Time to swap that bowl of pasta for a bowl of bacon!

    --
    Professional Genius
    1. Re:Bacon? by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh no, I'm not falling for that all or nothing approach again. I'm having Penne Carbonara for dinner.

  25. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The news media hardly helps. I can't count the number of times I've read some story where they've grabbed on to some result and misrepresented what the science actually says or use it to draw conclusion that aren't supported by the research.

  26. Only people who've dieted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I dare anyone whose tried the high protein/high fat (Atkins etc) diets to say that carbs aren't the cause of obesity.

    All those hunger pangs, you get when you eat a carb rich meal, all gone when you increase the protein and reduce the carbs.

    It's not the sugar, its any carb that does it. We're descended from meat eaters, and even as omnivores we clearly need a high fat high protein diet.

    That crap you learn about cutting out fat. My diet was meat + cheese + beer and kale as the vegetable to get the full vitamins. I shed 6Kg in 3 months and never put it back on. I really notice the sugar drop if you eat a carb full meal.

  27. People with an agenda by jandersen · · Score: 1

    A lot of money is involved in selling different brands of lifestyle, 'health' food, supplements, diets etc etc, so every time there is a new story about 'A Study' concerning what is good for you, it is advisable to be skeptical - there is boud to be a hidden agenda behind most of these reports. A couple of things I immediately note are:

    The research also found that eating fruits, vegetables and legumes can lower your risk of dying prematurely. But three or four servings a day seemed to be plenty.

    I know that there is an ongoing campaign in UK to get people to eat at least 5 portions of fruit or vegetables per day, which is probably a bit less than three servings, depending on what exactly those units are. IOW, people should certainly eat more vegetables than they do at the moment.

    ...high fat intake -- about 35 percent of their daily diet...

    So, we are talking about %, not absolute numbers, and although they fail to clarify, this means % of calory intake, not weight or volume. And this should be seen in relation to the recommended, daily intake, something like 2500 kcal per day if you are male and exercise moderately. 30% of that is 750 kcal, corresponding to ~84 g fat per day. So, what the article says, really, is that you should eat 3 - 4 servings of vegetables per day and about 84 g fat, to have a healthy diet. Unfortunately what most people will read is that "it is OK to eat loads of fat and never mind eating vegetables, since they are not all that healthy after all".

    In other words: be skeptical - and by skeptical I don't mean "reject anything you hear, that you don't like the sound of"; it means think, double check with other sources, and think again. And when it comes to diet - do you even know how many calories you eat in a day? How? Did you actually weigh your food, each ingredient separately, etc? You can't have a qualified opinion about it unless you did. Simple science: you measure, you calculate.

    1. Re:People with an agenda by avandesande · · Score: 3, Informative

      There's also lots of money involved with selling a couple of cents worth of corn or grain + chemicals in a box for several dollars with a long shelf life. Meats, cheese, eggs and produce not so much. What do you think is the most likely explanation?

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
  28. Yeah, no... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's the calories that matter. Fat, carbs, whatever else, doesn't matter, only calories. If you exceed the amount of calories for your weight, you'll gain weight.

  29. Flawed article and/or study by ranton · · Score: 1

    This study doesn't really show carbohydrates are a bad thing, it shows that an excessive amount of carbohydrates are a bad thing. The average US male adult diet is about 57.5% carbohydrates, 27.5% fat, 15% protein. To get to a 77% carbohydrate intake it would require removing 50% of the protein and fat from that diet. It isn't a big shock that this is bad for you.

    Like you said, the results of high carbohydrate side of the study make sense. We shouldn't be gravitating to low fat food which pile on sugar to maintain an attractive taste. But it goes too far when it says carbohydrates are bad for you. Vegetables and fruit are both carbohydrates. Even a significant amount of grains isn't bad either unless you are cutting out most of your protein and fat, or increasing your overall calorie intake.

    The interesting and non-intuitive part of the study is that people with a 25% increased fat intake are actually more healthy than those with a more average fat intake. I guess I need to put more gravy on my food.

    --
    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    1. Re:Flawed article and/or study by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This study doesn't really show carbohydrates are a bad thing, it shows that an excessive amount of carbohydrates are a bad thing. ...

      Depends on any given person's definition of "excessive". Some people can eat lots, some can't. Keep a food log of what you eat and record some basic data like how you feel, weight, blood pressure, and anything else you feel like writing down as objectively as you can. Blood glucose tests are cheap.

      After a few weeks or months you will have the most important data possible - that which pertains to YOU. Frankly, who gives a damn about population averages when the goal is your own personal health, right?

      ... I guess I need to put more gravy on my food.

      Why not? Self experimentation with random street drugs is probably a bad idea. Experimentation with variations on food is about as harmless as you could get. Some education would help prevent common pitfalls such as Atkin's excessive protein or "keto flu" during the low-carb adaptation process, but you really don't need anything beyond an open and objective mindset.

    2. Re: Flawed article and/or study by kaybee · · Score: 1

      I don't think the precentage of carbs matter as much as the total intake of carbs. If you are eating 50% too much and 50% is carbs, that's way too many carbs.

  30. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The longer you live, the more likely you will die sooner.

    ftfy

  31. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

    This is a good example of why average people, who maybe only have a rudimentary background in science, no longer trust it or what scientists are claiming.

    Nutritionists, the real scientists in this field, have not wavered from the idea of the balanced diet. While adjustments have been made, the basics of what makes for good nutrition have not.

    Who you AC's define as scientists are people with an agenda. Pro-vegan people, Pro industry groups. Vegans would have us eating tofurky forever, and pro-industry groups would have us bathing in pink slime.

    Any you yourself have an agenda, or else are too dim to understand that.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  32. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > Nutritionists, the real scientists in this field, have not wavered from the idea of the balanced diet. While adjustments have been made, the basics of what makes for good nutrition have not.

    So Mulligan's Stew being replaced with that obviously and highly unbalanced "food pyramid" must have just been my imagination then.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  33. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by Archtech · · Score: 2

    It has been shown by many writers that science was not to blame. Even while charismatic scientists like Ancel Keys were making their controvesial claims that fat kills and we must all eat more "healthy whole grains", their own research results demonstrated otherwise. It's well worth reading "Good Calories, Bad Calories"/"The Diet Delusion", or alternatively Nina Teicholz's "The Big Fat Surprise" or any of the other good books on the subject. Otherwise you simply wouldn't believe the depths of duplicity (or possibly self-deception) to which scientists can stoop.

    One conclusion is completely unavoidable. Just as sugar (in any but small quantities) is poisonous to humans, money is poisonous to good science.

    --
    I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
  34. Suggests? by Evtim · · Score: 1

    On /. we have been discussing this for at least 5 years now. I lost count how many times I laid my personal experience which was nothing short of profound. When you have suffered for 7 years, being on daily medication and it all goes away in 5 days!!! once you change the diet ...well that is what I call "enlightenment"

    The healthy pyramid is (starting from the fondaiton) Protein-->Fat-->Carbs.

    Eat proper butter, not any kind of skimmed, low-fat, and margarine type shit.
    Eat eggs; lots of them
    Eat veggies; lots of them
    Eat diary; either lots or moderate (that actually is rather person specific so test yourself)
    Eat meat; moderately (more chicken, less beef but have your rib eye every now and then - it's good for ya)
    Eat fish; moderately (because of pollution, alas, otherwise you can hardly eat too much fish)
    Do not eat sugar in any form (a bit of honey occasionally is OK)
    Eat fruits; moderately (sugar!)
    Do not eat grain in any form (as this is almost impossibly expensive at least try to minimize it)

    However, the biggest news is that universal recipes do not exist. Nuts a good food, eh? No, not fo me, but for Sara they are excellent. So what to do:

    1. Univariate analysis - create a diet (consisting of the simplest, basic, one size fits all approach) per week and repeat it for a month. Then start introducing 1 variation per day and monitor the outcome. Over time you fill the database with foods that are good for you. If you want to go deeper include as variable the method os preparation (e.g. boiled potatoes are bad for me, but baked are OK).

    2. Multivariate analysis - assign responses rated for example 1-10 on: gas; bloating; stool hardness; skin response (itching, eczemas), pain in gut, burning sensation while pissing etc. Your doctor can help you with that (e.g. my skin reacts within 1 hour after meal; if I ate something that disagrees with me I get attack of itching). Collect food vs outcome for a couple of months. Run PCA/PLS analysis or something like that and figure out the good and bad foods. Over time you emerge with a "basket" of what works best for you and you eat this until the end.

    Best of luck!

    1. Re:Suggests? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      No pasta? Sorry, that makes no sense at all. Mediterranean people have one of the best life-expectancy in the west and pasta is a staple there.
      Also, Asians and rice?

      The rest, I can agree on.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    2. Re:Suggests? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Counter anecdote, when i stopped eating meat i lost tonnes of weight and feel much healthier all the time.

      You see, every person is different. I hate the taste of butter and much prefer margarine. Thats what i was raised on.

      Milk is cow mucous, which is gross as hell. When its processed into cheese i eat it.

      Fruits and vegetables should be maximized. Grains are great! unless you have a sensitivity. For me, they are no problem.

      Vegetable protein is the only protein you need! (tofu, chickpeas, etc) but i needs me my weekly salmon because salmon is delicious. And of course eggs for breakfast on the weekends.

      Watch forks over knives, the documentary about animal fats. very eye opening. However everyone has their opinions and what works for them. These types of diet studies are so wrong i just ignore most scientific studies now. every year its a new fad.

    3. Re: Suggests? by Evtim · · Score: 1

      The pasta is a special case...since I can't make good one I never included it in the experiments.
      There is something with the grain and myself though. I'm not gluten intolerant but somehow my tolerance for grains is very low.
      Still I can eat 2 to 3 grain based meals per week without ill effects. So pasta is probably ok too in moderation...need to find good restaurant or Italian friend to test...
      Some additional advice I forgot to tell:
      - don't abuse alcohol.
      - smoking is bad for digestion (among other things).
      - if I'm pressed with a gun on my head to name a single offender in modern-day diet it would be sugary drinks of all kinds including the 100 percent fruit juice.

    4. Re: Suggests? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Well, I can agree to that and in particular, sugar is a real killer.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  35. Here is what you should do: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Eat meat, it has the lowest amount of carbohydrates of any food source while having the healthy proteins and fat that your body requires to survive. We Humans were designed by God and through evolution have found survived thanks to eating meat.

  36. Moderate by kiviQr · · Score: 1

    Everything is a poison, even water if you abuse it. We went to low fat and replaced it with ton of sugar to add "taste". I agree that we cannot swing pendulum the other way but there needs to be public scrutiny over amount of sugar we consume.

  37. Journalists not Scientists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Our university lecturers complained about this, and that was right before the post truth era attitudes began. They said it was how Journalists advertised discoveries, rather than the scientists them selves. Things like small discoveries, the real bread and butter of scientific development just didn't have enough impact for them. They would turn it into a complete fabrication many times more impressive than reality.

  38. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are you so sure about that?
    Would you tell anyone if you somehow didn't age?

  39. Well Duh, We've Known This Since the 1950s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    We've known since the 1950s that fat intake has fuckall to do with cholesterol levels and heart disease, because fat intake does not result in the kinds of fats in your bloodstream that cause plaque.

    Refined sugar, however, in excess of what is required by the body, gets processed by the liver into VLDLs and Triglycerides as an intermediate step to being linked into longer fatty acids for energy storage. It is the VLDL that causes arterial plaque and CV disease.

    Add insulin resistance and diabetes to the mix and you have a recipe for early death.

    Until man discovered agriculture, he lived on meats and whatever fruits, nuts, and vegetables could be foraged, but it was mostly meats. Fat and protein. Carbs were few and far between, and the carbs that were available were linked with high amounts of fiber so man did not eat sugar in excess.

    Then he discovered agriculture, and he made bread and sugar and alcohol, all of which concentrate and magnify the effects of sugars on the body, having stripped the fiber component away and allowed man to consume large amounts of sugar with no moderation.

    Refined sugar is fucking evil and should be outlawed.... that goes for corn syrup, granular sugar, and all forms of bread and pasta.

    1. Re:Well Duh, We've Known This Since the 1950s by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Indeed. Refined sugar is o.k. as a luxury item in low quantities, but has no place in a regular diet.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  40. Re:In other news.... by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

    Why not try to live to be 140? Not a single person has never died over 140, except highly suspect tales in the bible.

  41. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by quantaman · · Score: 1

    This is a good example of why average people, who maybe only have a rudimentary background in science, no longer trust it or what scientists are claiming.

    There have just been too many situations like this where scientists say one thing, as if they're 100% sure they're right, and then sometime latter they have to backtrack on their claims. Sometimes it even turns out that the exact opposite of what they're saying is actually true!

    The problem isn't that scientists are retracting their incorrect claims. That's exactly what they should be doing, and it's what science as a practice requires be done. The problem is that they should not be making claims that they can't substantiate, and they surely shouldn't be making claims that they'll need to retract just a few years later, especially if any sort of political policy will be based on their claims.

    Nutrition science and climate science have shown themselves to be two fields where claims are made too easily, and what is claimed either ends up being obviously wrong, or the predictions being made do not come to pass.

    The problem is the news is good at reporting new stuff, bad at reporting on how a single study has shifted the overall consensus.

    How does the rest of the field interpret this study? How do the authors think the field should respond? A naive reading of the results suggests I should cut my carbs down to almost nothing and eat a ton of fat, I doubt that's a good approach to take. This result may be an outlier, it may shift the consensus slightly, or it might be completely in line with the current understanding, I don't really know which and it might take a while for the field to find out.

    Scientists in other fields, especially ones that have a much better track record of consistently being right, should try to publicly separate themselves from scientific fields like nutrition science and climate science. Greater denouncing of scientific fields and scientists with poor track records may be the only way to maintain, never mind restore, any trust that the public at large may have in science.

    And you just couldn't resist a global warming shot...

    --
    I stole this Sig
  42. Watch out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    First, congrats on losing the weight. You feel great. I know, I did about the same thing you did. Lost 42 kg (90+ lbs) in seven months. Maintained it for about two years. Felt amazing.

    Then, slowly, ever so slowly, I started eating carbs in excess amounts. My weight crept up slowly. No biggy, I just proved to myself I could easily loose it. Yeah, no, I couldn't.

    Now I've almost gained all the weight I had lost. Feel terrible. Look terrible.

    Moral to this story: do not be me. Keep vigilant of your weight. When you gain a pound, get rid of it immediately.

    Hope you fare better than I did. Hope I find the mental strength to start all over.

  43. You mean there was no deep fat, no steaks or ... by MarcAuslander · · Score: 1

    In the 1973 file Sleeper by Woody Allen two of his caretakers in the future discuss his breakfast request and then start a riff on "deep fat". You mean there was no deep fat etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  44. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are you claiming that Elvis is humanoid? The king lives!

  45. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ABC wrote a glossed over story about 7 years worth of research. I didn't even see the study linked in the article. This happens in every field of science. How many times has Popular "Science" claimed that this is the year of the flying car? How many bad articles do you see about AI in the news right now? The list goes ever on.

    People don't trust science because people don't understand that science is ongoing and that as our body of information grows - conclusions can change. Because of that manufacturers are able to fool the ignorant into buying all sorts of crappy products. A basic understanding of science is covered in every basic 6th grade science course, but some people forget (or never got it) and here we are today.

    Ignorant people read glossed over science and draw bad conclusions from it. That's not the fault of science.

  46. Oh great, another oversimplification by theonlyholle · · Score: 1

    Yay, another observation study that tries to mask its uselessness by oversimplifying the results. Correlation doesn't mean causation, no matter how many studies you do. Just because women over 50 rarely get pregnant, it doesn't mean they rarely have sex... but that's exactly the quality of results you get from observational studies and the fact that the results are easier to get mentioned in the media when you oversimplify them (fat good, carbs bad) means you get more research funding for more pointless studies. People should stress less about eating, have everything in moderation (which comes kind of naturally if there is no "forbidden" food that you end up binge-eating) and have an active lifestyle - we all die of something, we might as well live a happy life until we do and not make our lives miserable by focusing on what foods are allowed...

    1. Re:Oh great, another oversimplification by gweihir · · Score: 2

      Actually, these studies are useful to validate or invalidate models of what is going on. The studies themselves are not directly useful to tell you what to do or not (even if the brain-dead press usually presents them as such), but a well-validated model will be much more useful in that regard.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    2. Re:Oh great, another oversimplification by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Correlation does not imply causation, but causation DOES imply causation. In fact, causation IS causation, by the identity principal.

      We know that refined sugar is a root cause of heart disease and diabetes. The mechanisms are well known and proven. It is not theory, and it is not a statistical correlation, that sugar leads to CV disease, hypertension, and diabetes. It is known medical fact.

  47. No, it doesn't make sense at all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Carbohydrates" is too generic, they need to specify which ones.

    Italians, who eat massive amounts of pasta (hence carbs), have just been named the healthiest people in the world by Bloomberg's Global Health Index: https://www.weforum.org/agenda... ...and they are even the slimmest people in the west, according to the OECD: https://www.oecd.org/health/ob...

    That's not enough. The Japanese, who eat massive amount of rice (carbs again), have the highest life expectancy on the planet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    So I'm highly skeptical of this new "research", unless they meant "sugar", and not carbs in general. I'm also curious to know who might have financed it. And I'm surely not going back to mcdonald's anyways.

  48. YES! Back to my 15000kcal a day diet! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pork, eggs, cheese and beef! I'm gonna live forever!

  49. Gluconeogenesis by hsthompson69 · · Score: 1

    Mod parent up.

    There are essential proteins you'll die without, and there are essential fatty acids you'll die without.

    There are no essential carbohydrates because your body can create glucose from proteins and fats.

    Carbs are cheap, but it's healthier to feed them to animals, and then eat the animals.

  50. Strike another blow against science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All you marching mirmadons trumpeting the absolute power of science now have to eat your scientific facts. For 50 years now the scientific hegemony has been trumpeting the absolute fact that fat is bad and carbs are great. You have been calling anyone who dares to come up with their own conclusions and not rely on Science's absolute faith in the food pyramid a nazi communist who practices genocide on cute fuzzy baby penguins (basically a really bad person because you refuse to believe in the absolute authority of Science)

    Now the scientific priests are eating their words and doing a complete180.

    Let's end the absolute belief in the infallibility of science, and instead encourage people to think rationally and logically about the world around them and not think "Well gee wikipedia says it is true so it must be true. I'm going to laugh at and ridicule anyone who disagrees with what the wikipedia says all the Scientist have concluded"

    1. Re:Strike another blow against science by gweihir · · Score: 1

      The thing with science is that the science never made any absolute claims here, just bad scientists and the press did. Nobody competent claimed that this was the last word.

      Of course, things are more complex that the story tells us. For example, if those carbohydrates are mostly sugar, the result is not surprising and even in line with the older state, as sugar in larger quantities is really, really bad for you, much more so than fat.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    2. Re:Strike another blow against science by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      Actually, there were a good many studies that conflicted with the "low fat" diet, but unfortunately the sugar industry has enough money and power that it was able to put out enough misinformation and put enough pressure on public health officials in many countries that they got the mantra of "get rid of fat", while they did everything in their power to make sure the amount of refined sugars in foods skyrocketed. But the fact that refined sugars are bad for you has been known for decades.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  51. And then there's individuality. by hsthompson69 · · Score: 1

    Here's another fly in the soup - not everybody is as sensitive to insulin (or resistant to insulin) as other people. Different people may be able to tolerate different diets.

    I, for one, cannot tolerate apples well. The fructose in a single apple, even if eaten whole rather than juiced, causes me health problems.

    I'm sure there are some people who can tolerate lots of refined sugar. But I'll tell you this - those people who have obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, or other chronic diseases are of the body type that should significantly reduce carbohydrate intake. If your biomarkers are great, and all you eat are pop tarts, bully for you. If you are having problems, 99% of the time carbohydrate restriction will benefit you.

  52. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 1

    I think you will find out that the scientists usually made no such claims in the first place. It is almost always the media making the claims and people that dress up as scientists (with no actual science degree) trying to sell fad diets that are the problem.

    Most of the research that you read makes very few claims. What you will see is a paper where x% carbohydrates correlates to a death rate in y% under z circumstances and everything is a tradeoff. Many things you can eat don't really decrease your overall lifespan but instead change what you are likely to die from. This is not to say that diet does nothing. What you eat matters quite a lot but science is not at the stage for food that it can make really good recommendations. In general we know that highly processed foods correlated with worse health outcomes. We don't really know why this is. In general you want to eat fruits and vegetables (some cooked, some raw to extract different vitamins and minerals), meat and fats. You don't need processed carbohydrates but if you eat them try to keep it to a minimum.

    --
    Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
  53. Probably all that stress avoiding fat kills them.. by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Stress is a real killer. On the plus side, I am now going to live even longer, as I do not need to feel bad anymore for all that olive oil and butter I use when cocking.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  54. Don't exaggerate the real impact by tomhath · · Score: 1

    People with a high fat intake -- about 35 percent of their daily diet -- had a 23 percent lower risk of early death and 18 percent lower risk of stroke compared to people who ate less fat

    This is good to know. But keep in mind that your chance of dying from one of those is still quite small in the context of all the other things that kill people (cancer, accidents, etc). So the actual increase in your risk of death is pretty small.

  55. Cheekan...good by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 1

    Mmm..cheekan. - Leeloo

  56. Advice for fat people by hsthompson69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Imagine you've been invited to a gourmet meal. The host tells you to "bring your appetite!" What might you do to make yourself hungrier?

    Maybe skip a meal or two earlier in the day? (less calories)

    Maybe go out for a brisk run, or workout? (more exercise)

    So, we know, categorically, that less calories and more exercise creates increased hunger.

    How does this help a fat person eat less?

    Now, if you understand the biochemistry, and how for a fat person, their fat cells are stealing all the energy from their muscle cells, then you understand the thing driving them to 5000 calories a day is starvation (from the muscle point of view). You don't need to focus on getting them to put less calories in their mouth, you need to focus on getting them to put less calories in their fat cells.

    How do fat cells get bigger? Under the influence of insulin.

    How do insulin levels get higher? Under the influence of blood sugar (literally to keep you from dying of sugar poisoning - it's a feature, not a bug).

    How is blood sugar raised? High glycemic foods, like carbohydrates.

    So if you want the fat man to stop being hungry, so he'll eat less calories, and therefore lose weight, you have to focus on the root cause, not just the proximate cause. It's the fat cells that are "overeating" - the fat man is eating 5000 calories because given the glycemic load of whatever he's eating, he needs that much to keep his muscle cells fed.

    Reduce the glycemic load, you'll reduce the hunger, and *that* will reduce caloric intake.

    tl;dr - getting hungrier doesn't help you eat less.

    1. Re:Advice for fat people by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      tl;dr - getting hungrier doesn't help you eat less.

      You don't need to be hungry to eat less. The body's response to hunger has an incredible delay. Simply not shovelling food into your face until you hate yourself can go a long way.

      Try eating half a size meal as you normally would. It takes you half the time, but if you eat at half the speed you'll find yourself exactly as not hungry as you were before, and you may actually be able to walk when you stand up from the table.

      That's not to say what you're saying isn't right, it is. But the calorie in calorie out system has plenty of weight in it too, pardon the pun. We aren't just eating shit, we've forgotten how to actually eat, not helped by a world of parents telling kids to finish what's on their plates while steadily supersizing them, while snack and fast food companies stigmatise hunger. Speaking of, let's bring this all together, sugar, snacking, and overeating. I mean holy fuck a large coke in the USA is 32oz. That's just shy of 1L. A large coke in most of Europe is 500mL, smaller than the USA "medium".

    2. Re:Advice for fat people by rogoshen1 · · Score: 1

      Hi Gary! When yer next book coming out? I really liked both 'good calories bad calories' and 'why we get fat, and what to do about it'

    3. Re:Advice for fat people by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 1

      So, we know, categorically, that less calories and more exercise creates increased hunger.

      We "know, categorically" nothing of the sort. Research on the relationship between exercise and appetite suggests it's at least dependent on the type of exercise, and that some exercise actually decreases appetite. See, for example, here and here.

      Though this may not have been your intent, your "advice for fat people" comes across as though they should avoid exercise and focus on carb management. That's not sound advice. Though I don't disagree that cutting carbs within reason is a piece of the puzzle, there are many benefits beyond weight management to rational levels of exercise. And THAT is something we "know, categorically."

    4. Re:Advice for fat people by hsthompson69 · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the cites!

      A few problems - one of the studies took ten healthy males. I think that excluding people with insulin resistance problems makes that study difficult to rely on.

      Further, that same study asserted a temporary decrease in hunger sensations - which again, if you're insulin resistant, and your fat cells are starving you, may not apply as cleanly.

      The study for 17 overweight men is a bit more interesting, but I'm not sure if the magnitudes they found were terribly significant (they were statistically significant, but again, limited by a 70 minute time-span of observation afterwards and an actual 10 hour fast before hand, and an "all you can eat" of standardized oats - not the tastiest snack food). I'm a big fan of HIIE (slow burn is my current regimen), as well as intermittent fasting, but I would have liked to have seen data on the glycemic load of their standardized liquid meal as well.

      And you're right - it wasn't my intent to discard exercise, although I see exercise as a path to strength rather than weight management. The stronger your muscles are, the more efficient they are, the easier it is to do anything. The fact that this can improve metabolism is a wonderful thing, but my direct experience has been that no amount of exercise can combat excess carbohydrate intake for me.

      Anyway, thanks again for the specific references!

    5. Re:Advice for fat people by hsthompson69 · · Score: 1

      I just think "overeating" is a tautology.

      If a 150 pound man eats 5000 calories, and doesn't gain a pound, we don't call that "overeating".

      If a 150 pound man eats 2000 calories, and gains two pounds, we call that "overeating".

      So "overeating" has nothing to do with how much we eat, but what happens *after* we eat.

      I think the more important thing to pay attention to is "overfatting" - what causes your fat cells to grow, and what causes them to shrink. Of course the biggest player is insulin, but anything we come up with has to actually address the fat cell, not the mouth.

      I remember back when I was on a low-fat, low-calorie diet, and I would wake up in the middle of the night, starving. I would go to the fridge, and eat a bunch of carrots (healthy, right?), and end up so full that it felt like there were carrots crawling up my esophagus. And I'd still be starving. Why? Because my muscles *were* starving. My stomach was full to the brim, but because I'm sensitive to carbohydrate, all those "healthy" carrots were doing was being digested, and then being shunted into fat cells. It is really such a frustrating experience to be full, but still hungry - I'm not sure if people who aren't insulin resistant can actually imagine what that's like.

      Anyway, my latest thing has been intermittent fasting - let the body go through a bit of hunger, get into "starvation" mode every once in a while, and schedule eating to just 6 hours a day (mornings from 8am-2pm are butter coffee only, "real" food from 2pm - 8pm). It seems to help adjust some of the hormonal responses so that hunger and overall caloric intake decreases in the long term.

    6. Re:Advice for fat people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No

    7. Re:Advice for fat people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      tl;dr - getting hungrier doesn't help you eat less.

      Obviously?

    8. Re:Advice for fat people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Human's are not machines like cars.

      If you want to lose weight, stop eating sugar, bread, vegetable oils such as canola, soy, sunflower oil. Learn about intermittent fasting, and cut your alcohol consumption.

    9. Re:Advice for fat people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This logic sounds familiar to me... Check out this TEDx talk...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1vvigy5tQ

  57. we're all going to die by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have heard so much horse shit about this stuff and I'm relatively young still... One day blue berries are a super food, the next day, twinkies are satan's hell spawn...

    For the sake of simplicity it's really just about where your genetic ancestors existed on the earth. If your ancestors lived in siberia; chances are, they weren't farming too much, they were hunting and eating meat. If your ancestors lived in some massively fertile riverbed land, they farmed, and got lots of carbs, and probably ate meat sparingly as needed or not needed, etc...

    There is no single righteous and moral one diet you should worship above all other diets and have no other diets beside her...

    We all have different genetic predispositions both the kind you inherit and the kind you adapt and mutate into as your life goes by. Too much of ANYTHING is a bad thing... sugar, meat, gravy, roadkill, etc...

    Weigh your fucking options and decided what the hell you want to be eating and how you want to live your life. Do you want to eat raw carrots and cabbage till you shit rabbit turds? Go for it. Do you want to cut out so much sugar in your diet that you can barely shop for anything at a grocery store? Do it up. But don't fucking claim one diet is above all else... Processed sugar, yeah, probably not as healthy as a pickled beat, but.... drink enough alcohol and you get liver death when u get old... smoke enough and u get lung cancers when u get old... and well... live long enough.. and you die from old age... and yup... enjoy life enough, like being alive enough... and yup death, when it comes, can seem like a real downer...

    anywho, my rant...

    1. Re:we're all going to die by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      You are heavily exaggerating the differences between populations so far as dietary needs, and really, you're going to find distributions even within a population, but the reality is that hunter-gatherer populations simply did not have access to high-carb diets, and in particular there were no refined sugars. Whether you're from Western European heritage, East African, Japanese, Inuit, Native American, the fact is that caloric needs are fairly consistent, and no one has evolved the ability to deal with highly refined sugars. Full stop.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  58. Re:In other news.... by TWX · · Score: 3, Funny

    The hard part would be concealing the Katana.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  59. Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Our ancestors didn't have access to lots of carbohydrates at best they could rely upon root vegetables for carbs or possibly fruits but the thing is we as people sometimes imagine people eating apples that have the high sugar content they have today but that is something that would have been completely alien to our ancestors. Our ancestors Made It by because they were good at eating whatever was available and largely that was fat and whatever they could find

  60. I'm doomed by mark-t · · Score: 1

    Having an eating disorder that is apparent called ARFID I am unable to eat most things that are genuinely healthy (can't do green vegetables, most fruits, or any red fish... About 40% of my diet is from sandwiches, usually peanut butter, and sometimes cheese.

    If high carbs mean an early death, I'm hooped.

    1. Re: I'm doomed by Evtim · · Score: 1

      How about yogurt? When I had to remove grain from my diet it was substituted with milk products (but not milk itself).
      ATM I'm on 5 to 7 liters yogurt per week...no problem except finding source of real sour milk (proper name) which turned out to be small farm coming once per week to the city market....when the farmers go on vacation I really suffer :)

  61. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by geekmux · · Score: 1

    This is a good example of why average people, who maybe only have a rudimentary background in science, no longer trust it or what scientists are claiming.

    There have just been too many situations like this where scientists say one thing, as if they're 100% sure they're right, and then sometime latter they have to backtrack on their claims. Sometimes it even turns out that the exact opposite of what they're saying is actually true!

    People don't trust science or studies because they are far too often bought and paid for by those who profit the most from "results", which the competition is often found buying the backtracking counter-argument.

    Wading through the lies and bullshit to find truth and fact is the only true science left.

  62. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

    Did you read the paper? I'm guessing no....

    Even the summary is fairly well written. There are no absolute statements, just a presentation of the evidence and a fairly cautious interpretation.

    Don't confuse pop-health TV and your own desire for certainty with science or what scientists are saying.

  63. Re:I'm doomed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Skip the bread, keep the peanut butter and cheese(especially hard cheeses). But check the label on the peanut butter, some brands add sugar.

    And of course chicken thighs, steak, and pork are all good.

  64. Another tiny "limitation"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The study ignores that the Japanese and the Italians, whose diets are both known for very high carbs intake (rice and pasta), have the highest and second-highest life expectancy in the world respectively (I'm excluding Hong Kong because it is not a country): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    And the Italians have just been named the healthiest people in the world by Bloomberg: https://www.weforum.org/agenda...

    Long story short: if the research in the article was supposed to make me go back to mcdonald's, then nope, it failed.

    1. Re:Another tiny "limitation"... by Zephyn · · Score: 4, Funny

      As the old joke goes - both the Italians and the Japanese eat like that and have a greater life expectancy than Americans, British, Canadians and Australians.

      Therefore, diet doesn't matter. It's speaking English that kills you.

    2. Re: Another tiny "limitation"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Here's a pretty comprehensive article on how the Japanese, Italian and French diets differ from an American high carb diet: http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/how-do-some-cultures-stay-lean-while-still-consuming-high-amounts-of-carbohydrates

    3. Re: Another tiny "limitation"... by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      Italians and French may consume a high percentage of carbohydrates but I doubt they consume the same quantity as Americans.

      And there's the difference.

      --
      No sig today...
    4. Re:Another tiny "limitation"... by epine · · Score: 2

      Harvey was advertised as being unusually dangerous because it combined wind with water (though perhaps that theory was all wet).

      In any case, harm is not always a single factor condition.

      In paleolithic terms, getting a belly full of carbs (fruit grove that ripens all in a day) or a belly full of cholesterol (goodbye now-extinct megafauna) wasn't that rare, but managing both as the same time was a real trick.

      Insulin is a storage hormone that directs excess carbs into fat storage. Might complicate mopping up cholesterol at the same time, if these levels are also high. There was probably scant evolutionary pressure in our paleo past to sort this out.

      Now I know that diet is no longer considered a major source of blood cholesterol, but for the purpose of the present narrative, how about let's not shuffle the black hats around every time the FDA adds more lipstick to the food pyramid (unless running madly from gunwale to gunwale with every food pyramid adjustment is your favourite sport).

      Perhaps there is indeed some other way to adjust your diet so that carbs alone won't kill you. This study does not disagree. What this study says is that as a choice between less carbs and less fat, more people—in the era studied—would have benefited from fewer carbs.

      Unless you really know what those other adjustments are, I wouldn't smirk at this gross data point.

      I've even read studies in the past where the toxicity of methyl mercury seemed to be highly correlated with low selenium intake (so much so as to not kill the Japanese, unless they eat the wrong kind of whale, but that's actually red meat, not fish—OMG my brain hurts).

      Long story short: if the research in the article was supposed to make me go back to McDonald's, then nope, it failed.

      No, the study wasn't trying to make you think.

      It was trying to tell you that other things you've been told were never all that reliable in the first place.

      It takes hard mental effort to navigate a higher dimensional landscape (all of human diet) on low dimensional maps (dietary epidemiology).

      Whatever you were eating before, I suggest fish.

    5. Re: Another tiny "limitation"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly...

    6. Re: Another tiny "limitation"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But as an italian I eat a good amount of "good" fat (High quality, non processed olive oil) and vegetables, the king of the table here is tomato, known to have a good mixtures of vitamins and antioxidant. So if you stop at the high carbs intake of the mediterranean diet you are telling only half of the story.

  65. Article is wrong. Risk of death 100% by lindseyp · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure it's not going to go down, no matter what you eat.

    --
    j'ai découvert une démonstration vraiment admirable (de ce théorème général) que cette si
  66. To Quote Louis Black by Koreantoast · · Score: 1

    The people who told us about sun block were the same people who told us, when I was a kid, that eggs were good. So I ate a lot of eggs. Ten years later they said they were bad. I went, "Well, I just ate the eggs!" So I stopped eating eggs, and ten years later they said they were good again! Well, then I ate twice as many, and then they said they were bad. Well, now I'm really fucked! Then they said they're good, they're bad, they're good, the whites are good, th-the yellows - make up your mind! It's breakfast I've gotta eat!

    - Louis Black

  67. Pretty simple for us... by CharlesAKAChuck · · Score: 1

    My family has a pretty simple method of deciding what to eat. If there's a commercial for it, we don't eat it. There are a few exceptions, such as my kid is addicted to a specific brand of macaroni and cheese. But for the most part, moderation is the key.

  68. Fast Food by samwhite_y · · Score: 1

    Fast food always gets painted as a villain in food nutrition. For those who have seen "Super Size Me" about a person who only consumed McDonald's food for a period of time, the message from the film was strongly against fast food. However, that person not only ate a Big Mac, he ate fries and drank a large sugared drink.
    What if that person only ate two big macs and drank water for his meals? I suspect his outcome would have been far better.

    1. Re:Fast Food by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      The buns are loaded with sugar as well, and there are other issues with processed foods, but yes, pop really should have a skull and crossbones on it. A more interesting question might be, what if he just ate the patties?

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Fast Food by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      what if he just ate the patties?

      then he'd probably have died from constipation by half way through.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    3. Re:Fast Food by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What if that person only ate two big macs and drank water for his meals? I suspect his outcome would have been far better.

      You don't have to speculate. His name is Don Gorske, and he's in the movie as the Big Mac guy. He's still around and not fat.

  69. The actual paper in question by pots · · Score: 1

    For anyone interested, here is the actual paper (paywalled).

    Links from the CBS article were worthless and it took a little searching to find that, so I figured I'd post it for anyone looking.

  70. To first order calorie is a calorie by Kludge · · Score: 1

    A calorie may not always be the same as any other, but when you're consuming four or five thousand every day, it doesn't matter all that much.

    Exactly. The effects seen in this study (23% etc) are pretty darn small compared with the huge detrimental health effects of being overweight. And you can become overweight by eating too many fat calories or too many carbohydrate calories.
    The best suggestion still is limit calories of all kinds and exercise.

    1. Re:To first order calorie is a calorie by robkeeney · · Score: 1

      Have you ever tried to over-eat on fat calories? You should try it some time. You quickly grow full and you just don't want anymore, totally unlike with carbs.

  71. Re:Probably all that stress avoiding fat kills the by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I do not need to feel bad anymore for all that olive oil and butter I use when cocking.

    Water-based lubes are better.

  72. Science is hard. Almost as hard as article reading by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

    So.... Those who can afford meat and steak live longer?

    Did they account for income discrepancies?

  73. Are they sure this time? by reboot246 · · Score: 1

    Every few years new research results come out saying that the old research was wrong. That's fine because this is science, but when it concerns diet and health, it can make a huge difference in your life expectancy.

    Can we just refrain from saying what's good or bad for you until we know for near certainty?

    I'm planning to live forever . . . . or die trying.

    1. Re:Are they sure this time? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Can we just refrain from saying what's good or bad for you until we know for near certainty?

      I've not yet seen anything yet which contradicts the rather old, boring idea that a balanced diet low on processed foods is good.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
  74. Oh look, mot proof Dr. Atkins was right! by X86BSD · · Score: 1

    How much longer will it be before all the deniers start believing Atkins was correct? He knew this. His diet works, and it saves lives. He wasn't a quack or killing people telling them to eat bacon and meat. It's the food industry that is killing people with carbs, carbs and more carbs, topped with sugar and more carbs.

  75. Re:In other news.... by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
    I dunno....

    I"m still looking into this whole turning into a vampire thing....sounds like a good deal to me, but I wanna lose weight first, I'd rather not go through eternity with my current gut.

    But sure, I'd like to live forever.

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  76. It's calories by DogDude · · Score: 0

    Being overweight must, according to the known laws of physics, come from putting too many calories into your mouth hole. There's no way that people are getting and NOT eating too many calories. If there's a human on this planet that can gain weight without eating too many calories, it would mean that mass is being created out of nothing, which is impossible.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
  77. Limitations of Study by structural_biologist · · Score: 2

    A few notes to keep in mind with the interpretation of the results:

    1. The macronutrient consumption data are based on food frequency questionaires, a somewhat unreliable means to measuring food consumption. How accurate do you think you'd be if asked about how much of each type of food you ate over the past few months? For more disucssion of problems with food frequency questionaires and other general issues with studies on nutrition see: http://fivethirtyeight.com/fea...

    2. The study is an observational study that can only assess correlation, not causation. People who reported eating more carbohydrates had higher mortality. Was eating more carbohydrates the cause of the higher mortality, or were there other differences between people who ate more carbohydrates and those who ate less? A common problem with these studies is that people who follow dietary guidelines are more likely to follow other guidelines for healthy living, so one could just be picking up a signal from decreased mortality of those who pay attention to their health in general. Socioeconomic factors are another potential confounding factor in the results. In many of the third world countries studied, a diet higher in animal protein would likely be more expensive than a diet higher in carbohydrates. These confounding variables make inferring causation difficult. Randomized controlled trials would provide a gold standard for assessing whether there is a causal relationship between carbohydrate intake and mortality, though these are notoriously difficult to perform (how do you get a large cohort of people to change their diets for long periods of time?).

    3. Even if the differences in diet are causally related to the changes in mortality and CV events, the exact mechanism is unclear. For example, in a commentary published in the Lancet along side the research paper (I would recommend reading the commentary if you are interested in the subject), the authors note:

    Micronutrient malnutrition is an important problem in many of the countries included in PURE. Animal products are rich sources of zinc, bioavailable iron, vitamin K2, and vitamin B12, which might be suboptimal in populations consuming high carbohydrate diets. Therefore, one potential explanation for the PURE results is that nutrient-dense meats corrected one or more nutrient deficiencies

    http://www.thelancet.com/journ...

    If the results are partly due to consumption of animal products alleviating micronutrient malnutrition, it is unclear whether the results would be as applicable in populations where micronutrient malnutrition is not an issue.

    Overall, the study is a very important piece of evidence in determining the best amount of carbohydrates, proteins and fats to include in one's diet. However, it is not a definitive study, so one needs to consider the entire body of evidence including observational studies (such as this one) done in a number of different populations, randomized clinical trials, and laboratory experiments that get at the mechanisms involved.

  78. Who Paid for the Study? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I only want to know one thing: Who Paid for the Study?

  79. Refined foods are the culprit by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    The key culprit here is refined carbohydrates, both refined sugar and refined starches. Why are they so bad? Well just look at what the refining process removes. For sugars, not only does the refining process remove all vitamins and minerals, but also all dietary fiber, which is needed to help reduce the absorption rate of refined sugars. Consuming refined sugars, for example in sodas, can play merry hell with your blood sugar and blood chemistry, while eating a banana and an apple that have the equivalent sugar, will do no such thing and are in fact good for you. At the same time, that soda is empty calories with no vitamin or mineral contribution to your daily needs.

    This article almost completely misses the point. The problem is not sugar or carbs, it is refined foods that have had all vitamins, minerals and other beneficial accompaniments found in nature striped away.

    --
    If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
  80. Accuracy of any nutrition study by fropenn · · Score: 1

    Nutrition studies are notoriously difficult to make accurate. Take, for example, this study (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0076632) that found that the reported nutrition intake for survey participants was "not physiologically plausible." And this was for one of the most well-regarded U.S. surveys of nutritional intake.

    Now, I haven't reviewed the study listed in this article, but I am highly, highly skeptical because of how hard it is to get accurate food consumption information from the public.

    Consider, for instance, what you've eaten so far today - what have you eaten, and exactly how many servings of each item have you consumed? If this is hard to do for a couple of meals in one day, imagine how hard it is to make that accurate over an extended period of time.

  81. That's what they say THIS week by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    Next week, fat will be bad, and carbs good. MODERATION, unless you have an underlying disease...is the key.

  82. Re:Large-Scale Dietary Study: Fats Good, Carbs Bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Regardless of what studies find people who have been eating this way are having success. Its not global warming, your either obese or your not, and you either eat too much sugar or you don't and it only takes less than a year to notice any body changes after changing your diet.

  83. carb intolerance by js290 · · Score: 1

    How much carbs one can tolerate is actually easy to measure: http://www.phlaunt.com/diabete...

    --
    "Tempers are wearing thin. Let's just hope some robot doesn't kill everybody." --Bender
  84. Paging Dr Atkins by magzteel · · Score: 1

    I remember reading one of his books and hearing us radio show many years ago. People said he was nuts. Nowadays he might have been called a "fat denier" for going against the mainstream.

  85. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by Rutulian · · Score: 1

    The USDA food pyramid was not conceived or supported by nutritionists. The original food pyramid actually contradicted the nutrition science of that time. The USDA does a lot of good things, but they have never accurately represented the nutrition content of food.

  86. Re:In other news.... by Joce640k · · Score: 2

    Not true. Nobody over the age of 130 has ever died.

    --
    No sig today...
  87. Re:Science is hard. Almost as hard as article read by robkeeney · · Score: 1

    Actually, if all you eat is meat and you cut out (e.g. stop buying) the massive volume of cheap carb crap, you'll save money, won't be hungry much at all, and you'll be a lot healthier.

  88. The sleeper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No deep fats? https://youtu.be/dFJopF6WJNw

  89. Re:In other news.... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    ...yet the longer you live, the slower the rate of increase in your age...

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  90. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hmm, statistically i'd say the likelihood is 100% considering 100% of all humans born 200 years ago have all died and considering that proportion is 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% that have ever lived.

    99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of all humans that have ever lived were born in 1817?

  91. WRONG - Re:Impossible to avoid carbs in the US by gosand · · Score: 1

    I have been Paleo + some dairy for 5 years now. It is NOT impossible, but it does take effort. It is absolutely worth it though.

    1. Educate yourself. I know that many people don't even really know what a carb is, because when it comes up that I eat a low-carb diet, they assume I mean high-protein. They say things like "but you don't even eat bread?". Read "Good Calories Bad Calories, The Primal Blueprint, The Case Against Sugar, and Grain Brain. Listen to Dr Peter Attia. There are lots of resources out there. Learn WHY carbs are bad, why grains and grain-based products are bad for you. Don't just look for a quick-fix pre-packaged diet plan.

    2. Learn about food. Buy ingredients, not pre-made things.

    3. Learn to cook and make your own food.

    4. Make smart choices. You should be able to order in about any restaurant and get a decent low-carb meal. Get a burger without the bun. Veggies instead of fries. Just eat the toppings off the pizza. Lots of ways to avoid the carbs. Maybe not 100%, but once you largely eliminate them from your diet, a few on occasion won't kill you.

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  92. Re:Science is hard. Almost as hard as article read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did they account for income discrepancies?

    Yes, they did. They also said that they couldn't show causation; only that, adjusted for everything they could think of to adjust for, a diet high in carbohydrates is correlated with a higher risk of premature death due to heart attack or stroke. They could not find a similar correlation in a diet high in fat.

  93. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And you just couldn't resist a global warming shot...

    Well, who cares what his personal view is? The fact is that a lot of people, including those who don't believe in global warming, have a hard time trusting scientists because of issues like this. Remember global cooling? It doesn't matter how many scientists actually bought into it, what matters is the public perception.

    It doesn't matter if the blame lies with scientists or the media. The result is the same: people learn that scientists can be wrong in big ways about big things. That's where the distrust comes in and why the grandparent said "This is a good example of why average people, who maybe only have a rudimentary background in science, no longer trust it or what scientists are claiming". Scientists can do everything in their power to correct bad science but the media will still misinform on some issues. I really do wish everyone the best with fixing the media.

  94. don't forget about tobacco... by gosand · · Score: 1

    In Taubes' "The Case Against Sugar" he reveals quite a bit about the Sugar Industry.
    There are even ties with the tobacco industry, they aren't that dissimilar. They've had some of the same marketing people over the years, convincing people that their product isn't harmful (and in fact, promoting it as healthy)

    Here's a short article to consider...

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

    1. Re:don't forget about tobacco... by gosand · · Score: 1
      --

      My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  95. Re:Probably all that stress avoiding fat kills the by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I do not need to feel bad anymore for all that olive oil and butter I use when cocking.

    Best. Slip-of-the-tongue. Evar.

  96. Re:In other news.... by michelcolman · · Score: 1

    Nope, that isn't even remotely in the right ball park. The number of people alive today is about 7% of the total number of people that have ever lived, according to some estimates.

  97. Re:Science is hard. Almost as hard as article read by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    So.... Those who can afford meat and steak live longer?

    Did they account for income discrepancies?

    Income discrepancies related to food are correlated but not causal. There's a whole world mittigating factors between e.g. lack of education about food, and lack of time to cook food properly because they are ironically working to put food on the table.

    When I stopped eating shit, I not only lost weight but I also ended up with more disposable income. What do you think is cheaper, a potato dug out of the ground, or a potato dug out of the ground, bought by some company, processed, packaged and resold?

    Tip: if people in the process are making money then it's costing you more.

  98. Re: In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only about 93% of the people who have ever lived have died.

  99. GARY TAUBES: VINDICATED! by Evergreener · · Score: 1

    Who knew.

    1. Re:GARY TAUBES: VINDICATED! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gary Taubes is a hack who presents long-known facts as if they were startling new revelations, and bullshit as if it were settled science. He has an axe to grind and books to sell, so he stirs up controversy and generates more heat than light.

      I wouldn't trust him any further than I could throw up.

  100. Sigh. More incorrect reads of studies by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Look, all the medical studies pretty much always say the following:

    1. Get mild to moderate exercise. Yes, just park your car and walk an extra block or take an extra flight of stairs. That's all.
    2. Eat a varied diet, low in red meat, that you mostly cook yourself from scratch. Don't eat out (processed foods) too often. Don't add salt etc until you actually serve the food, and do so to taste.
    3. Reduce stress. Stop worrying about studies. Stop worrying about the cold hard fact that one day you will be on a slab with a tag on your toe, no matter what you do. Stop obsessing about stuff you can't change, or how hard it is to change, and change things halfway or in part. Small changes matter more than you think. A 20 percent reduction in harmful stuff usually gets you 80 percent of the positive change that an 80 percent reduction would. So aim for 20 percent. Get used to 20 percent.
    4. Stop the fad diets. Too much of anything is bad for you. You know that.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  101. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    > Nutritionists, the real scientists in this field, have not wavered from the idea of the balanced diet. While adjustments have been made, the basics of what makes for good nutrition have not.

    So Mulligan's Stew being replaced with that obviously and highly unbalanced "food pyramid" must have just been my imagination then.

    Watch where this goes. People with pecuniary interests have long held sway over things that are purported as science. And sometimes people step outside their boundaries when presumably conducting science Ancel Keys was the main perpetrator of the idea that eating fat was bad for you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... He for lack of a better term, fudged data. Keys had gained some credit with one of his first books, The Biology of Human Starvation, published in 1950. It was pretty creepy, but based on the idea that the post World War 2 global situation was going to have a lot of people starving, and finding the best way to rehabilitate them.

    Then we move onto Key's Seven Countries Experiment. This turned out to be a flawed study, in which Keys "found" a correlation between fat intake and coronary disease.

    But there were problems. Keys had 21 countries with data too look at. He selected 6. When all of the different countries data was analyzed any correlation was much less clear.

    Many other scientists at the time were very much in disagreement with Keys conclusion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    While you might find this confirms your dislike of science, hold on a moment.

    How does this conclusion turn into some sort of food pyramid dogma? Enter politicians, the pecuniary interests that are own the politicians and some other odd bedfellows that show up.

    Just so we know where we were, here is a nice version of the 1992 food pyramid. http://growmap.com/usda-food-p...

    Luise Light who was a nutritional expert, made recommendations based upon valid food science from the 1980's and who was overruled in the 1992 to make the 1992 pyramid conform to the demands of the Secretary of Agriculture and the food industry. Here is her text "A fatally Fflawed Food Guide". http://www.whale.to/a/light.ht...

    So when policy, not science dictates what is healthy for you, you can hate the scientists all you like. But when the Scientists are not making the decisions, and politicians and their owners are cherry picking what they decide is allowable based on profit, well you can kill every scientist, create a national "No more Scientists holiday", and the problem will still exist. You'll just have to find another group to blame.

    Regardless, we should just have a vote on what is healthy or not. That will fix the problem. It won't be easy though - Congress tried to repeal Ohm's law, but it was met with some resistance.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  102. Which fats? by ChrisMaple · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Fats are popularly divided into 3 categories, saturated (like lard), mono-unsaturated (some components of olive oil), and polyunsaturated (the main component of sunflower oil). You've probably also heard of omega-3 and omega-6 oils (fatty acids), which are polyunsaturated. Many fats are essential to human survival.

    Without knowing the details of the kinds and quantities of fats and sugars involved in each group of this study, the results are not very informative.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  103. Contradictions by sycodon · · Score: 1

    How many times must there be conflicting results in these "studies" before they decide that they are going about studying this all wrong?

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  104. Who will be punished? by mi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For decades the USDA and local governments not only promoted low-fat diets, but threatened people over use of butter — because when Stastists dislike something, they do not simply avoid it themselves, they seek to ban it for all others...

    Now we are getting the opposite guidance and very convincing evidence, the earlier imploring and coercion were harmful.

    Who will be punished for causing the harm, when, and how?

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  105. THE FAT MAKES YOU FAT! Remember the commercials? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone else remember the old infomercials from that butch shaved head white haired lady? What was her name? Can't remember but ...What was her favorite line?!---> "THE FAT MAKES YOU FAT!"

  106. 18 countries sounds impressive and all by munch117 · · Score: 0

    But this is still just one study. One study that relies on self-reporting. It's a lot easier to get a high number of participants if your methodology is cheap garbage.

    By sheer chance it might happen to be right, who knows? But don't base any health decisions on this just yet.

  107. Makes no sense. by thesupraman · · Score: 1

    Stop spouting pseudo science rubbish.
    Big complicated words that actually carry very little meaning in this context just flag you as part of the far nutritionist cabal I'm afraid.

    The fact is that there is very little wrong with the chips as part of a balanced diet, but certain people can not get the 'oh no they are not natural!' rubbish it of their heads, and think that is science.

    There is exactly zero better about the Apple as a source. It happens to contain more of some things and less of others. Get over it.

    This is the number one problem in for sciences, it had devolved into a bunch of touchy feely 'facts' that actually are very far from the truth. Much if this is because marketing lies to you, and you believe it. That makes you a sucker, not a scientist.

    The anti dairy far is an almost perfect example of this, not to mention the decades long cholesterol/eggs bs.

    There is nothing at all special about fruit, except that it is easy to market and sell. I know several fruitarians, they are terribly unhealthy people who get stuck with great regulatory - but they cannot understand the concept of a balanced diet.

    The number one factor these days is just eating too damn much. Eating is an addiction for many, and making your drugs of choice more fancy and exclusive (which is almost modern diets do) is the oldest trick In the pushers game.

    Eat a wide range of things, avoid sweet things in general, and eat less! Accept that being hungry from time to time is good for health, eat until you are not hungry, not until you are full.

    Then get on with other things that actually matter.

  108. Bullshit. by thesupraman · · Score: 1

    Pretty much every nutritionist I know believe religiously in the food pyramid.
    By an enormous factor they have bought in to the far terrible, meat bad, grains good cute of the world.

    They are also hardly ever scientists. In fact most nutritionist qualifications involve exactly zero science or medical training.. Because it is not a damn science, it is a job title, more closely related to marketig, and not unlike economics.

    Go talk to a research human biologist some time. Suggest a nutritionist is a scientist to them, then listen.. You may learn something.

    So no. You are talking bullshit. They are very involved in this, and have made a ton of money out of people's misery.

    1. Re:Bullshit. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      Pretty much every nutritionist I know believe religiously in the food pyramid. By an enormous factor they have bought in to the far terrible, meat bad, grains good cute of the world.

      They are also hardly ever scientists. In fact most nutritionist qualifications involve exactly zero science or medical training.. Because it is not a damn science, it is a job title, more closely related to marketig, and not unlike economics.

      Go talk to a research human biologist some time. Suggest a nutritionist is a scientist to them, then listen.. You may learn something.

      So no. You are talking bullshit. They are very involved in this, and have made a ton of money out of people's misery.

      I see. Well, you need take it up with Luise Light, a nutritional expert, who made recommendations based upon valid food science from the 1980's and who was overruled in the 1992 to make the 1992 pyramid conform to the demands of the Secretary of Agriculture and the food industry. Here is her text "A Fatally Flawed Food Guide". http://www.whale.to/a/light.ht... [whale.to]

      Go tell her what nutritionists believe in.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  109. Re:Probably all that stress avoiding fat kills the by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Ooops.....
    Never post in haste here....

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  110. Grain is a slave food by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Grain stores were basically for commoners or slaves. The wealthy mostly ate real vegetables and meat. Today is not much different in that grain is used as a "filler" for cheap, bad-for-you food. We actually probably eat it on a larger scale than they did because of all of the gluten allergies popping up.

  111. A saying by geekymachoman · · Score: 1

    People made such a big deal out of this it's crazy. How much time and money gets spent on this topic.
    Everything in moderation.. is the saying.

    If you moderate and balance your intake of everything, you're good to go. Everything in life has balance, and stuffing yourself full of sugar, preservatives and various other crap (read: 0.5l can of coke and greasy pizza) every week is definitely not balance, why do we need science to tell us this ? Is this not common sense in the western world ?

    For eg. Eating a loaf of bread every day is not going to make you fat, or sick, if you have a balanced meal that consists of good quality meat, fat, vegetables and fruit + physical exercise. I'm mentioning this because people are vilifying carbs like they vilified fat before, and it's just dumb, it's not true at all.

    For example, South Eastern Europe. No meal goes in without eating bread, and i mean a lot of bread. Average 4 member family eats 2 kilo of bread per day. And not that sliced crap either people buy in the stores, that's loaded with all kind of preservatives to keep it fresh 'looking', but bread often homemade, or bought in bread stores 2 hours after it's made, 6 am in the morning, that you have to cut yourself. The crust keeps the air out so it keeps the freshness naturally, you cannot have it sliced unless you add ton of chemicals to it. If you want to see good looking people, go to SE Europe. One out of 50 people or less are fat, and obesity ? There's no even word for that.

    All I'm saying is, eat natural food (the closer to it's original form the better), eat balanced, eat a lot of vegetables and fruit after meals, and you'll be fine.
    Stuff yourself with fat, protein, sugar, bread, preservatives, or whatever, and you'll not be fine. Common, fucking, sense.

  112. Re: by srichard25 · · Score: 1

    Don't be silly. Laws are just meant for us, not for "them".

    Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Gold_King_Mine_waste_water_spill

  113. Re:In other news.... by djinn6 · · Score: 1

    93% according to statistics. There are 100 billion humans in all of history and 7 billion are still alive.

  114. processed foods are bad by sad_ · · Score: 1

    eat fresh, varied & excersize, problem solved.

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
  115. What if you don't want to be old ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gee, guess what doctors? What if we don't all WANT to live to be really old? There have been other studies saying people are living longer, but with a lousy quality of life. My dad was fine till age 80, then spent 8 MISERABLE YEARS dying slowly, losing all dignity. I'm 51. If I die tomorrow, it's fine. I've had a good life already. My best friend died at 27 of cancer - all the extra years I have had so far are gravy. If I get more, terrific. But I'm going to do as I damn well please and ignore all the impossibly contradictory crap advice. One minute eggs will kill you, the next they're great. Phooey.

  116. The 3 Week Diet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Check out this amazing diet on my blog, thank you much !! http://thethreeweekdietsystem1.blogspot.com

    My name is Erick Hernandez

  117. 80% Americans need low carb, 10+% can eat anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    80% of Americans need a diet that is lower in grains and carbs. 10+% can eat anything they want, genetics has them covered.

    The diabetes tie to high carb eating has been known for over 100 yrs.

    I think I'm an expert at weigh loss. I've lost 60+ lbs 5 times in my life. I'm also an expert at gaining weight. ;( Currently "morbidly obese", but on my way down, again.

    High carbs - anything over 30% makes me gain weight. It makes me not want to "go" - I'm dumber and lazy. I need more sleep when I eat this way. Depression is common too.

    Low carbs makes me feel better. I need less sleep. My libido is VERY high. I enjoy the burn from exercising, hiking, sports. Life seems a little sunnier.

    Fats make us feel full. That's a good thing.

    Wish I had the secret to losing weight, keeping it off AND having a normal life. Don't think it exists for anyone in a high stress position. The people who do lose 60+ lbs AND keep it off over 10 yrs tend to change careers and become fitness sellers. Less than 10% of dieters keep the weight off. The diet industry loves these types of consumers. They get to sell them the same crap 5-20 times over their lives. That is good for business.

    Anyone who hasn't been 60+ lbs overweight for at least a decade doesn't have a clue about the totality involved with this stuff. We see people that gained a little weight for 6 months, then lost it selling their crap all the time. They haven't a clue.

    I'm currently 110+ over my college weight (I was very fit, not skinny, not big). I expect to be 40 lbs less by Xmas by making the weight loss and fitness my main goal in life. It is hard work. It has to be in the front of my mind all the time, every day, to prevent any bad food or exercise decisions. Usually an hour before I plan to eat, I need to make the decisions for handling it - and drink a glass of water.

    My weight loss will be 90% diet, 10% exercise/sleep. Sadly, I need at least 2 hours a day of hard exercise to loose weight. 1 hr doesn't do it, regardless of my calorie intake. The science says I should maintain my weight with 3200 calories, but it doesn't work that way for me. If I eat 2000 calories, I won't lose anything. I eat mostly veggies with proteins, fats and 1 piece of fruit daily, limiting all grains. If I don't, I gain weight, even at 1500 calories a day with 2 hrs of exercise.

    I am not in ketosis usually. Just slightly over that carb level. I have dipped over into ketosis many times, but that isn't my goal. I like being close to my SO and she can't take the smell.

    My best trick for any foods outside my allowed food plan is to have them outside the house only, within the calorie limit for the day and never more than 1 cheat meal a week. That cheat meal isn't about having 5000 calories. It is about having something I miss, in a limited amount, usually within the 1700 calorie limit I use daily.

  118. Mostly True by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    However this wisdom from Paracelsus is wrong about heavy metals.

    Tiny doses may not have overtly harmful effects, but there is no dose at which heavy metals are helpful. And since heavy metals tend to accumulate in the body, even the smallest exposures count towards a lifetime exposure which could eventually lead to clearly toxic effects.

  119. Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can you say Dr Atkins? Cause he was right.

  120. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A lot of the doubt and confusion in nutrition science may very well be intentional:

    The Funding Effect: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/food-industry-funding-effect/
    Research Bias: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/food-industry-funded-research-bias/
    USDA: Industry vs Science: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/dietary-guidelines-its-all-greek-to-the-usda/

    Uprooting the leading causes of death: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0IhZ-R1O8g

  121. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by praxis · · Score: 1

    This is a good example of why average people, who maybe only have a rudimentary background in science, no longer trust it or what scientists are claiming.

    The scientists almost never say that though. They qualify their results, mentioning the potential error in the data, sample size, sample representation, etc. The media then take that and restate it as it it is a 100% certain claim applicable to all people in every case.

  122. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by Mr.CRC · · Score: 1

    "So when policy, not science dictates what is healthy for you, "

    But since the medical profession is supposed to be "science," why did they promulgate the same bullshit? It seems they should have blown the whistle on low-fat at least a decade ago.

    I think the problem is much deeper. The institutions of science are themselves corrupted when political outcomes hinge on their conclusions, and when the direction of scientific research is consequently influenced by past findings.

    This doesn't imply, of course, that policies should *not* be guided by science.

  123. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by Mr.CRC · · Score: 1

    Science can't be at fault because it is merely a methodology. What is at fault are the human implementations of institutions which carry out (or fail to carry out) proper science, for various reasons.

  124. Re:In other news.... by HuguesT · · Score: 1

    It is estimated that of these 100 billions or so, 40% did not live to see their first birthday.

  125. Agreed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know, that makes a lot of sense. In fact, next visit to the doctor I'm going to declare that I'm on a new diet called the "processed diet". First order of business is to replace apples with potato chips. Next is to replace bananas with my choice of a plethora of nutritious vending machine snacks. Milk is right out, considering that I have ready access to powdered creamer. I won't even consider a loaf of bread with less than 100 ingredients. Only the best for my waffles, and that means Aunt Jemima.

    In conclusion, it's a good thing doctors don't "LOL".

    1. Re:Agreed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, you too can lose weight on the Twinkie diet!

  126. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    "So when policy, not science dictates what is healthy for you, "

    But since the medical profession is supposed to be "science," why did they promulgate the same bullshit? It seems they should have blown the whistle on low-fat at least a decade ago.

    Because that isn't how we operate in America. The long green buys plenty of air time, and many people don't think very critically.

    The data has been out there, and is easy to find. I've known that the food pyramid adopted in the 1990's was complete bullshit. I've known that the data considered in adopting it was bullshit, and I've known that the results of the eat more processed carbs were exactly what was going to happen. And you or I can pull up the science to show it. Way back from the early 1950s.

    I think the problem is much deeper. The institutions of science are themselves corrupted when political outcomes hinge on their conclusions, and when the direction of scientific research is consequently influenced by past findings.

    There is something that your reply tells me, and that is that you seem to think that scientists have the same clout as politicians. And that you believe that the corrupt element is not the politicians, but the scientists who advise them.

    How this can be when the politics is based on flawed data that was known as flawed data, that was denounced as flawed data, that was fought against as flawed data, and that the flawed data that was accepted and promoted just happened to make for a profitable venture for industries that send money to the politicians is very interesting to me. It's the scientists who are corrupt. Sounds legit.

    You need science, if only to have a group to blame for your politician's failures.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  127. Re:This is why average people no longer trust scie by Mr.CRC · · Score: 1

    BTW, I'm a scientist ;-)

    No, I'm trying to say that I think the problem is *systemic* and rooted in the nature of people. Scientists mostly do the right thing, but the degree to which they deviate from the ideal appears to be a function of corrupting incentives. Of course, the political system is a complete pile of shit. I don't have the answer for that. I suspect there may be no answer as long as people are involved.

    What disturbs me in this case (and some other that I won't get into...) is that Doctors, who are supposed to be applied scientists, did *nothing* to correct this.

    In fact, by some interpretations which may be reasonable, they fed into it. They gave pills to people, to treat the consequences of obesity (diabetes, etc.), instead of calling foul and stating to their patients that they should lower carbs and get ketogenic if they want to have any hope of loosing the weight.

    So there are 2 possibilities (or some combination of both), neither of which are pretty:

    1. Doctors were oblivious to the research indicating likely flaws in the "accepted wisdom" of low-fat diets, and also that they blew off a *pattern* of anecdotal evidence of people experiencing dramatic turnarounds on ketogenic diets, that should have led any competent scientist to say "hmm, maybe there is something wrong with this picture? I need to investigate if this pattern constitutes reproducible data that may falsify the low-fat hypothesis..."

    So if you are correct that the right information has been available for a long time, then at a minimum Doctors have been incompetent, by not paying attention to the research and the shaky basis of the low-fat doctrine.

    2. Else, they were complicit in giving patients bad advice because the regulatory system defined "standards of care" making low-fat followed by treatment of long-term terrible health consequences with lots of pharmaceuticals something doctors could do without fear of legal consequences. They then proceeded to practice so-called "evidence based medicine" in this unethical manner for decades just to collect paychecks and kickbacks from drug corps. knowing full-well that they were killing people.

  128. Re: Commercially made bread by PlaynBass · · Score: 1

    I've found that Dave's Killer 21-Grain bread is pretty good. It has never gone mouldy on me, even if it takes me a month to eat the whole loaf. It has a lot of fibre and one slice with real peanut butter (just ground peanuts and sea salt) and some no sugar added preserves makes a filling breakfast of lunch. You must chew it well though: it's not like cake.

    --
    PlaynBass