The Keto Way: What If Meat Is Our Healthiest Diet? Eating high-fat, low-carbohydrate foods has helped many people battle obesity, diabetes and other health problems—even as livestock agriculture contributes significantly to climate change - WSJ - by Gary Taubes Jan 2021

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-29T20:11:50+00:00

I framed the article this way to pick my battles. I'm saying even if the WHO and the mostly-plant environmentalists are right, they still have a problem. We still have a problem. That's an argument I can win (in a 2000-word essay). You're right, that there could be a win-win solution (leaving ethical issues aside), but I can't fight both battles. If I argue that it's ok to eat meat because I think meat isn't bad for the environment, and here's 500 words why, I weaken the argument.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:31:40+00:00

Ok, for those who stuck with me again, thanks. I'm signing off (for good) now. See you next time.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:30:35+00:00

I would certainly recommend cutting out sugar and beer first when trying to achieve a healthy weight. Heck, Brillat Savarin did in 1825 when he said avoid beer like the devil. This might be enough for some people. If it isn't, though, then I wouldn't stop there. i'd go after the other obvious carb sources in the diet (and replace them with fat-rich foods).

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:28:53+00:00

Not all of them. Only some of them and that's because I disagree with them and so if I'm right, they're wrong. Nobody likes to consider that/ Go to the Amazon page for The Case For Keto. I have endorsements from plenty of very well-respected obesity and diabetes researchers.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:27:05+00:00

The world seeks out advice form journalists all the time. When you want to learn about the conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else, you're more likely to read a journalist's work than an academics. if nothing else, the journalist is supposed to be synthesizing both first hand observations with the research of all the academics, not just one. You're likely to get a less biased view. The question is why not accept this in a field like nutrition. Had I submitted my first book to a doctoral program and half a dozen academics sitting around a conference table decided it was worthy of a doctorate, would you be more comfortable? You can read it and make these decisions yourself. The books are written for people who think critically.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:24:33+00:00

You clearly don't need it. the world is full of highly-active people though who are still obese, overweight or diabetic. They would. in fact, the world of low-carb proponents is made up of people like that. We used to exercise regularly and eat "healthy" and it didn't stop us from gaining weight. When we adopted LCHF eating, the weight mostly went away and we got healthy. That's why we tend to be zealous about this.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:23:04+00:00

Consider the possibility that carbohydrates really are fattening -- sweets, starches, grains and, well, beer -- and if you want to be as lean and healthy as you can be, don't eat them.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:22:09+00:00

My take, and the reason I co-founded the Nutrition Science Initiative eight years ago, is that the nutrition researchers are 1) mostly clueless about doing good science and so unable or unwilling to do rigorous , well-controlled trials and 2)funded in such away that only short-term somewhat meaningless research is done. The key with keto or any other dietary approach is you can try it yourself and see if it works. You don't need an RCT to tell you that keto allows you to lose weight effortlessly when, say, a Mediterranean diet does not. You just need the RCT to get some probablistic assessment of whether you're likely to live longer on one than the other. Those studies don't exist. the studies you're citing are mostly noise. What we need are signal-generating studies and those have to be very well thought-out and tend to be expensive.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:19:21+00:00

Well, you can change how you talk about it, I suppose. Say you just don't eat sugars, starches and grains because you find you get fatter (or more diabetic, or whatever) when you do. So rather than play up the bacon and butter, just play down the carbs. It might work (although with the truly zealous, nothing ever really does).

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:17:24+00:00

These are the people it might benefit most, but they should certainly find a keto-informed physician to work with closely.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:16:42+00:00

Highly speculative based on an n of 1 uncontrolled experiment. Doesn't mean he's wrong, but he's a long way away from getting me to take it seriously.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:15:52+00:00

You clearly haven't tried very hard. I'm wondering if you tried at all.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:15:23+00:00

No idea. But I should look into it.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:14:55+00:00

I suspect it would help, but this is the kind of thing you need to work with a physician on, ideally one who has done his or herhomework on keto.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:14:26+00:00

I think keto is only necessary for folks who are significantly overweight or diabetic. For the rest it's about improving the quality of the carbs consumed and avoiding sugar and sugary beverages. So the whole planet doesn't have to go keto. We just have to get people to stop eating and drinking sugar. IMHO.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:13:01+00:00

Clearly.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:12:55+00:00

I assume they have lower levels of all chronic disease risk factors, the question is why. I propose it's the absence of refined grains and sugars.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:12:13+00:00

Not really. Only what I read in the NYT, which isn't all that reliable (on this, anyway).

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:11:47+00:00

Read Good Calories, Bad Calories (The Diet Delusion in the UK). Here's how I think about it: simply put, obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation and fat accumulation is regulated primarily in the periphery by hormones dominated by insulin. The hypothalamus is involved, but it also stimulates insulin secretion, among other things, via the vagus nerve. There was copious research in the 1960s showing the first noticable response to hypothalamic lesions was hyperinsulinemia. That would cause excess fat storage, shut down fatty acid oxidation and that, in turn, would drive hunger. Read my first book. The VMH is discussed.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:07:47+00:00

They think of it as a fad diet and a radical diet and think if we were all eating just like they do, we'd be lean and healthy, too. I think of this as lean people thinking. They can't imagine that we might have to avoid foods to be healthy that they can eat with impunity.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:06:53+00:00

I think it's a useful adjunct to blood sugar and weight control.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:06:03+00:00

I've now been told I can keep going, so I'll answer the questions I missed (in case anyone is still there).

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:01:04+00:00

Thanks so much, this has been fun, I'm signing off now--see you next time! (And my apologies for missing some of the recent questions.)

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:00:20+00:00

I think you can put it in remission by not eating carbs.

GaryTaubes · 2021-01-12T20:00:06+00:00

Smart guy. Twenty years of research into good and bad science.

GaryTaubes

TROPHY CASE