MY FIRST ARTICLE AT CARBSMART COM

Well, Ive been keeping a little secret from my readers.  I didnt want to say anything, in case nothing came of it, but when I met Andrew DiMino at the Low Carb Meet & Greet this summer, he asked me if I would be interested in writing for his online magazine, CarbSmart.com.  I thought about it for a few days, wrote an article and emailed Andrew, saying, "The answer is yes and here is an article for you to consider."  And guess what!  He liked it!  It went through a little editing with Dana Carpender and was published very late last night.

I am so tickled to be joining the ranks of Andrew DiMino, Dana Carpender, Amy Dungan, Jimmy Moore and others, in writing articles about the low carb movement and my personal journey in weight loss and improving health.

This is my article to the left, entitled "The Carbiest Generation." Here is a short excerpt:

When future generations look back upon today’s generation, what will they see?  What will set us apart in the timeline of human history?  What contributions have we made to humanity that will define us in a word or a phrase?  Some people in the Low Carb Movement think we will be known as “The First Modern Generation Where the Children Had a Shorter Life Span than Their Parents,” but that’s a little wordy.  I feel a better name would be “The Carbiest Generation,” because, when it comes down to a pretty important aspect of our humanity – our overall health and very existence — this encompasses all that has gone wrong.  Blame it on the food guidelines that have been handed down to us by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and promoted by our government starting in 1977.  That’s when George McGovern took it upon himself to change the way America eats by vilifying saturated fat and cholesterol and glorifying carbohydrates.  In case you don’t remember what happened back then, or were not even born yet, this short video by Tom Naughton summarizes the dubious wisdom and eventual adoption of the tenets of The McGovern Report.  (Read the full article here.)

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CALORIEGATE COM WELCOME TO MY BLOGROLL

My old blogger friend, Adam Kosloff, started a new blog last year called Caloriegate, and I poured through the whole thing in the past few days.  Its all about a topic near and dear to my heart, which is calories and the "calories in calories out" theory.  As usual, Adam has done a great job of making the science accessible to non-scientists, like myself, and the whole thing makes a lot of sense.  I agree with what he imparts, and I would read his blog even if it didnt, because I love the illustrations!  If you want to start reading his blog, I suggest you start at the beginning and work your way up to the present.  Click here to jump over to Caloriegate.com.

I already have Adams other website - Why Low Carb Diets Work - in my list of favorite websites, found in the right hand column here.  I highly recommend that one, too.

Welcome to my blogroll, Adam, and I look forward to reading new posts as you write them!  To find the blogs I follow, look right and scroll down.

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CALORIE THEORY AGAIN! DIETFORHUMANS COM

 

"The truth is, the conventional wisdom about why we get fat is simply wrong. It’s not about energy balance; it’s not about “overconsumption of calories” or “taking in more calories than we burn.” It’s about something else entirely: how the human body regulates fat metabolism and the accumulation of fat in our adipose tissue."

       -Gary Taubes

Even though our understanding of biology has improved and the causes of obesity are better understood, we still have some flat Earthers that can’t get past the overly simplistic and trivial “calorie theory,” aka “eat less, move more.”

Like anything else, reality depends on the frame of reference of the observer. If someone has a minor weight issue, or people around them do, a simple “eat less, move more” more approach does work. This gives one the erroneous conclusion that this is all that matters. It’s like someone that only sees the world as flat-



“The world must be flat, just look at it.”



This is how the world really is. For day to day living, this does not matter to a lot of people. All they need to know is east, west, north, and south. The same can be said for the folks hung up on “eat less, move more.” If this is all they see, and it seems to work, they think that this is all there is.

What the Flat Earthers Don’t See:

Calorie theory ignores hormones. The above quote by Taubes, author of “”Why We Get Fat,” is a quick summary of why hormones drive weight. Calorie theory is simply wrong, but it just appears to be correct if one has limited experience or a limited frame of reference.

People who do lose weight by moving more and eating less have not done enough damage so that hormones matter much. Good for them, but it doesn’t not apply to everyone. Their calorie theory is incorrect in the same way that the Earth is not flat.

Who Cares?

Hormones matter a lot, when they matter. Hormones matter when one is insulin resistant, when leptin signaling is off, when thyroid hormones are out of whack, when their endocrine system is wrecked after taking steroid medications, and for a lot of similar reasons.

Some will say that obesity is the cause of the above, and stop making excuses. This is also wrong. It doesn’t matter anymore once the weight is there and the hormone problem is real. What matters is what to do about it. It’s not a reversible process where you just eat less and move more, and the problem goes away. If this were true, there would be no diet books and no diet websites. Life would be simple, but it just isn’t. The world is not flat.

To read the full article and comments, click here.

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