High-fat vs Low-fat Diets & why the debate hasn’t actually made people healthier.

I came across this interesting debate on high fat vs low fat diets. Featuring non other than Gary Taubes and Dean Ornish. It’s an interesting debate (although almost 10 years have passed since it was aired). But the problem seems to remain. The confusion grows for those who like to hear what they want, that is. As the fat get fatter. Sick get sicker, rich get richer. etc,etc.

It’s very annoying that Taubes continuously (to this day) hides behind his double standard. I honestly don’t understand his motivation for this bias towards high-protein diets. And it’s alarming that many semi-influential people who claim to be rational and scientific e.g. Michael Shermer, Timothy Ferriss, etc spread this nonsense that his scientific understanding of nutrition is “stunning”. It’s preposterous. It’s clear that the opposite is true. It also indicates how retarded the common understanding of health & nutrition is (from a systemic viewpoint). Even amongst many scientists; it’s worrying how little the ‘big picture’ is grasped. This failure to see the big picture seems to me the main problem regarding the declining health and well-being of the entire human race.

Taubes also seems to assume that just because the low-fat “dogma” (as he calls it) was introduced 30 years ago, means that people have actually been following eating this way since then. It’s clear that this is not the case (at least in the whole-food-diet sense). Knowing (and having an overwhelmingly large + growing body of peer-reviewed scientific studies supporting this knowledge) that low-fat diets will make us less fat does not actually make us less fat! We still have to actually do it + take into account all the other lifestyle factors. Why does he fail to see this? Does he actually think that the fat (& greedy, lazy, weak, arrogant/ignorant) blobs who cripple health/fitness statistics are fat because they eat a low-fat plant foods diet? Seriously?

The truth is, it’s no mystery why obesity, cancer and other disease rates are growing at exponential rates.

The answer has been there all along for those who choose to look at it.
In fact, it is staring at us right in the face. Constantly. We all know what to do once we snap out of this collective coma. The solution is very simple. Perhaps too simple for many.
(hint: first step, stop doing what’s CLEARLY not working –>> may demand brutal self-honesty/humilty)
(hint # 2: look to those who are actually getting results you desire.)
(bonus hint: it’s NOT just about diet and especially not individual aspects of diet.)

I call it health. (w)holistic health. Living whole-fully; in thought; in action; in words.
Health is not just about having a healthy body-weight.
Health is not just about how fit we are.
Health is not just about how we look, feel, smell & taste =D
Health is not just about isolated nutrients.
Health is not just about ourselves.
Health is not just about a positive outlook on life.
Health is not just about being sharp intellectually & living intelligently.
Health is not just about having the moral integrity to stand up for what is right.
Health is not just about peace of mind & inner calmness.
Health is not just about self mastery and emotional poise.
Health is not just about sufficient sleep, sunlight and fresh air.
Health is not just about rewarding friendships & intimate relationships.

Health is about ALL of those things. Health is not more than the sum of it’s parts. Health is not stronger than it’s weakest link. Understanding health systematically MUST be regarded in order to implement healthful living habits into our daily lives. Health is the true measure of wealth as an individual, as a species and as a habitant of planet earth. Health is a concept that must be understood in it’s entirety. As a whole. And again, it’s simple. We all understand it. And we all want to be healthy. Like goodness & taking the next breath, health is imperative if we want to live life to its fullest. Otherwise our lives become walking contradictions.

Taubes is not an expert. I would recommend getting dietary advice from people who actually know what they are talking about. Sure, he may have skills in journalism/writing. Why then is he successfully selling books on nutrition? Because people LOVE to hear what they want to hear. And pay for it.

How can he come to the conclusion that ALL high carb diets cause people to become fat? What about all the people who are thriving on such diets? Why does he completely disregard them? And I have yet to see a case of a long-term health success on a low carb diet. Actually I have yet to see a peer-reviewed study to support that a low carb diet is healthy in anyway. Sure it might help lose weight short-term (not a healthy approach) but that doesn’t explain why people are fat. Neither does his insulin argument (high carb = insulin = fat). He talks about ‘adiposity’ in his latest book but why then overlook the conclusion that perhaps it’s not extraneous carbs that is the problem but eating them with too much fat which prevents proper sugar metabolism, thus causing pancreas to overload and produce more insulin. This can be avoided if we minimize our carb intake and replace it with fat. Unfortunately our bodies run on glucose. Oh, he doesn’t seem to acknowledge that fact either.

Then again, you could say I’m biased. Towards health =D

(btw, the talk of ‘simple carbs’ in the above video can be extraordinarily misleading to those like myself who are on a fruit based diet due to the fact that simple carbohydrates from whole foods cannot be compared to refined simple carbs from white flour, candy, soda, white sugar, etc. Anyone who understands what a ‘whole-food’ is, probably knows why.)

Note: I wrote this (like all my recent posts on this site) in a non-30bad’er sense, to be shared outside of the community and help bring more people in. Since this is not a closed community, I hope the moderators don’t see this as a problem. If not, I encourage all to do the same in future posts.)

Replies to This Discussion

Reply by Chuckster on March 18, 2011 at 3:17am

My crossfit coach posted this video on his site recently that features Taubes early and shows a cartoon about how carbs make you fat.   There is absolutely no mention of how fat messes up carbohydrate metabolism.

 

I disagreed and got an immediate, public thrashing, criticizing my athletic performance since i went lfrv and that lfrv was poor nutrition.  He stated the Lance Armstrong  and myself are among the few who can tolerate carbs. Good thing I eat lots of fruit and have high serotonin levels.

Reply by ednshell on March 18, 2011 at 4:14am

Sounds like you need to organize a raid over there! 😉

Reply by Chuckster on March 19, 2011 at 2:07am

These low volume sites aren’t worth the guerilla outreach effort.  We would be banned and the posts deleted immediately.

Reply by markus on March 18, 2011 at 6:33pm

I wish I didn’t watch that cartoon =D
I have yet to see these people show any indication that they grasp the idea of a “whole food”.

btw Chuckster, a friend of mine (who used to be a member here) started a discussion on the crossfit boards a year ago. He was also ridiculed and thrashed. You might find it interesting: http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=55537&highlight=Mario

Reply by Chuckster on March 19, 2011 at 1:53am

Thanks for the link.  Your friend was very brave to start that thread on the crossfit site.  Some excellent and some very dumb posts there( carbs are not an essential nutrient! wow).

Reply by markus on March 18, 2011 at 8:13pm

what happened to the cartoon?  there’s just some chat photo there now?
i think .ning is having a bad day again.

Reply by Chuckster on March 19, 2011 at 1:46am

Should be there, but here’s the direct youtube link:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNYlIcXynwE

Reply by ednshell on March 18, 2011 at 4:13am

Nice post MRN! Prad says you’ve been busy doing internet guerilla outreach, good job!!! 🙂

Reply by pradtf on March 18, 2011 at 5:44am

markus is a noble warrior!

his posts became legendary in a very short time on 30bad!

 

in friendship,

prad

Reply by Moiraine Damodred on March 18, 2011 at 6:18am

Shh, don’t hate on Taubes, I have a crush on him. xP

 

I think he is simply one of the many who is grossly misinformed about nutrition–people will twist facts, even innocently, to see what they want to see. It’s a fact of life. Unfortunately it makes spreading the truth that much more difficult, in the end!

Reply by markus on March 18, 2011 at 6:38pm

nobody is hating anybody =D
It’s the messages (ideas) we have problems with.

It’s a fact of life
I disagree. It’s not. But it is very common in our current culture.
Lets not confuse the message with the messenger too much.
And lets not identify too much with our own.

It’s unfortunate that the financial system enslaves people to their ideas once they make a career out of it.

Unfortunately it makes spreading the truth that much more difficult, in the end!
It might seem so. Then again, the truth doesn’t really need to be spread. Just realized. Experienced.
As i said, it’s right there, staring right at us. Constantly.

Reply by Ryan Betker on March 18, 2011 at 8:02pm

Nonstop playlist of all parts of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdBDQdOKbJQ&playnext=1&list=…

Reply by markus on March 18, 2011 at 8:20pm