RoR: Forum

Rebirth of Reason

Thursday, March 8, 2012 - 7:54pm

Thanks for posting this, Bill.

I will comment on each video separately. Ornish made good points about what it is that every competent investigator into nutrition science must agree on -- on pain of contradiction. Dr. Barbara Howard (Chair of AHA Nutrition Committee) made the headlines in my mind with this quote during the 9th minute:

This started because there is incontrovertible evidence that saturated fat is bad -- and that is well established in long-term trials.

Here is evidence that she is wrong (words below are mine, but links are to actual, scientific studies):

Women with lower intakes of saturated fat had higher risk of coronary events (the opposite of what Dr. Howard said).

For rodents, high saturated fat ingestion helps prevent heart failure.

Substituting carbohydrate for saturated fat increased diabetes risk in 26,000 male smokers (saturated fat was better for male smokers than carbohydrate was).

Saturated fat intake was not associated with risk of stroke in 34,000 women.

Fish oil almost totally prevented the looked-for negative effects of high saturated fat ingestion in rats.

And here is a negative study regarding saturated fat and folks at genetic risk for type 2 diabetes:

Folks with the transcription factor 7-like 2 rs7903146 polymorphism needed to exceed a threshold of saturated fat in order for their genetic propensity for diabetes to kick in (due to epigenetics).

Ed

Friday, March 9, 2012 - 7:34pm

In the fifth video, Gary Taubes makes the bold claim that low-fat, low-energy diets don't work -- citing a systematic review of all of the publicly available scientific evidence on the matter. Ornish corrected Taubes' language: It's not that they don't work, it's that they don't work any better than alternatives. I believe this is the study in question:

Advice on low-fat diets for obesity.

And, again, Dr. Howard seems to be the one spouting the establishment-nonsense. Afterall, she gets paid to do that. She said that calories are all that it is that matters, and that weight loss or gain is nothing other than the crude, lock-step extrapolation of unqualified laws of thermodynamics. And here is evidence that she is wrong (again):

Childhood obesity: behavioral aberration or biochemical drive? Reinterpreting the First Law of Thermodynamics.

Nonequilibrium thermodynamics and energy efficiency in weight loss diets.

Conference on "Multidisciplinary approaches to nutritional problems". Symposium on "Diabetes and health". Challenges in the study of causation of obesity.

A mathematical model of weight change with adaptation.

Obesity and energy balance: is the tail wagging the dog?

Adiponectin changes in relation to the macronutrient composition of a weight-loss diet.

Testing protein leverage in lean humans: a randomised controlled experimental study.

Recap:
The type of calories that you plan to eat is more important than the amount.

Ed

Saturday, March 10, 2012 - 3:16pm

Also in the 5th video ...

Dean Ornish calls on Gary Taubes to be as open to research supporting the opposite conclusion as he is to research supporting his own conclusion. It sounded so pure and enlightened when he said that -- like he was a wise person, informing the uninformed. But then I remembered that of nearly every scientist I've read, that Dean Ornish is one of the most guilty of such selective omission in regard to confirmation bias regarding his own pet theory. He said that there isn't any evidence that higher fat / lower carbohydrate eating is healthful. Now, this was July 2002 when he said this, and here are examples proving that he was indeed wrong about that:

Mechanism for fatty acid "sparing" effect on glucose-induced transcription: regulation of carbohydrate-responsive element-binding protein by AMP-activated protein kinase.

Carbohydrate responsive element-binding protein (ChREBP): a key regulator of glucose metabolism and fat storage.

Dietary and genetic effects on low-density lipoprotein heterogeneity.

Atherogenic lipoprotein phenotype and diet-gene interactions.

Plant-animal subsistence ratios and macronutrient energy estimations in worldwide hunter-gatherer diets.

Beneficial effects of weight loss associated with moderate calorie/carbohydrate restriction, and increased proportional intake of protein and unsaturated fat on serum urate and lipoprotein levels in gout: a pilot study.

Macronutrient composition and food selection.

Eating patterns, dietary quality and obesity.

Ed

(Edited by Ed Thompson on 3/10, 3:18pm)