One of the most difficult and persistent issues that arises in the study of diet and health in humans is - how do we know what we know? The scientific study of humans and diet is so problematic that we are not likely to get to certainty for many, many years. That leaves us with fragments of science to work with, much like the old story about the blind men and the elephant, each touching a different piece of the beast and thus concluding that it is something different. Without definitive intervention studies, if we want to learn truth, we have to stumble along, piece together models, and look for inconsistencies. We have to be confident enough to act, but humble enough to learn as new information is available. The scientific method was developed after the realization that scientists cannot be trusted, all scientists, "not even ourselves."
This TED video provides a nice context for the issue on a scale larger than diet and health.
http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-07-19
That is the point of this blog, from my perspective, is it provides you with a chance each day to compare your model of health and diet to a slice of information. A daily revisit of any topic is useful to provide breadth and depth to one's knowledge, so one way to use this blog is as the 'continuing education' if you have already indulged in a book like:
The Atkins Diet Revolution
The Zone
The Paleo Diet
The Paleo Solution
The New Evolution Diet
The Rosedale Diet
If I claimed to be "unbiased", hopefully you would be smart enough to think "that's ridiculous, everyone is biased." What I am biased towards is the idea that there are neolithic agents of disease that drive the diseases of civilization. Industrial seed oils and their completely novel amounts of omega 6 fatty acids, over consumption of carbohydrates through wheat and sugar, and intake of fructose to levels never common in before the advent of high fructose corn syrup - in combination with inadequate sun exposure, and abnormally low activity levels (and with those who are moving enough probably engaging abnormally high levels of work at the upper range of the oxidative energy pathway - IOW, too much long, slow distance) - amount to metabolic derangement, which manifests as hyper glycemia, hyper insulinemia, high blood pressure, low HDL, high triglycerides, gout, obesity, and then type 2 diabetes and finally: stroke and heart attack, cancer, or Alzheimer's/ALS or one of the autoimmune spectrum disorders. These diseases are not tragic just because they shorten life, they are tragic because they degrade your choices in life. Whatever it is that you may think is virtuous in life, whether your purpose is to do great things or just have a good time, these diseases of civilization limit your chance to pursue that thing or those things.
And even with that being said, I don't view this as a tragedy for those who are informed - if you know it's dumb to put your hand in a meat grinder and do it anyway, that's not tragic, that's stupid. The tragedy is that so many are told to eat a diet that will drastically increase their odds of finding a disease of the west. When those people lose their lives, when the families of those people spend years caring for them instead of living life with them, that's a tragedy.
I assume most of you tracking this blog have made a commitment - you want to know how to be well, and you are willing to do the work to figure it out. You have made learning about diet and health a priority. Please accept my humble salute for making that choice, in my view, it is nothing less than accepting responsibility for your own destiny.
The prescription? It's pretty radical. It's a fad, no doubt (anything but the USDA diet is a fad, apparently). You are certainly stepping out on a limb when you do this, as so many have tried and perished (OK, not that many): eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, little fruit or starch, no sugar or wheat. And I hope you live to tell the tale.
This TED video provides a nice context for the issue on a scale larger than diet and health.
http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-07-19
That is the point of this blog, from my perspective, is it provides you with a chance each day to compare your model of health and diet to a slice of information. A daily revisit of any topic is useful to provide breadth and depth to one's knowledge, so one way to use this blog is as the 'continuing education' if you have already indulged in a book like:
The Atkins Diet Revolution
The Zone
The Paleo Diet
The Paleo Solution
The New Evolution Diet
The Rosedale Diet
If I claimed to be "unbiased", hopefully you would be smart enough to think "that's ridiculous, everyone is biased." What I am biased towards is the idea that there are neolithic agents of disease that drive the diseases of civilization. Industrial seed oils and their completely novel amounts of omega 6 fatty acids, over consumption of carbohydrates through wheat and sugar, and intake of fructose to levels never common in before the advent of high fructose corn syrup - in combination with inadequate sun exposure, and abnormally low activity levels (and with those who are moving enough probably engaging abnormally high levels of work at the upper range of the oxidative energy pathway - IOW, too much long, slow distance) - amount to metabolic derangement, which manifests as hyper glycemia, hyper insulinemia, high blood pressure, low HDL, high triglycerides, gout, obesity, and then type 2 diabetes and finally: stroke and heart attack, cancer, or Alzheimer's/ALS or one of the autoimmune spectrum disorders. These diseases are not tragic just because they shorten life, they are tragic because they degrade your choices in life. Whatever it is that you may think is virtuous in life, whether your purpose is to do great things or just have a good time, these diseases of civilization limit your chance to pursue that thing or those things.
And even with that being said, I don't view this as a tragedy for those who are informed - if you know it's dumb to put your hand in a meat grinder and do it anyway, that's not tragic, that's stupid. The tragedy is that so many are told to eat a diet that will drastically increase their odds of finding a disease of the west. When those people lose their lives, when the families of those people spend years caring for them instead of living life with them, that's a tragedy.
I assume most of you tracking this blog have made a commitment - you want to know how to be well, and you are willing to do the work to figure it out. You have made learning about diet and health a priority. Please accept my humble salute for making that choice, in my view, it is nothing less than accepting responsibility for your own destiny.
The prescription? It's pretty radical. It's a fad, no doubt (anything but the USDA diet is a fad, apparently). You are certainly stepping out on a limb when you do this, as so many have tried and perished (OK, not that many): eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, little fruit or starch, no sugar or wheat. And I hope you live to tell the tale.
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