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Do artificial sweeteners cause weight gain?

This is interesting. Several recent studies have linked artificial sweeteners with weight gain, which I find baffling and counter to my own experience. The rationale used to explain the phenomenon is that just the sensation of a sweet taste provokes an insulin surge in anticipation of sugar just as a ringing bell associated with feeding caused Pavlov’s dogs to salivate. The insulin then promotes fat storage. A new study from Purdue University seems to confirm that using artificial sweeteners makes it harder, not easier to…

Gout and Metabolic Syndrome

I did a little research on gout for a friend who had been given the standard advice for treating this painful condition: eat a low-fat diet, cut out red meat, seafood, fish, beans, and other purine-rich foods, and take medication. Purines can be broken down into urate, which can crystallise out to cause pain in the joints, so a reduction in purine-containing foods is standard advice, in spite of the fact that most uric acid is made in the body and does not come from…

The Scientific Evidence in Favor of Low Carb for the Prevention and Treatment of Diabetes Continues to Build

The American Diabetes Association has opened the floodgates by finally admitting that low-carbohydrate diets are “as effective for weight management as low-fat.” This dramatic turn-around was part of its 2008 clinical practice recommendations. The headline on Adam Campbell’s story about the ADA’s lukewarm endorsement was, “Apparently, Hell Just Froze Over.” Here’s the link for Adam’s article: http://thefitnessinsider.menshealth.com/2007/12/apparently-hell.html Now that people have officially been given permission to try a diet that naturally lowers blood glucose and insulin levels, there will be no going back. It will…

Cinnamon Warning

Since the insulin-like properties of cinnamon were discovered, many people have been taking it as a treatment or a prophylactic for insulin resistance and diabetes.

Splenda with fewer carbs

Dr. Richard Bernstein, author of Diabetes Solution; prescribes a very low-carb diet to get his diabetic patients off medications or to reduce their dosage to the lowest possible level. He calls it “the law of small numbers” because the smaller the dose you need, the smaller the mistake you can make and the less severe the consequences. One reviewer dubbed him the “Taliban of low-carb gurus” because his regimen is so strict: no fruit, no tomato sauce, no beans, no xylitol, no sorbitol, no Splenda.…

Eating Low Carb in the Sky

Anyone who doubts that the obesity epidemic is real probably hasn’t done much flying lately. It is all too common to have to surrender a sizable portion of your already cramped space to accommodate the overflow from a seatmate. Before you get off the ground, the stewards must pass out seatbelt extenders to passengers whose belts don’t fit and rearrange the seating to put overweight flyers next to an empty seat if one is available, which is rare these days. Airlines have been sued by…

The Biggest Loser

Last Tuesday night I watched the Biggest Loser. It was the first time I have ever made it through a whole episode from start to finish. Although I know that most television shows, even the reality shows, are carefully scripted, I found it appalling. It looked like a reenactment of the Bataan death march from World War II. Suffering, pain, emotion, triumph, and despair may make compelling entertainment, but at what price? And I’m not just referring to the unlucky contestants who were bullied, ridiculed,…

Minding Your Brain

If you haven’t already found Dr. McCleary’s Website, http://www.drmccleary.com/, don’t waste another minute. The brilliant author of The Brain Trust Program has already posted eight not-to-be-missed articles about the care and feeding of your brain. His latest, explains the chicken or the egg conundrum of how we could have developed the kind of intelligence necessary to provide our brains with a nutrient dense diet before we actually had brains capable of the skill and cunning needed to procure such a diet. Living along the shoreline,…

Gary Taubes at UC Berekey

Gary Taubes gave a presentation at UC Berkeley called “The Quality of Calories; What Makes Us Fat and Why Nobody Seems to Care.” If you have read Gary’s book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, it gives a bit more detail about the subject. If you have not, you’ll see why you should. It is 1 hour and 45 minutes long, but well worth the time: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/event_details.php?webcastid=21216 One quote from the lecture shows very clearly how things went so terribly wrong and why it is so hard…

Sweeteners Update

I have received questions as to why I did not include some of the all-natural alternatives, like brown rice syrup, agave nectar, and date sugar in the discussion about the different kinds of sweeteners in my book. I did not include most of them because, in my opinion, they offer little advantage over common table sugar. However since the subject continues to come up, I will address it here. Let me point out at the start that “natural” is not synonymous with “safe.” Nature abounds…

Wishing for a Blue Moon

Use pumpkin as a replacement for potatoes.

Category: Diseases and Conditions