Death of the Calorie

I was surprised when this article, allegedly on nutrition science, began with an armed kidnapping in Mexico. But it is in fact about nutrition science, and it's one of the more interesting and useful things I've read lately.

8 comments:

Donna B. said...

Interesting, indeed. I'm fat and roll my eyes at the "calories in/calories out" people. Although I didn't suspect that the numbers might be wrong, I knew the "handling" was misinterpreted. I've had the surgery, I've tried most of the diets and simply stopped caring after two surgeries to repair damage from the surgery that was supposed to lose the weight. Funny thing is, that's when I stopped gaining weight. Some time later, I actually lost some weight. I doubt I'll ever be thin and fit, but it is nice to no longer care.

raven said...

Excellent article. It was revealing to read the discovery of the money paid to the Harvard researcher/opinion molders. How many of the diabetics out there are because of that info? The rise in obesity and diabetes is directly correlated with the government "food pyramid " we were shown in grade school as being the ideal-a big base of carbs, some fruits and veggies in the middle, and a little peak of meat and fat on top- as usual, they inverted the whole thing- as a general rule, do the opposite of whatever the government, the media and academia tell you and you will come out all right.

Grim said...

I was delighted to read about the cooling of pasta and rice making them harder to digest. That's practical advice that I can actually use.

raven said...

"I was delighted to read about the cooling of pasta and rice making them harder to digest. "

IIRC, The researcher who started this whole low fat high carb diet idea was heavily influenced by studying Japanese fishermen with a very low rate of heart disease- I wonder if eating cold rice balls and sushi was one reason they were in good shape?

douglas said...

Donna, and think of the stress reduction benefits of not having to care anymore. I think that's not to be underestimated.

I basically always eaten everything I liked, with a touch of moderation, and not worried about the "latest study". So far, I'm in my 50's and my only issue is adult onset asthma. I eat all the bacon I like and my cholesterol may be a touch over 200, but my HDL/LDL ratio is so good it doesn't matter.

Worry less, it's good for you.

Elise said...

I think a lot of this (not the cooling pasta thing :+) is stuff we have to learn over and over. I read the Wikipedia entry on William Banting whose name came to mean "dieting". In 1863 he wrote a booklet in which he began by "account[ing]ed all of his unsuccessful fasts, diets, spa and exercise regimens in his past. His previously unsuccessful attempts had been on the advice of various medical experts." (He then goes on to describe his own wonderful approach, of course.)

Except for the surgery, Donna's story is my story and I've come to accept (mostly although I don't like it) that there is no magic bullet. Once my mechanism of hunger/appetite/weight got fouled up for whatever reason, I can't force it to work right by counting calories. As Megan Mcardle says in one of the many excellent pieces she's written on obesity:

As I pointed out elsewhere, a simple error of 50 calories a day--half a slice of Pepperidge Farm All-Natural Whole Wheat Bread--would make us gain five pounds a year apiece. Given inherent calculation error, no one is watching their calories this carefully. Our appetites are doing the work for us.

So perhaps by relaxing about his food, Mr. Camacho was getting out of the way of his own internal systems and letting them do their jobs.

ymarsakar said...

Japanese grown rice is different from Chinese grown rice which is different from American carbs.

That's cause of the Poison Cartel. What was it, Dupont? Something, Round up. Not necessarily GMO, just pesticides and industrial farming.

There's only so much nutrients and prana/chi in the dirt. If you don't resaturate it with livestock droppings, as nature intended, and just keep putting in artificial nitrogen fertilizer, your food grows big but they also shrink in nutrition. So the body keeps wanting more and more, as American obesity has shown.

Also, fat is just the way for the body to grow larger to decrease the toxicity levels. De tox your body and it won't need to be as big to reduce toxicity per square inch.

ymarsakar said...

Europeans following the carb diet isn't going to get the same result as Chinese/Japanese Asians. That is due to genetic and epigenetic factors.

Europeans, like Eskimos, are DNA adapted to digest rare meat. True blue red meat.

That doesn't mean everyone can do that. Some people get sick from that. Again, genetic modification and DNA imprinting through quantum sub structures.