Nutritionism’s Great Blunder
Dr. Ancel Keys has been accused of many great nutritional crimes, but his greatest blunder was the inadvertent triumph of nutritionism. Dr. Keys was one of the great proponents of saturated fat as one of the main determinants of the epidemic of coronary disease in the 1950’s and 1960’s. This led directly to the low...
Addendum to Do all Diets Fail?
From several comments to the previous blog post "Do all Diets Fail?", it seems that some have interpreted this to mean that I do not support any particular diet. This is despite the fact that I have spent over a year and 60+ blog posts, and 8 hours of YouTube lectures explaining why diets that...
Beverages – How to Lose Weight VI
The sugar-sweetened beverage is one of the leading sources of added sugars. This includes all soda pop, sugar sweetened teas, fruit juice, fruit punch, vitamin water, smoothies, shakes, lemonade, chocolate or flavored milk, iced coffee drinks and energy drinks. Hot drinks such as hot chocolate, moccachino, caffé mocha, and sweetened coffee and tea would also...
The Tyranny of Breakfast – How to Lose Weight V
Breakfast is, without question, the most controversial meal of the day. The advice to eat something, anything as soon as you step out of bed has often been regurgitated by health professionals without question. People confess to skipping breakfast like they've committed a great nutritional crime. Breakfast really needs to be downgraded from “most important...
Reduce Added Sugars – How to Lose Weight IV
The first step in virtually any weight loss program is to reduce added sugars. Sugar is particularly fattening because it increases insulin both immediately and insidiously over the long term. Sugar is comprised of equal amounts of glucose and fructose. Glucose, as a highly refined carbohydrate, will immediately raise blood sugar levels and directly stimulate...
The MultiFactorial Nature of Obesity – How to Lose Weight II
The multifactorial nature of obesity is the crucial missing link. There is no one single cause of obesity. Do calories cause obesity? Yes, partially. Do carbohydrates cause obesity? Yes, partially. Does fiber protect us from obesity? Yes, partially. Does insulin resistance cause obesity? Yes, partially. Does sugar cause obesity? Yes, partially. All these factors converge...
How to Lose Weight I
We start 2015 with a new series - How to Lose Weight. Probably what many people wonder about this time of year. First and foremost, any rational weight loss program starts with a thorough understanding of what causes weight gain in the first place. What is the Aetiology of Obesity? We've spent the previous year...
IDM Patient Profile December 2014 – Margaret
This month our patient profile Margaret who joined the Intensive Dietary Management Program in April 2014. At her first appointment, she was taking 120 units of insulin a day with an additional 2000 mg of Metformin to stabilize her blood sugar levels. Her HbA1c, a 3 month average of blood sugars was 7.0%. Her skin...
Sleep Deprivation and Obesity – Hormonal Obesity XXXXI
One of the major causes of chronic stress in the modern environment is sleep deprivation and disturbance. Even a single day of sleep deprivation can increase cortisol levels by over 100%. Sleep duration has been declining over the last few decades. In 1910, people slept 9 hours on average. By 1960, surveys indicated that Americans...
A Closer look at Cortisol – Hormonal Obesity XXXX
I can make you fat. Actually, I can make anybody fat. How? It is very simple. I prescribe prednisone, a synthetic version of the human hormone cortisol. Prednisone is used to treat many different types of inflammatory diseases, including asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, glomerulonephritis and myasthenia gravis. Cortisol makes you...
IDM Patient Profile November 2014 – Kirk
Our patient profile this month is Kirk, who I have been following for a number of years. Over that time, he had always been quite heavy. He was diabetic on several medications and developing all the usual insults of obesity and diabetes. We had started to develop our Intensive Dietary Management Program several years ago...
Cardio-protective effect of Saturated Fats – Hormonal Obesity XXXIX
Saturated fats turned out to be not quite as toxic as we had believed once the trans fats were stripped out. But many studies pointed out the fact that there is a chance that they may actually be protective against heart disease. The study "Dietary fats, carbohydrate, and progression of coronary atherosclerosis in postmenopausal women" examined...
