Saturated Fat Study Largely Ignored -  Around the time when I wrote about the important study which showed no link between saturated fat and heart disease, not many people were writing about it. Since it was put online ahead of the print publication in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition this month, I was curious to see what the response in the media would be when the print version came out.
As expected, there was no big barrage of headlines proclaiming this study. This is interesting, because big studies about diet, especially in major scientific journals, usually dominate the health news headlines. The people who wrote about it early on were mainly Web-based. Since then, there has been a trickle of articles, some of them in the mainstream press, but very little on television. As far as I can tell, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Los Angeles Times have ignored it so far.
Interestingly, some publications have written about the story, but under a different headline. For example, in the Washington Post reporter Jennifer LaRue Huget writes about the new Atkins Diet book, and uses that to lead into writing about the study.
There were a few noteworthy exceptions to the general burying of the story: The Wall Street Journal (story available online at the Globe and Mail), the Boston Globe, and Reuters provided articles where the study was the lead.
The good news is that many online publications wrote about this study, and that most of the mainstream ones who did write about it included paragraphs about the evidence for carbohydrates being more problematic than fat when it comes to heart disease.
Looking at this issue is important, partly because there is so much we don't know about saturated fats. It seems that once it was decided that "it's bad" the door to research on specific saturated fats all but closed. A couple of years ago at a conference about saturated fat, I had the opportunity to ask a panel of experts a question. I said, "We've been talking about saturated fat as if it's all one thing. What can we say about the different effects of these fats? For example, what can you say about the medium-chain saturated fats in coconut oil?" Lipid expert Dr. Bruce German just shook his head. "It's embarrassing", he said, "how little we know".
Photo of Whipped Cream © Angelo Gilardelli
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Saturated Fat Study Largely Ignored originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 21:59:34. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Whole Foods Promoting High-Carb Diet? -  There have been some ruffled feathers in the low-carb community about the recent launch of a new "healthy eating" program at Whole Foods Markets which has been dubbed "Health Starts Here". Some of the recommendations are fine: eat nutrient-dense foods, eat a "colorful variety of plants", and choose foods that are whole and unprocessed, eliminating processed foods and those "void of nutrients". All of that is great advice, in my opinion.
So what are the problems with the program? Here's my take on it:
1. Emphasis on Vegetarian/Vegan Diet - Although I understand why some people want to be vegetarians and I provide information about low-carb vegetarian eating, I'm not at all keen on the idea of widely promoting them as being the best way for most people to eat. Whole Foods is clearly going in the direction of saying that everyone should adopt a vegan, or at least vegetarian, diet. I have a few specific concerns about these diets, which I will write about in a later blog, but I'll briefly touch on 2 of them:
a) Well-known issues with vegetarian diets - The Whole Foods Web site summarizing these potential problems on this page, and gives advice about how to get around them. I would only comment that starting out with a diet which has "problems to get around" may raise an alarm or two. (To be fair, very low-carb diets (less than 40 grams per day) have a few similar issues to pay attention to, but the vast majority of people eating low-carb are not in this category, at least for more than a few weeks.)
b) Lesser-known or as-yet unknown issues - Especially with vegan diets (which is what Whole Foods is pushing), we are clearly talking about taking animals (us) who are natural omnivores (eating plants and animals) and turning us into herbivores (eating plants-only). I think we mess with our basic biology at our peril. These days we are continually discovering more chemicals in plants that have positive effects in our bodies - because we are looking for them. For the most part, we aren't looking in the animals we eat, but even now we know about some nutrients important for our health which are absent in plants, or found in very small amounts. Not only do vegan diets tend to be low in nutrients such as choline and niacin, they have zero of those such as Vitamin B12 and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). My guess? Since we have evolved to eat animal products, it's a good bet that there lots of different good things in there for us.
2. Referrals to programs which cost money. The materials available at the stores and online give some general eating guidelines. However, to get to specifics they point to two programs, both of which cost money, to find out more about. These are:
a) Eat Right America - This program is based on Joel Fuhrman's book Eat to Live. The link from Whole Foods leads you right to a page where you are encouraged to subscribe to their service for $6 per month. The program is a mainly-vegan program with emphasis on fruits and vegetables which are high in nutrients, with few processed foods, and only one or two servings of whole grains per day. There is some information on the site, including some sample menus.
b) The Engine 2 Diet - This is a vegan diet, but it's very difficult to find out anything else without buying the book or signing up for their 28-day program. There is no specific information about the diet on the Web site. Jolinda Hacketti, About.com's Guide to Vegetarian Food, provides a brief overview of the diet.
3) Emphasis on a Low-Fat Diet - Can we please put this one to rest? So many large-scale studies trying to prove the worth of low-fat diets have come up with nothing. The American Heart Association has stopped recommending them. We need fats in our diet, period, and keeping them "low" is just not helpful.
My Field Trip to Whole Foods
I don't live near enough to a Whole Foods market to shop there regularly, but I did go recently to check out the store and their new program. Here are a couple of my observations:
1. Very well-informed store personnel - As I made my way through the store, I talked to number of different employees about products in the store. I was particularly impressed with the meat counter, where they could tell me where all the meats came from, how the animals were kept, and what their diet was.
2. A surprising amount of sugar, and lots of starch - Naturally, packaged foods such as crackers and baked goods had a lot of sugar, but I was particularly surprised at the difficulty of finding choices without added sugars in their prepared foods, and in the beverage aisle. I get the impression that they have bought the "fat bad, sugar OK" line, and that starches (just long chains of glucose) are particular great.
A Turn-Off to Low-Carbers?
The excellent produce and meats at Whole Foods has been a draw to low-carb eaters. But will the latest push towards veganism, as well as the general "carbs are good" atmosphere turn them off? I can understand people wanted to find alternative places to buy their organic produce, grass-fed meats, etc. But I hope they don't decide to forgo grass-fed meats altogether rather than shop at Whole Foods. I think Whole Foods needs to keep hearing that there is a demand for high-quality meats from animals which have been treated well, as well as other nutritious low-carb food choices
Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Whole Foods Promoting High-Carb Diet? originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 12:38:16. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Live Webcast Wednesday with Dr. Richard Bernstein -  I once got a comment on my blog, "If I ever meet Dr. Bernstein, I will give him a big kiss...for saving my husband's (and my) life!"
Many people have had this reaction to reading and applying the work of Dr. Richard Bernstein, author of Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution and The Diabetes Diet: Dr. Bernstein's Low-Carbohydrate Solution. Now, there is an opportunity to hear him speak and ask questions! On this Wednesday, February 24 at 7 PM Eastern Standard Time, there will be a live Webcast, where Dr. Bernstein will share his thoughts on the latest developments in diabetes treatment, and answer questions. To register for the webcast, go to this page.
Image Courtesy of Pricegrabber
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Live Webcast Wednesday with Dr. Richard Bernstein originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 19:59:37. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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