8pm on BBC tonight - The Truth About Carbs

(Duncan Kerridge) #1

It’ll be interesting to see what they say, but the article looks ok. It’s encouraging to see the number of programmes recently that are starting to head in the right direction.

Youtube link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us8Art5EOFc

Beige carbs
#2

It’s decent so far! Though it’s letting carbs off the hook to some extent, need a stronger message on cutting out beige and white carbs altogether rather than just reducing them or trying to turn them into ‘resistant starches’. It’s also pushing the ‘eat whole grain’ carbs message - my understanding was that these are pretty much just as bad?

(karen) #4

They’re just as beige, anyway. :grin:

(Jack Brien) #5
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #6

Or even beiger! :grinning:

(karen) #7

Well thank you for making me feel very smart because I remembered the hormone in our saliva that starts digesting carbs is amylase. :slight_smile: What I don’t understand is why breaking down carbs efficiently has anything to do with health or how many carbs you can eat. I would think it’s the opposite - the faster your body breaks carbs into glucose, the higher the insulin spike.

(Rob) #8

This is so true… the big issue for mainstream docs and TV experts is that the obvious (or not so obvious) implication of cutting the carbs is the inevitable increase in fats (or else you are advocating starvation… which was last week’s crash diet show on the BBC…)

This show had Professor Roy Taylor and his 8 weeks 800kcal T2D reversing diet plan (which is keto from a carb POV but starvation-y) which while brutal is obviously more mainstream acceptable than keto which gets the same results from eating lots of fat to maintenance calorie levels and is far more doable and sustainable for the vast majority of people. At least this show did have a cardiologist on that said that an 8 week very low carb, higher fat diet was not heart damaging, reducing the fat in the heart muscle over the period.

Until the fat taboo is well and truly broken, we won’t see mainstream keto advocacy on places like the BBC but I’ll take these steps in the right direction over conventional orthodoxy which is what most shows/press still advocate.

(Alec) #9

How did it end up? Worthwhile?

Did I hear that Michael Moseley was doing some proper trials on something fasting/low carb related? Anybody else hear that and have more details. I have some faith in MM (I still follow a version of his 5:2 fasting diet), but I switch off when I hear him talk about cholesterol because what he says is not backed by science, and this disappoints me.
Cheers
A

(Doug) #10

Rob, Dr. Taylor’s results have been stellar - I think the only real question is how the patients do in the long run. It’s still being studied as the doctor continues to investigate the long-term reversal of diabetes.

It would be interesting to see what would happen with a similar group of people who fasted 2 out of every 3 days, then ate on the third day - they’d likely take in roughly the same calories, overall.

I have never seen good information on just when our metabolisms start to slow down when we eat, but restrict calories. For sure, by 6 months it’s a thing. But I really do not think it gets going in just a week or two. So, somewhere out there is the tipping point - wish we knew just where.

Personally, I’ve had a lot of low-calorie days, like 400 or 600 calories, never more than one or two in a row, and I’ve never noticed any “slow-down;” in fact - if anything it’s the reverse - coming off a fast I’ll often just eat in the evening, and don’t eat much, but feel hot and “revved-up” afterward, sweaty hair on the pillow, etc.

(Rob) #11

I don’t think they have been any better than that observed around here and the degree of required medical oversight and suffering of the patients seems somewhat unnecessary. The other thing we saw last week is Taylor stating on TV that he believes the causative factor for T2 is the degree of fat in the liver and pancreas suggesting he might have it arse about face to some extent. My concern with his work is that he is almost accidentally keto (mostly through extreme CR rather than by believing in the hormonal metabolic model) and may be drawing incorrect conclusions about the causes of his success.

I also have concerns about the long-term success of the plan without long-term subscription to the highly restrictive maintenance diet after the initial starvation.

One day super-low cal days (especially below 500kcal) are much closer to fasting reactions rather than starvation reactions and the body doesn’t assume an energy crisis that quickly which is why we all quite happily can OMAD or ADF without adverse issues.

(Doug) #12

That’s interesting - I know the doc says that to reverse diabetes one has to lose weight, but it’s only like 1 gram - the rub being that it has to be 1 gram of fat lost from the pancreas.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #13

The van Tullekens are cute, and they sound like decent, caring doctors, but judging from this article, Aseem Malhotra needs to sit Xand down and tell him what’s what.

(Alec) #14

Could we try to get that to happen? Because if you asked the average Joe in the street, there’s a 1 in 10 chance they’ve heard of the van Tullekens, but a 1 in 10,000 chance that they’ve heard of Aseem Malhotra.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #15

From your mouth to God’s ear!

(Alec) #16

You mean Jason Fung? :joy::rofl:

#17

I saw this one too and drew the same conclusions. The results were good but the extreme nature of the intervention suggests to me that these people won’t maintain - feels quite ‘yo-yo ish’, they kind of hit upon the right answer but used the wrong tool. I got the same 2 stone weight loss in the same time period as these people whilst eating 2000+ keto calories a day.

I also thought Roy’s claims to have ‘discovered’ the cause of T2 a little extravagant, and disagreed with his conclusion about it being due to a fatty pancreas. The more I think about that crash diet programme the more I realise it was just a mini televised version of his experimental trial - it didn’t actually have anything in addition or bring in wider views on obesity etc.

(Bella) #18

Having fallen badly off the wagon this week this documentary was what I needed to give me a well needed kick up the backside. So I am now sitting here with my greenT and lemon - preparing myself for the next 2/3 days of hell.

The show was interesting and I guess really useful for those people who are just starting to see the truth regarding the poison that is sugar. My family are sick of hearing me go on about it.

What REALLY scared the hell out of me, was the sugar cube thing, because I had a jacket potato for dinner:frowning:
Strangly, the women who said she loved jacket potatoes was skinny:thinking:
Who am I to say that these people won’t stick to the changes. The result were fantastic considering they didn’t go all out keto.

The most encouraging thing was to see doctors actually recommend the changes in diet rather than handing out medication.

(Bella) #19

Importan bit - BEFORE you cut out the carbs.
If I did this test I would have finished the whole packet along with half a pound of butter, and maybe some scrambled eggs… think I’m tripping:weary::anguished:

(Rob) #20

The resistant starch trope has been discussed here before…

Some dabble in it for the gut biome benefits but from a carb POV it doesn’t seem to be a significant reduction in intake.

(bulkbiker) #21

Doubt it … I met him at the PHC conference a couple of weeks ago and he seemed a bit non committal. He seems to jump from one thing to the next where he sees a book opportunity.