Low carb op-ed on changing dietary guidelines in the Washington Examiner today

#1

Link is here.

Highlight:

Responding to new research showing that low-carb, high-fat diets help people stay healthy, the committee that drafts the guidelines is now considering recommending a low-carb dietary pattern. However, at the end of October, committee members announced that the supposedly “low-carb” pattern they were debating would still encourage people to consume almost half of their calories from carbohydrates.

That’s not even close to low-carb, and there’s no clinical evidence to support it. Unless the committee changes course, the guidelines will continue to give unhealthy dietary advice.

It’s really unfortunate that we might have to go through multiple further iterations of guideline changes before they finally drop the old ideas about low fat diets. But it would be even more frustrating if they introduced a half-assed low-carb diet and its failure turned people against low carb diets.

(Bunny) #2

It would be better than nothing.

Problem is some people may drop there calorie intake to low for a long period of time and that is not a good thing when it comes to matters of public health and welfare.

When you look at Doctors doing Keto I notice some of them are saying they had to increase there caloric intake. I have been doing the ketogenic diet for a very long time and I understand the more long-term problems that people could possibly run into if you don’t have a lot of body fat.

When I look at recent Doctor Berg Videos he is starting to look like a skeleton. Although he admits he is increasing his caloric intake and starting to lift weights.

(Karen) #3

It has to change slowly or it will look like they made an error

(mole person) #4

The problem is that half your calories from carbs is generally going to be a much worse diet that all your calories from carbs, or a low fat/high carbohydrate diet.

So now they’ve stopped telling people fat is bad but are telling them to still get a lot of carbohydrates. They’ve just made obesity even easier.

(Stuart Young) #5

The resistance from the medical profession in terms of carbohydrates and ill health still astounds me even now.

I can have a bit of a conspiratorial brain, and something smells off, right here.

I fully concur, the ‘balanced diet’ approach is the worst advice they can give, even more so than the LFHC approach. You won’t ever switch to burning fat, so the fat you do eat will all be stored.

It looks to me that it has been set-up to fail, which will enable the war on fat to continue. Just think of all the vested interests there is in treating poor health. The amount of money in treating diabetes alone is astronomical…

(Bob M) #6

Not the least because of the following:

  • Don’t eat low carb, because it’s not balanced! It’s getting rid of food groups!

  • Eat vegetarian or vegan! (Because…they are “balanced”? In what way?)

And, for the life of me, I’ve never been able to tell what a “balanced” diet is. Balanced in what way?

(charlie3) #7

I wish their document would be a huge reference guide to the various eating patterns, the ones promoted and the ones only observed. They don’t have to say what’s best for everybody. They could recommend that everybody should get informed and proceed accordingly.

#8

I wish the government would get out of the business of recommending diets altogether. Government has a way of causing problems and then causing even bigger problems with its solutions to the original problems it caused. That’s certainly the case here.

(Bob M) #9

I could vote for either of those approaches.

They really influence a lot, though. My kids can’t get full fat milk at school, for instance. They can get non-fat, high sugar chocolate milk, however.

(Karen) #11

Plus that the Oxalic acid in chocolate milk inhibits the absorption of calcium, which might have been the whole point Of serving milk in the schools

(Bob M) #12

Oddly, I use this to my advantage when eating chocolate: I often have chocolate with yogurt, which limits calcium absorption, but also binds some/all of the oxalates so they pass through you.

#13

It’s probably that ‘everything in moderation’ gibberish that some people still spout.

(charlie3) #14

I’m one of the owners of family property that includes crop land. The operators rotate feed corn, wheat, and soybeans. Another prinicple crop in the area is sugar beets. I don’t want any of those in my personal food chain. If everybody wanted to eat low carb or carnivore it would be disruptive.

#15

I am skeptical to the good intentions of government promoted dietary guidelines as they tend to favour industries over citizens. If the U.S. or Canadian government were to promote a zero grain diet for it’s citizens in order to stem the healthcare epidemic it is causing, it would cause such backlash in those areas of the respective countries that are devoted to the growth and manufacture of those crops. It really does seem to be a politically driven decision rather than concern for public health.

(Bob M) #16

Have you read this book:

He grows crops in a regenerative manner (with animals, too).

He still grows other things, like fruits, etc. We don’t all need to be carnivore or low carb, but having better food might help with that.

(charlie3) #17

No, haven’t read this. I read the term regenerative agriculture fairly often, don’t really know the definition. A farm boils down to the weather and the soil. You can’t control the weather but you can protect the soil, which was created over some thousands of years by living things growing and dying and contributing their organic leftovers to the mix. Any time the soil is disturbed some is lost. The ag department has had a soil conservation service to farmers probably for 100 years. Mismanaging the soil can lower the value of the land to a future buyer so it’s important to keep it healthy. I read claims by vegan types that all of america’s farm soils will be destroyed even before global warming destroys us all. I’ve yet to see the evidence for this and I try to picture the reaction of most farmers who are told they are carelessly destroying their soils.