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A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

nytimes.com

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Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#121

Post by mrow84 »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #5

To bad it's environmentally unsustainable. There's no way our ecosystem can survive all of us eating eggs, tuna, and chicken all day. We need to consume less animal products not more. Low carb is fine for a few wealthy people who want to lose weight but it's not a responsible solution to the public health problem. What about a low-junk food diet? No cqlorie restrictions but no refined carbs? I don't think we need ti…

Your definition of environmental sustainability implicitly assumes a fixed, or arbitrarily bounded, population size in steady state. Whatever set of foods we choose to feed the population with, it is always possible (and historically has been inevitable) for the population to outgrow the available supply.

Sustainability only makes sense relative to a particular population size, and so something is only unsustainable in the absolute sense if the population needed to produce it exceeds the population which can survive upon it. This is not the case with the food types you refer to, and the producer/consumer ratio is precisely the thing that we develop new technologies to reduce.

If anything, I see it is better for us to engage in inefficient land use, because it provides spare capacity which can be used to mitigate prolonged disasters; a view strongly influenced by the book "The Collapse of Complex Societies", by Joseph Tainter.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#122

Post by tsmash »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #5

To bad it's environmentally unsustainable. There's no way our ecosystem can survive all of us eating eggs, tuna, and chicken all day. We need to consume less animal products not more. Low carb is fine for a few wealthy people who want to lose weight but it's not a responsible solution to the public health problem. What about a low-junk food diet? No cqlorie restrictions but no refined carbs? I don't think we need ti…

i had no idea that acres of monoculture crops that erode the topsoil and destroy the land and don't let anything else live on them was sustainable, thanks for clarifying.

start eating animal organs - liver, kidney, tongue, brain, throat, face meat, bone marrow - see how much food is actually in an animal.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#123

Post by wuliwong »

wdewind wrote: post #4

This study adds nothing new to the debate: > “To my knowledge, this is one of the first long-term trials that’s given these diets without calorie restrictions,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, who was not involved in the new study. “It shows that in a free-living setting, cutting your carbs helps you lose weight without focusing on calorie…

You are assuming that the low carb group consumed less calories but I believe that is not something that was tracked, so you shouldn't assume that.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#124

Post by amasad »

For an in-depth discussion about low-carb diets and the history of the misconception that fats consumed = body fat and cholesterol levels I recommend the book (although I haven't finished it yet): Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#125

Post by Bahamut »

drcode wrote: post #26

I know this is just anecdotal coincidence (and not really that interesting to most people other than myself) but today when I weighed myself I had my ideal body weight for the first time in my life. This is after following a low carb diet for six months and losing 50 pounds... so throw another vote in the "yes, low carb seems to be effective" bucket. The findings in this article are certainly music to my ears. (Here…

I've lost about 65 lbs in about the same timeframe once, but by going with a mostly carb diet (& a lot of exercise). The trick for me was just eating less overall and doing a lot of exercise...that seems to be the most consistent solution for weight loss I've found from personal experience.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#126

Post by anateus »

cdurr wrote: post #113
latch wrote: post #11

It'd be nice to have this squared with research in vegetarianism (high-carb, low-fat) which long term studies indicate has a number of health benefits [1] My own take, which I've mentioned before, is that the the starting point is so bad (refined carbohydrates) that you can pretty much walk in any direction and get positive results. That is, what people are eating doesn't matter nearly as much as what people aren't.…

>any diet will make people pay attention to what they're eating, and that's the real win Except for a fruitarian diet, which is usually very high in fructose. Look at what that diet did to Steve Jobs. While he was still alive, way before it was revealed he had pancreatic cancer, I heard a story where he turned orange, which can only be jaundice, a sign of a failing pancreas. The pancreas metabolizes fructose and it c…

You also turn orange if you eat too many carrots: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carotenosis

You turn yellow from jaundice.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#127

Post by voronoff »

I'm wondering how much of the difference is due to what you're drinking, rather than eating. Cmd-f in the journal article found no "drink", "juice", "soda", or "beer", so it seems likely they didn't consider it.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#128

Post by viggity »

amasad wrote: post #124

For an in-depth discussion about low-carb diets and the history of the misconception that fats consumed = body fat and cholesterol levels I recommend the book (although I haven't finished it yet): Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health

I've read Taubes book, word of warning, it is huge and it is a book about diet, not a diet book. Don't buy it unless you're committed :)

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#129

Post by pbreit »

drcode wrote: post #26

I know this is just anecdotal coincidence (and not really that interesting to most people other than myself) but today when I weighed myself I had my ideal body weight for the first time in my life. This is after following a low carb diet for six months and losing 50 pounds... so throw another vote in the "yes, low carb seems to be effective" bucket. The findings in this article are certainly music to my ears. (Here…

The slow carb thing is fine (better than atkins, keto, high fat, etc) but still probably overly restrictive. I think what remains easier and possibly better for almost everyone is 1) eat in moderation, 2) avoid processed foods and 3) be minimally active (ie, 10 miles of walking per week).

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#130

Post by rhizome »

wdewind wrote: post #4

This study adds nothing new to the debate: > “To my knowledge, this is one of the first long-term trials that’s given these diets without calorie restrictions,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, who was not involved in the new study. “It shows that in a free-living setting, cutting your carbs helps you lose weight without focusing on calorie…

I didn't know it.
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