This morning, at 9am Eastern Time, we officially launched The Nutrition Science Initiative — NuSI (pronounced “new see”). NuSI is a non-profit organization, technically a 501(c)(3). Its purpose is to facilitate and fund rigorous, well-controlled experiments targeted at resolving unambiguously many of the outstanding nutrition controversies — to answer the question definitively of what constitutes a healthy diet.
Our conventional dietary wisdom, as I’ve described in my books, is based on science that was simply not adequate to the task of establishing reliable knowledge — poorly-controlled human experiments, observational studies incapable of establishing cause and effect, and animal studies that may or may not say anything meaningful about what happens in humans. NuSI was founded to address this issue and by doing so, we hope, reduce the social and economic burden of obesity and its related diseases. NuSi’s co-founder, and my collaborator in this endeavor, is Peter Attia, who will serve as NuSI’s president.
Peter and I started NuSI as a nights and weekends endeavor with the hope of raising the necessary money to keep the organization running and fund the necessary experiments using crowdfunding techniques on the internet. Last November, however, we heard from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation expressing interest in what we were trying to accomplish. After many meetings and their due diligence, LJAF has provided NuSI with a seed grant to get our organization up and running and a verbal commitment to help fund some of the key studies. For the past six months, we’ve been working days, nights, and weekends to make it happen. We’ve opened an office in San Diego (where Peter lives) and, as mentioned in my previous post, we’re hiring staff, a research associates and eventually a research director as well.
The support we’ve received for NuSI has already been remarkable. If you go to the NuSI website, you can see our board of directors, our scientific advisory board and our board of advisors just to get a feel for the researchers and individuals who believe in the mission and are dedicated to making this work.
As to the mission itself, Peter and I have already had meetings with researchers from around the country to discuss and begin the design process of the research that NuSI hopes to fund. These researchers are all excellent scientists, and they’re all skeptical of the hypotheses that we hope to test — the ideal combination. The experiments will be human trials; they’ll all be rigorously well-controlled, and they’ll all be aimed at identifying unambiguously the causes of obesity and type 2 diabetes, elucidating the underlying mechanisms involved. If all goes well, we’ll move later onto studies that look at longterm effectiveness of dietary therapies based on what we’ve learned.
Both Peter and I have our beliefs about what we’re likely to find, as do the researchers we’ve recruited to join the effort. As we say in our founder’s letter on the NuSI site, we’re not invested in particular outcomes, we’re invested in establishing reliable knowledge on the relationship between diet and disease and so scientifically-sound solutions to the health problems that beset us. One of the quotes that we use on the NuSI website and that I’ve taken to using in my lectures is particularly apt. It’s from Robert Burton’s 1893 book, The Anatomy of Melancholy: ”It is in vain to speak of cures, or think of remedies, until such time as we have considered of the causes . . . cures must be imperfect, lame, and to no purpose, wherein the causes have not first been searched.”
NuSI was founded on the premise that the reason we are beset today by epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes, and the reason physicians and researchers think these diseases are so recalcitrant to dietary therapies, is because of our flawed understanding of their causes. We believe that with a concerted effort and the best possible science, this problem can be fixed. We hope you’ll give your support to NuSi in anyway you can.
the NuSi website link has a %20 before the url.
Not sure how helpful it is to have Tim Ferriss on your board…
Why wouldn’t this be helpful?
my very best wishes to NuSI! it’s SO needed!
This is wonderful news, but please vet your staff and their families thoroughly. I am sure you are well aware that there many huge companies that stand to lose a great deal of money if things go a certain way, and from what I have discovered about past activities, there are many who would go to great lengths to save their livelihood at whatever cost. I wouldn’t be surprised if some are, at this very moment, plotting ways to infiltrate your organisation and exert some influence.
I agree completely with what David said, and this is not some crazy conspiracy theory. In fact, I’d extend it beyond “many huge companies”… there is A LOT of money committed to chronic disease epidemiologic research that would (could) become largely unnecessary “if things go a certain way.”
I concur with both David and Mark. No stone can be left unturned during your vetting processes. The results of this research must be beyond reproach. I wish your organization the best, and you have my support.
I also thing you should keep this possibility in mind.
When I was reading ‘Why We Get Fat…’ I remember thinking, “Man, this guy is lucky that Dunkin’ Donuts doesn’t employ assassins!”
(At least, not that I know of…)
I’m very excited about your new organization, and wish you much luck and success. You have already transformed the way I take care of myself, but also have inspired me to open a new clinic based on the ideas presented in your books. I commend you for taking on this mission to find the truth and helleasep our citizens. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Thanks again, Leah
I really Dr. Attia’s approach to obesity causes as well as yours, Gary. You both start out with “everything is possibly wrong. Let us see.” And the both of you work from there. A completely NEW look as opposed to the party line.
If more people took this approach that the scientific heavyweights used, we never would be in this dogmatic position that obesity is “all about calories.”
Keep up the excellent work.
Best Wishes,
Raz
Since you will be the only nutritional research foundation in existence without a pre-ordained conclusion in mind, be prepared for some vicious attacks from a variety of folks whose livelihood depends on prepetuation of the status quo. Be especially prepared for the ones who will publicly praise you and then stab you in the back.
I love the NuSI website; very succinct, well set out.
God bless her and all who sail in her.
This is really exciting. The site looks great. I can’t wait to hear about how the results unfold. I hope it shows that the fundamental claims of your books are true, as I’ve structured my diet around them. Ha! I hope everything comes together!
Looks like a great initiative. I wonder whether you’ve seen what StartSomeGood are doing? Kind of like Kickstarter but aimed at social/not-for-profit projects. May be of use in managing some of the logistics of crowdfunding.
Anatomy of Melancholy was first published in 1621, I think… just picking nits.
If you care to edit, there are four typos noted in ().
Paragraph 5, last sentence:
If all goes well, we’ll move later on (onto) to studies that look at longterm effectiveness of dietary therapies based on what we’ve learned.
Paragraph 6, sentence 2:
As we say in our founder’s letter on the NuSI site, we’re not invested in particular outcomes, we’re invested in establishing reliable knowledge on the relationship between diet and disease and (so) in scientifically (scientifically-sound) sound solutions to the health problems that beset us.
Last paragraph, last sentence:
We hope you’ll give your support to NuSi in any (anyway) way you can.
David, if I’m not mistaken, your last correction is incorrect. There are two different versions:
Anyway – meaning: “Well, with that aside,” etc.
Any way – meaning: “If there is a way – any way – of helping us, please do so.”
Obviously, these are not meanings I pulled from dictionaries, but I believe it gives the gist of what I’m trying to say.
I did agree with the other fixes, FYI.
Hava
Congratulations Gary! Your excitement bleeds through your post. This has got to be incredibly exciting for you. It has been quite a haul for you since the statement in GCBC that what we need is accurate, intelligent, and independent testing of the carbohydrate hypothesis. A dream comes to life. Good luck and keep us posted.
Congratulations, Gary and Peter. This is great news. The time and research that you have done thus far and continue to do is greatly appreciated.
Your mission statement is most important and hope that others will be able to clearly read this sentence (below) and appreciate that it has everyone’s best interest in mind.
“As we say in our founder’s letter on the NuSI site, we’re not invested in particular outcomes, we’re invested in establishing reliable knowledge on the relationship between diet and disease and so scientifically-sound solutions to the health problems that beset us.”
I used to think it would be great to have a biggest loser series comparing low carb to status quo diet, but quickly realized it would just become a competition of sponsor against sponsor ( beef industry against wheat industries?)
So hats off to gary taubes for implementing nusi to finally try to prove or disprove current nutritional theories.
This is greate news
All the best of wishes to you guys and NUSI.
I am very excited about your new organization. As you have shown in your books, much of what we have been told about a healthy diet is wrong and we need scientific studies to get more information.
Since I first heard you speak on KUOW Seattle in January I have read some of GCBC, all of WWGF, watched videos of your talks on youtube, watched The Bitter Truth and other UCSF videos by Robert Lustig, read parts of Michael Eade’s books, read Anticancer by David Servan-Schreiber, Foods to Fight Cancer by Richard Beliveau, and Spontaneous Happiness by Andre Weil. I have lost about 30 pounds since last January eating low-carb although I do eat dairy. I am losing slowly and that’s okay. Cravings mostly gone except if I get stressed. From January to March the triglyceride number went from 67 to 26. Am looking forward to seeing blood test results in a couple of weeks and hoping that glucose number is lower (it only went down from 120 to 116 but it wasn’t a long enough time to see big changes the doctor said). Thank you for writing the books and talking on the radio.
I was disappointed to see so few women on your boards and only on the board of advisors. Surely there are many women doctors who are interested in and working on this subject.
The website link for the NuSi home page in your blog doesn’t work.
I tried liking (fb) from the emailed blog and that didn’t work.
Best of luck.
Do reliable scientific results require participation from women? Why not judge the process and results by scientific instead of sociological principles?
“Do reliable scientifuc results require participation from women?’ Considering that a de facto all-male hiring policy would imply those doing the hiring are rejecting qualified applicants on the basis of gender, or ignoring one half of the potential talent pool, yes. I suppose a scientific organization could get by without women if none were interested in joining, but this strikes me as unlikely.
It may astonish you to learn that men & women are physically different. They have different hormonal balances, gain weight in different places, & have different challenges with losing weight. It wouldn’t be desirable to have only men (or only women) studying a process that varies so much by biological sex.
I noticed women missing from the organization as well, too bad because women’s lives and biology differ from men in a lot of ways and probably in ways that men don’t think about.
Laine,
Done good! You researched thoroughly, made a decision and are reaping the benefits…. I think that more and more people are doing the same….nice to see that we aren’t all sheep…. (:-)
This is fantastic and very exciting. I know good research takes time, but you’re starting and that’s critical. Being in a position to apply proper and rigorous scientific principles and methods puts your new organization in a rather unique position in the realm of nutrition research. I’m confident, based on reading all your material, that you will carry this torch well!
Best of luck, Gary & Peter. I’ve been waiting patiently for a long time to see you bring this to fruition. I can’t wait to see how the research you fund will change our understanding of diet, nutrition, and T2D (amongst other things).
By simply following the advice at the end of WWGF, I’ve managed to lose 120lbs, reverse some associated medical conditions, and avoid some rather drastic surgery. Clearly, the recommendations worked. Now I look forward to the research that will explain why in a way that clarifies our understanding of nutrition, instead of increasing the disputes about it.
Good luck!
Muchas felicidades Gary! I’m sure NuSi it’s gonna be a great success!
Excellent news. I do hope the research takes into account varying endocrine effects with age.
I just went to NuSI and made a small donation. Good work, Gary and Peter!
Congratulations Gary and Peter! I am really happy you got funding for this. I followed a link from Andrew Sullivan to Gary’s website, read “Why We Get Fat”, noticed I had simultaneously run out of both flour and sugar, and took it as a sign. I started following Atkins, and quickly realized that if I ate even a little whole wheat the weight loss stopped. Since May I have lost 25 lbs, a STUNNING achievement. And with no extra exercise, and no extra planning, counting, diary-ing, thinking or stressing.
You’re going to need to start a new institute of psychotherapy to help people deal with their anger at their doctors.
LOL!! Spot on. I know I went through that when I started losing weight – at first I was excited, and then I just plain got PISSED OFF that all this time, I had been lied to by the medical establishment on how to lose weight. I tried the low-fat diet and only GAINED weight.
I lost 20 pounds over a year ago and haven’t gained it back yet, and don’t plan to ever do so. (Oh! And I never exercised once. Not even a little. Not that I’m anti-exercise or anything, but it does NOT help you lose weight. I wish that fallacy would die a quiet death soon). Now that I know how to eat, I’m set for life.
Hava
This is fabulous news indeed, I love Gary’s books. You will have to be careful though that people don’t accuse you of pushing your own barrow!
Great to see this get started, Congratulations to yourself and Peter.
I can’t wait to see the products of your research. Keep up the excellent work.
“It’s from Robert Burton’s 1893 book, The Anatomy of Melancholy…”
Actually, 1621. Some of the ideas are so modern that it’s hard to believe Burton wrote it at the same time people like John Donne and Shakespeare were active. Yet it is so.
I’m getting this “Error establishing a database connection” when I go to nusi.org
Gary
Everybody knows that all of the sugars and starches and hybrid carbohydrates in our food chain are deadly poisons and stimulant drugs to our bodies and minds and spirits and emotions and souls. Destroying our bodies chemistry and our mental health. — Your quest to find proof for these morons who control medicine and health and education and get this message heard is admirable and much needed. Vital would be better said.
Don’t forget that alcohol is the highest form of sugar. Few people realize the significance in this and how far it dates back.
How about one of your studies concentrating on the effects of all these substances on our psyche, equal to that of amphetamines and cocaine consumption.
The reason we make war and worship gods and greed for more.
The adrenaline like effects of all these man made and man bred sugars on our psyche.
The way we see and perceive and think of things in a state of adrenaline, where we always live.
You are leading the pack relentlessly and beautifully.
Keep up the great work.
Thank You, Tom
The liver does not metabolize alcohol into sugar. On the contrary, most people will experience a dip in their blood sugar (glucose) levels when consuming alcohol. Alcohol is eventually broken down by the liver into acetate, and finally into carbon dioxide and water—not sugar.
JSK
Great news JSK !
I can have my wine.
So, JSK, can you comment on why we develop “beer guts” from drinking alcohol? Or do we? Is it that the alcohol interferes with the Liver’s other functions, diverting ingested food into fat, or some other reason?
ie. do we really get fat by drinking alcohol and if so, why/how???
This is GREAT news! Will your research be able to tie in with the research that Dr Terry Wahls is conducting?
http://www.terrywahls.com/
Excellent blog here! Also your site loads
up fast! What host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host?
I wish my web site loaded up as quickly as yours lol
So, apparently, BPA causes childhood obesity. But only among whites, not among Latinos or African Americans. Published in JAMA, so it must be true. Sheesh. Make it stop!
NUSI is sorely needed.
Gary, I just watched your video on Dr Mercola’s website and very much appreciate your interest in the weight loss issue, etc. I have not read any of your books and this is my first exposure to you. However, what question came to mind for me after hearing some of the discussion. Has anyone ever correlated the affect of all the poisons and chemicals in our US food to the weight increase in the population? I am somewhat of an admitted conspiracy junkie, but it seems to me that there might be something to this idea. Not that I have heard it expressed specifically, but I was raised in Kern County in California, and someone mentioned to me once that even though people were losing weight all over the country on the “Cambridge Diet” (which, incidentally was a horrilbe diet), that the people in Bakersfield (the capital of Kern Co, in CA) could not lose weight on it. I sort of came to the concusion that due to all the agriculture and pesticide use in the area there might have been a correlation. I am also wondering if the chemtrails which fill our skies daily do not add to the ability for our bodies to deal with normal processes. These questions may seem stupid, but I wanted to offer them anyway.
Thanks for reading this.
Sharlene
Sharlene,
If you do a search into pesticides and obesity, plastics and obesity, antibiotics and obesity, chemicals and obesity, nutritional deficiencies and obesity, you will see studies that associate them together. They, like sugar, damage the mitochondria,( the part of the cell that controls our energy output).
I’ve got to say, as an engineer with a great interest in nutrition, I have grown increasingly disillusioned by the utter lack of the scientific method that went into forming the mainstream nutritional advice that is so widespread today. Hearing that you and Dr. Attia have started this organization and seeing some amazing names on your board of advisors list gives me hope that you will really be able to make a lasting difference in the way we think about nutrition, obesity, diabetes, etc. I will be eagerly following the progress of your organization and wish you the best of luck moving forward.
Please publish in the NY Times a rebuttal of the nonsense authored by Dean Ornish in today’s NY Times. He mentions all the recent bad science and a rebuttal by you Gary Taubes is the best way to attack it.
Thank you,
Former Fat Guy from Cleveland
Definitely good news.
There are still a lot of people stuck in the pure calories in / calories out dynamic. They don’t get that not everyone is the same. They don’t believe that I can’t lose weight if my calorie intake is equal across fat, carbs and protein but can if it is low carb high fat. But they the same people would never say a diabetic should eat the same way they do. Irony is lost on them.
For me, the most impressive thing to read here: “These researchers are all excellent scientists, and they’re all skeptical of the hypotheses that we hope to test — the ideal combination.”
Yes indeed! If you said it already on the NuSi site, I missed it, but this statement should be in bold, red, and on the home page.
So much to look forward to.
Good luck to you. Better still, average luck, and good science to you!
Patrick
I will look forward to the results of Nu Si research. But the most important experiment for me is the one my husband and I have been conducting in our own eating habits since early July. His blood sugar dropped from 140 to 100. He has lost about 18 pounds I’ve lost 15 pounds. Our other blood work results are great. My husband is hoping that in another 6 months he can go off statins. I plan never to take them. The amelioration of my arthritis symptoms–something not mentioned in either GCBC or WWGF–has been amazing. After years of relying on Jane Brody’s nutrition advice, I was in desperate condition. So, honestly, regardless of the research outcomes, I don’t see either my husband or me going back to a high carb, low fat diet.
You’ve got my support! And if you’re interested in incorporating resistance training, I’m happy to help.
I am a Registered Dietitian and I just moved to San Diego. I read about your project in the local paper last week and I would love to help out. I am very much interested in this type of research because as you well know everyone is an expert and none really knows what the problems are that face overweight people. Is it the amount of calories, the type, the combination,their genetic makeup, their bowel function, their energy expenditure, stress hormones, sleep patterns, too much milk, too little milk, exogenous hormones, endogenous hormones, a virus etc. We all know folks who watch what they eat and the scale won’t budge as well as folks who eat all the wrong stuff and they maintain a low weight. How about the person who suddenly puts on weight? I have many thoughts on this subject. I am serious, I will volunteer to help with surveys, collecting data etc. Have you looked at identical twins–I am one. My twin is obese and I am a normal weight. throughout most our lives, sis was a size 2 and I was a size 4. My sisters weight came during her pregnancies and never left, mine fell off. She struggles with her weight, I don’t. Identical twin studies would help rule out the genetic component. Let me know how I can help. Another factor contibuting to the rise in obesity is the rise in the asian and hispanic populations in the US. Why is this never linked to the numbers. We know these two groups are known to have greater propensity for diabetes and weight gain especially with the American diet. Finally, have any surveys been done regarding absorpsion. Some folks have 5 BMs a day, and some have 2 a week. Is it their diet or their GI function?
My, “The effects of these massive amounts of sugars and carbohydrates we consume daily on our Psyche and perceptions and emotions and being”, I say my because I am the only guy pounding on this “mind and emotion effects” drum. — Totally separate from body health matters but equally if not more “important”.
I swear to god that these massive amounts of hybrid carbohydrates that we consume hourly are the cause of WAR, rather than natural unstimulated healthy aggressions of fighting and skirmishing locally over females and territory and whatnot within our territory and region . Mostly just a look and a threatening look. Sometimes a challenge.
In our stimulated state we want more and more and bigger and bigger and power and more power and wealth and possessions and land and resources.
Our lights come on like with adrenaline and never go back to normal because we keep ingesting more and more sugar all the time.
Pure fact and provable once looked at.
Thank You
Congratulations! You are truly a giant amongst men. Having had my own (eating disorder) struggles since the age of 4 what you are doing lies so close to my heart. i really wish you all the very best. Sending best wishes, respect and gratitude from South Africa.
Karen
I am hoping that this study you first envisioned years ago will be one of the first studies funded.
11/7/2007, Gary Taubes had a fantasy that a funding agent at NIH would fund a study to refute one of the two hypothesis -
calorie hypothesis
carbohydrate hypothesis
He had a modest proposal that an experiment like this would cost a couple of hundred thousand dollars maximum.
A modest proposal -
1. Take half a dozen overweight male subjects & feed them a diet of 3000 calories a day
2. Calculate their average daily energy expenditure using doubly-labeled water
3. Feed them an Atkins-like diet (high fat, less than 60 grams/day carbohydrates) of 20% more calories than they were expending per day when the trial began.
4. Run (the study) for two months
5. If they lose weight & fat tissue, then the conventional wisdom of diet & weight has been refuted!
An alternative -
Take 2 groups of overweight subjects, feed one a high calorie, low-fat “balanced diet” feed the other a high-calorie Atkins-like diet, compare results.
Gary Taubes 11/7/2007 8:43 – a modest proposal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2Nb…&feature=relmfu
I implore all low carb advocates to donate $1 each to specifically fund this project –
http://nusi.org/donate/#.UGerQq6KXTp
Dear Gary
I think you/your team might like to check out an article in New Scientist (Sept 1, 2012) “Eat your way to dementia” in which a scientist – Suzanne de la Monte – relates Alzheimer’s and other similar disorders to our response to insulin. She even suggests that it might be “type 3 diabetes”.
There is a lot of lazy labelling concerning the effect of fat etc but this research work might be a useful tie in to work done at NuSI
PS 7 kgs lighter thanks to you
Just a suggestion but both Dr. William Davis (Wheat Belly) and Dr. Jack Kruse (www.jackkruse.com) would be GREAT additions to this project. Jack, especially.
I would LOVE to be part of this. If only I figured out what I wanted to do with my life 10 year ago and had already gotten a Ph.D!
Question for Dr. Attia, Mr. Taubes, and the community here:
I am in the process of applying to graduate programs in nutrition and I am very interested in its’ effect on chronic diseases as well as autoimmunity. Do you have any suggestions of programs that are open to questioning conventional wisdom in this area and simply following the science wherever it leads?
This may seem pathetic, but is anyone out there willing to burn me a DVD of their favorite GT Fat lecture?
My life partner is stuck in carb hell in a 50lb. overweight body and she is also resistant to reading the books, which we have. I am certain she would view a video repeatedly to get the ideas since she does this with her guru collection- she “gets” Ken Wibur, Osho, etc. , for examples. . Heartfelt Thanks!
The Biggest Fallacy of All
A news and health broadcast on television yesterday, stated resoundingly and emphatically, that longevity had reached a point in modern times with medicine and sanitary conditions and medical breakthroughs, and doctoring and pharmacology, as well as housing and protection and science and other factors, including the curing of disease. — That now with all of these advancements and education and discoveries, as of 2012 your chances of living for another year or more at 72 years of age is equal to that of a 30 year old person, a million and a half years ago. We have improved our health and medicine and living conditions to this much of an extent.
They didn’t say it but I’m sure that childbirth losses and the early losses of children and infant mortality were equally resounding as stated above.
What a wonderful world of medicine and modernization and technology we live in in this modern age.
If this were true.
Advancements similar to those described have occurred since we turned the whole world upside down with wars and gods, and destroyed natures balance, and mans, and the worlds health in the process, with sugars and highbred carbohydrates and alcohol and caffeine and nicotine and other stimulants and substances and mind altering drugs.
Shortsightedness with acceptance of conventional wisdom and teachings as facts, at fault here, without a clue to actuality
The earth and all of it’s tribes and families and nations and races of people, lived in perfect health to be over 100 years old for millions of years.
The same with birth and infancy and childhood death. — Nearly unheard of.
Perfect health we lived in.
War and Gods and Ghosts and Devils, fictions of mans imaginations with his dreams and hallucinations, were nonexistent.
A perfect earth with perfect people, just like all of the other creatures and living things.
Plants and trees and water and air and all living things perfect, just like the bears and the rabbits and the buffalo and deer and snakes and insects and fishes and all wildlife and things the earth over.
Diabetes and obesity and cancer and mental disease were nonexistent.
Perfect forests and deserts and sky and water.
All of everything.
Perfect.
Just look around you at what’s left and you can plainly see this as absolute truth.
If, your mindset from earlier teachings, doesn’t stop you from seeing and acknowledging the truth.
The Greatest Fallacy of All.
Thank You
TB
Gary
The one simple truth stated (above) changes everything, yet nobody can comprehend or believes it.
Sugar and hybrid carbohydrates wrought nothing but destruction right from the beginning just like meth and crack, but nobody believes that either.
Tom
Volunteering to be a part of your “Experiments with Human Trials”.
Thank you.
Lys
I thought I was at the point where I would stop being surprised but after an ‘innocent’ search into fat regulation & hormones I came across what appeared to be quite a sensible government sponsored page.
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Obesity_and_hormones
Until this paragraph –
Behaviour influences obesity hormones
Obese people have hormone levels that encourage the accumulation of body fat. It seems that behaviours such as overeating and lack of regular exercise, over time, ‘reset’ the processes that regulate appetite and body fat distribution to make the person physiologically more inclined to gain weight.
The body is always trying to maintain balance, so it resists any short-term disruptions such as crash dieting. Various studies have shown that blood leptin levels drop after low-kilojoule diets. Reduced leptin levels may increase appetite and slow down metabolism. This may help to explain why crash dieters usually regain their lost weight. It is possible that leptin therapy may one day help dieters to maintain their weight loss in the long term, but more research is needed before this becomes a reality.
There is evidence to suggest that long-term behaviour changes, such as healthy eating and regular exercise, can retrain the body to shed excess body fat and keep it off. Studies have also shown that weight loss as a result of healthy diet and exercise or bariatric surgery leads to improvement of insulin resistance, decreased inflammation and beneficial modulation of obesity hormones.
Weight loss is also associated with a decreased risk of developing heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes and cancer.
Discuss
Yay!!! I can’t wait to see the results of these studies!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOJKGbNYnsA&feature=youtu.be
Gary
Could SALT be a larger player in all this than we had thought to this point.
CNN: Today
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/03/world/asia/nepal-leopard-deaths/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
“Since human blood has more salt than animal blood, once wild animals get the taste of salty blood they do not like other animals like deer,” Dhakal said.
Could human blood be more salty because of ag and modern cooking and seasoning methods of eating, rather than naturally and normally occurring?
Could this too, be feeding our addictions?
TB
Gary
I thought you might find this to be interesting.
Re: Your TED Conversation(Debate)
Dear Tom Bunnell,
Thank you for submitting your topic for discussion, but we don’t feel TED Conversations is the right venue for it. The full text of your conversation is included below.
For more information on what makes a great TEDConversation, check out our How-To page: http://www.ted.com/pages/conversations_howto
Sincerely,
The TED Conversations Team
Title: Sugar and hybrid carbohydrates are powerful stimulant drugs like cocaine and amphetamines, effecting our minds and Psyche profoundly — WAR
Full Text: Sugar and hybrid carbohydrates consumed unnaturally in these high volumes and huge amounts, become powerful, addictive, stimulant drugs like cocaine and amphetamines. — We are consuming a thousand times more carbohydrates and sugars and starches than nature ever intended. — Fruits, grains, vegetables, milk. — All have become stimulant drugs but we don’t know it. — Stimulant drugs are like being in a adrenaline like state for 24/7 365 days a year. — From birth until death. — We are always in a state of “high”. — We think it’s natural and normal. — This is why we are on the moon and the reason we have populated the earth in one hundred years, from one billion people, tp seven billion people. — One mans lifetime. — It’s the reason for all of the madness and the reason for war and imagined gods as well as the core to our global obesity and diabetes and cancer and heart disease epidemics. — Being in this adrenaline state makes the need more and more and self servitude. — “The Kingdoms”. — “All the Kings Horses and all the Kings Men”. — “Your Royal Highness” — All stimulant driven. — I am personally responsible for this discovery. — I discovered this while researching “sugar addiction” on goggle a few years back. — I put two and two together and came up with four. — It’s the purest of truth and an absolute fact, but totally unknown. — It’s impact on our earth and cultures are immeasurable. — Thank You. — Tom Bunnell
I have been read/seen your presentation of the material in WWGF at least several times (I am almost
count myself as a conaissieur). But I think I’ve noticed a tendency to “bury your leads”.
I think your argument might be easier to follow if from the outset you said
you were going to compare two competing hypotheses:
“fat levels in the body are highly regulated” and one that they
are not i.e., “calories in/out”. I think this would better organized the flow.
Another really strong theme you might want ot emphasize or foreground, is
(contradictory evidence aside) the paucity of the
evidence for calories in/out. I.e., c in/out is a theory without an identified
biochemical mechanism
(I assume because one doesn’t exist). Therefore,
calories in/out is fundamentally more speculative than the
insulin-regulation theory.
That fact along with with the contradictory evidence of the animal
models, should, by themselves alone, catch any scientifically
literate person’s interest.
There is another point you make that I think is important enough to highlight
more. Though obviously of great general scientific interest, this isn’t
just an intellectual exercise. The naive acceptance of
calories in/out theory is an important reason government scientists discounted
the existing evidence that contradicted the “dietary fat” hypotheses
and instead (disastrously) based official policy on it. You might want
to allude to this important historical juncture, perhaps without revealing
the details early on in the presentation.
Btw, isn’t it is really the first Law of Thermodynamics – i.e. conservation
of energy, people would want to cite to (misguidedly) justify c in/out.
Anyway, keep up the good and really important work. -PJM
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/rival-diet-doc-leaks-atkins-death-report?page=3
you’ll see Atkins showed a previous MI, hypertension and congestive heart failure when he died, written at the bottom of the death certificate. THIS DIET IS A SCAM FOLKS.
Hello Ronnie, yeah I’ve heard about this too. In fact, this, and the point that nutrition professionals supported moderate to elevated CHO diets to lose weight encouraged me to lose weight this way. I spent three years trying diffennt combinations, before I blamed myself and gave up, ignoring my morbid obesity for nearly six years. Then I watched Fat Head (a documentary by Tom Naughton) that finally broke those mental bonds holding me back. In two years I’ve lost 80 pounds. I encourage you to look into it. Also, I’ve learned about three years ago that Atkins had a family history of heart disease, and he didn’t follow a diet similar to the one he specified until he was into middleage (he got an idea for his diet by observation as he performed his doctorly duties). So, chances are very good these two reasons provide for his athrosclerosis…but he died slipping on ice and smashing the back of his head in his elderly years. Have a good day, Ronnie.
Peter
This is music to my ears! For decades the Government-controlled opinions on our supposed “healthy” macronutrient intake has been shielded through selective Federal grants! This is good news! I am currently taking nutrition classes, and have noticed that while teachers will still hold onto what they’ve been taught, they can’t get around the data and testimonials out there which oppose the moderate-to-high CHO diet dogma. I’m looking forward to some serious research on this!
Enjoyed your comments on Stossel tonight… After 40 years of medical practice as a family physician, there is no question in my mind that various folks process carbohydrates, fats, and protein and calories in different ways … Really hope you are able to sort the wheat from the chaff!!
Thank you for your initiative. After listening to you on Fox News with John Stosell I have the greatest faith that you will develop honest tools for the understanding of correct nutrition. I am a 63 year old that has diabetes. As you can imagine nutrition is important to me. I look forward to following your progress.
I would like to see control study done on mild cognitive impaired MCI subjects on following protocol:
Whole fruits and leafy green and colorful vegetables
2 tablespoons coconut oil
Nattokinase tablet to reduce coagulation pathology (if not On blood thinners)
Curcurmin extract or turmeric
B vitamin complex daily
2 servings salmon per week
2 servings poultry per week
2 servings red meat per week
1/3 cup rice or whole starch such as potato per meal
The premise is a Whole foods diet of fruits , vegetables, and fish and meat in low to moderate portions combined with coconut oil as a non insulin dependent energy source would improve MCI symptoms and would prevent or slow development of dementia. Measurement of cognition at 1,3, 6,and 12 months Walking component an optional variable.
Cliff Colgan 303-898-6109
BrainChanger Nutrition
Boulder CO
Atkins had it right 35 years ago. He knew a calorie wasn’t just a “calorie”. He said certain foods would help you lose weight and other foods would hinder weight loss attempts. I ost 100 lbs. eating over 3000 calories a day!
Hi Gary,
I am a huge fan of your work, and am so excited about NuSi. It is a strange place to be….watching from the sidelines for scientists to “prove” what I already know is true.
I have type 2 diabetes and PCOS. After adopting Dr. Richard Bernstein’s VLCD (>20g cho/day), I have normal blood sugars without medication. Another HUGE benefit was ALL of my PCOS symptoms disappearing, and becoming pregnant naturally for the first time in my life at the age of 44!!
I also have a daughter with type 1. Her story is really more important than mine. We have “escaped” the ADA monster for the moment and are using Dr. Bernstein’s methods with her along with being monitored by a Naturopath and a family physician. She follows Bernstein’s diet — probably with more fat. She eats > 30 grams cho/day. We just had her third round of blood tests……..her numbers are all normal! Her A1C has been a steady 5.3% for the ENTIRE YEAR.
PLEASE make type1 diabetes part of your research!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear Gary,
I received a Medscape newsletter today with the following headline:
Missed Opportunities for Providing Low-fat Dietary Advice to People With Diabetes
Since I accept the scientific evidence you write about, I am certainly troubled that there is no mention of carbohydrates in the headline or the article. Why has the medical community been so reluctant to address carbohydrates.
Best wishes for the new year.
Richard
I was hoping to see a definitive list of questions you hoped to see answered.
I am worried that youare already off on the wrong foot. “we’re not invested in particular outcomes, we’re invested in establishing reliable knowledge on the relationship between diet and disease and so scientifically-sound solutions to the health problems that beset us” –> yet you already assume (without evidence in hand) that there is a “the relationship between diet and disease” and that discovery of this assumed relationship will lead to “scientifically-sound solutions to the health problems that beset us”…a premise not yet founded on evidence.
You have stated your prejudice upfront and I am afraid it will badly color any funding and findings as you are already convinced that “the reason physicians and researchers think these diseases are so recalcitrant to dietary therapies, is because of our flawed understanding of their causes”….not even allowing the possibility that dietary therapies don’t work because diet is not the cause.
Thus, while you claim you want unbiased Science….you start with biased assumptions and biased pre-determined outcomes.
Can you detail how you will prevent the research from being bent by the above?
“Its purpose is to facilitate and fund rigorous, well-controlled experiments targeted at resolving unambiguously many of the outstanding nutrition controversies — to answer the question definitively of what constitutes a healthy diet.”
If you really want to be rigorous, then start with the food supply. Factory farmed meat is crap from a nutritional standpoint. This is the confounding factor in almost every scientific study on nutrition. Conventional farming of veggies is a little better, but not as good as organic. That would be second on the list to show a rigorous study.
Problem is most scientists, while being pretty smart in their field, and notoriously poor at understanding a good agricultural method that produces high quality nutritional food from an impostor (sometimes referred to as “industrial organic”)
And this is the whole problem in a nutshell. Empty calories make people fat, and the majority of food choices available to people are “empty” or nearly so.
So take your funding and fund a real rigorous set of studies proving that and your NuSi will have done something great for humanity.
For example:
Meet Real Free-Range Eggs
By Cheryl Long and Tabitha Alterman
Mother Earth News October/November 2007
Found eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain:
• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene
They tested 14 pastured hen flocks around the country. BUT this isn’t a rigorous scientific study. Doesn’t mean it isn’t true. It is VERY true. But you need a rigorous study to confirm it scientifically and also to determine causality.
This is a glaring example of “dumb hick farmers” being far smarter than the scientists. They figured it out LONG before the scientists. It is very embarrassing to the scientific community to have these “dumb hick” farmers figure out the solution to the issue while the Phd scientists still are producing studies proving they haven’t a clue how to improve the nutritional quality of food.
Good example of that is:
Annals of Internal Medicine. Are Organic Foods Safer or Healthier Than Conventional Alternatives? A Systematic Review. Crystal Smith-Spangler,et al 2012 September;157(5):348-366.
This is a meta study and out of 17 studies on humans and 223 studies of nutrient and contaminant levels they still couldn’t figure it out! They found the pesticide residue and the bacteria contamination differences but out of all those Phd scientists they couldn’t figure out the nutrient differences? Yet I can take a pastured egg, a pig, cow, chicken, or milk down to my local University and have them test it and it is so much more nutritious it jumps right off the scale for some things especially the lipid balance. That’s not an exaggeration. In a few cases they had to test more than once when the levels actually jumped right off their charts and they had to recalibrate! More subtle for veggies, but it is there too.
You wonder why people have conspiracy theories? When hundreds and thousands of Phd scientists can’t figure out what a “dumb hick farmer” figured out, it completely destroys the credibility of the entire scientific community.
Since the stated goal of the Nutrition Science Initiative is to rigorously study to answer the question definitively of what constitutes a healthy diet. It only makes sense to start with studying why the nutritional quality of conventional agriculture is so poor to begin with.
Yes, Gary – please do study this issue. It’s not enough to tell people to eat low-carb. I really want people to understand how horrific factory-farmed meat is, both for their own health and for the health of the planet. People will listen to you if you can prove how essential it is to stop eating meat from factory farms.
This is just awesome!
Dear Gary,
Please explain whether it is true that more muscle means you can consume more calories. My fit friend tells me that if you just reduce carbs you risk losing your lean muscle mass. To lose fat and not muscle is there a ratio of protein/carbs which should be consumed? PS: What are the risks to muscle v fat loss if one goes on a prolonged fast ?
PS: I want to tell you I lost 4kg and reduced total cholesterol from 8.00 mmol/L to 6.8 mmol/L in 7 weeks by cutting out fructose, sugar and most carbs. !! ( was assisted by appetite suppressants). So what you say does work.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Why is it important to eat at each meal : proteins + legumes + vegetables ?
The energy-in – energy-out = energy surplus/deficit equation seems simplistic to me. OK — we are not calorimeters, but what, really, does each of those terms represent? Take energy in. What is it? I suppose, what we extract from a given meal. But — how is that related to the particular food mix, the particular moment of eating, the state of the consumer just then, etc? Energy out — what is used in processing the food, where the energy is spent, what is excreted, how the external activity occurs (you can lift the same weight while tensing other muscles, or not, etc.), when, etc. Storage — where, how, timing, and so on. The number and complexity of the variables concealed in the simple energy formula is staggering. Where does that fit into your “why we get fat” picture?
Perhaps another look at the “calorie” as the measure of dietary energy would be beneficial.
Hi! I’ve been following your weblog for a long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Atascocita Tx! Just wanted to tell you keep up the excellent work!
Wow I am so very impressed. People can write all the books they want on the matter but until there is rigorous scientific proof on the problems with today’s diet and some evidence for a better alternative then this alternative will remain just that – alternative.
Congratulations on this huge endeavour. I would love to donate some money towards it and to encourage others to do the same. Have you got a website setup where I can do this?
Joey
Robert Burton. The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)
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This is quite an admirable undertaking, Gary and I wish you the best of luck with it. Your recent piece in the BMJ was extremely well conceived and very thought-provoking. I certainly come from the tradition of “calories in / calories out” mentality, but was compelled by some of the data and ideas that you cited in that piece. I look forward to more good information on this important topic coming out of your initiative.
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Hi there great website! Does running a blog such as this take a lot of work?
I have no knowledge of computer programming
however I was hoping to start my own blog soon. Anyhow, should you have any
suggestions or techniques for new blog owners please share.
I know this is off topic but I simply wanted to ask.
Kudos!
14 yrs ago i cut carbs to 32grams a day. (dr eads-peotien power) in two days stopped oral diebetic meds-for next 5 yrs. lost 40 lbs-hdl went from 24 to 68. started 75/25 ins injection bid. made me lazy-just inject more units if b/s high. this january cut all wheat(dr w. davis). wt was 207-215. by march i was down to 191-hadn’t seen that in 50 yrs. hdl had been running 55-58, now hdl 73-trig 66. i’m able to skip injections . thanks for your work jim 423 316 3536
Hello,
I am really impressed to the NUSI company and by that I would like to apply in NUSI. I’m just curious on what qualifications they are looking for and what does it takes to get a job on NUSI. Anybody who had experience on applying in NUSI pls do help me or email me. Thank you
emi121592@gmail.com