Dr. Tim Noakes: process of science…and about the food you eat

Barefoot TJ

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Too bad Noakes ignores actual science in favor of sensationalism. He's like Dr Oz, only not changing fads quite so often. The latest Noakes news is that the hearing on rescinding his medical license has been delayed. Good for him, bad for us. If you want to learn how human metabolism really works, this is a good site ... http://carbsanity.blogspot.com/ She's excellent. She started the site after a bout with low carb. Which failed. And got her looking at the science. Seriously, don't go down the low carb rabbit hole without doing some real diligence. You're betting your health on it. There can be serious side effects. VLC can help manage diabetes, yes. That might be appropriate for type 1, although even that's not clear as insulin is still needed to regulate the gluconeogenesis feedback loop and keep blood sugar under control. Type 2 diabetes can be cured with a high-carb diet. Cured. Not managed. Cured. The catch? 600-800 calories per day for a month or two. 400 if you're a sedentary woman. And you can't go back to overeating after. No wonder people are going for whipping cream in their coffee and butter on everything instead. Yum. Too bad it just delays the day of reckoning.
 
"Type 2 diabetes can be cured with a high-carb diet"

Did you mean to write "cured with a low-carb diet" ?

No. Google "Kempner Rice Diet". Rice and fruit only. For something a little more up to date, read this: http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/36/4/1047.full Fat in the pancreas and liver really screws up your metabolism. It's the first fat lost on a very low calorie diet. Or after bariatric surgery.

Diabetes can only be managed with a low-carb diet, and then only for a while. My grandmother did it for decades and still ended up blind. And she had willpower enough for the whole family. She flat didn't cheat. Her doc told her to lose 50 pounds. A year later, she had, and she kept it off for the next 40 years. One of the primary roles of insulin is to halt gluconeogenensis in the liver. That's the process that converts protein into blood sugar. Long-term VLC/keto dieters typically see their fasting blood glucose levels start to rise because that feedback loop isn't well-regulated. It works fine during short-term starvation. Oddly enough, the high blood sugar seen in diabetics is caused by insulin resistance in the liver, which keeps pumping out the glucose. If you follow Noake's antics, you'll see that he's had to go to lower and lower carb levels over time to control his BG levels and he still ended up on metformin. He's taking some herbal remedy now that does the same thing as metformin. Given how well regulated and safe the supplement industry is, I think that's insane. But he can now say that he's not on medication ...

I used to be bought into the Paleo/low carb thing and the Keto/fat-burning thing. It made so much sense. But I kept reading and learning about diet and I started asking awkward questions. I even checked Taube's references for a couple of chapters in "Good Calories, Bad Calories", which was enough to convince me that he got things completely wrong. Likely on purpose. Try it some time. When I asked my questions, the low carb gurus turned on me like wolves on a sheep. So I went and read posts by their most hated enemy, Carbsane. When I started reading her writing, I was very cynical and checked her references whenever I saw a statement that I questioned. I never caught her out, unlike every single Paleo/LC guru I checked on ... Be careful out there. The science of diet is so complex and relies on so many variables that can't be controlled that you can "prove" anything you want by cherry-picking your studies. It also helps to only read the abstract when you like the conclusion and to pore over the details when you don't. That's a standard Paleo trick. It's also a standard vegan trick. It's a standard trick in the diet industry. And it is an industry. They want your money and to heck with your health. Michael Pollan really did sum up what science really tells us about diet, unsatisfying as that may be. When it comes to diet, the best thing you can be is deeply cynical.
 
Well.... Thanks for this. :happy: It was kinda tipping point that led to reading more low carb critical things and having more open mind towards them. Then I eventually stopped low carb (and gluten free) diet. Pretty much immediatly my chronically tight hamstrings, calves and achilles tendons stopped being tight. I followed low carb diet for two years, last year I had plenty of minor injuries and eventually backsides of my legs become so tight that I have not been able to run for 8 months, just test runs that caused big tightness problems. Just came back from 12 kilometer trail run and my hamstrings, calves and achilles tendons feel just fine.

Too bad Noakes ignores actual science in favor of sensationalism. He's like Dr Oz, only not changing fads quite so often. The latest Noakes news is that the hearing on rescinding his medical license has been delayed. Good for him, bad for us. If you want to learn how human metabolism really works, this is a good site ... http://carbsanity.blogspot.com/ She's excellent. She started the site after a bout with low carb. Which failed. And got her looking at the science. Seriously, don't go down the low carb rabbit hole without doing some real diligence. You're betting your health on it. There can be serious side effects. VLC can help manage diabetes, yes. That might be appropriate for type 1, although even that's not clear as insulin is still needed to regulate the gluconeogenesis feedback loop and keep blood sugar under control. Type 2 diabetes can be cured with a high-carb diet. Cured. Not managed. Cured. The catch? 600-800 calories per day for a month or two. 400 if you're a sedentary woman. And you can't go back to overeating after. No wonder people are going for whipping cream in their coffee and butter on everything instead. Yum. Too bad it just delays the day of reckoning.
 
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Low-carb dieting just took a major hit, Taubes' carb-insulin hypothesis has been soundly rejected. I wonder how this will affect Noakes' next hearing?


There's a LOT of cognitive dissonance going on in the low-carb community, Mike Eades in particular is making a major fool of himself. It's ugly. You've been warned.

Edited for readability.
 

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