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Posted 12/15/2007 1:50 PM (GMT 0)
Well, this is going to be a lot harder than I thought...

I've been trying for some time to get the medics here to rethink their advice to diabetics here in the UK, which is that all meals should be based around starchy carbohydrates. So I signed up for an online University medical course so that I'd have a little more credibility in their eyes  with a proper medical qualification. Now I've come to the part of the course where you guys might be interested in seeing what we're up against:

'There is no clear link between starch / sugar and obesity.'

'Carbohydrates are not normally converted to fat.'

'There is no link between carbohydrates and the development of diabetes.'

'As the proportion of carbohydrate in the diet increases, Body Mass Index decreases.' 

'An extreme diet, such as low carbohydrate, may have adverse health effects.'

So, if I'm going to get my degree, I'm going to have to buy into this crazy stuff!!!! This is a bit of a dilemma, since most of us here would agree that these ideas are not only groundless and unproven, they're being drummed into the next generation of 'experts'! I could take a stand and risk being marked down, which I guess is the only option.

What do you crazy heretics think?

All the best,

fergusc

Posted 12/15/2007 3:40 PM (GMT 0)
I'm befuddled, again, by this.  I'm reading the Taubes' book Good Calories, Bad Calories which gives a history of how the medical profession in the UK and the US viewed obesity, reducing diets as well as treatment for diabetes.  From over 100 years ago till around the 1960's/1970's, it was accepted that carbohydrates caused weight gain, that diabetics should not eat carbs, that fats should be consumed in efforts to control weight.  It all changed, flip-flopped, to the way of thinking that you just described about 30-40 years ago, and ever since, the AMA, ADA and AHA here refuses to return to the originally accepted ideas.  If we're only the small foot soldiers in the fight with no powers of command, then I'm AWOL.  Those of us who have cut out carbohydrates already know for a fact that our blood sugar readings are more controlled now and that weight loss and weight control are easier.  So, I'm plodding along following my new eating style, getting great lab results and informing those who wonder how I'm doing it about the role of carbs.  I figure that's the best I can do.  Since I come from a long line of supposed heretics, that suits me fine. 

:-)


Posted 12/15/2007 9:32 PM (GMT 0)

fergusc

You just have to remember that stuff for your exams - you don't have to believe it. I had to take several classes on my way to my Ph.D. where the professor's beliefs and mine were diametrically opposed. I saw others in the class suffer as a result of directly challenging a world authority. I did not back down from my beliefs, I always included them as an alternative point of view. Once you have your credentials, you'll be able to practice as you see fit. I imagine Bernstein had to do much the same to get his M.D. - he's been battling the so-called experts ever since, but he is able to help folks like us because of it.

sandy

Posted 12/21/2007 4:54 PM (GMT 0)
fergusc,
Just dump the garbage at the exams and then spend the rest of your professional life refuting it. Once you have the degree they can't revoke it! (Jeannie walks away grumbling about the idiots who are in the pockets of the agricultural and dairy industries.)
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