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Over the years since the publication of my first book, I have been asked time and again if there is a vegetarian version of The Paleo Diet. Ive got to say emphatically No! Vegetarian diets are a bit of a moving target because they come in at least three major versions. We all know in principle that vegetarians do not eat meat, poultry or fish this is the first and foremost characteristic of vegetarian diets. Less restrictive are lacto/ovo vegetarians who limit their animal food choices to dairy products and/or eggs, whereas vegans eat plant foods exclusively. A recent study published by Vegetarian Times Magazine revealed that 3.2% of U.S. adults or 7.3 million people follow a vegetarian-based diet.127 Approximately 0.5% or 1 million Americans are vegans. The study also indicated that over half (53%) of current vegetarians ate their plant based diet to improve overall health. Additional reasons underlying their vegetarian lifestyles were: 1) animal welfare cited by 54%, 2) environmental concerns named by 47%, 3) natural approaches to wellness mentioned by 39%, 4) food safety issues brought up by 31% and 5) weight loss and weight maintenance issues were cited by 25% of the respondents.127

First, let me say I respect everyones choice to eat whatever diet they like and those foods that they feel are best suited for themselves and their families. I also respect peoples decisions to abstain from eating meat for religious, moral, and ethical reasons. Nevertheless, as a scientist, I hope that we all try to make dietary decisions based not just upon philosophical and ethical issues, but also upon foods that are good for our bodies and long term health. Accordingly, I simply cant lend my support to any version of vegetarian diets that people may adopt for the mistaken idea that these diets improve overall health.

Although vegetarianism has deep historical roots dating back at least to 500 BC with such ancient Greeks as Pythagoras, Porphyry and Plutarch,106, 115, 134 this manner of eating has only been with us for the mere blink of an eye on an evolutionary timescale. In our comprehensive analysis of 229 hunter-gatherer diets, my research group and I showed beyond question that no historically studied foragers were vegetarians.26 In fact, whenever and wherever animal foods were available they were always preferred over plant foods.26 The chart to the left shows the overwhelming preference for animal foods in all 229 hunter-gatherer societies that we studied. Notice that not a single foraging society fell into the (0 5%) animal subsistence category.

Most (73%) of the 229 hunter-gatherers consumed 46% or more of their daily energy as animal food.26 The compelling reason for their preference of animal foods over plant foods was because hunter-gatherers got more bang (food calories) for the buck (their energy expended to obtain the food), as verified by optimal foraging theory.

Human preference and appetite for meat, marrow and animal food has an incredibly long history in our ancestral line.18, 33 Fossils of butchered animals with stone tool-cut marks on their bones were discovered in Africa dating back 2.5 million years.33 These definitive smoking guns in the archaeological record leave little doubt that all human species ate animal foods from the very get-go of our existence. Scientists are able to determine the relative percentage of plant and animal food in extinct human (hominid) species by analyzing elements called isotopes within their fossilized bones.10, 104, 105 Every single hominid skeleton examined since the emergence of our own genus (Homo) 2.5 million years ago show an isotopic signature characteristic of meat based diets.10, 83, 104, 105, 124 Further, if we compare our biochemical and anatomical machinery to cats, who are absolute carnivores, we both share evolutionary enzyme pathways characteristic of processing lots of meat.27 If you are interested in these details, I have written about them in my debate with the noted vegetarian, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study.27Download the Full Debate Here

If we accept the idea that vegetarianism represents an ideal human diet, then this manner of eating must be part of a much larger or ultimate mechanism governing human biology. What Im getting at is the question of Why? Why would a vegetarian diet, or for that matter, any diet represent an optimal nutritional road map for our species? Any unified theory of human nutrition is a detective story in which scientists attempt to reveal or uncover biological systems that have been designed by, and put into place by evolution through natural selection. Accordingly, hypotheses regarding what we should and shouldnt eat must be consistent with the system and ancient environments that engineered our current genes. If we are to buy into vegetarianism, then the system, evolution via natural selection, which shaped our present genome necessarily had to be conditioned over eons by a plant based, vegetarian diet. Otherwise, there is no rationale alternative hypothesis to explain why humans would prosper and thrive on vegetarian diets.

As I have extensively pointed out,26, 27 there is no credible fossil, archeological, anthropological or biochemical evidence to show that any hunter-gatherers or pre-agricultural humans ever consumed all plant based diets. This information should be your first clue that there just may be some problems with vegetarian dietary recommendations created by humans for humans. What is that expression? We are all human, we all make mistakes. Let us not depend upon human frailties for dietary advice, but rather let us fall back on the wisdom of the system, again, evolution via natural selection, that designed the diet to which we are genetically adapted.

If you are considering adopting a vegetarian diet because you think it may improve your overall health and wellbeing, my immediate advice to you would be to forget it. I urge you to always let the data speak for itself, and dont listen to me or anyone else until you have carefully scrutinized both sides of this or any other nutritional argument. I can guarantee you that the assessment of positive health effects, or lack thereof, caused by vegetarian diets is not just a straight forward matter involving objectivity and a mere sifting of scientific facts. Rather, this inquiry is politically charged involving charismatic individuals and well known scientists promoting a vegetarian viewpoint that is frequently at odds with the best science.

If you are currently a vegetarian or vegan, one of the most powerful health expectations for adopting this lifestyle is that you will outlive your hamburger eating neighbors by escaping cancer, 72 heart disease,69, 71 and all other causes of death (mortality).69, 71 In fact, if truth be told, your lifelong dietary deprivations will not prolong your lifespan, but rather will produce multiple nutrient deficiencies that are associated with numerous health problems and illnesses. If you have forced plant based diets upon your children, or unborn fetus they will also suffer. Not a pretty picture. Now lets let the data speak for itself and get into the science of vegetarian diets and health.

In their 2009 Position Statement on Vegetarian Diets,28 The American Dietetic Association tells us,appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain disease. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes. I dont know what planet the authors of this paper came from or what scientific journals they have been reading, but these statements simply are not supported by the data.

To start with, if vegetarian diets are so healthful, then any reasonable person might expect that people eating plant based diets would have lower death rates from all causes than their meat eating counterparts. This question was never fully answered until 1999 when Dr. Key and colleagues at Oxford University conducted a large meta analysis comparing overall death rates between 27,808 vegetarians and 48,364 meat eaters.69 I quote Dr. Keys study, There were no significant differences between vegetarians and non-vegetarians in mortality from cerebrovascular disease, stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer or all other causes combined. I have underlined and bolded the last words of this sentence to emphasize the fact that vegetarians do not fair any better than their hamburger eating counterparts when death rates for all causes are considered. A more recent 2009 analysis (The EPIC-Oxford Study), employing the largest sample of vegetarians (33,883) ever examined came up with identical conclusions.71 I quote the authors, Within the study mortality from circulatory diseases and all causes is not significantly different between vegetarians and meat eaters. The results of this study71 and the earlier meta analysis,69 fly directly in the face of the American Dietetic Associations suggestion that vegetarian and vegan diets may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain disease.28

The American Dietetic Association (ADA) advises us that, appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets are healthful and nutritionally adequate28 This view is also shared by the USDA Choose My Plate guidelines which counsel us that, Vegetarian diets can meet all the recommendations for nutrients.142 The American Dietetic Associations quote28 is a craftily written statement that is deliberately misleading and one sided. Taken at face value, it would appear that all vegetarian diets including vegan diets are nutritionally sound all by themselves and dont require any additional nutritional supplements.

In order to get to the true meaning out of the ADAs position statement, we need to dig deeper and determine what they mean by an appropriately planned vegetarian diet. The ADA further hedges this statement by telling us that key nutrients for vegetarians include protein, n-3 fatty acids, iron, zinc, iodine, calcium, and vitamins D and B12. A vegetarian diet can meet current recommendations for all of these nutrients. In some cases, supplements or fortified foods can provide useful amounts of important nutrients.28 Lets dissect this masterly deceptive statement even further. The last line informing us that supplements and fortified foods sometimes are useful, is an outlandish understatement. In reality, it is not just in some cases that supplements and vitamin fortified foods are required, but rather in all cases for vegan diets and in most cases for lacto/ovo diets.Without supplementation vegetarian diets simply dont work and invariably cause multiple nutrient deficiencies that not only adversely affect our health and wellbeing, but also that of our children.

Even informed vegetarians wont argue that virtually all plant foods contain no vitamin B12 and that meat and animal foods are the only significant dietary source of this crucial nutrient. Additionally, we cant synthesize B12 in our bodies. Consequently, if you decide to become a vegan, by default you will become vitamin B12 deficient unless you supplement your diet with this essential vitamin or eat B12 fortified foods.

Any lifelong dietary plan that requires nutrient supplementation on a regular basis makes no sense from an evolutionary perspective. You dont have to be an evolutionary biologist to realize that wild animals dont take nutritional supplements, nor do they normally develop vitamin deficiencies when living in their native environments. You will recall that not a single hunter-gatherer society consumed a vegetarian diet.26 This choice was not just a haphazard decision on their part, but rather was dictated by evolution through natural selection. If our ancestral foragers didnt eat B12 containing animal foods, they developed vitamin B12 deficiencies which in turn impaired health and survival thereby worsening their chances of reproducing. Accordingly, any behavior that favored all plant diets would have been quickly weeded out by natural selection because of our genetic requirement for vitamin B12. Unlike modern day vegetarians, hunter-gatherers couldnt simply pop a vitamin pill to make up for nutritional shortcomings in their diets. Without B12 supplementation, every hunter-gatherer who ever lived would have become vitamin B12 deficient if they didnt eat animal food.

I want to emphasize that this flaw in nutritional logic is not just a minor point to be shuffled under the rug as the ADA28 and the USDA142 have done, but rather represents a colossal error in judgment for recommending vegan diets. To fully appreciate this massive breakdown in reasoning lets examine the history of vitamin B12. Because it was the last vitamin to be discovered (1948), vitamin B12 only became available as a commercial supplement in the 1950s. Consequently, every person on the planet who consumed a strict lifelong vegan diet before B12s discovery in 1948 would have been deficient in this critical nutrient. I wonder if the ADA28 and USDA142 would recommend vegan diets to U.S. citizens living prior to 1948 or only after 1948? This case in point shows how absurd their rationale for vegan diets appears vegan diets are deadly before 1948 because they have no vitamin B12 but are healthful and nutritionally adequate28 after 1948 because we can supplement this vitamin. OK no big deal nothing to get too excited about just follow the ADA recommendations and make sure your vegetarian diet is appropriately planned.28 Right?

Unfortunately, most of the worlds vegetarians and vegans have not been able to figure out just exactly what an appropriately planned28 vegetarian diet consists of, as almost all of them maintain deficient or marginal vitamin B12 concentrations in their bloodstreams. A 2003 study by Dr. Hermann and colleagues of 95 vegetarians revealed that 77% of lacto/ovo vegetarians were deficient in vitamin B12 whereas a staggering 92% of the vegans maintained deficiencies in this essential vitamin.52 The elegance of this study was that the researchers employed a powerful new procedure to precisely monitor vitamin B12 status in their subjects.50, 52 The simple measurement of vitamin B12 in the bloodstream often is misleading and doesnt reflect true levels of B12 in our bodies.22, 64, 113 Nevertheless, a study (The EPIC-Oxford Study) which examined simple B12 concentrations in the blood of 231 ovo/lacto vegetarians and 232 vegans verified that B12 deficiencies were widespread within these groups.46 If we use the normal cutoff point (150 pmol/liter) as the measure for vitamin B12 deficiency in the blood, then the data from the EPIC-Oxford study shows that 73% of the vegans and 24% of the lacto/ovo vegetarians had vitamin B12 deficiencies.46 These two scientific papers are representative of nearly all other studies reporting vitamin B12 in vegetarians.1, 109, 118, 121 When this many people who follow vegetarian or vegan diets become vitamin B12 deficient, it is beyond comprehension to me why governmental agencies and national dietary organizations still stubbornly cling to the belief that plant based diets are healthful.

Even more disturbing is a report by Dr. Corinna Koebnick and co-workers in Germany showing that long term ovo/lacto vegetarian diets impair vitamin B12 status in pregnant women.74 The problem here is that maternal B12 deficiencies can then be handed down to the unborn fetus and to nursing infants who frequently have no other source of nutrition except for their mothers vitamin B12 depleted milk.89, 107 B12 deficiency in pregnant women is not just a simple benign nutritional problem, but rather has potentially disastrous health outcomes for both mother and child. B12 deficiency in pregnant women is known to cause spontaneous abortions, weak labor, premature and low birth weight deliveries, birth defects, and the condition preeclampsia where mothers experience high blood pressure and damage to the liver, kidneys and blood vessels.7, 86, 87 Infants born from mothers with vitamin B12 deficiency frequently suffer from congenital malformations, irritability, failure to thrive, apathy, mental retardation and developmental problems.35 These data hardly support the ADAs position that Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood.28 In reality, the ADAs recommendation of vegan and vegetarian diets during all states of the life cycle28 is not only irresponsible, but in many cases is life threatening for mother, fetus and infant.

In Vegetarian and Vegan Diets: Nutritional Disasters Part 2, well discuss why Vitamin B12 deficiencies are just as devastating to adults as they are to infants and expectant mothers.

Cordially,

Loren Cordain, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus

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68. Katre P, Bhat D, Lubree H, Otiv S, Joshi S, Joglekar C, Rush E, Yajnik C. Vitamin B12 and folic acid supplementation and plasma total homocysteine concentrations in pregnant Indian women with low B12 and high folate status. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2010;19(3):335-43.

69. Key TJ, Fraser GE, Thorogood M, Appleby PN, Beral V, Reeves G, Burr ML, Chang-Claude J, Frentzel-Beyme R, Kuzma JW, Mann J, McPherson K. Mortality in vegetarians and nonvegetarians: detailed findings from a collaborative analysis of 5 prospective studies. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 Sep;70(3 Suppl):516S-524S.

70. Key TJ, Appleby PN, Rosell MS. Health effects of vegetarian and vegan diets. Proc Nutr Soc. 2006 Feb;65(1):35-41.

71. Key TJ, Appleby PN, Spencer EA, Travis RC, Roddam AW, Allen NE. Mortality in British vegetarians: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC-Oxford). Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 May;89(5):1613S-1619S

72. Key TJ, Appleby PN, Spencer EA, Travis RC, Roddam AW, Allen NE. Cancer incidence in vegetarians: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC-Oxford). Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 May;89(5):1620S-1626S

73. Khedr E, Hamed SA, Elbeih E, El-Shereef H, Ahmad Y, Ahmed S. Iron states and cognitive abilities in young adults: neuropsychological and neurophysiological assessment. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2008 Dec;258(8):489-96. Epub 2008 Jun 20.

74. Koebnick C, Hoffmann I, Dagnelie PC, Heins UA, Wickramasinghe SN, Ratnayaka ID, Gruendel S, Lindemans J, Leitzmann C. Long-term ovo-lacto vegetarian diet impairs vitamin B-12 status in pregnant women. J Nutr. 2004 Dec;134(12):3319-26.

75. Knovich MA, Storey JA, Coffman LG, Torti SV, Torti FM. Ferritin for the clinician. Blood Rev. 2009 May;23(3):95-104

76. Kornsteiner M, Singer I, Elmadfa I. Very low n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid status in Austrian vegetarians and vegans. Ann Nutr Metab. 2008;52(1):37-47

77. Krajcovicov-Kudlckov M, Buckov K, Klimes I, Sebokov E. Iodine deficiency in vegetarians and vegans. Ann Nutr Metab. 2003;47(5):183-5.

78. Krivoskov Z, Krajcovicov-Kudlckov M, Spustov V, Stefkov K, Valachovicov M, Blazcek P, Nmcov T. The association between high plasma homocysteine levels and lower bone mineral density in Slovak women: the impact of vegetarian diet. Eur J Nutr. 2010 Apr;49(3):147-53

79. Kumar J, Garg G, Sundaramoorthy E, Prasad PV, Karthikeyan G, Ramakrishnan L, Ghosh S, Sengupta S. Vitamin B12 deficiency is associated with coronary artery disease in an Indian population. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2009;47(3):334-8.

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Can Honey Help You Lose Weight?

Do you think this question is the same as asking, Can sugar help you lose weight? After all, honey is sweet and many use it as a substitute for sugar. No doubt, like me, youve been told all your life that you should avoid sugary things if you want to lose weight. So, isnt it a big fat (no pun intended) contradiction to say that honey helps with weight loss?

Lets start with a simple explanation of how your body responds to both honey and table sugar.

Table Sugar - Sugar, after it has been processed, is striped of its nutrients. So, in essence, it is a naked carb. In order to be used by the body, it must depend on your bodys nutrients. So, the body is drained of important minerals and vitamins.

Processed Table Sugar Contributes To Obesity

Sugar is stored in the liver. If you continue to have a diet that is high in sugar, the liver will eventually swell. When this happens, the excess sugar is returned to the bloodstream as fatty acids. These acids are then stored in your belly, breasts, butt, and thighs. Sound familiar?

Honey, unlike table sugar, is a natural ingredient. It contains vitamins, minerals and amino acids. These all work together to help in fat and cholesterol metabolism, and that helps prevent obesity.

Honey Has Been Shown To Help You Lose Weight

Honey has a healthier glycemic index (GI) than sugar. What that means is that when you eat honey, it doesnt cause a sugar rush, but it is gradually absorbed into your body, thereby providing a stable source of energy. Therefore, you wont get a sugar high and then a crash afterward.

So now that weve learned how wonderfully honey is accepted by your body, how can honey help you lose weight?

Usually, the problem with losing weight is self control, low energy, andchoosing the wrong foods to help burn fat and contribute toward good health. Honey takes care of all three problems.

Thats right. Honey is very rich, sweet and delicious, so you use about half of what you would use in sugar to sweeten your food and drinks. Honey has the ability to provide a sense of well-being after you consume it, so that will also help with weight loss. Try using a small amount in your coffee or tea during the day to help satisfy you and your sweet tooth, thereby avoiding sugar binges.

In the morning when you rise, and before breakfast, drink a glass of very warm water combined with 1/2 teaspoons of powderedcinnamon and 1 teaspoon of raw honey. There has been excellent results reported after only a week of using this pre-breakfast cocktail.

A Cocktail of Honey, Cinnamon & Lemon Will Help Melt Your Pounds Aways

Alternatively, in the mornings and again in the evening, drink a glass of very warm water mixed with 1 teaspoon of honey and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice. This drink can be taken several times per day. The beauty of this citrus cocktail is that it will help to keep you hydrated, energized, and alkalized. This will help to rid the body of unwanted fat deposits.

In order to melt the pounds away it is important to keep moving. You dont have to run a marathon, but you should do simple things each day to move you closer to that slimmer you. Even a walk of just 20 minutes per day has shown to help significantly.

And the great thing is that honey has been shown toreally help athletes in their performance by sustaining energy over timeand it helps yourecover faster. So before you start that walk, fill up your water bottle with fresh, cool water mixed with a teaspoon of raw honey. Sip on this before, during and after your walk and you will be amazed at how great you feel afterward.

A good raw honey that I like (if you cant find it from a local beekeeper) is found here.

So, there you have it. Can honey help you lose weight? Honey definitely can help you lose weight. Put this amazing ingredient in your arsenal of weapons in the fight against obesity. Use it wisely, and before long, you will look upon this ingredient as a sweet remedy to weight loss.

How many of you have used honey in your weight loss efforts? Lets hear your results.

Share on your favorite Social Networks.

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Welcome to New York Medical Weight Loss Center

Congratulations on taking the first steps toward gaining control of your weight and your health. Have you struggled with your weight? Perhaps for a long time? Or even, for most of your life?

Losing weight is one of the greatest challenges our country faces today. Our weight loss clinic specializes in helping patients who have been unsuccessful with previous weight loss methods, or who have tried over and over to lose weight yet keep regaining all the pounds they have lost.

Dr Aron is a licensed physician who has received special training in Bariatric Medicine the medical treatment of the overweight and obese. Our programs are based on the latest developments in the fields of nutrition and weight control. We provide a comprehensive, non-surgical approach to the treatment of obesity. Our program is based on medical science, not fads or fad dieting.

We realize that being overweight can be a personal and frustrating experience. At NY Medical Weight Loss Center we get to know our patients on a personal level. We know every patient is unique with special physical and emotional needs. We will help you identify your personal weight control challenges, set a realistic goal weight, and customize a weight loss plan to suit your food preferences, health status, and lifestyle.

Do something for yourself that can change how you look and feel. Something that will be beneficial to your health and well-being Oksana Aron, MD

Rather than offering a quick fix, our goal is to provide patients with a genuine life-changing experience. Dieting alone is not the answer. We educate patients on all aspects of weight loss and help them gain the skills required to successfully manage their weight ongoingly.

Diet Doctor Aron identifies and treats the hidden causes of weight gain and obesity, such as slow metabolism, hormonal and nutritional imbalances or genetic factors. While in the weight loss program, you can improve your overall health and well-being, such as normalizing your cholesterol level and blood pressure.

We will create a custom diet plan for you based on your regular food preferences.

Even patients with high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, or thyroid imbalances can lose weight safely in our program. We are also able to effectively and safely treat obese teens.

When diet and exercise are not enough, proper use of medications can help you lose weight. FDA-approved prescription appetite suppressants, used to safely assist with weight loss for over 40 years, can be an option if medically indicated. If Dr. Aron has prescribed such medications in your diet plan they are provided FREE of charge.

When you reach your goal weight, we provide you with a free weight loss maintenance plan.

We speak English, Spanish, Russian.

Hablamos Espaol, Ingls, Ruso.

, , .

WeightLossNYC Medical Weight Loss Center, 7032 4th Avenue, NY, NY 11209

70324thAvenue, BrooklynNY11209

Start Losing Weight Today

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2016, Dr. Aron Medical Weight Loss Center, Brooklyn, New York 11209 d/b/a WeightLossNYC Logo and Icon Trademarks of Oksana Aron M.D.

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Nutrition is the basis for maintaining good health in your rat, and a good base diet that contains essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals, along with a variety of fruits, nuts, and vegetables will do just that.

Rats are omnivorous requiring both plant and animal food sources in their diets (much like humans), and specially formulated diets help to meet those nutritional requirements.

If you intend to use this type of base for your rats diet try to stick with a mix that is higher in soy than corn and that contains essential fatty acids. Do check your rats bowl to be sure that food is actually being consumed. Do not top off dishes if it appears that there is a small amount of food left as it may be only seed shells. Doing so may result in starvation.

Again as with any of the prepackaged mix diets, or lab blocks, when making up the diet yourself be sure to offer fresh fruits and veggies at the very least three times a week.

When feeding your rat give only what can be consumed within a 24 hour period, in that way you can be sure of maintaining freshness and be aware of how much your rat eats. Rats do like to hide their stash so you might want to investigate their favorite hang outs to make sure they are eating the amount you are placing in their dishes.

Your rat likes to get treats as much as you like to give them. As much as we all want to stick with the healthiest of treats, most of us are guilty of giving them the occasional unhealthy snack. Moderation and common sense are the keys. The healthiest treats are the fruit and vegetables. Note: On the subject of fruit, there has been some discussion regarding oranges causing cancer in male rats. It is the consuming of very large amounts over a long period of time of d-limonene in orange rind and commercial orange juice that they are referring to. The actual meat of the orange is not a problem and can be given to both female and male rats.

A few examples of treats that rats may enjoy in moderation are: plain popped popcorn, chicken or beef bones (cooked or boiled), chew biscuits or small dog milk bones, Nutra*Puffs, and Nylabones for chewing.

In general rats may for the most part be offered many of the foods you eat; however, there are a few exceptions. Drinks that are carbonated or foods (in excess) that could cause gas should be avoided. Rats have a flap in the stomach that prevents them from being able to vomit up contents into the esophagus. For this reason rats are also not able to burp, so giving carbonated beverages could potentially cause discomfort (besides being unhealthy) for your rat. Even though gassy foods do not necessarily cause burping, and although rats do pass flatus, those types of food could have the potential to cause your rat to feel a bit uncomfortable. For a further listing of foods to be avoided visit http://ratfanclub.org/diet.html.

An important note to mention here is that since rats do not vomit, veterinarians (for most surgical procedures) do not require that you withhold food or water prior to surgery. An exception to this may be when surgery involves the gut or abdomen, and even then withholding food or water should be of short duration due to their rapid rate of metabolism.

Providing your rat with two food dishes will help to keep their dry and moist foods separate. Its a good idea to use dishes of stoneware or crock or those that can attach to the cage so your rat doesnt shred the dish or end up dumping the food all over the cage floor.

In summary, healthy nutrition and an adequate supply of fresh food and water on a daily basis is essential to a rats overall health and safety. Not providing an adequate daily nutritious diet that keeps your rat slim and trim as well as providing water on a daily basis can result in starvation (as seen in the figure example below), illnesses, or even death.

For Estimated Nutrient Requirements for Maintenance, Growth, and Reproduction of Rats visit, http://books.nap.edu/books/0309051266/html/13.html#pagetop

Fig 2a Virginia Simpsons Rat Diet Recipe

Fig 2b Lou Duxs Rat Diet and Recipes

Fig 2c Melissa Pandajis Rat Mix

Susan Crandalls Rat Diet http://www.rmca.org/Articles/recipes1.htm

SueBee Rat Diet http://www.ratsrule.com/diet.html

Additional helpful information can also be found at: Feeding Your Rat by Jane Adamo.

For prepackaged diets, treats, and water bottles see:

http://www.kaytee.com

http://www.vitakraft.com/en/indexen.htm

http://ferretstore.com/

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16 bikini detox-friendly foods

Think you couldn't handle a detox? We challenge you to contemplate these foods and not salivate!

Dieting like a demon and exercising like hell but still can't shift the excess bulk? Here's why.

Forget the 5:2 diet. Get the same weight-loss results without starving yourself with the ground-breaking new discovery of sirtfoods

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We score out of 10 the nutrition, weight-loss potential and staying power of the most popular diets

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If you never thought a meat-loving paleo would cross paths with a leaf-eating, vegan, guess again.

The good, and the not-so-good of banting.

Bulk up on fibre to slim down

Intermittent fasting has a new ratio: 14 hours without food and a 10-hour eating window each day. Sarah Marinos speaks to the experts to find out if...

Olive oil has long been touted as healthy now its also being credited with aiding weight loss and preventing cancer. Liz Graham gets the good oil...

Low-carb, starch-free, no bread theres a lot of hype around low carbohydrate diets but are they any good for weight loss? Dietitian Alison Ginn ...

Going Paleo? Nutritionist Michele Chevalley Hedge outlines some common mistakes to avoid

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If a person is iron deficient he or she will want to incorporate substances or foods that increase or improve iron absorption and avoid foods or substances that impair absorption. If a person has abnormally high body iron levels, he or she will want to consume foods or substances that lower the amount of iron absorbed. People with complicated iron balance issues associated with sickle cell disease, thalassemia, blood diseases and cancers will need to work out an individual diet plan starting with the Diet for Iron Balance.

Ascorbic acid or vitamin C occurs naturally in vegetables and fruits, especially citrus. Ascorbic acid can also be synthesized for use in supplements. Ascorbic acid enhances the absorption of nutrients such as iron. In studies about effects of ascorbic acid on iron absorption, 100 milligrams of ascorbic acid increased iron absorption from a specific meal by 4.14 times.

Beta-Carotene

is one of more than 100 carotenoids that occur naturally in plants and animals. Carotenoids are yellow to red pigments that are contained in foods such as apricots, beets and beet greens, carrots, collard greens, corn, red grapes, oranges, peaches, prunes, red peppers, spinach, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, turnip greens and yellow squash. Beta-carotene enables the body to produce vitamin A. In studies of the effects of vitamin A and beta-carotene on absorption of iron, vitamin A did not significantly increase iron absorption under the experimental conditions employed. However, beta-carotene significantly increased absorption of the metal. Moreover, in the presence of phytates or tannic acid, beta-carotene generally overcame the inhibitory effects of both compounds depending on their concentrations. Like vitamin E, beta-carotene is an excellent anti-oxidant, but one should take any of these judiciously. Studies have shown that taking vitamin A habitually in amounts of 25,000 IU can cause liver problems, and that taking supplemental beta-carotene can enhance the progression of some cancers. The best source of these nutrients is whole foods.

EDTA+fe and Ferrochel?are additive iron compounds and are emerging as candidates for fortification by major food manufacturers. Both additives were found to exceed absorption capabilities of the commonly used fortificant ferrous sulfate.

Hydrochloric acid (HCI) present in the stomach, frees nutrients from foods so that they can be absorbed.

Especially red meat increases the absorption of nonheme iron. Beef, lamb and venison contain the highest amounts of heme as compared to pork or chicken which contains low amounts of heme. It has been calculated that one gram of meat (about 20 percent protein) has an enhancing effect on nonheme iron absorption equivalent to that of 1 milligram of ascorbic acid. A Latin American-type meal (maize, rice, and black beans) with a low iron bioavailability had the same improved bioavailability when either 75 g meat or 50 mg of ascorbic acid was added

As part of the Framingham Heart Study, a National Institutes of Health project, investigators looked at the factors that increased iron stores such as diet and iron supplementation. Participants included more than six hundred elderly patients. Those who took supplemental iron along with fruit had higher iron stores, some as much as three times. No one is encouraged to consume sugar to improve iron absorption. Too much sugar can lead to other health problems, such as obesity and diabetes. Refined white sugar has no nutritional value except calories. However, eating fruits or adding honey or black-strap molasses to foods such as cereals can boost iron absorption and add nutrients that are lacking in refined sugar.

Smoking cessation gums can increase serum ferritin levels

Calcium (like iron) is an essential mineral, which means the body gets this nutrient from diet. Calcium is found in foods such as milk, yogurt, cheese, sardines, canned salmon, tofu, broccoli, almonds, figs, turnip greens and rhubarb and is the only known substance to inhibit absorption of both non-heme and heme iron. Where 50 milligrams or less of calcium has little if any effect on iron absorption, calcium in amounts 300-600 milligrams inhibit the absorption of heme iron similarly to nonheme iron. One cup of skimmed milk contains about 300 milligrams of calcium. When calcium is recommended by a healthcare provider, as is often the case for women trying to prevent bone loss, these supplements can be taken at bedtime. Calcium supplements are best taken with vitamin D and in a citrate rather than carbonate form.

Oxalates impair the absorption of nonheme iron. Oxalates are compounds derived from oxalic acid and found in foods such as spinach, kale, beets, nuts, chocolate, tea, wheat bran, rhubarb, strawberries and herbs such as oregano, basil, and parsley. The presence of oxalates in spinach explains why the iron in spinach is not absorbed. In fact, it is reported that the iron from spinach that does get absorbed is probably from the minute particles of sand or dirt clinging to the plant rather than the iron contained in the plant.

Polyphenols are major inhibitors of iron absorption. Polyphenols or phenolic compounds include chlorogenic acid found in cocoa, coffee and some herbs. Phenolic acid found in apples, peppermint and some herbal teas, and tannins found in black teas, coffee, cocoa, spices, walnuts, fruits such as apples, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries all have the ability to inhibit iron absorption. Of the polyphenols, Swedish cocoa and certain teas demonstrate the most powerful iron absorption inhibiting capabilities, in some cases up to 90%. Coffee is high in tannin and chlorogenic acid; one cup of certain types of coffee can inhibit iron absorption by as much as 60%. These foods or substance should not be consumed within two hours prior to and following your main iron-rich meal

Phytate is a compound contained in soy protein and fiber. Even low levels of phytate (about 5 percent of the amounts in cereal whole flours) have a strong inhibitory effect on iron bioavailability. Phytate is found in walnuts, almonds, sesame, dried beans, lentils and peas, and cereals and whole grains. Phytate compounds can reduce iron absorption by 50 to 65 percent.

Healthy diet checklist will include:

Fresh fruits and vegetables which provide natural hydration and a supply of antioxidants Whole grains which provide fiber needed to keep the digestive tract clean Adequate protein which builds muscle Limited dairy which can cause mucous in the intestines Limited animal fats which can trigger free radical damage. Eat healthy fats found in olive oil, cold water salmon, avocados and nuts Limit processed sugars which contain empty calories and trigger free radical damage. Whenever possible, consume whole foods as opposed to foods in a pill. Our bodies are not geared to large doses that tax the liver and knock other nutrients out of balance. Get at least 20 minutes of physical activity a day; walk or take at least 10,000 steps if you can. NOTE: Individuals with hereditary hemochromatosis should not consume raw shellfish

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In nutrition, diet is the sum of food that is eaten by a person or another organism.[1]Dietary habits are the usual decisions someone or a culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. With the word diet, it is often expressed the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons (with the two often being related). Although humans are omnivores, each culture and each person holds some food preferences or some food taboos, due to personal tastes or ethical reasons. Individual dietary choices may be more or less healthful. A proper nutrition requires a proper ingestion and, also important, the absorption of vitamins, minerals, and food energy in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Dietary habits and choices play a significant role in health and mortality, and can also define cultures and play a role in religion.

Diets are about eating the right quantity and type of food at the right time. When people talk about a diet, they are usually referring to a special kind of diet. When someone says they are "dieting", it means that they are trying to lose weight. People who study diet and eating habits are called dietitians.

When the diet is not right, people can gain or lose weight. They may become overweight or underweight. To get back to their normal weight, they need to change their diet.[2] This may be very hard to do. Often help from specialist is required.

Some people will also do fasting - they will not eat anything for some time to lose weight, balance their diet and clean their bodies.[3]

Some people have diseases where they cannot eat certain foods without becoming very sick. They need to change their diet to avoid these foods. A food allergy is a condition in which a specific food makes someone sick. Phenylketonuria is a disease in which a person cannot digest certain foods properly because they have an amino acid, or type of chemical, called phenylalanines in them.

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Last September, the Williams College psychologist Susan Engel had an opinion piece in the New York Times on the value of standardized testing as a means of assessing the quality of a childs education. Engel argued that there was scant evidence that these tests were of any value at all, and that they should be replaced by the many promising techniques that psychologists had already identified as valuable in assessing the learning of our children.

So what does this have to do with nutrition and weight control? Well, among the promising techniques, wrote Engel, was this one:

Researchers have also found that the way a student critiques a simple science experiment shows whether he understands the idea of controlling variables, a key component in all science work. To assess childrens scientific skills, an experiment could be described to them, in writing, and then they would explain how they would improve upon it.

So the value of controlling variables in a scientific experiment is something that a reasonably well-educated child supposedly understands. And what I want to know is why don t nutritionists understand it and those researchers out there doing diet trials and studying obesity and weight regulation. Because their failure to do so and I would argue that it may be a willful failure has led to what may be another of the great misconceptions in modern nutrition research. In particular, that carbohydrated-restricted diets are valuable tools in the arsenal against overweight and obesity, but theyre just one of the dietary tools.

This belief stems from the last decade of diet trials comparing carbohydrate-restricted diets (usually Atkins) to low-calorie, low-fat diets. Instead of thinking of low-carbohydrate diets like Atkins as deadly, which was formerly the case, nutritionists and dietitians (or at least most of them) now think of these diets as useful, just as other diets, low in calories or fats, are also useful. The idea now is that some people do well on carbohydrate-restricted diets and some people do well on low-fat diets, and maybe this is a result of whether they happen to be insulin sensitive or insulin resistant or maybe its just a product of their particular food tastes and preferences.

And this belief, of course, is based on the notion that we get fat for reasons other than the nutrient composition of the diet probably because of some combination of our genes, our tendency to eat to much and our sedentary behavior and so the diet that works best is the one that allows us to most comfortably restrict our intake of total calories.

This was the conclusion, for instance, of a 2008 article by Chris Gardner and his colleagues at Stanford, reporting on a subgroup analysis of their famous A to Z study. (The trial is famous, at least, in the low-carb world, because the Atkins diet resulted in twice the weight loss of any of the three other diets tested, and it also did a better job of improving heart disease risk factors). In this follow-up study, Gardner and his colleagues reported that in each diet group from the Atkins diet on the high end of the dietary fat to carbohydrate ratio to the Ornish diet on the low end the subjects who actually adhered to the diet lost the most weight. Hence, their conclusion: maybe adherence to a diet is more important than the actual nutrient composition of the diet. Heres the concluding paragraph:

The main findings of this weight loss study, presented in a previous report, indicated that while all three diet groups lost modest amounts of weight, the Atkins group at 12 months lost approximately twice the weight of the other groups. The findings presented here indicate that weight loss in the lowest tertile [third] of adherence was negligible in all three diet groups, and more pronounced in the highest tertile of adherence for each diet group. It appears that substantial differences in proportions of dietary macronutrients play only a modest role in weight loss success, and that success is possible on any of these diets provided there is adequate adherence. Getting individuals to adhere to whatever diet they choose to follow deserves more emphasis. It remains to be determined to what extent there is a need for dietary weight loss programs that are easier to adhere to vs identifying and addressing individual barriers to adherence, or both.

So the nutrient composition of the diet is less important than whether or not the subject can live with the diet and is willing to do so for as long as it takes ideally, a life time.

This concept of low-carb diets being good for some people and low-fat for others is invariably reinforced by the fact that most of us know someone who has lost weight and kept it off on Weight Watchers or after reading Skinny Bitch or some other popular low-calorie diet book. As a result, we assume that dieting isnt a one-sized fits all endeavor and that everyone is different perhaps metabolically and hormonally, as well and that what works for me wont necessarily work for you, and vice verse.

So what does this have to do with controlling variables or even understanding the concept of controlling variables?

What researchers like Gardner and his colleagues do in these diet trials (and its the same thing most of us do when we think about those people who succeed on conventional diets or after reading diet books like Skinny Bitch) is make the assumption that a diet that is described as a low-fat diet is low in fat only and thats why it works. And they also make the assumption that a diet that restricts total calories works (if it does) because it restricts total calories. Another way of saying this is that we all tend to assume researchers and lay people alike that when someone embarks on a low-fat diet, the only meaningful variable that changes in their diet is the fat-to-carbohydrate ratio. The ratio gets smaller. Fat consumption goes down and carbohydrate consumption goes up. And, by the same token, when someone tries to simply eat less, the only meaningful variable thats changing is the total number of calories theyre consuming.

The most extreme or perhaps egregious example of this thinking was the recent publication by Gary Foster and his colleagues, comparing low-fat diets, as they described them, to low-carbohydrate diets. The title was Weight and Metabolic Outcomes After 2 years on a Low-Carbohydrate Versus a Low-Fat Diet. And here was the conclusion as stated in the abstract:

Successful weight loss can be achieved with either a low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet when coupled with behavioral treatment. A low-carbohydrate diet is associated with favorable changes in cardiovascular disease risk factors at 2 years.

So the way the media and the nutrition community treated this was as further evidence that nutrient composition of the diet makes little difference in weight loss maybe low-carb works for some of us, but low-fat works for others although, in this case, maybe low-carb had some modest advantage when it came to heart disease risk factors.

But if you read this article carefully, youd have noticed that there was another significance difference between the low-fat and low-carbohydrate diets. The low fat diet was a low-calorie diet also A low-fat diet consisted of limited energy intake (1200 to 1800kcal/d; less than or equal to 30 % calories from fat), the authors explained. The low-carbohydrate diet was not calorie-restricted. And if Foster and his colleagues were being either intellectually honest or good scientists, theyd have defined the two diets to make this clear. Not low-fat vs. low-carbohydrate, but low-fat, calorie-restricted vs, low-carbohydrate, calorie-unrestricted.In other words theyd have acknowledged that there was at least one other variable that was different between the two experiments and had to be taken into account when interpreting the results the amount of calories the subjects were instructed to consume. As well see, there were also other variables that were changing, but this one how much food can be consumed if desired is a whopper.

Its a whopper because it begs this question: is it the total calories consumed that is the variable determining weight loss? And, by the same token, is it the calories consumed (or expended) that determines how much weight we gain?

In this case, both diets resulted in roughly equal weight loss but those subjects randomized to the low-fat diet were instructed and counseled to semi-starve themselves (eat a maximum of 1500 calories for women, 1800 for men), while those counseled to eat low-carb were counseled and instructed not to worry about how much they ate and, one hopes, as this was an Atkins diet being prescribed, eat until they were full. So if weight loss is the same in both groups, doesnt this suggest, at least, that weight loss can be independent of whether dieters semi-starve themselves or eat to satiety? And, if so, of course, wouldnt you rather get to eat to satiety?

Had Foster and his colleagues understood what school children are supposed to understand, according to Engels, the idea of controlling variables, a key component in all science work, they may have decided to control for calories and instructed both groups that they could eat as much as they want, rather than just the low-carbohydrate group. Or, had they had the money to spend, they might have cooked meals for both groups of subjects, say, 2700 calories a day either low-fat or low-carb and encouraged both groups to eat all the food prepared. Such an experiment would have gone a long way to controlling for calories consumed or for whether the subjects were allowed to eat to satiety or not. In doing so, it might have revealed something meaningful about whether the nutrient composition of the diet plays a role in weight loss or weight gain independent of calories, which is one of the critical questions here. Id hazard a guess that it surely does, but I could be wrong. It would be an interesting experiment to do and Ill write considerably more on that in a later post.

As for the other mistake Foster, Gardner and their colleagues make when they assume that a low-fat, calorie-restricted diet (defining it correctly) is restricted only in fat, its the same mistake we make when we assume that someone who lost weight following Weight Watchers or after reading Skinny Bitch did it merely because something about these regimens got them to eat fewer calories and maybe fewer fat calories in particular. And this is the other mistake that suggests a lack of understanding of the idea of controlling variables.

Virtually any diet that significantly restricts the number of calories consumed, even a diet that is described as low-fat (because the subjects are instructed to reduce the proportion of fat calories they consume), will cut the total amount of carbohydrate calories consumed as well. This is just simple arithmetic. If we cut all the calories we consume by half, for instance, then were cutting the carbohydrates by half, too. And because these typically constitute the largest proportion of calories in our diet to begin with, these will see the greatest absolute reduction. If we preferentially try to cut fat calories, well find it exceedingly difficult to cut more than 400 or 500 calories a day by reducing fat depending on how much fat we were eating to begin with and so well have to eat fewer carbohydrates as well.

Put simply, low-fat diets that also cut significant calories will cut carbohydrates significantly as well, and often by more than they cut fat.

Heres the math: Imagine we want to cut our daily calories from 2,500 to 1,500, hoping to lose two pounds of fat a week. And imagine that the nutrient content of our pre-diet meals is what the authorities consider ideal 20 percent protein, 30 percent fat and 50 percent carbohydrates. Thats 500 calories of protein, 750 calories of fat and 1,250 of carbohydrates.

If we keep the same balance of nutrients but eat only 1,500 calories a day, well be eating 300 calories of protein, 450 calories of fat and 750 calories of carbohydrates. Well be cutting protein calories by 200, fat calories by 300 and carbohydrate calories by 500.

Now lets make this a low-fat diet and try to reduce our fat consumption from 30 percent of calories to, say, 25 percent of calories, which is significantly less than most of us will tolerate. Well now be eating 300 calories of protein, 375 calories of fat and 825 of carbohydrates. Well be cutting our fat calories by 375 a day, but were still cutting carbohydrates by 425. So even though the percentage of carbohydrates consumed on this low-fat diet goes up from 50 to 55 percent the absolute amount of carbohydrates consumed goes down, and goes down more so than does the calories from fat. And if we increase the amount of protein we eat, well have to eat still fewer carbohydrates to compensate.

If we start off eating enough fat, as I said say, 40 percent of our calories we can actually cut fat calories more so than carbs, but carbs are still cut significantly. Imagine our 2500 calorie per day diet is 40 percent fat, 40 percent carbs and 20 percent protein. Thats 1000 calories of fat and carbs each, and 500 calories of protein. If we now cut that to a 1500 calorie diet thats 30 percent fat and 50 percent carbohydrates, well be eating 450 calories of fat, 750 calories of carbohydrates and 300 calories of protein. So fat calories will have dropped by 550 calories, but well still have reduced carbohydrate calories by 250. Not an enormous amount but an amount that might still have an effect on the regulation of our fat tissue and so fat loss.

Heres an example of how this plays out in a real dietary trial. Consider an Israeli trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2008 by Iris Shai and her colleagues. This trial compared a low-fat, calorie-restricted diet to a Mediteranean, calorie-restricted diet to a low-carbohydrate Atkins diet, unrestricted in calories. And, youll notice here, too, having explained that the first two diets are calorie-restricted and the latter diet isnt, Shai and company get lazy and shorten their labeling of the diets so that they leave out the critical variable of whether the dieters are instructed or not to semi-starve themselves.

In this study, Shai and her colleagues made an attempt to assess what their subjects were eating before the trial started, and then after 6, 12, and 24 months. Keeping in mind that the dietary records from these studies have to be taken with a grain of salt, heres the relevant data:

Lets concentrate on the low-fat, calorie-restricted diet and the low-carb, Atkins diet. The changes in dietary intake and nutrients for the low-fat diet are shown in the first column. As you can see after 24 months, the subjects eating the low-fat diet were supposedly restricting calories consumed on average by 572 calories. The reduction in carbohydrates consumed, though, was 330 calories (82.8 grams per day times 4 calories per gram), compared to only a 170-calorie (18.9 grams per day times 9 calories per gram) reduction from baseline in fat. So the low-fat diet reduced carbohydrates nearly twice as much as it reduced fat.

The low-carbohydrate diet, on the other hand (the third column), reduced carbohydrate calories by 520 calories per day (129.8 grams per day times 4 calories per gram) and fat calories by a mere 15 calories (1.7 grams/day times 9 calories per gram). So certainly the low-carb diet was correctly described as a low-carb diet, and the question we have to ask is maybe the weight loss seen in the low-fat diet was also due to the restriction in carbohydrates. It is quite possible that even low-fat, calorie-restricted diets work because they restrict carbohydrates and maybe the reason they dont work as well as the low-carb diets is they dont restrict them as much. Or maybe they dont work as well, on average, because they also restrict fat calories when dietary fat has little or no effect on body fat accumulation. We dont know if this is true or not, but it could be true, and until these researchers realize that another variable is changing significantly on these low-fat, calorie-restricted diets the amount of carbohydrates consumed theyll never bother to test it or take it into account in their interpretation of these clinical trials, and well never know.

Now, heres yet another variable thats changing on these diets, and this one the researchers ignore entirely and make no attempts to quantify the quality of carbohydrates consumed. Any subject in these diet trials and anyone who tries a serious weight loss program on their own (the twinkie diet, perhaps, not included) will make a few consistent changes to what they eat. And theyll do this regardless of the instructions that theyre given or the diet to which theyre randomized in the trial.

Specifically, theyll get rid of or cut way back on the high-glycemic index carbohydrates and the foods or drinks with the high sugar or HFCS content. Theyll do so because these foods are the easiest to eliminate and the most obviously inappropriate for anyone trying to get in shape. (And because for a almost 200 years these foods have been considered uniquely fattening.) Theyll stop drinking beer, for instance, or at least drink less beer or drink light beer instead. They might think of this as cutting calories, but the calories theyll be cutting will be carbohydrates and, more importantly, theyre liquid, refined carbohydrates that are exceedingly easy to digest and so, perhaps, exceedingly fattening.

Theyll stop drinking caloric sodas Coca Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper and replace them either with water or diet sodas. In doing so, theyll be removing not just liquid carbohydrates but specifically sugars sucrose or HFCS. The same is true of fruit juices. An easy change in any diet is to replace fruit juices with water. Dieters will get rid of candy bars, desserts, donuts and cinnamon buns. Again, they may perceive this as calorie-cutting and maybe even a way to cut fat, which it is but theyll also be cutting carbohydrates, and specifically sugars with their high fructose content. And if sugars with their high fructose content are uniquely fattening as significant evidence suggests, then this reduction in sugar content may be precisely why the diets work. Starches like potatoes and rice, refined carbohydrates like bread and pasta, may also be replaced in these diets even low-fat diets by green vegetables and salads or at least whole grains, because for the past 30 years, weve been all told to eat more fiber and to eat foods that are less energy dense and less processed.

Even the very-low-fat diet made famous by Dean Ornish restricts all refined carbohydrates, including sugars, white rice and white flour. This alone could explain any benefits that result. Ornishs rationale, as he described it in 1996 is a familiar one: Simple carbohydrates are absorbed quickly and cause a rapid rise in serum glucose, thereby provoking an insulin response. Insulin also accelerates conversion of calories into triglycerides, [and] stimulates cholesterol synthesis.

Simply put, anyone who tries to diet by any of the more accepted methods (i.e., Weight Watchers), and anyone who decides to eat healthy as its currently defined, will remove the carbohydrates from the diet that may be if the carbohydrate/insulin hypothesis is correct the most fattening. And if theyre trying to cut calories, theyll be removing some number of total carbohydrates as well. And if these people lose fat on these diets, this is a very likely reason why.

The same is likely to be true for those who swear they lost their excess pounds and kept them off by taking up regular exercise. Rare is the individual who begins running or swimming or doing aerobics regularly with the goal of losing weight and then doesnt make any concomitant changes in what he or she eats. Rather beer and soda consumption will be reduced; sweet consumption will be reduced, and easily digested starches and high-glycemic index carbs are likely to be replaced by green vegetables and carbohydrates with a lower glycemic index.

So heres the lesson, the moral of this story: before we assume that low-carbohydrate diets are just one tool in the dietary arsenal against overweight and obesity, and before we assume that everyone is different and that some of us lose weight and keep it off because we eat less fat (and more carbohydrates) and some because we cut carbs (and so eat maybe more fat), we should make an effort to understand the concept of controlling variables and look to see which variables are really changing and by how much. Because its quite possible that the only meaningful way to lose fat is to change the regulation of the fat tissue, and the science of fat metabolism strongly implies that the best way to do that, if not the only meaningful way, is by reducing the amount of carbohydrates consumed and/or improving the quality of those carbs we do consume.

Now, one note about comments that I should have made in my last (and first) blog. I appreciate everyone who comments, but time constraints (earning a living, participating in my family life, etc.) makes it necessary that I keep my responses to a minimum. So I am going to thank everyone in advance for their comments. I will be reading all of them (up to the point, at least, that they degenerate into arguments between two or three particularly vociferous and contentious individuals), but I will be responding only to those that raise particularly interesting questions or issues, or point out any bone-head mistakes I may have made that need to be fixed.

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Calories, fat or carbohydrates ? Why diets work (when they do)

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Click on one of the nine countermeasures below for more information and a downloadable fact sheet. Each fact sheet provides more detailed descriptions, related research studies, and evaluations of each of these countermeasures. Further information on each countermeasure can also be found at the Crash Modification Factors Clearinghouse (http://www.cmfclearinghouse.org/).

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