Is red meat killing us?
I wrote this post almost six years ago (March 21, 2012), but it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Grit
What do passion, persistence, and deliberate practice have to do with our health?
Is a low fat diet best for weight loss?
I know many of you are awaiting Part II of the mini-series on ketosis, but I’d like to digress briefly to comment on a study published last week, which a number of you have asked about. In this study, by Hooper et al., titled Effect of reducing total fat intake on bodyweight: systematic review and…
What does lower back pain have in common with low carb eating?
Strange question, huh? Before you get too excited, I’m not about to tell you that a low carbohydrate diet is a remedy for back pain. Instead, I am going to explain a remarkably parallel experience I’ve had. I never made the connection until this week when a reader asked an unrelated question about lower back…
Good science, bad interpretation
In 2012, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study entitled Effects of Dietary Composition on Energy Expenditure During Weight-Loss Maintenance. While I’m guessing most readers have not read this study, I’m pretty sure most of you have heard about the results as it was all over the news this week. I was fortunate…
Gravity and insulin: the dynamic duo
Last week I wrote about how carbohydrates are effectively a performance-enhancing substance, at least for certain performances in certain people. I received many great questions, including some challenging this suggestion, which really pleases me because it demonstrates folks are thinking about tradeoffs and questioning everything.
If low carb eating is so effective, why are people still overweight?
I find myself getting asked this question, or some variant of this question, with increasing frequency as I speak and write about the Alternative Hypothesis I find most compelling surrounding obesity and chronic disease. One implication of the Alternative Hypothesis, as you probably understand by now if you’ve been reading this blog, is that many…
Do calories matter?
In a word, yes. But, technically this is the wrong question.
Why Weight Watchers is actually a low carb diet
Invariably I get asked the question, “If carbohydrates are so bad, why did [so-and-so] lose weight on the [such-and-such] diet?”, where “such-and-such” diet is not a “low-carb” diet. Obviously, this is an important question and a pretty complex one.
Irisin: The magic exercise hormone?
On January 11, 2012, an article was published in the NY Times Health blog section titled, “Exercise hormone may fight obesity and diabetes.” The article reports on a recently published study in the journal Nature, the abstract of which can be found here.