[irthomasthomas]

I think this author is not being very scientific. E.g. in part 2 he dismisses carbs as a cause of obesity, and he begins by citing a trial involving 16 people.

"A study from 2003 examined low-fat diets in 16 overweight people. Naturally, this low-fat diet was high in carbohydrates. When patients started the low-fat diet and were told to eat as much as they wanted, they actually ate 291 calories less per day."

I think it is important to note that obesity skyrockets from 1980 on. The exact year the USDA began mandating a high carb diet. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a4d5666bff200...

I recommend listening to Garry Taub instead. He is a physicist. Nutrition scientists are literally not allowed to deviate from the official dietary fat causes obesity/lipid hypothesis. So it requires outsiders to get at the truth here.

Why We Get Fat: https://youtu.be/qKuDamgGkZQ

Big Fat Fiasco: https://youtu.be/exi7O1li_wA

Big Fat Nutrition Policy: https://youtu.be/hzQAHITIUhg

Edit: Carbs are sugar strung together. They are quickly chopped up and metabolized, raising your blood sugar level. To maintain homeostasis the liver responds with a squirt of Insulin. Insulin signals to your fat cells to start storing the excess sugar, which would otherwise poison you by hyperglycemia. In a normal high fat/ low carb diet, you feel full after eating, and your blood sugar returns to normal. At this point your fat cells can release those sugars back to the blood stream (to prevent hypOglycemia). But with a low fat diet your body doesn't get enough vitamins and minerals (most of which are fat soluble and removed, or made indigestiable without fat) so you stay hungry. You are forced to eat more of this high sugar food, which keeps your blood sugar high and prevents your fat cells from completing the second part of the fat/glucose cycle. So your fat cells swell and divide, making you bigger, and the bigger you are, the more nutrients your body demands. The obesity epidemic began in 1980 when the USDA began dictating a high carb diet.

There are dozens of trials involving 10s of thousands of people going back 70 years that show a clear trend of carbs causing obesity in the West. I say West because it also clear that there is a genetic component involved in the carbs/fat cycle or insuline response. Which may explain why one isolated community can consume a lot of carbs from root veg and stay lean.

[francasso]

I will relate my personal experience (take from it what you will).

Around 2017 I was ~100kg when I started a keto diet which excluded basically all carbs except for what is present in green vegetables, and ate more than 50% of calories from fat. Didn't control calories, just ate as much as I felt like but making sure I would still be in ketosis (used blood tests to check). I lost 5 to 6 kgs very quickly (mostly water weight) then the weight loss reduced drastically to .1 or .2 kg a week. On the other hand my BP was sky high (went even higher than before) and I got kidney stones (never happened before, and not an experience I would wish on anybody).

I quit the diet after a month and went back to eating normally. In January 2021 I was still 100kg, I started on a vegan whole foods, zero added fats/salt diet. I eat whole carbs, fruits and vegetables, but most of the calories come from carbs (yes pasta). Unlike the keto diet, after a couple of weeks the cravings stopped and it's easy to eat in a caloric deficit while feeling full because the food is way less calorie dense. I dropped 30kg in 6 months, for me the diet is easy to be on and my BP dropped to normal levels (120/80) without medications.

Again, this is just a personal experience, but my advice would be: 1) talk with a doctor/dietitian before changing your diet, especially if you have health issue, (2) don't assume because you see testimonials of things going flawless with one approach that the same will apply to you (3) keep things monitored

[irthomasthomas]

Thank you. As I said there is a clearly a genetic component. Why do some women get fat bottoms and thighs but stay lean up top. Is it because the top half is following the low fat diet and the bottom half is not?

I always reccomend people ignore the dogma that is doled out absent-mindedly by professionals who are literally not allowed to deviate from the non-scientific lipid hypothesis. Read books instead by chaps like Garry Taub, or watch videos like those in my comment. Just this week my friend has been getting insulin shots for his type 2 diabetes (which used to be called Adult Onset Diabetes because know one knew it could affect kids until the 90s). He showed me an article about it which had a handy meal guid for diabetics. They suggest starting your day with wholemeal toast, cereal or fruit. If you think this is good advice for a diabetic then you should see what happens to your blood sugar level after eating those. It goes up a lot. And why would it not? You are eating stuff that is 50% sugar.

[simiones]

> E.g. in part 2 he dismisses carbs as a cause of obesity, and he begins by citing a trial involving 16 people.

The author starts with that, but they continue with other arguments as well. Particularly, they bring evidence of entire cultures consuming a diet made almost exclusively of carbs who have near 0% obesity - quite powerful proof that carbs themselves are not a direct cause of obesity.

[galangalalgol]

we also should be careful extrapolating a universally optimal diet from what seems to work best for one genetically homogeneous group. There of been studies that indicate that Indian and farther eastern Asian populations have a sequence that allows better utilization of bean and pea protein.

[simiones]

Sure, but still people from these places tend to get fat at similar rates to locals when moving to other countries, after some time.

[galangalalgol]

That does seem interesting. To be aure we should introduce antibiotics into their food supply... I know for myself, eating potatoes doesn't lead to weight gain like grain flours. My hypothesis is either fiber level or the presence of water in the potatoes as opposed to dry starches. I think a chemical source is also likely. It could also be a chemical we aren't getting anymore instead of one we are only now exposed to.

[simiones]

Note that the conclusion of this article is that antibiotics are not a satisfactory answer in the end.

[galangalalgol]

right, the final implication is that it could be any chemical that walked it way up the foodchain from roundup to PCBs.it could also be plasticizers or the diet of things we eat or get milk and eggs from. My point is it also could be something we don't get exposed to anymore that kept us from gaining weight in the past. Nicotine is what gave me that idea, but it doesn't really fit. Was never that ubiquitous, and it wouldn't explain obesity rates in children well.