I think I've found my new diet!

Rob Babcock · « **on:** 4 Oct 2010, 11:31 pm »

Check it out- a guy loses fifteen pounds on a diet of pure junk food!

I guess I've been doing it wrong!

JohnR · « **Reply #1 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 12:08 am »

Well, if you look at what he ate - he just didn't eat very much.

Tyson · « **Reply #2 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 12:12 am »

Give up all bread and wheat based products. Not only does it make you fat, it's probably the single largest cause of heart disease, diabetes, and strokes (the diseases of civilization). Take it from someone that had a heart attach at 34 years old, you do NOT want to be eating that crap, it's poison and is killing you. The nice side benefit, once you give it up, you will lose 1 to 2 lbs a week till you hit your ideal BMI. No other effort or changes required. No joke.

pumpkinman · « **Reply #3 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 12:13 am »

2 hours of activity a week that's to much for me

Wind Chaser · « **Reply #4 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 12:41 am »

Quote from: Tyson on 5 Oct 2010, 12:12 am

Give up all bread and wheat based products. Not only does it make you fat, it's probably the single largest cause of heart disease, diabetes, and strokes (the diseases of civilization).

I thrive on bread and wheat based products and apart from being maybe just a few lbs overweight, I'm in tiptop shape. My blood pressure is has been 120/80 all my life (currently 47). Give up the flesh, especially red meat - there's the #1 source of degenerative heart disease and cancer. Stop with the smokes and booze, eat lots of fruit and veggies, get off your duff and exercise - preferably in fresh air out in the sun, establish a pattern of regularity and drink lots of water. You can do fine without coffee and tea as these things are doing your body any favors, they interfere with sleep which is another component of good health.

Tyson · « **Reply #5 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 01:14 am »

Agreed on giving up the flesh (mainly eat fish and veggies now), but seriously, google Minger and China Study. Or google The Heart Scan Blog, either one will show you how truly bad wheat is for you. FWIW, I was in the best shape of my life and felt absolutely great right up till the moment I had my heart attack.

newzooreview · « **Reply #6 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 01:16 am »

Quote from: Wind Chaser on 5 Oct 2010, 12:41 am

I thrive on bread and wheat based products and apart from being maybe just a few lbs overweight, I'm in tiptop shape. My blood pressure is has been 120/80 all my life (currently 47). Give up the flesh, especially red meat - there's the #1 source of degenerative heart disease and cancer. Stop with the smokes and booze, eat lots of fruit and veggies, get off your duff and exercise - preferably in fresh air out in the sun, establish a pattern of regularity and drink lots of water. You can do fine without coffee and tea as these things are doing your body any favors, they interfere with sleep which is another component of good health.

What he said. Whole grains are good for you, wheat included.

Recommended reading: The China Study (very serious research presented very accessibly). http://www.amazon.com/China-Study-Comprehensive-Nutrition-Implications/dp/1932100660/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286241005&sr=8-1

Synopsis: animal proteins (including those from meat and milk) and animal fats correlate directly with heart disease, cancer, and diabetes in multiple population studies, and the causal mechanisms by which animal proteins and fat cause problems are well understood for many diseases. It's not simply a correlation; it's explainable at the level of molecular biology.

The China Study is about solid research: it's not selling a diet program or political agenda. Definitely check it out.

Audiovista · « **Reply #7 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 01:21 am »

For me, dieting is very simple... if I'm hungry, I'm loosing weight

The goal is to feel little hungry all the time. Simple but hard

With calories the basic math works - less in, more out and the weight goes down. Moderate excercise helps the process, protects the muscle mass and increases energy levels.

Tyson · « **Reply #8 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 01:23 am »

There's about a .3 correlation between meat and heart disease (not good), but almost a .7 correlation between wheat and heart disease, per the data from the China Study, which is absolutely horrible.

newzooreview · « **Reply #9 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 01:25 am »

Quote from: Tyson on 5 Oct 2010, 01:14 am

Agreed on giving up the flesh (mainly eat fish and veggies now), but seriously, google Minger and China Study. Or google The Heart Scan Blog, either one will show you how truly bad wheat is for you. FWIW, I was in the best shape of my life and felt absolutely great right up till the moment I had my heart attack.

I have the Kindle edition of The China Study, and I just searched for and read every occurrence of the word "wheat" in the text. Campbell has nothing negative to say about whole wheat or about wheat gluten, and in fact in the sections of the book summarizing the results of clinical research he specifically notes that the problems caused by casein (a milk protein) are not caused by gluten.

Others may knock wheat, but it's not The China Study or any of its hundreds of papers cited.

newzooreview · « **Reply #10 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 01:27 am »

Quote from: Tyson on 5 Oct 2010, 01:23 am

There's about a .3 correlation between meat and heart disease (not good), but almost a .7 correlation between wheat and heart disease, per the data from the China Study, which is absolutely horrible.

Chapter and page number, please. I would be happy to learn something here, but I don't see this in the book.

Tyson · « **Reply #11 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 01:28 am »

Seriously, check out Minger's regression analysis of the raw data of the China Study, it's quite informative.

As a single point of data, I can say that my lipid profile went from good (while on statins, niacin, and fish oil, and exercising regularly) to great (after keeping everything else the same and giving up wheat).

newzooreview · « **Reply #12 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 01:31 am »

Quote from: Tyson on 5 Oct 2010, 01:28 am

Seriously, check out Minger's regression analysis of the raw data of the China Study, it's quite informative.

As a single point of data, I can say that my lipid profile went from good (while on statins, niacin, and fish oil, and exercising regularly) to great (after keeping everything else the same and giving up wheat).

Minger's research isn't cited in The China Study (the book that Campbell wrote--the guy who designed The China Study). What's the citation?

newzooreview · « **Reply #13 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 01:34 am »

Quote from: Tyson on 5 Oct 2010, 01:28 am

Seriously, check out Minger's regression analysis of the raw data of the China Study, it's quite informative.

As a single point of data, I can say that my lipid profile went from good (while on statins, niacin, and fish oil, and exercising regularly) to great (after keeping everything else the same and giving up wheat).

Out of curiosity are you talking about giving up whole wheat? Or were you eating breads and other things that were made with wheat flour but not whole wheat?

Tyson · « **Reply #14 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 01:40 am »

All of it. Wheat causes both insulin spikes as well as low grade inflammation, which can be tracked via C-Reactive Protein, a marker of cardiac inflammation. Both are very, very bad for you. I will say that whole wheat is less bad for you than white bread, but then again, that's like saying arsenic is less bad for you than cyanide.

newzooreview · « **Reply #15 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 02:19 am »

Quote from: Tyson on 5 Oct 2010, 01:40 am

All of it. Wheat causes both insulin spikes as well as low grade inflammation, which can be tracked via C-Reactive Protein, a marker of cardiac inflammation. Both are very, very bad for you. I will say that whole wheat is less bad for you than white bread, but then again, that's like saying arsenic is less bad for you than cyanide.

Campbell doesn't suggest eating any kind of refined grain (e.g. 98% of wheat as it occurs in the supermarket): only whole grains, and in balance with vegetables, fruit, and no added oils.

I hunted down Minger: an English major and blogger who's never published in a peer-reviewed journal and never collected any original data. I'm not being elitist, but if a person doesn't have the technical grounding in a field it's easy to go astray (even when basic intelligence and good motivations are there. Richard Feynman, the Nobel Laureate physicist, wrote an essay about this after carrying out research in biology. He had a first-rate mind, but he didn't have the years of courses, mentorship, and lab work needed to be competent in the field and freely admitted that he was not qualified to conduct biological research.)

In any event, Minger doesn't discriminate between wheat and whole wheat in the part of her site that I read through. I conducted my Ph.D. field work in Northern China (where she notes the consumption of "wheat" is highest in The China Study data) and there isn't any whole grain wheat to be found. It's all fully refined white flour. So even if we take her analysis of the data at face value, she's saying that increased white flour consumption can be bad for you. This is consistent with Campbell's stipulation that folks should eat whole, not refined, grains.

I'm not surprised that cutting out wheat from your diet helped since it sounds like you were consuming wheat in its refined form as pasta, non-whole wheat breads, cous cous, etc.

Nothing personal here--just trying to air the data for the benefit of the discussion. I'm glad your health is improved.

Tyson · « **Reply #16 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 02:46 am »

Thanks

Speaking from a strictly biological perspective, white bread is bad because it causes a huge spike in insulin. Whole wheat also causes a pretty large spike in insulin but not as large as refined flour products like white bread. But here's the kicker - white bread and refined flour come down after a couple of hours, while whole wheat products cause elevated insulin responses in people for up to 6-8 hours!!! The "insulin load" for whole wheat products is actually much greater than refined flour or even pure sugar!

Russell Dawkins · « **Reply #17 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 06:01 am »

Interesting and civilized discussion - nice to see, and I'm learning from it, too.

Thanks Tyson and "newzooreview".

Wind Chaser · « **Reply #18 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 07:35 am »

There are many different 'authorative views' on this subject. Choose your sources carefully.

Tyson · « **Reply #19 on:** 5 Oct 2010, 10:07 am »

Dr. Davis is a cardiologist that actually has a track record of reversing heart disease in a large percentage of his patients. He's also a diabetic, so he's unusually insightful on the role of diet in the disease process. Here's a couple of things he notes about wheat:

http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/super-carbohydrate.html

http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/wheat-free-is-not-gluten-free.html

Perhaps the most alarming:

http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/oat-vs-wheat.html