There's currently a propaganda campaign against low-carb diets \ stacker news ~conspiracy

There's currently a propaganda campaign against low-carb diets

515 sats \ 18 comments \ @Signal312 8 Oct conspiracy

I've been seeing lots of pro-vegan, anti-meat and anti low-carb media recently. So, reading this article by Nina Teicholtz was very timely.

Is there a propaganda campaign against low-carb? (In case you can't get to the article via the above, here's another version, though not complete - https://archive.is/rxTur. To get the full version, you may have to subscribe to her Substack).

Here's some quotes:

Many of us challenging mainstream health advice find ourselves continually questioning whether the unending stream of inaccurate information from newspapers, academics, and experts is intentional or just ill-advised. The latter explanation would be a far more comforting idea, as it would imply a non-malevolent world where I’m guessing we’d all prefer to live. Yet, having spent two decades investigating diet and health, I’ve concluded that while there are many well-meaning experts out there, the forces suppressing good science and intentionally promoting misinformation—technically known as “disinformation”—are driving the narrative.

The example that she goes into in great depth is a recent article from Australia, entitled "The fad diet linked to an increasing risk of chronic disease" (https://archive.is/PYZaF). But the research article that it uses as evidence is from 20 years ago! And Teicholtz goes through the research in great detail, and how poorly it was done.

Another interesting quote, which also demonstrates how corrupt the American Heart Association is:

The AHA gives us our final example of apparent disinformation. Last year, it issued a scientific statement that generated headlines such as “Popular keto and paleo diets aren’t helping your heart” (Washington Post). As I wrote at the time, a reader would think that the paper examined the heart disease outcomes of these diets, but in fact, it did not.

Instead, the paper compared how closely different diets aligned with the AHA’s own diet plan. The AHA asked, in essence: Are you like us? By this standard, the #1 diet on their list was DASH (Dietary Alternatives to Stop Hypertension), because…that’s the AHA’s own diet!

The AHA report was, in effect, a self-affirmation exercise, a purity test. Headlines should have read: The AHA prefers its own diet and disapproves of others. (Worth noting: In a head-to-head diet trial, a very low-carb diet showed greater improvements in systolic blood pressure, glycemic control, and weight, compared to DASH).

For me personally, a low-carb (actually almost zero, since I'm doing carnivore with dairy/eggs) diet has been amazing for my health. After years of eating "healthy", with all the superfoods, fruits, veggies, fiber, and very limited red meat, switching to carnivore 11 months ago has boosted my energy tremendously. Instead of walking around the house, it's more accurate to say that I zip around the house.

I really wish I had known about this decades ago.

I'll write another post in the near future of how things are going. Meanwhile, here's what I've written up on this topic so far, in reverse chronological order:

Carnivore diet - looks like it fixed this nighttime disorder for me Carnivore diet - believe it or not, it healed this oddball disorder for me Can a keto/carnivore diet heal issues like depression, anxiety, OCD, bipolar? Latest steps in my carnivore path - and why you should consider a carnivore diet Carnivore achievements unlocked Taking a temporary break from mostly-carnivore diet during holidays Sugar and Alzheimers Kinda-carnivore diet is leading to WAY more energy Question for carnivores/carnivore-curious folks I'm transitioning ... to a more MEAT centric diet This book is blowing my mind - The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholtz

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174 sats \ 8 replies \ @Coinsreporter 8 Oct

I disagree a little. I've never come across any post that says Carnivore diet is bad for health or should not be in our plate. It's just that those who are pro vegan always profess about the vegan diet being better. It's the same like you're saying with this article that a carnivore diet is better.

So, technically both sides seem biased here. I'd say a better balanced diet is something that a man should always aim for. It should also be taken into consideration that every body is different. Your food requirements may differ from others.

Carnivore vs vegan is a bullshit fight. The propoganda, there's no propoganda.

68 sats \ 1 reply \ @mrsu 9 Oct

Are you able to provide an example of another species whereby individuals of that species thrive on radically different diets? I'm personally not aware of another species that demonstrates this behaviour. I believe that people on plant based diets are denying their bodies essential nutrition. Biological evidence seems to indicate that humans should prioritise the consumption of fatty red meat first, whilst consuming limited plants and honey from time to time. Any deviation from this is likely suboptimal. If you are eating a plant based diet, and appear to be thriving, then that's because our baseline is the food pyramid which includes highly processed foods and refined grains, not because of omitting red meat

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Signal312 OP 9 Oct

Agree. There aren't other species that have wildly different OPTIMAL diets, who need completely different things (like some of the species must have plants only, and the others thrive only on meat).

I think Dr. Ken Berry has a good piece on this topic. Also that's why his youtube channel is called the Proper Human Diet. He believes (and I agree) that animal based is indeed the ONE proper human diet, though we can survive on others. He sure has some great videos.

One thing I do notice at the budget grocery stores. Most people have carts filled with trashy junk food, usually. And they look it - they're often unhealthy looking and overweight or obese, and sadly, some of them can't even walk with any kind of energy, and are limping.

But there are some where you can see - they have lots of lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. And they ARE much more slender and healthy looking.

That was me, before starting carnivore. Tons of fruits and vegetables, and if you can stay fairly strict with that (basically a "whole foods" diet with no junk food), you won't be overweight, and you'll be better off than 95% of people.

However, after switching to carnivore, so many aspects of my health quickly improved so dramatically that I'm on this for good now.

34 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 8 Oct

I'll offer slight push back (because you're mostly correct). It's entirely possible for vegans to not profess their diet to be the healthiest. While many do profess that, veganism is morality not nutrition. That means a vegan could hypothetically agree that carnivore is the healthiest diet, while continuing eating a plant-based diet.

58 sats \ 3 replies \ @Signal312 OP 8 Oct

I've been exposed to the below argument about the morality of veganism since reading up on the carnivore diet.

It's that going by the number of animals killed, for farming - it's far higher than the number killed, by actually slaughtering and eating them.

In other words the animal life (mice, rabbits, deer, etc) that die as a result of farming is much, much higher than the animal life killed to butcher for meat.

Food for thought.

165 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 8 Oct

I'm aware of that argument and it's based on the animals killed in the production of major field crops. The problem with that argument is that major field crops are not primarily produced for human consumption, but rather for animal feed. That means all of those additional animal deaths actually go on the meat side of the ledger.

34 sats \ 1 reply \ @Signal312 OP 8 Oct

Good point. So then, if you were eating grass fed/grass finished beef, you'd be golden? Or if you were eating wild game?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 8 Oct

You wouldn't be golden (from a vegan perspective), but you'd only have the animals you ate on your ledger.

This is one reason why I do think carnivore is often a more ethical choice for people. I've noticed that those who go carnivore tend to also avoid factory farmed meats, which are by far the worst from a moral standpoint.

34 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bitcoinisawesome 8 Oct

Agreed. I think it should be important to promote and practice simply listening to your body and adjusting accordingly. People’s bodies react differently to different shit. Some people should likely eat a more veggie heavy diet and some people should likely eat a meat heavy diet.

34 sats \ 1 reply \ @BlokchainB 8 Oct

The concern with red meat is that it causes cancer I guess. According to popular YouTube doctors.

But like you i always feel my best on low carb high protein diets!!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 9 Oct

Sugar and simple carbohydrates are more harmful than red meat 🥩

120 sats \ 6 replies \ @Satosora 9 Oct

I have seen many types of diets go in and out of fashion. Have any of them really helped people lose weight? Unless you are willing to do the work, it wont stay off. Now that Ozempic thing is happening, and people are aging significantly.

41 sats \ 5 replies \ @gmd 9 Oct

The answer is no. Most people join one of these cults, annoy all of their friends and family with their zealotry, lose an impressive amount of weight but then two years later are back to their starting weight or worse.

It’s hard to know how much of the euphoria is placebo. The best diet is just “less”, or the diet that you can stick to long term.

IMO life is too short to sacrifice carbs or meat in moderation. Ribeye is so good. Pasta is so good. You can do everything right and reduce your risk of X cancer but some minuscule percent but you probably die in a fluke car accident- I’ve seen it too often.

Everyone feels great until they hit 50s and 60s. For every guy on twitter selling their keto diet you hear case reports from cardiologists about guys on those diets with early MIs. It’s hard to know what is genetic or which diet is best/personalized for which populations.

There is no magic pill- enjoy life in moderation. They all rely on calorie deficit which is so hard over the long term when your body is used to excess- which is why these GLP1 drugs appear to work miracles on your cravings.

99 sats \ 1 reply \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 9 Oct

The drugs may appear to work well, but I read an article somewhere about how they totally ruin your health when used for weight loss. I have to agree that there is no real magic pill. i also understand that seed oils are doing a lot of the “obesifying”. There is evidence that the real era of obesity didn’t start until the late seventies, along with heavy use of seed oils and the downgrading of traditional oils like animal fats.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @gmd 9 Oct

Hard to know what is doing the obesifying, probably some mix of sugars and toxic chemicals but given our capitalistic society and desire for freedom and free markets it is unlikely we can undo pandora's box there...

The main issue is you do lose muscle mass so it is important if you don't want to look emaciated to also do weight training. But even if you don't do weight training it's still far better than the poisonous side effects of being fat.

99 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 9 Oct

Yes, everyones metabolism slows down. You just need to keep ahead of it. Life can still be enjoyed in moderation. Even excess at times, but then you have to go back to moderation. Hard work and discipline is what keeps you healthy.

99 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 9 Oct

What are the negative side effects of weight loss or anti craving drugs?

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @gmd 9 Oct

Mostly GI side effects- nausea, abdominal upset, vomiting, gastroparesis. A lot can be mediated by carefully titrating but certainly some people cannot tolerate it.

Just met an elderly vet at the pool with a bad knees who said he's lost 50 pounds and his a1c went from 11 (really really bad diabetes) to 6.5 (pre-diabetes range) in the past year.

There will always be anecdotes of people who do poorly but study after study (and real world results) are showing convincing evidence that these drugs are making huge impacts on a variety of indications- diabetes, obesity, CKD, heart failure, cardiovascular risk reduction... continues to show results almost too good to be true.

In the real world 90% of people simply don't have the will power to sustain weight loss. It's not because they are bad or lazy... we're humans with money problems, stress, families etc. It is simply hard to maintain dietary discipline and a calorie deficit for long periods of time.