Well, I certainly feel as though I was duped by this whole thing too. And it makes me even more upset to hear stories from my diabetic uncle, who once innocently asked his 'diabetes specialist' doctor about going on a low-carb diet. Nope, he was told to add some more medications to his ever-growing pill collection. He's gained even more weight and is having serious eye problems.

Meanwhile, my Mom's on a statin medication - and she doesn't even have 'high' cholesterol. Just because someone said she's 'high risk' and 'should' be taking this very important medicine.

Hmmph.

Oh, and how 'bout the fact that when she went on a cruise awhile back, she ate more salads than usual, and this messed with her blood (she's on Coumadin)...so she was told to cut back on the salads. !!!!! Meanwhile, she's also been told *not* to take fish oil either, since she's on the Coumadin, a blood-thinning drug.

My father in law was hospitalized with liver problems last winter ....because of his statin medication. Oh, and now he has diabetes too. He's been living on 'low fat' for years.

The longer I'm following a low-carb WOE, the more informed I become. Participating here has really opened my eyes to a lot of things. In fact, I'm actually grateful that it has taken me this long to lose the weight that I have so far - because this journey has been a huge learning curve. Kind of like a de-programming of sorts. I've come so far from what I used to believe about food that it's incredible.

Trouble is - the people I care about are still clutching their pills and their 'healthy diet'. Trying really hard to follow their doctor's recommendations. Feeling like they're failing somehow, because their health issues keep getting worse, and they have to keep taking more and more different kinds of medications to 'control' it all.

Sorry for the rant.

Scary, isn't it, when people we care about put their trust in MDs and meds while we are learning that nutrition (and malnutrition) has a serious impact on health? All I can hope is that somehow I can live a life that makes people question what it is that I am doing to avoid the colds and ailments that they deal with. I try to point out what I eat has a LOT to do with my good health. At my weight, it's hard to prove that eating butter is better than eating margarine - but someday I shall broadcast that Dr.Atkins led me from ignorance to understanding that food is fuel for a body that wants to function well. Atkins and ALGittleman both emphasize that natural unprocessed food is the best fuel, with organic food being worth seeking and paying extra.

As your health improves, perhaps some folks will begin to ask you what it is that you do to build better health. Let's hope so.

Jen B, thank you for starting this thread. You said: "My husband always tells me: Whenever you see insane lies being shoved down the collective throat of the group, just tell yourself: "Follow the money." Once you do, you see who the culprits are, their methods, and their motivations fairly clearly."

Following the money only shows where the money has been, not where it is going. And where the money is going is far more important than where it has been. The one thing we do know for certain is that opportunity is 'the magnet' for 'the money'. And there is plenty of opportunity in the growing epidemic of overweight obesity, especially if drugs were to become the treatment of choice and were required to be taken for life.

Big Pharma has seen this opportunity is is now funding research to discover drugs that, among other things, would block fat storage. Meantime, the psychiatric profession is seeking to have obesity classified as an official form of mental illness.

An article called 'What Fuels Fat' in the September 2007 issue of Scientific American gives a clue as to where 'the money' is going. Here's a quote: " Many experts believe that successful drug therapy for obesity will eventually involve MULTIPLE DRUGS (my emphasis) acting through independent pathways, in combinations tailored to individual patients as is now the case for treating hypertension and diabetes. Of course, as with other common diseases such as hypertension, it WOULD BE (note the use of the past tense) preferable to treat people with changes in diet and lifestyle alone. But if that approach fails, and morbid consequences result, SAFE (this is a joke, right?) drug therapies would be no less appropriate for obesity than for OTHER (my emphasis) illnesses."

From the above it is obvious that overweight and obesity is being shifted from a consequence of eating the wrong type of fuel to a medically classified illness. If the money is indeed behind this it explains the position of mainstream medicine that virtually all diets fail when it comes to maintaining weight lose. In this outcome the money clearly leads to Big Pharma.

Check out the latest NY Times review of Taubes's book. This reviewer got it right.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/s...&pagewanted=all

And here's Dr. Mike's review of the Times review: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=970

Good stuff!

Dr.Mike is right. Being affable counts for a lot in life. I wonder if Dr.Atkins knew this about himself, that he rubbed folks wrong and that was what was holding back the value of his thinking about the virtue of LC eating. Being a person of indifferent ability to charm, I can see that I've gotten in my own way a lot - in jobs and with casual acquaintances. I wish it were otherwise. I really do. Sigh.

Thanks for this super thread. Lots of grist for the mill.

The problem is that Atkins personality became synonymous with low carb. When you mention low carb the typically response is "Oh, that Atkins thing." You will note in the Nightline interview of Taubes that the interviewer baits Taubes into saying "Atkins was right". Once he said this the majority would immediately dismiss Taubes book.

Invariably those who dismiss Atkins have not read his DANDR and are depending on negative press. I ask. Always get an admission that the comment is based on 2d hand info. (shrug)

Agree. Unfortunately most people are influenced by what the majority do or think. So if the popular view is that Atkins and low carb are dangerous and unproven few will bother to look further.

Agreed. When I am wavering in my own program, I think of how I want to succeed if only to prove that LC is a viable plan for a healthy life - not just losing weight, which folks make a lot of, but also good health. I do get comments on my health, aside from fat and a hinky hip. People given to colds and such note that I am not often suffering from one. I tell them it's genes and the fact that I wrap up at first sign of a chill or sniffle and am almost always wearing layers of lightweight clothes that I can adjust as SoCal's temp shifts during a normal day/night.

I'd like to look as good as I often feel, to say I owe LC/Atkins all and to speak up for eating fat and dodging starch. Sure would.

Way back in the olden days (about 45 years to be exact), long before "low fat" products were ever invented, my little old grandmother decided she was getting too heavy. She quit eating potatoes and gravy, bread and dessert. This amazing little woman had it all figured out back in 1960 without any research!

Waaaaaay back when I was 17 (1981), I was preparing for my first wedding and needed to shift a few pounds (I was 135lbs and thought I was fat!!!!!), anyway, my mum told me the exact same thing - cut out bread, potatoes and sugary things. It worked beautfully. That seemed to be the way people dieted in those days - no mention of low-fat

One of the more disturbing things about the calorie 'theory' (it is just that in my view) is that it puts all 3 macro food groups on the same level. Nutritionists will claim that "a calorie is a calorie and that it doesn't matter whether calories come from carbs, protein or fat". Really??

If you have a cat in your family (I do) you probably know, or at least should know that cats are carnivores. There is no question about this. Carbs are poison to a cat. But experts in animal nutrition will claim that "a calorie is a calorie". So it is alright to put cats on a high carb diet.

To give an example, one brand of food sold only though vets who also just happen to prescribe it (no conflict here) has a formulation called 'Preventative Formula' implying that it will prevent illness. The macro ingredients are chicken meal, rice, corn gluten and corn. Now we all now that the carbs are listed in 3 forms so they will not be shown as the single biggest ingredient. In fact this is a high carb formula. Chicken meal is the garbage that can't be used for human food. So its protein quality is questionable.

Anyone who has followed the incidence of such things as obesity and type II diabetes in cats will know that its rise has paralleled the trend in humans (Gee, I wonder why?). Makes you want to shout "It's the carbs stupid" right? Not according to the experts. The problem according to them is...............wait for it: cats don't get enough exercise! That's why they are getting fat and diabetic" Huh?? I feed my cat a diet almost devoid of carbs and he sleeps all day and never gains an ounce. How many fat wild animals have you seen? None.

In the other words, the experts who promote the calorie theory believe that organisms are inefficient or just plain incapable of managing fat storage. What about the miraculous mechanism of homeostasis? Did they forget about that?

I have an obese cat that I feed the "indoor formula" cat food which has carb fillers. Should I be feeding her higher protein foods instead? I think I'm going to put the cat on a Feline low carb program and see what happens. We feed her 3/4 cup a day only...and she weighs over 17lbs!!!

The good new is that there are now several good no-grain, very low carb cat foods on the market with human grade protein (maybe we should eat this stuff). One brand I use is EVO by Innova. It has 7% carbs and is in dry kibble and canned forms. They were one of the first to offer such foods. I also feed my cat some raw meat every day. This further reduces the net carbs and increases the protein.

Once any dog or cat is full grown it is better to feed them only once a day with occasional fasting days. Like humans, a cat or dog on a diet with any significant amount of carbs tends to eat constantly. I am on an intermittent fast VLC diet. I eat 2 meals a day interspersed with 1 meal per day. Interestingly, I am seldom hungry even after not eating for more than a day.