This looks like our chance to test Taubes' hypothesis.

NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science Research
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/...-OD-09-003.html

"Purpose. As part of the Recovery Act, the NIH invites, through this limited competition, NIH Challenge Grant (RC1) applications from domestic (United States) institutions/organizations proposing novel research in areas that address specific knowledge gaps, scientific opportunities, new technologies, data generation, or research methods that would benefit from an influx of funds to quickly advance the area in significant ways. This program is designed to support research in scientific areas identified by the Institutes and Centers, as described below."

Valtor

I don't think is what you're hoping it is. We have discussed the challenge grants at work. The problem is that they are only designed to be two years long--which means that planning and carrying out a long-term diet trial would be pretty much impossible. All you could really do during that two years is the logistics and personnel training, then you'd have to apply for additional funding to actually conduct the trial.

The other problem is that these grants had an extremely short turnaround time. Normally researchers take a good 6 months or longer to write a grant, but the turnaround time for these is less than 2 months. This is basically the opposite of every normal mechanism that NIH uses, so I am not optimistic that these grants will meet their stated objective. Not to mention that they are only going to approve about 400 grants out of likely tens of thousands of applications.

Taubes's dream will have to wait a little longer methinks.

--Melissa

Ah, that depresses me a little... but just a little

I know we will get there eventually...

Valtor

Agreed. I still have hope that these studies will be done once the economy improves a little and Obama can funnel more money to NIH's normal budget.

--Melissa

I and my colleagues, Eric Westman at Duke and Miriam Vincent, Chair of Family Medicine at Downstate Medical Center will be applying for the Challenge Grants and other NIH programs. We are also trying to work with the NIH to make sure we get a fair review. Our particular focus: minorities have suffered disproportionately in the epidemic of diabetes and obesity and this is no more evident than in Brooklyn where we intend to treat an urban Black population with diabetes with low carb diets.

This is one of the areas where government is at least part of the solution to the problem in that the research is expensive and the government is best at it. The NIH has a history of great contribution to biomedical research. Right now, it has many problems, and in the area of interest, it still is overly represented by proponents of low-fat diets and drugs-first philosophy. The NIH, however, is working hard at self-correction and I think there is cause for optimism.

Also, not to detract from the trenchant critique of low fat, Taubes's book does not correctly explain where low carbohydrate ideas come from, namely, recent research notably from basic research on metabolism which is in the biochemistry textbooks and its application in work from Eric Westman and Jeff Volek, which Taubes inexplicably ignores. In any case, the hypothesis is laid out in papers in Nutrition and Metabolism (available without subscription):
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.c...3-7075-2-31.pdf
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.c...3-7075-3-24.pdf
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.c...43-7075-5-9.pdf

Most recently, these hypothesis have been tested in a prospective trial in Jeff Volek's lab, details will be available on the Metabolism Society's website: http://www.nmsociety.org In brief,

Two hypocaloric diets (about 1,500 kcal) were compared: a carbohydrate-restricted diet (CRD) (%carbohydrate: fatrotein = 12:59:28) and a low-fat diet (LFD) (56:24:20) in 40 subjects with metabolic syndrome (MetS), specifically atherogenic dyslipidemia (high triglycerides, low HDL, more small dense LDL). Subjects following the CRD had consistently greater improvements in glucose, insulin, insulin sensitivity, weight loss and more favorable changes in triglycerides, HDL-Cand total cholesterol/HDL-C. Notably, despite a threefold higher intake of dietary saturated fat during the CRD, saturated fatty acids in the blood were significantly decreased. “The findings provide support for unifying the disparate markers of MetS and for the proposed intimate connection with dietary carbohydrate. The results support the use of dietary carbohydrate restriction as an effective approach to improve features of MetS and cardiovascular risk.

If you are interested in reading the complete research article by Dr. Volek, referred to in Dr. Feimman's post, it will be available
on the Metabolism Society website by Sunday. You will find it in the Research subsection under the Low Carb Diet Information menu item.

Thank you Dr. Feinman,

I just finished parsing the three papers you linked. It is very encouraging. If I combine this with other papers I read about fructose metabolism specifically, I see a clearer picture emerging.

It really looks like we are close to emerging from the dark ages of nutrition. I wish you success on getting the grants.

As for Gary Taubes, as far as I know, he needed to cut back a great deal of material from his first sketch. His publisher thought that it contained too many references and interviews. So I don't think Gary ignored anyone, they probably were part of what was cut. Anyway all he's asking is that we test all this. And it looks like that's exactly what your doing, with a host of other scientists

I feel very optimistic, thanks again for bringing this information to us.

Patrick

Dr. Feinman, I am glad to hear that you are applying for a challenge grant. Are you also applying for R01 grants as well? I ask because it sounds like there are very few challenge grants compared to the number of PIs who will be applying.

--Melissa

Yes. We are trying several funding sources.

This part of Dr. Volek's paper that you released Saturday is interesting.


http://www.nmsociety.org/App_Themes...Obese_Teens.pdf

I'm testing a fructose-free diet at the moment. I'm consuming carbs, but I try to keep fructose as close to none as I can. I have to check the chemical composition of every ingredients on the food I eat to make sure there is no fructose molecules hiding somewhere.

Patrick

I am on Day 3 of an 'extremely' low fructose diet, and for the first time in decades, I have no pain. After 24 hours, I dropped 4 pounds, and it stayed off.

I cannot believe that our Health Industry is continuously advising people to be sure and eat 9 servings of fruits & veggies everyday, when they also know that at least one-third of the population of the USA has Fructose Malabsorption.

And why was HFCS ever okayed for use in foods?

There are studies from back in the 80s showing its deleterious impact on human health. That's a quarter century ago.

We must outlaw HFCS, and we must have rules & regulations that prevent agribusiness from destroying the health of the entire population in their manic greed for profits.