This year's ratings are out and as expected low-carb eating plans are ranked near the bottom. Their panel of 'experts' went with the ones that the major medical organizations and the USDA like.

https://health.usnews.com/best-diet

This op-ed from 2018 still applies. Nothing in the ratings will ever change.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-...0128-story.html

But the #1 diet for "Fast Weight Loss" is Atkins! Only because Keto is now considered an even worse fad diet, it moved up.

American politician Mike Pompeo has made the headlines by losing 90lbs in six months. Critics say, "Impossible!" He says he did it by "Eating less and moving more." Both statements are probably dodging the truth.

What do I think? From hints in the interviews with Pompeo, I think he went strict KETO. Yeah, maybe he "ate less" than his previous SAD. But he's not saying exactly what. After all, he IS a politician. He'd be a pariah for sure if he said "KETO did it!" He might have to tap Big Pharma to fund his campaign.

By the way, his before/after photos are impressive. He did a good thing for himself. Wish he'd tell the whole truth. But...he's a politician.

Wow! He looks great, not saggy in the face as you might imagine with that rapid a weight loss. A Newsweek article mentioned him eating egg whites and turkey bacon…. High protein, low carb and low fat. It works

I read that he gave up his beloved pancakes too and now opts for salad. Keto it is then. Wish they would admit it, but there’s no money to be made from eating a non-processed, non-sugary diet.

Yearly diet rankings by the media informed by the "health experts" has always been an exercise in comedy to me.

As for Pompeo, good for him for taking charge regardless of how he did it. I believe, however, many on this forum know.

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/m...tal-lost-weight



After I posted, I saw this. LOL!

ETA: Experts Are VERY Suspicious of Mike Pompeo's Weight Loss Claim

Nina Teicholz did a pretty good evisceration of this on twitter.

Go Nina! All she needs to do is repeat her 2017 analysis every year.
(I didn’t even know one could post a MONSTER thread like that on Twitter )


I’ve been watching Google Trends lately, Keto is still number one for number of searchs but now a small fraction of its most popular in Jan 2019. An interesting comment from one article…that Dieting of all types is less popular now, and especially since CoVid. I think people are just getting sick of Dietary Dogma … to quote Ted Naiman. (https://forum.lowcarber.org/showthr...627#post9421627 ). Low-carb, low-fat, plant-based, carnivore…They all work…why not pull the lever on all of them? The name "keto" now suffers from an image problem, from the snake oil salesmen, to the keto chows and shakes, Religous Keto or Internet keto doesn’t work well for many and people are vocal about it now.





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The Fright Factor in this Diet Evaluation has negative social consequences: people think it's expert advice, and avoid trying methods that might work. I think, too, how such advice affects things like federal school lunch programs, etc.

By now, I hope that Low-Carbohydrate methods in general are known to have health benefits. The chief complaint seems to be "sustainability." But anyone who has ever tried to sustain a low-cal/low-fat lifestyle (including those hundreds of women across many years on the Women's Health Initiative study) knows how ineffective that is, even if they manage to sustain it. We know that all dieters are liars!

Ever since Atkins (RIP) I've known what works for me. I've tried out quite a few variations, but the essential path is the same: Real food. No sugar.

Everything else is YMMV, and we do our own homework on the details.

Good point that concerns me as well. The Atkins diet became such a lightning rod for "experts" to attack, as it veered strongly away from everything being recommended since the food pyramid. Keto emerged as it was Atkins without the negative association, but as Janet observes, we've had many marketeers distort how keto can be effective. It now has become controversial; yet, the foundation of it all is to limit carbs, emphasize healthy protein, and don't fear but don't overdo it with healthy fat.

The school lunch comment extends to colleges, universities, work places, hospitals, SNAP, and more, and it's a major concern as well. The very committee (30% vegan/vegetarian according to Neicholz) contributing to the US News report on effective diets is also heavily involved in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, as this is the vehicle that informs how to eat and is endorsed by the government with the USDA leading the charge. Improved awareness is required to counter this misinformation, which will continue in frequency and fallacy. I was watching a sporting event on TV the other day when I learned that Honey Nut Cheerios are very heart healthy. Who knew?

The problem is we live in an age of rampant con artistry on the internet which is not nearly as watched over for lies as was the three channels of broadcast television back in the day.

"They couldn't advertise it if it wasn't true" has been languishing ever since.

Very true. Technology and "free" social media sites are farming data from unaware participants to bolster these cons. Further, these unaware participants are now receiving advertising customized for them. What a coincidence! The old adage was that if you saw it on TV or read it in the newspaper, it must be true. That's now been ratcheted up exponentially in today's environment.

All things with oats in them are touted as heart-healthy because eating oats reduces LDL. Are far as I can tell, eating oats has never been tested to see if it actually prevents heart problems.

But reducing LDL has and in older subjects, it increased mortality rates. Go figure . . .