The Low-Carb Fraud Author: T. Colin Campbell | Language: English | ISBN:
B00FJG87IC | Format: PDF
The Low-Carb Fraud Description
By now, the low-carb diet’s refrain is a familiar one:
Bread is bad for you. Fat doesn’t matter. Carbs are the real reason you can’t lose weight.
The low-carb universe Dr. Atkins brought into being continues to expand. Low-carb diets, from South Beach to the Zone and beyond, are still the go-to method for weight-loss for millions. These diets’ marketing may differ, but they all share two crucial components: the condemnation of carbs” and an emphasis on meat and fat for calories. Even the latest diet trend, the Paleo diet, isdespite its increased focus on (some) whole foodsjust another variation on the same carbohydrate fears.
In The Low-Carb Fraud, longtime leader in the nutritional science field T. Colin Campbell (author of The China Study and Whole) outlines where (and how) the low-carb proponents get it wrong: where the belief that carbohydrates are bad came from, and why it persists despite all the evidence to the contrary. The foods we misleadingly refer to as carbs” aren’t all created equaland treating them that way has major consequences for our nutritional well-being.
If you’re considering a low-carb diet, read this e-book first. It will change the way you think about what you eatand how you should be eating, to lose weight and optimize your health, now and for the long term.
- File Size: 289 KB
- Print Length: 98 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1940363098
- Publisher: BenBella Books (October 22, 2013)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00FJG87IC
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,867 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
The Low-Carb Fraud seems to be intended as a indictment against low-carb and paleo diets, which have been gaining greater acceptance. Dr. Campbell gets some important things right: refined carbs are bad for you and carbohydrates are broken down into glucose in the intestine, leading to a surge of insulin. He adds that low-carb diets help people lose weight and reduce insulin (temporarily, he says), and even calls them fun.
However, the book is riddled with significant errors. Listing them all is beyond the scope of this review, so I'll cover three major areas: Dr. Campbell's slander of low-carb proponents and his misrepresentation of low-carb diets and the field of paleoanthropology.
Dr. Campbell says the authors of low-carb books and diets, including Michael and Mary Dan Eades, Loren Cordain, and Eric Westman have "no experience in scientific research, and a vast fortune generated by the sales of their shakes, powders, extracts, oils, bars, and even chocolates." The popularity of low-carb diets is mostly marketing.
In reality, several authors of low-carb and paleo books are professional researchers at respected universities, and the Drs. Eades have a qualification Dr. Campbell doesn't: treating patients. Dr. Cordain of Colorado State University has written over 100 peer-reviewed articles and abstracts. Dr. Westman is a faculty member of the Duke Clinical Research Training Program. The Low-Carb Fraud doesn't mention Dr. Stephen Phinney, a physician-scientist who has written more than 70 peer reviewed papers and book chapters, or Dr. Jeff Volek, a professor and author who leads a research team at the University of Connecticut?and co-wrote, with Dr. Phinney, The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living, and, with Drs.
------------------------
SOME OF THE STRONGEST EVIDENCE AGAINST DIETS HIGH IN ANIMAL PROTEIN AND SATURATED FAT
------------------------
In Dr. Campbell's experiments with rats, diets with 5% casein protected from cancer, while diets with 20% casein promoted cancer. However a diet with 20% wheat protein (gluten) did not promote cancer. But when lysine, the limiting amino acid in wheat, was added it also promoted cancer. It's then reasonable to conclude that "complete" proteins usually promote certain cancers. And eating more animal protein is associated with higher IGF1 levels which are also known to promote certain cancers. Here's a supporting study that shows over 1700% more colon cancer in the high meat diet than the low meat diet. (1)
Rarity of colon cancer in Africans is associated with low animal product consumption, not fiber.
OBJECTIVE:
To investigate whether the rarity of colon cancer in black Africans (prevalence, < 1:100,000) can be accounted for by dietary factors considered to reduce risk, and by differences in colonic bacterial fermentation.
METHODS:
Samples of the adult black South African population were drawn from several rural and urban regions. Food consumption was assessed by home visits, food frequency questionnaires, computerized analysis of 72-h dietary recall, and blood sampling. Colonic fermentation was measured by breath H2 and CH4 response to a traditional meal, and to 10-g of lactulose. Cancer risk was estimated by measurement of epithelial proliferation indices (Ki-67 and BrdU) in rectal mucosal biopsies. Results were evaluated by comparison to measurements in high-risk white South Africans (prevalence, 17:100,000).
The Low-Carb Fraud Preview
Link
Please Wait...