Jan. 20, 2010 - Issue #744: The Great Indoors
Well, Well, Well
Hold the carbs
Complex problems sometimes call for simple solutions
The battle of the bulge and clogging arteries are staples in many of our
lives; nothing new about that. The orthodox approach: saturated fat
restriction, lots of veggies and whole grains, exercise and statins. The
unorthodox approach: carbohydrate restriction.
One of the most consistently vocal of the unorthodox: Dr. Michael Eades. In a
blog entry on January 12, he tells his readers how it all started. For those
who missed it in the 1980s, or were too young to care, or like me forgot
about it with time, or just finally gave in to both the sweetness of breads
and cereals, and the idea we need them to be well, here's how Dr. Eades got
on an unorthodox path of treating excess weight and high blood fats.
Back then, he was busy practising general medicine. Some of his patients
needed to lose weight and improve their cholesterol and blood fat numbers.
He'd had his own experience with that goal, and had done what most people do
with diets: lose a few pounds and then put them back on. Then he started
thinking seriously about obesity as a medical problem, and turned to his
medical school biochemistry and physiology textbooks to trace out the
pathways of fat storage. He found insulin was a common denominator, assumed
his on-again off-again battle of the bulge was the result of high insulin
levels and set out fix the problem by sharply restricting his carbohydrate
intake. It worked.
But he'd been taught well in medical school: dietary cholesterol and
saturated fats lead to heart disease. Not wanting to bring harm to his
patients, he wasn't sure about sharing the path of his success with his
patients. Then came a 32-year-old patient he calls Angie. Her total
cholesterol was 374, her triglycerides 2080. But as a young pre-menopausal
female, she would have been considered low risk for heart disease, so,
somewhat nervously, he put her on a sharply reduced carbohydrate diet and
gave her his beeper number. Three weeks later, her abdominal pain and nausea
were gone, she'd lost nine pounds, and her total cholesterol was down to 292,
her triglycerides to 149.
A few more similar experiences, some even more dramatic than Angie's, and
Protein Power was born. And then heavily criticized. But it was too effective
to go away.
Had Dr. Eades been dependent on research funding for his work, I'm guessing
he would have, like so many with hypotheses that run counter to the
orthodoxy, disappeared from view. But he was in private practice and too many
of his patients were finally succeeding in winning their health back. So
despite the opposition, his practice thrived, his books continued to sell and
those who learn about metabolic syndrome through his writings continue to
find hope, and health.
Most of us though—either unaware of another option, or not convinced of
its safety, or under pressure from our doctors to avoid dietary saturated
fats, or unwilling to radically alter eating habits—resign ourselves to
middle-aged middles, and to the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs to deal
with heart disease risk factors. And despite our interventions, our
collective weight, heart disease casualties and statin-induced vitamin D
deficiencies (and their accompanying bone and muscle deterioration,
compromised immune function, cancers and heart disease) continue to
rise.
All of which seems senseless when you consider that cholesterol is vital to
good health, that mortality risk with a cholesterol reading below 140 is as
great a risk as one above 240, that the range blood cholesterol naturally
falls into on diets high in proteins and saturated fats and low in
carbohydrates is the range that presents the lowest risk for heart disease,
and that blood cholesterol becomes dangerous to our arteries only when it is
oxidized by a shortage of antioxidants or an excess of insulin.
Excess weight and/or heart disease aren't always the result of eating poorly
and being prone to lying on the couch. They are conditions very often present
in active, diet-conscious people living by the Canada Food Guide. And
the underlying metabolic condition is one that tends to respond beautifully
to carbohydrate restriction. Thank-you Dr. Eades, for permitting your
patients to teach you, and for caring enough to go back to the drawing board.
V
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