The theory that cholesterol directly causes heart disease is like a turd that won’t flush. Cardiologists moved on years ago to suspect inflammation. But many general physicians, high profile doctors (like Dr. Oz) and the media continue to spread misinformation. Well not anymore!

Dr. Mark Hyman, wrote a great article Why Cholesterol May Not Be the Cause of Heart Disease which nicely explains what the latest research shows. By itself, it’s not terribly interesting considering the research showing that the cholesterol theory is wrong is 5-10 years old. However Dr. Hyman is a recurring guest on the Dr. Oz show. It’s encouraging to hear high profile people, who can reach a wide audience and change our national understanding of the issue, acknowledge what some of us have been saying for years: fat doesn’t cause heart disease but sugar sure does!

He also makes very clear that statins are NOT the answer for protecting yourself from heart disease:

• If you lower bad cholesterol (LDL) but have a low HDL (good cholesterol) there is no benefit to statins.
• If you lower bad cholesterol (LDL) but don’t reduce inflammation (marked by a test called C-reactive protein), there is no benefit to statins.
• If you are a healthy woman with high cholesterol, there is no proof that taking statins reduces your risk of heart attack or death.
• If you are a man or a woman over 69 years old with high cholesterol, there is no proof that taking statins reduces your risk of heart attack or death.
• Aggressive cholesterol treatment with two medications (Zocor and Zetia) lowered cholesterol much more than one drug alone, but led to more plaque build up in the arties and no fewer heart attacks.
• 75% of people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol.
• Older patients with lower cholesterol have higher risks of death than those with higher cholesterol.
• Countries with higher average cholesterol than Americans such as the Swiss or Spanish have less heart disease.
• Recent evidence shows that it is likely statins’ ability to lower inflammation it what accounts for the benefits of statins, not their ability to lower cholesterol.

So for whom do the statin drugs work for anyway? They work for people [men] who have already had heart attacks to prevent more heart attacks or death.

So there you go. Print this out as ammunition the next time your doctor tries to get you to take a statin.

I have been having a rough time with my diet lately. After being stalled out since June, I started seeing a bariatric physician in November who put me on a 1,200 calorie diet. He has also been encouraging me to bring my carbs up from 20g/day to 50g/day, all from fibrous vegetables. So far I have lost 5 lbs but I am very sure that’s due to lowering my progesterone dose, not the diet changes.

I love being a living example that calories in / calories out doesn’t work.

My fasting blood sugar has come up a bit, from about 75-85 to 85-100 but my post meal values are all still good. The biggest difference is that I have been experiencing more hunger and cravings than ever before since I started my low-carb diet a year ago. This level of calorie restriction just isn’t working for me.

I was able to battle my hunger for a little over a month and now … I have completely failed. I do alright in the morning but as the day goes on I end up gobbling up whatever food I can find. Whole chocolate bars, 5x my normal amount of nuts or my personal best … today I had a chocolate peanut butter sundae from Oberweis in a chocolate dipped waffle cone with sidecar hazelnut chocolate truffle.

What’s the point of trying to stick to 1,200 calories when I inevitably fail and end up overeating sugar? I would rather be honest that I need 1,700 and get it from extra steak and homemade coconut oil chocolates.

But wait! It’s not all doom and gloom. What inspired me to post this is that when I tested my blood sugar after my binge today, it wasn’t horrible! Months ago if I had even 50g of carbs, it would spike me to 160+. Today the highest it went was 125, though it did stay there for a couple hours. Maybe it’s just that I had tons of fat to go along with my carbs but I would like to think that my pancreas or insulin resistance has improved a bit.

Summary: Calories don’t count and my pancreas is feeling perky lately.

Many people new to low-carbing are pretty quick to hunt down low-carb “look-a-likes” and the most infamous is Dreamfields pasta. They claim it’s only 5 digestible carbohydrates while most diabetics quickly realized that it seems to raise their blood sugar just as much as regular pasta.

Jimmy Moore recently blogged about this and what was most interesting was the explanation of how Dreamfields figures that a pasta containing the same amount of wheat as normal pasta has only 5 digestible carbs. If everything works “perfectly”, perhaps the number is accurate but mostly it’s just unreliable.

In short, they mix the flour with indigestible fiber (think Metamucil) so that the fiber and gluten coat the starch, protecting it from your stomach and small intestine. Then it is broken down and eaten by the bacteria in your large intestine.

Even if it worked as claimed (as it clearly doesn’t, just read Jimmy’s post), I am not at all sure wrapping up starch in a pretty fiber ribbon and delivering it to the bacteria in your large intestine is a great idea. My guess is that it would contribute to an overgrowth of harmful bacterial which can give you painful gas, constipation, heartburn, weaken your immune system, etc.

Instead of looking for substitutions for my old carby favorites, I have found greater success by simply embracing the foods that I can eat. When you switch from a low-fat / high-carb diet to a low-carb / high-fat diet, a whole new world of food is opened up to you. Enjoy the previously forbidden (mmm bacon!) and don’t look back.

On Dr. William Davis’s blog, Wheat Belly, there is a new post by an ex-wheat farmer, Keith Lewis, that I found very interesting. Regardless of how you feel about gluten and wheat, I would hope we all agree that people consuming the weed killer Roundup is a bad idea.

I have been a wheat farmer for 50 yrs and one wheat production practice that is very common is applying the herbicide Roundup (glyposate) just prior to harvest. Roundup is licensed for preharvest weed control. Monsanto, the manufacturer of Roundup claims that application to plants at over 30% kernel moisture result in roundup uptake by the plant into the kernels. Farmers like this practice because Roundup kills the wheat plant allowing an earlier harvest. … This practice is not licensed. Farmers mistakenly call it “dessication.” Consumers eating products made from wheat flour are undoubtedly consuming minute amounts of Roundup. An interesting aside, malt barley which is made into beer is not acceptable in the marketplace if it has been sprayed with preharvest Roundup. Lentils and peas are not accepted in the market place if it was sprayed with preharvest roundup….. but wheat is ok.. This farming practice greatly concerns me and it should further concern consumers of wheat products.

I found this study, Residues of glyphosate and its metabolite AMPA in wheat seed and foliage following preharvest applications (PDF) which does show that when Roundup (glyphosate) is used on wheat, there are measurable amounts in the finished product. If they do it “right”, i.e. spray the correct amount at the correct rate when the seeds are at the correct maturity level and the weather is right, then the amount that ends up in the food is within “acceptable” levels.

mmm acceptable levels of weed killer … yum!

One of the hallmarks of many role-playing games is the concept of min-maxing a character, carefully selecting your abilities to optimize gameplay. Or maybe you weren’t a huge nerd in high school, playing board games in your boyfriend’s basement…

That’s okay! Believe it or not, you are still playing the min-max game. Otherwise you wouldn’t be reading health blogs! Do any of these questions sound familiar?

• Do green beans count as legumes if I am avoiding phytates?
• Should I avoid dairy to reduce my insulin?
• Should I eat before or after I workout?
• Should I eat X before bedtime to reduce my fasting blood sugar?
• Should I start taking random supplement X?

While these are fun to think about, they are all minor compared to other diet and lifestyle changes. To help put things in perspective, I have created a new game, Dungeons and Dragons: Nutrition Edition. Let’s start out by selecting our character’s attributes.

* These are just made up and in no way imply that one is better than the other for everyone.

Now how would you go about customizing your character if you could only choose 3? That should be easy, just pick the ones with the most points, right?

Then why am I regularly asked about phytates from people who still eat donuts? Why do some people reject all the concepts of paleo simply because grass-fed meat is expensive? Why do I see diabetics worrying about diet soda instead of the oatmeal they had for breakfast?

My point is that there is a ton of information on nutrition and health. I love the concept of optimal health as much as anyone. I’m addicted to the inane factoids I pick up on the internet. But I shouldn’t get bogged down in the details when I still haven’t mastered the basics.

Make a list of the changes you have made so far, what you haven’t gotten around to yet or only do “some of the time”. Assign each one a point value and start “min/max”-ing your game!