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Hi All,
I assume that the list owners are in favor of the current debate about low
carb (or high protein, high fat) diets, since the thread just continues and
continues.  Most of  the posters are preaching the complex carb creed.

The difficulty with lining up on either side of the debate is that there is
solid scientific evidence to support whatever position one takes on it.
Some studies report problems with saturated fats, while others report huge
health benefits. The problem I'm having is with the one-sided perspective
(or is that a lack of perspective?).

One poster insists that high fat diets lead to elevated LDL cholesterol.
This is a commonly held perspective, but there is considerable debate of
that issue in the medical literature, and cholesterol levels are no longer
believed to be very good predictors of cardiac incident. (Currently,
homocysteine is recognized as one of the better predictors.)

The same poster says that she wants to see the studies that support the low
carb diet.  Well, I would like to suggest that she peruse the peer reviewed
medical literature.  There are a number of articles, published over the
last 75 years, that report health benefits from such diets.  The earliest
I'm aware of arose out of Vilhjalmur Stefanson's experience of living with
the Inuit on the north coast of Canada.  He asserted the good health of
these people who survived and even thrived, in one of the most hostile
climates in the world, eating a diet that was mostly comprised of meat and
fish.  Subsequent experiments with such diets were reported in the
literature.

The same poster admits that the Atkins diet does result in weight loss, but
asserts those who return to eating a high carb diet quickly gain weight
even beyond the point at which dieting was begun. Well, that looks like a
compelling case in favor of consuming fewer carbs on an ongoing basis.

As for the assertion that high fat diets are correlated with gall bladder
disease, there is a high incidence of gall bladder disease among untreated
celiac patients. Do remember that celiac disease is has long been
characterized as a condition of fat malabsorption. The light, floating
stools that formed part of the classical presentation of celiac disease
were the result of dietary fats not being absorbed. I suppose that one
could argue that the gall bladder disease in celiac disease is somehow
distinct from the gall bladder disease found in the general population, but
I'm not aware of any evidence to support such an argument.

Then there is the perspective that such diets increase the risk of cancer.
That is difficult to square with the positive results that have been
reported for trials of the ketogenic diet among cancer patients.  It seems
that such diets result in halting tumour growth, while avoiding the usual
trend of physical degeneration in the patient.

There was also the claim that diabetes, especially the non-insulin
dependent variety, was somehow caused or exacerbated by high fat intake.
Yet on June 15, 1999, Dr. James Hays, an endocrinologist and director of
the Limestone Medical Center in Wilmington, DE, presented the results of a
study of 157 men and women with type 2 diabetes showed an impressive
benefit in body mass index (BMI) triglycerides,  HDL, and LDL.

There is also some confusion about ketosis reflected in the following
statement:

> ketosis (this is a BAD thing - diabetics on insulin spend their
>lives AVOIDING deadly ketosis)

The poster appears to have confused ketoacidosis with ketosis.... a
significant error, which is countered by studies such as the one mentioned
above.

I'm not convinced that one diet fits all perspective will survive much
further research. I suspect that our dietary needs may be as individual as
we are. I have tried to look carefully at as much information as I can, and
I have arrived at some tentative dietary choices for myself. That does not
mean that I can or should assert the value of these choices for others.
While I am interested in other opinions, I'm not very interested in dogma
on the issue of diet.

best wishes,
Ron Hoggan
Calgary, Ab, Canada