----- "Nicole Markee" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
> On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 12:45 PM, David Harrison <[log in to unmask]>wrote: 
> 
> > You are correct. I didn't know that Pennington was mentioned in "Good 
> > Calories , Bad Calories." Anchell is restrictive in the types of carbs. 
> 
> 
> The allowed carbs are: yam, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, grapes, 
> watermelon, grapefruit, banana, pears, raspberries and blue berries. Only 
> one choice and only a "moderate portion." They do seem pretty arbitrary, 
> but thousands of people have lost weight on the diet, after all. 
> 
> 
> > He 
> > doesn't have a very good explanation of why those carbs work. He is going 
> > on clinical experience that they do work. My experience agrees with what he 
> > writes. 
> > 
> 
> I think he says something about pyruvate. It didn't really fit with 
> anything else I know about nutrition, but that doesn't mean it's wrong. It 
> just didn't make sense to me. 

I once lost a lot of weight on his diet. I think the pyruvate theory, which was Pennington's idea, is just wrong. 

I've been following the "Perfect Health Diet" blog, after reading the book recently (see http://perfecthealthdiet.com/). This is not primarily a weight loss diet, nor is it paleo. But the authors, Paul and Shou-Ching Jaminet, are indefatigable researchers, and have a lot of interesting ideas. One of their ideas, which I don't yet accept as particularly well supported, is that it is indeed possible to experience "carbohydrate deficiency." They point out that glucose is used in the body not only as fuel but also in the production of mucin, the glycoprotein in mucus. They also favor quite low protein intake, to stimulate regular periods of autophagy. They argue that most people need a minimum of about 150 g/day of protein plus glucose, and they prefer about 50 g protein and 100 g glucose. Recognizing that fructose is toxic in anything but small doses, they prefer to get the glucose from "safe starches" (i.e., gluten-free, low-lectin). Their "safe starches" are precisely the ones that Anchell lists, with the added caveat that white rice is preferred (low in lectins and anti-nutrients, compared to brown). The non-starch foods on Anchell's list are mostly (but not all) fairly low in fructose, especially the berries and grapefruit. Still, if you look at this table: http://www.thepaleodiet.com/nutritional_tools/fruits_table.html -- you can see that bananas, grapes, and pears are higher. Maybe the way to make the Anchell diet work best would be simply to have a low daily fructose limit, and choose non-starches accordingly. 

Todd Moody