You may remember Walter Willett from about this time last year, when Gary Taubes took him to task on the pages of Discover for promoting sloppy science. His piece included an excoriating indictment of Willett’s work, agenda and track record:
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A Low Carbohydrate, Ketogenic Diet Manual – Eric Westman

A Low Carbohydrate, Ketogenic Diet Manual – Eric Westman
Browse on Amazon!
It’s a small book, so this will be a brief review. Just how small it is may, in fact, surprise you though. It’s all of 24 pages in length, including disclaimers, table of contents, etc… Anything this brief will by necessity keep things to the bare minimum, especially when tackling a subject as complex as obesity and the ketogenic diet.
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Noam Chomsky and The Most Lethal Substance Known to Man
Looks like Noam Chomsky is clued in to the dangers of sugar. Check out the 35 second mark of his talk, where he compares the lethality of marijuana vs. tobacco vs. sugar:
Nothing new for anyone likely to be reading this site, but it’s nice to see that this is understood by big thinkers like Noam.
Thanks go out to @garytaubes, who noted this back in April (and I’m just now getting around to seeing…
Dr. Eric Westman Debates T. Colin Campbell
You know T. Colin Campbell from his famous China Study (or perhaps you know him because of Denise Minger’s excoriating analysis of it). And of course, Eric Westman needs no introductions in these quarters… So it was with great anticipation that I’ve waited for the chance to watch their debate.
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Preview of Peter Attia’s TEDMED 2013 Talk
Peter Attia’s TEDMED 2013 talk has been given some great reviews, but we’re going to take some time before it’s available on video. Until then, we have a teaser video that covers his own prejudism against the overweight and obese as a young(er) doctor. He tended to blame his overweight patients for their weight related diseases, and he remarks how fundamentally different this was to how he treated his other patients.
At any rate, here’s a couple minute of what looks to be a very engaging talk. Let’s see if it tides us over…
Gary Taubes On The Science of Obesity In The British Medical Journal
Today a new article by Gary Taubes was published in the British Medical Journal. It’s entitled, “The science of obesity: what do we really know about what makes us fat?“, and it’s a good one.
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NuSi Awarded $40-Million In Research Funding
The Arnold Foundation, which previously granted NuSi $5-million in seed money, has donated an additional $40-million to conduct three experiments examining the relationship between nutrition and disease. According to a press release not (yet?) available on the NuSi site, these experiments will be run across six universities/research institutions over the next three years.
Can’t wait to read about the study designs here…
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Musings On Sugar Consumption and Fruity Pebbles
Yesterday I posted a video from a Robert Lustig presentation where a woman who claimed to be a former brand manager for Fruity Pebbles spoke, in tears, about how parents in the focus groups she attended felt good about feeding their children Fruity Pebbles because they liked the idea of giving their kids fruit in the morning.
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Former Brand Manager for Kraft Breaks Down In Tears At Lustig Presentation
There’s no doubt that Robert Lustig has a powerful (though not new) message, and he’s gaining an increasingly broad audience for his message. More and more people are making the connection between excess sugar (carbohydrate) consumption and obesity, disease and ill health.
Still, what happens at this event is striking. Lustig takes a question from a woman who claims to be a former brand manager for Kraft1 who worked on Fruity Pebbles cereal. She breaks down in tears as she confesses to sitting in focus groups and hearing parents of children report that they feed their kids Fruity Pebbles in the morning because they feel good about giving their children fruit first thing in the morning.
Ahhh, marketing…
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More Research On Fish Oil
This is just going to be a quickie, but I need to get to it before I lose it: New research out of the Harvard School of Public Health finds that,
Older adults who have higher blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids—found almost exclusively in fatty fish and seafood—may be able to lower their overall mortality risk by as much as 27% and their mortality risk from heart disease by about 35%, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of Washington. (HSPH News)