The Diet Detective feeds us bad information about food, fat and weight loss

I generally look forward to reading Stuart Platkin’s column in the Wednesday Reno Gazette-Journal. I think most of his information is pretty common-sense and reasonably reliable. The column where he interviews well-known science writer Gary Taubes left me scratching my head.

Jeeze, have I been wrong all along about the Atkins Diet? Do I really need to start avoiding all bread and pasta - even the healthy whole grain versions? Eat more bacon? There have been rumblings …. hmmm.

Never one to just take anything at face value, I started doing a bit of homework and came across a pretty damning analysis of Mr. Taubes reporting by the folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Yikes. They interviewed the same experts that Taubes interviewed - and deconstructed the Taubes position on weight loss and why we’re so fat, point by point by point.

It sounded like the experts on obesity and weight-loss that Taubes interviewed were ready to organize a lynch party for Taubes. They claimed to have been grossly mis-quoted, taken out of context and casually mis-represented in, of all places, The New York Times. I’d be angry too. Oh, wait. I was taken out of context and mis-represented in the international media. Yeah. I was really angry.

The original article at issue: “What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?”

The CSPI article: “Big Fat Lies”

Then there is a Knight Science Journalism rebuttal by Taubes in an interview with MIT reporter, Martha Henry: “Gary Taubes - What if It’s all Been a Big Fat Lie?”

Just to add to the confusion: FatHead , a blog that supposedly debunks all the Morgan Spurlock type fear of fats and McDonalds. Not helpful.

WTF? Where does the ever vigilant Maven come down in all of this?

Firmly on the side of Marion Nestle and Michael Pollan. Eat food. Eat a wide variety of simple, healthful foods. Eschew junk/faux/overly processed/highly refined/subsidized foods. Eat like our great-grandparents ate. Let the scientists fight it out, parsing one isolated nutrient against another.

“My approach to conflicting research?  I look for points of agreement. The authors cited here do not disagree about the basic principles of healthful diets: variety in food intake, moderation in calories, largely plant-based (although not necessarily exclusively), and minimally processed.  Eat according to those principles and you do not have to worry about nutritional details.

All of that boils down to the advice I propose in What to Eat: eat less, move more, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, and don’t eat too much junk food.

Let the scientists and their interpreters fight it out over single nutrients.  Eat food and enjoy your dinner.” Marion Nestle, Food Politics

I think that’s really good advice. We’ve done a real number on food. We’ve bastardized it beyond all recognition in our faux factory food, additive laden, highly government subsidized, corn-belt culture and then want to parse every single element to tell us what to eat, when, with what…. blah, blah, blah.

What utter horse shit.

This doesn’t have to be this difficult to understand. Mr. Taubes isn’t doing anybody any favors by his articles, either. He merely muddies the waters by pitting one scientist against another in a fruitless ‘he said/she said’ war of food words. Stuart Platkin, The Diet Detective, failed to add any clarity to a difficult topic.

What does this boil down to? We consume too many calories and move too little. When we do consume calories, they are too often comprised of highly refined garbage posing as ‘food’. This crap is designed in laboratories to appeal to the evolutionary triggers that will guarantee the corporate masters that we will eat this crap … repeatedly. It’s good for the bottom line.

Look at my previous post about the Worst Restaurant Offenders of 2010. This is the great corporate food experiment at work. You are the guinea pig. Your local grocery store is pulling the same great scam on you every time you venture very far from the ‘perimeter’ of the store - AKA the fruits, veggies, fresh dairy and meat. When you trod through those aisles of processed garbage, you might as well be on the treadmill in the lab with the rest of the white lab rats.

When you sit in front of the tee-vee, and those sophisticated food commercials play across your consciousness, you’re being primed to take a cruise through the kitchen during the next commercial break. It’s so easy to get a ‘little snack’. A few Doritos won’t hurt. Right? This might be one reason I blog. It keeps me at the computer, where I control the images I see. I know that I don’t feel nearly as hungry between meals when I’m not watching tee-vee.

Look, there’s been a lot of research that has shown obvious connections between highly saturated fats - those which come mostly from animals, but also sources like coconut and palm oils - and disease. But too much of anything ain’t good. I’ve been on this ride so many times, I’m dizzy. I went extreme low fat and got fat - because I wasn’t eating a balanced diet. If you make extreme cuts in one place, you’ll just ramp it up in another, and possibly worse place. I’ve done no-carb and all the rest and as fighter pilots say when they can’t find the quarry “no joy”.

The ONLY thing that has worked for me: A balanced, highly diverse diet comprised of whole grains, a large percentage of fresh fruits and vegetables and modest amounts of animal products. Oils in moderation, avoiding the ‘tropical oils’ like palm and coconut, and the hydrogenated/transfat types.

I watch my portion sizes VERY carefully. I eat like my grandmother ate - birdlike. More than a half sandwich at lunch is unusual. Like a lady. Moderately. In control. Think Jackie Kennedy Onassis. I don’t eat between meals. And I move. A lot. I have a full life beyond food, but when I sit down to food, I make sure it’s whole real food. Food that isn’t advertised on tee-vee. And I really enjoy it. In moderation.

Here’s the secret: real food, well-prepared satisfies. You will have had enough with a little. Eat crap posing as food, and you’ll always want too much.

That ain’t rocket science. It’s just real life, sans goofy diet detectives.

-maven