Yes, Dr. Lustig, I really NEEEED to be this extreme

What?  Where do people come up with this?

Dr. Lustig is on the soapbox again, with a weird new piece on dieting.  Here's an interesting quote: 

"All successful diets share three precepts: low sugar, high fiber (which means high micronutrients), and fat and carbohydrate consumed together in the presence of an offsetting amount of fiber. Anything after that is window dressing."

I guess he gleaned all that information out of Dr. Gardner's A to Z study, which showed the Atkins diet to be the most successful.   Despite the fact that the Atkins diet doesn't require one to take great pains to be sure that they are mixing their fat and carbohydrate together in the correct ratio that Dr. Lustig inadequately specifies, I am sure Dr. Gardner managed to sneak that part into his study, and that is the sole reason for the superior results on Atkins over the Ornish, Zone and "Mediterranean" diets.

Could it be that the Atkins dieters achieved results by eating all that window dressing?  Nom, nom, hope the dressing was high fat, or at least from the window frame instead of the glass, providing as much of the fat-melting woody fiber as you could get from a piece of industrial high-fiber bread back when you were eating it.  Hey, chopsticks anyone?

Dr. Lustig thinks we shouldn't be so extreme as to embrace the Atkins diet.  Why?  Hey, cause there's no MILK, he says!  No milk, no vitamin D!!  That is because all the cheese that those stooopid low carb jihadists are eating on the Atkins diet must have had all the vitamin D removed or never added.  But somehow, the Paleo Diet (OK, where's my trademark key on this font??) gets a free hall pass, even though it specifically bans the essential food, even during the "ongoing weight loss" part of the diet.

Newsflash Dr. Lustig!  The Atkins diet does not ban milk.  The Paleo diet does. Now, which is more extreme?  Oh, by the way, lets take a look at all the REAL foods that people on the Atkins diet are eating that contain vitamin D.  If you follow the above link, you will see a list of really great foods that are staples of the diets my friends on Atkins eat. (Personally, I eat epi-paleo, an even more extreme diet. No Vitamin D there, either.)  You will also notice that the list contains a sprinkling of foods that are usually not high on the list for Atkins or Paleo.  Things like FORTIFIED milk, FORTIFIED soymilk, FORTIFIED cereals, etc.

Hey wait a minute!  FORTIFIED MILK??????  What Dr. Lustig is telling us to do is to be careful about "extreme" diets that contain really great sources of vitamin D, and recommends diets that contain vitamin D supplements instead.  How about a gob of FORTIFIED margarine with that FORTIFIED cereal?  When did this form of fake eating become not only typical, but preferred?  Just because it is typical doesn't mean it is optimal.

Dr. Lustig ends with this:

"All real food is inherently good. It's what we do to it that is bad. Food processing is the Mr. Hyde of the obesity pandemic. The way to reverse it is to do the opposite, to stop altering food and instead consume it in its natural state." 

Great idea, but I am pretty sure that doesn't include drinking altered milk products.


Here's my advice for Dr. Lustig, if he really wants to navigate through the diet mess.  First, read some of the clinical studies.  Second, learn a bit about biochemistry and human body systems.  I have stated recently on another blog that I am not a biochemist, but even I know that fiber is that stuff that goes through your intestines without getting broken down.  Micronutrients are nutrients you need in small quantities.  These are two different things.  High fiber doesn't necessarily provide a high number of micronutrients like Lustig contends.