| Spring-Summer
2004• Volume XIII, Number 2-3
Regaining Perspectives about Health and Illness
By Neal D. Barnard, M.D., president of PCRM
In recent months, carbophobia has swept North America. It began
with a July 7, 2002, New York Times Magazine cover story entitled,
“What If It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?” The article
encouraged readers to forget about the risks of steak, fried chicken,
and other fatty foods and instead blame America’s obesity
epidemic on bread or pasta. Since then, many other magazines, newspapers,
and broadcast programs have enthusiastically embraced anyone ready
to turn crackers and croutons into new nutritional scapegoats. Journalists
and the public developed a sudden amnesia about the dangers of fat,
cholesterol, and animal protein.
Never mind that carbohydrates have fewer than half the calories
of chicken fat, beef fat, or even olive oil. Or that Asians and
vegetarians dining on rice, noodles, and other carbohydrate-rich
foods are the thinnest people in the world. Forget the fact that
meat-eaters have higher cholesterol levels, more heart attacks,
higher blood pressure, and substantially higher cancer rates than
vegetarians. Carbophobia has been a goldmine for makers of high-protein
snack bars, low-carb beer, and, of course, low-carb fad diet books.
Fast-food joints have cashed in, too, pushing bunless hunks of ground
beef wrapped in lettuce—with even more calories than their
original offerings.
Of course, the truth has come out about low-carb diets. The weight
loss they may cause is not due to any magical property of a carbohydrate-free
diet. While low-carb diet books go on about appetite-suppressing
ketones—chemicals that form in the blood as fat is metabolized—careful
studies have shown that ketosis is unrelated to weight loss. Rather,
when your calories drop, you lose weight. That is to say, a dieter
who eats only the burger and skips the bun gets fewer calories.
The same dieter would cut calories just as well—better, in
fact—by throwing away the burger and eating the bun instead.
Low-carb diets do not trim waistlines any more effectively than
low-fat, vegetarian diets do and are dramatically inferior at controlling
cholesterol levels. Indeed, they often make cholesterol levels worsen.
In this issue, we look at evidence that the late Dr. Robert Atkins,
the leading low-carb proponent, hid the truth about his own ill
health in order to cast an undeservedly favorable light on the diet
he promoted.
If the low-carb trend is based on shaky science, where is it leading?
A population that has learned to ignore the risks of saturated fat
and cholesterol is not headed for permanent weight control. It is
moving toward worsening epidemics of colon and breast cancer, diabetes,
high blood pressure, and heart disease.
It is a costly mistake. Forfeiting what we know about the nutritional
causes of disease, we pin our hopes on laboratory and clinical research
to try to “solve” our escalating health problems. Pharmaceutical
manufacturers will commit billions of dollars, millions of animals,
and thousands of human research subjects to develop and test more
powerful drugs to control our cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood
sugar levels. While drugs were once viewed as treatments to be used
only temporarily while the patient healed, they have now edged out
diet and lifestyle measures as first-line treatments and preventive
measures.
But, even while we recognize these unhelpful trends in health and
medicine, there is good news, too. In this issue we look at an emerging
ray of hope within the research enterprise. A surprisingly large
number of health and research charities have signed on to the Humane
Charity Seal of Approval. These charities tackle medical problems
using modern research methods and clinical services of which they
and their donors can feel proud. The Seal also allows donors to
influence the research process itself by selecting the kinds of
research-funding organizations they support.
The key now is to bring renewed attention to the real causes of
disease and to focus treatment-oriented research on the best and
most ethical methods. In so doing, we really can revolutionize health.
Neal D. Barnard, M.D., president of PCRM
 
Neal D. Barnard, M.D.
president of PCRM
|
Barnard Receives WISDOM WorldView Award
PCRM President Neal Barnard, M.D., was among 25 recipients
presented with the WISDOM WorldView Award from WISDOM Media
Group, which was created to respond to the country’s
booming appetite for information about personal growth, alternative
medicine, social consciousness, and global issues. The award
honored Dr. Barnard’s “leadership in the advocacy
of healthier lifestyles through nutrition and prevention.” |
 |
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