From the Dr. McDougall e-mail list: “A study, published in the July 17, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, has generated headlines that may lead the casual reader to believe that a low-carbohydrate (animal-food based) diet is the healthy, effective way to lose weight and a low-fat, plant-food based diet, like the McDougall diet, is not. The diet they called “low fat” was the American Heart Association Diet – a diet of 30% fat with 300 mg of cholesterol daily. The diet I recommend is 7% fat with no cholesterol.

The Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Research Foundation funded the study.

The full study can be read here: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/359/3/229.pdf

This is another case of purposeful deception, publicized widely in order to confuse the public—keeping the status quo. There will be an economic windfall for a variety of industries with an increase in sales of meats, dairy products, cholesterol-lowering statins, and angioplasties. Consumers will pay with worse health, rising medical bills, higher food costs, and an increase in environmental pollution. (emphasis mine)

This was a 2-year trial of 322 moderately obese (about 200 pounds or 91 Kg), mostly men, randomly assigned to follow a low-fat, restricted-calorie; a Mediterranean, restricted-calorie; or a low-carbohydrate, non–restricted-calorie regime. The mean weight losses were 7.26, 10.12, and 12.1 pounds (3.3 Kg, 4.6 Kg, and 5.5 Kg), respectively. There was little change in cholesterol levels (LDL-cholesterol changes were -0.5, -5.6, and -3 mg/dL, respectively).

At our live-in program the average weight loss for moderately overweight people in 7 days is 4.5 pounds (2 Kg)—while eating without limit from a delicious buffet of foods. And the average reduction in total cholesterol is 25 mg/dL.

McDougall talks about the four obstacles to following the McDougall Diet:

• Change is difficult: “People are always amazed by how many of their incurable ills are fixed after only a few days of eating right. They are equally surprised by how forcefully their problems return when they slide back into their old ways.”
• McDougall is not about vegetables: “The primary purpose of eating is to obtain life-giving energy. This is accomplished safely only by whole plant foods plentiful in carbohydrates. These special plant foods are known as starches.”
• Failure to appreciate the body’s efficiency: “Give up the nuts, seeds, cold-pressed olive oil, dried fruits, refined flours, and all the other rich treats you have been pampering yourself with since your gave up meat and dairy. Right, they are all vegan (not from an animal), and even more holy, they are mostly “raw.” But they are still “calorie bombs,” which are guaranteed to stop weight loss and cause fat gain.”
• No one responsible is fixing your food: “The cost of doing nothing could be as expensive as a $100,00 heart bypass operation. Now does that make financial sense to a businessperson like yourself?”

There’s a new McDougall DVD coming out soon, all about protein, soy and fish. Should be good, look for a review in the future.

Recipes from the McDougall Celebrity Chef Weekend include a lot of gems, such as Vietnamese-Style Stuffed Grape Leaves, Easy Macaroni and Cheeze, Red Lentil and Bulgur Salad Balls in Lettuce Cups with Creamy Basil Dressing, and No-Bake Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pie.

Congratulations to the most recent Star McDougaler, Mary Splady: “People often tell me that they could not do what I do because they love to eat. Well, I really love to eat too, and that is what first led me to become vegetarian, then vegan. In counting calories, I quickly figured out that I would rather eat a big bowl of cauliflower than a small piece of meat. It is really quite simple: Vegetables are not as calorie dense, and therefore I can eat more of them.”

The PCRM is asking for people to sign its petition to ask the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration to investigate the true cause of the recent salmonella outbreaks, the meat industry: “Contaminated produce is only the last link in a chain that begins with the meat industry. It is essential for consumers to know that burgeoning meat consumption has caused a massive overproduction of chickens, cows, pigs, and other animals, leading to unprecedented production of feces that end up in rivers, streams, and irrigation water, and contaminate otherwise healthful produce. Salmonella are intestinal organisms. Needless to say, tomatoes and peppers do not have an intestinal tract. When feces end up in irrigation water, salmonella can contaminate the surfaces of plants and can apparently pass into their rootlets, ending up inside produce. Infectious bacteria from animal feces also contaminate agricultural fields, workers’ hands, retail shelves, and kitchen surfaces.”

New study predicts that almost 90 Percent of Americans will be overweight or obese by 2030: “A new study in Obesity shows that if the steady increases in the prevalence of overweight and obesity continue through the year 2030, 86.3 percent of adults will be overweight or obese, the prevalence of childhood overweight will double, and 1 of every 6 health care dollars will be used to pay for overweight and obesity-related costs. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health based these projections on trends from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES) data collected over the past three decades. By 2030, the prevalence among African American women and Mexican American men will be 96.9 percent and 91.1 percent, respectively. If trends continue unchecked, 100 percent of American adults will be classified as overweight or obese by 2048.” (Source: PCRM)

And the verdict is still in on the link between diet and Type-2 diabetes: “Three long-term studies published in Archives of Internal Medicine show how food choices lead to type 2 diabetes. Researchers at Boston University followed 43,960 African American women over 10 years, and found that type 2 diabetes developed more often among those who consumed more sweetened beverages. Researchers at Addenbrook’s Hospital in Cambridge, England, found that higher plasma vitamin C levels and greater consumption of fruits and vegetables were associated with a lower incidence of type 2 diabetes among 21,831 adults followed over 12 years. A third article, from Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, Seattle, found that among 48,835 Women’s Health Initiative participants, women assigned to a low-fat diet trended toward a reduced disease incidence, which authors attributed to weight loss.” (Source: PCRM)