This is not a column about political bias. In my
book that question has already been answered with a resounding “yes.” For any
readers still reading, I commend you for having an open mind, or at least being
curious about what a blog called “The Nutrition Debate” has to do with bias at
the Washington Post. The answer is:
Their food editor, Joe Yonan, has just “come out” with the announcement that he
has become a vegetarian. Now, I ask you, how can he not be biased? Okay, that’s
a rhetorical question. Of more interest to me – I being omnivorous – is this:
How long can he survive?
Let me be clear. I don’t mean how long can Joe Yonan
live (although that is a legitimate question); I mean how long can he keep his
job. The National Public Radio aired a piece on this on Weekend Edition on
March 9, 2013, and in the text version asked this same question in a more
provocative way, “Career Suicide or Lifesaver.” Written by Lydia Zuraw, the story
here is
largely based on the Scott Simon interview with Yonan, the Washington Post’s
food and travel editor.
Zuraw’s piece is also notable for pointing out that
the New York Times food columnist
Mark Bittman is about to publish a book, “VB6,” subtitle “Eat Vegan before 6:00
to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health…for Good.” Is this then just a case of
“copycat journalism”? Or is it the #2 liberal rag trying to get the jump on the
Old Grey Lady? To me, it just proves that both of these mainstream vehicles are
just as irrelevant in matters of food and health as they are in almost every
other aspect of our culture and politics. Sorry to rant off-topic, but news of
these two developments has been upsetting to me.
Together, these “conversions” by influential writers
in the mainstream print media will no doubt have an effect. I hope it “stirs
the pot” and the “Alternative Hypothesis” (low-carb, high-fat) rises to the top.
I have been encouraged recently by many developments, not least of which was my
wife coming home recently to tell me excitedly about “The People’s Pharmacy”
radio show on NPR, hosted by Joe and Terry Graedon. They quoted Walter Willett,
MD, PhD, Chairman of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard University’s School
of Public Health “, saying “It’s Not About the Fat.” Willett, lead researcher
on the hugely important Nurses’ Health Study, said on Harvard’s World Health
News, “We have found virtually no relationship between the percentage of
calories from fat and any important health outcomes.” He has also said that
dietary fat is not a major determinant of body fat and plays virtually no role
in obesity. Is anybody listening to this man, arguably the world’s most respected
epidemiological nutritionist?
That same week the Graedons announced they would
interview Jonny Bowden, PhD, and Stephen Sinatra, M.D. about their 2012 book
“The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won’t Prevent Heart
Disease – And the Statin-Free Plan That Will.” Bowden also released in 2013 his
new edition of “Living Low Carb.” Subtitle: “Controlled Carbohydrate Eating for
Long-Term Weight Loss.” I’ve recently read both and recommend them,
respectively, to people who aren’t yet convinced of the saturated
fat—cholesterol scam and those who want to learn about low-carb nutrition and
low-carb diet options. So, understandably I think, I was encouraged by these
forays into the mainstream media by the Alternative Hypothesis to healthy
eating that I and others of my ilk ascribe to and advocate.
I understand, I guess, “the hook” that vegetarianism
and even veganism has for some people. Their doctors tell them they are
starting to get “sick” (ironically on the Standard American Diet, prophetically
abbreviated SAD). And they don’t get
it yet that eating a low fat diet, that
is very high in carbohydrates, including wheat, fructose and Omega 6 vegetable
oils, is what is making them sick.
This is the unhealthy diet that our government(s) and “quasi-public” public
health establishments, and the entire “medical establishment” (associations that
sound like they are independent but were long ago co-opted by Big Ag and Big
Pharma, espouse. If you doubt that – if that sounds crazy to you – check out
their funding sources and constituent advisory board members. They are rife
with corruption and revolving door appointees.
“The hook” works when they realize that they are
getting “sick.” They know that they need to do something but not something too
radical. They can’t reject everything they have been told by their doctors (and
their doctors can’t disavow everything they’ve been taught for 50 years and we
all still get from the media). So, they are induced to try a change that has
lots of “feel good” ancillary benefits: “Easy, sustainable weight loss that not only improves
your health but can help the planet” with “wide-ranging
benefits—to the environment, the economy, and global health—of reducing our
consumption of meat and animal products….” This moral high ground is how his
publisher hopes to sell Bittman’s book.
Personally, I would rather make a decision about what to eat based on my own personal health. Alright,
call me a selfish individualist. But remember, Darwin: “Natural selection” and
“Survival of the fittest.” Science rules in my book, and I’m going by what’s been
shown to be best for my own health. Besides, it’s hard
for me to accept that bovine flatulence is responsible for 51% of the
greenhouse gasses on the planet, and that that
is responsible for global warming (“climate change”), the rising oceans, Sandy,
and 53 inches of snow in Boston this winter.
Is there any cataclysm on this planet for which Americans are not blamed?
Hugo Chavez’s cancer? Well, maybe that, if Chavez ate the Standard American
Diet.
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