High fat low carb diets: The jury obtains additional evidence

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Health 0 Comment

A recent “discussion” between Tim Noakes and an eminent cardiologist on 702 WTT [8th August 2014] during which Noakes was accused of “being criminal” brought this issue to the forefront again. What does the latest research reveal regarding this debate?

Conventional wisdom decrees that fat is bad for one’s health and if one so much as lets a glob of fat past one’s lips, one is liable to suffer from high cholesterol and die. The eating of all forms of fat including eggs, cream and fat on meat was not only eschewed, it was verboten. If any product had .005% less fat than a standard product, it would have the words low fat emblazoned all over it as if even such a miniscule reduction in imbibing fat would be beneficial.

Main picture: Tim Noakes

Continue reading

Dieting: The Fat Debate

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Health 0 Comment

Studies reveal that 95%+ of people who diet never lose weight permanently. Fat which was previously vilified is now the redeemer.

The startling headline of this weeks’ Time Magazine reads: Eat Butter. Scientists labelled Fat the Enemy. Why they were wrong.

What a volte facie? What a heresy. Two generations of medical personnel will have to unlearn their mantra: Fat is bad. Fat will kill you.

Not surprisingly, we each have our own stories of our odyssey in this saga.

Continue reading

Aspartame: Is it Detrimental to One’s Health?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Health 0 Comment

A Personal View –  May 2014

Aspartame is an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener used as a sugar substitute in some foods and beverages. After being first synthesized in 1965, it was initially sold under the brand name NutraSweet. After the patent expired in 1992 the consumption has increased exponentially.

Since the sixties there has been a consistent campaign of vilification based on the premise that it results in cancer formation, neurological problems and migraines. All of the claims are based on anecdotal evidence which has never been substantiated in the hundreds of tests performed since the sixties.

Continue reading

The Diet Delusion – An in-depth scientific investigation into dieting

By Dean McCleland in Books, Health 0 Comment

Rating: 5 out of 5

This book is not for the faint-hearted. Like a defence advocate in a trial, in the book The Diet Delusion Gary Taubes builds his case against the accepted wisdom on dieting from the very first scientific test on the efficacy of various diets way back in the 1860s.

Prior to this time, diets & dieting was not considered at all as all contemporary photos will attest. All people of the period were slim with nary an ounce of fat bodies to be seen in any photos. It is only with the advent of the 1950s that the phenomena of obesity started to rear its head to become the epidemic that it is now.

Continue reading