Bias.

All lies and jest. Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. Here's a lovely song by Simon & Garfunkel.



I watched the Paranoia video from my last post a few times and I couldn't help but notice how balanced it was. The Labour party (Roy Jenkins) was praised, the Conservative party (Margaret Thatcher) was praised and capitalists (Rupert Murdoch) were praised. Nixon's politics were never mentioned. He was simply power-mad. The more power/influence/money that someone has, the more they have to lose and therefore the more distrustful & paranoid they become.

Since the Hutton Inquiry, the BBC has bent over backwards to appear balanced and impartial. There's probably still bias in it, but I can't see it. That's because I'm biased!

I see a lot of Confirmation bias. There are various theories out there which try to explain the recent huge rise in rates of obesity and morbid obesity, as these conditions are occurring in ever-younger people. Morbid obesity in childhood is a disaster, as it leads to fat mass hyperplasia, (rather than fat mass hypertrophy), which leads to hypoleptinaemia when significant fat mass is lost and a lifetime of low metabolic rate & excessive hunger.

There's Taubes' (Wrong) Insulin & Carbohydrate Theory Of Obesity, which makes the acronym TWICHOO.

There's Guyenet's Food Reward Theory Of Obesity, which doesn't make an acronym.

There are opposing camps of people who believe that one theory is right and the other is wrong, and they cherry-pick evidence to "prove" it. However, the two theories are not mutually exclusive. I believe that refined carbohydrates (and thus insulin) have a large influence on fat mass in people with poor blood glucose control, due to roller-coaster blood glucose & insulin levels causing lethargy and subsequent overeating. I believe that food reward has a large influence on fat mass, due to it causing overeating.

That's why I'm in favour of REAL food diets, as they reduce both blood glucose & insulin fluctuations and food reward. Please note that reward is not the same thing as deliciousness. Fries/chips aren't delicious but they are moreish. Real foods can be delicious without being moreish.

So, when & where did it all go wrong?

No, I'm not talking about Demand Five! I'm talking about us, modern man & woman. We have improved hygiene, clean water & food, modern medicine, anti-biotics, anti-virals etc. We should be enjoying good health and vitality into our nineties. We're not, though. Degenerative diseases like Type 2 Diabetes, Coronary Heart Disease, Cancer, Dementia, IBS etc are afflicting increasing numbers of people (including youngsters) and are even starting to reduce our longevity statistics. Why?

On one side of the fence are the anti-animal fat brigade who claim that animal fats are the cause of all our health problems and that we should all be eating more vegetable fats and reducing our cholesterol.

On the other side of the fence are the anti-carb brigade who claim that carbohydrates are the cause of all our health problems and that we should all be eating less carbohydrates and increasing our fat consumption.

I'm sure you can guess where I am. I have the splinters to prove it!

In 1911, hydrogenated vegetable oil (Crisco) entered the marketplace. So, in 1911, fat turned bad! See The rise and fall of Crisco.

Interestingly, rates of Coronary Heart Disease started to rise from 1920, 9 years later. Co-incidence?

Our genes may have not changed much in the last few hundred thousand years, but our lifestyles certainly have. We now live mostly sedentary lives (which makes our muscles less sensitive to insulin). We now live and work mostly indoors (which makes us deficient in Vitamin D).

We now don't eat much oily fish. Our vegetables contain much less omega-3 fat than they used to (to make them stay fresh for longer). Our meat now contains much more omega-6 and much less omega-3 fat than it used to (due to feeding animals on grains). These changes make us deficient in omega-3 fat (which makes our muscles less sensitive to insulin).

We now eat loads of refined carbohydrate (which causes unstable blood glucose & insulin levels) and loads of processed foods (which makes us deficient in Magnesium and fibre/fiber).

As a result of all of the above changes, we have many modern diseases. We can't blame it on one factor only. So, what can we do? Here's one suggestion....



























Good health!