Health

Back in the day, there was a "tonic" called Hadacol. It was hyped as vitamin elixir, a dietary supplement, a source of vitamins B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), and B3(niacin), plus iron. Hadacol was advertised as something you would take for your health, that would relieve the root cause of many ailments, from heartburn to nervous disorders.

Ten years. It's been ten crazy, fantastic, sometimes frustrating years that I've tried to live the low-carb lifestyle. What is has not been, is perfect. Or rather, I haven't been perfect, and I'm okay with that.

I sat down today at my dining table to make a list of the reviews I have yet to finish. I've still got a lot to share, so it's quite a list. Sitting there I realized a couple of things.

I have read a big ol' pile of nutrition books in the past 33 years. I generally learn at least a little something from each one, or at the very least am reminded of a point I may have forgotten. But in his new book Wheat Belly, Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist from Milwaukee, and author of Track Your Plaque, and the Heart Scan Blog has written a book in which the majority of the information is new to me. I am agog. And excited - I am a big nutrition geek, after all; it's thrilling to have this sort of stuff presented to me, and presented in such a readable form.

Dana Carpender's CarbSmart Espresso Chocolate Chip Brownies

Chances are you've seen the news already: Fructose can cause cancer. Specifically, this study looked at pancreatic cancer, a particularly deadly and intractable form of cancer, and one that has been increasing in frequency. I was unable to find the full text of this article, but gleaned that it demonstrated that cancer cells are particularly able to use fructose to reproduce, fueling tumor growth.

My nephew Henry and niece Halliday came to stay with That Nice Boy I Married and I this past week. We had a super-great time with them, as we always do - went to the county fair, did a little geocaching, watched a few movies, and just generally hung out.

It's funny how events sometimes just sort of compile themselves in a useful shape. A few days ago, I was annoyed when I opened the freezer on the top of my kitchen fridge, and a bag of steak bones, accumulated over many months, fell out at my feet. I figured that was the universe's way of telling me it was time to make beef broth.

Diabetes Health recently published an article by diabetes expert Hope Warshaw that has stirred up quite a hornet's nest in the low carb community. In her piece titled Type 2 Diabetes: From Old Dogma to New Realities, Warshaw discusses what she believes are basically old wives' tales about diabetes care, while recommending a fantastic new treatment. The problem here? Her ideas are not new, fantastic or even scientific. And that old wives' tale, or "old dogma" as she likes to phrase it, happens to be what science has proven to work for those wishing to sustain healthy blood sugar levels. What is the old dogma you ask? A low carbohydrate diet.

The low carb world has been abuzz with the news that Diabetes Health Magazine recently published an article, Type 2 Diabetes: From Old Dogmas to New Realities - Part 2 by a registered dietician and diabetes educator named Hope Warshaw. Ms Warshaw wrote this article, she says, to debunk two what she calls "common old dogmas" regarding diabetes management.

More Information on the Hope Warshaw/Diabetes Health Controversy created by Hope Warshaw. The Low-Carb community responds.

First of all, there are no monolithic Powers That Be. There are a whole lot of different Powers That Be, and they all make up their minds separately, in their own time, and they all have their own motives. There are, for instance, medical schools, a whole lot of medical schools, and a great deal of the funding for those medical schools comes from the pharmaceutical industry, as does a lot of the money for medical research. That's a clear danger, but the alternative, at least as far as I can tell, is to fund medical schools and medical research with tax money. For good or ill, a large faction of Americans is very much against that.