I'm sitting here in my hotel room in Nashville, Tennessee after a wonderful day hearing about the latest research about low carb diets at a
seminar put on by the Nutrition and Metabolism Society as part of the 2007 Eastern Regional Obesity Course of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians. The morning sessions were focused on using low carb diets to treat diabetes, and the afternoon more on the biology and physiology of low carb diets. In future weeks, I will be interviewing many of the presenters at the conference and telling you all about it. For now, here are some of the many cool things I learned today:
We are on the right track! Of course, we know this, because of the great health results so many of us have received from reduced-carb eating. But I can't tell you how heartening it is, in the face of the negative publicity carb cutting sometimes gets, to hear about the latest science confirming the value of low carb diets, and from physicians who are successfully using them with their patients.
There couldn't be a more enthusiastic advocate than Dr. Mary Vernon, who specializes in treating diabetes and has such great success using carb restriction. It was truly inspirational to hear her speak. I can't wait to interview her and share her knowledge with you.
Dr. James Wortman does fascinating research with a group of Canada First Nations/Native North Americans, who have a high rate of diabetes, as do so many people of Native North American heritage. He has had great success with (re)introducing traditional diets. Historically, the diets of most pre-Columbus North Americans were naturally low in carbs as was true of so many of our prehistoric ancestors. It is only with the recent introduction of foods high in carbohydrate (and especially refined carbohydrate) that the incidence of chronic diseases, especially diabetes, has skyrocketed. In fact, in a survey of over 50 Native North American languages, there is no word for "diabetes"! Returning to the relatively low carb/high fat diets of their ancestors has been a very effective treatment.
It's not "We are what we eat" it's "We are what our bodies do with what we eat". GET THIS: Two groups of people - low fat/high carb, and low carb. The low carbers eat three times the saturated fat of low fat eaters. But the low fat group's bodies MAKE so much more saturated fat that they end up with twice the saturated fat in their bodies!! Yes - you read that right! It was only a preliminary study...but still!
There is a growing literature on low carb diets and exercise, and it's looking good. I have heard from athletes over the years that low carb diets help them get better times in various types of races, after a period of adjustment. It turns out the research on this is confirming these stories.
They served low carb snacks!! What a refreshing change from bagels and muffins!
Jimmy Moore, of the Livin' La Vida Low Carb blog was there with his lovely wife. He interviewed many of the presenters for his podcast, so go over there and subscribe today so you won't miss one!
Signing off for now -
Laura
Comments
Thank you, keep on with the great work…
Hey Laura,
it was GREAT to meet you for the first time in Nashville last week. I wish we had more time to spend talking about low-carb. We need to hook up and do that at some point. Maybe a low-carb blogger meet-up is in order. You get me, you, Regina Wilshire, Kate Welch, Amy Dungan, and others together in one room and it’s GOTTA be a good time. Hope to see you again soon, Laura!
EXCELLENT recap of the seminar. SEE YA!
Jimmy Moore
Jimmy, it was wonderful to meet you and your wife as well! I think the meet-up idea is great, but don’t you think that someday it would SO cool to have a larger conference for lowcarbers? We could get great speakers, have cooking demonstrations, great food, etc. Only a dream at this point, but I’ll bet in years to come it would work!
Laura
Sign me up, Laura, I’m there!
Great post Laura! I wish I could have been there. A low-carb conference sounds fantastic. I’d be one of the first signed up!