Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Debating the Banting diet - for sport


One of the best dietary debates I have seen (there aren't many).  It begins with a DR offering advice to a woman over Twitter.  Since they did not have a DR/patient agreement it was 'free information' NOT a treating physician's advice.





But the following conversation is the meaty part.  At minute 4:00 Martha says "Carbohydrates or glucose are the main source of energy for the human body."   I wish I could ask her: 

On June 23rd, 2015 I wrote:

I ran 11.5hours Saturday.  During the race, I consumed ~500 calories.  A simple running calculator says I burned 7,860 calories.  If carbs are the "source of energy for the humans" then how was I able to do that?

I'm not nearly well-connected enough, but I would like to pose this^^ question to as many dietitians or folks that offer up advice for eating and participating in sports up to and including ultra marathons.

More on the video:

At minute 5:50

Noakes: "What a lovely explanation, unfortunately there's no science behind it whatsoever.  It is complete nonsense.  ...Probably 50% of SA'ers are insulin resistant.  Insulin resistance causes obesity, heart disease, cancer, dementia."

At minute 17:30

Martha: "Because we have long term studies to show us" [that the high carb diet is safer]

Noakes: "Which one, explain which study so I can look it up quickly on the internet?"
...she can't answer because there is no study that shows high carb diet over 20-30 years outperforms any other alternative diet.
Noakes: "There have been clinical trials to prove the contrary, the Woman's study, the ....<cut off by the reporter>".

The above video worth viewing. Sadly, it is a debate that isn't wrapped-up well.  It could use Oxford style debating rules with references on hand.  To that end it's frustrating.  

The conclusions I have drawn from my research are:

  1. Insulin resistance is the MAIN cause of chronic conditions and the maximum expenditure on our health care system.  Causing heart disease, obesity, diabetes,dementia, cancer,... (please see me for references for this assertion).
  2. I don't recommend a low-carb diet for people, I recommend an appropriate-carb diet for people.  Everyone has a maximum level of sugar (and sugar-like) substances they can ingest before they get resistant to their own insulin excretion.  Find your max level and stay below it.
  3. The diet currently encouraged by Government policy, which was written by Agricultural department(1), is not based on science, and is not working for many.
  4. There are fat-soluble vitamins and water-soluble vitamins, there are no carbohydrate-soluble vitamins.





    (1)Think about that, a heavily grain-based diet written by the Dept of Agriculture.