Is Sugar Fattening?

Buckle your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen-- we're going on a long ride through the scientific literature on sugar and body fatness.  ...

Paleo Diet Article in Sound Consumer

I recently wrote an article for my local natural foods grocery store, PCC, about the "Paleolithic" diet.  You can read it online h...

What Causes Insulin Resistance? Part V

Previously in this series, we've discussed the role of cellular energy excess, inflammation, brain insulin resistance, and micronutrient...

The Carbohydrate Hypothesis of Obesity: a Critical Examination

Introduction I'd like to begin by emphasizing that carbohydrate restriction has helped many people lose body fat and improve their metab...

Interview with a Kitavan

Kitava is a Melanesian island that has maintained an almost entirely traditional, non-industrial diet until very recently. It was the subje...

Tropical Plant Fats: Coconut Oil, Part I

Traditional Uses for Coconut Coconut palms are used for a variety of purposes throughout the tropics. Here are a few quotes from the book P...

What's the Ideal Fasting Insulin Level?

Insulin is an important hormone. Its canonical function is to signal cells to absorb glucose from the bloodstream, but it has many other ef...

The Diet-Heart Hypothesis: Oxidized LDL, Part II

In the last post, I presented the evidence that oxidized LDL (oxLDL) is a dominant factor in the arterial disease known as atherosclerosis, ...

Eicosanoids and Ischemic Heart Disease, Part II

Here's where it gets more complica ted and more interesting. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 matters, but so does the total amount of ea...

The Coronary Heart Disease Epidemic: Possible Culprits Part I

In the last post, I reviewed two studies that suggested heart attacks were rare in the U.K. until the 1920s -1930s. In this post, I'll ...

Exercise and Bodyfat

I'm a firm believer that exercise is part of a healthy pattern of living. Hunter-gatherers had a word for exercise: "life". ...

Kitava: Wrapping it Up

There's a lot to be learned from the Kitava study. Kitavans eat a diet of root vegetables, coconut, fruit, vegetables and fish and have...

Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Kitava, Part IV: Leptin

Leptin is a hormone that is a central player in the process of weight gain and chronic disease. Its existence had been predicted for decad...

Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Kitava, Part III: Insulin

The Kitava study continues to get more and more interesting in later publications. Dr. Lindeberg and his colleagues continued exploring dis...

Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Kitava, Part II: Blood Lipids

The findings in the previous post are all pretty much expected in a population that doesn't get heart disease. However, things started ...

Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Kitava, Part I: Weight and Blood Pressure

The Kitavans are an isolated population free of cardiovascular disease and stroke, despite the fact that more than three quarters of them sm...

The Kitavans: Wisdom from the Pacific Islands

There are very few cultures left on this planet that have not been affected by modern food habits. There are even fewer that have been stud...