An Election Season Diabetes Blog
Well, we have survived another election season and all of the ever expanding malarkey that comes with an election. Good, bad or indifferent, politics and political opinion are akin to rooting for your favorite sports team. As any hard core Duck or Beaver fan can attest to, rooting for your team involves much passion and at times a lack of perspective.
Unfortunately our society is not always one of moderate, objective thought and perspective, but one of extremes. Two-thirds of the adult population in our country can be classified as being overweight or obese. This in turn spawns popular TV shows like “The Biggest Loser.” Although the evidence tells us that no matter what one weighs, an overweight person who loses 5-7% of his or her body weight will see improvements in blood glucose, blood pressure and blood lipids, overweight people feel like “losers” because they “fail” to lose the 60 pounds that their doctor tells them they need to lose in order to be healthy.
When it comes to physical activity we can’t simply go for a brisk half hour walk on a daily basis, we have to be training for a marathon or doing a “cross-fit” workout with a trainer. Although I am a registered dietitian and know a fair amount about healthy eating, outside of work I am not that interested in having a conversation with many people about nutrition because places like cross-fit gyms have turned eating into a doctrine that people cling to just like their wacky political and religious views.
The latest entry into the world of “dietary doctrines” seems to be a book called Wheat Belly, by William Davis, MD. Dr. Davis happens to be a cardiologist. Full disclosure, I have yet to read this book. However, a few sentences in the introduction tell me pretty much all I need to know about the book. Dr. Davis begins by stating “I’d like to make the case that foods made with wheat make you fat…I’d go as far saying that overly enthusiastic wheat consumption is the main cause of the obesity and diabetes crisis in the United States.”
Absolutely the best thing about our country is the right of free speech. So Dr. Davis is free to write a book, and of course, author a corresponding cookbook to let everyone know how evil wheat is for their bodies. In this case however, a food scientist by the name Julie Jones has taken the time to research and comment on many of the misleading statements that come from this book, http://www.aaccnet.org/publications/plexus/cfw/pastissues/2012/OpenDocuments/CFW-57-4-0177.pdf.
If you have a chance, give this article a read. You will learn more than a thing or two about food chemistry, and you will feel good about the fact that Ms. Jones is free to respond to a book like Wheat Belly.