Recommended Reading
Films can have a strong and immediate impact — Super Size Me certainly did, despite the rather large helping of bologna it served up — but they’re no substitute for reading. Read, people, read!
Here are some books that may help convince you much of what you’ve been told about diets, heart disease, and saturated fat is a load of bologna. Also check out the online articles listed in the Recommended Reading links section on the left sidebar. (By entering the Amazon store here, you help to support this blog.)
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Hello,
I just finished a book referenced by Taubes in Why We Get Fat called Calories Don’t Count, written by Herman Taller. The book was published in 1961 and is fairly accurate on a number of points. He is off with his views on vegetable oil and margarine, but its a great short read. Very insightful and I feel an important contribution to the HFLC nutrition movement.
Cheers,
Sid
There’s a great book called Everyday Paleo that you might consider adding to your list. It’s mostly a cookbook, but it also serves as an excellent primer for folks who are new to paleo living.
I picked it up after my sister recommended a recipe, and I’ve gone back to it over and over. The recipes are fantastic, and not too intimidating to make. I’m not even “officially” observing a paleo lifestyle, but I’ve found myself losing weight and feeling much healthier since incorporating this book into my regular weekly menu planning.
Hi – I’m a scientist from an unrelated discipline and I’m not really very interested in these books with may or may not have an agenda to peddle. I’d be really interested, however, if you could point me in the direction of any peer reviewed literature which supports refutation of the lipid hypothesis.
Thanks
The books are full of references to studies. In the meantime, a short sample:
http://www.ajcn.org/content/91/3/535.abstract
http://www.metabolismjournal.com/article/S0026-0495%2809%2900250-9/abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10837285
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15164336
http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8636&catid=1&Itemid=17
http://healthydietsandscience.blogspot.com/2010/10/saturated-fat-lowers-risk-of-heart.html?spref=tw
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/10/saturated-fat-and-health-brief.html
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-carbs-20101220,0,5464425.story
I’m a little shocked to not see it here, but check out “The Paleo Solution” by Robb Wolf if you haven’t already.
I’ll need to read it before recommending it.
Hey Tom,
Just got Kendrick’s The Great Cholesterol Con (by the way there is a book with the exact same name by someone named Colpo) and loving it so far. However I just getting into his idea of social dislocation. Its interesting but I can’t say that I buy it 100% Have you or any other bloggers you know of written about this. I’d like to see what others think.
Thanks
I agree that stress plays a role in heart disease, and dislocation be stressful. Dr Kendrick doesn’t blame all heart disease on dislocation by any means.
Hey,
First of all, for some reason I can’t see the book list. I can only see the first paragraph talking about it, but not the book list itself.
Furthermore, I’ve read “the truth about saturated fats” and it clearly stated that oxidized cholesterol is very dangerous. The frightening thing is that they stated that it can occur in meats that have been heated to high temperatures by frying and so.
If it is true, how can I avoid it? should I eat my meat medium-rare? or just cook it very slowly with very low temperatures?
Thanks in advance.
I don’t believe cooking meat means you end up with oxidized cholesterol floating around in your blood. It’s the oxidation that takes place within the walls of our arteries that does the damage.
Thanks for the answer Tom.
So cooking in high temperatures is not perilous at all?
I’m sorry for bugging you like that, they just clearly said that in the article.
Thanks again for your answers and patience to reply to my posts.
Humans have been cooking meats for hundreds of thousands of years. I sincerely doubt it makes the meat dangerous to our health.
Hey tom,
My family had been asking me for some time about cooking with olive oil.
We try to stick to coconut oil, but it’s not all that tasty with omelets. Do you think it’s fine making our omelets with olive oil? it doesn’t cook for so long.
Thanks!
Olive oil is a natural oil. Use and enjoy.
Hi Tom,
I’ve come across some articles who claim that many of the foods considered paleo (though it also includes sugar, white flour etc) are “acid-forming”, and therefore might be dangerous when consumed in high quantities. I’m quite sure you’re familiar with the rest of it. What’s your opinion of this issue?
Thanks!
Yes, some of them are acid-forming. Vegetables tend to be alkaline. So eat your meats and your vegetables.
Hi Tom,
yet another question!, this one a little more complicated (or not).
I’ve read a little about “Nutritional Typing”, which pretty much says each person reacts differently to carbs, fats and protein. Some tend to feel better on a high carb diet when others feel better on a low carb diet. Seems to make sense. Though it sort of collides with the whole Paleo idea.
I would guess it’s something in the middle. Most people (if not all) would react better to LCHF. but we all have problems with certain foods. For some fish makes them sick, and for some butter and milk makes them sick, and so on.
My question is: What’s your opinion (or fact) about this idea? Is it more towards my way of thinking (LCHF is good for everyone, but some of us just hate milk and or fish) or is there some truth in the whole “Nutritional type” thing.
Thanks!
I think there’s probably something to it. We know that populations that only began eating grains and sugars fairly recently seem to have particularly bad reactions, high rates of diabetes, etc. My guess is that nutrition typing depends partly on genetic background.
Hi Tom,
Sorry to bother you with yet another question, it had been troubling me for some while now: It’s about supplements. Especially omega 3 fish oils and such.
I’ve been reading a lot about it all. some paleo advocates seem to be against supplements and omega 3 supplements in general (mostly because they’re un-natural in a way). My first question would be, what’s your opinion?, are omega 3 supplements safe and, most importantly, useful?
If so, I’ve heard so much alternatives for it, ranging from fish oil, krill oil, cod liver oil and so on. Some say fish oil becomes rancid quickly so it shouldn’t be consumed, and so on. and some say the rest have no evidence supporting them. Which one do you think best?
And what about supplementation in general, I mean it’s sort of against the paleo-eating nature. Since our ancestors seemed to survive quite well without them. (though eating fish might be problematic today because the oceans are heavily polluted). Though it seems we do need some of them, or so we are told.
I’d like to hear your opinion of this issue.
Thanks so much for all the help, I truly appreciate it.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking a few supplements. True, our ancestors didn’t, but they were eating foods grown in a much more nutrient-dense soil, or eating animals that ate much more nutrient-dense plants. I take a multi-vitamin, a D vitamin (I don’t run around half-naked outdoors like my paleo ancestors), CoQ10.
in response to the response above…..I take D3 after suffering with frequent colds and flu most of my life, and now our KIDS get sick from grade school infections while I stay well and can take care of them. I also found CoQ-10 to be indespensible and taking enough of it (400mg per day in my case) noticeably sharpens my thought processes.
I expect to live longer with a much higher quality of life in later years, just with these 2 vitamins, although I’ve experimented with nearly every new vitamin “fad” over the years and found no benfit in most of them.
addendum: please excuse spelling…my font size is too small on this browser.
Anyone that takes coq10 should be aware that some of the highest quality vitamin products are/were manufactured in Japan, and while there’s no news about the Japanese nuclear accident (last March) in ANY news media now, the radiation release has NOT been stopped since then. I bought a bunch of stuff just after the accident, figuring that the supply chain had not yet been contaminated, but I don’t know what I’m going to do when I run out. Japanese products should be treated with appropriate suspicion….imo, of course.
hi, I was very impressed by the film, and have just this week started my own low carb diet. Though I am looking for a little clarification.
You lost weight on the fast food diet by making sensible decisions, and keeping your calorie count around 2000 per day. My question is this; during your saturated fat pig out month at the end of the film, you showed that your bad cholesterol went down, but were you still losing weight? (also were you still keeping to around 2000 per day? this seems more difficult while eating higher concentrations of saturated fat)
just wanted to know if there was too much of a good thing.
I made no effort to limit my intake or lose weight during that month — I wanted to see what pigging out on fat would do to me — but I still lost another two pounds.
Hey tom,
Someone presented me with some article from “harvard school of public health” claiming it’s credible and therefore the whole paleo and high fat diet is dangerous etc.., the usual deal. problem is, I can’t quite answer something like that.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-full-story/index.html
How can I contradict those statements?
Look at it again. In an article full of references, they make this statement …
“That’s why saturated fat can be in the bad category—because we don’t need to eat any of it, and it has undesirable effects in cardiovascular disease.”
… and don’t offer a single reference to back it up. Later they mention one observational study (we all know what those are worth) in which a correlation was found between a high intake of animal fat and breast cancer. As I’ve pointed out several times, the biggest sources of saturated fat in the American diet are dairy desserts (sugar) and grain-based desserts (sugar and flour).
They’re simply repeating the same old nonsense about saturated fat without offering proof — because there isn’t any proof. Ask whoever gave you this article to please cite the controlled studies (not observational studies) in which saturated fat was shown to lead to heart disease, or the controlled studies in which reducing saturated fat was shown to reduce heart disease. There have been several studies in which reducing saturated fat FAILED to reduce heart disease, which should be all the proof we need.
Hey Tom,
Thanks a lot for the answer.
Honestly, the sentence “Scientists are freakin’ liars” seems to be true in so many cases, It’s almost frightening.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/salt/lower-sodium-and-salt/index.html
Here is another “proof” why salt is bad. I looked at the references and it seems most of the so called “proof” is based on estimations and interventional and observational studies. In other words, BS. I simply wonder, what’s in it for them? I mean, it’s not that some industry gains anything from salt reduction, so why fake those proofs?
Furthermore, do you have a link to the review of the analysis of data from more than 167 studies about salt intake?, I mean besides the article presenting it.
Thanks a lot, your answers certainly contribute to my knowledge and to the knowledge of those who are willing to think and hear new proof which isn’t mainstream.
Sincerely
Guy
I think what’s in it for them is access to ongoing grants from the feds.
I don’t have a link to a separate analysis, but you may find it on PubMed.gov
I have been making different food choices for several months – lots of good veggies, whole fruits (no juice), butter and raw milk cheese, and good protein. I’ve avoided sugar (using stevia and erythitol) and wheat 99% of the time. I’ve lost 23 pounds and I feel so much better in my body.
I love the movie and I’m going to work my way through the recommended reading. My question concerns reading material that is specifically for children. Not books for adults about healthy children, but picture books that can be read with children to familiarize them with these concepts in age appropriate ways.
My local library has lots of attractive books for kids but they spout the “party line” about the food pyramid, the importance of whole wheat, and the dangers of fat. If I cannot find what I’m looking for I’m considering writing at least one book myself just so there is some sort of alternative perspective for the kids. It saddens me to think we may be losing yet another generation to spurious research and lies, damn lies.
Thanks for your creativity, perseverance, and integrity –
Karen
We haven’t found a good book on the topic for kids either, which is why Chareva and I are going to produce one this year.
The book that first got me interested in the topic of going grain and legume free is Melissa Smith’s GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN. She states a lot of the same kinds of things that Gary Taubes does, but it’s an easier read. Check it out!
I love your documentary! My kids do, too. I really appreciate that Fat Head is an easy-to-digest rebuttal for what my kids learn in health class at school.
Speaking of kids at school – I make my kids’ lunches everyday. I’d love to get my hands on books and/or websites with ideas on low-carb packed lunches. Could you point me in the right direction?
Thank you so much for all you do. Your hard work has certainly made a difference in the health of my family!
I don’t know about lunches specifically, but I like the cookbooks by Dana Carpender and Judy Barnes Baker. Search for them on Amazon. My wife packs lunches for our girls. She makes stews, chili, lunchmeat rollups, roasted chicken, etc., then usually includes an apple, a cheese stick, or a small bag of nuts.
Hey tom,
Yet another controversy article trying to demonize saturated fats. It seems they considered saturated fats and trans fats in the same category. Though when I read it a little further, it seems that “palmitic acid” is indeed common in natural saturated fats. And this article seems to suggest it leads to very problematic issues.
http://www.nature.com/ni/journal/v12/n5/full/ni.2022.html
I’d like to hear your thoughts about it.
Thanks!
Yes, they often put trans fats and saturated fats in the same category. A high-carb diet increases the concentration of palmitic acid in the blood:
http://www.ajcn.org/content/84/2/461.1.full
Peter at Hyperlipid on the specific study you linked:
http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2011/04/palmitic-acid-horror-never-ends.html
http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2011/04/palmitic-acid-horror-never-ends_14.html
http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2011/04/palmitic-acid-horror-never-ends_17.html
Hey Tom,
I like your book list and just ordered my 9th book from it, Fred Hahn’s Slow Burn Fitness Revolution. One book that is not on the list that I have read and highly recommend is the Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf. Jimmy Moore recommended it to me and I was not disappointed.
Cheers
I intend to give that one a look. I don’t put books on the list until I’ve read them.
Virtually everything on the list has been written by people with no qualifications or relevant publications under their belt (e.g. Uffe has never ever publihed any experimental data relevant to lipidology, cardiology etc.), and this shows. Why not recommend proper research literature?
Dr. Ravnskov has published quite a few articles in medical journals, and written many more that were never published because the editors didn’t like his conclusions. In his books, he examines the relevant literature quite thoroughly.
“There have been several studies in which reducing saturated fat FAILED to reduce heart disease, which should be all the proof we need.”
As well as studies in which reducing safa and/or replacing with with pufa and/or mufa has lead to beneficial results.
But that’s digressing from what I truly wanted to point out:
Usually, the intake of safa in a normal diet is too low to be of any specific importance (either good or bad), which of course shows in epidemiological data. Also, in RCT’s the amount of safa has often been quite ok to begin with and thus one really can’t expect noticeable benefits from reducing it from “ok” level to “low” level. And one also has to bear in mind that quite often the study designs (length, control of other variables, study population etc.) aren’t really 100% relevant in terms of e.g. evaluating the potential benefits for high risk patients in “the normal world”.
So, while reducing the intake of safa really doesn’t matter that much for most people, for those suffering of dyslipdemia, metabolic syndrome etc. it can be beneficial. Depending on dose and context. “Laissez-faire” attitude to safa is as nonsensical and stupid as the old-fashioned “safa-is-a-threat-to-life-as-we-know-it” attitude.