You may have already seen this video, How To Become Diabetic In Six Hours, produced by a doctor who’s selling yet another low-fat, Ornish-style diet. I don’t expect any low-carb types to be fooled, but give it a look just for fun and then we’ll analyze the bologna.
A quick recap in case you couldn’t play the video: Dr. Delgoofy tells us that dietary fat causes insulin resistance and diabetes. To prove the point, he swallows a half-cup of olive oil and – horrors! – his triglycerides nearly double. Then he consumes a big ol’ sandwich and some pizza and – double horrors! – his triglycerides rise to 214, and his glucose shoots up to 131. This, he assures us, proves that dietary fat causes diabetes.
As I often say about journalists after reading slanted news stories, I can’t tell if this guy is intentionally dishonest or merely stupid.
Let’s start with that shocking rise in triglycerides after Dr. Delgoofy cannonballs a half-cup of olive oil. The horror music was a nice touch, but the result is about as horrifying as drinking a gallon of water and then discovering that the volume of urine in your bladder has doubled an hour later. In fact, if you ever swallow a half-cup of oil and your triglycerides don’t rise dramatically, check yourself into a hospital pronto and ask them to find the blockage in your digestive system.
The reason you find a long list of “essential fatty acids” listed in biochemisty textbooks is that — surprise! — your body needs fats. Your hair, your nails, your brain, your nervous system, your cell walls, your hormones, etc. — they’re all fat-dependent. Now, I suppose in theory you could fill a hundred syringes with fat and inject the stuff where it’s needed, but that would probably hurt. Plus your body likes to break nutrients down into little-bitty pieces before using them.
Consequently, most of us prefer to get our essential fats by eating them. The digestive system then does the work of breaking them down into itty-bitty pieces and packaging them as triglycerides — three fatty acids bound up with a glycerol molecule. Then the triglycerides are delivered to your tissues through your bloodstream.
So when Dr. Delgoofy showed us that the triglycerides in his blood doubled after a big belt of oil, all he proved is that his liver and bloodstream are in working order. If Dr. Delgoofy is a real doctor, then he surely knows that eating always raises triglycerides. That’s why doctors measure your triglycerides after a 12-hour fast. To give you an idea of how dramatically eating a meal can affect the measurement, here’s a tidbit I found online:
My blood triglyceride level was alarmingly high 497 mg/dL. It turned out to be a false result. A nurse sent to my home by my life insurance company had taken my blood sample just a few hours after I ate lunch. When my doctor drew my blood after an overnight fast during my annual physical a few months later, my triglyceride level was 97.
Larry Lindner
Tufts University School of Nutrition Science & Policy
If your fasting triglycerides are high, then you do have a problem. But it’s not dietary fat that causes high fasting triglycerides. Rather than explain it myself, I’ll quote Dr. William Davis:
One of the most common triglyceride myths is that eating fats increases triglyceride. But that’s only a half-truth, since fats do indeed increase triglycerides – but only if triglycerides are measured after eating. Depending on the quantity of fat consumed and other factors, triglyceride levels can reach around 300 mg/dl after a fat-containing meal, only to descend rapidly.
In contrast, carbohydrates can increase triglyceride levels many times higher, increasing levels to 300, 400, 500 mg/dl or more, even occasionally in the thousands, after many weeks to months of carbohydrate-excess. But carbohydrate excess leads not just to after-eating high triglycerides, but high triglycerides all the time.
The real story is that fats in the diet decrease triglycerides – at all other times except after a meal. The higher the fat content of your diet, the lower your triglycerides will be in a fasting blood draw. This has been well-established in numerous diet trials comparing low-fat with low-carbohydrate diets.
After demonstrating a perfectly normal rise in triglycerides after swallowing olive oil, Dr. Delgoofy continues his anti-fat demonstration by chowing down on a big sandwich and some pizza. Lots more fat, of course, but now he’s also consuming a heapin’ helpin’ of refined flour. Surprise, surprise … when he checks his blood levels awhile later, his triglycerides are up again, and so is his blood glucose level.
Once again, if he’s a real doctor, he knows perfectly well the rise in glucose was caused by the bread and the pizza crust, not the cheese and the meats. If he wanted to prove fat spikes blood sugar, he could’ve simply shown us a glucose reading after the olive oil. But nope … he stuffs himself with white flour, measures his glucose, then hopes to fool us into blaming the fat.
After seeing Dr. Davis give a lecture on the low-carb cruise, I got into the habit of checking my glucose after meals. Meats, eggs and cheeses barely cause a blip. But one white potato pushed my blood sugar up to 162. A small serving of pasta kicked it up to 174. After reading the latest book by Drs. Eades & Eades, my mom was finally persuaded to go on a low-carb diet. A few weeks later, her fasting glucose was down by 20 points. Her blood pressure and triglycerides dropped as well.
If her current diet is going to cause type 2 diabetes, I’d sure like for Dr. Delgoofy to explain the biochemistry of how that’s going to happen. I’d also like for him to point out the people who ate low-carb, high-fat diets and became diabetic in the process. I can certainly point to type 2 diabetics who were able to stop taking insulin shots after going low-carb.
Dr. Delgoofy tells us we should limit our dietary fat to 15% of total calories. Let’s back up to the beginning of his presentation and see how that’s working for him. Take at look at the fasting blood-work he showed us before consuming the olive oil:
The triglycerides are impressively low, so I’m guessing he doesn’t eat much sugar or other refined carbohydrates. But his HDL is an anemic 37. Mine was 64 last time I had it measured. As I found while digging through the American Heart Association’s data some months back, it’s low HDL that’s associated with heart disease, not high LDL. Here’s what the AHA itself says about HDL:
With HDL (good) cholesterol, higher levels are better. Low HDL cholesterol (less than 40 mg/dL for men, less than 50 mg/dL for women) puts you at higher risk for heart disease. In the average man, HDL cholesterol levels range from 40 to 50 mg/dL. In the average woman, they range from 50 to 60 mg/dL. An HDL of 60 mg/dL and above is considered protective against heart disease.
So even according to a kindred-spirit, fat-phobic organization, Dr. Delgoofy’s HDL is too low. Mine’s great. That’s because I eat plenty of fat. While we’re at it, let’s compare more of our cardiovascular markers.
Dr. Delgoofy told us his LDL is too low to be measured. The word to describe that claim rhymes with “tullpit.” Unless you want to spend a lot of money for a complicated lab test, LDL isn’t measured; it’s calculated by something known as the Friedewald equation, which looks like this:
LDL = Total cholesterol – HDL – (Triglycerides/5)
The reason we didn’t get an LDL reading for Dr. Delgoofy is that his triglycerides were inconclusive and simply shown as < 45. Dr. Eades and others have pointed out that the Friedewald equation tends to overestimate LDL for people with triglycerides below 100, but with that caveat in mind, let’s estimate Dr. Delgoofy’s LDL. For the sake of argument, I’ll assume his triglycerides are 40. We know his total cholesterol is 182 because his cholesterol ratio (total cholesterol/HDL) was listed as 4.9.
182 – 37 – (40/5) = 137
His LDL is probably lower than that because of the limitations of the Friedewald equation. But if he walked into a doctor’s office and had his lab work done, he’d be told his LDL is too high and his HDL is way too low. Meanwhile, here’s how my LDL would be calculated:
203 – 64 – (70/5) = 125
Mine would also be over-estimated. But going by the standard tests, I win that contest. Now let’s look the other ratios commonly used to predict heart trouble.
LDL / HDL
Dr. Delgoofy: 137 / 37 = 3.7 (average risk)
Fat Head: 125 / 64 = 1.95 (low risk)
Total Cholesterol / HDL
Dr. Delgoofy: 182 / 37 = 4.92 (average risk; over 5.0 isn’t good)
Fat Head: 203 / 64 = 3.17 (very low risk; anything below 3.5 is excellent)
Triglycerides / HDL
Dr. Delgoofy: 40 / 37 = 1.08
Fat Head: 70 / 64 = 1.09
A virtual tie on the last one. But on every other ratio, the guy whose diet is more than 50% fat is kicking the pants off the guy who tells us to limit our fat to 15%. And by the way, my fasting glucose level is better too. His was 96. To prepare for this post, I checked mine this morning. It was 85.
Given his low triglycerides, Dr. Delgoofy’s heart is probably healthy. I sincerely hope so. But after seeing this video, I have doubts about his brain.
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That was just one test (by a different lab than the others). 70% of my calories were fat. Half of that was saturated. So when I saw this video, I thought “is it the fat after all?”. I’m going to get with my doctor in a week or two and get another blood test from the same lab as the others.
I’d certainly want another lab test. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but fasting triglycerides over 300 for someone on a low-carb diet seems unlikely. I also wouldn’t want to see total cholesterol near 100.
Hey Tom,
Great post as usual. There was a part of that video that I found hilarious. It also convinced me this guy wasn’t stupid and just was again one of those usual scientist or grant grabbing so called doctors. Somewhere towards the end of the video when he shows his blood work on the screen and says see this is how my blood looks now because of all the fat I ate, he points out that this is because of fat as fats are mechanically “sticky” (at 4:00 of video) and it coats the blood cells and hence they clumps together or something along that lines…..I’m not sure who he is trying to fool but can he show us an natural fats like animal lard, butter, or grease that have a mechanically “sticky” property…… So I’m pretty sure this guy isn’t stupid and is just one of those anti-fat scientist trying a new way (with catchy background sound-effects) and special tech trying to prove fat is cause of all bad things…..
Anyways thanks for the post, it was an awesome read 😀
Someone pointed out that he’s a Seventh-Day Adventist, therefore likely a vegetarian. He could be full of it, or just blinded by his beliefs.
As for oil making blood sticky, that’s a new one on me. I use oil to get thing un-stuck.
Hey Tom,
Great post as usual. There was a part of that video that I found hilarious. It also convinced me this guy wasn’t stupid and just was again one of those usual scientist or grant grabbing so called doctors. Somewhere towards the end of the video when he shows his blood work on the screen and says see this is how my blood looks now because of all the fat I ate, he points out that this is because of fat as fats are mechanically “sticky” (at 4:00 of video) and it coats the blood cells and hence they clumps together or something along that lines…..I’m not sure who he is trying to fool but can he show us an natural fats like animal lard, butter, or grease that have a mechanically “sticky” property…… So I’m pretty sure this guy isn’t stupid and is just one of those anti-fat scientist trying a new way (with catchy background sound-effects) and special tech trying to prove fat is cause of all bad things…..
Anyways thanks for the post, it was an awesome read 😀
Someone pointed out that he’s a Seventh-Day Adventist, therefore likely a vegetarian. He could be full of it, or just blinded by his beliefs.
As for oil making blood sticky, that’s a new one on me. I use oil to get thing un-stuck.
After two years of low-carbing my blood panel was:
TC: 220
HDL: 98
TriGs: 69
LDL: 108
I think I’ll carry on that way.
I’m curious about what caused Dr. Goofy’s blood cells to clump together like a roll of Life Savers. I too rather doubt it’s olive oil glue. Does anyone have a scientific insight about what causes this highly ordered cell clumping?
I’m not sure.
After two years of low-carbing my blood panel was:
TC: 220
HDL: 98
TriGs: 69
LDL: 108
I think I’ll carry on that way.
When I eat meat with my hands, they get greasy and slippery. When I used to eat sweets with my hands, they got sticky. Any child over the age of three probably understands this. Yet people are fooled by the ‘fat makes things sticky’ argument?!
I’m curious about what caused Dr. Goofy’s blood cells to clump together like a roll of Life Savers. I too rather doubt it’s olive oil glue. Does anyone have a scientific insight about what causes this highly ordered cell clumping?
I’m not sure.
When I eat meat with my hands, they get greasy and slippery. When I used to eat sweets with my hands, they got sticky. Any child over the age of three probably understands this. Yet people are fooled by the ‘fat makes things sticky’ argument?!
He is living proof that vegetarian diets can seriously harm one’s brain.
He is living proof that vegetarian diets can seriously harm one’s brain.
The circulatory system is proving to be more complex than the p-trap in the kitchen sink. Most of the p-traps that I’ve plunged out are clogged with hair, plant peelings and macaroni. I won’t be trusting my heart to Drano, Lipitor, Kraft or Dr.Goofy’s super-soy breast milk formula. Thanks with all my heart to you, Tom, for all your labor on behalf of life and liberty. I’ve owe you my abs! You’re my hero. Please do keep up the awesome flow!
I’m not quitting anytime soon.
The circulatory system is proving to be more complex than the p-trap in the kitchen sink. Most of the p-traps that I’ve plunged out are clogged with hair, plant peelings and macaroni. I won’t be trusting my heart to Drano, Lipitor, Kraft or Dr.Goofy’s super-soy breast milk formula. Thanks with all my heart to you, Tom, for all your labor on behalf of life and liberty. I’ve owe you my abs! You’re my hero. Please do keep up the awesome flow!
I’m not quitting anytime soon.
The only thing I could think after watching this video from the link on last week’s post was that I’d be lying on the floor too if I ate/drank all that, but I’d be puking. Ridiculous !!
Pizza and big sandwich to prove fat is bad for us … heck, I could order a big ol’ vegetarian pizza, make myself sick eating it, then blame the vegetables.
My first reaction was, “is this for real?” Now it appears to be more vegetarian propaganda, so yes, it is for real. SIGH.
The only thing I could think after watching this video from the link on last week’s post was that I’d be lying on the floor too if I ate/drank all that, but I’d be puking. Ridiculous !!
Pizza and big sandwich to prove fat is bad for us … heck, I could order a big ol’ vegetarian pizza, make myself sick eating it, then blame the vegetables.
My first reaction was, “is this for real?” Now it appears to be more vegetarian propaganda, so yes, it is for real. SIGH.
I want to finish this thread on an optimist note. Apparently the mainstream is starting to get it that veganism is a dead end
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/06/meat-production-veganism-deforestation
Outstanding! I’ve got to add that book to my library.
I want to finish this thread on an optimist note. Apparently the mainstream is starting to get it that veganism is a dead end
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/06/meat-production-veganism-deforestation
Outstanding! I’ve got to add that book to my library.
Not so fast fatheads.
Delgado is right. In every experiment reported in medical literature, going back to Dr. Himsworth in 1935 on diabetic studies and fat infusion with glucose and insulin response, to the world-wide studies by Dr. Ancel Keys and Dr. Myer Friedman, Cardiologist, in his classic experiments with the infusion of fat and the measurements of lipids in the eyes of 41 firemen under microscopic analysis 1969, to Dr. Anderson at the University of Kentucky on diabetes in relationship to complex carbohydrates vs. simple sugars and fats; to Dr. Kelly M West in the 1960’s, and later, the rice fruit diet by Dr Kempner – the results have shown repeatedly that fat affects blood sugar more than sugar itself over and over again yet, this has been ignored and forgotten!
Not ignored or forgotten. Dr. Mike Eades refers to the mixture of high-carb and high-fat as “the killer combo.” Other recent studies have also demonstrated how fat accelerates the impact of sugar. Dr. Richard Feinman has said many times that all the studies blaming fat for various ailments looked at fat in the presence of refined carbohydrates. Fat and refined carbs together are bad news.
But to leap from that known effect to concluding that we should limit our fat intake to 15% of calories, as Dr. Delgoofy did, makes no sense. We need fat to be healthy. We don’t need refined carbohydrates at all. So eat the fat and skip the refined carbohydrates. That’s what I do, and I’ll take my lipid profile over Dr. Delgoofy’s any ol’ day. HDL of 37? No thanks.
If Dr. Delgoofy wants to prove that fat causes blood-sugar problems, he can post a video showing how eating fat — and fat alone — spikes his glucose. I’ve checked my own glucose after various meals. Meat, eggs, cheeses and vegetables barely budge the meter. But one potato or a small serving of pasta send it skyward.
Not so fast fatheads.
Delgado is right. In every experiment reported in medical literature, going back to Dr. Himsworth in 1935 on diabetic studies and fat infusion with glucose and insulin response, to the world-wide studies by Dr. Ancel Keys and Dr. Myer Friedman, Cardiologist, in his classic experiments with the infusion of fat and the measurements of lipids in the eyes of 41 firemen under microscopic analysis 1969, to Dr. Anderson at the University of Kentucky on diabetes in relationship to complex carbohydrates vs. simple sugars and fats; to Dr. Kelly M West in the 1960’s, and later, the rice fruit diet by Dr Kempner – the results have shown repeatedly that fat affects blood sugar more than sugar itself over and over again yet, this has been ignored and forgotten!
Not ignored or forgotten. Dr. Mike Eades refers to the mixture of high-carb and high-fat as “the killer combo.” Other recent studies have also demonstrated how fat accelerates the impact of sugar. Dr. Richard Feinman has said many times that all the studies blaming fat for various ailments looked at fat in the presence of refined carbohydrates. Fat and refined carbs together are bad news.
But to leap from that known effect to concluding that we should limit our fat intake to 15% of calories, as Dr. Delgoofy did, makes no sense. We need fat to be healthy. We don’t need refined carbohydrates at all. So eat the fat and skip the refined carbohydrates. That’s what I do, and I’ll take my lipid profile over Dr. Delgoofy’s any ol’ day. HDL of 37? No thanks.
If Dr. Delgoofy wants to prove that fat causes blood-sugar problems, he can post a video showing how eating fat — and fat alone — spikes his glucose. I’ve checked my own glucose after various meals. Meat, eggs, cheeses and vegetables barely budge the meter. But one potato or a small serving of pasta send it skyward.
Its really not that complicated to control the variables in these experiments…
If only there was a beam we could aim into people’s heads to let them see crap science.
Heres how it would go….
Step 1: Fast for 12 hours. Step 2: Drink / Eat fat. Step 3: Measure blood.
next test.
Step 1: Fast. Step 2: Drink / Eat Sugar. Step 3: Measure blood.
Moronic science really really annoys me when it is a 3 step process.
Dr. Delgoofy probably knows better than to show us his blood sugar after only consuming fat. That wouldn’t do much for his anti-fat campaign.
Its really not that complicated to control the variables in these experiments…
If only there was a beam we could aim into people’s heads to let them see crap science.
Heres how it would go….
Step 1: Fast for 12 hours. Step 2: Drink / Eat fat. Step 3: Measure blood.
next test.
Step 1: Fast. Step 2: Drink / Eat Sugar. Step 3: Measure blood.
Moronic science really really annoys me when it is a 3 step process.
Dr. Delgoofy probably knows better than to show us his blood sugar after only consuming fat. That wouldn’t do much for his anti-fat campaign.
Did this guy just make himself four sock puppet accounts to defend himself against low carbers? Drsandragupta, Carbolicous, MsDogfromHell and VeggieGurlls all joined YT two days ago and every one of them licks Dr Delgados ass.
Did this guy just make himself four sock puppet accounts to defend himself against low carbers? Drsandragupta, Carbolicous, MsDogfromHell and VeggieGurlls all joined YT two days ago and every one of them licks Dr Delgados ass.
Latest on the effects of both glucose and fructose on cancer cells:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idAFN0210830520100802
Fructose makes cancer cells proliferate, while glucose feeds them. Cancer cells are incomplete–they can’t feed on fat or protein–only sugars, which tells you what you want to limit if you have cancer, or cancer runs in your family.
That video has been taken down due to a copyright claim by Nick Delgado. You can however see it from (what I assume)his own YT channel @
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_42LfH8veEU
Latest on the effects of both glucose and fructose on cancer cells:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idAFN0210830520100802
Fructose makes cancer cells proliferate, while glucose feeds them. Cancer cells are incomplete–they can’t feed on fat or protein–only sugars, which tells you what you want to limit if you have cancer, or cancer runs in your family.
That video has been taken down due to a copyright claim by Nick Delgado. You can however see it from (what I assume)his own YT channel @
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_42LfH8veEU
Come to find out that a lot of cancer cells seem to have shut off their mitochondria, if they had any in the first place (there are a few tissue types in the human body without any). No mitochondria, or shut-off mitochondria, means the cell must consume sugar, since it can’t handle fatty acids. That’s likely why sugar encourages the growth of some cancers. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work with all of them. I look forward to the day when doctors actually run tests on people’s tumors to find out which kind they are. That’d certainly simplify treatment–well, for the ones willing to give up carbs. There was a study in Germany some years ago in which they discovered that some patients just would not give up things like soda because, well, that was just too much to ask. They literally died for their junk.
I guess I can kind of understand it on some level. Old habits die hard. Still… dang. I think if I were faced with that I’d try to buy myself some time, even if as things stand now I still find myself occasionally having a sushi lapse.
Actually? Some researchers claim you *can* go diabetic from eating a low-carb diet. Know where they got that idea? Administering a GTT to low-carbers without letting them prep first. Apparently some enzyme or other is involved whose production is dialed back, the fewer carbs you eat. Without that enzyme in great enough amounts, your body can’t clear the glucose fast enough. So low-carbers eating less than 150g a day can get a false positive on a GTT. For that reason, good labs (and good doctors) will warn their patients to eat 150g of carbs a day, minimum, for a certain number of days before the test.
Dr. Eades wrote about that a while back on his blog. He says he doesn’t like the GTT for diabetes diagnosis purposes anyway, preferring insulin challenging or the HgA1C instead. I was happy to discover my new doctor also prefers the A1C for diabetes screening purposes. Very cool.
That makes perfect sense. I found that after giving up sugar, I have even less tolerance for it now. My wife noticed the same thing. A sugary dessert or drink makes her feel bloated and sick now.
Come to find out that a lot of cancer cells seem to have shut off their mitochondria, if they had any in the first place (there are a few tissue types in the human body without any). No mitochondria, or shut-off mitochondria, means the cell must consume sugar, since it can’t handle fatty acids. That’s likely why sugar encourages the growth of some cancers. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work with all of them. I look forward to the day when doctors actually run tests on people’s tumors to find out which kind they are. That’d certainly simplify treatment–well, for the ones willing to give up carbs. There was a study in Germany some years ago in which they discovered that some patients just would not give up things like soda because, well, that was just too much to ask. They literally died for their junk.
I guess I can kind of understand it on some level. Old habits die hard. Still… dang. I think if I were faced with that I’d try to buy myself some time, even if as things stand now I still find myself occasionally having a sushi lapse.
Actually? Some researchers claim you *can* go diabetic from eating a low-carb diet. Know where they got that idea? Administering a GTT to low-carbers without letting them prep first. Apparently some enzyme or other is involved whose production is dialed back, the fewer carbs you eat. Without that enzyme in great enough amounts, your body can’t clear the glucose fast enough. So low-carbers eating less than 150g a day can get a false positive on a GTT. For that reason, good labs (and good doctors) will warn their patients to eat 150g of carbs a day, minimum, for a certain number of days before the test.
Dr. Eades wrote about that a while back on his blog. He says he doesn’t like the GTT for diabetes diagnosis purposes anyway, preferring insulin challenging or the HgA1C instead. I was happy to discover my new doctor also prefers the A1C for diabetes screening purposes. Very cool.
That makes perfect sense. I found that after giving up sugar, I have even less tolerance for it now. My wife noticed the same thing. A sugary dessert or drink makes her feel bloated and sick now.
I’m going to make a similar video where I drink a whole gallon of water. It will be called “How to become incontinent in 5 minutes” Then I will tell the viewer about the dangers of high dihyrdrogen monoxide consumption.
Good idea. In a Penn & Teller episode, they got hundreds of environmentalists to sign a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide, so you’re clearly on the right track.
Notice how he didn’t show us his blood sugar an hour after drinking just olive oil–or did he try that experiment? Doesn’t he think that high blood sugar has something to do with…sugar? Did he sleep through endocrinology class?
The time I checked my BG after eating cauliflower and cheese fried in bacon grease, it dropped 15 points to 69 after an hour. And I’m middle aged and have diabetes on both sides of my family. When I checked my dog’s BG an hour after her low-carb dinner, it had dropped 10 points to 39.
That’s another thing: according to what I’ve read on the BloodSugar101 site, you won’t get diabetes without certain genetic defects.
Even if I knew nothing about diabetes or lipids, I’d infer that you probably shouldn’t drink half a cup of olive oil then scarf down a big sandwich and pizza. I’d think, Moderation!
I think I may have had that same meal once, but I was a heavy drinker at the time.
Put a curcumber up your ass! (yes, i really said this)
I thought i found a funny website, then i rode this.
p.s. unfriendly greetings from germany, everyone is a drunken goat (sorry goats, it’s not that iwould dislike goats)