Dietitians Want Their Bad Advice To Be The Only Advice: A Tale of Three Twitties

Actually, this post is about three tweets, but A Tale of Three Twitties is catchier.

I came across the three tweets on the same day, and together they tell the story of what’s wrong with the current dietary advice and The Anointed who promote it.

The first tweet included a link to a recent study in which a low-carbohydrate diet was used to treat type 2 diabetics. Here’s a quote from the summary:

The purpose of this study was to evaluate if a new care model with very low dietary carbohydrate intake and continuous supervision by a health coach and doctor could safely lower HbA1c, weight and need for medicines after 1 year in adults with T2D. 262 adults with T2D volunteered to participate in this continuous care intervention (CCI) along with 87 adults with T2D receiving usual care (UC) from their doctors and diabetes education program. After 1 year, patients in the CCI, on average, lowered HbA1c from 7.6 to 6.3%, lost 12% of their body weight, and reduced diabetes medicine use. 94% of patients who were prescribed insulin reduced or stopped their insulin use, and sulfonylureas were eliminated in all patients.

Lower blood sugar, lower body weight, and 94% of the patients reduced or even eliminated the need for insulin treatment.  Awesome. All patients were able to discontinue sulfonylureas, which are drugs that stimulate the pancreas to produce more insulin. Since all drugs have side effects, I looked up the side effects of sulfonylureas. Here’s what I found on a UK diabetes site:

Sulphonylureas are not recommended for people who are overweight or obese, as their mode of action (increase in insulin production and secretion) means that weight gain can be a relatively common side effect.

Funny, isn’t it? The fact that elevated insulin triggers weight gain seems to be accepted as a given by everyone except many (ahem) weight-loss experts.

I doubt the results of this study surprise you.  Quite a few clinical studies, like this one and this one, have shown similar results.

If you’ve got high blood sugar because of insulin resistance, cutting way back on the carbs can work wonders. I know it, you know it, countless personal trainers know it, everyone who’s read a book on low-carb diets knows it, gazillions of people who’ve done their own research online know it. Seems as if the only people who don’t know it are a helluvalotta doctors and nearly all dietitians.

Which brings us to the second tweet. That one included a link to a Dear Dietitian column in a county newspaper. If you have a tendency to bang your head on your desk when reading incredibly stupid advice from registered dietitians, you might want to don a helmet before continuing.

Okay, you were warned. Here goes:

Dear Dietitian,

I was recently diagnosed with diabetes. I’m trying to watch my diet, and have cut out most carbs, but if I eat a slice of white bread, my blood sugar goes up to 200! What gives?

Dear Frustrated,

First of all, try to be patient. This is a major lifestyle change, and it cannot be accomplished in a couple of weeks. It will take at least six weeks to become accustomed to the new diet, and it won’t be perfect. Secondly, there is no need to remove carbs from your diet. Carbs are a great source of energy and are very satisfying. Anyone who has diabetes should be able to consume 12 to 15 servings of carbohydrate foods each day while maintaining healthy blood glucose levels.

Head. Bang. On. Desk.

How the @#$% is someone with type 2 diabetes supposed to maintain a healthy glucose level while eating 15 servings of carbohydrate per day?! Well, you know the answer to that one:

Another important component for good diabetes management is to obtain the right medicine to lower your blood glucose levels.

Eat your 12 to 15 servings of carbohydrate per day (a great source of energy!), then beat down your blood sugar with more insulin. That’s how dietitians are trained to think. When Chareva’s father was in the hospital for surgery some months back, he was of course given meals approved by the staff dietitian. For breakfast, he was served pancakes with maple syrup … but no butter on those pancakes, because butter will kill ya, doncha know.

These registered imbeciles believe that if you shoot enough insulin to beat your blood sugar down to the normal range, it means you’re okay now — same as if you kept your blood sugar in the normal range by cutting back on the carbs instead.

No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, damnit, it’s not the same.

If you’re a type 1 diabetic and you need injections to achieve a normal level of insulin, that’s fine.  You’re just replacing what your body fails to produce.

But if you’re a type 2 diabetic and you have to inject yourself with extra-high doses of insulin so you can eat those great source of energy carbs, there are consequences. High insulin triggers weight gain. It thickens your arteries. It screws up the balance of your sex hormones. It likely promotes the growth of tumors. Telling insulin-resistant people to eat all those carbs and then shoot ever-higher doses of insulin is insane.

But that’s what dietitians are trained to recommend, which is why so many fat, sick, frustrated people are going elsewhere for dietary advice. Naturally, The Anointed don’t like it when the masses refuse to listen to them.

Which brings us to the third tweet. That one included a link to a video posted by the president of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Here’s the official description:

President Lucille Beseler, MS, RDN, LDN. CDE, FAND, offers members ways to protect the public’s health (and the nutrition and dietetics profession) from “disruptors” – competitors who offer lower-quality care and less-comprehensive services.

I’d prefer to embed the video in the post, but can’t. You can watch it on this page — and please don’t leave any snarky comments here or elsewhere about Ms. Beseler’s size. No need to go for the cheap shot.

Ms. Beseler is encouraging members to keep an eye out for people who give non-approved dietary advice and report these “disruptors” to state licensing boards … to protect the public’s health, of course.

Yes, because lord only knows what will happen to the millions of type 2 diabetics in the country if they aren’t told to eat their 12 to 15 servings of carbohydrates per day and then shoot up with more insulin.

Let’s take the official description of the video and edit it to reflect the true purpose:

President Lucille Beseler offers members ways to protect the nutrition and dietetics profession from competitors.

This is nothing new, mind you. As Adam Smith pointed out way back in 1776 when he wrote The Wealth of Nations, regulations that are supposedly passed to protect the poor, helpless public are often nothing more than a means to stifle competition — which screws the poor, helpless public.

In what has to be the most outlandish example I’ve ever seen, Illinois passed a regulation requiring anyone who braids hair for a fee to first obtain a cosmetology license. (If you think I’m kidding, read this.) Apparently the regulation was passed after hundreds of people were rushed to emergency rooms suffering from badly-braided hair.

Here’s how it should happen in a supposedly free country: People who give dietary advice that works attract more customers who are willing to pay them. People whose dietary advice doesn’t work lose customers. A license granted by The Anointed shouldn’t figure into the equation either way. If health coaches, personal trainers and other “disruptors” are giving advice that doesn’t work, then the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has no cause for concern. Word will get around.

But of course, that’s the problem: the word has gotten around. Dietitians are still telling diabetics to eat their carbs and shoot more insulin — perhaps because the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics receives generous support from the makers of industrial foods. Their advice is garbage, so people are seeking and finding alternative advice that actually works — as demonstrated by clinical studies and the experiences of millions. That makes the alternative advice a threat, so the dietitians want government licensing boards to stifle the “disruptors” who offer it.

And that’s where we’re at.  A Tale of Three Twitties tells pretty much the whole story.


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152 thoughts on “Dietitians Want Their Bad Advice To Be The Only Advice: A Tale of Three Twitties

  1. Randal L. Schwartz

    I’ve often used this analogy to understanding what diabetics are told:

    Imagine being told to drive down the freeway by keeping your foot firmly pressed on the accelerator, and then regulating your speed by simultaneously pressing on the brake pedal with your other foot to regulate the speed. Sure, it benefits the makers of brake pads. But is it good for *you*?

    1. Tom Naughton

      I once had to endure a long trip with a comedian who drove like that. One foot on the gas, one on the brake pedal. I don’t think the car ever maintained the same speed for more than five seconds. Perhaps he was diabetic.

      1. Firebird7478

        That’s how my dad drove. Get to a speed, tap the brake. Get to a speed, tap the brake. Rite Aid sold us a lot of dramamine.

    2. Jason R

      The main difference between a between a Dietitian and a Nutritionist are a Nutritionist has to have a degree from a accredited college. A Nutritionist has to be licensed to operate not only in the US but in the individual state they practice in as well. A Registered Dietitian (RD) or Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN), a person needs to complete the criteria set forth by governing bodies like the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) in the United States. this requires an undergraduate science degree, including courses in biology, microbiology, organic and inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, anatomy, and physiology, as well as more specialized nutrition coursework. As of January 1, 2024, all dietetics students must also hold a master’s degree to qualify for their RD board examination in the United States.

      Now a Dietitian…….
      This is only regulated in 13 states. In states that don’t regulate the use of this term, anyone with an interest in diet or nutrition may call themselves a nutritionist. These individuals may apply their interest in nutrition to anything from running a food blog to working with clients. However, because uncredentialled nutritionists typically lack the expertise and training for medical nutrition therapy and nutrition counseling, following their advice could be considered harmful. Also there are many sham programs which can be run by anyone in any of the unregulated states. Giving out a worthless degree which is overseen by no governing body. A Dietitian is a regulated state does have adequate training to give good advice. So beware anyone who claims to be a Dietitian from a unregulated state or got there certificate from a sham school in a unregulated state.
      A good analogy, A back yard mechanic, many are employed at shops thru the USA, an ASE Certified technician who went to a accredited school and had to pass several test for that certification. Have you ever had a bad experience with a shop with non certified mechanics? May cost less but you get what you pay for and many times they don’t get it right and even make things worse. If a shop employs ASE certified technicians your going to get better advice and service. Not to say that all
      Dietitians are bad or wrong, just check their credentials and make sure there not some 8 week clown course offered by mail or other similar criteria. A dead giveaway will be a “certificate” You must be licensed in a state that has regulations on Dietitians.

  2. Dr Jay Wortman

    Disruptors? I thought you were talking about Scientology, that sinister cult that brainwashes its disciples with gobbledygook into thinking they are saving the world – oh, wait …

    1. Tom Naughton

      Hmmm, perhaps the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics can apply for status as a religion. It would kind of fit, actually.

      1. Walter

        It’s a faith based organization and beliefs are held against evidence, so it’s definitively a religion. And the faithful are the victims and probably most of the members of the priesthood are also victims.

  3. Randal L. Schwartz

    I’ve often used this analogy to understanding what diabetics are told:

    Imagine being told to drive down the freeway by keeping your foot firmly pressed on the accelerator, and then regulating your speed by simultaneously pressing on the brake pedal with your other foot to regulate the speed. Sure, it benefits the makers of brake pads. But is it good for *you*?

    1. Tom Naughton Post author

      I once had to endure a long trip with a comedian who drove like that. One foot on the gas, one on the brake pedal. I don’t think the car ever maintained the same speed for more than five seconds. Perhaps he was diabetic.

      1. Firebird7478

        That’s how my dad drove. Get to a speed, tap the brake. Get to a speed, tap the brake. Rite Aid sold us a lot of dramamine.

        1. Tom Naughton Post author

          The guy also cleared his throat constantly and tapped his thumb against the steering wheel as he drove. He seemed to think if he went more than 30 seconds without making some kind of noise, the universe would assume he’d died and pluck his soul from his body. I couldn’t wait for that road trip to end.

          1. Firebird7478

            That’s horrible when people can’t stand the quiet and feel they have to talk. That’s what the radio is for!

            1. Tom Naughton Post author

              If he wasn’t talking, he was making some other kind of noise. Nearly drove me nuts.

  4. Dr Jay Wortman

    Disruptors? I thought you were talking about Scientology, that sinister cult that brainwashes its disciples with gobbledygook into thinking they are saving the world – oh, wait …

    1. Tom Naughton Post author

      Hmmm, perhaps the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics can apply for status as a religion. It would kind of fit, actually.

      1. Walter

        It’s a faith based organization and beliefs are held against evidence, so it’s definitively a religion. And the faithful are the victims and probably most of the members of the priesthood are also victims.

  5. Janknitz

    “Ms. Beseler is encouraging members to keep an eye out for people who give non-approved dietary advice and report these “disruptors” to state licensing boards … to protect the public’s health, of course.”.

    Not to protect the public’s health “of course”. Ms. Beseler says it herself. “To protect OUR PROFESSION.” (Emphasis added). The motives are clear as day.

    1. Walter

      I was going to say that. Very revealing. We see her true colors shining through, if we can think of darkness as shining. The missing dark matter is in the human “heart” so to speak.

  6. Wayne Gage

    “…. It likely promotes the growth of tumors…” My brother has type 2 diabetes and refuses to give up carbohydrates. He is convinced carbohydrates are a necessary nutrient. He chases his blood sugar with insulin when it’s high and glucose pills when it’s low. He was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer…my thinking is the insulin shots brought this on.

    1. Tom Naughton

      Insulin is of course a growth hormone, and as someone (whose name I can’t remember) put it: if you’re an adult with chronically high insulin, it’s not going to make you any taller.

      1. Walter

        But, it will make you wider. Even dieticians know that people get fat on their protocol.

        I would bang head on desk, but I dropped out of school with only a Master’s degree in math, so I must protect what little I have.

  7. Wayne Gage

    I watched Lucille Beseler’s video… “Report disruptors.” gave me chills. She left out…”They will be sent to the gulag for retraining.”

  8. Tom Welsh

    “Seems as if the only people who don’t know it are a helluvalotta doctors and nearly all dietitians”.

    I cannot resist citing the classic Upton Sinclair remark:

    “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”.

    Which is really very much the same thought as “Follow the money!”

  9. Tom Welsh

    “…perhaps because the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics receives generous support from the makers of industrial foods”.

    Of course what they are doing is absolutely in line with the rest of Western “civilization”. Today I heard reports on the BBC about the breaking Oxfam scandal. The British media are bravely trying to deflect the story down the siding of a standard “sexual harassment” story. But if you listen carefully you hear people who have been closely involved with Oxfam and other big charities telling how the huge amounts of money subscribed by well-meaning citizens (and governments) are mostly soaked up by “administration” (and many highly-paid employees).

    Any organization has a strong tendency, after a while, to be run in the interests of itself and its members.

    1. Tom Naughton

      Yup. And regulatory agencies end up being run in the interests of the industry they’re supposed to regulate.

  10. Gerard

    Experienced this with a type 3 diabetic that is close to me. Got told by the medical establishment here in Australia to load up on chocolate milk before bed to bring her blood sugar down!?!

    That being said I just finished Tim Steele’s book the potato hack. Reading other low carbers experience on it and many had great results. Its a low fat, high carb diet and yet it appears to work. Seeing will be believing (or unbelieving) for me. The RS is but a small part of total calories. Why does it work? What are you views on this? I take RS on keto in the way of potato starch now – I understand how that works. But not this.

    Would you put a >95% carb <2% fat potato hack diet (short term – jumping in and out) on the same level as a SAD? Are you open to the possibility that it may be a good thing to do for some people?

    Im completely perplexed how people get MORE insulin sensitivity and lower fasting glucose results on it. But seeing will be believing. If it works I plan to jump in and out of keto with a potato hack every month. While keto has worked miracles for me – eating a diet void of starch (outside cheat days & the 3 Tbls of RS daily) gives me a lingering sense of uneasiness. Not eating any starch doesn&#039t seem natural. If I get even better results mixing the two it will be great as it will give me peace of mind.

    1. Tom Naughton

      I tried the potato hack for several days. I didn’t lose any weight, but the potatoes didn’t jack up my blood sugar like I thought they might either. As for why, this is just a guess: the potatoes were surprisingly filling, so my calorie intake was quite low, which in turn means I was quickly burning everything coming in.

      Some people do quite well on high-starch diets as long as the fat intake is very low. But I credit Tim Steele for insisting readers of the book do a blood-sugar test first. If the blood sugar is high, he tells readers YOU ARE DIABETIC. DO NOT TRY THIS DIET.

    2. Walter

      “Experienced this with a type 3 diabetic that is close to me. Got told by the medical establishment here in Australia to load up on chocolate milk before bed to bring her blood sugar down!?!”

      Chez Watt?!

    3. Nathan

      It’s almost like we don’t entirely understand the human physiology (and the interaction with our accompanying microbial populations) and ought to remain humble and open to empirical evidence. And that there are innumerable variables that make each of us very different and hard to predict based on our current understanding of the science.

      What a concept. (And, of course, this applies as much to the low carb zealots as to the fat-phobic and vegans; and everyone in between.)

    4. Ray

      Roasted Potato:

      Based on the info below, the potato hack is not necessarily a “high carb” diet, particularly compared to the SAD.

      From a food nutrition database…
      There are 203 calories in 1 medium Roasted Potato. Calorie breakdown: 41% fat, 53% carbs, 6% protein.

  11. Janknitz

    “Ms. Beseler is encouraging members to keep an eye out for people who give non-approved dietary advice and report these “disruptors” to state licensing boards … to protect the public’s health, of course.”.

    Not to protect the public’s health “of course”. Ms. Beseler says it herself. “To protect OUR PROFESSION.” (Emphasis added). The motives are clear as day.

    1. Walter

      I was going to say that. Very revealing. We see her true colors shining through, if we can think of darkness as shining. The missing dark matter is in the human “heart” so to speak.

  12. Firebird7478

    I was hospitalized in my early 20s for a couple of days. Horrible food. Thankfully there was a Roy Rogers across the street. That’s right, nutritionally speaking, fast food was an upgrade.

  13. Wayne Gage

    “…. It likely promotes the growth of tumors…” My brother has type 2 diabetes and refuses to give up carbohydrates. He is convinced carbohydrates are a necessary nutrient. He chases his blood sugar with insulin when it’s high and glucose pills when it’s low. He was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer…my thinking is the insulin shots brought this on.

    1. Tom Naughton Post author

      Insulin is of course a growth hormone, and as someone (whose name I can’t remember) put it: if you’re an adult with chronically high insulin, it’s not going to make you any taller.

      1. Walter

        But, it will make you wider. Even dieticians know that people get fat on their protocol.

        I would bang head on desk, but I dropped out of school with only a Master’s degree in math, so I must protect what little I have.

        1. Tom Naughton Post author

          I try to limit the head-banging for fear it will affect my programming abilities at some point.

          1. Walter

            Not to mention your writing ability on this blog which I and I am certain many of your fans appreciate.

  14. Wayne Gage

    I watched Lucille Beseler’s video… “Report disruptors.” gave me chills. She left out…”They will be sent to the gulag for retraining.”

  15. Tom Welsh

    “Seems as if the only people who don’t know it are a helluvalotta doctors and nearly all dietitians”.

    I cannot resist citing the classic Upton Sinclair remark:

    “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”.

    Which is really very much the same thought as “Follow the money!”

  16. Tom Welsh

    “…perhaps because the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics receives generous support from the makers of industrial foods”.

    Of course what they are doing is absolutely in line with the rest of Western “civilization”. Today I heard reports on the BBC about the breaking Oxfam scandal. The British media are bravely trying to deflect the story down the siding of a standard “sexual harassment” story. But if you listen carefully you hear people who have been closely involved with Oxfam and other big charities telling how the huge amounts of money subscribed by well-meaning citizens (and governments) are mostly soaked up by “administration” (and many highly-paid employees).

    Any organization has a strong tendency, after a while, to be run in the interests of itself and its members.

    1. Tom Naughton Post author

      Yup. And regulatory agencies end up being run in the interests of the industry they’re supposed to regulate.

      1. Walter

        Tomas Jefferson said a revolution would be necessary every 20 years; it’s been over 200.

        I am not recommending revolution, because that would be illegal and the feds have the H bomb.

      2. Cranky Old Lady

        I think it may have been Weber who said that bureaucracies only exist to perpetuate themselves…don’t remember the exact quote or the exact author, but that was the gist of it. Can’t find the book or article any more, but the idea was that after a couple of years of creation, the bureaucrats are no longer interested in helping their constituents–they only want to keep their jobs going and growing their fiefdoms and power.

        Whoever said it was right….and that’s about all that I remember from my doctoral program!

        1. Tom Naughton Post author

          It’s a good one to remember. I’m always amazed by people who think the answer to any problem is to create yet another bureaucracy. They must not pay attention.

  17. Gerard

    Experienced this with a type 3 diabetic that is close to me. Got told by the medical establishment here in Australia to load up on chocolate milk before bed to bring her blood sugar down!?!

    That being said I just finished Tim Steele’s book the potato hack. Reading other low carbers experience on it and many had great results. Its a low fat, high carb diet and yet it appears to work. Seeing will be believing (or unbelieving) for me. The RS is but a small part of total calories. Why does it work? What are you views on this? I take RS on keto in the way of potato starch now – I understand how that works. But not this.

    Would you put a >95% carb <2% fat potato hack diet (short term – jumping in and out) on the same level as a SAD? Are you open to the possibility that it may be a good thing to do for some people?

    Im completely perplexed how people get MORE insulin sensitivity and lower fasting glucose results on it. But seeing will be believing. If it works I plan to jump in and out of keto with a potato hack every month. While keto has worked miracles for me – eating a diet void of starch (outside cheat days & the 3 Tbls of RS daily) gives me a lingering sense of uneasiness. Not eating any starch doesn't seem natural. If I get even better results mixing the two it will be great as it will give me peace of mind.

    1. Tom Naughton Post author

      I tried the potato hack for several days. I didn’t lose any weight, but the potatoes didn’t jack up my blood sugar like I thought they might either. As for why, this is just a guess: the potatoes were surprisingly filling, so my calorie intake was quite low, which in turn means I was quickly burning everything coming in.

      Some people do quite well on high-starch diets as long as the fat intake is very low. But I credit Tim Steele for insisting readers of the book do a blood-sugar test first. If the blood sugar is high, he tells readers YOU ARE DIABETIC. DO NOT TRY THIS DIET.

    2. Walter

      “Experienced this with a type 3 diabetic that is close to me. Got told by the medical establishment here in Australia to load up on chocolate milk before bed to bring her blood sugar down!?!”

      Chez Watt?!

    3. Nathan

      It’s almost like we don’t entirely understand the human physiology (and the interaction with our accompanying microbial populations) and ought to remain humble and open to empirical evidence. And that there are innumerable variables that make each of us very different and hard to predict based on our current understanding of the science.

      What a concept. (And, of course, this applies as much to the low carb zealots as to the fat-phobic and vegans; and everyone in between.)

    4. Ray

      Roasted Potato:

      Based on the info below, the potato hack is not necessarily a “high carb” diet, particularly compared to the SAD.

      From a food nutrition database…
      There are 203 calories in 1 medium Roasted Potato. Calorie breakdown: 41% fat, 53% carbs, 6% protein.

  18. Cameron

    So unless I do my math wrong, 12 servings of broccoli are 18-36 net carbs (depending on what is counted as a serving.) That seems reasonable. 60 for 12 servings of brussel sprouts, still good.

    Now tweet 2 might lead people to assume eating a loaf of bread is okay, but I don’t think as written it is actually wrong, diabetics can eat carbs, it just depends upon which ones.

    1. Tom Naughton

      I don’t believe dietitians count broccoli as a serving of carbs. They wouldn’t consider 36 carbs from green vegetables to be a “great source of energy.” In fact, a dietitian told my diabetic father-in-law he needs to eat at least 30 grams of carbohydrate per meal.

    2. Patricia

      As far as I know, ‘diabetic educators’ consider 1 carb serving = 15 grams. In the U.S., they typically prescribe 3-4 ‘servings’ (45-60 grams) per meal, plus one ‘serving’ as part of a snack twice a day. That means 11-14 servings a day, or 165-210 grams of carbs a day.

      1. Cameron

        Hi Patricia, that is really interesting information. So by that standard a serving of broccoli would not be a serving of carbs. Wow, …

  19. Firebird7478

    Turned on the TV today…saw a commercial from Birdseye advertising their zucchini/lentil pasta and mashed cauliflower! That just might make Miss Beseler’s head explode.

  20. Nurse Dave

    Well…don’t show this to your local dietician. When I started my n=1 experiment, my T2D resolved (mostly) in about 2 days. Had an interesting month and a half starting at week 2, with blood sugars all over the place (two identical meals, same time of day, completely different results – blood sugar crash one day, sky high the next. Most likely my alpha cells were trying to push my blood sugars back up to “normal”) which resolved by the beginning of month 3. Got progressively better & stabilized at normal levels by month 6. Largely stable ever since unless I nosh on something sugary or starchy.
    As a side note – no correlation between fat loss and blood sugar control noted (took 13 months to lose 125 lbs.)
    One heartening thing though – noted during my nurse training that one of the treatment regimens for diabetes is…carb counting. So, the times they are a ‘changing, albeit slowly.

  21. Bob Johnston

    I actually emailed the dietitian from the Dear Dietitian column with the results of the study you wrote about. She was nice in her response and asked if I had any more studies to share. I haven’t responded yet but who knows, maybe she’s capable of changing her mind.

  22. BostonKeto

    Just another organization looking to drive out any competition, and silence anyone who deviates from the official narrative. Their flawed reality is a cash cow for big pharma pushing insulin sales, and the medical ‘professionals’ who are selling the poison under false pretenses.

    Also, according to their own standard, they should self-report on themselves as ‘disruptors’ because William Banting’s nutritional standard was defined well over 100 years ago.

    1. Tom Naughton

      That’s why I don’t think it’s a coincidence that organizations like this one want to silence people who tell diabetics to eat a low-carb diet. If you’re supported by the makers of Industrial Food, you pretty much have to people to eat their carbs.

  23. Dianne

    This whole idea of “reporting” people with differing opinions about diet and nutrition as “disruptors” gives me the willies. It’s almost like she wants to set up some sort of police state able to silence anybody who doesn’t follow her organization’s party line. Of course, her use of terms like “market” and “do business” show where her interest really lies. But even if she really believes what her organization teaches about nutrition, it’s scary that she wants to be able to silence or at least hassle those with opposing views. People like Dr. Jason Fung, Peter Attia, Mark Sisson, Gary Taubes, and Andreas Eenfeldt — not to mention Tom Naughton — must be giving her fits, if she pays any attention to them at all. She certainly isn’t learning anything from them! Thankfully, so far her organization doesn’t have any authority over anybody who isn’t actually registered with them. But even within those professions, it is scary that she would be so determined to stifle creativity and innovation unless they were proven to harm patients.

    But ’twas ever thus. Think of the docs who opposed Semmelweis over the matter of washing hands when going from one patient to the next. Think of the medical geniuses who fought Sister Elizabeth Kenny tooth and nail over her protocols to rehabilitate muscles wasted by polio. Some medical practitioners are always looking for new ways to improve life for their patients. The rest are busy protecting their territories and don’t want to be confused with facts.

    1. Tom Naughton

      The Anointed believe people are stupid, and if they hear opposing views, they’ll be led astray.

    2. Thomas E.

      The whole hand washing is still, more or less, an issue. Today it is in the form of shoes, ties, and lab jackets.

      There is a cash only surgical centre in Oklahoma that has a virtually zero post op infection rate. They are fixed price, thus extending a hospital stay due to an infection directly hurts their bottom line. Thus, fresh scrubs for everyone, and often, booties for shoes. No ties, no lab jackets that go for months without a wash, and so on.

      Conventionally billing hospitals in US have no such incentives. Actually, extending the stays of patient is profit generating. Where the expense of being very sanitary and cautious is a direct cost to the bottom line.

      Economic incentives are massive. I would hope, that the administration of hospitals do not consciously engineer that outcome balance. If they do, to call them a monster would be kind. I’ve known of at least 3 people who picked up a MSRA (or such) infection in the site of an artificial joint, and had at least 3 month stays in the hospital on antibiotics WITHOUT a joint in place.

      hell on earth.

      But to make it clear, the dial is simple:

      – turn down the sanitary practices (clean scrubs, booties, policies on lab coats and ties) WILL GIVE YOU lower expenses on laundry and disposables, and the infection rate goes up with corresponding revenues.

      – turn up the sanitary practices (clean scrubs, booties, policies on lab coats and ties) WILL GIVE YOU higher expenses on laundry and disposables, *BUT* the infection rate goes DOWN with corresponding revenues treating those infections.

      I fully understand hospitals wanting to control expenses. But seems to me, the pennies spent on sanitary practices for each patient could truly remove millions spent on healthcare.

      Us with an engineering mindset call it engineered obsolescence. How long do you want to object to be functional. Too short, and the customer won’t by your product when the current one wears out, too long, and you don’t sell as many widgets as you could.

  24. Firebird7478

    I was hospitalized in my early 20s for a couple of days. Horrible food. Thankfully there was a Roy Rogers across the street. That’s right, nutritionally speaking, fast food was an upgrade.

    1. Walter

      This whole thing started with Tom going on a McDonnell’s diet and he undoubted started with a better diet than that provided by a hospital. And he when he ate the burgers, he ate half the bun. Sort of a half vast low carb diet.

      His markers improved and his doctor said, “‘ don’t like what I’m seeing.’

      To quote Anna Russel “I’m not making this up, you know.”, IIRC when she says
      that Siegfried falls in love with the first woman he meets who is not his aunt.

      1. EST

        If his doctors didn’t like it, it was doubtless because of all the “artery-clogging saturated fat” he was eating. Most of the criticism of fast food and its nutritional content has focused on fat, but the fact is that most of it is also high in simple carbs. And when you ask a dietician why most fast food is bad, they simply say “because it’s high fat,” when in reality it is the carbs.

  25. chris c

    They are getting quite schizoid here in the UK. Obviously the mass of the Dietician Hordes are busily defending their dogma against the onslaught of science, but some are equally indignantly pointing out that they NEVER prescribed high carb diets to diabetics. Yeah, right.

    Here’s a word they could do well to look up – OUTCOMES.

    One of our doctors was the size of a bungalow. She told me haughtily that “everyone needs to eat carbs or you will have no energy!” while failing to notice that she had so much energy she was running out of places to store it. Eventually she became diabetic but instead of cutting her carbs she went on a 5:2 diet. Well it seems to have worked so far but I bet she is terrible hungry, unlike me for example.

    Currently they are crowing about this

    http://www.zoeharcombe.com/2017/12/reversing-diabetes-type-2/

    oh except for some who are up in arms about “starvation diets” which this obviously is. Obviously it is okay to cut carbs as long as you cut fat and protein too. Plus the gloop is vegan. “Cutting out entire food groups” is oviously wronger than a very wrong thing if they are grains but perfectly acceptable when it is meat, aka Toxic Waste.

    The other huge entertainment is when they accuse the likes of Zoe, Aseem Malhotra et al. of publishing books. You should see just how many of the dieticians are now bringing out their own books “but that’s different!”

    1. Tom Naughton

      Yeah, I’m always amused by people who try to dismiss someone else’s ideas with “Well, he/she is trying to sell a book.” No kidding. If you have valuable ideas, you should write a book. That’s where we store knowledge.

    2. Walter

      5:2 diet? Do you mean five days eating then two days fasting? Even that works better from low carb.

      Well they don’t think meat is food and we don’t think carbs (especially fast carbs) are food.

      1. chris c

        Nailed it! Yes I haven’t bothered to look into the details but I think you eat a “healthy diet” for five days and for the other two (non-adjacent) you eat a starvation level of “calories”.

        I used my glucometer to determine what I could eat and when. Yes, that glucometer, the one they told me not to use. A pocket insulin meter would be even better but don’t think even Apple are going to produce one of them any time soon.

        Today I had my usual breakfast – a thickly buttered oatcake (5 – 6g carbs) with smoked salmon and a couple of cups of coffee – then went for a prolonged walk, including sitting in the sun for a while, and had my meal of sausages and brussels sprouts about eight hours later. I might have another meal tonight, maybe a prawn curry with multicoloured peppers, chillies and garlic, depending if I get hungry again. My body will tell me when I am running low on Stored Energy. On carbs that would happen every couple of hours. Now it happens once or twice a day.

  26. Cameron

    So unless I do my math wrong, 12 servings of broccoli are 18-36 net carbs (depending on what is counted as a serving.) That seems reasonable. 60 for 12 servings of brussel sprouts, still good.

    Now tweet 2 might lead people to assume eating a loaf of bread is okay, but I don’t think as written it is actually wrong, diabetics can eat carbs, it just depends upon which ones.

    1. Tom Naughton Post author

      I don’t believe dietitians count broccoli as a serving of carbs. They wouldn’t consider 36 carbs from green vegetables to be a “great source of energy.” In fact, a dietitian told my diabetic father-in-law he needs to eat at least 30 grams of carbohydrate per meal.

    2. Patricia

      As far as I know, ‘diabetic educators’ consider 1 carb serving = 15 grams. In the U.S., they typically prescribe 3-4 ‘servings’ (45-60 grams) per meal, plus one ‘serving’ as part of a snack twice a day. That means 11-14 servings a day, or 165-210 grams of carbs a day.

      1. Cameron

        Hi Patricia, that is really interesting information. So by that standard a serving of broccoli would not be a serving of carbs. Wow, …

  27. Firebird7478

    Turned on the TV today…saw a commercial from Birdseye advertising their zucchini/lentil pasta and mashed cauliflower! That just might make Miss Beseler’s head explode.

  28. Nurse Dave

    Well…don’t show this to your local dietician. When I started my n=1 experiment, my T2D resolved (mostly) in about 2 days. Had an interesting month and a half starting at week 2, with blood sugars all over the place (two identical meals, same time of day, completely different results – blood sugar crash one day, sky high the next. Most likely my alpha cells were trying to push my blood sugars back up to “normal”) which resolved by the beginning of month 3. Got progressively better & stabilized at normal levels by month 6. Largely stable ever since unless I nosh on something sugary or starchy.
    As a side note – no correlation between fat loss and blood sugar control noted (took 13 months to lose 125 lbs.)
    One heartening thing though – noted during my nurse training that one of the treatment regimens for diabetes is…carb counting. So, the times they are a ‘changing, albeit slowly.

  29. Bob Johnston

    I actually emailed the dietitian from the Dear Dietitian column with the results of the study you wrote about. She was nice in her response and asked if I had any more studies to share. I haven’t responded yet but who knows, maybe she’s capable of changing her mind.

  30. BostonKeto

    Just another organization looking to drive out any competition, and silence anyone who deviates from the official narrative. Their flawed reality is a cash cow for big pharma pushing insulin sales, and the medical ‘professionals’ who are selling the poison under false pretenses.

    Also, according to their own standard, they should self-report on themselves as ‘disruptors’ because William Banting’s nutritional standard was defined well over 100 years ago.

    1. Tom Naughton Post author

      That’s why I don’t think it’s a coincidence that organizations like this one want to silence people who tell diabetics to eat a low-carb diet. If you’re supported by the makers of Industrial Food, you pretty much have to people to eat their carbs.

      1. Walter

        Well the dietitians went to all that trouble and education and they don’t want to lose their paychecks. Really bad news like all those nutrition (non) scientists who have to prostitute themselves to keep their positions. Walking up they would have realize they are whores this could ruin the person whole day.

        Hence the vehemence of the replies and personal attacks.

        1. Tom Naughton Post author

          Their education reminds me of what Mark Twain said about newspapers: if a man doesn’t read the newspaper, he’s uninformed. If he does read the newspaper, he’s misinformed.

          1. Dianne

            Unfortunately, as the late Malcolm Muggeridge pointed out, one can also be educated into imbecility. Happens a lot in medicine, nutrition, and political science.

            1. Tom Naughton Post author

              To paraphrase Mark Twain again: It ain’t what we don’t know that’s the problem. It’s what we think we know that just ain’t so.

  31. Dianne

    This whole idea of “reporting” people with differing opinions about diet and nutrition as “disruptors” gives me the willies. It’s almost like she wants to set up some sort of police state able to silence anybody who doesn’t follow her organization’s party line. Of course, her use of terms like “market” and “do business” show where her interest really lies. But even if she really believes what her organization teaches about nutrition, it’s scary that she wants to be able to silence or at least hassle those with opposing views. People like Dr. Jason Fung, Peter Attia, Mark Sisson, Gary Taubes, and Andreas Eenfeldt — not to mention Tom Naughton — must be giving her fits, if she pays any attention to them at all. She certainly isn’t learning anything from them! Thankfully, so far her organization doesn’t have any authority over anybody who isn’t actually registered with them. But even within those professions, it is scary that she would be so determined to stifle creativity and innovation unless they were proven to harm patients.

    But ’twas ever thus. Think of the docs who opposed Semmelweis over the matter of washing hands when going from one patient to the next. Think of the medical geniuses who fought Sister Elizabeth Kenny tooth and nail over her protocols to rehabilitate muscles wasted by polio. Some medical practitioners are always looking for new ways to improve life for their patients. The rest are busy protecting their territories and don’t want to be confused with facts.

    1. Tom Naughton Post author

      The Anointed believe people are stupid, and if they hear opposing views, they’ll be led astray.

      1. Emily

        I think authoritarians believe everyone else treats authority the same way they do: With blind obedience. Therefore if someone sees an “authority” say something, they will immediately fall in line and never seek out different opinions. And to them, an “authority” can be anyone from an MD to a novelist to some random blogger. I think a whole lot of it is projection.

    2. Thomas E.

      The whole hand washing is still, more or less, an issue. Today it is in the form of shoes, ties, and lab jackets.

      There is a cash only surgical centre in Oklahoma that has a virtually zero post op infection rate. They are fixed price, thus extending a hospital stay due to an infection directly hurts their bottom line. Thus, fresh scrubs for everyone, and often, booties for shoes. No ties, no lab jackets that go for months without a wash, and so on.

      Conventionally billing hospitals in US have no such incentives. Actually, extending the stays of patient is profit generating. Where the expense of being very sanitary and cautious is a direct cost to the bottom line.

      Economic incentives are massive. I would hope, that the administration of hospitals do not consciously engineer that outcome balance. If they do, to call them a monster would be kind. I’ve known of at least 3 people who picked up a MSRA (or such) infection in the site of an artificial joint, and had at least 3 month stays in the hospital on antibiotics WITHOUT a joint in place.

      hell on earth.

      But to make it clear, the dial is simple:

      – turn down the sanitary practices (clean scrubs, booties, policies on lab coats and ties) WILL GIVE YOU lower expenses on laundry and disposables, and the infection rate goes up with corresponding revenues.

      – turn up the sanitary practices (clean scrubs, booties, policies on lab coats and ties) WILL GIVE YOU higher expenses on laundry and disposables, *BUT* the infection rate goes DOWN with corresponding revenues treating those infections.

      I fully understand hospitals wanting to control expenses. But seems to me, the pennies spent on sanitary practices for each patient could truly remove millions spent on healthcare.

      Us with an engineering mindset call it engineered obsolescence. How long do you want to object to be functional. Too short, and the customer won’t by your product when the current one wears out, too long, and you don’t sell as many widgets as you could.

  32. Lori Miller

    The disruptors might find it useful to know that the Institute for Justice takes occupational licensing cases, as they did with Steve Cooksey. Or they can c’mon over to Indiana. We don’t do much licensing here.

    1. Tom Naughton

      People in Indiana must be dropping like flies as the result of receiving unlicensed advice.

  33. chris c

    They are getting quite schizoid here in the UK. Obviously the mass of the Dietician Hordes are busily defending their dogma against the onslaught of science, but some are equally indignantly pointing out that they NEVER prescribed high carb diets to diabetics. Yeah, right.

    Here’s a word they could do well to look up – OUTCOMES.

    One of our doctors was the size of a bungalow. She told me haughtily that “everyone needs to eat carbs or you will have no energy!” while failing to notice that she had so much energy she was running out of places to store it. Eventually she became diabetic but instead of cutting her carbs she went on a 5:2 diet. Well it seems to have worked so far but I bet she is terrible hungry, unlike me for example.

    Currently they are crowing about this

    http://www.zoeharcombe.com/2017/12/reversing-diabetes-type-2/

    oh except for some who are up in arms about “starvation diets” which this obviously is. Obviously it is okay to cut carbs as long as you cut fat and protein too. Plus the gloop is vegan. “Cutting out entire food groups” is oviously wronger than a very wrong thing if they are grains but perfectly acceptable when it is meat, aka Toxic Waste.

    The other huge entertainment is when they accuse the likes of Zoe, Aseem Malhotra et al. of publishing books. You should see just how many of the dieticians are now bringing out their own books “but that’s different!”

    1. Tom Naughton Post author

      Yeah, I’m always amused by people who try to dismiss someone else’s ideas with “Well, he/she is trying to sell a book.” No kidding. If you have valuable ideas, you should write a book. That’s where we store knowledge.

      1. chris c

        And on the other side, the doctors that tell you not to read stuff on the internet

        My usual response

        “What, PubMed?”

        1. Dianne

          A friend of mine nearly went into shock recently when her doctor handed her a diagnosis and said, “This is what you have. Google it.” She would have anyway, but was just surprised that her doctor was so accepting of the idea.

            1. chris c

              Oh yes a few doctors are gaining Clue, and even a few dieticians. But there are probably an order of magnitude more who are vegan.

    2. Walter

      5:2 diet? Do you mean five days eating then two days fasting? Even that works better from low carb.

      Well they don’t think meat is food and we don’t think carbs (especially fast carbs) are food.

      1. chris c

        Nailed it! Yes I haven’t bothered to look into the details but I think you eat a “healthy diet” for five days and for the other two (non-adjacent) you eat a starvation level of “calories”.

        I used my glucometer to determine what I could eat and when. Yes, that glucometer, the one they told me not to use. A pocket insulin meter would be even better but don’t think even Apple are going to produce one of them any time soon.

        Today I had my usual breakfast – a thickly buttered oatcake (5 – 6g carbs) with smoked salmon and a couple of cups of coffee – then went for a prolonged walk, including sitting in the sun for a while, and had my meal of sausages and brussels sprouts about eight hours later. I might have another meal tonight, maybe a prawn curry with multicoloured peppers, chillies and garlic, depending if I get hungry again. My body will tell me when I am running low on Stored Energy. On carbs that would happen every couple of hours. Now it happens once or twice a day.

  34. Lori Miller

    The disruptors might find it useful to know that the Institute for Justice takes occupational licensing cases, as they did with Steve Cooksey. Or they can c’mon over to Indiana. We don’t do much licensing here.

    1. Tom Naughton Post author

      People in Indiana must be dropping like flies as the result of receiving unlicensed advice.

  35. William

    Television and other media subject us to a constant barrage of questionable and mostly untrue information about foods, medicines, and supplements. Can we report on them?

    The guy who can’t stop pooping…there’s a pill for that! (There’s also a diet for that but, whatever.)

    Take Emergen-C (or whatever it’s called) and you won’t get sick! (Because it was developed by a school teacher…that makes sense…perhaps we should report this person as a “disruptor”; there is no evidence that it works, and plenty of anecdotal evidence that it will make you need the pill to stop pooping.)

    Don’t get me started on Ensure. That stuff is 42% likely to promote breast development at the onset of male puberty, a “fact” I’m allowed to make up because I have a teaching license. (Teachers also get an exemption to the disruptor rule. Why? Because I trained and paid to get a license and I can say whatever I want.)

    1. Nathan

      Ensure (and the like) are exhibit A demonstrating the complete ignorance that exists in the medical community about nutrition. The most highly processed, artificial “food” you could possibly come up with (or damned close to it). Feeding that crap to people is a travesty.

      Of course it’s not just about ignorance, but also about economic incentive, as we know. unHealthy doses of both.

      1. Walter

        I think that soylent is at least competitive. Protein from soy, fat from canola, carbs from Isomaltulose, vitamins and minerals. Supposed to be your entire diet. Very popular in the Silicon Valley high pressure tech industry, so they don’t have to waste time eating.

        From Wikipedia:
        “Isomaltulose is a disaccharide carbohydrate composed of glucose and fructose linked by an alpha-1,6-glycosidic bond. It is present in honey and sugarcane extracts. It tastes similar to sucrose with half the sweetness. Isomaltulose is also known by the trade name Palatinose, which is manufactured by enzymatic rearrangement of sucrose from beet sugar.More at Wikipedia”

        What could possibly go wrong?!

  36. William

    Television and other media subject us to a constant barrage of questionable and mostly untrue information about foods, medicines, and supplements. Can we report on them?

    The guy who can’t stop pooping…there’s a pill for that! (There’s also a diet for that but, whatever.)

    Take Emergen-C (or whatever it’s called) and you won’t get sick! (Because it was developed by a school teacher…that makes sense…perhaps we should report this person as a “disruptor”; there is no evidence that it works, and plenty of anecdotal evidence that it will make you need the pill to stop pooping.)

    Don’t get me started on Ensure. That stuff is 42% likely to promote breast development at the onset of male puberty, a “fact” I’m allowed to make up because I have a teaching license. (Teachers also get an exemption to the disruptor rule. Why? Because I trained and paid to get a license and I can say whatever I want.)

      1. Walter

        Some people would think boy-boobs a good idea. They or the hormonal outcome would lessen sexual harassment and help solve the population problem. What’s not to like?!

          1. Walter

            That’s part of the reason I recommended that you get your daughters martial arts lessons. Tai Chi (aka Supreme Ultimate Fist) would be my top recommendation.

    1. Nathan

      Ensure (and the like) are exhibit A demonstrating the complete ignorance that exists in the medical community about nutrition. The most highly processed, artificial “food” you could possibly come up with (or damned close to it). Feeding that crap to people is a travesty.

      Of course it’s not just about ignorance, but also about economic incentive, as we know. unHealthy doses of both.

      1. Walter

        I think that soylent is at least competitive. Protein from soy, fat from canola, carbs from Isomaltulose, vitamins and minerals. Supposed to be your entire diet. Very popular in the Silicon Valley high pressure tech industry, so they don’t have to waste time eating.

        From Wikipedia:
        “Isomaltulose is a disaccharide carbohydrate composed of glucose and fructose linked by an alpha-1,6-glycosidic bond. It is present in honey and sugarcane extracts. It tastes similar to sucrose with half the sweetness. Isomaltulose is also known by the trade name Palatinose, which is manufactured by enzymatic rearrangement of sucrose from beet sugar.More at Wikipedia”

        What could possibly go wrong?!

  37. Michael John Pollard

    Watch the video 24 seconds from the end where she says ‘…we provide high-quality service…’ whilst at the same time shaking her head. Meta body language she can’t control gives her message the lie!

    1. Walter

      When I hear the word “service”, I think of the meaning from animal husbandry, IIRC, one of Tom Lehrer’s roommates majored in it, until they caught him at it.

      1. chris c

        You just reminded me of one of my late mother’s stories.

        She was listening to the radio early in the morning assuming it was the news, and they were taking about seamen being exported.

        She wondered why so many sailors were going abroad, then realised it was the farming programme . . .

        1. Walter

          In New York there used to be a Seaman’s Saving Bank. They had at least a Manhattan branch down near Water Street. I did find the name somewhat risible.

  38. Michael John Pollard

    Watch the video 24 seconds from the end where she says ‘…we provide high-quality service…’ whilst at the same time shaking her head. Meta body language she can’t control gives her message the lie!

    1. Walter

      When I hear the word “service”, I think of the meaning from animal husbandry, IIRC, one of Tom Lehrer’s roommates majored in it, until they caught him at it.

      1. chris c

        You just reminded me of one of my late mother’s stories.

        She was listening to the radio early in the morning assuming it was the news, and they were taking about seamen being exported.

        She wondered why so many sailors were going abroad, then realised it was the farming programme . . .

        1. Walter

          In New York there used to be a Seaman’s Saving Bank. They had at least a Manhattan branch down near Water Street. I did find the name somewhat risible.

  39. Walter

    It’s important to know when we are being lied to, but not so much as telling when we are lying to ourselves.

  40. Walter

    It’s important to know when we are being lied to, but not so much as telling when we are lying to ourselves.

  41. victorti

    It belongs to a class of drugs called sulfonylureas, that stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin. Glipizide (brand name – Glucotrol) is in a class of drugs called sulfonylureas that work by stimulating the release of insulin from the pancreas. Both these medicines provide treatment for patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

  42. victorti

    It belongs to a class of drugs called sulfonylureas, that stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin. Glipizide (brand name – Glucotrol) is in a class of drugs called sulfonylureas that work by stimulating the release of insulin from the pancreas. Both these medicines provide treatment for patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

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