Caloriegate

Today, Caloriegate is excited to welcome Jonathan Bailor, a nutrition and exercise expert and author of The Smarter Science of Slim and The Calorie Myth. After collaborating with top scientists for over 10 years, analyzing over 1,300 studies, and garnering endorsements by top doctors from Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins, Yale, and UCLA, Jonathan is helping people around the world slim down and enjoy more wellness by teaching them how to eat high-quality food and exercise more effectively. * Jonathan was a naturally thin person - a good thing! He wanted to gain weight to be big like his brother. He became a trainer and learned traditional calorie counting methods to get body composition results. He worked with clients on 1200 k/cal day diets who struggled to lose weight... while he meanwhile struggled to GAIN weight eating 6000 k/cal/day. * people were paying him thousands -- they weren't getting the results they wanted. He was tremendously frustrated. What was going on? * This frustration sent him on a 10 year journey, digging into academic journal articles and talking to experts, to figure out what the truth was. He came to ID the fundamental problem: we've been told to focus on QUANTITY of exercise and food we eat. But the reality is that science shows that QUALITY > QUANTITY * Core paradigm shift for him = homeostatic regulation of weight, a.k.a. the "set point" -- just like your body automatically regulates your blood sugar, blood pressure, etc, it automatically regulates body composition. * living organisms attempt to remain in balance - but system can break when you put stuff into it that the body wasn't designed to handle. * what if we counted every vitamin and mineral in addition to calories? It would be absurd. Why, then, are "calories" the one thing we must manually count? And why when we do count them, we still don't fix our problems - the body fights against us? * The key is to fix broken homeostasis * Jonathan's analogy of a "clogged sink" -- brilliant idea. The only time water in a sink will rise and STAY high is when it gets clogged. The focus should be on what's causing clogs (like hair and paper towels), not on the volume of water poured down the sink. * "standing water" = "standing fat" * eating less = turning down water; exercising more = bailing more water. * key is to clear the clog, to fix the black box -- and you do that by eating the right foods and doing the right exercise. * distinction between SANE and inSANE foods -- how does the body actually work? Satiety; Aggression; Nutrition; Efficiency * 3 factors determine a food's "SANE-ity" * "biology isn't a matter of opinion" -- make it simple and tested, so we can be objective about what really works. * Until you understand the premises that we use to solve our problems, there will be discord. We need common language. * Our goals are all the same, and most people aren't malicious * We've tried harder than any other country in the history of the world to get healthier, but instead we've gotten sicker and fatter -- we have to do something different. * What we've been told is healthy, isn't healthy. * No mother gives cigarettes to her child, thinking she's making her child healthier. * We can sell processed garbage, because it's a free country. But people should give their informed consent - that they're not being lied to... * We're going to see a shift like we have seen with smoking. You can't sell candy cigarettes to children today. * Everything that happens in your body happens b/c hormonal signals are communicating. The answer to obesity is to "change the hormonal conversation" in your body. * How can we use exercise to change our hormonal balance? Higher QUALITY exercise is the answer. * Intensity of exercise -- amount and type of muscle fibers your recruit * Focus on the deeper Type 2B muscle fibers by doing safe by heavy resistance training. You're actually working more and different muscle fibers to generate lon...

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Welcome back to Escape from Caloriegate! Today, we welcome the web's most popular low carb blogger (and one of my inspirations), Jimmy Moore of Livin' La Vida Low Carb fame. Jimmy's a steady voice of reason in world of unbelievable "diet insanity." We had a great chat about Diet Info Overload Syndrome. Check it out! Kevin Kennedy-Spaien is the secret behind both our shows - gotta love the DIsc of Light Media empire;

Welcome back to Escape from Caloriegate! Today, we're going to leverage "meta-thinking" -- a.k.a. thinking about thinking -- to manage Diet Info Overload Syndrome. We typically use a combo of eight strategies to deal with info-overload. Today, we'll explore a ninth strategy: meta-thinking.

Welcome to Episode 10 of Escape from Caloriegate! It's time to address a HUGELY critical topic that no one seems to be blogging about in the diet/health world. I call it "Diet Information Overload Syndrome." You probably don't have a name for it, but you'll know instantly what I'm talking about. You're passionate about eating "right," exercising "right," and staying healthy. You want to live longer, lose the belly fat, avoid cancer and other diseases, etc. So what should you do? What should you stop doing? And how should you make those changes simply, cheaply and safely, while maximizing your results? Ask twenty people those questions, you'll get two hundred answers. Confusion abounds at both the macro and micro levels Our most trusted filterers of advice about diet can't even agree on the fundamentals (Michael Pollan; Dean Ornish; Gary Taubes and Dr. Peter Attia; Stephan Guyenet; the USDA and AHA; etc etc.) So much confusion. So much contradiction. It's even harder for people on low carb/paleo who go "against the grain" Mockery and discouragement from mainstream health advisors; Trouble keeping track of all the do's and don'ts; Frustration because the low carb and paleo "gurus" disagree on so much, strongly and often angrily; etc We have access to so MUCH information. BBC news article says "average US citizen on an average day... consumes 100,500 words" How do we filter “signal from noise” with so much "signal" coming at us all the time? Another confounding factor! Different diets may work for different folks at different times. Obesity, for instance, likely does not lend itself to one-size-fits-all solutions. One blogger I respect asserts that "post-obese people are metabolically not the same as undieted people of the same weight, the biological drive to regain is and always will be there" and that "obesity is a permanent endocrine disorder and it cannot be cured through diet alone or through any other currently clinically available means, not even stomach mutilation surgery." I believe she may just be right, or possibly right. That's kinda depressing. Furthermore, if it's true that obesity is a chronic problem of poorly regulated fat tissue, we're all making a huge mistake by treating it as a short term problem that can be vanquished in short order with a 17 day diet. The chasm between what we can say for sure about diets is a yawning gap -- spawned the rise of health and diet guru-ism. We think more choices and more information will lead to better decisions. Not necessarily true! Maybe you can reach a point in your research where you start to miss the forest for the trees. I see this phenomenon at work all the time in the low carb and Paleo diet world. Crazy fads emerge, like the potato diet. Preposterous! As human beings, we need order and simplicity. Unfortunately, nature is decisively complex. The info overload, combined with the confounding factors, stokes powerful emotions: Overwhelm; Hypochondria; Anger; Depression; Mania, etc. What to do? 8 typical solutions we try 1. We look to a diet and/or diet guru for advice. But you may have metabolic quirkyness that renders guru strategies irrelevant or maybe even dangerous. 2. We find a diet "sub-cult." Same caveats apply. 3. We switch endlessly between diets. 4. We default to the conventional wisdom. This is the easiest route, but it could be less than ideal. If your body metabolically cannot tolerate much carbohydrate, for instance, you're going to have problems on the USDA Food Pyramid diet or the potato diet, etc. 5. We do obsessive N=1 experiments. I'm all for (safe) self-experimentation, but you must be careful to avoid over-extrapolating. 6. We endlessly quest to find “the answer” (or “the answers”) It's easy to become neurotic about our little medical mysteries. The "endless quest for diet truth" can lead to a certain madness. 7. We settle for “good enough.” It's often far,

In this week's episode of Escape from Caloriegate, we welcome Alan Watson of DietHeartNews.com. Alan is an accomplished author and nutrition researcher, whose works include "21 Days to a Healthy Heart" (2002) and "Cereal Killer: The Unintended Consequences of the Low Fat Diet" (2008). I believe his "Illustrated History of Heart Disease 1825-2015" piece is a MUST READ. Please check it out and share it around. Watson is a convincing advocate for a low carb, high fat, whole foods diet, and he spoke at length about the fascinating relationship between diet and heart disease. Here are some cool highlights from the show: In the last 50 years, we have seen a HUGE shift in the American diet. In 1910, lard was the #1 cooking fat. At Watson's grandfather's dairy farm, skim milk was fed to pigs to fatten them; cream was hauled off to make butter. Mortality from heart disease was just 3-8%, Today, it's 45%! Our genes don't change that fast. What HAS changed is the quality of the food we're eating. Since 1960, sugar consumption has spiked 40%, as has grain consumption. Butter consumption, meanwhile, went down by 30%, and we eat 18% fewer eggs. We've shifted away from natural fats to soybean oil and processed fats. Since 1980, obesity / diabetes has surged, and heart failure has doubled since 1987. The type of fat we're eating has changed dramatically. We're consuming much more polyunsaturated fats -- too much damaged omega 6, which leads to inflammation. Scientists now believe that inflammaton is the cause of heart diease... and not cholesterol. Yet the 2010 Dietary Guidelines lump saturated fats with trans fats, calling them "solid fats," which doesn't mean a thing. Dr. Mary Enig, in her book "Know Your Fats," provides compelling evidence that, inside the body, saturated fat and trans fat behave completely differently. Beef fat = predominantly oleic acid, the same "healthy" monounsaturated fat found in olive oil. Used to be: skim mlk was given to pigs to fatten them up. Today, we give skim milk to our kids. Compare two breakfast: Alan eats three eggs fried in lard with sausage. I eat a bowl of cheerios with skim milk and a glass of O.J. Whose breakfast is more "heart healthy"? I'm meeting Dietary Guildlines; he's off the charts in the "wrong direction." Dietary fat and cholesterol end up in the intestinal wall: the body breaks down fats, then reassembles them into triglycerides, which are put on chylomicrons (apoB48) and delivered to the body's 70 trillion cells. These chylomicrons have a half life of just 14 minutes; within that time, body snatches up all that fat -- that's how important fat is! Within just 2-3 hrs after the meal, very little signs of apoB48. It's gone, into the cell membranes, etc. My meal is another story! The skim milk contains sugar (galactose) and very little fat. All the sugar goes into the blood. Fructose goes to the liver. My meal will take the liver 12 hours to process. The liver then sends that out in VLDL, which loses its fat and becomes LDL, which delivers cholesterol to the body. Dietary fat has nothing to do with LDL! LDL is related to carb intake. Dietary fat is innocent: a completely different pathway. When people get bloodwork done, they should ask for VLDL count. LDL # doesn't really mean much or predict much, b/c it's not the amount of LDL in the circulation that matters; it's how many particles there are. Lipoproteins are particles -- we can count them. Counting VLDLs gives us a reliable predictor of heart disease: triglyceride count and size of LDL particles. AHA did a 6 year study of hospital admissions in 542 hospitals. Did lipid profiles on people -- checked HDL and LDL. Study went over 5 years. 75% of people who had heart attacks had LDL below 130. 50% had LDL below 100! Astonishingly, researcher's conclusion was "maybe we have to lower LDL even more." We've always been told that LDL is bad and HDL is good b/c HDL offers reverse ...

Welcome back to Escape from Caloriegate! Today, we welcome Kyle Taylor, an experienced entrepreneur who runs an awesome website/podcast called Thriving The MIDDLE Class. Kyle's on a mission to educate would-be entrepreneurs to take the leap and discover the power of business ownership. He interviews diverse business owners (online and offline) to share their knowledge and celebrate their successes. We chatted at length about entrepreneurship and dieting -- and the curious connections between these two challenging endeavors. Enjoy it!   Kyle's a perfect example of the middle class. He's been self-employed as an entrepreneur for 15 years, done diverse work in many fields; Entrepreneurs prosper b/c business owners have subtle advantages; Kyle's podcast follows real world entrepreneurs -- mechanics, food truck drivers, even a dodgeball tournament company owner; Romney enjoyed super low taxes. Why? Tax codes offers preferential treatment for business owners. 300+ tax deductions available for business owners -- that's how super wealthy people pay such low taxes; We're trained to be salaried employees, not taught how to be entrepreneurs; Is our educational system designed to pump out "salarymen"? An analogy? Eating the standard American diet : Being a 'salaryman' :: Eating low carb/paleo : Being a business owner; Tax deductions for business owners are built into the tax code, but no one really knows about them; What if we were taught from birth how to eat right and master the science of business owning? What we're taught about how to build a business isn't necessarily practical; Kyle started his podcast to talk to real people running real businesses -- what are their secrets? How did a solo-preneur get all these celebrity endorsements? What are people really doing out there? We're saturated in false paradigms re: business, nutrition and beyond. We need to untrain ourselves, speak with people who've succeeded at what we want to do; The 'n=1 experiment' is a popular meme in the diet world. Guess what? Self-discovery in business is also important! A different kind of n=1. What works for one business might not work for another; Kyle has a pet peeve: the "internet lifestyle." Following shiny objects is a dangerous path; Warren Buffet made a bet for a million dollars - by the year 2015, most hedge funds will have an annual return equal to or less than the S&P 500's. So why are we paying big fees to hedge fund managers? Why does that industry even exist? Success in both business and diet is not magic -- it's counterintuitive wisdom; Kyle trained for 6 months to complete an Ironman Triathlon, a 146 mile test of endurance. He didn't lose a pound! How was that possible? He needed to research it. He was probably trading some fat for muscle, but his high carb diet probably caused fat storage; You have to "dig into it" to find unconventional wisdom that actually works for diet, finance, business, raising your kids, etc False beliefs permeate our institutions; The Millionaire Next Door -- book about average people making average salaries who became millionaires. It's easy to do, but we're pushed to spend; He's encouraging would-be entrepreneurs to get off the couch and do it! Avoid pursuing the shiny gold object. The people who made the most money during the Gold Rush were folks like Levi-Strauss -- selling denim, not prospecting! His advice is: establish authority. If you create the best widget, people will find you. On a personal finance level... cut out debt, wherever you can. Avoid credit cards and refinancing your house. Most of your money goes to interest and taxes. Cut those out and save more money. We're urged to spend spend spend, but we need to do the opposite; Mainstream media encourages this kind of gorging. But if you can take a step back, focus on family values, you'll find an edge and find success; Get back to whole food that's cooked = 90% of the battle;

Get ready to have your beliefs about addiction turned upside down (in a good way)! Whether you're struggling with carb cravings or worried about a loved one who's battling alcoholism, this podcast could be the most important 39 minutes of your entire year. Seriously! So put your listening ears on... Today, Escape from Caloriegate welcomes Dr. Lance Dodes, a Training and Supervising Analyst with the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Dodes is also the former Director of the substance abuse treatment unit of Harvard’s McLean Hospital. Dr. Dodes has developed truly revolutionary insights into the nature of addiction -- concepts he eludcidated in his books, "The Heart of Addiction" and "Breaking Addiction: A 7-Step Handbook for Ending Any Addiction." Dr. Edward Hallowell, a preeminent authority on Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), called Breaking Addition a "groundbreaking work [that] should become the 'go to' handbook for anyone suffering with addiction." Full disclosure: Dr. Dodes is also the father of one of my best friends in the world, Zach -- the guy who got me into this whole low carb mishegas in 2007 by insisting that I read Gary Taubes' Good Calories Bad Calories. Here are some highlights from the episode: The way most people think about addiction is wrong: they think it's a physical problem; a spiritual or moral weakness; or a neurological problem None of these things = true Dr. Dodes has been talking to people with addictions for decades, and he's learned from them and tested his hypotheses He's come up with a new way of understanding addiction A case history to illustrate this new paradigm Man stuck waiting for his wife became frustrated - spotted a bar and went in When did you start to feel better? "When I was standing on that corner and I decided to get a drink" Illustrative of what he's heard from many people over the years - wasn't the drink itself when he felt better. Something happened when he made the decision. His problem was that he was helpless, trapped. When people feel overwhelmingly helpless, it precipitates addictive behvaior. Once he decided to drink, he wasn't helpless any more. Addictive acts are ways of undoing or reversing overwhelming helplessness. Addiction is not a "thing in itself" -- it's a symptom. It's an "unlucky solution" to the problem of helplessness. Triggers of helplessness are very personal and not conscious "F*ck it: I'm going to have a drink." What does the "f*ck it" mean? It's a fury at being helpless. Analogy to a cave-in. 300 tons of rock trap you in a cave, you're going to freak out. That's a normal reaction. The people who get depressed and inert when helpless don't do well -- rage at helplessness is innate and healthy. It's that power that makes addiction so powerful. This rage has certain properties which give addiction its properties. At the moment of the addictive feeling, nothing else matters. If you break your wrist trying to get out of a cave-in, you're not being self-destructive -- you're just not paying attention to the consequences. Instead of taking a direct action to deal with helplessness, he took an indirect action. All addictive acts are displacements. Helps to explain curious clinical features of addiction - e.g. that you can change focus of an addiction. Drinking alcohol is most common displacement, but people can switch to other drugs or even to gambling, shopping or eating. There is no difference between addictions and compulsions -- this should change the way we think about treatment We know how to treat compulsions! Figure out why they occur, when they occur, etc. Addictions can be treated by a psychologically sophisticated therapy. Conversely, 12 step models don't work well. Giant modern myth about addiction - that it's a chronic brain disease. Comes out of National Institute of Drug Abuse.

Welcome back to Escape from Caloriegate! Today, we welcome Dr. S. Andrei Ostric -- also known as "Dr. O" -- a Plastic & Reconstructive surgeon based in Chicago who's fired up by a passion to help people restore youth and beauty. Dr. O also hosts an awesome health and diet podcast, the Dr. O Show, which is part of the burgeoning Disc of Light Media podcast empire.       Here are some of the highlights from today's show: Dr. O and I are swapping podcasts :) (Here's a link to the one he did with me) He trained to be a plastic surgeon - during training, his oldest daughter developed Type I diabetes His investigation = more she cut the carbs, the better she would do Cut down on bread and sugar led to success Tom Naughton's movie Fat Head helped it all click -- eliminated his fear of fat Realized that he had a platfrom as a doctor to share this material with people and they would listen Podcast is a great way to bring this information to people Low carb led to excellent blood sugar control for his daughters They've been creative - made own low carb cakes to bring to birthday parties Kids have way too many snacks, and it doesn't make sense. He brought bag of apples for post-soccer game snack and wowed the other parents Some patients are not receptive to this message, but he has a lot of patients who are interested in finding diverse, non-traditional ways to solve their problems Someone who's obese and who has CTS (carpal tunnel) might benefit from diet changes before surgery You're not a car - can't just go in and get a new muffler Dr. O's thoughts on my struggles with carpal tunnel syndrome The "anti-science" people vs. "science is everything" folks -- there's room in the middle. Got to be a way to treat the whole person but in a scientific way. He's more open minded to try the theories to see if they work. Skepticism is a placeholder. The real question is: what is the proper amount of skepticism you should have, so you can let useful new ideas in? As a doctor, he's a practical scientist. Sometimes the tools are counterintuitive. Dealing with patient paradoxes in the real world. Medicine is an art and a science. A lot of time the rule book is right. But if you want to cure disease and move past being a "drone in the beehive" then you need to ask the tough questions. Alernative practioners capitalize on empathy - thats 100% what they do. Not enough. Non-empathetic, crotchety surgeon -- who really knows his stuff -- can be vastly superior. Dr. O started a blog because he loves to write. (history of cereal; medical facts about gin, etc) How his thinking about diet and health has evolved. Things fall along a spectrum, including human metabolism, which is very adaptable Lessons from his very long lived grandmother He believes he's carbohydrate intolerant He's tolerant of dairy because of his genetic background -- but not of grains He's working with Geoff Pinkus on The Man Diet -- for guys who won't even step inside a Curves (not that they're even allowed :) Paleo diet world is filled with jocks and strong guys -- active cavemen. They decided that there's a market of men -- e.g. 60 pounds overweight who likes hockey and rides a Harley -- not going to be into being a caveman but more into being a man. No more rabbit food = a compelling message. He does nutritional counseling on top of surgery -- keeping busy! If you have good food, you're going to lead yourself to low carb naturally. Dr. Atkins' book is a little like Moby Dick -- everyone thinks they've read it but not really. The guy got it years before everybody. He was all about whole foods and you can have some carbs but be smart about it. Links for Episode 6: - Dr. O's site Midwest PRS - The Dr. O Show - The Man Diet Center

Welcome to Episode 5 of Escape from Caloriegate! Today's our first episode that does not consist solely of me ranting into the microphone about how calories don't "count" in the way everyone thinks they do or speculating grandiosely on the nature of science or on the controversial ideas of iconoclasts like Gary Taubes and Steven Wolfram. No, today's show is less intense and more fun. That's thanks in part to my guest, Mark Torres, a good buddy of mine from Yale who works as an affiliate marketer in Colorado... and who recently lost 10+ pounds on a carbohydrate controlled diet. Back in college, Mark and I sang together in two a cappella groups, The Dukesmen of Yale and The Yale Whiffenpoofs. Those singing groups indelibly impacted our lives and allowed us to tour the world basically for free. A good deal! Beyond being able to belt out a kick-ass version of "On Broadway," Mark's a good man with a wide ranging intellect. He may not be a diet guru, but he's got great insights about the psychology of weight loss and also about the mess we collectively find ourselves in with respect to diet, nutrition and beyond. I'm not going to do the usual "break down every god-loving beat of the episode" thing, like I did with past episodes, since it's late, and I just want to publish this piece and go veg out on my couch playing Boggle for 1/2 an hour before bed. You'll just have to listen to the episode and be pleasantly surprised. Which you will be. So why are you continuing to read this? Go listen to the episode already! And please also visit Mark's awesome new blog, the Torres Touch, where he shares his diverse thoughts on business, health, politics, and etc.

In Episode 4 of "Escape from Caloriegate," I shine light on the elephant in the room. Who CARES about all this arcane "diet stuff"? Why does it matter? Why should you - or anyone, for that matter - bother spending more than a few hours thinking about this subject? Here's why. The "Caloriegate" phenomenon has ramifications go well beyond questions of "which diet is best." It touches on vital truths about ourselves and our world. What I'm saying is... check it out, y'all! Ever since I got interested in diet theory, I’ve been astonished by how little people care about it. I lost 15 pounds and kept that weight off for 4 years eating the opposite diet that most people do; But no one seems to care. Which is weird. The calorie fallacy is the glue holding together the BS that's made us fat and sick... and that keeps us that way. Even most people in the "low carb/paleosphere" -- who eat and think like I do about diet and disease and nutrition -- fail to grasp the importance of breaking the spell of the Calorie Wizards. Am I just a shill for Atkins or for Gary Taubes? (NO) Why we get "cankles" and other unfortunate fat tissue growth. Per Julius Bauer: your fat tissue lives for itself and does not fit into the precisely regulated management of the whole organism -- read that sentence 17 times until it becomes imprinted on your brain. Are Taubes and Bauer wrong? (In some sense, perhaps - but not in the way that critics suggest!) Studies that bust on low carb or that seem to "prove" that "calories count" in no way disprove Bauer. I suggest that "lipophilia" -- a.k.a. "it's overstoring, not overeating" -- is 100% true and immune to typical scientific criticism. Beyond Calories, Carbs, and Insulin -- we're all missing so much (probably!) Eleven percent of Americans over age 12 take antidepressants. Tens of billions spent every year on meds for type 2 diabetes, hypertension, "cholesterol," etc. Many meds cause fat gain; some cause fat loss. The conventional explanation = meds -> overeating -> overstoring. Thus, if you intervene at the "overeating" part of the equation, you can stop/reverse the fat gain. We're thus given crackpot advice like the following, from a Livestrong.com article on the topic of SSRI weight gain: "If you're already exercising and not losing weight, increase the workout to 60 minutes. You can also try making the workout more intense. For example, try riding your bike often rather than just taking a leisurely ride through the city streets." Dumb advice ignores reality that many meds impact the insulin system, increasing/decreasing insulin sensitivity in certain people. Researcher says noradrenergic antidepressants can decrease insulin sensitivity. If so, shouldn't it be: meds -> mess up insulin system -> overstoring (with "overeating," if it occurs at all, as a side effect)? Not just academic concern, look at some of these stories! "I gained weight while on Zoloft... after six months, I hadn't changed my diet, nor my workout... Nevertheless, I gained 20lbs in 6months. " "I started taking Zoloft about 15 months ago and have gained 20 pounds.  None of my clothes fit me anymore.  My diet has not changed and I exercise more than ever." "Over the past two years, I have put on a considerable amount of weight (about 15-20 lbs). During that time, I did not change my eating habits or my exercise routine. In fact, I began a step aerobics/kick boxing class three months ago and have only gained more weight." It goes on and on and on and on like this - hundreds of thousands of similar stories, yet the answer is always the same - "just eat less and exercise more" to counter the effects of the meds. Are all these people lying? Or is something else going on? Another example of It's Overstoring Not Overeating - also ripped from Good Calories Bad Calories. Nicotine's effect on lipoprotein lipase, a key fat storage hormone. "Evidence suggests that nicotine induces weight loss...

In Episode 3 of "Escape from Caloriegate," I introduce a new metaphor to explain Bergmann and Bauer's lipophilia idea, using a hilarious bit from one of my favorite shows, South Park. I believe new metaphors -- new ways of looking at old problems -- can be the key to powerful insight and also some good laffs. So let's peer under the hood at the The Dastardly Doings of the Magical Energy Gnomes… •    Great episode of South Park featured villains called the Underpants Gnomes; •    Their business scheme was genius: •    Phase 1: Collect Underpants •    Phase 2: ? •    Phase 3: Profit! •    Matt and Trey could easily have been ragging on the calories-in-calories-out people •    Hardcore obesity diagrams show insane amounts of "stuff" •    Always end up the same: arrows lead from "postive energy balance" to "overstoring of fat in the fat cells" •    But how exactly do these "excess calories" transform into "excess fat"? Diagrams never say. Sound familiar? •    Phase 1: Eat "Too Much" •    Phase 2: ? •    Phase 3: Store Fat! •    Might it be possible that the entire obesity research community has hoodwinked us with the equivalent of the South Park Underpants Gnomes' scheme? •    Indeed. "Phase 2" is off their radar. For all they care, Magical Energy Gnomes could be doing the hard labor of converting "excess calories" into "stored fat." •    I say… "Just Say 'No' to Magical Energy Gnomes!" •    Actual Biochemical Stuff is needed to stick "energy" into your fat cells -- there must be a mechanism(s) •    Three preemptive responses to critics: •    1) I'm not saying that Phase 2 is "only about" the hormone insulin. •    2) Thermodynamics is indeed real. When you get fat, you must store more mass/energy than you burn. (But who gives a sh*t?) •    3) I am NOT saying that concentration of usable biochemical energy in our body is IRRELEVANT to this whole shebang. •    Magical Energy Gnomes don't exist: "calories" do not magically become "fat" •    Actual Biochemical Stuff is absolutely required •    Breaking the spells of the Gnomes - puzzlers for you •    Can You Really "Overeat" Yourself into Obesity? •    Why Does It Matter That Our Fat Tissue Is an "Organ"? •    An Identical Magical Fix for Obesity AND Anorexia? •    Most people know low carb = good for fat loss •    But in "Life Without Bread," doctors Allan and Lutz detail how they treated anorexics with a low carbohydrate diet •    The money quote from Life Without Bread: "they [i.e. anorexics] will eventually reach a larger body mass compared to when they began the low-carbohydrate program. The new weight, however, will be in all the right places." •    Only two conclusions possible: •    Conclusion #1. Low carb diets are magical. They magically help fat people become thin and help gaunt people gain fat. Makes No Freaking Sense. •    Conclusion #2. Low carb diets do something to normalize how the fat tissue is regulated in both cases. •    We need mechanisms, mechanisms, mechanisms, not Magical Energy Gnomes •    Forget the fat tissue for a second. Think about body temperature •    Body temperature is regulated: you are not at equilibrium with your environment •    Paradox with complex systems in our body, like the one for temperature •    We can sun in Death Valley and go for polar bear swims -- our bodies will rebound back to 98.6 easily •    But a proverbial "grain of sand in the oyster," like the flu, can throw off body temperature and give us a fever •    What if we treated this as a simple problem of "overheating" and told people to take ice baths? •    Not smart! If an infection caused the flu, you should aim to treat the infection itself using, for example, an ANTI-BIOTIC. •    System that regulates our fat is similar to one that regulates temperature •    "Stuff" -- bad genetics, a bad diet, medications, normal life changes, etc -- can throw off this regulation. •    The SYMPTOM of this dysregulated system might be obes...

In Episode 2 of "Escape from Caloriegate," I go completely off the rails and introduce an idea that I believe may be my greatest legacy to humanity -- a grandiose but hopefully compelling concept called "The Tensor." This represents the beginning of an attempt to place Caloriegate into some kind of context, so we can understand its larger repercussions and possibly learn more than simple lessons like "most people likely need to watch their carbs more." What do you think? Have I totally lost it? Have I gone off the grid? •    “No one can be told what the tensor is… you have to see it for yourself” •    The Tensor is a framework to describe the pathology that’s infected science that has allowed Caloriegate and similar events to occur •    In the movie, The Matrix, Keanu Reeves's character, Neo, awakens to a different reality than the one he knew •    Like Neo, we’re all stuck in "false realties" in certain areas of our lives •    Shifting your perspective changes your reality - the Buddha knew it! •    Perspective shifts come in all sizes - tiny, big, life-changing •    Shifting from "calories count" to "carbs count" = massive shift •    We're not stuck in just one Matrix, in the Keanu Reeves' sense •    We and all our institutions are all trapped in a multitude of diverse false belief systems - like a multidimensional "Matrix" •    Mathematicians call a multidimensional matrix a "Tensor" •    Escape from "calories count" = escape from The Matrix •    Escape from all the diverse false beliefs that hold us back = escape from The Tensor •    Caloriegate taken in a vacuum makes no sense •    Some profound pathology must be at work in multiple disciplines of science •    How can The Tensor concept help us? •    Caloriegate cannot be an anomaly - but what are the other ideas like it? My suppositions… •    Judith Rich Harris’ assault on a proposition called the Nurture Assumption •    I kick the hornet's nest of anthropogenic global warming •    the Shakespeare authorship question •    the problems with string theory in physics - critics say theory is "not even wrong" •    If The Tensor exists, how do we tell quackery apart from legit insights? •    The Tensor is way, way, way more radical than assault on calories-in-calories-out •    I’m saying CICO debacle is just a small manifestation of a much larger, diversely embedded problem preventing us from understanding the truth about nature •    I'm not saying I have all the answers! •    Nor am I saying "all counterintuitive ideas are right"! •    But something "rhymes" about all these debacles in science and beyond •    These are not just errors like "forgot to carry the two" •    Can there be a general study of The Tensor? •    Debacles could be different instantiations of a much bigger and encompassing phenomenon •    Tale of the Blind Men and the Elephant: there's an 'elephant' we're all missing •    Calories vs. carbs is its tusk •    Global warming debate is its trunk •    The debate over string theory in physics is its leg •    The whole elephant is The Tensor •    Saved the most radical portion of the show for last •    I'm a fan of a genius physicist named Stephen Wolfram, author of book A New Kind of Science •    Wolfram's ideas may hold beginning of solution to The Tensor •    Wolfram's "4 Classes" catalogue all complexity in nature •    Class 1 = homogenous states (simple systems) •    Class 2 = simple-stable states (structures change but ultimately stay simple) •    Class 3 = chaos, with no real patterns •    Class 4 = dynamic interplay between order and chaos (Structures propagate within a chaotic environment, like The Game of Life from comp science) •    Per Wolfram, scientists and mathematicians have all been making a big error •    Traditional science concerns finding reproducible patterns in nature: repeatability! •    But this thinking confines us to Class 1 and Class 2 problems - very hard to use science/math to...

Welcome! In the inaugural episode of "Escape from Caloriegate," I assault one of the most deeply entrenched ideas in health/nutrition: the doctrine of "calories in calories out." This episode and the next few that follow it will consist of me rambling into the microphone solo, in an attempt to get you to think in radical new ways about stodgy old problems that are keeping you and the rest of society stuck in 2nd gear. After the show ramps up, I'm going to be bringing on people who actually know what they're talking about :] -- including some of the most brilliant minds in diet, health, science and beyond. It's gonna be crazy, in a good way. So let's roll. Here's what's cooking in Episode #1: • The radical premise of "Escape from Caloriegate" • The Calories In Calories Out (CICO) mindset is the root of all evil • Why obesity is a problem of "overstoring" not "overeating" • If Gary Taubes is the Christopher Columbus of this idea, consider me one of the "John Smiths" • I'm not a doctor, not going to treat anybody • My motley resume: degree in physics from Yale, failed screenwriter, obsessed with counterintuitive ideas • Diverse creative speculation is the thread that binds my work • I'm a low carb fan, but show is not "rah rah" low carb • We need better questions, not more people who claim to know the answers • If we screwed up on calories for 60+ years, what does this teach us about science, about our capacity to learn anything about nature? • Are there "Caloriegate" like mistakes in other fields? (I believe so) • "It's Overstoring Not Overstoring" (IONO): the antidote to CICO • Is IONO just the "carbs insulin hypothesis" warmed over? (no) • Diet wars focus on calories vs. carbs, but this is a false choice • "Obesity is most simply defined as the state in which the amount of triglycerides stored in adipose tissue is abnormally increased" • CICO says "excess energy" causes this excess storage • Carbs-Insulin says "bad carbs -> insulin problems" causes excess storage • Both models make mistake of incorporating cause into definition of problem • Why not say "obesity IS the overstoring of fat" and go from there? • Repeat after me: "it's IONO not CICO" • How do you determine when a counterintuitive idea is legitimate or not? • Two ways to go wrong - a) quackery; b) cynicism • 4x4 matrix looks at degree of perspective and degree of critical thinking • no perspective, no critical thinking = go with the herd • perspective w/o critical thinking = homeopathy and crazy beliefs in crystals • critical thinking w/o perspective = default too abruptly back to conventional wisdom • critical thinking WITH perspective = brilliant insights, like Theory of Relativity • how do we find this "Awakened Critical Thinking"? • does eating turmeric prevent cancer? • Science is a blunt tool - can't really answer questions like that without hard work • Karl Popper's definition of science: "Every genuine test of a theory is an attempt to falsify it" • Almost no one (including most so-called "scientists") abides by this rule • Gary Taubes on coenzyme Q10 - healthy for you or not? His surprising answer! • To get scientific answers (per Popper's definition of science) to all our diet questions would take 400,000 years and cost $6,000,000,000,000,000.00. • There's a gap between what science tells us and what we want to know • Gurus are all too happy to fill that gap with their opinions • How do we escape from "Caloriegate"?