Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin
Hey Jimmy, have you ever heard of the Weston A. Price Foundation? Your comments make me think that you’d really like their studies on diet: http://www.westonaprice.org/
Weston A. Price was a dentist who studied the eating patterns of remote (un-Westernized) tribes, and found how great their health was (particularly dental structure, but also lack of cancer, heart disease, etc.). Through his studies, he found that people throughout time had cultivated wise practices in eating so as to have the healthiest and most fertile people. Eventually Western processed foods allured people with their “ease” and convenience, and most industrialized people bought into them. Unfortunately these people couldn’t see the long term effects that the processed foods had on people. The WAPF tries to promote a look back at the ancient wise practices of eating good, clean foods that truly promote our health. In respect of their link to a tradition that is wiser than today’s average fast-food consumer, I kind of look at them like the Catholics of the diet world (obviously without the whole divine institution, sanctifying role, and infallibility stuff).
Get this book, if you don’t have it already: “Good Calories, Bad Calories” by Gary Taube. Here is a review blurb:
“From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Taubes’s eye-opening challenge to widely accepted ideas on nutrition and weight loss is as provocative as was his 2001 NewYork Times Magazine article, What if It’s All a Big Fat Lie? Taubes (Bad Science), a writer for Science magazine, begins by showing how public health data has been misinterpreted to mark dietary fat and cholesterol as the primary causes of coronary heart disease. Deeper examination, he says, shows that heart disease and other diseases of civilization appear to result from increased consumption of refined carbohydrates: sugar, white flour and white rice. When researcher John Yudkin announced these results in the 1950s, however, he was drowned out by the conventional wisdom. Taubes cites clinical evidence showing that elevated triglyceride levels, rather than high total cholesterol, are associated with increased risk of heart disease-but measuring triglycerides is more difficult than measuring cholesterol. Taubes says that the current U.S. obesity epidemic actually consists of a very small increase in the average body mass index. Taube’s arguments are lucid and well supported by lengthy notes and bibliography. His call for dietary advice that is based on rigorous science, not century-old preconceptions about the penalties of gluttony and sloth is bound to be echoed loudly by many readers. Illus. (Oct. 2)
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Taubes provides tons of data and information, along with very detailed notes. I loved this book, and if you are at all interested in low-carb diets (as you seem to be), this book is probably the best science book covering not just low-carb diets, but the history of our dietary recommendations and the way we got to where we are today: recommending low-fat, high carb diets and wondering why people are still getting fat. I hope you give it a try! Best regards.