The rationale that these diet advocates use to justify eschewing not only sugar, but also more complex carbohydrates fruits, vegetables and grains, for instance has never been proved. Compared to eating protein or fat itself, they say, eating carbohydrates causes cells to store more food energy as fat, a result of the insulin release triggered by carbohydrates. In the October 27 issue, researchers from the national Centers for Disease Prevention and Control concluded that most Americans now are overweight, and that one in five is obese roughly thirty pounds or more overweight. Children and adolescents are getting fatter, too, putting them on a fast track for heart disease and type II diabetes. The news is especially sobering considering that a separate epidemiological study reported in the same issue of JAMA presented some of the most convincing evidence to date that being overweight or obese increases one s chances of dying.
Obesity is the second-leading cause of preventable death, after smoking.
Challenging the standard wisdom that most people do not change behavior to lose weight is Dean Ornish, physician with UCSF s Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, himself a health advisor to President Clinton and the author of another popular weight-loss book. Ornish, who also is considered outside the fold by some for his advocacy of a diet containing only 10 percent fat, shares mainstream physicians and dietitians advocacy of complex carbohydrates and their disdain for the currently reigning diet fat. Ornish has reported success with highly motivated patients who embrace his dietary and lifestyle changes. Because they are absorbed slowly, your blood sugar does not spike and so your body does not need to produce elevated levels of insulin. Instead of the rapid swings in blood sugar, you get a more constant source of energy throughout the day.