Argue with this.

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?HEQJF

Obesity is contagious. It is a social disease. But health is also contagious and we need to start infecting our communities and neighborhoods with health. I encourage each of you to be health activists.

...The food industry has created secret combinations of sugar, fat and salt in junk food that trigger biological addiction -- which is why you "can't just eat one" potato chip, but you can easily just eat one serving of broccoli. Who binges on asparagus? But almost everyone has eaten a whole bag of cookies.

[oldjerry]

So What? Why should ANYONE tell me what or what not to eat? Sure ,put the info in front of people, then let them make their own decisions.

[MKG]

Well, you certainly seem to be totally enamoured of this man, Durgan. I'd Google around if I were you. Here's what a US doctor (a real one) said about his work ...

The author proposes a new trade-marked medical condition: diabesity. It refers to insulin resistance in association with (usually)

overweight, obesity, and/or type 2 diabetes mellitus. Dr. Hyman says half of Americans have this brand-new disorder, and he has the cure. If you don't have overt diabetes or prediabetes, you'll have to get your insulin levels measured to see if you have diabesity.

He reiterates many current politically correct fads, such as grass-fed/pastured beef, organic food, detoxification, and strict avoidance of all man-made chemicals, notwithstanding the relative lack of scientific evidence supporting many of these positions.

Dr. Hyman bills himself as a scientist, but his biography in the book doesn't support that label. Shoot, I've got a B.S. degree in zoology, but I'm a practicing physician, not a scientist.

The author thinks there are only six causes of all disease: single-gene genetic disorders, poor diet, chonic stress, microbes, toxins, and allergens. None of those explain hypothyroidism, tinnitus, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, Parkinsons disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, or multiple sclerosis, to name a few that don't fit his paradigm.

Dr. Hyman makes a number of claims that are just plain wrong. Here are some: - Over 80% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D - Lack of fiber contributes to cancer - High C-reactive protein (in blood) is linked to a 1,700% increased probability of developing diabetes - Processed, factory-made foods have no nutrients - We must take nutritional supplements

Furthermore, he recommends a minimum of 11 and perhaps as many as 16 different supplements even though the supportive science is weak or nonexistent. Is he selling supplements?

After easily finding these bloopers, I started questioning many other of the author's statements.

I was very troubled by the apparent lack of warning about hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Many folks with diabetes will be reading this book. They could experience hypoglycemia on this diet if they're taking certain diabetes drugs: insulin, sulfonylureas, meglitinides, pramlintide plus insulin, exenatide plus sulfonylurea, and possibly thiazolidinediones, to name a few instances.

If you don't have diabetes but do need to lose weight, this book may help. If you have diabetes, strongly consider an alternative such as Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution.

In the interest of brevity, I'll not comment on Dr. Hyman's substitution of time-tested science-based medicine with his own "Functional Medicine."

Sorry about the length of the extract, but I think it constitutes fair use. I can answer the good doctor's question, by the way - Does Hyman sell supplements? You bet your sweet bippy he does.

Mike

[boboff]

OK, so we can argue with it, excellent.

Supplement anyone?

[demi]

hes got a degree in zoology but he's a practicing physician? surly thats not possible, zoology is not the same a medicine i surly wouldnt like to have a zoologist as my doctor!



i allways trust my god to tell me what to do:

tim minchin, fat children!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_ElXYzFX_w

[Green Aura]

There's what looks like quite a interesting programme on BBC2 tonight - The men who made us fat - 9pm.

[MKG]

hes got a degree in zoology but he's a practicing physician? surly thats not possible, zoology is not the same a medicine i surly wouldnt like to have a zoologist as my doctor!

He has that as well, demi - most (all?) doctors have two degrees. Ironically, they don't usually have a doctorate.

The point made was that having a degree in a scientific discipline does not make you a scientist (think about the number of Politics and Economics graduates around - they're not all, thank goodness, politicians or economists).

Mike

[demi]

most or all doctors have 2 degrees?
doesnt it take like, 7 or 8 years to graduate as a medical doctor?
plus another at least 4 years to do another degree?
is that right?

[MKG]

Its (in the UK) 5 years for a straightforward medical degree. Actually, that's usually a double degree in itself, as most of them are MB (Bachelor of Medicine) and BCh (or ChB depending upon the school) which is Bachelor of Surgery. However, there are then intercalated degrees (look on Google) which add another 2 to 3 years on and result in a BSc, a BA or just about any other degree.

Mike

EDIT: If you're wondering, the old name for surgery is chirurgy.

[demi]

i thought to become a medical doctor you needed to do a bachelor of medicine, then a masters and so on, all in medicine.
like not a BSc in zoology then a masters in medicine.

i have a BSc in zoology, so i could go on and do a 2 year masters in medicine and become a doctor in a hospital? with only 2 years of actually studing medicine?

[chickenchargrill]

Nope, you'd still need to do the 5 year course, at least. Although all doctors are let off around hospitals early on in their studies. The 'fast-track' medical qualification is still 4 years long but requires a good degree in human biology, psychology, pharmacology etc.

[demi]

so you still need to do at least a 5 year bachlor in medicine degree. that sounds better.

and ( in scotland ) if you already have a bachelor degree in somthing and then go on to do another bachelor in medicine ( or anything ) you have to pay for it yourself without funding, so probably in scotland most people do a degree in medicine from the begining and dont repeat or change from another course. thats probably why iv not heard of doing it that way.

iv also heard if you fail a year in medicine your out, as you cant make mistakes with peoples lives so only the best students go through the whole course and graduate.

iv got a friend from school who was doing medicine. she was in her last year and had a breakdown from the stress and quit, 5 months before she would have graduated. its a really difficult degree to do.

[boboff]

Demi, this isn't a criticism, as my typing and spelling is poo, but why have your capital letters and " ' " sign stopped working?

[demi]

I am ever so sorry Boboff. I tend to miss out punctuation in order to type faster. I'v got two kids running arround me so i have to type quickly in between looking after them. I didn't reaslise it was a crime officer. I shall have to be more weary of The Grammer Police in the future!

Also, my spelling is pants as im dyslexic and i usually used firefox for the spell check, but its not been working lately. I'm trying to spell as well as i can without it.

[Susie]

Who binges on asparagus?

Well, me, TBH. Or, I don't really binge on anything, but I can put away quite a bit. In fact we might have a bit left in the fridge {slopes off, shifty-eyed}. I love asparagus.