Fad Diets: What Really Works for Weight Loss

Explore the concept of healthy eating scientifically and shed light on the molecular basis of energy balance. On this edition, UCSF nutritionist Andrea Garber takes a look at the plethora of fad diets and why certain diets work and others don't. Series: "UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public" [3/2008] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 13729]

Category:

Education

Tags:

• fad
• diets
• nutrition
• dieting

[qocweb]

It's obvious that many of the commenters only watched the first 5-15 minutes or so. She is NOT blindly supporting a low fat diet. This complements Robert Lustig's talk quite nicely (he is the first person she thanks at the end of the talk) and provides a good overview of the science and some good advice for those interested in weight loss.

[Erlyn4]

Wow. 5 minutes in and she's already hit my skeptic button. The 7 countries study by Ancel Keyes has been so widely debunked as to be barely considered science. Then on the 20 country study she points out Japan which is an extreme statistical outlier and ignores France and Switzerland which aren't (or at least less so) and which also refute her premise about saturated fat being the culprit of heart disease. Bad science.

[ProfFeinman]

@RakshasaCat I'm an academic and reasonably well-educated. If you don't "really give any real indication of what conclusion she's reached until at least half-way in the video" that is a serious fault in academic presentations and if the beginning is faulty as in other comments, then you have to fix it, if you want people to hang in there for you main point.

[ProfFeinman]

@qocweb I only watched the first 5 minutes of her talk but it is so erroneous (described above and by others) that there is no reason to keep watching. Lustig's YouTube is not a model of scientific accuracy -- some of what he says is true, some is false, some is blatantly wrong, e.g. fructose does provide glycogen.

[ProfFeinman]

@Orionsaru Quite right. Every possibility that rest of her talk makes sense. Should have spelled out review of evidence but others got it: whatever the statistical significance, 20-countries is meaningless -- look at level of SF for the US that she emphasizes: the outcome values are all over the place. Also, isn't it R^2 that accounts for % variance? My students are encouraged to question what I say including above. First 5 minutes so seriously in error that can't see why I should hear rest.

[Orionsaru]

@ProfFeinman Dude - if you are a professor and jump to firm conclusions before you have reviewed the evidence in front of you (in this case, her lecture) then I pity any students you might have.

[RakshasaCat]

@qocweb It is what happens when uneducated people listen to an academic lecture, the lack of soundbites and use of precise language leads to confusion.

E.g. her statement about fats being easier to convert suddenly becomes 'fats are bad', when instead it was part of her showing how the early low-fat diets were reasoned. And she doesn't really give any real indication of what conclusion she's reached until at least half-way in the video.

Basically the net is full of idiots.

[YoursTrulyGlenn]

@KrisLawren I dont need any other diet program cause im totally sticked to what ive been performing found in the site WeightLossAction.Info.. I so much lost a bunch of weight through the help of there weigh loss programs and methods.. So, why should i switch? that's a big no no..

[ntaaid]

Finally! More scientists who agree and expand on Lustig, Taubes, Yudkin, Atkins and can put a nail in the super low fat/ hign carb coffin... we need more of them on here...

[Jollyprez]

She starts with the Keys study - where he cherry-picked his data, and ignored outliers, such as Innuit & Polynesians who eat diets with VERY high sat fat. A bad start. Then she cites studies which are observational, and not experimental. If you want a different interpretation of those studies - google "fat head movie."

One other note - she emphasizes that when one overeats, excess calories in the form of fat are ostensibly easier to store. But what if you're not "overeating"?

[inderjeet1563]

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