One of our loyal members sent this article to Jennie earlier today. As you all would have guessed, Jennie decided that I should have my feathers ruffled so she forwarded the link to me. Let's take a look at what I would so appropriately dub as "Scientific Garbage", shall we?

Generally, I'm not interested in what others have to say about the science; just give me the data and let me think for myself. Most of the public will do the opposite though. They have no interest in trying to make heads or tails of the study and instead, look for the convenient, easy way out. What I mean by this, is that an individual, or team of individuals, will draw a conclusion at the end of a study and major media outlets will write flashy headlines based on that conclusion. Mindless souls the world over will then read said headline and believe it to be the new gospel. This study, and the subsequent article about it, are a perfect example of this:

"High-Fat Diet May Make You Stupid and Lazy"

We all know that our less-informed friends and family members will recite this headline to us over and over again as we sit there, trying to enjoy our juicy steak. Little do they know, they are reciting "Scientific Garbage"!

This specific article goes on to quote one of the authors of the study:

Western diets are typically high in fat and are associated with long-term complications, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart failure, yet the short-term consequences of such diets have been given relatively little attention," said Andrew Murray, co-author of the study and currently at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

The fact that Mr. Murray references the lipid hypothesis right from the beginning lets me know that I should put on my boots because I am going to have to wade through quite a bit of B.S. The truth is, scientists are almost forced to support the lipid hypothesis less they risk losing their funding. I digress.

Getting back on track, I will have you know that Western diets are NOT typically high in fat. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the percentage of total food energy derived from the 3 major macronutrients is as follows: carbohydrate (51.8%), fat (32.8%), and protein (15.4%). As you can see, Western diets are high in carbohydrates. It is the carbohydrates and polyunsaturated fats (i.e. vegetable oils) that are causing the obesity, diabetes, and heart failure.

Later in the article, Dr. Gerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of the FASEB journal, goes on to say:

"A long weekend spent eating hotdogs, French fries, and pizza in Orlando might be a great treat for our taste buds, but they might send our muscles and brains out to lunch."

I would expect this type of logic from my 10 year old daughter, not a supposed doctor! The deleterious affects of those foods have nothing at all to do with the amount of fat, but rather the type of fat. Those foods are all high in unhealthy, unsaturated fats while also being very high in carbohydrates. All of which should be avoided. Remember, there are other fats in this world besides the man-made ones used in frankenfoods.

As for the study itself, why wasn't there any mention of carbohydrate withdrawal and its known symptoms? You see, it is a known fact that carbohydrates are addictive and like other addictive substances there is a period of withdrawal whenever intake is drastically lowered. With carbohydrate withdrawal you may feel shaky, jittery, fatigued, depressed, nauseous, irritable, unable to concentrate (i.e. "brain fog"), etc. This will generally last anywhere from 2-10 days, but everyone is different. It is during this time that your body is calling out for more carbohydrates (i.e. glucose). If you can stay strong and resist the temptation to give in, your body will eventually convert over to burning fat for its energy purposes. In fact, it has been shown in other studies that the heart and brain both run 25% more efficiently on fat than on carbohydrates, after the switch occurs.

I'll concede that the researchers may have been right in concluding that a high-fat diet in its infancy may bring about fatigue and brain fog, but it isn't due to anything other than the fact that you are a junky trying to get clean. Stay in the fight and you will come out ahead.

All in all, this garbage reminds me of a bad movie where the main character continues to chase the wrong guy when all of the evidence points directly to someone else. As the viewer you are left to sit there, screaming at the screen, hoping irrationally that the idiot might actually hear you. Eventually, you realize though that you're better off just turning it off and throwing it in the trash where it belongs.