The most slimming tortillas in the world
It's no secret that I'm an avid food gardener. In the last two years, I've moved from exclusively growing vegetables to growing large quantities of staple calorie crops, such as potatoes, flour corn, and long-storing winter squash. Why do I put so much eff…
The Hungry Brain: Book Update
In January of this year, I handed in a complete manuscript draft of my first book, The Hungry Brain , to my editor at Flatiron Books . This book represents more than two full-time years of my life, and I can't wait for it to hit shelves. It's markedly differ…
NuSI-funded Study Serves Up Disappointment for the Carbohydrate-insulin Hypothesis of Obesity
A new metabolic ward study tests the idea that lowering insulin via severe carbohydrate restriction increases metabolic rate and accelerates fat loss, independently of calorie intake. Although carbohydrate restriction did modestly increase metabolic rate, it actually …
Two huge new studies further undermine the "obesity paradox"
The "obesity paradox" is the observation that people with higher fat mass sometimes have better health outcomes than lean people, including a lower overall risk of death. Evidence has been steadily mounting that this finding may be a misleading artifact of t…
A Serious Challenge to the 2012 Low-carbohydrate "Metabolic Advantage" Study
Warning: this post will be a bit more wonkish than usual, because I need to get detailed to make my points. To read a summary, skip to the end. In 2012, David Ludwig's group published an interesting RCT that suggested a substantial "metabolic advantage"…
Why some dogs (and humans) are born hungry
The brain is the central regulator of appetite and body fatness, and genetic variation that affects body fatness tends to act in the brain. One important site of variation is the POMC gene, which codes for a signaling molecule that suppresses food intake. A new study…
My Recent Paper on Linoleic Acid in Adipose Tissue
Linoleic acid (LA) is the predominant polyunsaturated fat in the human diet, and it's most concentrated in seed oils such as corn oil. LA accumulates in fat tissue, and as with many of the nutrients we eat, it is biologically active. In a new paper, we systematic…
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