Cars as a metaphor for understanding obesity
If we want to understand the accumulation of excess body fat, it's tempting to focus our attention on the location that defines the condition: adipose tissue. Ultimately, the key question we want to answer is the following: why does fat enter adipose tissue faster…
Do Blood Glucose Levels Affect Hunger and Satiety?
You've heard the story before: when you eat carbohydrate-rich foods that digest quickly, it sends your blood sugar and insulin levels soaring, then your blood sugar level comes crashing back down and you feel hungry and cranky. You reach for more carbohydrate, per…
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"…
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