Dr. Dean Ornish has come under a lot of criticism lately for his misleading statements about diet and heart disease. See, for example: Critique of Dean Ornish Op-ed, by Nina Teicholz, and Why Almost Everything Dean Ornish Says about Nutrition Is Wrong, from Scientific American. Ornish made his name with a study that claimed to […]
Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) can be viewed as a set of symptoms of insulin resistance. Taken together, those symptoms signify a threat of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other diseases that appear to be different manifestations of a common cause. That common cause is likely to be insulin resistance. This hypothesis is supported by evidence that […]
Gluconeogenesis is Demand-Driven, not Supply-Driven We have seen the claim that any protein you eat in excess of your immediate needs will be turned into glucose by spontaneous gluconeogenesis 1. (Gluconeogenesis (GNG) is the process by which glucose is made out of protein in the liver and kidneys.) Some people think that because protein can be […]
One recent myth, prevalent in the Paleo Diet community, is that the keto diet is stressful to the body1. This idea arises from misunderstandings about cortisol — “the stress hormone”. There are two different arguments we know of, and this post will address the first one, the “gluconeogenesis requires cortisol” myth. This myth comes from […]