[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/llvlcshow/llvlc456-Hewitt-and-taubes.mp3[/podcast]
Bestselling New York Times author Gary Taubes and real foods author Ben Hewitt are the guests today on “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore!
Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories and his latest release Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It comes back on the show again today to discuss the aftermath of being flim-flammed by the producers of The Dr. Oz Show on March 7, 2011 when Gary appeared on the popular syndicated daytime television program. He shares in this interview how they refused his request for a full lipid panel comparison with particle size, his frustration over how low-carb was depicted being anti-strawberry and anti-salmon, and how they generally cut off all of his explanations of why low-carb science works! If you watched Gary Taubes on Dr. Oz and thought he should have said more, then you need to listen to this exclusive follow-up interview with Gary for what REALLY happened behind-the-scenes.
Then in the main interview today, we hear from Ben Hewitt, author of The Town That Food Saved, who shares about local agriculture, the influence of The Weston A. Price Foundation on his thinking regarding healthy nutrition, why he rejects “sustainable agriculture,” and how getting back to real, whole foods grown locally helped save a town in Northern Vermont. Don’t you dare miss this great episode!
ALSO: Special thanks to our great sponsors, QuestBars and GetYourHealthTested.com!
LINKS MENTIONED IN EPISODE 456
– Support our sponsor: Get TWO FREE low-carb, high-protein QuestBars
– Support our sponsor: GetYourHealthTested.com
– Gary Taubes on “The Dr. Oz Show” on 3-7-11
– YouTube video of Jimmy’s interview with Gary Taubes: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
– Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It
– Official Gary Taubes web site
– Ben Hewitt bio
– The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food
– Official web site for Ben Hewitt
And as always…
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Jimmy,
Thank you for giving Gary Taubes a platform to defend himself, and the low carb lifestyle, against the distorted depiction of low carb diets that Dr. Oz gave to the viewing public.
Granted, most of your regular, well informed listeners, already knew that Oz’s TV interview was propaganda for the conventional dietary “wisdom”, which has failed so much of America. But maybe some open minded viewers of the Dr. Oz show, who have not familiarized themselves with low carb dietary principles, will stumble on your interview and they will understand the deception that took place, on the part of Dr. Oz and his team of editors, in order to make Gary look like he didn’t have a cogent case for his dietary recommendations.
There can be no better indicator as to how dishonest Dr. Oz and his team was than to find out that much of Gary’s arguments were edited out. That should tell any person with common sense that Dr. Oz and his team didn’t have much information to back up their support for conventional dietary guidelines, and so instead of engaging what Gary had to say, head on, they decided it was better to edit him so heavily as to make a caricature of his arguments. This is no better than what any propagandist would do.
If the comical depiction of a low carb diet, by Dr. Oz’s one day dietary “experiment”, wasn’t bad enough, the particular segment, where Gary was asked to get his cholesterol checked, is probably the most illustrative of Dr. Oz’s mendacity. Put aside, for a moment, that neither cholesterol nor a plain assessment of LDL level gives any indication of heart disease risk, and that a better indication is LDL particle size. Put aside for a moment that the Dr. Oz’s show didn’t offer to do that assessment. You don’t have to be well versed in science to know that you cannot assess the benefits or destructiveness of any phenomenon, from the standpoint of science, unless you eliminate confounding variables.
Dr. Oz, being a man educated in science, should know this. So even if Gary’s lipid measurements were terrible in comparison to Dr. Oz, you cannot immediately jump to the conclusion that it must be Gary’s low carb/high fat diet that is causing his numbers to be high. In any scientifically rigorous setting that would be considered a big non sequitur. After all, any moderately educated person knows that almost every marker of health, whether it be blood pressure, hormone levels, or a lipid panel can be influenced by a lot of things, like stress, age, and most importantly, genetics.
Obviously, Dr. Oz and Gary are not genetically identical twins, so how can Dr. Oz know, assuming Gary’s lipid panel is worse than his, that such differences can be ascribed to Gary’s diet, when it could be that Gary has a hereditary predisposition to having a less than stellar lipid profile, while Dr. Oz may have a natural proclivity towards having better lipid readings REGARDLESS of what diet both are on? The best way to make such an assessment of dietary effects on lipid panels, which should take into account LDL particle size and increases or decreases in HDL, would be to get their readings, for a month, on each of their respective diets, and then get their readings again, after another month where Gary tries Dr. Oz’s diet, and Dr. Oz tries Gary’s diet. Of course to have such a nuanced discussion of what constitutes good scientific assessment of health doesn’t make for good entertainment, and doesn’t serve the interest of Dr. Oz’s corporate backers, who make their profit based on the nonsense that a diet rich in carbohydrates is good for you.
What really should transpire, if Dr. Oz really is interested in promoting good science, or as he likes to put it “kicking the tires” , is to have several, hour long, UNEDITED (this is key), debates where both Gary and Dr. Oz have equally time to articulate their views and to cite evidence in support of their case. But something tells me that Armageddon will come before this ever happens, and I don’t even believe in the apocalypse.
Though Dr. Oz did his best to be contrarian at the expense of his intellectual integrity, any exposure to a good idea is better than no exposure at all. The fact that Gary’s book is still in the top 100 best seller list on Amazon tells me that the exposure given on Dr. Oz’s show has done more good than harm, because it has at least raised people’s curiosity towards an alternative dietary paradigm than the one given for so many decades by the mainstream medical establishment, government, and food corporations. Eventually the truth will emerge no matter how much self-serving people will try to obfuscate and suppress it. The history of scientific progress has demonstrated this.
-Lawrence Louis
Jimmy,
It was great to have Gary back on your show. Too bad Dr. Oz and his viewers will not get to hear this interview. Again, Gary Handled himself well and go some great national exposure.
Dr. Jeff Gerber
Denver’s Diet Doctor
I’ve only listened to Gary’s part of the podcast so far. Looking forward to hearing from Ben, too.
Gary is the quintessential gentleman. Please tell him that we’ll never get tired of hearing him on the show! Any publicity is good publicity and, hopefully, as Gary said, those who have been trying Oz’s way and not seeing the results will pick up a copy of Gary’s book and learn the truth.
I also had the thought that those in the audience who did not get the “edited” version are probably a lot more impressed with Gary and by what he shared than we can know. I look forward to much more media exposure (and education of the public) from him. 😀 THANKS, YOU TWO!
I really enjoyed both interviews. Regarding bananas, most Australian bananas are grown in one area of north Queensland. Cyclone Yasi wiped out the crop recently so bananas are now $8 per kilo. Take care.
J