Chapter 7 reviewed the history of how fiber made its meteoric rise to the top of the nutritional discussion. It really was a spin off of the carbohydrate philosophy and caught on gaining massive popularity as an explanation for many of the diseases of civilizations. Remnants of this philosophy are still present on the shelves of today’s supermarket. You see many breakfast cereals and other fibrous food items proclaiming their heart health due to their fiber content. Taubes makes the argument that this fiber hypothesis had very little scientific backing. It was essentially more popular than the carbohydrate hypothesis because it could be reconciled with Keys’ low fat diet where the carbohydrate hypothesis was diametrically opposed to it, which was viewed as nothing short of nutritional heresy.
Chapter 8 begins its talk of the scientific backing for the carbohydrate hypothesis with another case study of a primitive culture that was free from the diseases of civilization when eating their native diet that included little or no refined carbs and became afflicted with many of the western health problems when introduced to refined carbs. It then turns its attention to Syndrome X which includes hypertension (high blood pressure), high triglycerides (fat in the blood), low HDL (“good cholesterol”) and diabetic or pre-diabetic conditions including insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, and constantly high insulin levels. He points out the negative synergystic effect of the three together and how each one predisposes the individual to the others. Interestingly, he also points out the fact that all three have been shown to be exacerbated by sugar and other refined carbs.
So…what do you think? Is fiber the hero it has been portrayed to be? What are your thoughts on Syndrome X? Who has been totally grainless for the month of January? What are your positive and negative experiences since going grainless? Performance changes? Body composition changes? Post your thoughts on these questions to comments.
Read chapters 9 and 10 this week.
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