Just when you think that health advice from the medical community can’t get any worse…this kind of story shatters that dream

J. Morris Hicks, the "big picture guy"

Recently I blogged about a Dr. Oz telecast in which he was essentially promoting a new low-carb, weight-loss diet. There was only one voice of integrity on that telecast — the voice of my friend Dr. Joel Fuhrman, who scored the diet a “1” on a scale of 1 to 10, saying that he would’ve scored it lower if it had been permitted. (Click here for that blog post)

Now just last week, we have a prominent school of medicine, Johns Hopkins, in the news on the same topic. Like Dr. Oz, they too are presenting evidence that supports low-carb diets for obese people wanting to lose weight. This is very disturbing although not very surprising. (See link to complete article below my signature.) And guess who paid for all of this wonderful new information? You did! It was from a study funded mostly by the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.) From the article:

Released: 5/27/2011 4:40 PM EDT
Source:Johns Hopkins Medicine

Newswise — Overweight and obese people looking to drop some pounds and considering one of the popular low-carbohydrate diets, along with moderate exercise, need not worry that the higher proportion of fat in such a program compared to a low-fat, high-carb diet may harm their arteries, suggests a pair of new studies by heart and vascular researchers at Johns Hopkins.

“Overweight and obese people appear to really have options when choosing a weight-loss program, including a low-carb diet, and even if it means eating more fat,” says the studies’ lead investigator exercise physiologist Kerry Stewart, Ed.D.

My good friend Susan Benigas of St. Louis who forwarded me the article for today's post.

To me, this simply lacks integrity and should be an embarrassment to any medical doctor who has ever received a degree from Johns Hopkins. With overwhelming scientific and clinical evidence supporting a healthy whole foods, plant-based diet for reversing heart disease, promoting effortless weight-loss and so much more — this news release is simply irresponsible and potentially very damaging to the health of millions of people who will heed their dangerous advice.

“Our study should help allay the concerns that many people who need to lose weight have about choosing a low-carb diet instead of a low-fat one, and provide re-assurance that both types of diet are effective at weight loss and that a low-carb approach does not seem to pose any immediate risk to vascular health,” says Stewart. “More people should be considering a low-carb diet as a good option,” he adds.

Sadly, they make ZERO mention of what happens to those patients next year and beyond. Like over 95% of dieters to lose weight, these people will more than likely regain all the weight and suffer serious long-term health issues. Just another example of how our government (the NIH) is spending our money…

Funding for the study was provided by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with additional assistance from the Johns Hopkins Bayview Institute for Clinical Translational Research, also funded by the NIH. Besides Stewart, other Johns Hopkins researchers who took part in the studies were Sameer Chaudri, M.D.; Devon Dobrosielski, Ph.D.; Harry Silber, M.D., Ph.D.; Sammy Zakaria, M.D., M.P.H.; Edward Shapiro, M.D.; and Pamela Ouyang, M.B.B.S.

The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell of Cornell -- documenting the "blinding flash of the obvious" regarding what we should be eating; whole plant-based foods.

I wonder how many of these esteemed MD’s and PhD’s have any idea what a truly health-promoting diet-style looks like, are eating that way themselves, have read The China Study or have even heard of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Caldwell Esseslstyn or Dr. Dean Ornish — the three great men who influenced Bill Clinton to start helping his heart heal itself.

And, by the way, the diet-style (high carb diet from whole plants) they all recommended is about the polar opposite of what the Johns Hopkins folks are recommending here. I have no doubt that all of these three men will agree with what I have written here. We’re all on the same page on just about everything AND they have all agreed to write endorsements for our upcoming book.

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—J. Morris Hicks…blogging daily at HealthyEatingHealthyWorld.com

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Low-Carb, Higher-Fat Diets Add No Arterial Health Risks to Obese People Seeking to Lose Weight.