My shortlist of blogs I recommend is already over to the left there, but here are some highlights for nutrition & health related content.
if you only read one book
make it the Gary Taubes' book (btw, there was a recent review of the book in the British Medical Journal, the unedited version of which is available here)
if you only watch one lecture
watch one of Taubes' lectures on obesity
if you only read one blog
read Stephan Guyenet's Whole Health Source
(don't worry, he's not a low-carb nutter like most of the other bloggers I like)
best lecture of 2009
Dr. Lustig's lecture on fructose
Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, has a great lecture on fructose. He's especially passionate since he's been involved in treating obese children. I have 2 quibbles with this lecture. One is that I think he overrates glucose. The second is that he gives Ancel Keys way too much credit. He faults Keys for performing a fundamentally flawed regression analysis, but misses Keys' far worse sin of collecting data from 22 nations but publishing a "7 nations" study by choosing only the seven that best fit the curve he wanted to see. Faulty regression analysis is dumb, burying more than 2/3 of your data is dishonest. But none of this has any bearing on the message or impact of Lustig's lecture, which is a must watch for anyone who thinks fruit juice is "healthy".
best "paleo" blog/best new blog of 2009
No contest: Dr. Kurt Harris's PaNu blog
Don't worry, this is not about paleo re-enactment or some crap about "what would grok do". As an added bonus, he's a midwesterner.
best article on healthcare in the US
Atul Gawande's now-classic 2009 article on costs. There was a nice little followup a few weeks later as well.
some noteworthy blog posts from 2009
A fantastic summary of diet ("what I learned last year") from inflammation researcher Dr. Art Ayers. His blog gets fairly detailed and technical on inflammation, but occasionally he writes concise and accessible posts on diet.
Hyperlipid's excellent challenge to ketosis
Stephan's great series on eicosanoids and heart disease -- part I, part II, and a concise summary for those who don't want to read parts I & II (I have to confess I like saying "eicosanoid signalling" out loud, frequently, so that may be the basis for my fondness for the subject)
A wonderful dissection of some observational studies by Prof. David Colquhoun on his "Improbable Science" blog.
Great suggestions as always.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't figure out how to email you so I will post it here. HFCS evidently has a lobbying group set up in the US. I have seen there commercials touting how "natural" HFCS is and that "like sugar it is fine in moderation". I have already emailed them asking exactly where in nature does HFCS (not corn) occur, but I don't expect a response. The commericals and other propaganda can be found here:
http://www.sweetsurprise.com/
"Sweet Surprise" ,huh?
"No worse than sugar" would be an accurate advertising point for them.
ReplyDeleteAnd "as natural as heroin."
ReplyDelete"but more addictive, and worse for you!"
ReplyDeleteI did get a non-response back from Them:
ReplyDelete" Thank you for visiting SweetSurprise.com. We appreciate your contacting us and value your questions and comments. While we regret that we cannot reply to all of the questions submitted due to the volume received, each submission is reviewed and taken into consideration.
Responses to many frequently asked questions and comments will soon be available on our SweetSurprise.com website. No personal information will be included if some or all of your question or comment is selected for publication.
Corn Refiners Association "