Atkins was right?

I remember when I first heard of the Atkins diet thing. It was about three years ago. At my girlfriend's parents' house was a NYT Sunday Magazine with a cover showing bacon and eggs and the headline, What If It's All Been Just A Big Fat Lie?

The article detailed the Atkins theory of weight gain (and weight loss), and questioned whether it was high-fat diets causing heart problems. What if it were actually high-carb diets causing not only obesity but related ailments, like high blood pressure or heart disease?

The article noted some renewed interest in the once-dismissed Atkins' claims, but this new study seems to confirm that earlier interest:

The largest study ever to ask whether a low-fat diet keeps women from getting cancer or heart disease has found that the diet had no effect.

The $415 million federal study involved nearly 49,000 women aged 50 to 79 who were followed for eight years. In the end, those assigned to a low-fat diet had the same rates of breast cancer, colon cancer heart attack and stroke as those who ate whatever they pleased, researchers are reporting today.

"These are three totally negative studies," said Dr. David Freedman, a statistician at the University of California at Berkeley, who is not connected with the study but has written books on clinical trial design and analysis. And, he said, the results should be taken seriously for what they are — a rigorous attempt that failed to confirm a popular hypothesis that a low-fat diet can prevent three major diseases in women.

And the studies were so large and so expensive that they are "the Rolls Royce of studies," said Dr. Michael Thun, who directs epidemiological research for the American Cancer Society. As such, he said, they are likely to be the final word.

"We usually have only one shot at a very large scale trial on a particular issue," Dr. Thun said.

Not to be all Endorsee McEndorserson, but I'll let you in on a little secret. About four years ago I gave up smoking. And began a new hobby-- binge eating, and sucking down two or three liters of Coke (with sugar!) a day. I gained a lot of weight. A lot. I had already gained a lot of weight during that bad post-twenties-metabolic-slowdown-plus-no-exercise thing, but after I quit smoking, I porked up.

Big time.

Had been a 34 waist. Had gone up to a 36 or 38. At my peak weight, I was astonished and embarrassed to find I was now looking for 40's and 42's.

I had ballooned up to 232 pounds.

Long story short, I went on Atkins. Cut out the carbs. And lost 70 pounds in about six months. Back down to a 34 waist, and tempted to try to squeeze into 32's, not because they fit, but just to have that "32" on the back.

A little of that's back now-- I'm eating more carbs than I should -- but basically I'm at post-college weight, and I think I can get down below college weight with one more big low-carb push... this time with actual exercise.

Pretty cool to lose 70 pounds with no exercise and only minor dietary sacrifice.

Just sayin'. It worked for me.

I do miss donuts, though.

Headline Corrected: The article speaks of "heart attacks," not "heart disease," as I wrote.

Thanks to Feisty, the Republican Whore with the heart of gold. And crystal meth.

Thanks... to Bob for locating that NYT Magazine article I mentioned.

Posted by: Ace at 05:40 PM | Comments (136)
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Some people don't like the new comments display.

Please let me know why, and I'll see if I can fix it.

Part of the problem was that there were actually two old comments interfaces. If you clicked on one thing, you'd get just the comments; if you clicked on another, you'd get the post and the comments. It never made sense to me to have two different comment displays.

So I made them into one.

I don't understand why the new comments thing is not WYSISWYG. Can someone elaborate?

Posted by: Ace at 04:55 PM | Comments (77)
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Straight from the peanut's mouth:

The funeral took on political overtones as former President Carter said of the Kings: "It was difficult for them then personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of secret government wiretaps." Later, he said that Hurricane Katrina showed that all are not yet equal in America.

And Jimmy proves once again that some Presidents are more equal than others.

Posted by: Tanker at 01:44 PM | Comments (154)
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Just as Iran is about to be referred to this body.

Coincidence? Quite likely.

But I question the timing.

Thanks to Ogre Gunner.

Posted by: Ace at 10:59 AM | Comments (35)
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You may have seen this already, but if you haven't, it's pretty funny. The love that dare not speak its name between Doc and Marty McFly.

Posted by: Ace at 10:56 AM | Comments (2)
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With Instapundit.

Me, in my new digs, preparing to open up a hailing frequency to Rightalk.

Click Rightalk.com at 4:05 ET.

Call in at 866-884-TALK.

Karol should be on the show, by phone. It will be even less professional than usual, alas, as we fight for airtime without being able to see the other is bursting to talk.

Posted by: Ace at 10:55 AM | Comments (43)
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They, yes, do seem to hate our freedoms:

Well that didn't take long.

While Muslim religious extremists are rioting in the streets of Beirut, Gaza City and Kabul, Scandinavian embassies are being torched and Jordanians are deprived of their Danish feta over cartoons that were never actually published in any legitimate newspaper, the right-wing blogosphere has been staging its own "blogburst": the act of reproducing the offending depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.

It's a "simultaneous, co-ordinated posting by a large group of webmasters and bloggers on a given topic," says Israpundit who, along with Michelle Malkin, who is like Ann Coulter but not as funny and not so skinny, are leading the cartoon crusade.

Follow their politics and you'll understand why they're on this particular blogwagon: they hate Muslims. In fact, if they were to write about Jews the way they sometimes do about followers of the Prophet Muhammad, they'd be denounced as anti-Semites or Holocaust deniers.

So it isn't surprising that some of their more eager acolytes have gone far beyond denigrating the fanatical rioting, which has, at deadline, claimed six lives and left hundreds of wounded.

No doubt, the Kartoon Karnage Kapers are inexcusable, and threaten to escalate into even more senseless death and destruction. That's why the absolute glee with which this has been received by the online cons strikes me as so puzzling. Do they enjoy the blood sport of watching out-of-control Muslim mobs in the streets?

It's also bemusing to see how they have suddenly declared solidarity with the heretofore "appeasers" of Europe for republishing the cartoons.

(Interestingly, one explanation for the sudden resurgence of these offending drawings after their initial appearance last September was that a so-called Christian magazine in Norway republished them. Why it chose to do so is unclear.)

Gee, I don't know. Perhaps it has something to do with the rather central tenet of liberal democracy that all ideas, no matter how offensive to some, should be responded to peaceably. Bad speech should be countered with good speech. Not with arson and rioting and murder and calls for terrorism.

As for the charge that Holocaust deniers would be called anti-Semites: well, yes, they would be, and they are. But again, the distinction that seems to elude this apologist for murder is that offensive speech should be met with more speech, not with molotov cocktails.

Thanks to Newslinker.

Posted by: Ace at 10:21 AM | Comments (60)
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Well check out these pics from my new apartment, and then ask this question: What took me so long to move?

That's a real guy's condo. It's not a set. He did that to his own place. He said he hoped it would 1) fetch a good price from another Star Trek fan and 2) keep out all vaginas, which he believes are dangerous creatures similar to the honeydew badger, often rabid.

He's actually right on both scores.

Thanks to SWOOD.

Posted by: Ace at 07:29 AM | Comments (27)
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Time to start seriously producing those greenhouse gases, folks.

Posted by: Ace at 07:20 AM | Comments (19)
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Forgive me, but if this issue is so central and so crucial to human freedom, such that it virtually trumps all other political considerations, what's Hillary! doing giving money to Evil?

Clinton, an abortion rights supporter who many people think will run for president in 2008, acknowledged Monday she had contributed $10,000 last year from HillPAC, her political action committee, to Pennsylvania State Treasurer Bob Casey, a Democrat challenging Republican Sen. Rick Santorum.

...

"Regardless of what differences there may be among Democrats, the differences between Democrats and Republicans today could not be starker," Clinton said at a news conference. "And if we can move toward a Democratic majority, we can prevent some of the ill-advised legislation and nominations we have to deal with from ever seeing the light of day."

If Hillary! can donate big cash to an anti-choice candidate, why is it wrong for Republicans to do similarly?

Posted by: Ace at 07:16 AM | Comments (12)
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