Last night, we were eating dinner at a place downtown, and after I ordered, a guy a table over asked which low carb plan I was following. I told him, and after a little conversation he asked if he could join me. He told me his name was Dr. Enseson (not sure of spelling), and he works at the Duke University Weightloss Center. What a great guy! He was a wealth of knowledge, and support.

He went on and on about his dealings with low carb weightloss, and how he really felt it is the best way to lose weight, and how many successes he has seen. I asked him if he had a book out, and he said yes, it is called the Duke Diet, but he is not very proud of it, due to editing and marketability. Apparently publishers are not publishing anything with the phrase Low Carb anymore. He also told me that low carb IS accepted as a healthy lifestyle by most physicians, but since there is not any long-term evidence, they are afraid of endorsing it right now. He said that many of them just do not want to get notoroity as low carb doctors, because of the smear campaignes that would follow. He also said that Duke university conducted a study and published results in either 2002 or 2003 that supported low carb. He said they were swept under the rug, because by this time, Dr. Atkins had already passed and media was reporting that the low carb craze was over, so no one was interested in their findings, or anything that validated low carb.

Last thing that really stuck out with me is that he said most physicians are now instruction their patients to follow low carb diets before and after surgery. Before surgery because it helps to reduce the size of the liver therefore making it easier for the surgeon to navigate around the abdomin, and after because they are finding people heal better and quicker when they avoid the whites (sugar, flour, starch, etc.). What a great conversation this was, and reassurance that I (we ) really are doing the right thing!

That was real serendipity to just happen to be sitting next to a published Doctor like that. What a great conversation. It's a real shame that political correctness in this country even impacts our health. Thanks for sharing that great story, and for the encouragement that we "are" doing the right thing for our health!

Duke has done a lot of research on LC.

Search "low carbohydrate duke" (no quotes) at PubMed. There is a lot there!

Simon, what a cool meet-up. I haven't looked around yet but here's The Duke Diet Online, and the guy you were talking with is listed under "Meet the Experts."

Gotta take a look at this. Fun reading your story, Simon.

THANKS for sharing, Simon! My friend and low-carb cookbook author Dana Carpender ran into the same issue about low-carb and publishing last year when for the first time ever they made her remove the phrase "low-carb" from the title of her latest book as well as in the name of her nationally-syndicated newspaper column. It really sucked because ALL of her previous books had that term on there.

As for Duke University, the man behind the low-carb research there is Dr. Eric Westman who I have had the privilege of meeting in person TWICE and doing both a blog interview and podcast interview with him. The research is there, but it is getting quashed for whatever reason.

The acceptance of livin' la vida low-carb will only come once those coveted "long-term" studies are finally published. But how long will be long enough for these anti-low-carb zealots, hmmm?

Melodie, it was really unreal! What an opportunity, and if he would not have been eaves dropping on my ordering, then brave enough to strike up conversation, I would have never known who he was. Heck, I didn't even know Duke had a Weightloss Center!

Valerie, thanks for the information about the studies, and the Duke Diet online. I am going to have to check that out! Also, it's nice to know the guy is real you know, these days you never can tell

Jimmy, what you were saying about Dana's issue, and the reasearch being squashed, was what Dr. Enseson was saying too. It is sad that there is sound, researched information in favor of low carb, and from what the doctor was saying, puts low fat in disfavor, yet people are still allowed to peddle the low fat logic and low carb is being virtually eliminated by media! The information about Dr. Westman is interesting too though, because Dr. Enseson led me to believe HE was behind the research. Weird.

He let me run a couple of things past him, and he gave me his take on my menus, and other issues. I always carry a little 3X5" notebook in my pants, to record my menus in. According to him, I am doing picture perfect, and could even stand to add some more carbs. Since re-evaluating what I was eating, and finding this place, I have lost 7 lbs., so I knew I was doing the right things, but having a doctor who is an expert in the field evaluate what I'm doing and answer questions was more exciting than I ever could have imagined.

Thanks so much Melodie. You are such a great support!

I actually started paying attention to what I was eating right after Labor Day, so it's been about 3 weeks, but I'm good with it. I did drop back to induction level carbs for a bit, but it didn't last long and I have been eating between 40 & 50 carbs a day since.

I've never heard of the researcher from Duke who spoke with, Simon, so I presume he was referring to the work by Dr. Westman and another Duke colleague Dr. William Yancy.

Jimmy, Simon's guy is the real deal. He's not a researcher he's DFC Director Howard Eisenson. DFC began offering a low carb program. in '03. Here is a link to his interview on The Today Show

http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=31367c4e...e3e2c0f9&f=copy

Random House Link for the book:

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display...n=9780345499035

Link to the news release:

http://www.dukemednews.org/news/article.php?id=7051

So, Simon you had the pleasure of chatting with one of the big guns.

WOW! That's cool.

[QUOTE] Taoschick QUOTE (livinlowcarbman @ Sep 22 2007, 01:36 PM)

The acceptance of livin' la vida low-carb will only come once those coveted "long-term" studies are finally published. But how long will be long enough for these anti-low-carb zealots, hmmm? [QUOTE]


Unless the entire medical community decides to push low carb, I'm afraid those studies will be buried or ignored.

Unfortunately, there is far too much "politics" involved in medicine..... as with many other branches of science. Results that don't validate the cause of the day are quashed because so much of the research is funded by organizations with a political or ideological agenda. In the end, it is VERY much about the money and the ability to keep if flowing by delivering specific results. [/QUOTE]

Probably won't happen until the low fat zealots die off.

The "long term effects" nonsense is also a convenient excuse for reject low carb for diabetics. Diabetics are at greater risk for heart disease and all that fat may kill them. They are also at risk for kidney disease and all that protein may kill them.

They don't think that all those carbs will jack up blood sugar and kill them faster.

You know Renegade, I'm hoping you are wrong. I was wanting to write an article for my blog about all of that. I did end up writing a short one, but not the one I had planned on. I tried to find the exact studies that support the low fat thing and all I could really find were a lot of references to the big '06 study that blasts a lot of the low fat info.

What I did read was they began to correlate high cholesterol with the spike in heart disease in the 1920's. Something else happened in the 1920's. We started to eat a lot more sugar, and started manufacturing a lot more of the food people ate. Just my opinion.

Anyway, I hope you're wrong and I'm right about that.

Melodie, what great information and links. Nice to know the good doctor is real I think I am going to order the book. I wish I could remember everything he was saying, because it was all such good information, and he seemed to really know what he was talking about. One thing I remember him saying is that people are only sucessful if they are eating foods they love, and if you take someone who eats primarily meat and suddenly tell them they cannot have meat anymore, then they will feel deprived and fail. Then he compared that to low carb vs. low fat, and said everyone has different tastes, and the best weightloss plan is one that includes individual preferences. He also said anytime you have to completely re-invent the wheel, you are setting yourself up for failure. I agree with all of this, mostly because it is how I was sucessful I am glad I found Atkins first, and did not have to torture myself with any of the low fat plans. Also, I kept all of my old habits, just made them work with my new way of eating. So, like I said earlier, he really made me feel validated in my chosen way of eating.

I think what he said about not reinventing the wheel is so true. I'm lucky because I just happen to like meat and fat too. Mayonnaise, butter, all the stuff. I love it.

Unfortunately I like sweets too, but that craving is getting a lot better. Most sweet stuff is sugar combined with a lot of fat so it makes me wonder it it was really just the fat that I wanted after all.

So happy to read these posts

My own medical Dr. went on Atkins after I asked him if I could go low carb.
This was many years ago and before I actually met Dr. Atkins at a lecture
in So. Orange County. So he gave approval to me on the condition that my
blood work would be forthcoming within a couple months of going on program.
Now Dr. Z. was a very heavy man, good looking and in his late forties at the
time that I asked him to allow me to try the program. Well HE went on it after
reading Dr. A's book. Dr. Z lost 125 lbs. had great cholesterol, bp's and is
convinced through his own body and how the low carb plan worked for him,
that this is the way to go for certain individuals like you and me and HIM>
I am so sorry that I didn't follow Dr. Atkins plan and go on OWL and go up
through the steps that are necessary for healthy weight loss. Well here I am
many years later with diabetes now, and I am back on low carb and loving it.


I want to go to some of these sites that you have posted. Thanks Melodie,
and all that have particiapated.

barbo