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I think that it was highly unethical to feed a diet to a mouse genetically programmed to die from that diet. There seems to be a lack of ethics in most nutrition researchers.
In the meantime, their “research” is repeated verbatim by our irresponsible media and is causing needless death and disease. Lucky for us there are people like you Dr. Briffa to inform us of people like Anthony Rosenzweig.
August 29, 2009 @ 1:34 am
I have MS and in the last two weeks or so, there have been two news items about possible ‘cures’ for MS using mice.
One involved Lisinopril, an old ACE inhibitor. I read a little more and discovered that Lisinopril ‘cured’ a disease called EA which resembles MS – but in mice.
I have actually taken Lisinopril and it did help to regulate my hypertension but gave me the most awful cough. As I also had MS at that time, but didn’t know it, it didn’t cure it. I still had numbness and balance problems that were unexplained at that time.
Mice are not people and people are not mice. It’s time research scientists realised this.
As for the researcher Anthony Rosenzweig deciding to stop using his low-carbohydrate diet to control his cholesterol, that’s his choice.
It most certainly isn’t going to stop me, a woman of child-bearing age from eating this way. That’s because I’m a woman and not a mouse.
August 29, 2009 @ 11:32 am
A similar study was done in rabbits many decades ago. Same result; same criticism.
What gets my goat is that this sort of study in inappropriate animals is often used when the result supports the so-called consensus; in this case “fat is bad for you”
However, statins have regularly been shown to be carcinogenic in rodents but this result is discarded because “rodents do not replicate human response”
A typical “have your cake and eat it” response
August 29, 2009 @ 1:05 pm
Does this mean we can ignore the notorious “test de souris” on oysters in France?
August 29, 2009 @ 5:38 pm
The Other Kate,
Go here – you might find it interesting:
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/ms.html
Robin
August 29, 2009 @ 6:26 pm
It depends on exactly what they ate on each diet. Was the low carb full of hydrogented fat or processed oils? If so that might have made the difference.
August 29, 2009 @ 11:07 pm
http://www.bakeryandsnacks.com/The-Big-Picture/High-carb-diet-could-aid-slimming-Study
Just wondered what your views are on the above study!
Personally my weight has fluctuated enormously ever since I started a low carb diet. When I first put my self on the ‘atkins’ diet (ignorant) for health reasons I lost a huge amount of weight and felt so happy with myself, and found a self confidence that I haven’t found since. I felt so good, but during that time I lost my periods; I had developed anorexia. I then started to binge eat and felt I was going mad, I had to drop out of my university course. I was 18 when I started the diet. I am still suffering as a consequence, I believe that this diet/dieting has destroyed a would be natural, and healthy instinctive relationship to my bodies needs and rhythm. This whole period of time has been highly destructive in my life, it has impaired my growth in more ways than i can describe here. It is very difficult knowing what to do now as the only time i now associate with feeling good about myself and my body as a whole was when i first started to diet. After trying many different diets to get to a place where i feel ok once more I fail. Food has become a central issue in my life where other more essential matters in my life have fallen by the wayside, neglected. I am now 22 and I have spent 5 years with fluctuating body weight/depression/self worth/diet. There is so much conflicting advice, and on the most part I find all of this highly dogmatic, it does not act as a guide to ones well being, because the professional is always touted as the one to whom we need to seek advice, and I am the commodity. Now i’m finding that I must follow myself and connect my mind and body rather than someone else’s abstract chatter and my body’s needs; i’m the only person who I can trust to know and believe in. Why is it that historically tribal people have known the inherent effect of a food on the human body without ‘scientific’ studies and the like, because they observe themselves and how they themselves react to their food source. They are themselves in tune with their environment, the inherent nature of themselves and food produce. I have decided that low carb diets are absolute nonsense, I think it is not environmentally sustainable, it is a selfish need in the west, a self serving bias; my sister is currently living with ethiopian tribes and they are very lithe, they eat a high plant diet, a little meat/milk, and they are healthy, though they are unable to spend their time choosing what to eat because food is difficult to come by. Hearing what these people are struggling with on a day to day basis, for survival, makes me see just how ultimately self centered I have been. In no way have I considered the destruction that such a diet would be having not just on me, but on the environment/people as a whole. I think it is actually gross that we promote a diet that is not about preserving human populations and the environment. When we know that fish stocks are running low, the waters are becoming more and more polluted, our animals and lands neglected and poisoned all to be consumed, and mean while millions are starving because of the direct effect of our consumption, greed, and rape of the planet; at what point are we going to start thinking of the health/value of those other objects in the background; those dots beyond dots we fail to acknowledge as relevant or of value in ‘our’ lives? I think that it is time to wake up; who want’s to be a commodity?
August 31, 2009 @ 3:18 am
Robin – it is. I actually wrote to him and he answered!
I prefer a Paleodiet and stay away from gluten and pulses wherever possible.
Seems to work okay.
Atkins is probably best for my lipid profile, but I prefer Paleo.
My symptoms are under control with that and I look and walk fairly normally. Lots of fish oils and olive oil help too, I think.
And just to buck the trends, I take beta-interferon and LDN. You have to throw everything at MS. It’s all about staying well.
September 2, 2009 @ 2:07 am
[...] John Briffa just had a go also. [...]
September 11, 2009 @ 11:20 pm
I just linked to my two favourite takedowns of this study
http://trinkwasser.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/are-we-not-men-no-we-are-apo/
No doubt more will be along shortly, but between them Peter and Michael Eades and their contributors have done an excellent job.
September 11, 2009 @ 11:24 pm