Is the American Dietetic Association resisting the Paleo diet because of "market competition"?

Steve Cooksey blogs on the Paleo diet. The American Dietetic Association, now known as the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, claims he is providing nutritional advice and is suing him through the North Carolina State Board of Dietetics/Nutrition. Well, it’s a bit more complicated. It appears what the Academy may not like is the competition.

As Reason.com observes:

In the United States many regulations and policies steer people toward certain dietary practices and away from others—nearly always with the backing of some powerful, entrenched, monied interest and nearly always for no good reason whatsoever. For instance, writes Baylen Linnekin, government subsidies pay farmers to produce some foods in lieu of others. Think corn, soy, dairy, and sugar. The latest example comes from North Carolina, where state officials say one man’s blog, which promotes the “paleo” diet, runs afoul of North Carolina laws requiring a license to dispense anything the state considers dietary advice.

According to documents obtained by Forbes, some apparently provided by a nutritionist member, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics develops state nutrition boards “for the express purpose of limiting market competition for its Registered Dietitian members.”

A look at the Academy's corporate sponsors suggests some may not be thrilled with the Paleo diet.

The nutrition Board is going after Cooksey. According to Open Market.org, The Institute for Justice has come to Cooksey's defense and is "fighting the charges of the Board on the grounds that such application of the law violates his First Amendment right to freedom of speech."

Space: Beautiful rendering of oldest galaxy found

An artist’s rendering of galaxy BX442, which is 10.7 billion light-years from Earth, and its companion dwarf galaxy (upper left). CREDIT: Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics/Joe BergeronVia Space.com

Opportunity

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas Edison

I flew to Washington DC last night to participate in a medical conference. This great quote from Thomas Edison comes from The Little Black Book of Innovation by Scott D. Anthony.

Success story: Loose weight and spend less time in the gym

The Vancouver Sun has a reasonable article on the Paleo diet. The usual concerns such as kidney stones and osteoporosis are answered by considering acid / base balance. (Also, more on osteoporosis & the Paleolithic diet here.)

The experience of Rahmin Khan, presented below, alludes to an important point: what you eat is more important than how much you exercise. Yes, I know, the first law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy): the maintain a stable weight, calories in must equal calories out. The problem is: low quality foods are less effective in satisfying hunger and one has to eat more to feel full. The most powerful weight loss tool  is making the right food choices. 

The author describes the experience of Rahim Khan and his wife:

Warehouse manager Rahim Khan of Langley started on the paleodiet just before his 27th birthday. He weighed 250 pounds, heavy for his 5-foot-11 frame.

“Less than a year later I hit my optimal weight of 173 pounds,”said Khan, who lost weight even as he cut back on his workouts. “I used to be in the gym three or four days a week and sometimes for two hours, now it’s 30 minutes and I’m out.”

Khan, his wife Liz and their three children all follow the paleodiet at home. Exceptions have to be made when the kids visit their grandparents, Khan laughed.

“I was skeptical at first,” said Liz, who admits feeling sick and lethargic for the first two weeks after the change. “But I feel so much better now, I didn’t even know how lousy I felt before.”

Are coral reefs really doomed? A hopeful view.

Andrew Refkin of Dot Earth presented ecologist Roger Bradbury's view (portions included in my previous post) that we are in denial regarding the fate of the world’s coral reefs. For a hopeful, though cautious, opposing view, Refkin cites marine ecologist John Bruno of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As in other critical issues in which the science is not fully settled, the two specialists see the future differently.

Quoted by Refkin, Bruno writes:

It is scary, but is it true? I don’t think so. I have been called a pathological optimist, but on the other hand, I’ve watched reefs change radically from the dangerous wild places I experienced as a kid in the Florida Keys, to simplified systems with few corals and fewer predators. And this is in just 30 years.

One aspect of my research is focused on documenting and understudying the degradation of coral reef ecosystems, mainly in terms of the loss of reef-building corals. The story is more grim in the Caribbean, where there has been a decline of at least 50 percent (and probably more than 75 percent) of coral populations.

But the picture of coral loss is roughly the same globally. More recently, we’ve been working on the extent of overfishing and predator loss on Caribbean reefs. A healthy unfished reef is inhabited by top predators like sharks and grouper and total fish biomass is roughly 500 grams per square meter. Yet, the average reef has only 20 grams per square meter — obviously an extreme decrease in fish biomass.

So that aspect of Rogers Bradbury’s Op-Ed in today’s New York Times is generally accurate. The world’s coral reefs have indeed changed, are under enormous pressure, and their future is threatened.

But are they really “on a trajectory to collapse within a human generation”? No.

Is there really “no hope of saving the global coral reef ecosystem”? No, there is hope.

And is the “scientific evidence for this is compelling and unequivocal”? No, not remotely.

I think these are valid opinions, but they are not science, nor are they supported by science. What does the science say?  It is a complicated picture and there isn’t any way to scientifically test the idea that “reefs are doomed.” Like everything else in conservation (and life) it depends. It depends on when greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and eventually halted. It depends on how big the human populations gets. It depends on when we start managing coral reef fisheries with a modicum of intelligence.  

Crunch Time: Coral reefs are "zombie ecosystems"

Lord Howe Island Lagoon coral. Image: Southern Cross University (AFP)

This summer we are experiencing Previews of the coming warmer and more turbulent climate. While the boomer generation, myself included, will be less impacted, the younger generation will have to struggle through the severe effects of climate disruption and certainly won't be happy with us. Indeed, I can already sense the coming climate trials over the next a decade or two will make the tobacco trials of the 1990’s seem like child’s play. 

For the world' coral reefs, we are beyond Previews and into Crunch Time. While the official line remains “there is still hope,” according to ecologist Roger Bradbury, writing in the Op Ed page of The New York Times, we are kidding ourselves: 

IT’S past time to tell the truth about the state of the world’s coral reefs, the nurseries of tropical coastal fish stocks. They have become zombie ecosystems, neither dead nor truly alive in any functional sense, and on a trajectory to collapse within a human generation. There will be remnants here and there, but the global coral reef ecosystem — with its storehouse of biodiversity and fisheries supporting millions of the world’s poor — will cease to be.

This is less a conspiracy than a sort of institutional inertia. Governments don’t want to be blamed for disasters on their watch, conservationists apparently value hope over truth, and scientists often don’t see the reefs for the corals.

But by persisting in the false belief that coral reefs have a future ...

Learn more at A World Without Coral Reefs. Also, see a more hopeful view. 

Paleo diet success: "no drugs, good numbers"

I recently received this brief e-mail from a friend regarding his parents response to the Paleo diet:

Both active for their age, my dad will be riding the Courage Classic with me, mom in step aerobics (both 64 yrs old). Both high cholesterol, their whole life.  Mom about to go on doc recommended drugs. I brought the Paleo Diet, from your discussion with me a couple years back, to them. Two years later, no drugs, good numbers. Their PCP was blown away. They are hooked. 

Teenagers win suit against the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

Image: iStockphotoA group of teenagers sued the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for failing to protect the environment. The Commission had refused to adopt a "proposed rule that would require reductions in statewide carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels."

According to Climate Central:

Texas District Court Judge Gisela Triana ruled that the atmosphere is part of the “public trust,” which means it “must be protected for public use” under common law principles ...

Food Carts Portland: The Cultured Caveman

The food here is made with care and the owners Heather and Joe are working hard to make this a truly professional cart with excellent quality and customer service to match. Sometimes it feels like there are a billion food carts nowadays, and sometimes it’s hard to stand out from the pack. The Cultured Caveman has a niche in the Paleo Diet crowd, for sure.

The Cultured Caveman

PaleoGoGo app when on the go

PaleoGoGo helps you stay Paleo(~ish) whether you’re traveling, eating out with family, or dining with coworkers. We all know that fast food doesn’t quite cut it, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. That’s why PaleoGoGo is here to help.

PaleoGoGo

If your try the app, leave a comment through the Comment link below or through the Contact page.

Strawberries focus of new research study

According to the Environmental News Network, a new study on the benefits of strawberries will be presented at the Society of Free Radical Research International Biennial Meeting in London this September. David A Gabel of ENN writes:

Besides their fantastic taste, a new study has found that strawberries have other beneficial health effects. Researchers from the University of Warwick Medical School found that strawberries are extremely effective at preventing the development of heart disease and diabetes.

The research team:

... discovered that extracts from strawberries positively activate a protein in our bodies called Nrf2. This protein has shown to increase antioxidant and other protective activities. It also decreases blood lipids and cholesterol, two factors that can lead to cardiovascular disorders.

Ancestral nutrition to get its own journal

There has been a steady increase in awareness and adoption of ancestral nutrition (Paleo diet) during the past few years. We have an array of websites, books, cookbooks, a recent movie (In Search of the Perfect Human Diet), a new magazine Paleo Magazine, and coming up, the second annual Ancestral Health Symposium to be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts this August. The conference has been fully registered for several months. (See the Symposium Program here.)

The Ancestral Health Society is now announcing plans for a new scientific journal:

In addition, the society plans to host a peer-reviewed journal for publication of experimental and clinical research and theory on human health from the evolutionary/ancestral perspective. This journal is in the process of being founded.

Ancestral nutrition is on the move.