Does Larry Weisenthal (aka Runnswim) post here anymore?
Larry Weisenthal
From: Robert Ruddy (sen...@nospam.com)
Subject: Does Larry Weisenthal (aka Runnswim) post here anymore?
This is the only article in this thread
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: sci.med.nutrition
Date: 2003-01-05 12:26:19 PST
He used to post here a few years ago on a fairly regular basis but I haven't
seen him in in a while.
<<<<
Hi Robert, It's been more like 5 years, but thanks for the memories. I loved
talking and debating the pros and cons of different diets on sci.med.nutrition,
but, as you know, it's a black hole. You jump into a debate and it takes over
your whole life.
In point of fact, however, I now have a powerful new argument to back up my
favored approach to health through nutrition, which, simply stated is the
classic advice to eat a low fat version of either a Mediterranean or Asian
diet, with an emphasis on fresh veggies and fruits, and with a hefty dose of
daily exercise. I still feel that Nathan Pritiken got it remarkably right,
except the knowledge didn't exist back then that fish oils, nut oils, and olive
oil actually have a useful role in a healthy diet. So I'm what you might call
modified/updated "Pritiken."
The important new evidence is that statin drugs should NOT be "added to
drinking water," as some have only partly in jest suggested. These drugs,
which are toxic to mitochondria, may cause irreversible damage to skeletal
muscle. Thus, the strategy of eating what you want, but "correcting" with a
statin drug, seems decidedly inferior to the classic Pritiken diet and exercise
plan.
I'm now almost 56...haven't eaten a mammal since 1971 and have been
Pritiken/modified Pritiken since about 1981. I'm 6 ' 1/2" tall, weigh 165
pounds, which is what I weighed at age 18 and have a 32 inch waist, which is
also what I had at age 18.
My blood lipids are very interesting. When I was "classic" Pritiken, I had a
total cholesterol of about 135, a total cholesterol/HDL ratio of about 5
(considered "unhealthy" in someone on a "normal", i.e. high fat diet, but of no
negative health consequence whatsover in someone on a very low fat diet, as the
HDL is not needed to counteract a high LDL). My triglycerides were always in
the low/healthy range. Now that I eat more salmon, almonds/walnuts, and olive
oil, my total cholesterol is up to 172, but by TC/HDL ratio is now close to 3.
So, lipid-wise, I don't know if I was better with "classic" Pritiken or now
with "modified/updated" Pritiken, but I think that either set of numbers is
pretty good.
I think that whole Atkins' diet thing is quite fascinating. I await the
results of long term studies with interest, but, in the meantime, I wouldn't
recommend the diet even as a poor second choice to my own favored approach. I
am more convinced than ever that the whole Zone Diet business is junk science
and quackery.
- Larry Weisenthal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Larry Weisenthal
Certitude is poison; curiosity is life