Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Appearance on "Ask the Low-Carb Experts" Podcast Postponed

I was scheduled to appear on Jimmy Moore's show "Ask the Low-Carb Experts" this Thursday.  I don't consider myself a low-carb expert, but I do have expertise in obesity and metabolism, and Jimmy had invited me to discuss these topics on his show.

Due to a confluence of events, I've decided that this is not the best time to do the show.  I want to be clear that I don't intend this as a rebuke of Jimmy Moore or his show-- most of my reasons for postponing have nothing to do with Jimmy.  Thanks for your understanding.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Overfeeding and Elevated Insulin

It's commonly accepted in the obesity research community that fat gain causes insulin resistance and an increase in circulating insulin, and that this is a major reason why obese people usually have insulin resistance and high circulating insulin. Part of the rationale is that substantial fat loss by almost any means improves insulin sensitivity and causes circulating insulin to decline, and substantial fat gain from deliberate overfeeding causes insulin sensitivity to decline and circulating insulin to increase.  I recently cited three references to support this contention on another blog, and was challenged, so I decided to revisit these references to make sure I had understood them correctly (1, 2, 3).  Since I took the time to do this, I figured I may as well write it up for my readers, since these studies are quite informative.

Read more »

Friday, January 4, 2013

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Extreme Flu Activity in the US

A friend of mine came down with a nasty flu recently.  I checked Google Flu Trends, and found that flu activity is currently at "intense" levels throughout the US.  This is the highest flu activity Google Flu Trends has recorded in the last six years (image from Google Flu Trends 1/3/12).



Read more »