The top 10 list of the very best low-carb stories of 2008

December 28, 10:12 PMLow-Carb Lifestyle ExaminerJimmy Moore

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The best of the best low-carb stories of 2008

As the end of another year draws near and a new one looms on the horizon later this week, it has become a tradition to look back on the year that was for any memorable moments that will still be felt long after fireworks, champagne, and festivities of New Year’s celebrations for 2009 are over and done with. So much continues to happen in the wonderful world of livin’ la vida low-carb and I’m happy to help chronicle some of the very best low-carb stories of 2008 with you. Get excited about what the future holds for this way of eating because I really do believe the best is yet to come!

Here are my Top 10 Low-Carb Stories of 2008:

1. ADA RECOGNIZES AND RECOMMENDS LOW-CARB FOR DIABETICS

In a surprise move announced in December 2007, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) finally gave credence to low-carb diets at least for weight loss up to one year. You and I both know livin’ la vida low-carb is so much more than that for diabetics, but at least it puts low-carb on the table of consideration for people who desperately need to get their blood sugar and insulin under control. And word has it that this is only the beginning of some BIG CHANGES happening at the ADA (perhaps all those low-carb success stories are starting to make a difference) in January 2009 to the ADA position on low-carb diets. Maybe they’ve seen recent studies like this showing tremendous success controlling insulin with low-carb. And there may even be a low-carb cookbook with the ADA seal of approval looming…this was a BIG story in 2008 that will have positive ramifications for many years to come!

2. WORLD’S FATTEST MAN A BIG LOW-CARB WEIGHT LOSS SUCCESS

How can you NOT love a story like what has happened to Manuel Uribe? He turned 43 this year and got married to the love of his life–two things that didn’t seem possible just a couple of years ago. He’s in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “World’s Fattest Man” weighing in at 1235 pounds in January 2006. But going on Barry Sears’ low-carb Zone diet has helped Manuel shed over 500 pounds and his weight loss is still going strong! He wants to be down to 285 by the end of 2010 and it is possible if he continues livin’ la vida low-carb. Manuel also has a chance to earn another world record–the largest weight loss ever–if he sheds 924 pounds. These are all great goals for him to reach for and I have nothing but respect and admiration for someone taking back control of his life when everyone else had given up hope on him long ago. You can see all of my Manuel Uribe links by clicking here.

3. LOW-CARB DOCTORS MAKE FINALS OF DIABETES EDUCATOR AWARD

When American Diabetes Wholesale decided to host a prestigious new “Diabetes Educator of the Year” award contest last year, little did they know how much the low-carb community would rally behind not just one, but TWO of our own who are making a tremendous difference in the lives of diabetics. Two of the five finalists for this honor were low-carb doctors: Dr. Mary C. Vernon and Dr. Richard Bernstein. While you would have expected the low-carb vote to be split between these two deserving and dedicated physicians using a carbohydrate-restricted approach to treating their diabetic patients, that’s not what happened. Dr. Vernon and Dr. Bernstein ended up in second and third place respectively, quite an achievement considering their approaches run counter to much of the medical establishment and an apt testament to the fine work both of them are doing. The nominees for this year’s award will be announced in early 2009 and I expect both Dr. Vernon and Dr. Bernstein to be back in the thick of it again. Can you imagine if a low-carb doctor WON this award what it would mean for diabetes care? WOW!

4. SWEDEN A NEW HOTBED FOR THE LOW-CARB DIET DEBATE

While interest in low-carb diets may have fallen off from a few years back here in the United States and in the UK, there’s a new hotbed for the low-carb diet debate happening right now in the country of Sweden. Thanks to leadership from the ostracized, but never discouraged physician Dr. Annika Dahlqvist, a low-carb diet has been declared by the government there as being “in accordance with science and well-tried experience for reducing obesity and Type 2 diabetes.” This was HUGE and opened the door for a rigorous debate about how high-fat, low-carb diets (LCHF) can help with weight loss, controlling disease, and effectively curing Type 2 diabetes. I interviewed Per Wikholm on my podcast show in June to give us the latest developments happening there and the low-fat lie continues to unravel there with some of Sweden’s best investigative journalists revealing the poor science behind the official dietary guidelines of a high-carb, low-fat diet. My only hope is that some of that enthusiasm for low-carb in Sweden will make its way to the United States soon. Is there an Annika Dahlqvist in America?

5. DR. ANDREW WEIL CUTS HIS CARBS, LOSES WEIGHT

It all started when Gary Taubes appeared on CNN’s “Larry King LIVE!” in October 2007 to talk about his then-newly-released book Good Calories, Bad Calories. Guest host Joy Behar teamed up with Oprah’s health guru Dr. Mehmet Oz to railroad Taubes about his book when respected health expert Dr. Andrew Weil expressed his appreciation for the research that was shared. This all took the panelists by surprise (Taubes included!) and little did we know what kind of impact this would have on someone as high-profile as Dr. Weil. In March, he revealed on his web site that he had lost about 50 pounds simply by reducing the simple carbohydrates in his diet. AMAZING! Dr. Weil even invited Gary Taubes to give a lecture on the concepts in his book at his annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona in April. You can hear him talk about what this experience with Dr. Weil was like in my upcoming “Encore” podcast interview with him coming next week.

6. GARY TAUBES SUCCESSFULLY HITS THE SPEAKING CIRCUIT

Speaking of Gary Taubes, it has been quite a year for him. His bestselling masterpiece released in paperback and has continued to shake up the medical world with compelling evidence that doctors like this one can’t help but acknowledge and apply to their patients. My first interview with Taubes (listen to Part 1 and Part 2) took place at the American Society of Bariatric Physicians/Nutrition & Metabolism Symposium in Phoenix in April where the message of low-carb diets was presented clearly and effectively to some of the nation’s foremost weight loss medical professionals. You can see and hear Taubes’ presentation that is a little more than an hour long by clicking here. He has since presented this same speech on college campuses and virtually everywhere he has been invited, including most recently at The University of Missouri in Columbia, MO. There are many more opportunities to come for this man who has become somewhat of a hero in the low-carb world for doing the footwork finding the historical science that validates our chosen nutritional approach. Quite frankly, I can’t wait to see what happens next!

7. HUGE LOW-CARB PRESENCE ON EXAMINER.COM

A new online media news source emerged in 2008 as a formidable web site with information about anything and everything you could ever want to know about. From celebrity gossip to sports to politics, Examiner.com has become the one-stop shop for the latest information on what you care about the most. And that includes low-carb living, too! I became a contributing columnist with them in September becoming the Low-Carb Lifestyle Examiner. But I’m not the only low-carber writing there–check out this who’s who of people who support low-carb who are on Examiner.com: Jamie Van Eaton, Regina Wilshire, Fred Hahn, Carol Bardelli, Linda Duffy, Amy Dungan, Trina Summers, and Mark Sisson. We’re all so prolific writers that sometimes the front page of Examiner.com can look like this is a low-carb site! You gotta love that! Special THANKS to low-carb superstar-in-the-making Jamie aka “Cleochatra” for helping to assemble such an incredible group of writers to share their passion for low-carb all in one place.

8. “MY BIG FAT DIET” DOCUMENTARY BIG HIT IN CANADA, US

You just never know what will effect public opinion to help people understand the concepts of low-carb better. But when a documentary called “My Big Fat Diet” aired on CBC-TV in Canada in early 2008, the response was overwhelming! This program followed a town of First Nations people in Canada who were placed on the diet of their ancestors–a high-fat, low-carb diet–by low-carb researcher Dr. Jay Wortman. Independent filmmaker Mary Bissell shot the documentary and was not convinced it was a healthy way of eating until she saw how much the weight and health of the participants changed. When they showed this movie to a group of bariatric physicians attending the ASBP/Nutrition & Metabolism Society conference in Phoenix the response was overwhelmingly positive. Copies of the DVD of the movie were quickly gobbled up by these excited doctors who were amazed by the results seen in the entertaining documentary. Work is now underway to bring the concept of “My Big Fat Diet” to the United States featuring a group of overweight and obese Americans in a town all going on a high-fat, low-carb diet as part of an accompanying study. When this happens, you know I’ll be all over blogging about it! Wouldn’t that be amazing?

9. ATKINS ISRAEL STUDY RESULTS GIVE FIREPOWER TO LOW-CARB

Although I was critical of the study at the time, researchers from Israel published a diet comparison study in July in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine showing low-carb diets outperforming low-fat and Mediterranean diets in a head-to-head battle. My disdain for the study was that they allowed the “low-carb” dieters to increase their carb counts up to 120g/day. This is NOT a low-carb diet by any stretch of the imagination, although I’ll grant you it is much lower than what most people consume daily. Nevertheless, even with the higher carbohydrate intake of these study participants, they STILL saw greater improvements in their weight loss, an increase in their HDL “good” cholesterol, and a significant decrease in their triglycerides. The media went crazy over this study which brought new positive attention to livin’ la vida low-carb. When my stepdad asked me if I heard that low-carb diets were the best because he had heard it on a television news report, I knew this was a significant moment for low-carb in 2008.

10. EMERGENCE OF FORMIDABLE LOW-CARB BLOGS ONLINE

When I started my low-carb blog in April 2004, you could almost count the number of low-carb blogs on a couple of hands. There weren’t many at all which is why I decided to start one. In the nearly four years since, that problem no longer exists and 2008 seemed to be the year the low-carb blog explosion took place. I did a video in June urging low-carb supporters to create a blog to talk about how low-carb has changed their lives and so many people responded. The low-carb blog list keeps growing so fast that I regularly feature them at my blog so others can connect with these new ones as they get started sharing about livin’ la vida low-carb with the masses. You can see all of the new low-carb blogs that have popped up online by clicking here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, and here. And I only think we’ve scratched the surface with this movement to online low-carb grassroots efforts to promote support and advocacy for this diet that has changed our lives forever for the better. The future is looking VERY good for livin’ la vida low-carb.

Did I miss anything spectacular that happened in 2008? Please feel free to tell me what low-carb stories you thought were deserving of being in the best of the year. Share your comments below and let us know what else deserved being mentioned.

Here’s to a fantastic 2009 for livin’ la vida low-carb! If you have any news stories or items of interest for me to take a look at, then please feel free to share those with me anytime at livinlowcarbman@charter.net.