Merger of Metabolism Society and American Diabetes Association. Surprise Union to Promote Low Carb Diets

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(Free-Press-Release.com) April 1, 2010 --

The Metabolism Society has generally championed the idea that health agencies should advise carbohydrate restriction to people as the first line of treatment for obesity and diabetes, the so-called low-carb public option. The ADA, in distinction, has received a certain amount of criticism for its encouragement of sugar consumption and its general resistance to carbohydrate-restricted diets. The continued insistence that sucrose is okay for people with diabetes as long as it is “covered with insulin” is reflected in the ADA’s old food pyramid (Figure, right). The idea was criticized as making a disease worse so you could take more medicine and probably contributed to the need to merge with the Metabolism Society. Dr. Richard Feinman, founder of the Metabolism Society and member of the ADA said “this could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.” By coincidence the merger came just as the entire nutrition board of the ADA decided to spend more time with their families.

The combined organization which will now promote low carbohydrate strategies for people with diabetes has a new symbol, a soccer ball-shaped geometrical object, or “food ball” as it is called
shown below. Ms. Cagnassola pointed out that “the truncated icosahedron is one of the most easily recognized symbols and it will be easier to roll around as we change recommendations on good fats and bad fats. I, for one, really get a kick out of our ability to approach nutritional goals with the new symbol.”

Dr. Sue Kirkman of the ADA said that the association “has not really been opposed to low carbohydrate diets. In fact, if you look at our early guidelines, we thought of this first.” These documents were not available at press time and Dr. Feinman said “I’m afraid I take those remarks with a whole grain of salt.” He added “but we have always been in agreement with the ADA’s statement that ‘The importance of controlling body weight in reducing risks related to diabetes is of great importance.’ The fact that the importance is of importance has always been one of their great intellectual insights.”

The merger, described by many observers as akin to the fall of the Berlin wall has left some researchers previously opposed to carbohydrate restriction, back-tracking on earlier positions. Dr. Anthony Rosenzweig of Beth-Israel Hospital, author of a paper purporting to show a risk of atherosclerosis from low-carbohydrate diets in mice genetically engineered to develop atherosclerosis said “Well, of course, we didn’t mean it as a serious scientific paper. We were just goofing around.” “Tony always was a great kidder,” Dr. Feinman said. “besides, I’m sure he knows that the work actually supported low-carb diets because it pin-pointed apoE as the likely supporter of the benefits of low-carb diets.” Feinman quoted “some wit on the internet” who said that “giving an apoE knock-out atherosclerosis is the behavioral equivalent of teaching a cat to go to sleep.” Drs. Marc-Andre Cornier and Robert Eckel of the University of Colorado, long-standing opponents of low-carbohydrate diets said “I guess we will have to start citing some of the low-carb papers. It’s too bad because we had just purchased commercial software called Atkins-Blaster® which scans and removes from manuscripts all references to papers that show benefits from carbohydrate restriction.”

Not all nutritionists were convinced of the value of the merger. Dr. Frank Sacks, professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School said “many of the members of the Metabolism Society have lost weight on low carbohydrate diets and maintained the loss for many years. I have continually asserted that nobody can stay on a low carbohydrate diet so this must be a bunch of nobodies.” Barbara Howard, lead author of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) said “I don’t think this changes anything.” The WHI which showed no benefit in weight loss, risk of cardiovascular disease or diabetes after 8 years of a low-fat diet is generally credited with having instituted an entirely new field of scientific study known as Excuseanomics. On the other hand, Dr. Jeff S. Volek of the University of Connecticut said that “I think this is a potential cure for CRRS (carbohydrate restriction resistance syndrome).”

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