I used to try (I am out of my general medicine internship and into specialty now) to get all my diabetic patients to low carb diets but they cant quit the fast food and refined carbs and barely got any physical activity. I know you are very critical of pill pushing doctors but we don't get much to work with. Also, our hands are tied by medicare practice guidelines (we are reimbursed this way) or malpractice will follow. For example, a 6 month trial of diet and excercise for a patient with high blood pressure before we offer an anti-hypertensive unless the patient declines. In my personal experience, 1 out of every 30 or so patients gave a reasonable effort to get out and walk and change their diet. As such, I just added on the diabetic drugs and anti-hypertensive until control and wean once they do better. Do that, and you get labeled a pill pushing drone doctor. I could debate this for hours but I can't do much unless the patient takes some responsibility. I can't cure double cheeseburgers and milkshakes, but I can give you an extra 10 units of insulin!

The very fact that you created this blog show that you are not the "standard" patient and have the education and will to do better. You are on the far right side of the bell curve. In my opionon, big pharma and medical guidelines are for the hump of the curve ( the people in the food section at Wal-Mart, ) Take care, enjoy Puerto Vallarta. I am going to Riveria Maya next month. Unfortunately, I will still have my belly.

However, some folks think that hardening of the arteries is something NORMAL that you will do regardless of the fat or carb content of your diet.

I believe they have info about this on the Weston A. Price Foundation site. May have been "The Oiling of America" essay.

Dr. Atkins used to say there were a lot of Asians with rice allergies, too. It's also worth noting that they tend to be small of stature. The ones who are longest-lived tend to be the ones who get a lot of pork and pork fat in their diets (i.e., the Okinawans); vegetarian Hindus, on the other hand, often have heart problems. They get B vitamin deficiencies once they leave India and go live in the West, too; seems that the lower standard of cleanliness of whole foods in SE Asia means they were getting more than a few bugs in the diet before they emigrated!

Your "asian people" comment is simplistic and stupid. Hint, hint (since I don't have the time to teach you): think "refined carbs" and low calorie consumption, and then read about this in the Gary Taubes book. Westernized asians – who eat refined carbs and *more* calories – are chunky and soft and getting FAT, by the way.

That's what you think.

Listen, moron; you come in here and your first act is to dis the blog, me, and the many in the general Paleo community who have obtained weight loss and health benefits adopting a Paleo approach. Then you spout woefully ignorant tripe, like, "Not only that but humans have evolved so eating "paleo" don't make sense," which serves only to expose such ignorance. Then, based on your demonstrated ignorance, you issue insulting, platitudinous admonitions that are no more meaningful that "don't worry, be happy" and other such drivel-tripe.

Ignorance is no sin, but to take the approach you did deserves nothing but my contempt and scorn. So, you're getting it back at you just like you came in here with. I answer hundreds of comments from readers here, and commenters on other blogs as well, and I do so politely and respectfully, even in the face of disagreement.

But you; you can go straight to hell.

And you're like every other ignorant moron.

Go away, moron.

This paleolithic line of bull is like every other diet. I'm sorry but carbs don't kill people. That's ridiculous. Not only that but humans have evolved so eating "paleo" don't make sense.

Exercise, eat what you want in moderation. Enjoy life and stop obsessing.

I used to be 110 pounds and a distance runner. Now I am overweight with shin splints. I do not eat artificial sugars or processed sugars of any kind, I have tried low carb, I have tried candida diets, and I am now going back to complex carbohydrates because the irvingia gabonensis supplement I am taking works best–at least according to the studies done with it–on a diet like a traditional Cameroonian diet, including things like plantains and yams. I am trying to ramp up my fiber intake and have also started eating plain oatmeal again.

TSH is a useless number. Free T4, free T3, and reverse T3 are far better indicators of what your thyroid is doing, and even then, different tissues in the body absorb thyroid hormones at different rates. Not to mention, almost everyone with thyroid dysfunction has some degree of adrenal fatigue with possible salt wasting and sex hormone imbalances. I replace cortisol with physiological doses of hydrocortisone (which has helped me immensely) and am working on increasing my armour thyroid dose. I figure when my tongue is no longer swollen I will be on enough.