In The Sunday Times I interview Arthur de Vany, the man behind the new, thin, sunflower-like, me. That's Arthur on the left, looking like Superman's fitter grandad. I also review Tom Vanderbilt's book Traffic.The articles are connected. Both involve the overthrow of a paradigm. De Vany says our carbohydrates good fat bad nutritional orthodoxy is entirely wrong; Vanderbilt says our traffic safety systems don't work - streets and cars should be more dangerous, not safer.
A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Ah, the power law, at last!
ReplyDeleteIsn't the recommendation of a particular diet and lifestyle to a whole population a perfect example of 'bell-curve' thinking? Power law thinking would suggest that there is no averagely beneficial diet and lifestyle; rather, most individuals have metabolisms which lie in the tail of a power law, and need to find a diet and lifestyle specifically tailored to their own metabolism, just like Arthur de Vany did. Just don't assume that what applies to you will necessarily apply to other people.
Art de Vany's ideas certainly worked for me a couple of years ago when his style of eating (it is not a diet, imho) helped me a great deal to recover from an illness. So I for one would commend it as "tried, tested and found to work", including the bits about being in a better mood. I think Gordon has a point, but perhaps experience trumps it. If you are in a pickle and a way out presents itself, you have nothing to lose by trying it. Besides, Art de Vany likes KTM motorcyles. I mean, how could one not be impressed.
ReplyDeleteLately, however, I have strayed somewhat from the righteous path and fallen into a wicked affair with coriander and garlic nan bread, so this article will help me to get back on track. All the ideas in these two articles strike me as interesting, not least because they've been fermenting and generally experimenting on this blog for a few months now under the very general heading of "counter intuition" (which is just how they've struck me). Now they've taken fuller form as articles explaining what may well turn out to be "paradigm shifts" as, er, they probably say in Hollywood. Ideas happen, change, mature, spark off one another, breed and eventually present us with a pattern. And we get to see it happen. Great stuff.
Well, I'm NOT convinced. Perhaps it's because I don't need testosterone (you refer several times to this diet enhancing it), but I just see his approach as another version of Atkins and "Sugar Busters" (same diet, by a dif. author).
ReplyDeleteCarbs are not evil, they are the bread of life and there's a reason we crave them: Those simple sugars get rapidly to your brain and enhance serotonin! I eat pretzels all day (sourdough, non-fat) and I've lost 5 lbs this summer and am quite happy.
De Vany sounds a bit nutty, another American True Believer of whom we have way too many (G.W.B., Ralph Nader, Dr. Kevorkian). I don't care if he looks like Superman, he's still gonna die in the end. Ain't nobody figured out a diet to evade the grim reaper.
But if you are happier and feel young and virile again, then more power to you, Bryan. I agree with Gordon though: Different strokes for different folks.
Ah, Susan, maybe that's the difference. For us blokes, I suspect that anything less than 15-20 lb is not worth getting out of bed for.
ReplyDeleteArt de Vany is clearly not the only person who's thought along the same lines. Also, pure, traditional bread made from proper ingredients and full grains is great, sure, but for most folks what's on offer is supermarket gloop spiced up with salt and sugar and injected with Mars-Bar levels of fat to make it springy and last longer on the shelf. Just like a burger bun probably.
Imho, if you stay away from processed stuff, ready meals and production line foods, which is most of the food in any supermarket, you will inevitably end up with a diet very similar to that suggest by de Vany and co.
Just what the world hasn't got enough of - bloody diet gurus! eat what you want, love your body, die happy.
ReplyDeleteThis comment contains a health warning.
ReplyDeleteIndia Knight.
This diet consists of, among other things, a full English breakfast and tea that tastes like Pterodactyl pee. Gordon mentioned the most important word, metabolism, if you're unlucky then diet you must.
Thanks for an excellent article. I'd love to know more details of your own diet during your period of weight loss. Did you also exercise more than usual, or at all during this period? Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteAll diets seem to work for somebody.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the Michael Phelps diet?
From this diet article, it seems that reality is itself elitist, whether in biology or economics; that it is the exceptional which determines the whole, not the mediocre, the statistical norm.
ReplyDeletei'd love to try his diet but can't cook and try to avoid meat, so am left with my sandwiches for lunch and muffins or pizza for supper.
Luckily i have a good metabolism and never put weight on.
Just wanted to note that this diet is sooo not about the weight loss- though that's always an eye catcher and nice extra benefit. But you could lose weight eating only cookies...
ReplyDeleteThe real benefit is for your general health, energy level, clear skin, hormones being in balance and the end of any depression you might have suffered from. It cures PMS too :P
Also it's a shame that the emphasis is so much on it being 'just another low-carb diet', especially because a lot of the benefits aren't even from it being (comparatively (far higher than atkins f/e)) low in carbs.
Naomi is right. Evolutionary fitness is not a diet, it is a lifestyle choice that is not about losing weight. Indeed, weight loss is a secondary benefit of the lifestyle. The over-focus on weight loss distracts us from the other, possibly very serious, consequences of consuming too much grain-based carbohydrates typical of our modern world. Among these are systemic and chronic inflammation caused by glucose toxicity. Similarly, many children and adults are needlessly depriving themselves of the critical building-blocks of a healthy brain and nervous system; namely, long-chain fatty acids such as Omega 3 found primarily in meat-based nutrients. I shudder to think how many dysfunctional kids are victims of malnourished brains. Contemplate that the during your next all-muffin binge and it'll be much easier to transition to a lifestyle that humans are truly adapted to rather than the one we pursue by default.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm about to start on this way of eating tomorrow. I think it'll be pretty straight-forward for me -- I eat no milk products and no grains already, as part of a very successful MS containment diet. Reading about it, I thought it seemed completely logical. And it's true what he says about vegetarians, even Joanna Lumley looks a bit puffy in the face.
ReplyDeleteI read your article on the 17th August with great excitement. Having recently been engaged in a study of Darwinian Theory, greedily hoovering up the complete works of Richard Dawkins over the course of the last year, Devany's suggestions as to an ideal way of living seemed to make sense. Three weeks on and the proof of the animal and fish protein, fruit and veg is very definitely in the eating. Sitting down with an old friend at the Wolsey on Tuesday evening noticed that I was being more than usually scrutinised. You look.........younger he finally decided and your hair is thicker (to boot). He had passed over the 3 kilos of weight loss. I then went on to describe the Appleyard effect. The next morning I received an urgent e mail from my friend demanding the link to the web site. I will keep you posted.
ReplyDeletePlease do, Paul.
ReplyDeleteUntil yesterday I had never heard of Arthur De Vany, then I read the Appleyard review. I'm totally convinced; 12 weeks ago tomorrow I came home from 4 weeks holiday in France weighing 92kg and feeling like a slug. I decided to cut out carbs and sugar and eat protein incl lots of fish and vegetables. This morning I weighed in at 83kg but better than that I feel rejuvenated, fitter and mentally sharp. As well I am sleeping better and my outlook is positive. It works for me and I won't be going back to carbs - if you don't try it you'll never know.
ReplyDeleteInteresting.... Thankx for good tips Keep it up http://allnutri.com/pid1946/citicoline.aspx
ReplyDeleteGreat article.
ReplyDeletePractically my whole life I've felt tired and mentally foggy, but I did notice that whenever I hadn't eaten in awhile my thinking was much sharper. Now I realize that the problem was flour and sugar, etc.; these days I always feel mentally sharp, regardless of what I've eaten. Also I can run up 10 flights of stairs without even breathing hard when I reach the top, whereas before I couldn't even walk up one flight without feeling lousy.
I became interested a few years ago from looking at the website of a man named Vinny Pinto: http://rawpaleodiet.vpinf.com/
I'm wondering what Bryan thinks about EF a few months down the line? Has he taken on board the principles as an ongoing life style, or like so many of us has he tried it and slid back to the ways of old?
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