You may have heard of the concept of evidence-based medicine, which is what most doctors strive to practice. This simply means that ideally every decision we make as physicians should be based on non-biased evidence, usually in the form of double-blind large studies, and not on anecdotal evidence (for example: my aunt Bess’s arthritis felt better after eating more turnips).
Unfortunately, this concept is hard to find when it comes to nutrition. Good studies are hard to come by, and rarely address obese patients with a variety of health issues. Many “studies” are flawed and jump to the wrong conclusion. For example, studies prove that crime in New York goes up in the summertime. Studies also show that ice cream sales go up in New York in the summertime. It would be a flawed conclusion to assume that ice cream causes crime, but that’s the kind of conclusions these less-than-scientific studies jump to.
If we follow traditional medical advice, an obese patient with diabetes and a history of a heart attack and kidney damage would have to follow a low carbohydrate, low fat, low protein diet. I guess that leaves them with water and air, but that would be one hard diet to follow! More current studies would suggest that a lower carbohydrate diet that causes weight loss would probably be the best for this patient.
It can be difficult for even the scientific-savvy person to determine which studies are valid and which are nonsense. If you have any questions about the best way to eat for your particular health issues, we can address this with you and make an eating plan that fits your health, personality and lifestyle, using the best evidence-based medical advice available.
Posted by Dr. Caren Beasley on under