Wake Up Low-Carbers And Follow Sweden’s Lead

Filed under: Health — @ April 23, 2008

While much of the diet and health debate around the world is still caught up and enamored by the imaginary allure of the high-carb, low-fat diet as a means for losing weight and improving health, there is something rather remarkable happening in Sweden. An open dialog about the merits of a high-fat, low-carb diet has ensued ever since Dr. Annika Dahlqvist was vindicated by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare on January 16, 2008 when that government-led institution concluded that a low-carb diet is “in accordance with science and well-tried experience for reducing obesity and Type 2 diabetes.”

Yep, that’s right! Livin’ la vida low-carb is now promoted by the government of Sweden alongside the low-fat diet as an option for people desiring weight loss and improvements in their health. However, as Dr. Dahlqvist noted in my interview with her in January 2008, they’re not very happy about it and neither are the so-called health “experts” who desperately tried to get a ruling AGAINST low-carb–but it backfired on them!

The “science and well-tried experience” behind low-carb is what has led Dr. Dahlqvist and many of the most famous advocates of carbohydrate restriction from around the world to call for a critical appraisal of this way of eating for the purposes of treating metabolic syndrome and Type 2 diabetes. We really have come to an impasse in the hyperbole against low-carb where an all-out discussion is now sorely needed about this nutritional approach. It happened in Phoenix this month among a couple hundred bariatric physicians, but the scale of the conversation needs to become larger–MUCH larger!

That’s why I was pleased to see Johanna S