DIET | DETECTIVE^®

Here we go yet again with the obvious media bias against low-carb! 

Have you seen the merciless beating the low-carb diet is taking in the press right now after the release of a new Centers For Disease Control (CDC) study showing the important B complex vitamin folate levels in women has dropped somewhat in recent years causing health atrocities in younger women like birth defects?  The coverage of this story is pretty disgusting if you ask me.

Here's what they're saying about the alleged low-carb connection:

"Low-carb diets may hit levels of folate."

"Blood levels of folate in young women are dropping, a disturbing development that could lead to increased birth defects and may be due to low-carb diets."

"Experts suspect diets are to blame for the drop.  And breads fortified with folic acid have fallen from favor in low-carb diets."

"Low-carb diets have increased in popularity since 2000. Women who avoided flour and bread products for their carbohydrates may have also taken in less folic acid."

What's with all the emphasis on livin' la vida low-carb and lower folate levels?  Well, it seems one of the primary sources of folic acid is in fortified whole grain breads which are generally avoided by people watching their carbohydrate intake, right?  True enough, but health officials at the CDC call this a "disturbing" trend that MUST be the result of low-carb diets.

Um, here's a question for you.  If the source of folic acid that women should be consuming is some bread products that have had folic acid ADDED to them, then why can't women simply take a supplement that gives them adequate amounts of folic acid to begin with rather than eating the bread to begin with?  I mean DUH!

Most people who are livin' la vida low-carb are already supplementing their diet with things like calcium, potassium, fiber, and more.  Why don't these women just add a folic acid vitamin pill to the mix?  Gee, now there's a thought!

But the lamentation over declining folate levels has got the CDC in such a tizzy because all these little babies are being born with distorted spines and brains which is truly awful.  Let me be crystal clear--I AM NOT MAKING LIGHT OF BIRTH DEFECTS!  With that said, though, can we really put the onus for this issue all on the low-carb lifestyle?  Not hardly!

While this story pushes hard the notion that women should be getting folic acid from eating such high-carb foods as cereals and breads that have been fortified with folic acid, an artificial form of folate, there's a FOXNews.com story by Dr. Manny Alvarez published yesterday hailing such natural forms of folate found in low-carb vegetables like broccoli, spinach, cauliflower and brussels sprouts.  How ya like them apples all you low-carb haters?!

In other words, if a young woman who is of childbearing age is following a low-carb diet and eating these nutritious and delicious non-starchy, low-glycemic veggies like she should be, then she is definitely getting all the folate her body needs to prevent birth defects in any future children she may give birth to.  Just because there has been an 8 to 16 percent decline in folate levels in young American women in recent years doesn't mean the CDC or anyone else should ASSUME it's because of low-carb diets.

This is the first time since the government started promoting folic acid to women over the past decade that they have seen a decline in folate levels, which hit Caucasian women hard but African-American women experienced the least amount of folate in their blood of all races and ethnic groups.

The study of 4,500 U.S. women ages 15 to 44 took place from 1999 through 2004 and included personal interviews, physical exams, and blood tests.  The full report can be read in the January 5, 2007 issue of the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Researchers theorize obesity had something to do with the reduction in folate as well because obese people metabolize folate differently than their skinnier counterparts and actually need MORE folic acid to prevent birth defects.

But Dr. Joseph Mulinare, the lead researcher on the study who is an epidemiologist, swears it has to be the popularity of low-carb diets that is to blame for this since the bread-shunning weight loss method became all the rage in 2000 and hit its peak in 2004.  He claims too many women must have stopped eating the folic acid-enriched flour products that would have kept their folate levels high enough to prevent the birth defects from happening.

Excuse me, Dr. Mulinare, but that's just one big copout and a lame one at that!  If women were getting their folic acid from bread products before they started livin' la vida low-carb and they knew that was the source for it, then wouldn't it stand to reason that they would seek out other alternative sources for folic acid when they began their new way of eating?  Additionally, as I have already stated, folate is found naturally in such low-carb staple foods as broccoli, spinach, and cauliflower.  If they're doing the low-carb plan right, then a folate deficiency would NOT be an issue.

I know bashing low-carb every chance possible is a popular thing in the media these days.  It's amazing how many times the obituary for this healthy nutritional approach has been written and yet they keep trying to beat a supposedly dead horse over and over and over again.  Do they even realize how much credence they are paying to low-carb every time they mention it?

Wanna know what's so gut-busting funny about the coverage of this study?  At the end of the FOXNews.com article, it states that "vitamins and supplements are the best way to get the recommended daily dose of 400 micrograms of folic acid."

Did you hear that?  Folic acid-enriched breads and cereals aren't even the primary or "best" source for creating folate in the body.  It's SUPPLEMENTATION my dear!  You know what?  That's something women can do who are following a low-carb plan.  Oh my, the common sense logic of all this should be an embarassment to all those poor ignorant reporters who were quick to jump on the anti-low-carb bandwagon on this one. 

Sorry people, but you got it wrong--YET AGAIN!

Perhaps all these negative naysayers should consider educating themselves a little bit better about what the low-carb lifestyle is REALLY all about rather than going around making themselves look like a bunch of fools when they follow this template to decimate livin' la vida low-carb.  Playing the role of court jester might be fun for these people, but nobody really respects them.  As for me, I'll lead my low-carb crusade as a mighty warrior knight with the sword of truth on my side. 

If any of you jokers in the media try to maliciously malign low-carb again, then you WILL face the wrath of "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Man" yet again.  And it won't be a pretty sight I can promise you that!  You have been fairly warned.

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