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Dr. Miriam Berchuk is a Calgary-area physician and active member of the Canadian Clinicians for Therapeutic Nutrition who was interviewed today (June 11, 2018) on CBC Radio (Calgary Eyeopener) about her personal use and promotion of a Low Carb diet for weight loss and specific metabolic conditions related to insulin resistance. While the interview lasts … Read more

This article is based on a lecture given by Gabor Erdosi, MSc, MBA— Food News Conference, May 19, 2018 — Prague, Czech Republic Introduction Gabor Erdosi, MSc, MBA, is a Molecular Biologist from Debrecen, Hungary, who is employed in the Food Industry but whose hobby is reading scientific publications and analyzing the available information. The … Read more

Introduction Three years ago, my theory about the roots of the current obesity and Diabetes epidemic was simple. I believed that it was largely a matter of us eating too many carbs while having reduced the amount of healthy fat we ate. I now think it is a little more subtle than that, and that it … Read more

The most recent data available from 2011 indicates that the cost per person per year of having Type 2 Diabetes in Canada ranges from $1611 (Quebec) to $3427 (New Brunswick) based on an average income of $43,000 per year. Necessary medications, devices and supplies are expensive – costing more than 3% of income. While those with extended health … Read more

Introduction As demonstrated in a previous article, a low-carbohydrate or therapeutic ketogenic diet is a viable option for people to reduce their symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes, but does it increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, such as heart attack and stroke? Results of a New Study Results of a peer-reviewed study of cardiovascular outcomes … Read more

In a recent article about why Waist Circumference and Waist-to-Height Ratio is so important, I explained that a meta-analysis from 2012 which pooled data from 300,000 adults of different races and ages found that the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease and shorter lifespan was associated with a Waist to Height Ratio (WHtR) of 0.5. That is, we … Read more

Note: This article was originally posted on May 22, 2018 and was updated on April 19, 2026. Note: for clients who were asked to read this article to measure their waist circumference and hip circumference in advance of their assessment visit, drop down to where the first red asterisk (*) is, and read all three … Read more

There are some things that people should not do on their own and one of them is to begin a very low carb (ketogenic) diet without first consulting with their doctor, especially if they take certain types of medication.  Medical supervision is necessary before a person substantially decreases their carbohydrate intake if they are taking; … Read more

INTRODUCTION: In the first article in this series on carbohydrates, I explained that Glycemic Index (GI) is a way to rate carbohydrates based how easily they raise the blood sugar of healthy people and that some carbohydrates are better than others when they cause much less of a rise in blood sugar. I wanted to know how would … Read more

Introduction In Part 1 of “Are Some Carbs Better Than Others”, I explained that Glycemic Index (GI) is a way to rate carbohydrates based on how easily they raise blood sugar. Low GI foods (those with a value of 55 or less) are more slowly digested, absorbed and metabolized and cause a lower and slower … Read more

Introduction Not all carbohydrate foods (“carbs”) are created equal. Some are broken down very quickly into simple sugars, while others are broken down very slowly. In the past, the terms “simple sugar” and “complex carbohydrate” were used to imply this concept. There are newer terms that enable us to know how much eating these foods … Read more

This article is Part 2 in a two-part series on concerns with Polyunsaturated Vegetable Oils. Part 1 can be read here. There are a few key things about polyunsaturates vegetable oils that need to be understood to understand this article, so I’ll keep the science simple. There are two class of polyunsaturated fats; (PUFAs); omega 3 … Read more

INTRODUCTION: Both the US and Canadian Dietary Guidelines encourage us to limit saturated fat in order to reduce the risk of heart disease and to eat unsaturated fat, including polyunsaturated vegetable oils instead but what are these fats, where do they come from and what role might these play in development of obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and even … Read more

The Diet-Heart Hypothesis The diet-heart hypothesis is the belief that eating foods high in saturated fat contributed to heart disease was first proposed in the 1950s by a scientist named Ancel Keys who believed that by replacing saturated fat from meat, butter and eggs with newly-created industrial polyunsaturated vegetable oil (such as soybean oil) that heart disease and … Read more

Yesterday, in preparing to begin a new series of articles on the relationship between polyunsaturated vegetable fats to obesity, I came across an old, yellowed sheet titled “Comparison of Dietary Fats” that I was given as an undergrad Dietetic student at McGill, in 1989. It was designed to help us teach consumers how to choose the “healthiest” dietary fats. … Read more

A year ago, I found out from a fellow Dietitian that a recently published article in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that the sugar industry had secretly funded a group of renowned Harvard researchers to write an influential series of articles which downplayed, discredited or outright ignored research known at the time, … Read more

Note: This article was originally posted on March 1, 2018, and was edited on November 23, 2025 This article is based largely on a lecture given by Dr. Donald Layman, PhD – Professor Emeritus from the University of Illinois (Nutrition Forum, June 23, 2013, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) [1]. People understand it’s important for children … Read more

Previous to today, I never gave the reliability of blood glucose monitors a second thought. I assumed that if they were sold in Canada, they were reliable. Not all are as good as others, it seems! Yesterday morning, as I always do, I tested my morning fasting blood glucose with my glucometer. As someone with Type … Read more

Many people (including me) are sick with the flu and many are sipping soup, because it is warm and comforting and provides them with some protein, vitamins and minerals. I’m drinking chicken soup, made from my grandmother’s recipe and this isn’t any chicken soup, as you will soon find out. Whenever someone in my family is sick, … Read more

Long before the ‘hybrid car” there was the human body – a hybrid ‘machine’ perfectly designed to use either carbohydrates or fat for energy. Like a hybrid car, we can run on one fuel source or the other at any one time. If we are eating a largely carbohydrate based diet, we will be in ‘carbohydrate … Read more