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Featuring Guest Gary Taubes

1. Gary, did you do any research on the affect that artificial sweetners (splenda, sweet & Low, etc) have on insulin?

2. Gary and Robb, I have read that the insulin secreted after consuming a protein-rich meal can be as high as after a carb-rich meal. Can you explain why the former does not tend to lead to fat accumulation nearly as effectively as the latter?

3. I have read both of Gary’s books and think he has done an amazing job of exposing the public dietary advice bullshit for what it really is… What are his views on the Kitavans and why they can be so healthy on such a high CHO intake? I think its fairly obvious that they had no early or prolonged exposure to the processed high sugar/PUFA frankenstein foods that we have, so is it possible that if we maintain our metabolic machinery the way it should be from a young age, the metabolism has no problem in dealing with natural starches? (with low anti-nutrient content)

4. Stephan Guyenet and Chris Masterjohn among others are making the claim that it is leptin resistance and not insulin resistance that causes obesity, citing that insulin resistance seems to occur downstream of leptin resistance. The implication of this is that fat mass is regulated in the brain, not the fat cells themselves. In the past, you have dismissed this idea. I was wondering whether in the face of new information, such as animal models spontaneously losing fat mass when leptin is injected directly into the hypothalamus, you have investigated this viewpoint.

5. Gary’s main audience, when talking about how exercise doesn’t necessarily lead to weight loss, is obese people who are in metabolic derangement. But I’d love to know whether Gary thinks weight loss can be accelerated through exercise–-provided you’re sticking to a low-carb approach. It makes sense that a low-carber who ramps up the activity level could burn through existing fat stores faster.