Massive Literature Review: Which Way of Eating Is Best?

thanksgiving, turkey, family
“We’re not gonna worry about that right now.”

A couple of dietitians did an massive literature review looking for evidence that diet has an effect on major health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Sounds interesting, and similar to my own obsessive review done between 1995 and 2005. It bothers me that “hypertension” is misspelled in the abstract. What other mistakes were made?

For the researchers’ conclusions, you have to pay $27.95 USD.

Abstract from the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics:

Appropriate diet can prevent, manage, or reverse noncommunicable health conditions such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Consequently, the public’s interest in diet and nutrition has fueled the multi-billion-dollar weight loss industry and elevated its standing on social media and the internet. Although many dietary approaches are popular, their universal effectiveness and risks across overall populations are not clear. The objective of this scoping review was to identify and characterize systematic reviews (SRs) examining diet or fasting (intermittent energy restriction [IER]) interventions among adults who are healthy or may have chronic disease. An in-depth literature search of six databases was conducted for SRs published between January 2010 and February 2020. A total of 22,385 SRs were retrieved, and 1,017 full-text articles were screened for eligibility. Of these, 92 SRs met inclusion criteria. Covered diets were organized into 12 categories: high/restricted carbohydrate (n = 30), Mediterranean, Nordic, and Tibetan (n = 19), restricted or modified fat (n = 17), various vegetarian diets (n = 16), glycemic index (n = 13), high protein (n = 12), IER (n = 11), meal replacements (n = 11), paleolithic (n = 8), Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypretension (DASH; n = 6), Atkins, South Beach, and Zone (n = 5), and eight other brand diets (n = 4). Intermediate outcomes, such as body weight or composition and cardiometabolic, were commonly reported. Abundant evidence was found exploring dietary approaches in the general population. However, heterogeneity of diet definitions, focus on single macronutrients, and infrequent macronutrient subanalyses were observed. Based on this scoping review, the Evidence Analysis Center prioritized the need to collate evidence related to macronutrient modification, specifically restricted carbohydrate diets.


Steve Parker, M.D.

front cover of paleobetic diet

Click to purchase at Amazon.com. E-book also available at Smashwords. com.

Movie: The Real Anthony Fauci

face mask, young woman
Early in the pandemic, Fauci said masks didn’t work. Soon thereafter he changed his tune. Misinformation? Disinformation?

You can see the new movie about Fauci’s role in the pandemic response at therealanthonyfaucimovie.com. It’s only free for another seven days, so don’t delay unless you wanna pay. It’s the movie version of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s book, The Real Anthony Fauci. The movie runs 1 hr and 50 minutes. Don’t bother to watch it if your mind is closed to alternatives to the government’s orthodox explanations of the pandemic.

The movie is excellent and I recommend it. I can’t endorse all ideas it discusses simply because I haven’t researched them all.

It reminded me of the early days of the AIDS epidemic, in which Fauci was also involved as head of NIAID starting ~1984. NIAID = Nat’l Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. I was working at a hospital in Pensacola, FL, when I was the victim of an needle stick injury involving an AIDS patient under my care. This was in the early 1990s when AIDS was still considered a death sentence. We didn’t have the effective AIDS drugs that we have now. Fauci was a promoter of the early AIDS drug called AZT. IIRC, I was prescribed a course of AZT for 2-6 weeks to keep me from getting infected with HIV from the needle stick. Whether the AZT worked or not, I didn’t get infected. Good times.

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: In case you’re wondering, most young adults going into healthcare do no expect to be killed by infections we acquire from patients under our care. Consider the highly-infectious Ebola virus in Africa with a ~40% death rate if infected. Few of us were volunteering to go there and provide care. Many of us, if it showed up in the U.S., would not have shown up for work if it came to our hospitals. At the time of the original Ebola scare (10 years ago?) there were only ~12 hospital beds in the entire country with adequate infection control and decontamination procedures.

front cover of paleobetic diet

Click to purchase at Amazon.com. E-book also available at Smashwords. com.

Recipe: Eggs on Portobello Mushroom

Click for the recipe.

That looks and sounds scrumptious to me! (That’s a word, right?)

My wife and daughter would never try this. There’s just something about mushrooms, they say. Can’t even stand the smell.

Posting this here for future reference. Just a matter of time…

Steve Parker, M.D.

h/t Jan at The Low Carb Diabetic blog.

front cover of paleobetic diet

Click to purchase at Amazon.com. E-book also available at Smashwords. com.

Vitamin Combo Helps Prevent Macular Degeneration

Photo by Dominika Greguu0161ovu00e1 on Pexels.com

I have a particular interest in preventing age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) since it runs in my family. It’s the leading cause of vision loss in adults over 50.

From JAMA Ophthalmology:

Question  What were the long-term findings of Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2) supplements regarding development of lung cancer or progression to late age-related macular degeneration (AMD)?

Findings  In this epidemiologic follow-up study of the AREDS2 cohort of 3882 participants and 6351 eyes, 10-year follow-up results showed that development of lung cancer nearly doubled in participants assigned to beta carotene among former smokers but not those assigned to lutein/zeaxanthin. Lutein/zeaxanthin was associated with a reduction in the risk of progression to late AMD when compared with beta carotene.

Meaning  These findings suggest that the AREDS2 supplement with lutein/zeaxanthin instead of beta carotene was safe, with no association with developing lung cancer and a potential beneficial association with further reduction in progression to late AMD.

These are the ones I take. In the U.S., your best price may be at Costco or Sam’s Club.

Steve Parker, M.D.

front cover of paleobetic diet

Click to purchase at Amazon.com. E-book also available at Smashwords. com.

U.S Women Getting Fatter Over Last Decade

From the Journal of Obesity:

…. 10-year weight gain is substantially greater in US women compared to men. On average (±SE), women gained 5.4 ± 0.3 kg and 9.2 ± 0.4 percent of their initial weight over the previous 10 years, whereas men gained 2.6 ± 0.2 kg and 3.8 ± 0.3 percent of their initial weight. In general, compared to US men, women gained about twice as much weight (kg) and 2.4 times more weight expressed as a percent of initial weight, over the previous 10 years. Fourth, 10-year weight gain is significantly higher in Non-Hispanic Blacks than in other racial groups, especially NH [non-Hispanic] Black women. Moreover, 10-year weight gain is significantly lower in Non-Hispanic Asians compared to other racial categories.

If you think in pounds instead of kilograms, like me, note that 1 kg = 2.2 lb.

Since 2000, U.S. obesity in adults has increased from 30% to 42% of the population. This doesn’t even include suspected pandemic-related weight gain.

Mean 10-year weight gain was 4.2 ± 0.2 kg or 6.6 ± 0.2% of initial body weight within the United States. 

The incidence of severe obesity had increased from 5% in 2000 to almost 10% now. (The article likely defines “severe obesity” but I didn’t catch it in my quick scan.)

Not enough Americans are reading and implementing my Advanced Mediterranean Diet!

Steve Parker, M.D.

front cover of paleobetic diet

Click to purchase at Amazon.com. E-book also available at Smashwords. com.

ANFSCD: Old Fashioned Marriage

Note conversations you need to have BEFORE MARRIAGE.

Will a Vitamin D Supplement Prevent Fractures in the General Adult Population?

No. Vitamin D supplementation of 2000 IU/day does not prevent fractures in the general population of healthy midlife and older adults.

Milk is usually fortified with vitamin D

The study at NEJM.

Steve Parker, M.D.

COVID-19: The Most Politicized Disease of My 40-Year Medical Career

n95 mask, goggles
Yes, COVID-19 was scary for healthcare workers, but not nearly as scary as Ebola virus and the early days of AIDS

Regarding the pandemic, do you wonder:

  • how politicians in Washington, DC, had the authority to suspend evictions of folks who didn’t make their mortgage payments
  • how politicians could destroy hundreds of thousands of businesses and jobs by imposing worthless lockdowns
  • how pharmacists could routinely refuse to fill prescriptions (ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine) from licensed physicians
  • why certain governors forbade the use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine
  • how the fear-porn was ratcheted up so high that relatives of dying patients were not allowed in hospital rooms
  • how police dared to arrest a lone paddle boarder in the Pacific ocean for violating lockdown
  • how and why millions of people were forced or coerced into taking experimental vaccines without a long-term safety record (even pregnant women!)
  • why the mainstream press doesn’t report the underlying financing and profits linked to the “free” vaccines

One usually reliable way to find answers to such questions is to “follow the money.” In other words (Latin), cui bono? Too many of our national-level politicians are also motivated by pure power, regardless of the money. I’m also convinced there are darker forces at play, pure evil. But that’s for you to decide for yourself.

I suggest you watch a free movie, The Greatest Reset. Free except for 2.5 hours of your life. It may provide you with some answers to your non-medical questions about this politicized pandemic. I don’t know who produced the movie or who financed it. I don’t endorse everything in it. Try to keep an open mind. For sure, you are not getting the full story from the mainstream press.

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: Six Media Companies Control 90% of What You Read, Watch, and Hear

Never Again: Pandemic Lockdowns

face mask, young woman
“But their intentions were good……………………..right?”

I linked to a Johns Hopkins meta-analysis earlier this year, but it’s too important not to mention again. People have short memories and governments will undoubtedly once again try to shut us down. From Health News Florida:

“We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures, and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality,” the researchers wrote in the report…..

The study concluded that lockdowns “are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”

“They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy,” the report said.


Steve Parker, M.D.

The Lancet Seriously Considers the Lab-Leak Theory of COVID-19’s Origin

artist's rendition of coronavirus
Artist’s rendition of Coronavirus. Genetically modified by an American lab before release into the wild?

From the Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from from the COVID-19 pandemic:

Two main possible pathways of emergence have been identified.

The first is that SARS-CoV-2 emerged from a natural spillover event—that is, from a non-research-related zoonotic transmission of the virus from an animal to a human, and thereafter from human to human. The second is that the virus emerged from research-related activities, with three possible research-related pathways: the infection of a researcher in the field while collecting samples, the infection of a researcher in the laboratory while studying viruses collected in their natural habitat, and the infection of a researcher in the laboratory while studying viruses that have been genetically manipulated. Because both the pathways of natural transmission and of research-related transmission are feasible, preventing the emergence of future pandemic pathogens must include two distinct strategies: the prevention of natural (zoonotic) transmission and the prevention of research-related spillovers. Each of these strategies requires specific actions.


Ron Unz has a theory that COVID-19 was created in an American lab and unleashed on Iranian and Chinese populations purposefully. Do you dare go down that rabbit hole? Odds are, Mr Unz is a lot smarter than you.

Steve Parker, M.D.