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It’s the Insulin Resistance, Stupid: Part 5

In September 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower experienced an acute anterolateral myocardial infarction. Dr. Paul Dudley White of Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital joined the attending military doctors in treating the president. Eisenhower lived another 14 years but suffered from a slew of chronic diseases during that time, diseases Prof. Tim Noakes attributes to White’s prescription of an untested, experimental diet. Like the diets associated with Ancel Keys’ incorrect diet-heart and lipid hypotheses, which laid the foundation for dietary guidelines promoted for decades by the American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association, White recommended the president follow a low-fat, low-cholesterol, high-carbohydrate diet. Eisenhower, a model patient, followed the recommendation, but his health markers began to trend in the wrong direction. Noakes theorizes about why the treatment ultimately failed, and why we have continued to fail to learn from the mistake.

Read MoreIt’s the Insulin Resistance, Stupid: Part 5