Studies of the effect of LC in African-Americans?

[s-piper]

I'm not AA myself, but I've been thinking about this a lot since seeing the LC documentary My Big Fat Diet which looked at the effect of a LC diet in a Canadian First Nations (Native American) community.
Well I know for a fact that African-Americans are a lot more prone to diabetes than people of European descent.
I think I'm confronted by this fact a lot because, while I don't study nutrition except as it relates to my personal health (I have IR and PCOS), I am in graduate school biomedicine and work at a university hospital in a city with a high minority population. I see so many patients coming in and out of the hospital who are obese and/or have had amputations. Now, no, I don't know that all of them were due to diabetes but I'm sure a good many were.

Other than anecdotes by members of LC or PCOS message boards, I haven't seen any documentation how a LC might work in a most AA population which seems odd since, as a group, this might be one that would most benefit from one.

[LC FP]

This isn't research or media, but I can tell you in a limited sample LC diets work just as well for diabetes and weight loss in whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians. And one Native American. Compliance is the main determinant.

[M Levac]

As far as I know, all humans are genetically identical, with tiny differences in things like skin, eye and hair color. In other words, all humans can reproduce another human, which then can also reproduce another human, and so forth. If there are significant differences where obesity/diabetes is concerned, it's probably with the environment. Consider traditional diets, and India. India is commonly known as the Diabetes Capital of the World. Well, that's where we find the most vegetarians. Their traditional diet probably makes them more sensitive to the addition of refined carbs.

With African Americans, I remember once I ate at a friend's house, and they served a traditional meal of cooked white rice, cooled, sweetened, then packed into small balls. That's already pretty obesogenic, but it's missing an ingredient: Wheat. Now add that to this traditional meal, and we get obesity much quicker than if we added it to a traditional diet of meat-and-veggies for example. It's just an anecdote so don't take that too seriously.

There's another thing that could make this idea more credible. Tobacco. We've been smoking for eons, but it doesn't seem to have had much effect on our health until very recently. Not saying it doesn't have an effect, just saying the effect seems to be modulated by something else. I'm gonna go with insulin. We discussed the role of insulin in cancer, and obviously acknowledge the role of refined carbs in insulin. So, much like the case with traditional diets making us more sensitive to the addition of refined carbs with regards to obesity/diabetes, smoking makes us more sensitive to the addition of refined carbs as well, but with regards to lung cancer instead.

I just thought of another example of one thing modulating the effect of another. The China Study. In that "study", they claim protein can modulate the growth of cancer. It doesn't cause it, but it can modulate its growth. They did it with protein, but I believe they could just as well have done it with refined sugar and wheat, with much more obvious effect, and without the nasty problem of longer life (in spite of more cancer) for those mice who ate more protein. Come to think of it, that's one study just waiting to be done. The point is that the mechanism obviously exists, and this is what must be going on with some populations being more sensitive to certain conditions than others.

[LosingMe16]

In Good Calories, Bad Calories Taubes mentions a lot of observational studies in which traditional African tribes were void of any type of metabolic syndromes (obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, etc) all the way until they were introduced to "civilized" Western diets. These are peoples that wouldn't have access to refined carbohydrates or sugar. However, once these populations were exposed to those types of foods they (generally within a 20 year span) would start showing signs of metabolic syndrome.

[s-piper]

As far as I know, all humans are genetically identical, with tiny differences in things like skin, eye and hair color. In other words, all humans can reproduce another human, which then can also reproduce another human, and so forth. If there are significant differences where obesity/diabetes is concerned, it's probably with the environment.


There are significant differences when you look at diabetes rates from an epidemiological view. I can give you citations if you need. However, I never said it was caused by genetic differences between races.

I was just more bringing up the fact that this seemed like a gap in the research on LC out there.

PS: Sorry if this is in the wrong place. I wasn't sure where to put this.

[teaser]

Whoops. Thought I was in my journal. :lol:

[WereBear]

It can simply be that Native Americans and African Americans are both more likely to be eating from poverty; the cheap processed carbs that trigger diabetes/high blood pressure/heart disease & stroke.

After all, being "white" doesn't help when one is eating that same diet, does it?

[LosingMe16]

It can simply be that Native Americans and African Americans are both more likely to be eating from poverty; the cheap processed carbs that trigger diabetes/high blood pressure/heart disease & stroke.

After all, being "white" doesn't help when one is eating that same diet, does it?

This point is exactly correct. There's a large section in Good Calories, Bad Calories dedicated to studies that were done on American Indians on reservations who were dependent on government rations, which are notoriously poor quality and filled with carbohydrates because it's CHEAP! The reason why the impoverished in developed countries are often more obese than the well-to-do is because processed, carbohydrate-laden junk is cheaper than buying fresh foods, meats, unprocessed cheeses, etc.

If you can't tell I'm obsessed with this book lmao, so I apologize for bringing it up all the time, but it is perhaps the best reference in terms of combining all scientific information available to show low-carb works...love love love it.

[WereBear]

If you can't tell I'm obsessed with this book lmao, so I apologize for bringing it up all the time, but it is perhaps the best reference in terms of combining all scientific information available to show low-carb works...love love love it.

Don't have to apologize to me; Good Calories, Bad Calories was an incredible game changer and so well written. I've read it twice, gave away my hardback, and now have it as an eBook to read again.

[katoman]

I have a copy of GCBC in paperback and my kindle.