427: Zoë Harcombe Has Identified The Reasons Behind The Obesity Epidemic

Written on December 16, 2010

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Zoë Harcombe, author of The Obesity Epidemic: What Caused It? How Can We Stop It?, is today’s guest on The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.

British author and creator of The Harcombe Diet Zoë Harcombe fights a sometimes lonely fight against the UK’s food policy and “common sense” advice to “trust a dietitian with your diet.” Her fans who take strength from her blog can now turn to her latest book entitled The Obesity Epidemic and be heartened by a major profile of the book in Britain’s largest newspaper, The Sun. Listen in for her low-carbohydrate dietary approach, her crush on the work of Gary Taubes, and her answers to questions posed by members of our brand new “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show Fan Club!”

ALSO: Don’t miss this episode’s sponsor–QuestBars–and their offer of TWO FREE SAMPLES for you to try!

LINKS MENTIONED IN EPISODE 427
- Support our sponsor: Get TWO FREE low-carb QuestBars
- Zoë Harcombe bio
- The Obesity Epidemic: What Caused It? How Can We Stop It?
- Stop Counting Calories & Start Losing Weight: The Harcombe Diet
- The Harcombe Diet
- Zoë’s blog
- Official Zoë Harcombe web site

Frank G

Many Many Thanks Zoë and Jimmy… Excellent!

The comments about dietitians’ education reminds me of one of my favourite quotes from the great Jacob Bronowski… regarding University students, “It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.”

Keep up the great work!

Cheers
Frank
Frank G

If I may add to Zoë’s discussion about the blind acceptance and lack of questions… as I recall Gary Taubes made a similar comment: having come from a background in Physics where any lecture would end with a flurry of questions, cross-examining the presenter for references, sources and additional proof… which is why he became immediately suspicious when attending a lecture on Obesity/Nutrition… that ended simply with a polite round of applause! ;-0

http://www.livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog Jimmy Moore

THANKS for your comments, Frank!

http://facebook.com/chikyuu1994 Sarah

Can I just say from the perspective of “The education system sucks in the US,” that one of the reasons that it does is because we are taught not to question anything. We read “facts” and take tests on “facts” and write papers based on “facts.” Penn and Teller’s BS touched on this with college that it isn’t about exploring and questioning ideas at all, it’s all brainwash..

Which might be why we don’t question diet advice. If that makes any sense.

http://www.livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog Jimmy Moore

Makes TOTAL sense, Sarah.

LisaW

Excellent interview Jimmy!

I really feel the tide is turning on the “low fat is the only way” mantra…thank goodness.

http://www.livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog Jimmy Moore

WOO HOO!

Jennifer

Thanks, Jimmy! Nice interview. She seems like a really nice lady. I can’t really get excited by her food combining idea, though, but it must work for some people. She sure is passionate about this way of eating! It was fun to listen to her because of that.

http://www.livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog Jimmy Moore

Passion shines through every time.

Peter Silverman

My sense is that low carb is rapidly becoming more popular while diets very high in meat are becoming much less popular.

Of course most people don’t pay attention to any nutritional advice, and think a food pyramid is a stack of Cokes in the supermarket that is shaped like a pyramid.
DaisyPatch

I really nodded my head and said “spot on,” Jimmy, when you hypothesized that a reluctance to change may come from a fear that people will infer your previous position must have been less than the best and hold that against you. I worked with computers in a corporation and when I made a case that it was time to switch from Gateways to Dells, I was told that if we did that, upper management would humiliate my boss and say “Well, if Dells are a better solution for us, then why have you been doing something stupid like buying Gateways.” It wasn’t really a company that resisted change; it was a fear-based company and virtually anything that could be used against anyone to make him look bad was fair game.

Your comment section is powered by WP Hashcash. Could you consider changing to a different provider? Many other comment sections on the internet let me “subscribe” to threads I am interested in. That way I could get an email every time someone comments on Zoe and not have to remember to come back here often to check.