Comments on: Buried Treasure (part 1) http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/04/01/buried-treasure-part-1/ Self-Experimentation, Scientific Method, the Shangri-La Diet, etc. Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:18:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.7 by: Howard Wainer http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/04/01/buried-treasure-part-1/#comment-222440 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:16:35 +0000 http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/04/01/buried-treasure-part-1/#comment-222440 Seth - two thoughts on outliers. 1. An outlier in statistical jargon is often called a contaminant -- as in a contaminated normal distribution. One goal of statisitical analysis is to reduce the influence of outliers on the overall estimate. This is typically done by separating outliers from the main body of the data for different treatment. Contaminant is not meant as pejorative. In south Africa good building stone is sometimes contaminated by diamonds. 2. I am reminded of Isaac Asimov's observation that scientific discovery is almost never accomplanied by "Eureka." Much more often it is signaled by "that's funny." Hope you are well, H Seth - two thoughts on outliers.
1. An outlier in statistical jargon is often called a contaminant — as in a contaminated normal distribution. One goal of statisitical analysis is to reduce the influence of outliers on the overall estimate. This is typically done by separating outliers from the main body of the data for different treatment. Contaminant is not meant as pejorative. In south Africa good building stone is sometimes contaminated by diamonds.

2. I am reminded of Isaac Asimov’s observation that scientific discovery is almost never accomplanied by “Eureka.” Much more often it is signaled by “that’s funny.”

Hope you are well,
H

]]> by: Seth’s blog » Blog Archive » Buried Treasure (part 2) http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/04/01/buried-treasure-part-1/#comment-146813 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:10:30 +0000 http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/04/01/buried-treasure-part-1/#comment-146813 [...] Buried Treasure (part 1) [...] […] Buried Treasure (part 1) […]

]]> by: Varangy http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/04/01/buried-treasure-part-1/#comment-145838 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:14:34 +0000 http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/04/01/buried-treasure-part-1/#comment-145838 @Howard Wainer You may want to check out two fascinating blogs. They might be able to assist you with your weight loss, retaining your sight (None of my business, but I assume this is diabetes related) and general health. Both are well-written, somewhat out of the mainstream thought, for an educated audience and employ statistics and logical reasoning in their arguments. 1) Art de Vany's Blog on Evolutionary Fitness and Diet - http://www.arthurdevany.com/ Excerpt from an interview on <a href="http://www.t-nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=1373291" rel="nofollow">T-Nation</a> <i><b>Charles:</b> I don't know if I read in the first chapter of your book on in the blog, you said that when you were in your 40's you started making changes in your lifestyle. I wanted to ask you what was the catalyst for those changes and what did you start doing differently? <b>Art:</b> That's very interesting, because it was probably when my wife developed type-1 diabetes and we moved to California in '84. She had developed it 2 years prior to that. My son had been an infant onset juvenile diabetic at the age of 2, so I began studying metabolism quite intensively, just trying to keep track of his health and keep him healthy. And then having my wife have the same problem develop, obviously it's in her genetic stock on that side of the family, the autoimmune illness. <b>Charles:</b> Sure. <b>Art:</b> I, by that time, accumulated a lot of evidence as to what foods elevated what glucose, and began systematically eliminating those, even with my son. But we became more ruthless at it when my wife also developed type-1 diabetes. So, if you just look at the evidence, somebody who can't control their blood sugar adequately, because they don't respond with an insulin response, as do normal people, then what you find is the kinds of foods that I eliminated from the diet were all of the things apparently so heavily criticized for having high glycemic index or high glycemic load. So, that was the beginning of it. And then, I migrated towards a hunter/gatherer model, simply by looking at the evolutionary history and what kinds of foods our ancestors ate.</i> 2) The Hyperlipid Blog - http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/ Written by a man named Peter who is a physiologist and biochemist training. He follows an 80% fat diet and is constantly trying to prove himself wrong ala Karl Popper. Two posts on diabetes: http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2008/03/diabetes-and-hunger.html http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2008/03/diabetes-and-cardiac-apotosis.html Best of luck. @Howard Wainer

You may want to check out two fascinating blogs. They might be able to assist you with your weight loss, retaining your sight (None of my business, but I assume this is diabetes related) and general health.

Both are well-written, somewhat out of the mainstream thought, for an educated audience and employ statistics and logical reasoning in their arguments.

1) Art de Vany’s Blog on Evolutionary Fitness and Diet - http://www.arthurdevany.com/

Excerpt from an interview on T-Nation

Charles: I don’t know if I read in the first chapter of your book on in the blog, you said that when you were in your 40’s you started making changes in your lifestyle. I wanted to ask you what was the catalyst for those changes and what did you start doing differently?

Art: That’s very interesting, because it was probably when my wife developed type-1 diabetes and we moved to California in ‘84. She had developed it 2 years prior to that.

My son had been an infant onset juvenile diabetic at the age of 2, so I began studying metabolism quite intensively, just trying to keep track of his health and keep him healthy.

And then having my wife have the same problem develop, obviously it’s in her genetic stock on that side of the family, the autoimmune illness.

Charles: Sure.

Art: I, by that time, accumulated a lot of evidence as to what foods elevated what glucose, and began systematically eliminating those, even with my son. But we became more ruthless at it when my wife also developed type-1 diabetes.

So, if you just look at the evidence, somebody who can’t control their blood sugar adequately, because they don’t respond with an insulin response, as do normal people, then what you find is the kinds of foods that I eliminated from the diet were all of the things apparently so heavily criticized for having high glycemic index or high glycemic load.

So, that was the beginning of it. And then, I migrated towards a hunter/gatherer model, simply by looking at the evolutionary history and what kinds of foods our ancestors ate.

2) The Hyperlipid Blog - http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/

Written by a man named Peter who is a physiologist and biochemist training. He follows an 80% fat diet and is constantly trying to prove himself wrong ala Karl Popper.

Two posts on diabetes:

http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2008/03/diabetes-and-hunger.html

http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2008/03/diabetes-and-cardiac-apotosis.html

Best of luck.

]]> by: Tim Lundeen http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/04/01/buried-treasure-part-1/#comment-145800 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:33:09 +0000 http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/04/01/buried-treasure-part-1/#comment-145800 Lower blood sugar after eating familiar food is the result of a conditioned compensatory response, the "cephalic-phase insulin release". Your body learns to pre-compensate for familiar food to reduce both insulin and blood glucose exposure. Interesting that the unlearned state would have such significantly higher glucose levels. Maybe this is why my major indulgence, a very small hot-fudge sunday after dinner, doesn't have more of an effect on my blood sugar in the morning :-) Howard, you might want to try eating less-frequent meals with lower carbohydrates. What I've found is that eating less often moves my body's adjustment down into the normal range, because it takes my metabolism a long time to bring my blood sugar down. So now, instead of being adjusted to blood sugar of 90-100, I'm adjusted to 75-85. In this range, you should lose more weight, have more energy, and can skip meals without feeling bad. Lower blood sugar after eating familiar food is the result of a conditioned compensatory response, the “cephalic-phase insulin release”. Your body learns to pre-compensate for familiar food to reduce both insulin and blood glucose exposure. Interesting that the unlearned state would have such significantly higher glucose levels.

Maybe this is why my major indulgence, a very small hot-fudge sunday after dinner, doesn’t have more of an effect on my blood sugar in the morning :-)

Howard, you might want to try eating less-frequent meals with lower carbohydrates. What I’ve found is that eating less often moves my body’s adjustment down into the normal range, because it takes my metabolism a long time to bring my blood sugar down. So now, instead of being adjusted to blood sugar of 90-100, I’m adjusted to 75-85. In this range, you should lose more weight, have more energy, and can skip meals without feeling bad.

]]> by: Tony http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/04/01/buried-treasure-part-1/#comment-145726 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:40:54 +0000 http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/04/01/buried-treasure-part-1/#comment-145726 Seth: I love the metaphor of outliers as buried treasure. The problem is to distinguish between junk that you dig up and really valuable stuff. Howard: Immediate feedback is very important in game design (players get frustrated and give up if they can't figure out what the effects of their actions are). I think Seth has actually blogged a bit about the concept before ... Putting these sort of situations in place in everyday "games" is one element that increases motivation. Runners often use a similar sort of approach by measuring their heartbeat rate. Seth: I love the metaphor of outliers as buried treasure. The problem is to distinguish between junk that you dig up and really valuable stuff.

Howard: Immediate feedback is very important in game design (players get frustrated and give up if they can’t figure out what the effects of their actions are). I think Seth has actually blogged a bit about the concept before … Putting these sort of situations in place in everyday “games” is one element that increases motivation. Runners often use a similar sort of approach by measuring their heartbeat rate.

]]> by: Howard Wainer http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/04/01/buried-treasure-part-1/#comment-145714 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:51:09 +0000 http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/04/01/buried-treasure-part-1/#comment-145714 I didn't lose the weight first and spot blood sugar outliers afterwards. They happened at the same time and were related. Losing weight is hard. It is hard because if you weigh yourself in the morning and then eat a double bacon cheesburger, extra fries and a thick shake andf weigh yourself again, nothing has changed. Similarly, if you eat very carefully all day and then weigh yourself again at night, nothing has changed. So there is no immediate feedback to reward good behavior our discourage bad. Blood sugar is fast -- if you eat something you shouldn't you find out immediately. And the long-term consequences of poor eating habits are dire (you go blind and your legs get amputated before dying prematurely (see Jackie Robinson as one very sad example). By controlling blood sugar I was forced into healthy eating (a Hobbitt diet -- eating 5-6 small meals a day) and the weight fell away at a bit over 1/2 lb/day. I went from 240 to 191 in a few months. Unfortunately, despite maintaining a very vigorous exercise regime, I lost muscle as well as fat. Now, a year later I am still between 190 and 195 and blood sugar is well controlled. And although I can do as many push-ups now as I could before, I can't bench press what I used to. I didn’t lose the weight first and spot blood sugar outliers afterwards. They happened at the same time and were related. Losing weight is hard. It is hard because if you weigh yourself in the morning and then eat a double bacon cheesburger, extra fries and a thick shake andf weigh yourself again, nothing has changed. Similarly, if you eat very carefully all day and then weigh yourself again at night, nothing has changed. So there is no immediate feedback to reward good behavior our discourage bad. Blood sugar is fast — if you eat something you shouldn’t you find out immediately. And the long-term consequences of poor eating habits are dire (you go blind and your legs get amputated before dying prematurely (see Jackie Robinson as one very sad example). By controlling blood sugar I was forced into healthy eating (a Hobbitt diet — eating 5-6 small meals a day) and the weight fell away at a bit over 1/2 lb/day. I went from 240 to 191 in a few months. Unfortunately, despite maintaining a very vigorous exercise regime, I lost muscle as well as fat. Now, a year later I am still between 190 and 195 and blood sugar is well controlled. And although I can do as many push-ups now as I could before, I can’t bench press what I used to.

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