Sunday 17 August 2014

A new low for denialists.

Here's a new Pyramid of Argument, with an extra level added below name-calling.
Originally from http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2009/08/15/weekend-diversion-how-to-argue/

What's worse than name-calling? When I defecate science all over my opponents, it makes it difficult for them to respond with refutation. If they are unable to use the top 3 levels of the pyramid, they usually use the 4 levels below that. Until the other day.

See Seth Yoder's review of "The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet" - by Nina Teicholz.

If you think that Seth's review is a bit verbose, check out The Big Fat Surprise: A Critical Review; Part 1 and The Big Fat Surprise: A Critical Review; Part 2. They make "War and Peace" look like a pamphlet!

Anyway, Seth got the usual logical fallacies, including the inevitable ad-hominem from Skruby of "You're a vegan, so you don't know what you're talking about/you're biased!"

As Seth is a science guy, and I don't stand by & let science guys get attacked without doing something about it, I pitched-in with some comments in support of Seth. Well...

Check Zahc's comment out. And Allen I. Branson's comment. The new low is the BLATANT LIE.

Notice how the troll Zahc uses standard baiting practices to "suck me in" to replying to him. He:-
1) Repeats the lie about me cherry-picking 2 studies. Those are the only studies that produced results reaching statistical significance, as all of the other studies had RR ~1, with 95% CI's less than 1 and greater than 1.
2) Makes an irrelevant point about mortality. Siri-Tarino et al & Chowdhury et al are about CHD.
3) Repeats the lie about dairy fat not being protective.
4) Issues a challenge to me to comment on his blog post http://diettrialclaims.blogspot.com/2013/06/is-cholesterol-really-that-important.html I've already commented on Zahc's blog. His blog contains two posts riddled with cholesterol denialism and backed-up by a bunch of cherry-picked studies.
5) Gets aerated over me linking to his comment. Things are about to get worse.

I replied to Zahc's comment.
Zahc wrote another comment. He:-
1) Repeats the lie about me cherry-picking 2 studies. Persistent, isn't he?
2) Criticises Dr. Dayspring behind his back, a cowardly thing to do. Zahc has no intention of ever debating Dr. Dayspring, as he knows that Dayspring would destroy his uninformed opinions with data.
3) Issues another challenge to me to make another comment. Luckily, I have this blog, so I don't need to waste any more time debating cholesterol denialists.

Zahc has written another comment. He:-
1) Continues with pointless arguments. Typical troll behaviour.
2) Continues to get confused over basic English. "Uninformed Opinion" wasn't referring to what you wrote in your previous comment, you dumbass. It was referring to what you'd be giving Dr. Dayspring. Jeez!
3) Had my previous comment deleted by Amazon. What was I saying about cowardly behaviour?
4) Continues to insult me, in the vain hope that I might leave another comment answering his points. That ain't ever gonna happen. I'll just leave comments with links to this post, or links to other comments. I know a cholesterol denialist when I see one. I know cherry-picked studies when I see them. I know a shite blog when I see one.

Are we done now, Zahc? I can continue this, ad infinitum. This blog post is all about you (& Allen I. Branson). You're just making yourself look like a total pillock. Have you "debated" with Dr. Dayspring or Dr. Edwards, yet? Somehow, I think not.


Blatant lies are worse than Straw man fallacies, as such fallacies are usually caused by my opponent being ignorant of my argument and confabulating.

Blatant lies work on the assumption that the opponent can't or won't ever see them. This is a risky strategy, as if the opponent does see them and calls the liar out on them, the liar's credibility is destroyed. This is what happened with Fredrick Hahn, after I blocked him on Facebook for repeatedly tagging me in Here are the results after one month on my high fat, lower protein, SAME carbohydrate intake. The main differences are: , after I told him to stop tagging me.

He posted Nigel Kinbrum is a coward. He enjoys poking fun at people, but blocks them from commenting. He has blocked me. Someone give this guy what for please. , thinking that I'd never see it. I had a tip-off from a friend, who PM'ed me a screen-shot taken from a logged-out browser (as they had been blocked by Fred and couldn't see him or his content when they were logged-in to Facebook). The rest, as they say, is history!

11 comments:

weilasmith said...

nigel said: "2) Insufficient carbohydrate intake and insufficient protein intake starves the liver & kidneys ofgluconeogenic pre-cursors, which raises cortisol, which converts muscle mass into gluconeogenic pre-cursors e.g. Glutamine, Alanine etc. This is standard Biochemistry. No links required."


If i have a sufficient protein intake and i take branched chain amino acids, will i have enough gluconeogenic pre-cursors? how many grams of carb a day is 'insufficient'. dr. bernstein does not have lots of muscle, but professor de vany does. he eats LC but takes glutathione and BCAA's.

weilasmith said...

how do i know if my carb intake is too low for my activity? i never get hypoclycemia as measured by a glucometer and as seen through symptoms (like sweating, dizziness). i do occasionally have trouble sleeping, but i haven't been able to tease out if this is due to perimenospause or other issues.


ps i looked at the amazon comments where many people would not address seth's arguments. just stupid.

Nigel Kinbrum said...

BG dip due to overexercising too short duration to register on glucometer.

What keeps you awake when you can't get to sleep? Too many thoughts? Something else?

weilasmith said...

i wake up around 2 to 3:30 depending on when i went to sleep. it's not from a bad dream. i get hot, but it is something more than just being warm as the AC is on. it will go away by itself after a while usually, or i will take 1/2 a benadryl to help me sleep through it. it's not every day either. my short term memory is major crap now to the point where when i am taking a shower i might forget if i washed my hair or not. i have to focus more now whereas before i could multitask more easily. these symptoms are also mentioned in perimenopause, so i don't really know how to deal with this. i can't take hormone replacement since my mother died of breast cancer that was estrogen sensitive. if cortisol is doing it, what are different ways of lowering that? i have always got stressed out easily, so it is a little innate. will coffee on an empty stomach make me churn out more cortisol? i don't overexercise so that can't be a major source of cortisol.

Nigel Kinbrum said...

"my short term memory is major crap now to the point where when i am taking a shower i might forget if i washed my hair or not."
That suggests hypercortisolaemia. Are you irritable?

What's your Magnesium intake? I may have asked this on Woo's blog, but I can't remember. I may have asked Jaz.

Mg helps you to chill and forget bad stuff.

weilasmith said...

i used to take Mg. never saw a big boost from it. one year into de vany paleo i had my serum mg tested and it was right in the middle of the reference range. i'm not irritable, although i used to be before LC and i used to be so sleepy after a meal. maybe females who gain weight on their bellies genetically have a tendency towards high cortisol? i've always gained weight there, since i was little. thank god my daughters are not like me. i don't stay up at night thinking about bad stuff. i stay up because i am physically uncomfortable and hot.

Nigel Kinbrum said...

"i used to take Mg. never saw a big boost from it."
It's not supposed to give you a boost. It chills you out.

If hot flashes are hormonal, what about non-oestrogen HRT? I.e progesterone & testosterone only?

weilasmith said...

being the worry wart i am, i won't take any hormones because of possible side-effects until the hot-flashes take such a high toll i am willing to take a risk. thanks for your concern!! so you think the flashes are basically due to hormones, not low carb?

StellaBarbone said...

Welcome to cronehood! You may be waking up from hot flashes that you about at 2:30, but you are probably waking up more frequently than that. That's why your memory doesn't work. Try to keep your sleeping area as cool as possible. This may involve a battle with your non-menopausal partner. It does at my house. (Also, if you drink wine or other alcohol with dinner, stop.) There is a distinct circadian rhythm to hot flashes.

Hormone replacement carries some risk, but isn't nearly as bad as the popular press makes it out to be. Depending on your symptoms, it might be really helpful for you, it might not be. Mull it over with your doctor, preferably a middle-aged female one.

Getting old wouldn't be so bad, if it weren't for the getting old part.

weilasmith said...

thx, nigel. i haven't ruled them out.

weilasmith said...

thanks, stella. :)