| Good morning, everybody. A few of you have been asking me about the "low-carb is bad for you" study I mentioned in Friday's Weekly Link Love. I knew I was probably going to have to address it, so I am. Here goes. The study was titled "Lower carbohydrate and higher fat intakes are associated with higher hemoglobin A1c: findings from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2008–2016." With a title like that, no wonder it's been making the rounds. It looks bad for low-carb. It sounds bad for low-carb. I mean, higher hemoglobin A1c is a strong warning sign for diabetics (with some caveats). It measures the amount of sugar your red blood cells are exposed to over time, with higher HbA1cs indicating higher blood sugar levels. And if simple "lower carbohydrate" intakes are enough to do it, just imagine how bad full blown keto must be. Or at least, that's the thought process. That's the angle you might feel compelled to veer toward when reading the title of the study and media treatments of the study. The reality is that this wasn't a "low-carb" study at all. The vast majority were eating high-carb, high-fat diets. In the "most low-carb" group, carb intake was at 39% of calories and fat was at 42% of calories. Out of 3,234 people, only eight—yup, just eight—were actually eating 26% of energy or lower as carbs. Just eight people were eating what you or I would even begin to classify as "lower-carb." Just eight people were actually aware of how many carbs they were eating and consciously trying to modify it. Imagine waking up and deciding to "go low-carb today," then proceeding to eat a plate of toast and breakfast sausage for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch dripping with mayo, and burger and fries for dinner. That would get you close to 39% calories as carbs, 42% as fat. It's the Standard American (or Western) Diet. Practically no one was consciously trying to go low-carb. No one was going keto. They were just acting like most people do: eating a bunch of industrially-processed and -engineered food high in fat and carbs and deficient in overall nutrient value that tastes good. That's just about the worst combination of macronutrients a person can eat. As I've always said, either go high-fat, low-carb or low-fat, high-carb. Choose one. The middle ground tends to be the most obesogenic. Of course, we already know what happens when type 2 diabetics eat legitimately very low-carbohydrate diets that get them into ketosis: everything improves, including but not limited to HbA1c. Don't worry about this one—unless you're eating high-carb and high-fat. What really strikes me about this is how far we have to go. As much as it seems like people are getting hip to the realities of healthy eating, it's still relatively unknown to the general public. Most people still give little thought to what they eat. A good number couldn't identify the various macronutrients in their meals. What do you think, folks? Does this give you hope for the future (room to grow) or the opposite? Let me know in the comment section of this week's Link Love. Thanks for reading today, and enjoy your Sunday. Best, | 
