What is happening? Souto, Balu, Noakes, Moore, BJJ Caveman and McConaughey

Dr. José Carlos Souto latest post, called "The brain does not need glucose!? The  longest fast in history" has had more than 40 comments (and Dr. Souto answers most of these comments)! His blog has reached 138,412 views (by January 29th, 2013). The blog now has a Facebook page, created by the author of this blog.

On January 28th, Danilo Balu wrote a post related to Low Carb Diets. His post was published on Webrun, one of the biggest running sites in Brazil. The name of the post is "It is valid to question the professional consensus about weight loss?". 

In his post, he wrote:
 

Nutrition and Medicine have been fighting . But the increasing worldwide obesity trends for decades with a solution that is very compelling: to get thin  we need to consume fewer calories than we spend.

The problem is that this argument lacks any support. 

In Portuguese:

A Nutrição e a Medicina há décadas lutam contra a obesidade crescente no mundo com uma solução que é bem convincente: para emagrecermos, precisaríamos consumir menos calorias do que gastamos.

O problema é que essa tese carece de todo e qualquer suporte.

An interview with Professor Tim Noakes was translated into Portuguese. It's a Q&A with Tim Noakes on LCHF, Endurance Sport and Surfing!

This blog (Low Carb Diets in Brazil) was mentioned as one of the 28 New Paleo, Low-Carb & Health Blogs For January 2013 on the highly influential Livin' La Vida Low Carb blog, written by Jimmy Moore. Another Brazilian blog mentioned was the one written by Claudia Vilaça: Claudia V.50.

On the list there is also a blog called BJJ Caveman. BJJ is Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a martial art. I don't know if the author is Brazilian, but he certainly knows a bit about Brazil:

I did pretty well today with my diet.  Started the day off with my hot cocoa fat bomb… then for lunch we went to a Brazilian BBQ Churrascaria place…. Perfect for a ketogenic diet… if not a little high on the protein side.  No carbs whatsoever… just lots and lots of meat.  Needless to say, this gave me a strong feeling of food coma afterwards which I addressed by napping through one of the lectures in my conference.

He has an interesting post on Nutritional Ketosis Tools.

A post on the Paleo/Primal Brasil blog analyzes Robb Wolf's opinion on low carb diets.

One last comment. According to this site, Matthew McConaughey follows a Low Carb or paleo diet. Ok, Matthew is not Brazilian. But he is married to a Brazilian top model: Camila Alves. He even, according to IMDb:

• Attended Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with his girlfriend. [February 2008]
• Played Brazilian music for eight straight hours in the operating room to help his girlfriend, Camila Alves, give birth to their child, Levi.

He recently had to become very thin (see here and here in Portuguese) because of a role. But he is usually very fit.


  

A new book and 100,000 views!

In a previous post, I have commented that there are not many books in Portuguese on low carb or paleo diets.

So, it was good to know that "The New Evolution Diet: What Our Paleolithic Ancestors Can Teach Us about Weight Loss, Fitness, and Aging", by Arthur De Vany was translated into Portuguese. It is not considered by low carbers a reference book. But, according to Dr. José Carlos Souto, it is better than nothing. Dr. Couto says that you must ignore everything De Vany writes about fat.

The book is called, in Portuguese, A nova dieta da evolução:

Another good news was to know that the best blog on low-carb diets in Brazil has reached 100,000 views! You can see that there are many comments (more than 80) in this post, proving that low carb is growing in Brazil.

I have also discovered that Marcelo Hermes-Lima, a scientist and a professor in one of the biggest universities in Brazil, has tried a low-carb diet in 2009, losing more than 6 kg.  His blog is popular amongst scientists. I will ask him if he still follows the diet.

The Status of Low Carb in Brazil - January 2013

In my opinion, low carb diets are not well known in Brazil. No major public figure has yet adopted a low carb diet. No well known Medical Doctor defends low carb diets (as Tim Noakes does in South Africa). Most people in Brazil still think low carb, high fat diets are unhealthy.

For example, Gary Taubes' books have not yet been translated into Portuguese (Brazil's only language). As most Brazilians can't read English, the fact that Amazon Brazil sells Taubes's books in English is not very helpful.

Curiously, Robert Atkins's books have been translated into Portuguese in the past and are still available in some used book stores. Atkins Diet is relatively well known. There is a Wikipedia entry on Atkins Diet in Portuguese and many sites with recipes and other information. But the Atkins Diet is usually seen as a diet only for weight loss, not for general health.

But the Internet saves us. There are some good Brazilian blogs about low carb and paleo diets.

The oldest is probably this one: Paleo Brasil http://primalbrasil.com.br/. The authors (Bruna and Caio) are two business administrators that became interested in a low carb lifestyle and decided to share their experience with Brazilians. Its first post was in August 31st, 2011. There is a post called The Primal Diet: an Introduction, written on September 1st, 2011, which was probably the first description of a low-carb diet in Brazilian Portuguese.
One of the authors (Caio Augusto Fleury) recently  (October 2012) published the first book on paleo diets in Portuguese. It is called "The Diet of Our Ancestors". It is not very popular yet.

But the blog about low carb diets that probably has more views and more impact in Brazil is called Low-Carb and Paleolithic Diet http://lowcarb-paleo.blogspot.com.br. It is written by a Medical Doctor, José Carlos Souto. The first post was written on December 17th, 2011. In this post, Dr. Souto tells us that he discovered Gary Taubes book by chance, while listening to the Skepticality podcast. Dr. Souto is a urologist (if he were a nutrologist people would listen more to him) but he can read English (not all Brazilian medical doctors can). He has read a lot of books and papers on low carb diets. And he understands Science. His posts have lots of comments. Some of them are testimonies, which show that some Brazilians are having success with low-carb diets. Up to now (January 6th, 2013), he has written 98 posts. And he is also active on Twitter and Google Plus.

José Carlos Souto, MD, who maintains one of the most popular low-carb blogs in Brazil.

Danilo Balu, who has two degrees, one in Sports and other in Nutrition, has written some interesting posts on why people get fat. It is not exactly about low-carb diets, but he has analyzed, in 2012, Gary Taubes's work in a series of posts called "Reasons that make us fat may be wrong": Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. Previously, he has written "Eating less and exercising more does not make you lose weight"


There other interesting blogs and some other health professionals who know what a low carb diet is and how it can be helpful. And I hope much more will appear in the following years. In due time, I will report them in this blog.

PS: There is a group on Facebook called Paleo Brasil with 122 members (as of Jaunary 8th, 2013)

If you know a good Brazilian blog on low carb diets, tell me in the comments.