out of my league grappling with the anti-De Vany faction

Chris Masterjohn has a negative review of Professor De Vany's book. Professor De Vany has already said that there are mistakes in the book that he inadvertently let slip during the proofreading process. He does not prefer white meat over red. He does not recommend canola or castor oil. Probably a few other things. He is pro low-fat, though.

When I get lost in the technical stuff, I have to judge a reviewer's thought process on those areas I can grasp. There were several places where I thought CM's reasoning was off. This tends to make me think he is also off on the technical/scientific side that I don't follow as easily, but I can't be 100% sure of that.

Here are some places he demonstrated weird reasoning which made me dubious about the quality of his reasoning in areas harder for me to grasp:

Chris Masterjohn said: "My point was not where he is placing blame, but that he was offering "just so" stories reducing cultural beliefs to *heritable* evolutionary adaptations with no evidence other than creative stories." I must be lacking sensitivity to language, so be patient with me, but where does Professor De Vany say that the propensity to judge obese people harshly was a heritable adaptation? Your

Also you missed my point about age completely. It is because our bodies don't generally run as well when we are older (say 40s on) compared to when we are younger. That is why an older person who does well on a diet with all the metabolic issues they have to struggle through has more credibility than a 20 something with a less metabolically challenged body. Now if you show me a 20 something who was very obese and diabetic who did well on the diet you recommend, that would also carry a lot of weight. Was my point really that hard to understand? Did you really think I was saying I listen to my elders just because they are elderly? Where is the rolling eyes emoticon???

FEBRUARY 3, 2011 7:59 PM