If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Link to and mini-review of semi-stupid Salon article on Atkins
Salon's banner article today is called "Hackers on Atkins" and can be
read he http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...ers/index.html (Might have to watch an ad first in order to get a 'day pass' for access to premium content.) Unfortunately, the article is largely another example of a narcissistic journalist in love with the cute extended metaphor she just created. In her imagined world, low-carbing is just like "hacking" your own body, ketosis is a perversely "pathological" hack akin to overclocking a CPU, and a major attraction of the LC way is the countercultural frisson generated by "breaking the rules". It's nice to see the publicity (a.s.d.l-c even gets mentioned by name), and the article does present LC implicitly as something that works (however empirically), and LC'ers explicitly as well-informed, open-minded sorts of people. The general "your body as science experiment" meme also seems valid enough. But Ms. Mieszkowski distorts basic LC concepts in order to fit them into her computer theme. We get the sensationalist "unlimited burgers and eggs" bit again, without so much as a word about vegetables or variety. And, to be in ketosis is to "run your body at a 'specification' it wasn't designed for, in order to burn off more fat." I suspect most here would argue the reverse: that people who stuff their faces with WonderBread and Coke are the ones running "out of spec". At the same time, there's no mention at all of appetite suppression, which is the one LC feature I can think of that comes closest to being a true hack. Her last few paragraphs contain a few more intelligent quotes that point out most of the flaws in her metaphor (they pretty much contradict the whole thing, actually). Too bad she didn't reflect more on them and then rewrite the entire article for substance over style. Adam Cole (not new, just haven't posted here in a long time) |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|