Did 638 People Stop Sanders? The Incredible Stupidity of the Media, the Voters, and the System

News media reporters and political officials have declared that Hillary Clinton�s win in the Nevada caucus represented the death of Bernie Sanders� presidential campaign.  However, looking at the actual vote tallies, we discover that Clinton only beat Sanders by 638 votes.  In a country of over 300 million people, is it possible that so much can be decided by so few?   

It should be clear that our primary system makes a mockery of our democracy as small segments of the population are given the ability to decide the future of the nation.  This unfair and unrepresentative process is then magnified by a news media industry that has little vision, memory, ethics, or rationality.  For the 24-hour corporate news media, every small bit of polling and voting is enlarged and intensified so that it serves as the ruling consensus about the current political order.  Focused on the present with a laser beam of superficiality, these paid actors pretending to be political scientists feed into a social herd mentality. 

Of course, we should not let the public off the hook since ultimately they are responsible for buying into the media stupidity.  In conversation after conversation, I have been shocked to realize how shallow my fellow Americans can be when it comes to understanding our political process and media culture.  The only way that 638 people in Nevada can shape our political future is if we let them. 

Here is a list of very dumb statements from some very �credible� new sources:

�Bernie Sanders�s loss in the Nevada caucuses, 47 percent to 53 percent, reveals a very realweakness of his insurgent challenge to Hillary Clinton.� This is the general establishment narrative that once again is based on an insignificant number of American voters.

�BernieSanders hoped a victory in the Nevada caucuses would change the direction ofthe Democratic race, but the results didn�t turn out as he�d hoped." So the entire direction of the national race has been decided by 638 people?

�Despite collecting millions in small-dollar donations and packing thousands of peopleinto arenas around the country, despite topping Hillary Clinton for the first time in anational poll of likely Democratic voters, the path tovictory has narrowed sharply for Sanders. Some would argue that a window ofopportunity slammed shut Sunday night in Nevada and that the upcoming race inSouth Carolina is the proverbial kitty-bar.� Yes, according to this astute reporter, even though Sanders may lead in national polls, and people are pouring money into his campaign, his loss by 638 votes in Nevada means that everything else no longer matters.  

I could go on and list thousands of articles that come up with the same narrative but fail to look at the actual numbers involved and fail to criticize the dysfunctional nature of the current political-media system.

Let's all take a deep breathe and keep the movement going. 

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What I Eat

People often ask me what I eat. I've been reluctant to share, because it feels egocentric and I'm a private person by nature. I also don't want people to view my diet as a universal prescription for others. But in the end, as someone who shares my opinions about nutrition, it's only fair that I answer the question. So here we go.

In my food choices, I try to strike a balance between nutrition, cost, time efficiency, animal welfare, pleasure, and environmental impact. I'm the chef of my household of two, and I cook two meals a day, almost every day, typically from single ingredients. I prefer organic, but I don't insist on it.

Eggs from my hens

My diet changes seasonally because I grow much of my own food. This started out with vegetables, but recently has expanded to staple foods such as potatoes, flour corn, and winter squash. I also have a small flock of laying hens that turn table scraps, bugs, grass, and chicken feed into delicious eggs.

The primary guiding principle of my diet is to eat somewhere between a "Paleolithic"-style diet and a traditional agricultural/horticultural diet. I think of it as a broad ancestral diet. Because it's partially inspired by agricultural/horticultural diets, starch is the main calorie source.

My meals are organized around three food groups: a protein, a starch, and vegetables/fruit. If any of those three are missing, the meal doesn't feel complete. I'll start with those categories and move on from there.

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Is the "Obesity Paradox" an Illusion?

Over the last two decades, multiple independent research groups have come to the surprising conclusion that people with obesity (or, more commonly, overweight) might actually be healthier than lean people in certain ways. This finding is called the "obesity paradox". Yet recent research using more rigorous methods is suggesting that the paradox is an illusion-- and excess body fat may be even more harmful to health than we thought.

Introduction. What is the obesity paradox, and why does it matter?

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Testing the Insulin Model: A Response to Dr. Ludwig

Dr. David Ludwig, MD, recently published a response to my critique of the carbohydrate-insulin-obesity hypothesis. This is good because he defends the idea in more detail than I've encountered in other written works. In fact, his piece is the most scientifically persuasive defense of the idea I can recall.

Before we dig in, I want to emphasize that this is science, not tribal warfare. The goal is to arrive at the best answer, rather than to win an argument. I'm proceeding in good faith, based on my belief that Ludwig and I are both serious people who care about science and human health, and I hope my audience will do the same. That said, let's get to it.

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UC-AFT ENDORSES BERNIE SANDERS

The UC-AFT council voted unanimously to endorse Bernie Sanders for president.  Although our national organization has endorsed Hillary Clinton, we feel that Sanders� position on free public higher education, Wall Street reform, universal healthcare, unions, campaign finance, and climate change represent a rare chance to push for a truly progressive agenda.

Sanders� is the only candidate who has tied the rising cost of higher education and student debt to Wall Street.  His plan pushes to increase the number of full-time faculty, reduce administrative costs, and increase spending on instruction.  Many of his ideas on universities coincide with my book Why Public Higher Education Should be Free. 

Some people have asked why we should tax Wall Street transactions to pay for higher education.  The answer is pretty simple, each time that Wall Street crashes, tuition goes up and student debt increases.  Moreover, Wall Street is now engaged in a reckless attempt to cash in on student loans by creating Student Loan Asset-Backed Securities (SLABs).  If this makes you think about betting on subprime loans, it should, since the same people are trying to make money off of indebted students by pooling together risky packages of student loans. 

While Hillary Clinton has also pushed for debt-free college, her program does not go as far as Sanders.  Furthermore, Sanders clearly sees that very little of the progressive agenda will be advanced, if we do not change how political campaigns are funded.  He seeking to create a social movement that will demand a different mode of politics, and therefore instead of asking if he can get his agenda done in the current system, we should ask can he help us create a new system.   

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Always Hungry? It's Probably Not Your Insulin.

David Ludwig, MD, recently published a new book titled Always Hungry? Conquer cravings, retrain your fat cells, and lose weight permanently. The book is getting widespread media coverage. Ludwig is a professor of pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School and a professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. He's a pediatric endocrinologist, but his primary focus is research, particularly the impact of nutrition on hunger, calorie expenditure, and body weight. Although I sometimes disagree with how he interprets evidence, he has made significant and useful contributions to the scientific literature in these areas, and I also support his efforts to find policy solutions to curb the intake of sweetened beverages and other junk foods. In the grand scheme of things, he's an ally in the fight to improve the American diet.

Ludwig has written several high-profile op-ed pieces in recent years, both in the popular press and in scientific journals (1, 2). He argues that our understanding of eating behavior and obesity may be all wrong, and that our focus on calories may be leading us away from the true cause of obesity: hormonal imbalance. And the primary culprit is insulin. You might recognize this idea, because it's similar to the one that science journalist Gary Taubes developed in his book Good Calories, Bad Calories.

According to this view, overeating is irrelevant. We gain fat because our insulin levels are too high, leading our fat tissue to take up too much fat, and other tissues to take up too much glucose, causing our blood energy levels to drop and resulting in fat gain, hunger, and fatigue. The ultimate cause of the problem is the rapidly-digesting carbohydrate and sugar we eat. This idea is encapsulated by Ludwig's quote, "Overeating doesn't make you fat. The process of getting fat makes you overeat" (3).

Here are eleven facts that may make you question this line of reasoning:
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How Much do You Know About Your Own Brain?

We tend to believe we're aware of what's happening in our own brains, and also in conscious control of our behavior. But a growing body of neuroscience and psychology research demonstrates that most of what happens inside the brain-- including the processes that cause us to select and execute behaviors-- is beyond our conscious awareness. This has important implications for our eating behavior, body weight, and health, as I explore in my upcoming book The Hungry Brain.

Let me give you a straightforward example that illustrates how little of our brain's activity we're aware of. It focuses on information processing by the visual system, which is one of the best-understood systems of the brain. I drew the basic facts of this example from a recent talk by the accomplished neuroscience researcher Marcus Raichle, who studies patterns of activity in the human brain.

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