Dean Esmay

     DE's article is subtitled: From failure on conventional high-carb, low-fat diet to low-carb, high-protein, no-problem.  Dean is host and moderator of the PALEODIET listgroup, and coordinator of several other internet lists including LOWCARB.
     Since DE is vigorously supporting the nonsensical "paleodiet" concept, it is clear from the outset that his thinking is muddled and irrational.  The "paleodiet" dogma is based on cultural artifacts of the Paleolithic Period  "The most abundant remains of Paleolithic cultures are a variety of stone tools whose distinct characteristics provide the basis for a system of classification containing several toolmaking traditions or industries."  Thus, we can readily understand that the use of tools (to kill animals) and fire to "prepare" food (which would otherwise not be edible by our species or its predecessors) is "necessary" ONLY if the population in question had abandoned its natural ecological niche and diet and moved to an area where the components of its natural diet did not exist.  Thus, paleolithic evidence of human diet is not related in the slightest to the natural diet of our species, although the adherents of the paleodiet falsely claim it does.
     Note: text in default font are direct quotes from the referenced web page.

     DE: I HAVE LONG HAD what I feel to be undiagnosed hypoglycemia. All the symptoms were there for many years. I have also been struggling with my weight for many years.
      So, DE starts his dietary explorations with the cultural misbeliefs that have cause his health problems.

     DE:  I spent a few years as a dedicated low-fat dieter. Yet there was a problem. I suffered from constantly fluctuating energy levels, moodiness, heart palpitations, racing pulse, very low HDL cholesterol, and moderately elevated triglycerides.
      As usual with the "failed" dietary reformers showcased by TB, no list of specific "foods" is mentioned, so we have no idea what items were, or were not, eaten.  This, again, it the trap of "thinking" in meaningless, abstract terms, like "diet", and not considering specific nutrients.

     DE:  After meeting my wife, we tried harder and harder to stick to the low-fat paradigm and to exercise.
      By trying "harder", does this not reveal that his previous claims of "I spent a few years as a dedicated low-fat dieter." were false?  how can one try "harder" than being "dedicated"?  Again, we see vague, contradictory, incomprehensible statements.

     DE:  We both suffered severe energy fluctuations from this.
      Yet, no attempt to discover the cause(s) of this is made.

     DE:  When this alone didn't work, we switched to a near-vegan vegetarian lifestyle, limiting intake of refined sugars to very low levels ...
      Apparently the previous failed diet included considerable refined sugars, and this may well have been the cause of the "constantly fluctuating energy levels, moodiness".

     DE:  ... subsisting mostly on brown rice, beans, mushrooms, fresh fruits and vegetables, occasional nuts, pita bread, small amounts of hummus, and small amounts of fat-free cheeses or an occasional bit of peanut butter now and then.
      A brown rice and bean diet, usually eaten together as a poorly-digested combination, is not a particularly healthy one.

     DE:  We made sure to get about 45 grams daily of protein (which we were told is all anyone should need by health experts),
      As usual, too much protein is being consumed.

     DE:  ... we ate no more than 20 or 30 grams a day of fat ...
      Probably excessive, too.

     DE:  ... no animal fat, and no animal protein (or animal products of any kind) at all except for the small amounts of cheese.
      Yet, cheeses are sources of concentrated animal protein (10-40%) and fat (12-36%); this obscured by the nonsensical, non-numerical, "small".

     DE:  We also did our best to limit our calorie intake, eating only when hungry and trying hard not to overeat.
      45 grams of protein, 20-30 grams of fat, cheese, and On occasion we would "splurge" with the hummus and allow ourselves up to 40 or 50 grams of fat in one day, certainly does not sound like a serious attempt to limit our calorie intake.  Of course, both being originally overweight and accepting of the gross obesity of the general population as "normal", we can see how their beliefs have been distorted.
     Since hummus contains ~9 grams of fat/100 grams; then to eat 50 grams of fat from hummus would require eating 555 grams of hummus: 1 1/4 pounds!  This is certainly not the way to lose excess weight!

     DE:  We also did our best to limit our calorie intake, eating only when hungry and trying hard not to overeat.
      555 grams of hummus contains ~1,000 calories; hardly a way to limit our calorie intake.

     DE:  In one month on such a regimen, I gained five pounds, and my poor wife Rosemary gained twenty.
      Clearly, the previous claims regarding limiting calorie intake and not overeating are false, and are the consequence of believing in cultural mythology.

     DE:  I couldn't sleep. My heart palpitations and racing pulse were worse than ever. I was not only hungry most of the time, but almost every night I would wake from a sound sleep with a gnawing, almost painful hunger. We would both try hard not to overeat, but we both were so ravenously HUNGRY all the time, it was nearly impossible to stop eating without constantly being miserable and spending every minute trying not to think about food.
      Let's see: rapidly gaining weight, yet simultaneously being ravenously HUNGRY all the time; would that not indicate that something is very wrong?

     DE:  In truth I was eating at least 3 quarts of cooked brown rice daily, several cups of beans, and considerable amounts of fruits, fruit juices, fresh salads, fresh nuts, and so on.
     Finally, some quantitative information.  This is highly-excessive food input, thus the mystery of the rapid weight gain is solved.  Since nothing is mentioned about food combining for optimum digestion, we can probably assume that these are eating together, thus further disrupting digestion and promoting "fat" storage.

     DE:  And despite the fact that I was eating like a horse, I was never satiated. I was ravenous almost all day, every day, and was so screamingly hungry most of the time it interfered with my sleep and with functioning normally.

     DE:  Well, a month or so in the promised land of near-vegan vegetarianism told me and my wife that this was not going to work for us.
      You will notice that no mention of specific nutrients is made, thus the common trap of "thinking" of abstract, meaningless concepts, like "diet".  Thus, there are many near-vegan vegetarianism "diets", the great majority of them being very poor.  Again, the "diet" did not fail; the dieter, however, did by failing to consider nutrients or amounts of nutrients.

     DE:  After months of experimenting we found something that did, a high-fat, high-protein diet as described by the likes of Michael and Mary Eades (in their book Protein Power) and Robert Atkins (in his book The New Diet Revolution).
      These high-animal-protein diets are particularly dangerous.

     DE: To the contrary, I think everyone should do their best to find out what works for them.
      Interesting, this concept conveniently ignores the simple fact that all humans are of the same species, and in Nature each species has a very clearly-defined diet that is determined by its specific biochemistry.

     DE:  [a variety of claims about diminished previous symptoms]

     DE:  We were promised that if we stuck to a diet low in fat, low in protein, and high in complex carbohydrates, we would feel better, look better, lose weight easily and without hunger, and have more energy. I was a True Believer in this for years, but it never happened.  When I switched to a mostly-vegan diet, I was also told I'd feel better, have more energy, would lose weight easily and without hunger, and so on. Again, it didn't happen.
      Again the false concept of "diet" is propagated, with no understanding or care about nutrients.  Clearly, a "high complex carbohydrate" diet is totally unnatural since it must be based on grains, which are recent human creations that did not exist in our evolutionary history.  The use of words like "high" and "low" in relation to human nutrition are totally meaningless since they are non-quantitative.