And carbs — of the Standard American Diet (SAD) sort — ain’t so fabulous.

See this article in the Charlotte Observer that highlights Dr. Westman, co-author of “The New Atkins for You.” The vitriol from the establishment doctors interviewed in the article is astounding, though not surprising. People tend to lash out at what they don’t understand.

The Washington Post recently ran a propaganda piece from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM; that doesn’t sound like a front group, now does it?) in which the committee of vegetarian-and-animal-rights-promoting doctors named the five worst cookbooks of 2010. All five worst cookbooks include meat recipes. All the “best” cookbooks, ahem, promote the politically-correct and government-favored vegetarian/vegan routine. In fact, the Post writer even notes: “As a side matter, I would have appreciated it if PCRM had noted that ”Professional athlete-turned-firefighter Rip Esselstyn, author of one of the “best” books, is the son of PCRM advisory board member Caldwell B. Esselstyn.” The author was told, by PCRM’s director of nutrition education Susan Levin, that “the relationship had nothing to do with the selection.” Oh sure.

I could care less about any of the “worst” selections, except that one of those was the best cookbook of the year: The Primal Blueprint Cookbook by Mark Sisson and Jennifer Meier, a book I just blogged about before Christmas. I wasn’t off base when I noted this cookbook is the kind of thing that defies the establishment.

Now about PCRM. This is an animal rights/vegetarian group disguised as a bunch of doctors with a “medical” name who know best about nutrition. Who is the founder? Neal Barnard, a PETA Foundation board member and long-time animal rights activist. In 2004, Newsweek reported that (bold emphasis is mine),

Less than 5 percent of PCRM’s members are physicians. And Barnard has co-signed letters, on PCRM letterhead, with the leader of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, an animal-rights group the Department of Justice calls a “domestic terrorist threat.” PCRM also has ties to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. An agency called the Foundation to Support Animal Protection has distributed money from PETA to PCRM in the past and, until very recently, did both groups’ books. Barnard and PETA head Ingrid Newkirk are both on the foundation’s board.

Barnard is a long-time, left-wing, animal rights activist. The Center for Consumer Freedom, which opposes “self-anointed “food police,” health campaigners, trial lawyers, personal-finance do-gooders, animal-rights misanthropes, and meddling bureaucrats,” called PCRM a “phony physicians group.” Even the very establishment, quasi-governmental American Medical Association wrote this in a letter to Barnard in 1990 (see the PDF here):

The general approach used by PCRM takes selective data and quotations, often out of context … In response to a Resolution passed unanimously at the recent AMA House of Delegates meeting, the American Medical Association calls upon the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to immediately terminate the inappropriate and unethical tactics your organization uses to manipulate public opinion.

A senior member of the AMA stated, “They are neither responsible nor are they physicians.” These criticisms from the AMA continued for years. The PCRM also includes, on its advisory board, well-known vegetarian activist doctors — you can see for yourself. Esselstyn, McDougall, etc. Dr. Andrew Weil is also on the advisory board, and I am not sure how long he will stay, especially since he recently (partially) capitulated on meat and fat in the Huffington Post.