Richard David Feinman Quotes & Sayings

Ketoacidosis is prevented by negative feedback. Ketone bodies inhibit fatty acid production and also promote release of insulin which, in turn, inhibits lipolysis. — Richard David Feinman

A man comes to Mozart and wants to become a composer. Mozart says that they have to study theory for a couple of years, that they should study orchestration and become proficient at the piano, and goes on like this. Finally, the man says "but you wrote your first symphony when you were 8 years old." Mozart says "Yes, but I didn't ask anybody. — Richard David Feinman

Most people agree, whether or not they think that carbohydrates are inherently fattening, that by focusing on fat, the nutritional establishment gave people license to over-consume carbohydrates and that this contributed to the obesity epidemic. The new threat is that by focusing now on fructose, the AHA and USDA and other organizations are giving implicit license to over-consume starch - almost guaranteed since these agencies are still down on fat and protein. — Richard David Feinman

biochemistry tells us that there is no receptor for calories, that is, no way for cells to sense how many calories are coming in, only how much of each type of macronutrient. The available chemical energy will ultimately show up but there is no reason to think that there will be a direct relation between calories and weight gain or loss. Calories do count but not in a simple way. — Richard David Feinman

If you study dietary saturated fatty acids under conditions where carbohydrate is high or, more important, if your study effects in rodents where plasma fat better correlates with dietary fat, then you will confuse plasma fat with dietary fat. — Richard David Feinman

How can you say one thing when your data shows something else. One doesn't know what was on the authors' minds and maybe they interpreted things differently but the sense is that the literature maintains an attitude somewhat like the approach of lawyers. If the jury buys it, it doesn't matter whether or not it's true. In scientific publishing, the jury are the reviewers and the editors. If they are already convinced of the conclusion, if there is no voir dire, you will surely win the case. — Richard David Feinman

One thinks of lard as a kind of pure high saturated fat but it is only 41 % saturated, while it is mostly (47 %) MUFA, predominantly oleic acid, the main fat in olive oil. So it is a question of whether you think that lard is half full of SFA or half empty. — Richard David Feinman

Like most such tasks, cooking vegetables involves investing large amounts of time in deep thought and procrastination and a relatively small amount of time actually doing the job. — Richard David Feinman

Many people think that the high blood sugar seen in diabetes is due to a failure in clearance because the cells cannot take up the glucose in the blood for fuel. Even the textbooks say it. Glucose enters cells through a receptor called GLUT4. While the number of GLUT4 receptors in people with diabetes does not increase in response to dietary glucose as much as it does in healthy people, it this seems that this is not the major cause of hyperglycemia. People with diabetes still have enough of these receptors under most conditions. The major problem, as shown in Figure 10-1, appears to be the persistence of glucose production from the liver. — Richard David Feinman

It does take some confidence, especially for the lay person, to feel that their intuitive understanding that the difference between white rice and brown rice is so small that it really doesn't matter what Harvard's computer says. — Richard David Feinman