Eat Fat, Grow Thin

Dear Christopher,

Thanks for your question. Yes, I am largely replacing low-GI carbs with fats in my diet. I do know that following Dr. Bernstein's diet is considered difficult, and I have written that myself. But I am not experiencing that difficulty now. Try again!

My big problem with eating "healthier" the way I believe it (low carb) is I get really tired eating the same things all the time, and meat is prohibitively expensive, especially since my wife and I are both in school now and don't really work.

The things now I can afford are usually not very healthy. We can afford chicken sometimes now, but I get tired of the same protein day after day after day...

I'm still trying though. I will get better. 

I was wondering the same thing verdungal...

Have you replaced your breakfast of barley with bacon and eggs yet?

On the other hand, what you've been doing has been working, maybe you don't want to mess with breakfast. Just add more saturated fat in at dinner or something? And stick with your breakfast. 

Good questions. I am following Dr. Bernstein's advice not to cut out all fruits and vegetables. We simply don't know enough yet about our need for antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. I have cut way down on fruits, because they have so many carbs. But the non-starchy vegetables are surprisingly low-carb. 

I have at least temporarily paused in eating my favorite breakfast. Maybe when I get to my goal weight (just 8 more pounds!) I will go back to a small bowl of that wonderful hulless barley for breakfast.

Dear Verdungal,

Gary Taubes says in Good Calories, Bad Calories, this about possible nutrient deficiencies on a low carb diet:

"Animal foods contain all of the essential amino acids (the basic structural building blocks of proteins), and they do so in the ratios that maximize their utility to humans. They also contain twelve of the thirteen essential vitamins in large quantities." What's the thirteenth vitamin? Vitamin C. "The key factor determining the level of vitamin C in our cells and tissues is not how much or little we happen to be consuming in our diet, but whether the starches and refined carbohydrates in our diet serve to flush vitamin C out of our system, while simultaneously inhibiting the use of what vitamin C we do have....It's not the absence of fruits and vegetables that causes scurvy, it's the presence of the refined carbohydrates." 

Also, check out these three articles, written many years ago, but still the latest knowledge on this subject:

www.biblelife.org/stefansson1.htm

www.biblelife.org/stefansson2.htm

www.biblelife.org/stefansson3.htm 

David, I can see myself burning the midnight oil reading.!

December GI News have summarised their top tips for a healthy diet to reduce your risk of cancer. All we would add is opt for smart carbs for your meals and snacks to reduce the overall GI of your diet

Limit your consumption of red meats (such as beef, pork and lamb) to less than 500 g cooked weight (about 700-750 g raw weight) a week. Why? Although red meat is a valuable source of several nutrients and can be part of a healthy diet, it also has substances that have been shown to damage the lining of the bowel. In fact the evidence linking red meat intake to colorectal cancer is more convincing than it was a decade ago. If you eat the recommended amount, the cancer risk is minimal, but beyond that the risk increases.

I particularly noted the last sentence of your message

"It's not the absence of fruits and vegetables that causes scurvy, it's the presence of the refined carbohydrates"

Thanks

verdungal

Dear Gloria,

What a wonderful testimonial for a low-carb diet!

Yes, isn't it surprising that we can do so well on SATURATED fat? I just wrote about this at http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/17431/fat-paradox

What do you think of it?

David 

David,

I read your new article which was again excellent and so refreshingly informative.  If there is anything I get tired of hearing it's the same old mantra of "eat a diet low in fat" -- no matter what your state of health!  In fact, I am so pleased to think that information might be starting to surface that will support the belief that we need to start eating more fats again especially if we are diabetic.  Diabetics who do not eat enough fat will not be able to control their BG without practically starving... unless taking meds which of course is what most professionals think they should do right from the start anyway.  This is because after giving the diabetic a diet too low in fats and too high in carbs, the poor soul fails to bring his BG down and the doctor can then say, "Well, unfortunately, diet alone will not work for you, so we need to start you on meds (or increase the meds, etc.)".  This, all because the RIGHT diet for a DIABETIC wasn't recommended in the first place.  After all, a diabetic's immediate problem is glucose, not fat!  But, they cannot be deterred it seems and they continue to recommend the "heart healthy" (I practically despise this term now that I know better) diet based on the good ole (and useless) pyramid. 

I truly believe that the "pyramid" has harmed many people.  If you think about it, it is ludicrous and downright irresponsible to advise everyone from 1 year old and up to eat "low-fat" as if dietary fat were bad for everyone without further consideration!  This dangerous illogic seems to be based on inconclusive "evidence" that saturated fats cause high cholesterol levels.  Yet even the warning that cholesterol levels are directly correlated with heart disease is not accurate.  I read a wonderful book by Uffe Ravnskov, The Cholesterol Myths - Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease.  A long title but the book explains exactly what it says it will.  I am a natural skeptic but Ravnskov explains so clearly and logically, putting to the test of scientic standards the "studies" that claim to prove that low-fat diets are good.  Apparently many things we have been told are "facts" are really careless or biased conclusions. 

It was in fact, his book that gave me the courage to go back to eating saturated fats soon after I started my diet to reduce my BG (which I did with NO meds whatsoever).  Once I did, the pounds began falling off faster than ever and everything else about my health improved as well.  Now I am wondering if in our status quo health establishment's zeal to persuade everyone from 1 to 100 years old to eat a "heart healthy" low-fat diet (with saturated fat as Enemy No. 1) that they haven't actually upset a natural and necessary balance of foods -- one that requires saturated fat.  Right now, most people believe they should avoid it like the plague... maybe we will soon find out we have been causing our own problems.

It's been fun writing to you here.  I can't tell you how wonderful it is to know that someone out there is seeing through the fat myth.  Thanks!

Gloria

Dear Gloria,

Thank you! Like you, I read that pathbreaking book by  Uffe Ravnskov. It was years ago, but unfortunately the evidence he presented was not quite sufficient for me to change my way of life then. Then, about five years ago Gary Taubes wrote that incredible article in the New York Times Magazine, "What if it's all been a big fat lie." But even that didn't wake me up. It wasn't until this year when I read Taubes's Good Calories, Bad Calories, which presented all the evidence so thoroughly that I came to my senses! By the way, about the only thing missing from Taubes's book is any reference to Ravnskov's book. I can't believe that Taubes didn't study it carefully, but maybe it was part of the huge mass of material that he has written that he had to leave out.

Gloria,

I totally agree about the standard diet given to newly-diagnosed type 2 diabetics.

That happened to me over 10 years ago.  I like to know what's happening to my body, so along with the diet my hcp gave me, I bought a glucose meter and tested, tested, tested.  I very quickly discovered that the diet was not helping, it was hurting!

I likened it to someone who goes to the doctor because they're allergic to cats and is given the advice to "go home, adopt a few cats, come back in a few months, and if you're still allergice, we'll put you on medication."  How dumb would THAT be?

So, I read and read and read some more and discovered Dr. Bernstein's book.  I followed it and when I went back to my hcp 3 months later, she was thrilled at how the ADA recommended diet had totally reveresed my diabetes.  When I explained that I had been doing low carb, she actually approved.

However, over the intervening years, due to the resistance of other hcps and the rest of the medical establishment, not to mention peer pressure, I started eating high carb again.

Currently, I am dedicatedly low carb, but it's tough to stick to after so many years of abusing my metabolism.

Dee

Dear Christopher,

I do understand how so much misinformation can make you angry. When I was your age, I did get angry a lot. But now I have worked through it and seldom get angry about anything, except at some of the stupid things that I do myself! 

Dear Jim,

Thanks for bringing up leptin. I have read a couple of books about it, but of course the experimental research to date has been really disappointing. However, I do know that Amylin Pharmaceuticals is working hard to develop a drug combining leptin with Symlin and possibily with PYY.

I will check out those books you mentioned. Thanks for bringing them to my attention.

Best regards,

David