@sunnyrandall the "high fat" aspect of the low carb diet is the hardest hurdle to overcome when learning how to eat healthier.
As you learn about this diet, remember, it's a healthy,
whole foods diet. We eliminate or greatly limit processed foods.
And as Nick has found, along with the rest of us who use the Low Carbohydrate High Fat diet over time, this can't be a "high protein" diet because while the body needs protein at each meal, when we exceed our body's protein needs at any meal, it's converted to glucose and increases our blood glucose levels, which is not our goal.
For years it's been drilled into us that "fat" is the problem when actually it's processed foods that contain sugar, grains, and unhealthy, highly processed, seed oils that contain omega 6 fatty acids - (corn, soybean, cottonseed, saffola, canola, peanut, sunflower). I shudder everytime I think about the deep fried "fast foods" I'd eaten up until recent years. Not healthy.
This lecture by Australian physician and surgeon Gary Fettke, a brain cancer survivor, is a fun, entertaining way to get an introduction to this topic as you begin your new journey...
When we switch to eating the low carb way of eating for diabetes (and weight loss), we quickly run into a problem: we're unable to get enough calories from the foods we're eating because we eliminated high carb foods in favor of low carb foods: above ground vegetables, and limited amounts of low carb fruits and berries such as green olives, avocados, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, lemons, limes, grapefruit.
Most of these low carb foods are low in calories, as is protein, so the problem becomes, "How do we make up the deficit in calories?"
If you think of the three macronutrients as a seesaw or teeter totter, with protein in the middle, carbs on one end, fat on the other end, we're switching from eating a high carbohydrate (and low fat) diet to a high fat (and low carb) diet. That's how we make up the calorie deficit. Protein remains unchanged.
What are unhealthy fats? Seed oils: corn, soybean, cottonseed, saffola, canola, peanut, and sunflower; processed foods and margerines that contain these oils and hydrogenated oils; and oils or fats that have been heated beyond their upper temperature limit or smoke point.
What are healthy fats and/or proteins? Animal sources are meat, cheese, heavy cream, full fat yogurt, (no milk, it's too high in sugar), butter, ghee, poultry, eggs, fish (wild, not farmed), fish oil, and seafood. Plant sources are extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, nut oils, raw nuts, seeds, green olives, and avocado.
For an informative, and "real life" experience and science based take on eating real food with healthy fats specifically for the purpose of losing weight, check out the "Butter Bob Briggs" videos on YouTube. He lost 145 pounds using the low carb diet and fasting.
He has quite a following in the US. He is very sincere in his efforts to help people lose weight.
Regarding diabetes and weight loss, this recent video by "Butter Bob Briggs" discusses insulin's role in weight gain (and loss) and how fasting in combination with the low carb diet results in improved insulin levels, health, and weight loss...
The first ten minutes or so is a bit redundant but the rest of the video is excellent. It's worth watching beginning to end.
What about my cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, and LDL levels? On the low carb diet, cholesterol and LDL can increase during active weight loss (because fat from our fat cells are being released), the healthier HDL increases too. I can't remember what happens with triglycerides but as you continue eating low carb they eventually will begin dropping, dramatically.
Once weight loss plateaus for a period of time, cholesterol will drop, as will LDL. There is a
small group of people who experience significant rises in LDL in their first year on the low carb diet due to genetic differences which is a problem and can be caught by monitoring with lab work every 3 to 6 months. People who have this problem eat a modified low carb diet or other diet and
may need to add a medication to manage their LDL.
If you look at the signature line of low carbers on the the Low-carb Diet Forum here, you'll see that happily
most low carbers experience dramatic improvements in there cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL, and LDL levels! Mine remained stable until I began limiting dairy for two months then I experienced a huge drop in cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL. 16 months into the low carb diet, I've never been healthier, and I have the weight loss and lab work to show it.
I wish I could say that all diabetics benefit from the low carb high fat diet, but in reality, there is a
small group who don't. They need to use a modified low carb diet or a different diet. No one diet that works well for everyone. That said
most diabetics benefit tremendously from switching to the low carb diet for life. We don't think of it as a diet, we think of it as a lifestyle.
To get started, become a regular on the Low-carb Diet Forum here in the Food and Nutrition area, and start reading as much as you can on the Diet Doctor forum...
http://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb
Again, here's a link to the Low-carb Diet Forum - (ask questions here as you go
)...
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/low-carb-diet-forum.18/
And here's a link to Low Carb Success Stories...
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/low-carb-success-stories.3763/
