The Positive Effects of Low-Carbohydrate High Saturated Fat

Re: The Positive Effects of Low-Carbohydrate High Saturated

Interesting. I liked this bit ...

Endocrinologist: There are no long-term studies on low-carbohydrate diets in diabetes.

Richard Feinman: Well, let me ask you this. Suppose, for some reason, your patient had gone on the Atkins diet since their last appointment. If they came in having lost weight, with improved HbA1c, improved lipid panel, and you had to reduce their medication, what would you do? Tell them to stop because there are no long-term studies? What would you do?

Endocrinologist: I would tell them to keep doing it.

Richard Feinman: Good call.

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Exactly my GP's attitude.

Of course there are a good number of "long-term studies on low-carbohydrate diets in diabetes" anyway but appreciate it depends on the interpretation of "low". For example with their "quarter of your plate" should be carbs advise then the ADA is stating a low carb message compared to the UK where its "half of your plate"

Re: The Positive Effects of Low-Carbohydrate High Saturated

Check these websites;
http://www.bulletproofexec.com/
http://www.livinlavidalowcarb.com/
I'm doing lchf since a couple of months and the big challenge is really to get used to eating more fat, cocount oil is really good and so is butter, preferably from grass feed cows like Kerrygold.

Re: The Positive Effects of Low-Carbohydrate High Saturated

People can be put off by that high fat label maybe thinking the diet is full of fry-ups and that kind of thing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Admittedly I don't do a take it to the max lchf approach but to me high fat is choosing things like full fat yoghurt and not being afraid to eat reasonable quantities of cheese and eggs. I still eat lean meat so select lean mince etc. The only conscious upping of fat I do (so to get a reasonable calorie intake a day and not end up on a starvation diet) is to put a knob of real butter on my veg and have my rhubarb and fruit salad mix with some double cream.

I have nigh on entirely given up all high GI carb sources so my standard daily diet includes no obvious sugar except small portions of low carb fruits, no bread, no potatoes, no cereals, no rice and no pasta. I will eat small "NHS" size portions of all of these occasionally (and suffer the BG consequences that they give me) but I'm quite happy and content to have removed them from my every day diet and I'm quite happy and content that others may not have removed as much as me. It took a while to adjust and initially get over what's called carbohydrate craving but after a few weeks I wondered what all the fuss was about and started to enjoy my new lchf regime.

There is a lot of obvious emphasis of the low carb bit of lchf as low carb will keep your BG's well controlled however the high fat bit does have a good set of benefits as well notably that one of the primary things that tells your brain you're full and to stop eating is fat. In fact lots of carbohydrate based foods do the exact opposite and stop your brain receiving the stop eating messages. I've found a lchf diet to be a natural appetite suppressant and nowadays some 8 months after swapping I am hardly ever hungry even though my calorie intake is around 1800 a day as I still want to slowly lose more weight.

What other positive things have I found? Firstly lchf has normalised my cholesterol levels to the extent that my gp was quite happy for me to stop my Simvastatin statin medication a couple of months ago. In the 8 months since I swapped I have lost just shy of 4 stone. Finally of course it reduced my HbA1c from 11.3% 8 months ago to 4.9% at my last test a few weeks ago. From a DB point of view I unnecessarily continue to take Metformin but like others continue because of its proven heart healthcare benefits.

So as my GP (and Richard Feinman's fictitious Endocrinologist) says I'll just keep doing it.

Re: The Positive Effects of Low-Carbohydrate High Saturated

xyzzy said:

I still eat lean meat so select lean mince etc.

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Lean meat. Yuck. See how much skinless chicken breast or trimmed pork chop you can eat. The answer is "not much", because your body wants you to eat fat, not pure protein.

You are made of fat and protein, not of sugar. It seems rather stupid to me that anyone could suggest that eating a diet comprising mainly of fat and protein is a bad idea.

Feinman's blog is great:
http://rdfeinman.wordpress.com/

Re: The Positive Effects of Low-Carbohydrate High Saturated

borofergie said:

xyzzy said:

I still eat lean meat so select lean mince etc.

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Lean meat. Yuck. See how much skinless chicken breast or trimmed pork chop you can eat. The answer is "not much", because your body wants you to eat fat, not pure protein.

You are made of fat and protein, not of sugar. It seems rather stupid to me that anyone could suggest that eating a diet comprising mainly of fat and protein is a bad idea.

Feinman's blog is great:
http://rdfeinman.wordpress.com/

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Yes alright I admit it! I do choose lean mince out of preference but keep the skin on the chicken, the rind on the bacon and don't cut the fat off the chops or ham. So I'm a good lchf boy really. :lol:

Re: The Positive Effects of Low-Carbohydrate High Saturated

Not hi-fat, STANDARD fat. We only call it hi-hat because it is higher than what is (incorrectly!) touted as "normal". Not our fault that the baseline they set is incorrectly set so low...

Re: The Positive Effects of Low-Carbohydrate High Saturated

Yes, normal fat the way nature intended , whatever fish or meat you pan fry use butter (or coconut oil).
Learn more here; http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

Re: The Positive Effects of Low-Carbohydrate High Saturated

It's good to see there's an LCHF diet because it's more or less what my body tells me to eat anyway. However, like many people I've had guilt pangs when the food police are out and felt ashamed of eating chicken skin and the fat on my ribeye steak! I've never been a fan of eating many carbs but did develop a sweet tooth later in life probably because I was so flipping hungry because I was missing out on the fat!

I really wish the 'experts' (marketing people) would leave people alone to listen to their own bodies when it comes to eating. No wonder there are so many eating disorders, food fads and metabolic issues around. Our diets change every time some food manufacturer wants to flog us some new idea and since all the palava of the 'low-fat' products has been around just look at how people's weight has increased. Got to be something wrong there hasn't there?

Rant over ...

Tesco's here I come!

Re: The Positive Effects of Low-Carbohydrate High Saturated

GraceK said:

I really wish the 'experts' (marketing people) would leave people alone to listen to their own bodies when it comes to eating. No wonder there are so many eating disorders, food fads and metabolic issues around. Our diets change every time some food manufacturer wants to flog us some new idea and since all the palava of the 'low-fat' products has been around just look at how people's weight has increased. Got to be something wrong there hasn't there?

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Wow. Talk about hitting the figurative nail right on the head. :thumbup:

Re: The Positive Effects of Low-Carbohydrate High Saturated

I'll hold that nail for you GraceK, bare handed, all day long.

On point.

Re: The Positive Effects of Low-Carbohydrate High Saturated

GraceK said:

It's good to see there's an LCHF diet because it's more or less what my body tells me to eat anyway. However, like many people I've had guilt pangs when the food police are out and felt ashamed of eating chicken skin and the fat on my ribeye steak! I've never been a fan of eating many carbs but did develop a sweet tooth later in life probably because I was so flipping hungry because I was missing out on the fat!

I really wish the 'experts' (marketing people) would leave people alone to listen to their own bodies when it comes to eating. No wonder there are so many eating disorders, food fads and metabolic issues around. Our diets change every time some food manufacturer wants to flog us some new idea and since all the palava of the 'low-fat' products has been around just look at how people's weight has increased. Got to be something wrong there hasn't there?

Rant over ...

Tesco's here I come!

Click to expand...

This is one of the best rants I have read in a long time!!

Re: The Positive Effects of Low-Carbohydrate High Saturated

borofergie said:

GraceK said:

I really wish the 'experts' (marketing people) would leave people alone to listen to their own bodies when it comes to eating. No wonder there are so many eating disorders, food fads and metabolic issues around. Our diets change every time some food manufacturer wants to flog us some new idea and since all the palava of the 'low-fat' products has been around just look at how people's weight has increased. Got to be something wrong there hasn't there?

Click to expand...

Wow. Talk about hitting the figurative nail right on the head. :thumbup:

Click to expand...

Is that better that hitting the nail on the thumb? :thumbdown: