Why lo-carb has to be hi-fat

This is what I ate in the last 24 hours:

Breakfast 2 slices almond bread. (ingredients: almonds, butter, marscarpone cheese,eggs, baking soda, baking powder, salt) with reduced sugar jam.

tea with milk throughout the day.


scrambled eggs made with butter and double cream, smoked salmon, one tomato.

vanilla ice cream and flake (naughty me!)

confit de canard, vegetables with butter.
2 glasses red wine.


As you can see utterly butterly!

Katharine said:

Breakfast 2 slices almond bread. (ingredients: almonds, butter, marscarpone cheese,eggs, baking soda, baking powder, salt) with reduced sugar jam.

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I need this recipe, please, Katharine.

I have been reading this with interest. It's funny - you know, I never did jump on to the 'low-fat' bandwagon, even though I was well overweight and seemingly shouldn't have been eating fats. My Dad used to tut at the amount of butter I would have on bread, etc. which made me feel a bit guilty so I probably cut down a bit, but I always felt that I needed it.

Neither did I jump on the 'margarine' train either. Apart from the fact I didn't like margarine, I always felt there was something dodgy about it.

But reading this has made me get out my old copy of 'Eat Fat and Grow Slim' by Richard Mackarness which has been floating around for donks. I felt it made sense at the time, but never really analysed why until now.

Long, long before I was ever Diabetic - probably 25 years ago or more I was told by a Naturopath that I should eat low-carb. I did, kind of, as it is pretty obvious that I really don't cope with carbs at all. I would certainly feel better and lose weight on low carb. But low-carb never meant low fat, and Atkins had a similar benefit, although it didn't work so well the second time around. Maybe I didn't drink enough, who knows. I certainly didn't have as much protein as he advocated and I tended to supplement with a lot more veg than he advocated as well. But I never dropped the fat.

Perhaps that is what MY body needs. I wouldn't like to say that it would work for everyone - we're all different, after all, but although it has only been a few days since I upped the fat I am feeling the benefit already. Less hungry, 'elimination' works better, so I will keep an eye on this one.

If it's good enough for the Inuit, and the French, it's good enough for me.

Just wondered whether those advocating high fat, as opposed to low carb, were aware of this recent mega research: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8119093.stm Life is never easy and solving one medical problem often causes another.

Doug

Ah yes, but not all fats are equal.

It leaves out more information than it gives. Perhaps those on that study who eat loads of animal fats also consume a large amount of carbohydrates! It also doesn't qualify what kind of saturated fats are consumed. Perhaps they eat a lot of chips fried in hydrogenated fats, or eat a lot of fatty meat from non-organically reared animals whose fat is full of chemicals and nitrates and obnoxious stuff. They are probably consuming a high level of Omega 6 and very little Omega 3 or 9.

I am sure that loads of fat is bad for you - if it is eaten with carbs. Because 'everyone' eats carbs they assume it has to be the fat that is at fault. Was it funded by the 'low-fat' brigade?

There again, it is typical of most of these studies which pick just one thing in common and assume that that is the cause. Why blame the fats and not the carbs? Just shows how data can be manipulated to give the answers they want you to hear............next week another result will come out to show something else. Yeah, yeah.

What about all the tribes and cultures that consume a lot of fat yet don't get pancreatic cancer? If you analyse their diet, they don't eat anything remotely resembling rubbish.

Although a mix of different fats and oils is better - butter, coconut oil, olive oil, cod liver oil and fish oil in general, and some animal fat from meat, my money is on carbs - particularly processed ones like our modern manipulated, additive-riddled, nutrient-dead and generally evil so-called 'bread'. Add to that the high-carb, high-sugar pies, pizzas, chips, crisps, cakes, biscuits, crackers, and other equally damaging rubbish that passes for food on the Supermarket shelves these days and it is not surprising that cancer, of any part of the body is endemic in our Society.

Easy Ali. It's just one further bit of information to inform life decisions. Accept or reject as you will.

Doug

Osidge said:

Easy Ali. It's just one further bit of information to inform life decisions. Accept or reject as you will.

Doug

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I thought Ali's response was considered and insightful so I don't see why she should go 'easy'. It's important not to accept these studies as read, most are flawed I'm sure next month there'll be one that satuarated fats help cancer victims. Ho hum!

I've read lot's of studies telling me that if I eat animal fat my arteries will clog up. Funny how the EXACT opposite has happened.

Also how about a reality check, there are 7600 pancreatic cancer sufferers in the UK in 2005, diabetes is set to rise to more than 4 million. as a diabetic you already have a life threatening disease, are you advocating ignoring that just in case you have a one in 8 million chance of getting pancreatic cancer. That's IF, and a big IF at that, that this study actually proves that. I have more chance of winning the lottery than getting pancreatic cancer yet I have a high risk of diabetic complications if I don't address high blood glucose. I'm happy with my choice!

AliB said:

There again, it is typical of most of these studies which pick just one thing in common and assume that that is the cause. Why blame the fats and not the carbs? Just shows how data can be manipulated to give the answers they want you to hear............next week another result will come out to show something else. Yeah, yeah.

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100% agree

I certainly wouldn't recommend a diet high in fat and dairy products in conjunction with
tons of carbohydrate, way too much alcohol, plenty of cigarettes and little or no exercise.

Quick, we must find a statistician!

I know with low carb that I certainly feel full much quicker and in the last couple of weeks my meals have been too big for me to finish.
Now learning not to make so much!

People have been eating high-fat diets for centuries. What they haven't been eating is the sugar and highly processed 'dead' carbs that are endemic within our modern Western diet.

The incidence of Diabetes, and also many other of our 'modern' diseases are not endemic within the population of those who eat an all-natural unprocessed, unadulterated, naturally organic diet. What is blatantly obvious is that wherever the 'Western' diet goes, you can jolly well guarantee that disease will be following hard on its heels.

Whenever those who eat a natural diet change to a Western diet they start to get things like Diabetes and Heart Disease.

Apparently a group of Canadian Maoris (yup, I didn't know they existed either!) returned to a traditional-type diet to see if it would make any difference to their Diabetes. It is naturally low-carb - this chap who was highlighted not only lost weight but was able to come off insulin.

http://209.157.64.200/focus/news/1738169/posts
http://www.dsolve.com/news-aamp-info-othermenu-60/1-latest/148-latestnews (Some of the related articles in the sidebar are worth a read too)

I know, and have known for years that I just don't cope with sugars or most carbs at all (I was obviously designed to be a hunter-gatherer!). Low-carb is the only option for me, regardless of the amount of protein or fat I consume.

In reality I never have been able to completely avoid the carbs, but I know when I have had too much as I get a background 'thumping' thing going on from goodness knows where. My heart has been checked and its not that. It has improved a bit since I had a colonic done and did a liver flush. I will have to see if the higher fat protocol makes any difference.

I am already gluten-free - my digestion collapsed 18 months ago and it was only by avoiding it and anything processed and sticking to as natural a diet as possible (the Specific Carbohydrate Diet) that I have been able to claw it back.

I have wondered if it is the Insulin and/or Metformin that causes the thumping, but as I can't at present drop that completely, I have no way of knowing.

Going low-carb and taking Vitabase Blood Sugar Formula has helped a lot and I have been able to reduce the Insulin by about a third. I now usually stay well under 10 Post-P and my waking BS is between 5 and 6.

Does our bodies absorb all the fat we eat or does some pass through like fibre?

Now there's a question. I don't know. I suppose a bit may pass through - certainly unwanted, or unneeded aspects of it, 'old' fats, but I would say that by far the majority of it is utilised by the body in some way or another. As the following article points out, the human brain consists of 60% fat and old fats in the cells have to be replenished from new fats in the diet.

The body uses fats and oils in many other functions too. It keeps the skin soft and supple, the hair strong and shiny, the digestive tract 'oiled' and protected from pathogens, provides insulation from the cold and heat, enables the body to absorb fat-soluble vitamins and minerals, supports the immune system, it surrounds and insulates nerve fibres (a lack of essential fatty acids may apparently contribute to MS).

Fats provide the cells in the body with the most efficient form of energy. They take longer to digest giving a better feeling of satiety, too little fat in the diet may contribute to cravings, especially for sweet things, they help to transport nutrients across cell membranes and fats are hugely necessary as building blocks to enable the body to make hormones and other essential elements.

http://www.fatsforhealth.com/library/libitems/Mind%20Omega3.php

This is interesting too.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/05/050509173826.htm

You know, it struck me the other day that although we live in a system now where we are forced to pay and arm and a leg for it, most people are not actually that far from a source of fish. If they do not live near the sea, then there is usually a river within travelling distance for the majority of the World's population. There is more and more research coming out all the time on the benefits of fish oils and how we need to be getting a lot more of it in our diets.

Hydrogenated, either fully or partially, should be avoided at all costs - even the so-called 'healthy' oils like sunflower, or corn, which change structure when heated, as apparently they can clog like cement in the body (ever tried to get it off a chip fryer???). Yuk. Give me good old butter any day.

inwales said:

Does our bodies absorb all the fat we eat or does some pass through like fibre?

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Here is a link to an article about the Digestion and Absorption of Food Fats.

http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfat ... ption.html

Here is a small extract:

Fat digestion of cholesterol and other sterols is frequently not described accurately. Both cholesterol and other sterols do not provide any calories, and the amount that is absorbed is relatively small except in infants. Adults probably absorb only about 25 percent of the cholesterol they consume, and even less of the other sterols. Cholesterol plays a role in membrane structure as well as for production of bile acids and hormones. Other sterols are not usually part of the body’s tissues unless they are consumed in large amounts


Ken.

Thanks for the links Ali and Ken, will read them later when have time.

Interesting about the metabolisation of fats - something I need to investigate further. I wholly concur with the problems caused by the Western diet. We are certainly experiencing its negative effects. A point was raised about returning to a natural diet but where does that sit with low carbing? The natural diet of the majority of the world's population is, and always has been, based on carbs - cereals, root vegetables and rice. I am confused.

Doug

Hi Osidge.

Take a look at this link about the human diet. It doesn't seem to tally with your view of the natural human diet.
http://www.answers.com/topic/stone-age- ... human-diet

Here also is an extract about Cereals ?
However, given the technology available to them, the work required to process wild cereals into digestible form was generally excessive compared with the work needed to gather and process other types of wild plants. Foragers generally viewed grains as emergency goods to be used during times of shortage. It was only "late" in the human career, perhaps thirty thousand years ago in Australia and between ten an fifteen thousand years ago elsewhere (for example, the Near East), that evidence of routine cereal-grain use became common.

Ken.

Thanks for that, Ken. Good reading. It looks as if our ancestors had a low carb and low fat diet - based on the type of meat they were eating and the lack of domesticated amimals for cream!!

Doug