First, there was a positive article about the low carb lifestyle in the LA Times. Now there is another positive low carb piece in the Monday, July 18 edition of the New York Times:
Despite conventional advice to eat less fat, weight loss was greatest among people who ate more yogurt and nuts, including peanut butter, over each four-year period. . . . But, consistent with the new study’s findings, metabolism takes a hit from refined carbohydrates — sugars and starches stripped of their fiber, like white flour. When Dr. David Ludwig of Children’s Hospital Boston compared the effects of refined carbohydrates with the effects of whole grains in both animals and people, he found that metabolism, which determines how many calories are used at rest, slowed with the consumption of refined grains but stayed the same after consumption of whole grains.
The quotes are from the second page of the article, which was written by Jane Brody, one of the influential nutrition writers at the NYT. Where have we read advice like this before? Oh, yeah, from Gary Taubes. While not strictly an article about low carb, at least there is some recognition that carbs are the problem, not dietary fat.
Taubes' book is what prompted me to go low carb and that is why I have lost 50 pounds (so far) in five months. My blood sugars are nearing normal, my blood pressure is normal, I am sleeping better and I am in general much more healthy than I was when trying to lose weight on a low fat, high carb diet.
Showing posts with label Taubes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taubes. Show all posts
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
The Trade Off
A lot of feathers were ruffled by Hope Warshaw's condemnation of the low carb diet. I wrote about it and so did a lot of other people. The article cut off comments and the editor of the online magazine in which it appeared, Nadia Al-Samarrie, wrote a follow-up article in an attempt to calm the storm. I won't comment further on the essence of that debate, but something in the follow-up article drew my attention:
"Personally, I have not been successful on a low-carb diet, and that's true of many other people with whom I am familiar. A low-carb diet is difficult to stick to."
Is a low carb diet difficult to stick to? Myself, I have no trouble sticking to the low-carb lifestyle, and even though my journey is only five months old, I feel a sense of commitment to low carbing that I never felt with other diets I have tried. I have freely admitted on this blog, for example, that I am a Weight Watchers failure. But I do know people who cannot stick to the low-carb way of living, despite the many advantages of this way of eating. So I ask myself, why is the low-carb experience different for me? Do others fail at low carbing because they are so completely addicted to carbs? Is it because they cannot give up bread and sugar? Are their carb withdrawals too intense? Or is something else going on? I do not know the answer for other people, but I think I understand why I am committed to the low carb way of life.
I have type II diabetes. The trade off for me is being ravaged by complications associated with diabetes or following the low carb way of life. I can die ten to fifteen years earlier than I might otherwise; I can go blind, suffer amputations, go on dialysis, have wounds that won't heal, get Alzheimer's disease, experience heart disease, and spend a lot of money on drugs as the disease gets progressively worse... or I can follow a low carb way of life. In my mind, this is a no-brainer.
But there are other reasons, too. I have had an intellectual conversion to the low-carb way of life, thanks to the many books and articles I have read about it. My introduction came by reading Why we Get Fat and What to Do About It by Gary Taubes, but I have since read many other books and articles on the topic.
I have rediscovered tasty eating. My low-fat diet days are now a distant, bad memory. I experience a sense of fullness when I eat low carb meals that I never felt on Weight Watchers. Fat is my friend and I think that products like steak, bacon, butter, and cream really add spice and flavor to life. I am able to fast now, which has greatly improved my spiritual life. I am sleeping much better and I am not snoring as much as I used to. And I just feel better in general, both physically and psychologically.
So, yes, for me the decision to go low carb was an easy one and I do not find it difficult to live.
"Personally, I have not been successful on a low-carb diet, and that's true of many other people with whom I am familiar. A low-carb diet is difficult to stick to."
Is a low carb diet difficult to stick to? Myself, I have no trouble sticking to the low-carb lifestyle, and even though my journey is only five months old, I feel a sense of commitment to low carbing that I never felt with other diets I have tried. I have freely admitted on this blog, for example, that I am a Weight Watchers failure. But I do know people who cannot stick to the low-carb way of living, despite the many advantages of this way of eating. So I ask myself, why is the low-carb experience different for me? Do others fail at low carbing because they are so completely addicted to carbs? Is it because they cannot give up bread and sugar? Are their carb withdrawals too intense? Or is something else going on? I do not know the answer for other people, but I think I understand why I am committed to the low carb way of life.
I have type II diabetes. The trade off for me is being ravaged by complications associated with diabetes or following the low carb way of life. I can die ten to fifteen years earlier than I might otherwise; I can go blind, suffer amputations, go on dialysis, have wounds that won't heal, get Alzheimer's disease, experience heart disease, and spend a lot of money on drugs as the disease gets progressively worse... or I can follow a low carb way of life. In my mind, this is a no-brainer.
But there are other reasons, too. I have had an intellectual conversion to the low-carb way of life, thanks to the many books and articles I have read about it. My introduction came by reading Why we Get Fat and What to Do About It by Gary Taubes, but I have since read many other books and articles on the topic.
I have rediscovered tasty eating. My low-fat diet days are now a distant, bad memory. I experience a sense of fullness when I eat low carb meals that I never felt on Weight Watchers. Fat is my friend and I think that products like steak, bacon, butter, and cream really add spice and flavor to life. I am able to fast now, which has greatly improved my spiritual life. I am sleeping much better and I am not snoring as much as I used to. And I just feel better in general, both physically and psychologically.
So, yes, for me the decision to go low carb was an easy one and I do not find it difficult to live.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Lowering Cholesterol and Heart Disease
This article reviews three recent studies about cholesterol lowering drugs and comes to this conclusion: "Cholesterol it seems is irrelevant to cardiovascular disease."
One of the studies cited even showed a slight increase in stroke risk in patients taking the cholesterol lowering drugs. Another study was stopped 18 months early due to the high numbers of heart attacks in the placebo group.
This raises an interesting question: is lowering lipids the right way to prevent heart disease? This article gives the counter intuitive advice to eat triglycerides to lower triglycerides. That has worked for me and others.
Hat tip: Dr. Michael Eades.
One of the studies cited even showed a slight increase in stroke risk in patients taking the cholesterol lowering drugs. Another study was stopped 18 months early due to the high numbers of heart attacks in the placebo group.
This raises an interesting question: is lowering lipids the right way to prevent heart disease? This article gives the counter intuitive advice to eat triglycerides to lower triglycerides. That has worked for me and others.
Hat tip: Dr. Michael Eades.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
On Fiber
I am reading the most amazing book, Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. I've had this book for a while, but haven't had the time to read it. It is long and scientifically dense, and it challenges just about everything I thought I knew about nutrition. He has taken aim at the lipid hypothesis, salt intake, calories in and calories out, but I was floored when I read chapter 7 in the book on fiber.
In the early 1970's, a missionary surgeon named Denis Burkitt, proposed that fiber, the indigestible carbohydrate roughage, was an absolutely necessary element to a healthy diet. He claimed the absence of fiber in the diet was the reason behind diseases of civilization, those diseases that appeared wherever the Western diet, which was largely devoid of fiber, was consumed (e.g., diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cavities, appendicitis, cancer, etc.). Burkitt publised his fiber hypothesis in the British journal The Lancet in 1972 and, with missionary zeal (Taubes describes it as "messianic" zeal), aggressively promoted the hypothesis. The media jumped on the fiber band wagon, and the belief that fiber would prevent colon cancer and other diseases of civilization became conventional wisdom.
There's just one small problem with this hypothesis: there is no empirical evidence to back up the fiber hypothesis. Says Taubes, "Over the last quarter-century, Burkitt's fiber hypothesis has become yet another example of Francis Bacon's dictum of "wishful science"--there has been a steady accumulation of evidence refuting the notion that a fiber-deficient diet causes colon cancer, polyps, or diverticulitis, let alone any other disease of civilization" (p. 132). Two Harvard studies, one of 49,000 male health professionals and another of 89,000 female nurses confirmed that increasing the fiber in the diet by eating more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables had no beneficial effect on colon cancer, nor did it prevent heart disease, breast cancer, or other diseases of civilization. A half dozen other, smaller studies also came to the same conclusions (see the notes for chapter 7 for references to the studies; I am traveling through Scotland as I write this and don't have the time to search online for the references). Gradually, a quarter century of studies has failed to support Burkitt's hypothesis, yet the belief that fiber is healthy remains alive. Apparently, it is just another load of CWOPO. Taubes does concede, however, that eating fiber helps with constipation.
In the early 1970's, a missionary surgeon named Denis Burkitt, proposed that fiber, the indigestible carbohydrate roughage, was an absolutely necessary element to a healthy diet. He claimed the absence of fiber in the diet was the reason behind diseases of civilization, those diseases that appeared wherever the Western diet, which was largely devoid of fiber, was consumed (e.g., diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cavities, appendicitis, cancer, etc.). Burkitt publised his fiber hypothesis in the British journal The Lancet in 1972 and, with missionary zeal (Taubes describes it as "messianic" zeal), aggressively promoted the hypothesis. The media jumped on the fiber band wagon, and the belief that fiber would prevent colon cancer and other diseases of civilization became conventional wisdom.
There's just one small problem with this hypothesis: there is no empirical evidence to back up the fiber hypothesis. Says Taubes, "Over the last quarter-century, Burkitt's fiber hypothesis has become yet another example of Francis Bacon's dictum of "wishful science"--there has been a steady accumulation of evidence refuting the notion that a fiber-deficient diet causes colon cancer, polyps, or diverticulitis, let alone any other disease of civilization" (p. 132). Two Harvard studies, one of 49,000 male health professionals and another of 89,000 female nurses confirmed that increasing the fiber in the diet by eating more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables had no beneficial effect on colon cancer, nor did it prevent heart disease, breast cancer, or other diseases of civilization. A half dozen other, smaller studies also came to the same conclusions (see the notes for chapter 7 for references to the studies; I am traveling through Scotland as I write this and don't have the time to search online for the references). Gradually, a quarter century of studies has failed to support Burkitt's hypothesis, yet the belief that fiber is healthy remains alive. Apparently, it is just another load of CWOPO. Taubes does concede, however, that eating fiber helps with constipation.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Considering a Low Carb Diet? What Not to Do
I think there are some new readers of this blog who may be considering a low carb diet, so I wanted to post a caution about following the diet.
First off, you really need to be committed to it. About the worst thing you could do is add a lot of fat to an already high carb diet. It won't work if you don't also cut carbs. According to the Weight Loss Sweet Spot, you need to be consuming 100 or fewer carbs per day to lose weight, and really, to get into the fat-burning ketosis, you need to be below 50 carbs per day. I would recommend fewer than 30 carbs, at least for a month or two, to see some dramatic results. If you consume 150 or fewer carbs per day, you can enjoy almost effortless weight maintenance.
Second, cheating is immediately punished in a rather shocking way. If you cut out the carbs, you lose water weight quickly at first, perhaps 6 to 12 pounds in a week. But if you cheat for a day and binge on carbs, it can all come back quickly, too. But it is just water. Remember that if you binge on carbs one day and gain 10 pounds the next day. Your initial weight loss is water (the fat will come off later) and if you cheat, your weight gain is all just water, too. Get up, dust yourself off, and get back into the saddle and try again.
Third, do NOT try a low-fat, high protein version of the low carb diet (like the old Weight Watchers Core program). If you truly cut out your carbs, but eat a lot of lean protein (like skinless chicken breasts) and very little fat, you may actually get sick. If you are going to try a low carb diet, you must get over your lipophobia (fear of fat) and eat animal fats. They will not clog your arteries and they won't cause a heart attack. For a very detailed explanation of this, read Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. Warning: this is a dense book, but it outlines the history of the saturated-fats-cause-heart-disease hypothesis, including a very thorough debunking of this hypothesis. Or just watch this video instead, which essentially says the same thing Taubes said, but without dozens of pages of scientific citations.
Fourth, realize this is a lifestyle, not a diet you can step off once you get to your weight loss goal and then resume eating like you used to eat. If you do that, you will just gain back all the weight you lost.
Finally, if you do a low carb diet, and cut out most of the carbs you have been eating, you will experience carb withdrawals to one degree or another. But this is temporary, and the healthy aspects of the low carb lifestyle will quickly outweigh the withdrawal symptoms. Michael R. Eades, M.D. has a two part series on starting (or restarting) a low carb diet, including tips for getting over carb withdrawal. Part I is here, part II is forthcoming.
Now for the good news: you will not be hungry, you will lose weight safely, you will have more energy, your lipid profile will improve, and you will be very healthy. Here are some very useful suggestions for following a low carb diet.
First off, you really need to be committed to it. About the worst thing you could do is add a lot of fat to an already high carb diet. It won't work if you don't also cut carbs. According to the Weight Loss Sweet Spot, you need to be consuming 100 or fewer carbs per day to lose weight, and really, to get into the fat-burning ketosis, you need to be below 50 carbs per day. I would recommend fewer than 30 carbs, at least for a month or two, to see some dramatic results. If you consume 150 or fewer carbs per day, you can enjoy almost effortless weight maintenance.
Second, cheating is immediately punished in a rather shocking way. If you cut out the carbs, you lose water weight quickly at first, perhaps 6 to 12 pounds in a week. But if you cheat for a day and binge on carbs, it can all come back quickly, too. But it is just water. Remember that if you binge on carbs one day and gain 10 pounds the next day. Your initial weight loss is water (the fat will come off later) and if you cheat, your weight gain is all just water, too. Get up, dust yourself off, and get back into the saddle and try again.
Third, do NOT try a low-fat, high protein version of the low carb diet (like the old Weight Watchers Core program). If you truly cut out your carbs, but eat a lot of lean protein (like skinless chicken breasts) and very little fat, you may actually get sick. If you are going to try a low carb diet, you must get over your lipophobia (fear of fat) and eat animal fats. They will not clog your arteries and they won't cause a heart attack. For a very detailed explanation of this, read Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. Warning: this is a dense book, but it outlines the history of the saturated-fats-cause-heart-disease hypothesis, including a very thorough debunking of this hypothesis. Or just watch this video instead, which essentially says the same thing Taubes said, but without dozens of pages of scientific citations.
Fourth, realize this is a lifestyle, not a diet you can step off once you get to your weight loss goal and then resume eating like you used to eat. If you do that, you will just gain back all the weight you lost.
Finally, if you do a low carb diet, and cut out most of the carbs you have been eating, you will experience carb withdrawals to one degree or another. But this is temporary, and the healthy aspects of the low carb lifestyle will quickly outweigh the withdrawal symptoms. Michael R. Eades, M.D. has a two part series on starting (or restarting) a low carb diet, including tips for getting over carb withdrawal. Part I is here, part II is forthcoming.
Now for the good news: you will not be hungry, you will lose weight safely, you will have more energy, your lipid profile will improve, and you will be very healthy. Here are some very useful suggestions for following a low carb diet.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Health Update
The good health news just keeps rolling in.
Diabetes: My blood sugars are mostly normal, except for high morning readings. Low carb diets actually tend to raise morning readings, so I am not too concerned about it. I am still taking Metformin, but after I lose another 40 or so pounds, I will start to wean myself off of that drug as well.
High Blood Pressure: My blood pressure is normal now, and has been for quite a while.
Sleeping: My sleep habits have greatly improved, as I mentioned in a recent post.
Fasting: Fasting is a joy, and I am often on the road, which means I sometimes have to miss a meal. No problem on a low carb diet. This has greatly added to my spiritual life and I feel great when I fast.
General Health: I have a lot more energy during the day. I am not as tired as I used to be and I feel great. My patriarchal blessing promised me I would live to an old age, but I thought I short circuited that blessing by getting diabetes. Now I feel so good I will probably outlive my wife and live to see the promise given in my blessing.
Thank you, Gary Taubes, for introducing me to the low carb lifestyle.
Diabetes: My blood sugars are mostly normal, except for high morning readings. Low carb diets actually tend to raise morning readings, so I am not too concerned about it. I am still taking Metformin, but after I lose another 40 or so pounds, I will start to wean myself off of that drug as well.
High Blood Pressure: My blood pressure is normal now, and has been for quite a while.
Sleeping: My sleep habits have greatly improved, as I mentioned in a recent post.
Fasting: Fasting is a joy, and I am often on the road, which means I sometimes have to miss a meal. No problem on a low carb diet. This has greatly added to my spiritual life and I feel great when I fast.
General Health: I have a lot more energy during the day. I am not as tired as I used to be and I feel great. My patriarchal blessing promised me I would live to an old age, but I thought I short circuited that blessing by getting diabetes. Now I feel so good I will probably outlive my wife and live to see the promise given in my blessing.
Thank you, Gary Taubes, for introducing me to the low carb lifestyle.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Why We Get Fat
For those of you out there who don't want to read Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes, Michael R. Eades, M.D. has written a very good review of the book, in which he spells out the main points in Gary's book. The review is much shorter than the book, but it should whet your palate to go and read the book.
Monday, May 2, 2011
10% Goal Reached
I dropped 3.4 pounds this past week, bringing my total weight loss to 30 pounds in 11 weeks, for an average of 2.73 pounds per week. Follow my weight loss progress online with this chart.
This weight loss also marks a fairly significant milestone for me. As of today, I have dropped 10% of my body weight. When I was following Weight Watchers, that was a big deal. And it is a milestone, a road mark on my way to better health. But the health benefits WW claimed would be mine by losing 10% of my body fat started appearing long ago, almost immediately after starting the low carb regime. My blood sugars stabilized after only three or four days and have been rapidly declining since. I got off of injectable insulin after only a couple of weeks and my blood pressure went down quite rapidly as well. Better yet, my energy level has increased, constant hunger has disappeared, and I have been sleeping much better. So while dropping 10% is significant, the health benefits of following a low carb diet happened almost immediately.
I am very grateful that Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.com linked to an article about weight loss by Gary Taubes, which led me to pick up his book, Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It. That book has very literally saved my life.
This weight loss also marks a fairly significant milestone for me. As of today, I have dropped 10% of my body weight. When I was following Weight Watchers, that was a big deal. And it is a milestone, a road mark on my way to better health. But the health benefits WW claimed would be mine by losing 10% of my body fat started appearing long ago, almost immediately after starting the low carb regime. My blood sugars stabilized after only three or four days and have been rapidly declining since. I got off of injectable insulin after only a couple of weeks and my blood pressure went down quite rapidly as well. Better yet, my energy level has increased, constant hunger has disappeared, and I have been sleeping much better. So while dropping 10% is significant, the health benefits of following a low carb diet happened almost immediately.
I am very grateful that Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.com linked to an article about weight loss by Gary Taubes, which led me to pick up his book, Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It. That book has very literally saved my life.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Health Benefits of Following a Low Carb Lifestyle
After honestly following the low carb lifestyle for three months, you should expect the following to occur when you have blood work analyzed on your next visit to the physician, especially if you are a type II diabetic. I have seen this information in a wide variety of sources, including Good Calories, Bad Calories and Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes, an article by Michael R. Eades, M.D., and many other sources.
Weight loss. If you are consuming 30 or so grams of carbs or less, you should show a substantial weight loss.
HgbA1c. Your blood glucose profile should show substantial improvement over your previous reading, since carbohydrates drive blood glucose levels. Eliminate the carbs, improve your blood glucose profile.
Total Cholesterol. This will probably drop, but not by a great deal. But this doesn’t tell the whole story. Read on.
HDL Cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol”). This reading should go way up. This is a major benefit from eating all of those foods laden with saturated fats.
Triglycerides. This number should go way down. This is good for two reasons. First, lower triglycerides correlate with greater insulin sensitivity, meaning your pancreas doesn’t have to work as hard. Second, it correlates with larger LDL-cholesterol size (see below).
LDL Cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol). This reading may go up, into the worse range, and may cause your physician, if she or he is not up on the latest information, to express some concerns. They might even want to put you on drugs to bring this number in line. Don’t let her/him do this to you! Small, dense LDL cholesterol particles are associated with increased risk for heart disease, but the larger, fluffy LDL cholesterol particles may actually protect you from heart disease. LDL particle size is typically not measured in a lipid profile, but as triglyceride levels go down, LDL particle size goes up. So if you have dramatically better triglyceride levels, you probably have the larger, fluffy, protective LDL particles in your blood. On the other hand, if you have high triglyceride levels and low HDL levels, you are at much greater risk of heart disease from small, dense LDL cholesterol particles.
Triglyceride/HDL Ratio. The lower this ratio is the better. The low carb diet works dramatically better than the low fat, high carb diet at reducing this ratio.
Blood Pressure. You should see a significant lowering in your blood pressure. Both systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings should go down.
Overall, you should experience a much lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
More Interesting Articles
First off, Gary Taubes has a new article on the link between sugar (either refined or high fructose corn syrup) and obesity, diabetes, and, gulp, cancer. It is titled, "Is Sugar Toxic?" I know his next book is on the effects of sugar in the diet and this is a taste of his upcoming work.
Second, can an active (non-sedentary) person get heart disease from eating a diet of grains, fruits, vegetables, and very little meat? I don't know, but an article on Egyptian mummies with heart disease certainly raises the question.
In an obesity study on rats, a diet high in fat is compared with a diet similar to the high carb, junk food laden American diet. The junk food diet leads the rats to develop metabolic syndrome, whereas the high fat diet does not. True, these are rats, not humans, but the results are very interesting nonetheless.
A comprehensive review of "heart healthy diets" (low fat, high carb, and including psychological counseling) over the last several decades concludes that they "had little or no impact on the risk of coronary heart disease mortality or morbidity." The research was performed by the Cochrane Collaboration, a non-profit group that independently reviews medical research in a non-biased way. They do not accept monies from pharmaceutical companies or other entities with vested interests in the outcomes of research. They also review and rate research conducted by other researchers, and they are big proponents of evidence based medicine.
Second, can an active (non-sedentary) person get heart disease from eating a diet of grains, fruits, vegetables, and very little meat? I don't know, but an article on Egyptian mummies with heart disease certainly raises the question.
In an obesity study on rats, a diet high in fat is compared with a diet similar to the high carb, junk food laden American diet. The junk food diet leads the rats to develop metabolic syndrome, whereas the high fat diet does not. True, these are rats, not humans, but the results are very interesting nonetheless.
A comprehensive review of "heart healthy diets" (low fat, high carb, and including psychological counseling) over the last several decades concludes that they "had little or no impact on the risk of coronary heart disease mortality or morbidity." The research was performed by the Cochrane Collaboration, a non-profit group that independently reviews medical research in a non-biased way. They do not accept monies from pharmaceutical companies or other entities with vested interests in the outcomes of research. They also review and rate research conducted by other researchers, and they are big proponents of evidence based medicine.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Resources for Starting a Low Carb Diet
Thinking of embracing the low carb lifestyle? Here are some resources to consider before beginning your journey.
Getting Started: 10 Tips for Success by Dana Carpender
Getting Started by George Stella
Getting Started on Paleo Nutrition by Kurt Harris, M.D.
Low Carb for Beginners by Lora Ruffner
The 30-Day Low Carb Diet Solution by Michael R. Eades, M.D. and Mary Dan Eades M.D.
A Low Carb Food Pyramid by Laura Dolson
Get a good Low Carb cookbook. I have 1001 Low Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender. There are a lot of low carb cookbooks out there; find one and use it.
And, of course, the Bible of the low carb lifestyle, for the why behind the low carb lifestyle, Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes. A longer, more academically dense version of Why We Get Fat by Taubes is Good Calories, Bad Calories. If you like reading academic journals and scientific explanations, this is the book for you. But Why We Get Fat gives you most of the same information, without the footnotes and the academic speak.
Getting Started: 10 Tips for Success by Dana Carpender
Getting Started by George Stella
Getting Started on Paleo Nutrition by Kurt Harris, M.D.
Low Carb for Beginners by Lora Ruffner
The 30-Day Low Carb Diet Solution by Michael R. Eades, M.D. and Mary Dan Eades M.D.
A Low Carb Food Pyramid by Laura Dolson
Get a good Low Carb cookbook. I have 1001 Low Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender. There are a lot of low carb cookbooks out there; find one and use it.
And, of course, the Bible of the low carb lifestyle, for the why behind the low carb lifestyle, Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes. A longer, more academically dense version of Why We Get Fat by Taubes is Good Calories, Bad Calories. If you like reading academic journals and scientific explanations, this is the book for you. But Why We Get Fat gives you most of the same information, without the footnotes and the academic speak.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Essential Low Carb Books
First and foremost, you should run, not walk, to your nearest book store and purchase Why We Get Fat And What to do About It by Gary Taubes. This book includes a description of a low carb diet in the appendix, but it is not really a "diet" book. The title is pretty accurate: it describes why we get fat and what we can do about it.
For a great low carb cookbook, try The Low Carb Comfort Food Cookbook by Mary Dan and Michael R. Eades and Ursula Solom. Or try 1001 Low Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender.
A good description of a low carb diet, without all the theory you will get from Gary Taubes, is The 30 Day Low Carb Diet Solution by Michael R. Eades and Mary Dan Eades. This book includes a 30-day meal plan, plus a bunch of low carb recipes.
For a great low carb cookbook, try The Low Carb Comfort Food Cookbook by Mary Dan and Michael R. Eades and Ursula Solom. Or try 1001 Low Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender.
A good description of a low carb diet, without all the theory you will get from Gary Taubes, is The 30 Day Low Carb Diet Solution by Michael R. Eades and Mary Dan Eades. This book includes a 30-day meal plan, plus a bunch of low carb recipes.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Carb Withdrawals
If any of you are contemplating a low carb diet, I would strongly encourage it, for all the reasons laid out in Gary Taubes' book, Why We Get Fat (And What to Do About It). However, be warned that for the first two to three weeks, you will go through carb withdrawals that can cause some side effects. Taubes describes it this way (p. 214):
"When you replace the carbohydrates you eat with fat, you're creating a radical shift in the fuel that your cells will burn for energy. They go from running primarily on carbohydrates (glucose) to running on fat--both your body fat and the fat in your diet. This shift, though, can come with side effects. These can include weakness, fatigue, nausea, dehydration, diarrhea, constipation, a condition known as postural, or orthostatic, hypotension--if you stand up too quickly, your blood pressure drops precipitously, and you can get dizzy and even pass out--and the exacerbation of preexisting gout." (For a more technical explanation of this process, known as ketosis, read this article by Michael R. Eades, M.D.).
Taubes warns us not to "confuse the short-term effects of what can be thought of as carbohydrate withdrawal with the long-term benefits of overcoming that withdrawal and living a longer, leaner, and healthier life." The symptoms can be lessened with adequate sodium intake and Taubes cites physicians who recommend adding one half to one teaspoon of salt a day to the diet (or by drinking one to two cups of chicken or beef broth daily; p. 216)
The first two weeks can be somewhat miserable, even while you are losing weight. The first day or two, I suffered diarrhea and for about two weeks I could tell I was a bit dehydrated and tired, and I had headaches. But after about two weeks, I started feeling a lot better. I have increased energy, I am sleeping better, I am not nearly as tired as I was, and my wife tells me she hasn't heard me snoring. Oh, and my blood pressure dropped to normal and my blood glucose levels have fallen dramatically, almost to "normal."
One more thing: you will have carb cravings. At first, I slaked those cravings by drinking diet soda (because the diet soda is sweet), but they seem to have diminished quite a bit now and I am not feeling quite the need for sweetness that I did at the start.
"When you replace the carbohydrates you eat with fat, you're creating a radical shift in the fuel that your cells will burn for energy. They go from running primarily on carbohydrates (glucose) to running on fat--both your body fat and the fat in your diet. This shift, though, can come with side effects. These can include weakness, fatigue, nausea, dehydration, diarrhea, constipation, a condition known as postural, or orthostatic, hypotension--if you stand up too quickly, your blood pressure drops precipitously, and you can get dizzy and even pass out--and the exacerbation of preexisting gout." (For a more technical explanation of this process, known as ketosis, read this article by Michael R. Eades, M.D.).
Taubes warns us not to "confuse the short-term effects of what can be thought of as carbohydrate withdrawal with the long-term benefits of overcoming that withdrawal and living a longer, leaner, and healthier life." The symptoms can be lessened with adequate sodium intake and Taubes cites physicians who recommend adding one half to one teaspoon of salt a day to the diet (or by drinking one to two cups of chicken or beef broth daily; p. 216)
The first two weeks can be somewhat miserable, even while you are losing weight. The first day or two, I suffered diarrhea and for about two weeks I could tell I was a bit dehydrated and tired, and I had headaches. But after about two weeks, I started feeling a lot better. I have increased energy, I am sleeping better, I am not nearly as tired as I was, and my wife tells me she hasn't heard me snoring. Oh, and my blood pressure dropped to normal and my blood glucose levels have fallen dramatically, almost to "normal."
One more thing: you will have carb cravings. At first, I slaked those cravings by drinking diet soda (because the diet soda is sweet), but they seem to have diminished quite a bit now and I am not feeling quite the need for sweetness that I did at the start.
Monday, March 7, 2011
The Joy of Fat
Being fat is a drag, but EATING fat has added flavor back to my life. For the longest time now, I have been trimming fat off of meat, choosing low fat options like salad dressing (yuck!), avoiding eggs, shunning butter, and skinning chicken before I ate it. But let me say for the record that fat is delicious! Creamy bacon ranch dressing is wonderful, tuna packed in oil is sooooo much better than tuna packed in water, butter makes the world go around, and bacon... well, 'nuff said. What have I been missing out on all these years? I have rediscovered taste since giving up on Weight Watchers and embracing my inner carnivore. Plus I have learned that low-fat options take out the heart healthy fat and make up the difference in carbohydrates, which are cardiac killers.
For those of you who are still skeptical, but don't want to read the book Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes, try this shorter, online article by the same author. It is called, What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?
For those of you who are still skeptical, but don't want to read the book Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes, try this shorter, online article by the same author. It is called, What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Why am I doing this?
Twice in my life, I have lost 100 pounds, both times using Weight Watchers. I was even a leader at Weight Watchers meetings for about a year. And within two to three years, I gained my weight back. Now, approaching 50, I have become concerned about my health and determined to make one final attempt at becoming lean. I am a type II diabetic who recently had to switch to insulin shots and my third try at Weight Watchers was a complete bust. I was 100% honest on the new program for four weeks, but only lost 0.8 pounds in that time, not my normal experience. Something wasn't working. At first, I blamed the new Weight Watchers program. But one day, I was reading www.instapundit.com, and the author, Glenn Reynolds, linked to a book by Gary Taubes, called Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It. I downloaded the book from Audible.com and listened to it one weekend.
This book changed my life. I was converted, completely, as my weight loss biography mirrored the failed attempts detailed in Taubes' book. I had considered myself weak-willed, gluttonous, and slothful for failing at keeping weight off, but then I learned why I had failed: too many carbs and too much insulin in my system. It's too complicated to explain how that works, just read Gary Taubes' book if you are interested. It is short and interesting. But a low carb lifestyle boils down to this: avoid most carbohydrates and eat a lot more saturated fat and protein. Eat as much meat, poultry, and fish as you like (but stop when you are full), and consume fat, including the saturated fat in animal products. Eat small quantities of leafy green vegetables (and a few other vegetables) but avoid most carbohydrates: flour, sugar, starchy vegetables like potatoes and rice, and anything made with those ingredients. I am striving to live on fewer than 20 carbs a day. Bye bye bread. Hello bacon, eggs, and steak.
My wife and I went on a business trip to Las Vegas, and without telling her, I decided to begin my very low carb journey. When she found out about my decision, she was not happy. We fought a lot about what, and why, I was eating and I kept insisting she read the book. She finally did, and saw the light, too. Now she is not heavy at all, but has seen the value of the very low carb lifestyle.
Now I am three weeks into my journey. My blood sugars have stabilized, I am reducing the amount of insulin I am injecting by more than half, and my blood pressure has gone down. Oh, and in three weeks, I have dropped 13 pounds. And I am no longer hungry. On Weight Watchers, I was hungry all the time. Gary Taubes calls WW a "semi-starvation" diet, and it was. That is why I failed, and why most people who do semi-starvation diets fail to keep the weight off. But protein makes you feel full, and keeps you full. It helps me to not obsess about food. Prior to embracing my inner carnivore, I could hardly make it past 9:30 a.m. without eating something else, despite eating (what I thought was) a healthy and hearty Weight Watchers approved breakfast.
I was going to die of a heart attack on my previous high carb, low fat diet, but I won't now. For those of you who still believe saturated fat causes heart attacks, look at the empirical research before you comment. Hint: there is none. Here is a piece of medical research to chew on if you still think I am crazy: http://www.ajcn.org/content/86/2/276.full. If you cannot trudge through the turgid and dense academic prose, skip directly to the summary at the end of the article. "LCD" stands for "low carb diet" and CVD stands for "cardio-vascular disease."
This book changed my life. I was converted, completely, as my weight loss biography mirrored the failed attempts detailed in Taubes' book. I had considered myself weak-willed, gluttonous, and slothful for failing at keeping weight off, but then I learned why I had failed: too many carbs and too much insulin in my system. It's too complicated to explain how that works, just read Gary Taubes' book if you are interested. It is short and interesting. But a low carb lifestyle boils down to this: avoid most carbohydrates and eat a lot more saturated fat and protein. Eat as much meat, poultry, and fish as you like (but stop when you are full), and consume fat, including the saturated fat in animal products. Eat small quantities of leafy green vegetables (and a few other vegetables) but avoid most carbohydrates: flour, sugar, starchy vegetables like potatoes and rice, and anything made with those ingredients. I am striving to live on fewer than 20 carbs a day. Bye bye bread. Hello bacon, eggs, and steak.
My wife and I went on a business trip to Las Vegas, and without telling her, I decided to begin my very low carb journey. When she found out about my decision, she was not happy. We fought a lot about what, and why, I was eating and I kept insisting she read the book. She finally did, and saw the light, too. Now she is not heavy at all, but has seen the value of the very low carb lifestyle.
Now I am three weeks into my journey. My blood sugars have stabilized, I am reducing the amount of insulin I am injecting by more than half, and my blood pressure has gone down. Oh, and in three weeks, I have dropped 13 pounds. And I am no longer hungry. On Weight Watchers, I was hungry all the time. Gary Taubes calls WW a "semi-starvation" diet, and it was. That is why I failed, and why most people who do semi-starvation diets fail to keep the weight off. But protein makes you feel full, and keeps you full. It helps me to not obsess about food. Prior to embracing my inner carnivore, I could hardly make it past 9:30 a.m. without eating something else, despite eating (what I thought was) a healthy and hearty Weight Watchers approved breakfast.
I was going to die of a heart attack on my previous high carb, low fat diet, but I won't now. For those of you who still believe saturated fat causes heart attacks, look at the empirical research before you comment. Hint: there is none. Here is a piece of medical research to chew on if you still think I am crazy: http://www.ajcn.org/content/86/2/276.full. If you cannot trudge through the turgid and dense academic prose, skip directly to the summary at the end of the article. "LCD" stands for "low carb diet" and CVD stands for "cardio-vascular disease."
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