Weight Loss Update

This week, I dropped 2.6 pounds, for a total weight loss of 38.4 pounds. Follow my progress with this chart. That means, among other things, that I have lost 6.6 pounds in the three weeks I have been to Europe. How many people can come to the continent of celestial cuisine and lose weight? I know that some of the students who have come with us have put on weight. At least, they have been lamenting about putting on weight, but have decided they will deal with it after their experience is over.

I ate a fair amount of grass fed Scottish beef last week, and continue to cook with and eat butter and cream (which, as I have mentioned before, do not increase heart disease risk). I am really not missing carbs at all, and markers of health, my blood pressure and blood glucose levels, are all quite good. And, most amazing of all, since this is not a semi-starvation diet, I am not hungry between meals on my low carb lifestyle.

Consume Butter and Cream

I weigh myself every day, even if I only report it on this blog once a week.  I have been trying an experiment recently, where I am consciously adding more fat to my diet and eating less protein.  I am striving for 75% fat, 15-20% protein, and the rest in carbs (5-10% for those of you bad at math).  In particular, I make sure I eat two or three eggs per day, use butter for cooking and seasoning, eat fatty cuts of meat (bacon!), and eat more cream (in sauces or whipped up and eaten with berries).  The weight keeps coming off.  Even though I do not make any attempt to count calories and eat until I am full (but I don't overeat), the weight keeps coming off.  So far this week, I have dropped 3.6 pounds.  Of course, I avoid most carbs except for green vegetables plus I am active (we walk a lot in Europe), and both of those activities contribute to the weight loss success.  But the butter and cream are great sources of fuel and help me to feel full. A recent study demonstrated that children who eat saturated fat and full cream dairy products were healthier than those who did not.

And I won't be dying from a heart attack any time soon.  Remember: saturated fats do not cause heart disease.  The fat in mothers' milk is 60% saturated and our brains are 60% fat.  If saturated fats are so bad, why is so much of it in mothers' milk?  We are designed to consume saturated fats (by evolution or our creator, whatever your belief system).  We've been around for a long time, and it's only in the past few decades that Americans in particular have become hung up on the concept of saturated fat.  And as our rates of saturated fat consumption have plunged (see table 1 in this linked document), cardiovascular disease has increased. Something does not compute.

So go ahead, eat butter and cream if you are following a low carb diet.  Don't gorge on it, and stop when you are full.  But eat butter and cream.  Put butter on your veggies, cook your meat in butter, make delicious sauces using cream for your meats, eat cream with your berries, add cream to your scrambled eggs, etc. and you will be healthier and lose weight.

Interesting Food Trends

An article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looks at food trends from 1909 to 2007 (abstract, full text).  Table 1 in the full text version has a lot of very interesting statistics.  Butter consumption has drastically declined, but consumption of seed oils has increased substantially (read this page about why seed oils are not good for us and this page about why butter and cream are good for us). Meat consumption has gone up, but beef consumption levels remained constant.  The increase in the last few decades is from chicken (probably skinless chicken breasts).  People are eating a lot more ice cream and sweeteners (sugars, high fructose corn syrup), especially in sugared soft drinks.

Though the author is a vegan activist promoting a low fat, animal free diet (see the last statement in the full text version of the article, just before the reference section), this tells me a lot of our obesity/diabetes problems could be reversed by eating like we did one hundred or more years ago.

News from the Low Carb Blogosphere

From the Metabolism Society comes this news:  low-fat diets, alone and/or in combination with exercise, had no effect on metabolic syndrome.  But as I've noted before, low carb diets have significant, positive effects on metabolic syndrome.

Recent evidence that intense cardio-vascular exercise, such as training for and running in more than three marathons per year, may cause damage to the heart.

Here is a fairly extensive, annotated list of diseases that can be cured or prevented by following a low carb diet.  For example, eating cheese can help to prevent tooth decay.

William Davis, M.D., a cardiologist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, discusses the unexpected benefits of a wheat-free diet.  He also points out that eating oatmeal causes significant blood sugar spikes.

Eating butter and cream will improve your cardiovascular health.

When checking your blood sugars, make sure to wash your hands with soap, dry them thoroughly, and don't squeeze to get blood.  Readings may be affected by +/- 10%.

Whole wheat bread causes blood sugar spikes that are similar to white bread.