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The Truth About Fat
Health | June 22, 2014
Being a huge fan of low carb and high fat diet, I was super excited to see an article from Bryan Walsh in the Time Magazine. Here’s the skinny of the article:
Breads, cereals, pasta, and other starchy carbs have been the base of the USDA food pyramid since the 1980. It was the same year when the U.S. government announced the results of a $150 million study – eating less fat results in decreasing the cholesterol levels and the risk of a heart attack. The hate towards fat begun, but the food industry and manufacturers have shown their creativity and flexibility. The stores got filled with low fat microwave dinners, yogurts, cookies, cheese, milk, and cereals. Their message to the consumer was loud and clear. Fat was evil and our products have low or no fat, therefore their healthy. All they did was replacing fat with tons of carbs and low fat junk food.
Unfortunately for millions of Americans, this experiment was an obvious failure. Almost four decades later and Americans are sicker then ever by almost every measure. Type 2 diabetes increased by 166% from 1980 to 2012 and now nearly 1 out of 10 Americans suffers from this disease. Another 84 millions are estimated to be pre diabetic. Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer, and more than third of the country is obese. New research suggests that it’s the high consumption of carbohydrates, sugar and artificial sweeteners that is mainly responsible for the epidemics of lifestyle diseases.
Studies by Dr. Eric Westman at the Duke’s University found that replacing carbs with fat could help manage and even reverse diabetes. High fat diet has been proven to be successful in treating epilepsy and more and more studies are now showing that Ketogenic diet might be the new anti-cancer diet that has the capability to starve the bad cancer cells, which can’t survive without glucose. An article about Dr. Fred Hatfield who survived a widespread metastatic cancer was published last year in CBN news. Dr. Hatfield switched to Keto diet after doctors told him that he’s got only 3 months to live. Dr. Hatfield was literally shocked that the cancer was completely gone, and without any trace even a year later.
Low carb and Ketogenic diet are becoming more and more popular as we begin to realize what the real devil is. It’s unfortunate to be the generation that grew up on a high carb low fat diet, because getting off the sugar addiction is not an easy task. What keeps me on track with low carb and Keto diet is realizing, how lucky I am for being healthy and for not having to deal with any lifestyle or metabolic disease.
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Brittany
I respect your opinion. Have you ever tried keto? Keto is about balance. The people you describe eat high fat AND high carb. No balance to the macros
Your thoughts?
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Hey Janyne!
I never called what I was doing the keto diet but I did dabble around with a similar diet that was high in fat, low in carbs, and low in protein for a few months (I also didn’t drink alcohol) and I just didn’t lose any weight and my athletic performance suffered.
One of my best friends does this diet though and she has had great weight loss results and enjoys the diet; however, she doesn’t workout.
Personally, I recently became a vegan and switched my diet to a low fat high carb diet filled with fruits and vegetables (including potatoes) and I have been seeing amazing results and have been feeling amazing. I don’t even drink coffee anymore, because I have tons of energy and I’m able to teach multiple exercise classes now without feeling fatigued and sluggish. I’ve also lost about 4 lbs in 3 weeks.
I do agree that many people don’t practice macro control and that can lead to weight gain. I just don’t agree that this is the best approach to regain control long term. At the end of the day though the best healthy diet is the one that you can sustain!
Anyway, those are my thoughts. My opinion isn’t king or queen. Just another way of thinking. 🙂
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Brittany,
Mind if you share what are your vegan meal plan in a day and where do you get your protein sources from? My case is almost similar like yours, keto is great for that satiated feeling, but neither did it help to lose the last bits of pounds for me. I am seriously considering vegetarian here… But am not too sure where to get my protein sources from.
Many thanks. :))
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Michelle,
Well an average day for me is a huge fruit breakfast. I usually have 6 bananas, 1/2 a huge watermelon, OR a mixing bowl sized serving of cherries. Then for lunch I usually have a salad of vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes and zucchini without lettuce combined with another large serving of fruit like a big plastic case of blueberries and another of strawberries. Then for dinner I have maybe 3-4 baked potatoes or 3 cups pasta with a low sodium pasta sauce. That usually gives me around 1900 calories and 10-20% of those calories are from protein. I really don’t worry about my protein intake because if I am stuffing my face with as many fruits and vegetables as possible during the day then I am way above the minimum daily requirement. The world health organization recommends 5% of your daily calories from protein. I do sometimes eat oatmeal, quinoa, tofu, or beans which are higher in protein, but I don’t seek them out. I already know that I am getting enough from fruits and vegetables alone.
Here is what I specifically ate today:
6 Bananas, raw
medium (7″ to 7-7/8″ long)
Calories: 630.12
Watermelon juice
4 cup
Calories: 300.84
Sushi, with vegetables in seaweed
4 piece
Calories 125.26
Prego Pasta, Tomato, Basil and Garlic Italian Sauce, ready-to-serve
2 serving 1/2 cup
160 calories
Pasta, spaghetti, enriched, cooked
2 servings 250ml
467.46 calories
Cherries, sweet, raw
2 cup, with pits, yields
calories 173.88
Orange juice, raw
2 fruit yields
caloriess 77.4
Private Member |
Michelle, I have been vegan for 4 years and before that I was vegetarian for 12 years. I can assure you that there is more than enough protein for your daily intake in fruits and veggies. Something people don’t know is that most North Americans get up to 60% more protein than they need in a day. You actually CAN have too much of a good thing! Our bodies are not meant to process that high amount and therefore it stores as FAT! And I don’t mean the good kind. Not only that, overconsumption of animal products is not only terrible for the environment, it can cause some of the most common deady diseases, like diabetes and heart disease. Do some research on the vegan diet and watch some documentaries. You will be pleasantly surprised.
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do you eat almond butter on your keto diet? there is so much out on the internet about this type of diet, it would really be great to see what you eat in a day so we could all get he amazing results you do from your workouts and diet. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE 🙂
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Brittany,
Zuzka does not recommend cutting out fruits and vegetables, not at all. Look elsewhere on the site. It’s actually that the carbs you *do* eat *should* come from green leafy veggies and fibrous (and thus lower glycemic) fruits. And every meal should include some. The type of diet she and the article refer is high in *heart healthy* fats, as from avocados, nuts, and fish oil. The Heart Association at the time did not get the difference between healthy and unhealthy fats in the way research has now shown. The article is dead on. Look into out a bit more.
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And no, keto is not the end-all, be-all. And yes, there are other, moderate, healthy ways to eat that support weight loss. To each her/his own.
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I think extremism of any kind is ineffective.
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…long term… 🙂
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Could you please do another article showing what you eat in a day? I love seeing that and getting ideas
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And then, 10 years on, when we are all eating our carb-free fatty diets, they will find out that it is the over-consumption of olive oil and avocados that makes us sick, and pumpkin/cucumber/potato/whatever is the new super-food.
Private Member |
🙂 🙂 That was exactly what I thought today.
I guess, that Z tries to say high-fat & LOW-carb though, not NO-CARB.
It probably is about the combination and that the focus should be on getting off of the carb peeks.
And noone should even try to tell me that my delicious fruit salat is not good for me: I will not believe them! 🙂
Private Member |
The key issue is the type of fat you eat, most obese people eat the wrong fats, such as margarine, canola oils etc. The Ketogenic diet in fact promotes eating lots of green leafy veggies (carciferious veggies). You should be eating fresh veggies with each meal but not things like starchy potatoes.
Fast food is the key killer especially for obese people who eat excessive amounts of it. The actual beef patty on a burger (if 100% ground beef) is not bad it is the bread, french fries and all the sauces which are loaded with wrong fats and sugars that are bad.
Fruit can also be eaten on the Ketogenic diet but in moderation.
GOOD FATS should make up about 50% to 60% of your meal if you follow the Ketogenic Diet.
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If you follow Zuzka’s nutrition blog you know that her diet consists of high protein, lots of fresh produce, healthy fats and little to no processed foods, refined sugar or white flour products, sodas, candies or deep fried foods. Oh and of course, no smoking, drinking or drugs. She’s physically active everyday – moving her body all throughout the day.
If more people followed this lifestyle, I think there would be less sick people.
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Oh, last but not least…lots of clean water. 🙂
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I would like others opinions on this! I have been doing a vegetarian diet basically for a month now. I do high fat and I still eat fish about once a week. I get take sun warrior protein supplements after my workout but get the rest of protein from all carbs like beans, lentils, rice, quinoa and fats like nuts and seeds. I have lost 8 pounds so far and feel amazing. I also eat a lot more fruit than I ever had before and yet Im still losing bodyfat and weight while gaining muscle. Why are carbs and fruit sugars so bad if Im seeing great results? is it temporary and my health will decline later? any thoughts?
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My guess is that there’s no “perfect diet”, and many different diets work, as it probably doesn’t really matter so much what exactly you’re eating, as long as it is not all soda, french fries and snickers bars.
Basically, a) there are things that we should eat, at least a little bit of each, to stay healthy (vitamins, micro elements, fat, protein, etc); b) there are things that we know for sure are unhealthy (processed fats, refined sugars, too much salt, etc); c) we should be getting just about right amount of calories to have enough energy, but avoid getting fat. Since most “healthy diets” do all those things anyway, plus add some extra arbitrary rules, they are all good for you.
In my opinion, it doesn’t really matter whether you are keto, paleo, vegetarian, etc. They are all healthy diets.