A few times, over the course of a decade, I tried to lose weight by following the mainstream advice (eat less, exercise more, eat less saturated fat, eat more “healthy” whole grains). It always led me to frustration, anxiety, powerful hunger pangs, and very little (zero permanent) weight loss.
Then about a year ago, I encountered the high-fat/low-carb/moderate-protein Atkins diet as explained by
Dr. Eric Westman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpCQJcw3LuI
Gary Taubes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR3FVvEJ-Nk
http://garytaubes.com/lectures-2/
and Jimmy Moore (who lost 180 pounds on LCHF)
http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/
I also learned about the toxins in the industrial strains of wheat (http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/) and in vegetable oils.
In January 2010, I started eating low-refined-carb/high-saturated-fat and cut wheat and vegetable oil out of my diet. I lost 60 pounds in 6 months doing hardly any exercise and not experiencing the previous powerful hunger pangs. Since July of last year my weight has stabilized at what I weighed after high-school graduation. I’d thought I’d never see a normal weight again! My mood is very much improved, and I’m more energetic than I’ve been in years. My vital stats improved as well.
Due to a congenital hiatal hernia that causes stomach acid reflux and severe heartburn in my esophagus, I had been on a regular prilosec/protonix/nexium/prevacid/omeprazole prescription for over 20 years. After two months of eating this way, I no longer needed any of this medication! I cannot express to you how much this surprised and delighted me after 20 years of suffering — my GERD doctors always told me to avoid high-fat foods!
Last May my father-in-law had to have a gangrenous leg amputated due to diabetes. The other leg was also at risk. I told him about my new diet and how successful and easy it became after the first month. To my surprise he actually listened to me, decided to follow the diet, and lost 40 pounds. His high blood pressure cleared up, his high blood sugars came down, and his circulation in his remaining leg improved to the point that he is now walking around on it! (with a prosthesis on the other leg.) Needless to say, he is very enthusiastic about low-carb/high-fat.
One of the ladies who works in my dentist’s office, asked me how I lost so much weight. After I told her, she decided to try it and lost 20 pounds.
My wife, who was already at a normal BMI a year ago, has lost over 10 pounds (still normal) eating these high-fat foods with me.
In November, my mother finally decided to try eating this way too. So far, she too has lost 10 pounds in a couple of months.
After all the research I’ve done and experiences I’ve had in the past year regarding nutrition and health, I now believe the mainstream advice to society at large is erroneous and driven by bad science and perverse incentives. I say, eat like our ancestors did (whole foods). Cheap, processed foods like refined carbs and vegetable oils are new creations which didn’t exist until relatively recently in human history. Many people’s bodies just can’t cope with them long-term in the quantities they occur in the standard American diet.
With regard to the movie Fat Head, I saw and loved it. Tom Naughton is pretty good at making the science of nutrition entertaining. If you liked Fat Head, you may also enjoy his comedic talk at the Ancestral Health Symposium (”Science for Smart People”) here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXUldijo13g (Unfortunately the slides don’t seem to be redistributable under fair-use, so it’s hard to watch at first but gets better.)
processed foods like refined carbs and vegetable oils are new creations which didn’t exist until relatively recently in human history.
Exactly.
Easily digestible carbs are fairly rare in nature. Unless it is the fruiting season when berries are on the vine or apples are on the trees, simple sugars are not something you will find in any abundance.
And vegetable oils? When’s the last time you bit into an ear of corn and oil just dripped out? Except for nuts and a few other foods, oils simply are not a predominant component of vegetables. It takes alot of energy to manufacture oils, and vegetables have to spend their energy budget on creating flowers and producing seed.
The whole “agricultural revolution” thing has been vastly overhyped, humans having a significant part of their diet from domesticated agriculture being a phenomena that really is the last 10,000 years or so.
And interestingly, even those societies whos diets are heavily from agriculture have almost all, without exception, some animal component to their diet, either from livestock or from fishing/hunting.