Low Carb Diet

[Yukari]

Interesting article on white bread and high carb ...

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/7333/20140531/eating-white-bread-increases-obesity-risk.htm

[joekelly]

Makes sense as simple long chain starches, white flour, are rapidly metabolized into white sugar. .  But what does the smell of white bread have to do with obesity? There are no calories in odors.

[Dave2512]

All they talk about is carbs in bread, unless I missed it. Yeah bread is super high carb but usually a calorie bomb too, and that's with nothing on or in between it. That's why I avoid it.

[mvmac]

Yeah bread is super high carb but usually a calorie bomb too, and that's with nothing on or in between it. That's why I avoid it.

Same here, I'd rather spend my calories (and carbs) elsewhere.

[mvmac]

Lunch, 3 eggs and 5 slices of turkey bacon

[Dave2512]

^^That looks good. I eat a lot of eggs. I like basted eggs over blanched asparagus with a couple oz of chuck eye.

[saevel25]

Same here, I'd rather spend my calories (and carbs) elsewhere.

Like BACON!!!

^^That looks good. I eat a lot of eggs. I like basted eggs over blanched asparagus with a couple oz of chuck eye.

Oh I know, I throw eggs on a lot of things. Burgers, steaks, ect.. just adds a great richness to a dish. Though one of my high carb dishes is pasta carbonara. Just absolutely delicious. Maybe not too bad to have from time to time.

[Dave2512]

Oh I know, I throw eggs on a lot of things. Burgers, steaks, ect.. just adds a great richness to a dish. Though one of my high carb dishes is pasta carbonara. Just absolutely delicious. Maybe not too bad to have from time to time.

My grandparents came from Sicily I can't live without pasta. I don't even bother trying to keep it healthy.

[mvmac]

Uh oh, I get about 180-200 grams a day

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/12/eating-too-much-protein_n_5481307.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

[kpaulhus]

Uh oh, I get about 180-200 grams a day :-P [URL=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/12/eating-too-much-protein_n_5481307.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/12/eating-too-much-protein_n_5481307.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063[/URL] [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/content/type/61/id/99714/] [/URL]

As you should.

[joekelly]

Protein good. Red meat not so good. Fish, chicken, eggs, vegetable protein (soy isolate, tofu, beans, lentils) good.  Milk fat (butter, cheese, cream, whole milk ) very not good.  More processing means less good.  Bleached white flour not as good as whole wheat flour and neither as good as whole rolled oats.

Alcohol and white sugar have many but all empty calories.  Sweet potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, beetroots,  have lots of good calories and fiber too. Green leaves, esp all in cabbage family of plants, tops in nutrition and low in calories. Your body is the structure of your existence; best to care for it.

Free will means it is your choice. Tonight i choose 2 beers.

[mvmac]

Red meat not so good.  Milk fat (butter, cheese, cream, whole milk ) very not good.

Why are these things not good? Fat is good for organ and brain health and doesn't "make you fat".

[iacas]

Why are these things not good? Fat is good for organ and brain health and doesn't "make you fat".

Fat also makes you feel "full" more easily, so you end up eating much less.

Most of the things I've read align with what you're saying Mike - fat is good for you. If you consider it, animals eat fat. Humans evolved to eat fat. Red meat. Milk. Eggs. Etc.

[mvmac]

Fat also makes you feel "full" more easily, so you end up eating much less.

Yep that too.

TIME just did a story on fat http://time.com/2863227/ending-the-war-on-fat/

[Stretch]

Amen.

Yep that too.

TIME just did a story on fat http://time.com/2863227/ending-the-war-on-fat/

Which was completely ripped off from this book, which I highly recommend.

[joekelly]

Let's keep our conversation limited to 'real foods', not highly processed, trans fat,  or chemical loaded, eg., sausage, margarine, pizza, bacon, etc.

As mentioned in the book review of the 'Big Fat Surprise' on www. CNN, Harvard Health School boss says straight out "  that saturated fat raises unhealthy LDL levels in the blood".  OK, these cholesterol types build up in our blood vessels and if overly abundant will constrict the blood vessel and big trouble may ensue. Like fatal heart attack, blood clot to brain, congestive heart failure, loss of peripheral artery function (no more erections), and other nasty life changers.

So where are these saturated fats that cause the problem? All red meat fat has these and resulting concentrations of these fats, like butter, cream, cheese, lard may be considered the worst of the lot.   And of course the fatter the meat, the more fat you eat,  so the most expensive, and the most 'delicious' according to some diners, is the Prime steak, well marbled with white streaks of FAT. So in my mind the more of this fat i eat, the greater my chance of suffering the consequences,  which i do not want. I don't want emphysema or lung cancer so i quit the cigs. My food habits, like everyone's, were learned at my mother's table and father was a butcher in Chicago so meat was on the menu, except Friday.  And butter, cream cheese,  blue cheese, lard fried doughnuts,...you name it i ate it and loved it.  But i did not need any of it.  Today i will eat tiny bits of strong cheese, or during one year less than one stick of butter. It's only a heath choice, not a moral or religious one.

And to say that humans evolved eating meat/fat may be true but the average meat consumption amongst primitive folks (our ancestor types) is very low and the evolving guys only lived the age 42, then kicked off.  Our life style, overall health and medical care means we live much longer but much less energetically.  Because we love our mother we don't like to contradict her teachings and so many folks follow her diet, the one we learned as a boy.

Sure, gotta have some fat in the diet and the treckers who crossed the Antarctic on foot ate 6 frozen sticks of butter every day for the  calories.  But i do not need that many calories so do not need to consume such fatty foods.

As far as foods go, we gotta eat. There is no question.  Gotta smoke?  No.  So we must choose and the food choices we make today, which will slowly lead us away from the questionable foods the better our long term health. Books like the Big Fat Surprise are written to make money for the author and many folks will find a way, like point to a book, to justify or explain daily life habits. I have read of men who refuse to eat a meal unless a piece of meat is on the plate. That is only habit and certainly not an intelligent choice.  Such a man is constricted by tradition and fear.

Eat fat, sure.  But eat less fat and eat healthier fats, which are oils.  Animal fats are solid at room temperature but oils are liquid.  Go with the oils.  Try this to feel full.  Steam some sweet potatoes, blend up some peanut butter, zero fat youghurt and peanut oil and eat with the potatoes.

[Stretch]

I respectfully disagree with almost all of your arguments.

My personal belief is that the most healthy way to eat is low in carbohydrate, moderate in protein and high in saturated fat. I try to keep net carbs below 50g, protein between 0.8 and 1.0 gram per pound of lean body weight and then adjust the fat component as necessary to create a caloric deficit or surplus.

I eat eggs, fish, chicken, beef, lamb, pork, butter, cheese, cream, double cream yoghurt, full cream milk, mayo, leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, avocado, spinach, tomatoes in moderation, coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, almonds and macadamia nuts, berries in moderation. I don't eat sugar, bread, rice, potatoes, cereal, pasta, soy anything, corn anything, legumes (peanuts!) or vegetable oils.

A normal day's menu would be a 4-egg omelette with bacon, cheese, tomato and avo for breakfast, a chicken or steak salad with blue cheese dressing for lunch and a grilled steak or grilled lamb chops with vegetables sautéed in butter for dinner. Drinks are water, coffee with heavy cream and red wine.

Of course, at this point people usually start asking you exactly when you are going to die of that heart attack. But I'm satisfied that the "standard" dietary cholesterol hypothesis is utter bollocks and I guess I'm literally betting my life on it. N = 1 but I am much healthier -- generally -- now at 210 lbs and mainlining bacon than I was at 245 lbs smashing pizzas into my face. I had my blood lipids tested about a month ago and they were excellent. My cardiologist is a friend and a forward-thinker and he summarized the currently-available experimental evidence on LCHF (low carb high fat) diets for me thusly:

-- Total cholesterol level doesn't actually matter. LCHF eating tends to boost total cholesterol.

-- HDL (good) cholesterol level matters a lot. You want it high. LCHF eating tends to boost HDL cholesterol.

-- LDL (bad) cholesterol level may or may not matter in itself. Almost 75 percent of patients admitted to hospital in the US for a heart attack have LDL cholesterol in the so-called "safe range" -- under 130 mg/dl. Low LDL is not protective unless accompanied by high HDL, so it is the ratio of HDL to LDL that is important. LCHF eating tends to raise both LDL* and HDL, but boosts HDL by more, thus improving the ratio.

(* A lot of people freak out about this and they needn't, because ...)

-- There are two types of LDL particles -- for simplicity think of them as either small and dense (ApoB) and large and fluffy (ApoA). The small and dense ones cause the damage that leads to coronary artery disease. Both the number and the size of the small ones matter. LCHF eating tends to both make the small LDL particles bigger (and hence less damaging) and less numerous relative to the large LDL particles. So, even if total LDL reading does go up, the main underlying risk factors are going down.

-- Blood triglyceride levels are an important risk factor. Lower is better. LCHF eating tends to lower triglyceride levels (a lot).

-- Blood insulin and glucose levels matter. Lower is better. LCHF eating tends to lower insulin and glucose levels.

I really do think the tide is turning against the "standard" low-fat dietary orthodoxy that came into force in the early 80s, simply because the general population in the developed world has become so undeniably fat and sick while ostensibly following this advice. How the medical and nutritional communities will deal with acknowledging that they have been giving their patients precisely the wrong advice for decades -- ultimately killing many of them -- remains to be seen.

[mvmac]

Agree with @Stretch . Eating fat doesn't "clog" your arteries.

As was just posted, there are two different types of LDL: small, dense LDL, and large, buoyant LDL. Small, dense LDL is a significant risk factor for heart disease because it's more likely to oxidize and cause inflammation. Large, buoyant LDL is not a risk factor for heart disease. Eating eggs not only increases the benign large, buoyant LDL, but it also decreases the harmful small, dense LDL by 20%.

Like @Stretch said, total cholesterol doesn't matter, what I go by is the ratio of triglycerides to HDL (d ivide triglycerides by HDL to get it). If that number is less than 2, this suggests you have mostly large, buoyant LDL - which is not a risk factor for heart disease. If that number is higher than 3, it suggests you have mostly small, dense LDL, which is a risk factor for heart disease. But even that ratio doesn't really "matter" because whether your TG:HDL is good or bad the solution is the same, eat about .3-.45 grams (minimum) of fat per pound of body weight (easier to calculate than figuring out lean body mass). This will reduce your triglycerides and small, dense LDL, and increase your HDL.