Well almost as if on cue dietary experts have weighed in on the low carb versus low fat dietary smack down that showed a superior result from low fat diets.
In case you have not been following my Ketogenic diet series I have been eating 60+% of my daily calorie intake from fats, 25% from protein and 15% or less from carbs. In other numbers I try to keep my carbs below 50 grams or the equivalent of 1.5 slices of typical white or whole grain bread a day.
The recent study I referred to above showed far more weight loss in a year on low carb vs low fat diet (12 pounds average versus 4 pounds).
We’ll have look at what the experts said in a moment but you do need to understand a few things.
First this is not the first time this has happened.
In an email to you several years ago entitled “The Great Diet Smackdown” I detailed similar findings. Low carb diets won hands down over low fat with Atkins style diets more than doubling the subjects weight loss. For the record the worst performer was Dean Ornish’s then popular “Rainbow diet”. It weighed in at a measly 4 pounds. Then again he never did pitch it as a weight loss diet.
Next if anything a carb dominated Big Food controlled “whole grain goodness” campaign has had 10’s of millions of dollars thrown at it by grain seed and crop producers headed by GMO giant Monsanto. Interestingly enough our president’s current food czar is headed to the board of directors of that company when his time in politics is done.
I wonder if there is any significance in that?!
On top of that is long history
Of what can only be termed anti fat bias that has dominated medical thinking for the past 40 years spear headed by Big Pharma and the statin crew. Along with the ADA who used to allow Pop Tarts on the diabetic exchange diet we have a carb dominated food pyramid.
Ok so what did the experts say?
- 1) The whole premise is stupid! How can one diet fit all when we are all so very different? My feeling: while it is true there are some minor genetic variations and a few epigenetic ones to be sure something like 98+% of all human genes are exactly the same when unmutated. We can be reasonably sure that the variations do not cluster in only the nutritional department. Give the slow as molasses speed of evolution we can also be sure that the changes needed to accommodate a high grain diet did not take place in the past 10,000 years since we have been cultivating grains and certainly not in the past 100 years since the advent if GMO grains.
- High fat is dangerous and the people advocating it are dangerous! I pretty much cornered that in my”BAD Dietary Advice” blog. To Dr David Katz of Yale I repeat my challenge: Before you put it down try it yourself and measure all those precious lipids values like I did and see what happens! I would add that the relatively small amount of weight loss pretty much tells me that while the low carb diet was indeed carb restricted, the researchers probably wussed out and included much more protein and hedged on the high fat part. The clue is I the way it’s presented: low carb. The word high fat did not appear and most researchers dare not challenge the long held “fat is bad for you” dogma
- Avoid any diet that tells you to avoid any macro nutrient group. There are 3 macro nutrient groups, carbs, fats and proteins. Well uh, it’s really impossible to avoid all carbs since fruits and vegetables contain a bit of them. It is also clear that cabs are truly non essential in the large amounts we currently get them in our diets. Fats and protein avoidance will make you sick and kill you fast. Carbs? Nope!
- And my personal favorite: Well we know that people on low carb diets automatically eat less! Um is that not the point of a diet.
Now I will also tell you that I think low carb diets will always
Be far more acceptable than true high fat Ketogenic diets. Ketogenic diets will always be on the fringe in the long run. But for people who really, really need to lose weight for just about any reason, they will remain the answer.
Lots of people will be able to maintain ketosis at a higher carb consumption rate than me. For me the difference between 50 grams and 100 grams for a few days is visible fat accumulation around my waist.
I have detailed all the testing I have done both lab and metabolic for the world to see. I did not make choice on a whim or bias. I would have dropped it like a hot potato if it didn’t work. It worked like gangbusters and who knows given the current research on metabolism and cancer, it may have saved my life!
My challenge to any health care providers remains: put your money where your mouth is. Otherwise shut up!
Doc