Hello Tallson - happy new year!
We never really outgrow adolescence, do we?
Low carb is a very active area of research driven by the world's obesity epidemic. Much of the new research points back to a decision in the 1970s to tell Americans (and the rest of the world for that matter) that dietary fat was the source of all medical ills, and it should be restricted. This policy was based on very sparse and contradictory findings. But we believed it. The food industry loaded the shelves with low fat and nonfat products made palatable with extra sugar. In turn, the USDA released the food pyramid, telling us to primarily eat bread, cereal, flour and pasta. It also gave sugar the designation "harmless" except for cavities and the risk of overeating the sweet stuff which might result in excess calories.
This combination - low fat and high carb public nutritional policy - may have been absolutely deadly for public health and the source of the obesity epidemic.
Sugar is one half fructose, and excess dietary carbs also convert to fructose. When fructose arrives in the digestive track, it is are sent directly to the liver and processed like alcohol, where it is largely converted to triglycerides which are then released into the blood stream, or stored in the liver to cause fatty liver disease. Sugar is now highly associated with heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, obesity, liver disease, a particular type of dementia (not Alzheimers), and other metabolic disorders. For years, nutrition researchers could not get funding to investigate sugar and carbs. The belief that fat and salt were to blame were so entrenched that nearly all the mainstream funding went that direction.
New research is putting public health policy in a tailspin. Sugar is coming out as the bad guy. Google "What if it was all a big fat lie?" for an investigative report on how poor public health research and policy has been during our lifetimes.
So what does this mean to you and me?
I believe the research is compelling but still tenuous. I have decided to at least give it a try. Lord knows I've tried everything else. My husband also got a prediabetes diagnosis (after years of very low fat dining) and his cardiologist put him on a low carb high fat diet. He isn't counting any calories and is losing weight and waist circumference. He is also eating all those forbidden fatty foods he avoided over the past four decades: butter, rich cheese, avocado, chicken skin, etc. If you want to do what he is doing, google "Low Carb High Fat." Those rules are pretty simple.
I'm a data geek so I want to know what I'm putting in my body. My rules are a little more complicated.
First, I record everything I eat. Men aren't inclined to do this but we women have done it so many times we could do it upside down and blindfolded.
Each day I try to take in 60 to 80 grams of protein. That is based on my gender, lean body weight, and activity level. Google "grams protein calculator" to find out how much protein you need. If you don't get adequate protein your weight loss strategy will attack muscle and you want it to attack fat instead. Men usually need more protein than women so don't use my gram values. Good sources of protein include meat, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, yogurt, nuts, seeds, etc. Grass fed and organic are labels that will keep you away from some toxic chemicals often used in food production.
I take in about the same number of carbs (again, about 60 to 80 grams), mostly coming from plants, and mostly above-ground plants like sweet peppers, cucumbers, broccoli, celery, pea pods, green beans, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, kale, chard, and cabbage. These represent the bulk of my diet. I limit (but take in small amounts) starchy carbs like dry beans, carrots, onions, and pumpkin. I allow myself a half cup serving of berries every couple days, but no other sugary fruits at this time. It doesn't take much of these starchy or naturally sweet items to give me a lot of carbs so I don't eat them every day.
To fill out my approximate 1400 calorie restricted diet (I am trying to lose weight) the rest of my calories are fat. I get most fat from the protein sources (meat, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, etc) but some is added fat such as cream, butter, and olive oil. I haven't converted to coconut oil but there is a big movement to do so. I don't understand it yet and until then I'm using olive oil. The great thing about dietary fat is how much it calms the digestive system and yields feelings of fullness. I don't have heartburn any more.
I also try to get about 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day, which isn't easy. Nuts and beans do well but veggies are disappointing low in in fiber.
All this calculating is intended to give me a balanced diet for healthy muscles and weight loss. I lost 11 pounds in 7 weeks and have about 12 pounds to go to return to "normal" weight range. My husband isn't working nearly as hard at it as I am (no calorie counting and about 1/4 the fitbit steps I do a day) but he has lost almost a pound a week. So you can approach the rules in gory detail as I have, or relax and follow a simpler set of rules associated with low carb, high fat diets.
I apologize for such a long post, but some of this is for me, as I keep trying to make sense of how nutrition informatio has changed recently. I have intended to eat healthy most of my life, and to feed my family healthy foods. I am still "rewriting" my personal nutritional narrative.
Fitbit Product Experts Alumni are retired members of the Fitbit Product Expert Program. Learn more
Best Answer
