19 ms·

The case for eating steak and cream

81 points by nopinsight 12y ago

Evgeny 12y ago
Wasn't exactly that subject covered at length in numerous books already? Just to pick a few at (almost) random, with very similar names The Great Cholesterol Con http://www.amazon.com/Great-Cholesterol-Con-Anthony-Colpo-ebook/dp/B007CPFEYI/ http://www.amazon.com/Great-Cholesterol-Con-Anthony-Colpo-eb... The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease http://www.amazon.com/The-Cholesterol-Myths-Exposing-Saturated/dp/0967089700 http://www.amazon.com/The-Cholesterol-Myths-Exposing-Saturat... The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It http://www.amazon.com/Great-Cholesterol-Con-Really-Disease-ebook/dp/B0078XGXQM http://www.amazon.com/Great-Cholesterol-Con-Really-Disease-e... (Of these, I personally read only Anthony Colpo's Great Cholesterol Con and consider it to be a very good analysis)
- maroonblazer 12y ago
  Not to mention these two: Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259 http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259 Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Controversial-Science/dp/1400033462 http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Controversial-Scienc...
  - Evgeny 12y ago
    Sure, but these two, I believe, include the subject of cholesterol, but also cover much broader area of subjects.
    - scarygliders 12y ago
      This, although written many years ago (and shows, but it adds to the charm), is what I consider to be something which should be read by everyone. http://www.ourcivilisation.com/fat/index.htm http://www.ourcivilisation.com/fat/index.htm
krob 12y ago
Yup, eliminate the soda, cake-like-bread, and condiments at the table and watch the body fat evaporate.
- sjtrny 12y ago
  Condiments? I doubt 1/2 a tablespoon of ketchup is causing the obesity crisis. "Soda" is the biggest problem that you mentioned.
kfk 12y ago
To me the most amazing thing is that we still have "low fat" food around and that it is still labelled as healthy. Instead, the low carb food is either labelled "low carb" or "paleo", which are both names that remind this gym fixated people everybody laughs at. Then you have all the vegan/vegetarian crowd who laughs at who eats meat and steaks. It's a mess.
- NotOscarWilde 12y ago
  As a vegetarian, I don't laugh at people eating meat. In fact, when it comes to nutrition, eating (the right) meat is likely the most rational choice based on today's understanding. As a sidenote, I have looked into low-carb/keto diets and I've found that those are rather hard for vegetarians; reducing carb intake from some sources (rice, pasta) is easy, but even staple vegetarian foods rich in protein (tofu, lentils, beans, quinoa) are 1:1 when it comes to protein:carb content. Another thing to mention is that being vegetarian in a central European country limits you to a very few number of restaurants you can eat out with friends; I do not know of any place around that would serve vegetarian low-carb food. This would imply that I always bring my own food from home to work, socially exclude myself by not eating anything when we go out eating with friends, and so on.
  - ido 12y ago
    Where in Central Europe are you? I lived in Vienna and now living In Berlin, and while it was a bit of a struggle being vegetarian in the former it think over here there are actually quite a lot of good options (obviously not anywhere near as good as some other places like San Francisco).
    - taejo 12y ago
      As large, relatively "hip" capital cities, Berlin and Vienna are probably a "best case". In the German-speaking countries, there does seem to be a growing awareness and interest in vegetarianism, but in small cities in Germany I find my options in restaurants basically limited to pasta and pizza -- and of course falafel -- (though there are enough vegetarians and similar that there are shops selling tofu, vegan cheese, meat substitutes etc.). From what I've heard, the rest of central Europe is even worse.
scottjad 12y ago
For a critical response to Gary Taubes and the many other cholesterol confusionists, I highly recommend the videos by the PrimitiveNutrition Youtube user. He has over 30 hours of entertaining video analyzing medical studies and arguments related to this topic including the common attacks on Ancel Keys regurgitated in TFA. https://www.youtube.com/user/PrimitiveNutrition/featured https://www.youtube.com/user/PrimitiveNutrition/featured Transcripts: http://www.plantpositive.com http://www.plantpositive.com
- fredsted 12y ago
  I'm a fan of Gary taubes (lost 30kg with simple low no-carb diet), those videos aren't really convincing. In the first one he talks about pork rinds being very bad, but really it's a good way to get some crisp in your food when you don't have flour and eggs. I couldn't get through it because of all the breathing.
dbbolton 12y ago
A better title: "Why black-and-white thinking is bad for your diet and moderation is good". Actually, that could pretty much replace the whole article.
zt 12y ago
I have been participating in a Stanford Medical research study since October. The name of the randomized control study is "One Diet Does Not Fit All" (http://nutrition.stanford.edu/projects/DietbyGenotype-Study.html http://nutrition.stanford.edu/projects/DietbyGenotype-Study....). The basic premise of the study is that as almost everyone has one of two insulin responses to glucose and that if you have one response, you should be on a low-fat diet, and if you have the other, you should be on low-carb. My personal results have been quite successful. I was randomly assigned to the low-carb diet. I basically eat vegetables, meats, and cheese. I avoid everything from bread, to rice, to even nuts and fruits. On this diet I have lost nearly fifty pounds since I started. So it's been pretty successful for me. (I will admit that I had no idea whether it's the particular diet I'm on, per se, or the fact that I'm on any diet at all -- that I am paying attention). I also accept the premise of the study: one diet does not fit everyone. Sometimes I meet people and they say it's as simple as calories in, calories out. Some people say everyone should be on this diet or that diet. I don't know -- I don't presume that my diet would simply work for everyone. The human body is a very complex system both for any one person, and for the population. I tend to believe the central premise of the study (and we'll see if it works out): that different physiologies lead to different beneficial diets (and perhaps much more). There is a lot of story here: exercise being easier, meetings going more smoothly, my colleagues and family and friends supporting me, YC giving me a new t-shirt, buying a new wardrobe, my changing interactions with women (I'm strait, and who knows if this is due to me looking better or me being more confident)...etc...I'm planning to write up a (as is often the case) too-long blog post on it all when I'm finished with the study on October.
- hueving 12y ago
  > it's as simple as calories in, calories out This is definitely true, if you eat less calories than you burn, you will lose weight. But this is really hard to enforce for many people. Without blatant calorie labels on everything you eat, it's really easy to go over and then assume that it must not be true.
  - Borkdude 12y ago
    That, and the fact that most natural high carb foods, like fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains have a low calorie density compared to high fat foods. It's much harder to overeat on them, because they have more volume and fiber.
Borkdude 12y ago
Most low fat foods aren't really that low fat, but only contain less fat. If you calculate the percent of energy coming from fat from such foods it's still large. And more importantly, those "low fat" foods are still factory derived high sodium low fiber foods, not natural foods, like fruits, legumes and whole grains which contain almost no fat. What people call low fat is really just not good enough. For a seriously healthy low fat diet, read The Starch Solution by John McDougall. http://www.amazon.com/The-Starch-Solution-Regain-Health/dp/1623360277 http://www.amazon.com/The-Starch-Solution-Regain-Health/dp/1... However, low fat or high carb still misses the point of focussing on macronutrients instead of micronutrients. Micronutrients are a good indicator of the quality of foods. Micronutrients: vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, are important factors in satiety and long term weight loss maintenance. Whole foods like nuts, seeds and avocado's aren't low fat, but high fat, but can help in weight loss, because of their health benefits. Read Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman, who elaborates on this subject: http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Live-Amazing-Nutrient-Rich-Sustained/dp/031612091X http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Live-Amazing-Nutrient-Rich-Sustain... I have experience in combining Eat to Live + The Starch Solution which got me from a BMI of 27 to 20 for three years already. I eat relatively high carb / low fat, with the moderate addition of some nuts, seeds and avocado's. I find this works best for me. I've excluded almost all saturated fats AND free unsaturated fats like olive oil, which contain almost no valuable micronutrients.
- scottjad 12y ago
  My favorite resource on micronutrients and diet are the graphs in this article http://www.vegsource.com/harris/ten_categories.htm http://www.vegsource.com/harris/ten_categories.htm
  - Borkdude 12y ago
    Google for ANDI score, which is also a measure for the micronutrient content per calorie. http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/andi-food-scores.aspx http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/andi-food-scores.aspx
- DanBC 12y ago
  > Whole foods like nuts, seeds and avocado's aren't low fat, but high fat, but can We know that some people snack on these foods because they think the foods are healthy. Thus they take in several thousand extra calories that they don't need per day, on top of their regular meals.
mudil 12y ago
I eat fat, and look, I am still alive!
- csel 12y ago
  (shaking my head)
- logicallee 12y ago
  Man, you would make the world's fastest doctor. "Hello Mr. Johnson, great to see you again. Let's have a quick look here. And...yep... looks like you're still alive. Now, if you'll just sign here. And, we're all set. Keep up the good work! Next!" seriously though being alive is an accomplishment for most organisms in the 3.45 billion year history of life on Earth, an accomplishment in the vicious wild, and an accomplishment for civilized humans in the face of tragedy, neglect, disaster, disease, war, or certain human-caused problems (violence etc). In industrialized nations, today, being alive at all is a goal few people would set for themselves who are lucky enough to enjoy health and basic freedom from war, poverty, famine, natural disaster, violence, etc. While I don't mean to detract from your life's amibtions, you are entitled to them, I think you can almost certainly have higher ambitions than being alive. Of course, I don't know you personally, so who am I to say? Congratulations on what you have accomplished.
xwowsersx 12y ago
I've been eating a very high fat, very low carb diet now for almost 2 years. In that time I've shed 20 pounds (and I was never fat) and my cholesterol numbers have improved significantly. My experience is by no means scientific evidence, but just thought I'd share. Reading "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living" by Drs Phinney and Volek was life-changing.
jstsch 12y ago
People make things more complicated than they are. Just eat more plants. Eat less super-easy-to-digest free-calorie foods, such as refined sugars (sucrose). This includes simple starches such as you find in white bread, rice and pasta. They get converted into sucrose right away. It starts in your mouth (amylase enzyme in your saliva), just one simple molecular change and it's... glucose! That's why it tastes sweet if you keep on chewing a piece of white bread. White flour products are tasty though! So consider them as more of a snack, like cake or potato chips, and less as part of your daily meal.
gtuckerkellogg 12y ago
From the review, this book seems like a rehash of Taubes' two excellent and well researched books on the same topics. Taubes was the first to make the broad historical connections that also seem central to this book. Even the book title, "The Big Fat Surprise" is a play on Taubes' famous 2002 New York Times article "What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?". What, if anything is original to this work? From the Economist review, we have no idea.
Tycho 12y ago
The other day at work I caved and went for a pub-lunch, a burger with cheese, served with chips and coleslaw. I enjoyed it but immediately afterwards thought 'damn, that was greasy,' and remembered my marathon running colleague who always refrains from going for a 'crappy burger' with us. But here's the thing: I didn't feel hungry for the rest of the day. In fact I skipped dinner completely, just went for long walk round the city and stopped to have a beer somewhere. If you want to lose weight, surely the trick is to consume less calories per day and avoid the feeling of hunger. Few people are going to have the discipline to refrain from eating when they actually feel hungry, day after day after day.
- TTPrograms 12y ago
  This has been my experience with low carb - I can eat a high protein, high fat meal that will stuff me and be ~1000 calories, but I'll be satisfied for at least the rest of the day if not most of the next. Even if it's just calories in / calories out it's a clear win over my normal diet. Of course people used to think this long fasting is really bad (my parents, for example), but it seems like new research says it's fine, if not healthy for weight loss.
- eliben 12y ago
  I can second this. It's actually quite easy to test on yourself. Try two kinds of breakfast for a few days each, and compare how much snacking you want to do before lunch: 1. Bagels + scone 2. Eggs + bacon For me, the second kind undeniably leads to less hunger later in the morning. After a breakfast of 4 scrambled eggs + 4 strips of bacon (so 550-600 cal) I can easily not feel hungry at all until lunch. Couple of small bagels with some cream cheese + scone (also ~550-600 cal) and I feel much less full after a couple of hours.
icantthinkofone 12y ago
About 10 years ago, my two sons and I worked out with George Turner as our coach. George was a gruff, ex-Marine in his 60s known all over the world and had many weight lifting awards to his name and wrote for magazines. His nutritional advice used to scare my wife. Essentially, it was a high-protein, low-carb diet. He told us not to fear fat cause it was good for us. Nor eggs if you worked out cause cholesterol wouldn't stick to anything. If you were hungry, "Eat!!", he would shout at my son who was 100 pounds overweight. "Listen to me cause I'm right!" This made no sense at all. He told us he used to give talks at the local medical university on nutrition. He complained that doctors were not given enough classes on nutrition and he knew more about it than most of them. In nine months, all three of us were strong as an ox. My overweight son lost 100 pounds. I lost 40 pounds. George was always right.
- naveen99 12y ago
  This is common knowledge now it seems on http://reddit.com/r/fitness http://reddit.com/r/fitness also look at stronglifts.com Wish I knew this 20 years ago... Basically: squats, barbell exercises is key. Starting strength recommends a gallon of milk a day...
DanBC 12y ago
I am one of the people who thinks that "calories out > calories in" is most important. I've tried (in the spirit of Feynman) to poke holes in this, so here's the stuff that would persuade me I'm wrong. 1) satiety. Some foods make you feel full, so even though they're "fat" you eat less. (This doesn't counter CO>CI but explains why people fail at it). 2) abysmal quality of research on weight loss. Lots of the research is poor quality and we really don't know what works. Better quality research is always a good thing. 3) gut flora and genetics. Genetics plays a role in everything so I'm sure that it is easier for some people to be fat than others because genes. We know that some gut flora helps some people stay slim. Nwe know that some other gut flora helps some people become fat. A double whammy would be unfortunate. 4) evil food industry. Seeing a bag of sugar (in whatever form, but especially candy) sold as "LOW FAT FOOD!!!" is infuriating. I tend to ignore the HFS arguments but I agree that the vast amounts of sugar eaten today is very harmful. Making food "hyper paletable" and making it seem like it is much quicker to get that food than prepare your own healthy food has done a lot of harm. (See popcorn chicken cersus a roast chicken). 5) judgementalism. CO>CI may be true but it is simplistic and it is often given with judgemental messages. As HN middlebrow dismissal shows contrarianism is human nature, thus saying "CO>CI! Develop some willpower, go for a jog!" Will devolve into discussion about a bunch of stuff. People like me need to find a better way to deliver that message.
- jsdalton 12y ago
  6) Insulin response. Carbohydrates trigger insulin production, which causes cells to store more fat. See http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/opinion/sunday/always-hungry-heres-why.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/opinion/sunday/always-hung...
  - DanBC 12y ago
    Posting non medical sources, especially from the opinion section, is less likely to convince me.
    - chaz72 12y ago
      Granted, a primary source would have been better, but the NY Times does link to several. Though you didn't cite a lot of primary sources in your own comment, I would still be interested in your real response to the referenced studies.
jqm 12y ago
Personally I will be glad when they get what to eat/not eat settled once and for all... As it is now, there are so many changing/competing theories out, and with such frequency I have been forced to abandon considering any of them at all and just eating what I feel like.
ja30278 12y ago
I've been eating a low-carb diet for the past 2 years. In that time, I've lost roughly 20lbs, while my blood work has gotten dramatically better. (Cholesterol: 160 (92 HDL, 64 LDL), Triglycerides: 46, Blood glucose: 92). More importantly, my energy level has 'evened out', such that I no longer get sleepy in the afternoons or feel sluggish after dinner in the evenings. I don't take special care to count calories, or avoid fatty foods. I eat lots of salads and vegetables, but also eat steak dipped in melted butter, and eggs-and-bacon for breakfast. After I stopped eating carbs, I couldn't help but notice how much sugar is in _everything_ that most people eat. Most brands of peanut butter, for example, have sugar as the second ingredient. Ditto for 'whole wheat' bread, which frequently has sugar added. Before beginning this diet, I was a believer in the calories-in/calories-out model, because of it's appealing simplicity. The truth is, your body isn't a calorimeter, and metabolizes different calorie sources in different ways..simple carbs break down easily, early in your digestive process, while proteins are broken down more slowly. Some foods can't be broken down at all without the help of intestinal flora, or are excreted without being digested at all. Thus, it's much more useful to say that, in order to lose weight, you have to _metabolize_ fewer calories than you burn, regardless of how many calories you consume.

81 points by nopinsight 12y ago

Wasn't exactly that subject covered at length in numerous books already? Just to pick a few at (almost) random, with very similar names The Great Cholesterol Con http://www.amazon.com/Great-Cholesterol-Con-Anthony-Colpo-ebook/dp/B007CPFEYI/ http://www.amazon.com/Great-Cholesterol-Con-Anthony-Colpo-eb... The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease http://www.amazon.com/The-Cholesterol-Myths-Exposing-Saturated/dp/0967089700 http://www.amazon.com/The-Cholesterol-Myths-Exposing-Saturat... The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It http://www.amazon.com/Great-Cholesterol-Con-Really-Disease-ebook/dp/B0078XGXQM http://www.amazon.com/Great-Cholesterol-Con-Really-Disease-e... (Of these, I personally read only Anthony Colpo's Great Cholesterol Con and consider it to be a very good analysis)

maroonblazer 12y ago
Not to mention these two: Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259 http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259 Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Controversial-Science/dp/1400033462 http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Controversial-Scienc...
- Evgeny 12y ago
  Sure, but these two, I believe, include the subject of cholesterol, but also cover much broader area of subjects.
  - scarygliders 12y ago
    This, although written many years ago (and shows, but it adds to the charm), is what I consider to be something which should be read by everyone. http://www.ourcivilisation.com/fat/index.htm http://www.ourcivilisation.com/fat/index.htm

krob 12y ago

Yup, eliminate the soda, cake-like-bread, and condiments at the table and watch the body fat evaporate.

sjtrny 12y ago
Condiments? I doubt 1/2 a tablespoon of ketchup is causing the obesity crisis. "Soda" is the biggest problem that you mentioned.

kfk 12y ago

To me the most amazing thing is that we still have "low fat" food around and that it is still labelled as healthy. Instead, the low carb food is either labelled "low carb" or "paleo", which are both names that remind this gym fixated people everybody laughs at. Then you have all the vegan/vegetarian crowd who laughs at who eats meat and steaks. It's a mess.

NotOscarWilde 12y ago
As a vegetarian, I don't laugh at people eating meat. In fact, when it comes to nutrition, eating (the right) meat is likely the most rational choice based on today's understanding. As a sidenote, I have looked into low-carb/keto diets and I've found that those are rather hard for vegetarians; reducing carb intake from some sources (rice, pasta) is easy, but even staple vegetarian foods rich in protein (tofu, lentils, beans, quinoa) are 1:1 when it comes to protein:carb content. Another thing to mention is that being vegetarian in a central European country limits you to a very few number of restaurants you can eat out with friends; I do not know of any place around that would serve vegetarian low-carb food. This would imply that I always bring my own food from home to work, socially exclude myself by not eating anything when we go out eating with friends, and so on.
- ido 12y ago
  Where in Central Europe are you? I lived in Vienna and now living In Berlin, and while it was a bit of a struggle being vegetarian in the former it think over here there are actually quite a lot of good options (obviously not anywhere near as good as some other places like San Francisco).
  - taejo 12y ago
    As large, relatively "hip" capital cities, Berlin and Vienna are probably a "best case". In the German-speaking countries, there does seem to be a growing awareness and interest in vegetarianism, but in small cities in Germany I find my options in restaurants basically limited to pasta and pizza -- and of course falafel -- (though there are enough vegetarians and similar that there are shops selling tofu, vegan cheese, meat substitutes etc.). From what I've heard, the rest of central Europe is even worse.

scottjad 12y ago

For a critical response to Gary Taubes and the many other cholesterol confusionists, I highly recommend the videos by the PrimitiveNutrition Youtube user. He has over 30 hours of entertaining video analyzing medical studies and arguments related to this topic including the common attacks on Ancel Keys regurgitated in TFA. https://www.youtube.com/user/PrimitiveNutrition/featured https://www.youtube.com/user/PrimitiveNutrition/featured Transcripts: http://www.plantpositive.com http://www.plantpositive.com

fredsted 12y ago
I'm a fan of Gary taubes (lost 30kg with simple low no-carb diet), those videos aren't really convincing. In the first one he talks about pork rinds being very bad, but really it's a good way to get some crisp in your food when you don't have flour and eggs. I couldn't get through it because of all the breathing.

dbbolton 12y ago

A better title: "Why black-and-white thinking is bad for your diet and moderation is good". Actually, that could pretty much replace the whole article.

zt 12y ago

I have been participating in a Stanford Medical research study since October. The name of the randomized control study is "One Diet Does Not Fit All" (http://nutrition.stanford.edu/projects/DietbyGenotype-Study.html http://nutrition.stanford.edu/projects/DietbyGenotype-Study....). The basic premise of the study is that as almost everyone has one of two insulin responses to glucose and that if you have one response, you should be on a low-fat diet, and if you have the other, you should be on low-carb. My personal results have been quite successful. I was randomly assigned to the low-carb diet. I basically eat vegetables, meats, and cheese. I avoid everything from bread, to rice, to even nuts and fruits. On this diet I have lost nearly fifty pounds since I started. So it's been pretty successful for me. (I will admit that I had no idea whether it's the particular diet I'm on, per se, or the fact that I'm on any diet at all -- that I am paying attention). I also accept the premise of the study: one diet does not fit everyone. Sometimes I meet people and they say it's as simple as calories in, calories out. Some people say everyone should be on this diet or that diet. I don't know -- I don't presume that my diet would simply work for everyone. The human body is a very complex system both for any one person, and for the population. I tend to believe the central premise of the study (and we'll see if it works out): that different physiologies lead to different beneficial diets (and perhaps much more). There is a lot of story here: exercise being easier, meetings going more smoothly, my colleagues and family and friends supporting me, YC giving me a new t-shirt, buying a new wardrobe, my changing interactions with women (I'm strait, and who knows if this is due to me looking better or me being more confident)...etc...I'm planning to write up a (as is often the case) too-long blog post on it all when I'm finished with the study on October.

hueving 12y ago
> it's as simple as calories in, calories out This is definitely true, if you eat less calories than you burn, you will lose weight. But this is really hard to enforce for many people. Without blatant calorie labels on everything you eat, it's really easy to go over and then assume that it must not be true.
- Borkdude 12y ago
  That, and the fact that most natural high carb foods, like fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains have a low calorie density compared to high fat foods. It's much harder to overeat on them, because they have more volume and fiber.

Borkdude 12y ago

Most low fat foods aren't really that low fat, but only contain less fat. If you calculate the percent of energy coming from fat from such foods it's still large. And more importantly, those "low fat" foods are still factory derived high sodium low fiber foods, not natural foods, like fruits, legumes and whole grains which contain almost no fat. What people call low fat is really just not good enough. For a seriously healthy low fat diet, read The Starch Solution by John McDougall. http://www.amazon.com/The-Starch-Solution-Regain-Health/dp/1623360277 http://www.amazon.com/The-Starch-Solution-Regain-Health/dp/1... However, low fat or high carb still misses the point of focussing on macronutrients instead of micronutrients. Micronutrients are a good indicator of the quality of foods. Micronutrients: vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, are important factors in satiety and long term weight loss maintenance. Whole foods like nuts, seeds and avocado's aren't low fat, but high fat, but can help in weight loss, because of their health benefits. Read Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman, who elaborates on this subject: http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Live-Amazing-Nutrient-Rich-Sustained/dp/031612091X http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Live-Amazing-Nutrient-Rich-Sustain... I have experience in combining Eat to Live + The Starch Solution which got me from a BMI of 27 to 20 for three years already. I eat relatively high carb / low fat, with the moderate addition of some nuts, seeds and avocado's. I find this works best for me. I've excluded almost all saturated fats AND free unsaturated fats like olive oil, which contain almost no valuable micronutrients.

scottjad 12y ago
My favorite resource on micronutrients and diet are the graphs in this article http://www.vegsource.com/harris/ten_categories.htm http://www.vegsource.com/harris/ten_categories.htm
- Borkdude 12y ago
  Google for ANDI score, which is also a measure for the micronutrient content per calorie. http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/andi-food-scores.aspx http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/andi-food-scores.aspx
DanBC 12y ago
> Whole foods like nuts, seeds and avocado's aren't low fat, but high fat, but can We know that some people snack on these foods because they think the foods are healthy. Thus they take in several thousand extra calories that they don't need per day, on top of their regular meals.

mudil 12y ago

I eat fat, and look, I am still alive!

csel 12y ago
(shaking my head)
logicallee 12y ago
Man, you would make the world's fastest doctor. "Hello Mr. Johnson, great to see you again. Let's have a quick look here. And...yep... looks like you're still alive. Now, if you'll just sign here. And, we're all set. Keep up the good work! Next!" seriously though being alive is an accomplishment for most organisms in the 3.45 billion year history of life on Earth, an accomplishment in the vicious wild, and an accomplishment for civilized humans in the face of tragedy, neglect, disaster, disease, war, or certain human-caused problems (violence etc). In industrialized nations, today, being alive at all is a goal few people would set for themselves who are lucky enough to enjoy health and basic freedom from war, poverty, famine, natural disaster, violence, etc. While I don't mean to detract from your life's amibtions, you are entitled to them, I think you can almost certainly have higher ambitions than being alive. Of course, I don't know you personally, so who am I to say? Congratulations on what you have accomplished.

xwowsersx 12y ago

I've been eating a very high fat, very low carb diet now for almost 2 years. In that time I've shed 20 pounds (and I was never fat) and my cholesterol numbers have improved significantly. My experience is by no means scientific evidence, but just thought I'd share. Reading "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living" by Drs Phinney and Volek was life-changing.

jstsch 12y ago

People make things more complicated than they are. Just eat more plants. Eat less super-easy-to-digest free-calorie foods, such as refined sugars (sucrose). This includes simple starches such as you find in white bread, rice and pasta. They get converted into sucrose right away. It starts in your mouth (amylase enzyme in your saliva), just one simple molecular change and it's... glucose! That's why it tastes sweet if you keep on chewing a piece of white bread. White flour products are tasty though! So consider them as more of a snack, like cake or potato chips, and less as part of your daily meal.

gtuckerkellogg 12y ago

From the review, this book seems like a rehash of Taubes' two excellent and well researched books on the same topics. Taubes was the first to make the broad historical connections that also seem central to this book. Even the book title, "The Big Fat Surprise" is a play on Taubes' famous 2002 New York Times article "What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?". What, if anything is original to this work? From the Economist review, we have no idea.

Tycho 12y ago

The other day at work I caved and went for a pub-lunch, a burger with cheese, served with chips and coleslaw. I enjoyed it but immediately afterwards thought 'damn, that was greasy,' and remembered my marathon running colleague who always refrains from going for a 'crappy burger' with us. But here's the thing: I didn't feel hungry for the rest of the day. In fact I skipped dinner completely, just went for long walk round the city and stopped to have a beer somewhere. If you want to lose weight, surely the trick is to consume less calories per day and avoid the feeling of hunger. Few people are going to have the discipline to refrain from eating when they actually feel hungry, day after day after day.

TTPrograms 12y ago
This has been my experience with low carb - I can eat a high protein, high fat meal that will stuff me and be ~1000 calories, but I'll be satisfied for at least the rest of the day if not most of the next. Even if it's just calories in / calories out it's a clear win over my normal diet. Of course people used to think this long fasting is really bad (my parents, for example), but it seems like new research says it's fine, if not healthy for weight loss.
eliben 12y ago
I can second this. It's actually quite easy to test on yourself. Try two kinds of breakfast for a few days each, and compare how much snacking you want to do before lunch: 1. Bagels + scone 2. Eggs + bacon For me, the second kind undeniably leads to less hunger later in the morning. After a breakfast of 4 scrambled eggs + 4 strips of bacon (so 550-600 cal) I can easily not feel hungry at all until lunch. Couple of small bagels with some cream cheese + scone (also ~550-600 cal) and I feel much less full after a couple of hours.

icantthinkofone 12y ago

About 10 years ago, my two sons and I worked out with George Turner as our coach. George was a gruff, ex-Marine in his 60s known all over the world and had many weight lifting awards to his name and wrote for magazines. His nutritional advice used to scare my wife. Essentially, it was a high-protein, low-carb diet. He told us not to fear fat cause it was good for us. Nor eggs if you worked out cause cholesterol wouldn't stick to anything. If you were hungry, "Eat!!", he would shout at my son who was 100 pounds overweight. "Listen to me cause I'm right!" This made no sense at all. He told us he used to give talks at the local medical university on nutrition. He complained that doctors were not given enough classes on nutrition and he knew more about it than most of them. In nine months, all three of us were strong as an ox. My overweight son lost 100 pounds. I lost 40 pounds. George was always right.

naveen99 12y ago
This is common knowledge now it seems on http://reddit.com/r/fitness http://reddit.com/r/fitness also look at stronglifts.com Wish I knew this 20 years ago... Basically: squats, barbell exercises is key. Starting strength recommends a gallon of milk a day...

DanBC 12y ago

I am one of the people who thinks that "calories out > calories in" is most important. I've tried (in the spirit of Feynman) to poke holes in this, so here's the stuff that would persuade me I'm wrong. 1) satiety. Some foods make you feel full, so even though they're "fat" you eat less. (This doesn't counter CO>CI but explains why people fail at it). 2) abysmal quality of research on weight loss. Lots of the research is poor quality and we really don't know what works. Better quality research is always a good thing. 3) gut flora and genetics. Genetics plays a role in everything so I'm sure that it is easier for some people to be fat than others because genes. We know that some gut flora helps some people stay slim. Nwe know that some other gut flora helps some people become fat. A double whammy would be unfortunate. 4) evil food industry. Seeing a bag of sugar (in whatever form, but especially candy) sold as "LOW FAT FOOD!!!" is infuriating. I tend to ignore the HFS arguments but I agree that the vast amounts of sugar eaten today is very harmful. Making food "hyper paletable" and making it seem like it is much quicker to get that food than prepare your own healthy food has done a lot of harm. (See popcorn chicken cersus a roast chicken). 5) judgementalism. CO>CI may be true but it is simplistic and it is often given with judgemental messages. As HN middlebrow dismissal shows contrarianism is human nature, thus saying "CO>CI! Develop some willpower, go for a jog!" Will devolve into discussion about a bunch of stuff. People like me need to find a better way to deliver that message.

jsdalton 12y ago
6) Insulin response. Carbohydrates trigger insulin production, which causes cells to store more fat. See http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/opinion/sunday/always-hungry-heres-why.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/opinion/sunday/always-hung...
- DanBC 12y ago
  Posting non medical sources, especially from the opinion section, is less likely to convince me.
  - chaz72 12y ago
    Granted, a primary source would have been better, but the NY Times does link to several. Though you didn't cite a lot of primary sources in your own comment, I would still be interested in your real response to the referenced studies.

jqm 12y ago

Personally I will be glad when they get what to eat/not eat settled once and for all... As it is now, there are so many changing/competing theories out, and with such frequency I have been forced to abandon considering any of them at all and just eating what I feel like.

ja30278 12y ago

I've been eating a low-carb diet for the past 2 years. In that time, I've lost roughly 20lbs, while my blood work has gotten dramatically better. (Cholesterol: 160 (92 HDL, 64 LDL), Triglycerides: 46, Blood glucose: 92). More importantly, my energy level has 'evened out', such that I no longer get sleepy in the afternoons or feel sluggish after dinner in the evenings. I don't take special care to count calories, or avoid fatty foods. I eat lots of salads and vegetables, but also eat steak dipped in melted butter, and eggs-and-bacon for breakfast. After I stopped eating carbs, I couldn't help but notice how much sugar is in _everything_ that most people eat. Most brands of peanut butter, for example, have sugar as the second ingredient. Ditto for 'whole wheat' bread, which frequently has sugar added. Before beginning this diet, I was a believer in the calories-in/calories-out model, because of it's appealing simplicity. The truth is, your body isn't a calorimeter, and metabolizes different calorie sources in different ways..simple carbs break down easily, early in your digestive process, while proteins are broken down more slowly. Some foods can't be broken down at all without the help of intestinal flora, or are excreted without being digested at all. Thus, it's much more useful to say that, in order to lose weight, you have to _metabolize_ fewer calories than you burn, regardless of how many calories you consume.