Many thanks for this article. My husband is a 100% disabled vet,
and diabetic on insulin. I'm in the process of weaning him off of
the poison pills. He's discovered belately exercise is wonderful,
he won't suffer from not eating bread and aspertame is death by the
spoonful. He's now on stevia, by the packet or spoonful of raw stevia.
The testamonies here are encouraging, y'all keep it up!

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What about rice, asians aren't fat and they live long.

I think there is more to this than meets the eye. Japanese in particular have the longest lifespan in the world and Asians seem to suffer the least ill effects from toxins and cigarettes (there are studies that back up the cigarette claim).
I believe that this is due to them having the world's oldest contiguous agro/civilization.
The counterpoint to this are the many Native American Indians who suffer from Insulin resistance/Obesity/Alcoholism which studies have linked to carbohydrate disorders.

This is an excellent commentary on the state of health in America.

As a side note, I can almost prove that hydrogenated oils (fully or partially) cause eczema etc. I had a patch of it on my leg years ago... couldn't figure out what it was or how to stop it from itching. Doctors gave me steroid salves to put on it. That stopped the itching for a while but didn't do anything else. After many hours of research online... I found out that there's some thought about hydrogenated oils being forced out through the skin because your body can't process it. So what I did was eliminated all hydrogenated oils from my diet... my eczema stopped itching within a day or 2... within a month it was completely gone except for a tiny little red spot (probably scarring from the itching) and it's never come back. However , I fell back to eating a bit of that stuff again on occasion and when I do, I'll notice it.

Now I'm working on cutting out all breads and grains like that.. getting rid of all the carbs and eating better foods.

Thanks for all you do Karl.

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One unfortunate case was my aunt, who at age 71, had a cholesterol level of some 400+ before succumbing.

No offence intended...but why unfortunate? 71 or so is the average life expectancy today (about 5 years higher than 1000 years ago give or take), so it seems like a fairly 'normal' age to pass on...

Quality of life...not quantity of life is more important to me personally. I refuse to eat foods I don't like because someone says it's "healthy"...I eat what I like and makes me feel good, which happens to coincide alot with a primal diet...if it was unhealthy, I doubt I would care much as I'm here to enjoy the short time we're given.

Was 280 on Feb 1st, 2012. Now 257.5.

Here's a sample day from my calorie tracking a caloriecounter.about.com...




Eggland's Best Egg A- 140
Orange Juice A 112
Bread, Rye, Toasted A- 68
Multi Vitamin A 25
Vinegar, Cider B- 10
Lunch
Bananas A 90
Strawberries A 15
Blueberries A 41
Pure Almond Almondmilk - Unsweetened A 35
Kale - Raw A 34
Celery - Raw A 19
Crackers Baked Whole Grain Wheat Thin Crisps B- 35
Radishes - Raw A 0
Cherries, Sweet A 19
Cranberries A- 13
Dinner
Beef, Rib, Eye, Small End (Ribs 10-12) - Separable Lean And Fat, Trimmed To 0" Fat, Choice, Cooked, Broiled C+ 601
Salad Dressing, Home Recipe, Vinegar And Oil B 216
Lettuce, Iceberg - (Includes Crisphead Types), Raw A 23
Frozen Sweet Peas A 120
Apples A 95
Michelob ULTRA 95
Shallots - Raw A 22
Snack
Crackers, Whole-wheat B 71
Other
Nature's Bounty Co Q-10 D+ 4

I am eating big steaks, sweet potatoes, rye bread. I just cut out fruit juices mostly. Started forcing down breakfast. Making smoothies or eating a sandwich for lunch. So far it's all about eating less than 2000 calories for me. Goal is 1800 calories. It's fun at the end of the day deciding on whether you're going to have a cheese cracker or a beer. Beer often wins lol.

I'm sure I'll hit a wall re losing weight but have not yet.

People need to reread the Doc's article. It's not a rant against carbohydrates. The culprit he fingers is the refined ingredients, simple carbs and out-of-proportion Omega-6 oils (which is a fat), that go into PROCESSED food.

Yep.

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Cholesterol is NOT the cause of heart disease.

And to add to this, dietary intake of cholesterol only weakly correlates (at best) with actual levels of cholesterol in the blood. It's another example in which genetic factors are the major players.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21589....

Lots of good references in there.

Jstanley01 wrote..

It's not a rant against carbohydrates. The culprit he fingers is the refined ingredients, simple carbs and out-of-proportion Omega-6 oils (which is a fat), that go into PROCESSED food.

It's a rant against foods which cause chronic insulin spikes and inflammation, and unnecessary fear of animal fats and proteins. The types of carbohydrates that he recommends are the same types that people who advocate primal/paleo diets recommend.

This echos the premise of http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-Vin....

Which I found to be a compelling book. Not one I've entirely taken to heart, but it did help convince me--a thought I had in the past but pretended to ignore--that carbs were my personal problem. I love them, it's like I am literally addicted to them. Their excessive consumption is entirely, wholly the reason for any access weight I have. It never has been protein or fat. I can throw down 2000 calories of sweets in an evening easily. I can't do that comfortably on, say, cheese or meat.

My sample doesn't really show it, but I have pretty much dumped all processed foods. I like bread and have been purchasing rye bread, flat breads and go to the health store to get the sprouted bread. I bet I'm losing weight cooking and washing dishes. No more quick fast food burgers for lunch. No more skipping breakfast and lunch and making up for it during evening meals. I actually think I'm eating MORE food, just spreading it out better and kicking up the metabolism.

Actually looking forward to going back to the doctor to see how I test out. Not on any medications and don't want to be. They were suggesting I needed to watch sugar and blood pressure - bet I can turn that around.

Karl -

re: Stevia as coffee sweetener

I find that no matter what (or how much/little) I try with any non-sucrose (i.e., cane, etc. sugar) sweetener, the taste/aftertaste is grossly disgusting. I've tried "cold turkey" and also gradually easing into all of them, most recently Stevia, but the gross taste issue remains.

Any suggestions?

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(switching to highly-filtered water)

Just curious what filter(s) you use, i.e. Brita, Zero Water, etc.? Something tells me you researched it...

On the flavored sparkling waters topic, what I like to do is use carbonated mineral water as a base to add juices to. Some favorites are fresh squeezed lime with cherry juice, fresh lemon juice and blueberry juice, grapefruit and cherry, and also orange with cherry. RW Knudsen makes cherry and blueberry juices.

A little effort and you can swear off sweeteners for good. After a few months you won't be able to drink soda or anything else with sugar or sweetener because it tastes disgusting. Cold turkey!

Thumbs up to Trader Joe's unsweetened green tea.

[Jotapay, I have seen tons of diets out there...and the general theme is avoiding the processed crap, the high glycemic foods...]

There are no such things as diets AND health. ALL *diets* eventually fail. It's called "lifestyle change". You do it or you don't.

Simple...

I cringe every time I hear the word diet. As a heavy weight lifter, most of you would crap a brick if you saw how much food I consume in a day. Most days I'm between 3000 & 3500 kcals. I eat at least 2 pounds of meat every day. That includes red meat (you know, the supposed bad meat). My blood markers are all near perfect. I'll dig up my latest and post them out here. Bottom line, paleo style lifestyles are the way to go. I get my carbs from potatoes, rice and veggies. Very little fruit other than berries. Just don't go too low carb. I made that mistake once and my body actually converted to burning amino acids for fuel. The giveaway was my sweat started smelling like ammonia. Needless to say, my training partner found it quite irritating....

Karl, I wonder if that stevia is the same ingredient used in Dr. John's herbal lollipops. The candy has a licorice root extract that If you use it twice a day for several days prevents any dental decay for months. I just recently came across this item in the Pennsylvania Dental Association Journal. Other than that it's new to me....but....

By cutting out sugar in the diet, you would also benefit from a dental aspect also. Just thought I would add that, being in the field.

Ponzi - bet you 20 bucks if you drop the apple, banana, and bread your weight will come off even faster (if you want it to). You can add more calories than you drop, just make sure it is from some sort of fat.

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Just curious what filter(s) you use, i.e. Brita, Zero Water, etc.? Something tells me you researched it...

There are two main ways to go. Reverse Osmosis and Distillation. Several on this forum went RO, and that works perfectly fine.

I bought a commercial distiller and added a secondary filter stage for my house. The distiller is made in the USA by a company called Durastill. The filter is a Berkey water filter with their black filter elements. Both of these combined will remove >=99.75% of all impurities originally present in the water.

I went this route (distiller, filter) because the RO units seemed to have significantly more maintenance and points of failure. Also, I wasn't sure that RO units were removing things like pharmaceuticals from the tap water that pass through the reclamation process. But both work fine and will give you virtually pure water.

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Moderation folks. Smaller portions of higher quality food and savor them instead of cramming them in your pie hole while watching TV.

This^^^^

I have been teased most of my life about how slowly I eat.

However, I have never had a weight problem. Ever. Last dr. visit I am 5'5", 121#.

I grew up on a dairy/beef farm so you can imagine how much butter and other dairy and the evil "red meat" I have eaten in my 52 yrs.

Yeah, butter rocks.

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Yeah, butter rocks.

Yes! I can eat butter with a spoon after making some fresh.

Anyone know the guidelines on alcohol? Other than total abstinence, which I guess would be ideal, is there one form that is healthier than another?

Obviously beer is bad, but is scotch better than red wine? Vodka better than rum? I'm not talking about mixed drinks, just the booze.

And I know about the moderation thing.

thanks Jotapay, I was looking at the Berkey Lite on its own - better than nothing I guess

@Jotapay , I would imagine the distiller route would also remove all fluoride etc from the water as well?

"Ethanol, HFCS promotion, sugar market distortions, GMO mandates and attempts to sue people for BLOWN SEEDS, need I go on?"

Seriously? Ethanol has nothing to do with diets, we can discuss the value of ethanol in fuel supply, but its a little off-topic here. I don't see how High Fructose Corn Syrup is tied to the government, but sugar is sugar. It makes no difference if the sugar comes from sugar cane, sugarbeets or corn, it has the same impact on your body. (Monsanto has a corn, sugarbeet and sugar cane business, so I'm not sure what the Monsanto role is.)

There is no such thing as a GMO mandate. Farmers choose to plant seeds that are genetically modified because it improves their fields.

Monsanto has never sued a farmer for seeds blowing into their farm. Here's the most recent FACTS about that myth. The anti-GMO crowd sued Monsanto in federal court claiming they were trying to prevent Monsanto from suing them and it was thrown out. Read the case, it's only 20 pages. Here's a link: http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/cases/show.....

The judge made it clear that the "Monsanto sues innocent farmers" meme is nothing more than a myth.

As for the diet suggestions - I absolutely agree that eating fewer carbs and fewer processed foods makes you healthier. I've read Gary Taube's books and think everyone should do so. Your link last year to the couch potato to 5k helped me get into better shape. I'm not so sure about the "eating primal" arguments - after all people didn't live very long back then. It doesn't make sense to me to take modern medicines but refuse to eat a salad that had NH3 used as a fertilizer instead of organic cow manure.

My father died from 2 heart attacks he suffered at age 52 back in 1994. Due to family history and a crappy diet, I was put on statins in my mid-20's. The American diet, mine included, was screwed up long before Monsanto introduced the first GMO seeds in 1996. Pizza, cheeseburgers, french fries, pasta, bread, donuts, candy, soda and beer will make you fat and kill you. I have no problem with you complaining about government/medical community/food processors diet recommendations. However, Monsanto, while an easy target, is not the villian in this case.

Full Disclosure: I work for Monsanto.