The Low Carb Nugget: Recent Episodes
Jim Anderson
What's LCHF? The letters stand for "low-carb, high-fat," but that only scratches the surface of an always evolving topic. The Low Carb Nugget distills news and information of interest to LCHF diet devotees and anyone who wants to learn about the lifestyle. The episodes are short and snappy, just the right length to listen to while sipping your bullet-proof coffee.
Personal update, avocado hand, and brain needs. Find the episode notes at LifeAfterCarbs.com/nugget.
American teenage boys consume an average of a 161 grams of sugar a day. That's 40 teaspoons of sugar. And you wonder why American children are becoming more obese? When it comes to our bodies and our health, both as individuals and as a nation, sugar is a dirty trick, not a sweet treat.
Say what you want about strawberry jam, but it's fat free. The way some people think, that makes it heart healthy.
If eating carbs will sicken or even kill you, should you eat fewer of them, or rely on pharmacological options to reduce your body's response to dietary carbohydrates?
Net carbs are the difference between total carbs in a food and the fiber. The idea is that fiber doesn't do much if anything to raise your blood glucose, so you can safely ignore it. Keep your net carbs low, and you'll keep your blood glucose and insulin response low. Then your body can burn fat. But can you really trust net carbs as a guide for eating?
When it comes to diet, "intermittency" means making frequent, significant changes in how much you eat. You need to throw your body a dietary change up, and not let it adjust to a single continuous level of intake.
The main lesson of the diet so far is that weight loss is a complex and perplexing topic. It's one of the great mysteries of life. But if a method is working for you, stick with it.
A study out of Australia suggests that breaking up a calorie-restricted diet with periods of increased eating could produce better results for weight loss. Researchers at the University of Tasmania reported their findings in the International Journal of Obesity. What exactly did the study find, and what might it mean for those on an LCHF diet?
There's a difference between minimal protein intake and optimal protein intake. The minimum daily requirement for an inactive adult is 0.36 grams per pound of body weight. You can live on that. But more is probably better, even for the sedentary. The goal is not just to survive, but to thrive. So how much protein is optimal?
Dietary protein intake is an important number to get right. If you eat too little protein over a long stretch, your body will suffer. If you eat too much protein, you could be at greater risk for kidney problems, and your blood glucose may rise, requiring a further release of insulin. Exactly how much protein you should eat depends on several factors. Your size and activity level are two.
To start or restart a ketogenic diet, you need to think about your macro-nutrient targets. Both carbs and protein need to be strictly limited, but dietary fat will be your friend. So what are the specific targets?
Cheating on a low carb diet: you can't eat a sweet or carby treat every day, even if you do it mindfully. You won't get in or stay in ketosis if you do that. But a rare, planned indulgence is acceptable if it keeps you eating LCHF for the long-run.
Typically, people diet to improve their health, their appearance, their mood and confidence, and their chances at living longer. All of those are good, and the nice thing is, they're connected. But the strongest motivations are personal.
Diet myths examined. For a long time, big mainstream news outlets followed lock-step with organizations such as the American Heart Association and the FDA. They promoted the low-fat diet, and the "calories in, calories out" model of weight control. But things are slowly changing.
It's important to be active, to move around. You need to move around every day, and many times a day, if you want to stay healthy, and frankly, alive. A study published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine drives the point home.
The article in question is a long, detailed, authoritative look at the vitamins, minerals and other micro-nutrients essential to brain functioning and mental health, and where those micro-nutrients come from. Where they come from is mostly animal-based foods.
The study's findings suggest that eating a diet higher in fruits, vegetables, and legumes helps you live longer. The benefit peaked with the consumption of 3 to 4 servings of such food per day.
The best low carb survival foods are nutritious, portable, widely available, and require no refrigeration or cooking. They are ideal foods for either fleeing or hunkering in place.
In this episode, Jim sketches out the goals, plans, methods, and tools for his keto diet reboot.
Today is the start of the 5th month of this podcast, and we're half way to a hundred episodes. It seems like a good time to reflect, and lay out some plans.
Evidence continues to come in that undermines the Lipids Theory of Cardiovascular Disease. The latest evidence was in a big, global study published online this week by the respected medical journal, The Lancet.
Those who eat a diet that includes meat and other animal-based food sometimes face criticism on two grounds. First, the diet is deemed cruel. Second, it is deemed unsustainable. Is either objection valid? Can we live on soy-burgers and indoor-lettuce alone?
There's a growing consensus that two square meals a day are better for us than three or four, but the issue is the timing. When should you eat your first meal of the day, and your last?
Which foods good for an LCHF diet are also good for your brain's health and staving off dementia? Jim runs through the list. Look for show notes at LCHFGazette.com.
For weight loss, accountability is the key, not just accountability to others, but to yourself. Some argue that weighing in every day is a way of taking account every day of your behavior as it relates to your body weight.
The standard advice for dieters regarding their bathroom scale is to step on it as infrequently as possible. Once a month might be ideal, or once a week at the most. Weighing in once a day is asking for psychological abuse. Or so the theory goes.
When you encounter an article about a dietary study, it pays to read more than just the headline and summary, which are often more alarming than the details warrant.
One of the great things about adopting an LCHF diet, other than losing weight and inches around the middle, is that you can drink your coffee with cream in it. Not "creamer," not "milk," not "half-and-half," but real heavy whipping cream.
Today's topic -- alcohol in a low carb diet. Is it a good idea? Assuming that you're an adult, that you're not an alcoholic, and that you have no religious convictions or drug interactions to worry about, perhaps it is!
According to news reports, butter reserves in Europe have plummeted due to increased butter demand and declining milk production. Butter prices in Europe are doing what prices always do in response to scarcity, they're climbing.
At first glance, chia seeds appear to be a dubious addition to a low-carb diet, even if they are supposed to have been the super-food of the Aztecs. That's because a single serving of chia seeds contains about 13 grams of carbohydrates. However, a closer examination of the food label reveals the chia seed's saving grace . . .
To show the obesity trend on a graph, what data could we use? What would the obesity line look like? We all know obesity has been increasing for decades. But what are the statistical details for the United States?
The data undermines the "let's all become vegetarians to fight obesity" argument. It's hard to convince people that eating meat is making them fat when they have been eating less meat, and more plants, for several decades, without trimming down.
What we all want to know, of course, is whether sleeping more will prevent obesity or even aid in weight loss. Which way does the causal arrow point? Or is there an arrow at all?
Eating low carb, high fat is not just about cutting out foods you once loved, but also about finding new foods to love as you lose weight and achieve ketosis.
As the avocado becomes more popular, plastic surgeons in the United States and the United Kingdom are seeing an increasing number of hand injuries. Apparently, a lot of people try to slice an avocado while cupping it in one hand. That's not a safe method!
Macadamia nuts have long been a go-to snack for low carb dieters. Dr. Robert Atkins was said to love macadamias. He had good reason to, even aside from the buttery deliciousness of the nuts. Now even the FDA sees goodness in the macadamia.
Can the same diet cause some of its followers to lose 50 or 60 pounds while others lose only 5 or 10 pounds, or even gain weight? If so, why does this happen? Does it matter if the diet is low carb or low fat? What can we learn about such individual variance that might be useful?
Among the theories for what causes obesity, excess sugar consumption is one of the more plausible. Call it the "Too Many Sweets" theory. This theory plays into stereotypical images of over-weight people eating big slices of cake or piece after piece of candy. But how much truth is there to the "Too Many Sweets" theory of obesity?
The only canned fish many people eat is tuna. Tuna is OK on a low carb diet, but a better choice may be the humble sardine, especially when packed in pure olive oil. One tin of sardines makes the center-piece of a solid meal. Sometimes, it can be the meal.
The assumption is that lowering your LDL cholesterol by any means, whether it's lifestyle and diet change or drugs, will lower your odds of cardio-vascular disease and premature death. But is this true? Or is there a better marker for heart health, and thus a better risk factor to target?
Drink coffee, live longer! The big news this week, at least for us coffee drinkers, was a pair of studies published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that suggest coffee drinking reduces your odds of dying from various causes.
An LCHF diet is recognized as a way to lose weight, but it can have other benefits as well. For example, it may contribute to improved oral health.
Today's question: Is there a place for candy bars in a healthy, LCHF diet? The short answer is, yes. The long answer is, it depends on the details. Specifically, the details of the candy bar -- the chocolate content versus the sugar content.
Summer is in full swing, which means ice cream consumption is rising. The average American consumes 23 pounds of ice cream a year. That's a lot of sugar. But here's a low carb, ice creamy option.
It may be a good thing to avoid scarfing the All-American wiener at today’s super-feast. Yes, it is meat-based, and absent the bun, you can eat hot dogs on a low carb diet. It pays to check the carb-count, though . . .
The question for today is pragmatic and historical: What did American soldiers eat during the Revolutionary War? If they ate anything at all, of course, because sometimes food was in short supply.
When the weather warms up, and the ice melts, there's a big jump in public displays of breaking a sweat. If people are running or walking for the sake of general fitness and well-being, or to get ready to compete in a foot-race, more power to them. But if they are exerting themselves in the hot sun for the purpose of losing weight, then they need to stop and think.
On the website "Sugar Science: The Unsweetened Truth," there is a page entitled, "Hidden in Plain Sight," which points out that sugar is added to almost three-quarters of packaged foods sold in supermarkets. The sugar goes by many names.
Does Intermittent Fasting (IF) work only because it results in a reduction in average calories consumed? Not at all, says one fasting expert, because there is a big difference between "average" and "frequency."
A river could have an average depth of one foot over its entire length, but there could be infrequent 10 foot holes that you could step into and drown.
With IF, it is the frequency of eating that matters.
The great public health crisis of our time is not cardiovascular disease, not cancer, and not diabetes. It's not an infectious disease. It's obesity. The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a massive international study showing the disturbing dimensions of the crisis.
According to the American Heart Association, replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat in everyone's diet would reduce heart disease by 30%.
The AHA bases its claim on the results of trials. Everything comes down to the trials.
It turns out that the AHA is relying on four trials to make its case for the 30% reduction claim. All of the trials date from the 1960s . . .
The American Heart Association is at it again. Or at it still. The AHA is sticking to its theory of fat, cholesterol and heart disease. This week, the Association issued an advisory that was picked up by major news organizations.
A new study raises the question, what's the least worst form of sugar? Is it fructose? Sucrose? Glucose? Some combination? This seems like asking, "Who was the less worst mass murdering dictator of the 20th Century, Adolph Hitler or Joseph Stalin?" Does the ranking really matter? For sugar and dictators, the question may have more academic than practical significance. It's a matter of picking your poison.
Does it make a difference what you call a diet? Jim tends to use three terms for his: "low-carb" or "LCHF" or "keto." He ponders the wisdom of doing so. Should he settle on just one?
Is a low-carb, high-fat diet good for what ails you? Is LCHF (or Keto) a medical cure-all? Judging from his bad cold this week, Jim is inclined to think not . . .
Is BMI the best way to identify those at risk from the health consequences of obesity? Not according to a new study. Jim considers his own BMI, and how the new measure compares.
On the 73rd anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy, Jim takes a look at the field rations American soldiers carried with them into combat. The ingredients were as much about boosting morale as providing nutrition.
Dining out on fast food is a big part of the modern life-style. Jim looks at one chain's online nutrition calculator to address the question, can you eat LCHF at Taco Bell?
Dr. Jason Fung in a recent blog post responded to the CRaP model of weight management. What is CRaP? Why does Fung think it is crap?
At the unofficial start of summer, Jim considers his once mighty soft-drink habit, now a distant memory. But has he kicked all sugar out of his life?
Still considering the theme of mindful eating, Jim concludes his general tips for success on a low-carb, high-fat diet (Part 2 of 2).
Continuing the theme of mindful eating, and drawing on his years of experience, Jim gives his top tips for low carb, high fat dieting success (part 1 of 2).
Grabbing a bite, that familiar American idiom, is the opposite of mindful, healthy eating on any kind of diet, including LCHF. Slow down and smell the pork chop!
Jim responds to the claim by a Paleo pioneer that eating lots of fat gives you a fatty liver.
In this episode, Jim discusses the kind and sources of fat in his diet, and looks at his blood test results for evidence of damage caused by his low carb, high fat diet.
In this episode, Jim examines the different feelings people have toward the two parts of his diet -- the "LC" vs. the "HF."
Is cheese dangerous? In today's Low Carb Nugget, Jim Anderson reacts to a recent study exploring the connection (if any) between consuming dairy products, either low or high fat, and developing cardiovascular disease.
Episode 1 introduces the podcast and its host, Jim Anderson, who explains how and why he became a low-carb dieter and a blogger at www.lifeaftercarbs.com