The Low Carb High Fat
The Best
(It's Not Really a Diet)
Lifestyle Ever!

Eating a "Low Carb High Fat" diet sounds - well - just wrong, doesn't it? After all, everyone "knows" that we need to "reduce fat to prevent heart disease" and "lower your fat to lower your cholesterol".

But what if that's wrong? What if the "science" behind that doesn't stand up? The entire American food market seems to be based on this concept.

If eating low fat was really the answer, why isn't it working?


Faulty Science

People have always eaten the animal fats found in meat, butter and cheese. Margarine made its way into my home because it was less expensive. I can remember when margarine was white, and there were little packets of yellow-orange powder that you could mix into the margarine - to make it look more like Xbutter! My mom never bothered with the powder, it didn't matter to her. But I bet a lot of you had no idea that margarine is actually white like shortening, with colouring added!

The science in the 1970s went like this.

There is saturated fat in this person's blood vessels. This person eats foods with saturated fat. The saturated fat from the food must be getting into the blood vessels. Therefore they concluded that  this person must stop eating saturated fat.

Only problem is - it wasn't true! Eating fat ISN'T what puts saturated fat into your blood vessels. The US came out with well intended - but incorrect - low-fat guidelines in 1977 which "brought about an overhaul of both the food industry and the average American's perception of a healthy diet. This eventually contributed to an overall decline in health - specifically an increased national obesity rate and incidence of related diseases, rather than the anticipated opposite results."2
Cudahy's Delrich brand of margarine used a "color berry" to color its white vegetable based margarine yellow. This 1948 advertisement demonstrates how to color the margarine inside the package

Fat Doesn't Make You Fat

We know now that eating fat doesn't make you fat, and the saturated fat that you eat isn't the fat that ends up in your blood vessels; therefore eating saturated fat doesn't cause blockage of the arteries or cancer either. This is the first thing to know about the Low Carb High Fat way of eating; that healthy fat is actually not only good for you, but it's also really important for your health.

Low Carb High Fat

Fat doesn't make you fat. You know what does? Think about it. How does a farmer fatten a cow for market? He feeds it GRAIN.

Yes, grain. Cereal. Bread. Cakes. Donuts. Pasta. Pizza. Cookies. Sandwiches. Wraps. Pies. And what happens to all that grain?

It gets turned into sugar in your body, even if it's the best whole wheat with no sugar added.

And when you eat all that grain-that-turns-to-sugar? If you have too much at one sitting, you guessed it! It turns to fat. Sugar, even though sugar has no fat at all, does make you fat.

The January 2010 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition contains an analysis of 21 studies involving low carb and low fat diets, tracking almost 350,000 people for an average of 14 years. At the end of all this, they concluded that there was no relationship between eating saturated fat and whether or not you develop heart attack or have a stroke.

The "Zone Diet"
is a Perfect Example of a
Low Carb High Fat Diet

Dr. Barry Sears, PhD, in "A Week in the Zone - 7 Days That Will Change Your Life Forever", says that "food can help you or harm you depending on how you use it...if food is used improperly, it can also shorten your life." 5.

Really? We know that we need food to live. But "improperly used" food will shorten our lives? Why? He says:

            "You may think you already know how to properly use food
            by avoiding fat, and eating plenty of carbohydrates like pasta,
            bagels, bread and rice ... however, you may be puzzled as to 
           why you're gaining rather than losing weight.

            Truth is, you have it backward.

            If you're like most Americans, you're probably eating far
            too many carbohydrates. This is why more than 50 percent
            of Americans are overweight compared to 33 percent twenty
            years ago - even though we're eating less fat than ever before...

            The fact is that dietary fat was never the real enemy. The real
            cause of our growing epidemic of obesity is excess production
            of the hormone insulin. It is excess insulin that makes you fat 
            and keeps you fat." 6.

This is one reason that a Low Carb High Fat diet helps to prevent and reverse Type 2 Diabetes - because it helps to maintain a correct insulin level. The proper ratio of protein, carbohydrates and healthy fat work together like clockwork to create a healthy hormone balance.

Insulin and Glucagon
The "Goldilocks" Hormones

Remember the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears? She needed everything to be "just right".

And you need your insulin and glucagon hormone levels to be "just right", as well.

If you've eaten a large meal or too many carbohydrates at one time, your blood sugar level will be too high. Insulin brings that level down to "just right" by taking the sugar out of your blood and storing it.

If you haven't eaten for a while, and your brain is running low on the energy it needs, glucagon takes charge of releasing stored carbohydrates so that your blood sugar level is "just right, so that your brain has enough sugar to keep you mentally sharp.  

The problems comes, however, when you eat a very large meal or eat too many carbohydrates at one time. Your insulin level rises to compensate, because you need your insulin to remove the overabundance of sugar out your blood  - NOW! It moves that sugar into fat cells for storage, and then it takes a few hours for the insulin to get cleared out of your blood stream.

This Is Bad News
For Weight Loss

Because while your insulin is high, it's making sure that your fat cells are locked up tight, and you cannot use fat for fuel while your insulin is high. This is the opposite of what happens when you eat a low carb high fat diet.

This is what happens:

You eat something, some of that is used immediately for energy.
A little gets stored in your muscles and liver (as glycogen).
The rest gets stored in your fat cells.

If you had eaten a moderate sized low carb high fat meal with your carbohydrates and protein properly balanced, your insulin stays fairly low. When the glycogen in your muscles and liver is used up, your body uses fat for fuel.

Which is what you want. Absolutely. That's perfect.

However, if you had eaten in a way that caused your insulin level to rise, your insulin stores your extra sugar in your fat cells, and it also does not allow you to access fat for fuel for the next number of hours, NO MATTER WHAT!

This is the opposite of what happens when you eat a low carb high fat diet. This is when you'll typically feel hungry and cranky and possibly be experiencing food cravings. This is when you work really hard at cranking up your Will Power, and Work Really Hard at resisting temptation.

So what's left then? 

Your Muscles!

Your body breaks down your muscles for protein. This will cause you to get flabbier muscles as you lose muscle tone, especially if you use this time to work out. While you're trying to build up muscles and lose fat, you're breaking down muscle and storing fat.

Exactly what you DON'T want! This is why it's so important to eat a low carb high fat diet.

The Zone Diet and other similar systems that promote low carb high fat ways of eating help you to keep your many hormones balanced. Doing this will definitely help to keep Type 2 Diabetes from ever becoming part of your life, and if you have Type 2 Diabetes now, it will help to stabilize your blood sugar levels and allow you to live worry-free from the fear of complications.   

To read more about how to balance your carbohydrates and proteins here with a "Low Carb High Fat" way of eating, click here.

1. Kresser, Chris. "New Study Puts Final Nail in 'Saturated Fat Causes Heart Disease' Coffin." Chris Kresser. https://chriskresser.com/
new-study-puts-final-nail-in-the-saturated-fat-causes-heart-disease-coffin/ (accessed June 9, 2017)
2. Reedy, Julia. "How the U.S. Low-Fat Diet Recommendations of 1977 Contributed to the Declining Health of Americans". UCONN Library. http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1482&context=srhonors_theses (accessed June 9 2017)
5, 6. Dr. Barry Sears, A Week in the Zone (Regan Books 2000) pg. 2

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Teresa has left the city life and lives in Prince Edward Island, Canada with her husband
and is wondering if raising chickens will be her next project.
She has 4 grown up children and 5 grandkids who try to visit when they won't
have to spend too much time dodging mosquitoes and black flies.
Teresa is a certified Strategic Interventionist through Robbins Madanes training,
a certified StrengthsFinder adviser,
and a life coach with a life-long interest in nutrition.
Teresa has a passion for helping others to find and fulfill
their full potential and to live with abundance.
She sees optimum health as a necessary part of this,
and besides, isn't this what you want?