I've Joined a Cult

Everytime I think of this thread I think of Homer and the cult.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fnmhj58o0k&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I have failed already. The reason that I am I terraced in this thread is that I have a stupidly high consumption of confectionary and chocolate which I would like to knock on the head. Other than that I eat what could be described as a reasonably balanced diet.

Having flirted with high protein /low carb on and off for about 10 months this thread motivated mento give it a proper go.

I lasted three days. In that time ate meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, cheese, fruit, tonnes of nuts, salad. I enjoy this food in the main.

I raved last night and had chicken and an egg when I got home. Confession - I did have a bottle of 7up Zero. So that is sort of cheating.

This morning for breakfast I had some smoked ham, a natural yoghurt, nuts and blueberries.

I got to work and I needed sugary carbs. A scone and espresso later I feel satisfied but slightly ashamed.

This is bloody hard. It's nit like I'm eating food that is difficult to eat, I'm eating food that I love. The hard part is doing without food that I live even more.
After the race last might if someone offered me a slice of lemon tart, apple tart or maderia cake I would have sold my kids into slavery to get at it.

Slimline tonic ftw and ye'll be grand.
I terms of gin I highly recommend Aviation Gin or Sipsmith.
Failing that, Tanqueray is acceptable.

Lumen wrote: »

I think the theory is that everything unnaturally nice is bad for you, and everything naturally nice is good for you.

So freshly baked bread is nice, but not natural, and so bad for you.

Problem is, there are lots of "unnaturally nice" things that I really don't want to give up, like bread, cheese, alcoholic drinks, and chocolate. On a low-fat-ish diet I can have all of those things in moderation. If I judge my health by my body shape, I'm doing fine. But am I?

So I have two concerns:

1. Is a badly-executed low-carb diet better than a badly-executed low-fat diet?

2. Correlation vs causation. Fat people die earlier, but does being fat kill you, or does eating the things which fat people eat kill you?

I would say that either one is potentially as bad because they both would presumably fail with some variation of high fat mixed with high simple carbohydrate.

My understanding is also that, as Pete says, its better to be fat and fit than skinny and unfit. The fat that accumulates around organs is dangerous and not visibly obvious.

ROK ON wrote: »

What about colon cancer?
I am forever reading scare stories about high meat consumption being a contributory factor for increased risk of colon cancer. Then apparently dairy also causes cancer. I think life might actually be the casue of cancer but I don't want to out myself in the way if unnecessary risk.

The reason this diet (in the loosest sense) is attractive to menus that I can eat a lot of the food that I enjoy but concentrate in giving up the stuff that is plainly very bad for menin the quantities that I consume them, namely sugary confectionary.

enas wrote: »

Increased red meat consumption, and reduced fruit consumption would be two things that I would relate to increased risk of colon cancer. You've already answered about increased red meat consumption, but what about reduced fruit consumption? Have you read anything about this?

Colon cancer has associations with the level of fibre in diet. Animal products ( meat and dairy ) and alcohol have no dietary fibre, so you need to have a fibre (fruit and/or veg ) rich diet to protect against dietry diseases. So in the Paleo model, enough fruit and veg are just as important as saturated fat, for this reason. In the LFHC model, extra fibre can be got from beans.

So dont forget your veggies ffs:p. Tbh, my take is that any diet that doesn't include a recommendation for lots of fruit and veg ( especially veg ) is pandering to dietry laziness - bacon and cheese porn, essentially. And greens ( leafy greens ) are at the top of the vegetable hierarchy. Thats not a few limp leaves of iceberg lettuce btw - its spinach, collard greens, kale, turnip leaves, carrot leaves and pak choi leaves as well as the other more exotic ones.

I'm reading dietry cholestrol is not essential once the means of body cholestrol production is in good shape, which is achieved partly through low blood sugar and keeping body fat in check. So those who exercise on a LFHC diet are in with just as good a chance of optimum health as their paleo counterparts. Of course carb in this context refers to those of the complex variety rather than simple ones.

If its not confusing enough to understand how both approaches are right, its also worth considering that those of us who have ancestry in the Northern Hemisphere - where sugary tropical fruit would not have been on the menu - maybe better disposed towards the high fat model. Likewise those whose ancestry is in the tropics find it hard to adapt to dairy. Although, that could well be something that sounds reasonable but is actually half baked. There are exceptions such as the Inuit and Massai, but how many of the them became ill before their genes adapted ? The best dietry experience I've had was in South East Asia, where the meals typically involve small amounts of lean meat, small portions of rice and loads of vegetables barely cooked ( with no dairy or bread available anywhere), and was active with hiking and watersports. It was essentially the LFHC model.

My own experience, incidentally, with sugar cravings was resolved with increasing the amount of (leafy) greens in my diet. I did this with Green Smoothies - basically green leaves blended with fruit ( to mask the taste of chlorophyll, but you actually grow to like it) and water. Greens are the only vegetable you can combine with fruit without getting indigestion. You can get through half a kilo of spinach a day with these, allowing you to quietly snigger at anyone struggling to meet their 5 a day

Also, both the LCHF & LFHC camps espouse the 80/20 principle* - which is once you follow the tenets of either one 80% of the time, the other 20 can be discretionary. How you manage that - booze, chocolate, bread, cake - is up to you.

Sources:

Eat to Live, Joel Fuhrman
Fasting for Health, Joel Fuhrman.
The Primal Blueprint, Mark Sisson.

* Actually the Joel Furhman camp say 90/10..and the 10 includes any meat as well as junk food. Increasing beyond 10 % significantly increases disease risk and that is according to studies done in the context of a high carb diet.