Ok, you’re here, that means you have at least 5 minutes to kill. Stop reading my blog and head over to this site to check out the top five contenders for the worst nutrition advice. Then come back.
I’ll wait.
You’re back? Ok, well, just in case you didn’t want to click or if all the information confused you, here’s a summary of the top 5 list of worst nutrition advice:
1. Throw Away The Egg Yolks, The Most Nutritious Part of The Egg
2. Everyone Should Eat a Low-Fat, High-Carb Diet… Even Diabetics
3. A Calorie is a Calorie… Food Quality is Less Important
4. Use Polyunsaturated Vegetable Oils For Cooking
5. Replace Natural Butter With Processed, Trans Fat Laden Margarine.
In case you missed it, here’s what you SHOULD do:
1. Eat the whole egg. Yes. As many as you want. Cholesterol is actually good for you.
2. Eat a high fat, low carb diet. Especially diabetics. Your pancreas will thank you.
3. Don’t worry about calories, worry about the quality of your food. 1800 calories of junk is still junk. I can’t stand it when I see “healthy snacks” when it’s a package of small oreos, but they’re “healthy” because they’re only 100 calories. Yeah. Your body isn’t a Buick, it’s a complex organism that responds differently to the different things you put in it.
4. Use peanut oil, coconut oil, or olive oil. Stop using corn/canola/vegetable oils. They’re bad for your heart. No, really. Yes, I know, you’ve been told they are GOOD for your heart. You were lied to.
5. Eat real butter, not that other stuff that’s yellow and tastes bad. Yes, I know butter is more expensive, but that’s because it’s real food, and really good for you.
On the last point: Let’s assume you use two pounds of margarine per week. Some of you are saying “Who uses that much??” Others are saying, “Hello!?! More like two pounds a day!” But let’s assume 2 pounds on average. You are paying about $1 per pound for the yellow plastic. Butter costs about $3 per pound, so it’s more expensive. But is it worth it? I say yes! Over the course of a year, if you replaced your margarine with real butter, you would spend an additional $208 on butter. That’s sixty cents a day. Would you pay that much to be healthier and enjoy your food more? I say yes.
Words of Truth 
I’m curious why calories don’t matter. I understand needing to have quality calories, but if you have an intake of 3500 calories a day and are EXTREMELY active you’re going to gain weight. Even if you have the highest quality of calories (protein, fruits, veggies, good fats, etc.) your body can’t keep up. That leads to weight gain, which leads to a host of health problems. Calories always matter. Quality or not.
I don’t think I ever said “calories don’t matter.” What I said was that the quality of your food is more important than the caloric content. In my personal experience, when I’m eating correctly (low carb high fat), the protein and fat satiates me so that I stop eating before I get anywhere near 3500 calories. I think you would have to try really hard to eat 3500 calories on a low carb high fat diet. I say “I think” because I don’t know.
One of the best parts about eating this way is that I don’t have to count my calories. I eat the right foods until I am full, and then stop. I then eat again when I’m hungry, which is usually 6-8 hours later.
You’re correct. You didn’t say calories don’t matter, you said not to worry about them in number 3. Eating 3500 calories a day isn’t as difficult as you may think. 2 cheeseburgers a day made at home can equal around 1000 calories, and a stick of butter alone is about 800 calories. So, if you have a high fat diet it’s even easier to rack up the calories regardless if they’re “quality” or not. The building blocks of a healthy diet are protein, veggies, fruits, and last and hopefully the least are good fats. If you start every meal with protein and trickle down to veggies and so forth you are less likely to have room for fats. There is never a time that you should be getting full off fats.
I’ve read some of your other blog entries, and it seems you’ve been trying to become healthy and lose weight. A sedentary 40 year old man weighing 280 lbs needs 2624 calories to maintain the weight of 280. If that same man wants to lose weight even at just a pound a week he will need to cut down to a 2124 calorie a day intake. If you are living on a high fat diet the likelihood of being able to achieve a 2000 calorie diet is almost impossible. I’m interested to know much weight you’ve been able to lose with your high fat method, and I would also like to see how your numbers are in a blood workup. Because after all, while cholesterol may not be the devil it certainly turns evil when there’s too much in your body. Everything has to be limited to moderation. And, in all honesty Oreos are no worse for you than eating butter for a snack.
Lisa, it sounds like you’ve bought into the lipid hypothesis and the CICO theories whole hog. Good job. Too bad they are based on incorrect assumptions and bad research.
One aspect of eating a high fat low carb diet is that you don’t eat as much.
Here’s my example: I work late, so I usually get up around 9am. I eat breakfast around 10am on most days, which is about 6 pieces of bacon and two to three eggs. Then I usually don’t need to eat again (i.e. I’m “not hungry”) until around 5pm. When I’m at work, I will go out to eat, and get a baconator (without the bun) from Wendys, or a different hamburger (sans bun) or maybe even a chicken sandwich (again, no bun). No fries, no sugary drink, and the sandwiches are about all I can eat (think “most of a baconator” or “one mcdonalds double cheeseburger and one mcchicken”) And then I’m not hungry again until I get off work around 11pm, when I will eat a handful of peanuts or almonds, or a 4 piece Wendy’s chicken nugget, or maybe some meatballs or a salad with ham and egg in it. LIke I said, I don’t know how many calories that is, because I don’t count calories. I just did some quick research though, and found out that my breakfast of 3 eggs and 6 pieces of bacon has about 500 calories. My lunch has between 500-700 calories based on what I choose. And my last meal has about 200-500 calories. So that totals around 1500 calories. And I’m full throughout the day. I’m guessing that I’m not eating as much because my body is processing the calories already present in my body fat. Some days I will eat a dark chocolate nuts and sea salt Kind bar for a treat as well, (each bar has 200 calories, 13g fat, and 9 net carbs).
Fruits? how are fruits healthy exactly? I know citrus fruits have vitamin C, but then again, so do cruciferous vegetables. Actually broccoli has twice as much ascorbic acid as an orange.
Yes, I’ve been trying to lose weight for about five years now. The problem is that I’m addicted to carbohydrates. I just love eating them, but they make me fat. I have tried low fat diets. I have tried counting calories. I tried the 6 week body makeover (no salt? Ick). I tried a few other diet programs limiting portions. The only weight loss plan that has ever worked for me involved limiting the amount of carbs I eat in both breads/pastas and other sugars (desserts).
I’m interested to know what exactly you think I eat on a high fat low carb diet that would make my caloric intake over 2000 calories.
As for how much weight I can lose, when I am eating right (HFLC) I usually lose about 15-20 pounds in the first few weeks, and then settle down to about 10 pounds a month. Currently I started eating right (i.e. “got back on the wagon”) 11 days ago and I’ve lost about 12 pounds. I expect this weight loss to slow down drastically in the next month, but it should keep up a steady pace. If I can stick with it, I should be at my goal weight of 190 by next summer.
I would encourage you to read “Why We Get Fat” by NYT writer Gary Taubes. It’s an easy read. Or, if you think that is too pedestrian, you could read “Good Calories, Bad Calories” (same author).
Sorry, but I just about spit out my bacon when I read your line about oreos being “no worse” for me than eating butter.
1 T of Butter has fat, sodium, potassium, vitamin A and D,
Oreos? the same amount of calories (100) of oreos (it’s 80 per cookie, so let’s say 1.25 oreos) has 15 grams of carbohydrates, a little protein and calcium, and iron. Truthfully, everything I could get from the oreo I get from the meat I eat (minus the carbs, which nobody needs).
PS: I eat as much salt as I want.