Category Archives: Low Carb Diet

Low Carb Diet

Getting Started on Low-Carb: Books

I realize that not everyone wants to read 10 books to figure out what to eat for dinner. But I found that the following books helped me wrap my mind around the science and the practice of a ketogenic way of eating. You might find all you need for free on the Internet, but books curate and organize information in a way that often makes more sense, at least to me.

My Top Picks for Ketogenic and Low-Carb Books

 

The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable
by Jeff Volek and  Stephen Phinney 

I think the title of this book neatly sums up the biggest diet issue: Sustainability and enjoyment are key issues for food and life. If we are miserable on our diets, we can’t stay on them. Not to mention (and this is important): Low-carb eating is not so much a diet as it is a long-term way of life. This book explains the science behind and the medical benefits of low-carb eating as a permanent lifestyle change.

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health
Gary Taubes

Gary Taubes is not a doctor or a nutritionist; he is an award-winning New York Times science writer with a flare for storytelling, which made this a compelling read. I was especially stunned by the whole history of how our government-approved dietary recommendations came to be so wrong. The bottom line: According to this book, pretty much everything most people assume when they say, “I’m making healthier choices” is dead wrong. If you think you are “being good” when you choose low-fat over full-fat, eat oatmeal instead of bacon and eggs, or skip the prime rib in favor of skinless boneless chicken breast, you need a complete sea change in how you view food and health.

 

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It
Gary Taubes

News flash: According to this book, we aren’t fat because we have no will power and are lazy; we are fat and don’t have any energy because we are suffering the consequences of a perfect storm. The combination of a predisposition to metabolic system and the standard western diet is a recipe for disaster — and largely responsible for the obesity epidemic. Taubes explains how being overweight is less a cause of disease, and more of a symptom of a metabolic syndrome gone awry. And he tells us what to do to change our metabolic fate.

The New Atkins for a New You: The Ultimate Diet for Shedding Weight and Feeling Great

by Eric C. Westman , Stephen D. Phinney , Jeff S. Volek 

This book, along with both the original Atkins guide and Atkins’s revised edition (described below), is a how-to-change-your-eating book that summarizes the rationale for a low-carb diet and gets into the nitty gritty of how to implement it.  This books stands on Atkins’ shoulders, but it better reflects contemporary ketogenic principles and updates the science.  It explains the rationale behind the low-carb diet, and offers strategies for a variety of situations including eating out. It’s a little bit cheerleadery (as were the original Atkins books) — but the information is easy to take in.

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health

by William Davis, MD

While most low-carb approaches take a general “all carbs are the enemy” approach, this books zooms in on wheat as the culprit. Its basic concern is the effect of wheat on the human digestive system, metabolism, and even the brain. It also includes information about both the ancient history of wheat cultivation and the modern history of grain cultivation and genetic modification, showing how the grains we use today are different from their forebears and the effect this has on humans.

Undoctored: Why Health Care Has Failed You and How You Can Become Smarter Than Your Doctor

by William Davis, MD

I’m not sure I can ever again be undoctored… thyroid cancer has put an end to that. But cancer notwithstanding, I plan to avoid the clutches of Big Pharma, Big Food, and Big Government Medicine. Undoctored explains some of the financial interests that intrude on the relationship between you and your doctor.  As with Wheat Belly, I read this book when I was already well into my weight-loss journey, and my prior research was such that I’d already started following most of Davis’s recommendations. I found this an excellent source for information about supplements.

 

More Books on Weight Loss and Health 

Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution, Revised Edition
Robert Atkins M.D.

Low-carb eating is not new…. some say our paleolithic ancestors ate this way, and that it is high-carb grain-based eating (dating only several thousand years) that is new — and unsuited — to humans. That said, the Atkins diet brought low-carb eating into the popular lexicon in the 1970s, just as the “food pyramid” was gaining traction as the medical establishment’s diet of choice. Lambasted as faddish, unhealthy, and even dangerous, the Atkins diet was shot down again and again but somehow never died. Today, it is the foundation of most ketogenic diets. Atkins was not an opponent of sugar substitutes (which have since been shown to impact blood sugar and hence insulin levels because they activate the part of the brain that thinks “I’m getting sugar!”) Nor was he an opponent of processed foods. (The current Atkins corporation bought the name and sells processed foods, which I, and many others following a ketogenic way of life, avoid.) Atkins’s books were often publicized as permission to be as gluttonous as you wanted, as long as you were scarfing down steak and bacon and not potatoes and cake. My own version of ketogenic eating follows a more moderate of avoiding sugar substitutes, avoiding as many processed foods as possible, and limiting protein to reasonable sizes based on an individual’s weight, height, and activity levels. Nonetheless, Atkins’ books are the grand-parents of modern ketogenic thinking. This one has simple, clear explanations, easy science, and an encouraging “you-can-do-it” tone that millions of people have found inspiring.

 

The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss
by Jason Fung

Dr. Jason Fung is a nephrologist (nephrology refers to kidneys, which are frequently damaged or destroyed by diabetes. Diabetes is in turn associated with obesity). This book explores the relationship between insulin, carbs, blood sugar control, and obesity, and puts insulin resistance squarely at fault for most “diseases of civilization.” In addition to a ketogenic diet, Dr. Fung is a proponent of intermittent fasting. Quite frankly, fasting does not appeal to me. However, the 18-hour fasts that are a starting point (often running from an early dinner to late breakfast the next day) are something that seems to almost happen naturally and easily for me. Many mornings (including this one), I find myself on an 18-hour fast, whether intended or not. Even if you aren’t interested in fasting, this book offers clear explanations behind some of the science of low-carb eating and metabolic system disruption that occurs when the insulin cycle goes awry.

 

Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars

Richard K. Bernstein

A friend of mine (a type I diabetic who has had numerous other health issues including cancer) quite simply says that Dr. Berstein Saved his life. This book is aimed at both type 1 and type 2 diabetics. Dr. Berstein is a physician with type 1 diabetes who practices what he preaches. Here, he explains the basics of the carbohydrate-insulin cycle and metabolic syndrome, and then talks about a ketogenic diet in terms of managing blood sugars. I’m not diabetic, and David isn’t anymore (and he was never on medication for it) but I still found this book very helpful in understanding the science of metabolic diseases, pre-diabetes, and diabetes.

The Great Cholesterol Myth + 100 Recipes for Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won’t Prevent Heart Disease and the Statin Free Plan and Diet that Will
by Jonny Bowden , Stephen Sinatra , Deirdre Rawlings 

One of the concerns some doctors and many patients have about a low-carb diet is that it will increase cholesterol. And indeed, sometimes it does. This book takes the position that total cholesterol is a meaningless measure, because it adds a positive (good HDL cholesterol) to a negative (a portion of tryglicerides and LDL). Furthermore, it claims that the evidence that LDL is dangerous is far from complete. There are, it turns out, large, small, and other LDL particles, some of which are neutral and some of which are bad, and only a blood test that examines particle size and number is truly useful. On a low-carb diet, many people experience higher HDL (good) cholesterol and lower triglycerides, but also higher LDL (commonly called “bad”) cholesterol.  To have a useful discussion about cholesterol and statin drugs with a doctor, patients need to have a basic understanding of the studies and controversies surrounding this issue.

 

Keto Comfort Foods

Maria Emmerich

Who doesn’t love recipes? The absolute best way I know to stay on a diet, or, in this case, on a permanent way of eating, is to love the food you are eating. So cookbooks with great ideas help. This one occasionally includes recipes that are a bit higher-carb than a strict meat-and-greens type meal. So be careful when you plan your meals.  I figure if dinner has a slightly higher-than-normal carb count, that I should be super careful the rest of the day. She also includes a lot of desserts with artificial sweeteners. Personally, I save these for only very occasional treats. Your mileage may vary. Lots of great ideas here. Enjoy!

Blog, Low Carb Diet

Getting Started on Low-Carb: Online Resources

I’m not an expert, a medical doctor, a nutritionist (etc. ). So I am sharing my personal journey and the resources I found helpful in losing more than 85 pounds over the last year and a half.

But my experience is only mine. We are each our own experiment, and I think there is variation in how different people respond. Also, except for my thyroid cancer, I am basically healthy, so my body may have reacted more easily to the change in diet. If you are on a lot of medication (particularly diabetes medication) check with a doctor before radically changing your way of eating.  However, realize that many doctors are not up on low-carb science, and many counsel against it. You may need to do a lot of research to have an informed and productive discussion with an uninformed (on this issue) doctor. The following sites will get you started.

I  will add resources to this page as I find them, so check back. These are resources I have personally found useful. I don’t want to overload this page… too much information being more confusing than helpful. You can also check out the book resources page.

One warning before you jump into the Internet world of low-carb eating:  Sayin’ don’t make it so. Just because a food company or website or book publisher says something is “low-carb” doesn’t mean it is. Companies will do anything to get you to buy their product. Low-carb is a trend, so food companies are jumping on it, just like the co-opted the words “healthy,” “natural,” “gluten free” and  “organic.” But their definition of “low-carb”  may not be truly low-carb. The same goes for cook-books. You will have to decide what your carb limits are, and then make sure the foods you eat and recipes you use comply.

Internet Resources for the Ketogenic Way of Eating

www.dietdoctor.com. This website has a paywall for some information, but plenty of free stuff to get you going. The intro to weight loss page is a great place to start. Also, their what to eat page has a guide to food

Linda’s Low Carb Recipes. Need recipes? You’ll find them here.

Low Carb Faqs (and much more):  This site contains the forums listed directly below, along with faqs, recipes, and tips. I found it useful when starting out.

Low Carber Forums: Folks here will answer just about any question you can think of and give plenty of moral support, plus there are scores of recipes and success stories to keep you on track, along with discussions of related health info (cholesterol, diabetes, etc.) They include a broad range of approaches and perspectives.

*Watch out for Facebook keto groups that are filled with sugar substitutes and dessert recipes. While David and I enjoy the occasional keto dessert, we’ve found that for us, avoidance is the best policy.

Counting Net Carbs versus Whole Carbs?  Definitions: The whole carb count is the total number of carbs in a food item. The net carbs count is calculated by subtracting the amount of fiber.  For example, a cup of sliced avocado might have 12 whole carbs, of which 10 carbs are from fiber. So the net carb count is 2. Obviously, with some high fiber foods, using net carbs means that you will have a wider selection. However, some experts say that some amount of fiber carbs can affect blood sugar. Also, different experts have different opinions on how many carbs to aim for, and whether those should be whole or net. You will have to experiment with your food choices. I started strict, then eased off a little, and I basically stay between 20 whole carbs and 30 net carbs a day. The article linked above goes into more detail about net versus whole carbs. The site has lots more info on it.

Counting Macros. Macro-nutrients the categories of foods we eat: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. While some low-carb people count their proteins and fats (and, less commonly calories), I have not done so. For me, counting carbs alone has given satisfactory results. I eyeball protein (2 smallish portions per day — each portion is about the size of a hamburger). But if eyeballing is not giving you the results you want, try counting macros. This site helps figure out how grams you should be taking in of proteins, fats, and carbs, depending on height, weight, gender, activity level, etc.

Beginner’s Guide This site has a ton of useful info, including recipes and forums.

The Opposition

I’m also going to share a couple of links to “the opposition” (below).

The mainstream medical establishment has a long history of failing to recognize any benefits of a low-carb diet. This mistake is so long-standing and ingrained that I think they have backed themselves into a corner where they can’t or won’t admit it. I think there are a lot of well-meaning people advocating all manner of dietary approaches, but there are also people whose advocacy is based on pride or greed. There is also an argument that “Big Food” and “Big Pharma” have an interest in keeping the status quo (lots of drug-taking, junk-food-consuming sick people with diabetes. You should be aware that there is strong opposition to this way of eating in some parts of the medical community.

Studies can be cherry-picked any which way to show whatever you want them to show. And many of them are deeply flawed in design and duration. Nutrition and health are by definition multi-variable, and even the best double blind peer-reviewed studies show only statistics, not effects on individuals. I think we are all our own experiments, and that for a subset of the population,  a low-carb approach is beneficial.  You know what you’ve done in the past. You know whether it has worked. Only you can figure out whether it makes sense to try something different.

I believe in reading all sides of a story before making a decision. Here are two examples of opposition to the low-carb way of eating . These focus on the Atkins diet. Note that the original version of the Atkins diet was sometimes promoted or interpreted as  permission to gorge on humongous steaks and pounds of bacon. No responsible current low-carb sites promote gorging, whether its on kale or pork-chops! Also note that the current Atkins corporation and sells highly processed food products, which my personal way of eating completely avoids. The corporation bought the Atkins name, and while it promotes low-carb eating, the company is separate and distinct from the late doctor who came up with the plan.

The Wikipedia entry on the Atkins diet makes no attempt to be objective, but is revealing about mainstream medicine’s position.

This link, to a 1974 American Medical Association article, takes issue with many aspects of a ketogenic diet. The site on which this article was reprinted was founded by Dr. Michael Greger, who advocates a plant-based diet with no animal products. Dr. Greger appears to be an animal rights advocate and nowhere on this site or his other sites did I find information about his actual clinical experience with patients. (During his “Animal Rights 2002” convention speech, he said, “The future of the animal liberation movement depends on our ability to unite with other social justice movements, and corporate globalization is the key bridging issue we’ve been waiting for all of our lives.”)  You should be aware of opposing opinions and studies, and I am including a link to this site because this is about as oppositional as it gets. (Reading some of these sites sometimes reminds me of toddlers in a playground, each shouting “No, YOU’RE a doo-doo-head” more loudly than the other.) Obviously, the AMA article I’ve linked to here is very old, but it neatly summarizes the main points of the “opposition.” Also, Dr. Greger’s website contains other articles lambasting low-carb, as well.

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Paragliding into Weight Loss: The Journey Begins

For reasons explained here, I’ve been slow getting around to adding all the information on low-carb and ketogenic eating that people have asked for. So some of this is old news, but I wanted to start at the beginning. There’s a backstory about how I stumbled into a way of eating that resulted in weight loss of 85 pounds.

(A disclaimer: I share my personal experience in the hope that it can help others. I am not a health professional or a doctor, and I am not trying to “sell” low-carb. It’s a permanent commitment and way of life, and it is not for everyone. If you are on any medications — especially any kind of medications for diabetes — you absolutely must consult with a doctor before you follow this way of eating because you must adjust medication to account for declining blood sugar numbers. )

I’ll cut to the chase: Since March of 2016, I’ve lost 85 pounds. My partner David has lost 75. That means that when we climb into bed there is 160 pounds less of us (a whole person! Who knew we had a ménage à trois going for all these years!).

Ironically, my initial weight loss journey started out having nothing to do with health. In March, 2016, I got an e-mail from a public relations representative from Switzerland. I was going to a travel writers’ conference in May, and they were arranging some junkets: Did I want to go paragliding. Over the Alps.

This was the motivation for me going on a diet.

“YES!!!” I wrote back, overusing my yearly allotment of capital letters and exclamation points in a single e-mail. There may even have been a smiley face involved.

In the middle of the following night, my sleeping brain came up with the brilliant conclusion that gravity, paragliding (i.e., an activity that involves falling from the sky), and my current weight were probably not compatible.

Actually, I didn’t even know what my weight was: my way of dealing with tight clothes and unfortunate feedback from the mirror had been to avoid stepping on the scale. In doctors’ offices,  I’d close my eyes and ask the nurse not to tell me the number. Denial was my strategy. Stretch pants were my friends.

Denial waged war with desire. Desire won. I looked up the outfitter on the Internet and learned that the weight limit for paragliding was 220 pounds. I stepped on the scale. It is hard for me to write the number, but I’m trying to be honest, so I’ll do it.

237. 6

Naked. Before coffee.

I’m 5′ 9″ and I have broad shoulders and a strong build… but 237 (and don’t forget the point-six)???!!! It’s obese no matter what kind of mirror you look at.

The number took my breath away. How does that even happen? How, especially, does it happen to someone who hikes and skis (almost every day), who doesn’t eat sugared cereal or indulge in desserts, who shops the perimeter of the grocery store and skips the aisles, who follows guidelines to eat lots of fruit and veggies and healthy whole grains? (Let’s pause for a moment…. I’ll give you a hint: the answer is contained in the question. I’ll cover that in a subsequent post.)

Since I wasn’t planning to paraglide naked, and since I needed to account not only for clothes and shoes, but also for breakfast, coffee, and the fact that prior to going to Switzerland, I’d be on a food tour in Prague, I figured I needed to lose 27.6 pounds (give or take a tenth) to safely weigh in under the limit. I had seven weeks.

Was that even possible?

I went — where else? — to the Internet, looking for crash diets.  I didn’t care if they were banana and grapefruit or kimchi and kale; my goal was paragliding, not health. Google and Siri were glad to oblige. In short order, they pointed me in the direction of low-carb. The key benefit (as far as I was concerned): fast initial weight loss.

Low-carb forums assured me that others had lost 10, 15, even more pounds in the first two weeks, and that two pounds a week after that was possible. They also raved about health benefits, but I skipped that part and focused on the weight loss math. It would be a close call, but maybe it could be done. I envisioned having to step on a scale in front of all my travel writing colleagues — me, Ms Big Adventure Writer — and being told I was too fat to fly. Shame was a powerful motivator.

I’d heard of low-carb, of course. In popular diet culture, it’s been around in some guise or another since I was a teenager worrying about the size of my prom dress. (The first Atkins book hit bookstore shelves in 1972.) And low-carb has been around a lot longer than that — maybe even back to to caveman days. (Some writers claim that it’s the way humans evolved to eat. You can check out some book recommendations. )

To summarize: Yes, it worked, but it’s strict, it’s not for everyone, and as far as I can tell, it works but you have to stay on it forever. It’s also controversial with a lot of doctors, not to mention the American Diabetic Association, the American Heart Association and most mainline medical websites you’ll visit. (Which is why you should read as much as you can stand, and if you are on medications, check with a doctor before doing t his.)

Here’s the list of things I avoided in order to lose the weight:

  • Wheat
  • Other grains and grain-based foods (including cereal, bread, pasta, pizza, rice, oatmeal, even quinoa)
  • Potatoes
  • Sugar and all artificial sweeteners
  • Starchy root vegetables and winter squashes
  • Fruit juice and soda (which I never drank anyway)

In addition, there were limits on or cautions about most fruits, legumes, nuts, and seeds. The protocol I followed avoids as much processed food as possible and anything labeled low-fat. Cream is okay, milk is not, and skim milk or low-fat milk is especially not okay. Alcohol is okay in reasonable amounts, but the more you drink the less you lose.

Red meat, fish, chicken, eggs, vegetables that grow above the ground (especially leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables), and many fats (olive oil, avocado oil,  coconut oil, butter, ghee, meat fats and fish oils) are the mainstays of this way of eating; the details depend on the expert you follow. (There’s a lot of variation here, and some overlap between Atkins, Ketogenic, South Beach, Paleo, Whole 30 and some others.)

At the beginning, I wrote down what I ate and drank every day, accounting for the carbs in the cream in my coffee and checking nutrition labels to hunt for hidden sugars.  I tracked carbs in the ingredients of recipes we made from scratch.  I counted minuscule quantities of blueberries and olives and nuts. I cut way back on wine.

Surprisingly, after the first few days it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Besides, what did I have to lose (aside from a lot of weight)?

The answer: health risk factors.

As it turns out, I’d stumbled not on a diet, but a permanent way of eating. And if I stayed on it, it would not only help me reach and maintain a normal weight, but would result in better health markers all around. My weight dropped, as promised: in the first two weeks, I lost about 15 pounds. Most of that was glycogen and water weight, but the paragliding people wouldn’t care about that. Later doctors visits showed that my blood pressure and blood sugar numbers had dropped into “ideal” territories.

My partner, David, joined me on the same plan, which was a big help. I am convinced that the biggest threat to an individual’s health (particularly women) is the other people in the household. David had a bit less enthusiasm than I (among other things, he had absolutely no interest in paragliding and he sorely missed ice cream). With his addiction to diet soda, which he has since resolved, he wasn’t losing weight as fast as I was (my understanding is that most artificial sweeteners raise the body’s insulin response, which prevents weight loss.) Still, he dropped about ten pounds.

To make a long story short, the day I left for Europe, I had lost precisely 27.6 pounds. I was down to 210. For paragliding purposes, that gave me a ten-pound leeway for clothes, coffee, and any weight I might gain from food eaten during the bountiful meals of a travel writing junket.  But I found that my tastes had changed, and even when presented with the tempting breads and pastries of a high-end European dinner, I mostly avoided straying. I deeply offended a kind Czech waiter who insisted that without bread dumplings I would not have a “complete meal.” (Confession: I did eat a piece of apple strudel. I am not made of stone.)

Most importantly, I got to run off a cliff and float into the sky, fully at peace with gravity  — a thrill that was worth every single bite of pizza, pasta, and bread I had missed over the previous few weeks.

When I returned home, I was committed to staying the low-carb course. Everything was copacetic… until it wasn’t. A few weeks after my return, David had his stroke and got his diabetes diagnosis, and our world changed.

Suddenly, our low-carb diet had nothing to do with getting back into smaller clothes or doing outdoor activities. Losing weight and improvising health markers was a matter (and I mean this very seriously) of life and death. David gave up the diet soda. In the hospital, he ignored the recommended diabetes menu and had omelettes for breakfast and burgers with veggies and no buns for for lunch and dinner. At home, he stuck with it. The results? You can see them in the before and after pictures below: He is now 75 pounds slimmer with normal cholesterol, normal blood pressure, and a normal, non-diabetic A1c (that is the blood test for diabetes).

Before…

 

…and after (Yes, I like that shirt!)

Meantime, a lot of people have been asking for details. So I am adding and updating information, most especially links to on-resources, books, and recipes.

As I said earlier, I am not trying to sell low-carb eating to anyone — but I am trying to answer the questions to people who ask and are interested. As I am not an expert, I will not give advice, but I will share what has worked for me, and point you to resources that may help you make your own decisions.

My understanding is that this way of eating works for a subset of the population whose bodies respond to carbs in a certain metabolically challenged way. If you are in that group, I hope the resources I share and my experiences will help you choose your own path through the poison-laden aisles of your neighborhood supermarket.