All of those are considered "good ideas" excepting the skim milk shit. You can't get all of your protein from just 1 single source ffs, rabbit starvation is a thing.
Depends.
1) "Make half the plate fruits and vegetables" is not a good idea for everyone. Modern-day fruits are sugar bombs - I had already posted an article on how zoo animals are
getting diabetes from the sugary fruit they are being fed. And majority of modern people have some type of metabolic syndrome, so... yeah. You have to watch
what fruits you are eating - eating blueberries and such may be a good idea, gorging on bananas, not really. Even apples may be a problem, considering how different they are from
natural apples.
2) Switching to skim milk is, as you note, a
terrible idea.
3) Making at least half the grains whole is not necessarily a good idea, because grain bran is literally where all the toxins are. Most of the arsenic in rice is
located in the bran, and wheat bran has
huge concentrations of glyphosate (though that is a consequence of spraying, not something occuring naturally). Of course, bran is also where all the nutrients other than calories are, so... YMMV.
4) Vary your protein food choices can be a good idea, depending on person and depending on what is exactly meant by the "protein food choices" phrase. Maybe I am paranoid, but why didn't they write "vary your animal food choices"?
As for rabbit starvation, that is literally an issue of too much protein and not enough fat. You can eat meat and nothing else, and so long as you get enough fat in, rabbit starvation won't be a problem. Basically, eating beef or other fatty cuts of meat alone is perfectly fine, but if you are predominantly eating lean meats such as chicken breast and similar, you will need to supplement that with fat - be it lard, butter, olive oil, or something else.
-----------------------------
Summary (my commentary is in the brackets):
- Incidence of diabetes and obesity are skyrocketing, and especially among the children. In fact, obesity rates among the children had tripled in the last 30 years - and they were already insane to begin with (and keep in mind, documentary was produced - or at least uploaded - in 2017).
- People do not have to have diabetes and obesity to have a metabolic syndrome. In fact, both of these are the end stages of the metabolic disease. And 70% of US tax dollars are being spent on treating said syndrome.
- Portion sizes too had dramatically increased. When you look at a plate on paintings of the Last Supper by Leonardo, plates are small. (Although, I have to ask, how much of this increase is because food today is less satisfying?)
- Dr. Keyes falsified his Seven Country Study. The study had "shown" that countries with highest fat consumption also had the highest rate of heart disease. But... he started with 22 countries, and then removed all the countries that had detracted from his hypothesis. Nevertheless, his study led to governments all over recommending large carb intake.
- In 1977, US Senator George McGovern (awesome name, BTW) led the effort to make the government adopt the new dietary guidelines. Soon after the USDA publicly supported the new carb-heavy diet. Suddenly, bread, pasta, potatoes and rice were considered essential basis of the diet while fat became a boogeyman. And that despite the fact that in the 1960s these foods were considered uniquely fattening (and for centuries had been used by peasants to fatten up animals for slaughter).
- Grains, whole or refined, trigger elevated insulin response. This causes hunger, but also overloads pancreas. And they also trigger inflammation, which is what leads to thickening the blood and creation of the plaque.
- Campaigns for doctors to wash hands between procedures (Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis) and to wear seat belts both produced positive results. But when in 1977 the FDA released new dietary guidelines, recommending everyone to consume more carbs and less fat, positive results were... missing. Not only that, but we got very rapid influx of negative results. Over the next 30 years, diabetes rates had quadrupled, hypertension climbed steadily, obesity rates have skyrocketed, and the metabolic syndrom had become commonplace. And the fact all of this had happened after the introduction of new guidelines is hardly an accident.
- Dietary guidelines had never been tested for how well they work.
- Refined carbs and sugar had been around since forever (white bread existed in Roman times, and they used grape juice as a sweetener). But where before you could easily notice what was sugary and what was not, today, basically all foods except meat had been turned into sweets. All processed foods have added sugars or sweeteners, and majority of processed foods are based on grains and thus inherently high in sugar (called "carbohydrates" on the label). And even with foods that do not have sugar naturally, sugar is often added to them (seriously, you have to read the label on the bloody bacon to make sure it doesn't have sugar!).
- But that wasn't the start. In 1973, Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz initiated the corporate-friendly agricultural policy which subsidized the production of corn and grain. This combined with the long-lasting campaign against dietary fat led to prominence a new and exciting product: the High Fructose Corn Syrup. Fear of fat and the new low-fat food culture permeating every aspect of life (and grocery stores) meant that substitute had to be made in order to ensure food remained tasty, and HFCS was an obvious choice. Today, nearly every single processed food has either sugar, HFCS, or more often both, present as ingredients in it - without this added sweetness, low-fat food tastes like crap.
- And of course, increased consumption of sugar in its various forms (be it simple sugars or various carbohydrates) has its consequences. Where fat is quite sating and suppresses hunger signals, sugar (and its variants) has the opposite effect - it causes hunger and opens up the apetite. This leads to more eating, which leads to more hunger, which leads to even more eating... with the result that now we have the obesity epidemic.
- Between 1945 and 1975, fructose consumption had doubled, and by 1995 consumption was triple of what it was in 1945. Generation born in the late 1970s and early 1980s was the first generation to have the High Fructose Corn Syrup prenatally. And this basically led the kids to have HFCS addiction. Basically, if mother eats junk food, child will be born already addicted to said junk food.
- 80% of food products sold in the grocery stores contain added sugars or high fructore corn syrup (and just to note, many of the remaining 20% contain either stevia or artificial sweeteners, which is even worse). But food culture in general has led to most people thinking of processed carbohydrates as the primary source of nutrition.
- Oh, and when people see ads for food, they eat more food. Monkey see, monkey eat. "Eyes bigger than stomach" is an expression for a reason, and is in the full display now. Even adults cannot really escape it, and children of course are even more vulnerable. Ge them addicted as kids, and they'll eat your garbage as adults as well. So naturally, much of the advertisement is targeted at the kids, deliberately undermining role of the parent in raising the child.
- Pace of modern life means that cooking at home is rarely an option (going carnivore quite simplified this particular issue for me BTW as most of my meals have literally one ingredient now) and so vending machines, drive-throughs and packaged meals became basically a necessity. This convenience however is a major issue as people not only don't really know what they are eating, exactly, but can in fact eat without even paying attention to the fact that they are eating in the first place. From what used to be a family ritual, eating has become quite a mindless activity.
- Modern diet means that people are carb-loading like professional athletes, but then not exercising like professional athletes. And even for the athletes, benefits of carb-loading may in fact be a myth. Mark Sisson, an endurance tri-athlete, had his health and life ruined by carb-loading. Sami Inkine became pre-diabeting while training 12 hours a week as a top-level tri-athlete. While athletes may benefit from carbohydrates in short events, that is mostly simply because modern diet predisposes us to be carb-adapted. Shawn Baker, a major carnivore diet proponent, is also a champion indoor rower who holds the world record in his age group.
- People eat a lot of junk food because it is cheaper. And yes, a piece, a pound or even a calorie of junk food may be cheaper than a natural equivalent, especially if we are talking meat. But that doesn't mean junk food is actually cheaper, as junk food has a lot of hidden costs. Majority of health care costs could in fact be avoided if people started eating healthier, and then there are also environmental costs of packaging, processing, disposal etc. Economic burden of just Type 2 diabetes now exceeds the economic burden of tobacco by 50 billion USD. Average American spends 6 000 USD a year on food - and 8 000 USD a year on medical bills. (And I will note here that even the direct costs do not have to be higher on a healthy diet: junk food is designed to keep you eating, to never leave you satisfied. So while pound of beef may be more expensive than a pound of fries, pound of fries will leave you hungry much sooner. What this means is that it is not a pound of beef vs a pound of fries, but a pound of beef vs a pound of fries + coca-cola + burger + tomato sauce + bread and cheese. My own food expenses decreased after going carnivore).
- According to USDA, 23,5 million people in the US live in the so-called "food deserts". These are urban neighbourhoods or rural towns served by fast foods or convenience stores instead of supermarkets and grocery stores. And due to income, for many people there the low quality food seems to be the only choice. (You can in fact have a healthy diet in McDonalds if you watch what you eat, but how many people are going to do that?)
- Food is also deliberately designed to encourage overeating. Turns out, if you give people a plate of differently-colored M&Ms (TF are those?), they end up eating half as many again (so 1,5 times the amount) they would have if these had all been the same color. And amount of food also increases with the number of people in proximity - person will eat 30% more food if they are in company with one other person, but 90% more if he is surrounded by seven more people. What is more, amount of food consumed also increases with increase in different types of food. When eating only meat, only almonds, only apples... we get sick of the taste soon and stop. But when eating multi-flavored meal, different flavors and textures provide relief from one another and thus encourage overeating.
- Packaged snacks are specifically designed to be extra palatable. Humans love fat, salt, sugar and crunchy texture - and so most of processed and especially fast foods combine at least three or sometimes four of these. (Take chips or french fries: they have fat (fried in fat or oil), salt (salted), sugar (made from potatoes which are high in carbs) and of course crunchy texture due to frying). This combination of flavors is a big factor in causing the addiction, "tickling" the hippotalamus to the point where you can't stop eating, where natural foods have simple tastes which actually reduce the number of calories it takes to feel full.
- But modern food products are not only psychologically addictive. They are also chemically addictive. In fact, brain scans of drug addicts and sugar addicts are virtually identical. Much like heroin, sugar also strongly activates dopamine receptors. Combine this sense of pleasure with increased hunger after eating sugar and increase in insulin secretion (to rid blood of excess sugar, which then causes sugar crash and hunger), and sugary foods easily trap us in a vicious cycle of overeating followed by hunger followed by even more overeating. Rinse and repeat again. And everybody trying to give up sugar (or high-carb foods) will tell you that it really is like a withdrawal.
- And this is the reason why modern dietary advice fails. It says that you have to reduce calories but can keep eating all the same foods. (And I have to note here that once you have gotten carb addiction, best way is to go keto or, even better, carnivore. You don't cure an alcohol addict by allowing him one glass of wine a day - because he will not be able to stay at that one glass. Nor will you tell someone smoking two packs of cigarettes a day to just reduce it to one cigarette a day. If you had gotten addicted, the only option is to quit entirely).
- All of this is basically by intent. Food industry wants you hungry and addicted, because it increases their profits. Modern processed food in particular is specifically designed to maximize the effect of addiction and minimize satiety (and if you don't believe it, just read the damn labels). This is why processed foods are so carb-heavy. High levels of carbohydrates in food lead to high levels of insulin production by the body - and insulin blocks the leptin, satiety hormone, from being received by the body. This has the effect of preventing us from realizing we are, in fact, full, so we just keep eating. (And this has major implications for people with insulin resistance or diabetes. Basically, what medicine does today is giving insulin shots - but this leads to increased levels of insulin in the body, which means less leptin, which means more hunger, which means more overeating and more sugar, which means even more insulin as it is responsible for managing that sugar... all of this leads to a downward spiral of increasing insulin resistance. The only possible way of avoiding that is to avoid carbohydrates - which means going onto ketogenic or even carnivore diet, depending on how bad the problem is. And majority of people in the modern Western world likely have a degree of insulin resistance). Once cells have enough energy however, insulin's job is to store the excess blood sugar as fat. For most people this manifests as a "middle aged pudge" or "dad bod". But this isn't a sign of aging, it is a sign of failing health, failing metabolism and increasing leptin and insulin resistance.
- Above is also why the "eat less and exercise more" advice has failed, and will continue to fail. Sure, you may use it to drop weight - but you will feel miserable and sooner or later, your willpower will fail. Not to mention, that advice can only really be given by people who have never worked out in their life. You know what happens after a workout? You get hungry, because body needs to replenish not just the energy but also the key nutrients spent. (Even worse, for a carb-adapted organism, this hunger gets ravenous. Back when I was on a high-carb / standard Western diet, I would get points - especially post-exercise - when I literally couldn't think from how hungry I would be. Now I am on a carnivore diet, I forget to eat. In fact, just recently, I got myself some stomach pain because I had failed to realize that I hadn't eaten for two whole days, and once I did realize it, I ate too much!). So after the exercise, it is natural to simply eat more - the exact opposite of what the people aiming to lose weight should do. As people who actually know fitness say, "abs are made in the kitchen" - but it is not just abs, but the whole health that is made in the kitchen. A couch potato eating healthy diet will be healthier than an athlete eating crap diet, because you cannot exercise away bad dietary choices.
- Impact of food on insulin levels (and thus partly metabolic health) can be measured by glycemic load. Higher the glycemic load, worse the food is (and note that meat and dairy, unless treated with sugar and carbs, has universally low glycemic load and glycemic index, making carnivore diet ideal for people suffering from metabolic diseases such as diabetes. I will also have to note that this is not actually universal: this guide puts apples and carrots as low GL foods, yet both of these leave me extremely hungry). Fruits and fructose are good for athletes looking to replenish energy, but because it readily enters bloodstream and just as readily converts into fat, they are not a good food for people with metabolic disorders, and especially not for people who should lose weight (so 90% of Western population).
- Diabetes and high-carb diets increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's - to the point that it is in some circles called the Type 3 diabetes.
- Cholesterol was demonized because it was found at places where heart and arteries had been damaged, and it was believed that it was actually causing the damage. In reality, cholesterol is much like pus - a sign, but not the cause, of the underlying problem. Just as the pus is white due to the white blood cells that had come to fight the infection, so the cholesterol in the plaque is there because it is trying to help repair the damage. Same goes for the fat - thought was that if arteries are clogged by fat, and we are getting fat, it must be due to eating fat. But eating fat actually prevents accumulation of fat in the body, as well as the arteries. Blaming cholesterol and fat for clogged arteries is like blaming bandaid for getting cut.
- Cholesterol is in fact one of the most important molecules in the body, and body makes some 1200 to 1400 milligrams of it on its own each day. It serves as a precursor for Vitamin D, progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, cortisol, and is also acting as a brain anti-oxidant.
- While natural saturated fats are good, trans fats (trans-unsaturated fatty acids) found in margarine, fried foods and frozen dinners definitely harm health.
- Fat-rich foods help trigger leptin, thus allowing body to produce and recognize satiety signals and avoid overeating. This means nuts, olive oil, beef, fatty fish.
- Generally, one should not eat something that could not be found in nature. But one also needs to keep in mind what causes him specifically to keep eating.
- Big food is driven by demand - so if people choose healthy options, industry will respond (too optimistic?). In fact, demand for the low-fat alternatives is what had caused it to be impossible to find healthy, fatty food in the grocery stores.
- There are essential fats and essential amino-acids, but not a single essential carbohydrate.
- Low carb diet can in fact allow diabetes sufferers to maintain blood sugar levels without medication. (Modern doctors, prescribing the pills for everything, are in fact in violation of the original Hippocratic oath: "I will apply dietetic and lifestyle measures to help the sick to my best ability and judgment; I will protect them from harm and injustice.").
- Different people do have different levels of tolerance for carbs, and so may need different levels of dietary modification. But abandoning the Standard American Diet would benefit anybody.
- Some proteins and some fats are essential - without eating them, we die. There exists no essential carbohydrate, no essential starch, no essential sugar. You can cut out all carbohydrates from your diet and still be healthy.
vinnietortorich.com
x.com
