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Jimmy Moore’s July 2010 Testimony Before The USDA Regarding The 2010 Dietary Guidelines

Posted by Jimmy Moore on June 15, 2011

It was nearly one year ago that I decided to make my way to Washington, DC as a citizen health activist to testify before the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) about the 2010 Dietary Guidelines that were being formulated by a group of respected scientists and governmental bureaucrats about the best diet for Americans ostensibly to consume for optimal weight and health. When the final version of those nutritional recommendations were released to the public at the end of January 2011, though, nothing much had really changed: it’s still pushing a whole grains-based high-carb, low-fat diet virtually devoid of cholesterol, salt and saturated fats while encouraging people to create a caloric balance, eating lots of fruits and vegetables, soy and vegetable oils, and increasing their physical activity. They’ve since gone one step further in an attempt to simplify the message with the recent release of the much-heralded Food Plate replace the old Food Pyramid (listen to what real low-carbers think about this). All in all, it’s just what we’d expect from a governmental group dedicated to the promotion and marketing of AGRICULTURE!

But despite the disappointing results from the 2010 Dietary Guidelines (and I have some BIG NEWS to share soon about some rather interesting comments made by one of the former members of the Scientific Advisory Board regarding these final recommendations during a recent speech), I think the large turnout of pro-low-carb, high-fat voices that testified before the USDA left quite an impression. They now know the gig is up and they cannot pretend to hide behind the notion that the Dietary Guidelines is based on ALL the latest science when they blatantly and I dare say deliberately ignore the studies showing saturated fat is not as harmful as we’ve been led to believe and that carbohydrate is a much bigger villain in obesity, diabetes, heart disease and more. The USDA minions may think “the evidence is just not there” regarding low-carb nutrition improving health, but we’ve seen the studies pouring in at breakneck speed over the past few years (including this one just released today published in the journal Cancer Research that found a low-carb diet may reduce the risk of cancer and slow tumor growth).

It was an honor standing alongside like-minded supporters such as low-carb researcher Dr. Jeff Volek from the University of Connecticut, Nutrition & Metabolism Society Founder and President Dr. Richard Feinman, doctorate nutrition student Adele Hite, Sally Fallon from The Weston A. Price Foundation, the co-author of The Silver Cloud Diet Linda Eckhardt, and many more at this very formal meeting that featured more lobbyists on behalf of special interests ranging from sugar to dairy to vegan diets (in fact, I was seated right next to the President of the pro-vegan activist group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Dr. Neal Barnard). You can read all about my experience testifying to the USDA last year which was something I won’t soon forget. I didn’t prepare any remarks and simply spoke passionately from my heart of hearts about the incredibly positive impact low-carb living has made in my life since 2004.

So why am I bringing it up nearly a year after it happened? Well, despite the promise by the USDA to provide a transcript of the oral testimonies at their web site shortly after the proceedings, I kept checking back month after month for the past year. August, September, October, November and December. Then they released the 2010 Dietary Guidelines and still no transcript in January, February, March, April and May. But in June 2011, they FINALLY decided to release the transcript of the proceedings to the public. Better late than never I suppose. You’ll slog through reading many of these comments since they were read from a script by these paid lobbyists with special interests in mind. But there are a few golden nuggets in there that’ll be worth your while to check out and enjoy, especially from the pro-low-carb people I shared above and a few others who testified.

Here’s what I actually said verbatim according to the court reporter at the USDA:




What’s funny is I was so emotionally caught up in what I was saying as I was testifying that I didn’t even remember exactly what I said. I know I didn’t even use up the full three minutes that were allotted to me, but I had my say and I was done. My intention was to show them a real person who has been negatively impacted by the information they are disseminating to the public and that they needed to consider other alternatives within the scope of making dietary recommendations for people to consider. Dr. Volek later told me that when I started speaking, every member of the USDA Committee who was present looked up from their papers and was staring at me as I testified. They heard me. They saw me. And I bet they won’t forget me and what I said anytime soon either.

Although the testimony I gave didn’t make an impact on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, I have a distinct feeling we’re gonna see some pretty radical changes happen when the 2015 Dietary Guidelines start being debated in a couple of years with a new panel of experts that will include at least one low-carb researcher and/or practitioner on it. Call me eternally optimistic, but the growing swell of discontent with the current direction of nutrition in America combined with the continued rise in the rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and more make it virtually impossible for this bureaucratic shell game to continue on for much longer. They can’t ignore the science or the wave of testimonies that continue to be published online from people like me who have seen remarkable turnarounds in their weight and health by “not doing the things” they’ve been telling us to do for decades. We will not be ignored. And believe me, I will be back in 2015 to ask them “why” obesity, diabetes, and heart disease is still out of control despite their recommendations. This nutritional nonsense has got to stop sooner rather than later. Let the low-carb revolution continue!

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Jimmy Moore is the popular blogger, podcaster and author of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb who lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and quickly established himself as a highly influential layperson in the field of health and nutrition. His wildly successful Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog has been educating, encouraging and inspiring readers since 2005 and his accompanying iTunes podcast The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore is one of the most listened to health broadcasts online today featuring hundreds of enchanting interviews with the leading voices in the world of diet and healthy living! Jimmy’s latest book compiling all the knowledge he has learned along his journey is called 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Health Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew. He lives in Spartanburg, SC with his beautiful wife Christine and their four crazy cats!

Posted in government, health, jimmy moore, livin lavida lo-carb, lobbying, Nutrition, obesity, Weight Loss | Leave a Comment »

Consumer Reports Admits The Scientific Evidence Says ‘It’s OK To Go Low-Carb’

Posted by Jimmy Moore on May 11, 2011

I don’t know if you’ve noticed it yet or not, but there appears to be a major paradigm shift in reporting happening regarding low-carb diets in some of the most prestigious media publications over the past few years. We’ve seen it in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, The Huffington Post, UK Daily Mail, and People, for example, and the trend is a positive one for the high-fat, low-carb cause. However, over that same time period there has been one media outlet in particular that has been especially critical of an Atkins-styled low-carb diet plan–I’m referring to Consumer Reports.

I first reported in May 2005 shortly after starting this blog about how the benefits of livin’ la vida low-carb were severely skewed by Consumer Reports because they said it was a great “short-term weight loss” program but failed to help participants retain their weight loss. They even said it provided poor nutrition for allowing too much fat and saturated fat, too few fruits, too little fiber and that it “might have a negative effect on some dieters’ health.” Just two years later, they were back at it again when I blogged about it in 2007 when Consumer Reports again treated the Atkins diet unfairly because they were basing their opinions about it completely on the current Dietary Guidelines at the time that eschewed fat, especially saturated fat, and embraced whole grains and starchy carbs. So of course the Atkins diet isn’t gonna look good through the lens of a severely skewed and outdated nutritional analysis.

Flash forward to 2011 and it seems that even Consumer Reports is singing a different tune. While they still rank plenty of other diets like Jenny Craig, Slim-Fast, Weight Watchers and Zone ahead of the Atkins diet (see the full three-page published article in the June 2011 issue of Consumer Reports here, here and here), the low-carb diet actually got a special mention in the post-commentary that seemed rather odd given its unenthusiastic rating. They even went so far as to proclaim in the heading of this section that “It’s OK to go low-carb.” Well, thanks for your permission. Check it out for yourself:

Most striking to me was the fact they admit that while the Atkins diet performed poorly when using the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans as the basis for coming up with the ratings, there’s actually “more to the story” because of the “evidence (that) is accumulating that refined carbohydrates promoted weight gain and type 2 diabetes through their effects on blood sugar and insulin.” Well HALLELUJAH! They quoted Duke low-carb researcher and practitioner Dr. Eric Westman who explains why controlling carbohydrates is so essential to weight and health management.

I was so pleased to read Consumer Reports acknowledging the research of people like Dr. Ronald Krauss who found in 2010 that saturated fat is probably not the enemy we’ve been led to believe it is. They wrote “it’s clear that fat is not the all-around villain we’ve been taught it is” and that the unintended consequences of making people fat-phobic is the fact they are now eating more carbohydrates like white bread and potatoes instead. Harvard nutrition researcher Dr. Frank Hu also chimed in on this subject stating that “refined carbohydrates are likely to cause even greater metabolic damage than saturated fat.” AMAZING! The best part of the reporting by Consumer Reports on the low-carb diet is their acknowledgment that “clinical studies have found that an Atkins or Atkins-like diet not only doesn’t increase heart-disease risk factors but also actually reduces them as much as or more than low-fat, higher-carb diets that produce equivalent weight loss.” YES YES YES!!!

Finally, we’re seeing some mainstream media beginning to trickle the message out there. No, it’s not gonna change people’s thinking overnight because they’ve been brainwashed for so many years about how fat is clogging their arteries (insane, but widely believed to be true) and how healthy and wholesome carbohydrates are in the diet (when there is absolutely ZERO dietary need for carbohydrate in the diet). But with reporting like this from Consumer Reports and elsewhere, you can see the old guard is beginning to fall and the new wave of evidence-based nutrition based on the very latest scientific advancements in metabolic health are bursting through into the culture. I’ll keep reporting on any news sources that promote the high-fat, low-carb message and I have sneaky suspicion it’s gonna become more and more prevalent in the next few years leading up to the 2015 Dietary Guidelines. Something tells me that version of the Food Pyramid is gonna take a drastic turn for the better. Call me overly optimistic, but I can see it coming. Are you ready for it?

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Jimmy Moore is the popular blogger, podcaster and author of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb who lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and quickly established himself as a highly influential layperson in the field of health and nutrition. His wildly successful Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog has been educating, encouraging and inspiring readers since 2005 and his accompanying iTunes podcast The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore is one of the most listened to health broadcasts online today featuring hundreds of enchanting interviews with the leading voices in the world of diet and healthy living! Jimmy’s latest book compiling all the knowledge he has learned along his journey is called 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Health Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew. He lives in Spartanburg, SC with his beautiful wife Christine and their four crazy cats!

Posted in government, health, insulin, jimmy moore, livin lavida lo-carb, Media, saturated fat, Weight Loss | 1 Comment »

Fasting Challenge Update

Posted by Maureen Diaz on May 4, 2011

Last week I shared with you my intention to go on a week-long fast. Well, I accomplished what I set out to do and now I’d like to fill you in on the details.

The first few days were the hardest of course. I had allowed myself an “out” after 3 days in case I felt the need, but indeed by the end of day 2 I knew I would go on from there. I made it through the entire week on only water with fresh lemon, tea with milk & cream, milk fresh from the cow (2 cups the mornings of the last days), and beet kvass. Having consulted with an experienced friend I chose not to consume any supplements, as this may inhibit deep cleansing (the body will use these nutrients rather than reaching deeply within cells to break down stored nutrients which would then also release toxins).

I broke my fast on Sunday with a small amount of scrambled egg, yogurt, soup made with chicken stock, and a loaded salad (I had dreamed about it all week :-) )

Lessons Learned

One thing I will remember for the next time is that it is important to rest while fasting. This time around I was not able to do so and there were a few times when rest would have been very helpful. For instance, on day 2 I made a 6 hour round trip drive with my 3 youngest kids to purchase plants for our garden. It wasn’t something that could be postponed as the time to go was now, but I can not begin to tell you how difficult this was. Fasting, especially in the early stages, causes one to be fatigued both mentally and physically. Try driving for 3 straight hours in either direction and keeping up with 3 talkative, energetic little ones while trying to process information and make important decisions! The trip home was the most difficult because I was so overwhelmed with fatigue that it was necessary to make an unscheduled stop and drink a cup of coffee. This was enough to get me home as it wakened my mind sufficiently to keep my eyes, and brain, open; but it was not part of my “meal plan” for the week and so I was disappointed.

Along these lines, exercise does not fit in well during a period of fasting either (although somehow Jimmy managed to keep up with his usual routine). In the beginning I was able to do a 1 mile walk/run and spend most of a day working hard in the garden (planting some 800 plants from the aforementioned trip). I kept up with mucking the barn each day as well, but by mid-week it became difficult to carry my bucket of milk up 2 flights of stairs and into the kitchen. Obviously I did not get in any additional exercise.

And the coffee enemas? While a distasteful subject to many, I found these to be very helpful. They made me feel much better and super charged the cleansing process. I would highly recommend you consider giving this a try, and know that it will be part of my regiment any time I feel the need to expunge toxins from my body.

The most important thing learned from this experience is that I have power over food! Yes, I can control what goes into my mouth! Of course with the high fat/moderate protein/low carb intake that I am accustomed to I do not usually have a problem with unhealthy cravings. But at times there still is the desire to eat more than I should, when I should not, or things that are not good for me. These are only problems when I am very hungry or have not eaten enough fat or protein, so when fasting of course any of these things will be tempting. But I learned that I had within myself enough will power to say, “No!”, even when making food for my family. The hardest was passing up kettle corn on day 5, or shortbread which the kids had baked on day 6; but not a morsel passed my lips because by that point it had become almost second nature to just ignore the thought of eating anything!

Did I lose weight? Not much really, but that wasn’t my goal in doing this. Eight pounds worked their way off my frame and I am just determined now to keep it off and continue the downward trend.

Final Thoughts

Overall I found this a deeply satisfying experience, and one which I will continue periodically in the future. There will be few changes in my approach, mainly that I will try to structure my days in such a way that I can rest. I plan on doing monthly 3 day fasts in addition to my weekly 24 hours mini-fasts and will save the lengthier cleansing for times when I feel the need.

If you’ve considered fasting in the past, I would encourage you to do so. Even if only for a few days, it is well worth the effort!

Maureen Diaz is a homeschooling mother of 9, a Weston A Price Foundation Chapter Leader & educator, & producer of 3 cooking DVD’s including her latest, Liberation Wellness Home Cooking. You may learn more about these products and order from her website, www.nourishingtraditionalcook.com 

Posted in fasting, Food Addiction, Goal Setting, health, liberation diet, Maureen Diaz, raw milk, Total Wellness, Uncategorized, Weight Loss, wellness | Leave a Comment »

A Fasting Challenge

Posted by Maureen Diaz on April 25, 2011

I was inspired last week by Jimmy Moore’s article describing his fast. Like him, I had only managed 24 hour fasts in the past, and had always intended to do more. Also like Jimmy, I am a lover of food; real food, good food in particular! And so I never seemed to quite get around to denying myself the pleasure of my daily eggs & butter,  raw cream or cheese, or grass-fed burger, for more than a day. But after reading Jimmy’s post I figured, “Hey! If he can do it, I can do it!” Thus after mulling over the particulars the weekend, I decided to start this week, today in fact! But I am doing things slightly different.

First, I am starting out with 3 days but am hoping to stretch it to a full week. Does this leave me a convenient out? Well, perhaps, but I am really intending to continue past the 3 day mark and get into days 5, 6, & 7 for the accelerated benefits that a fast of this length can provide. But I’ve a lot to accomplish this week and next, so if I just feel too weak and yucky after 3 days I at least want to have the “out” if needed.

My approach to what will be “allowed” into my body is also somewhat different from Jimmy’s. For instance, no diet sodas (or other) for me! No neurotoxins, no phosphorous acid to rob my body (bones in particular) of minerals. And also no bouillon cubes. Jimmy, shame on you; you should know better than this!!! Isn’t the point of the fast to clear your body of toxic sludge? Why put more of it in there?! (And no, those little artificially-flavored MSG-laden cubes do not provide electrolytes!)

I will not continue with my supplemental coconut oil simply because I want my body to access for energy solely what is already there, stored around my middle. And in the process those storage cells will be releasing needed minerals and electrolytes, as well as toxins. I’m not even sure that I will take my much respected fermented cod liver oil. Perhaps later in the week. What do you think?

The plan is to do 3 days of only water with fresh lemon juice, and my teas (black & herbal) with stevia & raw milk/cream. The tea is my crutch, like Jimmy’s soda only wayhealthier! Additionally I will have a glass of fermented beet kvass each day, as this is a powerful internal cleanser and rebuilder. It has already been nearly 24 hours since I have eaten anything and this is all I have had :-)

I make my own, but in a pinch Zukay is great!

I make my own, but in a pinch Zukay is great!

After 3 days if I feel the need I will allow myself bone broth (again, not commercial bouillon/broth). This is healing, therapeutic, and provides enough easily assimilated nutrition to keep me going for a long time. I will also have cultured raw cream available so that I can have a spoonful 3 times a day if desired. This will also help inoculate my cleansing gut with beneficial microbes which will in turn aid the “housecleaning”!

One more facet to my plan is rather distasteful to most, but very important: coffee enemas. While in little use these days, coffee enemas were in times past a standard of care. This will help push my liver to throw off and purge stored toxins, which is what I am really going for! Weight loss will be embraced as well, but I realize that the reality of a fast is that you are shedding more water initially, than fat.

Exercise is something which has been lacking over the winter, but I plan to continue increasing or at least maintain what I am currently doing: jogging/walking (intermittent intensity) 1+ mile 3-4 times a week, and dancercize 2-3 times a week. Additionally I remain physically active with mucking a barn and running up 2 flights of steps everyday as the need arises (in other words, I don’t send my children on my errands!)

After completing the fast I know that it is important to ease back into eating solid foods, so I will do so with raw, non-starchy vegetables, bone broth, and lightly cooked meat.

I hope you guys can all cheer me on in this endeavor, and that some will join in with me. Let me know if you are fasting and how it is going, and I’ll keep everyone posted on my own progress!

And Jimmy: hey, thanks for the inspiration!

Maureen Diaz is a homeschooling mother of 9, a WAPF chapter leader, and a certified LW Nutritionist. She also has produced 3 cooking DVD’s including her latest, Liberation Wellness Home Cooking. Check out & order her DVD’s on her website, www.nourishingtraditionalcook.com 

Posted in Butter, coconut oil, cod liver oil, exercise, fasting, Fermented Foods, fitness, Food Addiction, grass fed beef, health, Inspiration, livin lavida lo-carb, Maureen Diaz, motivation, obesity, ProBiotics, raw milk, real food, real foods, red meat, Total Wellness, vegetables, wapf, Weight Loss, wellness, Weston A. Price Foundation | 5 Comments »

Take-Home Messages From The 2011 Nutrition & Metabolism Society Symposium In Baltimore

Posted by Jimmy Moore on April 15, 2011

Whew, what a week it’s been getting back into my regular working schedule after a glorious quick weekend trip to Baltimore, Maryland last Saturday and Sunday to attend the 2011 Nutrition & Metabolism Society Symposium. This two-day event that piggybacks on The American Society of Bariatric Physicians (ASBP) conference took a closer look at some of the latest and greatest information about low-carb diets from the researchers and scientists who are studying this remarkable way of eating. I’ve had the distinct privilege to attend this event for each of the past six years and it’s always a great way to connect and interact with the actual professionals who are working behind-the-scenes to examine and prove the veracity of carbohydrate-restriction. These people deserve to be lauded for their courage to study low-carb diets in the face of immense opposition to this nutritional approach from the mainstream, conventional health community. I do believe that someday soon we’ll see mainstream medical professionals universally lauding the groundbreaking, cutting-edge work of people like Dr. Jeff Volek, Dr. Eric Westman, Dr. Steve Phinney, Dr. Mary Vernon, Dr. Richard Feinman, Dr. Jay Wortman, Dr. Eugene Fine, Dr. Thomas Seyfried, and so many other practitioners using low-carb diets with their patients for forging the way with the use of livin’ la vida low-carb to treat not just obesity, but many kinds of diseases as well.

At previous ASBP/N&M conferences we have usually flown in early to hear the last few lectures of the ASBP conference where they tend to have some outstanding speakers in the past like Gary Taubes, Brian Wansink, Mark Hyman and the like. This year they finished off the ASBP portion of the conference with childhood obesity researcher Dr. David Ludwig who has been a guest on my podcast in September 2010. I missed that one since we flew into Baltimore early on Saturday morning. It was such a quick trip, but completely LOADED with lots of excellent information which I shared via my Twitter feed all weekend. Dr. Mike Eades from Protein Power fame usually attends these N&M events, but he just welcomed another grandchild into the world and had to miss this one. He tweeted me about my LIVE updates from the conference saying, “Really spectacular job, Jimmy! Since I couldn’t be there, your tweets were the next best thing. Thanks very much.” It was my pleasure, Dr. Mike, to allow my readers an opportunity to feel like they were there and to benefit from the messages coming from the speakers! In fact, Dr. Westman who was moderating the N&M lectures told me at dinner that he got a kick out of me asking questions posed by people from my social networking sites. Ain’t modern technology amazing?!

There was one really strange thing that happened during the conference I have to share with you. I was pretty surprised by what happened when I got up to the microphone to ask my questions for the first time and introduced myself as “Jimmy Moore from Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb”–the audience members consisting of mostly physicians and nurses as well as a few educated laypeople started cheering with spontaneous applause when I said my name. Okay, that was really freaky to me, but I appreciated the sentiment. It let me know that the work I am doing IS making a difference in the lives of common, everyday people as well as people intimately involved in the health profession. In fact, afterwards I was approached by several doctors in the audience who wanted to know more about me and my work. COOL! I passed out a whole bunch of business cards and networked with lots of new people I hadn’t previously met all weekend. One of the attendees recognized me on Sunday morning and told me an incredible story about how my web site changed her life, helped her lose weight, and educated her further about how low-carb diets can work to help her patients. She said the doctor she works with LOVES low-carb living and is unashamed to use it therapeutically with his patients. It was genuinely gratifying to hear this registered nurse get so excited about livin’ la vida low-carb–and she knows firsthand that it works because it did for her! AWESOME STUFF!!!

There was so much information packed into the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning lectures which focused primarily on ketones, ketogenic diets and their impact on various aspects of health that I could spends weeks writing it all out for you in a series of blog posts. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to do that. But there were some true nuggets of information that I think would be beneficial to share with you as the take-home messages from the 2011 Nutrition & Metabolism Symposium in Baltimore. This isn’t a comprehensive list of everything monumental that was said, but hopefully it hits enough of the highlights to pique your curiosity. I’ll list the speaker and their topic and then provide bullet points to ponder:

Dr. Richard Feinman–“Review of Biochemistry of Ketone Bodies”

  • Ketones are the body’s preferred fuel (not carbs) because they are protein sparing
  • Energy doesn’t just come from carbohydrates–acetyl CoA provides it from fat and protein
  • Gluconeogenesis is a normal part of a fasted state–everyone experiences some form of it
  • Eating low-carb is “fed” starvation by mimicking it metabolically
  • Glucose can’t come from dietary fat but ketones bodies step in as the fuel source
  • Ketone bodies are glucose-sparing because it forces glucose to come from protein
  • Insulin falls significantly during starvation or low-carb diets
  • As ketones rise when carbs are reduced, insulin and glucose drops
  • Ketone bodies kick in to repress reliance on glycolysis by generating acetyl CoA for energy
  • Glucose can come from dietary carbs, glycogen or gluconeogenesis
  • Ketones are an alternative fuel the body can use for optimal health
  • Studies are needed to examine whether high-carb or low-carb diets are best for energy

    Dr. Yoshihiro Kashiwaya–“Ketone Body Effects on Cardiac Energetics and Glycolytic Flux”

  • Ketone bodies form in the liver from free fatty acids released from body fat
  • Ketones are used as energy for the body in a fasting state
  • Sperm motility increases and brain function maintained on a ketogenic diet
  • Ketone bodies decrease oxygen consumption

    Dr. Thomas Seyfried–“Ketone Bodies and Cancer”

  • Most brain tumors are untreatable and patients die from the pressure build-up
  • Calorie restriction is necessary for treating brain tumors
  • The mitochondria are dysfunctional in human brain tumors
  • Otto Warburg noted that cancer leads to irreversible damage
  • Tumor cells are unable to shift from feeding on glucose to ketones
  • Cancer is more of a metabolic disease than a genetic one
  • There’s an 80% reduction in tumor weight when calorie-restricted
  • Calorie-restriction one of the most powerful therapies for killing cancer cells
  • As glucose is decreased, cancer cells reduce as well
  • A low-carb, calorie-restricted diet is better than the best drug therapy for cancer
  • Ketogenic calorie-restricted diets have reduced brain tumors in mice and humans
  • Blood glucose remains too high on an unlimited calories low-carb diet to treat cancer
  • Calorie-restricted low-carb diets create adequate ketones for treating brain tumors
  • Ketogenic, calorie-restricted diets don’t cure cancer, but they come close
  • Tumors can’t grow when calories are cut to create ketones
  • Limiting carbs and calories puts you in the zone of managing tumor growth
  • Brain cancer in children can be treated with ketogenic diets by reducing glucose
  • Avoid radiation therapy if all all possible–ketogenic, calorie-restricted diet is best for cancer

    Dr. Eugene Fine–“Reduced Carbohydrates in Aggressive Resistant Tumors (RECHARGE Trial)”

  • Not all cancers are dependent on glucose for growth, including prostate cancer
  • Hyperinsulinemia is a major cancer risk factor–that’s why reducing insulin in paramount
  • It’s plausible that reducing insulin secretion could inhibit cancer growth
  • The typical American diet contains 300-400g carbs daily–spiking insulin
  • Cut the carbs and you’ll cut the insulin and reduce your cancer risk
  • You don’t want an insulin knockout (Type 1 diabetes), but rather an insulin knockdown
  • A low-carb diet provides the proper control of insulin without eliminating the good it does
  • Reduced carb diets have not demonstrated adverse effects up to 2 years as a medical therapy
  • Humans were built as hunter-gatherers to be in a ketotic state most of the time
  • Fasting is in our ancestral biochemistry with no ill effects
  • There is no known dietary requirement for carbohydrate in your diet
  • Grains and vegetables are only a relatively recent addition to the human diet
  • A very low-carb diet changes the metabolic environment where cancer would grow
  • Too many people are living outside of a sustained ketogenic state leading to more cancer
  • RECHARGE Trial used very low-carb diet on 10 patients who failed on chemotherapy
  • The study placed the participants on a very low-carb ketogenic diet for 28 days
  • Average daily intake consumed by study patients was 27g carbs and 1236 daily
  • All of the study participants were ketotic
  • Future direction of research will be a larger study using ketogenic diets–funding needed

    Dr. Stephen Phinney–“Human Keto-Adaptation: Physiology and Function”

  • Keto-adaptation (the term he coined) occurs when ketones become your body’s fuel source
  • Keto-adaptation can happen within 2-3 weeks of eating an 80/15/5 diet of fat/protein/carbs
  • Study of a very low-carb ketogenic diet and exercise found they exercise MORE
  • Another study of fit bike riders on very low-carb ketogenic diet led to negative nitrogen balance
  • When you eat low-carb, you change your body at the cellular level
  • Ketone bodies are an essential fuel for your organs
  • The future research on low-carb diets should observe renal ketone and urate excretion
  • Inflammation and fatty acid composition impact should also be closely examined
  • Why do low-carb diets fail? Fat-phobia or the wrong kind of fats consumed.

    Dr. Jeff Volek–“Anti-Ketogenic Effect of Insulin and Dietary Carbohydrate”

  • Carbs raise insulin which leads to dyslipidemia and chronic health issues
  • Insulin promote anabolism and regulates blood sugar levels
  • The primary source of glucose is the liver through glycogen breakdown and gluconeogenesis
  • Insulin promotes the uptake of glucose
  • Muscle glycogen synthesis in diabetics is 50% less than normal healthy people
  • Insulin resistance is the reduced ability of peripheral tissues to respond to insulin
  • The most potent blocker of lipolysis is insulin
  • Elevated insulin make it difficult to break down fat–and carbs raise insulin the most
  • Low-carb diet is best for breaking down fat as compared with a high-carb diet
  • Insulin is very easy to manipulate through the diet
  • Fat has no impact on insulin, protein a little, but carbs have a HUGE impact
  • There are only about 2 teaspoons of sugar circulating in the body
  • The average meal Americans eat contains 10X the amount of sugar in the body
  • Concern over carb consumption is regarding the sugar spike then crash–hypoglycemia
  • Avoiding hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia as a metabolic state is critical to health
  • When you consume carbs, it is stored as glycogen until full then converted to body fat
  • Carb consumption leads to large VLDL cholesterol which increase small LDL particles
  • Small LDL-P is the most dangerous kind of cholesterol to form in your body
  • Low-carb diets significantly reduce the amount of small LDL particles in the body
  • Fructose consumption is popular for product properties and low cost
  • We grow a lot of corn in the United States, so we put it in the food supply
  • Fructose has a very high propensity to be converted to fat
  • Consuming fructose leads to obesity, fatty liver, dyslipidema, and metabolic syndrome
  • Eating low-carb is especially good for athletes before exercise
  • Using fat for fuel enhances athletic performance
  • The old paradigm for post-exercise is to carb up–new paradigm is no carbs or slow ones
  • Many pro athletes are eating an Atkins-like diet for optimal performance
  • Athletes now realize that having elevated insulin is not good for them
  • A high-carb diet after exercise may diminish the benefits of exercise on heart health
  • Protein synthesis post-exercise is not enhanced by mixing protein and carbs for recovery
  • Skip the carbs and simply eat fat and protein for your post-workout meal
  • Study comparing low-carb diet over 12 weeks with exercise found 5.3% body fat decrease
  • Study participants did not experience fatigue, lost significant fat, grew muscle eating low-carb
  • The obligate nature of carbohydrates for athletes has been overblown and is unnecessary

    Dr. Mary Vernon–“Clinical Treatments Using Nutritional Ketosis”

  • Metabolic health is not about how much you weigh but rather the fuel source
  • She’s learned from her patients that health is much more important than weight
  • Regularly puts patients on 20g carbs daily–mostly eggs, meat and hard cheeses
  • Don’t let yourself get hungry
  • If you eat preventatively by the clock then you’ll resist temptation to high-carb foods
  • Study of low-carb to low-fat with drugs found equal weight loss, better lipid improvements
  • Just because you aren’t fat doesn’t mean you aren’t metabolically obese
  • Thin isn’t necessarily healthy if your lipids are out of whack
  • Fatty acids and protein can produce all the glucose your body needs for energy
  • Ketone bodies can be used with virtually anyone without concern
  • Your body either makes cholesterol or it makes ketone bodies
  • When low-fat diet do not improve lipid health, doctors blame patients for failure
  • That’s why more and more medications are prescribed for “non-compliant” patients
  • Dietary fat doesn’t lead to fat on the body–patients need to learn this ASAP
  • Control glucose/insulin metabolism to prevent free radical formation and tissue destruction
  • The benefits to being ketotic is converting your body to burning fat for fuel
  • Improving brain function and decreasing oxidative stress are other benefits of ketosis
  • Adiposity isn’t the primary reason for eating low-carb
  • Getting your lipid and blood sugar health under control is the reason for low-carbing
  • If low-carb was a prescription drug, every doctor would be putting their patients on it
  • Ketogenic diets don’t necessarily lead to kidney stones–fix with potassium citrate
  • Two liters of urinary output daily will prevent kidney stone formation from happening
  • Kids especially who are eating low-carb need to be adequately hydrated
  • Get electrolyte support by supplementing low-carb diet with sodium and magnesium
  • Bouillon broth helps prevent fatigue, headaches, and muscle cramps early on a low-carb diet
  • When starting low-carb while on medications, doses may need adjusting as diet improves health
  • Find a good doctor who will monitor your health for you as you begin on low-carb
  • Diabetics who start low-carb should only stay on metformin–decrease insulin use with doctor
  • Low-carb can be done long-term with no ill effects–it just plain works

    Dr. Adam Hartman–“The Ketogenic Diet for Epilepsy”

  • One in 20 Americans have had a seizure at some point in their life
  • One in 100 are currently being treated for epilepsy
  • There’s no known cause for epilepsy
  • Aging population with strokes, dementia, trauma and tumors have increased the numbers
  • Medication is only sporadic at controlling seizures
  • Fasting and a high-fat, low-carb, low-calorie diet controls seizures
  • Metabolism-based therapies are needed to control epilepsy–ketogenic diet most of all
  • Epileptic kids would much rather have a pat of butter than a sugary jelly bean
  • We can’t assume what kids with epilepsy will or will not eat
  • Moderate to severe epilepsy responds well to a ketogenic diet
  • If an epileptic child doesn’t metabolize fat well, they shouldn’t eat a ketogenic diet
  • 2008 study published in The Lancet showed effectiveness of ketogenic diet for seizures
  • Most kids have been on 6 medications before they try the ketogenic diet
  • Drugs are significantly reduced or eliminated when ketogenic diet therapy is used
  • There are side effects of ketogenic diet when used as a treatment for epilepsy
  • Intermittent fasting has been shown to work better than ketogenic diet for seizure control
  • The kind of ketone body for seizure control is important
  • Acute acetoacetane and acetone are both anticonvulsants
  • Ketosis appears to be necessary but not sufficient for the ketogenic diet’s anticonvulsant effect
  • Previous research shows cognitive improvements on a ketogenic diet for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s
  • A high-fat, low-carb diet powers the brain to function optimally
  • Ketone bodies provide an alternative metabolic pathway for disease treatment
  • Ketogenic diet is an underutilized therapy for treating epilepsy
  • Ketones have been shown to be anticonvulsant and neuroprotective

    Hopefully this gives you just a small taste of what the Baltimore conference was like and encourages you to do further research on these concepts for yourself. In case you are wondering, all of these lectures will be available in audio and video format at the ASBP web site in a few months. Call them up and tell them you heard about these Nutrition & Metabolism lectures and that you want to reserve your copy. They’ll be happy to take care of you. And by all means, please consider becoming a member and making a donation to the great work of The Nutrition & Metabolism Society presenting this quality scientific information year after year. If the research continues, then it’ll put us one step closer to having low-carb embraced by physicians which then trickles down to their patients. One step at a time, we’re making livin’ la vida low-carb more and more mainstream. Keep the momentum going by passing this information on!

    Bookmark and Share

    Jimmy Moore is the popular blogger, podcaster and author of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb who lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and quickly established himself as a highly influential layperson in the field of health and nutrition. His wildly successful Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog has been educating, encouraging and inspiring readers since 2005 and his accompanying iTunes podcast The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore is one of the most listened to health broadcasts online today featuring hundreds of enchanting interviews with the leading voices in the world of diet and healthy living! Jimmy’s latest book compiling all the knowledge he has learned along his journey is called 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Health Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew. He lives in Spartanburg, SC with his beautiful wife Christine and their four crazy cats!

    • Posted in cancer, exercise, health, insulin, jimmy moore, livin lavida lo-carb, Nutrition, obesity, saturated fat, Weight Loss | Leave a Comment »

    Food Diary: The Rest of the Story

    Posted by Maureen Diaz on April 5, 2011

    Okay, so this is a little late; life has been busy. Actually, life is always busy around here :) !

    After several days of relatively unusual activity last week and the beginning of this, we were back on track with an actual plan for meals!

    Friday

    Friday we were expecting a crowd in the evening, so all of our meals really needed to be on time, and well thought out. The kids had oatmeal and eggs for breakfast, but I stuck with the fried eggs and cream that I usually have. For some this may be boring, but for me it is satisifying. I can always “scramble” my eggs this way or that to make a little variety! Add a little bacon, a little cheese, fry them this way, that way, whatever I feel like that morning. But no matter what, my morning will consist of a mug of tea, some cream, and a couple of eggs. I also enjoyed a mug of stock which had been simmering on the stove for about 24 hours.

    Lunch consisted of a delicious soup which I made from chicken stock, fresh cream, leftover sweet potato (all pureed) and seasoned with fresh rosemary and thyme. We also had a salad with blue cheese and red onion, topped with the usual olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

    Later in the afternoon we had roast beef which I roasted all afternoon on low in an enameled cast iron dutch oven (which is a wonderful tool!). I seared the chuck roast in beef fat, smothered it with sliced onion & garlic, drizzled some balsamic vinegar & red wine over top, added about a cup of stock, and sprinkled it with thyme, salt & pepper. Simple, but delicious! I made rice for everyone else, made with stock, and also steamed a head of cauliflower which was then drenched in butter & cream.

    We had a birthday celebration that evening for which I served chocolate brownies & ice cream, but I did not partake. I also made kettle corn (lots of coconut oil & butter, but no sugar) and ate about 1 cup of it myself.

    Saturday

    Saturday morning prepared a family favorite for breakfast which is very easy to make. We took some pre-cooked brown rice and sautéed it in a cast iron pan with bacon & bacon fat, and then added scrambled eggs & cheese. I had my daughter make me 2 eggs with cheese & bacon, and chose not to eat the rice.

    Later we made homemade pizzas topped with lots of seasoned ground beef and 2 cheeses. This was served with a salad as well.

    The rest of the family later made a snack, while I had a glass of raw milk.

    Sunday

    Sunday morning we again had the usual breakfast, and for lunch I made a yummy treat: sausages sliced and sautéed in butter & olive oil, then covered with cheeses & cream. I also served creamed cauliflower (steamed cauliflower, butter, cheese, and cream) and rice made with stock. I ate 1/2 cup of the rice.

    In the evening my family made scrambled eggs with leftover seasoned ground beef, and also ate some cheese. I was happy with a glass of milk.

    A few thoughts…

    The scale did not budge this week. I know that I need to increase my exercise. Lately I have been spending about 20-60 minutes a day mucking out the barn from its winter accumulation. This is pretty hard work, but I am increasing the amount of time I spend on it because it needs to be done, and I enjoy the work (strange as it may seem). I also started dancercizing again, and as soon as the rain stops I’ll be walking/running the driveway again.

    Besides the exercise, I need to stop eating anything in the evenings, as is my usual habit. And I ate more carbohydrates than usual last week.

    One dietary habit that I failed to mention is that each morning I had been eating about a tablespoon of raw milk yogurt. I was low on yogurt and just needed to get more made, which I did yesterday and thus today we all had yogurt with our breakfast. Several of us also drink about 1/4 cup of beet kvass each day, something we think is real important for our “inner ecosystem” and overall health. We also need to get more sauerkraut made, as I try to have this as a condiment at every main meal, but alas I have run out and need to chop up and ferment some more!

    In the beginning I mentioned the fermented cod liver oil and coconut oil, but failed to note it each day in my diary. I switch between fermented cod liver oil, and a blend of this with high vitamin butter oil. If it were less expensive I would be consuming the latter daily, but as it is this is what we can do.

    On occasion, when I am hungry but the meal is not quite ready, I will eat a spoonful of coconut spread, which is delicious and full of fat, so quite satisfying.

    I have also started having a cup of coffee with cream and xylitol nearly every day, and need to re-evaluate this habit.

    Coming up next:

    This week my husband and I are headed off to Washington again for our annual “Spring Fling” at cherry blossom time, a glorious 3 days spent all alone in the big, beautiful city (never mind that there are millions of other people there too :) )! We will enjoy great food, interesting museums, gorgeous cherry & magnolia blossoms, and will bike all over the place! I may blog about this later as this is always a real “foodie” excursion! We may not be able to eat out much, but we will enjoy visiting Eastern Market for superb ingredients for our culinary delights, and may choose to dine at Cava Mezze for grilled baby octopus and a Mediterranean salad, we’ll see. Our dining out dollars are extremely limited, so if we eat out at all, we are very selective and only choose truly good food, not the usual variety of restaurants that serve packaged product and label it as “home cooked”.

    I hope this food diary helped a little bit;  I enjoyed the feed back and comments which came via this website and from other places.

    Maureen Diaz is a homeschooling mother of 9, WAPF chapter leader, certified Liberation Wellness educator, and producer of 3 cooking DVD’s which include the Liberation Wellness Home Cooking, available from her  humble website, www.nourishingtraditionalcook.com

    Posted in Butter, Cheese, cod liver oil, exercise, farm fresh, Fermented Foods, fitness, health, liberation diet, liberation wellness, Maureen Diaz, Nutrition, raw milk, real food, real foods, Total Wellness, Weight Loss, xylitol | 2 Comments »

    Four Fabulous Real Life Low-Carb Health Stories To Encourage You

    Posted by Jimmy Moore on March 30, 2011

    Low-carb carb nutrition is the Rodney Dangerfield of the diet and health world in our society–it doesn’t get any respect! Despite the plethora of scientific studies that have been published over the past few years along with ample historical evidence of vitality and strength exhibited by our early human ancestors thousands of years ago who survived and thrived on an optimal high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb nutritional approach, the modern-day apologists for healthy living in 2011 still choose to ignore this wonderful way of eating that includes delicious and nutritious sources of quality foods like beef, butter, eggs, cheese, and green leafy veggies.

    Of course, these low-fat, high-carb, (mostly) vegetarian advocates usually point to the saturated fat content of the foods allowed on the low-carb lifestyle as the primary reason for opposing it (out of ignorant fears that fat and cholesterol are somehow harmful to your health) followed closely by the assertion that your body needs carbohydrates to serve as fuel for you body (when any basic biochemistry student can tell you that the body truly NEEDS fat and protein but has absolutely ZERO dietary need for carbs). We live in very strange times these days and it can sometimes feel like there are two parallel universes as my sci-fi-loving wife Christine would say–one based on the reality that high-fat, low-carb is the diet humans were likely meant to be eating and one based on fantasy where good-minded people honestly believe nutrition focused on eliminating fat, greatly reducing calories, and making grain and starchy carbohydrate consumption the basis for the majority of calories consumed is viewed as somehow “normal.” At some point in the near future these two worlds will collide, merge to become one, and reality will bring everyone back to their senses again. One can only hope.

    In the meantime, real people are living their low-carb lives in spite of the opposition they have heard about low-carb diets because after trying and failing for so long on everything else, this one just plain works for them. There’s nothing that will convince people who finally discover that the low-carb way of life is the diet that they’ve been looking for their entire lives to eat any other way. The agony of being forced to think you have to suffer through the hunger pangs that are associated with a low-fat diet are gone forever when you taste the freedom that comes from the nirvana I like to call livin’ la vida low-carb. And while I began eating this way as a means for helping me lose a substantial amount of weight off of my 410-pound body in 2004, the massive improvement I experienced in my own health convinced me that this diet was so much more than a way to shed the fat off my body–it quite literally restored my health and undoubtedly saved my life!

    This convenient fact about restricting carbohydrates and consuming fat for fuel is oftentimes ignored by the media reporting on low-carb diets and is never given credence by any of the “experts” who claim to know what they’re talking about regarding health and nutrition. They instead choose to stick with their template that low-carb diets are a “dangerous fad” that “eliminates all carbohydrates” from your diet. But the truth is we’re talking about eating real food that’s loaded with nutrients that can be used by the body to transform it from the inside out. Regardless of what happens to a person’s body weight, the metabolic changes that take place when carbohydrates are controlled in their diet is a sight to behold. I’ve seen so many examples of this over the years, including unbelievable improvements in my own key health markers.

    Today I have four fabulous real life low-carb health stories I’ve received directly from my readers who wanted to encourage you with the changes they have seen in their own health as a result of making simple yet effective changes in their diet. Some people may say that these stories are merely anecdotal and have no bearing on how other people should be eating–but I disagree. Like me, these are people who have been frustrated by the lack of proposed solutions to their weight and health woes proposed by medical and nutritional professionals who thought they were helping.

    The advice provide by these well-meaning experts, unfortunately, is based on archaic axioms about what healthy nutrition looks like. That’s why more and more people are turning to the Internet and other alternative sources of information to discover the truth for themselves so they can make the necessary changes in their lifestyle before it’s too late. Let these examples of changed lives inspire you as you continue following your own low-carb journey to better health for many more years to come!

    A diabetic reader reverses fatty liver, greatly improves lipids eating very low-carb:

    Hi Jimmy,

    I wrote to you a couple months ago asking if you’ve read much about whether dietary fat can aggravate fatty liver disease. You wrote back and said everything you’ve read indicates that carbs cause/contribute to fatty liver. I hope this doesn’t bore you too much, but I thought I’d share what happened since:

    In mid-December, I had some lab work done and the results were not good:

    AST = 78
    ALT = 189
    Total Cholesterol = 281
    HDL = 39

    Because my Triglycerides were 444, they couldn’t measure LDL. An ultrasound confirmed fatty liver. I, of course, panicked and made a number of changes. I started eating a very low-carb diet, pretty close to orthodox-Paleo (with the exception of heavy cream, which I sometimes drink a cup per day or more to satisfy a life-long love of dairy); of course gluten-free and sweetener-free.

    I cook with only lard, grass-fed butter, grass-fed ghee, and virgin, unprocessed coconut oil – the latter of which I also use as a snack, taking a couple tablespoons per day to satisfy a hunger pang. I eat a lot of beef but switched to grass-fed; I also eat lamb and pastured pork. I quit drinking (though ASL/ALT ratio would indicate NAFLD.) I also started a heavy regime of resistance training 3 times per week. I don’t count calories, though I’m sure I eat fewer of them.

    I should mention I was also diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes six months ago and my A1c in December was 8.5. My doctor put me on the maximum possible dose of Metformin and 10mg of Glucotrol before that A1c was taken. As you can tell it did little good. He said it wasn’t working and that I’d probably end up on insulin.

    I had lab work done again recently and the results are astonishing:

    AST = 22
    ALT = 45
    Total Cholesterol = 248
    HDL = 45
    LDL = 179 (at least they could measure it this time!)
    Triglycerides = 119

    My doc says that without another ultrasound there is no way to confirm 100% that my fatty liver is gone, but those numbers are such solid evidence that there’s no reason to do another ultrasound. I quit my Metformin and cut my Glucotrol in half. My A1c is now 6.3 and my home tests indicate that once a little more time goes by it should be in the mid-5s. My home blood glucose readings continue to drop. If this trend continues I hope to be drug-free in a few more months.

    My doctor, of course, took credit for the American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association diet he’d put me on. When I told him I did precisely the opposite of what the ADA and AHA say to do, he argued with me and told me my numbers will turn on me and get worse. So much for letting the results speak for themselves. He also predictably insisted I go on a statin drug, which really annoyed me. My cholesterol is down 33 points in 10 weeks and I just don’t worry much about cholesterol anyway. I’m more impressed with the change in triglycerides and liver panels. He also discounted the health affects of the 28 pounds and 4 inches off my waist I’d lost. Unbelievable. No way am I going on a statin–at least not for those numbers.

    A low-carb doctor improves cholesterol ratios for his patient with dyslipidemia:

    I previously told you about a patient who lost 40 pounds over the past year and I recently sent out his blood work for particle size testing.

    March 2011
    40-pound weight loss
    Total Cholesterol = 317
    LDL = 200
    Total HDL = 92
    Ratio TC/HDL = 3.45
    Triglycerides = 84

    January 2010
    Total Cholesterol = 192
    LDL = 106
    HDL = 41
    Ratio TC/HDL = 4.7
    Triglycerides = 226

    This is an extreme example of eating low-carb because his total cholesterol and LDL were much lower before the weight loss of 40 pounds–but the ratio was higher! The point is how to treat this and improve his health? When I met him last year he was already on Simvistatin 40mg/day.

    In the old school the doctor would be upset and place the patient on statins and get the LDL down to below 100 because the patient has diabetes. And the doctor would have never been able to get this patient to lose 40 pounds anyway. He would say that the HDL is better but would only focus on the high LDL!

    Again we stopped two diabetes medications and one blood pressure medication because of the weight loss attributed to his low-carb eating. I conclude that today his cholesterol profile is much better than it was last year. His ratios look much better now and the particle size is the healthy Pattern A (large, fluffy kind).

    A wine-loving reader rejects suggested statin therapy after lipid numbers improve:

    I’m sure you don’t remember this as it was so long ago and you communicate with so many people but I frequently forward this exchange to friends of mine when they question me about my health and my low-carb eating plan. I’m still, believe it or not (I don’t) at 208 pounds and that’s with adding water aerobics and weight training and more consistent walking of my dog in the past few months. Regardless, I follow low-carb with more of a Paleo slant to it these days and I’m 90% compliant (although I’m a wino and love my vino)! I’m sure I could probably lose the weight if I just gave up my wine. I’m hoping to increase the weight training and dial in on that so that I can still enjoy my wine and still lose weight and improve my numbers.

    I just had blood work done for the first time since this test as best I can remember. Anyways, even with the wine issue the improvements are impressive:

    Total Cholesterol = 270
    LDL = 180
    HDL = 74
    Triglycerides = 80
    HB1AC = 5.4
    Thyroid = 3.03
    Liver = Normal

    Results were over the phone today so I’ve yet to look at the full test yet.

    Of course, my doctor wants to put me on a statin drug but I told the nurse that I want to continue on low-carb given the impressive results (and I told her to pull my last blood test to compare) and that I’d be back in 3 months for another update. I explained to her about the lack of evidence that statins really help and that we don’t know which kind of LDL particles that I have. She had no knowledge what I was talking about regarding the different kinds of LDL–can you believe that???

    My doctors are great and they work with me, listen to me and have even advised me on some things regarding low-carb so I’m not sure where the breakdown is unless they are just really clueless when it comes to cholesterol–but I plan to change that! I’ll be printing out information and, perhaps, if I can swing it, buying a copy of Gary Taubes’ Good Calories Bad Calories for them. Anyway, I’m pretty tickled and wanted to share this incredible change with you–mostly because it’s THANKS TO YOU!!

    In case you don’t want to look all the way back, here’s what my numbers were in 2009:

    Total Cholesterol = 322
    LDL = 212
    HDL = 53
    Triglycerides = 285

    Feel free to share this if you want. I’m just so happy to be moving in the right direction health-wise, even if my weight isn’t showing it just yet.

    A low-carb Paleo reader sheds 80 pounds and is getting his health back in order:

    I got my lipid profile results yesterday and wanted to share them with someone who I figured would care. After just 8 months of low-carb/Paleo and 80 pounds gone…

    Total Cholesterol = 165
    LDL = 106
    HDL = 39
    Triglycerides = 45
    VLDL = 9

    My fasting glucose was 89 which was a bit higher that I would’ve liked. The lab didn’t get the order for my A1c, so they didn’t do one. Although I’m not technically diabetic, it was questionable as to if insurance would pay for that test. I’ll likely run it on my own using a home test.

    These are all real people who are living the low-carb life and sharing some incredible stories of change that have been happening to their weight and health. Do you have a low-carb success story you’d like to share with my readers? I’d love to hear about it and possibly feature you in a future blog post. Send me the details about your low-carb health and weight transformation to livinlowcarbman@charter.net anytime. Your identity will be kept anonymous unless you grant me permission to publish your name and it would be my privilege to share YOUR story as a way to encourage your fellow low-carb readers. Hold your head high, my friends, because low-carb is STILL changing the lives every single day!

    Bookmark and Share

    Jimmy Moore is the popular blogger, podcaster and author of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb who lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and quickly established himself as a highly influential layperson in the field of health and nutrition. His wildly successful Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog has been educating, encouraging and inspiring readers since 2005 and his accompanying iTunes podcast The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore is one of the most listened to health broadcasts online today featuring hundreds of enchanting interviews with the leading voices in the world of diet and healthy living! Jimmy’s latest book compiling all the knowledge he has learned along his journey is called 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Health Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew. He lives in Spartanburg, SC with his beautiful wife Christine and their four crazy cats!

    Posted in blood cholesterol, Cholesterol, cholesterol and health, diabetes, HDL, health, jimmy moore, LDL, livin lavida lo-carb, Nutrition, obesity, Paleo, real food, VLDL, Weight Loss, wellness | 2 Comments »

    Poll: Nearly One-Fourth Of The Swedish Population Are Now Eating Low-Carb

    Posted by Jimmy Moore on March 29, 2011

    Cheer up fans of high-fat, low-carb living around the world because I’ve got some really exciting news to share with you today that will have you jumping for joy at the incredible progress being made about this way of eating right now in the nation of Sweden. Whether you realize it or not, there’s an outright low-carb revolution happening amongst the Swedish people that has been several years in the making thanks to an unprecedented chain of events that have unfolded featuring educated physicians and patients whose lives have been forever changed for the better because of healthy high-fat, low-carb living. This story I’m about to share with you today should inspire those of us in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, and everywhere else livin’ la vida low-carb is impacting the lives of real people.

    I’ve been telling you about the rise of the low-carb lifestyle taking place in Sweden for over three years now, including conducting podcast interviews with several of the key players in the low-carb movement there like medical practitioner Dr. Annika Dahlqvist, activist Per Wikholm, and triathlete Jonas Colting. And I’ll be interviewing the great “Diet Doctor” physician Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt on my podcast later this year to talk about the overwhelming success he has seen with his brand new 2011 book detailing what they call LCHF (low-carb, high-fat) is all about. But excitement about LCHF hit a fevered pitch this week when a new public opinion poll about Swedish eating habits released on Monday showed nearly one in four Swedes identify themselves as eating a low-carb diet. INCREDIBLE! Needless to say, this has lit a fire of excitement amongst those who have been championing healthy high-fat, low-carb living there–and I think it will encourage low-carbers around the world to continue spreading the good news about what this way of eating has done for our weight and health.

    For those of you who have not been following this story about low-carb diets in Sweden closely over the past few years, let me catch you up on all that’s been happening. In December 2005, Dr. Dahlqvist was reported to a government entity called the National Board of Health and Welfare (similar to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration) by a pair of dietitians who claimed she was putting her patients at “severe risk” by recommending a low-carb, high-fat diet for treating diabetes and obesity. An investigation took place to determine whether Dr. Dahlqvist should be stripped of her medical license or if she would be able to continue to use the LCHF approach with patients. While the investigation was ongoing, her employer informed her she could no longer use her low-carb nutritional plan with patients–so she quit and went into practice for herself while awaiting the result of the charges filed against her.

    On January 16, 2008, the National Board of Health and Welfare made their decision after carefully examining all of the evidence presented to them and declared publicly that a low-carb diet is “in accordance with science and well-tried experience for reducing obesity and Type 2 diabetes.” WOW! Sweden is likely the first country in the world to have an official government board admit that low-carb is a suitable treatment for diabetes and obesity. Dr. Dahlqvist was willing to put her entire medical career on the line to defend the low-carb nutritional principles she knew was helping her patients. Although the odds were stacked against her, she was confident in the science and stood strong in the face off immense adversity. In the end, she came out of this intense trial victorious as the Swedish government now recognizes healthy low-carb living, albeit begrudgingly. But this was merely the catalyst for some truly great things to come for the LCHF movement that immediately took off in Sweden.

    By mid-2008, a public conversation about LCHF started happening led by Dr. Dahlqvist, Dr. Eenfeldt, and others to begin reeducating Swedish consumers about what a healthy high-fat, low-carb diet looks like so they can make changes in their own personal dietary habits to deal with obesity and chronic disease. You could say a high-fat, low-carb diet explosion began taking place as LCHF bloggers began popping up everywhere featuring people whose lives had been changed as a result of this way of eating. At times it even got a little heated in televised debates like this one in 2009 because the adherents to the conventional dietary wisdom were none-too-pleased at this promotion of saturated fats to consumers for their health. Because of the amazing work she did leading the charge for LCHF, I named Dr. Dahlqvist to my Top 10 Movers & Shakers of 2009 list…but she began having some help from a fellow Swedish physician who was also a big believer in high-fat, low-carb nutrition.

    Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt created his “Kostdoktorn” blog which has since expanded in 2011 to an English version called “Diet Doctor” as a means for promoting the principles of a healthy high-fat, low-carb, real food lifestyle change that can be used therapeutically for patients struggling with health issues traditionally treated by medical doctors pharmaceutically. He wanted to reach outside the borders of Sweden, though, and began attending some American obesity conferences like The American Society of Bariatric Physicians and Nutrition & Metabolism Society Symposium beginning in 2010 (and I named him to my Top 10 Low-Carb Movers & Shakers of 2010 for his tireless efforts to educate himself further to pass along to the readers of his top-rated low-carb blog in Sweden). We also signed him up to be a guest speaker on The Annual Low-Carb Cruise in 2010 to share about the remarkable success of LCHF in Sweden. His very first English presentation was very well-received by nearly 100 enthusiastic supporters of healthy low-carb living in the United States. With the much-anticipated January 2011 release of his Swedish language book on LCHF called Matrevolutionen, Dr. Eenfeldt has set the stage for even more widespread communication of the low-carb message to the people of Sweden–and quite possibly around the world if the book’s amazing success so far continues and is translated into other languages (I’m looking forward hearing Dr. Eenfeldt speak again and meet a group of LCHF advocates who will be joining us on The 4th Annual Low-Carb Cruise coming up May 1-7, 2011).

    So, is the LCHF movement making a REAL difference in the lives of the people of Sweden? That’s what a new March 2011 poll of 1,000 Swedish citizens between the ages of 18-89 conducted by Demoskop wanted to find out. Commissioned by Pagina/Optimal, the leading publisher of LCHF and other low-carb books (including Swedish translations of bestselling low-carb books like Gary Taubes’ Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It, Leirre Keith’s The Vegetarian Myth and The New Atkins For A New You by Dr. Stephen Phinney, Dr. Jeff Volek and Dr. Eric Westman), they simply wanted to know the answer to the following question:

    “Do you try to eat fat but minimize your intake of carbohydrates–the low-carb, high-fat or LCHF method?”

    Here’s a graph outlining the results of the poll (it’s in Swedish, but I’ll explain below):


    (Click on the image above to ENLARGE)

    You can see the full report in Swedish by clicking here, but Dr. Eenfeldt provided some English translation assistance by creating this graph with the demographics of those who responded to the poll:

    These numbers are pretty astonishing when you stop and think about it. Here are some of the key findings that are worth noting:

  • Nearly one in four (23%) respondents are carb-conscious
  • Five percent are hard-core adherents to high-fat, low-carb (LCHF) living
  • Interestingly, nearly twice as many women (7%) than men (4%) follow LCHF
  • The older respondents seem more carb-conscious than the younger ones
  • Nearly one-third 55-89 year olds are eating a low-carb diet
  • Low and medium income watch carbs at the same rate as high income
  • High income respondents are more likely to afford eating a LCHF diet
  • Retired respondents over 65 (7%) do LCHF more than working 45-64 year olds (5%)
  • 30-44 year olds support LCHF (7%) at highest percentage of total carb watchers (20%)
  • Students and the unemployed can’t afford to purchase LCHF foods, still watch carbs

    One of my Swedish readers told me the television news station that reported on this poll interviewed a dietitian rooted in conventional dietary wisdom about it and he said it was “all the normal nonsense” that you hear from these so-called health experts. She accused the Swedish people of being “carbphobic” and dismissed the findings as ignorance. Sounds like somebody has sour grapes to me and is extremely jealous of the attention being paid to a healthy and delicious nutritional plan that is greatly improving the weight and health of those who try it for themselves. The implications of this momentum happening in Sweden cannot be overstated. THIS IS HUGE!

    Juxtapose this new poll with a Google Trender keyword search for “LCHF” in Sweden and the picture will become even more stark by comparison:

    Prior to 2008, nobody in Sweden had even heard of LCHF. But after the National Board of Health and Welfare made their decision clearing Dr. Dahlqvist’s good name by noting a low-carb diet is “in accordance with science and well-tried experience for reducing obesity and Type 2 diabetes,” interest in the LCHF lifestyle began to skyrocket and the trend has not slowed down yet. In fact, Google searches for “LCHF” in Sweden have more than doubled in just the past year alone which likely led those people who were searching to visit any number of outstanding low-carb blogs there, get educated about what this way of eating is about, and then start doing it for themselves. That’s why the numbers in this survey were so incredible!

    The fact is this has happened very quickly mostly through word-of-mouth since LCHF has not been endorsed by the government or health leaders. Can you imagine if low-carb, high-fat diets were to be deliberately PROMOTED to the Swedish people as “healthy” what would happen? Those poll numbers above would easily double overnight and the health of the citizens there would improve dramatically without the need for taking risky medications or ever going on a hunger-inducing, unpalatable low-fat diet ever again! Restaurants and grocery stores would need to cater to the LCHF consumer by offering higher-fat food offerings to consumers such as butter, full-fat cheeses, cream, steak, and low-carb staples like spinach, broccoli and cauliflower. It’s a revolution happening right before our eyes in a country that could easily be setting a trend for other nations to follow!

    Most amazing to me is the fact that this has all happened on the grassroots level through the tireless efforts of a lot of people getting involved in promoting LCHF within their circle of influence. It’s as if people have given up being lied to about how to eat from those experts who are supposed to know better about what is most effective and now the people are turning to alternative sources of information coming from bloggers who are telling their success stories since they are real-life examples of what healthy high-fat, low-carb living can do. My speech on the Low-Carb Cruise in a few weeks is called “Following Your Passion To Change The World” where I will challenge the participants to find their talents and use them to bring about change in support of this amazing low-carb lifestyle. The time for making this happen is NOW!

    Will we see a similar trend like what has happened in Sweden start to happen someday soon in the United States of America? It may seem improbable and maybe even impossible to fathom right now. But perhaps the Swedes are giving us a foretaste of the future of America, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries around the world who desperately need their own dietary revolution to take place. I have a feeling it’s coming sooner than later and I’ll be here ready, willing, and able to do my part to help educate, encourage, and inspire the masses when it does. Will you?

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    Jimmy Moore is the popular blogger, podcaster and author of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb who lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and quickly established himself as a highly influential layperson in the field of health and nutrition. His wildly successful Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog has been educating, encouraging and inspiring readers since 2005 and his accompanying iTunes podcast The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore is one of the most listened to health broadcasts online today featuring hundreds of enchanting interviews with the leading voices in the world of diet and healthy living! Jimmy’s latest book compiling all the knowledge he has learned along his journey is called 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Health Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew. He lives in Spartanburg, SC with his beautiful wife Christine and their four crazy cats!

    • Posted in government, health, jimmy moore, livin lavida lo-carb, Media, Nutrition, obesity, real food, Weight Loss | 1 Comment »

    Daily Food Diary for Monday, March 28

    Posted by Maureen Diaz on March 29, 2011

    I left off yesterday with a bit of a “teaser” for how my day would look food-wise, so here I go with the rest.

    Mondays are always extra busy as we are recovering from the weekend and heading off to various activities in the afternoon. With a large chunk of this day spent out of the house,  I try to prepare ahead of time so that we have healthy, energy-giving meals and snacks.

    My breakfast of course consisted of 2 eggs fried in butter, 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream with vanilla, stevia, raw maca & cocoa powders (sorry, I forgot to mention the latter 2 ingredients yesterday), fermented cod liver oil and coconut oil. Our children had eggs and whole grain artisan bread with butter which one of our daughters had made over the weekend.

    Before we darted out the door I fed my family leftovers consisting of:  soup made with beef stock, mustard greens, ground beef, broccoli, and other assorted vegetables and seasonings; a rich brown rice casserole with loads of cheeses, chacuterrie, cream and butter; and slices of that same bread we had in the morning. I ate a big bowl of soup and a small glob of the casserole (which was really good by the way!), a very small piece of that bread with about 2 Tbsp. of butter, and an uncured beef stick from a local, grass-based farm. Lunch is our main meal of the day, so we really load up.

    The kids play basketball on Monday afternoons and have a snack afterwards before going to bible study nearby. So in order to provide them with a nutritious snack free of things we don’t like them to have (sugar, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fat, vegetable oils, white flour, etc.), I made a big pot of kettle corn with coconut oil, butter, popcorn, and just a sprinkling of Sucanat across the top. I grabbed another half loaf of that bread & raw butter, and made a favorite “snack” beverage, raw milk with added cream (about 1/2 heavy, raw cream and 1/2 fresh, raw milk) to which I add 2-3 Tbsp. black strap molasses & 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract per quart. I had a glass of this with a handful of popcorn.

    When returning home late in the day the kids, more than the mom, are hungry for more. So they finished off the leftovers, made a few eggs, and cooked up some burger with seasonings. This was all very simple and easy, and they took care of it all themselves while I did other things. I did not need any more food, but went to bed satisfied and ready for rest!

    I mustn’t forget the mug of tea with cream, and a cup of smooth, delicious coffee which I enjoyed early in the day. I stay away from coffee for the most part now, or at least am no longer dependent on it. Coffee can really wreak havoc with your body, particularly when it is a type that is very high in caffeine and acidic. Years ago I realized that my daily, if not double-daily, strong coffee habit was causing real damage to my adrenal glands, and thus the rest of me, so I managed to give it up, and stay off of it. Now I can enjoy it as a “treat” now and then. With a grown son who is more of a coffee snob and aficionado than even his mother, I do find myself having it more frequently when he is at home. Which he is now. Most of the time. So… I’ve been having a cup of coffee more frequently, and you will see it appear on this food diary likely every day this week, as we have this wonderful freshly roasted Nicaraguan bean in the house right now…

    Anyway, I may grab a daughter and run down to DC for the day with said son, so it will be interesting to see how my food intake looks for the day. But my mug of tea is finished, the cow is awaiting her milking, and my eggs are calling. So we’ll chat more about this later!

    Maureen Diaz is a homemaker, mother of 9, Weston A Price Foundation chapter leader & educator, certified LW nutritionist, and producer of 3 cooking DVD’s, including Liberation Wellness Home Cooking. Her DVD’s are available from her website, nourishingtraditionalcook.com

     

     

    Posted in Butter, Cheese, cod liver oil, Family Wellness, farm fresh, fresh and local, grains, grass fed beef, health, liberation wellness, Local Foods, Maureen Diaz, Nutrition, raw milk, real food, real foods, saturated fat, vegetables, Vitamin D, Weight Loss, Weston A. Price Foundation | Leave a Comment »

    A Week’s Worth of Food Diaries

    Posted by Maureen Diaz on March 28, 2011

     

    My morning "supplements"

    It has been quite awhile since I managed to get anything written here, as I have been concentrating on getting my household re-organized and running more smoothly-a tough task when you have 10 people under one roof! So as I have for weeks been mulling over what/when to write next, I decided this morning that a simple, concise daily food diary may be in order. Not that most people really care about what I eat, but for those who do (and I know there are at least a few), I am starting with today!

    So at the close of each day you can look forward to (or not :P ) a post from me detailing what foods are entering my mouth as well as how this food is affecting me. I am working on taking off the winter weight (8#) which needs to come off, as well as the remaining 15# beyond that to achieve my goal. My 30th class reunion is coming up in July, and I am looking forward to looking better than ever for this, my first-ever reunion with old classmates.

    I will also mention what my family is eating, where it varies from my own dietary intake. Often people ask what/how I feed my family, and so this should answer some of those questions as well.

    I’ll just clue you in now on how my day has started. I had a delicious cup of Republic of Tea Ginger Peach, sweetened just a bit with whole leaf stevia and topped off with a generous dollop of cream. Later I consumed 2 lovely pastured eggs fried in lots of butter and washed down with about a cup of silky smooth fresh heavy cream, flavored with a bit of homemade vanilla & stevia. A Tbsp. of coconut oil & tsp. of fermented cod liver oil are also part of my morning routine. This all makes me feel so good, satisfied, and ready for my very busy day.

    I’ll be back this evening with the rest!

    Maureen Diaz is a homemaker, mother of 9, Weston A Price Foundation chapter leader & educator, certified LW nutritionist, and producer of 3 cooking DVD’s, including Liberation Wellness Home Cooking. Her DVD’s are available from her website, nourishingtraditionalcook.com

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    Posted in Butter, cod liver oil, farm fresh, fresh and local, Maureen Diaz, Nutrition, obesity, raw milk, real food, real foods, Vitamin D, Weight Loss | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

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