Tuesday's Q&A in Lafayette LA - 7/22/14

How many of you know someone on a low-fat, high-carb diet in Lafayette LA? Or, maybe you have been on a similar diet yourself? It's difficult to know just how many people have chronic conditions and poor health from following this conventional low-fat, high-carb recommendations, but I'm sure the number is significant (and growing).

Dr. John Mercola, MD, states, "The persistent myth that dietary fat causes obesity and promotes heart disease has undoubtedly ruined the health of millions of people." And he's RIGHT.

In a new documentary, Cereal Killers, 41-year-old Donal O'Neill turns the American food pyramid upside-down-eliminating sugars and grains, and dramatically boosting his "healthy" fat intake. In so doing, he improves his health to the point of reducing his risk factors for heart disease to nothing. Watching people's reactions to his diet brings home just how brainwashed we've all become when it comes to dietary fat. Most fear it. Yet they will consume sugar in enormous amounts which pretty much sets them up for future devastating health consequences - all because they're trying to prevent getting fat, by avoiding fat, and eating refined foods!

Fat versus Carbs-What Really Makes You Pack on the Pounds?

Dr. Mercola states that, "you've been thoroughly misled when it comes to conventional dietary advice. Most dietary guidelines have been massively distorted, manipulated, and influenced by the very industries responsible for the obesity epidemic in the first place-the sugar and processed food industries."

Shunning the evidence, many doctors, nutritionists, and government health officials will still tell you to keep your saturated fat below 10 percent, while keeping the bulk of your diet, about 60 percent, as carbs. This is madness, as it's the converse of a diet that will lead to optimal health. A recent Time Magazine article highlighted a report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which showed that many breakfast cereals contain more than 50 percent sugar by weight! Cereals marketed specifically to children are among the worst offenders. Kellogg's Honey Smacks topped the list with 56 percent sugar by weight.

Even diabetes organizations promote carbohydrates as a major component of a healthy diet-even though grains break down to sugar in your body, and sugar promotes insulin resistance, which is the root cause of type 2 diabetes in the first place. As noted in the film: "If we could get all diabetics to eat a high-fat, high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet, we would cut the insulin requirement so dramatically that it's been estimated that six pharmaceutical companies would go out of business tomorrow." Contrary to popular belief, you do not get fat from eating fat. You get fat from eating too much sugar and grains.

Refined carbohydrates promote chronic inflammation in your body, elevate low-density LDL cholesterol, and ultimately lead to insulin and leptin resistance. Insulin and leptin resistance, in turn, is at the heart of obesity and most chronic disease, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's-all the top killers in the US.

Don't Fear the Fat!

In the film, O'Neill switches over to a diet where 70 percent of his calories come from healthy fat-most of it in the form of macadamia nuts - and the remaining 30 percent of his caloric intake is divided between protein and fibrous fruits and vegetables. Over the course of 28 days, O'Neill:

• Loses weight and body fat
• Increases his lean muscle mass
• Feels more energetic and improves his athletic performance
• Increases his resting metabolic rate
• Improves his blood pressure, cholesterol, and other measurements to the point that he no longer has any risk factors for heart disease, which he's genetically predisposed for

Of particular importance here is that O'Neill's total cholesterol went up, which initially caused concern, but the results showed that he had virtually no small LDL particles at all. This is amazing, as it's the small, dense LDL particles that cause inflammation. Large particles do not. Also, the markers for inflammation were virtually nonexistent, showing that he has no inflammation in his body at all. All in all, his one-month long high-fat, no-carb diet experiment proved that:

• Eating healthy fat helps you lose fat
• Eating good saturated fat decreases your risk factors for heart disease
• Regardless of your genetic predisposition - your diet is - ultimately - the determining factor

Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Are Both Necessary

Contrary to popular belief, saturated fats from animal and vegetable sources provide a number of important health benefits, and your body requires them for proper function. Cholesterol-another wrongly vilified dietary component-also carries out essential functions within your cell membranes, and is critical for proper brain function and production of steroid hormones, including Vitamin D which is also synthesized from a close relative of cholesterol: 7-dehydrocholesterol.

Your body is composed of trillions of cells that need to interact with one another. Cholesterol is one of the molecules that allow for these interactions to take place. For example, cholesterol is the precursor to bile acids, so without sufficient amounts of cholesterol, your digestive system can be adversely affected. It's also critical for synapse formation in your brain, i.e. the connections between your neurons, which allow you to think, learn new things, and form memories. In fact, there's reason to speculate that the "low-fat diet" and/or "cholesterol-lowering drug" phenomena's may cause or contribute to Alzheimer's disease.

Replacing Refined Carbs with Healthy Fat

Underlying most chronic diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are inflammation and insulin/leptin resistance. When you eat carbohydrates, your blood sugar, insulin, and leptin will all temporarily rise, and these spikes are very pro-inflammatory. Where you have inflammation, disease and dysfunction follows.

Dr. Mercola states, "that the answer, then, lies in avoiding these inflammatory spikes in blood sugar, insulin and leptin, and reversing insulin and leptin resistance. To do this, you need to:"

• Avoid refined sugar, processed fructose, and grains. This means avoiding processed foods, as they are chockfull of these ingredients and chemicals that destroy your metabolism
• Eat a healthful diet of whole foods, ideally organic, and replace the grain carbs you cut out with:
• Moderate amounts of high-quality protein from organic, grass-fed or pastured animals (this is to ensure you're not getting the antibiotics, genetically engineered organisms, and altered nutritional fat associated with factory farmed animals)
• High amounts of high-quality healthful fat as you want (saturated and monounsaturated). Good sources include coconut and coconut oil, avocados, butter, nuts (particularly macadamia), and animal fats. Avoid all trans fats and processed vegetable oils (such as canola and soy oil). Also take a high-quality source of animal-based omega-3 fatty acid (fish oil).
• As many vegetables as you can muster. Juicing your vegetables is a good way to boost your vegetable intake.

Sugar is highly addictive, and if you're like most people, you're no stranger to carb cravings. Just know that once your body gets used to burning fat instead of sugar as its primary fuel, those cravings will vanish. Many cereals and other grain products would not be quite as harmful if they didn't also contain so much added sugar. This is unfortunate, since many (Americans in particular) are really indoctrinated to eat cereal for breakfast.

Last but not least, for those of you still concerned about your cholesterol levels, Dr. Mercola mentions that "75 percent of your cholesterol is produced by your liver, which is influenced by your insulin levels. Therefore, if you optimize your insulin level, you will automatically optimize your cholesterol, thereby reducing your risk of both diabetes and heart disease."

Also, remember that even if a high-fat, low-carb diet was to raise your total cholesterol and LDL, it doesn't automatically mean that your diet is increasing your risk factors for heart disease. As O'Neill did in this film, you need to test your LDL particle number. Large-sized particles are good, while the smaller, denser particles can penetrate the lining of your arteries and stimulate the plaque formation associated with heart disease.

By Francesca Marino D.C.