But I really can't.
There's time. There's respecting my husband and children's rights to privacy and not embarrassing them publicly. Really, that's all that keeps me back.
I've learned a couple of new truths: your body treats sugar, soda, cake, bread, pasta, rice, fruits, and twinkies all pretty much the same way - breaks them down to simple sugar molecules, uses a little as needed and has insulin escort the rest to be deposited into your fat cells. If your body is good at storing fat, you probably are well aware. If you keep the sugar levels up in your blood by regularly eating all the aforementioned foods, your body has no need to tap into those fat cells, even if you exercise a whole whole WHOLE lot. Also, the sugar raises your cholesterol, the bad kind. It's not fat. Sugar.Also, you don't need to eat any carbohydrates at all. Nope. Your body can convert fat and protein into energy. You don't need carbs. You can live perfectly well on protein and fat as long as you get some vitamins from plants. Fat is your heart's FAVORITE source of energy. And you know why you never hear of anyone with cancer of the heart? Because sugar causes cancer and hearts use fat. SUGAR IS KILLING US.
Today would be my little brother's 31st birthday. I no longer believe that is was a bad heart that killed him (or my dad or aunt or several others in my family). I believe it was an IGNORANT medical community that continues to tell us to eat mostly fruits and veggies and whole grain carbs and lo fat diets.
Please educate yourself on the bio-chemical interactions that go on in your body. Please know that your brain and heart, your neurological and circulatory systems, require FAT to function properly. Please note that it is NOT the bread, pasta, or rice at your dinner that makes you fill full, it is the fat. Cut out the carb entirely, and you actually fill up faster and don't even need the carbs.
Once your blood is no longer constantly circulating sugar for energy, you enter a state called ketosis where your body uses its fat stores for energy. You will feel more energetic, stronger, need less sleep.
My husband has lost 14 pounds this month and said he feels full, eating meat and vegetables. He never used to eat much in the way of veggies before, but he is now. On lo-fat diets, he said he never stopped feeling hungry. He'd try to eat normal portions, but his stomach hurt with hunger. He's better now.
What's really sad is when I'm putting out the lunches for my kids at school and the kid has a bolony sandwich on soft fluffy white bread with a thin slice of meat and a thin slice of fakey fake cheese, a bag of cheesy puffs, and a bottle of blue kool-aid. I throw the cookie in the trash (we are a no-candy school), but all the rest is sugar, too. It is no wonder that kids bounce off walls and can't sit and concentrate. Got hyper kids? Reevaluate their diets. Growing muscles, brains, and bones need protein, fat, and calcium. Water and milk are really the only appropriate child drinks. Kids (and adults) do NOT need to spike their blood with sugar all day.
I couple months ago lost ten pounds being really strict about calories and exercising a lot. Felt tired and grumpy a lot.
I lost another 5 pounds this month by eating protein and vegetables until I feel full and just living life.
I got 5 hours of sleep last night and woke up feeling fine.
Our doctors are misinformed and uninformed. Stop eating the carbs. Every bite of bread is sugar and its effects are evident all around you. Half of my immediate family is dead. I promise, you will not die without pasta or bread or any of it. But continuing to eat it not is not making you any healthier.
8 Brilliant Bits of Inspiration:
I have always LOVED the subject of health because it is so much deeper than it appears at surface levels. What we "should" eat is almost philosophical and science, even after all this time continues to go in circles about what makes for the ideal human diet.
Based on my experience the low carb thing works better than any other known diet for reducing body fat. I have tried it and it worked wonderfully for me. I have also known friends and family who have had success with it. It's empowering because it's one of the only things that WORKS for people like me who are naturally a little chubby.
But just to introduce another level of sinister complexity to the issue >:D I wonder how we can look at the human as an animal and arrive at the conclusion that it is supposed to eat a diet almost entirely of meat. Our teeth are flat and our jaws move side-to-side for grinding. Carnivores have sharp teeth and do not grind at meat. Almost all choking deaths are related to meat. Compare that to a cat or dog that has vertical scissor teeth and swallows their food whole. Our intestines are long to slowly breakdown fibrous plants and extract nutrients. Carnivores have short intestines that push meat through which can quickly become rancid. Meat does not flow smoothly through our intestines but plants do. We have no claws or natural features that would help us snatch up food. We are built to walk long distances for foraging rather than have short bursts of speed like Carnivorous animals do when they chase down a meal.
Basically the whole meat eating side of our evolution has stemmed from our logic. We have built spears to make up for claws and used fire to illiminate bacteria that would be more damaging in our long intestines. We devise traps that make up for our lack of running speed. Because of our meat-eating we have been able to survive in environments that don't have many edible plants available. But this is a relatively new adjustment in our evolution.
You stated that it IS possible to live without carbs but it is also possible to live happily without meat. Meat is loaded with proteins and b12 but it is actually REALLY low on the nutrient scale. It seems that at the moment we are Omnivores who require protein supplement but tell me when in the past we ever had meat available with such abundance? How much meat did our ancestors eat? Were they ever able to eat it for every meal? There is an industrial machine at work that grows animals like crops and slaughters them in mass in order to meet our appetites for animal flesh.
These animals all have to be fed and housed and their crap disposed of and this leaves a massive imprint on the planet. We need to keep them from going too crazy and hurting themselves and other animals in their tiny boxes. Our industrial revolution provided a way for low-quality grains to be shipped around the world and it also provided a way to make meat available as though it has no end.
Eating meat is a privilege that has traditionally only been available to the most wealthy in society. In the Philippeans I remember most meals had one or two pieces of meat/fat/skin floating in a broth that was eaten with vegetables and rice. These few pieces of meat were to be shared by the entire family. These people were not necessarily starving but they were definitely not fat.
Certainly the Atkins thing is a great solution to reducing body fat (placed there from eating refined carbs mass distributed..Also really bad) but I can't imagine justifying this sort of thing as an acceptable sustainable way of life for ALL people. It actually creates new problems because animals were obviously not meant to live confined and they get sick and diseased and then treated with drugs and all that goes into us as well.
You mentioned praying about this and honestly I never have but my gut turns at the thought of all of us fat Americans embracing a higher level of protein consumption as a solution to our obesity. Complex Carbs behave VERY differently in our bodies than the refined ones that are in our cereals and hamburger buns. With control and an understanding that our natural bodies were never designed to look like Hollywood models I think we are capable of being happy souls without upping the animal holocaust, but this is my own personal perspective which I'm sure many would classify as "hippy-dippy" :)
Honestly I struggle with the high protein diet because it feels VERY selfish to me and out-of-touch with the rest of the world. It seems very consistent with the American mentality which is mostly concerned nowadays with diseases of affluence. The conversation about health will never be easy or simple but I think there is a LOT to consider outside of the effectiveness of a diet to remove fat from our bellies. I vote "no".
I used to work in dental research and had the opportunity to read lottsa "boring" teeth books on my breaks. One book noted a particular tribe of hunter/gathers had very little teeth problems (cavities, crookedness, etc) but just ONE generation of being converted to a "western" diet (high carb) showed a significant increase in dental problems. I imagine that our teeth might develop based on diet.
Our teeth our similar to chimps and baboons, except our canines have gotten smaller. I do think you are right that simply looking at teeth and intestines seems to indicate that our bodies have evolved to eat fibrous food, but I have had no issues with digestion in a mostly meat diet, and I certainly can not say that about my vegetarian days.
We have sharp tearing teeth and flat grinding teeth, indicating our more flexible omnivore status. Protein and starches do no digest well SIMULTANEOUSLY. They require different enzymes and don't combine in your tummy well. Anciently, people could kill a very large animal and dry the meat, making it portable and long lasing. Fruits and veggies had more limited shelf lives and were limited to seasons.
Meat actually is VERY nutritious and contains nearly everything we need because usually we are eating the flesh of herbivores or omnivores who have eaten plants and stored vitamins. Vitamin C is the ONLY vital nutrient unavailable in meats. Chewable vitamin C is my current "candy".
Eating meat IS a privilege but it is important to understand that life is sacrificed every time we eat, rather we are carnivores or vegetarians. A tree's life is as sacred as a chicken, no? We thank God for the veggies and the meat, don't we?
Eating a meal of carbs with protein tend to make me eat more of both. It seems to have a dampening effect on my fullness signal. Eating just protein, I can only eat one drumstick or maybe 1/4 pound of meat before really feeling full. We have nuts and carrots and celery and spinach to snack on. Apples and almond butter. Eggs. Our grocery bill is less, as we are not buying pasta, breakfast cereal, or bread. We will keep a store of carbs as emergency food storage, but truly, its easier to open a can of beans or tuna than bake a loaf of break if there is a zombie apocalypse.
Certainly, we are all unique. In further personal study, asthmatics, poly-arthritis, or people with lupus can NOT tolerate the high-protein, lo-carb diet because the diet strengthens the immune system, which has been overstimulated in this conditions to the point where the body damages itself.
I know that the brain is a big mass of fat, that our neurons are bacon wrapped electrical transmitters. Our heart needs fat to function and even tho we have been told to eat less meat and fat, more grains to live longer, people are fat, suffering and dying. All carbs, simple or complex, break down into sugar and cause the body to produce and release insulin.
I look around me at people struggling with their health, who know less weight would make them healthier and they don't know how to get there. No, we don't need Hollywood bodies, but we don't need Sumo bodies (life expectancy, 60-65). We need to be able to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint.
Beautifully stated Brandy. I have met and heard about people where the real problem is the actual weight on their bodies. I totally agree that there are definitely situations that require such a solution. I do recognize that we are omnivores and I would even assume that people coming from different locations have different reactions to different diets. I would speculate that Eskimos have much more of an abundance of fish and whale fat than veggies and I bet they do very well.
I promise I don't think I know everything. I am much more of a "to each his own" person. And I'm sure there are many people that would respond really well to the low carb thing. Many people respond surprisingly well to the crappy food we have available now and they remain thin and happy.
But I remain a little nervous about the effects of a large scale embracing of high protein diets. It is not necessarily about the whole animal death thing. The question at the heart of this to me is "Can animals be treated like crops?" They are now and we continue to grow and increase our meat intake.
Every cow eats massive amounts of food that needs to be grown. That feed is not typically selected because of its nutritional value as much as how fat they will make the animal (It's typically corn). Those crops require a lot of resources. fuel is used to grow, harvest and transport the food. Cow belches and farts have been proven to actually produce enough methane to effect the ozone.
But I don't claim to know what is absolutely right or wrong from an ethical perspective. The bible makes it clear that the Earth was made for us and animals were made to be eaten by us. We are stewards and conquerers of the Earth. In the biblical view the Earth was made for us and maybe it was.
You're such a smartie and I was just thinking how skinny you look in fb photos! I've been thinking about trying to cut some gluten and grains in general in an effort to feel better, but how do you do it? What kinds of things are you eating. It's so hard to change diet. Have you heard of this lady Elaine Gottschall?
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/elaine/elaine.htm
It sounds similar to what you're saying. Her book's been around for a long time and she agrees--the medical profession is mysteriously ill-informed. Her diet is rough, but people who do it have only good things to say.
Maybe I should qualify that Elaine's book is NOT a no carb, eat only meat book:) I didn't realize the discussion was focusing on a meat-heavy diet:) It is a no complex carbohydrate diet. I haven't read it yet, but it sounds like veggies, nuts, fish, eggs, and fruit. The idea is that those of us with tummy issues have too much bad bacteria that LOVE those complex carbs, so to get rid of them, stop feeding them. She thinks maybe there's an autism connection too. Interesting...
To clarify, I am not eating more animal product than is recommended. I am eating more than I personally used to when I thought all calories were equal. Eggs, nuts, beans all count as good protein sources, I eat more of these, too.
I dont think this diet requires people to eat more meat. I have observed that my family eats less overall food, meat too, if we do not include a carb dish in the meal. It seems counterintuitive maybe, but try it and see if you are full faster with more nutrient rich food. Plus, way less sugar going in is good for mood stability in children and adults.
I love it. I want your menu ideas:)
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