Posts Tagged: Low-carb

The Paleo Guide to Christmas

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By Hunter Gavera aka ‘The Paleophile’ Hey guys, this is Hunter here- you probably remember me from my wildly successful blog post where I introduced the world to a brand new way of eating called ‘Paleo’. Since the article was published I have received literally tonnes of email (or as I like to call it ‘emaileo’ LOL!) and recently I have been getting lots of questions about the forthcoming Christmas period. I have decided to publish some of my responses so that you can all benefit from my extensive knowledge and remain Primal throughout the holiday period. ‘Hey Hunter, I’m loving the Paleo lifestyle but Christmas is approaching and I’m worried about how easy it will be for me to remain authentically Paleo during this difficult time. I’m particularly worried… Read more »

Dangers and Myths of Low Carb Diet Plans

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The world is drowning in low carb diet plans.  Low carb fever has swept the nation, and perhaps the world.  If anything, with #1 documentary films like Tom Naughton’s Fat Head and groundbreaking books like Gary Taubes’s Good Calories, Bad Calories, the low carb diet has done nothing but gain steam since the days of Atkins. This, in part, is a beautiful thing.  The low carb diet masters of the universe have indoctrinated the public with a totally different portrait of what causes obesity, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and many other conditions.  Thank God!  That saturated fat causes heart disease thing was starting to get really old, especially after the whole saturated fat and cholesterol theory (the lipid hypothesis) was disproven decades ago. But is the low carb diet the… Read more »

Paleo for Population Control!

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Attention everyone! There is a massive and urgent problem that humanity faces.  It’s called “overpopulation.” That’s right, with the dawn of agriculture came a huge rise in global population.  It seems that neolithic foods, particularly grain and milk, were such healthy foods that they offered mankind with simply too much of an ecological advantage.  As soon as the fields and pastures gave rise to these new foods, we began proliferating like all species tend to do when health is at a maximum. For years I’ve been incapable of coming up with a solution to this huge problem.  I became even more confused when I read Lierre Keith’s The Vegetarian Myth, in which the overpopulation issue was highlighted as mankind’s primary concern heading forward, while simultaneously reading that vegan diets must… Read more »

Death to Diets!

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The comments section on “Weight Watchers Fail” is really inspiring.  Inspiring enough to make this official… I, Matt Stone, am an anti-diet crusader. Like I’ve said, if I find a way that truly allows us all to be lean without sacrificing our health and sanity, you’ll be the first to know. For now, we’re all going to shove a collective fist up the entire dieting and weight loss industry’s arse – perhaps extend a middle finger while we’re there. This will only be radically reinforced as I weave my way through Ancel Keys’s legendary 1300 page low-calorie manual… The Biology of Human Starvation, which I just received from my local library yesterday afternoon. I’m also going to start today on a major overhaul of 180 Degree Metabolism: The Smart Strategy for Fat Loss. This… Read more »

Weight Watchers Fail

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The other day I posted a nice message sent to me about epic diet failure. Well guess what? I got another message from a lifelong dieter early this morning. The story is the same. A little weight crept in during the early years, which was met with swift Weight Watchers catastrophe. All diets suck, but calorie restriction in which foods of all degrees of quality or lack thereof are on the same playing field is sheer metabolic suicide. Here’s the e-mail, and what I believe is a pretty decent response from cap’n 180 himself… Hi Matt, I recently found out about your blog via Free The Animal.com (I clicked on your name after reading one of your comments). I have been perusing the archives of your terrific blog for the… Read more »

New Stuff Everywhere

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I’ve been an even busier boy this week than ever. But I wanted to let all the blog-following faithful know what’s going on out there. First up are 3 brand new 180 Kitchen posts. Thai coconut soup, Thai Massaman curry, and Baby Back ribs all have their own posts and tutorial videos. To see the latest there, click HERE. I’ve also uploaded 8 new content pages to the main site at http://www.180degreehealth.com/.  Click on any pages that interest you: CortisolHigh-Fructose Corn SyrupHigh TriglyceridesGenetically Engineered FoodHigh Blood SugarLow-CarbAspartameSafe Weight Loss The low-carb one is probably my favorite :) I also began archiving my podcasts on a youtube channel, and they are now availabe for anyone to listen to. This week’s topic was a continuation of our discussion on leptin, fructose, and insulin… Read more »

If Nutritionists were Mechanics

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Tom Naughton – the dude that did the documentary “Fat Head,” is kind of awesome. The guy films his daughters fighting over the last bits of bone marrow and puts it on Youtube. His wit and cleverness humbles even the most passionate of infotainers like myself. His movie is great. I even gave it to a family member as a Christmas gift this year. That says something, especially considering how much low-carb dogma makes me roll my eyes and groan, and how proficient I’m becoming at making fun of it. Tom loves to do little written “What if…” skits to make fun of everything from the science of global warming to low-fat mantra. Well, two can play at that game my friend. In the spirit of one of my favorite… Read more »

The 1909 American Diet

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I’ve done more book-throwing this week than any week prior. First, there was a little post-alcohol and refined sugar crash that involved an argument and me throwing, not in any particular direction or with malicious intent toward the author – a copy of Julian Whitaker’s Reversing Diabetes. The book wasn’t the worst I’ve ever read, but after hearing all this miraculous diabetes reversal talk from Whitaker, I almost threw it again when I got to the end and read a selection of his Auschwitz recipes – many of which were under 300 calories. The real tear-jerker was Primal Mind-Primal Body, by Nora Gedgaudas. I was already a little wary of it after it received accolades at world champion artificial sweetener consumer Jimmy Moore’s Livin’ La Vida Low Carb site. But… Read more »

FUDA Day 13

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I can’t believe this FUDA diet is almost over. I’m almost sad, but I’m sure a buttload of pizza tomorrow night will help me get over it. That’s right, pizza has been chosen as the mutual mixed-meal postprandial competition between Sunshine the carbophiliac and Aurora the carbophobe. In English, Aurora and I are going to eat pizza, a food with balanced levels of animal protein, fat, and carbohydrates, and take blood glucose tests afterwards to measure who has the superior glucose response. Seems kinda unfair seeing that I’ve dominated her so unmercifully throughout this experiment. On morning 12 I took a 79 to 93 mg/dl victory. Today I won again by a similar margin, 85 to 97. Aurora, in her defense, did have some cyclic hormonal activity kick in during… Read more »

FUDA Day 10

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Both the girlfriend and I had some slight deviations in our diets yesterday, and surprise, surprise, our fasting glucose levels were both higher this morning.  I will also point out that Aurora has been exercising like a fiend the last couple of days, which certainly can’t help much either.  That adrenaline is triggering some glycogen release. My deviations included having some pancakes with a on old friend that I was seeing off – she’s moving to London on Monday.  They were buckwheat pancakes with a few blueberries on top, but I suspect that most of the flour used was refined, and there was probably some vegetable oil and an egg in there with ‘em.  For dinner I had 1 tiny bite of the 12 pounds of St. Louis style pork… Read more »

FUDA Day 8

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Well folks, not much exciting happening here except of course that both diets are proving to be useful at dropping glucose levels. Our fasting glucose levels this morning were 80 and 82 mg/dl – both in the perfect range. My levels are remarkably consistent, having busted out a 79 or 80 for 5 straight days now. We are both feeling pretty good too. My skin is ridiculous, and my teeth feel great despite only brushing twice thus far. So if these are wondrous diets that reduce fasting glucose, what could be the problem? Well, as you guys already know, I’ve knocked on both low-carb and vegan diets pretty hard over the course of this journey. I’ve railed them because both seem particularly counterproductive over the long-term despite nothing short of… Read more »

Day 3 of the Sunny D

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It’s day 3 of the Sunshine days. Things are all well and good with the exception of my friggin’ bloated stomach. I knew better than to throw beans in my soup, but didn’t want to short-change Fuhrman and his bean-lovin’ ways. He loves beans enough to earn himself a name like Joel Sanchez or Senor Fuhrman. There was a radical change in the blood sugar tests this morning though. I busted out the 83 mg/dl and felt pretty solid. Then I passed the finger-pricking device over to my lovely carnivorous tigress and she threw out a 78 mg/dl reading. I was so proud. I wept, mostly because of the finger pain though. Eating all these plants has made me very delicate and sensitive. My favorite food so far is without… Read more »

Final Episode Follow-up

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Here are some comments that I received from last post from someone who contributed a “Low-Carb War Story.” Hi Matt,Thanks so much for commenting on my Carb War Story. It was the first one in the last series that you commented on. I have to say, your comments were not only helpful but hilarious. I especially love the one about my protein goal. As of right now things are starting to balance out. I was seriously bumming about all the weight I was gaining, but my ever so logical boyfriend reminded me of the big picture. I so appreciate you men folk for just this. You help us women folk put things into much needed perspective at times when the emotions get a little too out of control. Anyway, I… Read more »

Carb Wars: Final Episode

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Hello boys and girls! It’s your ol’ pal Matt! I’m back and I’ve got a whole collection of lil’ stories to wrap up our nice session of Low-Carb tales. But don’t worry. We’ll be discussing low-carb diets, when they may be and may not be appropriate, and much more till the end of time… As always, my comments are in RED I. Hi Matt, My Carb War story is on going, and the process of becoming one long. I’ll try my best to make this as short as possible. My story is a bit chaotic. Please bear with me! I was a vegan (and at times raw vegan) for about 5 years. Before that I ate very little meat. My diet primarily consisted of carbs in the form of pasta,… Read more »

Carb Wars Episode III

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Now it’s time for another installment of Carb Wars! My responses in red… Hi Matt, This many not be what you’re looking for. I’m sure you are getting more interesting stories than this one. Or I could be on the completely wrong track about this. It’s just been recently that I’ve wondered if my problems stemmed from my brief venture into low-carb dieting. Please just ignore this email if it isn’t appropriate. Thanks for everything you do! Oh it’s what I’m looking for – and no I don’t have other replies that I have cherry-picked. I’ve received exactly three responses to my low-carb battle story request and have now published each of those three. I am a healthy 40 year old female, rarely sick, 125 pounds, 5’7”, good muscularity, low… Read more »

Carb Wars: Episode II

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Here’s a compelling low-carb/paleo adventure from a 180 Member and frequent blog participant (my responses in red): Hi Matt, My low-carb story starts a long time ago. Knowing what I know now from reading the research of McCarrison and Pottenger on multi-generation metabolic decline I know it started at least with my grandmother and potentially before. My grandmother was raised on margarine and jam on white bread, vegetables cooked to a mush and ice cream by the pint. She lived that way all her life and raised my Mom that way. My Mom tried better with me, but there was still a lot of baked goods at home and I was “the fat kid” by age 3. Good insights. I agree completely. I’ve come across lots of overweight people who… Read more »

Carb Wars: Episode I

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The following was an e-mail sent to me by a low-carb struggler, confused by her miraculous first impressions of a low-carb diet that ended with her basically shatting her pants. My responses are in red… Hi Matt, I hope you don’t mind me writing directly to you but I’d really like to share my story since I see you’re wary of LC diets… and maybe while I’m at it I’ll ask for some advice as well! I found your blog some months ago and I have to say it really opened my eyes as far as nutrition is concerned. Before that I’ve been low-carbing for about 3 years since in the beginning it really seemed to do wonders. It was very similar to testimonials of other people – the diet… Read more »

Low Carb Rehab

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For the 50 grams per day or less ketogenic dieter looking to return to a normal diet with good health – and wanting to have an easier transition…I’ve been getting questions a lot lately from people who have followed low carb diets for a long time that are looking to break free from the shackles. Although there are no set rules, the idea, when coming back to carbs, is to do whatever you can to improve glucose tolerance. Otherwise, when carbs sneak back in, you feel all the negative consequences of carbs going into a system that mismanages them (bloating, weight gain, emotionality, breakouts, and so on). Needless to say, it’s best to avoid that. In my experience, the body seems to handle things best when they are isolated. In… Read more »