212 579 9320
And your protein shakes too.
It’s important to understand that both protein and carbs, increase insulin secretion. Excessive insulin secretion can lead to diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic disorders commonly referred to as “metabolic syndrome” especially if you are under stress, don’t sleep well, are taking certain meds, as well as a host of other metabolic disturbing circumstances.
Of course, if you are on a real food, low carb diet that is rich in nutrients, chances are you’ll sleep fairly well, be able to handle stress, won’t need your meds, and will be able to handle most other issues in your life pretty well.
When you look at the research on what foods do what to your blood sugar (insulin regulates blood sugar), when fat is aplenty the insulin response is generally, if not always, lowered. Think butter on bread, a well marbled steak, chicken with the skin, etc.
In this studythe researchers took a look at the insulin responses to different foods. Over all, the more sugary the foods the higher the insulin response. But interestingly enough the beef had a higher insulin score (IS) than pasta. But there are a few caveats with this finding:
1. The beef was lean and trimmed
2. The energy density of the beef was higher than the pasta
3. The pasta had a good deal of fiber which lowers the effective carbohydrate content. Beef has no fiber.
If you take a look at the eggs however, the eggs had one of the lowest insulin scores second only to peanuts. (And we don’t want to eat peanuts because they are legumes not nuts and thus are riddled with those nasty little proteins called lectins.)
An egg has a good deal of fat. The fat in the yolk helps keep the insulin response low (so stop eating those egg white omlettes).
And as for protein shakes – get some fat in them. Add some fish oil, a raw egg or two from eggs you trust, coconut butter or oil, etc. Keep the carbs low and the protein adequate. By adequate I suggest 1 gram of protein for each pound of lean body weight. This is a good rule of protein thumb. So for example, if you weigh 200 but should weigh 150, strive to take in ~150 grams of protein per day – fatty proteins of course.
Yes my friends, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you can have your fat and eat it too!
I've been involved in exercise ever since I became a member of The Charles Atlas Club when I was 10 years old. In 1998, I founded and established Serious Strength on the Upper West Side of NYC. My clients include kids, seniors (and everyone in between), top CEOs, celebrities, bestselling authors, journalists and TV personalities.
Strong Kids Healthy Kids
Euphoria Olive Oil
Gary Taubes: Why We Get Fat
Michael & MaryDan Eades M.D.: Protein Power Lifeplan
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I discovered something startling after I raised my saturated fat intake: I could eat like crap, relatively speaking (after I dropped full-sugar soda and chips I never really went back to them again), and not *feel* so crappy afterward. The stuff acts as a buffer, I swear. No excuse to eat like crap, but in case you do–like, you’re having a birthday and want cake–keeping fat in your diet in liberal amounts helps blunt the damage, at least the damage you can feel.
Plus it’s just plain good for you. I predict that women who have more fat in their diets will have much lower rates of osteoporosis, for one thing. Fat helps in calcium absorption.
You’re right – fat is absolutely the best food available.
I hope this message gets out. Including fat in the diet changes everything. I had a conversation with 2 overweight women in Whole Foods about their fat-free yogurt. Despite my encouragement, they weren’t going to give up on fat-free. One of them commented that to get down to my size, she’d have to stick to the fat-free. She didn’t make the connection…I eat fat!
Me too Jenna! The brainwashing runs deep.
Interesting post, Fred, as I just had two conversations this week with two diabetics about fat and protein. Both were amazed that I eat so much meat and fat, too. The first one said he was surprised because I don’t “look it”, meaning I think that I am not fat. Nevertheless, he said he would just stick to eating a “regular” diet, (probably high-carb would be my guess) because his doctor said it’s good for him and it’s working to keep his blood sugar “good”. So, I asked him what “good” meant — what was his A1c on this “regular” diet. Can you believe it? He didn’t know! He doesn’t even test his blood levels so he can know if what he eats is spiking his numbers or not. Incredible! A diabetic who doesn’t even know what his blood sugar levels are and a doctor who doesn’t discuss it with his patient!
The second diabetic, though also amazed that I take no meds but achieve an A1c of 5.5, was completely reluctant to add meat and fat back into his diet even though he says he is hungry all the time and isn’t losing any weight. Poor man does manage to keep his BGL from going over 140 for the most part but is miserable and has to take meds just to achieve this. But, we know that this level is not even normal — it ’s a diabetic level. If he continues this (if he can hold out that long on this starvation diet) he will still be wearing out his pancreas little by little. But, once again, his doctor is fine with his results and strongly advises him to stay away from meat and fat. My diabetic acquaintance is actually afraid to eat them.
I have found that so few diabetics listen to my story. It does get discouraging when I believe so many could be helped with this simply low-carb diet that contains sufficient protein along with plenty of fat … and I DO mean saturated fat exactly the way nature provides it in eggs, meat, etc., not processed vegetable oil. So I am always glad to read of those who are on the cutting edge of this controversy and letting the truth be known. I know that even with my testimony, I don’t seem to make much of a dent. Thanks for doing a great job getting a very important health message out there.
Here’s a fatty snack: Cook a fillet of salmon on the grill, meat side first, then the skin. Make sure all of the scales are off. Slide the meat off the grill, leaving the skin. Let the skinget just a littel crispy ove the coals. Aslkt, and peel off the grill with a spatula. AMAZING tasting! I never ate the skin before becuase I thought you just didn’t do that. Now it ’s my favorite part.
The textbook of Medical Physiology says it too: “As long as you eat your fats”. http://bit.ly/a4B3yN
Do you have a number in mind for the amount of fat to eat? You’ve said in other posts to eat 1 gram of quality protein per pound of your target body weight. Any similar recommendation for fat? 60 – 80% of total calories, or thereabouts?
Hi Kathy – Well if you need 2000 calories or so to maintain yourself (that’s a guess) 60% should come from fats, 3o% from proteins and the rest carbs but that’s totally optional.
I see a good excuse to put bacon and guacamole on the burger.
Really enjoyed looking at this study, although I can see I’m going to have to bone up on stats to understand it fully. Fred, are you able to email pages 270 and 271 to me? For some reason when I cut and pasted these two pages the contents of the graphs did not come out.
The picture is more complicated than we low-carbers like to think. This study could only account for 33% of the variation in insulin response. I’m thinking that maybe I should reassess porridge as an occasional breakfast option, as the IS was much lower than the GS. Interesting stuff.
I think the protein segment was higher than it should have been because of the baked beans.
Carroll email me and I’ll send you both studies by the researchers. FHahn@seriousstrength.com