Category: Health

But isn’t saturated fat dangerous?

It’s understandable you might think dietary cholesterol is bad for you, or that eating too much saturated fat will increase your risk of heart disease or early death.

After all, for about five decades that’s what we’ve been told by governmental bodies and nutritional panels.

So when I suggest that one of the most important keys to a healthy diet, #BodyBabyStep Two, is “Seek Satiety in Filling Fats,” it’s understandable that you might have misgivings.

If eggs, fatty cuts of red meat and the like are filled with “artery-clogging saturated fats,” we should avoid them, right?

That sounds plausible, but the scientific evidence doesn’t support it, as my Health Sherpas would testify.

In this excellent video (embedded below) from the 2015 Low Carb Down Under conference, Professor Jeff Volek of The Ohio State University reviews what the peer-reviewed studies of low-fat vs. low-carb diets have suggested.

I have cued it to begin as he starts discussion of dietary saturated fat and the ketogenic diet, and would encourage you to watch it when you have time. For a quick summary, scroll down below the video player.

Professor Volek’s key points:

  • Dietary intake of saturated fat was not associated with heart attacks, stroke or death from cardiac causes, based on three pooled results of 60 cohort studies involving nearly a million total participants (see slide below).

  • Increased saturated fat in the bloodstream and stored in body tissues is associated with heart disease.
  • The Key: Those stored and circulating saturated fats do not come from the saturated fats you eat, but rather from the way your body processes excess carbohydrates, turning them into fat in your liver.
  • Eating more saturated fat as part of a ketogenic diet actually reduces saturated fat levels in your bloodstream.
  • Your body metabolizes the saturated fat you eat much differently in the presence of carbohydrates and insulin. With high carbs and saturated fat, you’re more likely to store the saturated fats in unhealthy forms.

There’s lots more detail in the video, and I’d encourage you to check it out in its entirety.

Feel free also to look up the scientific papers he cited, to check his work. I searched for the first one and found the PDF, which you can download if you’d like. Here’s the money quote as I see it:

There is probably no direct relation between total fat intake and risk of CHD. The strongest evidence in support of this judgement comes from the Women’s Health Initiative that showed that CHD risk was not reduced after 8 years of a low-fat diet. The observational evidence, summarised in the meta-analysis, showed no association between total fat intake and CHD risk, although there was heterogeneity between the study results.

Dietary studies are difficult with free-living subjects; you can’t know for sure that people were fulfilling the requirements of their “arm” of the study. Others rely on surveys asking people to estimate what they had eaten over the course of some period. Memories are faulty, and sometimes subjects understate their participation in what might be considered “unhealthy” choices.

The main point is that those who have been telling us saturated fat is dangerous do not have strong evidence to support that claim.

Still, their perspective has governed nutrition policy and what is offered in school lunches, hospital cafeterias and throughout the food ecosystem.

With prevalence of obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome tripling in the last few decades, we’ve clearly been going in the wrong direction .

As far as I’m concerned, the low-fat proponents do not have the evidence on their side, and as you explore for yourself I think you’ll agree.

That, along with the better results I’m seeing personally not only in weight loss and improved vitality but also lowered blood pressure and triglycerides and increased HDL (the “good” cholesterol), makes me confident low-carb is most effective for most people.

At least for the two-thirds of Americans who are currently overweight or obese.

We have to do something different, right?

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Seek Satiety in Filling Fats

Stopping Sugar and Cutting Carbs are important ingredients in the #BodyBabySteps, but the “meat” of the plan — literally and figuratively — is to Seek Satiety.

You will likely need cut back significantly on your carbohydrates, but that’s a negative focus. A positive focus is more helpful, emphasizing what you do eat instead of what you don’t.

My first meal of the day is typically four eggs, meat, cream cheese and guacamole. I’m usually not hungry for the rest of the day.

The key is to start with satiety as your goal, and to seek it in meats, full-fat dairy, cheese, eggs and other substantial foods.

Build your meals around these main courses. They’re your anchors. Don’t load up on carbohydrates first, and then top off with your filling foods. Start with rich, satisfying foods with a good amount of fat.

Eat at a leisurely pace, and stop when you’re full.

Fats are your friends, as long as they’re coming from natural, healthy sources like beef, fish, poultry, pork, nuts, olive oil and avocados. That’s not an exclusive list, but what you’ll notice about all of these is they are basic, whole foods.

They’re not highly processed.

What fats aren’t healthy? The so-called “vegetable” oils – corn, canola, soybean, safflower, sunflower. These are extracted from seeds under immense pressure and with the aid of industrial solvents. In their natural states no one would think of these seeds as “oily.” And instead of the healthy Omega-3 fatty acids, they are predominantly the less stable Omega-6s.

Dr. Ken Berry is one of my Health Sherpas, and one thing I appreciate about him is his down-to-earth, no-nonsense communication style, with short videos that get to the point.

He’s a great resource because as a physician, rigorously following the “eat less, move more” dogma he was prescribing to his patients, he found himself at about 300 pounds.

He suspected that if he was following the dietary guidelines and had become obese, that’s probably what was happening with his patients, too.

Here he discusses common misconceptions even physicians have about fats:

For related discussion, see also Dr. Berry’s video about “The Proper Human Diet.”

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Get Your “Before” Pictures

In addition to having a reliable bathroom scale to help you keep score, you should take time to ensure you have appropriate visual evidence to document the starting point on your health journey.

I’ve shared some in My “Before” Pictures, but here are a few more from 2016:

At the Mall of America, with an appropriately baggy shirt, after my youngest daughter’s August wedding.
The next week in New York, just before we started our health journey.
At my middle daughter’s October wedding.

My only regret is that I didn’t take pictures that more clearly captured the extent of my…extent.

In some ways I suppose I wasn’t confident of the eventual outcome, and so I wasn’t thinking about having good “before” and “after” pictures.

I do have some shirtless bathroom photos from about 10 pounds below my 265-pound peak.

And even though I’m being pretty public about my health journey, I don’t want to show you something you can never unsee.

As you’re getting started on your journey, be sure to capture the evidence of where you’re starting, even if…especially if…it’s just for your own motivation.

Get some that are less graphic but that still tell the beginning of your story, so that when you’re successful in this you’ll be able to produce the receipts.

Be sure to get some profile views as well, so you’ll be able to see your progress from a different angle.

I’m 100% confident that by applying the steps I’m sharing in the #BodyBabySteps, you’re going to make amazing progress.

You will be so glad you have your before pictures so you can show the change.

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Check out My Health Journey and my #BodyBabySteps.

Get a Blood Pressure Monitor

In addition to a Bluetooth scale, another great investment is a home blood pressure monitor.

You may even be able to get one now at the end of the year, essentially with no out-of-pocket cost!

I’ll tell you how I did it after I tell you about my monitor and why I bought it.

I got the QardioArm home blood pressure in late June after learning more about how high blood pressure can provide chronic stress to blood vessels, which can open the door to slight areas of damage which can become the place where plaques start to form.

It was only $99 plus tax, so it seemed like good value, and I’ve been using it regularly to track my blood pressure.

Here’s my reading from last night, which it categorizes in the Normal range, just above Optimal:

We’ve all had our blood pressure measured at our medical appointments, and I often wonder at their usefulness.

I have had readings in the 140/90 range previously (especially when I was 60 pounds heavier), and I’ve never had anyone suggest that I might have hypertension.

It’s true that sometimes just being in a doctor’s office can raise one’s blood pressure (they call it “white coat hypertension”), and we all have fluctuations. One high reading shouldn’t necessarily send off warning flares.

But if you’re not measuring regularly, how do you know whether it’s “one high reading” or not?

That’s why I think a home blood pressure monitor is a great purchase. Because it’s connected to my iPhone, I can gather and track readings over time, and view them as either monthly or weekly averages. Here’s my chart:

Weekly and Monthly charts of average systolic and diastolic blood pressure are available.

I have at least 10-15 readings per month, and the general trend has been in a good direction.

Here’s why mine was essentially free: As I was going through my medical paperwork last month and reviewing my health care flexible spending account (FSA) program and remaining balance, I saw that home blood pressure monitoring devices are eligible for reimbursement.

I downloaded my receipt and filed online with my administrator, and got full reimbursement. I had already paid for it out-of-pocket, so it was a nice surprise that the money I had set aside in my FSA could reimburse me.

I think the $100 or so would be a good investment for anyone, particularly those of us who are old enough to remember the Carter Administration.

But if you have some FSA money you have to use (or lose) before the end of the year, it’s a total no-brainer.

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To get these updates on a regular basis you can subscribe by email, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, where I’ll also be posting links.

Check out My Health Journey and my #BodyBabySteps.

Get apps to track progress and support your health journey

I have found the following apps helpful in encouraging and supporting the health changes I’ve made over the last few years.

As you’re starting the #BodyBabySteps, you might want to download these. All of them are free, though most have premium offerings as well.

I’ve supplanted some of them with apps related to devices and gadgets I’ve purchased, but I’ll introduce those in later posts.

For now, we’re starting with the basics.

  • Health, from Apple. This comes with iOS, and Google Play has a comparable offering for Android.
  • Fitness, also from Apple. This integrates fitness-related data from various apps and devices, and particularly from my Apple Watch.
  • Weight Gurus. This app supports my bluetooth scale, as I described previously.
  • Strong. I use this to track my resistance training. If you’re not doing weightlifting yet, you can wait to get this one. That’s #BodyBabyStep Seven.
  • Map My Run. This likewise supports the cardio side of #BodyBabyStep Seven with versions for iOS and Android.
  • Sleep Cycle. You just set your phone on the nightstand, and it has a smart alarm. Instead of a definite time, it looks for a time close to your target when you are in a light sleep stage. That’s better than being jarred out of a deep sleep.
  • Zero. This is my fasting app. #BodyBabySteps Four and Five relate to the timing of your meals so you don’t need this right away, but I’d recommend getting it.

What other health-related apps have been helpful for you?

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