Nearly every research study on dietary intervention demonstrates that even the placebo groups lose weight, likely from something called the Hawthorne effect, where bringing attention to something causes it to temporarily change behavior.

This also explains why nearly every weight loss dietary intervention shows weight regain within two years. We have an internal set point that causes us to return to a perceived correct weight, based upon hormonal signaling from our fat cells. This constant hormonal signaling overwhelms any willpower that we might display in the short term.

Using our own hormonal system to our benefit, instead of fighting with it, is the only way to maintain long-term weight health.

What’s wrong with regaining weight if taking it off again is possible (the yo-yo diet effect)? Most diets succeed in the short term but fail in the long term. In fact, over 95% of patients, after a dieting cycle and then refeeding, are heavier than they started. This is called yo-yo dieting. Calorie restriction and deprivation lead to a yo-yo dieting effect, with refeeding resulting in supernormal weight gain, even without binge eating. In a rat study, repetitive dieting cycles documented that second-time weight loss velocity was 50% slower on same calories and regain was nearly 300% faster.

Under normal circumstances, fat cell size increases and decreases, but the number of cells remains static. In a dietary restriction model, after refeeding occurs with rapid regain of weight, progenitor fat cells differentiate increasing the number of adipocytes by approximately 50%. Ad libitum feeding does not reduce until the adipocyte size returns to its pre-dieting size, but now there are more adipocytes, so total mass increases, resulting in an overshooting of the pre-dieting fat mass.

Sometimes this pattern of yo-yo dieting is externally forced, such as in low-income families where food-insecurity leads to cycles of food deprivation and overeating. Those who are eating less or skipping meals to stretch food budgets may overeat when food becomes available, resulting in chronic ups and downs in food intake that can contribute to weight gain, a forced type of yo-yo dieting. Paradoxically, even though the global calorie consumption is less, the patient is gaining weight.

(Bruening et al., 2012; Dammann & Smith, 2010; Olson et al., 2007).

Yo-yo dieting not only affects the total fat mass, but also affects the net muscle mass, or the fat: muscle ratio. With the initial cycle of dieting, the fat: muscle loss ratio is 70:30, but with refeeding and return of mass, the ratio of regained fat: muscle ratio is 90:10. When regain of weight occurs, it is preferentially fat, and muscle does not return. Muscle mass is one of the primary determinants of organism health and likelihood of longevity. Your muscle is your organ of longevity, and you should guard it with your life.

Seven real strategies for long-term weight loss:

Stop eating processed foods and hyperpalatable flavorings that drive overeating. Avoid grains, vegetable oils, refined carbohydrates, and artificial sugars. Stick to things that provide real satiety, like real food.

Use time-restricted feeding to exercise your insulin receptors and restore your leptin sensitivity. Leptin is your satiety hormone, and because people constantly eat, your brain desensitizes to it, just like the effect of chronic high insulin on the insulin receptor. Eat all of your meals in a 6 to 8 hour feeding window.

Avoid decision fatigue and reduce novelty. If you restrict your routine meals to just a few types of foods and reserve variety for special occasions, you will naturally eat just what your body actually needs, rather than confusing your body with an unexpected feast it might gorge on.

Avoid snacking and limit yourself to two insulin secretion events per day. Insulin causes fat storage. Insulin promotes hunger and begets more insulin. Constantly snacking desensitizes your brain to Leptin, so you don’t know when you are actually full.

Walk for 10 minutes after every meal to use the large muscles of the thighs. This causes the rapid uptake of glucose and reduces the duration of your insulin spike.

Assess your hunger: Is it real? Is it social? Is it habit? Is it distraction? Is it stress? Is it celebratory? Are you thirsty?

Understand what real hunger is for real food. Pause your food consumption when you are 80% full. Practice hara hachi bu, a Confucian teaching, that instructs people to eat until they are 80 percent full. “Eat until you are eight parts (out of ten) full” or “belly 80 percent full.”
Drink a large glass of water and see if you are still hungry in an hour. Sometimes perceived hunger will simply vanish with this tactic, giving enough time for the Leptin hormone to work.

Losing weight is easy, but keeping it off is harder. Everybody loses weight, if they are paying attention to it. However, it’s the long-term sustainable weight loss that is the key to health. You should avoid the yo-yo diet and practice seven real strategies for long-term weight loss.

Using our own hormonal system to our benefit, instead of fighting with it, is the only way to maintain long-term weight health.

(Bruening et al., 2012; Dammann & Smith, 2010; Olson et al., 2007).

Seven real strategies for long-term weight loss:

Stop eating processed foods and hyperpalatable flavorings that drive overeating. Avoid grains, vegetable oils, refined carbohydrates, and artificial sugars. Stick to things that provide real satiety, like real food.

Use time-restricted feeding to exercise your insulin receptors and restore your leptin sensitivity. Leptin is your satiety hormone, and because people constantly eat, your brain desensitizes to it, just like the effect of chronic high insulin on the insulin receptor. Eat all of your meals in a 6 to 8 hour feeding window.

Avoid decision fatigue and reduce novelty. If you restrict your routine meals to just a few types of foods and reserve variety for special occasions, you will naturally eat just what your body actually needs, rather than confusing your body with an unexpected feast it might gorge on.

Avoid snacking and limit yourself to two insulin secretion events per day. Insulin causes fat storage. Insulin promotes hunger and begets more insulin. Constantly snacking desensitizes your brain to Leptin, so you don’t know when you are actually full.

Walk for 10 minutes after every meal to use the large muscles of the thighs. This causes the rapid uptake of glucose and reduces the duration of your insulin spike.

Assess your hunger: Is it real? Is it social? Is it habit? Is it distraction? Is it stress? Is it celebratory? Are you thirsty?

Understand what real hunger is for real food. Pause your food consumption when you are 80% full. Practice hara hachi bu, a Confucian teaching, that instructs people to eat until they are 80 percent full. “Eat until you are eight parts (out of ten) full” or “belly 80 percent full.”
Drink a large glass of water and see if you are still hungry in an hour. Sometimes perceived hunger will simply vanish with this tactic, giving enough time for the Leptin hormone to work.

When it comes to a healthy diet, not all oils are created equally. The American Heart Association’s continued endorsement of vegetable oils as “heart healthy” is a manipulation of science and a violation of patient trust, all to increase the profitability of a private industry. Many people consider the American Heart Association a nonprofit public interest group.

https://www.canolainfo.org

This discussion will start with canola oil, but includes all refined, bleached, and deodorized (RBD) oils and industrial seed oils (vegetable oils).

Is Canola heart healthy?

Canola comes from “Canada” and “ola,” denoting oil. It is the second-largest oil crop in the world, and was created through crossbreeding rapeseed plants and then genetically modified (GMO) to resist herbicides in order to improve oil quality and increase plant tolerance to herbicides. It was then used to create canola oil and canola meal as well as used as a fuel alternative to diesel and a component of items made with plasticizers.

Processing canola to oil: Canola oil is a “vegetable oil” derived from the canola plant produced with high heat and exposure to chemicals, it is industrial seed oil. This industrial process is called refined, bleached, and deodorized (RBD) oils and is used for canola, soy, corn, and palm oils.

Seed cleaning: Canola seeds are separated and cleaned to remove impurities such as plant stalks and dirt.

Conditioning and flaking: Seeds are pre-heated to about 95℉(35℃), then “flaked” by roller mills to rupture the cell wall of the seed.

Cooking: The seed flakes are cooked by a series of steam-heated cookers. Typically, this heating process lasts 15–20 minutes at 176–221℉(80°–105°C).

Pressing: The cooked canola seed flakes are pressed in a series of screw presses or expellers. This action removes 50–60% of the oil from the flakes, leaving the rest to be extracted by other means.

Solvent extraction: The remaining seed flakes, containing 18–20% oil, are further broken down using a chemical called hexane to obtain the remainder of the oil.

Desolventizing: The hexane is then stripped from the canola meal by heating it a third time at 203–239℉(95–115°C) through steam exposure.

Bleaching and Deodorizing: The extracted oil is refined by varying methods, such as steam distillation, exposure to phosphoric acid, and filtration through acid-activated clays.

At this point we have liquid vegetable oil, but to make it a solid, we have one additional step

Hydrogenation: Canola oil made into margarine and shortening further processed with molecules of hydrogen pumped into the oil to change its chemical structure. This makes the oil solid at room temperature and extends shelf life but also creates artificial trans fats

Canola is not a good source of nutrients. Refining markedly decreases nutrients in oils, such as essential fatty acids, antioxidants, and vitamins

One tablespoon (15 ml) of canola oil delivers (6):

Calories: 124

Vitamin E: 12% of the Reference Daily Intake (RDI)

Vitamin K: 12% of the RDI

Fatty acid breakdown of canola oil

Saturated fat: 7%

Monounsaturated fat: 64%

Polyunsaturated fat: 28%

21% linoleic acid — more commonly known as omega-6 fatty acid

11% alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a type of omega-3 fatty acid

Canola is no different than any of the other industrial seed oils; none of them are truly “heart healthy” and they all lead to metainflammation:

Canola oil

Soybean oil

Safflower oil

Sunflower oil

Corn Oil

Cottonseed oil

The history of industrial seed oils:

Unlike traditional fats such as olive oil, coconut oil, butter, ghee, and lard, industrial seed oils are a recent addition to the human diet, introduced into the American diet in the early 1900s.

Industrial seed oils were classified as hazardous waste products from cottonseed processing, often dumped illegally into rivers, and occasionally added illicitly to animal feed. The omega-6 fatty acids they contained rapidly oxidized in air and created a significant stench. This became an issue in the 1800s after the cotton gin was introduced, with the mass production of cotton fiber; 100 pounds of fiber processed then produced 162 pounds of cotton seeds.

In the 1870s, William Procter and James Gamble began capitalizing on this hazardous byproduct, using it for soap making and cosmetics.

Eventually, Proctor & Gamble acquired a patent to hydrogenate liquid cotton seed oil into a solid, creating a shortening-like product, called Crisco (Crystallized Cotton).

Proctor and Gamble began marketing Crisco to housewives as a lard alternative, using free cookbooks, baseless health claims, and endorsements.

Then, in the late 1940s, Procter & Gamble gave a $1.5 million donation to a small group of cardiologists who had formed the American Heart Association. The American Heart Association then endorsed industrial seed oils. To distinguish their product from animal based products and to give it an appearance of health, the term “vegetable oil” was created to use instead of industrial seed oil. Other vegetable oils followed. Soybeans were introduced to the United States in the 1930s and into the 1950s.

Around the same time, an industry-sponsored researcher, Ancel Keys, introduced the diet–lipid hypothesis, suggesting that the fat we eat becomes the fat in atherosclerotic plaques, thus causing heart attacks. The data he presented suggests a link between saturated fat and cholesterol intake and the risk of heart disease. Keys’ conclusions were in line with the industrial seed oil industry’s motives—to get people to eat more seed oils. Animal fats, a rich source of dietary saturated fat and cholesterol, were quickly ostracized. The food industry responded by increasing the marketing for vegetable oil and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Advertisements for “heart healthy” margarine (a solid form of vegetable oil) and other seed oils became commonplace, and traditional saturated fats were despised. The food industry and the federal government also began a campaign of reducing overall fat consumption, replacing it with manufactured carbohydrates, flavored artificially to simulate nutrient density .

Unfortunately, none of this diet-lipid hypothesis was true; the data had been purposely manipulated. A 2014 meta-analysis found no benefit to overall health from reducing saturated fats or increasing PUFAs from vegetable oils. The evidence does not support the current dietary guidelines urging people to replace saturated fats with vegetable oils. In fact, the majority of non-industry sponsored research indicates that the consumption of industrial seed oils has a significant adverse effect on health.

This also calls into question the value of statins, which lower circulating cholesterol. This cholesterol is necessary for hormone production and patients placed onto statins are much more likely to get type 2 diabetes. Many of these statins also seem to disrupt the energy production pathways in the human mitochondria as well, causing unintended secondary side effects.

The rapid oxidation of Omega 6 PUFA vegetable oils and oxidized linoleic acid seems to the common pathway for metainflammation. It is the oxidized linoleic acid, from Omega 6 PUFA vegetable oils, that is found in high concentration in the foam cells of atherosclerotic plaques. It is not the dietary saturated fats. In rat cancer models, it is very difficult to stimulate cancer formation in rats that are not first exposed to linoleic acid, which oxidizes quickly.

The conspiracy side of my brain wonders if the American Heart Association’s ongoing support of vegetable oil might not be self-serving, increasing the rates of severe cardiovascular disease, medication management with statins, and requirement for stenting procedures. It pairs nicely with the American Diabetes Associations push on diabetes type 2 not being a choice, the ever increasing cost of insulin, and the complications of diabetes.

Reasons industrial seed oils are unhealthy:

Derived from genetically modified crops and are an evolutionary mismatch.
Contain harmful additives and repeated heating creates toxic byproducts.
Unstable and oxidize easily.
Raises the omega-6-to-omega-3 fatty acid ratios.
Derived from genetically modified crops and are an evolutionary mismatch.
The standard American diet, high in refined carbohydrates and industrial seed oils, works against our ancestral biology, creating a mismatch between our genes and the modern environment. We have had millions of years to evolve, but unfortunately our diet has changed in less than 100 years. Our genes and metabolism simply can’t adapt fast enough. Until the 1900s, humans did not consume industrial seed oils. From 1970 to 2000, the average consumption of just soybean oil increased from four pounds per person per year to 26 pounds per person per year. Linoleic acid, the primary fatty acid in industrial seed oils, now accounts for 8 percent of our total calorie intake, yet in our hunter-gatherer ancestors, it was 1 to 3 percent of total calories consumed.

Industrial seed oils are derived from genetically modified plants. In fact, the plants used to make industrial seed oils comprise the top genetically modified crops: 88 percent of corn, 93 percent of soy, 94 percent of cotton, and 93 percent of rapeseed. Few studies have been conducted on the long-term safety of consuming genetically modified foods. These genetic modifications are done to reduce the kill ratio of the plant to herbicides, and to make the plant resistant to consumption by insects.

Contain harmful additives and repeated heating creates toxic byproducts.
These oils also contain harmful additives, and repeated heating creates toxic byproducts. The polyunsaturated fatty acids in industrial seed oils are so highly unstable, synthetic antioxidants are added to prevent oxidation and rancidity. Unfortunately, these synthetic antioxidants, BHA, BHT, and TBHQ, have endocrine-disrupting, carcinogenic, and immune-disrupting effects. Also, TBHQ has been found to increase the IgE (immunoglobulin E) response to food allergens, setting off a release of antibodies, and may thereby promote the development of food allergies.

Many restaurants frequently repeatedly heat industrial seed oils, a practice that magnifies the harmful effects. Reusing industrial seed oils (typically in large deep-fryers) reduces costs, but results in an oil that is full of toxic byproducts, which cause formation of free radicals, increased oxidative stress, and damage to the DNA. The repeated heating of industrial seed oils depletes vitamin E, a natural antioxidant. These effects explain why repeatedly heated industrial seed oils is associated with high blood pressure, heart disease, and intestinal and liver damage.

Unstable and oxidize easily.
The polyunsaturated fatty acids in industrial seed oils are highly unstable and oxidize easily upon exposure to heat, light, air and chemicals used in manufacturing. When industrial seed oils are exposed to these factors, trans fats and lipid peroxides are created. Trans fats are known for their role in cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes; a 2 percent increase in calories from trans fats doubles the risk of heart disease. Lipid peroxides are toxic byproducts that damage DNA, proteins, and membrane lipids throughout the body. The accumulation of lipid peroxides in the body promotes aging and the development of chronic disease.

Raises the omega-6-to-omega-3 fatty acid ratios.

Essential fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats that we cannot make ourselves and must consume in our diets. They come in two types of polyunsaturated fats: omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids.

Omega-6 fatty acids give rise to the arachidonic acid pathway and potent metabolites that are primarily pro-inflammatory, including prostaglandin E2 and leukotriene B4.

Omega-3 fatty acids such as ALA, EPA, and DHA, on the other hand, give rise to anti-inflammatory derivatives.

Maintaining a balance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids promotes optimal health. The ancestral ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is 1:1. The standard American diet tilts the balance to a predominant omega-6 to omega-3 ratios in the range of 10 to 1 to 20 to 1. A high intake of omega-6 fatty acids, combined with low omega-3 intake, leads to an imbalance in pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory mediators, producing a state of chronic inflammation called metainflammation. Industrial seed oils are the most significant contributor to the excessive omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio.

Mechanism related to disease processes:

Metabolic Inflammation (Metainflammation)

A high omega-6 intake from industrial seed oils promotes chronic systemic inflammation and is associated with elevations in C-reactive protein, TNF-alpha, and interleukin-6. Osteoarthritis is associated with elevated levels of omega-6 fatty acids in the joint synovium, the membrane that lines joint cavities. Conversely, an inverse relationship has been found between omega-3 fatty acid consumption and cartilage loss in the knee as indicated by MRI. Since industrial seed oils contribute a large amount of omega-6 fatty acids to the diet, avoiding these oils may be beneficial for those with or at risk of osteoarthritis.

Omega 6 content increased inflammation and oxidative stress

Compounds formed during the heating of canola oil increase inflammatory marker.

Chronic exposure to a canola-rich diet resulted in significant harm to memory and substantial increases in body weight. In a year-long human study, 180 older adults were randomly assigned to either a control diet rich in refined oils — including canola — or a diet which replaced all refined oils with 20–30 ml of extra virgin olive oil per day. Those in the olive oil group experienced improved brain function compared to the others.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5775590/

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions — high blood sugar, excess belly fat, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol or triglyceride levels, and is aggravated by Omega 6 industrial seed oil consumption, contrary to the industry sponsored marketing of “heart healthy.”

This 2018 study is directly contrary to industry-funded studies of canola oil intake being beneficial on heart health by decreasing cholesterol and “bad” LDL cholesterol levels.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3746113/

In another study of 458 men, those who replaced saturated fats with unsaturated vegetables oils had lower “bad” LDL cholesterol levels — but significantly higher rates of death, heart disease, and coronary artery disease than the control group.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23386268

Replacing saturated fats with vegetables oils is unlikely to reduce heart disease, death from heart disease, or overall mortality

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28526025

Infertility

Approximately 9 percent of men and 11 percent of women in the United States have impaired fertility. Infertile men exhibit a significantly elevated omega-6-to-omega-3 fatty acid ratio compared to fertile men. Male impotence is also significantly associated with omega-6 industrial seed oil consumption, and the prevalence of impotence mirrors the increased consumption of industrial seed oils.

Asthma

Industrial seed oils contain pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids relative to anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids, which seem to dramatically increase the risk of asthma. The arachidonic acid cascade produced by omega-6 fatty acids is suppressed by steroid use in asthma attacks.

Autoimmune Disease

Industrial seed oils promote autoimmunity by increasing oxidative stress and chronic inflammation.

Cognition and Mental Health

Industrial seed oils predispose individuals to depression, anxiety, cognitive decline, and dementia. Canola oil consumption is specifically linked to worsened memory and impaired learning ability in Alzheimer’s disease. Trans fats, a consequence of chemical and heat processing of industrial seed oils, are associated with increased risks of dementia and, interestingly, aggression.

Diabetes and Obesity

Industrial seed oils increase overweight, obesity, prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. In mice, consuming high levels of linoleic acid, consistent with the standard American diet, alters neurotransmitter signaling, increasing food consumption and fat mass. In mice, a diet high in soybean oil induces obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, and fatty liver disease. Animal research also suggests that canola oil may directly cause insulin resistance. Human studies also suggest that industrial seed oil consumption is associated with insulin resistance, prediabetes, and obesity. A maternal diet high in omega-6s compared to omega-3s is associated with an increased risk of obesity, a major risk factor for diabetes in children.

Heart Disease

Contrary to what the American Heart Association has been telling us for the last 100 years, industrial seed oils are not good for our hearts. In fact, oxidized fatty acids from industrial seed oils appear to play a pivotal role in the development of cardiovascular disease. Oxidized linoleic acid appears to be the critical link between atherosclerosis formation, and the local immune response with acute coronary plaques:

Dietary linoleic acid from industrial seed oils is incorporated into blood lipoproteins.
Unstable linoleic rapidly oxidizes the lipoproteins
Oxidized lipoproteins are unable to be recognized by their respective receptors
Activated macrophages perceive oxidized lipoproteins as foreign, and initiate foam cell formation, which causes atheroscleritis, an acute inflammatory change.

The high omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of industrial seed oils is an established risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The high omega-6 has pro-inflammatory and prothrombotic effects on the vascular system. Canola and soybean oils also inhibit vitamin K2, which clears the blood stream of excitotoxic ionized calcium.

IBS and IBD

Industrial seed oils may harm gut health, aggravating or causing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Mice fed a diet high in omega-6 fatty acids from corn oil experienced increases in pro-inflammatory gut bacteria. Human studies also suggest a link between industrial seed oils and GI conditions. Women with IBS demonstrate significantly elevated levels of arachidonic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid abundant in industrial seed oils, and pro-inflammatory PUFA metabolites, compared to healthy controls.

First avoid industrial seed oils.

The first step is to clean out your pantry and get rid of any bottles of canola, corn, cottonseed, soybean, sunflower, safflower, or peanut oils you have in your kitchen. These oils are not “healthy,” despite misleading claims that may appear on their labels.

Next stop eating processed foods; these are a significant source of industrial seed oils.

Reduce your consumption of restaurant foods, which are sometimes cooked in repeatedly heated industrial seed oils.

Avoid eating grain-fed meat, which may accumulate the toxic byproducts of industrial seed oils. Industrial seed oils are so good at increasing obesity, they are often added to animal feed to increase fat content and rapidly grow the animal.

When consumed as part of a balanced, real-food diet containing omega-3 fatty acids from seafood, omega-6 from whole foods is not a problem. These whole-food sources of omega-6 fatty acids include nutrients that protect omega-6 from becoming oxidized, and they are also not exposed to the chemicals and industrial treatments that make industrial seed oils so toxic.

What are safe alternatives to vegetable oil?

Alternatives to “vegetable oil” which are heat-stable:

Olive oil: Olive oil is rich in anti-inflammatory compounds, including polyphenol antioxidants, which may prevent heart disease and mental decline.
Coconut oil: Coconut oil is one of the best oils for high-heat cooking and may help increase “good” HDL cholesterol.
Avocado oil: Avocado oil is heat-resistant and contains carotenoid and polyphenol antioxidants, which may benefit heart health.

Alternatives to vegetable oil which can be heated, but are not stable at high temperature:

Pastured Lard: Lard is mostly composed of monounsaturated fat, similar to olive oil. Lard, the fat rendered from pigs, is high in saturated fat and is a good substitute for butter in recipes if you can’t tolerate dairy.

Butter and Ghee: Butter and ghee from grass-fed animals contain conjugated linoleic acid, a type of fatty acid with anti-cancer and metabolic health-promoting properties. While butter may contain traces of milk proteins, ghee is usually a safe option even for dairy-sensitive people because all milk constituents are removed in its creation.

Alternatives to “vegetable oil” which are for salad dressings and other uses that don’t involve heat:

Flaxseed oil: Flaxseed oil may help reduce blood pressure and decrease inflammation.
Walnut oil: Walnut oil has a rich, nutty taste and has been shown to reduce high blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
Hempseed oil: Hempseed oil is highly nutritious and has a nutty flavor perfect for topping salads.

The ultimate way to good health is through changing your eating habits. You can change your eating habits with some conscious decisions, and your body will follow. Start with a clean slate. The easiest way to change is to change your environment first, and your human body will find its way through the new maze.

Your brain is hardwired to solve problems in the quickest and easiest way. Remove the choices you don’t want to make. If you leave tasty bread crumbs, your body will follow them to an anticipated feast.

If you don’t have it in front of you, it’s hard to eat it.

Clean out your kitchen first. Eliminate all boxes of processed foods and all vegetable oils. Go through your refrigerator and freezer and all the hidden places where you might have a stash of hidden candy.

Also, engage all of the people around you.

Undoubtedly, if your dietary pattern is poor, it’s also poor for everybody around you. Humans are social creatures, and we use food to bond and as a shared form of communication and pleasure.

If you change and they don’t, either they will sabotage you or you will outgrow the relationship. Admittedly, some people will not change, so an online community is where you can head to gain additional support.

It’s about creating a new paradigm, a mindset that fits in the new environment.

You are creating a new vision of yourself. Your new vision incorporates what you are and what you do. Your environment reinforces your mindset, not the other way around.

You do not eat processed foods, refined grains, and vegetable oils.
You are concerned about your future self.
Your health determines your financial stability.
You know that movement is what makes the body healthy.
You know that sleep restores the body.
You know that Big Food and Big Pharma have their own agenda — to increase your consumption.
You know that most healthcare providers are educated through industry-sponsored events. There is no industry sponsorship for reducing consumption.

Practical tips through the day

Limit your food choices for the first few weeks to one or two different kind of foods for every meal. Variety will artificially and unnecessarily increase how much you eat, overwhelming your satiety signaling. Limit your seasonings, too, because even if the protein source stays the same, your taste receptors respond to the flavor, texture, temperature, and smell variance.

Your goal is to restrict your feeding window to a shorter part of the day and not feel hungry. When you start the day with a meal, you prime yourself to eat again in 2-4 hours. You are retraining your body to listen to your true hunger symptoms and your satiety signals. This means you need to slow down when eating, and should stretch a meal to 45 minutes, because it takes about 20 minutes for your leptin (satiety hormone) to be produced and recognized.

As a practical tip, have a glass of water before every meal and wait about 10 minutes before starting the meal. Then, have a glass of water at the end of every meal, and take a walk for 10 minutes after every meal.

Tasting a food, smelling a food, visualizing a food, or watching a show about food is only increasing your insulin production. This food porn will only cause you to become more insulin resistant. Don’t watch or participate in food porn.

Snacks beget more snacks. Don’t buy snacks or participate in snacking. If you must have a little something to take medication or feel that you can’t go snack-free yet, save some leftover protein from a previous meal to buffer your stomach.

Don’t eat when distracted by a TV. This is called mindless eating, and you are practicing mindfulness.

Have a consistent bedtime and get at least 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Sleep is needed to reset your cells. True sleep, initially, is probably more important than exercise for your metabolism.

Start the day off right and skip breakfast altogether. Unless you are truly hungry, or your metabolism has not yet adjusted, breakfast is a waste of calories and time.

If at first you “need” breakfast, then stick to a protein-rich source like eggs and healthy fats. Some suggestions are eggs, meats, fish, nuts, or salad with olive oil dressing.

You should avoid these foods altogether

(remember you don’t even buy these things, they don’t exist in your new Universe):

Oatmeal, cereal, bagels, bread, granola, breakfast bars

Fruit juice, fruit smoothies

Waffles, pancakes, muffins

You should re-think lunch and dinner. Eat only real food, nothing processed.

Forget about foods that never fill you up.

Always avoid food variety inside a meal. Limit yourself on one food type per meal.

For now, avoid food variety between meals until you can retrain your brain for real hunger and satiety signals.

Focus on protein and healthy fats

Focus on getting meals that are rich in protein and healthy fats. Eat all types of meat like beef, fish, chicken, lamb and seafood. Yogurt & cheeses are also nutritious and filling, but increasing variety will make your brain overeat. Fill up on olives, peppers, cucumbers, and avocado, and eat as many green leafy vegetables as you please.

About drinks: Sweet drinks will only drive up your hunger. Whether they have sugar in them or just artificial sweeteners, both will spike your insulin and make you overeat later.

Juice
Soda
Smoothies
Shakes
Protein supplements
Energy drinks
Sweetened coffee/tea

Instead drink:

Water
Seltzer
Unsweetened iced tea
Unsweetened coffee

Snacks are unnecessary when your body habituates to real food.

If you must snack, pick from a variety of nuts, macadamia, brazil, pecans, almonds, and walnuts. Leftover protein from the previous meal is also good.

Desserts:

If you are going to eat dessert, what are your best options? Stay away from the ice cream, cookies, cakes that are all full of sugar. They only increase your appetite and your blood glucose levels.

Instead, eat delicious & convenient low carb desserts.

Consider Halo Top or another low-sugar ice-cream. The perfect keto almond butter brownie bar can be an amazing rescue for a desperate sweet tooth. Remember dessert is a special occasion, not a routine.

Many people think that sugar is sugar, but there are different types and sugar comes in many forms. Compared with glucose, fructose plays a primary role in development of metainflammation, obesity, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes

Fructose directly increases de novo lipogenesis, promotes dyslipidemia, decreases insulin sensitivity, increases visceral adiposity, and stimulates the reward center, similar to cocaine.

What is sugar?

Because glucose is the sugar that we most often talk about and measure in diabetics, most people assume that their regular table sugar is made of glucose. However, common table sugar is actually a disaccharide, made of two monosaccharides, fructose and glucose, bonded together in a 1:1 ratio.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contains about 5% more fructose than glucose. HFCS is manufactured by hydrolyzing corn starch into glucose, which then is isomerized into fructose. Fructose is preferred by food and soft drink manufacturers because fructose exerts a significantly increased perception of sweetness and likely because its production is subsidized. Glucose has a sweetness index of 74 compared to sucrose of 100 or fructose of 173.

According to the CDC, over 30 million Americans have diabetes, with 1 in every 4 not knowing their diagnosis. Fructose is more strongly linked to obesity and diabetes than glucose. There is no biochemical reaction in any eukaryotic organism that requires fructose.

Metabolism of glucose and fructose

Glucose can be utilized as an energy source by almost every cell in the body. Only the liver can metabolize fructose, and it will preferentially convert fructose into fat storage. The body has the ability to handle a small amount of fructose at a time, without adverse health consequences. Fructose does come naturally from fruits, but the absorption is slow due to the large amount of fiber. Unfortunately, removing the fiber by juicing or destroying the fiber, as done in a smoothie, dramatically increases the speed of absorption, overwhelming the liver and sending a fructose rush to the brain.

Glucose consumption normally causes insulin release from the pancreas. Insulin acts on surface cell receptors, which allow glucose absorption into the cell for energy use or converting it to fat inside the cell. High levels of insulin, in the presence of high levels of glucose, cause a liver enzyme [phosphofructokinase PFK] to convert glucose to fructose, which is then quickly turned into fat storage and not used for energy production. However, if you directly ingest fructose, it bypasses the enzyme gateway and insulin is not released, and it goes straight to fat storage.

The metabolism of fructose differs from that of glucose, with liver metabolism of fructose favoring de novo lipogenesis [fat production directly from fructose]. Additionally, fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion or leptin production. Insulin normally regulates the absorption of sugar into the cells, and leptin normally notifies brain receptors that you are full. Because insulin and leptin act as key signals in the regulation of food intake and body weight, fructose consumption causes yet further hunger and additional weight gain. The body is rapidly storing fat, and doesn’t know it’s full.

Insulin resistance from fructose and the beginning of metabolic inflammation

Fructose can also directly trigger insulin resistance. When mice are fed with excessive amounts of fructose, they produce carbohydrate responsive element-binding protein, or ChREBP, which blocks the liver from responding to the insulin.

Fructose is 20 times more likely to cause fatty liver (the key problem of insulin resistance) compared to glucose alone. Fructose feeding studies, replacing glucose with a calorically equal amount of fructose, document a 5x increase in de novo lipogenesis and an increased liver fat by 38% within eight days.

[The metabolism of ethanol (alcohol) is similar to that of fructose. Nearly 80% of the ingested ethanol is delivered to the liver, and metabolized to acetaldehyde, which also stimulates de novo lipogenesis.]

Fructose overfeeding can provoke insulin resistance. Healthy subjects overfed 1000 calories per day of fructose demonstrated a 25 percent worsening of their insulin sensitivity in seven days.

Fructose induces insulin resistance even at typical consumption doses, in less than eight weeks. Subjects were fed 25 percent of their daily calories as Kool-Aid sweetened with either glucose or fructose. The fructose group increased their insulin resistance, and could be clinically classified as pre-diabetic. The glucose group did not.

Fructose engages in the Maillard reaction, or glycation seven times faster than glucose, and a metabolite of fructose does it 250 times faster. We commonly measure this as HgBA1C for glucose. The measure for fructose is fructosamine. This glycation effect makes the cell walls sticky, and the receptors not work. This may explain why patients with high glycation levels require more pain medication, because their receptors simply don’t work. It also is part of the explanation how insulin resistance occurs.

Fructose and addiction

Fructose stimulates the reward center of the brain while glucose does not. Data suggests that the fructose molecule in sugar is what it makes it addictive.

Glucose activates the cortex, the basal ganglia, and certain other parts, but not the limbic system. Glucose results in a sensation of serotonin-induced happiness. By contrast, fructose stimulates the limbic system and is associated with increased dopamine release in the nucleus acumbens, similar to other addictive drugs (glucose does not stimulate the nucleus acumbens). Fructose results in a sensation of dopamine-induced pleasure.

Agricultural subsidies

Governmental subsidies were initially a method to subsidize farmers during the Depression and the Dust Bowl in 1933. We had a destitute population in the American southwest, dying of famine. Most of the the food and food manufacturers were in the Northeast. By the time it took to transport food by rail to the Southwest, it would go rancid. They had to process it: remove the fiber from the wheat, package it in 5 pound bags, ship it to the Southwest, and then bake it locally. The subsidy was designed to make it worthwhile for the American food industry to invest in a processing and distribution system for a famine-stricken population, which made sense through World War 2.

Unfortunately, President Nixon, concerned about re-election, knew that fluctuating food prices caused political unrest. Nixon instituted a policy of maintaining low consumer prices for food by agricultural subsidy. Until that point, our subsidies were actually designed to pay farmers to not grow certain crops and maintain inflated prices. This policy also allowed the soil to regain nutrient after crop harvest. His agriculture secretary, Rusty Butz, changed farming operations so soil was no longer left fallow; there was no time to restore nutrient after a crop was harvested. It also encouraged monocropping and megafarms. Subsidies have created an agricultural farmer dependency on governmental support. The massive overproduction of just a few grain items resulted in a huge surplus and difficulty in long-term storage. Distributing this slowly rotting surplus was solved through the food stamp system, creating a consumer dependency on governmental support. Unfortunately, these processed staple items are carbohydrate-rich, but have had most of their fiber stripped and fat removed to prevent rancidity, and lack much of the soil-derived micronutrients.

Governmental subsidies and import tariffs have resulted in corn being a much more economical sweetener than sugar–a trend that is not seen in other parts of the world. The consumption of HFCS increased by more than 1000% between 1970 and 1990, far exceeding the changes in intake of any other food or food group. HFCS now represents more than 40% of caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages, a daily average of 132 calories per person. The effect of governmental subsidy is most evident when you compare the same soft drink in the United States to one in Mexico; for example, Coke contains corn syrup as the sweetener in the United States while it contains cane sugar in Mexico.

The per capita consumption of high fructose corn syrup — the primary sweetener in soft drinks and other sweetened beverages — has increased from 38.2 pounds in 1980 to 868 pounds in 1998 (Chou et al., 2004). In 1942, annual U.S. production of soft drinks was 90 8 oz. servings per person; in 2000, it was 600 servings (Jacobson, 2005).

Other names for sugars:

Processed foods will most likely have sugars added. Unfortunately, they can go by any number of names. While this is an extensive list, it is not complete. The more naturally you can eat your foods, the better success you will have with creating a permanent weight loss solution.

Agave Syrup

Amasake

Any name ending in “ose” or “ol” or “syrup”

Barbados Sugar

Barley Malt

Blackstrap Molasses

Black Sugar

Brown Sugar

Cane Juice or Cane Juice Crystals

Cane Sugar

Caramel or Caramel Coloring

Castor Sugar

Confectioner’s Sugar

Corn Sweetener

Corn Syrup – a manufactured syrup of corn

starch, containing varying proportions of glucose

maltose, and dextrose

Corn Syrup Solids

Crystallized Cane Juice

D-mannose

Date Sugar

Demerara

Demerara Sugar

Dehydrated Cane Juice or Dehydrated Cane

Juice Crystals

Dextran

Dextrin

Dextrine

Dextrose (glucose) – a simple sugar made of

only one molecule

Erythritol

Evaporated Cane Juice

Evaporated Cane Juice Sugar

Florida crystals (a trademarked name)

White or Brown Sugars

Fructose – a simple sugar refined from fruit

Fruit Juice Concentrate

Galactose or Galatactose

Glucose or Glucose Syrup

Golden Syrup

Grape Sugar

Grape Juice or Grape Sweetener

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

Honey

Hydrolysed or Hydrolyzed Starch

Hydrogenated Glucose Syrup

Hydrogenated Starch Hydrolysates (HSH)

Invert Sugar

Isomalt

Levulose

Lactitol or Lactital

Lactose – a simple sugar from milk

Malt

Malt Extract

Malt Syrup

Maltodextrin

Maltose

Malitol

Maple Syrup

Molasses

Monosaccharide

Muscovado

Organic Dehydrated Cane Juice

Organic Brown Sugar

Panocha

Polysaccharide

Powdered Sugar

Raw Cane Crystals

Raw Honey

Raw Sugar

Many people can become overwhelmed or nervous at the concept of time-restricted feeding, but by following these four steps, you can have success at following this recommendation and reducing weight.

Step 1

Before you start a time-restricted feeding schedule, you should talk to your doctor or health care provider.

Get medical advice from a professional who is aligned with your health goals.

You may have medical conditions that need close monitoring. Likewise, you may be on medications that may need to be adjusted. It is important to have a strong understanding of your medical history and the medications you take prior to initiating a fasting program. Please talk to your doctor or healthcare provider.

Step 2

Stop all sugars, including all artificial sweeteners.

Many sugars and processed carbs just aren’t satiating — they don’t make you feel full. Stop all sugar and artificial sugar-sweetened beverages. Before you start your protocol, you should eliminate sugars and processed carbohydrates.

Also, stop all sources of vegetable oil and replace with healthy natural oil and real butter. Replacing industrial seed oil with real oils is easy if you are not eating processed foods. It even makes the food taste better.

Stop all processed foods. Processed foods are engineered to make you eat again and again and again, every 2-3 hours.

Step 3

Focus on getting meals that are rich in protein and healthy fats. Eat all types of meat like beef, fish, chicken, eggs, lamb, and seafood. Yogurt and cheeses are also nutritious and filling. Fill up on low-sugar vegetables like olives, peppers, cucumbers, and avocado, and eat as many green leafy vegetables as you please. This approach will help you get better adapted to fat metabolism and may make fasting easier to adopt.

Step 4

Start slow. This metainflammation didn’t happen in one day, and it won’t go away in a day.

Consider a liberal 8-hour eating window on your first day to see how it feels. Eat as you please during your 8-hour time frame and see how your body and appetite feel during the remaining hours of the day.

Then, slowly narrow your eating window.

As you feel more comfortable assessing your hunger, and understanding the nature of hunger pangs, you can slowly decrease your daily feeding window. Consider decreasing by one hour a week, until you reach a 4-hour window.

Things to think about:

If you haven’t made adjustments to your diet beforehand to include more satiating foods filled with protein, healthy fat and fiber, you may notice hunger pangs. If you are experiencing hunger pangs, consider drinking some hot tea, coffee, water or seltzer. This will fill your stomach up and give you enough time to realize that maybe you really aren’t as hungry as you initially thought. Some people use lemon in seltzer water.

This should be a fun experience, not a miserable experience. If you are having a miserable experience, something has been overlooked. Remember that time-restricted feeding is a great way to limit snacking. Eating filling real food during your eating window will restore and realign your hormone system.

Need more help? We have more to offer. Just contact us.

What does weight have to do with minority population and voter suppression?

We are hopeful that the title of this article gets your attention, and that this might convince you to read our comments. We are not conspiracy nuts. We don’t at all belief in conspiracy theories; we leave the interpretation of facts to you.

We are presenting the facts as we see them daily, as owners of medical practices treating severely injured and disabled patients. Our viewpoint is definitely skewed because we don’t see patients that are healthy and happy; we only see patients who are suffering from significant disease and most often have been pushed aside medically, economically, and socially. In short, they are “marginalized.”

If we told you that a completely man-made and preventable plague was spreading across the United States and would affect 75% of the population within twenty years, causing countless deaths and costing over $215 billion dollars per year, you might pay attention. Like most epidemics, obesity is accelerating, and now affects 17% of all children and adolescents in the United States — triple the rate from just one generation ago. Obese children are more likely to become obese adults and carry a significantly higher negative lifetime economic and medical burden. If you are overweight or obese, there is a 90% chance you will develop type 2 diabetes; yet, if you smoke for 30-40 years, you have a 10-17% chance of developing lung cancer. Ask yourself which you are more afraid of, being overweight or smoking, and most people think smoking is more deadly. (This is not intended to suggest smoking is beneficial; it’s intended to frame the issue in context.)

Low-income families already face high levels of stress and poor mental health (e.g., anxiety, depression) due to the financial and emotional pressures of food insecurity, low-wage work, lack of access to health care, inadequate transportation, poor housing, and violence.

The federal government spends more than $20 billion a year on subsidies for farm businesses, with the majority going to the largest producers of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice. This federally subsidized production reduces manufacturing costs for processed foods containing high fructose corn syrup. Simultaneously, consumer demand for processed foods containing high fructose corn syrup is stimulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which operates multiple food assistance programs. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) currently allows the purchase of almost any food, except alcohol, hot foods, and foods that will be eaten in the store. SNAP participants on average eat about the same number of calories per day as nonparticipants but typically consume more hyperpalatable (tasty) foods containing fructose and industrial seed oils. In fact, low-income individuals who were eligible for SNAP, but did not participate in SNAP, consumed fewer processed foods. Consumers on food stamps get about 12 percent of their daily calories from sugary drinks, compared to 6 percent for higher-income people, even as overall soda sales are declining in the U.S. SNAP households spend approximately 5% of their food assistance budget on soft drinks, and 9.3% on ‘sweetened beverages,’ which includes soft drinks, fruit juices, energy drinks, and sweetened teas. The sweetened beverage industry has lobbied aggressively to prevent SNAP from limiting soda purchases.

Some of this could be caused by lack of access to foods other than these. Low-income neighborhoods frequently lack full-service grocery stores and farmers’ markets, and many of the stores do preferentially stock heavily processed foods that are shelf-stable and less likely to spoil. Even when healthy food is available — especially fresh produce and meat — it is often of poorer quality in lower-income neighborhoods, which diminishes the appeal of these items to buyers

Low-income communities also have a greater availability of fast-food restaurants, especially near schools. These restaurants serve high-calorie, nutrient-poor foods at low prices. Low-income youth are also exposed to disproportionately more marketing and advertising for obesity-promoting products that encourage the consumption of unhealthful foods and discourage physical activity (e.g., fast food, sugary beverages, television shows, video games).

Due to safety concerns and the potential for violence, children and adults are more likely to stay indoors and engage in sedentary activities, such as watching television or playing video games, further increasing the risk for obesity and type 2 diabetes.

By 2035, less than 16 years from now, data suggests that nearly 100% of the African American female population will be overweight or obese. The real issue with this is not directly in the female population, but in their children, who are then predisposed to obesity due to a change in their genetics caused by environmental epigenetic factors. This change will cause a genetic shift for 3-5 generations. This change will shorten lives, worsen disability, reduce lifetime economic earning, reduce academic performance, and increase rates of incarceration.

Placating the masses with hyperpalatable non-nutritious subsidized food maintains generational poverty and generational obesity through changes in genetics. Poverty reduces a population’s economic participation through both disability and a shortened life span. The end result of specifically targeting low-income minority communities with processed food messaging is reduced political participation. Reduced political participation then reinforces the cycle of economic poverty. This is what weight has to do with political participation and voter suppression.

Some people ask the questions: What happens if I stop eating carbohydrates and sugars? What is the minimum daily carbohydrate intake requirement for health? These answers might not be what you think, and your body can be healthy without these.

The lower limit of carbohydrate consumption is likely zero, and there are no essential carbohydrates required for living. According to the Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein and Amino Acids (2005), the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for carbohydrate, considered to be the average minimum amount of glucose needed by the brain or central nervous system (CNS), is 130 g/day for adults and children.

The CNS comprises less than 2% of total body weight, but consumes roughly 20% of the total daily calories. Historically the brain has been considered the only organ that required glucose as a fuel source, utilizing approximately 100-140 g glucose per day. However, with ketoadaptation, the CNS reduces the obligatory glucose requirement by approximately 80%, resulting in a true utilization of 20-28 g glucose/d.

However, traditional civilizations (Masai, the Greenland and Alaskan Inuit and Pampas indigenous people) survive on a “minimal amount of carbohydrate for extended periods of time with no apparent effect on health or longevity.”

Research goes on to state that “In the absence of dietary carbohydrate, de novo synthesis of glucose requires amino acids derived from the hydrolysis of endogenous or dietary protein or glycerol derived from fat. Therefore, the marginal amount of carbohydrate required in the diet in an energy-balanced state is conditional and dependent upon the remaining composition of the diet.”

Endogenous glucose production through gluconeogenesis is approximately 2.8-3.6 g/kg/d, or approximately 210-270 g/d in a 70kg human, far greater than the obligatory requirement of 20-28g glucose/d of the ketoadapted human.

According to the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine, “The lower limit of dietary carbohydrate compatible with life apparently is zero, provided that adequate amounts of protein and fat are consumed” (pg. 275). There is no essential need for dietary carbohydrate, provided that “adequate amounts of protein and fat are consumed.”

Carbohydrates are necessary for metabolism, but it’s not necessary to eat them. Your body will manufacture the carbohydrates it needs.

Why do we care so much about food and diet and its impact on your health? We own and operate chronic care health-related companies, but also own and operate restaurants. We have been fascinated with the intersection of health, dietary intake, and lifestyle. We view nutrition as a program, or a subroutine, that informs and instructs the body to specific action. A corrupted program leads to a corrupted outcome.

Our clinics evaluate and treat several thousand patients per year for chronic and acute pain, in an urban setting where access to high-intensity healthcare is readily available through several large academic centers as well as government-sponsored outreach clinics. Unfortunately, despite the availability of cutting-edge medical treatment, the health of individuals and populations continues to decline year over year. Over 90% of our patients have untreated metabolic syndrome, and over 80% have undiagnosed prediabetes or diabetes type 2. The symptom of pain is the final common pathway for the human body to signal impending tissue damage, and most patients avoid contact with the health delivery system until they develop a symptom that they can no longer ignore. Unfortunately, our clinical practice is not unique. Pain is the leading reason for patients seeking medical care and is one of the most disabling, burdensome, and costly conditions in the US. Overall, pain care/treatment and lost productivity costs $635 billion per year. The commonality in metabolic syndrome and chronic pain is the hyperinflammatory state or metainflammation.

As we have treated this patient population over the last 20-plus years, we have discovered some common threads that trouble us. About 80% of the patients have either obesity, prediabetes or diabetes, with the vast majority remaining undiagnosed. More than half of these patients go on to have significant expensive complications and about 20% eventually require dialysis. By 2026, the Medicare system will be so overwhelmed with the diseases of metainflammation that it will literally run out of money. We must engage individual patients in improved health outcomes in order to change the community. We have fewer than seven years.

We are passionate about returning this patient population to health, and avoiding bariatric surgical procedures, which are costly and carry significant risks of organ injury, death, and long-term disability. We have found that academic institutions avoid this population until extraordinary and expensive complications set in, requiring hospitalization. It is our opinion that there is a fundamental cultural disconnect between the ivory tower of the institutions and the actual communities where these patients reside. This cultural disconnect prevents patient engagement in lifestyle changes. Additionally, the Medicaid system does not reimburse for lifestyle and dietary modification for obesity but does reimburse for bariatric surgery. The overwhelming marketing from processed food manufacturers targets the urban minority communities with disingenuous messaging, suggesting health benefits for obesogenic foods. This combined with supplemental nutrition benefits and game theory promotes the hyper-consumption of farmer-subsidized high fructose corn starch as well as industrial seed oils. It is our opinion that the overconsumption of hyperpalatable, nutritionally deficient food is a major contributor to reduced academic success, reduced employment opportunities, increased incarceration rates, and progression of metabolic dysfunction. It is a root cause of the social and economic disparity.

Saturated fat is part of our ancestral diet. “Diets with cheese and meat as primary sources of Saturated Fatty Acids cause higher HDL cholesterol and apo A-1 and, therefore, appear to be less atherogenic than is a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet.”

EVERYBODY LOSES WEIGHT

Seven real strategies for long-term weight loss:

Seven real strategies for long-term weight loss:

Is Canola heart healthy?

Practical tips through the day

What is sugar?

Things to think about: