Introducing a High-Fat, Low-Carb Diet
In 1978 the US government issued a new visual image of how Americans should eat, The Food Pyramid. A challenge to how most Americans were currently eating, the new food pyramid emphasized eating 6-10 servings of grain-based carbohydrate foods daily.
The new pyramid reduced salt and dietary fats to minimal levels and put them at the very top. Americans were told to stop consuming fat and instead fill their day with bread, cereals, popcorn, pasta, and all kinds of highly refined carbohydrate products.
This is the beginning of the obesity epidemic we see today. Not only that, but neurological disorders, brain diseases, hypertension, autoimmune illness, hormonal imbalance, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and most other epidemics we see today have skyrocketed since this incident.
It is highly unlikely that these circumstances are unrelated.
I believe that the current increase in infertility and declining fertility rates among both males and females are a direct result of adulterations in the food system and consumption over the last 50-100 years. Among other lifestyle factors that are recent to our biology.
Although this opens a giant can of worms, let’s stick to the part about fat.
Here is what the Keto food chart of the present day looks like.
I am not suggesting that everyone needs to go on the ketogenic diet as we know it, I believe it also has long-term potential issues. I am suggesting that most of us need to re-evaluate our consumption in regards to dietary fats and make an effort to integrate them back into our lives, after years of deprivation.
It’s worth saying that a ketogenic diet, with intense grain and refined carbohydrate restriction, are indicated as beneficial for many inflammatory conditions of the brain and nervous system. With the incidence of Alzheimer’s on the rise, AKA Diabetes Type 3, we should all be paying attention to how consuming fats can potentially heal brain problems.
The number of people complaining of fatigue and brain fog regularly is also an indicator. This is a chief complaint of many people I see, and it’s not always lack of sleep or stress.
Your brain, and eyes, are starving for fat.
My resistance to the ketogenic diet stems from the idea that you must reach a state of ketosis, where your body is exclusively metabolizing fat and therefore producing high levels of ketones, to achieve success. I find most people have a very hard time maintaining this level of restriction at all times.
Instead, striving for a high-fat, low-carb diet allows more flexibility for life’s daily changes and social settings, while still offering the benefits of fat and the removal of refined foods.
When I imagine the healthiest long-term diet, I imagine a very fresh Mediterranean diet with no refined carbs, few potatoes, and only small servings of fruit. On every plate is a dose of healthy fat from saturated and unsaturated sources: meats, fish, eggs, butter, olive oil, avocado, coconut cream, cheese, nuts, and seeds. There are other sources of fat but you get my meaning.
A dramatic increase in the use of fats also means a dramatic increase in flavor and satiety. You switch from feeling ‘stuffed’ with carbohydrates to feeling ‘sated’ with brain-nourishing fats.
I don’t advocate for “keto” diet trends like adding blocks of cream cheese to every meal, eating pads of butter on a slice of cheese, and other high-fat-intensity approaches. There are some results to be gained from a strict fat-only approach, but again, long-term there should be leafy greens and other brightly colored vegetables in the diet.
Lots of companies have sprung up that make keto-friendly snacks and bars, which I don’t advocate for those either. We need to eat real foods, not packaged foods. We need to eat real meals, not processed snacks.
That’s why I’m not suggesting a popularized keto diet at all. I’m suggesting a healthy, plant-centric, whole-food diet that restricts refined carbs and emphasizes daily dietary fats from lots of different sources to gain all the benefits.
