10,000 Vinyasas

A couple of years ago, I read a book called Good Calories, Bad Calories. Dense and full of technical analysis of many many studies, it nonetheless was a revelation, at least in my thinking about food. The immediate reaction, upon finishing, was to wonder “how could this be true?” since it essentially pointed out that much of the conventional wisdom about what to eat (and what not to eat) was based upon flawed studies, misinterpretation, and politicized recommendations, most of which center around the “low fat” diet. What Taubes indicates in the book is if you don’t eat as much fat, you have to make up for it by increasing either protein or carbohydrates, and mathematically, this must be true. The role of simple carbs, like sugar and white flour, is examined in the cases of native people who adopt Western diets and thereby suffer cancer, diabetes, heart attacks and strokes, as well as obesity. Although it is impossible, at least to me at this time, to determine whether Taubes is correct (or at least partially correct), I began to adopt a more fat-based diet in response. I had already dropped about 10 pounds (and they were very significant pounds, too, since they came directly off my waist), and I was curious as to whether I could maintain this loss while increasing my fat content. Reading these words makes it seem that it was more of a conscious and linear process, but it actually just evolved over a period of time, while I started eating more nuts and quality meats while trying, gradually to reduce or eliminate more sugar, white flour and processed foods in my diet. As regular readers know, the latest manifestation is the addition of raw whole milk to my diet. At this point, I can report that my weight remains stable and at the level which I consider to be close to the ideal (I’m not ready to give up beer and margaritas, yet). By all rights, if the low fat theory of diet is correct, I should have gained quite a bit of weight over the last couple of years, but that didn’t happen. I am therefore ready to conclude that, for me at least, a low fat diet has no real place in my understanding of the best way to eat. Reducing the amounts of simple carbohydrates, however, does seem to work. Your mileage may vary.