> My wife, a nurse, has been saying for a long time that there is no study
> linking high cholesterol and heart attacks.
Yes...
How did this subject get started? It is weird because recently I have
gotten interested in nutrition. I am an avid long distance runner (I have
several marathons and 50Ks coming up) and have been struggling for a long
time to lose/maintain weight. My weight always goes up when I let myself eat
as much as I like, and then I have to resort to diets to slim a bit and get
back to running shape.
4 weeks ago I was reading something and had an epiphany: I am eating too
many carbs! This includes bread, crackers, sugar, and a gazillion of
fruits. Bananas are the staple fruit of runners and generally praised for
their high potassium and vitamins, so I'd eat 4-5 EACH DAY, plus a couple of
apples, oranges and whatever else my lovely wife brings home.
Up to that point, all food was just food for me. I never gave a rat's ass
what exactly I ate in terms of carbs, fat and protein. After my "epiphany",
I started a low-carb diet. I eliminated sugar and flour, cut the fruits to a
bare minimum, and replaced the carbs with FAT (from meat, dairy -not more
fat-free yogurt for me, nuts, cheese). In one week, I lost 10 lbs. This
was mostly water loss but it was unneeded water. 4 weeks later I am still
10 lbs lighter and close to my ideal running weight.
I was afraid that reducing carbs will have a negative effect in my running,
since "standard dietary advice" for runners is to eat a lot of carbs because
they give you energy. I used to carbo-load to run strong. Now I am eating
eggs for breakfast (no bread) before a long trail race . Well, my running
is stronger than ever! My body burns more fat and it is happy.
The Low-Carb Nutrition literature I have been reading says some interesting
things:
- The average American eats way too many carbs
- Fat is good for you, including saturated fat
- Dietary cholesterol has not relation to blood cholesterol (I eat 14 eggs a
week, plus liver)
- The role of blood cholesterol in heart attacks is not clear
- Eating less carbs and more fat is good for you and your heart
- People in low carb/high fat diets show improvement in all the markers for
(heart and otherwise) health
There are more details of course, some fats are bad for you. There are a
lot of books out there that you can read if you are curious, including Gary
Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories" and "Why we get Fat and What to do
about it". Here is an article from 2002 that summarizes his views:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html
Also, I just finished and enjoyed this book: "Living Low Carb" by Jonny
Bowden, 440 pages of great information and only $7.75 in Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Living-Low-Carb-Controlled-Carbohydrate-Long-Term/dp/1402768257/
As for myself, I am a "believer". Low-carb nutrition from me. I think it
will help my long distance running enormously (it already has) and improve
my health. Plus, I feel satisfied (not hungry) and have a lot more energy
during the day.
My wife, not exactly a believer yet, also cut down carbs (and counted
calories) and lost 10 lbs too. She struggled a bit with her running but now
it is getting better.
George
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