1. I have been on a low carbohydrate protocol for a while now and I'm doing great. I have recently had some stress in my life due to relationship issues. This has "sidetracked" me. I do not have an issue with my protocol, I just have a hard time staying focused and not getting sidetracked easily.
I have no clue as to how to reply to these types of questions and that's why I usually avoid them, even though I receive many of them weekly. I will make this one an example so that hopefully other people will not send me more of these vague issues for me to decipher.
If you have been consistently doing everything that you need to do, and you don't have an issue with your protocol, then what is the problem exactly?
I am not sure what type of "relationship issues" you have been having but life often carries lots of issues. I don't know what that has to do with your protocol though, since diet and exercise are actually a very small part of daily life. A lot occurs between these two events. To put it in context, you spend more of your life sleeping rather than eating and exercising.
I also do not understand why life stressors cause people to become sidetracked from their diet and exercise. Again, the two smallest parts of daily life. Why doesn't it affect everything else? I don't even know how "relationship issues" can affect your protocol to begin with. Though it's difficult to imagine how, I can still see it possibly taking time away from your exercise routine, but your diet? Don't you have to eat every day anyway, regardless of what's happening?
This is a blog that contains general information on strategies that might help treat or prevent metabolic disease. The first requirement, for anyone who reads this blog, is the ability to follow a protocol consistently. This is not a weight loss blog. This is a blog that requires a lot of reading, researching on your own and, most importantly, doing without excuses.
2. Should protein be determined by ounces or grams?
Many people are having trouble trying to figure out protein. They just assume a piece of meat is "protein". It's not. Meat contains protein but it is also water and fat.
If your protocol uses ounces, then you determine whatever the recommended ounces of meat are, by using a food scale. If your protocol uses protein grams, then you have to determine how many grams of protein are in your chosen cut of meat. Type and cut of meat will affect how much protein it contains.
I know it's hard to determine this because often times real food doesn't have labels. Thank goodness most people have a smart phone, so you will have to do your Googles. You can use Google search or an app to determine how much protein is contained in your chosen cut of meat, depending on the amount. You can do this using ounces or pounds.
The good thing is that once you do this one time, you won't have to do it again, for the same cut of meat of the same amount. So, this isn't something that will be a continuous hassle for you.
3. I was told that low fat products are unhealthy because they are filled with sugar in order to make up for the missing fat.
That is only true of processed foods. Let's be honest here, for something to be labeled as low fat/fat free, it must be processed by default because the only foods on planet earth that are naturally low fat/fat free, are most whole vegetables and fruits. These do not come with a label. Nothing else natural, except for water, is low fat/fat free.
So, for example, low fat/fat free cereals, snack bars, cookies, etc. are usually loaded with sugar in order to make up for any lowering or elimination of their fat content. It's a way to make these "foods" more palatable. These "foods" are also loaded with sugar because sweet things sell. If it wasn't for sugar, what would cereal taste like? None of these grain based, processed foods have any flavor to them. That is why sweet is the "go to" flavor added to all of these items in order to entice people to buy them.
Low fat/fat free labeled foods, like most dairy, are not loaded with sugar to make up for the missing fat. Yogurts are loaded with sugar because this dairy is sold as a "snack" so again, sweet things sell. The rest of low fat/fat free dairy usually does not have any added sugar.
The elimination of fat only concentrates the products own natural sugar, increasing its sugar content by volume, irrespective of calories. The more fat removed, the more concentrated the sugars become. This is why it is not a good idea to eat low fat/fat free versions of these foods as they were intended to come with fat. That's how the body recognizes them.
Artificially altering the macronutrient composition of food is never a good idea. The fat in full fat dairy should not be of any concern because dairy is to be used as a garnish only, not as a main meal, making its fat content irrelevant. There was a time when only full fat dairy was available, and obesity was very rare.
If your protocol is calling for low fat/fat free foods, it's because it is a calorie centered protocol. They are trying to manipulate daily calorie intake by reducing/eliminating the fat calories from food, simply because these low fat/fat free food versions are easily available as alternatives.
The best way to approach this problem is not through the consumption of altered Franken foods but by simply eating the real thing properly. You never want any food that is primarily fat or primarily carbohydrate to become the main course and replace protein.
4. I try to eat grass-fed meat whenever I can, but I really do not like it. It's not just me either. My entire family prefers conventional (grain-fed) meat. Grass-fed meat seems to be constantly pushed in low carb circles though.
You don't have to do a thing but regain leptin expression. Leptin doesn't care what meat you eat.
Yes, many low carb people push grass-fed meat, for varying reasons, but the main one is just to be trendy and "in the loop". Unfortunately, the more things try to change back, to how they once were, the more we are reminded as to why they changed in the first place.
Some people do not notice any difference between grass-fed meat and grain-fed. Others find they prefer the taste of grass-fed. People like you and me, really prefer grain-fed. I am sure there are a lot of people like us so I can see why grain-fed beef became so popular. Insulin resistance is truly delicious. Just ask the Wagyu ranchers.
I have tried all kinds of grass-fed meat from different sources. Some have been expensive, and others have been pretty economical. Regardless of where it comes from, grass-fed meat usually has a "gamey" after taste and dry texture which I don't particularly like. Even at the same fat percentage, grass-fed meat still has a drier texture than grain-fed. It's not bad enough to be intolerable, so I still occasionally buy grass-fed meat, but I do prefer grain-fed.
Aside from the palatability issue, let's talk about health. Grass-fed meat has a better fatty acid profile and ratio. There is no doubt about that. Grain-based fats interfere in lipolysis (the breakdown of fat). The fat in grain-fed meat, which is mostly corn derived, tends to increase liver fat, progressing metabolic syndrome further. The same does not occur with grass-fed meat of the same fat percentage. So, there is certainly something in grain-based fat that interferes with the liver's processing of fats. Of course, there is still a question as to how carbs in the diet, alongside grain-based fats, contribute to this effect.
For this reason, I wouldn't be too concerned over this. Diets that are low in carbs and eliminate grains and sugar, still produce metabolic benefits even in the presence of grain-based fats. So, whatever is going on with these fats, might simply be exacerbated due to a high carb diet.
All of this simply means that you don't have to eat grass-fed meat if you don't like it. You can replace it with wild game or try pastured meat. Pastured meat is usually a blend of grass and grain. The very best meat I ever ate was pastured, local meat. It tends to be expensive and/or difficult to find, depending on where you are, so that's something to keep in mind.
Other than that, you can simply continue eating grain-fed meat, just buy it leaner. The beauty of grain-fed meat is that even the leaner versions still have a great texture. That way you can limit the intake of their fatty acid profile.
Buy grass-fed dairy instead, to get their beneficial fatty acid profile. Dairy is naturally mostly fat so you will get more bang for your buck buying it grass-fed. Most people prefer grass-fed dairy once they've tried it. For example, I prefer the texture of grass-fed butter versus grain-fed butter. Conventional grain-fed butter has an oily texture which grass-fed does not. Grass-fed butter is very creamy instead. The taste of grass-fed whole milk is superior as well.
Doing it this way allows you to have the best of both worlds. You can get the taste you want from the grain-fed meat and the fatty acid profile you need from the grass-fed dairy. It might also give your wallet a break.
5. Type I diabetics do not have to be careful of their diet because they already have to take insulin anyway.
This blog's focus is not Type I diabetes but the answer to this question pertains to Type II and that's why I'm replying.
If a Type I diabetic has to continue dosing insulin to counteract ice cream sundaes, what will eventually occur is that they will lose control of their blood glucose regulation, gain body fat and develop Type II diabetes (double diabetes). It is very difficult to dose insulin correctly when you have such large disparities between postprandial and fasting blood glucose. This results in the need for more insulin than normal, postprandially, which causes frequent hypoglycemia during fasting.
It's this issue, which is the single most important clue we have, occurring in vivo, of how Type II diabetes develops. Type II diabetes develops when the body is under a high insulin demand in order to clear dietary (postprandial) blood glucose. This interferes with proper blood glucose regulation during fasting, which ultimately deteriorates insulin sensitivity and function in tissues and organs to varying degrees. It also abnormalizes insulin expression, making the fat mass particularly insulin sensitive at the expense of other tissues and organs.
Problems with blood glucose regulation, particularly while fasting (time in hypoglycemia), causes metabolism to go into a "pseudo starvation mode" that only helps spare and build body fat, while keeping the blood glucose set point very high. This puts an even larger demand for insulin and the cycle now feeds itself.
Whether insulin is being produced by your own body or being injected from an external source, a high insulin demand will eventually lead to Type II diabetes. You simply cannot regulate blood glucose properly in the presence of over expressed insulin.
6. Legumes are healthy and superior to grains.
No. Legumes, just like grains, disrupt proper blood glucose regulation over time because of their high carbohydrate content (starch). It doesn't matter what nutrients or fiber they contain. It doesn't matter that they have protein, and it certainly doesn't matter that they happen to be high in calories. They still have a lot of starch which is basically glucose. So, at the end of the day, they interfere with proper metabolic function and so they can never be "healthy".
Legumes also tend to replace animal protein containing foods because they are relatively inexpensive, compared to meat, and commonly found precooked making them more convenient than meat. Both of these cause legumes to not be eaten appropriately. The only appropriate way to eat legumes is to keep them a garnish only.
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