It should come as no surprise to those few of you who actually read what I write here that I changed my way of eating a while back. I’ve cut out pretty much all processed food from my diet. As much as possible, I eat locally raised pastured meat. I’ve also started eating eggs from a small local farm, which has surprised quite a few people. Also surprising to many who know me is that I’ve started eating salads. I drink coffee with cream, tea with milk and water, lots and lots of water. I try to buy raw milk whenever possible. Whenever I can’t get it raw, I at least try to get it from grass-fed cows who roam free on pasture. At the moment, my carbohydrate intake is extremely low and what I do get is usually in the form of nuts or the aforementioned salad. I plan on increasing my carbohydrate intake soon, but I’m going to do so slowly and I’m going to be very careful about how I do it. The net result of this is that I’ve lost 60 lb and 6 inches off my waistline since sometime late last year – probably around October or November. I feel better and stronger than I ever have before, which is a stark contrast to the last time I lost this much weight. I haven’t been sick in a long time, even when those in closest proximity to me for extended periods of time were suffering from pretty severe bouts of flu. I haven’t had any blood work done in recent times, but I never had any done before now. I plan on getting it checked relatively soon, but I’m not worried.

All this came about when I learned a few things. These things blew my mind, because they went against conventional wisdom. Mind you, I’ve never really been one to follow conventional wisdom blindly. I’ll try to list them all, but I may miss one or two. I’m only going to mention these on a high level. Things are much more complex, but for the most part, this is the important bit. Here we go:

• Eating fat does not make you fat. The human body can’t actually store dietary fat.
• Whole grains are no better for us than refined grains. Sprouting the grains makes some difference, but it’s not common practice.
• Eating cholesterol does not increase your cholesterol.
• Cholesterol is not bad for you. It’s basically the body’s fire department. Blaming it for heart disease is like blaming the fire department for setting a fire, just because they’re at the scene putting it out.
• There is absolutely no proof that saturated fat causes heart disease.
• The human brain is made of saturated fat. It needs saturated fat from food to operate properly and repair itself.
• Vegetarianism is damaging to our health and the environment.
• The statistics about how many people we could feed vs. how many cows on the same food assume grain feeding.
• The human body will try its damnedest to maintain a state called homeostasis, or staying the same. This is the main reason eat less/exercise more doesn’t work in the long-term. Of course, there are exceptions. Give the body less fuel, it will slow your metabolism and burn less fuel.

It’s led to some interesting times, especially living with someone who has been eating vegetarian or halal in varying degrees. Fortunately, she agrees with the simple natural food aspect. I even have a few friends who have decided to forgo as much processed food as possible for a month. Unfortunately, though I applaud their efforts, I believe they’re throwing out the baby with the bath water by also going vegan for this month. I have also run across many many fat phobic folks, which is not surprising, since I was once one of them. Of course, it’s not without its downsides. My levels of agitation are rising as I continue to hear the trite old phrases “artery clogging saturated fat” and “heart healthy whole grains” constantly being trotted out. Unfortunately, those using these supposed truisms have no idea how wrong they are. Two of these fat phobic individuals come to mind immediately – Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

These two British chefs have a lot in common. They’re both incredibly passionate about what they do and the food they create. I know Ramsay’s no fan of Oliver, but I’m unsure of how Oliver feels about Ramsay. They’re both trying to get us back to eating good quality simple food and they’re trying to improve our health by doing so. Unfortunately, they’re working on the premise that the government food guidelines and the lipid/diet heart hypotheses are true. Now, I’ve seen Gordon Ramsay cook some amazing stuff (the most amazing as he likes to say – a lot) and it’s certainly not all low-fat. Take his scrambled eggs for example – plenty of butter and a spoon of crème fraîche to boot. Unfortunately, it seems that everything he teaches amateur cooks on his quest to “get Britain cooking again” revolves around these false mantras.

Jamie Oliver is also on a quest, and that quest is to completely overhaul the food we feed our kids at school. There’s no doubt that this is absolutely necessary. I have an 8-year-old and he goes to school. I get to see the kind of prepackaged processed junk they’re doling out to the kids in the name of health. Part of this laudable quest is a TV show about his progress at a school in West Virginia. The city this school is in was rated unhealthiest in America, so it’s a logical place to start. I watched the first couple of episodes, and I’ll probably keep watching it, just to see how it all pans out. I had high hopes up until he tried to shock the parents with what their kids were eating. Unfortunately, the chosen scapegoat was saturated fat – a necessary nutrient for growth and development.

I’ll do a follow-up on my thoughts of Jamie Oliver’s show, but at a later date. For now, I’ll just say that a change is definitely needed. We need to go back to eating real, wholesome food – the kind we used to eat before all the packaged junk and industrial vegetable oils. We also need to lose our fear of real food and natural fats. Our grandparents and great grandparents ate these foods and they were nowhere near as fat or unhealthy as we are today. Let’s go back to the way we were, back to reality, back to simplicity. Throw out the boxed mixes and frozen ready meals. Put some love into your food.

I’ll leave you with a quote (possibly) from Albert Einstein: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. The current dietary guidelines are not working. The time for change is now. Let’s make sure we change enough.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 17th, 2010 at 12:04 am and is filed under food, local, personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.