That’s a bold statement—eat until you’re satisfied—in a world in which just about every nutritional authority tells you the opposite. But conventional advice was created by the uninformed to deal with appetite-stimulating opiate effects from wheat and grains. Remove wheat and grains and appetite recedes dramatically and calorie intake drops off without effort. There will be no mad scrambles for food due to overwhelming hunger, no sneaking ice cream in the middle of the night, no hidden snacks around the house. No more anxiously counting minutes until lunch or dinner. There will be no rolling, rumbling stomach growling and gnawing at your resolve. You will be largely indifferent to food, hunger nothing more than a gentle reminder that it might be time to eat something. You will even forget to eat at times, unconcerned if you miss a meal. You’ll find the previously daunting prospect of fasting—not eating at all—effortless. You will also begin to recognize the manipulative nature of the constant barrage of food advertising, all meant to further fuel the insatiable appetite created by wheat and grains, advertising that you will increasingly find incomprehensible.
Compound this with the appetite-satiating effects of unrestricted fat intake, and you will find that you feel satisfied even without trying. Eat fat on pork, purchase high-fat ground meat (never lean), cook with lard or bacon grease saved from breakfast, eat egg yolks with the whites, and add organic butter and coconut oil to anything and everything, from morning coffee (whipped with an immersion blender) to smoothies. And while every- one else at the office nervously eyes the clock for lunchtime, you decide to go for a walk. They shamelessly pounce on the bagels and doughnuts while you walk right past them to enjoy the fresh air, trees, and birds.
Many people, so accustomed to not following dietary rules, ask questions like “How much fat can I eat?” or “How much food intake should be protein?” You are going to find that these are unnecessary concerns. Banish all wheat and grains, avoid added sugars, manage carbs, don’t limit fat, eat unprocessed food, and everything else falls in place.
The key factor here is to not just not limit healthy fats and oils but also consume more fats and oils. The greater your fat and oil intake, the more appetite is suppressed, the more blood sugar drops, the more insulin resistance reverses, the more weight is lost—and, no, you do not develop heart disease.
Sausage, pepperoni, bacon, salami, ham, and deli meats contain the preservative sodium nitrite that upon cooking reacts with proteins in meat, yielding nitrosamines that have been linked to gastrointestinal cancers. This is a confusing issue that is often misinterpreted. For instance, nitrates, a closely related compound, occur in green vegetables and are converted into nitrites, or NO2, in the body to nitric oxide, a beneficial compound that reduces blood pressure and yields other health benefits. This has caused some to dismiss the issue of nitrates and nitrites. The problem is not the direct ingestion of nitrites or nitrates but when the heat of cooking causes nitrites to react with the meat yielding nitrosamines, such as N-nitrosoproline and N-nitrosothiazolidine, and other compounds that cause gastrointestinal cancers in experimental models and are associated with cancers in humans. Nitrosamine exposure also occurs with cigarette smoking and is responsible for effects such as insulin resistance and nervous system damage.
Choose meats that are processed naturally without sodium nitrite, often containing nitrates that do not react to form nitrosamines in meat. Also avoid meats (particularly sausage and deli me meats) that contain wheat, cornstarch, and other hidden grain ingredients.
Don’t worry: You cannot overdo healthy fats. Understand that the widespread advice to cut dietary fat sets you up for health and weight-loss failure. Just give it a try: Eat a fatty cut of beef or pork, fattier than usual, and see what happens to hunger. I’d be shocked if you had room for dessert. I’ll bet your first response to hearing the details of this lifestyle was to declare something like “I can’t do this. I can’t just cut out entire food groups!” I hope that you now appreciate that, first of all, they weren’t meant to be food groups for humans in the first place. Second, cutting out fats that satiate sets you up for health and weight failure. Go completely against—yes, the grain—of conventional health advice, and you will be empowered in extraordinary ways.
If nitrites are converted to nitrates during cooking, does that mean this has already happened when we eat (but don’t cook) ham, for example? Has that process already taken place? It’s very difficult to find such items as bacon, etc., which have no nitrite preservatives. Are they OK if we don’t cook or heat them?
Kate wrote: «If nitrites are converted to nitrates during cooking,…»
The article says nitrites (with an “i”) converted to nitrosamines.
Nitrates (wth an “a”) seem to be less of a problem. However, due to the ease of single-letter confusion, the processed meat industry goes to some trouble to disguise their use of nitrates, typically as celery powder or celery juice.
re: «It’s very difficult to find such items as bacon, etc., which have no nitrite preservatives.»
Bacon, per se, is a form of cured ham. By definition, it’s going to be more than just side pork (and if you want fully unprocessed, buy side pork). You can find bacons with no added nitrites (and no added sugars); but no-added-nitrates is a challenge (and may be unnecessary). The color of the product is different without the nitrates, dramatically reducing the curb appeal.
re: «Are they OK if we don’t cook or heat them?»
In general, meat needs to be cooked, for food safety. Whether done by you, or the producer, the heat happens.
________
Blog Associate (click my user name for details)
Oscar Meyer makes uncured bacon. It has celery powder as a preservative.
Whole Foods has a store brand 365 uncured bacon. I have found it to be less expensive than other brands. I know WF has the reputation of always being the most expensive option, but they actually have a lot of products that compare well to other stores. Frozen organic vegetables, for example, cost less at my WF than at Safeway.
Do some research on your own because I’m not 100% sure where I read it, but I think you might be able to reduce some of the theoretical risk by eating foods rich in Vitamin C along with cured meats. The uncured brands are not actually uncured, it’s just in a different way. That would be the reason for the disclaimer “No nitrates or nitrates added except those naturally occurring in celery powder,” or whatever natural curing agent they are using.
Me, I have a history of breast cancer so I save bacon and other uncured cured meats for special occasions, but I enjoy them very much without fear when I do indulge.
‘Many people, so accustomed to not following dietary rules, ask questions like “How much fat can I eat?” or “How much food intake should be protein?” ‘
Was this sentence supposed to read either “so accustomed to following” or “so unaccustomed to not following [standard] dietary rules”? As currently written, it says the opposite of what the context would seem to indicate.
I have to take one teaspoon of honey everyday to control my allergies. Will this affect this diet? Thank you.
Nancy Collins wrote: «I have to take one teaspoon of honey everyday to control my allergies.»
Why not just make the allergies go away, as they often do on this program, because it addresses the provocations that enable allergies in the first place.
re: «Will this affect this diet?»
Next issue is the honey. If you’re collecting it from your own hives, it just needs to be accounted for in the program’s net carb budget: 50 grams/day (15g per 6 hour period), and honey is 82% net carb (all sugar).
If it’s commercial “honey“, that raises various problems.
________
Blog Associate (click my user name for details)
Thank you so much. I have been on this diet and have done very well. But I have an eye allergy that has come under control with the honey. It is Raw Local honey and I only take one teaspoon a day and it works.
So I will add it in as you advise. So thank you so much for the advice.
Bob,
re: program’s net carb budget: 50 grams/day (15g per 6 hour period)
Are you saying that meals should be 6 hours apart? Are we to eat our 15g of carbs every 6 hours? I don’t remember reading this in the books so if it’s there, where would I find that?
Thanks
Sylvia wrote: «Are you saying that meals should be 6 hours apart?»
No. The 50g/day, 15g/meal-or-6hr period are just simple rules of thumb for people new to the program. I’ll elaborate so you can see why they are handy.
The actual goal is non-provocation of blood glucose, as confirmed by an HbA1c of 4.0 to 5.0%. People rarely get an A1c, unless they are already diagnosed diabetics. You can get home meters for it, but they usually make no economic sense.
Another way to look at it is practical to measure at home via US$20 glucose meter. Seek a fasting (pre-meal) BG of 60-90 mg/dL, and a postprandial BG of (ideally) no rise, but in any case less than 100 mg/dL. If non-invasive OTC CGMs make it to market, this task could become trivial.
An A1c of 5.0% is an eAG (estimated Average Glucose) of 97 mg/dL, in the ballpark we are shooting for. We also like to confirm metabolic status with a fasting TG (triglycerides) of 60 mg/dL or less. Fasting insulin can also be checked. A 6-hour insulin assay would also tell the tale, but that test is exceedingly rare, and nobody runs it with normal foods. So we seek simpler measures.
If you’re eating very low net carb (well under 15g/meal), meal timing is arbitrary. If the net carbs are pushing the limit, the 6-hour window provides time to clear the metabolic consequences.
re: «I don’t remember reading this in the books so if it’s there, where would I find that?»
The 50g/day guideline was not easily found in the original (2011) Wheat Belly. It, and the 15g/period guideline, have been more prominent since.
For some further context, the program does not suggest any specific number of meals per day. I do 2 or 2½ meals per day, in an 8- or 9-hour window. 50g net carbs per day is also right at the generally agreed borderline between full-time glycemic and full-time ketotic diets. That’s probably not a coincidence.
________
Blog Associate (click my user name for details)
“Eat fat on pork, purchase high-fat ground meat”
I get these thick-cut Berkshire pork chops at the farmers market near me, and the added, extra edge of fat tastes great. I’ve found the extra fat of high-fat ground beef pretty nasty though. It’s just something about it; so I go for the leaner cuts
I love to come here and find a post that is topical to my life.
I recently tried to disabuse someone of their misconceptions about fat, meat and low carb diets. I know better and usually don’t waste my time, but then time passes and for some unknown reason I wake up one day and decide that by being as reasonable and well balanced in the discussion as I can possibly muster, I might somehow drill through deeply entrenched and inaccurate beliefs about diet and nutrition.
Why am I such a freaking masochist?
It’s only masochism it seems when talking or trying to point out the flaws of vegan arguments to them
You know what happens when you say that word, right? It brings them running in droves. I actually have nothing against vegans, so there is no need to defend yourselves. I think veganism is a great lifestyle for some people.
There are a lot of people of all stripes that no evidence or fact can persuade, and it doesn’t only apply to food. What feels masochistic is putting up with the twisting of words and the seriously flawed straw man arguments.
I’m vowing right now to never do it again. Until next time :-)
I don’t see the problem with them coming in here and both groups having civil disagreement. Maybe Dr. Davis or Bob Niland find it really annoying. I don’t know. I’m the first person to accept that maybe there’s multiple truths in nutrition and can see that their carb-based diets work for them, unless their flat out lying or partially lying to us. Sometimes they are half-lies.
When the egg-white omelet becomes 100% extinct on restaurant menus, then I will know we have made real progress in overturning 40 years of bad science and propaganda.
If you’re going to eat the potatoes and toast, the egg white omelet might be the better choice. That is how science misleads, and why it is so difficult to get people to accept unconventional ideas. I wasted a significant amount of time the other day trying to explain this concept to someone.
As an alternative to abusing myself with pointless debates in the future, I think I’ll spend that time counting my blessings that I was able to figure it out. We should all consider ourselves lucky to have stumbled onto the truth.
Just got my blood lipid panel results. It’s been about a year from the last test. I have mentioned before that my triglycerides had leveled out at 65. Nothing I did really changed that, and I blamed that on the cancer med.
Apparently I finally figured it out because TGs are down to 42 this time!
HDL is significantly up at 88 (from 64).
I know we don’t trust LDL at face value, but I’m pretty happy with 59.
The longer I do this diet (keto version of Wheat Belly/Undoctored), the healthier I get.
For anyone who still thinks fat is bad for you, I eat about 125g of it per day. How’s your cholesterol?