low carb – The Science of Human Potential

What is LCHF anyway?

In the next few posts I’m going to spend time on the basics of LCHF, not the hardcore science of nutrition. There’s plenty more of that to come again soon. I’m starting with our view of what the Low Carb Healthy Fat lifestyle is all about (and why you’d do it).

Here’s our “Skinny version” by me, Prof Grant Schofield – aka The Fat Professor, Dr Caryn Zinn – the Whole Food Dietitian, and Craig Rodger – the LCHF Chef). Together we are the authors of the (coming soon) complete how to guide and cookbook on LCHF living “What the Fat? Why Sugar’s OUT and Fat’s IN.”

Here’s the questions we answer in this post:

What is LCHF?
Why might you think about LCHF?
Why LCHF works
What will I eat?
What shouldn’t I eat?

What is LCHF?

LCHF actually stands for Low Carb High Fat, but we have renamed it: Low Carb Healthy Fat. We feel this better reflects what it’s all about. While we do want you to eat more fat than you are probably used to, the emphasis is on healthy sources of fat. LCHF is not a “diet”, it is a way of life.

LCHF encompasses a way of eating that embraces whole foods; that is, foods that are minimally processed and generally don’t come in packages. If you truly embrace this way of eating, it will naturally end up being lower in carbohydrate and higher in fat than the current, mainstream way of eating. LCHF is a fulfilling and satisfying way of eating that is full of benefits for health. While there is an element of restriction (as there is with whatever you do in life), it is not about deprivation.

Why might you think about LCHF?

LCHF has many advantages, both for yourself and for your family. Here are the top five you might identify with. Do you want to:

Lose weight and have the best chance to keep it off for good? Have you tried to lose weight before and for a moment believed you were successful, but then put the weight back on again (along with some more)?
Have a healthy relationship with food? Do you constantly feel hungry and beat yourself up when you eat foods you “shouldn’t”?
Improve inflammatory health conditions? Do you suffer from aches and pains and inflammation for which you have to rely on medications for improvements?
Break free of that “tired and run down” feeling? Do you have a busy lifestyle, feel permanently exhausted and regularly end up reaching for quick, unhealthy food?
Live better for longer? Do you simply want to “be the best you can be” in health and in life? Do you want to be able to provide food for yourself and your family that is tasty, nourishing and easy?

Why LCHF works

If you gain weight easily, feel lethargic, stressed and are out of shape, chances are you are insulin resistant and intolerant to carbs (more details about this later). LCHF is the best lifestyle approach for managing insulin resistance.
When you can control your blood sugars and the hormones that control your energy levels and weight (especially insulin), your body will respond by working as it was designed to – as a fat-burning machine!
Weight control will become effortless, your energy levels will be better, and you will feel great free at last from the low-fat calorie counting way of living that left you hungry, sick and tired.
What raises glucose and insulin levels? Carbohydrate, of course. We all vary in how we respond to and tolerate carbs. Finding your particular carb-tolerance level means your blood sugar and insulin will be well controlled.
Break free of that “tired and run down” feeling? Do you have a busy lifestyle, feel permanently exhausted and regularly end up reaching for quick, unhealthy food?
Live better for longer? Do you simply want to “be the best you can be” in health and in life? Do you want to be able to provide food for yourself and your family that is tasty, nourishing and easy?
If you find yourself nodding your head when you read this list, then LCHF is definitely for you.

What will I eat?

Good-quality carbs from whole foods that are minimally processed, such as vegetables (lots of non-starchy ones), fruit, dairy products and the occasional legume (beans and pulses).
Protein from minimally processed meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds and legumes (beans and pulses).
Fat from whole, minimally processed plant and animal sources, including avocado, olive oil, nuts, fatty fish, dairy products and coconut products.

What shouldn’t I eat?

Refined and processed junk foods containing sugar.
Refined, nutrient-poor, packaged carbohydrate-based foods, including most grains such as breads, cereals, pasta, rice, muesli bars and crackers.

Please share this with those who are curious about the LCHF way, but want more information. That’s why we wrote it!

All That Fat – A Guide for the Perplexed

By George Henderson, a member of the Human Potential Centre Research team at AUT University

An updated version of this post is available in PDF “All That Fat” – Factors influencing the choice of fats in a high fat diet; A Guide for the Perplexed for your use as you see fit

This blog is a bit longer than usual, and a little more science focused than usual. Its aimed to help you understand where the talk about fat and health comes from, and where the field is moving.

The question I hear most often when introducing audiences to low carb high fat (LCHF) or Paleo concepts is some variant of “aren’t you worried about all that fat?” The idea that fat is fattening is the easy one to address, plenty of people have lost weight publically on high-fat diets, the fattening carbohydrate was never really forgotten, and contrary ideas have a degree of attractiveness.

The question of cholesterol and heart disease, or other diseases presumably involving lifelong processes that are mysterious to the average person and far from clear to scientists), is a harder one to answer. My purpose here is not to answer it conclusively, but to place it in context. There are four basic positions when it comes to dietary saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal fat as dietary risk factors (note that I include dietary cholesterol).

The classic view, developed by Ancel Keys and promoted widely, is that these dietary risk factors (DRF) promote the development of coronary heart disease, and that replacing them with other foods – mainly carbohydrate and polyunsaturated vegetable fat, but also some additional fibre and long-chain omega 3s (it is arguable that neither of these latter two actually supplies enough energy to be taken seriously as a “substitution”, being rather in the nature of “supplements”) – reduces this risk. A secondary assumption often tacked onto the classic view in popular science writing, and which had some official backing until recently, is that the DRFs play a role in other diseases, such as cancers. The first claim is supported by extreme epidemiological studies involving populations such as vegetarians who sedulously avoid the DRF, and have lower incidence of CHD. However these same populations have higher rates of non-CHD mortality, contradicting the secondary assumption. Avoiding the DRF is not “good for you” but seems to trade one type of disease risk for a raft of others.[1]

The contrary view, held by the cholesterol skeptics, is that there is no causal link between the DRF and CHD. This is supported by a wide range of evidence that contains findings contradictory to the classic view. Meta-analyses of saturated and polyunsaturated fat consumption within standard dietary patterns (as opposed to the extreme DRF avoidance patterns supportive of the classic theory) do not support the link. Controlled trials (RCTs) in which polyunsaturated fats or carbohydrate replace saturated fats do not produce strong or consistent benefits and sometimes produce increased harms in terms of both CHD and other causes of mortality.[2]

The Paleo view is that the DRF are not risk factors in the context of an evolutionarily appropriate diet and lifestyle (lifestyle aspects include sleep and other aspects of circadian rhythm, exercise, avoidance of environmental risk factors, healthy gut bacteria, and intermittent fasting); that the studies supporting the classic view are confounded by inclusion of trans fats, processed meats, and refined carbohydrates. This is supported by the logic of evolutionary theory and a wide range of circumstantial evidence; for example that traditional cultures do not experience the DRF as risk factors for any disease, but do so experience modern foods – sugars, refined starches, and vegetable oils.[3]

The LCHF or low-carb view is that DRF are not risk factors in a carbohydrate restricted diet, which creates a unique metabolic state in which biomarkers shift towards those associated with protection against CHD. This is supported by clinical trials and by the logic of the biochemistry of metabolism and human physiology, as well as by epidemiological and experimental evidence that sugars and high-GI carbohydrates are also DRF, without the protective associations against non-CHD mortality seen with the classic DRF. [4]

Is there common ground between the opposing views?
All these views have some supportive evidence, and when this evidence is viewed in detail they are not completely incompatible. At a time when the classic view is, generally with good reason, coming under sustained attack among the scientific community, and is rapidly losing support among the public, it is prudent to remember that there are likely to be babies floating in its dirty bathwater – observations that will remain true under any paradigm, which still beg for explanations, and which may point the way to new truths.
For example, in epidemiology correlating DRF with CHD there is an exception in that dairy fat, which is rich in the DRF, has protective associations with CHD.[5] This is consistent with the so-called French Paradox, wherein France has relatively low rates of CHD yet the world’s highest butter consumption per capita, as well as an appetite for other fatty dairy foods; when Ancel Keys collected evidence to support his hypothesis, that saturated fat consumption was linked to heart disease, American butter consumption only contributed 4.8% of that nation’s total fat intake.[6] At the other extreme, processed meat products are the high-DRF foods with the strongest correlations with disease.[7] Similarly, nuts are rich in polyunsaturated fats, and nut consumption is associated with health benefits (reductions in both CHD and non-CHD mortality) not seen with polyunsaturated oils.[8] This difference between nuts and polyunsaturated vegetable oils is particularly striking in the epidemiology of the eye disease age-related macular degeneration (AMD).[9] These examples illustrate why attempts to influence disease risk by replacing animal fat with vegetable fat (for example, in commercial deep fryers, in shortenings, and in the spreads used on breads) have not produced the benefits Ancel Keys predicted (to put it mildly). The DRF – dietary cholesterol, saturated fat, and animal fat – are also protective factors, especially when associated with nutrient-dense unprocessed foods; and the polyunsaturated oils, which look like protective factors in the context of evolutionarily appropriate foods such as nuts, become DRF when isolated; in much the same way as high intakes of some vitamins, once removed from the foods that supply them, do not produce benefits and begin to be associated with harm.

Risk of disease, both CHD and non-CHD, can be also predicted by metabolic risk factors not directly influenced by the classic DRF in the way that serum cholesterol is said to be – blood pressure, blood glucose, fasting triglyceride, CRP, body fat %, and so on. These are the markers that improve when carbohydrate is restricted (and when fatty fish is consumed) but that tend to worsen or stay the same when animal fat is replaced with carbohydrate or vegetable oil. They are also improved by exercise and the other lifestyle adjustments of the Paleo approach. The impact of even moderate exercise on heart attack risk dwarfs the benefits claimed for replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat by those basing their predictions on the lipid hypothesis.[10] In which case, it is worth asking, what stops people at risk from exercising? This will often turn out to be factors such as pain and fatigue – inflammatory and metabolic symptoms which are reliably reduced by carbohydrate restriction, and which may be exacerbated by high intakes of omega 6 PUFA.

The rationale behind the low-carbohydrate Mediterranean diet.
It sometimes happens – reportedly in about 20% of cases – that LDL cholesterol rises significantly on a low-carb paleo diet rich in DRF, even as all the other risk markers improve. Whether or not this is significant in terms of long term risk of CHD (primary prevention), which is debatable, it is not seen as desirable in the management of pre-existing CHD (secondary prevention) or in high-risk patients (those with family history of CHD or with established medical conditions that increase risk). Best practice in these cases currently seems to be a carbohydrate-restricted version of the dietary pattern invented by Ancel Keys, liberalised to contain sufficient of the DRF to maintain health.[11] For example, cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, who famously wrote that “saturated fat is not the major issue” in the British Medical Journal, and who is skeptical about the benefits of cholesterol-lowering statins for primary prevention of CHD, recommends a low-carbohydrate Mediterranean diet that includes full-fat dairy, and excludes oils other than olive oil.[12] (The various Mediterranean Diets seem to resemble what Mediterranean peoples actually ate in much the same way as the various Paleolithic Diets resemble what Paleolithic peoples actually ate). Whether this partial restriction of red meat and higher wholefood PUFA intake is necessary for secondary prevention in the context of a low-carb diet, it seems to be the “best guess” available from reading the epidemiology available around non-carbohydrate restricted diets. It involves a “hedging of bets” that balances the relative risks of CHD and non-CHD deaths in secondary prevention cases.[13]

Why are DRF both risk factors and protective factors?
Animal fat, dietary cholesterol and saturated fat, as well as red meat, tend to be associated together (vegetable fats can be highly saturated, but never contain cholesterol). Animal fats can also contain large amounts of PUFA, which, like cholesterol, can be oxidised or otherwise adversely affected by heat. Red meat also forms carcinogenic heterocyclic amines (HCA) when scorched. Meat, especially cheaper meats like pork, is subject to processing in various ways that deplete its nutritional value, denature its lipids and proteins, and add unwanted non-food chemicals of unknown safety. The ways in which livestock is fed and medicated can also affect the health of consumers, and animals (especially pork) can carry parasites able to infect humans. For this reason many meat products (unlike dairy products) need to be well-cooked before consumption. The high heme iron content of red meat is another possible risk factor, but is also a protective factor, depending on one’s iron status.
If these considerations are valid, then clearly the best way to include meat in the diet is to source high quality unprocessed meats from pasture-fed animals, mainly ruminants, and as much as possible cook it at lower temperatures (for example, in soups and stews) or for shorter times (as with steak).

Fatty animal foods are the only source of retinol and vitamin D3, and the main source of vitamin K2 in the diet. These are vitamins that play important roles in maintaining healthy blood vessels.[14] They are also (ruminant fats including dairy) sources of rumenic acid, the main isomer of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a naturally-occurring trans fatty acid which can perhaps best be characterised as analogous in its anti-inflammatory, anti-atherogenic and fat-burning effects to omega-3 fats.[15] The anti-diabetic effect of CLA in clarified butter (ghee) in the Indian diet may be responsible for health benefits which have been lost with that subcontinent’s modern switch to low-fat, high-PUFA diets.[16] Ruminant meat fat from pasture-fed animals is also a source of DHA. Fatty animal foods, especially those richest in cholesterol, are also the main dietary source of choline, which is removed from vegetable oils, and which is essential for the prevention of fatty liver disease, a precursor of both cirrhosis and diabetes.[17] Dietary cholesterol and individual saturated fatty acids may by themselves have protective effects in specific cases, for example this is well-documented in alcoholic liver disease.[18] Red meat is also an important source of zinc and iron.
The argument is that saturated fats are thus a relatively neutral source of energy in health terms, as meta-analysis suggests, but may in individual studies have been sometimes damned, sometimes blessed, by the company they keep – that is, by their association with many other factors that are not usually taken into account by epidemiologists, such as cooking and food processing methods, additive or micronutrient content, lifestyle choices, and so on.

Intrinsic fats vs added fats
While some perceptions of the LCHF diet include large amounts of added cream, butter, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil, this is not always the case, because many wholefoods that are suitable for LCHF diets are intrinsically high in fat, e.g. nuts, salmon, avocado, coconut, lamb and other meats, eggs, cheeses, olives. These foods are rich sources of protein, vitamins, and minerals and it is possible for many people – those with low bodyweight or low energy requirements – to be well nourished without ever eating added fats in amounts greater than the relatively small amounts needed in cooking, or to dress vegetables. Added fats provide what are called discretionary calories – the extra energy that someone needs after the core nutritional requirements of the body have been realised. This can be a relatively small amount of energy, even if one is trying to maintain a high fat-to-carbohydrate ratio, and in many cases is easily supplied by wholefoods, while those with larger frames or greater energy outputs can benefit from the energy density and high digestibility of added fats. This often appears as a gender difference, with women having less need for added fats to maintain a LCHF or even a ketogenic diet.[19] Sometimes added fats are consumed for medicinal as well as nutritional reasons; the neuroprotective effects of coconut oil, the gut-healing effects of coconut, butter or ruminant fats, or the cardioprotective effects of olive oil polyphenols may be given as reasons for preferring specific fats.

The vitamin E content of wholefood vegetable fats, e.g. nuts, seeds, avocadoes and olives, supplements the low vitamin E concentrations in animal fats, which by themselves are unlikely to supply optimal levels of this vitamin for everyone.

How much fat do you need to eat on a LCHF diet?
Persons eating a modern diet of processed and takeaway food, high in refined carbohydrates, are often unaware of the high fat content of such a diet, because fat is hidden in foods not usually considered fatty (such as bread) and because polyunsaturated vegetable fats are not perceived as being as greasy, satiating, or nourishing as the more saturated animal fats. Because a primary benefit of LCHF diets is an improvement in appetite control, due to greater satiety from the current meals and easier ability to access the energy already stored in the body from previous meals, any increase in fat intake is often small in terms of real amounts eaten, and can be offset by an improvement in the quality of fat and its nutritional content.[20] An exception is the case of athletes with high energy requirements who trade high carbohydrate intakes for high fat intakes on LCHF diets. Athletes are highly aware of their fitness, and follow LCHF diets either because their fitness and performance improves, or because other aspects of health improve, and fitness and performance do not suffer.

LCHF, and Paleo, are nutritional principles, or templates, that can be used in the design of diets, and are not absolutely rigid prescriptions. The key is adaptability; dietary needs can change over time, and the ability to adjust and vary the amounts and types of foods eaten on a LCHF diet, including the amounts, types, and sources of fat and carbohydrate, provides a form of nutritional insurance, if such is needed.

References

[1] Dietary determinants of ischaemic heart disease in health conscious individuals, Mann J. et al. Heart 1997

[2] The Questionable Role of Saturated and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Cardiovascular Disease, Ravnskov U. J Clin Epidemiol Vol. 51, No. 6, pp. 443–460, 1998

[3] Cardiovascular Disease Resulting From a Diet and Lifestyle at Odds With Our Paleolithic Genome: How to Become a 21st-Century Hunter-Gatherer. O’Keefe, J.H., Cordain, L. Mayo Clin Proc. 2004;79:101-108

[4] Dietary carbohydrate restriction induces a unique metabolic state positively affecting atherogenic dyslipidemia, fatty acid partitioning, and metabolic syndrome. Volek, J. et al. Prog Lipid Res. 2008 Sep;47(5):307-18. doi: 10.1016/j.plipres.2008.02.003

[5] Dietary intake of saturated fat by food source and incident cardiovascular disease: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis de Oliveira Otto, M. et al. Am J Clin Nutr. Aug 2012; 96(2): 397–404. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.112.037770

[6] Atherosclerosis and the diet, Keys SAMJ 1955

[7] Red meat and processed meat consumption and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis. Larsson S.C. Am J Epidemiol. 2014 Feb 1;179(3):282-9. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwt261

[8] Association of Nut Consumption with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality. Bao, Y. et al. N Engl J Med 2013; 369:2001-2011November 21, 2013DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1307352

[9] Progression of age-related macular degeneration: association with dietary fat, transunsaturated fat, nuts, and fish intake. Seddon, J.M. et al. Arch Ophthalmol. 2003 Dec;121(12):1728-37.

[10] Leisure-Time Running Reduces All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality Risk. Lee, D. et al. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2014;64(5):472-481. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2014.04.058

[11] See, for example, the Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet designed for diabetics by Dr Steven Parker M.D.

Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet

[12] Saturated fat is not the major issue, Malhotra, A. BMJ 2013;347:f6340

[13] New insights into the health effects of dietary saturated and omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. De Lorgeril, M. and Salen, P. BMC Medicine 2012, 10:50 doi:10.1186/1741-7015-10-50

[14] Vitamins D and K as pleiotropic nutrients: clinical importance to the skeletal and cardiovascular systems and preliminary evidence for synergy. Kidd, P.M. Altern Med Rev. 2010 Sep;15(3):199-222.

[15] Dietary Conjugated Linoleic Acid In Health: Physiological Effects and Mechanisms of Action, Belury, M.A. Annu. Rev. Nutr. 2002. 22:505–31 doi: 10.1146/annurev.nutr.22.021302.121842

[16] Significance of the N-6/N-3 Ratio for Insulin Action in Diabetes. Raheja B.S. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1993 Jun 14;683:258-71.

[17] Choline Metabolism Provides Novel Insights into Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and its Progression. Corbin, K.D. and Zeisel, S.H. Curr Opin Gastroenterol. Mar 2012; 28(2): 159–165. doi: 10.1097/MOG.0b013e32834e7b4b

[18] Dietary fat and alcoholic liver disease, Mezey, E. Hepatology Volume 28, Issue 4, pages 901–905, October 1998

[19] See for example this blog post by itsthewooo October 15^th 2013 http://itsthewooo.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/dont-think-i-advocate-stupid-ass-low.html

[20] Nutrient Intake of Subjects on Low Carbohydrate Diet Used in Treatment of Obesity. Stock, A.L. and Yudkin, J.

The real food guidelines

It’s a food fight.

The time has finally come where a deep and important line needs to be drawn in the sand. No more throwing bad science and bad advice around. Stop!

The “food pyramid” guidelines are still alive (and well?) in New Zealand (see here). They are outdated, old school and quite simply wrong. Recently they were up for review…

Unfortunately, they came back more or less the same – saturated fat and fats in general are bad for us ….blah blah blah.

So our team felt we had to put all the science out there publicly for everyone to have a look at. So here it is for your scrutiny.

MOH dietary guidelines feedback REVISED Appendix 9.5.14

This is our response to the draft nutrition guidelines.

The timing could not be better actually as tonight I go head to head with the very people who advised on these guidelines. The 3rd Degree piece will be available here (its rightly called “Food fight” after 8.30 tonight NZ time.

Please take the time to read at least the lay summary, and even the full scientific document. I think you will be shocked just how little there is to back up the current and future nutrition guidelines.

It’s time for a full and robust scientific analysis of what we are told to eat to be presented to government health officials (who have it now), and the lay, scientific, and health communities.

We have also proposed a new set of guidelines called the Real food guidelines – real food, for real people, based on real evidence. It’s time to get real people! Here they are for the first time :

The real food guidelines
Real food for real people, based on real evidence

Enjoy nutritious foods everyday including plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit.
Buy and prepare food from whole unprocessed sources of dairy, nuts, seeds, eggs, meat, fish and poultry.
Keep sugar, added sugars, and processed foods to a minimum in all foods and drinks.
If you drink alcohol, keep your intake low. Don’t drink if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant.
Prepare, cook, and eat minimally processed traditional foods with family, friends, and your community.
Discretionary calories (energy foods) should:
a) Favour minimally refined grains and legumes, properly prepared, over refined or processed versions, and boiled or baked potatoes, kumara or taro over deep fried or processed potato fries and chips.
b) Favour traditional oils, fats and spreads over refined and processed versions.

We welcome feedback and scrutiny of our scientific analysis. This is open source and for the people. We are constantly trying to improve our understanding of the science of human nutrition. The evidence changes all the time. Our scientific statement is another iteration in the right direction but should by no means be where we stop. It’s a start..

Our analysis here MOH dietary guidelines feedback REVISED Appendix 9.5.14
TV3 show here

Thanks to everyone in our team who contributed (see below). Also Dee Holdsworth-Parks for tirelessly keeping my life organised and our team working smoothly.

Dr Caryn Zinn PhD
NZ Registered Dietician. Senior lecturer Human Potential Centre, AUT University

Dr Nigel Harris PhD, BRmgmt
Senior lecturer, Human Potential Centre, AUT University

Dr Mikki Williden PhD
Registered Nutritionist, Senior lecturer Human Potential Centre, AUT University

Catherine Crofts MPS M.Phil
Research Assistant, Human Potential Centre, AUT University

Dr Simon Thornley BHB, MBChB, MPH (Hons), FAFPHM.
Professional Teaching Fellow & Research Fellow, Section of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Auckland

Cliff Harvey ND
Holistic Performance Nutrition

George D. Henderson
Research Assistant, Human Potential Centre, AUT University

LCHF success, but will protein kill me?

Here’s a great letter about LCHF success but with an important question. I hope you enjoy Norman’s story – it’s a nice one about improved weight, energy and health. Great blood results, but some concern about protein. In fact, its been a big week for protein. The story about two research papers lead to headlines like “High protein as bad as smoking” (see detailed comments I’ve made at the end of this blog).

So today we’ll look at Norman’s story, and think about the role of protein.

Hi Grant,

Following the recent post on your blog from Andrew, I thought I would share my indicators and also raise a question.

I am a 51-year-old male and switched to a LCHF diet just over 6 months ago. When I started the new eating regime I weighed 93kg with a BMI of 27.5, now I weigh 86kg and have a BMI of 25.4. I lost weight rapidly at first, losing 5kg in the first 2 months. Weight loss then slowed, and rose slightly over the Christmas holidays (Mince tarts and Christmas pudding being my undoing!) but since late January has again continued a slow downward trend. In terms of getting a healthy BMI I would like to get down to about 80kg, which would place my BMI at 23.7.

While weight loss was my first goal, I was also concerned about my overall health because I have always had a ‘sweet tooth’. When my older brother was diagnosed as pre-diabetic a couple of years ago, I was concerned about going the same way. Two years ago I had a badly infected gall bladder removed, a 4-week period of my life when I quickly lost 10kg (From 98kg to 88kg). I had hoped to keep that weight off, but despite being ‘good’ about portion sizes and snacking between meals I found my weight just crept up again over the ensuing year and a half. Then I discovered LCHF.

For breakfasts I have settled on a fruit salad with a sprinkling of nuts (Pure Delish’s “No Grain-ola” is my current favourite) and cream. While the fruit has a relatively high amount of sugar, I consider the nutrients in fresh fruit outweighs the disadvantages, and this sets me up for the day. About twice a week I have fried bacon and eggs for breakfast instead. For lunch I have a handful of nuts, or about 100gm of hot roast meat from the local deli. Occasionally I have salami and cheese or similar. For dinner I usually have a home-cooked meat-and-veg meal, with only low carbohydrate veges. During the day I seldom snack, but have a couple of coffees with cream. I also drink 500ml of full-cream milk mid-afternoons (which causes many comments at work!). About twice a week I will have an Atkins-diet snack bar, which has high fat and a few grams of sugar. I also succumb to iced coffee’s a few times a week (despite knowing they are high in sugar!). So I probably have slightly more sugar than the ideal, but as long as I feel good and the weight is very slowly still dropping I am happy.

What has amazed me about the past six months is how my ‘sweet tooth’ has disappeared. When people at work bring cakes or chocolate I have actually no desire to have any, and that is not just self-discipline. When I was coerced into eating some chocolate some weeks ago I found it unbearably sweet and stopped after a single piece. Like Andrew, I am not hungry during the day (in fact am seldom hungry at all, even at mealtimes. I eat meals because it is mealtimes, not because my stomach is grumbling). During the day I find myself having to avoid snacking just for something to do – the mid-morning coffee break and muffin was a welcome distraction, and is not quite as distracting with just a coffee. Yet I have plenty of energy and have eliminated the three-thirty-itis that for years has been a common feature of my working days. I feel great, and enjoy my meals.

I have just recently had a full set of blood tests done as part of an insurance medical , and was able to compare them to the results I had from 2011. My indicators are as follows:

	Oct 2011	Feb 2014
Total Cholesterol	4.8	5.0
Triglyceride	2.6	1.2
HDL:	1.11	1.31
LDL:	2.5	3.1
Chol/HDL Ratio:	4.3	3.8
TG/HDL ratio	2.34	0.92
Hba1C:	34	35

All of which are well within the ‘good’ limits, especially my TG.HDL ratio. The biggest change I note is my triglycerides have halved, and as a result my TG/HDL ratio is also dramatically better.

However, during my medical exam this morning I also had a urine test. This showed some evidence of proteins in my urine. My GP said that some recent studies had showed that higher protein levels have been shown to have long-term health issues. Although I am not specifically increasing my protein intake on LCHF, the nature of it means for example that for lunch I may have a slice of hot roast ham (with crackling!) whereas before I would perhaps have had a carb-laden muffin.So it is conceivable that my protein intake has increased overall, since most high fat snacks also contain a fair amount of protein.

Any comments on the protein indicator in the urine test? My GP is not convinced that LCHF is necessarily a good diet, although concedes my weight loss and all the indicators show it is working well for me. I have to say he is a bit old-school, like much of the medical fraternity, but I am working on him.

Thanks,

Norman Holtzhausen

First up – nice work Norman. Love it and thanks for sharing. Let’s have a think about protein.

So what about protein?

What we do know about protein:

Protein is essential for life. We need to derive most of it from diet including at least some animal sources
Over consuming protein means extra glucose as the liver, through gluconeogenesis, turns that protein into carbohydrate. This may be a factor in some people stalling or not losing weight on LCHF diets – they are over-consuming protein and still giving the body a high glucose load, raising insulin and all the downstream metabolic effects.
Protein is associated with the production of Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1). IGF-1 is necessary for life, but over production may be part of the causal pathway for all metabolic diseases.
People with kidney disease may need to be careful about over consuming protein as this can cause protein toxicity. Protein toxicity occurs when the body is unable to get rid of the potentially toxic wastes that are generated as a result of protein metabolism. Several studies, however, have found no evidence of protein toxicity due to high protein intakes on kidney function in healthy people.

So, I think that all means that if you are on a low carb eating plan, it’s best to be careful about overeating protein if you are prone to being insulin resistant. If you have any kidney disease then its even more important. I keep an eye on my intake from time to time using online apps like easy diet diary. I have a tendency to eat too much protein and need to watch this.

What about the recent research showing that high protein intake is “as dangerous as smoking”?

There’s been a big deal in the last 10 days made about two studies in the journal “Cell Metabolism”. It’s all about the over-consumption of protein and mortality, especially from cancer.

The first was titled “Low Protein Intake Is Associated with a Major Reduction in IGF-1, Cancer, and Overall Mortality in the 65 and Younger but Not Older Population“

They claim to show that:

High protein intake is linked to increased cancer, diabetes, and overall mortality
High IGF-1 levels increased the relationship between mortality and high protein
Higher protein consumption may be protective for older adults
Plant-derived proteins are associated with lower mortality than animal-derived proteins

My take: First, this is a cross sectional study and can never show cause and effect. It may be that higher protein intake produces more IGF-1 and affects tumour growth and the development of other metabolic issues. That’s one reason why we advocate an adequate protein diet (around a gram of protein/kg per day plus a bit more if your are very active or doing resistance training). Second, carbs also raise IGF-1. So the logical best diet to reduce levels of IGF-1 being chronically high is a low carb high fat diet with adequate protein (exactly what I advocate for).

That said, this study can build a hypothesis which can be tested in trials. It’s not the basis for public health recommendations. Another example of nutrition science headlines going beyond the data. Remember that across the WHOLE population in this study, there was NO effect of protein, AND only an ASSOCIATION in a sub-group analysis. Let’s not draw too much out of this study. They probably are onto something about excessive IGF-1, which is great to see as we have been talking about that for a while.

The second was titled “The Ratio of Macronutrients, Not Caloric Intake, Dictates Cardiometabolic Health, Aging, and Longevity in Ad Libitum-Fed Mice”

They claim to show that:

Food intake is regulated primarily by dietary protein and carbohydrate
Low-protein, high-carbohydrate diets are associated with the longest lifespans
Energy reduction from high-protein diets or dietary dilution does not extend life
Diet influences hepatic mTOR via branched-chain amino acids and glucose

This study was a mouse model and in my opinion went well beyond their data and made conclusions that were simply not robust. A few things worth noting. First. hidden in the supplementary material we see that they only report 25 of the 30 diets because they culled diets for mice who “failed to thrive” and were removed from the study (see more below). Second, they fed them synthetic food made from soybean oil, two amino acids, sucrose and dextrose. Third, they didn’t report median life expectancy as the main outcome when they should have. Last, mice have a different carbohydrate and protein metabolism to humans so extrapolating to human life expectancy is a long shot.

Here are some comments on the study spotted by the vigilant (and more robust apparently) lay peer review process (Rory Robertson from the Ozparadox.com in this case).

Why were 100+ sick mice – all on low-protein diets – excluded from longevity results?
The original study reportedly involved 30 diets and nearly 1000 mice: see here. Yet the published paper reports the results for – amongst other things – “…longevity in [only 858] mice fed one of [only] 25 diets ad libitum”.
I’m trying to understand why five of the 30 original diets – all low-protein diets – were excluded from the final results.
Specifically, “These diets were discontinued due to weight loss (≥ 20%), rectal prolapse or failure to thrive”: Table S1, p. 7
Failure to thrive! Imagine the disappointment of those 100+ sick/dying mice – ALL on low-protein diets – when they were told that, sorry, we’re going to euthanize you and then exclude you from this longevity study.
It’s a longevity study – sick and dying mice are the main thing we are looking for! Yet they were excluded. Why?
My observation is that the study’s high-profile “finding” – that lower-protein diets boost longevity in mice – is NOT ROBUST when the analysis is properly REBALANCED – by excluding the five most-unhealthy high-protein diets – to properly adjust the design for the low-profile exclusion of the most-unhealthy low-protein diets.
Moreover, to properly capture the underlying reality of the published results, it makes sense to focus on MEDIAN not maximum lifespans.
Checking the medians for the remaining 20 diets, the claimed boost to mouse longevity from low-protein diets has disappeared: the TOP-2 diets now are HIGH-protein, as are FOUR of the TOP-7 diets.
And LOW-protein diets now represent THREE of the Bottom-6 diets. (This information is via Table S2 in the link above.)
Doesn’t ditching those five obviously unhealthy low-protein diets – involving 100+ sick/dying mice! – by itself invalidate the paper’s claim that low-protein diets boost longevity in mice (and so humans)?
In my opinion, the study’s longevity “findings” should be re-written to properly reflect the underlying results from ALL of those original 30 diets, including the longevity of ALL those nearly 1000 mice.
As things stand, the public is being misinformed by this research claims and interpretation.

Take homes:

Science media is a mess, especially in nutrition, and you will have to do some research to make any informed choice.
Protein is essential for life, but over-consumption might be an issue – we still don’t have the full answer.
In my view, eating whole plants and animals provides about adequate protein and nutrient dense food to make thinsg work for most people most of the time. This is also lowish in carbs, and higher in fat.

Dr Caryn Zinn talks LCHF and dietetics – a must watch

This is an outstanding 15 min presentation by our own Dr Caryn Zinn, Registered Dietician, about her growth , development, practice and ethics of LCHF practice. Recorded at the recent Low Carb Down Under conference in Auckland, she is the first of the videos released. Enjoy. Send this to your dietician friends (and even the ones who are not friends!). Click here or below.

Fat phobia…get over it and eat more

I’ve just finished a series of nutrition workshops with my team Dr Caryn Zinn (dietician), Dr Mikki Williden (nutritionist) and Julia McPhee (low carb cook). We ran workshops on low carb high fat for the public, health and fitness professionals, and athletes. It’s all interesting and motivating, but one thing was obvious to me. There still exists a widespread fear of fat.

That’s right, in my opinion, the number one barrier to the successful implementation of a whole food low carb diet is the fear of fat.

The trouble is when you don’t eat enough fat you either end up with a low fat, low carb diet (where it is hard to get enough calories to feel OK), or (most common) you are not fully satiated, so you end up over eating protein which gets turned into glucose in the liver, or worse you just binge on carbs because you aren’t full.

The secret is to get past the fear of fat that the food pyramid belted into us and just eat more fat. Eat fat until you are full is my mantra.

Here’s my top ten “go to” fats

Coconut oil – add this to anything, but most important use it for frying. It holds together at high temperatures. Coconut oil contains lauric acid a medium chain triglyceride which has some antibacterial and possibly anti-inflammatory properties. Good quality extra virgin is what you want – it costs a bit more, but worth it.
Coconut cream – same as above but can be used in smoothies – that’s a great way of getting your breakfast time fat up
Avocados – this is a magnificent source of vegetable saturated fat. Avos are highly nutritious and a very effective way to get the fat content of a salad up. Use them in dips and so forth as well.
Olive oil – in general I avoid cooking with olive oil. But it’s really the most effective way of turning a low calorie, rabbit food salad into something more substantial and nutritious. I almost always make my own salad dressing, most often a combination of olive oil and something else. My salad dressings are mostly zero carbs, and very high healthy fat.
Cream – plain cream either poured or whipped is a great way to turn a cup of berries into a filling and extra yummy dessert. Added to coffee or tea you know you love it!
Butter – get liberal with this – have a pound of butter on the diner table and add liberally to your vegetables.
Cheese – extra fatty varieties – like blue vein are a great source of fat. Some of the double blue cheese in New Zealand can be 70% fat!
Less lean meat – that’s right you can ask your butcher to NOT trim the fat off the meats you buy. Also, consider some of the other organ meats. My butcher makes whole meat sausages which are quite fatty and he chucks in all sort of bits and pieces like brains which modern humans have mostly given up eating. Avoid supermarket sausages as they tend to be full of wheat and starchy fillers.
Macadamia nuts – can be 70-80% fat depending on how they are prepared. Yum. Be careful not to over eat these as they are so yummy you start and sometimes don’t stop (at least that’s what happens to me).
Nut butter – my favourite is almond butter – add it to anything that seems plausible – smoothies, vegetables, eat it straight. You can even make your own in a blender.

Fats to avoid? There’s now plenty of evidence to show that we should ditch the manufactured polyunsaturated seed oils. We should especially avoid frying with them. We have only three oils in our pantry – butter, coconut oil and olive oil.

LCHF Seminar now on YouTube!

In October we had planned a seminar on the Low Carb High Fat approach, which was so well received that we decided to hold another one only two weeks later. Many of you have already asked for the video for those who couldn’t attend or would like to watch it again. And here it is:

NZ’s health leaders respond to our research publicity: Saturated fat…its bad, low carb radical and unsafe

It was no surprise to see this one coming. A perfect storm for the old powers that be in New Zealand obesity research and practice. The BMJ paper on why we got the saturated fat thing wrong, the ABC Catalyst series, and me out and about in the media talking about low carb high fat. I just noticed another one the NZ Herald just now by a NZ dietitian.

Looks like I (and those associated with me, sorry everyone) are now officially on the outer after this press release today (see this Experts decry fat diet – press release from the University of Otago (Professor Jim Mann)). It’s undersigned by key members of virtually every health organisation in the country.

I guess they are thinking that this document will shut everyone up, calm the uneducated masses, and we can continue our solution to the world’s problem with chronic disease? How’s that going by the way?

I know you’d like me and my team to go away, but it’s not happening. Sorry for the inconvenience. Oh, and because of the Internet and open access science, the public is now able to do its own research. And guess what? It has decided that the evidence isn’t convincing either. The world has changed.

The science of nutrition and chronic disease, and the public health approaches to nutrition are not solved. Let’s just get that straight – we (my team) don’t have all the answers, and neither do you. I’ve been wrong before and could be wrong again, the reverse also applies guys. Things will change. Change is happening now. It will happen again in the future.

Jim, do you recall being the younger scientist taking on the older ones in the BMJ 1979 in “Fats and atheroma: A retrial?” Back then you were arguing about the complexity of nutrition and the need to go beyond fat and think about refined and processed carbohydrates. Everyone here has more in common than not.

For the record, I did correspond with Jim Mann yesterday. Here’s part of what I sent him. I think it puts down a reasonable position.

Jim…….My take is that I haven’t particularly been walking around promoting saturated fat (although to be fair I haven’t been talking about reducing it). I have been walking around talking about diets higher in fat and lower in refined and processed carbohydrates. I think I have some sound scientific reasons for this. I will continue the line of research for the foreseeable future. I haven’t done much on athletes as they said in the paper. Most of the recent work is secondary analysis of a few very large datasets we have from the US in hyperinsulinaemia. Also some basic work in low carb high fat eating. So don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper. We do have a reasonable line of research going across this topic.

What, in my view, we (all) have in common:

That whole plants and animals are likely to be good for you and your chronic disease risk
That foods which reduce inflammation are good for reducing chronic disease
That sugar and processed carbs are not good, especially if you are insulin resistant (most of the vulnerable populations)
That hyperinsulinaemia and chronic inflammation (both highly inter-related and can cause one another) are a problem and part of the mechanism for developing CVD and other chronic diseases.
The Standard American industrial food diet and lifestyle is toxic, and much of the research showing different ways of eating show benefits simply because this diet is so bad.
Trans fats and high omega 6 seed oils are inflammatory
The interplay between hormonal physiology, built environment, food, and physical activity is complex. This influences catabolic and anabolic states and therefore human energy homeostasis. We don’t know exactly how the system works. We have made the mistake (using Einstein’s words “make it as simple as possible but no simpler”) to describe the calories in and calories out dogma which we need to move on from.

What we seem to disagree on is:

That SFA from whole healthy animals has any proven negative effect on human health in the context of the above (whole food eating).
Attributing changes in populations to specific nutrients in a complex multifactorial disease using epidemiology which measures eating is fraught and is giving answers the opposite to those observed in decent robust RCTs.
That low carb high fats diets are safe, efficacious, and useful for the public.

My response to the technical points in the media release asking for evidence today

The actual trials showing SFA reduction and health improvements are fraught because they are still mainly in the Standard American Diet (SAD) paradigm with small dietary modifications. I agree that SFA intake in the context of the SAD might be problematic. What I still have a problem with, in these trials, is that many (most) still use a control group eating the same old food. Putting anyone on a diet different from the SAD will probably help. Here’s the latest meta analysis. In fact, the reality is that consuming SFA has positive effects on HDL cholesterol and reduces triglycerides.
I’m not bothering with an in-depth rebuttal of the population studies. There’s just too much (uncontrolled and unmeasured) going on there, with poor food measurement to say saturated fat causes anything.
I particularly draw to your attention to the bit in the media release directed straight at me (just say my name guys I am comfortable with that). “However, the group suggests that those who advocate for radical new dietary approaches have a responsibility to provide convincing peer-reviewed evidence of long term benefit as well as absence of harm. Such evidence does not exist for diets high in saturated and total fat, and very low in carbohydrate”. I have tried to address these issues in depth below. But first, how a diet full of whole plants and animals, similar to what humans have eaten the whole time they have been on the planet (up until recently, when human life expectancy halved (agricultural revolution) and then got full of disability from chronic disease (last few decades)) is radical is beyond my reasoning. Read the latest nutritional biochemistry and draw your own conclusions.
Low carbohydrate diets being safe, efficacious and useful? RCT and mechanistic evidence shows that dietary saturated fat alone, in the context of a low carb diet doesn’t have the proposed cardio-metabolic risk effects of being harmful. In fact, things all go the other way (improve) which is a very good sign. I have put some references below, but also here’s a recent meta analysis of the clinical trials of low carb high fat diets and their metabolic effects. People generally do better metabolically, adhere better, and control blood glucose and insulin better on low carb high fat diets than other diets. Much of the reason for this (expanded below) is that when you become insulin resistant then a lower fat diet will provoke high insulin which only adds to the problem. Here is an excellent summary of the 23 RCTs on low carb high fat
More on long term safety – Jim Mann’s main point on the stuff.co.nz article and media release about low carb high fat was around long term efficacy and safety. He does have a point – you can study this through RCTs, but the long term epidemiology isn’t there for eating actual whole plants and animals (short of the work on healthy indigenous populations, and that this is the sort of diet humans have eaten for 99.9% of the time they have been on the planet). There is certainly no evidence of harm – some people like to quote the Swedish women’s study to show there is harm of a high fat, high protein diet. I am not promoting this combination of eating. The epidemiology in this study is woeful because the lowest decile of population carb eaters was still getting 40 percent of their calories from carbs who also had to be in the highest decile of protein eaters – again not what I suggest – had poorer health outcomes. Again if the cardio- metabolic risk factors are worth anything – then people do better. Here’s a good dissection of this Swedish paper.
I think this shows how epidemiology sometimes gives us what we want to see. I agree that more work needs to be done. My starting hypothesis is to look at human nutrition through an evolutionary biology lens – what food environments are humans adapted to? And what is the physiology around this? I think we have to understand how and why insulin resistance happens and how that relates to chronic disease through inflammatory processes. I particularly recommend to you this paper which has a brilliant and comprehensive take on the evolutionary nutritional biochemistry and chronic disease development. BTW – the 40% CHO diet and high protein combination in the Swedish study showing the highest CVD is very much the type of mix Professor Mann has advocated (to me at least) he would support.
Some longer-term data on Type 1 diabetics and low carb high fat diets – good efficacy and safety.
Mechanistically high SFA doesn’t translate to high plasma SFA in the context of low carb diets – see reference.
I agree that people respond differently to different diets. Insulin resistance is important as to what diet we can tolerate. Hyperinsulinaemia induces the direct and indirect effects for the major chronic diseases. Impaired glucose tolerance doesn’t catch this until end stage. Many many people get glucose into their cells at the right rate, but with hyperinsulinaemia. Complex carbs may not help, and in fact be even worse because the carbs are digested slowly provoking longer hyperinsulinaemia – a reference. We will publish our analysis of this soon. But in the meantime see the work of Dr Joseph Kraft.
The only way to diagnose this is a dynamic glucose tolerance test measuring insulin. We have a database of 15,000 of these with insulin for up to five hours post OGTT. You will see the pattern of hyperinsulinaemia with normal glucose tolerance decades before impaired glucose tolerance.
I contend that virtually every CVD risk factor either causes insulin resistance through inflammatory or other processes e.g. Sleep, stress, sugar, alcohol, smoking, pollution and so on. Obviously some have other effects too (e.g. smoking). But also that age and ethnicity affect Insulin sensitivity – Maori and Pacific are likely to be more prone to the above.
Here’s the kicker for me – in terms of health inequalities the current dietary guidelines probably perpetuate health inequities because the least at risk do the best and stay healthy. So even if the two types of dietary guidance are efficacious – which they are – albeit not equally distributed in their efficacy AND there seems to be no evidence of harm from a lower carb high fat – then we have no option but to go the high fat route because of the inequalities – although I acknowledge we need more work to understand this. That’s the reason I am pursuing this.

Extra references to 23 RCTs showing good outcomes for low carb diets compared to other diets. Actual data summarised here very nicely too

1. Foster GD, et al. A randomized trial of a low-carbohydrate diet for obesity. New England Journal of Medicine, 2003.

2. Samaha FF, et al. A low-carbohydrate as compared with a low-fat diet in severe obesity. New England Journal of Medicine, 2003.

3. Sondike SB, et al. Effects of a low-carbohydrate diet on weight loss and cardiovascular risk factor in overweight adolescents. The Journal of Pediatrics, 2003.

4. Brehm BJ, et al. A randomized trial comparing a very low carbohydrate diet and a calorie-restricted low fat diet on body weight and cardiovascular risk factors in healthy women. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2003.

5. Aude YW, et al. The national cholesterol education program diet vs a diet lower in carbohydrates and higher in protein and monounsaturated fat. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2004.

6. Yancy WS Jr, et al. A low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low-fat diet to treat obesity and hyperlipidemia. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2004.

7. JS Volek, et al. Comparison of energy-restricted very low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets on weight loss and body composition in overweight men and women. Nutrition & Metabolism (London), 2004.

8. Meckling KA, et al. Comparison of a low-fat diet to a low-carbohydrate diet on weight loss, body composition, and risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease in free-living, overweight men and women. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2004.

9. Nickols-Richardson SM, et al. Perceived hunger is lower and weight loss is greater in overweight premenopausal women consuming a low-carbohydrate/high-protein vs high-carbohydrate/low-fat diet. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2005.

10. Daly ME, et al. Short-term effects of severe dietary carbohydrate-restriction advice in Type 2 diabetes. Diabetic Medicine, 2006.

11. McClernon FJ, et al. The effects of a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet and a low-fat diet on mood, hunger, and other self-reported symptoms. Obesity (Silver Spring), 2007.

12. Gardner CD, et al. Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN diets for change in weight and related risk factors among overweight premenopausal women: the A TO Z Weight Loss Study. The Journal of The American Medical Association, 2007.

13. Halyburton AK, et al. Low- and high-carbohydrate weight-loss diets have similar effects on mood but not cognitive performance. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2007.

14. Dyson PA, et al. A low-carbohydrate diet is more effective in reducing body weight than healthy eating in both diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. Diabetic Medicine, 2007.

15. Westman EC, et al. The effect of a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low-glycemic index diet on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Nutrition & Metabolism (London), 2008.

16. Shai I, et al. Weight loss with a low-carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or low-fat diet. New England Journal of Medicine, 2008.

17. Keogh JB, et al. Effects of weight loss from a very-low-carbohydrate diet on endothelial function and markers of cardiovascular disease risk in subjects with abdominal obesity. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2008.

18. Tay J, et al. Metabolic effects of weight loss on a very-low-carbohydrate diet compared with an isocaloric high-carbohydrate diet in abdominally obese subjects. Journal of The American College of Cardiology, 2008.

19. Volek JS, et al. Carbohydrate restriction has a more favorable impact on the metabolic syndrome than a low fat diet. Lipids, 2009.

20. Brinkworth GD, et al. Long-term effects of a very-low-carbohydrate weight loss diet compared with an isocaloric low-fat diet after 12 months. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2009.

21. Hernandez, et al. Lack of suppression of circulating free fatty acids and hypercholesterolemia during weight loss on a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2010.

22. Krebs NF, et al. Efficacy and safety of a high protein, low carbohydrate diet for weight loss in severely obese adolescents. Journal of Pediatrics, 2010.

23. Guldbrand, et al. In type 2 diabetes, randomization to advice to follow a low-carbohydrate diet transiently improves glycaemic control compared with advice to follow a low-fat diet producing a similar weight loss. Diabetologia, 2012.

Low-carbohydrate diets for athletes.

LOW-CARBOHYDRATE DIETS FOR ATHLETES

In this presentation from the NSCA’s 2013 Personal Trainer Conference, Alan Aragon and Jeff Volek discuss low-carbohydrate diets for athletes. It has quite a bit of science and is an hour, but its a great little talk with some good information.

Watch the video

Low carb high fat lecture full, so we are doing another

Thanks to the many who have registered and shown interest in this seminar at AUT Millennium on October 16th. Its been wildly over subscribed to the point we have decided to do a second seminar. So please if you are interested, its filling very fast, get registered today.

Event Details
Date: Tuesday, 22 October 2013
Time: 7.00pm – 8.30pm
Venue: AUT Millennium Institute, 17 Antares Place, Mairangi Bay, Auckland

Free public parking is available

Programme

6.00pm – 6.50pm       Registrations open
7.00pm – 7.45pm       Event commences. Keynote presentation from Professor Grant Schofield
7.45pm – 8.30pm       Q&A session and open discussion followed by refreshments

Note, we will also be taking registrations on the night for a series of corresponding paid workshops that will be held in November. Details about the workshops will be posted on this site once confirmed.

RSVP to attend the event by providing your name, email, and contact number REGISTER

For those international and out of town, we will video and make available online.