OT: Paula Deen

Maybe she will come up with decadent-tasting low carb desserts..
A girl can hope. . .

I have done all of the above. I eat a low fat, low carb, no added sugar diet. I have had to eliminate almost all the processed foods from my diet. At this point I think my issues are genetic and I am screwed no mater what I do. I still have triglycerides of plus 700. I am now taking 4 lovaza twice a day. Hopefully I will see an improvement soon.

retrodave15 wrote:I eat a low fat, low carb, no added sugar diet.

No added sugar? You shouldn't be eating sugar at all!

If you think you are eating low carb because you are not adding sugar, you are not eating low carb.

A low carb, low fat diet is a mostly protein diet. I bet that's not what you are doing.

In any event, you are right, sometimes genetics just screws people, and you appear to be unlucky in that regard. You may well need to be on medication. If you posted your typical daily diet for a few days, some of the people here might be able to tell you whether you have room to improve that and get off of medication. The unpleasant truth is that many people really don't know what a low carb diet it. The fact that you claim to be eating a low fat, low carb diet suggests you really don't know what low carb means.

That's not typical; you might be right about the genetic factor.

Dr. Michael Eades writes in his (excellent) book Protein Power http://www.amazon.com/Protein-Power-Hig ... 0553574752 on page 134:

"Hyperlipidemias: Because of insulin's stimulation in cholesterol synthesis . . . correction of insulin resistance through dietary reduction of carbohydrates will quickly bring elevated LDL, VLDL, and total cholesterol back to normal. With the regimen and exercise, HDL remains unchanged or often rises. Triglycerides fall sharply and quickly. If your patients are on lipid-lowering agents, you will likely be able to taper them over the next several weeks and in all probability discontinue them in compliant patients. Reduce the doses incrementally (we usually halve them) and after three to four weeks check lipid levels and drop again if indicated. We've seen this regimen return cholesterol readings of over 600 and triglyceride readings of over 3,000 to normal in three weeks. The metabolic power of the right nutritional regiment for this condition is startling."

Guest wrote:[snip]

A low carb, low fat diet is a mostly protein diet. I bet that's not what you are doing.

Right. And, if that's really what you ARE doing, a mostly protein diet is one which will cause your liver to synthesize carbs, with all its attendant problems (high triglycerides, high insulin), undoing what you think it is doing. What nobody wants to say outright, because we have been so conditioned to think that fat is evil, is that a low carb diet is really a high fat, moderate protein diet. Most of the calories will necessarily come from fat. Protein has few carbs, and it's difficult to eat a lot of protein. Try it. You just can't do it. And if you do, you won't be able to tolerate it for long.

Christopher Gardner, a prof at Stanford, and a life long vegetarian, makes that point and admits to his chagrin in this video comparing low carb to other popular diets that Atkins was really on to something. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eREuZEdMAVo

Maybe she will come up with decadent-tasting low carb desserts..
A girl can hope. . .

Chunky,

I'm afraid you're gonna have to stick to flies.

PD will do all sorts of "diabetic" desserts--low fat, low calorie carbful abominations full of artificial sweeteners and dripping in sugar-free Cool Whip (a.k.a. chemical whip). Yum!

Guaranteed to help diabetics . . . stay diabetic and need medication.

You owe me a doughnut if I'm wrong!

Yup, people who do a "low fat, low carb diet" are the ones who give low carb a bad name.

Why? There are only three types of food:
1. Carbs
2. Fat
3. Protein

So if you're eating both low carb and low fat, there are only two things to do:
1. Reduce overall calories to starvation levels. This is MISERY, it causes you to lose valuable lean muscle mass, and it's unsustainable in the long term (it can even stall weight loss!) OR
2. Increase protein. As stated above, protein can be turned into blood sugar AND too much is bad for your kidneys--that's why people think low carb diets cause kidney disease--a proper low carb diet has only moderate amounts of protien does NOT harm kidneys or other organs.

Low carb was NEVER meant to be low fat. If you're doing it that way, you're doing it wrong and may be harming your body. Atkins aims for 60% of calories from fat. Swedes, where nearly 25% of the population follows a "low carb HIGH fat diet" aim for 70 to 75% fat.

Good Fats (olive oil, coconut oil, and Omega 3's including saturated fats from pastured animal sources and wild cold water fish) are GOOD for you and heart protective. There's NO reason to eat low fat.

All the catcalls about evil pharmaceutical companies have often rubbed my fur the wrong way, since I've spent 30 years working in R&D for a mid-sized one.
But recently I witnessed the assignment of a conglomeration of 25-cent Latin word components to a previously benign and undiagnosed condition in order to be able to market a product for that indication. More, I dare not say.

retrodave15 wrote:It bugs me as well that every recipe features a stick of butter. I have extremely high triglycerides and I could not eat any of her cooking if I wanted to.

She needs to walk the walk and talk the talk now.

Actually, if you kill the carbs your cholesterol, and especially the triglycerides, are more likely to come down than eliminating healthy fats.

Zucchini-whole grain spice bars.
Now where did I put that recipe?

Slartybartfast wrote:But recently I witnessed the assignment of a conglomeration of 25-cent Latin word components to a previously benign and undiagnosed condition in order to be able to market a product for that indication. More, I dare not say.

Unfortunately, no big surprise ...

wrote:
Actually, everyone should eat healthy.


I am, after all, overweight,

wrote:If yer gonna go after the people who seem to profit from promoting or enabling unhealthy lifestyle choices, go after them all, I say, not just the diabetics among them.

<- Knowing what to do for himself but still wanting "some broad entity" to protect him from himself.

Just do it. Take care of yourself and quit worrying about society. Quit voting for politicians who promise to take care of the "bad guys". If everyone would take care of themselves (and their kids) there would be no worries about society.

Look at what government has done for us! That food pyramid debacle for instance; subsidies to grain farmers; and high quotas on cane sugar which drove food makers to use HFCS.

As for the other posts I like these ideas about reducing the carbs. I always try to remember to keep "empty carbs" to a bare minimum. I understand empty carbs to mean carbs that come from grains and sugars. Carbs that come from veggies and fruits are OK if not overeating. But beware of veggie and fruit juices.

Thanks for all the ideas and links!

retrodave15 wrote:I have done all of the above. I eat a low fat, low carb, no added sugar diet. I have had to eliminate almost all the processed foods from my diet. At this point I think my issues are genetic and I am screwed no mater what I do. I still have triglycerides of plus 700. I am now taking 4 lovaza twice a day. Hopefully I will see an improvement soon.

Seriously - a low fat diet will make things worse for your cholesterol.

Things that help lower your body's cholesterol are - exercise (nothing radical - 15mins walking twice a day will do), plenty of MUFA (mono-insaturated fatty acids) like avocado, olive oil, salmon, real butter etc. and low-carbs. Low carbs are subjective - what I consider low carb may not be considered low carb by someone else. I eat less than 90g carbs per day and when I'm trying to ditch a few more pounds I get serious and limit carbs to 30g per day.

Oh, and I HAD very high cholesterol, still take Lovaza (4g/day), but because I cut carbs, not good fats from my diet my cholesterol is excellent and has been for almost 3 years now.

Cheers,
xena

Janknitz wrote:Yup, people who do a "low fat, low carb diet" are the ones who give low carb a bad name.

Why? There are only three types of food:
1. Carbs
2. Fat
3. Protein

So if you're eating both low carb and low fat, there are only two things to do:
1. Reduce overall calories to starvation levels. This is MISERY, it causes you to lose valuable lean muscle mass, and it's unsustainable in the long term (it can even stall weight loss!) OR
2. Increase protein. As stated above, protein can be turned into blood sugar AND too much is bad for your kidneys--that's why people think low carb diets cause kidney disease--a proper low carb diet has only moderate amounts of protien does NOT harm kidneys or other organs.

Low carb was NEVER meant to be low fat. If you're doing it that way, you're doing it wrong and may be harming your body. Atkins aims for 60% of calories from fat. Swedes, where nearly 25% of the population follows a "low carb HIGH fat diet" aim for 70 to 75% fat.

Good Fats (olive oil, coconut oil, and Omega 3's including saturated fats from pastured animal sources and wild cold water fish) are GOOD for you and heart protective. There's NO reason to eat low fat.

ENTIRELY TRUE.

You have to be careful with broad general statements. I have tried low carb and it threw me into lethargy. Low carb does not give me enough energy to keep up my heavy weightlifting sessions and distance running regimen.

I eat a lot of carbs but balanced with a lot of protein and a fair amount of fat.

But I burn it all up and triglyces and HDL are excellent.

Hope you guys are all doing well!

L8R,