Living Low Carb (35 page)
Authors: Jonny Bowden
Bravo.
The plan itself is a 21-day “diet” that features specific, dish-by-dish meal plans for 3 solid weeks. Recipes are provided—in a separate section—for each dish that needs to be prepared. If you’re too busy to cook a given meal from the 21-day diet, or if you prefer a simpler approach, Willett offers a section called “Fallback Meals,” which you can always use as a replacement for any lunch or dinner. (Sample: 1 serving of protein, 2 servings of green vegetables, 1 serving of orange vegetables, and ½ cup of whole grains.)
There’s also a “Portable Plan,” a version of the diet especially for people who are traveling, or for college students, or for anyone who can’t actually make the meals on the 21-day diet (or doesn’t want to). It’s a nice option, featuring things you can buy at the store, order from a restaurant, or whip together at home with minimal fuss.
Hopefully, you’ll have lost the weight you want to lose after 21 days, at which point you can transition to what Willett calls “Lifetime Maintenance.” On this “program,” there are no menus, just nine basic guidelines:
• Eat lots of vegetables and fruits.
• Say yes to good fats.
• Upgrade your carbohydrates.
• Choose healthful proteins.
• Stay hydrated.
• Drink alcohol in moderation (optional).
• Take a multivitamin every day.
• Move more.
• Eat mindfully all day long.
That’s it. Not much to argue with there.
A nice feature of the book is an optional “warm-up” plan—a kind of “pre-diet” which you can use either as an alternative eating plan or as a way of transitioning gradually into the actual 21-day diet. Willett offers the “warm-up” for people who might be overwhelmed by anything more than just a few bullet points, who want to start doing something immediately, or who might like to move toward a more healthful diet without completely giving up what’s comforting and familiar. It’s totally simple and user-friendly, and it represents a major improvement over the standard American diet without taking too much effort.
Okay, so Willett doesn’t agree with us about everything. But let’s not quibble. He’s a smart guy who thinks for himself, and he’s blown more than a few myths out of the water in this excellent book; and for that, we should be grateful. That and the fact that—with few exceptions—the information in this book is golden, and it offers a terrific approach to food and eating that can help you lose weight—and, more important, stay healthy.
Those of us who lean toward a more low-carb approach to eating breathed a collective sigh of relief when Willett actually came out against the ill-advised USDA Food Guide Pyramid and began his own version, The Healthy Eating Pyramid, which was actually built by the faculty in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Eat, Drink, and Weigh Less as a Lifestyle: Who It Works for, Who Should Look Elsewhere
You couldn’t go wrong following this plan. Sure, it’s not low-carb, and you’re not going to build a Mr. Olympia body by following the exercise regimen; but as a general blueprint for living healthy and managing your weight, it’s on the money. The 21-day plan should help most people drop a few pounds. If you’ve got about 10 or 15 pounds to lose and just want to get healthier, this is an excellent program.
But if you’re struggling with a lot of stubborn weight that you’ve had problems losing for a long time, this might not be a drastic enough reduction in carbs to really get the fat-burning circuits fired up. The dietary program doesn’t really address concerns like insulin resistance, which is at the heart of Metabolic Syndrome (a kind of pre-diabetes) and can stall even the most “sensible” weight-loss efforts. Insulin resistance—or carb intolerance—is not likely to be overcome by a diet that still gets the majority of its calories from carbohydrates, albeit much better ones than the average American diet. If you’re insulin-resistant, you should probably look for a more structured and carb-restricted approach—at least in the beginning.
JONNY’S LOW DOWN
A terrific book for the general public, with good solid information and a smart diet plan. Especially good for people who don’t want to try anything too “far out,” who like knowing that this is backed up by the authority of the Harvard Medical School. It’s backed with good science and written in an easy, readable style
.
While it’s not a “low-carb” diet program, it is a low “junk carb” diet, and you’ll never go wrong eating the way the book prescribes. But it’s probably not the ideal place to start for people who have a lot of weight to lose or have insulin resistance and any degree of carb intolerance. For everyone else, it’s fine
.
Bonus points for variations (like the “Portable Plan” or the “Warm-Up Plan”) that make it easy for people on the go or for people wanting to make a few healthful changes without a huge commitment to a new way of eating
.
WHAT IT IS IN A NUTSHELL
A 3-phase eating plan designed for both fat loss and detoxification. The idea is both to lose fat and to make your body more efficient at processing it effectively, largely by targeting a sluggish liver, the main organ for detoxification and fat metabolism in the body. The first phase is fairly (though not completely) carbohydrate-restrictive—you can still have two portions of fruit a day and a ton of vegetables—with each subsequent phase adding back more carbohydrates until you reach maintenance
.
The Fat Flush Plan started life as a 2-week eating program that was originally chapter 16 in Ann Louise Gittleman’s pioneering book
Beyond Pritikin
. Developed and expanded over the years, it eventually became the fully realized diet and lifestyle plan that is the cornerstone of this book.
Fat Flush brings a different spin to low-carb dieting by concentrating on what Gittleman calls the “five hidden weight gain factors”: an overworked liver; a lack of fat-burning fats; too much insulin; stress; and something that Dr. Elson Haas has called “false fat.”
The Liver
In addition to being the main organ for detoxification in the body, the liver is also responsible for fat metabolism. Bile, for example, is made in the liver (and stored in the gallbladder) and is responsible for helping the liver break down fats. But bile can’t work efficiently if it doesn’t have the proper nutrients that make up the bile salts, or if it is congested or thickened with toxins, pollutants, hormones, drugs, and other nasty stuff. Hence, inefficient bile production can slow weight loss.
Another example of how impaired liver function can slow weight loss is “fatty liver,” a condition that many overweight people develop. It’s not lifethreatening, but it’s also not something you want to put on your holiday wish list. A very early symptom of possible liver disease frequently seen in alcoholics, it basically means that fat is backed up in the liver like cars on a multilane freeway trying to get through a single toll booth.
Modern life puts a lot of stress on the poor overworked liver. The number of commonly used substances (including medications and even some herbs) that can harm the liver is enormous, and includes Tylenol, some cholesterollowering medications, some estrogens used in hormone-replacement therapy and in birth-control pills, alcohol, and a host of other stuff.
Getting the liver in tip-top shape is one goal of the Fat Flush Plan, and that’s something that virtually no other diet program addresses. Fat Flush does it by including well-known bile thinners like eggs (high in an amazing liver-supportive substance known as phosphatidylcholine, which also has the ability to break up fats in the bargain) and hot water with lemon juice.
Fat-Burning Fats
Gittleman was a pioneer in debunking the popular ’80s notion that a no-fat diet was a good thing (
Eat Fat, Lose Weight
), and she was especially credible because she had been chief nutritionist at the Pritikin Center, which was (and still is) Command Central for the low-fat contingent. She specifically recommends supplementation with GLA (gamma-linolenic acid, a fatty acid found in evening-primrose oil, borage oil, and black-currant oil) because it stimulates a special kind of fat in the body called
brown adipose tissue
, or BAT. BAT is metabolically active fat that surrounds vital organs and can actually help
burn off
calories.
Excess Insulin
Virtually every low-carb diet plan exists precisely because of the theory that too much insulin is the culprit behind weight gain for a huge number of people. The Fat Flush Plan addresses this with the now-familiar prescription of healthful fats, lean proteins, and low-glycemic carbohydrates.
Stress
The connection between stress and fat gain is mediated by excess production of the stress hormone cortisol, is firmly established by research, and is now making its way into the popular consciousness (which you know is happening once it hits the women’s magazines), largely due to the pioneering work of Dr. Pamela Peeke. The connection is too lengthy to go into detail here—those interested should check out Dr. Peeke’s excellent book,
Fight Fat After Forty
, or read the very good explanation of the stress–fat connection in
The Fat Flush Plan
. Here’s the condensed version:
stress makes you fat
.
The Fat Flush Plan
addresses stress by offering suggestions on improving sleep, getting moderate exercise, and removing dietary cortisol boosters such as caffeine and sugar.
“False Fat”
People love this term. When I wrote about it for iVillage.com, my article got more hits than almost anything else I had ever written and was featured on the America Online home page. People are fascinated by the notion that they could actually be carrying around something that
feels
like fat,
looks
like fat, but maybe, just
maybe
, isn’t
actually
fat at all! The term is the invention of the wonderful integrative physician and author Dr. Elson Haas, who wrote a book about it (
The False Fat Diet
), and Gittleman honorably credits him with the concept, which is central to her discussion of the five hidden weight-gain factors.
Here’s the deal: food sensitivities can trigger hormonal reactions in the body that lead to both water retention and cravings. Water retention happens because incompletely digested molecules or peptides from the food you’re sensitive to enter the bloodstream and are perceived as invaders by the immune system, which then mounts a full-fledged Pac-Man–like attack, releasing histamine and flooding the area with extra fluid. (This extra fluid can be up to 10 or 15 pounds in some people—it’s not really fat, but it sure feels like it, and it can easily make the difference between you being able to wear your “skinny clothes” and having to wear your “fat jeans.”)
During this immune-system response, the body also overproduces the hormones cortisol and aldosterone, which in turn increase sodium retention, attracting even more water to the cells and tissues. This whole immune cascade will cause you to release endorphins (natural “feel-good” opiates), which can, over time, easily give rise to a feeling that you’re addicted to the very foods you’re sensitive to. (Think of sugar, wheat, flour, and the like. Ever notice how no one ever says they’re addicted to Brussels sprouts?) Finally, your levels of serotonin—the feel-good neurotransmitter—drop when the immune system goes into full alert, because the same white blood cells that carry serotonin are now too busy fighting off the invaders to bother with serotonin. Lower levels of serotonin almost always lead to increased cravings for high-carbohydrate foods, which in turn spikes your blood sugar, leading to a vicious circle of higher levels of insulin and more fat storage. Get it?
The Fat Flush Plan relies heavily on daily intakes of “cran-water,” a mixture of unsweetened cranberry juice (not the “cocktail” stuff commonly found in supermarkets) and water. The juice contains arbutin, an active ingredient in cranberries that is a natural diuretic (as is the lemon in the hot-water-and-lemon-juice mix). The Fat Flush Plan also deals with the “false fat” issue by restricting the “usual suspect” foods that are likely to trigger food sensitivities: wheat, dairy, and sugar.
Phase one of the plan is about 1,100 to 1,200 calories (this is one of the few low-carb plans in which the author actually mentions the caloric intake) and is designed to jump-start weight loss. It’s also meant to be a good cleansing program that supports the liver. You stay on it for two weeks; if you’ve got more than 25 pounds to lose, you can stick with it for a month, though it might get pretty boring.