Do you want to
-
Don't Dream It...Be It
Lose weight
- Have more energy
- Control your food cravings
- Live longer
If you said yes, please visit TRIMProgram.com to learn the basic 10 principles of Dr. Cate’s program for helping people like you start down the right path to getting healthy. When it’s the right path, it’s easier to stay on it for the rest of your life.
Below are posts on several key principles of healthy, lasting weight loss:
- Why, for many people, going low carb one meal at a time starting with breakfast works better than going all at once: Going low carb too fast may trigger thyroid troubles and hormone imbalance
- You can’t lose weight if you’re not burning fat: Your 2012 Weight-Loss Resolution: Become a Better Fat Burner
- Insights into the hottest new diet that’s the opposite of a fad: What is the Paleo Diet?
- Why there’s no particular supplement that’s the secret to weight loss: Can Coconut Oil Help with Weight Loss (Part 1) and (Part 2)
- Your body does not require you to eat sugar or carb: How Much Carbohydrate Do You Need to Eat Per Day?
- Belly fat can be dangerous if you have fat around your organs, called omental fat: How to Lose Omental Fat – Burning Off Belly Flab, PERMANENTLY and Loose Belly Flab in Three Weeks!! (It can be done, and here’s why you should)
- You’ll hear all kinds of weird advice in the media: Expert suggests weight loss can be dangerous
- A mistake I see all too often: How Starting a Low-Cholesterol Diet Leads to Weight Gain
- Misleading media reports on the supposed benefits of calorie restriction: Does Caloric Restriction Prolong Life
- Are you in the middle of a metabolic vicious cycle? Insulin Resistance, Diabetes, and the Metabolic Vicious Cycle
Hi Dr. Cate,
I found Deep Nutrition very informative and have been eating according to the four pillars for the past few years (as per Primal Body…) I enjoyed the book, but have a question. I am 50 and trying to lose about 10 pounds or so. It’s coming off, but not quickly. People say I look young for my age and I say it may be because I eat so much fat and organ meat, but since I’ve cut out most carbs and am in ketosis most of the time, it seems as though I’m losing some fat around my mouth and lips. Is it possible to control this? I do need to lose the belly fat, not the face fat!! I know the French have a saying “At a certain age, a woman must choose between her face and her ass.”-Please tell me it’s not so!
Laura
Laura, I had not heard this saying, but the French are rarely wrong when it comes to fat!
It is true that as growth hormone levels decline we will lose fat from our faces–typically around the eyes and in the area between mouth and nose called the nasolabial fold. So the key to keeping a youthful visage is to keep growth hormone levels (hGH, insulin-like growth factor, and related hormones) high.
If anything would help our face-to-tush ratio stay in better balance it would be intense exercise a few days a week combined with LOTS of sleep. And I mean lots, like a teenager on a summer saturday. The intense exercise generates growth hormones such as hGH and insulin-like growth factor, and many more and sleep is important because it is during sleep that those growth hormones can do their work.
Stay tuned for my upcoming book based on my weight loss program TRIM which will detail more on the kinds of exercise that will keep us feeling and looking young.
Thanks very much for the reply. I’ve made an appointment with a trainer. I’ll just ignore the advice he’ll surely give about starting the day with a protein shake! I’d also heard good and bad things about taking DHEA sublingually. As for the amount of sleep, I can put myself to bed earlier, but I’ll just be staring at the ceiling until 11:30 or so, and the alarm goes off at 6:30. I’ve never been able to sleep more than about six or seven hours, usually less. Any advice on how to get to sleep earlier??
If you’ve already tried good “sleep hygiene” (not watching TV or reading in bed) melatonin supplements, and lavender oil (just a drop in a kerchief and inhale it, relaxes some people) one thing that works for me is timing my dinner so that I have a (very) full tummy when I lay down. This uses the body’s natural tendency to direct blood towards the GI tract to digest and away from the brain which makes you tired.
Hi Dr. I heard your interview on the Jimmy Moore show and I learned alot. I am searching for more info about apoptosis of omental belly fat. Can you post some references? I am interested in the medical justification of the weight loss plateau. It was a facinating explaination. Thank you.
Hi Lisa
This information and references for everything I talked about with Jimmy will be in my upcoming weight loss program book. So please subscribe and we’ll keep you updated!
Dr. Cate -
I am on my second reading of \Deep Nutrition\ and must thank you for an amazing, thoughtful book on this subject. I have been eating low carb since September when I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. I found the Primal Blueprint and other Paleo books and have completely changed my diet from a vegetarian one to more Primal. After reading your book and finally gaining an understanding of the roles that all the different fats play, I’ve poured out all my salad dressings. I’m eating only pastured meats and wild fish and making my own bone stock now. I eat lots of raw veggies and fruit only seldom. I use butter, coconut oil and olive oil, heavy cream and a little cheese.
My fasting blood sugar seems to hover still between 110-117 and I cannot get it any lower. My carbs are always below 100 and most days below 50. Also, my weight loss has plateaued for the last 3 months. I lost 22 lbs from September to December and have about 25 lbs more to lose. I’m moderately active but we have had horrible weather so that has not been as good these past 2 months.
Do you have any ideas as to the steps I might take to jump start my weight loss and get my blood sugar down?
Again, thank you and I’ve ordered your new book from Amazon.
Melissa
You are stuck at a plateau. This may be because years or decades of eating trans fat means the fat you have accumulated around your body and especially in your belly is also trans fat, which is very difficult for your body to mobilize. But it will.
Through working with patients at TRIM I’ve found 3 things that often disrupt weight loss.
1. Poor sleep.
2. Lack of intensity and variety of exercise
3. Excess salt consumption–some women are salt sensitive.
DO NOT GIVE UP
Every day you continue, you are doing so much more for your body than just mobilizing fat. You are rebuilding your amazing body and it will reward you, I promise.
I will cover all this in more detail in my upcoming weight loss book.
Thank you Dr. Cate,
I will stick with it and the one think on your list that I can improve is my exercise. Increase the intensity and variety are both good goals.
Are you writing a third book?
I am finishing up the research for it, stay tuned (by subscribing) and I’ll be sure to let you know when it’s ready. Best of luck with your progress!
Listened to the UW podcasts and am on the 2nd reading of Deep Nutrition when it ocurred to me to recommend you to Jimmy Moore as an interview. But you had already done it! (I’m a little behind.)
Your knowledge is life changing. Please keep up the good work. I am so looking forward to your new book.
We always appreciate support, and ideas for media interviews. Thank you, Lisa
I have been following all the recommendations you have for losing weight since February 2010. (I follow the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson lifestyle) I eat between 50-100 carbs/day, usually around 60-70 but do not lose weight. I initially lost about 12 pounds last year when I first started (probably water) but no luck since. I am glad to say I have not gained anything either though. I am 59 and have dieted most of my life so think I am probably leptin resistant. Do you have any suggestions to help me? I would love to be part of your t.r.I.m program but I live in Seattle. Do you know any medical people here that you work with?
I read your book and loved it.
Thanks,
Rebecca
Rebecca
You are doing a lot of good things. Sometimes it takes a little bit of clinical investigation, more than can be captured in an email, and it sounds like it’s probably time for you to trouble shoot with a weight loss professional. I’d start by looking into the ‘low carb’ health practitioners list at Jimmy Moore’s site: http://lowcarbdoctors.blogspot.com/
Many of these are MDs, some are not. Many of the MDs are Family Physicians – I’d recommend the FPs first!! (I may be biased, but I think FPs are the most open minded and we also listen well)
Hi Dr. Cate,
I’m just getting through Deep Nutrition and the Food Rules. What do you recommend with regrads to exercise and weight loss in the beginning. I have about 3 stone to loose, most around my waist. I look pregnant and I am sick of people asking when I’m due. I have three kids (3, 5 & 6 years) and never really got back into shape after having them.
Should i diet first and then concentrate on toning, or start exercising straight away?
I’m not sure if I have a lot of what you call omental fat. I can grab fistfulls of fat on my belly, but apart from that the underneath seems firm (i did a couple of rounds of pilates). Is your diet more suited for omental fat burning or will it help to get rid of these fist fulls of fat?
PS Its great to finally read that animal fats are good for us, and backed up scientifically.
Thanks a million
Siobhan
I absolutely loved your book. I had a hard time putting it down and have started to implement many of your suggestions. In the past week I read an article where they found Egyptian mummies having heart disease and was very surprised by this. What do you think of this??
HI Caroline
I would blame the figs, dates, bread, honey, and other sweet/carb-y foods to which the royalty and upper classes (who were the ones getting mummified) had relatively unlimited access.
Sioban
Continue doing whatever level of exc. you enjoy for now and focus on changing your habits to cut carbs. use the good fats, and eat plenty of veggies and NOT so much with the fruits. Once you get your carbs under 75 gm per day and are starting to lose a pound or two here and there, then your body is ready to begin a more serious exercise program. Omental fat takes longer to go away than subcutaneous fat, but this diet will take care of both.
Good Luck!
Help! After following your TRIM program for about the last 4 months and finally getting all the trans fats, and sugars out of my new permanent lifetstyle (side effect: losing weight and feeling great) I inadvertently am doing something that I am not sure is sabotaging myself or not: I have very dry (genetics) skin and have tried many different moisturizers in the past (vaseline and the old AmLactin works best) As I was reading excerpt chapters out of your great book “Deep Nutition” for the third time (it’s packed with so much info!) on page 191: “Fats can enter the circulation ….or even by way of skin” I am panicking! I have been trying (and with great success as recommended by a dermatologist) to use grapeseed oil on the skin. I have been putting it on all over my body after a shower for the past 2 weeks, not even thinking that this BAD FAT may be entering my bloodstream via the “third way”? I still feel great, and this is working great on my skin, but need an expert opinion. Thanks, and P.S. your book Deep Nutition ” is the best one out there for all the science of what we intake and do to our bodies at the cellular level. I look at food very differently now, thanks for a great new beginning on life, Becki
Becki,
I would like to comment on your problem with dry skin. I have had flaky, dry skin for as long as I can remember. Lately, I have been using animal fat as a lotion and it seems to work. I know it sounds gross. When I cook a whole chicken in the oven (no salt), I add a few cupfuls of water in the bottom of the pan. This makes a nice broth, that I refrigerate and scoop off the fat that collects on top. I put this on my face and everywhere else. Greasy at first but it sinks in.
Hi Becki
Interesting. You may have had a relative deficiency of omega-6 PUFAs in your skin, and the grapeseed is addressing that and it may be a higher quality oil that is free (or nearly so) of those bad fats.
The Megatrans fat content of an oil varies greatly depending on how it’s extracted and refined. Sadly, many of the skin products (especially the more expensive ones) contain oils of higher quality than oils used in restaurants and processed foods and sold in grocery stores for human consumption. If you are having good results with your weight and your skin (and if your blood levels of triglycerides are still good–not that you have to check but you could), I can’t see a reason to change anything.
Dr. Cate,
I have enjoyed your book intensely and read it often. I have wondered if I have not been insulin resistant at different times in my life. I have been overweight in the past and I have chronic dry heels which you talked about in your book. So i got a home glucose test that instructed me to test after 8 hours of fasting. The results were confusing (it was a color match test) and seemed to be quite high. I then got a digital glucose monitor for diabetics and tested myself for 3 days, fasting 8 hours. I got 84 the first day, 91 and 92 the other days. Should I be testing after 12 hours or is 8 hours sufficient?
Hi cate,
I was born three months premature and was wondering how this will could affect myhealth throughout my life. I am now 20 and for the last 2 years i have been eating better, getting to bed on time etc but my digestive health is still not what i would consider optimal, although it is worth mentioning that i had severe bowell problems as a child.
best wishes.
Tom
Hi Tom,
Indeed there are health implications of premature birth, among the most well-known are the eye diseases. Since this is a weight-loss thread, however, I’m thinking you may be interested to know about the metabolic effects. Statistics do suggest that there is a higher rate of insulin resistance and glucose intolerance among children born either underweight or prematurely, and this means carb restriction and trans-fat avoidance (including the ‘secret’ trans fats I discuss in chapter eight) are likely going to be extremely important to your health.
Your story highlights the importance of thinking beyond ten-fingers + ten-toes = a healthy baby when we plan our pregnancy, and I thank you for sharing. There is so much couples can do to optimize their health before starting a family, I hope as you continue to grow and feel better you are willing to share your experience and let others know how much good they can do by planning ahead.
Frances, (sorry I’m going out of order, my comment widget is not letting me rearrange these)
Eight hours is plenty. In fact, 4 hours is considered adequate for the purposes of monitoring glucose lows before meals during the day. And the two numbers in the 90s suggest a little insulin resistance. If you want to see a physician who understands insulin resistance and metabolic health, check out Jimmy Moore’s website for a list of low carb docs in your area.
Dr. Cate,
I must say I the more I read, the more confused I get. I just read several books that have such different advice from yours with the claim of similar results. The most obvious one is Doug Graham’s 80/10/10 which I have been following for 4 months. He presents a lot of research to support his views for eating mostly fruit and some veggies and that is all. He warns away from eating fats or proteins (10/10) as these lead to diabetes and other diseases. You have a short (rather dismissive) section in Deep Nutrition about people who live off fruits, but he had so much research on why it is best for us.
He, and several other Fruitarians, state that fruit sugar does not have an impact on blood sugar and they have monitored their bloon and claim it stays flat. I guess this is the one thing I want to be sure of. They are strict about staying away from sugar and processed foods and eating raw and pure.
The people who follow this plan, and raw in general, are obsessive with it as a way of life. Which is true?
HI Neil
I applaud you for digging deeper into this complex science. You must keep reading until you feel you find something that makes sense to you.
Because one’s educational journey on this topic is very personal, ordinarily I would not be especially interested in debating the particulars of any diet. However, I happen to have experience with the 80-10-10 diet that you might find helpful. I know only one person who followed it for any length of time, a young woman who stayed on it for six years. I met her when, at age 29, she developed 12 vertebral fractures and lost several inches of height from her spine due to the severe protein deprivation, which forced her body to borrow amino acids from bone. Though she is recovering from the extreme pain, she still cannot work and her life is forever changed thanks to that diet. (On my diet she has gained back about a half inch of height, something her endocrinologist said was impossible.)
To really be comfortable with your choices it helps to study physiology at a college level. It also helps to familiarize yourself with biochemistry of the mallaird reaction and glycation. Doctors have the benefit of training in these and other sciences, but even if we slept through those classes I think any MD who treats diabetes or prediabetes has seen firsthand that fruit raises blood sugar and therefore hemoglobin A1c levels and triglycerides — all of which are associated with increased disease and disability.
Bottom line is, your body has no way of knowing whether the oxygen you just inhaled was created by algae or a tree or an artificial hydrolysis machine, whether the H2O molecule you just drank fell from the sky as rain or was reclaimed from sewage (the contaiminants might help with that, but not the H2O itself). Why should glucose be any different? Sugar is sugar. It’s the dose that makes the poison, not the source.
You may want to rethink having the recipe book on SparkPeople. I went there to check out recipes/meal menus & got a pop-up for Oreos.
So sad, but that’s who pays their bills I guess!
Hi Dr Cate,
I love the re-vamped website, and your book as been an absolute revelation. I’ve read it twice since buying it two weeks ago, and have put the principles into practice straight away.
The one thing I’m struggling with though is the exercise part – I was wondering if you could slightly further explain what it is I should be doing every week (I have about 8lbs of stubborn fat to shift). At the moment I’m doing a 20 minute workout of 2 mins jumping jacks (high intensity!), followed by 3 mins resistance (lunges, squats, bicep curls etc) x 4. I manage to do this about 3 times a week – does this cover what you suggest in your book? If not, how could I modify it/what else should I be doing?
Also, given that exercise is less about burning and more about information sending, should I ignore the advice that says it’s not as worthwhile to exercise in the afternoon/evening? At the moment I’m trying to do my workouts in the morning on an empty stomach, but since I work 9-5 I’m finding it a little difficult and would like to be able to do some of them when I get home!
I very much look forward to your reply, and thankyou once again for changing my life.
Jude
Jude, you are actually asking a question that would require a pretty detailed session to really sort out. I am working on a book that will outline an exercise program that will optimize your fat burn. As for the timing, the best time of day is whatever works in your schedule. Ideally, not just before you go to sleep.
Dear Dr. Cate,
I just love learning from you! I have been a fan of Nourishing Traditions and the Weston A Price Foundation for a long time but you make everything about this sort of lifestyle so much clearer…and entertaining! As a previous comment stated…I love the way you wright!
I would love to have you as my doctor and I am wondering if you have patients participate in the TRIM program from long distance? I could have my blood work, etc. sent to you. There is one lo-carb doc in the central Texas area but I do not think he has your mastery of the entire subject (four pillars of health, epigenetics, etc.). I need your type of help. I am in my mid 50′s (post-menopausal), 5′ 3″ and weigh almost 220 pounds. (I’m overwhelmed when I think of “strenuous” exercise). I also tend to be a terrible stress/binge eater which I am not sure how to control. It’s my stress eating that always sabotages my better habits of grass feed meat and broths, raw milk, and butter.
I am so looking forward to your new book that will teach me how to phase out the carbs as I have a hard time trying to go to 50g. That usually beings on stress/binge eating. But even with your new book, I would still love to participate in your TRIM program.
Thanks so much.
Love,
Mary
Mary, I hope to be able to consult by phone appt once we get the TRIM Solution completed. Also, I hope to be able to work with more closely low-carb doctors to organize a info-sharing network so all of us may learn from each other.
Thanks Dr. Cate. That’s wonderful news! Can’t wait for the TRIM Solution to be completed. Keep up the great work!
Love,
Mary
Hi Dr. Cate:
Wonderful books–I have them both!
I do have a question. I’ve been in the bodybuilding world for nearly 20 years, so have gotten used to 5 meals a day, sometimes 6! Since I eat that often, I don’t feel I can have as much fat per meal as you suggest. And I’m afraid that, to cut down to 3 meals a day, I’d lose some muscle. Do you find that frequent small meals containing protein help one retain/build muscle? What are your thoughts on multiple meals given my goals?
MY goal at age 56 is to carry as much muscle as possible–which really isn’t much. With VERY low hormones levels, despite bioHRT, it is tough to gain much muscle OR to get as lean as I’d like.
I have for years eaten LOTS of vegetables, but now I have dropped the yams and oatmeal and take in more healthy fats. I am pretty much able to control my weight, but reducing it is tough! My adrenals are shot and I have to be careful about doing more than 12 minutes of interval cardio or I get totally wiped out and can’t make it through the day without a nap midday.
Thanks for putting your advice out there! It is welcome!
Kathleen
Everyone’s metabolism is a unique slowflake, shaped by your past history and current activity, diet and so on.
Much of what you need to know here is dependent on details that it would take a good while to uncover…I can suggest that you are listening to your body and that is SUPER important, but the fatigue after exercise could be caused by sugar lows/delays in converting protein to sugar and would need to be treated differently depending on the exact cause.
Still, you could safely experiment with trying half/half protein/carb or just protein about 30-60 mins AFTER exercise and trying to exercise in the AM on an empty stomach to see if that cuts your post exercise fatigue.
Let me know how you make out!
I don’t have the ability to do online consultations at this point but hopefully within the year…
Thank you for your suggestions, Dr. Cate. I’d definitely be interested in the online (or phone) consults and will stay tuned!
It’s baffling. There are sooo many different opinions (from physicians) on these things. For example, I read recently that a “stressed body” needs carbs. Hmm.
One thing I find refreshing is your spare recommendations of supplements. I can’t tell you how many I currently take. Probably 20 pills a day, at 3 times. For brain health (my dad had AD), for bone health (I have osteoporosis), for energy, for general health. I hate it, and I wonder if it’s really necessary. It’s certainly expensive!
Kathleen
Once you get a chance to read both books, You will find some useful info about supplements that should save you money!
I think my physician would be interested in your TRIM program. This way of eating came up in my appt. yesterday. Feel free to contact me if there is something I could share with him.
Thanks.
Greg
You say to cook my way through one good cookbook – can you recommend some? Greg
We list our 5 faves in Food Rules, one is a CIA (Culinary Institute of America) textbook.
Thanks- just ordered Food Rules on amazon!
Hi Dr. Cate –
Are you familiar with Chris Kresser, previously known as the healthy skeptic? He is the male version of you and is coming out w/a personal paleo food program. The two of you have so many synergies and he really gets the science and keeps up with all the studies. You know more about genetics. Anyway, check him out at http://www.chriskresser.com. I will also let him know he should interview you!
best, Pam
Pam
Thanks for the comment. I’ve followed Chris and his blogs are very interesting and well written. I’d love to be on his show. Thanks!
I am really happy to learn that you are writing a book on Traditional Foods weight loss. As a traditional foods personal chef, I have had clients lose weight when eating the food that I cook for them so I know it works. Since Gary Taubes published his recent book on Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It many people that I know have dropped or restricted carbs and added enormous amounts of protein. to their diet at the exclusion of low carb veggies.
Traditional cultures, including the ones Dr. Price studied don’t do this.
For instance, the Maasai, as noted by the author of another dietary blog, mix around 28 herbs in the fermented milk that they drink as the mainstay of their diet. They state that they would get sick if they didn’t add the herbs to the milk.
I hope you will be commenting on making sure to balance high protein meals with greens, cooked and raw, as well as other vegetables for overall health. American’s, although they eat more vegetables now than a few years ago, see the ok of eating meat as a green light to ignore other healthful foods nature has provided.
Your book is going to be revolutionary. Can’t wait until it is done.
Geo
Your clients are lucky to have you. Would you mind providing the link to the blog you mentioned about the Maasai? Sounds fascinating and important. I agree that there is not enough balance to most discussions on low carb eating. In fact, I’ve heard low carb weight loss physicians make the comment “you don’t need vegetables.”
Dr. Cate,
This is in response to your request for the way the Maasai eat milk and meat. Link to blog article:
http://donmatesz.blogspot.com/2010/01/masai-use-of-herbs.html
This dietary wisdom is followed by other cultures as well as the Chinese drink bitter teas to balance the eating of meat and even the bible has a commentary of eating roasted meats with bitter herbs. I might add to that eat meat with gelatinous broths as well.
Sorry I responded so late but I forgot that I posted in this forum.
I would love to see more research in this area when ancestral dietary wisdom is discussed.
So important to know the context in which wise dietary behaviors are practiced.
Incidentally, a couple of friends cut out carbs and began eating meat in place of them. All their tests turned out good except for high levels of uric acid. Could this be because they were not eating enough low carb vegetables and greens and not consuming gelatinous broths with the higher intake of protein in their diet?
Switching from high carb to high protein requires many metabolic shifts in the kidney, which can take some time. To reduce the risks of gout and stones until the kidneys adjust, the steps you mention as well as including as much as 3 quarts of water in the diet are essential.
And thanks for the link!
80/10/10 experience: I observed the above comment about Dr Doug Graham’s 80/10/10 diet, which is essentially fruitarian with a lot of greens, and small supplementation with nuts/seeds/avocado etc. DON’T GO THERE. I had 18 months committed to this diet and with long term perspective I can see just how much damage has been done. At the time I felt like a million dollars: a ton of energy, could exercise all I wanted, clear head, ear digestion, glowing skin. But the honey moon was short lived as my dental health deteriorated massively, two root canals needed and most of my enamel eroded away, I realized I was gradually becoming weaker. Looking back now at my exhaustion levels, it’s amazing I was still working. My memory completely dissolved & mental capacity was starting to decline. My mental health also seemed badly afflicted, when I look back now at the depression, anxiety, clouded thinking & increased neurosis. I hope this helps.
Suzy thank you for sharing. I am glad you are feeling better.
As it happnes I just saw a nice young man who was trying 80/10/10 for rheumatoid arthritis because some doctor in San Francisco claimed it could cure the RA. Well, it didn’t help and it did make him anemic and eventually too sore to bend over and tie his shoes. He now has a bit of kyphosis and I am concerned for him bone health. It’s great that there are people trying to change their diets to get healthy, but it’s very important to question the diet seriously before embarking on it unless.
Dr. Cate,
I just finished Deep Nutrition and Food Rules and enjoyed them both very much. I’ve read just about every book on food that I can get my hands on…all the Michael Pollan books, This Organic Life, Animal Vegetable Miracle, Food Politics, The End of Food, Pandora’s Seed, The China Study, Harvest for Hope etc. etc. I just find the whole scene of the American food culture extremely fascinating. I’ve found that I agree most with Michael Pollan and also Barbara Kingsolver who both advocate eating meat as long as it is raised naturally, so your theories make a lot of good sense to me. You mentioned Michael Pollan a few times in your books, and I was wondering how you felt about his advice to “eat food, not too much, mostly plants”. It’s really the latter point that has me wondering. It seems that your advice would end with “mostly fats”. Is this the case? I understand the “more veggies than fruits” part, but what about veggies vs. meats/fats? More fats or more veggies or should the quantities be somewhat equal? Sorry if this was answered in your books. I may have just missed it. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge! I hope the rest of the country will wake up before it’s too late!
Side note…just curious if you produce any of your own food in the form of gardens or “backyard” livestock..? I’m thinking of raising rabbits and ducks in my backyard, and after reading your books I’m so excited at the possibilities of producing homemade bone broth and also rendering my own animal fats from my own yard! Too bad most people I tell this too look at me like I’m from Mars
Stephanie
My advice is “Buy natural, cook according to tradition, and eat mindfully.” In fact, those three phrases each represent a section of my second book, Food Rules: A Doctor’s Guide to Healthy Eating. Which also has a fourth Doctor’s Orders section. In HI we grew all sorts of stuff, since moving we have been renting apartments with no yard. We hope that will change soon. I love the backyard homesteading movement and would be so delighted to have place for a miniature Jersey cow. I think you will have a blast and maybe convert some unbelievers!
Dr. Cate,
Thanks for your response. While I’ve been processing all of this new information I thought of one more question/issue I have with your perspective. You discuss the fact that traditional food cultures are healthier than ours and you describe their similar attributes – one of these cultures being the French. So, my question is, how do you then explain the abundance of French bread, baguettes, croissants, and the myriad of French pastries made with white flour (and sugar) consumed by the French? My mother-in-law is French, in her late 70′s, makes the best French pastries, and gets around like she’s in her 40′s! I’m wondering if she makes them for us and then doesn’t eat any herself!
Thanks again,
Stephanie
Stephanie
I reposted your question with my reply on the thread where I think more people will find it useful: http://drcate.com/deep-nutrition-the-ancient-science-of-human-engineering/the-four-pillars-of-world-cuisine/
Finishing Deep Nutrition. Life changing. Thank you. I have two questions. Where are you located…NH or Napa? Your TRIM info has you in NH but your homepage has you in Napa.
Secondly, your work and recommendations appear to address many physiological ailments; what are the benefits for emotional ailments such as stress and generalized anxiety? Are thre any?
Curious,
Erik
Erik
Good questions. First, I am in Napa. T(he Blogspot site is out of date and when I get the time I have to overhaul it.)
Second, I believe nutrition is absolutely key to preventing and treating every brain ailment that my patients suffer from. You may enjoy rereading a few sections of Deep Nutrition where we offer some of the underlying principles behind brain diseases as they derive from bad diet, specifically sugar. Sections entitled: This is Your Brain on Sugar, Sugar Induced Spells, The Sugar Headache, Sugar Damages Brain Cells Making it Harder to Learn, the figure showing brain cell pruning in patients with high blood sugar entitled “High-Sugar Diets May Lead to Dementia.”
Aside from sugar excess, protein deficiency is another big factor I see very commonly. Protein and amino acid supplements are not as likely to fix this as good diet.
Bad fats also disrupt the orderly growth of neurons depicted in the figure entitled “A Beautiful Mind” and this disruption leads to the entire spectrum of Autism disorders.
In the future I plant to elaborate on the connections between bad diet and Autism.