To protect your health, I recommend spending at least 90 percent of your food budget on whole foods and only 10 percent or less on processed foods. Unfortunately, most Americans currently do the opposite, which is in large part why so many struggle with junk food cravings. Remember, virtually all processed foods are to some degree designed to have a high “craveability” factor, and it’s really difficult to find products that do not contain high amounts of addictive sugar and carbs. It’s a self-perpetuating loop: as long as you are in carb-burning mode, you will strongly crave processed foods, and eating large amounts of processed foods will keep you in carb-burning mode.
The way off this merry-go-round is to replace the processed foods you eat with real foods, i.e., high-quality whole foods. Doing so will naturally leave less room on your plate for less-healthy choices. Also, by making those whole foods follow the high-fat, low-net-carb, adequate-protein ratios that I outline in this chapter, you will nudge your body to start burning fat as its primary source of fuel. And once that happens, your cravings for processed foods will dramatically diminish, if not vanish altogether.
I’ve outlined in this chapter the foods to avoid and the foods to celebrate in order to break the cycle of carb-burning and cravings. I know it may seem daunting at first, but I promise you that once you make the metabolic switch and experience what it feels like to be supported by the foods you eat instead of sickened, it won’t feel like a sacrifice in the least—it will feel like a huge gain, and one that you were entirely responsible for creating.
FOODS TO AVOID
1. Sugar
Sweet, tasty, and satisfying—these are the words people often use to describe sugar. I, on the other hand, think of sugar as the exact opposite: addictive, dangerous, and deadly. Of all the foods capable of inflicting harm on your body, sugar is one of the most detrimental, which is why I’m mentioning it first here.
When I talk about sugar, I’m including all sugars, including honey, agave, table sugar, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and the natural fructose found in fresh-pressed fruit juice and whole fruits. Many people are simply unaware of just how much sugar they’re consuming, because it’s not just candy, pastries, and soda that are loaded with added sugars—savory foods contain them as well. As do most, if not all, condiments, and even infant formula and baby food. Added sugar oftentimes hides under other, less familiar names, such as dextrose, maltose, galactose, and maltodextrin, for example. According to SugarScience.org, added sugars hide in 74 percent of processed foods under more than 60 different names.1
Adding insult to injury, sugar is also addictive. In fact, it’s been shown to be more addictive than cocaine. Sugar hijacks the reward center in your brain, causing neurological changes identical to those seen in drug addicts and alcoholics.
For all these reasons, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that the average American consumed roughly 40 pounds of cane sugar and 25 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup in 2015 (the latest year for which numbers were available at the time of this writing).2,3 These are numbers you simply must dramatically reduce if you want to lose weight and be—and stay—healthy.
Of all types of sugar, fructose takes the biggest toll on your health—even more than refined sugar does. Fructose is a sweetener usually derived from corn and is now the single largest calorie source for Americans. HFCS makes up 55 percent of the sweeteners used by food and beverage manufacturers today because it’s cheaper and 20 percent sweeter than regular table sugar (sucrose). In fact, the number four source of calories in the United States today, across all age groups, is soda, which is sweetened with large amounts of HFCS. (The number one source of calories is grain-based desserts, which are also loaded with refined sugars and HFCS.)4
This is devastating for national health. Granted, all sugars contribute to weight gain to a certain degree, but highly refined and processed fructose, such as high-fructose corn syrup, wreaks the most biochemical havoc because it has the biggest negative impact on your leptin and insulin sensitivity, which results in metabolic syndrome. The bottom line is: fructose leads to increased visceral fat, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome—not to mention the long list of chronic diseases resulting from that.5
Fructose is more dangerous than glucose because every cell in your body utilizes glucose. Therefore, much of it is burned up immediately after you consume it. By contrast, cells don’t use fructose for energy, so 100 percent of the fructose you eat is metabolized in your liver. When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat; however, 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat. On top of that, the metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout. In short, fructose overconsumption damages your pancreas, liver, and brain much like alcohol does.
I hope these facts will help inspire you to break your sugar habit. Remember, when you have made the transition to burning fat, your cravings for sweets and processed foods will greatly lessen, if not disappear altogether, so it is doable.
2. Artificial sweeteners
As I discussed in the previous section on weight, artificial sweeteners actually contribute to weight gain, particularly a gain of dangerous visceral fat, and wipe out your populations of friendly gut bacteria. Of artificial sweeteners, aspartame is one of the worst.
Aspartame is the compound that goes by the brand names NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure. While it’s one of the most commonly used artificial sweeteners in the world, it’s also one of the most dangerous food additives, if not the most dangerous, on the market today.
Beyond its ties to obesity, when aspartame is in liquid form, it breaks down into methyl alcohol, or methanol, which is then converted into formaldehyde, which likely explains why aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA.
If you’re looking for a way to sweeten your food that doesn’t compromise your health, try stevia extract. It is derived from a South American plant of the same name and is very sweet—meaning that a little goes a long way. Another healthy sweetener is Lo han kuo, a Chinese fruit that is about 200 times sweeter than sugar. It is more expensive and harder to find than stevia. Erythritol and xylitol are two sugar alcohols that have a much lower impact on blood sugar than traditional sugar and don’t appear to have a detrimental effect on the microbiome. Just limit your use of these two so you don’t become dependent on them. You can absolutely retrain your palate to not crave sweet foods, but not if you’re adding an alternative sweetener to everything you eat.
3. Refined vegetable oils
Yes, you want to eat a high-fat diet in order to nudge your body into the fat-burning zone. But all fats are not created equal. The fats to avoid at all costs are processed vegetable oils, including corn, soy, safflower, sunflower, and canola oils. These vegetable oils consist of omega-6 fats, particularly linoleic acid. Omega-6 fats occur naturally in whole foods such as seeds and nuts and are essential nutrients that your body can’t make, which is why they are called essential fatty acids (EFAs). While omega-6 fats in their natural, unrefined state are a vital part of a healthy diet, they need to make up only a relatively small percentage of your diet. You see, essential fats have double bonds that are highly susceptible to oxidative damage. So when you consume them, you are essentially rolling out the welcome mat for a free radical army that inflicts damage to your tissues, genes, and cell membranes. In other words, vegetable oils are highly inflammatory.
It is primarily for this reason that I believe the widespread consumption of refined vegetable oil is largely responsible for the epidemic of chronic disease that began in the 20th century, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases. There are other reasons I think this is so:
Sadly, these are the very fats that we have been advised to consume ever more of for several decades now—and are still counseled to use up until this very day.
4. Milk and yogurt
Today, most milk is produced in large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), where the animals don’t receive sunlight, are fed genetically modified grains and soy products, and stand in one another’s excrement. To ward off infection from these conditions, the animals are given antibiotics. They are also given steroids to boost their milk production. The milk must then be pasteurized in order to be safe for consumption. Unfortunately, the process of pasteurization kills most of the healthy enzymes and nutrients.
On top of this, most of the milk you’ll find in the refrigerator case at your local grocery store has the butterfat purposefully removed to produce skim milk. Without butterfat your body can’t absorb the fat-soluble vitamins that occur naturally in milk.
Truth be told, even whole milk isn’t a great choice when you’re trying to make the switch to burning fat, as it contains the dairy sugar lactose, which can worsen insulin and leptin resistance. (High-fat cheese, butter, cream, and ghee, on the other hand, can be healthful choices, particularly if they come from organically raised, grass-fed cows.)
Another type of dairy that is particularly problematic is most commercial yogurt, which is more akin to a sugary dessert than to a health food. Besides added sugar, typically in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, most commercial yogurts also contain artificial colors, flavors, and additives, all of which can harm beneficial microbes while nourishing disease-causing microorganisms in your gut. To top it off, much of the yogurt that is commercially available is low-fat and made from milk taken from conventionally raised CAFO cows, meaning it contains the antibiotics and hormones given to the cows.
While you do want to eat foods that contain probiotics—which I’ll cover more in just a moment—conventional yogurts contain only small amounts of probiotics. In fact, a 2014 report from the Cornucopia Institute that evaluated commercially available yogurts found that the levels of probiotics they contained had little to do with what was promised on the labels.6
5. Unfermented soy
Despite what conventional health experts and health enthusiasts say, soy—particularly nonorganic, unfermented soy—is not good for you. In fact, it can weaken your immune system and lead to impaired thyroid function. Unfermented soy also contains phytoestrogens (or isoflavones) that are found to have adverse effects on human tissues and may lead to an increased risk of cancer.
Furthermore, 94 percent of soybeans grown in the United States are genetically modified, which can expose you to damaging herbicides like glyphosate.7 This is associated with a host of negative effects and has been deemed a probable carcinogen that can cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and lung cancer in humans.
Avoiding unfermented soy products will also help you improve your omega-6:3 ratio, as soybean oil consists of omega-6 oils. Additionally, soybean and soy-based foods actually promote kidney stones in people prone to them, mainly because of their high levels of oxalates, which bind to calcium in your kidneys to form kidney stones.
6. Beans and legumes
Beans can provide you with good (but not complete) proteins. However, they are complex carbohydrates that can contribute to raising your insulin levels. They also contain a natural anti-nutrient called lectin, which I discussed in the Introduction.
Lectins (not to be confused with lecithin, which is a phospholipid) are carbohydrate-binding proteins, known as glycoproteins, that are widespread in the plant kingdom. An estimated 30 percent of fresh foods contain lectins.8
Lectins get their name from the Latin word legere, from which the word select derives—and that is exactly what they do: they select (attach to) specific biological structures that allow them to do harm, as part of the plant’s self-defense mechanism. It’s nature’s ingenious way of keeping natural enemies like fungi and insects at bay. Unfortunately, some of these glycoproteins may also cause trouble in humans.
One major concern is that most lectins are inflammatory, meaning they trigger inflammation. They are also immunotoxic (capable of stimulating a hyperimmune response), neurotoxic, and cytotoxic, meaning they’re toxic to cells and may induce apoptosis (cell death). Certain lectins may also increase your blood viscosity by binding to your red blood cells. Some lectins may even interfere with gene expression and disrupt endocrine function. Lectins also promote leptin resistance, thereby increasing your risk of obesity. All of these factors can predispose you to disease.
Beans not only contain lectins that can cause problems for many people, but also have the added drawback of being high in net carbs. They are therefore best avoided in the initial transitional stages of a ketogenic diet. Once you’ve fully made the transition to fat-burning, beans (and other net carbs such as grains) can be reincorporated, especially during your “feasting” days: Once your body is burning fat for fuel, you then begin cycling in and out of ketosis. As a general rule, I recommend increasing your net carbs and protein one or two days a week—days on which you can go as high as 100 grams or more of net carbs—and then cycling back into ketosis on the remaining five or six days. During these high-carb days, beans are acceptable if you like and can tolerate them, but they must be cooked in a modern, high-quality pressure cooker such as an Instant Pot to reduce lectins.
7. Grains
Many people rely on grains for a large portion of their calories, and whole grains have been heralded as a health food by mainstream media and health experts. Still, even whole grains can raise your insulin and leptin levels. Grains have been linked to a host of health conditions, such as gluten sensitivity, autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, and autism. Grains may also worsen symptoms such as brain fog, skin rashes, fatigue, joint pain, and allergies. Digestive ailments (bloating, gas, and abdominal cramps) have also been linked to grain consumption. And if you are harboring pathogenic microbes, the fiber in grains can serve as “food” for them, worsening your ailments. In addition, most grains are loaded with toxins, such as lectin, which is also found in beans.
If the thought of life without staples such as bread, pasta, and rice is making you nervous, know that there are grain-free substitutes for these popular foods—see Cauliflower, Broccoli, and Chili Oil for ideas to get you started.
(The one grain that is virtually toxin-free is white rice, which has far fewer toxins than brown rice. After you’re fat-adapted, you may decide to eat it on your feast days.)
8. Trans fats
Six decades ago, the food industry began replacing many saturated fats (such as lard) with more shelf-stable trans fats (such as partially hydrogenated soybean oil)—and the processed food movement was born.
Americans’ health has plummeted ever since, and millions have been prematurely killed by this mistake. Making matters worse, genetically engineered soy oil, which is a major source of trans fat, can oxidize inside your body, thereby causing damage to both your heart and your brain.
In 2007, when New York City severely limited the amount of trans fat allowed to be served at restaurants, it offered a unique opportunity for researchers to study the effects on residents in the counties where the ban was in effect and compare rates of hospital admissions for heart attack and stroke in those counties before and after the restriction to rates of hospital admissions for heart attack and stroke in other New York State counties where there were no restrictions on trans fats.9 Three or more years after the restrictions were imposed on specific counties, researchers found a 6.2 percent reduction in hospital admissions for heart attacks and stroke in those counties compared with areas of the state where the restrictions on trans fat were not imposed.
The primary sources of trans fat in processed food are often indicated as “partially hydrogenated” palm, cottonseed, soybean, vegetable, and canola oils. Unfortunately, they hide in many processed foods you may have at home. Flaky crusts for your pies are often made with vegetable shortening loaded with partially hydrogenated oil. Artificial creamers, frozen dairy desserts, and cake icing are just a couple of places where partially hydrogenated oils hide, providing the “creaminess” in thoroughly processed foods.
The public is now largely aware of the risk of trans fats, and many manufacturers have stopped relying on trans fats as their main source of fat. But it is still fairly easy to eat well over 1 gram of trans fat each day. FDA labeling rules allow manufacturers to list the amount of trans fat as 0 percent if there is less than 0.5 grams per serving in the product.10 While you may think that sounds reasonable, manufacturers are able to exploit this rule by changing portion sizes. By reducing the portion size, they reduce the amount of trans fat found in each serving, thus fulfilling FDA rules for the “zero trans fat” label. In fact, they may even announce on the label that the product does not have trans fat. So make it a habit to read the fine print on any processed foods you purchase. If the serving size is ridiculously small, this is a tip-off you may be getting trans fat after all.
9. Potato chips and french fries
Potatoes are the most consumed vegetable in America. This is a problem for three reasons: These starchy vegetables contain plenty of simple sugars that are rapidly converted to glucose, which raises insulin levels and can contribute to insulin resistance. In addition, conventionally grown potatoes are among the highest in pesticide contents of any fruit or vegetable. In fact, the USDA reports that the amount of pesticides used on one acre of potato plants has increased exponentially, from 6.6 pounds in 1960 to 44 pounds in 1999 to nearly 50 pounds in 2008.11 And finally, when potatoes are cooked at high heat—as when they are turned into potato chips or French fries—a potentially neurotoxic chemical called acrylamide is created.
Acrylamide is the by-product of a chemical reaction between sugars and the amino acid asparagine, which occurs at high temperatures. While the chemical can form in many foods cooked or processed at temperatures above 250 degrees F (120 degrees C), carbohydrate-rich foods are by far the most vulnerable.
In November 2013, the FDA issued a consumer update advising people to reduce consumption of foods in which acrylamide is plentiful, noting this toxic by-product is found in 40 percent of calories consumed by the average American.12
Potato chips and french fries are some of the worst acrylamide offenders. Not only do you have acrylamide to contend with, but unless they are fried in coconut oil or lard, you’re also getting a hefty dose of harmful vegetable oil.
10. Conventionally raised meat, poultry, and eggs
In concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), with animals packed into tight quarters, fed unnatural diets, and living in filth, disease flourishes. Low doses of antibiotics are added to feed as a matter of course, not only to stave off infectious diseases but also because they cause the animals to grow faster on less food. In fact, 80 percent of the antibiotics used in the United States are used by industrial agriculture for purposes of growth promotion and prevention of diseases that would otherwise make CAFOs unviable. The problem is, while the antibiotics may kill most of the bacteria in the animals, the remaining, resistant bacteria are allowed to survive and multiply.
In addition, animals raised in CAFOs are typically fed grains, such as corn or soybeans, that tend to be genetically modified and doused in pesticides. Also, grains aren’t the animals’ natural foods, so they don’t get all the nutrients they need. As a result, meat and eggs from these conventionally raised animals aren’t as nutritious as their organic, grass-fed counterparts (see Animal-based omega-3 fats for more information).
FOODS TO CELEBRATE
1. Healthy saturated fats
Saturated fats from animal and vegetable sources are an important component of the Fat for Fuel program, as they provide you with a number of important health benefits and help in the proper functioning of your immune system, cell membranes, heart, lungs, liver, bones, hormones, and genetic regulation. Saturated fats also promote satiety, reducing your hunger pangs so you avoid binge eating and unhealthy food cravings.
So what is good fat, and how can you distinguish it from unhealthy forms? In general, full-fat, raw (i.e., unpasteurized), grass-fed butter, cheese, and ghee; olives and authentic olive oil; coconut oil; raw nuts such as macadamias and pecans; organic, pastured eggs; avocados; grass-fed meats; MCT oil; pastured chicken fat (schmaltz), lard, and tallow; and raw cacao are all great sources of healthy fats.
One of my favorite sources of healthy fats are avocados, which are low in fructose and rich in healthy monounsaturated fat, making them an ideal cornerstone of a fat-burning diet. They provide close to 20 essential health-boosting nutrients, including vitamin E, B vitamins, and folic acid. They are also excellent sources of fiber and potassium. I personally eat as many as three avocados a day—they are satiating and delicious. Research has found that avocados can be beneficial for weight loss and appear to help regulate blood sugar and fight cancer.13,14 Because of their thick skin, they are resistant to pesticide contamination, meaning you don’t necessarily need to spend more to buy organic.
The only drawback to avocados is that they are expensive. A way to make them more budget-friendly is to purchase them in bulk when they’re on sale—choose the avocados that are entirely green and rock-hard, then store them in the fridge, where they will last up to three weeks. Simply take them out of the refrigerator two or three days before you want to eat them.
2. Fiber
There are two types of fiber, soluble and insoluble. Insoluble fiber is bulkier and can help prevent constipation. Further, it has no impact on your caloric intake, blood sugar, or insulin levels.15 Soluble fiber dissolves and forms a gel-like substance that helps food move smoothly through your system, making you feel full. Soluble fiber is fermented by bacteria into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which do not increase blood glucose and may even help reduce blood sugar levels.16
Many whole foods, especially fruits and vegetables, naturally contain both soluble and insoluble fiber. This is ideal, as both help feed the microorganisms living in your gut. To meet your daily fiber requirements, you’ll want to eat plenty of non-starchy, organic vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
I am a major fan of fiber, especially soluble fibers like psyllium, as they not only serve as a prebiotic for your microbiome but are also metabolized to short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, propionic acid, and acetate, which nourish your colonic cells. They are also converted to ketones that nourish your tissues.
Dietary guidelines call for 20 to 30 grams of fiber per day, but I believe an ideal amount for most adults is likely much higher, perhaps twice as much. I personally consume nearly 100 grams of fiber a day, including about 2 tablespoons of organic psyllium three times a day, which provides about 25 grams of soluble fiber. The other 75 percent of my fiber comes primarily from vegetables and seeds.
3. Low-net-carb vegetables
As a general rule, vegetables are a nutritional cornerstone. Most vegetables are very low in calories and net carbs while high in healthy fiber and the valuable vitamins and minerals your body needs for optimal health. Vegetables also contain an array of antioxidants and other disease-fighting compounds that are very difficult to get anywhere else. Plant chemicals called phytochemicals help reduce inflammation and eliminate carcinogens, while others regulate the rate at which your cells reproduce, remove old cells, and maintain DNA. The fiber content of vegetables also promotes optimal gut health in general by nourishing beneficial gut bacteria.
You can eat as many of these vegetables, which are high in fiber and low in carbohydrate content, as you like:
After you have successfully made the transition to burning fat, you can add back limited amounts of these vegetables:
4. Fermented foods
A great way to eat more vegetables, particularly in the winter months when fewer fresh vegetables are available, is to ferment them.
Fermented foods have been part of the human diet since ancient times. They are potent chelators, or detoxifiers, and very rich sources of probiotics. In fact, eating fermented foods can provide more probiotics than taking a supplement can. Eating fermented vegetables, such as sauerkraut or kimchi, combines the high fiber of vegetables with the probiotics of fermented foods.
Start by adding as little as one teaspoon of fermented vegetables with every meal. It may seem like a small amount, but it will have a dramatically beneficial impact on your health. You can increase this amount gradually over a few weeks or months, aiming for one-quarter to one-half cup of fermented vegetables with every meal. Do not be tempted to start off with a large amount, though, as too large a portion may provoke a healing crisis. This occurs when the good bacteria kill off pathogens in your gut, which then release potent toxins. Adjust your portions gradually and listen to your body.
Fermented vegetables offer a host of benefits, but remember that variety is important, in order to inoculate your gut with a mix of different species of microorganisms. So aside from cultured vegetables, try these other fermented foods:
In my view, optimizing your gut health is a foundational step if you are seeking to achieve good overall health. Addressing your gut flora is also important for most health conditions, be they acute or chronic. While you could certainly benefit from a high-quality probiotic supplement, eating fermented foods is, I believe, a more effective and far less expensive option.
Macadamia nuts have the highest fat and lowest protein and carbohydrate content of any nut. One ounce of macadamia nuts has only four grams of carbs, but more than half of those are nondigestible fiber, leaving an ultra-low two grams of sugar per ounce of nuts. They also contain high amounts of vitamin B1, magnesium, and manganese. Just one serving of macadamia nuts offers 58 percent of what you need in manganese and 23 percent of the recommended daily value of thiamin.
Moreover, about 60 percent of the fatty acid in macadamias is the monounsaturated fat oleic acid, which is an omega-9. This is about the level found in olives, which are well known for their health benefits.
Macadamia nuts make a great snack. They are easily portable, don’t require refrigeration (so you can keep them in your glove compartment or desk drawer), and can help keep your fat intake up—and your hunger down. They also happen to be my favorite nut.
Pecans are a close second to macadamia nuts on the fat and protein scale, and they also contain anti-inflammatory magnesium, heart-healthy oleic acid, phenolic antioxidants, and immune-boosting manganese. Pecans contain more than 19 vitamins and minerals, and research has shown they may help lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or the “bad” type of cholesterol, and promote healthy arteries. They are also in the top 15 foods identified by the USDA as high in antioxidants. Like macadamia nuts, pecans are not only a healthy snack but a convenient one, due to their portability.
6. Seeds
Seeds contain everything a plant needs to grow, and consequently, they are among the most nutrient-dense foods you can find. They are great sources of protein, fiber, minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, and omega-3 fats (in the case of flax and chia seeds), all rolled up into one tiny package. Many seeds also contain compounds known as lignans, which are substances that can help promote hormone balance in the body.
One caveat with seeds is that most are loaded with lectins and should be avoided unless they are sprouted or soaked overnight, as this will radically reduce the lectins. Another concern is that seeds are natural sources of omega-6 fats; you’ll want to limit your intake of seeds to a moderate amount so that you don’t throw off your omega-3/ omega-6 ratios. Like nuts, seeds travel well, and they make a great addition to smoothies, salads, and soups. They are also good in a homemade trail mix with macadamias and/ or pecans. The following are the seeds I eat and recommend you consider for yourself. Eat up to three tablespoons of a combination of seeds daily:
7. Animal-based omega-3 fats
Omega-3 fats are essential for optimal brain health. However, few people get enough through diet and instead overload on polyunsaturated omega-6 fats.
One of the easiest ways to maintain your omega-6:3 ratio is to regularly eat healthy fish like Alaskan salmon, sardines, and anchovies. They are high in omega-3s and generally safe from contamination, since they are not allowed to be farmed and therefore are always wild-caught. What’s more, sockeye salmon has a short life cycle, which reduces its risk of accumulating high amounts of mercury and other toxins.
When purchasing salmon, make sure you are buying “Alaskan salmon” or “wild Alaskan salmon” or “sockeye salmon.” Canned varieties labeled “Alaskan salmon” are also recommended and are an inexpensive alternative to fillets.
Also look for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification. This assures that every component of the manufacturing process, from harvesting the raw materials to manufacturing and packaging, has been scrutinized by a third party.
Another factor to consider when purchasing salmon is evaluating how it looks. The flesh of wild sockeye salmon is bright red, courtesy of its natural astaxanthin content. It’s also very lean, so the fat marks, those white stripes you see in the meat, are very thin. If the fish is pale pink with wide fat marks, the salmon was farmed. Avoid salmon labeled “Atlantic salmon” because typically this comes from fish farms.
8. Organic, pastured eggs
Eggs are one of the all-around most nutritious forms of food on the planet. They contain high-quality proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals. The yolks are rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, a class of plant pigments (they give the yolks their orange and yellow hues) known as xanthophylls that offer powerful prevention against age-related macular degeneration, which is the most common cause of blindness. Also present are naturally occurring B12, choline, and amino acids such as tryptophan and tyrosine, which have potent antioxidant properties that help prevent cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Free-range, or pastured, organic eggs are far superior when it comes to nutrient content. An egg is considered organic if the laying chicken has been fed only organic food, which means it has not accumulated high levels of pesticides from the grains (mostly GM corn) typically fed to chickens.
Cooking destroys many of the nutrients, so ideally, you’ll want to consume your eggs lightly cooked or raw in a healthy, fat-rich homemade treat affectionately known as a “fat bomb” or in a smoothie, but only if they’re pastured organic. Conventionally raised eggs are far more likely to be contaminated with disease-causing bacteria such as salmonella and should be avoided.
9. Sprouts
One of the most vital, health-promoting foods you can eat are sprouted seeds—my favorites are sunflower, broccoli, and pea sprouts. These baby plants contain as much as 30 times the nutritional density of typical vegetables. As a result, you need to eat far less of them to get the same benefit.
You can even grow your own, making them extremely cost-effective as well as life-affirming; they can grow on a sunny windowsill in just a few days, even in the middle of winter. Eating sprouts makes it much easier to eat your daily allotment of vegetables—you can consume them as a salad, replacing the lettuce, or add them to your green juice. For detailed instructions on how to grow your own sprouts, visit Mercola.com and search for “How to Grow Your Own Food in Small Spaces.”
10. Kale
Kale is a well-recognized “superfood.” It is rich in healthy fiber and antioxidants, and it is one of the best sources of vitamin A, which promotes eye and skin health and may help strengthen your immune system, and vitamin K.
A 1-cup serving has almost as much vitamin C as an orange and as much calcium as a cup of milk. It’s also an excellent source of lutein and zeaxanthin (which help protect against macular degeneration), indole-3-carbinol (thought to protect against colon cancer by aiding DNA repair), iron, and chlorophyll.
One serving of kale also contains 2 grams of protein, 121 milligrams (mg) of plant-based omega-3 fats, 92 mg of omega-6, and—like meat—all nine essential amino acids needed to form proteins in your body, plus nine nonessential ones. Studies suggest kale can help lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol while raising levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or “good”) cholesterol, thus lessening your risk for heart disease. Kale has also been shown to provide “comprehensive support” for detoxification by regulating the process at the genetic level.
11. Grass-fed beef
There’s a lot of confusion about the term grass-fed. In many cases, it’s an abused term like the word natural. Some producers of beef will misuse this term because the rules around it are still somewhat undefined. It’s important to recognize that while the USDA 100% Organic label is good, it’s not necessarily a guarantee that the meat has been fed grass its entire life. Grass-fed only means that cows started off eating grass—they may have been fed grain during the winters to supplement when grass wasn’t abundant and/or during the last few months of their lives to fatten them up before slaughter. Grass-finished means the cows were fed only grass and whatever they could forage from the pasture for their entire lives. In my mind, a truly grass-fed, grass-finished product is superior to organic. There is a new certification called American Grass Fed Association. Look for this certification to confirm you are getting authentic grass-finished beef.
Some of the benefits of grass-fed and grass-finished beef include higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and other healthy fats; it’s also free of antibiotics and other drugs used in CAFOs. With antibiotic-resistant disease being a major public health hazard, buying organic meats is an important consideration in more ways than one.
Unless labeled as grass-fed, virtually all the meat you buy in the grocery store is CAFO beef, and tests have revealed that nearly half of the meat sold in U.S. stores is contaminated with pathogenic bacteria—including antibiotic-resistant strains. Grass-fed beef is not associated with this high frequency of contamination, and the animals’ living conditions have everything to do with this improved safety.
Nearly all calves are fed grass for a certain amount of time. This is one factor that allows less scrupulous producers to get away with calling their beef grass-fed. The key to a truly grass-fed product is actually the finishing. Optimal beef is both grass-fed and grass-finished. The only way to be sure that your meat has been grass-finished is to know the farms and the farmers that produce it. For this reason, the best place to buy meat is from local farms, a farmer’s market, or a trusted online source that buys and ships directly from the producers.
12. Bone broth
Homemade bone broth is a nutritional powerhouse that can go a long way toward improving your diet and health. It also tastes great whether you sip it on its own or turn it into soup. Bone broth is made from simmering the bones of animals—such as chicken, cows, lamb, or fish—for at least six hours and as long as two days. When the bones are cooked this long, they release their minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients. These include calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur, collagen, glycine, glutamine, trace minerals, and compounds like chondroitin and glucosamine, which are sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain. Good old-fashioned bone broth fights inflammation, promotes healthy digestion, boosts immunity, and promotes strong bones, hair, and nails. Sipping it can also help rebalance electrolytes, making it an effective “sports drink.”
THE IMPORTANCE OF NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION
Focusing your diet on raw, whole, and ideally organic foods rather than processed fare is one of the easiest ways to sidestep dietary pitfalls like excess sugar/fructose, harmful trans fats, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and harmful additives while getting plenty of healthy nutrients. The rest is a matter of tweaking the ratios of fat, net carbs, and protein to suit your individual situation.
In order to make the switch to burning fat for fuel—and to enjoy the benefits of weight optimization and disease prevention that this switch offers—you need to eat a diet that is high in healthy fats, adequate in protein, and low in net carbs.
Good Health Starts by Counting Net Carbs
The reason it’s so important to limit your net carbs is that high-sugar foods will cause your blood sugar to rise, and glucose is an inherently “dirty” fuel that generates large amounts of inflammation-causing free radicals—far more than fat does when burned.
As I’ve said before, net carbs are defined as total carbs minus fiber. In order to convert to burning fat for fuel, you need to radically limit your intake of net carbs to 50 grams per day or less. In order to do this and still feel satisfied and full and get all the energy your body needs to function, you should replace the calories you would otherwise be consuming as carbs with healthy fats. Making this dietary switch will transition your body into primarily burning fat for fuel and will radically reduce your risk for most chronic diseases.
For the greatest success on this eating plan, make your primary source of net carbs organic vegetables (refer back to Fiber for a list of suitable options), as they provide fiber and many vitamins and antioxidants and have a minimal impact on blood sugar levels.
Protein Is Important, but in the Right Amounts
Protein and its array of amino acids are the primary building blocks of your muscles, bones, enzymes, and many hormones. You simply cannot live without protein. But can you eat too much protein?
The answer is a resounding, definitive yes. There is an upper limit to how much protein your body can use to replenish and repair your muscles, and if you do not regularly stay within this limit, it will spell trouble for your health.
As I discussed on It’s All About Your Metabolism, excessive protein intake stimulates the mTOR pathway, one of the most important signaling pathways in your body, which can in turn promote the growth of cancer cells. As long as you keep your protein intake at an adequate level to meet your body’s needs without consuming an excess, the mTOR pathway is inhibited, which then reduces your risk of cancer growth.
So how much protein do you actually need each day? You likely need about one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. This amounts to 30 to 70 grams, spread out throughout the day. If you’re aggressively exercising or competing, or pregnant or lactating, your daily protein requirement may be 25 to 50 percent higher.
To calculate your lean body mass, subtract your percentage of body fat from 100. So if you have 20 percent body fat, then you have 80 percent lean body mass. Then multiply that percentage (in this case, 0.8) by your current weight to get your lean body mass in pounds. In this example, if you weigh 160 pounds, multiply that amount by 0.8 (80 percent), which leaves you with 128 pounds of lean body mass. Following the rule to consume one-half gram of protein per pound per day, you would need about 64 grams of protein per day.
Note that 64 grams of protein does not represent a large amount of food. It can be as little as two small hamburger patties or a six-ounce chicken breast. Check out this list as a simple guide on the grams of protein in foods:
Red meat, pork, poultry, and seafood average 6 to 9 grams of protein per ounce, meaning a 3-ounce serving will provide 18 to 27 grams of protein. I hope this will help you reconsider eating 9- or 12-ounce steaks!
One egg contains 6 to 8 grams of protein, so an omelet made from two eggs would give you 12 to 16 grams of protein. If you add cheese, you need to calculate that protein in as well (check the nutritional info on the label of your cheese).
Seeds and nuts contain, on average, 4 to 8 grams of protein per quarter cup.
Cooked beans average about 7 to 8 grams per half cup.
Once you are burning fat for fuel, it is wise to stimulate mTOR one to two times per week when you are strength training. This is best done with additional branched chained amino acids, especially leucine. One of the best ways to do this is with a high-quality grass-fed whey protein concentrate that is particularly high in leucine. In addition to carefully considering the amount of protein you eat, you need to consider its source. Be wary of meats sold in conventional markets, as they mostly come from CAFOs.
And finally, in addition to limiting the total amount of protein you eat each day, you also should be mindful of spreading that protein consumption out throughout the day, aiming to consume no more than 12 to 20 grams of protein in any given meal. This will help prevent any excess protein from being converted into glucose and help keep your blood sugar and insulin levels down.
Healthy Saturated Fat
For optimal health, you may need anywhere from 50 to 80 percent of your daily calories in the form of healthy fats. Remember, this means eating high-quality saturated fats and avoiding refined vegetable oils and trans fats as much as you possibly can. Refer back to Foods to Celebrate for the list of healthy fats. The recipes included in this book are all formulated to help you reach this level of healthy fat intake, so pick two or three that appeal to your palate and start there. Apart from the recipes, coconut oil and avocados can be very efficient ways of upping your total intake of healthy fats—you can eat an avocado plain with a sprinkling of sea salt and a squeeze of lemon juice for a satisfying snack. Also, see the recipe for Chocolate Fat Bomb for a delicious snack that delivers a hefty amount of high-quality fat in just a couple of bites.
THE IMPORTANCE OF LOGGING YOUR MEALS
Keeping a record of the food you eat is a powerful way to help you make better food choices. If you know you’re going to need to write down that chocolate croissant, for example, that knowledge alone may be enough to steer you toward a healthier, lower-net-carb choice.
Beyond simple recording, tracking your food with a high-tech tool can help you determine the nutritional composition of your diet at a glance, without needing to do any complicated calculating on your own. If you’re making the commitment to burn fat for fuel, an online nutrient tracker is the easiest, most efficient way to determine your net carb intake, and Cronometer is one of the best. It’s also completely free.
Cronometer is far more than your typical calorie-counting diet app. This comprehensive website and app for your mobile device (so you can use it on the go) makes it easy to track the food you eat and, even more important, to see at a glance the nutritional makeup of that food. Not only will it tell you how much fat, protein, and carbohydrates you’ve eaten on any given day, both in total grams and percentages of your total calories, but it can track more than 40 micronutrients, with a focus on nutrition analysis. You can see if you’re deriving sufficient fiber or omega-3s from the food you eat, for example, or if you should supplement to get your levels up. No other tool maintains such a detailed nutrition database or can analyze your data in such detail.
Another valuable benefit of using Cronometer is that you can plan your meals and enter the information before you actually eat. Additionally, the site offers discussion forums and a blog that cover a wide range of topics regarding your health journey, from the ketogenic diet to the importance of vitamin D to new applications.
I liked Cronometer so much that I worked with the developer for months to modify and optimize the program for the low-net-carb, adequate-protein, and high-fat diet that I espouse in Fat for Fuel. The Cronometer mobile app is available for iOS and Android and offers easy-to-use touch-screen optimization so that even when you’re out and about, its streamlined data entry site is readily accessible.
Furthermore, by entering your personal health data and biomarkers, such as your glucose readings, you can also participate in an important research project that will analyze the data to assess the impact and effectiveness of this dietary intervention. This is the kind of research that really needs to be done in order to validate the effectiveness of this approach and turn our current disease epidemics around. All of your information is anonymous, of course, and you’re under no obligation to enter any specific data.
To get started using Cronometer, create an account and log in. You’ll be able to access helpful videos in the User Manual that show you how to use the service. From there, you can start logging your food and entering your biometrics. I think you will find it fascinating to see how the food you eat translates to nutrients consumed.
Needless to say, to get the most out of this analytic tool you need to use it. Ideally, use it daily, at least for a finite period of time (I suggest at least three months). It’s important to understand that it’s not something you’ll have to do daily for the rest of your life; it’s just a short-term intervention.
A tracker like Cronometer may be the key you need for optimizing your nutrition so you feel good and look good and are not always wondering what you’re missing. It eliminates the guesswork, allowing you to get a truly accurate and detailed analysis of what you’re eating. It will help change your relationship with food from one that’s more emotional and subject to cravings to one that’s based on an enlightened understanding of which foods truly fuel you and your health.
