Fat is not the problem. If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases.
–Dr. Walter Willett
I’d say the biggest of all questions I get is an objection to the amount of fat I eat. I totally understand this: even if you aren’t paying attention you still can’t help but have noticed that it’s blamed for all society’s ills.
A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.
–A.A. Milne
Another big question I get in eating this way is, “what about exercise?” This is a good question. If you read at all, or are able to hear, you’d think that exercise was the magic elixir that solves all of life’s problems. You can’t open a web page anywhere without seeing it lauded in glowing terms as the key to weight loss, heart health, and even longevity.
Of course you can’t find many centenarians who exercise, but we’ll just call that a paradox and pretend it doesn’t happen. The key for you to live a long life is obviously to exercise.
Only maybe it isn’t.
Because there are enough paradoxes lying around here to build our own gym with.
‘Contrariwise,’ continued Tweedledee, ‘if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.’
–Lewis Carroll
When I first read Why We Get Fat, by Gary Taubes, and even more so when I delved into his longer book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, I felt a kind of mental relief, as if someone had removed a splinter from my brain.
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
–Galileo Galilei
Today I trot out a couple more questions that I commonly hear after I reveal that I’ve stopped eating the Food Pyramid and started eating what’s healthy.
In case you’ve just joined us, that means I stopped eating whole grains, excessive amounts of fruit, and very low fat foods and instead started chowing down on animal fats and meats.
Nullis in Verba
–Motto of the Royal Society of London
In Objections 2 we started talking about fat and explored just a little bit of the history behind the rise and dominance of the lipid hypothesis–that fat is the cause of obesity and health problems.
Now let’s talk a bit about the science.
It is of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man’s oration; nay, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome.
–Plutarch
In the previous post I listed a common objection I hear to eating very-low carb: your brain needs glucose! In this post I deal with another common objection:
But all that saturated fat is very bad for you.
He was born on the finish line, so he thinks he won the race.
–unknown
So now you know what’s happened, but how did it happen? That’s the real question. So I’ll tell you the answer.
It was a normal morning. I’d eaten my 1 measured cup of Cheerios and skim milk. I’d drunk my banana/kiwi/blueberry/plain yogurt smoothie. I’d had some black coffee, no sugar. Now it was time to exercise.
Pictures must not be too picturesque. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
Normally I don’t like posting pictures of myself on the internet. Who knows what people can do with it, right? But in this case I’ve decided it’s worth it.
Ask Me How It Happened 