After The Low-Fat Letdown, What Now?

Following yesterday's release of a landmark eight-year study that concluded the highly-touted low-fat diet has failed to have a measureable impact on the prevention of disease and obesity, many Americans are simply stunned and bewildered about how they need to eat to get their weight under control and to slow the onset of disease.

The one-track low-fat message we have heard regarding "healthy living" our entire lives has now been permanently derailed and several questions are starting to make their way to the forefront of American thought:

If low-fat isn't a healthy nutritional approach, then what is?
Are there other ways to eat that can help me lose weight?
Why have we been told our entire lives that low-fat is healthy?

These and MANY other questions are very valid ones that we all should be asking ourselves, our doctors, and our leaders.

But rather than dwell on the questions we have and bemoan how much we were fooled into believing the low-fat diet was superior, it is time for us to look at what other options may be available for us to look at that can provide us with a nutritionally balanced way to eat right and enjoy the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

This ABC News story talks about a woman who has struggled with her weight her entire life and had always turned to the low-fat diet to get it done.

Yet, that was then and this is now.

Like me, the low-fat diet failed her and that's why she turned to livin' la vida low-carb. The results for her have been exactly what she had been looking for her entire life -- permanent weight loss and vastly improved health.

This is something that Gary Taubes, author of the upcoming May 2006 release of the book A Big Fat Lie? What If Fat Doesn't Make You Fat..., has been trying to explain to people who have bought into the low-fat lie for the past three decades.

His controversial "What If It's All Been A Big Fat Lie?" article (if you have not read this nearly 8,000 word essay, it is WELL worth a look!) published in July 2002 sparked a tidal wave of ridicule and cat calls against Taubes. But guess who's getting the last laugh now?

Taubes said that too many people were unwittingly attracted to the low-fat diets because they were heavily and positively promoted by the government, health officials, and medical professionals as the healthiest option for people. But Taubes noted that it was lawyers who made this recommendation in the mid-1970's, not leaders in the health industry.

Then when the U.S. government-recommended "Food Pyramid" was released in the early 1990s, the low-fat diet became institutionalized into American culture. Unfortunately, though, the food recommendations as prescribed by the government are exactly why the obesity problem in the U.S. keeps getting worse and worse.

While the Atkins diet has been lambasted for supposedly being an unhealthy and even dangerous way to eat, that kind of narrow-minded thinking is now beginning to change, especially in light of the failure of the low-fat diets and the exposure of their ineffectiveness in study after study.

I began the Atkins diet myself on January 1, 2004 and found it to be the easiest "diet" program I have ever been on. In just one year, it helped me lose over 180 pounds and I have kept that weight off ever since by continuing to eat this way. After trying and failing on so many other diets over the past three decades (can you guess what I had tried over and over again BEFORE the low-carb lifestyle?), I FINALLY found something that worked for me!

One of the main components of the Atkins and other low-carb diets is that fat is not the enemy, but rather the excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates -- namely sugar, white flour, and starchy foods -- is what leads to obesity.

While so-called "experts" are worried about the long-term effects of the Atkins diet on the body, tens of millions of people have made this their permanent, healthy lifestyle change to control their weight and improve their health. All of the alarmist warnings about alleged health problems are completely unfounded and are intellectually dishonest without a shred of evidence to back them up. Those who cry out so vehemently against the low-carb lifestyle should be ashamed of themselves for attacking something they KNOW is helping so many people overcome a lifetime of obesity problems.

While the lasting impact of the Atkins diet has been a greater awareness of the role carbohydrates play in weight management and disease, the paradigm shift that needs to take place regarding a healthy diet is still a work in progress. Shaking the "fat is bad for you" mentality is going to take some time, but it can happen as people continue to learn more and more about how the three macronutrients (fats, proteins, carbohydrates) work within the complexity of the human body.

The fact is the the low-fat lie has been known for a long time and we've just ignored it. A study released last year showed that eating a low-fat diet actually makes you fatter and that eating a low-carb diet gives your body a greater metabolic advantage than a low-fat diet. Additionally, another study shows that people should be eating MORE fat and LESS carbohydrates if they want to improve their heart health.

These are all revolutionary ideas indeed! But it is high time these FACTS are made known to a public that has been duped by those we have entrusted with giving us the best information regarding our health. Unfortunately, the ideas for a "healthy diet" (previously translated as "low-fat") have merely led to more obesity, heart disease and astronomical increases in people getting diabetes.

In the article, there was an excellent point regarding two things that "healthy people" do:

1. They eat "good fats" and "good carbohydrates."
2. They cut out "bad fats" and "bad carbohydrates."

Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? The result is better health, permanent weight control, stabilized insulin levels, and greater satiety with the foods that are eaten.

Lest I am misunderstood (which sometimes happens when people jump to conclusions based on my passion about low-carb), I do not believe low-carb living is necessarily for everyone. But it CAN be an excellent option for those who have failed time and time again on a low-fat diet. And now that we have seen that a low-fat diet is not as healthy as we once thought, isn't it time to try something DIFFERENT that could really bring about a miracle in your life as it has for me?

While long-term comparisons of low-carb vs. low-fat diets are still underway and needed to see which method is better for weight loss and improved health, all the evidence I need is what has happened for me. I'm a new man today, more vibrant and alive than at any other point in my entire life. Never again will I worry about weighing over 400 pounds, or over 300 pounds, or even over 250 pounds EVER AGAIN! That's a GREAT feeling that people who don't have a weight problem will NEVER understand.

Are you in the same boat I was in before I started livin' la vida low-carb a little over two years ago? Do you feel the low-fat mantra has let you down and you are ready to graduate to another level in your weight loss efforts? Then what are you waiting for? Start livin' la vida low-carb today!

Go get the low-carb book of your choice, educate yourself on what this way of eating has to offer you and then DO IT! I chronicle my experience on the low-carb lifestyle in my book "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" because I KNOW how hard it can be to lose weight. You are probably worried it won't work for you and you just need a little inspiration and motivation to make it happen. Read my book and I promise you there will be a fire lit in you like never before to MAKE IT HAPPEN!

After the low-fat letdown, your next step is to live a healthier life than you ever have before -- by livin' la vida low-carb!