Stop Hatin' On Healthy Eggs, Sally Squires

If you are even a casual reader of health journalism these days, then I'm sure you've run across the regular columns from The Washington Post health and nutrition columnist named Sally Squires. Her regular "Lean Plate Club" feature includes lots of news and commentary on the latest developments in the world of diet and living healthy. Unfortunately, Squires comes at it from the conventional low-fat, low-calorie, low-cholesterol, everything-in-moderation yadda yadda yadda approach that has dominated our culture for decades now.

And I've had my run-ins with her too: she dismissed weight loss bloggers like me as mere "amateurs", I chided her and other so-called "experts" for giving weight loss advice when they themselves are overweight, and I even praised her for her column about having a wide-open weight loss effort. You take the good with the bad, I suppose, but Sally Squires is back again with some decidedly BAD dietary advice regarding eggs.

Whether you're livin' la vida low-carb or not, egg consumption is a VERY healthy way to start your day with a power-packed meal or anytime as a snack idea. I love my eggs and probably eat 2-3 dozen by myself every single week. Yep, yolk and all, Ms. Squires! Why? Because they are indeed (say it with me now!) H-E-A-L-T-H-Y!!!

Studies have clearly shown eggs fill you up much better than their high-carb counterparts, they provide ample satiety so you are not apt to snack between meals, and most recently we learned that regular egg consumption acts as an anti-inflammatory food despite all the negative stereotypes against this nutritional powerhouse food. I even dedicated a YouTube video to the subject of eggs because it is too important for people to get bogged down by the ignorance being spouted off by people like Sally Squires.

First, let's address the "artery-clogging cholesterol" comment. Ummm, where's your proof that dietary cholesterol has any impact on your lipid profile or in your arterial walls? Noted researcher on low-carbohydrate diets Dr. Stephen Phinney (who I hope to interview for my podcast show when I meet him at a symposium on saturated fat in Phoenix, Arizona next month) once conducted a test on himself eating a total of 17 eggs in one day to see what impact it would have on his cholesterol levels. Guess what? His cholesterol went up by only one point. So, this myth that eating cholesterol will raise your cholesterol is as archaic and WRONG as eating fat will make you fat. Again, I ask, where is the proof?

Then Squires quotes a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health named Dr. Lawrence Appel who claims the "unhealthy saturated fat" that accompanies egg consumption from all the bacon and sausage they eat with them is what concerns him the most because it will in his opinion significantly raise LDL cholesterol levels. And he made one of the most asinine statements I've ever heard about why you shouldn't eat these delicious low-carb breakfast foods.

"And many of these foods are cooked in trans fat, which also hikes LDL levels," Appel exclaimed.

HUH?! What trans fat is used to cook eggs, bacon and sausage, Dr. Appel? If you're referring to margarine--a low-fat concoction that I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole--then obviously you know nothing about people who are livin' la vida low-carb. We cook our eggs in butter, macadamia nut oil, avocado oil, and other wonderfully healthy saturated fats. There's no trans fat in my cooking oils. And you don't need a lick of oil when you cook bacon and sausage because they've got plenty of amazing fats in them already to get brown and crispy for a wonderful complement to eggs.

Ironically, Dr. Appel already understands this dynamic about eating less carbs and more fat for better heart health because of this study he published in the December 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Is he now disagreeing with what the science showed him quite clearly just a little more than two years ago? Come on, Dr. Appel, you know better than to allow your own personal zealotry to get in the way of being an objective observer.

This quote from Dr. Appel certainly took the cake.

"But what I am concerned about is that some people will think that the exception is the rule," he stated. "So they will eat an omelet on the weekend and then grab a breakfast sandwich on the run on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We don't want people to reverse the strides that have been made."

Let me tell you, sir, it's not the eggs that will "reverse the strides" these people are making in their health. It's the SANDWICH part of that breakfast sandwich with all those carbohydrates in them that makes it worse for your body--NOT the eggs or the cholesterol and fat that's in them. If you cut out the bread and eat the eggs and meat for breakfast, then you've got just about the perfect meal. Check out my daily menus and you'll see that eggs are a major part what I eat and proudly so. They are AMAZINGLY good for you!

The final paragraph in Squires' column was a bit appalling, too.

"To make sense of all this, here's the bottom line: If you're healthy and you like eggs, eat them in moderation," she recommended. "If you've got high cholesterol or Type 2 diabetes, skip the yolks or limit your intake to no more than one per day."

In a word, Ms. Squires, NO THANKS (okay, that's two words!). I am VERY healthy precisely because I do eat eggs--yolk and all!--regularly as part of my reduced-carbohydrate nutritional approach. As long as you are limiting your carb intake, eggs can be a yummy way to get lots of hunger-satisfying protein and fat into your body to help burn body fat and build muscle. I wouldn't think of ever giving up my eggs as long as they are providing me an inexpensive way to stay healthy. And that's exactly what they are doing!

There was a chat about this Sally Squires column that was quite revealing about why she believes what she does about eggs being harmful to health, especially for Type 2 diabetics. Check out this question and answer exchange:

Eggs and Type 2 Diabetes: I can understand the cholesterol issue with eggs and heart disease, but why is there an issue with eggs and Type 2 Diabetes?

Sally Squires: Because diabetes significantly raises the risk of heart disease. In fact, some experts have told me that we should consider diabetes "early heart disease." It has just that much effect on blood vessels and the heart. So the National Cholesterol Education Program--part of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, advises that people with type 2 diabetes need to take many of the same steps in prevention as those who already have high blood cholesterol or other signs of heart disease.

The good news: We know from the Diabetes Prevention Program that weight loss, exercise and eating right can significantly reduce risk of developing diabetes. And we know from other research that people who already have type 2 diabetes can takes steps to control it and sometimes even reverse it.

Okay, Ms. Squires, if diabetes raises heart disease risk, then why not treat the diabetes first with the best proven method for controlling it--LOW-CARB! If you want to help diabetes ward off heart disease from happening to them, then logic tells you to cut down on their carbs along with a regular exercise routine to bring about those reductions in blood sugar, insulin levels, and weight. Why do we have to make this so difficult for people to understand? Just tell 'em the truth about livin' la vida low-carb and watch the results happen right before our very eyes.

Maybe that's what the Sally Squires of this world are afraid of!

Wide-Open Weight Loss Beholdens Success

The latest Washington Post column from health and nutrition columnist Sally Squires debates the pros and cons of whether people who want to lose weight should go public with their intentions or not.

While I have warned you to be wary of any "expert" advice on weight loss, Squires brings up a worthy topic of discussion that I have a definite opinion about that leans to one particular side of the issue.

Squires referenced the world's most famous dieter Kirstie Alley and other Hollywood stars as evidence that coming out in the open about having trouble with their weight has been a positive thing. You also have the contestants from NBC's hit show "The Biggest Loser" and other such shows that literally shine the spotlight on people as they are in the midst of doing one of the hardest tasks of their entire life -- losing weight permanently!

For me, I decided going public with my desire to lose weight was going to help me become the eventual success I wanted to be. That's why I entered a local radio weight loss contest just one month after I started livin' la vida low-carb. You can find out more about my experience in this contest (which I won, by the way!) by reading this FREE chapter of my book. It's a pretty funny story actually.

I can remember calling into the show every few weeks giving an update to the radio listeners about my progress and what I was doing to shed the pounds off of my formerly 410-pound body. You want to talk about accountability, that's one way to do it. There was no way I was going to be ashamed of my performance in that contest and I gave it everything I had to win it. In the end, all of that hard work paid off.

But it does make me wonder, would I have been able to lose 180 pounds in 2004 had I NOT had that weight loss contest? There's no way to know for sure because we can't go back in time and repeat history (nor would I want to!). If I had to answer that question honestly, I would probably say that my weight loss in that one year probably would not have been as high as it was. The motivation for me was to lose as much as possible within the nine months of the weight loss contest.

The same could be said for the contestants on "The Biggest Loser." Their #1 goal is to lose as much weight as they can. For fans of the show, you know there are weeks that can be challenging, including the week Season Two winner Matt went through when he lost nothing as well as a week he actually GAINED several pounds. And yet he STILL ended up winning the contest. If he wasn't playing for all that money, would his weight loss result have been the same? Maybe, maybe not.

Squires noted that having a wide-open weight loss can help some people "thrive." You can certainly put me in that category for sure because I don't mind sharing with the whole world what I'm going through. While I didn't start blogging until after my weight loss, my blog has served as a way to keep me accountable in my weight maintenance. I have even shared quite openly about my slight weight gain struggles this year which allows me to hook up with people who care about me enough to see me continue to succeed. That's what it's all about (by the way, the weight is coming back down...slowly).

One of Squires' "experts" in her column said some people don't do well getting their weight business out in the open because they allow others to begin criticizing their efforts. People who are sensitive to this kind of thing are who I describe as weight loss wimps.

I call it the "American Idol" effect. You know what I'm talking about. Here are these 12 young people who have the pipes to make a professional recording contract today and yet they've got 30+ million people all critiquing, analyzing, and casting scorn and doubt about their ability to sing on that single missed note or "pitchy" performance. What right do they have to do this when most of these millions of dopes couldn't even carry a tune in the shower?!

The same goes for weight loss. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, who hasn't experienced what it is like to be fat and overcome that can EVER EVER EVER provide any kind of constructive or destructive criticism with any merit behind it in my book. You have to walk a mile in someone's shoes to know where they're coming from and you can't possibly know what it's like to try to lose weight unless you've done it yourself. Period. End of story.

That's why I get literally hundreds of e-mails a month from people pouring out their heart and soul to me about their weight struggles. They do that because they KNOW I understand and can hopefully help them with their own issues to become the success that I did. I do my very best to at the very least encourage and edify EVERY SINGLE PERSON who e-mails me because that's the least I can do to give just a little back for this incredible miracle in my life.

I was thrilled to see Squires mention by fellow weight loss buddy Dr. Nick Yphantides who lost 270 pounds and went on a public tour of major league baseball parks in the midst of his weight loss which helped keep him accountable.

"On my own, I am still a 467-pound slob," Yphantides said.

Today he has a web site where he asks people to make their weight loss public to help them be successful.

Doesn't that just stand to reason? If you have a bunch of people observing you during your weight loss, then aren't you going to try that much harder to prove to them that you WILL do this? Wanna know something that might surprise you, though? PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS WATCHING YOU WHETHER YOU KNOW IT OR NOT when you are losing weight.

My friend from my book named Rodney, a personal trainer at the YMCA I visit, said he was watching me as I was losing weight for about six months before he said anything to me. He later revealed to me how much my dedication and commitment to getting my weight under control inspired HIM! WOW! Never lose sight of the fact that people WANT to see you succeed whether they ever vocalize it or not.

It sure is nice to hear the accolades for your weight loss, but you have to muster up your own kudos and accolades early on to keep you going. Most people didn't begin noticing my weight loss until after I had lost 100 pounds. Yoo hoo, look at me people! I'm shedding pounds and NOBODY'S taking notice!!! LOL! That all changed after I hit triple digits. Now EVERYBODY comments on my weight loss which helps me continue to keep it off. I even had a friend who I hadn't seen in a few years see me today and didn't even recognize me. That NEVER get old! :D

Squires' story said there isn't any scientific research on what impact going public with your weight loss has, but I would hypothesize that it makes a tremendous difference. If you keep it to yourself, then what's to say you're not gonnna get bored or discouraged with it and chunk your plans out the window? When others are watching, it's not as easy to just give up.

The conclusion of the Squires column is that it really depends on the personality of the individual trying to lose weight whether getting your weight loss out in the open is a good idea or not, but I strongly disagree. Whether you are very outgoing or meek and mild, a wide-open weight loss journey will only beholden success in my not-so-humble opinion. You need people who love and care about you to stand side-by-side with you through all the ups and downs that come with weight loss and letting others know about it can make the ride that much better.

Even now, I tell people to keep watching me to make sure I don't gain the weight back. I told them to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep me on the right path and to chide me if they see me going astray. It has worked for me so far, in part, because I have empowered all of these people around me to discipline me if I stop livin' la vida low-carb for even a moment. But now I'm in such a habit of eating right and exercising that the accountability is almost unnecessary. That's just the way I like it, too!

With weight loss blogs (the ones run by bloggers that Squires describes as "mere amateurs") emerging as one of the ways people are using to lose weight, I think it is great that people want to have that support system around them which I wholeheartedly endorse as a key plank in any successful weight loss plan. Don't ever fall into the trap of thinking nobody around you needs to be bothered by your weight loss attempts. Believe me, many of them would be THRILLED to help you improve your health by losing the weight you need to lose.

Of course, I am always available here at my blog to be a source of encouragement and hopefully inspiration to anyone and everyone who wants to lose weight. And if you start a blog about your weight loss, then let me know about it by e-mail so I can send people your way who will keep you from going astray. Weight loss is definitely within your grasp if you first begin sharing your intentions with the whole world.

Is anyone brave enough to announce their desire to lose weight beginning RIGHT NOW by commenting to this post? I PROMISE you there will be nothing but loving support for you when you do. Let that propel you to become another low-carb weight loss success story just like me. YOU CAN DO IT!!!