- Protein Fat and Carbohydrate, which should make up the bulk of my diet and what’s most important?
You can only live for 70 days without protein and will perish in 6 months without fat.
But you can live your entire life without carbs if you had to!
Anyone that tells you-you must eat carbs, or that your brain needs 150 grams of carbs a day to run on, is an idiot, or a liar.
If it’s a doctor or dietitian then their just idiots, and simply repeating what they read in an outdated physiology book that needed updating 50 years ago.
It’s hard for any of the academic professions to say ‘sorry, we fucked up’ and easier to just cover up the mess, and divert the public’s attention elsewhere, besides which, people would sue their sorry arses for killing so many of our relatives off.
If you want to eat carbs, which is fine if you’re not much overweight, then keep them down to maybe 10% or 20% of daily calories, protein at 20 to 30% and fats at 50 to 60%.
Although you’ll die quicker with no protein, you don’t need anywhere near as much as the protein powder companies or dumb arse bodybuilders will tell you, still, regardless of your size be sure to get a minimum of 100 grams of quality animal/dairy protein each day.
Natural fat from meat, fish, dairy, butter, nuts, and coconut oil for cooking, are far more important.
Your brain is made from 70% animal fat, your hormones won’t work without it, you’d become infertile, senile, and be unable to convert sunlight into the most important vitamin in the world (Vit D).
That’s how badly you need fat, and the incredible cholesterol it contains.
Those percentages are not fixed. But depending on your age, sex, weight, level of activity and lifestyle, we can help guide you better.
But always fat, protein, and then their poor cousin, carbohydrates, in that order.
The subject regarding carbs is quite straightforward. You don’t need to eat any, not ever, but you will always have enough to run your brain and body on. How come?
Because your amazing liver will convert stored body fat into glucose via a process called gluconeogenesis.
There is a downside to this that none of the low or zero carb keto mob seems to be talking about, or perhaps they don’t want to be discussing it since their eating style is very much in vogue and a great money spinner.
When you run out of liver and muscle glycogen after maybe a few days without carbs, your blood sugar will tank. The body releases ‘glucagon’ that stimulates the adrenals to get working on the conversion of stored fat into blood sugar as mentioned.
This is a catabolic (breaking down) process using cortisol and adrenaline etc.
This means that while going ‘keto’ is hands down the best and fastest way to lose body fat and to also feel mentally sharp, you’ll be doing this running on stress hormones!
I absolutely agree that our paleo ancestors wouldn’t have had the luxury of breakfast lunch and dinner every day. More likely they went days without food on a regular basis, and during some winters they possibly fasted for weeks or even months.
Bears hibernate for 3 to 4 months using this trick, but the first thing they look for when they wake up is some sugar.
My point is we can do it, yes, and because you’ll be running on stress hormones you’ll feel great, amazing even, since its natures way of making you extra sharp and vigilant with more energy to go hunt.
But it’s possible that our paleo ancestors didn’t age well, nor gave a shit about longevity or being fertile into their 40’s, and I very much doubt anyone cared about having lovely skin beyond 60 either.
So if you’re planning on reaching 80/100 with some kind of dignity and with a youthful vitality and able mind, then I’d be careful of expecting to do it while running on stress hormones for 30 years, cause you’re in uncharted territory.
Sure, we know Eskimo’s and tribes in Africa, for example, eat totally keto, even today, but I’m not sure they live as long as you might like, they often look like shit, and if they are active and long-lived then you’ll find 20 other reasons for the phenomena besides keto or low carb.
For example, try waking with the sunrise every day after a restful night under the stars, then eating everything 100% pasture fed, not knowing what processed or canned food even looks like, plus walking 10 miles a day bollock naked in the sun, squatting to shit, being grounded to the earth 24/7, never screwing with your circadian clock with electric lights and TV’s at 11 pm, and never having to inhale deodorant, diesel fumes or toilet bleach!
That’s why I don’t pay too much attention to ‘epidemiological’ studies and dickhead researchers who insist on leaping from the population’s diet being a mere factor in their longevity, lack of specific disease or whatever, and instead are found leaving even bigger idiot journalists with the distinct impression that the ‘correlation’ is somehow ‘causal’.
The journalists then print stupid sensationalist headlines in their magazine columns like ‘Olive oil could be the link to longer life say Harvard researchers’ and lazy people read them, join the dots, and start guzzling down crappy olive oil like it’s the elixir of life!
And the last thing any casual reader will ever discover was that the whole study was funded by the Greek olive oil council!
So don’t lean too heavily on any bullshit talk about how fit and horny this and that tribe may be on keto, paleo, veggie, Mediterranean or any kind of bloody diet. Context is everything.
Keeping carbs below 20 or 30 grams a day might improve blood markers and so on, but no ones looking at this from the stress angle and playing the long game.
When all these low carbers start dropping dead in their 80’s or earlier no one will bat an eye anyhow, since it’ll still seem normal, but I’m of a mind that anything under 90’s a joke, as well as is spending the final decade pissing one’s pants in a nursing home.
Those stress systems are there for occasional use or back up if you like. When your thyroid takes a shit on you-you’ll be thankful for cortisol stepping in to pick up the ball and so on, but does it make any sense to be running that hot indefinitely, and on purpose?
If you’re going to make carbs the enemy, then look to all grains, processed foods, beans and starchy vegetables, most of which will send your blood sugar higher than a Snickers bar, and obviously avoid the abomination of man-made high fructose corn syrup and such like.
But carbs from fruit, honey, milk and the odd (well cooked) sweet potato might not be as bad as you think, once you’ve got your weight under control (assuming you haven’t).
Just be careful of going bollock deep into some silly keto or very low carb ‘tribe’, without first realising exactly what you’re gonna get from your new bum chums, besides whatever they’re trying to sell you, in terms of longevity and youthfulness, because nobody still has all the answers, which is why I believe they avoid this topic like the plague.
It may well turn out, or they may in fact already know, that keto may only be safe for 3 to 4 months, once a year, and for people in the sales business of stupid bone broths and low carb protein bars, a 4 month gap in trade might be disastrous, not to mention confusing to the customer.
Anyone telling you the low carb, keto, veggie, high carb, calorie counters, or whatever diet have your best interests at heart is blowing smoke up your arse.
Do they fuck! They have your best interests at heart just the same as Coca-Cola or MacDonalds do, they’re just hoping they can make money with a clear conscience, which is nice.
But if my suspicions are correct and low carb/keto/paleo turns out to be not what it’s cracked up to be, then not a single fucking one of their guru’s will hold their hands up, shut shop and close down. Instead, they’ll just go the way every other diet cult goes and start spinning bullshit that backs up and supports their claims, and there will be no end of highly qualified PhD’s queuing up to side with them for the right money.
Perhaps they’re already at it, who knows?
Be well, Blunt Coach Andy
