First, I agree with you about the artificial sweeteners. If sugar is heroin, then an artificial sweetener is methadone: you may be off the smack, but you still aren’t clean. Both should be avoided as much as possible. There is too much evidence about them acting as possible endocrine disruptors, as well as stimulating insulin release just via taste. And I’m with you about avoiding chemicals on principle – it’s far better to lose the sweet tooth. That being said, if you absolutely must have an occasional soda, I suppose diet is better than regular. I can’t think of anything that tastes more repulsive than diet soda or more sickeningly sweet than regular soda (this from a 2 bottle of day consumer of mountain dew and dr pepper) but some people get cravings for it.

In regards to supplements, though, I think we need to acknowledge that this is not our ancestor’s environment. Agriculture, selective breeding, and over-farming have depleted soil of nutrients and made modern produce and meat very different from their paleo counterparts. Potassium, magnesium, and selenium all seem to be lacking from modern foods relative to their paleo ancestors. Meanwhile, omega-6 fatty acids (corn/grass fed beef) and sugar (fruit is bred to produce the sweetest variety) concentrations are increasing. Selenium, vitamin A and D (among other things) are not obtained in sufficient quantities by most people because organ meats are rarely eaten. For the first time ever, it is possible to get fat from fruit, because we grow the sweetest possible varieties. I doubt you could ever become *obese* from eating fruit (even bananas!) but it would no doubt slow weight loss.

To me, these realities warrant supplementation (even if only occasionally) with magnesium, potassium, vitamin a, and omega-3 fatty acids (the last two from cod liver oil) as well as a limitation of fruit, particularly banana, pineapple, and mango.

Protein powder is simply a concentrated dairy product, and shouldn’t be a problem so long as high heat was not used to extract the protein and it is used sparingly. High temperatures, if I recall can warp and damage proteins, making them potentially allergenic. If cow’s milk is found to be allergenic, goats milk derivatives can be used instead. I use a goat whey product, but only sparingly (a few times a week).

As far bananas, I find VERY ripe bananas (once starch has converted to sucrose) to be great post-workout foods. I don’t always have a post workout meal, but bananas, whey, flax seed, and cinnamon is my go-to quick refueling snack.

Dr Eades, please feel free to hack away at my possibly misinformed statements as needed.
Cheers!

Nope, you covered it pretty well. All but the overripe bananas. I can do without those.

Thanks for the kind words. Your questions are all perceptive. I’m sure there is such an ‘inflection point,’ but I haven’t really thought long and hard on it, so I’d hate to give a shoot-from-the-hip answer. It gives me something to think about.

Please post these equations as soon as is feasibly possible. My copy of PP is getting very beat up, and I’m putting together an Excel spreadsheet to do some of my tracking for me. I googled the researchers you used, but I couldn’t find an equation, and the explanations in the PP book are basically “Measure this, measure this, and look at the table”. It’s a lot easier to use an equation than to try to input the whole table.

It would be much appreciated.

There are only 9-18g of carbs in half a banana, depending on the size. 18-36g in a whole one. I don’t see why the banana should be demonized, while franken-food like protein shakes and toxic artificial sweeteners (man-made chemicals) are embraced. I think it’s better to eat real food than man-made crap. I seem to be in the minority, as many prefer to delude themselves with processed sludge, then wonder why they are still fat. I think those artificial sweetenres, rotein shakes, and other garbage are behind Jimmy Moore’s 25-30 pound weight gain and the subsequent inability to lose it. At least he is moving ahead, tryingt to eat a diet with no fake sugars and no sweet tasting foods at all (including natural ones). That might be what it takes to lose weight since he has poisoned himself with chemicals for years.

“Yes, and we gave you a prescription and a handful of sample of potassium supplements.”

This last part of your response is just as troubling to me as the first. People should be eating food to get potassium, not supplements. There must be plenty of potassium in meat and raw milk or primitive tribes (like the Eskimo and Masai) would have died off. Maybe we don’t even need as much potassium as we’re led to believe by the USDA and other groups. They seem to keep revising the recommended daily intake higher and higher. In the recent past, a quart of whole milk was supposed to provide about 90% of the daily value. Now it’s down to 40%. They are just inflating our “needs” to convince us that we need supplements and fortified foods. I bet fresh meat and milk have plenty of potatssium if eaten in the absence of grains, refined sugars, vegetable oils, protein shakes, chemicals, and industrial “foods.”

You are basing your comment on your own theories and on your own personal dietary experience, a study with an N of one. I have treated thousands of patients on low-carb diets and have based my recommendations on what I have experienced and discovered from doing so.

My recommendations are a triumph of experience over theory.

All the calculators I have used say that I am around 21% body fat (I am a 23 year old female). I only have a few pounds to lose but I have a lot of cellulite. (Well, at least what I consider a lot!) Are some people just more prone to this than others? I would think that if I had a lower body fat percentage then it would not be as prominent… but even when I was at my target a year or two ago I still had it! Just wondering if you have any insights.

Without going into the anatomy and physiology of cellulite, I can tell you definitively that if your body fat percentage gets low enough, you shouldn’t have it.

actually the half a banana wasn’t my downfall yesterday. the banana and apple combined have at the most 20g’s, that along with the little bit of califlower at dinner would add up to less than 30 for the day, maybe 40 max, adding the cream in my coffee, and other minor sources.

but a friend called, and beers were consumed, many beers. Therin lies the rub!

PL would be great if you can make it. I’ve tried most of the major steakhouses in Manhattan, but haven’t made it out across the bridge yet.

If it’s a scale with a body comp analyzer built in, I would ignore those readings and use the much more accurate charts in Protein Power.

Health and Nutrition 360

There may be some little difference due to the artificial sweetener or stevia, but I don’t think it creates that much of a problem.

I don’t know what kind of diet you went on previously to get to 115 pounds, but getting there on a low-carb diet will not make you look like a concentration camp inmate. Take a look at the pictures in Protein Power to see what I mean.