Calories Count!

The research goes on!  It would seem we would know how and what to eat, since humans have been doing it a long time, lol, but the research and the info out there is conflicting, unclear, confusing.  I'm re-reading Gary Taube's book Good Calories, Bad Calories, which details the conflicting, and sometimes suppressed research about nutrition science, and how a fringe theory--that dietary fat causes heart disease--became gospel.  Methodically he breaks it down and confirms what I had seen in my own family:  cream and butter does not make the eater fat.... TOO MUCH cream and butte--or anything else--can.  Calories count, but we don't have to deny ourselves those tasty fats due to a fear of heart disease.

As he points out, because of the "fear of fat", we have instead mightily increased our simple carbohydrates intake... and those excess carb calories have made us fat.  There's compelling science to it and I'll include a few posts to detail it in the future.  But as for now, I'm adjusting my dietary advice to patients to include healthy fats (oils, nuts and  nut butters, avocados, for example), more veggies and "green leafies," and protein (yep, it includes red meat!) and less starches and sugars.  Above all, calories count!  So eat the ones that avoid big insulin surges and crashes (sugars) that make you crave carbs and choose more of those tasty fats/proteins/vegetables... a first step to avoiding weight gain, and beginning healthy weight loss and maintenance.