Banting: a layman’s perspective

Published Feb 27, 2015

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Cape Town – Against the backdrop of current news headlines, I feel that it might be helpful to set out my personal experience as this could serve to help others who are suffering the ill effects of obesity, hypertension, dyslipideamia and pre-diabetes.

In a nutshell it is really about taking charge of your own well-being.

Over the past year or so the local electronic and print media has become something of a battleground in the context of Tim Noakes/Banting/Low Carb High Fat (LCHF).

On the one hand there are some truly outrageous statements based on abject ignorance, but these are usually balanced by input from those citing their personal success.

For the most part these debates are a contest between laymen with very little reference to the underpinning science.

As a layman, there is only one way to find your way through the maze of conflicting opinions and information overload, to enable you to decide whether or not you wish to subscribe to the ideas put out by those espousing LCHF.

You have to make the effort to inform yourself as to the current perceived wisdom. This is the unavoidable starting point because if you are not informed you will be torn by every conflicting opinion you hear, and fail. Much of what you will read will conflict with the dietary advice you have been receiving over the past decades.

The best source material for beginners is probably to be found in two books. First you should carefully read and understand the comments made by Professor Tim Noakes at the back of The Real Meal Revolution because local context is a great help.

You should then do the same with Why We Get Fat, And What To Do About It by Gary Taubes. This will lead you to other books of the genre, in particular the more technically complex Good Calories: Bad Calories (The Diet Delusion in some versions), also by Taubes. A great book.

The next important step is to decide whether the lifestyle dietary changes embodied in these and similar books are the way you want to go. Remember we are talking Low Carb High Fat. You must ascertain if you are a suitable candidate and to do so you need to establish whether or not you are afflicted by metabolic syndrome (MS), which is defined by five markers, namely:

* Hypertension or high blood pressure

* Obesity

* Elevated blood glucose

* Elevated triglycerides

* Low HDL

The internet is a great source of supplementary information explaining these terms and concepts. If any of these conditions apply to you, then you should redouble your efforts to become fully informed. Until you reach the stage where you know what people like Noakes and Taubes are actually saying it is very difficult to start making real-life decisions.

Much of what finds its way into popular debate and conversation is distorted by hearsay and poor understanding. You need to overcome this to succeed, and popular magazines are not a good source of proper health-care information.

Once you have reached the stage where you understand the basics you need to plan. A haphazard, unplanned approach is almost certainly doomed to failure and there are certain things that helped me to get started.

You have to set goals and although this can be done on your own, you may want to consult a health-care professional who subscribes to the basic tenets of the LCHF lifestyle. In my experience an increasing number of doctors approve of LCHF, having seen the spectacular results which can be achieved by some of their self-motivated and committed patients.

The goals which you set yourself should include weight loss and reduced body mass index (BMI) to within the normal ranges. You need to carefully monitor progress on a daily basis by weighing yourself and keeping an accurate record. You also need to closely monitor blood glucose levels, hypertension and your lipid profile, with particular regard to HDL and triglycerides. Do a spread sheet and insist on copies of all reports.

You need to use the Green, Orange and Red Food Lists in The Real Meal Revolution and restrict your food intake on the basis recommended in the book. Personal experience will soon teach you that cheating can very easily undermine your progress. Become a bit fanatical.

Pay particular attention to your sugar intake with the goal of eliminating it completely from your diet. In my opinion this is the single most important aspect and you should never consider compromising. I have discovered a deep addiction to sugar and you will soon learn that it has to be cut out of your diet in all its various forms. Read labels, become a pain in the neck, but cut it out.

The book Fat Chance by paediatric endocrinologist Dr Robert Lustig is a good way to find out what a toxic substance sugar really is. This leads to another important taboo and all the foods on Noakes’s Red List are completely off limits for me.

You will meet many people who claim to be Banting but are just flirting around the edges of the lifestyle change without any real commitment. Do not let them distract you because they are not going to succeed and will undermine your efforts because they do not understand the basics.

Many LCHF adherents achieve quite spectacular weight loss and this does result in changes to appearance. These changes sometimes prompt friends and family to raise concerns about your welfare and the advisability of continuing. If there is any doubt about your health, it would be a good idea to consult your doctor immediately.

It is quite easy to become obsessive about your new lifestyle and being obsessive is a short step away from becoming a bore.

I have learnt that most people are not really that interested in your LCHF campaign and when their eyes glaze over, I drop the subject. As a corollary I also avoid discussing LCHF/Banting with people who are not informed about the basics because these discussions take you nowhere. You are not going to win any arguments with people who believe that eggs will kill you. While I am on the subject of eggs, I now eat a raw egg with a dash of Tabasco every morning.

In conclusion, let me stress that this article is based on my opinions and understanding of the literature. I make no claims to professional expertise, but I do believe that in an era of escalating medical costs, complexity and conflicting information, more people should take charge of their own health. In my opinion Noakes, Taubes, et al are taking us in the right direction.

Cape Times

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