Men's Health: For the Love of Bacon

[kyrasdad]

Some of what's here will be no surprise to you if you have followed the topic for a long while, but it's still a very good piece. I think Men's Health is a great nutritional resource; it's decidedly pro-low-carb (but does talk a bit about fat) and sensible about stressing the sugar levels as the real nutritional problem most guys (and gals) face. I pick it up every month. It's worth supporting because it's a rare media outlet that gets it. And the rest of the magazine is worthwhile, too.

For the Love of Bacon (http://thefitnessinsider.menshealth.com/2008/02/for-the-love-of.html)

The long article linked in this blog post is not something I want to repaste here, but it's a good read...see it here. (http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=health&category=heart.disease&conitem=a03ddd2eaab85110VgnVCM10000013281eac____)

[kyrasdad]

One killer quote in this:
"There's a subgroup of people at high risk of heart disease who may respond well to diets low in fat," says Dr. Krauss. "But the majority of healthy people seem to derive very little benefit from these low-fat diets, in terms of heart-disease risk factors, unless they also lose weight and exercise. And if a low-fat diet is also loaded with carbs, it can actually result in adverse changes in blood lipids."
For 30 years, Dr. Krauss -- an adjunct professor of nutritional sciences at the University of California at Berkeley -- has been studying the effect of diet and blood lipids on cardiovascular disease.

[camaromom]

I think Womens Health is from the same company. They, however, support more of a "Mediteranean Diet". Drat!

[kwikdriver]

I think Womens Health is from the same company. They, however, support more of a "Mediteranean Diet". Drat!

In my experience, women, as a group, are more hostile to low carbing than men are, and more accepting of conventional wisdom. I wouldn't be surprised if they adopted that position as a business decision, rather than out of genuine conviction -- if they are seen as nutritional radicals, they won't sell magazines. I work with a few guys who would like to try low carb, but their wives absolutely refuse to let them, citing the usual horror stories about "all that fat," and "needing grains" and so on. These are guys who are following something like a Mediterranean Diet, and are on two or three blood pressure and other medications. One guy brings his wife-packed meals to work (Cheerios, fat free milk, cottage cheese, some whole grainy, bready sandwich -- perfect Mediterranean stuff), and in the same container, more pills than I can count that he takes every day. He's about 40. It literally makes me cringe to see that.

[LCivility]

i think women are more resistant to low carb unless they have come to it after ruining their health by following the advice of nutrition "experts." IMO, hell hath no fury like a woman betrayed nutritionally.

[rightnow]

In my experience, women, as a group, are more hostile to low carbing than men are, and more accepting of conventional wisdom.
Women have been the targets of huge amounts of very directed media advertisement for the last century. Men were nearly ignored for food, furniture, and other things until pretty recently by advertising! And the whole diet thing was almost exclusively a female focus in media and advertising until recently. So I think historically, women have been vastly more affected by 'the party line' than men, who usually just ate what their mom gave them or what their wife gave them, and didn't worry about it until they got fat or heart disease.

I work with a few guys who would like to try low carb, but their wives absolutely refuse to let them, citing the usual horror stories about "all that fat," and "needing grains" and so on. These are guys who are following something like a Mediterranean Diet, and are on two or three blood pressure and other medications. One guy brings his wife-packed meals to work (Cheerios, fat free milk, cottage cheese, some whole grainy, bready sandwich -- perfect Mediterranean stuff), and in the same container, more pills than I can count that he takes every day. He's about 40. It literally makes me cringe to see that.
My god. So his wife's love can make him miserable now and dead before long. That's just horrible to imagine any man trying to live on that. He must be weak and cranky and exhausted and thinking about food all the time.

REAL "mediterranean" food would have given him a big chunk of meat, and a bunch of fresh garden veggies, and a SMALL side of some kind of pasta. That diet you describe above is what my stepmom put me on when I was 12. It was insufficient nutritionally for a girl of 12, never mind a grown man. And it bears almost no resemblance to the "historical eating of the mediterranean".

PJ

[rightnow]

Thanks for that ref Kyrasdad. I bought a subscription to the magazine for my father. My stepmother feeds them by the ADA approach, which sucks, but is not AS bad as the USDA approach at least. I think if it were a magazine for men, given he's retired now, he might actually read it, who knows? Anything that encourages him to eat REAL FOOD I consider worth a try. :-)

[rightnow]

"Related links" on the page with that bacon article included:
Dr. Mary Vernon
Dr. Michael Eades
Dr. Mary Dan Eades
Weight of the Evidence (http://weightoftheevidence.blogspot.com/) <!--- YAY Regina! ;-)

[M Levac]

That article starts off great. It's basically explaining the two sides of the saturated fats debate. Both sides get their full share of explanations. I'm able to make up my mind quite clearly what with all the information being thrown at me. Then, all of a sudden, without any justification of any kind, without any supporting evidence of any kind, ends with the mention that healthy living, whatever that means, is pertinent to the subject and could, if one were to do that, make some sort of difference but we're not sure how nor why it would make a difference.

This article leaves me very skeptical of everything that was written prior to that healthy living stint. I think the author deserves a firm slap on the wrist for his obvious attempt at telling us what to do.

Healthy living? Eating low carb and high fat IS healthy living.

[kyrasdad]

My god. So his wife's love can make him miserable now and dead before long. That's just horrible to imagine any man trying to live on that. He must be weak and cranky and exhausted and thinking about food all the time.
More likely: He hits Taco Bueno and Carl's Jr. drive-throughs from time to time. That's what most guys would do. Either way he's not doing his health any favors.

On the topic of LC and men & women, I think LC is much more acceptable to guys than low fat or low calorie. I have no idea of the actual numbers, but I know of one guy who has sustained a weight loss on Weight Watchers. He's in fact the only guy I know who's even been on it. Another guy at the office did Slim-Fast, lost 50 lbs., then of course regained it as you are likely to do when the basis of your diet is glorified chocolate milk.

But I know several guys who are on LC, and who've stuck to it. I know of a couple others who had great success and lapsed. The point being that guys perceive it as a more acceptable diet than something that puts boiled, skinless chicken breasts, some kind of grains, and peas in front of them. While the numbers on this forum (just observing the number of posters) tells me women are the majority of LC dieters, men are a higher percentage of that than they are of any other diet group. The WW's of the world barely bother to market to guys, because most guys won't do it, and many don't care enough to try -- or don't admit that they do.

Anyway, my wife says she "can't" do LC, and she's doing pretty well on WW, although we'll see in the longterm. She just doesn't like the food I like--she can't imagine a lunch of grilled pork tenderloin, which is what I'm having today. :)

[rightnow]

The first time I heard of LC it was from my buddy Roger. He was Captain in the local Fire Department. And, he was the cook. He told all his men they were getting too fleshy, and he spent many hours of downtime (which is plenty in the FD) explaining lowcarb to them, and they were all really gung ho for it. As they live at the station on their long shifts, they only had to deal with it at home half the time. The entire team lost a LOT of fat, quite rapidly -- these are big muscular guys of course. At the time I didn't believe that fad diet (...) would work for me, but it was a great testimonial that later contributed to encouraging me.

PJ

[Nancy LC]

Sexual stereotypes of foods.

I think we have this concept that meat is manly and virile. That's why guys like to bbq, they get to play with fire and meat. Ask them to make a quiche, most will look at you cross-eyed.

Salads on the other hand we seem to think of as female food. How often do you see a guy sit down to a big salad and eat that as his meal?

[santabarb]

I'm a big fan of the timeless wisdom provided by the Weston A Price Institute site and Price-Pottenger. They are classic and yet not narrow in their viewpoints. At least that's what I've personally found so far. :)

[kyrasdad]

Sexual stereotypes of foods.

I think we have this concept that meat is manly and virile. That's why guys like to bbq, they get to play with fire and meat. Ask them to make a quiche, most will look at you cross-eyed.

Salads on the other hand we seem to think of as female food. How often do you see a guy sit down to a big salad and eat that as his meal?

I love to smoke and grill stuff, and really have come to like all kinds of cooking except baking (on LC, what's the point?). I like salad more than my wife does, but I've always liked a good salad. Last night I had romaine with tomatoes and artichoke hearts in my salad, and topped it with some turkey, some smoked sausage and a couple sticks of bacon. Added a handful of bleu cheese. How could any guy not like that? :)

[Wifezilla]

One guy brings his wife-packed meals to work (Cheerios, fat free milk, cottage cheese, some whole grainy, bready sandwich -- perfect Mediterranean stuff),

Hey! That's what I ate when I ballooned up to 280lbs!

[santabarb]

What I was trying to say is that Weston A Price and Price-Pottenger encourage a way of eating that has worked well for centuries for both men and women: meat, butter, cream, bacon, vegetables, cultured foods, some fruit, no sugar, no artificial ingredients, no denatured foods of any kind.

Gosh, I feel sorry for the cheerios and hi carb guy--I bet he really does have pop in for his burger somewhere to keep from climbing the walls with hunger.

But your self-selected meat and salad type food looks far more satisfying.

[pengu1]

Sexual stereotypes of foods.

I think we have this concept that meat is manly and virile. That's why guys like to bbq, they get to play with fire and meat. Ask them to make a quiche, most will look at you cross-eyed.

Salads on the other hand we seem to think of as female food. How often do you see a guy sit down to a big salad and eat that as his meal?

I make a damn fine quiche, thank you very much! I also like a salad more than my GF. See what you get when you sterotype? :D