Here's yet another thought-provoking article by Dr. Mike:

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=265

He says that since most of the vitamins and other nutrients in fruits and veggies are fat-soluble, if you don't eat fat with them you're not getting the nutrition you think you are. Think of those self-righteous people eating huge salads filled with veggies and then topping it off with fat-free dressing. Not as healthy as they think!

Here's a quote:

All I can say to this is Hallelujah, bring on the blue cheese!

Ok, joking aside, this has been a huge deal for me not only in how I eat now, but in remembering back to my childhood and how I got sucked in the LF craze as I got older.

My Mom, who cooked veggies often until they were twice dead (she comes from Germany and does meat and potatoes well, but the veggies never stood a chance, heh) always added a liberal dose of butter to them as she cooked them. In retrospect, I realize how wise that was compared to my later years when I steamed them carefully and didn't dare put a bit of fat on them. Thankfully I transitioned out of that into "olive oil" mode for awhile, so I'm sure my sauteed spinach with garlic and olive oil definitely turned things around for me. Still it's all very interesting to me to see the trend in my life and, in a sense, having come full circle and to optimum health. (I truly believe I'm the healthiest I've ever been now.)

Me, too. I fell for the low-fat/high-carb hook, line, and sinker. I was a fanatic about it. No fat would pass my lips. I had breakfasts of dry toast, lunch was a dry bagel, tuna with no-fat Miracle Whip, and a half an apple, and dinner was often pasta and chicken breasts cooked with no fat. I also exercised furiously, up to an hour a day, 5 to 6 times a week.

Guess what. I gained. A lot. This was during one summer during which I wrote down EVERYTHING I ate and every exercise session I did. Never more than around 1100 calories, fat below 20% (probably below 10%). I even went to the doctor to ask why I was gaining weight. He referred me to a nutritionist (who looked anorexic, if you asked me!). She asked what I ate the night before. Well, my mother had just recently had a stroke and came (from Michigan) to live with us. She really wanted pizza, so I had 2 slices of pizza that night -- something I hadn't done in months.

So, back to the nutritionist. She asked what I ate the night before. I told her about the 2 slices of pizza. Well, no wonder you're gaining weight, eating like that! I explained that this was a rare occurrence, and tried to show her my journal. She wasn't interested. She told me to eat the same things every day. For lunch she recommended a dry baloney sandwich and an apple. Baloney?

Well, long story short, that's exactly what I said. BALONEY!

Oh, for the love of lunch meat!!!! Doesn't that just get your knickers in a twist? Some anoxeric nutritionist condemns you for ONE night of pizza and doesn't pay attention to the trends? Useless and obnoxious and how wonderful that you just found your own way. Hell, even Jenny Craig and other places are starting to get on the "good carb" bandwagon (it's not ideal, but I feel like it's a good trend at least - it helps to slowly spread the word that having more veggies instead of white bread could be GOOD, duh). When you speak of "dry toast" I think of my in-laws and how they are so afraid of butter and yet both are overweight and though I'm doing my best to set a good example, I don't think I'll ever pry them away from their egg beaters with cooking spray, ya know? <sigh>

I always knew that such extremist behaviour didn't make sense and yet I still bought into it for a bit. I remember reading a book by Robin Landis, I think her name was..."Bodyfueling". It spoke of eating 2 bagels versus some fatty hamburger or something along those lines. I can't remember the specifics now, but I thought the concept was good - finding ways to "fuel" your body. It gave me permission to eat more, which was good because I had a strong appetite. So I ate more. HOWEVER I was eating the WRONG foods and what happened? Yup, you guessed it. I gained. Ugh. I finally said "enough with the damn bagels, I want a STEAK!" and with that I discovered Atkins, dabbled with the Zone and Carb busters...and slowly discovered a lower carb world that would later become my WOL. I think my love of good protein (always been a steak girl) and good food and my desire to find a way to keep all that from being forbidden ended of saving me.

Yeah. After that summer I happened to run across a blurb in a magazine that said that despite what people think, most women don't get enough protein in their diet.

Then a couple days later I was rummaging around in the bookstore -- likely looking for another book by <<now hanging my head in embarrassment>> Jane Brody -- when I saw a book called "Protein Power."

And the rest is history!

crazy story upon recollection for me. As a teenager, my mother and father worked long hours so me and my siblings were often left to eat fast food/junk for years which lead to me being overweight. Nothing insane but enough to affect my image personally participating in sports and other social events.

As we all know its a pretty tough age amongst your peers so I spoke to my mother for guidance who then brought me to a doctor and then a nutritionist. She proceeded to tell him I was active and didnt eat abnormally for my age/height or whatever like we all say. The doctor then tells me that I obviously eat too much for me. Which I suppose was correct.

After visiting the nutritionist, I was advised to follow a low-fat diet that everyone is so familiar with in this thread. Luckily for me, my mom thought they were all crazy and decided to begin making me meals separately from the rest of the family and they were always similar. This was in the early 80's.

I ended up losing all the excess weight in less than 6 months and never had a problem with it again. My mother had no book or plan except she cooked me a relatively big piece of meat like steak, chicken or fish nightly, a salad and maybe another vegetable. It was never anything processed or mac and cheese or anything of the sort now i think about it. I was always content and feeling much better than I had for years and I was never hungry in between meals.

Looking back years after the fact I realized I was low-carbing before anyone of us knew what the hell it was. My mother has little to no knowledge of low-carbto this day really but i guess I can credit those motherly instincts or something. I just remember how easy it was and never understood why until now.

What a great story and what great motherly instincts!

I remember even early in childhood that sweets didn't call to me. My Mom used to joke that offering me a lollipop was useless, you'd get further giving me a piece of salami! LOL (Or maybe steak? It's still my favorite food to this day.) I think starches finally did me in, although for awhile staying active (sports and musicals) helped combat being overweight.

Isn't it amazing how we can look at our childhood and adolescent eating habits now and realize just how much they affected us?

Sorry if I got us off topic! [/hijack]