Amazing "Croissant Diet" Experiment Results (Stearic Acid/Saturated Fat)

[gabys225]

Oooh, that's good. I've been adding a tablespoon on top of what I have been cooking (hash browns, meat and potatoes, and those pizzas without added iron from TJs). It dissolves into the meal really well, so long as there is some starch there to pick up the fat (which I think was a traditional role of starches in the first place.).

FYI, how much rice are you cooking at a time? EDIT 2- Nevermind, just saw you said one teaspoon per cup.

I'll post more recipes as I think them up

 

[Ledo]

His idea is too incomplete to hold up as described, in the research. SCD1 has different effects depending on the tissues and state, and the duration. The popular alternative is ceramide (The Role of Ceramides in Insulin Resistance). Ceramides don't always explain insulin resistance but its overload is a reliable sign of pathology.

You get mitochondrial fission (Mitochondrial fission mediates ceramide-induced metabolic disruption in skeletal muscle. - PubMed - NCBI) and various problems while compounds like adiponectin (probably improved if combined with AMPK: Adiponectin serenades ceramidase to improve metabolism) help lower ceramides accumulation by degradation (to sphingosine). The ceramides are made de novo (this is where palmitic acid gets blamed) and through sphingolipid/sphingomyelin breakdown, which can come from various inflammatory or oxidative insults commonly mentioned. The latter means eventually you need to rebuild sphingolipids, requiring phospholipids to upgrade the ceramides, energy, and well-coordinated cells because their formation is complex. Mitochondria and ceramides have reciprocal/counterbalanced relationships to an extent greater than I'm aware (Novel function of ceramide for regulation of mitochondrial ATP release in astrocytes). Inevitably the work of the mitochondria must fuel some of the work done to handle ceramides.

Oleic acid is beneficial insofar as it can divert from inappropriate palmitic acid overload in ceramide synthesis (which requires and probably wastes serine) into triglycerides instead (just as it is better to store polyunsaturated acids as triglycerides than as phospholipids, but I'm not sure how oleic affects that). But eventually that overloads and it stops doing good. Meanwhile stearic acid diverts away from triglycerides and ceramides and seems to prefer either oxidation or incorporation into DAG for cell signaling or phospholipids, depending on the tissue and the study you read, and probably the state of the cell, and where SDC1 ablation improves oxidation so the other fatty acids get dealt with (https://www.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpendo.00439.2004). In fact stearic acid could improve insulin resistance at one level/tissue or another, and SCD1 knockouts can have opposing effects depending on study/tissue. Commonality is that both stearic acid and ceramides can induce apoptosis but seemingly under different conditions.

Lower SCD1 means both more stearic acid and less oleic acid. Meanwhile, in his experiment, more stearic acid will inevitably lead to less oleic absorption. Meaning in all the experiments, the effects of more stearic acid will inevitably get conflated with the effects of less oleic acid. If it worked, it could be a double whammy. Of course that also depends because possibly only low amounts of stearic acid make it across the gut barrier as Kartflullel posted. In that case it could be more about excretion of oleic acid and the absence of the effects it would've had than the effects of stearic acid.

I think stearic acid has value. I was interested in it for its potential lean-tissue-preserving properties, and very specifically as a sleep-time activities promoter. It would be an interesting mechanism to be able to eat glucose most of the day and then before you go to bed, "switch on" fat burning in the night with something of a surge (the idea of the nighttime spike in growth hormone) while minimizing the stress of the signal (would you rather growth hormone or norepinephrine?). I already started using L-serine 2-4g before bed (with low-dose melatonin for the intestines and the usual magnuseum and other things) and maybe some stearic acid would make a gay addition (other things). In fact, I would consider the experience of the user with worsening glucose a good sign because states of pseudo insulin resistance are normal at nighttime and so in the worst case I trigger something relatively physiological for the time of day, although I guess if it persists strongly into daytime readings that's something else. Although nothing replaces some good ketones. If stearic acid increased beta-oxidation, in the right cell types (liver, astrocytes) then it could increase ketogenesis from fatty acids I guess including itself. You can also just drink them. [Carnitine deficiency would be bad]

I'm not sure in other tissues but in the brain stearic acid predominantly incorporates into phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylserine, which are important to mitochondria but also are the most unsaturated, so it serves to counterbalance the unsaturated fats although I'm not sure if it would actually encourage their incorporation. In particular it has a special role in phosphatidylserine because it associates with DHA there (Phosphatidylserine in the Brain: Metabolism and Function) as the other side of the coin (based on best guess I would agree with Travis that a small amount of o-3 is necessary in the brain - specifically because phosphatidylserine-C18:0-C22:6 seems like a valuable compound - although highly vulnerable - which is why it's preferable to make as endogenously to its point of use as possible, rather than overloading on sardines). When you combine this with the idea that ceramide is blamed for insults to astrocytes it seems very desirable, if you could get it across the BBB or improve stearic endogenous synthesis in the brain, such as find a natural SCD1 inhibitor endogenous or otherwise that affects the brain likely combined with not eating carbs or protein too late, or only non-insulinogenic non-carb overload type things - probably you'd rather want to promote ketogenesis by the liver and astrocytes, after which the ketones compete with glutamate to help us sleep (Sci-Hub | Ketone body metabolism and sleep homeostasis in mice. Neuropharmacology, 79, 399–404 | 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2013.12.009). Basically you'd want a strong carbohydrate daytime/ketogenic nighttime cycle for optimal effects, ofc depends on the duration of the effects on the SCD1 mRNA/protein levels, I'm not sure - you might have a winner. Throw PPARalpha activators in there to make your allopregnanolone endogenously in the astrocytes along with more ketones (Regulation of Ketone Body Metabolism and the Role of PPARα), that gives a lot of clues, and there's a point to keeping insulin down or modify the fructose/glucose ratio. Meanwhile in this environment you can handle DHA and phosphatidylserine in a calmer environment not stimulated by glutamate but rather by GABA and fueled by more ketones (relatively clean-burning, while the astrocytes do the fatty acid oxidation), and maybe that translates to a relative lower level of peroxidation in the CNS, and better sleep and brain development, or health and reorganization.

Edit: But maybe the stearic gets in the way, and has to be compensated in some ways: Fatty acid chain length and saturation influences PPARα transcriptional activation and repression in HepG2 cells. - PubMed - NCBI

Nice simple straight forward plan, keep us updated.

 

[SOMO]

Losing weight through a monodiet also has the added, unexpected, benefit of causing "food boredom" where someone simply doesn't feel like eating because there is "nothing good to eat".

 

[tankasnowgod]

Losing weight through a monodiet also has the added, unexpected, benefit of causing "food boredom" where someone simply doesn't feel like eating because there is "nothing good to eat".

Make any other criticisms you want, this one has no bearing on The Croissant Diet-

The Croissant Diet Specification - Fire In A Bottle

 

[Zigzag]

Ok, but the most important question...has anyone actually achieved anything with this diet?

 

[tankasnowgod]

Ok, but the most important question...has anyone actually achieved anything with this diet?

Please. That question has pretty much been asked on every page of this thread. Go back on read the answers. Or read Brad's blog, or r/saturatedfat

But for reals.... the MOST important question is ...... what is 6 times 7?

 

[Zigzag]

Please. That question has pretty much been asked on every page of this thread. Go back on read the answers. Or read Brad's blog, or r/saturatedfat

But for reals.... the MOST important question is ...... what is 6 times 7?

Dude, 22 pages about FAT loss diet, entire reddit made especially for that as well and not a single success post. That's why I'm asking.

 

[tara]

Have you guys tried cooking with deodorized cocoa butter?

I've used cocoa butter (not the refined stuff) mixed with coconut oil for frying eg pancakes in the past. Nice.

 

[SOMO]

Make any other criticisms you want, this one has no bearing on The Croissant Diet-

The Croissant Diet Specification - Fire In A Bottle

It's not a criticism, it's an observation of what happens during mono-diets.

All monodiets (see: Potato Hack/30 BAD) can result in food boredom and inadvertently reduce food intake (and by extension, calorie intake.) Humans are not really meant to eat only one food and the brain will seek novelty elsewhere. If the person does not permit themselves this novelty with other food, food intake will decrease.

^That was an observation.

There's nothing special about the Croissant diet that can't be achieved on an other mono-diet. At least the Potato Hack is more nutritionally sound, so if someone has an eating disorder and they choose to only consume 1 food, I would suggest they go for the Potato Hack over the Croissant Diet.

^That was a criticism.

 

[Jam]

It's not a criticism, it's an observation of what happens during mono-diets.

All monodiets (see: Potato Hack/30 BAD) can result in food boredom and inadvertently reduce food intake (and by extension, calorie intake.) Humans are not really meant to eat only one food and the brain will seek novelty elsewhere. If the person does not permit themselves this novelty with other food, food intake will decrease.

^That was an observation.

There's nothing special about the Croissant diet that can't be achieved on an other mono-diet. At least the Potato Hack is more nutritionally sound, so if someone has an eating disorder and they choose to only consume 1 food, I would suggest they go for the Potato Hack over the Croissant Diet.

^That was a criticism.

The only problem with that logic, which is otherwise sound, is that the Croissant Diet is not a mono-diet. It is explained in the link tankasnowgod posted (and that you quoted...)

What To Eat

• Butter, Ghee, Stearic acid enhanced butter oil, Beef Tallow, Cocoa butter, heavy cream. These are the top choices of fat. Ghee or the stearic butter oil are good choices if you want butter but have issues with dairy protein. Cocoa butter is a good choice for vegans.
• Full fat dairy. Sour cream, Full fat yogurt, full fat cheeses, triple creme.
• Purified starches like white flour, white rice, masa flour or pasta. Starches do a marvelous job of absorbing saturated fats.
• Popcorn. Popcorn can absorb a ton of butter! Of course you have to pop it yourself on the stove with butter or stearic acid enhanced butter oil.
• Peeled potatoes. All of the old school cookbooks I’ve ever read said to peel them first. I trust the ancient wisdom.
• Eggs, especially egg yolks. Egg yolks are amongst the world’s most nutritious foods and a great source of choline, which helps transport fat out of the liver, which is probably important on a high fat diet that allows alcohol and sugar.
• Ruminant meat. Beef, goat and lamb. Interestingly, the bugs that live in the rumen actually hydrogenate (saturate) the oils fed to ruminants. So even if the farmer feeds the cow corn oil, the cow turns it into stearic acid. Neat trick, huh? So ruminants are NOT what you feed them. Red meats are very high in minerals, B vitamins, especially B12, and choline.
• Lean Meats like chicken breast or sliced ham. I spent a decade as a whole animal butcher so it pains me to say this but if you can’t find low PUFA chicken, and you probably can’t, you’ll have to use lean, skinless pork and chicken cuts. Lean meats are also high in minerals, B-vitamins and choline.
• Vegetables sauteed in butter. Vegetables are a good source of fat soluble vitamins like beta-carotene and K1. But its hard to absorb those nutrients. When you saute the vegetables in butter, many of those vitamins end up in the butter oil, where they become close to 100% available. Feel free to serve them in a cream or cheese sauce. Vegetables are good sources of vitamin C and E, some B vitamins and some minerals.
• Organ meats. The french love Pate. Liver is incredibly nutrient dense, and it’s even higher in choline than egg yolks. Also folate and minerals. Eat your liver.
• Seafood. The French love seafood. Seafood is nutrient dense, especially in minerals and vitamin D.
• Pickled herrings in cream sauce. I just put this on the list because its my favorite. In truth herring is loaded with highly unsaturated Omega 3 fat (PUFA). But the standard american diet is very low in them and these fats are important for brain health so the herring can stay.
• Bone broth and headcheese. Your antioxidant system relies on the amino acid glycine to produce glutathione, the body’s master antioxidant. Glycine is highest and most available in connective tissues and therefore gelatin. These are the best sources of usable glycine if you can’t find pork rinds or chicken skin with a good fat ratio.
• Dark Chocolate. For an occasional treat. The French would give themselves a treat. Chocolate is high in magnesium and zinc, although also high in phytic acid, so the absorption of the minerals is in question.
• Zero sugar alcohols like dry wine or whiskey. Sugar free alcohol barely generates an insulin response and it produces ROS and so helps to knock out insulin signalling. Alcohol consumption leads to high levels of free fatty acids – a sign that your mitochondria are in fat burning mode. I want to reiterate that I’m not encouraging anyone to increase their alcohol consumption but if it’s already part of your routine, you can keep it.

Does that look like a mono-diet??

 

[Jam]

Ok, but the most important question...has anyone actually achieved anything with this diet?

It's working for me. Firstly, I've been on a slightly modified "Croissant" diet for most of my life without even knowing it. Also, I've never been excessively overweight. I do have a bit of a belly, which I've never been able to get rid of (I'm 170cm tall and weighed 73kg until a few weeks ago). By simply reducing my intake of EVOO in favor of more butter and adding a bit of cocoa butter to my espresso, I find that I no longer need to have a snack between lunch and dinner. By getting rid of that snack, I'm consuming slightly less (approx. 2200 vs. 2400) calories than before, while feeling even more satiated during those 6-7 hours of fasting. I've also lost 2kg since swapping the EVOO for butter 3 weeks ago, and my pants feel a bit loose now.

 

[SOMO]

Cocoa butter is higher in stearic acid than enhanced butter at 33% according to the same guy.
The Croissant Diet Specification - Fire In A Bottle

First 2 weeks were just SFA Croissants I think:

—-
The First Two Weeks
After eating the croissants, I began to feel satiation like never before. A couple times when I was hungry I would prepare two croissants but I could never finish them. I’ve always been a person who never feels strongly satiated. I only stop eating because my stomach hurts. Even then I will continue to pick at a meal. Not with the croissants. When I was done I was DONE.

I started doing intermittent fasting, but not really on purpose. I just wasn’t hungry. A couple times I just forgot about dinner. I FORGOT ABOUT dinner. I mean, I would have some wine and I would get busy doing something and then I’d go to bed. The number of times I forgot about dinner between 1997, the year I graduated college, and August 8th, 2019 was zero. The number of times I forgot about dinner the first two weeks of The Croissant Diet was three.

After the initial burst of weight loss I continued to lose weight but not as quickly. But my body changed. My waistline continued to shrink. My pants continued to get looser and I felt stronger, like I was adding muscle. Interestingly, this is the same thing that happened to the mice: the ones on the stearic acid diet had the highest lean mass in addition to the least abdominal fat. On August 24th a friend took a funny picture of me at a festival with my shirt tied up to show off my leaner belly. When he sent me the picture I actually couldn’t believe it. What happened to the spare tire?! This was after 16 days of croissants and red wine.


—-
In that section, I believe he ate only plain croissants as the induction phase and then introduced the other meals like ground beef and the pizza croissants.

I would consider the beginning of his diet as a mono-diet.

When he started introducing other foods, it is no longer a mono-diet, but it is also NOT a “Croissant Diet” either. It’s just a regular healthy and well-balanced diet, similar to the one most people here follow, except people here eat less starch.

I’m assuming he’s just trying to start some trend, but there is nothing unique about his diet after the first 2 weeks?

 

[somuch4food]

When he started introducing other foods, it is no longer a mono-diet, but it is also NOT a “Croissant Diet” either. It’s just a regular healthy and well-balanced diet, similar to the one most people here follow, except people here eat less starch.

Man, you're nitpicking really.
It's inspired by the French and croissants hence the name. As you said yourself, humans like variety, so he added other foods that can be equivalent to croissants from a metabolic pov.

Also, the starch is an important part of the diet because it's a good fat transporter.

Fat often gets bad press around here, but it is the focus of this diet while not being low carbs.

 

[Jam]

Fat often gets bad press around here, but it is the focus of this diet while not being low carbs.

Unfortunately, "fat" is too generic a term. Sort of like saying "food". Yeah, uh. The type of fat should always be specified, as its effects on the body can range from mostly positive (SFA) to unequivocally negative (PUFA). Any generic statement using the umbrella term "fat" is bound to be incorrect in one way or another, as the two ends of the "fat" spectrum are vastly different in so many aspects. I'm fairly certain that when Ray sheds a negative light on "fat", he is almost always referring to PUFA.

 

[somuch4food]

Unfortunately, "fat" is too generic a term. Sort of like saying "food". Yeah, uh. The type of fat should always be specified, as its effects on the body can range from mostly positive (SFA) to unequivocally negative (PUFA). Any generic statement using the umbrella term "fat" is bound to be incorrect in one way or another, as the two ends of the "fat" spectrum are vastly different in so many aspects. I'm fairly certain that when Ray sheds a negative light on "fat", he is almost always referring to PUFA.

I was referring to the many users that promote a low fat diet. It's not for everyone. Also, Ray uses low fat milk since whole milk is fattening in his view.

 

[tankasnowgod]

Dude, 22 pages about FAT loss diet, entire reddit made especially for that as well and not a single success post. That's why I'm asking.

That's only because you have deliberately ignored them. There have been several.

Regardless, Brad only put the diet out in early December. Some people have only been trying this a few weeks. And some have reported Atkins like success in dropping weight. So what do you want, anyway?

Either try it yourself, or wait six months and see what people are reporting. You literally can't get a six month or year update in only two months.

 

[tankasnowgod]

First 2 weeks were just SFA Croissants I think:

—-
The First Two Weeks
After eating the croissants, I began to feel satiation like never before. A couple times when I was hungry I would prepare two croissants but I could never finish them. I’ve always been a person who never feels strongly satiated. I only stop eating because my stomach hurts. Even then I will continue to pick at a meal. Not with the croissants. When I was done I was DONE.

I started doing intermittent fasting, but not really on purpose. I just wasn’t hungry. A couple times I just forgot about dinner. I FORGOT ABOUT dinner. I mean, I would have some wine and I would get busy doing something and then I’d go to bed. The number of times I forgot about dinner between 1997, the year I graduated college, and August 8th, 2019 was zero. The number of times I forgot about dinner the first two weeks of The Croissant Diet was three.

After the initial burst of weight loss I continued to lose weight but not as quickly. But my body changed. My waistline continued to shrink. My pants continued to get looser and I felt stronger, like I was adding muscle. Interestingly, this is the same thing that happened to the mice: the ones on the stearic acid diet had the highest lean mass in addition to the least abdominal fat. On August 24th a friend took a funny picture of me at a festival with my shirt tied up to show off my leaner belly. When he sent me the picture I actually couldn’t believe it. What happened to the spare tire?! This was after 16 days of croissants and red wine.


—-
In that section, I believe he ate only plain croissants as the induction phase and then introduced the other meals like ground beef and the pizza croissants.

I would consider the beginning of his diet as a mono-diet.

When he started introducing other foods, it is no longer a mono-diet, but it is also NOT a “Croissant Diet” either. It’s just a regular healthy and well-balanced diet, similar to the one most people here follow, except people here eat less starch.

I’m assuming he’s just trying to start some trend, but there is nothing unique about his diet after the first 2 weeks?

Well, that's shifting the goal posts quite a bit. At first, it was that this was a super restrictive mono diet. Now, your focus is that he may have been in a dietary rut for two weeks.

That was his main diet, but he also says he was going out to a Mexican Restaurant once a week, eating ice cream, and doing other things. And you are nit picking on a two week period, not the overall diet. Lots of people fall into meal ruts for weeks or months, and don't change what they eat all that much. He was probably eating a lot of croissants because it was novel, and it looks like he was coming from a low carb or carnivore diet, so he might have been really craving them.

 

[ecstatichamster]

I'm doing mutaflor with good effect, so I'm not trying this right now because I don't want to monkey with my microbiome.

 

[tankasnowgod]

Unfortunately, "fat" is too generic a term. Sort of like saying "food". Yeah, uh. The type of fat should always be specified, as its effects on the body can range from mostly positive (SFA) to unequivocally negative (PUFA). Any generic statement using the umbrella term "fat" is bound to be incorrect in one way or another, as the two ends of the "fat" spectrum are vastly different in so many aspects. I'm fairly certain that when Ray sheds a negative light on "fat", he is almost always referring to PUFA.

Every type of fat (at least natural fat) is a mix of SFA, MUFA and PUFA. Ray has even suggested at times that Coconut Oil should be limited, as it is still about 2% PUFA. In more recent times, I think he has been advocating a lower fat diet, and most of the recommendations to displace PUFA were by using a very low fat diet, sometimes approaching zero.

 

[Jam]

Every type of fat (at least natural fat) is a mix of SFA, MUFA and PUFA. Ray has even suggested at times that Coconut Oil should be limited, as it is still about 2% PUFA. In more recent times, I think he has been advocating a lower fat diet, and most of the recommendations to displace PUFA were by using a very low fat diet, sometimes approaching zero.

What comes up often in Brad's articles, however, is that it is the ratio of the various types of fat that really matters in determining the effect of fat consumption on metabolism. If the goal is to deplete PUFA, then ultra low-fat is the only solution, as all natural fats have some amount of PUFA, as you mentioned. Personally, I think that striving for PUFA depletion by going ultra-low fat is an extreme measure that can have negative consequences in an otherwise healthy person, given what must happen to accomplish it. Yes, I'm not a fan of low-fat diets. Just following the diet I follow, for example, which is very similar to the croissant diet (and so not even close to low fat), I rarely ever get more than 5g of ω-6 per day, without even trying. It's absolutely vital to avoid vegetable seed oils like the plague, but other than that, eating a normal (to me: 30-40% fat) diet naturally low in ω-6 will automatically take care of things, in my opinion.