Do I Need Fat?

[stargazer1111]

AIUI, Kempner's plan worked really well for some people as an intervention to deal with severe conditions. But it didn't work at all for some of the subjects, and being a good remedy isn't the same as being ideal for all healthy people. He did not demonstrate that extremely low fat diets were ideal for everyone.

I thought coconut was one of the traditional staples in PNG, along with root crops?

As far as I'm aware, the primary component of the New Guinea traditional diet is sweet potatoes. It makes up nearly all of their calories. NUTRITION STUDIES IN NEW GUINEA. - PubMed - NCBI

The majority of patients did well on the Kempner diet. Those who did not were the exceptions to the rule. The majority of patients reverted to a normal weight and the majority either went off diabetes medication entirely or markedly reduced their need for it.

 

[Runenight201]

As far as I'm aware, the primary component of the New Guinea traditional diet is sweet potatoes. It makes up nearly all of their calories. NUTRITION STUDIES IN NEW GUINEA. - PubMed - NCBI

The majority of patients did well on the Kempner diet. Those who did not were the exceptions to the rule. The majority of patients reverted to a normal weight and the majority either went off diabetes medication entirely or markedly reduced their need for it.

Kempner also had to force his patients to follow his protocol by whipping them. Something about that doesn’t seem natural to me.

 

[stargazer1111]

Kempner also had to force his patients to follow his protocol by whipping them. Something about that doesn’t seem natural to me.

Yeah but you could argue that they were severely craving foods not because they require them but because their brains are accustomed to the pleasure response from eating them and this was a primitive way of breaking an addiction.

Kempner isn't the only evidence. A number of thriving populations around the world are very high carb, very low fat (down around 10% of calories as fat).

 

[Zoiros]

29 y/o male here. I’ve been experimenting with HCLF since late 2017, and I went from 240 lbs down to 175 in about 6 months, not counting calories.

Like others here, I experienced a huge increase in energy and wellbeing, my chronic fatigue syndrome was cured, hair loss reversed, basically cured all my health/weight problems.

My diet consisted of fat free milk, OJ, coffee, honey, gelatin, casein, fruit, and occasionally liver. When my diet was most strict, fat was limited to no more than 10g per day. I would eat at least 150g of protein per day. Carbs to satiety, usually 350+g per day.

I currently eat about 60g of fat per day and 120g protein. I’m not nearly as strict as I was, currently I’ve added chocolate, muscle meat, butter, coconut, and the occasional 1-2 eggs.

I did get odd cravings for fat/starch, but I found that this was really a salt craving, IMO due to the high amount of potassium I was getting. An extra 1/2 tsp of canning salt really helped reduce my cravings.

 

[Runenight201]

Yeah but you could argue that they were severely craving foods not because they require them but because their brains are accustomed to the pleasure response from eating them and this was a primitive way of breaking an addiction.

Kempner isn't the only evidence. A number of thriving populations around the world are very high carb, very low fat (down around 10% of calories as fat).

longevity and lack of disease isn’t the same as thriving, and if we consider inferior conscious states a disease, then it would extend that these low fat populations are in fact sick!

 

[stargazer1111]

longevity and lack of disease isn’t the same as thriving, and if we consider inferior conscious states a disease, then it would extend that these low fat populations are in fact sick!

Define an inferior conscious state. I'm not sure what you mean.

My brain seems to work better on ultra low-fat as long as I include fiber. Probably something to do with short chain fatty acids and the intestinal mucosal cells.

 

[Runenight201]

Define an inferior conscious state. I'm not sure what you mean.

My brain seems to work better on ultra low-fat as long as I include fiber. Probably something to do with short chain fatty acids and the intestinal mucosal cells.

Short-temper, negative emotional states, anxiety, depression, apathy, inflexibility, low intelligence, inability to draw associations, etc... etc....

All of these things can be drastically effected by our nutritional intake, but aren’t shown on blood tests. Someone can live to 105 in a subdued state eating a rice and beans diet and be medically “healthy” their whole life.

Now, i wouldn’t say a high fat diet is necessary for all those criteria, but rather an intricately composite diet with a wide assortment of food ingredients combined in a synergistic manner seems to be the most effective in pushing the organism to higher states. In this composite diet, there would be thrown in the appropriate amounts of fats to correctly prepare the dishes and increase pleasurability and satiation from a meal. Diving into the world of cooking is a very rewarding and ultimately life affirming practice.

I would argue that part of the difficulty of poor people remaining poor is that they eat a very low energy diet with little complexity of ingredients and flavors, resulting in lower intelligence and energy and more inflammation, making it harder for them to properly escape their poverty. Wealthy people with higher intelligence usually prefer a more complex diet with a wide assortment of ingredients (assumption with no real scientific evidence). For example, a meal at Popeyes and a meal at your four or five star restaurant (idk how that whole system works...) are going to have a completely different profile of foods and food combinations, one of them leading to poor health and the other the opposite.

 

[tara]

As far as I'm aware, the primary component of the New Guinea traditional diet is sweet potatoes. It makes up nearly all of their calories. NUTRITION STUDIES IN NEW GUINEA. - PubMed - NCBI

I think highland PNG may eat less coconut than coastal.
I've just read the summary, but not the full text. AIUI, the children measured tended to thin bones (measured at wrist), and supplementing even just 10g protein made difference for them. When they have money, they buy more protein foods. Is there something beyond the summary that shows that very high sweet potato diet to be adequate?