For the past 16 years I have touted the benefits of eating a high fat, low carb diet to help reverse chronic disease, including diabetes, autoimmunity, neuropathy, and more. Many patients upon initially hearing my recommendations stare with wide eyes and open jaws…

…”how can that be?”

…”but my cardiologist wants me to eat low fat!”

…”but my diabetes educator instructed me to cut back on fat and increase my carbs with my meals to better stabilize my insulin!”

…”but fat is full of calories!”

…”but my doctor says that will increase my cholesterol and risk of heart attack!”

…and on and on and on.

It’s difficult to change in such a dramatic way after decades of being lied to about how and what to eat!

But, when your brain’s solid matter is almost 70 percent fat, and 55 percent of your cell membranes are made of fat…HOW CAN A LOW/NO FAT DIET BE GOOD FOR YOU?!

Turns out, I’m not so crazy after all! Research has come out that backs me up!

According to recently published research1, an international team of scientists studied diet and mortality in over 135,000 people between the ages of 35 and 70 years in 18 countries for more than 7 years and discovered that those people who ate higher percentages of carbs had a 28% increased risk of death, while those who ate a higher fat diet (including saturated), had lower risk of death. Higher fat diets were also associated with a lower risk of stroke.

Say that again?
Higher fat diets were associated with a lower risk of death AND lower risk of stroke!

The study showed that eating low fat lowered life expectancy, as did eating higher carb diets.

Ironically, there were some doctors that had this figured out as far back as the 1930’s! But, suspiciously some folks didn’t want us to know this. Dr. Weston Price2, a dentist who was very interested in holistic health, visited isolated tribes and populations of indigenous people all over the world and what he discovered and documented was that overall great health was noted in these people on all fronts and that many of these populations ate relatively high fat, moderate protein and low carb diets (low in carbs naturally because of lack of exposure to added sugars and processed sugars such as high fructose sugars). They enjoyed long lives, with little chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis, and had very healthy teeth…even without modern medicine and dental care!

In the end, the truth always comes out, and now instead of trying to defend “crazy Dr. Steph’s advice” to people who ‘know better’, you can direct people to the research.

While I definitely promote a high fat lifestyle it’s important to understand some things.

First, when you increase your dietary fats, you must decrease your sugars. This means literal sugar, but also all sources of food that naturally are high in sugars, such as grains, processed baked goods, cereals, pasta and fruit. Fruit is sugar and needs to be treated as such. This means limiting fruit to 1-2 servings per day. Many of my diabetic patients confess to eating 5 or more servings of fruit a day and struggle to get their sugars down.

Secondly, you want to be eating healthy fats while avoiding unhealthy fats. Unhealthy fats that should be avoided are ANYTHING hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, and wherever possible, corn oil, canola oil, and soy oil.

Healthy fats include olive oil, fish oil, coconut oil, lard from grass-fed animals, flax oil, grape seed oil, avocado seed oil, red palm fruit oil, just to name a bunch. Some are fine to cook with, but others like fish, flax and olive oil are better consumed without heat.

For more information on which fats are the best for your health, which fats to avoid and how to balance it all, pick up a copy of Dr. Steph’s “Skinny on Fats” audio lecture and a copy of the books “Lose the Gluten Lose Your Gut, Ditch the Grain Save Your Brain” and “Defeat Diabetes“.

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References:
Dehghan M, Mente A, Zhang X, Swaminathan S, Li W, Mohan V, Iqbal R, Kumar R, Wentzel-Viljoen E, et al. Associations of fats and carbohydrate intake with cardiovascular disease and mortality in 18 countries from five continents (PURE): a prospective cohort study. Lancet. 2017 Aug 28.

The Skinny on Fats