Eat Fat, Lose Fat (11 page)
Authors: Mary Enig
Deborah’s Story: Sluggish Metabolism
Deborah had been fighting hypothyroidism and a sluggish metabolism for ten years, gaining over 60 pounds. It seemed that her doctor increased her dose of thyroid medication with every visit, but to no avail. She continued to feel tired and to have trouble losing weight.
She decided to go on a low-carb diet and found that reducing her reliance on grains, sugars, and sweets produced weight loss. But she still was plagued by cravings and had trouble losing that last 15 pounds. Then Deborah learned about the benefits of coconut oil and tried adding two tablespoons, along with cod-liver oil and some whole foods, to her morning meal.
In three weeks, she lost 11 pounds. Two years later, she has retained her weight loss. She loved the fact that it was so easy to prepare wholesome foods that were delicious as well as satisfying, so she wasn’t tempted to fall off the wagon.
Christine’s Story: Thyroid Indicators Improved
Christine had suffered from symptoms of thryoid problems for years—she lacked energy and always felt cold. A lab test came back showing slightly abnormal thyroid function. She then added coconut oil to her diet. When she went back to repeat the test six months later, the results were within the normal range. Beyond that, Christine felt a lot warmer and had much more energy, especially when she woke up in the morning.
Coconut and Your Metabolism
Hypothyroidism (thyroid deficiency, resulting in a low metabolic rate), which is characterized by weight gain, lethargy, dry skin, depression, and lack of mental clarity, is on the rise in America, affecting an estimated 12 million people. (Some endocrinologists suspect the condition affects many millions more.) Hypothyroidism is a serious condition in its own right, but also a precursor to other ailments, such as heart disease, breast cancer, and chronic fatigue. While no studies have investigated how coconut oil affects the thyroid gland specifically, the fact that it raises body temperature and causes weight loss indicate that it supports thyroid function. In fact, many dieters report that they are able to reduce or even eliminate their thyroid medications when they add coconut oil to their diet.
How Eating Coconut Makes Dieting Easy
In the coconut-based Eat Fat, Lose Fat weight-loss plan, we’ll show you how to get your daily quota of coconut by using coconut oil, coconut milk, shredded coconut, and other products, in concert with other delicious whole foods. Sally, an acclaimed health-wise gourmet cook who developed all the recipes for our previous book,
Nourishing Traditions
, has created a rich cornucopia of easy-to-prepare international recipes, featuring Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, African, Indonesian, Brazilian, and South Seas cuisines, along with American standards, made the coconut way. Coconut’s pleasing taste and aroma make it a natural ingredient in drinks, smoothies, breakfast foods, soups, sauces, curries, main dishes, desserts, and snacks.
Comparing Eat Fat, Lose Fat to Other Diets
To see why we—and countless people who have used it successfully—affirm that our coconut-rich diet is the best way to lose weight, let’s consider some other popular diets you may have tried or heard about. We’ll take a detailed look at how they work, what the science says about them, and where they fall short in delivering what you want: healthy, sustainable weight loss.
A Cornucopia of Coconut
The coconut provides a wealth of delicious foods, ranging in use from therapeutic to epicurean. Here’s a list of coconut products available to Westerners. Please see our Resources section for more information on recommended brands and where to purchase them.
Coconut Oil:
Used in the tropics for cooking and also topically (on the skin), coconut oil is white when solid, creamy colored when liquid. It melts at between 71°F and 76°F. High-quality coconut oil is now widely available in national supermarkets, such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Wild Oats, in health food stores, on the Internet, or by mail order. Look for virgin coconut oil, which means that it has been extracted by a careful method that does not involve high heat and harmful chemicals.
Coconut Milk:
Coconut milk is a rich, creamy liquid that drips out of coconut meat when it has been pulverized in water and squeezed. Slightly thicker than cow’s milk, it has a delicious, satisfying, slightly sweet taste. Use only whole coconut milk, which contains the oil, not “lite,” in smoothies, cream sauces, curries, desserts, and soups. You can even use coconut milk to make our delicious
Coconut Milk Tonic
(for recipe), formulated to have the same number of calories and the same amount of calcium as whole milk—a boon to those who are allergic to milk. Organic canned coconut milk is widely available in supermarkets and health food stores and on the Internet.
Unsweetened Desiccated Coconut:
Tiny flakes of air-dried coconut can be used as a coating for sautéed shrimp or chicken, sprinkled on fruit, and added to macaroons and other desserts. Look for desiccated coconut in health food stores, but avoid the highly sweetened, additive-laden coconut flakes sold in commercial supermarkets.
Coconut Cream:
When it contains no emulsifiers, coconut milk will separate into a cream (which rises to the top) and a more watery portion (often sold as “lite” coconut milk). The cream can be used in various desserts, even whipping up like cream. Coconut cream is not normally available in stores but can be purchased through the Internet or by mail order.
Creamed Coconut:
Coconut meat that has been very finely ground and then pressed into blocks resembling very hard white butter is called creamed coconut. Sold in Asian markets in the refrigerated section, usually as 7-ounce rectangles, creamed coconut is a very useful, economical product. Add it to soups or curries, or mix it with water to make coconut milk. It has a stronger, more coconutty taste than canned coconut milk and a slightly gritty texture.
Coconut Water/Coconut Juice (Buko Juice):
The water or juice from young coconuts is delicious and very rich in minerals, especially potassium, calcium, and magnesium, making it an excellent remedy for replacing electrolytes or rejuvenating the body on a hot day. Even better is cultured or fermented coconut juice, the ideal drink for athletes and convalescents. Coconut kefir—coconut juice cultured with a kefir culture—can be a very useful component of our Health Recovery diet. (Kefir is a fermented milk product, similar to yogurt but with more liquid.) During World War II, when IV solution was scarce, water from young coconuts was used as a substitute! In Asia, coconut juice is considered particularly beneficial for the kidneys.
Coconut juice is one of the best dietary sources of cytokinins, molecules that protect the cells as they undergo cell division. Cytokinins help cellular DNA replicate perfectly during cell division; without these molecules, mistakes occasionally occur. Thus cytokinins play a key role in fighting cancer and ensuring longevity.
Coconut juice can be obtained from young, live coconuts, frequently sold in Asian and Hispanic markets. You can also order packaged buko on the Internet.
Freeze-Dried Shredded Coconut:
Delicious dried coconut flakes are made by quickly freezing deshelled coconuts and then evaporating the moisture with a vacuum. The product is much more flavorful and sweet than air-dried coconut—in fact, it’s hard to believe it doesn’t contain added sweeteners. Because of the low moisture content, freeze-dried shredded coconut does not require any preservatives. It’s wonderful in desserts, puddings, and macaroons. You can buy it in specialty shops or by mail order.
Coconut Vinegar:
Made from coconut juice, coconut vinegar has a delicious coconut flavor. It can be used for marinades, in salad dressings, and to make a great beverage called
Shrub
. It is available in Asian markets and through the Internet.
Coconut Rum:
This is rum with coconut flavoring added—not exactly a traditional product but a terrific flavoring for ice cream and other desserts.
Coconut Sugar:
Made by boiling the sweet water sap that drips from cut flower buds on the coconut palm, much as maple sugar is made by boiling and dehydrating the sap of maple trees, coconut sugar is a wonderful, nutrient-dense natural sweetener. It’s pale in color and either soft or gooey, depending on how long the sap was reduced. The pale color makes it excellent for coconut desserts since it does not turn them brown.
Atkins: Low-Carb, High-Protein, High-Fat
Many people have enjoyed real success with the Atkins diet because its high fat content calms hunger pangs, allowing dieters to go longer between meals and ultimately consume less food. The carbohydrate restriction on Atkins—as on Quick and Easy Weight Loss—is valuable because it ensures that you won’t eat a lot of empty calories in the form of sugar and white flour.
However, some people find that when they restrict carbs too much, they develop cravings, indicating a possible B vitamin deficiency. This is why, on Quick and Easy Weight Loss, you will be eating small amounts of grains and carbs, carefully prepared to enhance digestibility and assimilation.
Another problem with the Atkins diet is that, as a shortcut, many people add additional protein in the form of soy-based protein powders and protein bars. Unfortunately, as we will see in Chapter 6, eating these foods can result in numerous deficiencies and create thyroid problems that lead to weight gain.
Some people have tried to “improve” on the Atkins diet by eating more protein and reducing the amount of fat it allows. High-protein, low-fat diets are especially dangerous because protein consumption rapidly depletes vitamin A stores. This is why we caution you against using protein powders or consuming a diet containing lean meat, egg whites, and skim milk. Children brought up on high-protein, low-fat diets often experience rapid growth. The results—tall, myopic, lanky individuals with crowded teeth and poor bone structure, a kind of Ichabod Crane syndrome—are a fixture in America. In adults, vitamin A depletion can lead to autoimmune disease, immune system dysfunction, endocrine disruption, thyroid problems, and even cancer.
High-Carb Versus Low-Carb
In 1956, researchers at Middlesex Hospital, London, tested four different 1000-calorie diets: one consisted of 90 percent fat, one was 90 percent protein, a third was 90 percent carbohydrate, and the fourth was a normal mixed diet. Several subjects on the high-carb diet actually gained weight, even at only 1000 calories per day. Subjects on the very low-carb diet lost weight, even though they ate 2600 calories per day. But subjects on the high-fat diet lost much more weight than any of the others.
During the last 20 years, over a dozen studies have shown that low-carb diets result in more weight loss than high-carb diets. For example, in a ten-week study of obese women on 1700-calorie diets, the low-carb group lost more weight than the high-carb group, with significantly higher fat loss. The low-carb subjects also reported that they felt less hungry.
Stephen’s Story: High-Protein—Low Vision
Stephen, a young electrician in Buffalo, New York, was a husky guy who struggled with weight gain all his life, until he married his childhood sweetheart and she turned him on to the Atkins diet. He lost 12 pounds in eight weeks and figured that at 230 pounds, and a height of 5 feet 10 inches, he had another 40 to go. Stephen was on a roll. He kept plenty of Atkins bars and drinks around, and munched on them in his truck.
After a while, though, he noticed sluggishness, along with a distinct decline in his night vision, making it hard to work past dusk. When he learned from the Weston A. Price website that night blindness can result from a vitamin A deficiency, Stephen wanted to consume more vitamin A. But why take a pill when you could eat real food? So he began taking liquid cod-liver oil, and decided to replace his habit of eating bars and meal replacements with two tablespoons of coconut oil before his Atkins meals. Soon the pounds came off a little faster.
Within three months, Stephen had lost 30 pounds. His night blindness also vanished, enabling him to take those income-building, night emergency calls again!
High-fat, high-protein, low-carb diets can also cause a condition called ketosis, in which the body burns fat instead of glucose as fuel, producing acidic substances called ketone bodies that can cause nausea, fatigue, and more serious problems, including dizziness and abnormal heart rhythms. The Eat Fat, Lose Fat plans, by contrast, provide enough carbohydrates to prevent ketosis from developing.
Another problem with the Atkins diet is its potential to cause calcium deficiencies. Atkins tells you not to drink milk since it’s high in carbohydrates, so unless you make sure to eat cheese or use calcium-rich bone broths frequently, you won’t be getting enough calcium on this diet.
If you’re someone who loves the Atkins diet, not to worry. Our Eat Fat, Lose Fat diet is similar, but better. You’ll lose weight just as well, you’ll feel even more satisfied enjoying Sally’s fabulous recipes—and you’ll know that you’re eating in the most health-supportive way possible.
Ornish: Low-Fat Vegetarian
Despite all you’ve heard, the very low-fat, low-cholesterol, vegetarian Ornish diet is actually nutrient
deficient, and
high in insulin-sparking carbohydrates. And because of its fat reduction, it produces no satiation. Instead, it prompts cravings and overeating. No wonder many people find this diet extremely difficult to stay on.
What’s more, the steely-willed few who can remain on the Ornish diet long term are at risk for deficiencies of protein, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin B
12
, zinc, and other key nutrients.
Nor, sadly, did Ornish find any real evidence that this diet lives up to its claim to protect you from heart disease. The study that launched the Ornish program, published in
The Lancet
in 1990, did not actually look at the long-term outcome of a severely fat-restricted diet. Instead, the researchers used a diagnostic technique called angiography to measure the diameter of the coronary arteries in a small group of patients (22 in the experimental group and 19 in the control group). They found that those on the low-fat diet had slightly more widening of the arteries. But no conclusions can be drawn from this finding because as arteries begin to get clogged, they actually widen a bit. It’s only after the clogging becomes serious that the arteries narrow. Thus, the slight widening that the Ornish researchers measured could have resulted from the arteries becoming more clogged, not less!
