My friend made me unsure of my choices

(Debra Moore) #1

I met my friend last night at a coffee house, and she proceeded to lecture me about the dangers of saturated fats. She told me that eating a lot of beef and bacon will clog up my arteries. I only buy grass-fed beef, because I know about how corn-fed beef comes from cows that have had a lot of hormones and antibiotics and that’s filled with Omega 6, which is inflammatory. Nonetheless, I got the lecture that I wasn’t asking for.

This while she was downing a latte with sugar in it. I tried to tell her that sugar is the culprit, not fat, and that she was spouting nothing but conventional wisdom, but she didn’t relent.

Anyhow…now I’m worried that she’s right. Not that I’m going to go off Keto, but I was thinking that maybe I could more clean Keto, without the bacon and the beef and cream and cheese as much. Maybe stick with grass-fed butter on things instead of cheese, do more chicken and fish sautéed in butter, replace cream with coconut milk, that sort of thing.

See, the other concern I have is that I cook for my dad and boyfriend. They both are still on carbs, too - my boyfriend won’t give up his Ritz crackers and his frosted mini-wheats for anything, and my dad eats sweetened yogurt, cereal and a protein bar in the morning. Other than that, they eat what I fix them, which is high-fat stuff. They’re both getting less carbs than they used to, but I’m wondering if the saturated fats would hurt them if they aren’t reducing their carbs with it?

I’m questioning myself and scared that I’m doing the wrong thing.

(bulkbiker) #2

Ask her if she’s happy with her 1980’s science or if she’d like to join you in the present day sometime… ?
If you think it’s worth it there are lots of studies that show no link between sat fat and CVD and as for fat “clogging the arteries” well that’s garbage. But if you have been here for a while you know that.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #3

Please watch this. https://youtu.be/hj7ldyKQnRA

The saturated fat causes heart disease thing is a myth. I have heart disease and am on LCHF diet (Keto).
I have 4x bypass and a stent. After a recent nuclear stress test my cardio declared that they could not find and blockage. I also got to 10 mets on the treadmill at 64 years old. They said that people my age don’t pump 10 mets. I don’t regularly do the treadmill but I do go to the gym 5 times a week mostly for light strength training.

I would not want to mix moderate or high carbs with lots of fat. But I don’t have science to tell me what is right for that circumstances.

(Ellie) #4

What??? :fearful: nooooooooo!!! :exploding_head:

(Brian) #5

I kinda worry about people who decide they want to straddle the fence and eat high fat but don’t want to let go of the carbs.

I have a friend who’s wife is trying to go keto. But he’s much more resistant to letting go of the carbs. I fear that people like him are setting themselves up for problems that they’ll blame on the keto diet when it was really a matter of them not ever giving up the carbs. He wants it both ways and unfortunately, that doesn’t generally have a happy ending.

I’m all for eating “clean” but that’s my personal decision. I try to eat grassfed and/or organic when I can. I try to eat veggies that I grew myself or know where they came from. I try to eat eggs from chickens that are really out on pasture (and mostly, I see the actual chickens with my own eyes). I try to get organic dairy when I can. I am also weird and avoid the meats that are listed as unclean in Biblical text, which means I don’t do pork or shrimp or catfish, among other things. But that does leave a pretty good variety of things that I can eat… beef, bison, venison, lamb, turkey, chicken, trout, bass, salmon, tuna, and more… I don’t suffer or feel like I’m all that restricted.

Sometimes, friends have to get their opinions off their chest and then they’ll let it go, especially if they see good things happening to you. Other times, they never will let it go and keep harping, in which case, it’s time for new friends.

Don’t doubt your choices unless there comes an actual reason to. Arguments like hers are more like scare tactics and paper tigers. They just don’t hold up to the real world experience of many of us. Granted, we’re not all clones and a good diet for one isn’t necessarily the ideal diet for all. I think you’ll figure that out for yourself over a little time.

Good luck!

#6

For your friend, you can just nod and KCKO. You could also experiment yourself with how you feel without bacon and dairy, not because you’re trying to reduce saturated fats, but just to keep fine-tuning for your own body. Sometimes I worry that folks coming to keto are SO excited that they can eat bacon again that they don’t use their normal common sense. [Personally I love bacon and go through times when I have it almost every day - but if it’s very processed, if it comes from pigs that are highly treated… it’s probably worth a second look.]

This ^ I do think is more of a concern. High fat + high carb isn’t a great combination, as you clearly know. But maybe for their meals focus on the protein and whatever vegetables you like so it’s plenty of flavor but not so heavy on the fat?

(Omar) #7

Old school die hard