Day 72

I see more and more articles in newspapers and magazines, specially Afrikaans publications the last few days, that warn people against the "Tim Noakes Diet". Almost all of the articles makes the same mistakes, making me think they are reading each others' works, then repeat what they've read. Here are some of the most common mistakes made in these articles:

1) The "Tim Noakes Diet". --- It is not Tim Noakes' diet. It is LCHF. All prof. Noakes did was take a lot of information, widely available and for free, and put it into a book that was both easy to read and to understand. He then worked with a registered dietician and two well-known chefs to create a few nice recipes, and added them to his book.

2) LCHF is high protein. --- This is probably the MOST common mistake the people make. LCHF is medium in protein. In fact, we eat less protein now than what we did before we started banting. Rule 6 of the 10 Commandments of Banting says: Don’t eat too much protein.

3) When banting, people don't eat enough vegetables. --- Another huge misconception. We now eat more veggies than ever. Because we don't eat rice and potatoes with almost every meal, and we eat less meat, we have to eat something else. And that something else is green, leafy vegetables. Rule 2 of the 10 Commandments of Banting says: Eat enough vegetables.

4) Saturated fat is bad for you. --- This lie was created by Ancel Keys, and spread like wildfire. It was a hypothesis, meaning it was not "discovered" in a lab - it was a theory, a starting point for further investigation. Further investigation, when it happen, could not prove anything. There is absolutely no scientific evidence proving saturated fat is bad for your health. I have provided countless links to different studies on my blog in the past proving saturated fat is in fact good for your health.

5) Losing too much weight too quickly is bad for you. Not only will the lost weight return, you will gain more than what you have lost. --- Well, here they have it right, but only for traditional diets. This does not happen on LCHF. Why not? Traditional diets all are starvation diets. The more you starve yourself, the quicker you lose weight. However, once the "starvation" period is over, you overindulge. It is human nature. On LCHF, you never starve yourself, so there is no overindulgence once you reach your target weight. In fact, very few successful banters ever return to their old ways. Having learned how bad carbs is for you, they prefer to keep on banting.