4 Monday January 3 2022 | the timestimes2
tomato ketchup, chilli, brown and
barbecue sauce. Do not eat processed
foods, fast foods, crisps, chips, cakes,
biscuits, chocolate, ice cream, bread,
alcohol, sugar or starchy vegetables
such as potatoes, beetroot and peas.The myth that eating fat
makes you fat
For more than 40 years we’ve been
told that fat is bad. Actually, fat is our
friend. It’s a great macronutrient. Our
bodies need fat — 60 per cent of our
brain is fat, cell walls contain fat, for
example. The only bad body fat is
visceral fat — and high-risk factors for
visceral fat include drinking alcohol,
consumption of fast-digested carbs
and high-frequency meals.
But eating good fat (within a
limited time period each day)promotes health and helps us to lose
weight. And fat adaptation —
reteaching our body how to burn fat
for fuel — is a Whisperer
fundamental. It’s just knowing when
to eat and what fat to eat.
Good fats fall into four groups —
saturated fat (yes indeed),
monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated
fat and cholesterol (you read that right
too). The only bad fat — to be avoided
— is trans fat, found in processed food,
and a killer.
Saturated fat Found in meat, dairy,
whole milk, butter, cheese, dark
chicken meat, chicken breast skin,
lard, and oils such as coconut. These
fats do not cause heart disease.
Cholesterol Bad cholesterol comes
from a liver damaged by high-sugar
diets and fructose. Healthy
cholesterol-rich foods include
avocados, nuts, eggs, liver, shellfish,
oily fish and grass-finished meat such
as beef, lamb and venison. As part of
the Whisperer lifestyle enjoy a steak,
cooked on a cast-iron skillet, dressed
with butter, plus buttered greens and
mushrooms (and occasionally have
the chips too).
Monounsaturated fatty acids
(MUFAs) Avocados, olives and extra
virgin olive oil are rich in these fatty
acids. Extra virgin olive oil contains
oleic acid, a high intake of which has
been linked with reduced insulin
resistance. People on the MUFA-rich
Mediterranean diet have shown
reduced “bad” cholesterol. These fats
are also associated with reduced
inflammation.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)
These include omega-6 and omega-3.I
f your metabolism is a law unto
itself and you’re addicted to
carbs, fat adaptation is your key
to wellness and weight control.
Fat adaptation is how we change
from burning carbs to burning
fat. You’ll exit the vicious cycle
of eating carbs, blood glucose
increases, insulin released into blood,
fat-burn stops, blood glucose
decreases, feeling hungry, eating carbs.
The body is like a hybrid car: it can
fuel itself from carbs or from fat.
Going back 200,000 years to your
sabre-toothed tiger-evading ancestors,
with no access to petrol stations,
corner shops or fast-digested carbs,
they used their body fat as fuel on
those long food-free periods. But here
we are in the snack-filled 21st century,
refuelling every few hours.
Consequently our body enzymes
necessary for fat-burning are few and
weak. But we can quickly build them
up so we run smoothly on either fuel.
Incidentally, we’ve worked with
elite athletes who want to fat-adapt —
it makes sense because if we’re
running on carbs we don’t run for very
long. Energy from carbs (stored as
glycogen) lasts only about 60-90
minutes if we’re exercising vigorously.
Our fat stores, meanwhile, amount to
135,000 calories, meaning if you’re
running an ultra-marathon you don’t
need a glucose gel every 60 minutes
— you refuel on water and electrolytes
and keep going. But you don’t need to
be an elite athlete — anyone can
fat-adapt.The ketogenic
springboard
Good levels of fat
adaptation can be
achieved in two to
four weeks. It’s
uncomplicated, but
it isn’t easy. As a
springboard into
efficient fat-burning
you need to adopt a
low-carb, high-fat ketogenic
diet. (Ketones are alternative
fuel for the body when glucose is in
short supply — they are produced by
the liver from fats.)
The important thing is to keep to
a maximum of 25-50g of carbs a day.
Carbs should be 5 per cent of your
diet, fat 70 per cent and protein 25 per
cent. Eat three meals a day (sensible
for the first month) and don’t snack.
You might breakfast on poached eggs,
smoked salmon and spinach, a full
English, or full-fat Greek yoghurt with
berries and macadamia nuts. Lunch
might be Greek salad, or a cheese
omelette. Dinner might be chicken, or
cod and chorizo with buttery leeks, or
steak with roasted vegetables and
cauliflower mash. Carb withdrawal is
tough — make sure you’re supported
as you prime your body to be a fat-
burning machine.
The Diet Whisperer is specifically aHow to fat-adapt your body
plan that resets your metabolism in
12 weeks, and we wrote it to help those
who were struggling — but if your
hormones are generally behaving with
a little room for improvement, you can
adopt whichever of its principles suit
to improve wellness.
So if your hormones require a
significant amount of whispering, we
advise minimising starchy carbs for
three months before reintroducing
them into your diet, but otherwise
continue to eat whole, nutritious
varied foods, including legumes,
beans, lentils, root vegetables and
wholegrains such as quinoa and
buckwheat throughout. (We can’t
overemphasise the importance of
enough fibre.)
However, once you hit your target
weight, refined carbs such as potatoes
and rice can be a measured part of
your diet. Long-term restrictive diets
can lead to nutritional deficiencies, so
it’s important to eat mindfully and find
your own equilibrium — and you can
always adjust as necessary. Eat well,
be well.What to eat while fat-adapting
Here is a list of foods to eat while
fat-adapting: fish, shellfish, beef,
lamb, pork, poultry, venison, cream,
butter, Greek yoghurt, eggs and
cheese — brie, cheddar, Comté,
Gruyère, parmesan, feta, halloumi,
mascarpone and mozzarella.
For vegetables we recommend leafy
greens, spinach, kale, salad
greens, watercress, herbs,
mushrooms, avocado,
green beans, Brussels
sprouts, broccoli,
cauliflower,
cabbage, celery,
asparagus,
tomatoes,
cucumbers,
courgettes, green
peppers, aubergines,
olives, onions, garlic,
chillies, potato skins
and beansprouts.
You can use these oils for
dressings or preparation: cold-pressed
extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil,
goose fat, lard, butter, ghee, nut oil,
walnut oil and avocado oil.
Also include in your diet
strawberries, raspberries, blueberries,
blackberries, pecans, Brazil nuts,
macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts,
almonds, pine nuts, chia, flax, sesame
and sunflower seeds.
Drink tea, coffee (with milk or
cream, but watch your carb allowance)
and water.Foods to avoid while
fat-adapting (and in most
cases, for ever)
Don’t eat low-fat foods such as
low-fat yoghurt — the fat has
usually been replaced with sugar.
Avoid vegetable and seed oils, fruit
juices, fizzy drinks, sauces such asSerotonin is well known to be a
mood-boosting hormone, and people
with depression may take Prozac,
which increases serotonin. But
because it must be produced every
day, for which we need daily
tryptophan, we can help ourselves
with food. Chicken, cheese, nuts, seeds
and pineapple are great sources. And
because our friendly species of gut
bacteria help to control its production,
we should keep them happy too. That
means avoiding processed food with
lots of sugar and high-fructose corn
syrup — that junk overwhelms them.Yes, you can
drink and diet
If being teetotal is too much,
minimising drinking for four
weeks will boost fat-burning.
Our favourite is a carb-free long
vodka with sparkling water,
ice, a lime slice and five drops
of Angostura bitters. Red wine,
dry white, champagne
and gin are allowed
(in moderation).Food to boost
your mood
Midlife makeover: day 1
Reboot your hormones through diet
By Dr Paul Chell and Dr Monique Hope-Ross
Breakfast:
poached eggs
Lunch:
a Greek salad
Tomorrow
Midlife
makeover:
check up on
your health