I hit a new low in my dieting today. That's right 267 on the scale. The weight is still coming off slowly but surely. At this point my techniques are to control my blood sugar and my calories, since I am still not ready for a ketogenic diet. I should say since I am still not capable of ketosis. I am eating on a ketogenic plan. I am eating protein and fat, with small amounts of nutrient rich carbs. Probably the most important thing I have learned about dieting and eating is that the war on fat in this country has been the most harmful dietary movement, perhaps in the history of food. More and more studies are showing that saturated fats are not harmful unless mixed with sugar (and by sugar I mean any digestible carbohydrate -- be it complex or simple). I'm on a bit of a pulpit today because yesterday I was handed low fat salad dressing at the the deli. There were 7 sugars in a single serving. Italian dressing doesn't need any sugar at all. I settled for oil with salt and pepper and paid $1.35 for a bottle of vinegar that will last me a year. The real point here however is that when they take fat out they need to make it taste good and that usually means adding sugar. Really adding sugar to things have become the goto for food industries in general -- its just worse with diet food. I may not have every detail exactly right on what happens after we eat, but I have the out come down cold and here is an interesting thing I've come to understand. Our bodies turn all of the digestible carbohydrates, some of the proteins and none of the fats we eat into sugar. If we eat fat and protein we get the glucose we need from the protein and we use the fat for our primary fuel -- this is the basis of a ketogenic diet. If we eat like this, which is the basis for the Palio diet, Atkins, and many other fiber rich low carb diets, we can achieve a healthy balance in our systems. A balance that comes with good cholesterol, and healthy blood sugars. What? You ask. Good cholesterol eating fat. Yup. As it turns out fat is good and healthily, until you add excessive carbohydrates to your diet. As I understanding it the glucose is taken up by muscles as fuel first leaving the processed fats (chylomicrons) in your blood for your liver to deal with. Cut back on the carbohydrates and more chylomicrons are taken out of the blood by your muscles. Oh and in this system when you cut calories your body burns irregular fat first. Interestingly the converse is not true. If you remove fat from your diet and eat a high carb diet like the food pyramid of old, those carbs get turned into sugar which makes your pancreas work to produce enough insulin to clear it out, the extra sugar is stored as fat, and because your liver produces cholesterol and triglycerides even if you are good on your low fat eating you can wind up with high cholesterol. And the worst part is that in this situation when you cut calories your body eats muscle proteins first before it burns fat, you can you actually have a negative effect on your over all health by cutting fat and calories. This is the exact opposite of what we have been told for over 30 years. The old dogma that fat is bad and grains are good has been thoroughly debunked, has lead to a diet completely over loaded with sugar, both as sugar and as other carbohydrates (which physiologically are just sugar). Interestingly in this time, a whole industry for treating diabetes, high cholesterol and other dietary health problems, like heart disease has sprung up. We are less healthy as a nation than ever, and yet the people selling us pills in the name of our health keep beating the same old low fat drum. Why? Because if we listen to the right people we wont need their pills. The two of the largest growth industries since the the influx of sugar in our diets are the sugar and pharmaceutical industries -- their successes go hand in hand. Imagine the effect we could have on the cost of health care in this country if we let go of the old dogma and start sharing an understanding of the effect of sugar. until then ...