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More Doctors Are Warning Patients to Eat Less Meat

  • June 20, 2017

In a world that’s just discovering how little physicians are taught about nutrition during their medical training, Mother Jones reports that some doctors are waking up to the idea that counseling their patients on what they eat might be a good thing. To that end, more doctors are recommending plant-based diets, with less emphasis on meats. Some hospitals are even offering meatless meals.

This is a perfect time to talk about why a diet high in healthy fats, low in net carbs, with moderate amounts of high quality protein, is the best program for a healthy life. Substantial amounts of protein can be found in meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, legumes, nuts and seeds. Some vegetables also contain generous amounts of protein — for example, broccoli. Forty grams of protein is not a large amount of food — it's the equivalent of one 6-ounce chicken breast.

I also believe it's absolutely crucial to incorporate a high-fat ketogenic diet into the equation, meaning a diet high in healthy fats like avocado, coconut oil, butter, olive oil and macadamia nuts, low in net carbs (total carbs minus fiber), along with moderate amounts of high quality protein, ideally no more than about 1 gram per kilo of lean body mass.

Eating this way will help you convert from burning sugar to burning fat as your primary fuel, something I talk about in my new book, “Fat for Fuel.” When your body is able to burn fat for fuel, your liver creates ketones that burn more efficiently than carbs, thus creating far less reactive oxygen species and secondary free radicals that can damage your cellular and mitochondrial cell membranes, proteins and DNA.