Irresponsible Advice from Dr. Eades

Again, leaving aside the creepiness of this man's words, I've got to address how irresponsible his advice in a recent blog post was.  I may come back at some point and address the "Listen to your body?" stuff, but MM reminded me in the comments on another post of some more disturbing content in the post.

His advice boils down to "up the fat" to hasten the transition into ketosis so that your "induction flu" is as short as possible.  Now, I've never experienced any such symptoms so I can't really relate to this, but apparently newbies and restarters have done very well taking the advice in The New Atkins to increase salt intake by sipping a little bullion.  Anyway, Eades -- oddly enough author of a book subtitled "The High-Protein/Low-Carbohydrate ..." --  has now jumped full on into a tub of Mangalista lard.




Specifically:

Eat more fat

If you want to reduce the time you spend in low-carb adaptation, crank up the fat. If you go on a high-protein, moderate-fat diet (Schwatka’s reindeer diet), your body will convert the protein to glucose via gluconeogenesis, so you’ll still have glucose to keep the glucose worker enzymes busy and will prolong the conversion to fat and ketones as your primary energy source.

I'm pretty sure Eades has previously said repeatedly that we only make as much glucose as our bodies need, but what's a little inconsistency right? 

So Rule Number One to reduce the time spent in low-carb adaptation purgatory is: Don’t be a wuss when you start your low-carb way of eating. Keep the carbs cut to the minimum and load up on the fat. Eat fatty cuts of meat, cooked in butter or lard if you want, and force your body over to using the fats and ketones for energy as nature intended. I mean, don’t try to be noble by eating boneless, skinless chicken breasts – instead insert some pats of butter under the skin of a chicken leg and thigh before cooking, and wolf them with your fingers while the fat drips down your arms.

Umm ... Leaving aside that if the fat drips down your arms, it's not getting eaten ... This is just the most irresponsible advice one can give to a person engaging in a weight loss attempt.  Why?  Because if a person is to be successful in losing weight and keeping it off, they will have to leave this sort of eating mentality behind.  Forever.  I'm reminded of a conversation I had with Jimmy Moore after he binged on chicken wings.  This notion of upping the fat by adding fat to that which naturally occurs in foods is without a doubt the most horribly misguided strategy for weight loss or health or whatever.  In response to my attempt to point out that chicken - boneless/skinless chix breast aside - is not a woefully "underfat" food, Jimmy discussed ways he ups the fat even more.  If you're eating chicken legs with the skin on and still think there's a reason to add MORE fat to this, that's insane.  Eades continues:

Do not trim the fat from your steaks – eat them from the fat side in. If you leave anything on your plate, make sure it’s the meat and not the fat.

Oh oh ... Paleo-oh (sung to the old Sergio Valente jeans commercial tune)

If you don’t already, learn to love bacon, and don’t cook it ‘til the fat is all gone: eat it wobbly. Wallow in Mangalitsa lardo.

 Please, one should never tell an overweight or obese person to "wallow" in anything.  This guy's an MD?

And whatever you do, for God’s sake, don’t listen to your body during this adaptation period or you’ll never cross the chasm between fat and miserable on your high-carb diet and slim, happy, energetic and low-carb adapted on the other side.

This from a man who eats only like 1700-1800 cals/day, yet still needed to "cure" his fat gut, and who wrote these two posts on calories:  LC & Calories I, LC & Calories II.

He should be ashamed of himself.