Congratulations, we are so excited to see your interest in adopting a Low Carb High Fat (or LCHF) Lifestyle.  First, a quick introduction, I’m Doug and this is Pam and together we started LowCarbUSA^®.  First of all, we would like to address the common concerns about eating Low Carb and dispel a few myths in the process.  Let’s start out by defining what we are referring to when we talk about a Low Carb diet.  There are a number of versions of Low Carb diet, like the Atkins Diet, the Primal Diet, the Paleo Diet and many others.  They all differ in some way, some greater than others. Our main focus is on what would most accurately be described as a Ketogenic Diet or Banting, which is named after an Englishman who famously made this diet very popular in England in the 1800’s and has become a phenomenon in South Africa.  Following this lifestyle activates the metabolic changes that result in the prevention of, as well as control (and even total reversal) of, many metabolic conditions such as Type 3 Diabetes.  It also results on the mobilisation our body’s fat reserves to allow much more effective and sustainable weight loss.  In the end, whatever your choice of Low Carb Lifestyle, we are here to support you.

The first order of business, and most important, is to eliminate sugar and all processed food. More than 85% of all the thousands of new products entering our marketplace each year contain some form of sugar.  Sugar and processed carbohydrates are poison and they have to go, no matter what diet you choose!  If you listed to any of the amazing videos by Dr Robert Cywes you would have come to understand that sugar addiction is very real and very powerful.  His videos provide some incredible help in dealing with this if you are one of the many who genuinely suffer from this addiction.

Critics argue that LCHF is not a sustainable diet but we have found it to be quite the opposite.  Eating delicious meats, fish, cheese, fresh vegetables makes this way of eating less of a diet and more of a lifestyle. You won’t be feeling weak with hunger as you do with the traditional low-fat, calorie restricting diet.  Once you ditch the carbs and processed food you will find that you don’t miss them at all.  In fact, your taste buds will become very sensitive and if you try something you once enjoyed you will think that it is too sweet and wonder why you liked it in the first place. Once adapted, you will feel energetic and healthy and not want to go back to being dependent on sugar for fuel.  And, if you previously experienced blood sugar issues, you will find that they clear up almost immediately.  You won’t have those terrible ups and downs ever again.

Once you Ditch the Carbs and start cooking real food and see all the amazing Low Carb Recipes and all the foods you can eat that you weren’t “allowed” to eat before, it’s easy!  Pam and I find that we start salivating and look forward to the next awesome meal so much that we never even think about the bland pasta or rice or potatoes that are no longer on the menu.  In fact, once you start to become adapted you feel so much more energetic and healthy and you feel so terrible if you do slip and eat a bunch of carbs, that you don’t want to touch them again.  That all being said, I have had to learn since writing this that sugar addiction is much more of a real issue than I first thought and so point those who still struggle to the help offered in the video series on our site by Dr. Robert Cywes

This is not a high protein diet but, rather, a moderate protein diet and you will be getting adequate protein from fish, chicken, red meat, full cream dairy products and eggs.  We advocate an animal product-based diet as the real evidence out there now is overwhelming that, nutritionally, it is the best option.  However, we recognise that many people have religious and/or ethical reasons for wanting to be vegan or vegetarian.  If that is the case, but you still recognise that restricting carbs is better for your metabolic health, then we want to support you in that effort.  It is much harder and requires a lot of supplementation but it is doable.  Here is a great resource for those who choose this route.

Protein should make up 20-25% of your daily diet.  Carbohydrates will make up less than 10% of your daily diet and will come from leafy green vegetables including lettuce, spinach, and kale.  Broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts and many other veggies are also part of this plan.  The remainder of your daily diet will be comprised of saturated fats like butter and coconut oil, monounsaturated fats and fats containing omega 3s like olive oil, avocados and macadamia nuts. Vegetable and seed oils are to be avoided at all costs.

The other main argument we hear is that all this fat will clog our arteries with cholesterol and give us heart disease.  All the latest research on this says, ‘absolutely not’.  Just watch the 2 videos about the Cholesterol Myth if you are not convinced.  In fact, the latest research suggests that it is the inflammation caused by carbohydrates and vegetable and seed oils that is really at the root of arterial damage and heart disease.

The truth is that a Low Carb Lifestyle improves our health in almost every way – it results in weight loss, it reduces hunger, it has been shown to effectively treat Type 2 Diabetes and even reverse it in some cases, it improves the metabolic syndrome, blood lipid profiles, the list goes on and on.