High Cholesterol & Weight Gain (Signe & Ken)

[Guest guest]

Signe and Ken,

Bear with me as I explain how weight gain can be achieved and low

cholesterol should not necessarily be an objective. I will probably

ruffle a few feathers with the following information, but hopefully

it will give you a new perspective and allow your children to start

to achieve the positive results my daughter has made over

the past year.

It is difficult to change a paradigm that has been in place for more

than 50 years. The mindset that good fats and meats in large

amounts are bad for humans because of cholesterol is now being

proven incorrect, unfortunately at a very slow pace. Epidemiology

studies that were completed from the 1940's through the

1990's that made a connection between heart disease and

cholesterol are today being disproved. As more studies are more

carefully scrutinized this old paradigm is crumbling.

For instance, back in 1980 a major study was published that covered

12,763 individuals over seven countries that covered a ten year

period beginning in the late 1940's. The study was intended to

find correlations in the type of foods consumed and death rates.

Unfortunately, some of the data was improperly misinterpreted and

one of the conclusions was that eating cholesterol laden foods

raised blood cholesterol levels and caused heart disease. In recent

years this study has been reexamined and it was determined that

cholesterol content of the blood had absolutely no correlation with

the cause of death rates in the study. Even more interesting is

that death rates were lower in many groups that had higher

cholesterol levels.

Originally the heart disease theory was in part is based upon the

fact that rabbits get atherosclerosis when feed very large amounts

of cholesterol. What the original study did not take into account

is the fact that rabbits are vegetarians. Humans are not solely

vegetarians; they have a feedback mechanism that stops the body from

making cholesterol when it is consumed in the diet. Rabbits do not

have this mechanism. I could list a slew of old studies that have

been disproved but I will not draw this out more than it needs to

be. Much of this material can be found in the book Life Without

Bread.

Switching gears to the gaining weight factor. Perhaps it can be

best to explain this issue using a few quotes from Dr. Lutz, the

author of Life Without Bread. Dr. Lutz strongly emphasizes that

very thin individuals will profit the most from a diet high in good

fats and protein. When I read his material I feel as if he is

specifically addressing RSS children. He states, that " There is

a tendency for Americans and the popular media to focus solely on

overweight people when body types are discussed. But there are

people who are to thin, and for whom weight gain is crucial to

health " .

" The very thin carbohydrate eater usually has very little muscle

with a very slight bone structure. These people tend to burn the

excess energy from overeating of carbohydrates, instead of storing

it into adipose tissue as in the case in the obese/overweight body

type " .

" On the surface, this burning of energy would seem a good thing,

and very thin people often have an enhanced energy profile. This is

only true, however, if a constant supply of carbohydrates is

available. The thin carbohydrate eater cannot afford to even delay

a meal. Metabolically, they are probably not too different than the

overweight carbohydrate eater. Thin people will often experience

low blood sugar episodes because they are still faced with the

fundamental problem associated with eating too many carbohydrates:

insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia " .

" There is no available fat metabolism to provide the thin

carbohydrate eater with a balance of energy. Thus carbohydrates

constitute the only source of energy for them. As with overweight

high-carbohydrate eaters, fat metabolism is restricted. Because fat

supplies the majority of energy reserves in humans, the thin

carbohydrate eaters must continually eat in order to satisfy the

body's energy requirements " .

" The low-carbohydrate program augments the anabolic processes

that contribute to increased body mass in the form of bone density,

muscle, and connective tissue. But the underweight person must be

diligent. It takes some time to see the benefit of weight gain.

Usually thin people experience a loss of weight during the first few

months on the diet. This eventually gives way to increased body

mass as the production of GROWTH HORMONE eventually increases, and

nutrients needed to build tissue (fat and protein) are consumed.

Over a long period of time, from one to two years, they will

eventually reach a larger body mass compared to when they began the

low carbohydrate program. The new weight, however, will be in all

the right places. "

Hope this was helpful.

Beth