Low Carb Dieting, Part 1

Award-winning author and widely-recognized expert on leptin Kat James joins us to discuss low-carb dieting. This summer, a Lancet study purported to show that low-carb dieting was harmful, curtailing lifespan. Kat shares her reservations about the study—she claims, as do many nutrition experts, that it’s critically flawed. It relies on the faulty recall of thousands of individuals of the types of foods they were eating over two decades ago. What’s more, the Lancet study wasn’t really representative of a properly-formulated low-carb diet: subjects in the low-carb group were deriving 40% of their calories from carbs! And who knows what quality of animal protein they were eating. Kat maintains that, for a low-carb diet to be successful, it has to be lower in carbs, and derive adequate calories from healthy fats—without excess protein. The key to successful weight loss and freedom from cravings is leptin—a hormone that controls appetite and metabolism. Efforts to turn leptin into a blockbuster weight loss drug have failed because of a misunderstanding of how it works; it doesn’t need to be augmented, just tamed. Kat shares tips on how to maintain leptin balance which will harness the body’s natural fat-burning pathways. She recounts her own personal transformation via an understanding of the role foods play in the leptin response. Psychological well-being is an additional dividend of leptin optimization. We review the results of new studies that underscore the safety and effectiveness of low-carb diets and challenge claims that animal protein consumption is “unsustainable”. Click HERE for part 2.