This is very good information from Dr. Barry Grove's website. He also has a book
entitled, Natural Health and Weight Loss.

The case against getting energy from protein


We know, then, that dietary fats can produce all the energy the body needs, either directly as fatty acids or as ketone bodies. But, as there is still some debate about the health implications of using fats, why not play safe and eat more protein?

There is one simple reason: While the body can use protein as an energy source in an emergency, it is not at all healthy to use this method in the long term. All carbs are made up of just three elements: carbon, hydrogen and. oxygen. All fats are also made of the same three elements. Proteins, however, also contain nitrogen and other elements. When proteins are used to provide energy, these must be got rid of in some way. This is not only wasteful, it can put a strain on the body, particularly on the liver and kidneys.

Excess intake of nitrogen leads in a short space of time to hyperammonaemia, which is a build up of ammonia in the bloodstream. This is toxic to the brain. Many human cultures survive on a purely animal product diet, but only if it is high in fat.[xii] [xiii] A lean meat diet, on the other hand cannot be tolerated; it leads to nausea in as little as three days, symptoms of starvation and ketosis in a week to ten days, severe debilitation in twelve days and possibly death in just a few weeks. A high-fat diet, however, is completely healthy for a lifetime.

Perhaps one of the best documented studies is that of the Arctic explorer, Vilhjalmur Stefansson and a colleague.[xiv] They ate an animal meat diet for more than a year to see whether such a diet could be healthy. Everything was fine until they were asked to eat only lean meat. Dr McClelland, the lead scientist, wrote:

'At our request he began eating lean meat only, although he had previously noted, in the North, that very lean meat sometimes produced digestive disturbances. On the third day nausea and diarrhea developed. When fat meat was added to the diet, a full recovery was made in two days.'

This was a clinical study, but Stefansson had already lived for nearly twenty years on an all-meat diet with the Canadian Inuit. He and his team suffered no ill effects whatsoever.

Low-carb, high-fat diet and weight loss
There is just one other consideration: If you want to lose weight, the actual material you want to rid your body of is fat. But to do that you have to change your body from using glucose as a fuel to using fat – including your own body fat. This is another reason not to use protein as a substitute for carbs, as protein is also converted to glucose.

If you think about it, Nature stores excess energy in our bodies as fat, not as protein. It makes much more sense, therefore, to use what we are designed by Nature to use. And that is fat.

So what levels of carbs, fats and proteins are required?
Clinical experience and studies into low-carb diets over the last century suggest that everybody has a threshold level of dietary carbohydrate intake where the changeover from glucose-burning to fat and ketone burning takes place. This varies between about sixty-five and 180 grams of carbs per day.[xv] If your carb intake is below this threshold, then your body fat will be broken down to generate ketones to supply your brain and other cells that would normally use glucose. In the early trials for the treatment of obesity, carb levels were very much reduced to supply only about ten percent of calories. This works out at around fifty or sixty grams of carb for a 2,000 calorie daily intake.

For diabetics, the level may need to be lower to counteract insulin resistance. Typical levels of carb intake for a type-2 diabetic are around fifty grams per day; the level should be lower still at about thirty grams a day for a type-1 diabetic.

A Polish doctor, Jan Kwasniewski, who has used a low-carb diet to treat patients with a wide range of medical conditions for over thirty years, recommends a ratio of one part carb to two parts protein to between three and four parts fat, by weight. I see no reason to disagree with this. What it means in practice is that on a 2,000 calorie per day diet, we should get:

# Ten to fifteen percent of calories from carbs
# Twenty to thirty percent of calories from protein and
# Sixty to seventy percent of calories from fats.

Or put another way, as it is difficult to work out percentages in this way, fifty to seventy-five grams of carb and the rest from meat, fish, eggs, cheese, and their natural fats.

Potential for other diseases

The traditional Inuit (Eskimo) diet is a no-carb diet. It is notable that the Inuit diet described by Drs Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Hugh Sinclair in the 1950s is very similar in regard to percentages of fat/protein/carb intake to the experimental low-carb diets used in recent obesity studies.[xvi] The Inuit diet was comprised of seal, whale, salmon, and a very limited amount of berries and the partially digested contents of animals' stomachs. On this diet, blood cholesterol levels were very high as were free fatty acids, but – and this in much more important – triglycerides were low.[xvii] [xviii] It is interesting to note that the Inuit were of great interest to research scientists because they had practically none of the diseases we suffer, including obesity, coronary heart disease and diabetes mellitus.[xix] [xx]

There are a ton of references...

Carolyn, I have Barry Groves's earlier book, Eat Fat Get Thin. Is there a lot of new information in the recent one (my bookshelves are already bursting, so I don't really want to duplicate books).

One of the biggest arguments against following a LC lifestyle is that your brain has to have carbs to function---that muscles require glucose to be able to perform properly. When the fact still remains that humans lasted thousands of years without eating an agra based diet.

I eat >70% of my food as fat. I'm still looking at the info you posted to calculate protein, Carolyn---I may have to adjust my plan by what figures I come up with.

thanks for this info---I adore Dr Groves---did you see his thoughts on how a high carb diet leads to suicide and violence---it is very interesting---since I'm involved in the mental health field---it is especially enlightening

I worked for a time in the forensic area of psychiatry----to see the effects that changes in something simple as nutrition could make was an eye opener

Liz: It is basically the same information, but I like having a real book..I had his ebook of Eat Fat, Get Thin.

Bama: On the other post..some peeps pointed out that using the whole body weight, they got a pretty high number for protein. So, Barry suggests, as does PP, to use your lean body weight, which makes it more realistic.

Gosh, I didn't see his post on highcarb diets and mental illness. You know..I wonder about all the anger we see in kids nowadays as well as the onslaught of depression, etc. in our society. Maybe it's all those chips/fries, sugar, fast food people eat. Scarey stuff, huh? Not to mention
obesity..

You all will be PLEASED to know I interviewed Dr. Barry Groves over the weekend and will be sharing that interview at my blog on Monday. ENJOY!

This explains a lot. I've noticed after higher fat meals, I tend to get burst of energy that seems like a more steady version of a sugar rush. It's a nice thing to have those without the lows!

I too really admire Barry Groves. The man is down to earth and accessible. I've emailed him quite a few times over the years and he always responds. His whole approach is geared to good health. His book Eat Fat Get Thin helps folks to really understand the whole process of what we should eat and why, dispelling the various myths (or are they just outright lies?) that the "Experts" always try to cram down our throats.

A good man a great site.

Looks like I got something for a sig.

I was reading one of the "cave man" books, don't remember which one, but remember reading about something called "rabbit fever". It was something the settlers got in the old days because the only game available in the winter were small lean mammals with very little bodyfat.

The amount of almost pure protein in the settlers diets was toxic because it did not include the fats found in the larger game animals.

I too eat a great deal of fat lose more weight when I do and feel a whole lot better.

The number one fat I like is the white fat that's on meat, like pork, lamb and beef.

The trouble is that stuff is always trimmed and thrown away.

In actual fact I have noticed in the last few weeks that it's gotten even more extreme at the supermarkets where I live.


Now they want to genetically alter pigs to make em leaner!!!

Good Tip Linda Sue I never thought of using bacon.
Case in point: Last night I crumbled some sausage to use in a strata and browned it in the skillet. When I got done there was no grease standing in the bottom of the pan. I supposed the mushrooms I threw in could have sucked it up but I don't think so. How can you make sausage without leaving the fat in it?

Linda--whenever I cook at venison roast I use the bacon strips too---as for pork--I go for the fattiest piece I can find

I'm lucky to be able to buy meat from local slaughter houses---that way I can ask for fatty cuts---I even get hooves and stuff to make broths with---got that tip from Weston Price website

I also make my own homemade lard---the storebought variety has transfats in it

bumping..