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From:	Soils4Peace (d66-183-36-71.bchsia.telus.net)
Subject:	Re: Need to keep fat low and calories high
Date:	September 7, 2007 at 5:10 pm PST

In Reply to: Re: Need to keep fat low and calories high posted by Andy on September 6, 2007 at 2:21 am:

Claudia covered everything pretty well, but you still might appreciate some more input. You can get by with just an ounce of seeds or nuts, and a tablespoon of flax seed. That is in the ETL range. Avocadoes are optional.

1. Colourful starchy vegetables are preferred over white. Corn, cooked carrots, turnip, rutabaga, yam or sweet potatoes count as starch. You can also get starch from whole grains. Bread, pasta, flour, white potatoes without skin, and white rice are considered less desirable. Beans, peas and lentils all count as beans; call them legumes or pulses.

2. Grains are are a bit less nutrient dense than the other recommended foods, but not really undesirable. They are optional as a source of calories. Phytates in grains (pulses too) can interfere with the body's absorbtion of some minerals, but they are destroyed by cooking, so cook them. The fat helps with the absorption of some vitamins and phytochemicals. It doesn't take many nuts or seeds to make a difference.

3. I think Fuhrman favours fat in the neighbourhood of 15-30% of calories, and protein around 12-18% of calories. When you get >=15% fat and >=12% protein, and get come carbohydrates, the rest doen't much matter. You would want to watch your of omega 6 to omega 3, and your intake of animal products though. Protein in plant foods seems less dangerous than protein in animal sources. In the China study, there were correlations between fat intake, protein intake, cholesterol intake and some cancers. All three causes(?) of cancer seem to point to consumption of animal products, though it could also correlate with wealth (sedentary lifestyle). Fat gets a lot of blame, but Campbell also presented evidence that it could have more to do with animal protein. The Nurse's Study shows no difference between high and low saturated fat diets (in the range that North American nurses eat): fatty meat servings replaced with lean meat servings that contain more protein.

In my first two months of ETL I tracked my nutrition, and ended up with about 31% fat (5% sat, 13% mono, 13% poly), 18% protein, 51% carbohydrate, about 1800 calories per day for a 5'9" guy. That was with about 5% of calories from animal products, and limiting starch and grains to about one or two servings per week for weight loss and sugar control. The calculator (fitday.com) showed that I was likely deficient in zinc, selenium and B12, so I added those as supplements.

4. Green tea also contains caffeine, so you are limited to one serving per day. Dr. Fuhrman is not big on drugs. And as Claudia said, green tea is green leaves, just like our leafy greens, so we should not be too surprised. I remember reading over 10 years ago how compounds in grape seed and skin were good for you, then broccoli, then tomatoes, then apples, then blueberries... so I concluded to myself that you could probably find beneficial compounds in any plant you would care to test.

5. I don't know about consults, but paid something like $100 for a year for membership at drfuhrman.com. I also bought 3 copies of ETL so I could lend them to friends and family, one electronic copy in case they are all lent out, and one copy of Cholesterol for Life. And read The China Study by Campbell and Campbell. Very reasonable considering that the program contains no bunk, and expresses some ideas better than anywhere else. The website membership helps you keep up with recent developments such as the latest trials involving phytochemicals, or the recent increase in vitamin D recommendations.

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