hi there,

Although Agatston states at the beginning "this is not a low fat diet" (right after he states "this is not a low carb diet") .. he's quite vague when it comes to amount of fat a person is supposed to consume. The menus and recipes are low fat. Lots of egg-white and lowfat egg-substitute omelets cooked in a non-stick pan with cooking spray. Skinless chicken breast only, no dark meat. Recipes that provide ½ to 1 tsp oil per serving. One of the gourmet recipes has a mayonnaise sauce, which comes to 2 or 3 Tbsp per serving. There's a note accompanyiing, which cautions dieters to use the sauce sparingly, "not like soup" .. and recommends saving leftovers

So, one might assume that liberal use of olive or other allowed oil is just fine, but if the menu planner is the example of how the diet is to be put into practise, then it's definitely low fat. Also the diet is low in calories overall, averaging 1200 - 1300 per day by the menus.

As for his villification of saturated fats ... the book's description of what happens after a person consumes a meal high in saturated fat is based on a high carb diet where insulin levels are higher. Unfortunately, the author doesn't provide any references for further reading.


Doreen