I could not in good conscience start a thread on
Matt Stone's advices anywhere else than the war zone, seeing as he is currently on a rampage against low-carbing.
But I believe this guy has very good things to say, since he has tried so much diets and way of eating in depth and read so much about nutrition.
So basically the High Everything diet is all about reversing the damages done to our metabolism that, among other bad things, resulted in superfluous fat gain.
The currently known multi-causal agents seems to be: Caffeine, Fructose and PUFA vegetable oils. These are only a problem when consumed
chronically.
Anything that disrupts or slows down your metabolism is your enemy.
It is important to note that we are all affected to different levels by this.
- Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant. Caffeine is the world's most widely consumed psychoactive substance, but unlike many other psychoactive substances it is legal and unregulated in nearly all jurisdictions (
ref). Chronic use of caffeine results in a net slowdown of your metabolism. The constant stimulation puts a lot of strain on your adrenals. When your adrenals start being unable to keep up, your metabolism slows down.
- Fructose is an hepatic
toxin (
ref,
ref,
ref,
ref). Only your liver can metabolize fructose and what it does there is very similar to what ethanol does (not good, if chronic). Over consumption of fructose directly causes insulin resistance. By the way, most fruits are not that high in fructose and are also packaged with the antidote. But sucrose (table sugar) is 50% fructose, so anything with added sugar is out. This video is really great on the subject:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
- (PUFA) Polyunsaturated vegetable oils (read margarine and most frying oils) are a great contributors to chronic subclinical inflammation (
ref). Chronic inflammation means chronic production of cortisone by your body to lessen the inflammation. And we know that cortisone promotes fat gain.
Here is why this is in the war zone. Matt is convinced that low-carbing for a long period (maybe lots of years) will at one point (different for each of us) stop having it's wonderful effects and at that point you will have slowed down your metabolism and became more sensitive to carbs of any sorts. When this happens you will be stuck on a very big plateau. I can personally relate to this myself.
Eating low calories will also result in your metabolism slowing down. But in the case of low-cal it's worst because you forced yourself in a catabolic state and are slowly wasting away muscles with the fat. Also, losing fat this way is only temporary. You are not fixing the root problems and when you resume eating normal amounts of calories, you will gain fat fast and probably more than before. Plus, you are left with less lean mass (muscles).
All these diets most of us go through to lose weight actually damages us. What is needed is a way to lose excess fat in an anabolic state. So in order to truly reach your body's personal healthy fat content, you have to first fix the issues and fat loss will naturally follow. But fat loss is the last step, you will go through a healing phase before it happens.
So the High Everything diet is all about eating when you are hungry. You must never be hungry. Sure at first you might gain weight, especially if you were low-carb or low-cal before. Also you eat lots of saturated fats (animal, coconut, etc...), you eat lots of protein and yes you eat lots of carbs too. High Everything.
BUT, you avoid caffeine, fructose, PUFA oils and ethanol.
For some the issues are not as simple to fix. You might have subclinical hypothyroidism, which affects 40% of the population, and/or an overused adrenal (
ref,
ref,
ref). Or any other issues that needs finding and fixing before true fat loss occurs. It's a personal quest for all of us. Because unfortunately, most health care professionals won't be able to help you much, they're just too far behind on the actual science.
Another important thing to note is that our sensibility to these issues is worsening from generation to generation. So comparing with what your grand-parents or even your parents ate might lead you to wrong conclusions.
My personal story is this. After an initial weight gain of 15 pounds, I am now on my way down for good. I feel much more alert, strength flowing through me and I just feel good.
I had to supplement with desiccated thyroid and adrenals and will soon start on the Iodine. My body temp before all this was 95.3 in the morning and is now 96.5, still too low but it's getting there.
I might not agree with Matt on everything, but I now agree that not all carbs are bad. There I said it !
I hope you enjoyed some of this info.
Patrick