Eat Fat, Get Thin_Why the Fat We Eat Is the Key to Sustained Weight Loss and Vibrant Health

by Mark Hyman

  On the whole, I discovered I was genetically very lucky. I had only one highly impactful gene that put me at risk of being carbohydrate intolerant, called PLIN. This didn’t surprise me, since I notice that if I eat refined carbs or sugar, I gain a bit of belly fat! I also have the MC4R gene variation, which makes me likely to overeat. I do in fact have to watch myself.

  My triglycerides are a bit higher than I would have expected, given how clean my everyday diet is. It was enlightening to learn that I have the APOA5 and APOA3 genes; it helps me know that I should have more olive oil or MUFAs and fewer carbs in my diet.

  As you progress through the program, don’t forget to listen to your body. How do you feel? Are you losing weight? Is your energy dramatically increased? Are your aches and pains better? Is your brain fog gone? Remember, your own body is the best barometer of what works and what doesn’t.

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  About the Program

  Welcome to twenty-one days that not only will change how you think and feel about eating fat—but will forever alter how you think and feel about your body and how you care for your health and well-being. You’ll no longer have to wonder what to eat or how much. You’ll learn the secrets that will give you the life-changing confidence that comes from knowing you’re in command of the most potent medicine there is: what you put on the end of your fork.

  The Eat Fat, Get Thin program is divided into three stages:

  Stage 1: Lay the Foundation

  Stage 2: The Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan

  Stage 3: Your Transition Plan

  Stage 1 is the preparation stage, to be done in the two days prior to beginning the program. Stage 2 covers the Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan and includes everything that you’ll eat, drink, and do. Stage 3 lays out three options for transition plans, all of which give you a blueprint to follow for the rest of your life.

  STAGE 1: LAY THE FOUNDATION

  You wouldn’t construct a building without first laying a solid foundation, and that’s precisely what you’ll do in the two days prior to beginning the Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan. During these two days, you’ll do the following:

  Make Over Your Kitchen. Out with the bad, in with the good! I’ll walk you through the steps to set yourself up for cooking and eating success.

  Tackle Your Fear of Fat. It’s a challenge for us as human beings to give up deeply held beliefs—especially ones that are as deeply ingrained as our collective fear of fat. But give them up we must if we’re going to succeed, and I know you’re up for the challenge now that you’ve learned the truth about fat. I’ll give you questions to answer to help you root out any mental blocks that may be standing in your way.

  Stock Your Toolbox. Besides the groceries you’ll get as part of the kitchen makeover, there are several supplies you will need to get, including a pair of sneakers (for, you guessed it, exercise) and supplements. I’ll give you a checklist to ensure you have everything you need to succeed.

  STAGE 2: THE EAT FAT, GET THIN PLAN

  For each of the twenty-one days on this program, you’ll incorporate the following components into your daily routine. I’ll give you specific guidelines to make each super simple and easy to follow.

  Here are the three components of your daily plan:

  Nourish. Each day, you’ll enjoy three delicious meals and two optional snacks (you may not need the snacks because fat cuts your hunger). Whether you’re a novice in the kitchen or a gourmet chef, you’ll find lots of recipes in Chapter 16 to satisfy your belly and delight your taste buds. I’ll also give you easy guidelines for preparing ultra-simple meals, as well as for eating out successfully. To round out this aspect of the program, you’ll also take the daily supplements I recommend getting in Stage 1.

  Energize.The best way to create energy, paradoxically, is to spend it. Moving your body, no matter your fitness level, is good for your mind, body, and soul. Here, I’ll give you specific advice and guidelines for exercise on this program to optimize your results.

  Rejuvenate. Two things can quickly sabotage your efforts at getting healthy and losing weight: stress without a way of discharging or releasing it, and inadequate sleep. The cornerstones of a life full of energy, joy, health, and pleasure are good food, movement, relaxation (de-stressing), and sleep. The last two can’t be neglected. Stress literally programs you to gain weight and get sick. It causes your body to produce the hormone cortisol, which drives belly fat storage, sugar cravings, and emotional eating. And lack of sleep, or poor-quality sleep, drives the hormones that make you hungry and make you store fat. In Chapter 13, I’ll give you strategies for keeping the stress in check and getting good sleep.

  STAGE 3: YOUR TRANSITION PLAN

  After the twenty-one days, I’ll lay out three paths for you to choose from, so you can sustain your lifelong journey of health, happiness, and freedom from fat fear.

  Depending on the state of your health, you can continue on the Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan until you reach your goals (weight loss, health, etc.). You may want to lose a hundred pounds or reverse diabetes; if so, you’ll want to stay on this plan. Or you may be feeling great and have reached your ideal weight, and can transition to a way of eating for life that includes a wider variety of foods—the Pegan Diet. Some may find that the Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan works for them long term; others might discover they can include some grains, beans, or organic dairy.

  In Chapter 14, I’ll give you guidelines to help you determine the best transition plan for you. But most important, you will have to continue listening carefully to your body. Do you still feel good, or is the Feel Like Crap syndrome creeping back in? Is your weight where you want it to be (or moving in the right direction), or are you starting to gain weight or put on belly fat? Listen closely.

  WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT

  You don’t have to believe me that this program will work. You don’t even have to believe the 1,000 trial participants who dropped pounds quickly and saw astonishing improvements in their health. Just try it for twenty-one days and you’ll see and feel the results for yourself. Your body has a tremendous capacity to repair itself when you know how to clear out the wrong foods and feed it the right ones.

  Let’s get started!

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  Stage 1: Lay the Foundation

  Set aside two days before you begin the Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan to lay your foundation. During these two days, you’ll get your supplies and—most important—your mind ready, so you can begin the program with confidence, knowing you’re set up to succeed.

  If you think back to the story I told you in Part I about how we got into this big, fat mess, you’ll remember it came down to these two missteps: first, we were spooked into taking out dietary fat, and second, we replaced it with high amounts of sugar, refined carbs, and fake, toxic, “non-food.” (There is no such thing as junk food. There is junk, and there is food. Period.) But with the Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan, we’re going to undo those two steps so that you can reclaim your health, easily shed pounds, and revitalize how you look and feel on every level.

  MAKE OVER YOUR KITCHEN

  The standard American kitchen is a scary place that has been hijacked by the food industry. Unfortunately most Americans don’t eat food anymore. They eat factory-made, industrially produced food-like substances (Frankenfoods), which are full of disease-causing trans fats, high-fructose corn syrup, MSG (monosodium glutamate), artificial sweeteners, colors, additives, preservatives, pesticides, antibiotics, and novel food proteins and allergens from genetic breeding and genetic engineering. We call these “anti-nutrients” because they literally rob our bodies of the nutrients we need to survive and thrive.

  The Ingredients Game

  All industrial food contains all the same processed ingredients—high-fructose corn syrup, flour, salt, hydrogenated fats, MSG, colors, additives, and preservatives—all squeezed into injected molded inventions of different colors, shapes, and textures, but all containing nearly the same ingredient list. If you covered the front of packages of factory-made foods an
d just looked at the labels, you would have a hard time telling what they were—you couldn’t tell if they were Pop-Tarts or Pizza Stuffers. This should make you stop and think!

  Should we really be putting this in our bodies? The National Institutes of Health spends $800 million a year trying to discover the cause of obesity. Hmm. Could it be that the average American every year consumes 29 pounds of French fries, 23 pounds of pizza, 24 pounds of ice cream, 57 gallons of soda, 24 pounds of artificial sweeteners, 2.7 pounds of salt, 90,000 milligrams of caffeine, or 2,700 calories every day? We consume about 152 pounds of sugar, 146 pounds of white flour, and 600 pounds of dairy per person each year in this country. Doesn’t seem like any great mystery to me why we’re in an obesity crisis!

  We think of these of foods as “convenience” foods. But how convenient is it to be depressed, overweight, and tired, or to have to take multiple medications for lifestyle diseases like heart disease, depression, and reflux? How convenient is it to lose between seven and fourteen years off your life span simply because of what you’re eating?

  I’ve got to hand it to the food industry: They’re clever. They artfully and intentionally muscled their way into our homes by encouraging us to “outsource” our food and cooking. That sounds like a tempting way to save time and energy, but that approach has led to a cascade of problems. When food is cooked in a factory, it is generally devoid of nutrients, fiber, or real taste, and full of sugar, fat, salt, and calories. We have now raised at least two generations of children who don’t know how to cook a meal from scratch from real ingredients and who spend more time watching cooking on television than actually cooking.

  These foods have hijacked our taste buds and brain chemistry. Did you know that sugar and processed foods have been shown to be eight times more addictive than cocaine? They have taken over our bodies, minds, and souls.

  The good news is that a life of abundance and vitality is right around the corner—in fact, it is right in your own kitchen. Health is the most basic human right, and it has been taken from us. It’s time to take it back, and Eat Fat, Get Thin will show you how. We have been convinced that it is time-consuming, expensive, and difficult to eat well. But I’m here to tell you that enjoying real, fresh, whole food is easy, inexpensive, and delicious and will put you on the path to health and happiness.

  The Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan is not a diet. It is a way of living and eating that celebrates real, whole foods. It’s about fun, pleasure, deliciousness, and joy, not deprivation or suffering. We want to wake up every morning feeling good and enjoying life. The Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan will give you that, and more.

  Cooking Our Way to Health

  Time and money are the biggest perceived obstacles to eating well. Neither is real. We have bought into insidious marketing messages like “You deserve a break today.” Give us a break!!

  Americans spend eight hours a day in front of a screen. We each spend an average of two hours a day on the Internet—something we’ve somehow found time for that didn’t even exist in common usage 20 years ago. What’s missing isn’t the time to cook, but the education, basic skills, knowledge, and confidence. When you don’t know what to buy, or how to cook a vegetable, how can you feed yourself or your family? One family I met, whom you’ll read about in a moment, taught me that it is not lack of desire, but the prison of food addiction, food terrorism, and lack of knowledge that holds them hostage. But there is a way out.

  We have to cook our way out of our health care, environmental, and financial crisis. We have abdicated one of the essential acts that makes us human—cooking—to the food industry. Making our own food is essentially a political act that allows us to take back our power. We have become food consumers, not food producers or makers, and in so doing we have lost our connection to our world and ourselves. Michael Pollan in his book Cooked says, “The decline of everyday home cooking doesn’t only damage the health of our bodies and our land but also our families, our communities and our sense of how our eating connects us to the world.”

  Cooking is fun, freeing, and the most real activity we can do every day. It is a revolutionary act—one that each one of us has the ability to be a part of. As a physician I am deeply concerned about our fat and sick nation, and about our children’s and your children’s future. The best medicine for this ailment is something so simple, so easy, so healing, so affordable and accessible to almost everyone: cooking real food, in your home, with family and friends. And that’s a big part of what you’ll learn to do in Eat Fat, Get Thin.

  In Part IV, I’ll share the basic, easy tips for learning how to prepare healthful meals at home, as well as a myriad of delicious recipes that anyone—yes, anyone—can make.

  Your Kitchen Makeover

  The first few days of this program are key as you allow your body to detox from all the processed foods, gluten, dairy, sweeteners, and other food-like substances that contribute to insulin resistance, weight gain, poor health, and just generally feeling crappy. You’ll be able to break the addiction cycle and halt your cravings. Why not stack the odds in your favor by removing the items that have kept you trapped, sick, and miserable? Or, to put that a better way: Why not set yourself up for optimal success by making your kitchen a happy, hopeful place filled only with vibrant, real, whole foods that will nourish your body and genuinely feed your soul?

  Set aside a few hours during this stage to detox your kitchen of the items in the list below. Don’t just tuck these away—toss them in the garbage! If you have a moment of panic, rest assured: we’re going to quickly and easily replace them with delicious, healthy alternatives that will leave you more than satisfied. These are the absolute “must-go” non-foods for now (you will be able to add back some sugar from this list after the twenty-one days, but all the rest should really not be eaten by humans or other living things):

  All fake foods. By “fake food,” I mean anything that is not whole, real, and fresh. This includes anything that comes in a bag or a box (with the exception of real food like canned whole foods such as sardines or tomatoes with only water or salt). Get rid of anything that contains preservatives, additives, or dyes or that is otherwise processed in any way. Ditch the processed snack foods, frozen dinners, and, most important, anything labeled “fat-free” or “low-fat.” Anything with “natural flavors” may sound good but could contain gluten (more specifics on why we avoid gluten in the Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan in a moment) or even the secretion from beavers’ anal glands, which is commonly used as vanilla flavor. That’s right, not kidding. Look it up! If your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t have it in her kitchen, then you shouldn’t either. Throw it out.

  All foods that contain sugar. That means sugar in any form, including high-fructose corn syrup or “natural” sweeteners like honey, molasses, agave, maple syrup, coconut sugar, or organic cane juice. If you have to ask, “Is it okay?” the answer is no. If you start negotiating about sweet things you can have, whether it is stevia or raw organic coconut sugar gathered by an indigenous shaman and blessed by the pope, the answer is still no!

  Any drinks that contain sugar. This includes fruit juice (even if unsweetened), sweetened teas, coffees, sports drinks, and energy drinks. Juice boxes are presented as healthy kids’ drinks, and orange juice is considered healthy, but fruit juice is very high in sugar and doesn’t have the fiber that makes eating whole fruit fine. You wouldn’t eat five apples at once, but you can easily drink them. It’s a lot of sugar. Stick to water with lemon juice. After twenty-one days, you can add back in whole-food, low-sugar drinks such as green juices (without a lot of fruit), coconut water, or cold-pressed watermelon water with no added sugar.

  Anything containing artificial sweeteners. This includes aspartame, saccharin, sorbitol, xylitol, and basically any other chemical sweetener. If it comes in a blue, pink, or yellow packet—or any packet at all, for that matter—toss it. Artificial sweeteners have been linked to obesity and diabetes and even shown to alter your gut bacteria. Even stevia or other “natur
al” low- or no-calorie sweeteners need to go. These can all trigger cravings for more sugar and carbs, and we are trying to shut off that cycle. Eventually you can add a bit of stevia if you tolerate it, but not for the first twenty-one days.

  Anything containing hydrogenated oils or refined vegetable oils (like corn or soybean oil). As you now know, these oils contain inflammatory omega-6 fats, which we want to avoid. You will be getting plenty of omega-6 fats in nuts and seeds, animal foods, and even olive oil, but you want to avoid all those oils made in a factory. Olive oil, extra virgin coconut oil, ghee, or grass-fed butter will be your healthy oils of choice during this program, as they contain the good fats that promote weight loss and optimal health.

  While it may be tempting to say, “Oh, I’ll be fine… I’ll just avoid those things that aren’t part of this program,” I strongly encourage you not to skip this very important step!

  Other Foods to Avoid

  For the next twenty-one days, to facilitate the detox and healing process and maximize the benefits of the good fats you’ll be eating, you’ll also be refraining from all gluten products, dairy products (except grass-fed butter or ghee), grains, and beans. Dairy (except grass-fed or clarified butter), gluten, and grains (such as rice, quinoa, millet, etc.) most commonly cause food sensitivities and the resulting inflammation. Inflammation is the root cause of almost all chronic ailments and diseases, from asthma and allergies to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even cancer, depression, and autism. Beans also contain inflammatory compounds and are not ideal for blood sugar issues because they are high in starch. As you’ll read about in Chapter 14, after the twenty-one days you can reintroduce these foods if you wish, after you’ve given your gut a chance to heal.