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

by Mark Hyman

  If you would prefer not to completely remove these from your kitchen, simply put them out of sight during the plan. One exception: If you have nonorganic dairy, chuck it! It is full of hormones, antibiotics, and inflammatory compounds. If you have refined flours like wheat flour or rice flour, you probably don’t want to keep those either. You may choose to reintroduce some of these in Stage 3, which we’ll talk more about in Chapter 14.

  If you’re reading this list of items and feeling a little panicky, you’re not alone. I’ve met and worked with thousands of people just like you who were convinced they could never give up sweets, processed snacks, soda, and the like. But I promise you: It’s far easier than you imagine. I’ve scientifically designed this program to ensure your success. Remember, dietary fat is the ultimate cravings killer. It keeps your blood sugar balanced longer and prevents spikes and swings, and more recent research maps its effect on the brain’s craving, addiction, and habit-forming centers. While sugar stimulates cravings and addiction, fat stops them. Cold!

  EFGT is an awesome program! I never imagined how big a difference I would see in a mere three weeks and how much better I feel. Yesterday I even passed up dessert easily and without regret! Thank you for giving me the tools to make the changes I needed in life and for my health!

  —Pamela Barrett

  Can I Drink Coffee?

  Java lovers rejoice: coffee is allowed on the Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan. You can have up to two cups a day (about 150 milligrams of caffeine). In some studies, coffee has been shown to improve blood sugar, most likely because of all the antioxidants it contains. If you like milk in your coffee, don’t despair; you’re going to discover the magic of coffee blended with grass-fed butter or coconut oil on this program, and you’ll never look back. You’ll also find recipes for delicious homemade nut milks in Part IV. You don’t have to drink coffee or caffeine on this program; in fact, some people are slow metabolizers of caffeine, which makes them intolerant of coffee. There are genetics tests to find out, but if it makes you anxious or disrupts your sleep, then best avoid it. But if not, consider it a treat.

  One Family’s Kitchen Revolution

  If you’re feeling nervous or unsure about whether you can tackle your kitchen (and cooking… and eating…) overhaul, let me put your mind at ease and share a story with you. I promise, if this family can take back their kitchen, their health, and their waistlines, so can you!

  I had the remarkable opportunity to visit a very sick, overweight family in South Carolina (one of the worst food deserts in America) as part of the filming of the movie Fed Up, the movie the food industry doesn’t want you to see. (If you haven’t seen it, watch it on Netflix or iTunes!) It helped me understand the sad state of the standard American kitchen and how a simple makeover and easy cooking lessons could make a crucial difference between health and the real risk of death.

  When I met this family in 2013, they were a family in crisis. Their list of difficulties was a long one: morbid obesity, pre-diabetes, renal failure, disability, financial stress, and hopelessness about how they could dig themselves out of their scary downward spiral—a spiral that is affecting more than 150 million Americans (including tens of millions of children) who struggle with the physical, social, and financial burden of obesity and its complications.

  The costs of obesity and its related diseases are staggering. By the year 2040, 100 percent of our federal budget will be needed to pay for Medicare and Medicaid. Our poor diet makes our kids sicker (more obesity, ADHD, asthma, etc.), and this contributes to an “achievement gap” (they are too fat and sick to learn)1 that limits our capacity to compete in the global marketplace.2 Seventy percent of our kids are too fat or unfit to serve in the military, threatening our national security. These are not small problems. They greatly threaten our future.

  The mother, the father, and their sixteen-year-old son were all morbidly obese. Their three other sons were “skinny fat,” not overweight; even though the junk food didn’t make them fat, it made them sick. The eldest was 47 percent body fat and his belly was 58 percent fat (normal for a man is 10 to 20 percent body fat). His insulin levels were sky-high, and these drove his relentless sugar cravings and food addiction and promoted storage of more and more belly fat. His life expectancy was 13 years less than kids of normal weight, and he was twice as likely to die by the age of fifty-five years old as his thin friends.

  His parents were no better off. At forty-two, his father had renal failure from complications of obesity. He couldn’t get the kidney transplant he needed to save his life until he lost forty pounds, and he had no clue how to lose the weight. His mother was more than 100 pounds overweight and on medication for high blood pressure. The whole family was at serious risk.

  They desperately wanted to find a way out but didn’t have the knowledge or skills to escape from the food industry. They were trapped in a cycle of food addiction. They blamed themselves for their failure, but it was clear they were the victims, not the perpetrators.

  When I asked them what motivated them to change, the tears started to flow and the father said he didn’t want to die and leave his wife and four boys. His youngest son was only seven years old. A powerful motivator if I’ve ever heard one.

  We started in the easiest place possible to dig this family out of the mess they were in: their kitchen.

  Not one member of this family knew how to cook real food. They didn’t know how to navigate a grocery aisle, shop for food, or read a label. Like so many Americans, they had been hoodwinked by the “health claims” on packaged, processed foods that made them fat and sick, including “low-fat,” “diet,” “zero trans fats,” and “whole grain.” Whole-grain Pop-Tarts? Zero trans fats in Cool Whip? It is 100 percent trans fat, but since the serving size is small, and the food lobby forced Congress to permit them to label the “food” as having zero trans fat if it has less than 0.5 grams per serving, they can legally lie. The family didn’t know that chicken nuggets have twenty-five or more ingredients, and only one of them is chicken.

  They grew up in homes where food was either fried or eaten out of a box or can. Everything was premade in a factory. They only knew about two vegetables: boiled cabbage and canned green beans. Their kitchen didn’t have basic cooking implements, such as a sharp knife or even a cutting board. They existed on food stamps and disability; about half of the $1,000 they spent per month on food went to eating out in fast-food places.

  The grandmother had a garden, but the mother never learned how to grow food, even though they live in a beautiful, temperate rural area. When I met her, she didn’t know how to chop a vegetable or sauté it. I realized that the best way to help them was not to shame or judge them, not to prescribe more medication or tell them to eat less and exercise more (a subtle way of blaming them), but to teach them to cook real food from scratch, good food on a tight budget, to show them they could eat well for less.

  We got the whole family washing, peeling, chopping, and cooking real food—onions, garlic, carrots, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, salad greens. To my surprise, the mother pulled a bunch of fresh asparagus from her fridge (which I suspect she got when she found out I was coming to their home), remarking that she hated asparagus. “Once I had asparagus out of can; it was nasty,” she said. “But then a friend told me to try one off the grill, and even though I didn’t want to, I tried it and it was good.”

  I showed her and her kids how to snap asparagus to get rid of the chewy parts and how to sauté it in olive oil and garlic. They learned how to roast sweet potatoes with fennel and olive oil, and how to make turkey chili from scratch. They even made fresh salad dressing from olive oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper, instead of using gummy bottled dressings laden with high-fructose corn syrup, refined oil, and MSG.

  As we were cooking, the boys came running into the kitchen, lured away from their Xbox by the sweet, warm smells of chili and roasted sweet potatoes, smells they had never had in their kitchen. They all happily ate the food and wer
e surprised at how delicious and filling it was.

  After a happy, satisfying, healing meal of real food, cooked in less time and for less money than it would take for them to drive to Denny’s and order deep-fried chicken nuggets, biscuits, gravy, and canned green beans, the son, who struggled to get healthy against all odds, who wanted to go to medical school, who wanted to help his family, said in disbelief, “Dr. Hyman, do you eat real food like this with your family every night?” I assured him I did.

  I left to go home amidst tears of relief, of hope for a different future for this family. Five days later, the mother texted me that the family had lost eighteen pounds all together and was making chili again from scratch. She went on to lose a hundred pounds and got off her blood pressure medication. The father lost forty-five pounds and was able to get a new kidney, and the eldest son lost fifty pounds. (Sadly, he gained those pounds back, and more, when he went to work at Bojangles’. As he said, it was like putting an alcoholic to work in a bar. But he soon got back on track.)

  So you see: We can end this mess one kitchen, one meal at a time.

  TACKLE YOUR FEAR OF FAT

  Recently, we had a guest at our house. She came into the kitchen to say hello just as I was about to make myself a Bulletproof Coffee, a special drink created by my friend Dave Asprey that contains coffee blended with grass-fed butter and MCT oil (see here). I offered to make her one and she looked at me a bit horrified and said, “Isn’t that fattening?”

  Chances are, before reading this book you might have said (or thought) the exact same thing. And even now, after learning the truth about dietary fat, you may still be skeptical about eating “fattening” things like butter, nuts, coconut or olive oil, and generous helpings of avocado after so many decades of having the fat-free mantra drilled into you. I know that once you make the leap and try this program, you’ll be convinced, but for now, we want to root out any of the mental obstacles that could potentially stand in the way of your success.

  Set aside some time during the two days of the foundation stage to journal your responses to the following questions. It’s important to actually write down your responses, rather than just answering mentally. The act of writing holds you accountable and will also allow you to look back at the end of the program to see how far you’ve come.

  What do I believe to be true about eating fat?

  How did I feel reading the story about how we, as a culture, came to shun fat and embrace processed foods?

  What is my history or current relationship with “fat-free” foods?

  How has eating these foods made me feel in the past?

  What worries or fears do I have about including fat in my diet?

  How can I address those worries or fears?

  Why am I doing this program?

  What three goals do I have for myself over the next twenty-one days?

  STOCK YOUR TOOLBOX

  Here are the supplies you’ll want to gather before beginning the program:

  The Right Foods

  Now that you’ve rid your kitchen of toxic, inflammatory foods, let’s restock it with the good stuff! The following is a list of basic staples you’ll want to get so that you can make the recipes included in the plan and prepare basic meals according to the guidelines in Part IV:

  Extra virgin olive oil

  Extra virgin coconut oil

  Sea salt

  Black pepper

  Detoxifying and anti-inflammatory herbs and spices (ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, thyme, rosemary, cumin, sage, oregano, coriander, cilantro, paprika, and parsley)

  Nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamia nuts, cashews, etc.; no peanuts)

  Seeds (hemp, chia, flax, pumpkin, sesame)

  Unsweetened almond or hemp milk, or homemade coconut milk (see here for recipes for homemade milks)

  Grass-fed butter or ghee

  High-quality coffee (if you drink coffee)

  You’ll be choosing breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack options from the recipes in Part IV. I strongly encourage you to plan out your meals in advance, so you don’t get caught hungry and scrambling to get what you need. Map out one week’s worth of meals at a time and shop in advance for those meals. The worst thing that can happen to you is to find yourself in a food emergency. Planning what you are going to have or where you will be for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is key to your success.

  You’ll notice that I did not create a day-by-day meal plan for this program, and that was intentional. My goal is not only to help you reset your metabolism and reprogram your genes for weight loss and health, but also to give you guidelines for how you can continue to do that on your own for the rest of your life. I want to empower you to know how to choose the right foods to fuel your body, beginning with these twenty-one days. But don’t worry—I’ll be giving you lots of clear direction, guidelines, and tips to help you do that. I’m here to help you succeed!

  Supplements

  Though you will be fueling your body with real food packed with vitamins and minerals, you’ll still need additional nutrients to help your body burn calories efficiently, regulate appetite, cool inflammation, optimize your gut flora, and help your cells become more insulin-sensitive.

  If you eat only wild food that you hunt and gather, drink pure clean water, breathe clean air, have no chronic stress, are exposed to no environmental toxins, and sleep nine hours a night, you don’t need vitamins, but the rest of us do. Ninety percent of Americans are deficient in one or more nutrients, even if we eat a healthy diet. Our soils are depleted; whole foods are hybridized (which reduces their nutrient density) and grown with artificial fertilizers, then transported over long distances and stored for long periods of time. Or they are highly processed, which further depletes their nutritional value. Everyone needs at the very least a good multivitamin and mineral, fish oil, vitamin D supplements, and ideally probiotics. Many also need magnesium, the relaxation mineral.

  That is why I recommend the following basic supplements to optimize your body’s fat-burning and repair mechanisms. You can purchase these as a simple twice-a-day packet for ease and convenience at www.eatfatgetthin.com (if you choose to order these, make sure to do so one week before beginning the program, to allow for shipping time), or purchase them at your local health food store. But be cautious about which brands and products you pick. You can also find sources for the hard-to-get components of this program such as MCT oil or electrolytes at www.eatfatgetthin.com. You want to use brands that are free from contaminants, fillers, and allergens like gluten, which was recently found in many probiotics.

  Your daily supplements should include:

  A high-quality multivitamin and multimineral supplement. This contains all the B vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals you need to optimize your metabolism, blood sugar, and insulin functioning.

  2 grams of purified fish oil (EPA/DHA), an anti-inflammatory, insulin-sensitizing, blood-sugar-balancing, heart-disease-preventing, brain-boosting supplement.

  2,000 units of vitamin D3, which helps insulin function. Up to 80 percent of the population is deficient in this important vitamin (take this is in addition to what’s in your multivitamin).

  300 to 400 milligrams of L-carnitine twice a day. Carnitine helps transport fat into your cells so you can burn fat more effectively, and boosts your metabolism.

  30 milligrams of coenzyme Q10 twice a day. Coenzyme Q10 is a critical nutrient for turning food into energy inside your cells.

  100 to 150 milligrams of magnesium glycinate (1 capsule twice a day). Magnesium is also the relaxation mineral and helps reduce anxiety, improve sleep, improve blood sugar control, and even cure muscle cramps. If you have constipation you may need to add magnesium citrate (see optional supplements list that follows). Also, if you have kidney problems, check with your doctor before starting magnesium.

  PGX (in powder or capsule form)—a superfiber that slows blood sugar and insulin spikes and can also cut cravings and promote weight loss. Take 2 to 5 grams ju
st before every meal with a large glass of water. This can be taken in powder form (½ to 1 scoop) or in 3 to 6 capsules; the powder form tends to work better. If you have night cravings or night eating, you can also take a dose after dinner.

  Probiotics: 10 to 20 billion CFU (colony forming units). Probiotics help normalize your gut flora; tending your inner garden is one of the best ways to reduce inflammation, improve digestion, and even reverse diabesity and carbohydrate intolerance.

  MCT oil: 1 to 2 tablespoons. You can have it in coffee or a shake or put it on salad. This is a superfat from coconut oil that speeds up your metabolism and fuels your brain.

  Electrolytes: 1 to 2 capfuls of E-lyte (a liquid electrolyte solution). Put 1 capful in a glass of water and drink, twice a day (so 2 glasses and 2 capfuls). This combination of electrolytes and salt helps with proper tissue hydration and will make you feel amazing. If you cut out carbs you will lose a lot of fluid and need more salt and electrolytes to keep you balanced.

  Potato starch: Build up to 1 to 2 tablespoons in 8 ounces of water twice a day to help balance your blood sugar and feed the good gut bugs. Use Bob’s Red Mill Unmodified Potato Starch, which is easy to find in health food stores, at Whole Foods, or online. While potato starch is technically optional on this program, I strongly recommend it.

  Why Potato Starch?

  You might be wondering why I would recommend potato starch when I have been railing against the evils of refined carbs. White powdery starch! Deadly, right? Well, there is a special type of starch called resistant starch that has some unique properties, including improving your metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and blood sugar; increasing fat burning and reducing fat storage in your cells; and even optimizing your gut flora3 in a way that helps promote weight loss.4