little kids and the youngest was a
serial vomiter that serialism ass isn’t
over and over again and Syria with the
sea because there’s definitely Cheerios
in the mix multiple times now his name
is Jack and he threw up so often and
then he would just go right back to
eating as if nothing had happened so we
started calling him yak and come back
now my fancy MBA didn’t offer any
particular insights into how to solve
this daily vomit osis thing that we had
going on so I spent the better part of a
year cleaning up after jock as all the
mothers in this room can imagine this
was a not a very glamorous era for me
you know Plato and the hair vomit
smeared in the jeans but I was managing
the problem in that I sort of knew how
to do I bought a carpet shampooer did
you know of course lots of disgusting
laundry but it wasn’t until Jack
provided this particularly dramatic
display essentially booting all over the
table at a restaurant when a stranger
asked a question might that kid be
allergic to milk hadn’t even occurred to
me all that time cleaning up after jock
I hadn’t once step back and asked is
what I’m feeding him making him throw up
well of course the next day I pulled
milk and a bunch of other common
allergens out of Jack’s diet and he
stopped throwing up that day this was
awesome but it was also cringe worthy
because I felt so ashamed that I had let
this go on for so long like poor little
guy but it was a real awakening for me
to just the starkest of evidence that
the food we put into our bodies really
matters and I don’t mean just with like
food sensitivities and food allergies
but in general so I got really
interested in that connection between
what we eat and wellness
now as parents we spent a lot of time
energy money feeding our kids I don’t
know about you guys my kids it’s like
they expect dinner every single night
they are relentless so much work so you
know if you’re going to spend all the
time and all that energy you might as
well get it right and in my house
getting it right has been about making
changes I’m happy to report that Jack is
back to milk and all those food
sensitivities are a distant memory but
we still don’t eat the way most
Americans eat we’re part of a global
food revolution lower carb higher fat
let me explain more most of you know
we’re in the midst of an obesity
epidemic but I’m not sure that you’ve
all seen it displayed this way the red
line on the graph is obesity ramping up
beginning about 1980 essentially
tripling and the green bars show
diabetes rates rising even faster now
diabetes is one of those chronic
diseases that travels with obesity and
there are several others heart disease
stroke fatty liver some kinds of cancer
even dementia and Alzheimer’s all
tightly linked to obesity what we’re
eating and they’re all on the rise our
health care system is managing this
problem and they’re doing a decent job
of that but in terms of reflecting on
cause and prevention not so much so that
they’re kind of like knee on the floor
cleaning up after yak and come back
cleaning up our mess so today I’d like
to step back and really talk about what
could possibly be driving this now
obesity experts you’ve probably seen
them on CNN they will talk about a
obesogenic environment or how we become
victims of our own prosperity and the
idea is like too many cheap and easy
calories 24/7 food on every corner it’s
just too hard to resist and then not
enough reason to move so the idea is too
many calories in not enough calories out
and of course the cure for this is to
eat less and to exercise more I’m sure
you’ve all heard this advice
unfortunately eating less and exercising
more only work for most people in the
short term the science is actually
pretty clear on this for long term
weight loss neither eating less nor
exercising more works terribly well for
most people so we have a broken theory
of obesity and the solutions that come
out of that theory are of course broken
to what can we learn by looking back to
the 1970s and 60s before obesity took
off well I grew up in the 60s and 70s so
I can give you a little I witness report
of what it was like and a lot of things
were really the very similar there was a
lot of soda in my house certainly tons
of driving around in cars plenty of
screen time lots of cookies from the
grocery store and crappy food there was
some fast food not as much I admit but
one of the things that was distinctly
different in my house was my mother’s
attitude about food she believed that
carbohydrates were uniquely fattening
she kind of came of age in the 40s and
most women from that era believed this
so when she was on a diet she would keep
eating her bacon and eggs at breakfast
but she would give up all the starches
at lunch no dessert no bread that sort
of thing and this worked pretty well for
whole generations of women she also had
interesting ideas about exercise she
would say things like sweating is for
horses gee I can’t believe she would say
that but she did and she would she also
would no more consider regular exercise
and she would consider giving up her
regular gin martini right and
interestingly there were no gyms no yoga
pants but a fairly sedentary suburban
population maintained their weight
eating this way and living this way but
since the 70s the skirts have gotten
shorter I don’t want to do that but you
know the tops tighter and shorter too
there’s nowhere to hide
we all have incredible in
centas to maintain our way yet look at
that graph 25% of adults move from lean
to obese in just four decades not many
people would make that journey without a
fight we didn’t just sort of drift
towards obesity because of the awesome
smells coming out from the golden arches
everywhere we were pushed a big shove in
fact from our friends at the USDA so the
USDA recommended a low-fat diet around
1980
you probably remember it it was that
food pyramid which came about 10 years
later but the same thing all those
starches and grains on the bottom and
the tiny triangle of fat on the top so
we were supposed to eat less of the fat
and more of the carbohydrates and we did
just that in America this becomes an
even more processed diet too because
suddenly we have to invite the food
manufacturers in to take the natural fat
out of our food and also to process all
those grains because most people aren’t
eating like boiled wheat berries or a
boiled potato they’re eating a cracker
which is a very processed piece of food
the USDA didn’t seem to understand that
carbohydrates make most people hangry
you guys know hangry right that edgy
crabby oh my god I have to be very now
feeling it all comes together this is
the feeling you get when your blood
sugar is crashing down after a meal that
has been kind of a low-fat high-carb
meal
if you think of anything made out of
flour pretzels cookies crackers bread
all of those things turn to sugar in
your body almost immediately after you
eat them so you get a bigger blood sugar
spike than you would get from eating
table sugar in fact everyone’s a little
different I’m going to show you what my
blood sugar looks like after eating
break nuts skim milk and a banana that’s
the red line my wild grape nuts
adventure right
and then the green line is my blood
sugar after eating an omelet so very
different same amount of calories very
different experience and I have to tell
you when you come crashing down from
your wild ride
you often have to grab that Banana Nut
muffin at 11 o’clock because you just
can’t make it to lunch
you’re hangry or God forbid you go for
that Snickers bar in your desk right
this eating pattern has made us a nation
of snackers which our food manufacturers
love because it drives their revenues
and part of why this is happening is
because carbs put you into fat storing
mode and by that I mean they drive up a
hormone called insulin really important
how long does several things but one of
the things it does is tells your fat
cells hang on to your fat don’t let the
fat out of your fat cells so you can’t
access your fat for energy so that
there’s no excess that pantry within as
I like to call it so you have to reach
into your external pantry when you get
hangry and you reach for the Wheat Thins
or the granola bar or the energy drink
more carbs it’s a vicious cycle so
hundreds of scientist thousands of
doctors millions of people have figured
this out and have abandoned the low-fat
dietary advice and are going back to
real full fat food they love how cutting
way back on sugars and starches makes
them feel this is the grassroots
revolution that I’m talking about here
today sometimes when I criticize the
Dietary Guidelines which I so often do a
skinny person will sit and even you
can’t blame the Dietary Guidelines
people aren’t even following them really
hot off the presses the USDA just
dropped this report comparing what we’re
eating now to what we ate in 1970 and
it’s a per-person comparison as you can
see on the slide we’re eating more skim
milk more chicken more vegetable oil
more
fresh fruit more fish and shellfish more
flour and more vegetables we’re eating
less whole milk red meat animal fat and
eggs sound familiar
it should because this is what our
federal government is telling us to eat
right we have achieved the MyPlate
paradigm it’s just that we’re eating too
much and we’re kind of eating too much
sugar too we’re cheating a bit why then
are we eating too much I’ll say it again
because carbs make us hangry and the
food manufacturers shove sugar into
everything you can see this for yourself
swap out whatever you eat for breakfast
whether it’s granola or maybe a bagel or
low-fat yogurt swap it out for three
eggs fried and butter if you’re a big
strapping guy maybe you need six eggs to
feel full and you just go for it but see
how you feel three or four hours later
for most people this is a game-changer
self included getting rid of that carb
festive breakfast and eating food that
has a lot of fat and protein in it just
gives you this beautiful steady energy
you get all the way to lunch without
hangry it’s awesome try it trust me and
you know unfortunately most Americans
are afraid to eat this way they’re
afraid of the saturated fat and the
cholesterol in the bacon and eggs and
butter for breakfast I have four things
to tell you about heart disease and
saturated fat number one the nation’s
perhaps most prominent cardiologist dr.
Stephen this and out of the Cleveland
Clinic came out last year and called the
Dietary Guidelines an evidence free zone
and particularly called out the
relationship between saturated fat and
heart disease questioning that there was
any science to back it up number two we
have several very large meta-analysis
where they roll up hundreds of thousands
of subjects and studies showing us that
there’s no association between dietary
fat consumption and deaths due to heart
events number three journalists have
done some interesting investigative
reporting
last year and letting us know that oh by
the way the sugar industry played a
little dirty back in the 60s and 70s and
actually pay made some payments to
scientists that kind of put the thumb on
the scale a little bit as they were
deliberating whether to blame heart
disease on sugar or saturated fat and
obviously the sugar industry was trying
to push the blame away from sugar toward
saturated fat and then the fourth thing
is just that researchers have done some
investigative science and found a study
that was buried it was a well done study
in the late sixties and 70s and it
showed that as people switched from
butter to polyunsaturated corn oil they
actually had more heart disease and more
depth than the people that stayed with
the butter the idea that saturated fat
causes heart disease is based on really
thin science that keeps getting thinner
but unfortunately it’s an idea that
refuses to die I believe that it will go
down probably is the biggest public
health mistake in human history and the
faster we can forget about that idea
probably the better because it’s just
shifted our attention away from sugar
now entire countries are experimenting
fortunately with this way of eating
Sweden it’s called lchf low carb high
fat about a quarter of the population is
going rogue ignoring their dietary
guidelines and eating this way they’ve
had some butter shortages in Stockholm a
little smuggling of butter which I find
very amusing the interesting bottom line
though is that over the last ten years
is butter consumption has soared in
Sweden heart disease rates have fallen
one of the great things about cooking
this way as you can see it’s all real
normal food you can do it really quickly
vintage both fat eating is the original
fast food you can fry a pork chop saute
some onions melts and better on your
frozen peas done in 15 minutes it’s
faster than going to McDonald’s and not
only does it
tastes better and make you more
satisfied than a low-fat meal adding fat
to your meals makes them can make them
simple to this is great for parents who
have to make dinner night after night
after night I’ve been speaking about
this for a couple years and I get some
nice reports back some people have told
me about meaningful weight loss which is
great the most common comment probably
is how great it is to live life without
that hangry feeling coming up all the
time but my favorite story is a mom that
I actually know she had seen me speak a
few months ago and went home and made a
bunch of changes this mom’s a really
good cook but like most American mothers
she was skimping on the butter and was
actually cooking broccoli for her family
using Pam cooking spray well
she swapped it out for butter and served
it up for her family and her teenage
daughter took one bite and said oh my
god mom this is the best broccoli you’ve
ever made what did you do to it I love
that story I mean getting your little
kids to eat their veggies with butter is
awesome but pleasing a teenager with
butter priceless
imagine with me that the United States
is a huge cruise ship and we’ve got
millions of people of course in tons of
food the USDA is doing the cooking
excellent plenty of processed carbs and
vegetable oil on all the ample buffets
now the ship is headed straight for an
iceberg of chronic disease and it’s
really hard to turn such a big heavy
ship but fortunately they’re just
lifeboats all around the ship and
they’re serving up a different kind of
food it’s all whole real food and it’s
all full fat but the thing is you got to
jump off the ship and get in that
lifeboat to eat at those alternative
tables now there are millions of
Americans in the lifeboats already see
all those guys who aren’t wearing shirts
they’re the paleo dudes they’re showing
off their six-packs just so you’ll know
how great it is to be down there but
the average mother unfortunately she’s
back on the ship she’s pouring skim milk
on her cornflakes maybe putting
margarine on a piece of whole-wheat
toast
chasing it down with a glass of orange
juice wondering why she’s hangry all the
time
or worse wondering why she has type 2
diabetes mothers are risk averse were
afraid to grab our families break the
rules and get into those lifeboats so
much for women and children first right
but anyway what I’m asking all of you
eaters in this room to reconsider is
could go back and eating the way your
great grandmother ate minus the margin
in the Crisco could that really be
riskier than the obvious health public
health disaster we have going on right
now I mean there’s something seriously
wrong with our food paradigm and I hate
to tell you but quinoa and kale alone
will not solve this problem you’ve got
to protect your family from these modern
epidemics by going back to something
that we know works real full-fat food so
join the revolution
take back your plate I’ll see you on the lifeboats