Five Metabolic Truths in the FatBack Diet: Timing, Variety, Nuts, Dietary Fats, Whole Grains

-Dr Richard Maurer

1. When you eat you larger meal is not inherently important.  Many studies have been done to try to answer whether a larger meal in the morning or midday versus nighttime might result in better weight management.  For that matter overnight eating and frequent snacking has also been studied.  The conclusion upon meta-analysis is a resounding…it doesn’t matter.  Timing is inconsequential when compared with:

• Total calories consumed during a 24-hour period
• Total energy expenditure through exercise and activities

Separate of weight and metabolism, studies that compare those who eat versus those who skip breakfast versus show that breakfast eaters are more likely to perform better on tests, have more stable moods and carry less “bad” habits such as smoking.  Personally, I take little time at lunch and being on the go in the morning means I eat a small breakfast – only about 400 calories, and a moderate lunch – perhaps 500-600 calories.  Which means my dinner needs to be at least 1200 calories.  The end of the day is the more relaxed time of day for my schedule, therefore this time is more conducive to eating a larger meal.

1. Nuts are not high in protein: All tree nuts and seeds are less than 10% protein.  They offer some omega-6  and omega-3 fat, but not significant protein.  I suspect this ubiquitous mistake is due to the marketing of peanuts as a nut.  Peanuts are legumes, and the legumes as a group offer about a third of their calories as protein.  Another one-third to two-thirds of the calories, depending upon the kind of legume, comes from carbohydrate.  So for a starchy carbohydrate, legumes offer some protein, but they too are not high protein.  Caution about legumes: Our digestive tract cannot breakdown the skin of a legume, this results in inadequate digestion and bloating as well as elevating the risk of allergies.  So legumes require proper traditional soaking and cooking techniques.  Modern processing methods such as roasting peanuts for peanut butter and isolating soy protein create poorly digested allergenic harmful foods.

1. Variety may not be very important.  An interesting study in Britain years back compared those that ate a variety of foods versus a group that ate the same basic food choices.  Less variety was associated with less caloric intake and surprisingly a subjective sense of satiety that surpassed the variety group.  Essentially they were more satisfied with less.  Apparently, when our senses are hit with something new, subconsciously we say “Whoa, let’s get that again…one more time…and again…”  This same phenomenon is found when people drink alcohol.  Those that switched drinks in a night drank more than they thought they drank.  And those that stuck with the same drink reported their quantity more accurately and overall drank less.  Personally, I eat the same thing for breakfast about 350 days per year, and I do not feel like I am missing out.

1. If you are hungry between meals, it does not mean you lack protein.  In fact, usually it is the lack of fat in the prior meal.  Fats, along with soluble fiber offer a slower emptying time of the stomach and a more gradual release of calories from the meal.  A serving of creamed spinach is a pretty quick way to calm your hunger after a meal.  Lack of adequate protein may be associated with food cravings.  In studies related to resolving food cravings, one of the few interventions that help is the addition of whey protein into the diet.  This easily assimilated mix of essential proteins probably quiets the part of the brain that signals inadequate protein in the bloodstream.  Assuring a dense protein serving at nearly every meal keeps cravings to a minimum.  This doesn’t need to be a lot of food; even one egg can be enough for many people.

1. Whole wheat and high fiber grain products have the same amount of carb as those without the fiber and they are absorbed at about the same rate.  So if one is to limit carbs in the diet, whole grain choices don’t help.  The husk and skin of grains is mostly insoluble fiber, the inside of the grain contains soluble fiber.  The addition of insoluble fiber offers little to slow the absorption of nutrients compared to soluble fiber.   For example, white rice has 44 grams of carb per cup and 0.6 gram of soluble fiber.  Brown rice has 44 grams of carb per cup with 3.5 grams of fiber, 0.6 as soluble and 2.9 as insoluble fiber.  The difference in total carbohydrate white rice nets out at 40.5 while white nets out at 43.4, you can see the difference is inconsequential.  So a meal of fibrous vegetables and buttered fish with a little white rice (cooked in broth) is a fine low carb meal, even without the whole grain.

Enjoy and be well,

Dr. Richard Maurer