Banting diet modified

The Banting diet thus modified addresses the controversies associated with the high fat, together with very low carbohydrate way of eating; this is an attempt to cater for these concerns.

There is little doubt that low carbohydrate meal plans do cut cholesterol, blood pressure and weight. The problem is that the victim feels continuously famished and cannot keep to it; it's not sustainable. Enter the high fat part of the program to provide satiety.

The major concerns are that any meal plan very high in animal fat and protein is going to lead to an increased risk of malignant tumours. The Netherlands has the highest rate of breast CA in the world. Research in that country fingers dairy, beef and pork; and post-menopausal hormone replacement.

Patrick Holford points to colorectal cancer on a high animal protein diet, but in fact the research also implicates the prostate and breast; and presumably all metastatic disease.

With more people dying from the ravages of obesity than starvation, any diet that enables folk to follow in William Banting's footsteps, must be seriously considered. Interestingly, advocated by the eminent Dr Harvey, the undertaker lost a vast amount of weight on the very low carbohydrate, together with high fat plan.

We cannot, nor should, dismiss Professor Tim Noakes' Banting diet out of hand because of these concerns.

Are there other, better ways of banting?

Eggs Florentine

Slow food, made fast, is our motto, and Eggs Florentine fits the bill perfectly.

Not many housewives have the time to dedicate to the proliferation of fancy food menus today; fry half an onion and garlic, add the spinach and then poach an egg or two. Even the lazy cook can rustle it up in less than ten minutes; it is a perfect fit for the Banting diet modified which allows some low GI carbs.

Our eight colors eggs Florentine is without equal; and is an impressive, simple part of the modified Banting diet. Add to that the benefits of significant, easily achieved weight loss and the proven 35% lower all-cause of death from enjoying many phytochemical foods; you have a winner.

The rich supply in Eggs Florentine of many of the B vitamins including choline that is seriously deficient in the average Western diet makes this breakfast a winner; now you will understand why we rave about it.

A deficiency of folate and choline in the diet incidentally leads directly to serious birth defects. Use the site search function in the main menu above to find more information about these topics.

• High folate levels 
  
• Choline food sources
  

Banting Diet Modified

Banting diet modified avoids your high GI starches but not the healthy carbohydrate.

Our particular concerns are as follows.

• Tim Noakes bans legumes; that means a high animal protein diet.
  
• High animal fat means an increased risk of breast, prostate and colorectal tumours; and presumably others too.
  
• Limiting low GI carbohydrate as in many fruits and healthy vegetables like sweet potatoes makes no sense in the overall picture of sparkling good wellbeing.
  

Okay if you are obese, by all means go on this extremely low starch diet, but is there a more sensible way to do this than pack in the pork fat and cream, and ban otherwise very nutritious, essential foods like whole grains?

The key to the modified Banting diet is to gain all the benefits of a very low carbohydrate diet without the disadvantages. It is true that high GI starches are the bain of our obese platters. Dabble in white rice, bread rolls and potatoes daily and you will without a doubt get fat; and highly-refined bagels and cookies too.

But to cut out the low GI starches in apples, garbanzo beans and one hundred percent wholewheat bread makes no sense at all. Except for a season to reduce your total carbohydrate below 50g per day; to lose a massive amount of weight you simply have to do that. 

It is vital if you are eating this high animal protein food that you have ample B vitamins, otherwise the build up of toxic homocysteine is inevitable; that means heart disease, strokes and a host of other serious illnesses.

So plenty of greens for pyridoxine and folate are included in our modified diet; and eggs for vitamin B12 are absolutely vital. Add those foods which are rich in magnesium and zinc; enter Popeye's favourite. Spinach is for everyone.

This is a chiropractic site; yes, it is about weight loss because of the arthritis in knees, but also because the right foods give us hard, smooth cartilage in our spines too.

There are a huge number of legumes that you can use to increase your protein without having to pig out on bacon, steak and hamburgers. Yes, they do have some carbohydrate, but they have a low glycemic index; yes add fat, but why must it be butter, cream and pork crackling?

Simply add olive oil to your hummus and a side dish of guacamole with your Boston baked beans; use the friendly monounsaturates, rather than the cholesterol-rich animal fats to increase the energy dense part of our food that keeps you from being constantly famished.

Half a dozen spinach plants in a corner of the flower garden is so easy; they grow like weeds. Vegetable gardening is not just for the nut consumed by his well-being. Three minutes to loosen the sod, ten seconds to open the packet of seed and in another moment spread and cover them. What could be easier?

Keep all newly planted seeds damp until they have germinated.

• How to grow spinach - use the site search function.
  

Here are a few suggestions of typical meals that fulfill these criteria.

Breakfast

Breakfast should start with a fruit; the typical banting diet recommends berries, and that is great, but they are generally only available in season for a short period in the spring; frozen is good

There are exceptions; cape gooseberries grow almost all year-round in a mild climate.

At Banting diet modified we recommend eggs Florentine, without the toast if your body mass index is over 30. As always try to locate a 100% wholemeal loaf; often not easy to find. You may have to bake it yourself.

See the low GI bread recipe below^[3]; it takes only five minutes to mix the dough.

Then get into your apples and whatever else takes your fancy. In moderation because they are indeed high in carbohydrate, but most fruit is low GI. Cut the phytosterols in fruit out at your overall peril.

Researchers have found that the pectin in fruit is the most effective fibre to stimulate and support the microbiome; the friendly bacteria, viruses and yeasts in the gut.

Then Eggs Florentine is absolutely fantastic; high in B12, pyridoxine and folate from the spinach. Butter is back, so absolutely avoid margarine; hydrogenated fats are deadly.

Remember research shows that after a year, 95 percent of folk have lost no weight, and many have put on, after going on a diet. Think before starting a new regime; is this sustainable? Could you enjoy Eggs Florentine instead of a breakfast cereal most days of the week?

We think you will find the Banting diet modified easy to follow, and not difficult to stick too. But you will have to discipline and retrain that tongue so accustomed to colas with artificial sweeteners and refined carbohydrates like sugar and white flour.

Another not so small benefit is that chewing food thoroughly is associated with lower rates of Alzheimer's Disease.

A small glass of orange juice, preferably diluted with drinking water, is absolutely fine but there is a total ban on OJ; it is a high GI junk food. Squeeze your own citrus and make sure you include the pulp.

I personally used to be prediabetic and even home-squeezed OJ gave me a surge of blood glucose, so I enjoy only small amounts for the huge benefits of citrus, and always take a short walk after the meal. This Banting Diet Modified got my HbA1_c down to a very happy 5.4.

The beta-cryptoxanthin in citrus gives the most powerful proven protection known against the neurodegenerative diseases^[4].

An "orange juice press" is a must for every family; learn the facts using Site Search.

"The focus should be on whole foods rather than single macronutrients."

- Nordic Nutrition recommendations

Lunch

Lunch at Banting diet modified means, once again, a green salad that is so vital for those B vitamins that we've talked about, so essential for those who are banting. Add as many colours as  you can find, and include large scoops of hummus and avocado; they are high in the healthy fruit fats.

Corn on the cob is fine, but none from a can. There are ten coloured foods in the salad below; can you count them? Avocados were unfortunately out of season.

This chickpea garbanzo bean dip is a great way to enjoy a non red-meat protein dish; to be honest legumes are not rich in flavour which is why they always come with garlic, herbs and spices. Central to hummus is cumin.

What is cumin, I hear you asking.

Phytochemical foods is what it's all about; the coloured, piquant meals that help prevent malignant tumours. It is no coincidence that garlic is loved by every chef.

It's not difficult to keep to the modified Banting diet.

10 different coloured vegetables if you include those in the hummus.

Eggplant recipes

One of these eggplant recipes will go wonderfully well your Banting diet modified lunch. They are relatively low in starch; less than 5 grams per cup.

These eggplant slugs, fortified with a garlic and jalapeno stuffing are dynamite; enjoy them on low GI bread.

Eggplant also known as aubergine or brinjal in many parts of the world are an important part of our get off statins safely programme.

Low GI bread

If your BMI is below 30, out of the danger zone, then start baking your own low GI bread; it's okay on the Banting diet modified. Above thirty, the aroma is likely to seduce you into eating too much.

Another concern of those banting may be the amount of carbohydrate in flax and sesame seeds, often used in wholesome bread recipes to lower the GI. They have almost as much carb as fat.

However, there's a difference; most of that starch is in the form of dietary fibre; less than 10% is in the form of sugars. Always think of the net carbs.

Also these seeds and wholewheat too are loaded with very healthy lignans; if we avoid them because of their starch the chance of getting a breast tumours is much higher.

Are you so desperate to lose weight, that you're willing to face the increased risk of cancer on so many diets?

Less than ten minutes work to assemble the ingredients for this loaf, and five hours baking, of course; type "low GI bread" into Site Search.

Smear it with butter, olive oil or avocado; or quick hummus to lower the glycemic index. Bread baked with refined flour is what gives you the blood sugar rush.

It's an essential part of the Banting diet modified, making it sustainable. It is unthinkable to go without bread for ever, unless you suffer from coeliac disease. And even then, our easy sourdough recipe is much easier on the tum; the bugs break down the offending proline chains that cause gluten intolerance.

To do it properly, you really need an electric flour mill to grind your own healthy flour. The problem is not with bread per se, but that sold in the local supermarket; there's a pernicious ruling that allows millers to remove 40% of the goodies from grains and still call it wholemeal.

There's only one way around this anomaly; read more about it at is wheat a whole grain?

In short because of the increased fat in the Banting diet modified to provide satiety and better glucose control, we also recommend you make sure these cholesterol lowering foods are daily on the menu.

Dinner

Take an onion and make one of our delicious healthy soup recipes for dinner.

The chickpea soup would be a good start, and even the vichyssoise is good, but it does have potato; and small scoop, and yes add a little cream. The fat lowers the glycemic index further. Cooling overnight allows the starch to retrograde.

Mexican avocado soup is one of my favourites; high in the healthy monounsaturated fatty acids and low in carbohydrate it makes a perfect food if you're looking for variations of Banting diet modified. 

And then perhaps a mutton stew; add a cup of chickpeas to your cooking.

Cooking chickpeas under pressure is the solution to the long period required for preparation. 

Vegetable high in protein is one food group where we differ profoundly with the advocates of banting. The carbohydrate in them has a very low glycemic index, yet they are still banned; they are not fattening. Along with smart bran, research shows they promote a healthy colon.

Red meat, and certainly when processed is strongly associated with malignant colorectal tumours.

Find the subjects in bold using the site search function in the main menu above.

It looks like a dog's breakfast but this mutton stew recipe is to die for. With all the added veggies and legumes it is very low GI.

Keep desserts for high and holy days; our homemade ice-cream is low in sugar and high in fat making it an option occasionally even on the Banting diet modified. 

Banting for vegetarians

Vegetarians of course would find a diet high in animal protein and fat repugnant.

Banting for vegetarians also exists.

This whole-grain tabbouleh bulgar wheat may interest you; it is nutrient dense and low in carb.

Glycemic Index

The key to losing weight is understanding the meaning of glycemic index; it's a measure of how fast a starch is turned into blood sugar. High GI foods cause an insulin rush, storing the carb as fat.

Glycemic index is what it's all about. This is a subject at the heart of the modified Banting diet. Keep the starch load down though; that means small portions.

Our free weight loss programs incorporate these principles.

These low glycemic index butternut squash soup recipes for example are fine, especially if you add coconut-cream.

Questionable for the morbidly obese would be this roast vegetables recipe; braising raises the glycemic index, and it's heavy on carbohydrate; yet still has a low glycemic index.

It would certainly be allowed, even encouraged on the Banting diet modified, but keep the portions small; to reduce the glycemic load.

The healthy fats

The success of the modified Banting diet in losing weight is based on three factors, one of which is about including only the healthy fats.

• It's sustainable; we have been following it with little difficulty for ten years.
  
• It's high in energy-dense fats; that is what keeps you from continuously being famished.
  
• Avoiding the highly glycemic carbohydrates and especially sugar and refined grains.
  

Fats are absolutely essential in our daily diet for a healthy brain and nerve transmission, but we have very real concerns about the emphasis on those from animals like bacon and high-cream yoghurts.

Rather look to the humble olive and avocados for your dense energy foods. Add to that fatty fish, freshly ground linseed and pecans nutrition for the omega 3 that is anti-inflammatory; that is where the concerns of chiropractors lie. Walnuts are king in this regard.

The regular Banting diet recommends bacon fat; I couldn't disagree more. It comes from processed meat, known to cause malignant tumours; indulgences are fine on high and holy days but enjoying such daily will seriously endangering your life.

• Olive oil benefits
• Olive garden salad dressing
  
• Fish oil
• What foods have trans fat? That's the bad stuff.

More sources of "anti-inflammatory omega 3" can be found using the Site Search button in the main menu.

Sweetening

Humans have loved sweetening in their diets since time immemorial; mention of honey goes back to the ancients.

"Eat honey, my son, for it is good for you, and the drippings of the comb are sweet to your taste."

Proverbs 24:13

Yet it is certainly not something that many people would have enjoyed on a daily basis. It's interesting that comb is mentioned here, as even raw honey can be considered semi-processed.

The advent of cane sugar, and its ready supply is certainly associated with obesity and diabetes, though both existed right through human history.

Trying to get away from sugar and its strong association with disease, instead we have turned to chemicals for sweetening. The Banting diet modified rejects this out of hand. The detrimental effect on the microbiome is profound.

Oddly research reported in the journal Nature indicates that artificial sweetener side effects actually include weight gain. More important it's strongly associated with glucose intolerance and diabetes. We take saccharine and the like at our peril, and certainly should not be kidding ourselves that it is healthier than using sugar in our tea and coffee.

Biggest loser study

The journal Obesity in a report entitled persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition^[2] reports that participants on an extreme weight loss programme had regained over two thirds of the pounds lost, and some were even heavier than before they started.

The reason was that on an extreme diet the resting metabolic rate not only dropped dramatically, but continued the downward trend after they stopped dieting; they required even less calories to keep their weight stable.

The message is clear; extreme weight loss programs just don't work. In fact, in my mind none of them deliver on their promises; the success of the Banting diet modified is because you are replacing high glycemic foods like white rice and refined bread with low GI alternatives that taste just as good; in fact, much better.

However the food does have to be chewed.

Lack of willpower

The US Doctors' Group has recently admitted that obesity has little to do with eating too much due to a lack of willpower; well said.

Rather it is has everything to do with what we eat, and the satiety that it provides; it's all about hunger. And that means more fibre and the good fats from our food; and zero refined carbs. It is a radical mind-shift. 

Radley Keys did great injury to the world by falsifying the facts about fat in our food. Our modified Banting diet seeks to right that wrong; it's the refined carbs that make us obese. And because they provide zero satiety, the body is continually crying out for more.

Fifty years later we are still feeling the pain; that's what lies do.