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 housewife can rustle up eggs Florentine 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 an impressive, simple part of the modified Banting diet. Add to 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.

Add to that the rich supply in Eggs Florentine of many of the B vitamins including choline that is seriously deficient in the average Western diet; 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 cancer; 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 health.
  

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 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 homocysteine is inevitable; that means heart disease, strokes and a host of other serious illnesses.

So plenty of greens for pyridoxine and folate, and eggs for vitamin B12 are absolutely vital. And 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 even more as 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; better still add fat, but why must it be butter, cream and pork crackling?

Simply add olive oil to your hummus and a side dish of guacamoli 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 and in another moment spread a few seeds 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.

There are exceptions; Cape gooseberries grow almost year-round in our climate.

At Banting diet modified we recommend eggs Florentine, without the toast if your glycemic 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. We do, see our low GI bread recipe; 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.

Then eggs Florentine is absolutely fantastic; high in B12 from the egg, and B6 and 9 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?

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.

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 am prediabetic and even home squeezed OJ gives me a surge of blood glucose, so I enjoy only small amounts for the huge benefits, and always take a short walk after the meal.

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 salads as  you can find, and include a large scoop of hummus and avocado; they are high in the healthy fruit fats.

Corn on the cob is fine, but no canned sweet corn. There are ten colours in the this salad; can you count them? Avocados were out of season, otherwise you can be sure half an avo would be there.

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 foods that prevent cancer. It's no coincidence that garlic is loved by every chef.

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

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 carbohydrate is in the form of dietary fibre; less than 10% is in the form of sugars. Also these seeds, and wheat too are loaded with very healthy lignans; if we avoid them because of their starch the chances of getting cancer are much higher.

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

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

Smear it with butter, olive oil, tahini or avocado, or quick hummus to lower the glycemic index; that's what gives you the blood sugar rush.

It's an essential part of the Banting diet modified, making it sustainable. It's unthinkable to go without bread for ever, unless you suffer from coeliac disease. And even then, our easy sourdough bread recipe is much easier on the tum because the bugs break down the offending proline amino acid that causes 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 flour and still call it wholemeal. There's only one way around this anomaly; read more about it at whole wheat vs 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. 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 every stew you make. Cooking chickpeas under pressure is the solution to the long period required for preparation. 

Vegetable high in protein are 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 processed red meat, is strongly associated with colorectal cancer.

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 even on the Banting diet modified. 

Banting for vegetarians

Vegans and 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 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.

Carbohydrate count chart and glycemic index is what it's all about. This is a subject at the heart of the modified Banting diet. 

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.

Disallowed 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 two factors, one of which is about including only the healthy fats.

• It's high in energy-dense fats; that is what keeps you from continuously being famished.
  
• Avoiding the high glycemic index carbohydrates and especially 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 in 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's 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 them daily will seriously endangering your life.

• Olive oil benefits
• Olive garden salad dressing
  
• Fish oil
• What foods have trans fat ... 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 they 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 reports that participants on an extreme weight loss programme had regained over two thirds of the weight 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 dropping after they stopped dieting; they required less and less calories to keep their weight stable.

The message is clear; extreme weight loss programs just don't work. In fact, in my mind no diets work; 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.

• Banting diet rebuttal.