“It’s Ridiculous” That I Recommend a Low-Fat Diet?

I recently frustrated a reader of my email Newsletter.

She thinks “it’s ridiculous” that I recommend low-fat diets.

Weight loss is all about a calorie deficit.

You can do that with a trendy high-fat diet like the keto or carnivore diet if you want.

I just don’t think high-fat diets are healthy long term.

Here’s my workout & diet philosophy.

We will talk more about these in a sec…

Need a music video break first.

I like to include music videos in my blog posts to break up the text a bit (plus, it’s fun for me to come up with themes).

Music theme: Songs I like from 2013. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years!

I’ve always pushed cardio more than most fitness writers.

Heck, I even have a cardio machine course.

I used to get criticized for recommending cardio, but not so much anymore.

I was definitely criticized for recommending Intermittent Fasting 16+ years ago when most people hadn’t heard of it.

And now I get slammed for recommending a low-fat diet.

Here’s a recent email response we received…

This was in response to an email I wrote out about the Netflix series Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.

Let’s look at her claim and use some common sense.

According to her, you need to eat fat-based foods to get retinol and live a long life.

If this were the case…

The people in Okinawa would be screwed (they don’t eat any of those things she listed).

Okinawa has the highest concentration of centenarians (100+) in the world.

They also eat LESS fat than almost any other place on the planet.

Here’s the traditional Okinawan macro breakdown.

They seem to be thriving on a low-fat diet.

Retinol is one form of Vitamin A and you can only get it from those fatty foods the reader listed.

But you don’t need retinol, in this form specifically, for good health…

You need vitamin A.

Foods that contain Beta-carotene allow your body to make vitamin A.

A good source of this is sweet potatoes.

*A staple of the Okinawan diet is a purple sweet potato.

This is one of the ways the Okinawans get vitamin A.

Plenty of vegetables get you there.

Vitamin A deficiency isn’t really an issue in most places.

Another population that thrives off of a low-fat diet is the residents of Loma Linda, California.

This is considered the healthiest population in the US.

They eat very little of the fatty foods listed by the reader.

Many of them are Doctors, etc.

Some of those people are slick with their wordzzzz.

I am more about obvious evidence when it comes to this stuff.

Not just arguments that seem to make sense in theory.

Keep it simple.

Hint: It’s typically the opposite of the Keto diet.

Yes, it’s possible your Aunt Linda lost 15 pounds eating cheese and bacon while avoiding all fiber-based foods.

But you have to admit that the Okinawan diet template is significantly healthier than Aunt Linda’s diet.

You KNOW I’m right!

Let’s look at high-fat diets on a larger scale.

The Inuit people are the largest population of people who eat a high-fat diet.

Northern Canada has the largest Inuit population.

These people eat a high-fat diet out of necessity; growing fruits and vegetables in the frozen ground and ice is nearly impossible.

They HAVE to hunt animals for food.

So they eat a high-fat carnivore diet.

I’ve heard Keto advocates claim that the Inuit people thrive off high-fat diets.

Since Canada has the highest number of Inuit people, I did some research.

I found a Canadian government site that looked life expectancy of Inuit people compared to the rest of the Canadian population.

To be fair, their shorter life spans could be partially due to the harsh living conditions and not as much access to medical care and medicine.

I still don’t think their diet is ideal.

And I can’t believe that keto people point to the Inuit people as a reason to eat this way.

There’s NEVER been a society with longevity that has eaten a high-fat carnivore diet.

The carnivore and keto diets lack fiber.

You need fiber.

The more we study DNA, telomeres, and lifespan, the more it is apparent that fiber is key to a long life.

I wrote an article on this back in 2018, shortly after a breakthrough study was published.

Eat This Food to Protect Your DNA

I know fiber seems like a dull subject.

It’s not as exciting as losing weight, eating nothing but cheese and greasy bacon.

But the findings of this study were significant.

So, I do like and recommend a low-fat diet.

I even have a diet template called High Carb Fat Loss that shows why eating this way can be a good strategy for getting lean.

It’s not the ONLY way to get lean.

It’s modeled a little like the Traditional Okinawan Diet but with a lot more flexibility and regular foods.

I do my best to follow this template 5 days per week.

The closer I follow it, the leaner I get.

You can get results without being perfect.

One last thing.

My workout programs work well with a variety of diets.

Yes, even keto or carnivore.

I don’t believe these diets are the best for longevity.

But I do have friends, relatives, and customers who use my workout programs with success while following those diet plans.

I still love ya!

I just am bummed out at how quickly you are aging compared to us fiber-eating dieters.

Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful. 🙂

Maybe he’s born with it…

Maybe it’s fiber.

Cheers,

-Rusty Moore

As a former fitness coach to fashion models, I can teach you how to increase muscle definition without adding size.

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