Review
From her work with insulin-resistant patients with Type II diabetes, Dr. Schwarzbein concludes that low-fat diets cause heart attacks, eating fat makes you lose body fat, and it’s important to eat high-cholesterol foods every day. Picture cardiologists and dieticians tearing their hair out and overweight people cheering as they dive into Eggs Benedict with sausage. According to Schwarzbein, the high-carbohydrate, low-fat, moderate-protein diet that most dieticians and disease-prevention organizations recommend is the culprit that turns people into diabetics, makes them age faster and get degenerative diseases, and keeps them fat and unhealthy. She supports her theory with case studies of people who were si…
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2 replies on “The Schwarzbein Principle: The Truth About Losing Weight, Being Healthy, and Feeling Younger”
Schwarzbein goes against all the current thinking on dieting. Exercise and balanced diet are good words that all doctors will tell you. From there Schwarzbein goes in a completely different direction. Count carbohydrates, not calories. Eat as much good fat and protein as your body needs. Eat ‘real’ food, not the processed and chemical-filled food that lines the grocery shelves. Stay away from the low-fat foods that make you feel hungry and contribute to hormonal imbalance.
After being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, my doctor gave me a 1500-calorie diet. That wasn’t enough food to live on. I was lucky enough to have someone recommend the Schwarzbein book. In the past eight months I have lost over 50lbs, eating food I enjoy and feeling good about it. My doctor said to keep up what ever I am doing. He was happy when I said I was eating the number of carbohydrates listed in the 1500-calorie diet. I am sleeping the entire night. My blood pressure is at 125/72, down from 149/100. I had to buy new cloths, down from size 48 pants to size 44. Hopefully I will have to buy a smaller size in the next 6 months.
Steak, bratwurst, bacon, butter, eggs, mayonnaise, and whole milk are all part of my normal diet, along with generous portions of salads. I can eat as much of these as my body wants. I make sure that I eat potatoes, bread, and whole grain cereal, but in limited portions. My blood glucose readings are in the normal range, and they agree with Schwarzbein’s findings in her patient studies.
The main emphasis of the book is not on losing weight. It is about becoming healthy, enjoying eating, and enjoying a long life. It isn’t necessary to immediately make all the changes listed in the book. The goal is to gradually make the changes and enjoy life.
I purchased the book early last summer, and read it in a few days. It made lots of sense. I had been eating low-fat/high carb for about five years before, and my weight and body fat slowly crept up. I felt exhausted and hungry all the time. After eight weeks on the healing plan, I lost 12 pounds, and definitely firmed up. I then switched to the maintenance plan, and allowed myself about twice the carbs of the healing plan. I still kept losing, about half a pound a week, and felt great. The heartburn that I have been plagued with for years disappeared, and my cholesterol levels remained okay.
Unfortunately, my family and work life got very busy around the end of September, and there wasn’t enough time to make proper meals. I went off the plan, started eating fast food, convenience foods and other bad things. Sure enough, the weight came right back. Things should calm down after the start of the new year, and then I’m going back on the plan, forever hopefully.
Some tips to make the diet easier:
1) Working a full time job and eating eggs every morning did not work for me. I tried that for a couple weeks and ended up spending over an hour each morning messing with breakfast. I found a good alternative in making shakes from protein powders. I add flaxseed and safflower oils, cocoa powder and fruit to provide the proper amount of protein, carbs, fat and fiber. I make a blender full of this drink in the morning, adding ice to make a cold shake.
2) Balance Bars (available at health food stores) make a good quick snack on the maintenance plan.
3) The extract of the herb Stevia (also available at health food stores) is a great natural sweetener, an alternative to aspartame. I use it to sweeten my protein shake, decaf coffee and tea.