Retrospective #91: Very-Low-Carb Breakfasts (and a No-Carb Lunch)

Chances are you will reject these meal suggestions out-of-hand. Especially lunch. That’s okay. All I can do is “put it out there.” It’s your choice to accept it or not, right? But I gotta tell you: what I did, and what I am suggesting you do, really works. It worked for me, and I think it would work for you too. But you have to try it to find out.

If you eat as described here, as/when you adjust to it, here’s what will work for you: 1) You will not be hungry, either before or between meals – at breakfast, lunch or dinner; 2) you will lose weight, typically 1 to 2 pounds a week, depending on how much you have to lose; 3) you will lose abdominal weight – the central obesity that is so bad for your cardiovascular health; 4) you will “feel healthy,” have lots of energy, and an elevated mood; and 5) as you lose a lot of weight, any weight-related hypertension will improve; and 6) your lipid panel will greatly improve, specifically HDL will increase (mine doubled) and triglycerides will decrease (mine by two-thirds).

Do all these things seem like worthwhile and beneficial outcomes? If you’re not sure, ask your doctor – not about how you intend to achieve them, but about the outcomes 1 through 6 above. Collectively, when these outcomes are “out of whack,” they comprise what is known today as the Metabolic Syndrome (see Retrospective #9, for the parameters). It is a direct outcome of the Westernized diet that we have been eating for the last sixty years, also known as the Standard American Diet (SAD) that is still recommended by government and public health officials. It is also, SADLY, still advocated by most health associations and practicing physicians.

The breakfast I am suggesting you try is designed to provide healthy protein and fat, with minimum carbohydrates. I will provide a few examples. You can vary them, or eat the same one every day as I do, except on Sunday. On Sunday I make a brunch of veal or lamb kidneys with mushrooms and onions, cooked in coconut oil and Marsala. Each of these can be preceded or accompanied by coffee or tea, with heavy cream and stevia powder sweetener.

·         Two eggs (any way – I eat them fried in bacon fat) with two strips of bacon. Nothing else, except coffee/tea.

·         Three eggs, scrambled, with a little full cream and some shredded mozzarella cooked in. Good and gooey!

·         Three eggs, scrambled, with some smoked salmon “tidbits” mixed in. Great protein and Omega 3s!

·         Three eggs, scrambled, with bacalao (shredded dried salt cod), onions and sliced black olives. Yummy!

At present, we are eating the 2-egg breakfast, but occasionally we eat one of the three egg variations. They may appeal to you for several reasons: 1) they omit the bacon, since many people want to avoid “processed meat”; 2) the egg preparations are all delicious and full of flavors; 3) three egg yolks a day, for the choline content, is the recommendation of the Jaminets in “Perfect Health Diet”; 4) salmon and cod are both cold-water fishes with good Omega 3s, and cream and cheese and olives are all healthy fats. You can also add fresh or dried herbs if you like.

Do not be tempted to add bread of any kind, or any whole fruit or any fruit juice, or any “natural” sweetener (i.e., honey), or any cereal, hot or cold, or any milk (just full cream). You don’t need it, and this program WON’T WORK if you don’t follow it. So, don’t be a baby about it. Suck it up and just do it. Just try it for a while.

Then, when you have tried it for a while, and you realize how good you feel while eating this way, and how you are not hungry and you are losing weight, you might want to try “my no-carb lunch.” Okay, hold your nose. Here it is:

·         1 can of Brisling sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO), or water (avoid any packed in soy bean oil).

When I originally wrote this in 2013, I ate a can of sardines 6 days a week, 5 to 6 hours after breakfast. I was not hungry, but I wanted my body to stay in ketosis from the food I ate and the fat it burned, not from the breakdown of muscle. So, I ate protein (with fat) three times a day at regular 5 to 6-hour intervals, then fasted for 12 to 14 hours to give my body a chance to burn body fat while I fasted and slept 7 hours. That’s what those calories you ate and stored on your body years ago are there for! And so long as you eat this way, you will be rid of them forever.