My closest friends are doing what I also did.  Someone tells you how to do something, but when you do it, you do it your own way.  Sometimes that works and sometimes you learn a lesson.  

As far as I can tell NONE of my friends and NONE of my clients are taking my advice and following the science that the Banting diet recommends. Why is that?  Because we are all committed to paradigms, thinking models that control  what we think is sensible, and what we pay attention to, and what we do.

Two of my friends are experimenting with a vegetarian diet, two think that fasting is the secret, one joined Weight Watchers, one says' eating less is the secret, five are exercising more, and who knows what the others are doing.  I wonder if any of them have read anything in the Open Future Health web site. NONE of those approaches promise long term success.  There is even good science to demonstrate that. However, against those odds, people still think they can "do it my way" and somehow be successful.

Note added February, 2017. We are making progress. In particular people are looking at Carolyn and myself; you can see in our faces and in our energy levels that something is working. We live in an obesodemic environment. All around you, friends, family, doctors and dietitians, supermarket advertising is telling you to eat more carbohydrates, the "low-fat" is healthy. You have to know what you are doing to oppose that. Your own education is the secret in the end. Take as long as you like, but keep learning.

What is a Nutritional Paradigm?

Since your health is at stake this is important knowledge.  Learn about the use of paradigms in science here.  It is a bit long and complex, but worth the effort. The history of Health Department recommended diets is very short. Sadly the Americans got it wrong 50 years ago, and we're still stuck with that mistake.

Killing the Messenger

Dr. Robert Atkins, was hounded by the establishment because the diet he had proven with his patients, was rejected. It wasn't acceptable within the paradigm.

What Foods do you Crave for?

If your body is not too damaged, it does tell you what it needs. If your are eating a mixed diet when sugars start to drop you crave sugar. On a LCHF diet you look forward to more fat and I find small amounts of fruit. On LCHF there is no desire to eat sweet stuff, until you eat some.

The National Obesity Forum (UK)

The headline was something like "Fat is Good Again," but the BBC news found another expert to tell us how bad fat in the diet is. YOU, need to understand why the news media is useless in giving you good information. They must maintain the status quo. They pretend there are two sides to every statement. Trying not to offend any advertiser, or the government. There were TEN valuable points the forum made.

The Faulty Ideas in our Heads

We all carry in our heads the reasons why we suffer poor health. For myself the idea that fruit is "healthy" has got me in trouble more than once. The chronic inflammation, the rash that my doctor and I called "hives" and lasted a year, was caused by my faulty "healthy diet."

Added February, 2017: I'm now very grateful for that problem. It forced me to look carefully at my "healthy" diet. I SLOWLY discovered many things that I was previously unaware of. As a result my health is much improved, and I expect I've added 10 years to my healthy life years.

DON'T start a new diet, Begin a New Education.

Your best protection is better knowledge. Real knowledge based on science, not on the latest women's magazine. Get yourself a nutritional education. There are close to 90 pages in the Open Future Health web site. That's just the beginning, there are many books, and excellent online resources available to help you.

Added February, 2017: In the new web site there are four ways to learn about nutrition science. The Life Giving Lecture, the "trial" of Dr Tim Noakes and the evidence Dr Noakes offers in his defence, the nutrition science section of the site, and finally the suggestions about the Banting diet.

Three Nutritional Paradigms

In June 2016 we added pages three dietary paradigms: Vegetarian Diet, Omnivores Mixed Diet, and Low-Carb High-Fat Diet.

There is also a new page about sugars and carbohydrates, a topic many people find confusing. Athletes are leading the way abandoning sugar and carbohydrate loading, and choosing to use fats for fuel. Look up "Jeff Volek Faster Study."   Adapting to Burn Fat as Fuel

Prof. Tim Noakes on Trial

The Noakes Foundation is making available some of Tim Noakes's five and a half days of testimony online in video form. Here is the first part of that. Very informative about diabetes.

Fasting is GOOD for you.

It's now said that Ancel Keys was quite wrong when he "discovered" the Mediterranean diet. Such a diet didn't exist, it was invented later to encourage the tourist trade. What Keys discovered were societies with a tradition of regular fasting.

English doctors are recommending the 5:2 diet, fasting two days a week. Dr Jason Fung (Canada) recommends fasting every second day. The point is that it ALWAYS works to reduce weight, and everyone KNOWS how to fast. You don't need to learn anything especially new. But you will feel hungry.
With LCHF there is NO hunger.

Vegetarian Diets

There might be many reasons for choosing a vegetarian diet. Better health is not one of them.

Standard American Omnivorous Mixed Diet

The diet recommended to us for 60 years. But at least for older people it becomes a problem and makes most of us sick. We need to understand why, and what we can do about it.

Low-Carb High-Fat Diet

If weight control continues to be a problem, perhaps the LCHF paradigm is what you need. There's quite a lot to learn and that's why I recommend joining one of our online forums.

Medical Experts, have been Certain they know what a Healthy Diet is, for a Long Time

However, their efforts to prove that, have never been successful. In fact the opposite has often been demonstrated, and quietly set aside, because "that can't be true."

A World Stacked Against You

The misreporting of the National Obesity Forum (UK) is an example of our common problem. The existing unhealthy paradigm is reinforced daily. Get yourself a nutritional education.

Dietitians Object AGAIN

This is an old repeating story. People with a very narrow technical training getting upset when key ideas that they have built their career on are challenged. Old science is continually being outdated. Many of practitioners, and scientists. will die still protesting that fat in your diet is bad. Malpractice trials since 2005 all end the same way, the defenders of the old paradigm lose in court. The new science that Dr Atkins didn't have, is sound.

Learn to Control Insulin

If you want to keep eating a low fat mixed diet, learn how to control the release of insulin into your bloodstream. Control both WHAT you eat and WHEN you eat it.

My suggestion is this: Two rules. Dinner at night is the last thing you eat for the day. Breakfast is sugar and carbohydrate free. Keep burning fat until lunchtime. A tiny bit of daily discipline is all you need.