And all that science-y stuff...

Now if I want to actually talk about weight loss, I have to go back to Gary Taubes. I'm sure that the Whole9's book "It Starts With Food" will talk about the same stuff, but I'm only on page 91... How is it that we think we are eating healthy when we aren't? How did we get not-thin in the first place? The Whole30 will switch my diet to focus on good whole foods, including good fats. Wait... doesn't fat make us fat? What does the science say?

Answering these questions with definitive answers is harder than you would think. As you may know, even scientific information can prove basically anything if you ask the right questions, and sometimes we don't even get cause and effect answers, it’s correlations. That's like saying that when it snows in Newfoundland, the people of Florida eat more ice cream.

Statistically, that correlation might be true, but we can't infer a cause effect relationship from that data. We would all agree that it is unbelievable to say that the snow in Newfoundland somehow causes the increased ice cream consumption in Florida. It's not like people in Florida are watching the weather in NL and say "oh, it's snowing in NL, that means it's time for ice cream". In a system as complex as our body with sooo many things happening and sooo many outside influences, is correlation really a good measurement? Especially for something as important as our health? 

Check out this awesome interview with Gary Taubes and Dr. Oz, on Larry King Live. (Funny how Nicole used a quote from Oprah yesterday and I"m using an interview with Dr. Oz today, I swear, we did not plan that. Apparently we are just a good wrtiting duo!) In this interview Taubes mentions causality but he talks about more than that. He states:

"Atkins read the same research I did, just 40 years earlier. I'm not a diet doctor, I'm a journalist. You know, and I'm a science journalist so I'm interested in the science."

I think I may be in love... if you are interested too, you can look at some of his other videos and his lecture series on his website - I've actually been listening to his lectures on YouTube all week!

Notice how Dr Weil, takes about people having a different reaction to simple carbohydrates. I like that! We are all different with different levels of activity, appetite, and stress, we all can handle various levels of certain "bad for you" items. For example, if we think about simple carbs, maybe I can only eat 50 grams of simple carbohydrate a day before I start gaining weight, but maybe you can handle 150 grams a day before you start gaining weight. Then that bread/wrap (cuz I see them as the same thing - not nutritionally dense foods and I like to pick on simple carbs just cuz I can) certainly doesn't seem as unhealthy to you as it does to me. Back to our healthy food continuum that Nicole and I have talked about. 

My lifestyle right now is full of coffee, artificial sweeteners, large portions, some alcoholic beverages, and my absolute nemesis, potato chips. I do eat good foods in there too but clearly not enough. I've always believed that the solution was eat less, move more because that's what weight watchers told me. But now I'm starting to read better science and it's making sense. Now, I'm excited to figure out where my threshold really is for foods that are making me not so healthy. I'm excited to start being able to hear the signals my body is sending me. I'm excited to finally get rid of some cravings. I'm excited to see if I lose weight. I'm excited to start this Whole30! Only a couple more days! I hope you follow along on our journey to see where it will take us!

PS. If you are interested and want to hear more stories of real life people, also check out some other journeys that are going on out there, especially Jaclyn's blog for her Whole40! Redefining Jaclyn.