Day 8 on RRARF: Eat the food!

The message of RRARF is simple: "Eat the food!" But this often inspires questions like, "What food? How much food? When do I eat it?" As human beings, we like to make simple things complicated. That's just our nature. But RRARF really is simple, once you get to know the guidelines.

First and foremost, you have to eat. Not till you're 80% full. Not on a small square blue plate. Just eat. This isn't permission to binge on ice cream and pizza. But it is permission to eat as much whole food as you can possibly enjoy, without counting calories, carbs, fat grams or any other arbitrary measurement.

What to Eat

The basic formula for RRARF meals would be: a generous portion of unrefined starch, an ample serving of protein, plenty of veggies, and enough quality fat to make it all tasty.

Here's an example of what I had for breakfast this morning:

2 cups hashbrown potatoes fried in coconut oil
3 slices of bacon
2 eggs

(I'm still having a hard time adding veggies at breakfast. Sometimes I throw a bunch of fresh salsa on everything to add to the veggie content.)

And the other day, this is what I had for dinner:

2 cups quinoa with plenty of butter
4 ounces roast chicken
1 cup of onions and carrots, sauteed in butter

The kind of whole, real food we've talked about here at The Nourished Life since the beginning is highly recommended while on RRARF. But there are some important keys for making RRARF work for you as far as food choices go:

1) Fat should be mostly saturated, with a view toward limiting polyunsaturated fat as much as possible. That means no peanut butter binges. And veggie oils are definitely out. Stick with good old-fashioned dairy fats and tropical fats. Beef fat is also pretty good.

2) Carbs should be unrefined: yams, potatoes, quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice, whole corn grits, popcorn, etc. If you tolerate gluten then whole-grains like wheat, barely and oats are acceptable, as are beans and legumes if your digestion is good.

3) Fructose is out. (Read about fructose dangers here.) So are basically sweeteners of any kind, including non-caloric sweeteners like stevia. Why? Because sweetness itself impacts metabolic health, whether actual sugar or calories are involved or not. And while I'm not into bashing fruit, during RRARF it should be limited.

4) Keep it real. Processed food has no place on RRARF (or anywhere else, for that matter). Keep all refined foods to a minimum as much as possible. Of course, we live in a world where it's close to impossible to completely avoid processing or refinement of some kind, but just do your best.

How Much to Eat

I've sworn off calorie counting for RRARF (and hopefully forever), but for those of you who are curious, I believe my meals average somewhere between 800-1,000 calories each. I eat 3-4 times per day, depending on how large my meals are (more food per meal generally means less meals for me).

RRARF is a refeeding strategy meant to stimulate metabolic functions by providing the body with tons of energy via real food and rest. So we are not--I repeat not--limiting food intake. As Matt says on page 41 of the RRARF e-book:

"You don’t have to feed yourself to the point of being uncomfortable and gagging, but the calorie, assuming it is accompanied by a great deal of nutrients, is a powerful weapon in the battle to increase metabolic activity."

When to Eat

And as for when to eat? That's the simplest of them all: eat when you're hungry. Not every three hours, not every six hours, not at a predetermined lunchtime... every time you're hungry, eat until you're no longer interested in eating another bite. That's it!

More About RRARF Foods

I really can't compete with Matt's excellent food list and definition of the appropriate RRARF diet that he lays out in his book. I highly recommend you download the complete RRARF e-book for free and check out his recommendations yourself.

And if you think I'm nuts for eating a high calorie diet, then you might want to see what Matt has to say concerning the truth about low-calorie diets in this video presentation.


Other RRARF Posts:

Day 1 on RRARF: What is RRARF?
Day 2 on RRARF: Why I'm Doing It
Day 3 on RRARF: Rest and Relaxation  
Day 7 on RRARF: Benefits Already!
Day 8 on RRARF: Eat the Food!
Day 9 on RRARF: Adieu, Le Sucre!  
Day 21 on RRARF: Deprivation is Dieting 
Day 23 on RRARF: Life Without the Scale
RRARF vs. The Milk Diet

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Fructose Dangers (and Is Fruit Bad, too?)

We've all heard about the dangers of eating too much sugar. Recently further evidence has come to light that demonstrates there is a specific component of sugar responsible for its harmful side effects: fructose.

Fructose Dangers: What is Fructose?

Fructose is a monosaccharide, a simple sugar. It is sweeter than other forms of sugar. Refined cane sugar is essentially half fructose and half glucose. Honey is typically higher in fructose (which is why it's so sweet). And high fructose corn syrup is about 55 percent fructose.

What Makes Fructose So Dangerous?

Fructose and glucose are metabolized in two very different ways. Glucose is absorbed directly and mostly used for energy by cells throughout the body. Fructose, however, is processed in the liver and is generally converted into VLDL (Very Low Density Lipoprotein) cholesterol and triglycerides.

There are genuine concerns that fructose contributes to health problems like increased inflammation, high blood pressure, excess uric acid, high triglycerides and high VLDL cholesterol. Fructose also contributes to fatty liver deposits much in the same way alcohol does.

Another problem with fructose is that it doesn't signal the body's satiety mechanisms. In particular, fructose does not stimulate the release of leptin, an important hormone in appetite control as well as other important metabolic processes. Over time this can also lead to insulin resistance and eventually diabetes.

On the same note, more fructose dangers stem from its particularly strong level of sweetness. A beverage high in fructose (think soda or fruit juice), for instance, stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain so powerfully that it may lead to increased hunger, cravings, and eventually to an increased body weight set point. In this way, fructose in a concentrated, easily absorbed form (like high-fructose beverages) can impact the body's weight beyond what calories alone can explain. (The connection between flavor, calorie-density and the body weight set point is something I am currently researching and will be talking about more in the future.)

Because fructose does not directly stimulate the release of insulin, many people assume it is a safe sweetener. However, since it affects biochemical systems in a way that can eventually induce insulin resistance, it can actually be quite harmful.

Fructose Dangers: Is Fruit Bad?

It's true that fructose gets its name from fruit sugar, but consuming refined sugar products is not the same as consuming whole fruits. Fruits have protective factors that may counter the risks of consuming fructose, such as fiber and antioxidants. Fruits also contain nourishing vitamins and minerals that many of us are lacking. I personally believe fruit is not inherently unhealthy and should never be regarded in the same light as refined sugar.

Fruit juices, however, contain massive amounts of fructose in a form that can be ingested very quickly. Commercial fruit juices should generally be avoided, as they are refined and generally contain nasty stuff like molds and pesticides. Some experts even say any fruit juice is as damaging as commercial soda beverages because of the way it affects the body.

Keep in mind that fructose consumption does not have to be kept at zero. Before the last century, it's thought that fructose consumption was somewhere around 15 grams per day. Some experts like Robert Lustig suggest an intake below 25 grams per day is relatively safe and will not cause the metabolic problems listed above. Today the average fructose consumption is more than 70 grams per day. So in reality it's not the fructose that's harming our health, but the chronic over consumption of it in highly refined forms. Moderation, as always, is key.

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Weight Loss Wednesday: Um... It's Not the Burger Or The Bun...

If you've been hanging around real food and natural health blogs, you've probably run into rants entitled something along the lines of "it's not the burger, it's the bun." These posts usually explain how it's not the meat and saturated fat that's causing the current epidemic of obesity and degenerative disease, but that it's the carbohydrates.

It's a compelling theory, and I certainly like how it exonerates natural fats. After all, traditional cultures have been consuming saturated fats for millennia without a hint of the obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease that plague the modern world.

But they were also consuming carbs.

Really.

In fact, certain traditional groups like the Kitavans consumed a whopping 70% carbohydrate diet (and were surprisingly not obese or diseased, even with pretty normal caloric intakes). Don't get me wrong: I'm not trying to convince anyone that all traditional cultures ate a high-carb diet. We know that's not true. Common examples are the Inuit who ate a lot of meat and very few carbs; the Masai who chugged milk (and animal blood) and got plenty of fat and protein from those; and the Loetschental Valley residents who ate loads of dairy and grains and probably got a good bit of fat, protein and carbs.

So let's be clear: traditional people did not espouse one set of macronutrient ratios. And Weston A. Price didn't come back from his ventures peddling the idea that a diet should consist of a certain percentage of carbohydrates, fat or protein. In fact, if anything, his work proved that robust health could be achieved on a variety of diets.

The question is, what has invaded our diet in the last several decades to fuel the obesity and disease crisis?

Fans of Ancel Keys and the China Study would have you believe it was saturated fat and animal protein. But we know that wasn't true because traditional cultures placed high value on these foods and often ate them in abundance. But carbs--and even grains--also had their place in traditional diets, and even in more recent diets, long before the obesity epidemic reared its ugly head.

When it comes to the burger and the bun scenario, I would just stop looking at the hamburger altogether. It's got flaws, to be sure (refined white flour, feed-lot meat, MSG, etc.). But when it comes to finding a food to blame for the deterioration of modern health--point to the side items!

It's not the burger or the bun--its the fries and the soft drink. These two items contain the ingredients that should be held responsible for the obesity and disease epidemic. What ingredients am I talking about?

1) Fructose

2) Polyunsaturated Fats

These are two foods that have been industrially refined and are currently consumed in amounts far greater than ever before in history. And while obesity and disease certainly existed before these foods became mainstream, the real epidemic didn't begin until refined fructose and polyunsaturated fat became a significant part of our diets. In the coming weeks I plan to spend at least a couple posts getting into the nitty gritty of the dangers of these two substances (and when they aren't so dangerous, as well).


Remember, the point is not that fast food burgers should be considered a health food (duh!). It's that blaming individual macronutrients for the gamut of modern health issues is a mistake. The USDA made this mistake when it shunned fat in the food pyramid several decades ago. And it's just as much of a misdeed to lay all the blame on carbohydrates instead. Instead of making blanket statements about carbs, fat and protein, we should take a closer look at modern industrial foods that violate our natural body chemistry in such a way that it causes widespread damage to our health.


This post is a part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

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