Have protein, cut the carbs

Tim Noakes’ decarb-diet: Enough Banting will turn you into a bantam-weight bore

If one more of these thin okes* talks about Tim Noakes, I am going to run screaming to the nearest bakery, and stock up on every kind of sugar infested carbohydrate treat that was created for gratifying consumption by humankind. The worst of it is that those complacent souls that discuss the topic endlessly also look so marvellous: slender and energetic. It is just a pity that their conversational skills fall by the wayside. This is one of the side effects of the diet that really should be documented. Health warnings on dangerous products are compulsory these days. “This book can cost you your best friends” stickers can easily be affixed even at this stage. Over- weight (or normal) people that enjoy the odd beer and chips on a Friday night feel like sinners and start avoiding the banter of Bantingers.

Tim Noakes’ decarb-diet: Delightful history

William Banting (1796- 1878) was an obese undertaker in Victorian times. Futile diets, fasts and exercise regimes despite, he had huge (sic) health problems. His medical adviser, one Harvey, devised a diet of 4 meat based meals a day. This (contrary to popular belief) increased fat intake, not protein. It also included vegetables, fruit and wine. Banting lost weight and never regained it. He was altogether healthier. In 1863 he published his writings under the grandiloquent title Letter on Corpulence Addressed to the public.

Tim Noakes’ decarb-diet: Health and Wealth

There is no doubt that one of the most common modern diseases (caused mainly by carbohydrates and sugar) is diabetes, and the Noakes diet prevents or manages it effectively. The aspect that most makes it sustainable, is that there is no calorie restriction. One can eat and enjoy, without counting. It is also satisfying as fat is, to quote Prof. Noakes, “the body’s preferred fuel.”

However, this is a rich man’s diet. How one feeds a family this way, I know not. Unless you are a millionaire, a brood of teenagers gets through the day on porridge, pasta, potatoes and rusks. Twice a month the budget stretches to cheese and sausages, with lots of bread; once a week there might be eggs or peanut butter. The cheapest cut of pork, stewed with cabbage and carrots, still needs a mountain of brown rice. Milk and yoghurt, fruit in season, spinach, tomatoes, pumpkin and herbs from the garden (for those of us lucky enough to have one) and the luxury of olive oil keeps my family fed.

If I could I suppose I would consider de-carbing. But how many ordinary families can?

But when I splash out….

I have been telling people for years that butter is good for one, but nobody listened. I was treated as a pariah because I have cream in my coffee and parmesan on my scrambled eggs, top steak with pecan, Parma ham and provolone, roast free range chickens in goose fat, fry leeks in mutton fat sparingly trimmed from the chops, make egg yolk mayo with litres of olive oil, and refuse to have low fat anything in the house.

My theory (that whole foods are naturally good) made me compete with Bin Laden for the position of Public Enemy Number One, and so my great plan to write a book about it came to naught. Now somebody else is making money from it. Alas poor fate, she was ever too late and got crushed by the weight of what she ate.

I think I’ll have a sulk. Let me just get the poor man’s pizza (origanum, garlic, tomato puree, green pepper and a meagre sprinkling of mozzarella) in the oven for the kids, and have a glass of Pinotage.

Don’t put your Insurance policies on diet though!

This article was published on http://www.budget-insurance.co.za/ and reposted with permission.

Footnote: *okes = guys/ South African slang from ou – outjie.