The Low Carb Nugget

Personal update, avocado hand, and brain needs. Find the episode notes at LifeAfterCarbs.com/nugget.

American teenage boys consume an average of a 161 grams of sugar a day. That's 40 teaspoons of sugar. And you wonder why American children are becoming more obese? When it comes to our bodies and our health, both as individuals and as a nation, sugar is a dirty trick, not a sweet treat.

Say what you want about strawberry jam, but it's fat free. The way some people think, that makes it heart healthy.

Coming soon -- a bigger nugget!

If eating carbs will sicken or even kill you, should you eat fewer of them, or rely on pharmacological options to reduce your body's response to dietary carbohydrates?

Is it worse to be obese or half-starved?

Net carbs are the difference between total carbs in a food and the fiber. The idea is that fiber doesn't do much if anything to raise your blood glucose, so you can safely ignore it. Keep your net carbs low, and you'll keep your blood glucose and insulin response low. Then your body can burn fat. But can you really trust net carbs as a guide for eating?

When it comes to diet, "intermittency" means making frequent, significant changes in how much you eat. You need to throw your body a dietary change up, and not let it adjust to a single continuous level of intake.

The main lesson of the diet so far is that weight loss is a complex and perplexing topic. It's one of the great mysteries of life. But if a method is working for you, stick with it.

A study out of Australia suggests that breaking up a calorie-restricted diet with periods of increased eating could produce better results for weight loss. Researchers at the University of Tasmania reported their findings in the International Journal of Obesity. What exactly did the study find, and what might it mean for those on an LCHF diet?