Jimmy Moore Interview - Page 3

5. How do/did you work out your family eating when you and your wife, Christine, were eating different things?

We didn't. She ate low-carb foods with me, so that made things easy. Now she knows she can eat higher-carb foods in front of me and Christine will even makes me run to McDonald's for her every once in a while to get her some French fries. She knows I won't touch 'em with a ten-foot pole, so I'm never tempted to nibble. Christine and I recently did a YouTube video on this very subject.

6. In the course of your work in the low-carb community, what have you learned? Has your mind been changed about anything? What key insights have made a difference to you?

I knew nothing about diet and health before I started this amazing journey nearly five years ago. But blogging, researching, interviewing and meeting the biggest names in low-carb dieting have all given me an education I never would have expected. How do you pinpoint all the lessons learned from this huge wealth of knowledge that I have been given over these past few years? I've definitely realized that fearing fat is foolish and should not be limited as a percentage of your total fat intake. People still fall prey to this, because they have been conditioned to think fat is somehow unhealthy for them. All the research is showing very clearly it is not when combined with a healthy carbohydrate-restricted nutritional approach.

On the issue of cholesterol, I now realize it is not about the total cholesterol number or even your LDL "bad" cholesterol as we've been taught. Instead, the key factors in heart-health risks are in the HDL "good" cholesterol and triglcyerides . When your HDL is above 50 and your triglycerides are below 100, then you are protected better than most against a cardiovascular event. One of the most amazing things that will happen to your lipid profile when these numbers are where they need to be is what happens to the particle size of your LDL cholesterol: it gets bigger, fluffier and healthier! When HDL is low, a typical condition for people eating a high-carb, low-fat diet, your LDL cholesterol turns into the small, dense and dangerous kind that leads to heart disease. And it's the carb consumption, not the fat intake, that leads to this horrible disease that recently took my brother Kevin at the age of 41. Seeing him needlessly suffer through that makes me all the more passionate about sharing the truth with others!

Finally, it seems obvious now, but I am convinced there is no such thing as a "one-size-fits-all" diet. I used to believe that all you had to do was eat less, exercise more, keep your fat intake reduced, and eat your fruits and veggies, and you could lose weight and be healthy. Oh, don't I wish it were that easy! Because of everything I've learned about the role of insulin on weight and health, there has to be different ways of dealing with highly individualized circumstances, which means a specific diet plan unique to the special needs of that person. While one person may be able to get away with consuming upwards of 100g carbohydrates a day, someone else may need 15 to 20g of carbs daily, so they can lose weight and make the necessary improvements in their health. Studies have shown that people with insulin problems cannot consume a high-carb, low-fat diet as is so readily recommended by the health "experts." It's an evolution process that has to happen in your mind to understand this clearly.