Fast-5 Diet and Lifestyle: Re: [fast5] Re: Fast-5 and Atkins

Human beings are remarkably adaptable creatures. We can survive and even thrive on a wide variety of diets. Some, like Eskimos, survive on meat and fat, many Hindus in India eat a vegetarian diet (which to be fair includes animal sources of B-12 like milk, cheese, and eggs), other really crazy people have decided to be vegan and exclude all animal products (and take B-12 supplements).

Each group can find an expert who supports their position. It really comes down to the fact that each of us is an experiment of one and must discover what works best for us.

One year my husband moved to another city for work. I was home alone and making dinner was not my favorite thing to do. This was before I knew anything about fast five. At first I would eat something quick and easy like a bowl of ice cream, or some popcorn for dinner. Slowly I began to skip dinner all together. I wasn't eating particularly healthy for my other meals. I had coke and a muffin for breakfast and a meat and potatoes lunch with another coke. Sometimes around 3pm I would get a snack from the vending machine. Most week days I had an eating window between 8am and 3:30. On the weekends I would eat a small lunch around 11am and then dinner sometime around 6pm.

Something interesting began to happen. Sure, I lost weight, which I had done before through reducing calories, but my body fat percentage was the lowest it had been in years. The only other time in my life I achieved this was through running 30 miles a week. This time I wasn't exercising at all!

At the end of the year my husband returned and it became hard to skip dinner. So I slowly drifted back to my old eating habits. I have experimented with being a vegetarian on and off through my life but it hasn't ever stuck. For the last few years I've gone back and forth between trying fast five again and being vegetarian without fasting. Some days I start out saying it will be a fast five day with a 8 to 3 window. I'll eat meat for lunch and then by dinner I've convinced myself that I'm going to be a vegetarian and it is okay to eat dinner.

So I'm defiantly a work in progress. I've learned some things that work for me and some that don't. I've really enjoyed lurking on the fast five forum and reading about what all of you have been doing and hearing about your successes.

I still believe that even vegans would be able to get enough B-12 naturally if our food production was different. I realize not everyone agrees with me and I'm fine with that.

Thank you for being such a wonderful group!

---- Ellen Ussery <ellen.ussery@gmail.com> wrote:
>

Because it is an elephant. There was a great talk by Barry Groves showing how the different digestive systems of various animals have differing abilities to ferment grasses and create the nutrients that we must eat directly. That is how the elephant, cow and other herbivores get their B-12. They have fermentation vats in their guts. We don't!

Ellen

On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 10:11 AM, Faith <faith154@cox.net> wrote:

B-12 is produced by a bacteria that grows in the soil. Traditionally we got B-12 from some soil still being on the plants we ate. Cows, pigs, chickens and all other animals got it from the soil too. Now that doesn't happen. The soil that our crops grow in is covered with chemicals and depleted. Today even the animals that we eat get B-12 from supplements.

Think of an elephant, one of the largest animals on earth, and vegetarian. how could it survive if a vegetarian diet is so deficient?

From: Lovellsjl@aol.com

Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:48:40 -0400

To: <fast5@yahoogroups.com>

Subject: Re: [fast5] Re: Fast-5 and Atkins

But they are the only source of B12. Just sayin'!

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: faith154@cox.net
To: fast5@yahoogroups.com
Cc: gremlinpugs <gremlinpugs@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wed, Apr 21, 2010 5:21 pm
Subject: Re: [fast5] Re: Fast-5 and Atkins

Really, no protein? How do you remove it from the grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit?

beef, poultry and fish have 7 grams of protein per ounce.

soybeans have 10 grams/ounce, lentils have 6.5 grams/ounce, potatoes have 5 grams/ounce.

as for grains - barley has 19 grams in a cup, couscous is 22 grams/cup, whole grain wheat is 16 grams/cup.

Animals are not the only source of protein!

---- gremlinpugs <gremlinpugs@yahoo.com> wrote:
>

Hey Rick

Thanks for the info. I am pretty good about what to follow, though I didn't know about the website. I basically like to have a list for when I go shopping. 1. This keeps me honest, 2. It gives me ideas for what I want to cook, 3. I try and stay away from certain fruits and vegetables that normally are considered good for you, but are higher on the index (like red delicious apples, or carrots).

I don't eat dairy myself and other than wild caught fish (never farmed) I don't eat proteins. Just don't care for it. So, for me grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, etc are the mainstay of my diet. You know, you live it too. :)

Thanks again.

Sincerely

Jennifer Lupo, D.M.