My dad has been pretty quiet about my WOE until now, but for the last few days he's started sharing his strong disapproval. He bases his views about my WOE completely on generalisations - people who follow diets high in vegetables/fruit and low in fried foods live longer; hunter-gatherer's ate a lot of meat and had a short life span; doctors supporting high-protein diets only do so because of financial support from certain sectors of the food industry, etc. I considered giving my dad Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution to read, but I don't feel that it justifies the diet in enough detail. Does anyone have a suggestion for a piece of literature that would allow my dad to make an informed opinion on the matter?

Hi Mag,

Sounds like your dad is a fact-based kind of guy? For this reason, I think Protein Power is the best book to dispell the common myths of carbs is good, fat is bad. PP is very much fact-based, and due to the fact that it wasn't published in 70's like Atkins, it doesn't waste any time being defensive, it just points the facts and the reader (if open-minded) can see for themselves.

And, if he's a net surfer, give him the link to our studies section (from the menu above). This area of our web site is not the most popular, but is quite an eye opener in terms of medical research and studies in support of the low-carb WOL.

Wa'il

I'm in somewhat exact situation like you.. except that my dad didnt think a possibility of the financing behind those protein books.

But one thing is that you can do a health check-up and show him what you got. compare your previous checkup results and prove it to him. thats what my dad asked me to ...so far i have not done that haha....

and whenever i see my dad cutting away chicken fats, I told him i am kinda disappointed seeing the fats being trimmed away. but he just repeated : it is for my own good...and repeated to me not to take too much fat.. take more veges, fruits, grains... the usual good for nothing 'low fat high carb diet'.

and i have faced disapproval from other family members and friends. they even called me stubborn (which i hate it very much since they are stubborn abt not changing their diets too)....when in my mind i see them wasting so much $ and time popping in calorie pills...'suffering' from hunger pangs and when i noticed no weight loss in them they told me they maintaining their weights. and sometimes they lose weight only coz they couldnt get used to the foods at their new environments. so i mean they lost some weight due to other factors. their diets are NOT WORKING and they are carb addicted....they do lotsa aerobics....yeah.. and end up i lost more weight than them.... and i hardly even exercise!

but oh well despite my dad's approval, sometimes when he sees me getting a little potatoes he will kinda say 'hey u decided not to lose any more weight?" ...and he's also jealous of my weight loss...coz he said that he forsees I will gain them back during my umemployment period now....

basically....unless ur dad takes actions against ur WOE... i mean you can still continue with your WOE...thats what i am doing. though with occasional naggings....just continue if they are not removing ur protein from the fridge! Or else if you've got a friend who is also low carbing, tell your friend's results to your dad! So far, I dont have any friends who are low-carbing in S'pore.

or find out if any of ur friends are doing high carb, low fat diets but they are stalled...., ask ur dad why their diets fail....

I think that short life span was NOT due to eating meat but to the poor health conditions our ancestors were exposed to. I mean jeez, no medical attention for those broken bones or common colds. One bad scratch and someone could die from infection back then.

Blaming it on food is almost like throwing rocks at the moon. Cute!

I agree with Wa'il. PP is probably the most fact driven book you could lend him, however don't expect too much. Good luck!

The hunter-gatherer diet is clearly the healthiest there is, and most people from over 10,000 years ago died because they fell off a cliff or froze or got eaten by a carnivore or the like...there is zero evidence of heart disease before the Egyptian mummies (though admittedly, there's precious little evidence to be found one way or the other). Not only that, but before the agricultural revolution, people were a good foot taller! There is no tooth decay ever, until that point, and there's plenty of evidence for that.

Maybe he'll enjoy Jared Diamond's The Third Chimpanzee, a broad-ranging book on evolutionary biology. There's a chapter on the human costs of eating grain, which include not only health costs but the beginning of the oppression of women, the invention of slavery, and more. Otherwise, I'd start with the paleodiet links page (http://www.panix.com/~paleodiet/)to discover much more info, some of it anecdotal, but much of it well-researched. I especially like the Weston Price Foundation pages.

About the safety of dietary fat, have him read the Science article. http://ajdubre.tripod.com/Health/So...ietaryFat0.html

Remind him that once, everyone "knew" that leeches were a great way to heal people of variouly maladies. The more educated you yourself are, the more readily you will be able to respond to doubt in anyone.

Best of luck to you!

A month after starting this WOE I started getting alot of backlash from a friend. All the usual tales of fad diet hysteria. Gave him a copy of the Protein Power Lifeplan. He read it. He has been following the diet since reading the book and so far has lost over 20 pounds. From critic to believer in one easy step!

I'm trying to figure out what sector of the food industry would give financial support to doctors supporting LC diets.

Karen

I've heard that one, too, and I've heard it linked to the Cattleman's Association. The same guys who went after Oprah for dissing hamburgers.

I've come to realize that the only way I'll enlighten my dad (he's a type II diabetic and has had heart surgery) will be to lose the weight and be healthy. THEN he'll take it seriously. I could talk til I'm blue in the face now, and he'd just say, "Aw, it's just another diet, and they didn't do you any good." So, I'm just going to let the stats speak for themselves until he asks

Sh'ra

I've just had an experience similar to the ones that some of you have described. I was talking about weight loss and working out with a few guy friends of mine. One told me that he only eats about 1300 calories a day. I was surprised: 1. because he's a guy; 2. because he's a guy that is over 6ft tall and is pretty big, not fat, but big and muscular. He said that he didn't want to get fat. I tried to tell him (and, the other guy friend) about Atkins. They looked at me with disgust. They also started talking abou how bad the Atkins diet is for one's health. I tried to explain about this forum, but mentioning the Internet seemed to make them think that I was even more insane. This despite the fact that I'm losing weight on more calories and am quite happy with my diet.

I think that I'll just wait until I'm at my goal weight and try to explain again. If it doesn't work, [sigh] . . .

....WELL, I don't know how to convince others that this is a good WOL...BUT, i know one thing for sure--I wouldn't trade it for any other. I'm an idiot--I tried the low fat thing just for a change...to see what would happen---WELL, my body swelled up with water, I was HUNGRY and I lost NOTHING....give me my Atkins ANYDAY!

NOW, as for giving people your opinion, I've found that the best way to convince people that low carb is the way to go is to simply wait for them to ask YOU what your secret is. The best way to prove that your WOL works is to lose weight and tell everyone how GREAT you feel......when they give you that "wow, didn't your cholesterol go up" line, just cite your bloodwork......OR you can mention my vegetarian friend who weighs 120 lbs and has HIGH CHOLESTEROL and TRIGLICERIDES....she's 32 years old......

I think most of us experience the "wow you look great! how did you do it?" questions and when we open our mouths to say Low Carb that is when we get scowled at.

At least that is the way it has been with me.

Which is why I now say...Oh I changed my diet due to migraines. And leave it at that. No since in wasting pearls on swines.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I agree that the best way to change my dad's opinion about this WOE is to stick with it and let the physical and health results speak for themselves. Another incentive for me Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to get my dad onto the Internet, but a copy of Protein Power is definitely going under the Christmas tree for him. BillT - thanks for the text recommendation, I haven't seen 'Life Without Bread' in any of the bookstores here, but I'll keep an eye out.