And your protein shakes too.
It's important to understand that both protein and carbs, increase insulin secretion. Excessive insulin secretion can lead to diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic disorders commonly referred to as "metabolic syndrome" especially if you are under stress, don't sleep well, are taking certain meds, as well as a host of other metabolic disturbing circumstances.
Of course, if you are on a real food, low carb diet that is rich in nutrients, chances are you'll sleep fairly well, be able to handle stress, won't need your meds, and will be able to handle most other issues in your life pretty well.
When you look at the research on what foods do what to your blood sugar (insulin regulates blood sugar), when fat is aplenty the insulin response is generally, if not always, lowered. Think butter on bread, a well marbled steak, chicken with the skin, etc.
In this studythe researchers took a look at the insulin responses to different foods. Over all, the more sugary the foods the higher the insulin response. But interestingly enough the beef had a higher insulin score (IS) than pasta. But there are a few caveats with this finding:
1. The beef was lean and trimmed
2. The energy density of the beef was higher than the pasta
3. The pasta had a good deal of fiber which lowers the effective carbohydrate content. Beef has no fiber.
If you take a look at the eggs however, the eggs had one of the lowest insulin scores second only to peanuts. (And we don't want to eat peanuts because they are legumes not nuts and thus are riddled with those nasty little proteins called lectins.)
An egg has a good deal of fat. The fat in the yolk helps keep the insulin response low (so stop eating those egg white omlettes).
And as for protein shakes - get some fat in them. Add some fish oil, a raw egg or two from eggs you trust, coconut butter or oil, etc. Keep the carbs low and the protein adequate. By adequate I suggest 1 gram of protein for each pound of lean body weight. This is a good rule of protein thumb. So for example, if you weigh 200 but should weigh 150, strive to take in ~150 grams of protein per day - fatty proteins of course.
Yes my friends, I've said it before and I'll say it again, you can have your fat and eat it too!
