Research has found that people who follow a vegan diet tend to have a lower body mass index.
This study compared weight loss over 6 months among people who followed vegan, vegetarian,
semi-vegetarian, and omnivorous diets. The results showed that people on a vegan diet lost
more weight than other groups. And this review of 96 studies of vegan and vegetarian diets,
concluded that plant-based diets were more effective for weight loss compared to
omnivorous diets. But what do you do if you’re still struggling to lose weight
on a whole food plant based diet well let’s hear from Dr Michael Klaper on why you might not want
to eat fat and carbs in the same meal. First of all this is about weight loss this is for the
frustrated vegan who ‘I’ve been vegan five years I’m still carrying this extra weight why can’t I
lose this weight?!’ it’s for those folks! Usually what’s happened is that they are eating fat
and sugar at the same time and by that I mean yes there’s this term oxidative priority and that just
means it’s easier for the body to burn sugar to blow apart a glucose ring and harvest the energy.
It’s easier to burn sugar than it is to burn fats, these long chain fatty acids that require a lot
of enzyme steps to metabolize these long chain fats. Given the choice the body would rather
burn sugar than burn fat, that’s the oxidative priority that oxidizes sugars rather than fats.
So that said if you eat food that has some sugar and fat at the same time like ice cream
is fat and sugar right! Pizza- the fat in the cheese and sausage and a starchy crust that’s another
good fat and sugar combination. If you eat fat and sugar at the same time it will go into your
blood stream and the liver and body says ‘Oooh fat and sugar I’m going to burn that sugar right
now for energy and store that fat for later.’ So you burn the sugar and store the fat! So as far
as the vegans where are they eating fat and sugar? Well pour oil on your pasta that’s a nice way to
recreate that fat sugar combination. Almond butter and jelly sandwich now it’s relatively healthy but
if you’re trying to lose weight you’ve recreated that fat and sugar combination. You’ll burn the
sugar in the jelly and the bread and store the fat in the almond butter. So if you’re trying to lose
weight don’t be putting herb balance margarine on your baked potato there’s fat and sugar and
it’s going to keep you stuck. And again this is just for the folks struggling to lose weight if
you’re already lean don’t drive yourself nuts over this! But if you’re trying to lose weight
you want to separate the fat and sugars out by about 4 hours. Why? Because when you eat
rice or potatoes it takes about 4 hours to metabolize that and clear it out of your
bloodstream and for the insulin to go up and down and all that stuff! So if that’s the case
then you allow for that and if you want to eat a couple of baked potatoes or rice great
have it at noon time and instead of something oily on your baked potato put Mexican salsa on it or
last night’s vegetable stew on it put something that’s not oily. And then let the afternoon go by
so your insulin goes up and down and clears the sugar out your blood and at dinner time if you
want to have some tahini dressing or some olives or avocado put that on your salad or you can
put it on your non starchy vegetables, pour it over your asparagus or broccoli
and you’ll metabolize the fat pretty quickly but your less likely to store it!