• The Setup
• The House Blessing
• Here's Where It Gets Funny
• Thai Food
• The Science Behind The Thai Buddhist Monks
• Monks Never Get Invited To Dinner

The Setup

Thailand—over two years living here as deep as it gets—has conclusively convinced me that most dietary advocates in the West are simply not dealing honestly with the facts of observable reality. Period. Some are better than others, of course; but even the best of them—low-carb, ketogenic, carnivore, paleo, primal—simply ignore the falsifying evidence of over half of the entire planet who live long and healthy lives with gusto up to the very end in their 80s, 90s, 100s. They eat whole food every day of their lives and upwards of 50%+ is from carbohydrates like rice, beans, potatoes, grains, fruit, and yes...even honey. Importantly, pretty much every meal includes animals, fish, shellfish, bugs, and insects. They do nutritional density with lowish calorie.

I honestly believe that most low-carb advocates—as a general all-inclusive—are hands down the best dietary advocates in a Western, industrialized, food-engineered world of crap that isn't even recognizable as food in much of the far poorer but healthier world. In many ways, we live in a curse of wealth and convenience.

But, I believe that what low-carb really does is not what you believe or think.

1. Get's you to eschew much of the processed foods; the point of processed foods is to make tons of money on cheap crap that's so cheap they can ship and truck it all over creation to put on shelves in insanely expensive real-estate and still profit $2-3 per $1 accumulated expense. Why? Because it's almost all combined cheap carb and cheap oil and cheap sugar.
2. Because you're favoring steak and eggs over crap in bags and boxes, you feel more satiated.
3. You better normalize your eating patterns (timing) and what you eat (quality).
4. And instead of recognizing the real and valid mechanisms in place you think a plate of steamed white rice, boiled potatoes not drenched in butter, or beans are going to WRECK YOUR METABOLISM!!! That's abject bullshit and too many diet guys play into that irrational fear just as badly as you see now with irrational fear of Covid.

You want to show me scientific honesty as a low-carb advocate? Then first acknowledge that there are and have been billions and billions and billions of people who have ever lived who led long, lean, and healthy lives and ate more than half their energy from carbohydrates. You're simply not being fully honest until you do that, irrespective of the advantages you might hypothesize for lower carbs.

Here's a constructive suggestion. There is now ample observable data in developing countries where many are now beginning to suffer various metabolic syndrome issues. Dig into it. Here's what I predict you'll find: the difference between the healthy and unhealthy has zero to do with percent of calories from carbohydrate—it was always high and they were markedly healthy. It has to do with the composition and combination. Processed crap with added crap oils and refined sugar, creating a perfect storm of high-palatability resulting in over-consumption, fat gain, down-stream effects.

Am I being fully integrated and honest?

Fuck yes, I am.

The House Blessing