Free The End of Dieting: How to Live for Life by Joel Fuhrman

and control the toxic by-products of metabolism. So as we eat more low-nutrient and low-fiber carbohydrates, we build up more cell toxicity, leading to disease and food addiction.
    Indeed, eating sugar and white flour not only leads to diabetes, but both of these foodstuffs are also linked to cancer. Quite a few studies have linked the consumption of high-glycemic, low-nutrient food to cancer. One such study showed more than a 200 percent increase in the risk of breast cancer in women whose diets are more than half refined carbohydrates. 18
    Oil: From your lips to your hips.
    Whereas most of the fat in the SAD comes from cheese, butter, and meat—all of which contain dangerous trans fats—the principal source of fat in the Mediterranean diet is olive oil, a monounsaturated fat. Foods rich in monounsaturated fats are less harmful than foods full of saturated fats and trans fats, but that doesn’t mean they’re “healthful.”
    Like sugar, oil is a processed food, which means that its nutrients and fiber have been removed. Walnut oil, for instance, has a vastly different biological effect than raw walnuts, and sesame seed oil has a different biological effect than sesame seeds. Whole nuts and seeds release their calories over hours, not minutes, and have unique health benefits. All oil, including olive oil, contains 120 calories per tablespoon of rapidly absorbed fat. Those tablespoons of fat calories can add up fast. In fact, the average American consumes about 400 calories of oil a day—a large contributor to high body fat. Many people use the favorable reputation of the Mediterranean diet as an excuse to pour more olive oil on their food. Ounce for ounce, oil is one of the most fattening, calorically dense foods on the planet. It packs more calories per pound (4,020) than butter (3,200). Simply put, a lot of oil means a lot of empty calories. And an excess of empty calories means an excess of weight, which can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, and many forms of cancer.
    Certainly, it’s better to use olive oil than butter or margarine, but this feature of the Mediterranean diet easily can sabotage your weight-loss results. Using oil in the preparation of meals will make losing weight more difficult, and many people won’t lose weight at all. A small amount of olive oil would be acceptable in an otherwise high-nutrient diet if a person were thin and physically active. For many overweight individuals, however, oil adds another 300 to 700 calories to their daily menu. Those low-nutrient calories impede the goal of superior health and weight loss, especially when seeds and nuts are thepreferable source of fat calories. To continue to eat foods prepared in oil and maintain a healthful, slender figure, dieters must carefully count calories and eat tiny portions—not something I recommend because it cycles dieters back to a cycle of failure, as they try to consume only thimble-size portions of food.
    In addition to taking up most of a dieter’s caloric intake, oil significantly lowers his or her intake of nutrients and fiber. Compared with its high caloric content, olive oil contains very few nutrients, other than a small amount of vitamin E and a negligible amount of phytochemical compounds. It’s true that in the past, Mediterranean people regularly ate olive oil, but they also worked hard in the fields, walking about nine miles a day, often while guiding a heavy plow.
    When reading about the Mediterranean diet, most Americans don’t take home the message to eat loads of tomato sauce, vegetables, beans, and fruits and to exercise. They blindly accept the myth that olive oil is a health food. Then they coat everything with cheese, one of the most fattening foods on the planet, and think they are eating healthfully.
    The villain isn’t fat in general, but rather oils, saturated fats, trans fats, and the fats consumed in processed foods. A healthful alternative to olive oil are nuts and seeds,